Bio best viewed in full screen. Please credit me if you borrow any of these pictures. Happy planning!

Claire & Tim


April 22, 2006
Orange County, California



Getting Ready
I got ready with my bridesmaids, our mothers, and DH's sisters at the Grand Californian. DH and I both love Disneyland, and I had always wanted to stay at the Grand Californian because I loved its Arts and Crafts style.
We stayed in one of the artisan suites and it was the perfect size for all of us to get ready while two photographers and a videographer captured the moments.
All photos below are by Boutwell Studios.
Note: The Snapfish-hosted photos are a little fuzzy -- they're not that way in real life,
but I liked that they're bigger than the Shutterfly-hosted pictures.


Our photographers came in and literally within seconds were snapping away. I was so stressed at this point because I thought my FMIL was going to be really late for makeup – turns out my photographers came 45 minutes early and my mental schedule was totally off!

Below is the incredible Joyce Luck applying my lipstick.


Three bridesmaids do some last-minute steaming of my dress.

My gorgeous sister-in-law Emily getting her makeup done...
I DIYed my ring bearer pillow using fabric I bought from Joann's. I didn't like all of the fussy ivory pillows I kept seeing, and making it myself took only about 45 minutes (which includes the time it took me to learn to use a sewing machine) and $5 of materials.
A sassy shot of BM Jen getting her makeup done on the balcony (hence the beautiful light).
She's now an active DC Knottie (2bmervens) and I can't wait to be her MOH in September!
A cool shot of Kimi:

Our flower girl is below, looking out at California Adventure from the balcony -- I assume wishing she were there instead of holed up in a room with a bunch of screaming women!

Following are some nice detail shots... The back of my dress and its billions of buttons....


My pink shoes (Nina Ettora), diamond Kwiat earrings (my wedding present from my mother), and pearls I bought at a Shanghai flea market for $5 during a trip with my father.

My "something borrowed" was a piece of jade my mother pinned to my crinoline. My "Grandma in the Pictures" (so called because she passed away a month after I was born so I don't remember her at all) gave the jade to my mother on her wedding day.

I love the funky shot below of my shoes and crinoline. My mother, however, who doesn't understand photojournalistic photography, was sad because the photographers "messed up and didn't get the rest of Claire in the picture!" Sigh.
This photo is also now part of our photographers' price brochure
-- yay for being able to check out my ankles whenever you want.
The four-armed monster buttons my dress! Seriously, for button-dress brides, crochet hooks are your best friend.
My parents bought me this rosary in Lourdes during my first overseas trip when I was 3.
Later I wound it around my bouquet stems, and you can see it swinging around during the ceremony.
I started crying when I saw my full bridal ensemble in the mirror. The full impact of the day really hit at that point…
My BMs immediately started screaming, “Blot! Don’t rub!”
…So I did. Smeared eye makeup averted! But I kept holding on to the tissues...
I'm part Chinese, and it's custom for the bride and her attendants to eat noodles as good luck before the ceremony... So, my mom brought over Top Ramen.
Here's Kimi and me eating some...
It took my cousin about 10 minutes to get the bottle open so she got a lot of applause when it finally happened!
I guzzled two big tumblers of that champagne right away.
Some nice moments with the bouquets. Each bridesmaid had a different ivory single-flower bouquet I matched to their personality -- rananculas for my wild college roomie Jenny, tulips for elegant Jennifer, roses for classy Jane, callas for sophisaticated Kimi. My maid of honor carried a bouquet that was a mix of all four flowers.
I told my bridesmaids to wear whatever strappy black shoes and whatever jewelry they wanted.
Despite what some brides will have you think, this ruined neither my pictures nor my wedding.
I loved my bouquet. It was a gorgeous mix of red roses (American Beauty and Black Magic), red tulips, burgundy callas, and red berries with some lemon leaves scattered throughout.
We took some photos at the Grand Californian before heading to the ceremony.
I love this picture. Love it, love it, love it. We saw it on the photographers’ blog the next day and immediately dubbed it our Vanity Fair cover shot…



The Ceremony

Holy Family Cathedral
Orange, California



The other ladies and I arrived at the church in our rented Escalade. There was an engraving of a naked mermaid on the ceiling. Klassy yet fun.
Pinning my dad's bout...
I'm frustrated because my double-stick tape is malfunctioning...
Look, I have a groom! This is Tim and our best man, Dave, who introduced us during a group move outing during summer 1999. We started dating four years later.
Some sassy groomsmen waiting to usher in our guests...
Tim's dad greets guests outside...
You can see the flower girl's pomander kind of in the pic below. It was so pretty... And so heavy that she refused to carry it any more than necessary, so there are very few photos of it.
Hiring a trumpeter was one of my best splurges. People said they got goosebumps when they heard him playing "Trumpet Voluntary" as I came in...
My dad was crying and hyperventilating the whole way down the aisle. He was also speedwalking so I literally had to pull backward the whole way down.

I couldn’t look at Tim during the walk since I knew I would start to cry.
Even just looking at this picture now and seeing how much love is in his face, I start to tear up…
Our adorable ring bearer, my cousin Ben, and flower girl Rhiannon.

Since I'm a giant dork and oddly unaffectionate,
I shook my mom's hand during the sign of peace instead of hugging her.
When I gave her birthday cards when I was little, I used to sign my full name.
Really, I'm a dork.


Look! The Pope came to our wedding.
Yet another amazing photo.

Happiness ensues outside the church...
My mom was so happy she was crying after the ceremony.
Good thing I gave her that embroidered handkerchief at the rehearsal dinner.







Portraits of the Couple and Bridal Party!
After the ceremony, we walked through Old Town Orange for some shots then went to the reception site for additional portraits.
Aren't we cute? Tim's sassy tie is from the Mexican-American Folk Art Museum in Austin.
I bought it on a business trip and prayed he wouldn't hate the pink in it -- he loved it!

We took some photos in which I was sitting on the asphalt next to a dumpster while Tim sat nearby. Fun stuff.
A rousing game of kiss tag...
Below is our favorite of the more than 3,000 photos the Boutwells shot.
The contrast is so amazing and you can tell we're so elated to be married to each other.
We took lots of photos at our gorgeous reception site, too.
It rained later that night so there was this amazing cloud-filtered light in the sky that made everyone glow...
We had some paparazzi during family portrait time:
Tim with his little sisters:

Tim and I with my parents... And me with my new family.
My mommy and me:
Some details... First is one of Tim's great-grandfather's monogrammed handkerchiefs. Tim's dad gave it to Tim at the RD and Tim broke down crying. A really meaningful gesture -- plus, so convenient it matched our wedding colors! Then you can see how well my bouquet was holding up as well as my nice warm pashmina from ebay seller zenjen.
A cute picture of our ring bearer, who wanted to put bunny ears on everyone, and the bridal party...
The kids amused themselves by rolling down the hills around the site -- and ruining their dress shirts.


Tim and I took a golf cart up into the hills above the site for some photos of just the two of us.

Same pose, different angles...

Our photographers really liked my shoes. Foot petals made those 3.5-inch heels bearable...



Reception Details

Strawberry Farms Golf Club

Irvine, California
We made these lanterns to line the entrance to the barn using mason jars and shepherd's hooks from the dollar store.
We bought wire from Home Depot and wound them around the tops of the jars so we could hang them from the hooks.
We bought these beautiful silk cherry blossom Pottery Barn lanterns from ebay to put on our three outdoor cocktail tables. Sadly, only the smokers saw them. They have gone to live with another Knottie and will hopefully be seen by more guests at her wedding...

My mother sewed the red rable runners from full-size tablecloths we bought on clearance at Bed Bath & Beyond after Christmas. We filled the pink takeout boxes (65 cents each from weddingthings.com) with homemade fortune cookies and Norwegian butter cookies to honor our family's cultures.
I made the labels using blank round labels from a paper store, onto which I printed the "baked with love..." part on our computer. I stamped the cherry blossom design onto the label using brown ink, then individually colored in every flower on all 200 boxes with a watercolor marker from Michael's. Some people might say I have no life -- I agree, but they looked awesome and they were practically free.
The lanterns are from Illuminations and have all been sold. They were very pricey, but by selling them for pretty close to what I paid for them, they were more of a rental than a purchase. At $2 per lantern of expense for 10 lanterns, that turned out to be a pretty good deal...
The table numbers were our engagement photos, with the number overlaid in 85% opacity on Photoshop. The frames were from the dollar store.
Cakes!
Tim's aunt made our amazing cakes as her wedding gift to us. We had three different flavors -- chocolate, red velvet, and vanilla, all with cherry and cheesecake filling. They all tasted so good, and with three tiers to slice, most people could try every flavor.
Nancy frosted the cake in rolled buttercream and decorated it with beaded cherry blossom stems from White Aisle. We used about 15 to decorate the cake.




Party, Party!
Grand Entrance:
Wedding Party: "In a Big Country" Big Country
Bride and Groom: "Just Like Heaven" The Cure

First Dance:
"Maybe I'm Amazed" Jem
Some people were moved to tears...

Speeches:

My dad used his speech to tell us to have tons of kids ASAP. This is my polite, "you'll be waiting a few years" smile.
Dave, our best man, brought down the house with his speech.
Our flower girl got bored and tried to escape for yet another golf cart ride...
Table greetings...

Slideshow Songs

  • Claire Growing Up: "Morning Has Broken" by Cat Stevens
  • College/Present-Day Claire: "Paint the Silence" by South
  • Tim Growing Up/Present-Day Tim: "Always" by U2
  • Couple: "Close to Me" by the Cure
  • Ceremony Footage: "Wouldn't It Be Nice" by the Beach Boys

Some reaction shots to our slide show:

Parents' Dance:
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" IZ

Anniversary Dance:
"God Only Knows" The Beach Boys
Instead of a bouquet toss, I gave my bouquet after the Anniversary Dance to the couple who had been married the longest. Winner was Tim’s maternal grandparents, married for 61 years! Inspirational.

And yes, I changed dresses immediately before this. And yes, I gave my real bouquet, not a mini or a toss one.

Cake Cutting:
"Sweet Things (Are Made of This" The Eurythmics
Those kids kept coming up to us and BEGGING for us to cut the cake. They were so grossed out when we kissed after feeding each other!

Dance, dance, dance!





Honeymoon
New Zealand
We had such an amazing trip. It's not your typical beach-y, relaxing kind of honeymoon, but it was exactly what we wanted. We had never been on a plane together, so our 12-hour flight was an interesting starting point.
Our adventures included horseback riding, wine tasting on both the North and South islands, hiking through a rain forest, boating through Milford Sound, sailing on a yacht in Auckland, and the highlight: helicoptering up to the top of a glacier and hiking through the ice formations.
We booked our honeymoon through Costco, which provided us a great package with tons of flexibility. If you would like full reviews of the places we stayed and the things we did, Google "ihearttim" and "New Zealand" and my reviews and a link to more photos can be found on another web site.
* * *
We started our trip in Queenstown on the South Island, where much of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogies were filmed. The beauty of this area is unbelievable. In this area we went horseback riding, wine tasting, and had a 4WD Lord of the Rings tour to many of the places where filming took place.

From Queenstown we went to Franz Josef, where we helicoptered onto the glacier and hiked through ice formations. The ice was spectacularly blue and DH and I agree it was the coolest thing we've ever done.
We did more wine tasting on the North Island. We brought home a dozen bottles of wine and I cajoled the airline people into not charging us the extra weight surcharge. Playing the honeymoon card does work...sometimes.

Hiking through the rainforest with a native Maori guide was another surreal and amazing experience. We took cool pictures, but no photo in the world can communicate the vastness and beauty of a rain forest.


Amusing ourselves at the Napier Aquarium and Auckland Maritime Museum:
Sailing in Auckland on a gorgeous day.



Planning Info Pre-Wedding Events, Invitations, Hair/Makeup Trial, Engagement Photos

Showers

I was extraordinarily lucky to have four amazing showers thrown in our honor --
one by my mother's friends, one by Tim's parents' friends, one by my dad's side of the family, and one by Tim's six(!) aunts.
I was very involved in Job's Daughters, a Masonic family organization, while growing up and was so excited that the adult leaders threw me a beautiful shower in February.
E-mail me if you'd like more information on this wonderful organization.

Tim's aunts threw me a beautiful shower in Redlands with a Chinese theme.
One of Tim's aunts is an event planner and put together the gorgeous centerpieces,
and the aunt who made our wedding cake also made this beautiful fondant masterpiece.
The shower was right after my hair-and-makeup trial, hence my oddly beauty pageant-esque look.
This is me with BM Kimi and awesome friend and guest book-er Ashley.
Ooh, pretty roses...

Friends of Tim's parents threw us a super fun couples shower with a New Zealand theme in honor of our HM.
That meant lamb, kiwi cheesecake, and TONS of NZ wine!

Bachelorette Party
We went to Laguna Beach and stayed at Tim's grandparents' beach house for the bachelorette party. We had an in-home wine tasting session that was very fun, then went out to a nice dinner and did some drinking and dancing before climbing into bed. For a bachelorette party, I was really happy we could keep it relatively inexpensive (way less than $100/person for the whole weekend).

I made favor bags for the girls who attended that contained personalized CDs, Voluspa candles, mini liquor bottles, and a letter thanking them for coming.

CD playlist in case you're looking for some ideas:

  • "Static On the Radio" Jim White
  • "Me Gustas Tu" Manu Chao
  • "Just Like Heaven" The Cure
  • "We Used to Be Friends" Dandy Warhols
  • "Caramel" Suzanne Vega
  • "Sand in My Shoes" Dido
  • "Don't Stop Believin'" Journey
  • "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" Morrissey
  • "World In My Eyes" Depeche Mode
  • "Live and Learn" Joe Public
  • "Gone Daddy Gone" Violent Femmes
  • "Dice" Finley Quaye & Beth Orton
  • "Turn My Camera On" Spoon
  • "Kodachrome" Paul Simon
  • "Lost Again" Dance Hall Crashers

    • All bachelorette parties should begin with a rousing game of Guess That Shot!

    And continue with pin the bowtie on the man -- with the man poster taped up vertically instead of horizontally because we're all giant nerds.
    It took my DH to figure it out when he was looking at photos afterward...

    The nice lady from Traveling Vineyards took this picture. We may appear sober, but we're totally not.

    Ashley plays with the bag with my dirtiest present in it -- the X-rated version of Pirates of the Caribbean.
    Sadly, it stars some buxom ladies rather than Johnny Depp.

    Wheeee, penis straws! We were finding these everywhere that night, in bathrooms, in our purses, in other people's drinks. Fun stuff.
    The photo below was taken before our descent into debauchery was complete...
    There were other pictures taken that night. I'm just not going to put them in a public place.

    Makeup/Hair Trial

    The wonderful Joyce Luck did my makeup and hair trial the morning of one of my showers and she did an amazing job.
    My makeup looked exactly like the Bobbi Brown photo I showed her, and my hair was a tad too curly but otherwise just right.

    Paper Goods

    Save-the-Dates

    We designed postcards on Adobe Illustrator then had them printed using overnightprints.com. They looked great, not blurry like in this photo.

    We put this cute little calendar on the back along with our wedding web site and a note that an invitation was to follow.

    Invitations

    We bought our gorgeous letterpress invites from www.papelvivo.com.

    Bling

    I love my ring set... By the way, if you too want a non-blurry ring pic, use the macro setting on your camera (the one with a little picture of a flower).

    Engagement Photos

    The Boutwells took our e-pics in Laguna Beach, at Main Beach and around town.

    One of our GMs, Nate, who was also our videographer, is hoping to branch out into wedding photography. He also took some e-pics of us, this time in San Juan Capistrano. He did an amazing job, especially considering it was his first time ever doing portraits of a couple!


    Music
    Our Music
    Below are lists of the suggestions I provided our DJ for the reception.
    To be technical about it, I gave him CDs I had burned for the cocktail and dinner hours and provided a list of "must-play" songs.
    I'm really anal about music. But to be fair, tons of guests came up to me that night and for weeks afterward and told me it was the best music they'd ever heard at a wedding.
    Cocktail Hour (Latin Jazz)

    Buena Vista Social Club

    • "Candela"
    • "De Camino a La Vereda"
    • "El Cuarto de Tula"
    • "Amor de Loca Juventud"
    • "El Carretero"
    • "Chan Chan"

    Tito Puente

    • "Consternation"
    • "Salsa Caliente"
    • "Pannonica"
    • "Com Alma"
    • "Carioca"
    • "Corner Pocket"

    Also: Poncho Sanchez, Gazzara, and Eddie Palmieri

    Dinner Hour (Rat Pack and Contemporary Jazz)

  • "Moondance" Michael Buble
  • "S'Wonderful" Diana Krall
  • "In the Mood" Glenn Miller Orchestra
  • "That Old Black Magic" Ella Fitzgerald
  • "Come Fly With Me" Frank Sinatra
  • "You're Driving Me Crazy" Della Reese
  • "Put On a Happy Face" Blossom Dearie
  • "Moon River" Sarah Vaughan
  • "Historia de un Amor" The Dancing Strings
  • "Fly Me to the Moon" Frank Sinatra
  • "How High the Moon" Sarah Vaughan
  • "It's Only a Paper Moon" Bobby Darin
  • "Fever" Peggy Lee
  • "Sway" Dean Martin
  • "Sunrise" Norah Jones
  • "Our Love is Here to Stay" Ella Fitzgerald
  • "I Could Have Danced All Night" Frank Sinatra
  • "Beyond the Sea" Bobby Darin
  • "Lullaby of Broadway" Doris Day

    • Must-Plays

    • "Turn Me On" Norah Jones
    • "SOS" Rihanna
    • "Hips Don't Lie" Shakira
    • "Love and Happiness" Al Green
    • "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" The Temptations
    • "Superstition" Stevie Wonder
    • "Groove Is in the Heart" Dee-Lite
    • "Don't Stop Believin'" Journey
    • "Bizarre Love Triangle" New Order
    • "C'Mon N' Ride It (The Train)" Quad City DJ's
    • "The Way You Move" Kenny G, Earth, Wind & Fire

    Do Not Play

    • "Good Riddance" Green Day
    • "Kiss From a Rose" Seal
    • "At Last" Etta James
    • All participation dances
    • Disco
    • Country
    • Rap with expletives
    • Anything by: Creed, Celine Dion, Savage Garden, Barbra Streisand, Kenny G, The Pussycat Dolls, boy bands, Cher, Sade, Dave Matthews Band




    Vendor Reviews



    Photographers: Boutwell Studios (A+)
    Ladera Ranch
    Check out their Blog for more kickass wedding photos.
    We love our photos and think their quality speaks for itself. Doug and Chenin captured every important moment and feeling, and their creativity is unmatched… Yes, they’re pricey, but after seeing our photos it’s totally worth it. Doug and Chenin are a young married couple, high school sweethearts from Tustin, and their coolness and sweetness really came through during the day. Worth the splurge for more than 3,000 amazing photos that truly and beautifully tell the story of our day. Our 70-page, 122-photo album is gorgeous, too, and totally their design. Some examples follow:

    * * * *


    Ceremony Site: Holy Family Cathedral (A)

    Orange
    Our church coordinator is a family friend of DH’s, so we didn’t have the issues other OC Knotties have had with HF coordinators. Barbara (and the three ladies she happened to be training that day!) were all great to deal with and didn’t put a lot of restrictions on anyone as far as I could tell. They ran the rehearsal well, and the music coordinator, Audrey Jacobsen, was great – if a tad eccentric. So many people told us that the music was the best they’d ever heard at a Catholic Mass. We splurged to hire a trumpeter, and I am so glad we did. I’ve never heard a Mass sound so amazing…
    Our priest, Fr. Art Holquin, is the pastor at the Mission in SJC. He performed a beautiful, personal service.
    * * * *

    Reception Site: Strawberry Farms Golf Club (B+)

    Irvine

    Amazing food, gorgeous setting, a big barn that nicely held our 200 guests with room to spare – so why the B-plus? Tim and I were not totally pleased with the service. We paid $2 extra per person to have wine service at the tables, assuming servers would be constantly circling the guests. However, they only went around once (so if, like my MIL, you were in the restroom, you didn’t get wine during dinner) and when people got up to dance afterward, they returned to their tables to find that their wine glasses had disappeared. Also, they only had one bar instead of the two we had been promised, meaning there were huge lines for drinks during the cocktail hour.

    I was also very unhappy with the service we received from their events manager, Deborah Lew (not the manager we had originally signed the contract with in 2005, who is currently out on pregnancy leave). We paid an extra $250 for her to be our site coordinator, but that seemed to get us very little beyond what we’d expect for paying over $100/person. I had to go to her during the night to ask her to bring me wine so I wouldn’t have to stand in line at the bar, she didn’t allow my day-of coordinators to start setting up until two hours later than she had promised (so my bridesmaids were forced to go around lighting votives as my DOCs vacuumed cherry blossoms around them), and she locked my day-of coordinators (and my reception dress) out of the conference room they were lending me for the evening.

    That said, we got so many raves for the food, and I loved this site more than any other we considered. Feel free to e-mail me if you’re considering this site and I can provide more details…
    * * * *

    DJ: Gregg from Unforgettable Entertainment (A+)

    Fullerton
    I am very picky about music, so I was looking for someone who could read the crowd but was also open to playing exactly what I wanted him to play. I gave Gregg a CD for cocktail hour music, a CD for dinner music, and a CD of about 10 “must-play” songs. He played them all – and this is key – when I was in the room and could actually dance and enjoy them!!! Plus he did a great job fielding requests for my friends’ eclectic tastes (Journey, cumbia and Baby Got Back, all within half an hour…). Every guest had big raves for Gregg.
    * * * *

    Day-of Coordinators: OC's Finest Wedding and Event Coordinators (beyond A+)

    Yorba Linda
    These amazing ladies put into place what I have been planning for the past 18 months. They put in all the sweat and work into making everything at the reception look so gorgeous. And they did it all without making me worry for a minute about anything. Any problems that came up, they dealt with without involving me – for example, Jennifer somehow got a steamer to our hotel room while getting ready and taught my BMs how to use it, and they dropped off all my reception décor to my ILs while we were on our HM.

    I hired them about 10 days before the wedding, and I must have been insane to think I could have done it without help. Their calming presence was a big part in why almost all of my other vendors said I was the calmest bride they had ever seen…


    * * * *

    Florist (Personal Flowers): Bella Blooms (A+)

    Tustin
    I loved their gorgeous flowers, creative ideas and how they totally embraced my ideas (for example, different flowers for each BM) and brought them to life. The day of, they were punctual and sweet. And their prices can’t be beat. My bouquet of callas, roses, tulips and berries was only $65.
    * * * *

    Florist (Centerpieces): OC Wholesale Flower Market (A+)

    Tustin
    We bought our cherry blossoms here for less than $15/bunch (about $3 per stem). The flowers looked so beautiful, and with our $5 vases from Shinoda’s we had gorgeous centerpieces for less than $20 per table. (Thanks to ~Yvett for getting me into both of these places with her family’s business license!)
    * * * *

    Makeup/Hair: Joyce Luck (A+)

    Walnut
    Amazing! All of the girls looked so beautiful, and my mom has never looked better… Joyce and her team were such a calming influence on a crazy morning. Joyce is expensive, but again, another one of those vendors who is so spectacular I’d actually pay more. Whatever that team did had amazing staying power. My hair looked the same at 10 p.m. as it did at noon, and the touchup kit Joyce gave me was awesome. I even brought it with me on our HM to use the blotting papers and lip gloss!
    * * * *

    Cake: Tim's Aunt Nancy (A+)

    Redlands
    Nancy is family, so I really shouldn’t grade her, but I can’t not acknowledge the amazing job she did on our gorgeous cake, decorated with beaded cherry blossom stems from whiteaisle.com. Tasted better than any other wedding cake I’ve ever had… And she made our grooms cake as a total surprise! I never asked her to make it, but she saw it in my bio about a year before the wedding and remembered I wanted it... She is so sweet! If you’re in or around Redlands, e-mail me if you’d like to get in touch with her about a cake.
    * * * *

    Videographer: Precious Memories Videography (A for both montage and video)

    Los Angeles
    We have received so many raves for our photo montage (see one of our previews at www.pmvid.com/clairetimlovestory.html -- the final version was tighter, but this will give you an idea). It incorporated interviews with Tim, me, and family, as well as five minutes of footage from our ceremony that were edited within a couple of hours so it could be shown at the reception.
    Our wedding video is everything we wanted, artsy but not too over the top,
    and it captures so many emotions and events I had forgotten about.
    The video includes a 15-minute version, a 50-minute version (with more of the ceremony and all of the toasts),
    and a three-minute version.
    Our wedding video song list:
    Girls Get Ready: "We Close Our Eyes" Oingo Boingo
    Guys Get Ready: "You're So Damn Hot" OK Go
    Guests and Bridal Party Arrive at Church: "Love and Happiness" Al Green
    Pre-Ceremony/Processional: "Truly, Truly" Grant Lee Buffalo
    Ceremony: "Soul Meets Body" Death Cab for Cutie
    Post-Ceremony Photos: "Mint Car" The Cure
    Reception Site/Cocktail Hour: "The Promise" When in Rome
    Grand Entrance: "Just Like Heaven" The Cure
    Toasts: "New Slang" The Shins
    Cake Cutting: "Sweet Sweet" Smashing Pumpkins
    Fast Dancing: "Dancing in Heaven" Q-Feel
    Slow Dancing: "All I Want is You" U2
    Highlights Reel: "God Only Knows" The Beach Boys
    * * * *

    Getting-Ready Hotel: Grand Californian (A-)

    Anaheim
    They stressed me out a bit with their inflexible checkout times, but in the end we ignored it.
    Gorgeous hotel, we loved our huge suite, and it was a splurge I don’t regret.
    * * * *

    Night-Of Hotel: Hyatt Regency Newport Beach (A)

    Great room service, nice room, and fun bar with a pool table and live band where we had our after party the night of the wedding.
    * * * *

    Gown: Jeannette Russell (A)

    Sewickley, Pennsylvania

    Gorgeous couture duchesse silk satin gown for a great price… This designer is in Pennsylvania and not sold anywhere else so I bought it based only on a single photo I saw in a bridal magazine. And I loved it! For sale if interested – I wear a size 6-8, and I’m selling it for $1,200 including shipping.
    Reception dress: ABS gown bought off Ebay: A
    I'm also selling this dress if you're interested. $100 plus shipping. Silk charmeuse bias-cut sheath dress, hemmed for a 5-foot-6 person wearing 3-inch heels.
    * * * *

    Tuxes: After Hours (B)

    Mission Viejo and nationwide
    No horror stories, but their arcane organization systems meant there was some miscommunications from groomsmen who were measured at other After Hours stores. Also, their location wasn’t very convenient, especially considering we were picking them up during rush hour on Friday before the rehearsal. Not their fault, but I wish they had more stores…
    * * * *

    Bridesmaid Dresses: Aria (A+)

    Pasadena, Washington DC and Boston
    Gorgeous, stylish, rewearable dresses made in two months, a full month ahead of their expected ready date. My BMs LOVED them and I received tons of compliments from guests on how great they looked in their different styles. At least three wore them again for various events within six months of the wedding. As a side note, I asked my maids simply to pick whichever neckline they wanted and everyone would be wearing the deep red knee-length A-line dress. I didn't make any requests as far as shoes or makeup or hair or jewelry -- I did, however, pay for their makeup and hair so they all would feel beautiful and relaxed. They are all very different, strong women and I wanted their style on my wedding day to reflect that.
    We bought the ringbearer's tie from Aria's sale section on their web site, a fantastic resource where you can get never-worn items for at least 50% off the normal price.
    * * * *

    Alterations: Janet Brunton (A+)

    Orange
    My dress was 3 inches too small in back (I was a little overambitious with my weight loss plan when I ordered it) when I first brought it to Janet, and she somehow used the silk from the hem to sew it in back then replace all the buttons up the back and it looked perfect… Anyway, she’s amazing, and her prices are so low I gave her an insanely high tip to compensate. She’s also the sweetest vendor I had in addition to being super talented.
    * * * *

    Veil: Crowning Glory Designs (A+)

    Candi Merle made me a diamond white cathedral-length pencil-edge veil in TWO DAYS for $55. She rocks. Totally recommended.
    * * * *

    E-ring and wedding band: MacTavish Jewelers (A)
    Irvine

    Best prices we found for Tacori. Nice people, good service. They also soldered my rings together before the wedding.

    * * * *

    DH's wedding band: e-wedding bands (A)

    Great service, super fast shipping, amazing quality and unbeatable price for his simple platinum comfort-fit band.

    * * * *

    Invitations: Papelvivo (A+)

    Best prices for letterpress we could find, and another Knottie (amerasianchic) had already designed with Melina the gorgeous cherry blossom invites we picked. We just changed the color and the wording. If you want me to bring one to the next GTG, let me know so you can see the quality for yourself!






    E-mail me at blue925@hotmail.com
    if you have any questions.