Bio

***************************************** We had two weddings. The first was an interfaith ceremony in San Francisco. The second was a hindu wedding in Dallas. If you would like to reference my pictures, I ask that you please credit me and host the picture using your own means. *****************************************
*** * * * * * WEDDING PHOTOS * * * * * ***
All wedding photos are copyrighted by Kim Indresano. Please do not copy or reuse these photos.
It took 4 people to get me buttoned into my dress. My mom and sister were having a hard time. Thankfully, my DH's mother and auntie visited me and lent a hand.
Whew, all buttoned up. Isn't the lace pretty? It took an hour to get everything un-buttoned when the day was finished.
My loopy hair. It took 2 hours to get it done. Props to the talented Selida at Hairplay who got up very early to make me look pretty.
No idea what's going on in this one. I'm probably watching my sister put my shoes on me.
It took me awhile to get my veil on and adjusted. Here's me checking it one last time.
All dressed up and trying to savor the still moment before the day unfolds.
My beautiful sister and Woman of Honor.
My beautiful mother getting her corsage. If I were to share one piece of advice it would be to avoid orchids in corsages. Mom's was broken before we even left this room. They don't hold up to the hugging and I didn't heed my florist's warnings.
Here's my bouquet. The morning my father and mother wed, Dad picked Queen Anne's lace to add to Mom's bouquet. My father died when I was 17, so I had my florist use Queen Anne's lace in my bouquet as a small way for me to remember him.
Mom just gave me my something old and something borrowed. It's the handkerchief I'm holding. It is silk and tisssue paper thin. She held it in her wedding and it had belonged to my great-grandmother.
DH when he first arrived at the chapel. He's seeing everything for the first time... well, the first time that day. We went site hunting together of course.
My DH with 2 of his groomsmen and our pastor. The room he was supposed to be waiting in was too small. Instead, they went to the garden behind the chapel and enjoyed the outdoors while the guests arrived.
Artsy photo. I'm leaving the room I've been waiting in and heading towards the front of the chapel to get married!
Mom and me right before we walked through the door and down the aisle together.
Isn't he sweet? Ranga is seeing me for the first time coming through the chapel door. This picture melts my heart. He had everyone in tears. I couldn't cry because I knew we would both end up in a pile of tears.
Good shot of the back of my dress as our Pastor is reciting the vows I am supposed to repeat. I was staring into DH's eyes and had a twinge of fear when I realized that I wasn't listening to my lines. I snapped out of my moment and got all the words right.
Lighting the unity candle and placing our candles back into the arrangement. DH couldn't find the holder for his right away.
Garlands are exchanged in indian weddings. Here's us garlanding each other after exchanging rings. They were made of marigolds and were surprisingly heavy. I have no idea what happened to them after the ceremony.
Closing prayer.
A detailed, color view of the unity candle arrangement. It also has Queen Anne's lace in it, which I didn't know until I saw this photo!
Pronounced husband and wife, wife and husband. Seriously, those were his words.
On our way down the aisle together. I bet every bride has the same thought... don't trip!
Whew! Now if I can get this garland off me I'd be a super happy girl. It's holding my veil down and I can't move my head!
Ranga assuming control of my train and helping me down the stairs.
We brides love these kinds of details. This is my sister's bouquet. The arrangements at the reception site were very similar. A friend took this picture.
Ranga and I enjoy the photo ops with our guests outside the chapel. The same friend took this picture as well.
Me in the limo on the way to shoot our portraits. This was a much needed quiet time for the two of us. We were exhausted (already!) and needed to recharge with each other. We were also able to practice our first dance a little. I didn't realize how much wearing the dress would change how the dancing felt.
We shot lots of portraits at the Palace of Fine Arts after the ceremony. It was very windy.
There were lots of other brides and limos there when we arrived.
Tourists were also taking pictures of us.
Did I mention it was windy?
The wind gave my veil a personality all its own.
One of my favorites. Sorry for all the kissing pictures.
It was so windy that my dress was blowing around and driving me crazy. I had to talk DH through bustling my gown... which was interesting since I only had a vague idea how it worked.
I like this picture because it looks like a yin yang symbol.
Me trying to straighten DH's bout. It felt like prom all over again. I couldn't get it on. We're back in the limo and on our way to the reception.
The cake table with our glasses of champagne waiting for us. DH toasted our guests before dinner was served.
The cake was very yummy. I recommend Butterfly Cakes highly. The base layer was white cake with strawberries. The other two layers were chocolate with raspberries. The icing was buttercream.
I have pictures of us feeding each other cake, but let's face it, no one looks good with their mouth open. I thought I'd share this picture instead.
After cutting the cake, we had our first dance. In case you're wondering, I removed the veil as soon as we got to our reception site.
We danced to Dos Gardenias from the Buena Vista Social Club sound track. The week of the wedding, upon realizing we had no idea how to dance to the song, we took private dance lessons. Two, one-hour classes at the Metronome got us in respectable dancing form.
We named the tables after French and Spanish cities we've visited. We used photos that we took on these trips for the signs. Ours was the Paris table since we got engaged on the Eiffel tower.
Here's a better look at the table name and menu.
The Monaco table with all the pieces: arrangement, table name, favor. The jam, in the bottom right hand corner of the picture, was our favor.
The place cards had a cropped version of the image associated with their tables. The type and border around the image was color coded; indicating the guest's meal choice.
Artsy photo of people dancing.
Some photos from the Dallas wedding now. Here's me getting my mangal sutra. This is the south indian equivalence of the western wedding ring. You can see it in my left hand in the last picture of this set.
The hindu wedding is a series of sacred traditions with a few games thrown in. This ritual began with us slowly filling a bowl with rice and flower petals. We did this for awhile, then we each showered the other with a handful of rice. We did this 3 times, then came the game.
There's a fair number of games involved in the ceremony. Remember, traditionally the wedding ceremony was the first time a bride and groom of an arranged marriage met. So they needed some ice breakers. With this game we each continued pouring rice over the other. The race was to see who could cover whom with more rice. I eventually picked up the bowl and dumped the remaining contents on Ranga's head. I should mention Ranga let me win all the games. What a guy.
Another game. In this one the priest dropped our rings into a urn filled with water. This game was so that the couple could touch each other for the first time. Crazy to think about these things. It was a best two out of three match. The first match the priest put bettle nuts in there instead of our rings. He had some serious slight of hand skills. I fished out nuts one after the other only to find no rings. I was very disappointed. Next match, Ranga and I both looked into the urn first to confirm they were in there. Everyone got a good laugh out of that.
My sister, mom and I after the indian wedding. It was an exhausting 4 hour long ceremony. But here we are laughing and you can see our pretty saris.
I wore my dress again at the Dallas reception. Here you can see the henna on my hands. Like a traditional indian bride, I got both sides of my hands, as well as my feet, done. It lasted for about 3 weeks! I'm holding our wedding bands and my mangal sutra.
*** * * * * * PLANNING DETAILS * * * * * ***
Engagement photos Our photographer, Kim Indresano, took these pictures of us outside of the Presidio Chapel and among the columns of the Legion of Honor.
Save the dates We bought a bunch of postcards from the national park store on Fisherman's wharf and printed the relevant information on the back with a laser printer.
Invitations These have been the largest DIY project I've undertaken. Being a graphic designer I wanted to design and make pretty invitations. A friend, who lives in North Carolina, has a letterpress and volunteered to print them as his wedding present to us. So, one extremely hot weekend in June, I went to Raleigh and we printed the invitations together. That was just the beginning. I then had to cut out each piece, by hand, using an x-acto knife. After the trimming, I glued the center piece to the envelopments. These envelopments are in kimono red. Finally, I ordered a custom-made stamp from Simon Stamps and created seals to hold the envelopments shut. A month later, I am mailing them out. Whew! That was quite the undertaking.
Thank you notes I designed these letterpress note cards and had them printed by Mercurio Brothers. They are in the east bay and I found their prices reasonable. As for the design, one of our planning books had a great idea. It suggested getting note cards that didn't say "thank you" on them. That way when you have a lot of leftover cards after the wedding (which we did) you can use them as everyday notecards.
Guest Book I made it myself. Ok, so I'm a bookbinder on the side so it wasn't a massive feat or anything. But after making guest books for other friends' weddings, I just had to make my own. For San Francisco folks, I got the book cloths at Kozo Arts on Union street in Pacific Heights. The floral ribbon trim came from Britex; land of dreamy fabric and finishes in Union Square.
Engagement ring My sweetie and I picked out this engagement ring together. It was custom made by Union Street Goldsmith in platinum with a cornflower sapphire. Want to know why we didn't get a diamond? Read some articles about the affects of the diamond industry on Africa.
The dress My Dress is by Ulla-Maija. The design is called Agnes. It's a crazy dress. The company has to get the lace made specially for every single dress. Here are a couple of pictures from my first and second fittings. Some of you may recall how nervous I've been about the alterations process. The bodice had to be let out some and I was worried about the lace getting ruined. I have to give huge props to the alterations maven at Marina Morrison. She is AMAZING. I couldn't even tell that she had touched my dress other than it fit better. Ladies, if you get your dress from Marina Morrison, you can trust them with your alterations. As for the veil, I have my talented mother to thank for it. It's just what I wanted. A big, long, simple piece of bridal illusion. She made it using the directions from these 2 web sites: http://www.wegotgame.net/jen/veils.html The veil bio She found the first site more helpful. I don't think she did anything fancy. However, she did trim the sides of the illusion so that it tapered a bit towards the comb. This kept the veil from being too full on top. It also allowed the gathering to be more to the sides so that the veil was more sheer in the middle. The comb is about 3 inches wide and metal. The wider comb turned out to be better than the smaller one we tried. On the 3 inch comb the fabric didn't gather as tightly as it did on a smaller comb. Also, the comb bent easily to fit the contour of my head. Finally, she wrapped the comb with narrow satin ribbon between the teeth and then sewed the gathered tulle onto that. Cleanly trimming the tulle is the hardest part. Mom used a pizza cutter like thing to get a clean edge. But I still had to go back and clean it up a little. I used a ruler and a very sharp x-acto knife on a black board (so I could actually see the edge) to trim the fabric and it was perfect after that.
Shoes I bought these from My Glass Slipper and was very pleased with their service. They are Fenaroli's and the style is Margaux. Finally, I got them dyed at the Master Cobbler in San Jose.
Makeup and hair I feel a little silly posting these pictures, but I've come across so few pictures of redheads that I thought someone else might find them helpful. I've been growing my hair out so that I could have some kind of fabulous updo for the wedding. The good news is I have more than enough hair, the bad news is I have TONS of hair. It's a little bigger than I hoped, but she'll balance it more on the wedding day. I'm also going in for a trim in a week, so that may help matters. I'm hopefully going to get a vintage/classical feel with my hair, dress and makeup. We'll see.
Bridesmaid dress My sister will be my only attendant and woman of honor. I told her to pick out whatever dress she liked, felt comfortable in and made her feel pretty. Eight weeks before the wedding she finally picked a dress. It's Bill Levkoff style #240. She'll be getting it in Euro Wine with the trim in Euro Champagne. What makes these colors so european? I have no idea. I'm just glad it arrived in time for the wedding. She got it from Hannelore's of Old Town in Washington, DC for any of you with east coast connections.
Rehearsal Dinner We took immediate family, the wedding party and close friends who had been super supportive to a SF Giants game. It was cheaper than a dinner would have been and lots of fun! Barry hit his 700th homerun and we ate curious george themed cupcakes made by Butterfly Cakes.
Favors My second huge DIY project. Actually, my mom did most of the work. These are 4oz jars of homemade jams. We had 2 flavors: strawberry and blackberry. Mom picked the berries, made the jam, and mailed all 100 jars to California from Tennessee. Way to go Mom! I then covered them with 5" white doilies and attached the tags with ivory ribbon. I hope our guests like jam!
Vendors I haven't included vendor reviews because, by and large, I think they are random. At the end of the day, you'd either tell someone to avoid one of your vendors or not. I was happy with all my vendors and don't have any warnings to share. If you have specific questions, feel free to page me on the Northern California board.
* Ceremony location: Presidio Chapel * Reception location: Atrium * Hotel block and Sunday brunch: Serrano Hotel * Photography: Kim Indresano * Day of coordinator: Jubilee Lau * Cake: Butterfly Cakes * Florist: Blumengarten * Dress: Marina Morrison * Makeup: Chris Scott of Makeup Gourmet * Engagement ring: Union Street Goldsmith * Wedding bands: Ritz Jewelers * Rehearsal dinner: San Francisco Giants Game * Honeymoon travel agent : Tahiti Travel planners (aka - GoTahiti) Useful resources * Here Comes the Guide has a comprehensive list of locations and vendors in the bay area. I borrowed a friend's copy and found both my locations through it. * San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau Do yourself a favor and contact these people to reserve your hotel room block. Here's what happens. You fill out a form on their web site with all your wedding information (date, hotel rooms needed , etc). The bureau takes your information and distributes it to all hotels in SF. These hotels will then contact you and bid for you business! It's great, because you don't have to cold call people and the rates are more competitive than what you'd get on your own because they know other hotels are competing for your business. * Bridal Bargains by Denise Fields and Alan Fields. This little book helped me with interviewing vendors, scams to look out for and the best ways to maximize my budget. * Great Wedding Tips From The Experts by Robbi Ernst III. This book was indispensible. It told us everything to have in our contracts and helped us book some great vendors. Because the author is from the bay area, he recommends lots of local people. * Joining Hands and Hearts by Susanna Stefanachi Macomb This is a great book for people planning interfaith weddings. It deals with the issues families and couples struggle with in combining traditions. It also explains many traditions so that you can build your own ceremony and be inspired by others.