qtqiqi's biography
It was a beutiful day, everyone was happy, we are so glad we had a big party!
We wanted to have a very low key, intimate, and comfortable wedding with a romantic flair. This was getting pretty hard with our growing guest list. We are
fortunate to have the wedding at my FIL's house/farm. this helped us keep the budget to be within 30k for 210 guest. However, this by no means an easy task, everthing had to be brought in, including porta potties!
My sweetie made this sign(well I helped by choosing the paint color, he was going to use red/gold, my heart almost stopped) it is now sitting in our garage, one day we will use it for the orchid house when we build it!
The Canopy was definitely a labor of love, DH and I worked on it for 3 weekends!! and My MOH and her mom sewed the fabric. Everyone helped to put it up the day before the wedding!
My MIL made the cake!! it was soooo yummy!
A Bit About Us
We met at Cal architecture program 5 years ago, we spent many sleepless nights in studio as friends only before becoming lovers.
Our wedding will be on October 6, 2007 on Kevin's father's farm in Larkin Valley, Santa Cruz County. It will be semi casual, "farm style". These pictures are taken in the spring when there's green everywhere, by October, it will be a lot more gold/brown.
Ceremony Site in the backyard
Reception on the Knoll
Here's a few pictures of my dress - Ulla Maija Couture Spring07 (purchased w/ Marina Morrison union square SF, they are wonderful to work with, the shop has a gorgeous fitting space that's so relaxing!)
Hair I love! thanks knottie: Chucktgirl
I want to have a fresh look like this
w/ these shoes I scored at Jeremy's
FI's look - We've decided against Tux, going with a suit instead, he desperately wants this from Armani Collezioni
Flowers I Like
I think it's neat to incorporate succulents
Flower for family member
Centerpiece arrangement preview by Nicole Ha (picture taken at her recent bridal show) showing my colors. I love the free form texture.
I absolutely love Knottie Jagnsis's reception decor! The colors I have in mind, maybe a tad bit less pink and more gold/bronze tone...
Still debating whether to have seating cards, if we do, I like this idea from knottie: Sakegirls
I love the style/feel of these aisle and centerpiece arrangements from knottie CaliCayman, but in my colors
I definitely plan to use the aisle decor for centerpiece also, I will have a combination of round and rectangular tables to make this work.
FMIL is making our wedding cake to keep with the "farm style", this is the inspiration for our cake - love the butter cream frosting choppy look:
Enter our fabulous Bridal Party
Flower girls dress
Ok, here's the Bling...
FI knew that I wanted an antique looking ring, and this is what he picked. I had never been able to decide between the looks of a round and a square stone, but now I kind of have both.
These are with the train
It was very difficult to figure out the bustle be cause the dress has 3 layeros organza and tulle, we ended up have to bustle inside, with 8 pickup points.
My Letterpress Invitation!
My bestfriend/MOH designed the invitation, she's an awesome artist, and had hand drawn the invitation design then converted the image to Adobe. Paula with paper flirt formated the design in order to read the color gradation. I absolutely love how everything turned out! I bought the red Fiori paper from paper source to wrap everything together, and finally tie with yarn. Hopefully this won't take too long... I don't have the prettiest hand writing, but I am going to hand dress the invitation to add some personal touch. 
Photographer: Gene Higa (check out gene's blog he frequently posts recent photos/advices for brides)
Boudoir Photographer: Jennifer Skog (check out Jenn's Blog
Florist: Nicole Ha (Nicole is very pleasant to work with)
Letterpress Invitation: Paula Gloistein
Makeup & Hair Artist: Sherrie Long
Ceremony Musicians: Capriccio (Strings)
Since we "eloped" already, we had our honeymoon white water rafting on the Colorado river, through the Grand Canyon on May 3rd through May 18th, for 16 days! It's life changing experience. Here are just a few of our favorites
Our boat that we spent 16 days and a couple nights in.
Day hike up Deer Creek
Deer creek running through the Tapeats layer
The milky turquoise water of the Little Colorado is much warmer than the Colorado!
Most of camps had beaches like this, very calm after the day's excitement going through rapids
One of my favorite views of the Canyon, after a tremendous hike
Me, the happy rower...
Kev, the inquisitive river explorer...
