Wedding Update. 😛

Remember how we went to Southern CA for Labor Day weekend to meet with vendors? Well, after much discussion and a few budget revisions (EEEK), we’ve finally signed contracts and sent deposits in for our major vendors. YAY! We’re pretty broke at the moment but so excited to share our “team” with you all…

Coordinator/Consultant: Angel from Events of Love and Splendor
As soon as I met Angel, I think we just “clicked.” We have a lot in common — she graduated from CAL, grew up in Cerritos, and is a self-proclaimed geek. She’s awesome. But seriously, she made me feel confident that she can take our plans and ideas and run with them. She’s organized, detailed, and super stylish — I’m really looking forward to working with her!

Photography: Ray and Erwin from Apertura Photo
Apertura’s work speaks volumes. I found a link to their website from the best wedding blog ever, WeddingBee, and I was hooked. Before I ever contacted them, I was stalking their blog every day checking to see if they had posted anything new. Hehe. I knew they were going to be pricey but photography is a priority for us and we managed to make it work. I can’t wait for our engagement session!

Florals: Allison from Flower Allie
I loved her right from the start. Our meeting was at 8am and she was upbeat, excited, and open to discussing all of my ideas. I envision the flowers to be a key part of the decor and I can’t wait to see what she can do!

Officiant: Father Brian from Good Shepherd American Catholic Church
The last time I mentioned the ceremony, we were still looking for a church. That search ended after unsuccessful discussions with the pastors of 7 different parishes. I never thought priests (of all people) could make me feel so unwelcome. Luckily I found Fr. Brian and the Good Shepherd Church, which is an American Catholic Church. So while our marriage won’t be recognized by the Roman Catholic Church (because the ACC is basically an offshoot of the RCC but with slightly different beliefs), this is the best compromise that I was able to find. My dad will get his Catholic wedding and we get to have the ceremony in the same place as the reception (which is what we wanted in the first place). Unfortunately, since we’re not getting married in the Church, this means that my favorite childhood priest, Fr. Joe, won’t be able to preside over the ceremony. As much as that would have meant to me, I’m optimistic that the ceremony is actually going to be more representative of “us,” which is the most important thing anyway.

Next up: Do research on DJ/entertainment and Invitations!

Mmmm… I started my super awesome five-day weekend today. YAY for Labor Day.

Rob and I are taking Diesel and we’re driving to Southern CA for the weekend. We’re going to visit our families and friends and also do some wedding “stuff.” We have 8 appointments with various vendors (3 photographers, 3 coordinators, and 2 florists). It’s going to be a busy (but fun) weekend!

Hope everyone has a good one. 🙂

I had another Summer Friday today (yay for days off!) and I went… wedding dress shopping.

SQUEE.

(This will probably be a long entry. You have been warned).

I visited 2 salons — My first stop was Marina Morrison where I got absolutely impeccable service. I tried on 7 dresses and out of my 3 favorites in the end, 2 were chosen by my consultant, Rebecca. She was amazing! She listened to what I wanted, made suggestions, and was incredibly patient and respectful of my budget. She was so great that I would be pleased if I ended up choosing my gown from here. LOVE. My second stop was The Unique Bride where I had a subpar consultant. She rushed me (I tried on 9 dresses in 30 minutes!) and didn’t really have any helpful answers to my questions. She did make some great recommendations, though, so I’ll give her that. And I found 2 dresses (and 1 bridesmaid dress!) that are definitely contendors so it wasn’t a completely horrible experience.

Anyway, I learned a few things:
1. I *really* need to get my arms into shape. Most of the dresses I love are strapless and my huge, flabby arms just won’t cut it.
2. Speaking of my arms, I have scars on the back of them (above my elbows) from a bad rash I had a few years back. I rarely wear tank tops because of the weather here so I’ve never really bothered to pick up Mederma to minimize the scars. Now I can’t wait to go to the drugstore.
3. I need to work on walking in high heels. Granted, all the sample dresses I tried on were loooooong cause I’m vertically challenged. But there’s no 2 ways about it. I’m pretty klutzy in heels. Can you imagine if I fell on my face walking down the aisle?!? Nightmare.
4. I’m going to go over my dress budget. At least I have time until I absolutely have to get a dress ordered (roughly Jan/Feb) so I can save some extra money for the purchase.
5. You absolutely cannot be self-conscious. The bridal consultant is in the dressing room with you and you are in nothing but a bustier and underwear. I was prepared and wore modest undergarments but I was still uncomfortable at times. (I have body issues).
6. Try on a variety of dresses, cause you just never know. The ones you love might look horrible (this happened to me) and ones you wouldn’t have chosen for yourself end up being the most flattering.

Anyone want to see some pics? Not on me, though, as I forgot to take pictures. :/ (Rob, this is the part where you stop reading).

Continue reading →

Lately I’ve been thinking about what color scheme to use to frame our wedding. I think I’ve finally decided (with Rob’s approval, of course :P) but damn, if I’m not the most indecisive person. EVER.

I *love* pink. I can’t help it. I know it’s girly and feminine but it’s one of my favorite colors and I really wanted to include it somehow. The hard part was coming up with other colors to complement it and make it less “Barbie” looking. So I first thought of partnering pink with red and cream.

I like it a lot but feel like it screams “Valentine’s Day.” I really want a soft, intimate, yet whimsical feel to the wedding and this combination definitely doesn’t feel soft.

Then I thought of using shades of pink along with a deep chocolate brown. Mmmm.

*sigh* I love it. This satisfies my pink obsession and also feels romantic without being overly so.

But of course, I can’t make it easy for myself… I have to consider more options and make myself crazy. 😀 I was checking out the gallery at Brides.com and these aqua and orange images jumped out at me.

It’s so unexpected and different yet fresh and fun! I just don’t think it’s quite “us.” It’s so gorgeous, though.

Lastly, I thought about pairing yellow and white. It’s such a simple palette but the color yellow is just so happy! It makes me smile. Plus, my mom and dad’s wedding was yellow-themed and it would be a nice way for my mom to be there in spirit (*sniff*).

Yellow might be a bit too bright and sunshine-y, I think. I’m not exactly what you would call a “cheerful” person, lol.

As you’ve probably guessed, we’re going to go with shades of pink and chocolate brown. YAY! What do you guys think? Rob wasn’t too crazy about the pink at first but he came around when I suggested that the groomsmen should wear pink boutonnieres. He seemed to like that. 😀

Rob and I finally put our deposit down for our reception venue on Thursday. GULP. So much money.

BUT. This means… we have a wedding date! This is HUGE!

😀

Well, technically we have a reception date. The church for the ceremony is still TBD until we have a face to face meeting with the pastor of the parish. We’re going to be down in Southern CA for Labor Day weekend in a few weeks so I’m hoping that’ll fall into place then.

Anyway, our reception will be held on a Saturday evening in August 2008 at the Grand Newport Plaza in Costa Mesa, CA. SQUEE. I just adore it.

I only have a good photograph of the front entrance. All the pictures I took of the ballroom are blurry. :/

Now we have about a million other things to get started on! EEK.

It’s so weird to have a day off in the middle of the week. It’s totally throwing me off. But YAY for the 4th of July!

It was an absolutely gorgeous day here in the Bay Area… spent most of it a friend’s BBQ chowing down on ribs and potato salad. YUM.

Anyway, I’m making a bit of progress on the wedding front… I contacted a church in Southern CA and I’m just waiting for the pastor to call me back to discuss our situation and see if he’ll allow us to be married in his church. I also contacted a priest (Fr. Joe!) who was the pastor of the church I grew in and he’s agreed to preside over the ceremony. YAY. I think I’ve known him since I was 6! He was there for some big events in my life (8th grade graduation, confirmation, my mom’s funeral) so it kind of makes sense for him to be a part of the wedding as well. I’ve communicated with him via email so he doesn’t know the *whole* story and he’s on vacation for the next week but I’m hoping he’ll still agree, despite the fact that Rob’s not confirmed. He’s also willing to preside at another church, which is huge because his home parish isn’t close to any of the reception sites we’ve been looking at. I’m crossing my fingers. I just want the venues and the date to be set!

Then the real planning can begin… 🙂

My first official “rant” about wedding planning (feel free to skip — involves talk about the Catholic church and my Dad)…

Before Rob and I went to Southern CA to visit possible wedding sites, we decided that we would not have a Catholic ceremony. To be quite honest, we’re not practicing Catholics and it didn’t really feel like “us” to have a church ceremony. I knew my Dad would have some “concerns” about this (to put it lightly) so I told him right away. He said he understood and it was our decision. I SWEAR that’s what he said. But then just recently, my Dad backtracks and decides to tell me that we have to get married in the church. And this is after he knows that we spent 2 long days looking at sites where we could have both the ceremony and reception in one place.

AAAARRRRRGGGHHHH. I wish he had been straight with me initially so I wouldn’t feel like I just wasted a whole lot of time and effort visiting sites that might not make sense now (some of them just wouldn’t have the same impact if they were used for a reception only).

But that’s fine. Rob and I talked it over and decide that we would respect his wishes, even if we don’t necessarily *want* to get married in the church. (Plus, he’s helping us pay for the wedding and that in itself, gives him a voice, whether I like it or not). It’s not a good reason to do it (and quite frankly, I’m embarassed by it) but arguing with my Dad is like hitting my head against a brick wall. Painful and absolutely useless.

So I start doing a little research online to see what I have to do. I have to find a church that will allow us to get married there even though we’re not registered parishioners. Seems easy enough. I’ll send a donation. And I’m sure someone will take pity on me since I live in Northern CA and want to have my wedding close to my family and friends. But here comes the rub… I have to find a priest who will still marry us even though we live together (a huge no no, apparently), we don’t go to Mass on Sundays, and Rob hasn’t received the sacrament of Confirmation (typically required for a Catholic marriage). Why does it have to be so difficult?
I guess it’s not really difficult. I’m just grumpy because the whole planning process hasn’t been going the way I would like.

Or maybe it’s just PMS. :/ Which is entirely possible.