<-- you can look like this too on www.yearbookyourself.com

 Marriage is the Closest Kind of Friendship

Marriage is the closest kind of friendship.
Years of traffic wear away the lines
Between two souls with similar designs,
Ending more in unity than kinship.
Separate actors must play separate parts:
They must alone be riveted by need.
Far beneath that soil a single seed
Roots itself, tenacious in their hearts.
In love there is a trust beyond the word.
Each finds peace in each, as though the light
Needed the tranquility of night,
Deeper than what silence can be heard.

My proposal story is not made of soft candlelight or a surprise trip to hawaii or paris - but however non-romantic and seemingly uninsprired and mundane - it was still totally "us" in a very unpretentious and simple "everyday life" kind of way ;-)

3am while sportscenter was BLARING from the tv... i'm trying to fall asleep and he rolls me over and blurts it out

the sportscenter theme will never be the same ever again =)

wonder if stewy and mike & mike will come to our wedding if we invite them??? hhahahahaa

“To Be One With Each Other” by George Eliot

What greater thing is there for two human souls
than to feel that they are joined together to strengthen
each other in all labor, to minister to each other in all sorrow,
to share with each other in all gladness,
to be one with each other in the
silent unspoken memories?

How it All Started...

We first met in 2006 and instantly hit it off!  Randomly and as cliche as it sounds - we met at a neighborhood bar - one which we didnt really want to be at the time hahahaa; my mom had passed away, i had just moved my life from LA to the bay area to now care for my aging father and HATED living in the bay, so one of my gilfriends made me go out with her to lighten my mood - he was hanging out with a group of people who knew my girlfriend - and there you have it =)

HIS: after gifting his titanium ring and his tungsten ring to a younger PW couple last summer, we bought another tungsten ring from www.overstock.com

HERS: e-ring and band both from downtown LA jeweler (family owned and operated) Icing On the Ring

Ani, Raffi and Vic were great to work with!

 < from their halo collection

< from their scattered collection

 
PRO PICS BY KLK PHOTOGRAPHY

there have been many dresses hanging in my closet!  but eventually, i decided to wear model novias for our pre-ceremony pics and first look:

then for our church ceremony and reception, i wore my first love by henry roth:

pics from my last fitting

ON OUR WEDDING DAY:

PIC BY KLK PHOTOGRAPHY

=============================

for as long as i can remember, i have always loved the look of a cathedral length mantilla veil

it reminds me of the old world and will hopefully add some old-world feel to my modern-world wedding

custom veil was ordered from: Crowning Glory Design by Candi_Merle

but then i also love this look with a blusher:

candi made my veil with sheer illusion tulle and this 1.5 inch lace:

I sent the florist a pic of Kristeen's bouquet as inspiration - but asked for mine to not be "so glam" and a little more simple since i'm not super glam LOL!

Xavi from Petals by Xavi did a superb job on the bouquets!  Everything i asked for was in that bouquet - it was more than i expected and I was so pleased with all our bouquets!  Mine was easily 10 pounds! LOL!

(photo by anne sason)

my bouquet consisted of white hydrangea, crysanthemums, orchids and crystal details

the bm bouquets were all white crysanthemums

more pics to follow ;-)

~ ~ ~ MAKEUP ~ ~ ~

i really love the look of dramatic eyes and everything else neutral --  my mua susie chhuor knocked it out of the park during our trial!

some looks i heart:

pic by jagger photography

~ ~ ~ HAIR ~ ~ ~

my ultimate hair inspiration is PW bride marissaco: 

photog credit: kristi klemens

after a ton of "trials" at the MAC counter, i finally booked LA mua Susie Chhuor to put on my wedding day face!

fh and i met with Susie Feb 11 in her Westwood studio and we totally clicked =)

i cant wait to see the magic susie performs the day of!

stuff Susie used on me:
-makeup forever foundation/base
-mac eyeshadow
-mac blush
-imported eyelashes (dont remember the name of the mfr)
-mac lipstick and prescriptives gloss

we found it!!  what a relief to have booked a new venue for our december celebration!

ta-daaaa!   our reception venue - the palm terrace

since we both love baseball - we are naming our tables after major league baseball stadiums - with the help of PW ladies - we have a ton of postcards from all across the country of the parks and will be using those as our table designations!

<-- our uplights are green

 our glass vases are round and lampshades are not this clean in shape but this is the general idea

fh is a huge yankees fan and i am an equally passionate dodgers fan - so we are incorporating baseball into our reception!

for our late-nite sendoff, we are offering our guests mini-hotdogs and french fries!

i originally was goign to buy "flutissimo" from baccarat, but fh hated the stem, and the pricetag was something he thought was ridiculous, then i said, fine, we wont buy any and just use the venue's flutes, but i kinda wanted to buy our own (non-wedding looking) for not so much money - - - soooooo - here's what we compromised on:

"the edge" flute from crate & barrel

total $24 - yay!

~CUPPIES~
10 April 2009

Just placed our order for 12 dozen regular cupcakes, 4 dozen mini-cuppies and 18 extra gigantor cupcakes from Frosted_Cupcakery in long beach;   

the mini and giant
vanilla and choco with vanilla buttercream
red velvet w/ cream chese

the regular size cuppies will be split into:
egg nog w/ vanilla buttercream
choco w/ mint buttercream
lemon w/ cream cheese
carrot w/ cream cheese
white w/ coconut vanilla buttercream
choco w/ coconut vanilla buttercream
pumpkin w/ cream cheese

~CAKE~

Even though we have cuppies for our guests, we are still following tradition with the cake-cutting; so we are ordering a small square cake: lemon w/ lemon-raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream

 <-- love the mixture of square and round

~CAKE CUTTING SET~

pic to follow
all our wedding stuff is at FMIL's house for storage ;-)

~CAKE TOPPER~

23 Jan 2009

in an effort to scale back, one of my fave PW girls and i are sharing a cake topper from etsy!! It finally dawned on us the other day that our new names will start with a "G"!! 

i am honored to be sharing such a symbolic part of the day with my girl JackieG ;-)

here it is!!! =)

9 April 2009 - UPDATE: 
PW bride Nika is getting this G cake topper after my wedding in August! YAY for sharing =)

~CUPCAKE FLAGS~

these will be set directly atop the buttercream - no toothpick

i chose the wonderfully talented Alex Wong (PWer abattyref) to design our invites

Invitations will be letterpressed by Berkeley, CA vendor and PW bride The_Aerialist_Press 

Font 1: Copperplate Gothic / Font 2 (script): Saffron Too

the super talented nicole from pink design events designed our monograms - and i couldnt be happier with how they turned out!

there are a ton of "monogram makers" out there - but i highly recommend nicole to anyone looking for polished, distinct and high-quality monograms

I hired Dean Henderson for our deejay - and he totally rocked the house!  He even got my 75 year-old dad out there doing his own version of "the moonwalk"!  LOL!

i chose  "click-flash" by ciara  for our bridal party intro and it was so perfect!   from where we were standing outside waiting out turn to be intro'd, i could see all the flashes from all the cameras as our family and friends were intro'd =)   perfectly fun and upbeat song and i'm so glad i chose it!

for our intro as hubby & wife, we chose waiting for tonight by j.lo

we asked dean to let it rip at around the one minute mark when she sings the first chorus, and let it run for about 60 seconds while we danced around the room acting like 2 fools in love (ha!) -- dean's timing was perfect!  after j.lo's first lyrics into the 2nd chorus, he slowed it down and played our first song as mr. and mrs., the sweetest love by robin thicke

not wanting to dance for the full length of the song (about 4 minutes), we asked dean to fade it out at the 2 minute mark, which was perfect!

for my dance with my father, we danced to a favorite oldie by the byrds, it's an old song he used to sing to me as a child and holds more meaning to me now as an adult: "turn turn turn" by the byrds

dancing with my father was super emo - we both couldnt hold our tears:

DH and his mom danced to: The Way you Look Tonight, covered by Maroon 5

the only thing we specifically requested was zero macarena and zero "celebration" by kool & the gang -- everything else was up to Dean - we gave him the genres we liked and he just went from there!  super great MC and Deejay - i'd totally recommend Dean to any newly engaged couple!

Taking lead from budoh - we decided to have a photo station with hats, crowns & props; our station was manned by PW bride caribear!

here are some teasers:

-->kristeen and our cute RB!

me, groomsman Tony and some friends

 smooching the groom!  LOL!!

--> that's my hubbs!!!

--> me, my stepson, and our ringbearer! =)

--> me and the lovely gals from pw!

L to R: caribear, lizee, chica, kristeen, me, octobersky, ana4rodrigo

all photobooth pics from cari hollis photography

Chocolate Martini (recipe from yum sugar)

2 oz. vodka (Ketel One is my absolute fave)
1/2 oz chocolate liqueur
1/2 oz white creme de cacao
chocolate syrup to coat rim of martini glass

Coat rim of martini glass with syrup. Mix all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain into martini glass

Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into a chilled martini glass rimmed with chocolate

 Jack & Coke

21 Feb 2009

no not "that" love glove! hahahaha  kidding kidding

i bought this mini-glove from a lovely little boutique called Unveiled in Walnut Creek, CA

ON OUR WEDDING DAY:

PIC BY KLK PHOTOGRAPHY

ok so i've gotten alot of PMs about the poms..

here are the directions:

supplies i used:

ordered the carnies in bulk from roseys garden on ebay

styrofoam orbs ( i bought mine at michael's, but if you're doing alot, you can buy them for less on ebay about 12 5" balls for $20-$25 ) http://stores.ebay.com/LA-Crafts-Online

i pair of wire cutter-type scissors:



styrofoam glue:



flower:



cut the stem so there is about 1.5" left; cut at an angle so it's easier to "stab" the styrofoam:



dip the stem in the glue; find an empty spot on the styrofoam - and just insert the stem into the styrofoam:

finished product:

================================================================

DIY Cake Table Letters

these took me all of 30 minutes to make (not including drying time for the paint)

started with wooden letters
primed with dark grey then painted over with black paint
after paint dried, hot glued "peridot" crystals in different sizes randomly over the letters

ON OUR WEDDING DAY:

PIC BY KLK PHOTOGRAPHY

========================================

signs for GQ and Bridal Suite...

bought these dupioni wrapped boxes from pier one for a dollar at their after Christmas clearance sale

while i like the enclosure, i didnt think it quite "went" with my minimalistic feel, so i took the ribbon enclosure off and did a little somethin else...

original look:

after i got done with them:

items used:
satin faced ribbon in wedding colors
hot glue gun

Follow Me on my New Adventure - La Hermosa Events 

for the bms - i decided to make my own brooch bracelet:

i bought the brooches for $7 each on my last trip to downtown LA; bought one spool of organza ribbon for $1 each to make the "bands"; grey, black, and white ribbon for the boxes for $2 each; and the silk dupioni boxes for $1 from Pier One at their after-Christmas sale

here it is in the box:

also bought them sundresses and flipflops to wear while getting ready; and from etsy, i ordered these hangers:
(photo by melissa mcclure)

Since the guys are all baseball lovers, we are giving them these to show off their fave team =)  ( and me hoping for a great photo-op )

these are from: http://www.footballfanatics.com

we also bought them jordans and duffel bags

here is our best man in his jordans and LA Dodgers socks!

for our flowergirls:

little stuffed animal handbags -- filled with stickers, glitterly lipgloss, disney brand hair ties and barrettes and hello kitty socks =)

i have a bunch of items i am selling; all of the shoes i have NOT worn and are just sitting in my closet ;-)

XYRON 500

i used the Xyron to make my address labels; it accomodates up to 5" so it can do alot

$15 incl shipping via usps

========================================

Chinese Laundry "Baldwin" Size 7 in Cobalt Blue

These were going to be my something blue, but i changed my mind; i've NEVER worn these

$30 incl shipping via usps

============================================================

BCBG Size 7; Never Been Worn; Still in Box

I was going to wear these for my rehearsal and dinner, but chose to wear another pair i had