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!
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