My Wedding M-Z

And now the thrilling conclusion!
See A-L here.

Music:
I really didn't want any traditional wedding music played at our wedding. Unfortunately there was a a mix up and the music I picked out for before the wedding got lost. So when people were arriving and waiting for the wedding to begin, the music was was very traditional. Oh well.
The groomsmen entered to this:

I can't get over how 90's that song is.
Tai and his mom entered to this:

Tifa's Theme from Final Fantasy.
And Marta, Ashley, Dad and I walked in to this:

I love this song. See I told you I wasn't traditional :)
And we left to this song:

Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield. I just love the words to this song.
For our first dance, we used our song:

When we first started dating Tai emailed me this very video and said when I see this I think of you. I cried the first time I watched the video and heard the song. It's been our song ever since.

Newlyweds:

I love the smile on his face.

Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue:

The bracelet I bought from Etsy. The shoes were my first wedding purchase. I knew I wanted blue sparkly flip flops. And the clutch was my grandma's (dad's mom).

Photography:
We went with ImageGarden Photography. I choose Andrew because he wasn't a wedding photographer but a photojournalist. I think he did a great job.

Question Popping:
I've never posted about our engagement story. It was Memorial Day 2007 and I was having a hard sleeping. At this point I had assumed that engagement was a few years away for us but Tai started asking me questions about what I thought our wedding would look like. We talked about the place, the people for hours. At the end, he says so we'll get married? And I said you didn't ask me to marry you. And he said sorry I can't get down on one knee (he has bad knees) but I still want to marry you. And I said if you are asking then I would say yes. We decided not to say anything until I had a ring but Mr Blabbermouth told all his friends the next day. Then three days later, Tai lost his job. He asked me if I still wanted to get married and I said of course. He loves to tell people how it was then he knew then I wasn't marrying him for his money :)

Reception:
Our ceremony and reception were held at the same place, Tolt MacDonald Campground. We got married outside and had the reception indoors.

Speeches:
Tai gave a speech thanking everyone for coming. Ashley and Marta each spoke about our friendships. Brian and Carlo each spoke as well.

Trash The Dress:
I'd still love to do this.

Unique:
Our wedding was at a campground. Tai camped the night before our wedding and we camped there afterwards with some of our guests.

Vows:
Since this post is incredibly long already, I blogged about our vows (actually the entire ceremony) here. We wrote the entire ceremony using The Wedding Ceremony Planner. We used bits and pieces from the different ceremonies in the book.

Wedding Woes:
Something things went awry but that's expected. I already mentioned the pre-ceremony music wasn't what I wanted. We wound up with a head table even though I didn't want one. To be far, I gave Tai permission to move the tables as needed. And my dad was late. But he got there and walked me down the aisle. We just had to hold things up for a little bit.

X-Rated:
Uh, no.

Young Kids:
We didn't have any flower girls or ring bearers. We did have some youngsters as guests though.

Zzzz:
Are you still reading this? Damn that was long. Thanks for sticking around and reading this long wedding meme!
Happy 3rd anniversary to my wonderful hubby!

My Wedding A-L

I'm totally stealing this from Jules. Since our 3rd anniversary is this week I figured this would be a fun meme to do.
I recently posted about how Tai and I met. Go here to read that story.

Attending:
I think we had about 60.

Bridesmaids:
Ashley and Marta

Cake:
We had 4 different cakes a our wedding. Fruit cake, Black Forest cake, Swiss Chocolate and Tiramisu. We bought them from Regent Bakery. There was just a few slices left at the end of the night.

Dress:
I was a two dress bride. I bought this dress:

It's pale pink. I really thought I wanted to wear a pink dress. But then as the wedding got closer I realized  I wanted a ivory/white dress. So I bought a second dress:

 Here's a picture of the back. I loved the back.

Engagement:
We were engaged for 13 months. It was the perfect amount of time for us.

Flowers:

I carried white daisies and Marta and Ashley carried orange daisies. I like how the orange popped against the brown.

Groomsmen:

Carlo, Jeff, Brian and Jamie. All fantastic guys.

Honeymoon:
I didn't really take a honeymoon. We didn't have any vacation left after the wedding so I went to work the Tuesday after we got married. I always recommend to everyone to take time off after the wedding. You are going to need it.

Invitations:
We went with Weddingpaperdivas and got these:

Justice of The Peace:

We were married by our good friends, Herb and Christy. In fact this was the first decision we made after deciding to get married.

Keepsakes:
I still have my dress, my shoes, my bracelet, and headpiece. Sadly my earrings broke that night. I really liked those earrings.

Ladies Night:
All pictures and description of the debauchery can be found here.

Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow!

Kris' Wedding!

Kris was sweet enough to let me share some of the details of her day with you all. First Kris was married at the Grove in Las Vegas. It was about 20 miles off the strip. Kris arranged for shuttle buses to take us to and from the strip. A lovely touch. It was a gorgeous day, sunny but not too warm. The wedding was outside and the ceremony was indoors.
I'm mostly going to talk about some of the details of her wedding. I don't have all the specifics, but let me know if you have a question and I'll find out.
First are her gorgeous centerpieces. I know she and the bridesmaids assembled them. I believe they bought the topiary as is though. The tiny little birdies were up for grabs at the end of the night. Her color scheme was black, red, and cream.There was a bird theme too. All the tables were named after birds. There were 2 more tables but people were looking at me funny while I was running around taking pictures of the tables.We were at the Flamingo table. The Dove table was their sweetheart table. I believe she got the table names, the seating cards and the menus from an etsy seller (if you need to know let me know).
Next up is her adorable cake topper. She had this made. If you want to know I can find out. The girl bird is wearing the same dress as the bride. Such a great little touch.And here's the cake topper on top of the cake.
Throughout the ceremony, there was a woman painting the ceremony. Here's the real deal.The painter was there early and got most of the background done before the bride walked down the aisle.
Here's her gorgeous bouquet. I just loved it. The photographer had been taking pictures of her rings in the bouquet and was nice enough to let me try to take some too. I tried to get some close ups but they turned out all blurry. And here's one the bride and groom. It's a really good one of the front of her dress. isn't it gorgeous!
Congratulations Kris and Tony!

Kris' Shower

Over the weekend we celebrated Kris' upcoming wedding with a little shower. We started by going to the Stone House Cafe. The food was delicious and the staff was sweet. Kris had the pork tenderloin:Janet and I had the crab and aspargus pasta. Very yummy!The chicken dish was popular.
Here's all the girls.
Two of Kris' friends flew in especially for the event!
Then we headed to Jen's house to continue the party. Since Kris is planning a destination wedding, she was sad that she wasn't getting a cake tasting. She'll taste her cake for the first time on her wedding day. We asked everyone to bring a cake so she could have her own cake tasting!
Janet made cupcakes with M&Ms:Sharon's friend made this poker chip cake in honor of Vegas (where Kris and Tony are tying the knot):Jen bought this yummy chocolate cake from Whole Foods. Love the meringue heart!:I choose this flourless chocolate cake:
And this chocolate ganache cake from Trader Joes:And Leslie and Naina brought this cake that Kris tried at the wedding show and loved. It's a champange cake with champange filling. So yummy!
And here's the bachelorette with Michelle showing off her new clutch that Michelle bought her:I'm so excited that her wedding is almost here! We had a great time celebrating! I'm looking forward to celebrating with her in a few weeks!

So Excited!

The fabulous Jessica Lynn has opened her own calligraphy shop, Penned & Pretty. I'm so happy for her on her new venture. I'm sure she will be sensational. Go check it out!

Evolution of A Favorite

Doing the grey post made me think about my favorite color. I don't really have one anymore. Sometimes it's purple, grey, blue or green. Depends on my mood and season. But when I was younger, well that was a different story.
First I loved pink and grey. My favorite skirt was pink and grey. My room was pink, grey and gold. I dreamed of my future home being pink. Pink and grey were my favorites back when I was little. When I went to college, green and navy were my favorites. They were pretty in back then. I had green sheets and a navy blue comforter. I bought navy blue shoes and wore green skirts! Slowly things changed and by the time I left college I had no favorite color or color combo.
That became especially hard when it came time to pick a color scheme for the wedding. I had no favorites to use. I told Marta and Ashley they could either choose brown dresses or blue dresses. I would choose a color scheme on their choice. They went with brown and we ended up with brown, green, and ivory.During that time I bought a lot of brown and green clothing. I have like 5 brown tshirts!
If we would have gone with blue I would have wound up with a color scheme like this:
A mix of all blues. I would have to say that most of the furniture and accessories I buy for the house tend to be blue. I like blue. It's calming and comes in so many different shades. But I wouldn't call it my favorite. Not to today anyway.
All collages done with Idee.

Breaking News

We've been having some flooding in our neck of the woods. Where we live is fine, no flooding. But the town we got married in? Completely flooded. Remember the barn we got married at?It looks like this right now:This picture was sent to me by a friend who's sister lives nearby. I'm not sure if her sister took the picture or what. Pretty scary!
We have some other friends that live out there too. All them are ok, just stranded in their homes. First the snow, now the rain!

Plus size wedding dresses

As we learned the other day, brides still find my blog. I'm not really in wedding mode anymore. Honestly I'm so glad mine is all over. But wedding things still catch my eye. Like this wedding dress designer for plus sized girls.
Photos found here. Definitely very flattering. Especially the top left one. And I don't like sleeves on dresses. I wish I would have seen this when I planning my wedding. It's nice to have another option.

Recap Get Hitched Give Hope

Thursday night Kris and I went to Get Hitched Give Hope. It was held at the beautiful Arctic Hotel in Downtown Seattle. Such a pretty place. I'd been there years before they remodeled it, so I was excited to see it now all restored.
Kris bought a swag bag:
I was most impressed by the Dry Soda which is so yummy. It came with such a wonderful glass too. She also got gift certificates for massages, facials, and fitness training. She was wonderful let me take pictures of all her stuff!
The event was really a fundraiser for Making Memories Foundation, but a delightful excuse to fawn over beautiful bridal goodies. I was bummed that I only got one Wink cupcake as they were delicious!

Get Hitched, Give Hope

I'm so grateful that Kate McElwee posted this on her blog. I don't think I would have heard about it otherwise.
Tickets start at $15. It sounds like a wonderful, luscious event. I can't wait! I'll be tagging along with Kris to check out all sort of lovely bridal goodies. Go to Get Hitched, Give Hope's website for all the details and tickets!

Oh So Vintage! Oh So Glam!

Remember her?Everyone's favorite knottie VintageGlam! She has a blog now! I'm so excited. She's filling it with all her DIY projects and glamorous vintage finds! Go, check it out!

Trash The Dress Fantasy

Since I'm going to keep my dress (Tai convinced me to keep it), I now want to do a Trash the Dress session. And I keep thinking I can do this in Vegas while we're there for Kris' wedding. Here are some photos that make it oh so tempting!
From Chelsea Nicole. I love the rusted train. So cool.
From Brandon Williams Photography. What's not to love about this photo? So edgy!
From Byron Bridges Photography. So natural and different. I love pictures where people look relaxed in interesting settings.
As you can see I'm no looking to ruin my dress. Just get some interesting pictures in my pretty dress. I rather have some awesome photos than have it sitting in a closet!

Congrats Erin & Sean!

Our friends, Erin and Sean, got married over the weekend. I was excited to see the details especially since I helped!

They got married at garden club home in Seattle. It was a beautiful older home with a wonderful porch. Erin had cold beverages out for people before the wedding.

Here's a good shot of the back of Erin's dress. I love that she changed into those green flats for the reception!
Sadly it rained. But Erin and Sean had umbrellas for everyone.

Erin's dad made their card box. They used their engagement photos. Their guest book (not pictured) was a snapfish book of photos they'd taken during their relationship.
The centerpieces that Erin and her family made. I love the green button mums!
The program fans I helped with! People seemed to like them despite that it was really too cool.
Congrats Erin and Sean! May you have a long and happy life together. I'm looking forward to getting together you guys and hanging out!