More pics at www.athertons.us

All pics taken by Michael Andrews (www.photosbymichael.com)

Found more pics I love while trying to choose for my album.  So many to choose from I can't decide!

We were actually eating hors d'oeuvres while resting on the bench. We thought our photographer was taking a break too.  lol.

Some wedding pics from friends.  Yay pics!

Me walking down the aisle.

DH giving my parents their leis.

Exchanging vows.  :)

"I Now Pronounce You..."

Our fruit centerpieces (banana table in this pic)

Guests having fun with the photo"booth"

The Hula Dancers during the cocktail hour

The Newlyweds!

Our Cake (Our topper was a salt and pepper shaker set)

Our Story, through my eyes:

After living abroad for 3 years I came back to sunny California in August of 2005.  My friend Cathy was in a kickball league and one day invited me to one of her games to watch her play.  I said sure, hoping to meet some new people after being out of the country for so long.  At the park I was more interested in playing with her teammate’s two dogs than with watching the game.  But I do remember meeting several of Cathy’s teammates (despite what Lee says!). 

About a week after the game Cathy told me that one of her teammates thought I was cute. 

I said, “Which one?” 

She said, “Lee.”

I said, “Which one was that?” 

hahaha-in my defense, I met a lot of people that day!  Cathy gave my email address to Lee, and he wrote to me while I was visiting friends in Davis.  We made plans to hang out during Labor Day weekend, when I would be back in San Diego.

Lee and I celebrate Labor Day weekend 2005 as the official start of our courtship.  Within the span of 3 days we went to the movies, ate lunch together (twice), went dancing in downtown San Diego, had dinner in scenic La Jolla, and he even drove me to the airport when I needed to fly back to Davis.  We spoke on the phone every day after that.  A month later Lee flew up to Sacramento to (officially) visit his brother and family, and (unofficially) see me again.  At that point in time I made the decision to move back to San Diego to (officially) find a job, and (unofficially) save us money on airline tickets.

Fast forward 2 years: Lee and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary by spending Labor Day weekend in Julian, CA (east of San Diego).  It was during a lunchtime picnic by Lake Cuyamaca, after an intense game of Scrabble (and by intense I mean I beat him by over 100 points), that Lee got down on one knee to propose marriage.  I won twice!!!

(This was a cut-and-paste from our wedding website.)

In March of 2004 I got a job in San Diego through some former co-worker friends.  I was very excited for the opportunity and decided to move down here and room with one of my high school friends.  It was one of the best decisions I ever made - San Diego is awesome with perfect weather, the beach and friends.

In summer of 2005 one of my co-workers asked me if I wanted to be on a kickball team.  My response was “You mean the game you play in kindergarten? Sure why not.”  The league was a blast; I was able to meet many new people in San Diego.  Luckily I ended up on Cathy’s team.  A few weeks later her friend Gail came by to watch the game.

Now I’ll admit, the dogs might have been the most entertaining thing at the game, but I did kick the one and only homerun for our team that day.  I’m sure that caught Gail’s eye, I mean honestly: who wouldn’t be attracted to the star of a game that you played when you were four years old?  Later that day I was hoping to get a chance to talk to Gail because she definitely had caught my eye.  Unfortunately, amongst all the commotion she and Cathy took off early to go play flip cup at a bar.  I had other plans that day and could not join them.

Later that week I decided to email Cathy to inquire about Gail.  After a long series of emails (Lee -> Cathy -> Gail -> Cathy -> Lee -> Etc…) I finally got Gail’s email address and was able to win her over with my wit and charm.

August 2007 came around and I had already made the decision to ask Gail to be my wife.  It was almost our 2 year anniversary as a couple and we basically spent almost all our free time together.  So finally one weekend my friend Michael Feeny and I planned to visit one of our old high school friends.  I took that opportunity to go look at rings.  I wasn’t really planning on buying a ring but by the end of the day I was set on what I wanted and didn’t see any reason to delay buying the ring. 

Once the ring was purchased, I wasn’t 100% sure when I was to pop the question. Or how.  But let me tell you: it was burning a hole in my pocket!  So I had to come up with a plan fast.  I knew that Gail would prefer it be just us and not a huge crowd or commotion.  So after a little research and deciding to spend our anniversary in Julian, California, I figured how better than over her favorite board game.  First I let her win to put her in a good mood.  :)   Then naturally she said yes to my proposal.  She may have won the scrabble game, but I won her hand in marriage. 

Here's a pic of my dress from the designer's website (Maggie Sottero).

Since our ceremony is on grass, I had to find a shoe with a wide enough heel that wouldn't sink in. 

Our ceremony and reception will be on the lawn of the Olowalu Plantation House in Maui.  It's a private beachside estate.  And it's beautiful!

Here is a picture we took during our scouting trip of the lawn where our ceremony will be.  I hope the weather is like this during our wedding day!

We will be married with these palms as the backdrop.

Here is a pic of the house and part of the lawn

Our colors were supposed to be mainly white, with accents of fuchsia and navy blue.  Fuchsia because I love it.  And Navy Blue because hubby is a guy and all guys like blue.  (And he refused to have a "pink" wedding.)  Unfortunately our coordinator in Maui didn't quite get all the accent colors to be fuchsia and navy blue.  Eh, but what can you do...

Our colors:

Our "ticket" STDs and Pocketfold Invites

Here's the invite open.  The RSVP panel was perforated so that guests could just tear it to the proper RSVP envelope size and mail it off (RVSP envelope is stuffed behind all 3 panel inserts).

Escort Cards - We will have a total of 8 tables (Coconut, Baby Pineapples, Mango, Starfruit, Banana, Kiwi, Guava and Passionfruit) each with a different fruit.  Our Sweetheart Table will have a mixed fruit bowl of all the fruits.

Our Programs.  I wanted to do one with multiple pages all tied together at the top with ribbon, but I ran out of time.  The inside had our ceremony, wedding party, thank yous, and the back cover has the lyrics to our first dance song.

I got the idea for the door hangers from the PW forums.  Notice the passed out dog has a smile on his face.  So cute!

Our Welcome Letter (front and back) will be placed in the OOT bags we're giving out at our Welcome Luncheon the day before.

Wedding Day Timeline...also to be placed in the OOT bags along with the Welcome Letter.

I just posted this on a thread on the forums and thought to post it here too because it's so good tasting and so good for you.  Bisquick Heart Smart Easy Garden Bake.  I usually use 1 egg (instead of 2 egg whites) and replace the onions with mushrooms. 

My e-ring (filigree detail from the side)

My wedding band (from Na Hoku, the side design is supposed to resemble maile leaves)

Hubby's ring, from Na Hoku as well.  Designed to resemble the maile leaf lei (hubby wore one at the wedding).

Inspiration:                                                            What we got:

Instead of bouganvillea I asked for fuchsia orchids instead.  And since we were having a cake topper, I wanted them to scatter the orchids randomly on the different tiers of the cake.  Well, they kinda got it right.  lol.

Here is a bigger pic of our cake topper, a salt and pepper shaker set.  I thought it was very cute  :)

While we were on Maui I had to change my "Soon to be" beach hat.  lol.  I loved it!

In this pic you can kinda see my bustle - there were a total of 5 bustle points, plus 2 additional points where my seamstress told my MOH to safety pin the few remaining layers that were dragging even after bustling.  (Because of all the layers in the dress and the limited number of seams in the skirt to hide them, she didn't want to use more than 5 bustle points.)

Here's another view.

In this pic you can see one of the points about 6 inches above the ground where my MOH safety pinned some of the dragging layers up.

Still another pic.

I'm sorry I don't have any close-ups of the bustle.  It never even occurred to me that I should take a pic of the back of my dress after it was done.  lol.  I remember my seamstress's biggest concern was the lack of seams in the back to hide the points.  She didn't want to put any bustle points in the middle of the fabric, so she was limited in how many and where she can put them.  I hope these pics help at least a little bit.  :)