And...we're married!

Hello blog world, I have returned from a fantastic reason for a mini-hiatus: our wedding and honeymoon!

It. was. fantastic.

I don’t think I could have asked for a better day. Ever.

I set out to plan our wedding a a couple of goals: Make it fun. Make it personal. Make it memorable. And I think we hit all three goals with full force!!

Our wedding day would not have gone as smoothly and effortlessly as it did without our amazing crew of vendors, who I must thank for all their hard work!

Our photographer: Travis Hoehne

Travis, in a word, AMAZING. His team of Charlton and Lindsey, AMAZING. His nonstop and unmatchable energy kept the party going. He was so easy to work with and all the guests couldn’t stop complimenting how awesome he was. Travis also set up a photo booth, and it was SWEET! I say this is the best way to get photos with guests without having to do the obligatory cheesy table shots that I know photographers *love* to take. I know that I, along with all of my guests, are sitting at the edges of our seats, ready to see the photo explosion!
Me, my sister, and my cousins working the photo booth. (Thanks Auntie Terry for the photo)

Our cake diva: Jen’s Cakes

Our cakes were FANTASTIC. Not only in style but in taste too. Delicious. And yes, cakes. Jen made us a Groom’s cake to my specs – a Super Nintendo system just for Cent! As you may know, I’m kind of a cake buff. Ok, who am I kidding, I’m cake obsessed! I’m so glad that we booked with Jen’s Cakes because she did a FABULOUS job and I enjoyed every bite!

Check out our EPIC Groom’s cake (thanks to David for the photo):

And our beautiful cake! (Thanks Dianne for the photo!)

Our fantabulous florist: Huckleberry Karen Designs

The day of the wedding, Karen twittered that she had surprise for me. I had no idea what it could be. Well, let me just say that Karen is a miracle worker. We had our one and only initial meeting back in January. We had exchanged emails to confirm details, and she is wonderful to work with. So easy to communicate with and make changes. Anyway, the big day rolls around and we arrive at the church. Karen says she wants to deliver my bouquet to me personally.

She says, “Now what kind of flowers did you really want for your bouquet?”

“Peonies?!” I asked shyly.

She pulls the bouquet from behind her back. And there they were. Peonies. In the middle of July. See I told you she was a miracle worker. Thank you Karen!

She also pulled together some wonderfully fantastic centerpieces, which I wish I had had more time to check out and enjoy. They were lovely from some of the photos I saw from friends and family.

Our coordinator extraordinaire: Laura Saldana of Pink Petals Event Design

One of the best investments hands down to keep sane on your wedding day. Even if you are planning the wedding yourself, as I did, I’m so glad we decided to hire a day-of coordinator. After a few briefings, I passed the reigns to Laura and she took care of everything! She asked me all the questions and reminded me of things I had forgotten or overlooked. She brought pins for the money dance and pens for the guestbook. She was a lifesaver for sure. And I didn’t have to worry about anything the day of. I had so much fun!!

Our Make Up Artist: Yolanda Thayer of Prima Donna Makeover

Yolanda was our first vendor to arrive on the big day. She arrived at my parents’ home at 7:30am. I’m no early riser, but I think the excitement didn’t let me sleep in. Yolanda worked her magic on us and it was great working with her. She stayed with us through the ceremony and came to the reception site to do touch ups before the reception started. Thank you Yolanda for beautifying all of us!

Our DJ: Mark Haggerty of Denon & Doyle Entertainment

Mark made our night. He kept the flow going and everyone dancing. I mean EVERYONE. I haven’t been to that many weddings, but I have never seen as many people as were at our wedding DANCING. Usually people are shy about dancing, but not at our wedding! He played all the songs Cent and I had personally requested (sadly he didn’t get to one song my sister and friend had requested sorry girls!) Everyone danced until the very last song. My father-in-law was getting ready to leave (all of Cent’s family had to catch a 6am flight Sunday morning), but when Mark played “Flashlight” by Parliament, he rushed to the dancefloor and waved his phone like a lighter. Awesome!

Here’s me in the middle (Thanks David for the photo!)

Thank you to everyone who traveled near and far to share our wedding day with us. I can’t say enough how much it meant to both of us.

11 Days left!

I was sitting at my computer last night, staring at an email from my awesome florist, Karen of Huckleberry Karen Designs.  In the close of her note, she wrote, “12 more days!”

When I thought about it, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Okay, maybe not the whole ton. Maybe just a couple.

But it was a good thing. A happy realization. And it was like I knew that, but her words typed out words made it that much more REAL.

I’ve been getting messages and emails from friends and family who will be gathering next week for our wedding. Our wedding is NEXT. WEEK. Holy moly. And maybe I keep doting on this fact because we’ve been engaged since March 2008. I didn’t know how quickly this day would come considering that it seemed light years away! Now, we’re down to just under eleven.

People keep asking my mom about how I’m doing. Like I’m supposed to turn into a fuming, drooling, three-eyed monster, commonly known as a “Bridezilla” like the type you see on the television series. And she laughs simply and says, “Everything is going great.” She asked me the other day, “Should you be freaking out? My friends keep wondering.”

Well, good news, I haven’t sprouted any extra optical units or turned any shades close to Elphaba from Wicked, so I think everything is going to be alright.

I’ve been asked, “How are you feeling?” “Are you ready?” “Are you nervous?” I’m so excited and elated that the big day is coming. Okay, so the nerves should creep up around 1:55pm on July 18, but those will be happy nerves. Like “It’s finally time” nerves.

We want everyone to have a good time and have fun at our wedding.

See you in 11 days!

5 months to go!

Photographer, check.
Dress, check.
Church, check.
Venue, check.
DJ, check.
Flowers, check.
Cake, check.

Invitations are still brewing and will be out in the mail by May!!

Vote for me!

So I enter contests with the thought that I probably won't win. But I guess I have some luck. I once won the pumpkin carving contest at work, $50! I won the drawing at the company Christmas party, $100! I won the drawing from F-Stop Beyond TV, $60 value! And I won a $10 iTunes card from Southern Weddings Magazine! I'm not trying to brag, I'm just amazed that I have won stuff.


I'm up for something again.


Southern Weddings Magazine has been running a contest since they launched their print magazine in January. It's a chance to win The Flip. All you had to do was take a picture of yourself with the magazine or a picture of the magazine on the stands. Well, I happened to be in Dallas when the magazine launched and since as the title suggests, it features Southern Weddings, it was way more readily available in Texas than California. So I asked Cent for a special trip to Tom Thumb (Texas equivalent of Safeway) and snatched one up off the shelves! I was all excited about taking a unique picture. I didn't really know what to do...So I lagged. I waited and the deadline past twice, but they extended it twice. So I finally got my act together and submitted a photo!


Southern Wedding Flip Entry


Here's my entry! #11 on the page: Flipping out for Southern Weddings!


Anyway, I'd appreciate it if you'd rock the vote for me, dear reader. All you have to do is comment with #11 at the bottom of the page! Voting ends February 6! I appreciate it!


Thanks and happy Saturday!

Save the Dates ready, but not going just yet

I still need to go down to the Courtyard by Marriott and book the block of rooms. The last time I went I didn't have a very good estimate. I have a better estimate now, so I'll be booking around 12 rooms to start. I think that should be enough and I think that it shouldn't be a big deal to add more if needed. Once that's done, then I can print up some hotel info for our out of town guests, and voila!

We're doing this :)

Jumping the Broom!

Photo by the talented DrewB.

PS, happy 3 year anniversary! :)

10 months to go!

I realized that today was the 18th, so that means ten more months to go. Considering that we're already more than half way through September, July will be here in no time!

I found THE Dress!

I found my dress on the first trip out. I won't be posting a picture of it for obvious reasons, but I found it!

The Dress

I'm going bridal gown shopping on Thursday!

11 months to go!

365 to go!

As of today, we have one year until the big day! I'm very excited to now be able to really count down. I know that the time will fly by especially since it has flown by since this day:

March 1, 2008 - The day Cent proposed!

Can't wait!

TravisHoehne.com in Full Effect!

Our awesome and totally rad photographer has launched his website: travishoehne.com! Check it out!

Congrats Travis!

Save the Dates in Progress

As I keep finding more and more ideas for what to do with my Save the Dates, I'm almost overwhelmed. I have a general idea of what I want and I want to stay focused on the vision that I have. It's hard to feel unique when you see your idea translated and created by another bride. I'm so thankful, though, for all the of the wonderful resources online that brides have been sharing since the blog boom.

I love the idea of magnets, so your guests will have a constant reminder on their fridge of the upcoming nuptials. I also like the idea of including stickers for guests to mark in their other calendars. This may seem like overkill at times, but I think that if you send a Save the Date to someone and then an invitation, they have absolutely no excuse not to know when your wedding is. I would hope that this would cut out the "Oh I didn't knows" or "You should have told me sooner" or "I wish I knew ahead of time". That's the whole point of a Save the Date, right, to SAVE THE DATE.

Here's some inspiration from Melissa Jill, a Scottsdale-based photographer, who has a new line of Save the Date Cards:



Here is what I have come up with. I'm planning on maybe using these as the magnets and including another insert with information for our out of town guests. It's so hard to decide on just one idea, that I want to include everything! These are preliminary designs, with some others on the way.




Awesome engagement photos by our rad-tastic photographer, Travis Hoehne!

Jet Fuel is ruining my life.

If it wasn't bad enough that gas prices jump up every single day (and not even easing into the $4 thing), the price of jet fuel goes up as well. As a consequence, plane tickets skyrocket. What used to cost $220 on a good day to fly to Dallas, is now between $330-$450 if you're lucky. It's pretty depressing considering that my salary has not gone up in order to offset the inflation in prices. It might be easier to get through this if my disposable income increased to cover $4.29 gas!

I'll really have to send out our Save the Dates a year in advance so our out-of-town guests can plan accordingly and not have to spend a fortune (I don't want that!). I want everyone to be able to make it, especially those across the country and celebrate with us on this special day. Hopefully there will be some relief of some sort in the near future.

We have a venue!

I'm very excited to say that we have a reception venue! After a lot of consideration of options and debating between this place and that, a decision has been made. We'll be partying and celebrating our nuptials at the Castlewood Country Club in Pleasanton. The sound of "country club" actually made me worry that it meant extra zeros would be attached to every price tag, but actually it's very comparable to other venues in the area. Without further ado, some photos:

The front entrance


The Lobby - so pretty!


The Terrace - great for hors d'oeuvres and hanging out


The Ballroom - lots of space!


The Bar - drinks and mingling

Engagement Pic Preview!

Our nano-second of fame via our AWESOME photographer Travis Hoehne. He met up with us in Dallas and we had some major fun with these!






More to come soon! :)

Some Blue for Thought

This is my first Photoshop stab at an inspiration board. I've been scouring sites like the Knot and Martha Stewart and Brides and everything to find a nice chocolate and aqua color combination. I haven't quite found what I want, but I think it's all a matter of finding the right shades.

The venue we're looking at comes with white linens. I really don't want to be one of those brides that cares about the tablecloths. The venue coordinator mentioned that an estimate for colored linens is between $30-$38 a table! For cloth. For cloth that probably no one would notice unless you have guests that are interior designers, wedding planners, or just notice that kind of thing. I am considering table runners, which would help incorporate the color palette. Of course, that's all still up in the air.

I really like the contrast of the chocolate and aqua blue. More inspiration to come!

Oh, Illustrator, How I Enjoy Thee

Since learning how to use Illustrator last Fall, it has been one of my favorite programs. It's definitely not a program that you can figure out on your own. At least not for me. I definitely needed instruction. Well, 18 weeks later and $60 down the road, I'm now well-versed in Illustrator. I wouldn't say I'm an expert by any means, but I can come up with a thing or two.

I started to mock up our invitations, mostly to get the gears turning, but here's what I came up with today. Luckily I have the CS2 suite from work, and I'm planning on the CS3 suite which I get a sweet deal on thanks to my class!



It looks a little off since I took trim size and bleed zones into account. (Terms I learned this past week in my Photoshop class). But I'm pretty sure we're agreed on the brown/blue color scheme, which I thought we could carry onto the invitations. More to come!

Engagement Photos, Check!

We had a fantastic time yesterday with our AWESOME photographer, Travis Hoehne, shooting in downtown Dallas and the Speedzone. I can't wait to see the results!

It turned out that Travis was going to be in Texas for a workshop this week. Since Cent lives in Dallas, I figured it would work out nicely if we had our engagement photos taken where he lives, since we're having the wedding in California. Plus, it was unknown and new territory for Travis as he is from California and has had several photo shoots in the Bay Area. It was so fun!

We shot around the Dallas World Aquarium (also where we went for our first anniversary) and took some awesome action shots. ::cue Chariots of Fire music:: Then, we went to have some fun. For a unique twist on engagement photos, we went to Speedzone where there were also have the debut of Mario Kart for the Wii. We were able to borrow the Mario and Luigi hats from the Mario Kart people and Travis shot us while we raced. So fun! Then we played a round of putt putt golf, something we'd been wanting to do since we first started dating. Even though we didn't keep score, I won! I got two holes-in-one! It was probably the best round of mini golf I'd ever played. So many thing just fell into place, it was so great!

I'll definitely post some shots when we get them!

We have a date!

Well Michigan finally made up their minds and picked our date. Oh well. It's just a date and I'd rather have Fr. Jose be our officiant than being dead set on July 11. Cheesy anyway. So July 18 it is.

Actually, it works out a little better because some venues are still open for reservation. It's crazy how quickly people book venues, especially since it's summer. I'm feeling optimistic and that everything will work out once we have a venue chosen. Now it's just a matter of choosing. A couple of choices are out - Sunol Valley is booked up, Summitpointe is too small, Palmdales Estates you have to supply your own drinks.

Here are the contenders:

Castlewood Country Club, Pleasanton
(image from www.castlewoodcc.org)


Dublin Ranch Golf Club, Dublin
(image from www.herecomestheguide.com)


Wedgewood Banquet Center at Metropolitan Golf Links, Oakland
(image from www.herecomestheguide.com)


Palm Pavilion, Pleasanton
(image from www.herecomestheguide.com)

Oh the decisions and comparisons. There are some other places too, but these had pics. July 18, here we come!

Low Centerpieces are the way to go

In the midst of my hard drive fiasco, I decided to peruse some photos of centerpieces. I know that all of this stuff is backdrop to the main event -- the party/reception/dinner/etc, but it's fun to think about. I'm not a bridezilla (yet) nor am I totally high maintenance. I think big centerpieces are pretty awful, especially if it makes your guests want to move it to the floor so they can see each other.

I think something like this on each table would be nice and simple and fit the bill of filling the empty space in the middle of the table. Plus the simpler, the more inexpensive. I also like the idea of decorating with some votive candles, but one of the venues we are looking at doesn't allow open flames. So I'll also have to look into some LED tealights.

All photos from The Knot.