My wedding pictures always make me happy. Like, deliriously. This particular one of Rob and me cutting the cake is definitely a favorite. Look how happy we are! The ceremony was over and all we had to do was have fun with our family and friends.

Thanks Apertura for the lovely photo and to Heidelberg Bakery for the scrumptious and beautiful cake!

All photos taken by Apertura unless otherwise noted. Please feel free to click for bigger.

The ceremony’s about to begin!

The scene. Our guitarist, Pete Goslow, is serenading our guests as they take their seats. The “aisle” is the staircase on the left.

Over at the groom’s Tommy Bahama lounge, the boys are dressed and ready to go. (As an aside, they had a MUCH bigger room than us girls did — it was spacious, had a large TV, and a whole bar. Lucky ducks!)

Meanwhile in the bridal suite, my bridesmaids and I are toasting with my dad…

…and dealing with last minute dress emergencies. EEEK. The straps on my cousin’s dress wasn’t staying up very well so she decided to cut them off and turn it into a strapless dress right before the ceremony. Hee.

The boys take the “secret” route to the courtyard.

This is one of my favorite photos… such a unique view of the girls’ getting ready upstairs and Rob and our sponsors downstairs.

Rob’s view of the courtyard before walking out…

…and there he goes escorting his mom to her seat. The processional song was “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles.

The bridesmaids walked down the aisle to meet their designated groomsman at the bottom of the stairs.

Our beloved Maid of Honor and Best Man… aka my cousin and Rob’s older brother.

My turn! Here I am with my dad getting ready to walk down the aisle. He didn’t really say much (we don’t have a very “talk-y” relationship) — his smiles and little hand squeezes were enough. I was pretty mellow for most of the day but as soon as I got to the top of the stairs and heard the Forrest Gump theme start to play, the moment hit me. I didn’t think I was going to cry but the tears started falling as soon as I took the first step. UGH, I was so pissed at myself because I didn’t want to have the “ugly cry face” in pictures. LOL. It didn’t help that my cousin (Maid of Honor) was BAWLING too. Thanks a lot.

On the way down the aisle… I tried to walk slowly to make sure I took it all in. I looked over at all the guests, then the bridal party, and then finally at Rob. Even though we had a first look already, this moment was completely different. More special.

Rob trying not to cry… hehe.

We finally made it down the stairs…

My dad giving me away. Awww. This is also a really good picture of the floral hairpiece I purchased from Twigs and Honey.

Funny story – after this, my dad turned to walk away and didn’t realize that he had a reserved seat in the front row so he proceeded to walk to the back. We had to call out to him to make sure he sat in the correct seat. Silly.

Next up: Ceremony!

Second. CHECK OUT THE NEW HARRY POTTER TRAILER! It looks awesome. I cannot wait for July — Harry Potter on July 15 then Comic Con on July 24. WOOT.

So… more wedding recap anyone?

Rob and I decided beforehand to do a “First Look” before our wedding ceremony. I know it’s tradition to wait and see each other for the first time when walking down the aisle but to be honest, when we were developing the timeline of our day, I just could not fit in enough time for photos. The only time was during cocktail hour, which did not sound appealing to me. I mean, what if the ceremony ran longer than expected? How would we gather everyone needed for the photos? Is it too much to ask of our bridal party to miss out on cocktail hour? And selfishly, what about my hair/makeup? After all the crying I was sure to do, I would have crazy face and that is not cool. So when Angel mentioned the idea of a First Look, I knew it was a great solution. We’d have the time to see each other in a more calm and relaxed setting before the craziness started and take care of photos all at the same time!

I set aside an hour and 45 minutes for photos (both with and without our bridal party) and honestly, if I could go back and do it again, I would bump up the time to AT LEAST 3 hours. That’s probably my biggest wedding regret. Seriously. You cannot have enough photos.

Anyway, on to the First Look!

All photos taken by Apertura unless otherwise noted. Please feel free to click for bigger.

Our photographers staged our First Look at the bottom of a staircase at our beloved venue, the Grand Newport Plaza. I loved that it felt very private (even though we had an audience!) and it was away from the flurry of wedding preparations going on all around us.

Here I am sneaking up on Rob…

Seeing each other for the first time. I know it sounds so cheesy but it really felt like the rest of the world fell away and it was just the two of us. Awww.

Showing off my pretty pretty dress (or at least *I* think so).

Our audience.

Portrait time… I had no idea how hard it is to “model.” I pretty much suck at it, lol.

With our awesome bridal party. We’re totally normal! Really!

*Kissy kissy.* Hee.

The boys being boys.

Showing off their awesome pink and brown socks!

And the amazing girls. I adore this picture of us.

Another one of my very faves! We’re at the top of one of the center staircases that overlooks the courtyard where the ceremony would take place. I love the candid… almost sneaky feel of this.

The coloring of this picture rocks.

I particularly love these last two… they’re kind of unexpected as far as wedding portraits go but they totally work. SO MUCH LOVE.

Next up: Walking down the aisle…

When I left off last time, the bridesmaids and I had finished getting ready and were heading over to the Grand Newport Plaza, our ceremony and reception site. We were going to get ourselves set up in the bridal suite and then meet with the boys for pictures.

All photos taken by Apertura unless otherwise noted. Please feel free to click for bigger.

Here we are arriving at the site.

While we were all getting ready, my fabulous coordinator Angel, the GNP staff, and our vendors had been prepping the site and setting up all the little wedding projects Rob and I had been working on. I was nervous that the end result wouldn’t look the way I envisioned but I was not prepared at how overwhelmed I would be when seeing everything come together so beautifully. The sight as guests walk into the lobby…

Close-up of the lobby — I just love it! The gorgeous guestbook wish tree (made by the awesome Allie is the focus of the table, baskets of ceremony programs are on both sides next to pictures of our parents at their own weddings, and the “Rob and Kel” letters round it all out. (Rob painted those letters!)

More wish tree! It’s such a fun alternative to the traditional guestbook. And it doubles as floral decor! I made tags by taking flat notecards (I bought some with fun expressions on one side from Paper Source), then punched a hole and strung pink or brown ribbon through it. These tags were laid out in a glass bowl with pens and guests were instructed to write us a note and hang it on the tree.

Better view of the tags. Oh, see the pens! My cousin helped me make little paper flowers to attach to the tops of the pens. They were really hard to make. :/ But I couldn’t have plain pens on the table! I’m silly.

The programs. This was one of the hardest projects. Seriously. Actually, I think I just made it hard. I’d never used Illustrator before but for some reason got it in my head that I should use it for this project. Smart. Then I chose Stardream bronze paper to use as the cover. Too bad it was so thick that folding it created creases if not done exactly right. I stuck Rob with that job — he was much better at it than I was. Finally, the inside pages all had to be cut by roughly 1/8 of an inch (!!!) after printing because when putting all the pieces together, they stuck out ever so slightly past the cover. UGH. The paper cutter I have for scrapbooking came in handy for this but getting the measurement correct was a PAIN. Oh well, I think the end product looked great!

On the other side of the round table was a birdcage that served as a card box.

(Picture by my friend Robyn)

Past the main table in the lobby was another table with the escort cards. Some of them were simply displayed on the table and the others were hanging from foam boards we embellished. Rob used a staple gun to cover them with pink fabric (the back of the boards looked TERRIBLE, hehe) and then my aunt draped pink and brown satin ribbon across to hold the cards.

Closer look at the escort cards. The color of the cards indicated the guest’s entree choice for dinner — pink was beef/chicken, brown was chicken/fish, dark pink was vegetarian, and white was the kids’ meal. I gave the escort cards some extra detail by adding a floral embellishment and a strip of lovely Japanese blossoms paper to the bottom.

Back to the girls!

We arrived in the bridal suite to find our florals! Bouquets for the bridesmaids and me, a hair wreath and pomander ball for the flower girl, and corsages for other women that had special roles in the ceremony. So much LOVE. Allie really outdid herself.

(Picture by my friend Robyn)

The bridesmaids’ bouquets were all pink roses and orchids.

(Picture by my friend Robyn)

My bouquet was a gorgeous mix of white roses, orchids, mini calla lilies, stephanotis (sooo pretty), and pink peonies (!!!). Peonies are normally in season from April through June but for some reason, they were around in August. Allie called me the day before the wedding to tell me she could get them for me. I was so excited! They’re such a fluffy and fragrant flower.

Touching up my lip gloss before heading to my “First Look” with Rob.

On the balcony waiting to see my groom! SQUEE.

Next up: First Look and Portraits!

All photos taken by Apertura unless otherwise noted.

First up: Getting Ready!

I booked a suite at the Fairmont Newport Beach so that all the bridesmaids and I could get ready together. The day started early for us — we had to be awake by 9am when my awesome hair/makeup artist Nicole was scheduled to arrive. I was not exactly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed but after a Jamba Juice smoothie for breakfast, I was ready for my makeover…

(Picture by my friend Robyn)

No makeup – the horror! I got these personalized spa wraps for my bridesmaids as part of their thank you present — of course I had to get one of my own.

(Picture by my friend Robyn)

Nicole working her magic on me. Poor Nicole was feeling really under the weather that day but she powered through… I absolutely loved the job she did on my hair and makeup.

I totally over-estimated the time it would take for hair and makeup because all the girls were finished by noon, which was way ahead of schedule. Funny story – around this time, my aunt and cousin (aka super Maid of Honor) ordered room service so we could all have some lunch before we had to head over to the ceremony site at 3pm. We ordered finger foods like popcorn shrimp and chicken nuggets that would be easy for us to eat and not mess up our makeup. Well, room service brought us buffalo wings instead. Yup. Probably the messiest thing they could have brought. We did eventually get the correct order.

Watching TV… and trying to keep calm. Can you tell?

In the meantime, what were Rob and the groomsmen up to? They all met at the Turnip Rose to get ready — they had their very own “Tommy Bahama Lounge” complete with bar and TV.

Getting their official wedding socks! Pink and brown argyle, of course.

Rob putting on his tux — it took him all of 10 minutes.

Back in the girls’ suite it’s time to get dressed! My MoH and aunt helping me retouch my makeup. It was so great to have them by my side that day.

THE DRESS! I’m pulling out the stuffing here so that I can get dressed! SQUEE.

The bridesmaids looking on as I step into my dress. Love their expressions.

Each of the girls helped me put on a piece of my bridal attire — Ruby put on my earrings, Carmen helped me step into my Manolos, etc. And the last piece was my veil, which my aunt pinned on. I held it together until this point but I lost it when I looked up at her, someone I’ve always considered to be like a second mom.

My turn to help the girls get dressed…

Quiet moment with my MoH while waiting for the elevator.

On the way to the wedding site!

Next Time: Ceremony Decor and First Look!

So… what have I been up to? Let’s do this in list form because it’s easier.

1. Last weekend I saw Bolt. It wasn’t the best animated film I’ve seen but definitely entertaining. Bolt was so cute! I loved his little face when he was begging for food. Awww. Although, is it just me, or does Bolt NOT look like a German Shepherd? Anyway. Rhino was pretty awesome too.

2. Ever since I got my iPhone (squee!), I’ve been a little obsessed with downloading Apps from the iTunes store. Some of my favorites are Yelp, Amazon, Style.com, Lightsaber, RhinoBall, Pop Quiz. Anyone have any other recommendations? It’s so hard to wade through all the options on iTunes. Admittedly, I’m cheap so free is best but I’m willing to pay for good apps.

3. Last Sunday, Rob and I went to our friend Shirley’s birthday cooking party. Such an awesome idea! There were about 20 of us (I think) and we were split up into teams working on separate parts of the meal. Rob and I worked on the dessert, which was a tangerine souffle. We were in charge of chopping up the tangerines, making juice out of the oranges, and boiling it all together. The rest of our team was separating the eggs and prepping the baking ramekins. The end result was fantastic (the souffle was so light and fluffy) but honestly, I kinda think it took way too much time and effort. :/ Or it could be the whole laziness thing again. A couple of pics of us courtesy of the birthday girl!

Rob making juice from the oranges!

Me cutting up the tangerines.

4. As organized as I like to think I was for the wedding, post-wedding wrap-up has been a completely different story. A lot of the “stuff” used at our wedding is still in boxes at my dad’s house (like extra programs, signage, baskets, etc), some duplicate presents we received still haven’t been returned/exchanged, we haven’t finalized the photo selections for our album. And we haven’t started our Thank You cards. EEEEEEKKKKK. Well, I finally designed the cards and had them printed and now Rob and I are starting to write them… WOW. It’s going to take us a little while. :/

5. We went to Home Depot yesterday to get some moving boxes. I know we’re not moving until the end of January but knowing us and the amount of “stuff” we own, we figured we should get a head start. Since it’s raining today, we got started with our books and DVDs. We already have about 6 boxes full and we’re not done packing them yet. !!! What can I say? We love our DVDs. Too bad our apartment looks like a hurricane plowed right through it. There are piles everywhere.

Hmmm. I thought I had more to write about but I guess that’s it. I can’t believe Christmas is next week. Just 7 more days of work. WOOT.

It’s almost birthday time! AND I have a 3-day weekend to celebrate (thank you Christopher Columbus). I just have to get through the next few days of work…

Speaking of birthdays, Disney is offering guests free admission to Disneyland or Walt Disney World on their birthday in 2009. You have to register here. WOOT. I AM SO THERE. I’m totally going to have a Disney-themed 30th birthday next year. (Maybe).

I don’t have anything else to blog about so Diesel wants to say Hi…

OH! Before I forget… to answer the questions from the previous entry — Robyn, you win the award for most photobooth pics. You were in there a whopping 12 times! Rob, Uly, and I tied for second with 9. And Grantland was next with 6.

But first! I don’t think I ever mentioned one of THE BEST things we had at our wedding reception — a photobooth. It’s kind of a “trend” at weddings nowadays and at first I didn’t think we could afford it but Rob really wanted it… and since it was really the only thing he had an opinion on, we made it work. And I’m so glad we did. It was SO FUN — the booth takes 4 pictures and prints out 2 copies… so we asked that guests keep 1 copy for themselves and then insert the other into an album and write us a quick little note. It was a hit! We have such an amazing memento that was put together for us by our guests.

I thought I’d share the ones of Rob and me (click for bigger)…

SO FUN.

I have to thank Cheesy Photobooths for being so awesome to work with. They answered all my logistical questions quickly and offered their design services for the custom banner (I ended up making it myself). And the attendant on the day of our wedding totally ROCKED. We had some… uh, rowdy (read: drunk) guests and when the booth tipped over TWICE, he quickly fixed it and Rob and I were none the wiser. I HIGHLY recommend them.

In other news, I listened to Britney’s new single Womanizer on BritneySpears.com. I pretty much love it. YAY.

I watched Fringe tonight. First, I have to admit that I would watch this show for Joshua Jackson alone. I HAVE NO SHAME. (Pacey and Joey for life!)

So I liked the show. I think it has potential (beware spoilers)…

And I’m intrigued enough by the characters (particularly Agent Scott, Broyles, and Walter Bishop), The Pattern, Massive Dynamics, etc to keep watching. Plus, none of the science makes sense to me (I never did well in any of my science classes in school) so I don’t even have to suspend belief to watch this show… cause it all sounds plausible to me! I’m lame, I know.

I’m not quite sold on Anna Torv as Olivia yet (she seemed a little wooden)… but I thought Lance Reddick (Broyles) and John Noble (Walter Bishop) were pretty awesome. It was SO GREAT to have Josh back on TV again but I wish his character wasn’t so sarcastic. He had a lot of one-liners that, I think, were supposed to be funny but ended up being distracting. A lot of his dialogue seemed out of place. :/ But it’s just the pilot so I’m hoping the writers will be more comfortable with the characters and the storylines and hit their stride in the next few episodes.

The last scene was my absolute favorite…
Nina Sharp: “How long has he been dead?”
Random Lab Tech: “About five hours.”
Nina Sharp: “Question him.”

Woohoo. My first official new show of the season! Feels so good.

Ok, here’s part 2 of my Kaua’i recap…

Thursday, 8/14
Did a whole lot of nothing. I think we were at the pool most of the day so no pictures… not even of food. We were supremely lazy.

But here’s a bonus pic of some roosters. They are EVERYWHERE in Kaua’i. And they crow at all hours of the day, not just in the morning. So annoying!

Friday, 8/15
This was the first day we had to wake up to the sound of an alarm clock. We made reservations to do a Na Pali coast tour and we had to be at the pier by 8:30am. So painful after days of sleeping in.

We were the last ones to board so we got stuck at the very front with no shade. This boat ride is the whole reason I got so sunburned. OH! And sitting in the front was incredibly bumpy. We felt every little dip and swell. At first it was fun (like being on an amusement park ride) but after a few hours, I started feeling nauseous. Rob kept making me drink water and carbonated lime soda, which helped. At least I didn’t get sick.

We saw dolphins!

Look how gorgeous the coast is!

Guh. Soooo pretty!

I also tried snorkeling for the first time (no pictures though — we don’t have an underwater camera). It took Rob awhile to coax me to get in the water (I am a terrible swimmer and was freaked out) but when I finally got in, I really enjoyed it. I wasn’t crazy about the water filling up in my ears, though.

I’m a wimp.

After the 5 hour boat trip, we had the most amazing shave ice at JoJo’s in Waimea. YUMMY. I wish it was closer to where we stayed (it’s on the southwest-ish side of the island and we stayed in the east) cause I could have eaten that every day. I had strawberry, Rob had liliko’i (passionfruit) and we both had haupia cream on top (haupia is like a coconut gelatin/pudding).

After a quick nap, we had dinner at Gaylord’s (this was our big, expensive dinner). No pictures, sorry — I was too lazy. I read about this restaurant on Fodor’s forums and it was recommended to us by family so we tried it. Honestly, I wasn’t that impressed. I had a seafood platter (scallops, fish, shrimp, and lobster) and while it was good, it really wasn’t worth the cost. Their lava flows were yummy though and the Banana Cream pie we had for dessert was solid.

Saturday, 8/16
Our last day in Kaua’i. Or so we thought.

Started out with a breakfast of malasadas. These are basically like donuts (no holes) covered with sugar. There’s a stand in front of K-Mart — they were fresh and soft and oh-so-yummy. Thumbs up. I can’t believe I forgot to take a picture of them — you can kinda see them in the very left of the pic.

Then we drove to Waimea Canyon. It’s beautiful up there but UGH, you have to take a really, really, really winding road to get up there. We only made it to the Waimea Canyon Lookout, which is 10 miles. There’s supposed to be a more breathtaking lookout another 10 miles from there but my head was starting to spin. I don’t think I could have handled the drive. Like I said earlier, I’m a wimp.

Lunch was at the Shrimp Station. I just adore shrimp. I had the coconut shrimp and Rob had the beer-battered shrimp. Sadly, it was ok, not great. Maybe a little overrated.

Finally after heading back to the hotel to pack, we were off to the airport… to wait for hours before United finally decided to cancel our flight and shuttle all of us to a nearby hotel. That was an exhausting and frustrating experience. I still get angry when I remember that both our flights to and from Kaua’i had problems. Anyway.

Sunday, 8/17
Ok, our last day in Kaua’i. For real this time.

One last picture in front of the water.

At the airport again… playfully angry at having to go through security and agriculture one more time than necessary.

And that’s it, folks! Rob and I enjoyed our time on the garden isle and hope to go back again soon.