Bio

We're married!

We got engaged April 21st, 2006 in San Francisco, and planned a wedding at the Red Rock Resort in Vegas for May 19th, 2007. p.s. My parents live in Vegas so it's not that much of a stretch. May 19th, 2007 will now be one of my favorite days ever. Everything went as planned, and we all had a fabulous time. Mucho thanks to all the knotties that helped me plan and find the vendors that I finally went with. They were excellent. I've put in some professional photos (courtesy of Images By Ingrid) and written up coordinating vendor reviews. Let me know if you have any questions. I won't be on theknot as much anymore, but you can always email me at justinandbetina@gmail.com. Good Luck with planning and have fun with it!

	Photography done by ImagesByIngrid (A) - an incredibly artistic and well-prepared husband and wife team. They were amazing on the day of - professional and funny, and able to roll with the punches. We had planned the shots before hand, and so every shot went by quickly. They are also very open to suggestions about poses and backgrounds. It was great to work with such an energetic couple. I think at one point we were missing a few hair pins for the flowers in our hair, and Ingrid was right there with her handy pouch producing 2 hair pins - just what we needed.
	My Dress by Casablanca Bridal, bought at Forget Me Knots Bridal Boutique, Union St, San Francisco, CA (A) The owners/consultants Pauline and Jenny were very hands-off asking first to choose the gowns you want to try on. Then they zipped you off and stood around you with mirrors to give you a good idea of the overall look of the dress. They were able to highlight the pros and cons of each dress, and were good to show photographic examples from real weddings to give you and idea of what the dress would look like outdoors and indoors. All in all, this was a really great experience. Even though they only had about 20 dresses, they were really great to work with.. It was nice to get the entire place to yourself and the advice they had was excellent. One more note. Forget me knots was the flagship store for Casablanca Bridal. Most of their styles are very simple and elegant. Their dresses range from 400 to 1500 buckaroos, which isn't bad for a bride with a budget on her mind. All the alterations were done in San Mateo, CA by Bridgette's Cleaners (A+). Linda, the seamstress was the one that pulled the dress together. It FIT PERFECTLY. I had it on from 3pm til 5:30am. It was the most comfortable dress ever and the french bustle was done perfectly.
	Hair and Makeup - James and Esther from the Glamsquad (A-) - I had no idea what I wanted up until that morning before the wedding. I was trying to decide between a low chignon and an updo. My hair and makeup trial did not WOW me (low chignon with smokey eyes) so I decided to do the updo, and asked for very light and natural makeup, with bright eyes and false eyelashes. The result was amazing. And my bridesmaids seemed really happy with their hair and makeup as well. The one qualm I had with the glamsquad - about 10 minutes before they were supposed to show up at my door, Esther called to tell me that she didn't know my parent's address, and needed directions. I had given all that info months before to their secretary. Otherwise, things worked out perfectly.
	Flowers - The Palette (A+) - Pam, the owner of the Palette was by far the most professional vendor I worked with. She had great ideas, good documentation. She went everywhere with a camera to take photos of the ceremony area and reception area. We are able to get started with ideas 8 months before the wedding, so we were well prepared by the time the wedding came around. We were supposed to get cherry blossoms, but they were hard to come by in mid May, so she found something comprable. She was incredibly sweet and nice. She even sent me a thank you card before I sent her a thank you card. Also she gave us some emergency corsages and boutenniers just in case the ones we initally got, wilted in the Vegas heat. That was key! We definitely made use of all the flowers. Her prices are also very reasonable. The bouquets are an ivory and pink combo of peonies (my fave), tulips and mini calla lillies.
	Ceremony Location - Veranda F at the Red Rock Resort. At first, we were skeptical. It's a little bare. And it overlooks the swimming pool so we were worried about the noise level. We ended buying some lanterns (we painted the cherry blossoms on the floor ones) and found the square figure lanterns in San Francisco Chinatown. The lantern stands are from CostPlus Market which has a wealth of interesting things that you can use. We also got a few of our candy jars from there. The petals are from Ebay.com - another essential resource. And the resort provided the aisle runner. All in all, not bad. At weddings, all eyes are on the bride and groom but, it was nice to have some palm trees in the background. And the weather was perfect! Officiant - My godfather - Uncle Matti We wanted the ceremony to be super personal, and since FI and I don't belong to anything religious, we asked my Godfather to be the officiant. He's someone that I've always respected and he's watch me grow up. He did an impeccable job
	Bridesmaid dresses are from NetBride.com (A+). I let my bridesmaids pick out their own styles and I picked out the color. Since my bridesmaids all live on the east coast, and I on the west coast, it was great to work with an online service for the dresses. At the end, we picked out jim hjelms and bari jay dresses. NetBride sent me the swatches for several pale pinks, and these were the two that matched the most. They were invaluable in helping out, and the customer service was impeccable. Also the dresses arrived a month and a week earlier then scheduled :).
	Bamboo Steamers from Kamen Restaurant Supply Store on Clement St, San Francisco. The main chinatown in San Francisco knows these are popular for weddings, so the markup is unbelieveable. The Wok Shop was selling each of these for $5.99 each, and that was on SALE!!!. I got them for a very reasonable rate. Inside, we bought "mini wife cakes" that we got from ABC Bakery (which IS located in Chinatown). They were delicious, and everyone seemed to appreciate the story behind them.
	Food catered by the Catering kitchen at the Red Rock Resort. It was unbelieveable. People still comment now on how suprisingly good the food was. The highlight was the feta cheese encrusted lamb chops that came out as part of the hot h'ors d'oeuvres. The main entree (showed here) is a filet mignon, with two jumbo shrimp and a lump of crabmeat, served with a potato cake and seasonal vegetables. Yummy!
	The Reception took place at the Pavillion Ballroom in the Red Rock Resort. It fits up to 215 people. We had about 115 guests, 12 tables, two full service bars, a photography and guest book table, a dance floor, a jazz quartet and a bunch of cocktail rounds. It was beautiful. Table Linens were rented from BBJ Linen. (A-) We got the espresso bichon. This was probably the best decoration decision I made. They gave the room a more classier feel. BBJ is a national linen rental service with very reasonable prices, and pretty good customer service. (It's sometimes difficult to get a hold of them - the LA branch anyways). Linens arrived 2 days ahead of schedule with a prepaid FedEx linen bag to ship everything back. The coordination went pretty smoothly.
	Jazz Quartet - My friend Tera Johnson rounded up some of her talented friends in LA and drove up to Vegas to perform. They sang everything from "The Girl from Ipanema" to "Fly me to the Moon". She performs regularly at Maggiano's in LA so you should check her out if you are in the area. You'll be blown away by her voice. She's amazing!

More Professional Photos...

This was our impression of my long false eyelashes!

Those are some fine looking men!!!

We took a bunch of these more modern vogue shots around the resort premise.
I thought they were a bit cheesy. This one is one of the better ones.

We took a bunch of photos with every table of guests. I think it's a Chinese tradition (since I've only seen it happen at Chinese weddings) but it's great. This way, you have a photo of every guest.

Guest Photos
(a bunch of these are from my cousin's camera. She did an amazing job!)

We also got sandalwood fans for everyone that attended the ceremony. We were worried that people would get too hot in the Vegas heat.
And Yep, those are our DIY programs

Cake was also provided as part of our wedding package.
Lemon chiffon cake, with marscapone cheese and fresh strawberries. Mmmmm..

That's knottie moohaha in the middle. We've known eachother for years, and it was awesome planning
a wedding at the same time as her. Her's is coming up on 7/7/7.

Planning Section
Planning Photos
Red Rock Resort
Detail, Details, Details
The Fud
Reception Ideas
Hair & Makeup trial, and Dress Fitting!!!
Vendor Info
Free STLWed Bio Builder

Planning Photos
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The look and feel of the bridal party.
My colors will be petal pink and chocolate brown.

Red Rock Resort
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The Hotel. Located in Summerlin away from the busy bustling strip.
I didn't want to deal with wedding crashers :)

The Lobby. It's very chic, very loungey. Hopefully we'll take a few photos in here.

The Pool. No matter what anyone says, it's the pool that sold me.

Detail, Details, Details
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Save the Dates (first DIY project ! Postcard front and back images.)

The Dress
Inspired by Alexia II by Justina Mcaffrey (top 2 photos)

I got the Casablanca 1836 of the Fall 2006 Collection. (more pics on the casablanca site).
To be honest, I never imagined getting such a big dress,
but ended up really liking it when I put it on.

The Shoes
(Jcrew 3.5 inch satin pumps. I love these.
I bought them at 55 bucks. They were marked down from $185 for black friday.

My e-ring (the top one) and my possible Wedding Band
(e-ring is from Tiffany's. The wedding band is from Bestgem.com.
We haven't gotten it yet, but this is my favorite so far.)

Hair Ideas
I love MrsRobsButton's hair style. Here are a few other styles of what I'm going for.

I love this hairstyle as well (if anyone knows who this knottie is,
please let me know. I lost my notes, and I want to give proper credit )

The Fud
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Cake Inspirations
We are in the process of deciding between
a Oreo cake with Chocolate fudge or
a lemon cake with marscopone cream and fresh strawberries. YUMMY!

Reception Ideas
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The chairs that are provided from the facility are already brown, so this may be too much brown
. Not sure yet, but I know I love this look.

Hair & Makeup trial, and Dress Fitting!!!
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Makeup trial with James 12/27/06

This is me with my dress in my closet.. hiding from my fiance so that he can't see the dress.
The top is too big. The woman that owns the boutique kept on saying "no boobies".
Pretty amusing. Anyways the dress needs to taken on the top and
the waist. And a french bustle, needs to be added, so my guests won't be stepping
on my train the entire night. Length is perfect though!

Vendor Information
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Ceremony Location - Red Rock Resort, Las Vegas

Officiant - My godfather - Uncle Matti

We wanted the ceremony to be super personal, and since FI and I don't belong to anything religious, we asked my Godfather to be the officiant. He's someone that I've always respected and he's watch me grow up. I just hope he keeps a straight face :)

Reception Location - Red Rock Resort, Las Vegas

Florist - Pam from the Palette

Pam is the multitasking guru. She's good with colors and her prices are incredibly reasonable. I've met her twice, once at a site where she was prepping for a wedding, and another time at our wedding venue where we brainstormed ideas on what to do with the location. She's great. Incredibly sweet, creative, and really easy to talk with.

Photographer - Images by Ingrid

We're getting both Ingrid and her husband, David to photograph the wedding. From what I've seen, their work is clean, simple and can vary from very contemporary to very classical. Ingrid has a lot of good energy and David is more of the stoic type.. I'm glad we are getting such varied coverage at the wedding and I can't wait to see what they make of the day.

Musicians - Tera Johnson

This was the first thing that we planned out after getting engaged. Tera is a friend of mine with a voice of an angel. She will be singing with a band composed of her friends and mine. They'll be traveling from LA to perform. I can't wait.

Jeweler - Tiffany's

My e-ring is from Tiffany's. We are looking into Simayof, Derco, and bestgem.com for our wedding bands

My Dress - Forget Me Knots Bridal

I wanted to go to a small boutique bridal store to get the attention that I wanted and Forget Me Knots was perfect. The owners/consultants Pauline and Jenny were very hands-off asking first to choose the gowns you want to try on. Then they zipped you off and stood around you with mirrors to give you a good idea of the overall look of the dress. They knew their dresses well.. They were able to highlight the pros and cons of each dress, and were good to show photographic examples from real weddings to give you and idea of what the dress would look like outdoors and indoors. All in all, this was a really great experience. Even though they only had about 20 dresses, they were really great to work with.. It was nice to get the entire place to yourself and the advice they had was excellent. One more note. Forget me knots was the flagship store for Casablanca Bridal. Most of their styles are very simple and elegant. Their dresses range from 400 to 1500 buckaroos, which isn't bad for a bride with a budget on her mind.

Bridesmaid Dresses - NetBride

Still workin out the details (my bm's and I are rather indecisive), but paula and meg have been great to work with. They quote prices about 30% less than retail. A friend of mine went through them and loved the dresses as well as the customer service

Hair Stylist - Glamsquad (James and Nisha)

My hair trial was good but not great. Not because of James or anything. I'm still very undecided on how I want my hair. Plus it was really too short to do anything I want to do with it. Hopefully it'll grow another 4 to 5 inches before the big day.

Makeup Artist - Glamsquad (James and Nisha)

I love the way my eyes turned out. I'm still planning on getting indiv eyelashes added on, but they weren't available for the trial (he just ran out).

Wedding Coordinator - Charlene Salinas

She's basically our catering manager that will turn into our day of coordinator.

Other Vendor - Veil from Occansey Designs.com

The navigation of the site is a little confusing so you have to get the hang of it. Still, I found their photo gallery super resourceful. My veil showed up in about a week and a half and it's perfect. I ended up going with a diamond-white petite fingertip with 1/8 inch satin and petite pearls on the edge. If anyone wants to see a pic, just let me know.

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