My feet held up in my heels until the very end of the night. Then it was game over.  

 My new (and thus plate-less) Mini Cooper S served as our get away car!
 

Honeymoon - Bora Bora

Thalasso Spa Resort

All photos taken by Me! Please ask permission before using! 

We arrived in Tahiti around 10pm. At 11pm hubby convinced me to take a dip with him in the infinity pool. It was 81 degrees out at 11pm!  

The infinity pool during the day - gorgeous! We laid out by the pool + napped before hopping on our flight to Bora Bora. 

 Husband? Check. Rings? Check. Camera bag? Check! Purse? Check.

Flying from Tahiti to Bora Bora.

From the airport a boat takes you to your hotel. This is the marina for the Intercontinental Thalasso Resort + Spa where we stayed. 

 Greeted with a mysterious green drink I'm not sure I liked.

 Self portrait.

Bathroom of our bungalow.

The walk in closet! Our closet at home is never this clean. 

Complimentary Bubbly!

Our leis.

 Bathroom + Bedroom of our Love Shack hut. Picture taken from the lower deck of our bungalow.

 Livingroom area + upper deck of our bungalow.

It definitely doesn't suck in Bora Bora.

Dusk

 tartare de thon rouge aux saveurs d'asie

Mahi Mahi 

chillaxin' 

What do you do when you're jetlagged + can't sleep past 4am? Get up, out of bed to go shoot pictures of the sunrise, of course!

Beginning of a new day.

 Paradise!

Married!

We took our initiation dive in Bora Bora - so fun!

 

Bubbles Lounge at the Thalasso Spa Resort 

 Me + the Hubs

One of the main restaurants at the Thalasso.

Totally random but the sea salt in Bora Bora is so good!  

Beautiful even at night! 

Clear gorgeous night in Bora Bora. You can see Orion in the night sky!

 Can you see the fishies in the water? =)

 On our way to adventure #2!

"Taxi"

I've never seen so many shades of turquoise waters.

 Here fishie fishie!

Er, sharkie... you stay there. 

 sting ray.

Snorkeling is so not hot. Makes for funny pictures though. 

 Yes, it's really this blue and gorgeous in Bora Bora!

 See all those dark things in the water? All sting rays!

 After swimming with sharks, snorkeling and feeding sting rays....we stopped in shallow waters where our guides chopped some fresh pineapple for us and let us cool off in the waters.

View from the front of our bungalow 

 The second you step outside your air conditioned bungalow your sunglasses (and apparently, camera lens) fogs up.

We also took a 2 hour jet ski tour of Bora Bora. It was fun, but hubby wouldn't let me drive for very long. He says I'm crazy. What? The jumps are the best part!

*vroom vroom* 

 Uni, anyone?

 Can you tell we're toasted?

la la la...

Hubby floating around in the waters below our bungalow.

Photo taken through the glass coffee table.  

I decided to lay out on the lower deck one day but got bored. I rolled over to hang my head over the side of the deck to see if I'd see any fish...and look what I saw!  A blowfish hanging out by our ladder! Aren't those things poisonous? I tried to find something to throw at it to see if it'd puff up, but all I had was my camera which I wasn't willing to sacrifice.
 

 Taken from the boat.

Giant palms - taken on our last night in Bora Bora... 

 Boooooo.....time to go home.

I love passport stamps. I need more.

Want/Need...same thing, right? =P 

Rehearsal Photos by Thuan Vo

My friend Thuan came and photographed our rehearsal for us. Nice huh? 

Hubs and I with our coordinator + her assistant at our rehearsal. I have no idea what we were talking about though!

The faux ceremony. 

Our families made us practice our waltz for them. 

Our sweet little girl, Akira...

My Old Planning Bio

***  Vendor Reviews  ***

 
Rancho Las Lomas

We were referred to Rancho Las Lomas by a friend of ours. When I first heard they had animals on the premises, my first reaction was to exclaim to my fiancé, “Psh, I ain’t getting married at no zoo!” But then we checked out their website, changed our minds, and made an appointment to tour the grounds. It was the only venue we checked out because we fell in love with it immediately and booked right away. It's a great outdoor venue since you don't have to worry about heels sinking into grass or winds blowing your veil all over the place since the teatro is in a tiled courtyard surrounded by centuries old oak trees.  I did feel that the tour was a little misleading. Let's just say that you'll pay extra for certain things - reception running past 10pm, tenting/fire permits in case of rain, mandatory valet service, etc. The tour made it sound like you can have the venue as long as you want since they only book one event per day and what not.

Craig’s Catering

Craig’s was great! I’d highly recommend them to all RLL users. The food and service was beyond great! They had two wait staff on hand for just the wedding party. Before the ceremony, our drink orders were taken and as soon as the ceremony was over they were on hand with our drinks as well as trays of hor d’ oeuvres while we took photos during cocktail hour. During dinner when I had my many dress changes Craig’s even went so far as to take my entrée to get reheated when I was away too long and my food got cold.

Hair + Makeup/Nicole Thompson @ Design Visage

Nicole did an awesome job the day of the wedding. I have to say that I was really very pleased with how my hair and makeup turned out! I was a little worried about having a non Asian makeup artist but I felt that I looked beautiful and like myself but 100x’s better. I did have to have one of my bridesmaids fix my eyebrows for me though. They weren’t as defined as I wanted them to be and my brows are naturally a bit crooked so Nicole had no issues with us taking care of that ourselves. She also gave me free lip liner and lipstick for touch ups throughout the evening which came in handy. And I also purchased lipgloss from her. She brought along another girl to help with hair for everyone else but did my hair herself.  If you want to wear strip lashes, you'll have to buy them yourself and bring them day of. She normally only uses individual lashes.

Officiant/Judge William Monroe

I think Judge Monroe did a really great job with personalizing our ceremony. We met with him once in his office at the courthouse and from there maintained email correspondence. He asked us about how we met and what we loved most about each other and incorporated that into our ceremony to personalize it. I think the best thing about him is that he actually stepped aside for our big kiss so that he wouldn’t be in our pictures. Genius!

Wedding Coordinator/ Jeannie Savage @Details Details

I don’t have enough great things to say about Jeannie! She’s definitely a pro and knows the ins and outs of the industry. She recommended all our vendors to us (minus our photographer Jose Villa) and we were happy with them all! She’s works with great people and got us some deals since she’s got close working relationships with some of them. The day of the wedding she showed up with four assistants (all dressed in black, with Gucci waist bags filled with mints/tissues/etc, a clipboard with our timeline and ear pieces). Two assistants stayed with her all night till the very end of our wedding. I never knew our guestbook attendants were late because her assistants covered for them until they arrived, an announcement was made to silence cell phones prior to the ceremony, and Jeannie even noticed when our flower girl (at the alter) had to go to the restroom and silently took her away (unbeknownst to us) in the middle of the ceremony to go pottu. The day went by so incredibly smoothly with their assistance. We asked our coordinator to ask Craig’s to pack us a “to go” box at the end of the evening since I already knew I wouldn’t get much time to eat (I think I had 2 bites) so they packed us two entrees, as well as some cake for us to enjoy later that night. Included in our to go bag was a bottle of champagne and two luggage tags she had made for us with our names/addresses for our honeymoon!

DJ/Peter @ Vive Entertainment

Peter really impressed me. He asked for pronunciations for my mom’s Korean name and didn’t butcher it during introductions! He also kept everyone dancing all night long which is sometimes pretty difficult to do at Asian weddings. We were all still dancing when he announced last song. Definitely a great choice for us! He didn’t try too hard to be “fun” and “entertaining” which I can’t stand in some DJ?s. Just quality work from Peter! I?d highly recommend him.

Videographer/29 Frame

Hiring a videographer was a last minute decision for us. We had a limited budget and Jeannie found these guys for us who were in our budget and available on our date. We won?t be getting our video for another couple of months, but I wanted to say that they sent out two videographers for us and they were really great the day of. No cheese here. I didn?t see them going around tables asking people to wave or do something crazy which isn?t what we wanted. We originally only booked them for 5 hours but they ended up coming WAY early and staying late so we probably had them for 8+ hours! I can?t wait to see the finished work!

Veil/Candi Merle

Candi comes highly recommended on the OC Knot boards and for a good reason! She produces quality work for an even better price! I had her make me a simple catherdral length veil in diamond white and it only cost me about $45 which included shipping!

Photographer/Jose Villa

Monique Lhuillier/Saks

I loved having Tina as my sales associate at Saks! She?s awesome to work with and has a great sense of style! I booked an appointment during the Monique Lhuillier trunk show at Saks and ended up purchasing my dress that day. Always gracious, never pushy, very informative, very genuine and great to work with! Once my dress was purchased I went solo to my dress/fitting appointments and she was great to have around to bounce ideas off of.

Korean Dress Rental: 3000 Wilshire Blvd #109, LA, CA (213) 427-0560

We didn?t do the actual Pyebaek ceremony and Hubby wasn?t too keen on having to wear the ?unicorn hat? required of the men so I just rented the 7 piece Korean dress for myself. $100 for the dress rental with a $200 deposit in case pieces are missing or damaged. Many of my friends have used this company and the hanboks look great! She even went over the order in which to put everything on.

QiPao: Focus Plaza in San Gabriel/Store #129 on the first floor

My mother in law and I bought my qipao here. It wasn?t custom made but they do tailor it to fit. And I really liked how it photographed! I was a little iffy about having to change out of my wedding dress, but one of my gf's told me that none of her friends ever regret doing cultural/tradional stuff at their wedding. And she was totally right.  I'm really glad to have honored our cultures in this way!

Cake/The Great Dane Bakery

Yummy! We tried 4 different cakes of our choosing and ended up with the white wedding cake with buttercream frosting and fresh strawberries/whipped cream filling. We found the other flavors to be a little too sweet for us.  We liked the look of fondant, but the taste ?yuck. They promised us they?d be able to make the buttercream frosting look as smooth as fondant?and they delivered! It was so smooth and perfect looking that hubby?s Uncle stuck his finger in our cake thinking it was fake. LOL! The cake itself was beyond delicious! They also will make you a free anniversary cake if you call them 2 weeks prior to your 1 year anniversary to let them know! Can?t wait!  

Florist: Nisie of Enchanted Florist

A little on the expensive side but my god, she does beautiful work! I was really pleased the day of the wedding with all of our flowers! She really exceeded my expectations which was really great! She also handled all the candles which we had plenty of at the wedding and it created a really romantic ambiance for the evening. Posies were put on the backs of our chairs free of charge and she also included extra boutennieres and corsages for family (in case we forgot anyone) and an extra bout for hubby incase his got squashed or wilted from all the hugs. They even took down the garland hanging over the arch of our ceremony and wrapped it around the fireplace at the reception without us having to ask her to reuse it.

Favors/Candy Apples from www.cal-snacks.com

String Quartet/Jennifer Briggs Strings

They were on time, played beautifully and were able to play all the songs we requested for the ceremony. Sweetness.

Tux Rentals/Friar Tux

They don?t really have full tuxes for you to try on, but if you go in person and shop around they?ll let you try on whatever they have in your size. My husband opted to purchase a Calvin Klein tux since he liked the quality and craftsmanship better and wanted it tailored to fit. We chose one for the groomsmen to rent and just emailed the guys to go in at their convenience to get measured. Worked out well. Nothing was missing and everything fit the guys ? phew!

Dessy Bridesmaid Dresses/Netbride

The Dessy dresses we ordered all had ?stubborn? zippers and one of my girls actually broke hers trying it on and had to have a seamtress replace it. But hey, it?s a bridesmaid dress that they?ll never wear again. Otherwise, I think the dresses were ok and at least they didn?t have to pay retail.

Hair Flower/Design Visage

I purchased my Laura Jayne hair flower from the salon I had my hair and makeup trial. It?s ivory in color, made of silk + organza, center has beading and it cost $165 not including tax. It was pricey, but it was the only hair flower that I really liked. Others looked too fake, too cheap, or just wasn?t what I was looking for. I haven?t seen it available online, but you may have better luck. If interested in buying mine email me at kitty687 at yahoo dot com.

Garter/noritake22 on ebay

I can?t recall how quickly I got my garter from this ebay seller but I don?t think it was *that* fast.  I ordered it in advance and didn?t need it right away so no big problem there. Garter quality was very nice and I was really happy with it! I think they may have discontinued the style I bought from them though.

Signed Pieces/My Wedding Band

I fell in love with the classic look of the shared prong eternity band with my traditional six prong engagement ring. We went to check them out in person at Tiffany?s but their prices? you have to pay dearly for that little blue box! Before I became a knot addict, I was a pricescope.com addict so I knew where to find what I wanted for a price hubby would allow.  www.signedpieces.com uses quality diamonds and will even custom make your ring in the specs you want. I sent hubby the link and he did the rest, thankful he didn?t have to shell out Tiffany?s prices to get my dream wedding band. My ring was custom made and sent in about 3-4 weeks. It?s sparkly and gorgeous and much more bling than we would have gotten at Tiffany?s! They wanted $4725 for a 0.80 tcw eternity band. Hubby paid half that for my 1.4 tcw wedding band. You do the math!

 

Intercontinnental Thalasso Spa Resort Bora Bora/Costco Travel

My husband researched and booked our honeymoon and says that Costco had the best prices. He had worked with two different travel agents (outside of Costco) as well, but they recommended resorts that were a bit older, not on the beach, had no AC, and still wanted $2k more. Uh, yeah right. He gave Costco a call and worked with them to book our honeymoon. They recommended the new Thalasso Spa Resort and we were sold! He bought a package that included air, shuttle service, hotel, and breakfast/dinners each day. Breakfast each morning was an open air buffet while dinner we were given allowances of up to $75 each. All our activities were booked while in Bora Bora through the concierge. The resort itself is beyond amazing. It?s modern, swanky, but still maintains a Polynesian feel. You definitely won?t regret honeymooning at the Thalasso! I definitely would recommend the shark + sting ray feeding, jet skiing, and scuba diving. I would skip the visit to The Pearl Farm unless you?re dead set on purchasing something. And be forwarned ? everything is super expensive there!