Honeymoon in Bali!

Here we are in our honeymoon in Bali. It's the midpoint of our vacation and pretty much the honeymoon has been all about beaches, food, and sleep. I always wish that I was better at recapping the vacations that I go to so that I better remember what happened so here is my attempt at being better at this.

First of all, I must say that I am so glad I squeezed in a haircut before I left that Monday for the flight. It's so freakin hot and humid here that I can't imagine not having cut my hair and having my super long hair all down my back....GROSS. But I was so sick of my long hair in preparation for the wedding that I ended up cutting most of it off. So I cut my hair that Monday, did final packing steps, and then got dropped off to the airport. Man, we arrived at LAX in plenty of time for our flight. I was able to squeeze in some final calls to vendors as a way to recap the wedding so that was nice.

We then boarded the huge ass A380 plane. We got put on the upper deck...whoo hoo!!!!!!! I love Singapore Airlines soooo much. It's the king of airlines I say. The seats were comfortable and there are compartments on the side on the upper deck. The food is always yummy! Though throughout the duration of our flight travels, I remember getting fed at the oddest times. Like at 1 am in the morning and then 7 am in the morning local time. The flights were not even turbulent so that was really nice. There was one rough bout of turbulence up the coast of California but thankfully that didn't last long. After watching a couple of movies, I dozed off for pretty much the rest of the time until we got to Singapore Changi Airport. I was so drowsy as we laid over in Tokyo for an hour (what a freakin humid ass Narita airport that was). Then we stopped at Changi for six hours....caught up on Internet, walked around the terminals, etc. Total fails were that I lost my left contact lens on the plane (so sad) and then I blew out a power strip (a whole panel!) at the Changi airport. We got there in the middle of the night, such a dead airport at that time (the way I always remember it), and then as the morning arises, the airport starts to wake up. Terminal 3 is really nice and new but it felt more lively at Terminal 2. We also had breakfast. Glenn had noodle soup and I had half boiled egg with toast breakfast. It was so unbelievably yummy.

We finally got to board our flight for Bali which took another several hours. Our airport pick up from the hotel was there when we arrived. The Kamuela Villas in Seminyak did not exceed my expectations unfortunately because it was really dirty. They put us in Villa 4 at first which was an older villa and it didn't event have a sun deck which I mentioned. So they showed me a newer Villa 14 which is where we ended up moving to. Villa 4 was much older and dirty and Villa 14 was a bit better but the cleanliness was only probably 75%. The property really is not well maintained by the management group. So we ended up arriving mid afternoon, figured out all the check in stuff, took a nap, and then had our honeymoon package dinner. This was an Indonesian meal that was really yummy. They put petals all over the villa pool which was a really cute outcome. We then went to sleep early and still a bit jet lagged, woke up early in the morning.

We had our first breakfast which was really yummy then headed out with our personal driver to Nusa Dua beach. Such a quiet and tranquil beach but very hot and I ended up getting sun burned. The beach pretty much just belonged to me and Glenn which was nice. The driver took us to a nice little cove. Then we had lunch at Ulam little restaurant in the Nusa Dua area. Glenn had seafood of course and I had a nice cheap Gado Gado dish. We drank young coconut, so perfect. We went to Dreamland beach after which was as pretty as I remembered it but much busier. The water is so nice, clear, and blue, in this little Dreamland area. We ended our day at Jimbaran where we unfortunately got ripped off by that restaurant which wasn't even good. Hopefully this will be the largest fail of the vacation. The sunset at Jimbaran wasn't even that good unfortunately due to clouds on the horizon. I get so tired from the day trips that I just knock out when I return to the hotel and then wake up really early since we're still jet lagged

The next day on Friday, 10/28, we just relaxed in our villa for most of the day. We had a late breakfast, went back to take a nap, then attempted to switch villas to Villa 6 but changed our mind, and then got our massages. Oh yea, and we went to walk to Seminyak beach which reminds me of the beaches in So Cal. Lots of beach area and flat and long coastline. The walk took 30 minutes each way which was very crazy but the beach destination was worth it. We came back to a delicious lunch back at Villa 14. Villa 6 was newer but Glenn didn't like it cuz it felt more squished. We were going to move to Villa 6 and then the villas pulled a quick one on us saying that our Villa 6 was not going to have power for 3 hours. Hell no am I going to chill without AC so we went back to Villa 14 and just stayed there. The massages were just okay. The actual massage was really short which was disappointing and then it ended up in a body scrub with yogurt too and then a flower bath. Well that doesn't match my expectations because I don't like gross stuff on me and then I had to jump in the shower which was unexpected. It's supposed to end in a flower bath but there's no way I was going to get into that gross ass bathtub. I take very quick showers here at this villa cuz it's just too gross. For dinner, we ate at Bali Nikmat which was delicious as always. I LOVE BALI NIKMAT WITH SALTED EGG SAUCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we went to get Martabak Manis which totally hit the spot. Called it a night at that point...easy day!

Next day on Saturday, 10/30 was soooooooo difficult and I was sooo tired by the end of the day. We started the day by going to Echo Beach House in Canggu. I found the restaurant on the Internet and it seemed good so off we went. The beach is not for laying out but where we ate was so incredible right there at the edge of the water where the waves hit the rocks. It was so windy and nice. Natural air conditioning. The food was delicious. Glenn had the seafood platter of course and I had me some nice creamy pasta. Leaving this beautiful eating area, we got stuck in lots of traffic to Padang Padang beach which I found on the Internet but wasn't good at all. It was so hot when we got there and we had to climb steps all the way down. The tide was low so we saw rocks and seaweed. Maybe cuz it was Saturday there were a lot of people there. We had to buy an umbrella cuz it was so hot but that was a rip off. We just stayed there a bit and then we headed to Uluwatu temple to watch the sunset. Glenn was so fascinated by the monkeys around the temple grounds. We found the perfect spot to watch the sunset and it was such a beautiful sunset. I will never forget how beautiful it was. We ended the night by having dinner at a very popular Italian restaurant in Seminyak called Ultimo which was very, very delicious. The driver is really good about recommending good places for us. I was dead tired so I just knocked out at the end of the day.

Now here we are waiting to see how our transition day is going to play out. It's currently storming so I hope this is going to stop so we can make one final trip to Seminyak beach. We'll see, but we are transferring to Ubud today and I want to see how those villas are going to be. Till next post!

Wedding Planning Frustrations

Wow, it has been two and a half LONG months since I've updated this blog! That just goes to show how incredibly crazy it has been during that time frame. I can't remember the last time I had a weekend unfortunately where the focus wasn't on wedding planning. I'm sad to say that I'm so tired now of this wedding planning. With the pressure being on and with being overconsumed and catching up on things for the planning, it just really wears you out a lot. I don't remember what my life was like before the wedding planning.

Now the wedding is practically in ONE day! I still have little things to do (it's been on my to do list for weeks that I've wanted to update this blog). So I making a point to do a little bit of it at least before the actual wedding. Wow, crazy...ONE DAY. The wedding is in one day. And after THE day, all my planning is done. All that work for just ONE DAY. Craziness!

I really am excited for the wedding. To finally marry the man I love, to be with our family and friends, and to see how all the design and planning will come out. Will it be worth my madness? I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I'm excited and I'm tired but at least I'm breathing.

In these last two months and a half, I've had a lot of struggles to say the least. Just struggles with various aspects of the wedding planning. I've had run-ins when it comes to sponsors going to the rehearsal, run-ins with the music coordinator for the church....actually the church gave me so much grief in the last two months. With almost not having Father Tony preside. The church is crazy...I am so over St. Lorenzo. They are awful!! Every single one I'm working with for that church is just awful.

Then I've had run-ins with Glenn's family and addition of just random guests I couldn't swallow. Then I've had run-ins with just changing up guests in general because there were last minute add ons, there were cancellations, etc. Oh, the cancellations PISS ME OFF! I put together an "at-risk" list where I thought that some people may not make it even after saying they would. Wouldn't you know I was right about some...Tony, Mike...seriously, Charlene and Tony, why respond yes if we're just going to go through this drama 1.5 WEEKS BEFORE THE DAMN WEDDING!!!!!! Speaking of Charlene, same kind of stunt pulled for my Bachelorette Party back in August (which by the way was super fun and I'm so glad the girls enjoyed each other). She still had to pay for her commitment. It's very rude, discourteous, and disrespectful and I don't understand it. And she then asks me if she could do anything to help me like 3 days before the wedding. Well I think enough has been done....

I had a setback with the day of stationery and a run-in with Sherdellah who has something up her butt and was so inflexible with getting my day of stationery going. So I wasted so much time only to realize her pricing was way jacked up (probably because she was raped with the pricing she gave me for the invitations). She was just so inflexible with the tote bags, the cost, the images, it was horrible. Made me want to throw up. Well I guess I'm never working with her again.

If I could, I would seriously spit out all this feedback to Sherdellah and the church after the wedding.

Wow so the tone of this post is way different than my previous posts just because of all the challenges I've gone through these past couple of months. Every single weekend, wedding planning. Incredible. So tired!

But I am ready for the big day now and I can't wait to see how it unfolds.

July was a busy wedding planning month!

Time is running out!! Each of my remaining updates are going to start off with, "I can't believe there's only...". There's only a little over two months until the wedding is here! Crazy! So I've been keeping very busy with EVERYTHING wedding-related. In the last month or so, we finally found the bridesmaids dresses. That was an awesome day spent with my bridesmaids and closest friends. They are all going to look so gorgeous in their dresses. We found our dress and even watched Bridesmaids at the end of the day! We finalized the groomsmen' tux rentals. I feel so bad because these rentals are so darn expensive...YIKES!!! I can't believe the cost of the rental costs more than the cost of the bridesmaid dress. The invitations are also in their final, final form and are going to be sent to the printer any day now. I can't wait to see these. So many long hours of intricate details planned and revised with Sherdellah to get these to the best form ever. I've also made so much progress on finalizing a bunch of music details for the reception. Though I'm really quite not happy with the music that's going to happen at the ceremony. Let's just say that St. Lorenzo is overly strict and rigid about everything. UGH! Not fun. We also met with our DJs and MCs. Yes there are two and they both are gonna rock it at the reception!! By the way, I think I've changed our first dance song like 5 billion times now but I think I've finally landed on the one. I also found the best damn wedding florist in this world. I think I found my new best friend. That's how I feel every time I talk to her. It's so incredible. I just want to hang out with this girl all the time. It's crazy!! We also finally did our registries but it's not done yet. That's another whole headache in itself that I need to tame. Oh yea, and there was this last minute curveball of losing Tony as one of our groomsmen but I'm so glad that Glenn agreed to having Stephen stand in. Beyond excited for that!! Next big creative thing is for me try and take a stab at making my own slideshow!! Bachelorette Party is coming up this weekend in Vegas. It's going to be a blast! They better not take me to any damn strip clubs. GROSS!

Less than four months away!

So now I am in countdown mode apparently if I'm going to label all my subjects with the time left I have before the wedding. OMG, this past year has gone by so fast. Too fast. I can't believe I have less than four months. It's pretty nerve wracking to think that I have to go through this big day. CRAZY! This year has gone by too fast. I think about my Disneyland pass and how I renewed it when I got engaged and now it's been a year since we got engaged and my pass is expiring...BLAH.

I can't even remember if in the last post I wrote about being freaked out that I haven't found the bridesmaids dresses but if I didn't, yes I'm freaked out about finding this because I need to be mindful of the cost but the style too. It's hard to look for one when I can't take days off and I have to do it on the weekends. We're going to go on a mission this next Saturday and hopefully we'll find one in one day.

So the bridal party get-together was a semi-success I think. There wasn't a lot of drinking which was nice because there wasn't a lot of cleaning afterwards. Ivy and I were worried about the food because we weren't sure if we could rely on everyone to come with food. Maybe pot luck was a bad idea but if you can compare this to a co-ed bridal shower, don't the others host the shower for you? Anyway, I set up a cute table with some favors that hopefully the others appreciated. There was just one no show. Hmm....

I spent all weekend this weekend to put a list of songs for the ceremony and reception. Honestly, I've been looking forward to this wedding day forever and knew that there would come a point in time that I would have to be selective of songs. But when it comes time to actually do the task and have so much pressure of doing other things, it's not so fun anymore.

I also finally confirmed what our registries are going to be after giving much thought if I should have online registries or brick and mortar songs so I made a mix of Crate and Barrel, Bloomingdale's, and Amazon.com. I just needed to confirm this to give to Sherdellah for the invitations but I actually now have to go back and fill the registries with items.

Speaking of invitations, I'm a bit concerned about the final outcome of our invitations. I had to go cheap with Sherdellah because that's what I could afford for custom invitations without hiring some of the really good designers. I'm doubting the front cover right now and I'm really hoping she's going to pull through with the rest of the invitations for the first official round of proofs. Some of the design portions of the invitation I feel like I could've done myself and don't see the distinction of getting out what I'm paying for to do something custom. I still have faith and have to believe she will pull through though.....AHHH....STRESSSSSSSS coming out of every pore in my body. No wonder I was diagnosed with bronchitis crap.

I think we're nearing being able to finalize the logistics for the days around the wedding honing in with what hotels are good. Geez, finally! This was like a six month dilemma. Now all I have to do is book the party busy

OMG so much left to doooooooooooo .....so many little things...these next few months are going to be a whirlwind!!!!!!!!! CRAP...so I better stop blogging and get at them.

May of 2011 was crazy...and now it's come and gone.

This past month was ridiculous! I honestly think I really lost my steam this past month. I knew that there was a chunk of the month that was not going to have any good use since we had a trip to Chicago and our Catholic retreat planned. But I think I was just more drained by the fact that this month at work was really challenging. It was a slew of employee relations and investigations issue that really tired me out and put me really behind. All the time away took me off track from all the wedding planning. There's not a whole lot of big things going on right now but I still don't think I'm keeping tabs on all the small stuff. As the date nears now, it's crazy to look back and think that I started this process over a year ago now when I booked the photographer as my first vendor! The photographer! ODD....But anyway, I've come such a long way and now it's almost here. It'll be more crazy as the day gets closer. I'm worried too because we have so many paper cranes to make!!!!!!!!!! Also as the day gets closer, I have to really button up on financials and the budget. As I get closer, I really am in denial about how little left I have in my budget and my mind still wants to do all these neat things that I can't really afford. A part of me is avoiding having to look at all of the money to decide how to go from here. This is even after I made an awesome spreadsheet to track everything. But still....I'm trying not to think about that. But sooner or later, I'm going to have to. I'm going to have to pay for all these services...AHH! Also, whenever I look at wedding blogs and wedding boards which were more relevant in the earlier part of the planning, it makes me reminisce about this time one year ago when my wedding planning process was just starting. As busy and crazy and stressful as it is, I'm going to miss it once it's all said and done and over. It's truly a once in a lifetime process and I try to have myself remember that so that it just doesn't go past me in a whirlwind. I am going to miss this little part of my life for wedding planning. I wish I could help other brides plan their weddings too but that's just a dream job I guess. Otherwise, the retreat was really, really, really good for me and Glenn. We're not talking so much this evening so I don't want to gloat about the retreat but I did really hype it up a lot in one of the website updates. We also finished our stop motion shoot. This is another awesome project that I have forever dreamed about make come to life and we finally did it! I'm nervous about how the outcome will be but I am going to trust that Peter is going to make this really awesome. I can't believe I've been dreaming about this forever just like the flipbook (back in Fall 2010) and we finally came together. Myla and I raced to the end to get all the props ready. We even got the wardrobe so last minute on the morning of the shoot. Talk about procrastination! It was a crazy day. Very tiring too. Also what is coming up is the get-together for the elite wedding entourage...hahaha! On June 18, I hope that we all can get to know each other better and just hang out and feel comfortable for the big day on October 21. I have some fun activities planned for the group (think a-la-Target Trainer meetings) like an online scavenger hunt based on our wedding website. I worked hard on making this scavenger hunt and it took me a few hours of organizing and coordinating but I think it's going to end up being a fun activity. And better yet, it's a way to really put EVEN more emphasis on our website that I worked soooooooooooo hard on. An over-the-top website deserves an over-the-top scavenger hunt to go with it. This is exactly what I love about this wedding planning process. For me, it's really not just putting together and planning for a party. It's the ENTIRE creative experience that I've gone through for the last one year. It's heaven for me. I love the creative process and doing these kinds of activities. People say I have too much time on my hands to make a website like I did and people are going to think I'm crazy on how I put together this scavenger hunt but I actually really enjoyed both experiences. I loved making the scavenger hunt for the trainers when I was at Target and I think this one will be EVEN better!!!!!!! Anyway, I think the get-together will be really fun for everyone. I can't wait to see everyone in our party! Before I end, I should note I'm worried about not yet starting to look for bridesmaids dresses and not yet confirming transportation. Also, how come freakin hair and makeup is so expensive?! Geez....That's enough for this update. May has come and gone. I got side tracked, got distracted, lost some steam, but I need to pick it back up for June. One year ago two days from now would have been the first time I laid eyes on Seven Degrees. It was love at first sight. Can't wait to have our wedding celebration here.

Arts and Crafts

Myla and I started making our props for the stopmotion project. They came out pretty cute and we determined it was pretty therapeutic to just paint. Hopefully, we can continue on this good path and the whole project will be so cute overall.

Glenn and I practice our first paper cranes last night. We have so much to do 3000! Hmm, I'm kinda nervous about this but I know that my friends and us can pull this off.

I'm anxiously waiting Sherdellah's first draft for our formal invitations. After a bitter breakup with Momental Designs, I've already put down my deposit for Sherdellah and I really hope that she can pull this off and the invitations will be awesome. Speaking of the Momental Designs bitterness, I had to point out to Kristy via picture proofs that many of the spines were put on so crooked. UGH. At least she gave me back $100 refund. All the Save-the-Dates are FINALLY out. The website was published. It was a hit...yayer!

Otherwise, my life right now is just being confused by wedding planning. How sad.

OMG we are at the 6 month mark!

CRAP there's pretty much 6 months left until the big day and I still have so much to do. I'm feeling good that I finally finished the website. How late of me. I could've enjoyed this for way more time if I wasn't so lazy to finally complete it. It took one big push of working 18 hours straight to actually get it done last weekend. We FINALLY also sent out the save the dates yesterday and brought them to the post office. Honestly, that was supposed to go out in January. Shame Shame Shame on me. Horrible!

I have so much things left to do. AHHHH. I don't even know where to start really. It's time to really get organized and get focused and get things done.

Wedding Website Madness Marathon

I have been sitting down working on my wedding website for 16 hours STRAIGHT.

FML!!!!!!!!!!

Wedding Dresses

By the way, I miss being able to shop for wedding dresses!! Even though I have my dress, it's so fun to look at all the types of wedding dresses. A part of me wants to keep looking for a dress or just pretend I still need one...SIGH!

Making Some Progress

I am so happy that I sorted through the whole confusion of the videographer and now I am so happy to report that that has been finalized!!!!! I am so happy to have Peter of studio205 films do our videography. YAY!!!!! We still need to discuss how to make my stop motion vision a reality. I hope that we can pull it off somehow.

In other news, I just booked our Catholic retreat weekend. Hahaha...just told Glenn, he wasn't very pleased. I'm not looking forward to having to shower in a public, dorm-style bathroom. UGHHHHHHHH gross.

We are nearing confirming the cake. Either I just do the cupcakes from Vi or spend maybe a little more on an actual cake. All the designs I like are pricey but I found 1-2 places that are actually affordable. What can I say....my taste is really expensive...figures.

I'm just glad to say that I'm tracking to my timeline of planning things. However, there are a bunch of little things that I have to do still spinning in my head. I hope to get them done sooner or later. Website, save the date inserts, music/lyric research, stopmotion....AHH!

Crap, and the other thing that sucked is that I couldn't lower the 100 quantity for the flipbooks. Speaking of flipbooks, I am way overdue on sending these out. Crap, they are gonna go out in April. I hope they get made so quick and I can send them out! Shoot, I still need to get envelopes and make the inserts. This was all supposed to be knocked out in January/February.....FAIL!!!!!!!

Speaking of which, I am having a hard time getting the guest list down to 150...this sucks. How am I going to afford more than 150 people!!!!! Another tangent, on my to do list is also to do our taxes this year so we can get our refund back to actually fund things for the wedding.

Glenn is watching me over my shoulder as I type this so I am going to end this blog post right now. UGH!

Highs and Lows!

So I haven't been as disciplined as I feel that I was in January! One of the biggest disappointments right now is with videography. I did extensive research on all these videography people and really finally decided I wanted to go with this one guy. But for the past few weeks, he's been MIA! I'm in denial that I need to move on and just go with someone else because I'm so stubborn and hard-pressed on having him do our videography. The quality, pricing, and packaging were all perfect. AHHHHHH....crossing my fingers it might still happen?

On better news, I'm making progress with stationery and decor. The flipbook physical proof arrived this past week and it is soooo cute. Very awesome! I'm so impressed. I have no words to describe how awesome it is to see this vision come to life. Better yet, I'm so excited about the fact that I'm going to just do all of wedding stationery with Kristy Rice and Momental Designs. I love Kristy. She's an amazing listener. When you talk to her on the phone, she is so patient and she just understands what I'm trying to do. She takes notes of all of our conversations. What can I say? She's an awesome creative spirit who listens to her clients and that is awesome! I'm so excited because we had a really good conversation this weekend about starting up the wedding invitations. Creative goodness in the works...love it! More creative goodness was done this weekend when I met with Shaleta again. We refined some of the visions that we went with when we first met at the bookstore a few weeks ago. I'm so glad I have a friend like her to help me with this! She's so creative and RELIABLE!!!!!! Reliability is so important.

OooooOh and the biggest accomplishment this weekend is that I started making my own wedding website! That's right, not only do I have to settle for a really lame and generic wedding website but I don't have to overpay for a website designer who is going to pretty much charge me like a few hundred dollars for work that I have been satisfied in doing myself. Not only is that awesome in itself but it's awesome how I taught myself how to set this up on Wix without even using one of their premade templates. Templates is not a good word in my dictionary...anything pre-made and uncustomized just doesn't float my boat.

And....lastly, I think I pretty much have a solution on my cake thanks to Ivy's referral!

Sigh,....still worried that everything that has to do with my taste is just too expensive and I don't know how much I'm going to spend in total. That's still concerning.

Well, it's getting late..need to sleep. Till next time. Just wanted to check in.

Momental Designs/Kristy Rice Groupie!

I love, love, love, loooooove Kristy Rice from Momental Designs. I am so pleased at how well the flipbook is coming along. I can't wait for the flipbook to make its big debut. It is so great to work with the Momental Designs team because they always answer my questions fully and they are so accommodating with my requests (these can get pretty frequent and crazy). The only thing I wish is that they were more available to speak on the phone impromptu versus always just going through scheduled phone appointments. Anyway, I looove the flipbook that they've made for us and even though I'm not a fan of their general sketched, painted work, I'm confident in their talent to do more unusual designs and to come through with quality on these. So I'm so happy because 90% I will go with them to do my formal invitations and day of stationery as well. Yayyyyyyyy.....there's one less headache for me to have to worry about! Go Kristy Rice and Momental Designs!!!!!!!!! LOOOOVE THEM!

Recapping Everything So Far!!

Recapping my wedding dress search makes me want to recap all the other things I've done for the wedding. I'm in full writing mode funny enough. This is bad because I really don't have time to waste to recap a bunch of stuff. Yet, the good news is that I haven't done a lot of stuff at all so there's not much to recap...LOL!

I guess the only big things are....engagement ring, photographer, and venue.

As far as the engagement ring goes, in a nutshell, I thought I wanted something for about 6 months. We started looking probably around beginning to middle of 2009. I thought I found the perfect Ritani, channel setting engagement ring at Robbins Bros. but as it got to being beginning of 2010...I realized it was so boring and not what I wanted. So the search pretty much started over from scratch. I looked around some more and was more open minded. The theme of going with things you don't originally expect resonates in my wedding planning. Glenn and I decided to go to Tyler Mall one weekend in the beginning of 2010 to look for rings. Funny enough, we went to Ben Bridge and they were having a diamond show. I saw this beautiful ring. I actually saw a few. What really caught my eye were the Calla cuts. They were so unique. Calla Cuts are specially cut four stones to make it look like a Calla lily flower. I actually was intrigued because I had seen this type of ring for an Ed Pingol bride and was surprised I actually found what it was! When I saw the photo, the ring caught my eye but I had no idea how I would actually track down the ring. So I was so happy to see it here. There was this one type of Calla cut ring that was so amazing but was over $6000, I gave up hope and concluded right there and then that I loved this ring but I would no way be able to afford it! Since the restart of my engagement ring search, we had continued to look for more unique designs and I was so attracted to the halo style and I still am. But to go with the Calla cut style, I could never regret it because it's so unique. I would've loved to have a halo ring too but it wouldn't have been as cost effective to get one whole diamond stone to go in the halo. And from what I remember, there weren't really a whole lot of halo options with a split shank that I actually liked. Glenn's eye caught this type of style (what we were looking for for halo and split) at Ben Bridge the same day. And it was actually really nice and a contender too. We went to other jewelry stores like Helzberg and Jared and got some options but really didn't find the one. We went back to Robbins Bros. and saw my old Ritani ring that was so BLECH to me now and I thought how could I ever like this. It was pretty and simple but wasn't unique enough for me and didn't have character. We were in touch with Ben Bridge back and forth to see if we could find a good stone to go in the halo but we never really committed. I then looked up authorized dealers for Calla cut rings and found one in the jewelry district in Downtown L.A. I contacted them to just ask how much that one Calla cut ring would cost if we got it from them and to my pleasant surprise, it was soooo much more affordable than how much it would've cost at Ben Bridge at the retail jeweler. Glenn was so resistant to getting it from this place because he thought they weren't legit but I looked them up on the BBB and Yelp and they were authorized from the Calla website. I just knew this was our option. Before finally committing to that purchase, we went back to Ben Bridge one last time to make sure this was the ring. I knew this was the ring. Though I liked Glenn's halo option, it would've cost too much. To be able to my ring for cheaper with Bridal Rings in Downtown L.A. and to just be able to say I could get the ring I thought I couldn't have was good enough for me. I pretty much knew this was the ring and I was so amazed that I could get it for a better cost. I really thought at first that I could never be able to afford such a gorgeous ring but now it's on my ring finger as I type and so yes, dreams can come true.

My wedding planning started back in May 2009 when I had a wake up call that Ed Pingol was not available on the date I had selected (9.10.11). I was so disappointed but I got over it as I don't think I would've been able to afford him and I'm so happy with my wedding photographer choice now. I hurried up and looked around and found Ezra Primack of Kiss the Bride Weddings. His work just caught my eye and when I contacted him, he had another couple ready to book him for 9.10.11 so I hurried and booked him. He was the first vendor that I booked and I have no regrets at all about him, his work, and the price. I was ready to splurge on wedding photograph as that is high on my priority list for getting quality services. Funny that the reason I booked him fast was the first date and that changed to Friday, 10.21.11.

Speaking of dates, aside from looking at rings, that's how my wedding planning started. Yea, you know spreadsheets, date analysis, date numerology etc. was how I chose the date. First 9.10.11 but now 10.21.11 and I have no regrets! That was around late 2009 to beginning of 2010.

Missing the boat on Ed Pingol for 9.10.11 (which is a nonexistent issue now...it's funny how wedding planning turns out), I realized I had a wake-up call to start and look for venues because if I wanted 9.10.11, heck if I was going to miss out on other things too! So before we even got engaged, we started looking for venues. I did research on venue options and planned an OC day and an LA day. I took 2 days off of work and designated these days as venue search days. I actually found Seven Degrees on my birthday. It was an awesome beautiful day in OC on my birthday. I remember we had lunch at Las Brisas...my favorite restaurant ever! From when I did venue research on the Internet, Seven Degrees always caught my eye. After seeing some quotes on prices, I really didn't think I could afford it. We still made an appointment to go and after it, I wasn't sure it could work out. But after another day in LA and seeing the rest of the venues in OC, Glenn and I knew that we really needed to get this location. The other places just didn't do much for us at all! Seven Degrees holds a soft spot in our hearts. It is different and unique. It is contemporary and artsy. I love it! As my previous posts showed, I was anxious to see what proposal they would have for us. It was awesome to work with Dora because she was very accommodating and really tried to make it work for us. It finally did after 3-4 revisions and changing the date and making some sacrifices, but I'm glad to say we got Seven Degrees for our reception venue and I can't wait! I know what I want when I see it and I get it too. Yay!

Geez, I can't believe I started all of this in May, got engaged in July, and really lost my steam during the last part of 2010. Partly because I was getting all caught up and having issues with stationery design....BLACHHHHHH I would prefer not to think or recall this time at all! Partly because we were busy preparing for our engagement party. (Note on engagement party in a little bit). So I lost all this time and now I'm having to make up for it. Ivy and I had a good pow wow to break up all of the items and attach deadlines. Even with that, I still get lazy and haven't done as much at that point since she has. It feels chorish sometimes unfortunately!

Anyway, speaking of the engagement party, it was off the hook!!!!!!!!! I think we overspent on this but I guess it was okay because it was sooo fun and we had a good turnout. I think after counting everyone we had about 70-75 people come to our house for our party!!!! It was amazing. We had an awesome lineup of food (Filipino and Indonesian food and a pig!). On the Filipino side, we catered from Banig. We had Chicken/Baby Corn/Mushroom, Chicken Afritada, Beef & Pepper Steak, Beef & Onion, Shrimp, Fish, Pork Adobo, and Sisig. Ben's dad even made us his special chocolate meat too. We had rice cake and cassava desserts! My mom made this whole awesome array of yellow rice with chicken and perkedel among other fun things for that yellow rice. We had 2 types of wonton and corn soup too! We had Indonesian desserts. We had a whole pig - which the Indonesians were amazed at seeing because they're not used to seeing that. We had soooo much alcohol it was insane. We even had our own shot fairy who contributed to me and Glenn's doom. The alcohol was fun at first and it was our doom at the end. I regret that we couldn't stay up more for our party because it sounds like everyone kept having more fun and I just couldn't hang at all. I was so tired from preparing for the party. That's a significant regret but it's okay since I still think the turnout and entire experience was awesome. Cleaning the next day actually wasn't all that bad...it was feasible and we did it. House was clean by the end of Sunday for the most part. It was sooo fun. Pictures could've been better I guess but the pictures were okay. I have my memories and I knew we all had fun! It was a party for the record books and one that I'll never forget! If the engagement party was this fun, imagine how much more out of this world the wedding reception is gonna be! I'm ready to dance!

We also did our engagement photo session with Ezra on December 27th. LOL, I called in sick to Target for the first time in 3.5 years and actually got sick after. Another regret with this is that we didn't take pictures of this experience and we didn't ask Ivy to come with us to memorialize the day. The day started with us going to Ezra's studio in Pasadena. Take that back, the day started when I woke up and Susan did my hair at her salon. We went to Pasadena and Alana did my make up. That was awesome! We started out by taking our shots in Pasadena's City Hall. It was awkward to begin with but I guess we got the hang of it. We just said the most ridiculous things to made sure we smiled (like watermelon watermelon watermelon and cantaloupe cantaloupe cantaloupe). Ezra was really awesome because he told us what to do and gave us that direction that we really needed. We did a dress change and did some fun shots at some phone booths. Then crazy enough, we went to Brea Canyon (where I've driven all my life) and went to that area off the freeway to take our nature shots. We were racing against the time because the sun was going down but hopefully the shots will be good (still waiting for them!). On this day, we had just finished a bunch of rain from the previous week so everything was still wet and gross. To this day, I still need to clean my shoes that has all that mud from the marshy area. We then headed to Downtown L.A. (love this area at night!) and took some shots at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Apparently we missed out on being able to take pictures at the DWP building but we ended the night at the bridge (don't know what it's called)....It was crazy because we took our pictures in the middle of the bridge with all the cars around us! I asked Ezra, "Is this safe?" and he told us no but we did it anyway!! Anyway, huge regret not getting behind-the-scene pictures of this experience but I guess it's all just in my memory.

Despite all of this semi-made-progress, I haven't had as much progress in the stationery realm. Makes sense I guess because I'm so particular when it comes to this. I do have a secret Save the Date Flipbook that's being worked on. THIS IS MY SPLURGE! It's still being worked on right now. I hope it'll be done soon. I'm happy with how the engagement party invitation came out. Now I need to start focusing on the actual wedding invitations! I can't wait for Kristy Rice from Rice Ink to finish with our special flipbooks! THIS IS MY SPLURGE!!!!!!!!

Hmmmm.....damn it I gotta get cracking on my to do list. Ivy is going to totally beat me. Maybe thinking of it as a competition will help get my butt into gear since I'm very competitive!! Even though now I've wasted TWO HOURS updating this blog, I think now finally this BLOG is getting the attention it deserves and this was the whole point of starting it so that I can think back and remember how my wedding planning experience went since it's only going to happen once in my life. Life goes by too fast and we don't stop often enough to reflect on it. I don't want this time of my life to just pass me by without being able to memorialize it. So even though I've wasted two hours this morning when I could've done other stuff, I feel that this is important to do! As I type this, freakin Glenn is criticizing me about updating this blog saying it's a waste of time and saying I could be doing other things for planning. Whatever, I told him to just read what I'm writing.

Alright...well till next time. Hopefully I can come back and provide more updates more frequently. I need to make progress and I'm determined!

P.S. I just made fun of my mom because the funny thing when we were looking for dresses is that she can't pronounce SASH...HAHAHHAHAHH FUNNY!!!

By the way, I'm so happy and excited because Mariposa just told us we can come in at 2:30 pm for an appointment to try on the dress one more time and finally order it!

Wedding Dresses on the Brain!!

I think I may have come to the conclusion now that the perfect wedding dress really does exist! Here I am making another entry because I actually have wedding planning on the brain. This is a rare moment...R-A-R-E. Because I've been really lazy recently and haven't done much! I delegated a whole bunch of stuff to the wonderful BFF and she already got way of a head start to her list than I did. I hate to say that sometimes the wedding planning becomes a CHORE.

Anyway, just to recap on the wedding dress search. It all started a couple of days before Christmas when Myla, Ivy, and I went to have our appointment at Alfred Angelo. What threw me off there is that the very first dress they had me try on was way beyond my budget. It was something like around $2500!! WTF...the consultant knew how much my budget was. So this appointment really wasn't successful because we tried on probably 5-6 dresses but nothing was really working. The 3 of us weren't satisfied so we actually went to David's Bridal in Brea down the street. They actually took us in last minute. The consultant there was much nicer. Really didn't find anything here either except for one contender. But I still didn't feel like it was the dress. The problem was we kept seeing plain dresses. Either the top or the bottom of the dress but it really wasn't the perfect combination.

So the search continued the following week when I went to a couple of boutiques in the IE! Both my parents actually came. Uniquely Elegant Attire had a consultant that was funny and helpful. She was awesome! There was one contender (that we don't have a picture of) but from what I remember, it just wasn't it because it was too plain (on top I think!). Then I headed over to Bellasposa which just looks like an awesome wedding boutique on the outside but the service was so crappy there! Mind you at this point I'm totally early on into my dress search and the consultant pretty much put all the dresses in the room for me and said, well you can go ahead and just try these on. Myself?! WTF! They said they weren't even able to give me a strapless bra cuz they didn't have any in the right size...WTF...you are a boutique! (My mom said it's because they thought my budget was too low). Whatever! I'll take my money elsewhere. (I know if I have money to spend and I'm passionate on it...it will be spent! Save the Date Flipbook...DUH!) Anyway, at Bellasposa after she actually did help. Found some dresses, "the mushroom", and another one that was similar to the David's Bridal one but still plain. UGH....and so the search continues.

And now we go into these last couple days that I had off from Target in my last week of my mental vacation. The entire search pretty much boils down to these 2 days. Ivy came with us the first day. But the first day really sucked because I still didn't really know what I wanted truly. So I kept trying on dresses that I thought I wanted but really still never found the right combination of the dress. At The Dresser in Fullerton, I tried on some gorgeous dresses but they were still so plain! We then went to Mary Me Bridal in Orange and actually found a contender there. This "9.3 dress" as my mom refers to it and as Ivy HATES to refer to it as. It was gorgeous with more detail but pretty pricey for the boringness of the dress that it was. But it was still a gorgeous Lunanovias/Pronovias dress! We also tried on "the mushroom" again and the Maggie contender from The Dresser again. But we walked out of there with a good feeling on the 9.3! On a side note, I actually tried on a dress from here that couldn't even make it as a contender but subtly hints at the silhouette that I would ultimately end up with. Little did I know at the time that that would be the silhoutte I would choose!! We continued on to Mon Amie in Costa Mesa. This was a joke appointment because all their dresses there were so expensive and out of my price range! The poor consultant...I really wasn't honest with her. She was nice but we really were just wasting her time. I couldn't fake it but Ivy tried to and I couldn't figure out when she was fake or not. UGH...we tried on so many dresses here and really didn't walk out with any contenders! What a waste of time. So the first day truly was unproductive because I couldn't find THE DRESS, couldn't find the right combination..........BLAH!!! My mom and I still were curious so we daringly said, "Let's go to Las Tunas in Temple City and look at the Chinese boutiques there!". Ivy was gone at this point and threw in the towel, probably pretty frustrated with us for having an unproductive day. So we dropped her off and my mom and I headed to Temple City. I tried on a few dresses at about 4-5 boutiques that were really nice but still weren't contenders. The prices at these Chinese boutiques were soooo cheap though! All in all, they had nice dresses but they were too traditional I felt and not contemporary enough. Tired after a long day...we inhaled food at Ajisen Ramen.

So I was supposed to go home to Beaumont on Monday but we were still so unsatisfied that I planned another last minute trip and route for the next day Tuesday. My mom and I went out again to Orange County after she got off work from Target. By the way, I got smarter on the second day because I went to the furthest southwest location first to avoid traffic on the way back home....I'm so awesome! The theme of the second day is that we started experimenting outside the box and tried on dresses that I didn't expect I would like but wow, I actually liked them. So at Jinny's in Huntington Beach (which was so annoying because it was so far off the freeway)...the lady was very helpful. They had soooo many dresses! And the final contender from this location (too bad the designer name escapes me for now!) was a whimsical, free floating asymmetrical, organza-ish different type of dress. On the second day, we actually went to less contemporary boutiques and to more of the low-key, unadvertised bridal locations. We continued on to Ferndale's and they had a lot of dresses too! They actually had a Maggie trunk show going on at the time. But still...the dresses from the trunk show really weren't it either. So then we went to this other little place called Tom's Bridal. For the very first time here, I actually tried on this very, very gorgeous Mori Lee dress. Now this was a memorable moment because for the very first time after at least 50+ dresses I tried on, this was the very first time I actually felt the magical, princess-y, bridal feeling. My mom looooved the dress and actually started pestering Rit on the phone while we were there so she could look at it. Of course, she failed in sending the pictures out from her phone. But anyway, I was concerned that it was too poofy. This was my most pestering concern ever since the first day at Alfred Angelo. It was gorgeous on the top but the bottom and the back particularly was just too much. It was the organza material pick-ups that made it too billowy. But this is where the outside-the-box mentality kept kicking in subtly saying, "go outside the box......inside the box is stuffy!". Ok anyway...I'm weird! Hmmm...so we continued to our final location (well actually second to last place as I will explain later). This next place is the beautiful Mariposa boutique in Anaheim. They are closed on Mondays which is why we couldn't put it as part of our route on Monday. Unfortunately, the only reason why I decided to do Monday instead of Tuesday was to ensure that I made it to Mon Amie which is closed on Tuesdays (well that's a joke because the Mon Amie visit was a joke!). So we couldn't go to Mariposa on Monday but I was glad that we did the Tuesday trip to make it there. This was the only reason why we wanted to go out on Tuesday but I added the 3 other additional OC places since we were going to be out anyway. (Yes, poor Civic and what a waste of gas.... :( ) Necessary, I suppose. My consultant at Mariposa was awesome. I went in there with the intent of being completely honest about my dilemma. That I couldn't find the perfect dress with a good bottom and top, that we were dancing with outside-the-box syndrome today, and that I really needed her opinion and help! I was determined to find it!! One of the great things about this place is that it carried all of the contenders from Tuesday in one place and we were actually able to take pictures for memories sake. So it was nice because I was able to try on all the Tuesday contenders (all the Monday contenders really weren't contenders after all) so that we can compare them all and take pictures. So before I continue on with this story....one side note...

Tuesday morning as my mom was at Target working and as I was planning my route for the day...I had this inkling to just Google Disney Bridal dresses. So I did just that and saw again the Ariel Disney Bridal dress and thought to myself....OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG could this be the dress that could be THE DRESS!??!?!? I sent Ivy a message so fast on Facebook. I had seen all the Disney Bridal dresses before but never really thought any could be it...plus I considered the cheesiness of having a Disney bridal dress. But this Ariel dress really could be the one perfect top and bottom combination I was looking for. Soooo, I actually tagged on one final appointment after Mariposa for Tuesday. I had done the full appointment at Alfred Angelo but I just wanted to try on the Ariel dress to see how it would be (which funny enough is similar to the first 410 I tried on). Alright...back to the Mariposa story!

I was at Mariposa and we looked around to pull all the dresses I would try. (Wedding dress shopping is soooo fun by the way!). I came across this one dress at the end of an aisle hanging from the rack. It wasn't like all the other dresses that were just hanging off the rack. It was special. It was on display at the end of the rack with its beauty for everyone to see. At this point, this really wasn't the style I had in mind from the Monday adventures. But remember, we were in desperate, outside-the-box mode by this time. So I determined that this would be one of the ones we would try on for the appointment. I didn't really have a whole lot of other new dresses this time around. Two of them were already previous dresses that I tried on that day. So the first dress I tried on was this one at the end of the rack. Wow, it was beautiful. Not quite the princess-y feeling again cuz I think that feeling can just come and go once in life (which for me happened at Tom's Bridal). But it was beautiful and I absolutely just loved and adored it. Still wanting to be thorough, we tried on all the other dresses but none of them just struck my interest as the first one did. Tried the Mori Lee on again....still too billowy. Tried the Jinny's contender again (mystery brand name?), but as unique and different (and cheap!) as it was, it just wasn't as exciting and bridal-ish as the first one. So O-M-G, W-O-W! We finally reached the conclusion that I've been looking for finally deciding that my Sottero and Midgley dress at the front of the rack was THE ONE-THE DRESS for me. But wait...CRAP what about the Ariel Dress at Alfred Angelo! We were about to even go ahead and put the deposit down on the dress and we could've gotten a 10% discount but I had to be thorough and just hold off since we were going to Alfred Angelo. Nevertheless, I was pretty convinced leaving Mariposa that this was my dress.

So we went to Alfred Angelo. And geez, we hit a huge problem! The ARIEL Disney Bridal dress was gorgeous. Had I not seen the Sottero and Midgley dress at Mariposa, this really would've been the one. The one that would've solved my Monday and Tuesday woes. I tried it on in white which was barfy. They unfortunately didn't have it in Diamond White. But I saw it in Diamond White. It was beautiful in white but would've been even more gorgeous in Diamond White. We left Alfred Angelo feeling confused. Lots of feelings actually. Happy that Tuesday was a much better day (I really regret Ivy going with us on Monday). Happy that we found "the one" at Mariposa. So confused now that we have a desire for the Ariel dress too. But still relieved that after trying on 80+ dresses, I was able to reach the point of limiting it down to just 2 dresses. And relieved at the time that we didn't put the deposit down at Mariposa because now we had seen that Ariel was another serious contender.

But these 2 dresses were truly a quandary! They were completely different in style. Can't compare them....apples and oranges. Both so beautiful. Now my task is to choose between the two. How would I do that?!?!??! Per my mom's command, she had me put the pictures of both side to side. I was becoming more convinced that I loooved the Ariel dress more. Because it was pretty much the style I wanted to begin with. And it was Disney Little Mermaid...that's coincidental! I LLLLOOOOOOVVVVVVVVEEEE Disney! Pricing was similar so that's out of the question. I had to think about...well which dress would be more suitable for the reception venue and the bridesmaids' dresses, etc. Actually, I knew that the Sottero and Midgley gown would be a better value because it was the same price as the Ariel but it was Couture! How that Ariel dress is similar in price to Sottero and Midgley is only due to the fact that I'm paying for the Disney name. I was sure that Ariel was the one now and happy I didn't put a deposit down at Mariposa. My mom asked all her friends and they liked the Sottero and Midgley gown. I reasoned that was because they are older and had more of an affinity to traditional gowns. I told myself that I liked the Ariel dress because it was more contemporary.

After training in La Mirada for my new job, Ivy and I decided to go to Alfred Angelo to see Ariel. Wow, the Diamond White Ariel actually arrived!! I got to try it on in Diamond White. Ivy loooved the dress too and said it was really awesome. But I guess she's good at keeping an open mind. I was still sure at the time that Ariel was the one. I told Ivy that this is it and that she might be more concerned about seeing the SM dress because I had more concerns with it. I was only 95% sure it was the one because I kept lingering on the fact that the back was still too poofy for me. I knew that the Ariel dress was a perfect combination of top and bottom I was looking for. So I told Ivy....Ariel is the one and you might not like this one at Mariposa. So we actually went to Mariposa on surface streets. From Brea to Anaheim on surface streets with Ivy's Benz and her GPS....Ivy was driving me...Wow, that's unheard of! So we went to Mariposa and I tried on the SM dress. I still looooooved that dress. The feeling of dilemma came rushing back. For a week and a half, I was convinced Ariel was the one. But I guess I wasn't that convinced if I just loooved being in the SM dress. I just still loved it and I knew this was a difficult decision if I was this in love with the SM dress. Ivy LOOOOVED the SM dress way more. She kept trying to reason with me that the back isn't even that poofy. The consultant at Mariposa (a different one from the first time) actually brought up the possibility that the mermaid type of dress doesn't work for short people because it shortens the frame. That it's better for tall people if you have long legs. If I have short legs, the mermaid poof at the bottom actually seems to diminish the legs. This was the first time I heard of this and I took it into serious consideration. I guess yes, it did kind of make me shorter. This wasn't the ultimate reason for the decision but part of it for sure. So this was it, I finally was 110% convinced that the SM dress was MY dress. It was gorgeous. I loved it. And now I'm so at peace with my decision. Today is Sunday, 1/23 and we are going to try and go back today to make the purchase. And hopefully try it on again one more time because it's just so gorgeous and fun!

So as crazy as it was trying on 80+ dresses, I'm very happy with my final decision. As crazy as it was, the experience was so fun and I'm so sad that it's over. This is it. I won't be doing this again in life. Even if I just wanted the fun, I can't just lie to be a bride-to-be and go places and try on dresses. Really, no one has the time for that. Second, I'd be a horrible liar (as I was at Mon Amie). So this is it. The wedding dress search experience is over. So sad but it was so much fun! Now I just have to look forward to the one day that I'll be wearing it in life.

And WTF, I wasted ONE HOUR writing this damn post. This is the kind of BS I distract myself with instead of actually wedding planning! This post in itself was probably longer than all my (what 3 posts since the start) posts in the whole blog. But I thought it would be really important to showcase my experience because it was so memorable and fun.

UGH...back to wedding planning now!!!

LOVE MY DRESS!

Does the Perfect Wedding Dress Really Exist?

So I haven't posted an entry in almost 6 months on this thing....WTF is wrong with me?!?!?

BUSY TIMES....

Have had a mental vacation for the last six weeks and I've barely made progress on anything...I figure now that it's January, it's really time to kick my butt into full gear for wedding planning and really commit for sustainability in planning.

In a nutshell, what's happened these past few months have focused on stationery and planning the engagement party. Engagement party was a success and so were the invitations for it. I've started making the save the date announcements, which is my big splurge that I just can't resist!

I have to start thinking about the invitations now and making a stop motion save the date video......hopefully some friends will help.

We also did our engagement shoot a week ago which went amazing...I can't wait to see the pictures!

Now I'm on a full search to find a wedding gown...but I don't know if the perfect wedding dress exists!! I like some tops and some bottoms but there is no WOW that just has the perfect top and bottom....DILEMMA!

Tired...hopefully I update soon again....??