You may remember Ginet’s engagement photo session with Daniel Galang.  A few months ago, the misters and I took our engagement photos also!  I hate being in front of a camera, so it was super nervewracking for me.  Luckily, Daniel made it easy for us to get comfortable.

I really wanted to have a “themed” shoot (see here, here, and here), so I figured with our “modern fairytale theme” doing a Cinderella theme would be perfect!  I planned our outfits (with Ginet’s help), so that the misters wore a military style button up and I wore a blue dress to mimic Cinderella:

I originally planned to bring props: a pumpkin, a clock, a castle, a glass slipper, etc.. but oh my gosh, it’s so difficult finding things when you really need it!!!  I spent a whole day driving around looking for these things.. but with no luck.  It was my bad for waiting until the last minute, so I have no one to blame but myself.  Anyway.  I went back and forth trying to figure out if we should just do the “themed” shoot without the props and in the end, we just decided to.  We already had the outfits, so I hoped that the outfits would be enough to mimic the feel we were going for.  Here’s a few of my favorites from the day:

Even without the props, I love how our pictures turned out.  Thank you so much to Daniel Galang for such great photos!

You can see more pictures from our session by visiting his blog: Our Engagement Session with Daniel Galang!

..okay, well maybe second.

I guess you could say that the first decision we made about our wedding was that we were having a destination wedding.  So what was the second one?  It was an easy one for me us: hire a really great photographer even if that meant flying them into Cancun and paying for room and board.  I. love. pictures. so there was no doubt in my mind that the biggest splurge for the wedding would be to hire a really great photographer.

Enter Daniel Galang Photography.

Does the name ring a bell?  Considering he has shot many of the weddings we have coordinated: Karen and Christian, Joje and Andre, not to mention, my BPIC (business-partner-in-crime) Ginet and Justin, I’m sure you know exactly who I’m talking about!  He is AWESOME.  I love that his photos are so clean and crisp.  I love the color in his photos, but I love love love the composition and how he sets up his shots.  A-MAZ-ING.  I swear, I think every one of his shots are breathtaking, but here are a few that I especially love:

And the one that made me fall in L-O-V-E with his work: 

Amazing right?

Is anyone else so in love with their photographer that they are willing to pay travel fees on top of their photography fees?

All pictures from www.danielgalangphotography.com

We all know I had pretty big expectations on our wedding stationery.  Our save-the-dates are the first thing our guests receive that give them a sneak peak into what they might expect at our wedding, so it was very important (to me) that they were awesome and clever.

What did I end up coming up with as our theme?  A modern take on a fairytale.

And what did we end up sending out as our save-the-dates?  A bookmark in a “book.”  I know, not as cute and clever as I really hoped for.  And the execution of it all?  Bleh..  

During the whole time of designing them, printing them, and assembling them, I was pretty gung-ho with this idea.  I think it was the whole rush of wanting to get something out to people as soon as possible.  I was pressured by my (wonderful) mom to have our save-the-dates out ASAP because she we wanted everyone to have ~1 year notice of our wedding date and the fact that it was a destination wedding.

However, after we sent them out, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed.  Looking at them after, I could count the things that I am disappointed in, but mainly I just don’t think I designed them very well.  My biggest heartbreak (a little dramatic?) disappointment is that they just aren’t as clever as I hoped our save-the-dates would be. 

The one saving grace to it all is that we did get something out quickly and before Christmas (2010), so our guests did have this information available to them for almost a year by the time our wedding comes along.

Let’s get down to the details:

They were sent in an ecru linen #10 envelope which were lined with a light gray envelope liner.  Super light gray that you could barely even tell they were lined (disappointment #1).  Being that we were trying to send them quickly, we didn’t bother making any pretty labels.  They were just plain white mailing labels printed in the same font that was used as in the save-the-dates (disappointment #2).

I didn’t want to just send a bookmark in an envelope, so I designed it so that it was placed in a “book.”  I designed the front of the book to mimic a real book cover.  Uhh, but that didn’t work out very well (disappointment #3).  We personalized it by naming our book “the adventures of the misters name and my name.”  When they open the book, they are presented with our “official” save-the-date bookmark.

Some details that were added were a little magnet on the back so that our guests can put it on their fridge/magnetic boards, a ribbon tassle, and on the inside of the book cover, copyright information of our “publishing house.”

On the back cover, there is a library pocket with a library book card.  Under Author, it lists our names and under Title, ARE GETTING MARRIED.

Here’s a closer look at the design and information we included.  Both the library card and bookmark include the Disneyland castle (disappointment #4).  Looking at them now with the designs of the castle, I think it makes it look cheesy.  As much as I really wanted to include our story (he proposed to me at a castle), I wish I would have just stuck to the little things like how I used the phrase “are starting their happily ever after.”

Anyway.  Like I said earlier, at least they were sent early and our guests were well aware of our upcoming destination wedding.  Our save-the-dates did their job, so I can’t complain too much.  AND another bonus: they only cost 1 forever stamp to send!

Was anyone else disappointed with their wedding stationery after they sent them out?

PS. All personal photos.  Sorry for blurring out info for privacy!

FYI: We are roughly 3 months away from our big day.  YAY!  Most of the planning is done and now I just have to execute.  The biggest issue is knowing exactly how much I need to execute since I’m still waiting to find out how many people are actually going.  There is a lot that I want to keep a secret until after the wedding, but I figured I could start letting you all in on some of our planning.  So here goes…

—————–

If you personally know me, you would know that I L.O.V.E paper and crafting.  I fell in love with paper and crafts back in high school after they opened a scrapbooking store in my hometown (Making Memories at what-was-at-the-time-the-brand-new Westview Shopping Center).  I could literally spend hours there.  Even though I don’t have time to craft as often as I’d like now, I can still spend hours at a local scrapbooking store just browsing.  I love it!

Anyway, it goes without saying that the biggest DIY I would undertake for our wedding was our save-the-dates and our invitations.  Since “themes” are all the rage in the wedding world these days, I knew our save-the-dates and invitations would have to carry one.  I mean, they just have to.  (It’s called wedding-peer-pressure.)

After seeing Minhee and Truman’s school-themed wedding invitation suite on Martha Stewart, I knew I wanted something different in a wedding invitation suite:

(Source)

Gorgeous right?  I love the cohesive design and that it’s letterpressed!  But what do I love the most about it?  It’s just so-damn CLEVER.  I WE had to have something clever too, dammit!

My jealousy increased ten-fold when I stumbled across Amber and Jeff’s school themed wedding.

Their save-the-dates were not only adorable, but they were useful!

And the invitation suite? SWOOOON! (I love that the RSVP is an “Attendance Request”!)

Even their website matched their paper goods!

(Source for all Amber and Jeff photos)

How can you not love themed wedding stationery and a cohesive design?  I started to think how I could make this work for our wedding.  It was easy to say that I could copy Amber and Jeff’s wedding stationery since the misters and I have similar backgrounds in our education aaaannnndddd we did meet because the misters was in the same class as my brother.

BUT (there’s always a “but” isn’t there?!?) it just didn’t seem right.  A school themed wedding would be cute, but it didn’t reflect the romance of our story.  I wanted to incorporate our story into our stationery somehow and still be clever.  Was it possible?

You’ll have to stick around to see what I came up with!

What did you want your invitation suite to say about you?

DW = Destination Wedding

So you know we are having our DW, I have bridesmaids, I found my dress, and what my “wedding vision” is, but let’s rewind a bit.  How did I even go about starting to plan a DW you ask?  We already knew what we were looking for in a resort.  Lucky for us, my cousin (aka Bridesmaid M) who had a destination wedding in Mexico already, had a ton of knowledge for me to use.  I consulted with her before I started looking into resorts and she gave me two great resources:

1. www.bestdestinationwedding.com
2. Her (our) travel agent

By far, the best advice she gave me was to go on this website (www.bestdestinationwedding.com) and do research using their forums.  This website/forum board should be considered the BIBLE for anyone having a DW (short for Destination Wedding).  There are thousands of brides, travel agents, and vendors talking about their experiences, writing reviews of their weddings, asking (and answering) questions, DIY-tips, and basically just there to help each other out.  It’s amazing!

It was particularly useful to us because they have a TON of information on resorts in Mexico.  I was able to use the site (aka scour the boards for HOURS) to find resorts that met our criteria and get information on them.  I did all of my research using BDW.

With the help of the travel agent my cousin recommended, we were able to get room-block pricing on the resorts that stood out the best to us.  That helped to eliminate a lot of our “contenders” from the race because if it wasn’t affordable room-rate wise, we just weren’t interested.  Once we narrowed down our list of resorts, I would contact the wedding department at the resorts (many of them are like wedding factories since they deal with sooo many weddings on a daily basis) to get actual pricing on the wedding ceremony, reception, details, etc.  Having a travel agent deal with all of our guests’ travel itineraries is a godsend!  I know that the time closer to the wedding will be nothing-less-than-hectic, so it’s nice to know that we will not have to deal with that part of our wedding.  Total score!

We, honestly, could not have done anything without the help of bridesmaid M.  (If you’re reading this, thank you cousin!! We love you!!)  We would not be where we are at today without the information and resources she passed along to us.  It’s been relatively easy and stress-free for us!

I’m sure all soon-to-be brides have an obsession with weddings blogs.  I know I do.  I can spend hours scouring the internet for inspiration photos and DIY ideas.  Then I get jealous of the amazing things people have the ability to put together, then I get sad.  Haha.  I’m a masochist, I tell ya.  Anyway, while I was looking around the other day, I realized that I have never given you all an idea of my design theme so I made an inspiration board.

[I think it's a big no-no to not cite sources from where I got my pictures, but I don't remember where I got a couple of my pictures... I'm sorry!  For the ones that I do know: the picture of the bridesmaid dresses and centerpiece flowers were pictures that I took with my phone from magazine articles, the picture of the groomsmen outfits is from Rebekah Westover Photography, the 2 pictures of the resort are from the Hacienda Tres Rios Resort website, the night picture of the resort next to the pool is from Juan Navarro Photography (and yes - that's the location that we will be having our reception at), and the sneak peak of the RSVP card is from my invitation suite (so therefore, picture by me).  The picture of the rectangle table mockup was given to me by Planner1 Events (but I don't know who took the actual picture), the lighted palm trees was found on google, and last but not least.. I have no idea which site I found the GORGEOUS cake (that I know I will not get).  I know it was a site like Snippet and Ink or Style Me Pretty; I just can't remember.  If anyone knows, please let me know!]

If you couldn’t tell, the color scheme is different shades of yellow, different shades of gray, and white.  Everyone knows pink is (one of) my favorite colors and always asks if my wedding is going to be pink.  I always reply with ”hell no.” Haha!  No offense to anyone who has had/will have a pink wedding.  I just felt like it was too girly for the misters and I and I wanted our wedding to reflect us.  Yellow is both of our favorite colors, so it ended up being perfect.

It was difficult, but I’ve come to terms that decor will be pretty simple since it’s a destination wedding and I don’t want to spend the extra money to get elaborate centerpieces, etc.  I’m going to rely of the beauty of being on the beach.  Since the reception will be outdoor, there are a few things that I do want to jazz up the space a little like the round paper lanterns and candles.  I’m going for soft lighting and trying to make the space “romantic.” (gag)

Anyway, I’m really excited to see how it all turns out!

Can you believe it? I’m actually updating!  I was determined to get a post up this week since I haven’t in so long.  Ginet has been doing an amazing job updating you all on her wedding plans; I, obviously, have not so I apologize.

I will (eventually) catch you up on all the planning I’ve done up-to-date (which isn’t much), but let’s start with my adventures of dress shopping.

I was actually DREADING going dress shopping.  I was nervous and scared that I wouldn’t find “the one.”  I know I’m crazy, but I felt like every dress I would try on wouldn’t look good on me and it’ll just give me more of a reason to get bummed about my body shape.  (Yes, I know. I’m crazy.)

Anyway, I figured I should get it out of the way as soon as I can so I scheduled a day in December when my mom, my mom #2, my cousin, and 3 of my bridesmaids could get together.  (Yes, I was one of THOSE girls that brought along a huge entourage.  However, in my defense, my mom, mom#2, and my cousin are a package deal.  You get all 3 for the price of 1.  The same goes for my bridesmaids: can’t invite 1 without inviting 3.  So there you have it: I took 6 ladies with me. Haha!)

I scheduled 2 fittings at 2 different dress shops both entirely on different ends of the (price) spectrum (which I didn’t know at the time).  My mom and dad were the ones paying for my dress, so they gave me a budget.  (Being the spoiled little princess, I was actually bummed because it was totally lower than what I originally hoped for.  It was okay though because I had a dress in mind that I really wanted and I knew that price-wise, it was a little over the budget they set for me, so if it ended up being “the one,” I would just pay the price difference myself.)

We started the day at dress shop #1 and the salesgirl there was super sweet.  She pulled a ton of dresses based on the type of style that I wanted.  They had the dress I had in mind, so of course, that was the first one I tried on and I fell in love.  That was “it.”  The fit was flattering and it made me feel pretty, but it was so heavy.  It wasn’t ideal for a beach wedding, but I was willing to overlook that minor detail since it felt so good on me.  But, with persuasion from my entourage, I tried on more dresses since I couldn’t have found “the one” on my first try.  I tried on about 6 more dresses; all of which didn’t flatter me the way she did.  And then I tried on the last dress… and. that. was. it.  She was figure flattering.  She made me feel pretty.  And she was super light; very ideal for a beach wedding.  She was even under my dress budget.  There were no tears (not even from my mom!), but I found “the one.”  I opted to hold out on purchasing the dress on the spot since I had the other appt at the second shop.  Salesgirl took down my information, so if I decided to bite-the-bullet, all I would have to do is call in to order it.  Gotta love non-commissioned sales people.

We went to the dress shop #2 just to see my other options.  They carried a collection of a dress I really wanted to see (I even called in advance to see if they had it in), but they ended up not having it in store!  Totally not meant to be.  The saleswoman there was very pushy and was really trying to make a sale especially when she knew I had 8 bridesmaids which was very annoying.  Overall, the dress salon was very nice (like I said, price-wise it was the very opposite of the first shop I went to, so they had designer dresses that went up to $10k!), but the dresses I tried didn’t fit me the way she did.  After trying on a couple, I/we decided that I was done dress shopping and that I had found “the one.”

A couple weeks later, I called in my order and they ended up having a brand-spankin’-new one in stock so I was able to pick it up at any time.  She is now hanging in my closet at my mom and dad’s house.  Yay!

Me and my ladies at the second dress shop (Personal photo)

Now that my bridesmaids finally know who they are, let me introduce you to them.

I wanted to do something special when I asked each of them, so I decided to make each of them little presents.  I found these super cute custom made cards through etsy, so I ordered a card for each of my girls (and one for myself).  Each girl was slightly different and each card came with a pin of their face.  I wrote sweet-nothings in each card and attached it to a sweet treat:

For the girls I saw immediately, I gave them my favorite cake: a red velvet bundtlet from Nothing Bundt Cakes.  If you haven’t had a Nothing Bundt Cake, you are missing out!

For the girls I couldn’t see right away, I mailed them packages of cocoa and cookies.  The cookies were ordered from The Cravory: Pancakes and Bacon and Red Velvet.  They are my #1 favorite cookie bakers.  SOOO YUMMY.

If you’re wondering who the girls in the card are, here you go:

In the same order as they are on the card (I think):

L-R (Top Row) Elainne, Donette, Ginet, Joyce (Bottom Row) Em, Bev, MOH Cecile, Celeste

To my bridesmaids, I hope you don’t kill me for putting your picture on here.. :] Also, thank you for being a part of such a big day in my life. I love you all!

So if you remember, we are having a destination wedding in Cancun, Mexico and we went to visit the resort we were hoping to have it at on Labor Day weekend.  Well, we went, we saw, and we were disappointed.

The resort was beautiful, the amenities were great (4-bottle liquor dispenser and hot tub in each room = AWESOME), and the fact that I would be able to have a catholic ceremony (because they have a catholic chapel on the resort grounds) was the icing on the cake… but it was missing something.  Once we got there, we wanted to be amazed.  We wanted our guests to be in-awe like what we felt in Cabo.  But we just didn’t get that feel.  Unfortunately, the resort just lacked the WOW factor we were hoping for.  We managed to have a good time for the rest of our vacation and live it up the best we could.

When we got home, we were both bummed because we both had our hopes up that the resort would be everything we expected it to be.  We were both in a state of denial and unsure of what to do.  I mean, I basically had EVERYTHING planned out at that resort already.  We had met with the onsite wedding coordinator who would be in charge the day of our wedding, we had done our food and cake tastings, we picked out the locations on the resort where we’d have our cocktail hour and reception dinner.. all we needed to worry about were the little details.  Needless to say, we didn’t want to “settle” with a resort so we canceled our wedding at our first choice resort.  We decided to keep searching for a resort we loved and if that meant pushing back the wedding to 2012, then we would.

I’ve been on a crazy, stressed out mission to find a resort that 1) met our expectations and 2) was in our budget these last few months.

Enter Hacienda Tres Rios Resort, Spa, and Nature Park.  It’s an all-inclusive resort 45 minutes south of the Cancun airpot.  It was originally not in our budget, so I disregarded it but I ended up getting a bid for our room block that was in our price range and I immediately fell in love.  It’s a beautiful resort that doubles as a nature park, so there are a lot of outdoor activities to do like swimming, snorkeling, and kayaking in the nature park rivers and cenotes.  There are nine restaurants on the resort with cuisine varying from Italian to American to Asian as well as 24-hour room service.  With 273 suites, the resort is small enough so that we’d be able to run into our wedding guests over the course of the weekend, but it’s spread out enough that everyone would be able to enjoy their own private vacations if they wanted.

With our first resort, we settled for a different date because our first-choice date was already taken.  We checked to see if the date was available at H3R and it was! Whoohoo!  It was just meant-to-be.  After a lot of back-and-forth, we decided to go for it.  Last weekend, we signed the contract and put in our deposit (without visiting the resort – more on that later)… so it’s official! WE HAVE A DATE!

And you know what?

Today marks the one-year countdown till we get married!!  11.11.11!! WE’RE SO EXCITED!

Hi everyone! It’s been awhile!  Sorry for my lack of wedding planning updates.  Everything from my personal life to work life to business life has been busy, busy, busy,  so unfortunately wedding planning has taken a backseat. *GASP* (I know.. sad!)

Although it’s been a slow start for us, one thing we have decided on is that we are having a destination wedding in Cancun, Mexico!! We’ve had this mindset for a while now since 1) My cousin had a destination wedding in Los Cabos, Mexico this past October and we both had an AMAZING time.  We loved that it was a great mini-vacation for everyone who went and everyone really got the chance to bond with each other.  2) We both want a relatively small wedding.  My cousin’s wedding was only 50 people and although I can’t imagine ours will be that small, it will be way smaller than what it would be if it were in San Diego.

Like my cousin, we are choosing to get married at an all-inclusive resort.  All the ammenities are already included in the cost for our guests and readily available: accomodations, food, drinks (alcoholic/non-alcoholic), activities, pools, spas, tours of the area, the list goes on.  As of right now, we have a resort in mind and we do have a date picked out, but before making it public, we wanted to visit the resort and finalize some items in order to secure everything.  We’re very excited because this past weekend we booked our trip to visit the resort in Cancun on labor day weekend! :] 

The wedding planner in me has been itching to get this trip booked because once a resort is finalized, then the real planning can take place.  The bride-to-be in me has been itching to get this trip booked because it just means I’m one-step-closer to marrying the love of my life.. :] (I know, so corny.. but true.) Hehe.

personal photo of us in cabo