Bio

Photos taken by Amanda Collins. Sorry I have no idea how to make these all uniform. Please don't take wtihout crediting my photog or me.

venue- Villa del Sol d'Oro at Alverno HS in Sierra Madre. A+
this place is freakin beautiful. I must have visited at least 20 different wedding locations and none of them were as pretty as the Villa. We even contemplated having the wedding at fancy schmancy spots like the Ritz Carlton and Beverly Hills Hotel with 30-40k minimums and private estates (that cost 10k to rent), but still they did not compare to the villa. I mean a banquet room is still just a banquet room, in my opinion. My few pre-requisites were that the ceremony be outdoors and that the ceremony and reception be in one location, since I hate weddings where I have to drive to a separate location. And after I found out that it was where they filmed the Guns n Roses video November Rain there, it was game over. They also shot Legally Blonde there and Princess Diaries. My photographer was so excited when I showed her pictures of the Villa that she said she knew she was going to make my album a sample album to show her other clients. After the wedding she said she wanted to have her own wedding there. The one thing I wasn't happy about was that the music had to be turned off by 9:30 and event must end by 10, but in the end, most of the family had left by then anyways, so it really wasn't necessary. It now costs $4500 to rent the villa, and is usually booked up about a year and a half in advance (esp for summer months). My 2nd choice would have been the Donald Trump golf course in PV, but when I priced it out, it ended up being WAY more than we could afford.
PROS- unique location, limitless areas to take photographs, ample free parking, did I say it was beautiful?!, reasonably priced
CONS-music off at 9:30, no A/C (which can be scary in the summer. I was about to cry when it was 112 degrees there the week before my wedding.)

CATERING- Santa Anita Gardens A-, www.sagardens.com
Sandy is the contact person for the Villa and handles everything. The venue only uses this caterer, so you really have no choice, but in the tastings, I found that the food was good, although their menus weren't very innovative. We had crabcakes and chicken skewers for hor d'oeurves, prime rib and stuffed chicken breast wrapped in phyllo dough (which I loved), gratin potatoes, and grilled veggies. I think the only complaint by some of the ppl was that the prime rib was too rare, but others said that the food was really really good. People ate all the crabcakes in 20 minutes! If I could go back, I would have upgraded to the filet mignon with the blue cheese sauce, which was really good in the tasting- I just don't know if blue cheese sauce is a universal food. Santa Anita also does the catering for the Greek Theatre throughout the summer, so Sandy always had lots of fun stories to tell us about different musical artists and what they liked to eat. Also, if you watch something at the Greek, she can usually get you VIP passes.

Sandy can be hard to get ahold of, but I felt that overall she was sweet and kind of motherly throughout the whole planning process. She can be opinionated, yes, but I trusted her opinion since she has done so many weddings there. I found that if I just called and left a message, no one would return my calls, so I just never left messages and called her again in a couple of hours, and it worked out fine, and she was able to answer all my questions.

Aquafuzion, invitations and stationary, flowers, coordination. B+
Debbie was the contact person for Aquafuzion. She answered my emails promptly (within the hour), and I felt that their work was high quality. I really did love my invitations and flowers. It was kind of nice just having one contact person for all these things, so I wouldn't have to call and email/call 3 different people, so that was a timesaver. She was able to give me a good quote for invitations (including placecards and programs), flowers, and coordination. However, I found that if I ever wanted to add anything or upgrade anything, her pricing seemed to vary dramatically and was much higher and in the end I paid more than I wanted, just for adding a few ceremony flowers and corsages. I did love all my invitations, placecards and programs though, and got so many compliments on them. On the day of the wedding, the flowers were beautiful and also got many compliments on them, so in the end her work was very good. As for coordination, she seemed to be on top of things, however, there were a few things that could have gone smoother, but nothing worth me getting pissed about.

dressmaker, Theresa, 323.223.9185, 3302 Pueblo Ave, LA, A
I got Theresa's number through a friend who had used her to custom make her bridesmaid dresses and Chinese dress. I also had known several other friends who were using her for their bm dresses and also for their wedding dresses. Theresa works out of her garage in East LA at night and on weekends on dresses. Theresa is a great option if you have a lot of bms, and want a designer look without having to pay too much. I looked online, but the dresses always looked kind of cheap looking or were too expensive. I decided that I really liked the look of some of the silk dupioni/shantung dresses that were popular in Jenny Yoo collection, so I had some girls go try them on and I liked the Samantha dress the best- a basic A-line strapless with sash. I just showed a picture of the dress to Theresa and she quoted me $70 each to make the dress. I just went to downtown LA and bought all the material (she tells you how much to buy) and gave it to her. The girls came in twice, once to get measured, and again for a fitting. Because I did have a lot of bridesmaids (6), she altered my wedding dress for free, which was a LOT of work considering it went from a sample size 10 to a size 4, and she added a bustle as well. That in itself was probably worth $350. I paid her extra money just because I felt too guilty that she was doing it for free. I would just recommend that you tell her your wedding date is 2 weeks before the actual date b/c she tends to be very last minute, like most dressmakers, and it's good to have the dresses a little bit early in case any other modifications need to be made. Also, make sure to call her just before you are coming (she is very lax and will just tell you to come by anytime on Saturday or Sunday.) Also call her in the evening, much easier to get ahold of her then.

Hair and makeup, Valerie Jackson, 626.836.4046, A+
Valerie was GREAT, and she is such a sweetheart. She has a small, adorable salon a few minutes away from the Villa. I knew I wanted to get ready at a salon because I needed to be in air conditioning as long as possible. I had a low chignon with flowers in my hair. She did my trial for free, and her prices were very reasonable compared to most hair and makeup artists I found. Her makeup artist friend who works in the entertainment industry, Sara, ended up doing everyone's makeup and they all looked awesome (I think I liked my makeup even more than when Valerie did mine at the trial). She has a small salon, and was only able to do my sisters and myself the day of the wedding, so keep in mind if you have a large party, not everyone will be able to get their hair/makeup done by her. I liked her so much in fact that I will probably use her as my regular hair stylist from now on. I think I paid about $100 for both hair and makeup (what a STEAL), but I know she has since raised her prices significantly.

Photographer, Amanda Collins, A www.mandymariephoto.com
I love Amanda! She was the assistant shooter for my sister's wedding who used the famous Becker. Becker's work is awesome, but like most vendors, he raised his prices significantly, and we couldn't really afford to spend 8k on photos alone. Amanda was basically trained by Becker and I felt had similar style, and cost slightly less. I thought it was really important to have someone upbeat, and she definitely is that! I can't wait to see the professional photos... oh and one of the groomsmen had a major crush on her, and took like 10,000 paparazzi style pictures of her. I am pretty happy with the photos we received. I did refer quite a few brides to her, but apparently she did not call them back, so I'm not sure why- I did not have as difficult a time contacting her. Also she is not good with email- I would recommend speaking with her directly on the phone.

The above pictures with the black frames are from Andrea Bricco.

Arcadia Rentals,(626) 445 7166. A
This is the company the Villa chooses to use for their rentals- we had to rent everything- tables, chairs, linens, wine glasses, etc... They didn't have an expansive selection for linens, but for what I wanted, it was fine. I chose brown tablecloths and magenta napkins with natural wooden folding chairs. Nothing too fancy, but it looked great! Overall I spent approximately $1800 on rentals for approx 160 people.

DJ, Brian Aung and company, DJ Quickie from Rehab, A+
Brian (aka dj xclass) was our groomsman and is heavily involved in the DJ scene. He owns www.djcity.com . Quickie is his friend and did us a favor and since Brian owes me one since he almost got me kicked out of UCLA for copying my PIC 1 program (jerk), he felt obligated to help us out. Actually I think we just forced him to do it. We didn't want typical wedding music, we wanted it to be like a club. Brian did a good job of meeting with us and arranging our ceremony, dinner, and reception music. His crew helped set everything up and it worked out great. This was our general list of songs in case you're interested. (not your typical wedding music). We also did different songs for the grand entrance for each of the couples in the wedding party. We entered to the Top Gun theme (Art's favorite movie of all time)
Processional (grandparaents, groomsmen) - Fort Minor Instrumental, "Where'd you go?"
Processional (bridesmaids) - 112, "Cupid" Instrumental
Processional (bride)- Canon in D
Recessional - U2- "Beautiful Day"
Bouquet toss- xtina aguilerra, "can't hold us down'
garter toss- can't remember
Cake cutting- Moulin Rouge, Come what may (this was so close to being Kips wedding song from Napoleon Dynamite.. the one where he sings "I love technology...")
First Dance- Nsync, This I Promise You
Last dance- Dan Band, Total Eclipse of my Heart (from Old Skool)

It's over! Holy crap, that's my husband!
ok just a few more pictures before I leave for the honeymoon. so cliche, but it really was one of the best days of my life. Ok, maybe 2nd to the Justin Timberlake House of Blues show. But it's a close 2nd. ha.

I made tanks for the bm's that said TEAM FLORA. get it? like those shirts that say "team aniston" or "team LC"? ok, maybe only I thought it was funny, but they were so cute.

Monique Lhuiller at her finest. damn, I LOVE this dress... and I didn't know how much I loved it until that day. Now I don't know if I want to sell it anymore.

I absolutely LOVE this table setup!! It's one thing to have a vision in your head of what you want everything to look like, but to see it all put together... it was insanely beautiful...

taking a breather... it was getting really hot in the dress!

we had some chinese lion dancers. i was kinda disappointed in the performance.. but oh well, what can you do...

wonkers and her parasol. I had them carry these instead of bouquets.

yee sisters and their hot pink parasols.

one last picture of my dress before I switch. so sad to say goodbye to it.

my red chinese dress (it was actually the same dress my sister dacy wore at her wedding.)

more yee's

groomsmen in their pink ties.

cutting the cake

ok. note gm's outfit, sans shirt. and he was also freaking my mom. it had to be the funniest thing I've ever seen.

our sparkler sendoff!!! we got into our getaway car, which was my dad's old 1970 Mustang... one of his prized possessions. I love this picture.

we had an after party at the house, and at 3 am, I remembered that Tony, the officiant and my brother in law, still has not signed our marriage license. note all the beer bottles and cards surrounding the momentous signing of the marriage license.

We have been together for 7 years and met in the dorms (Hedrick Hall) at UCLA. Goooo Bruins!

I'm having my wedding at the Villa Del Sol D'Oro.

I just got my invitations! Props to Aquafuzion, although they didn’t give me thermography like I had asked, but they ended up giving a significant discount. And I think the invitations still look nice, even in flat print.