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| My Community Bio | |||
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| Knot Name: mauidjenn | |||
| Location: Live in NYC, wedding on Maui | |||
| Age: 26 | |||
| About our wedding: Jennifer & Tizoc September 23, 2005 Maui, Hawaii
Overall… My husband and I had the happiest day of our lives and we have no regrets. We had a small and limited budget so planning was slow and difficult -- everything was a compromise. In the end, we were happy with the choices we've made and we had the wedding of our dreams. Both our families were very impressed. They had misgivings about traveling so far away (and spending good money) for our wedding, but afterwards they all agreed that they would do it again in a heartbeat. So for those of you whose families are giving you a hard time about your DW, don't lose hope! Everything will be better in the end and all your hard work will pay off. Thank You… Borrowing Photos… ~ Jenn (gin&tonic)~ This is us! Happy to be in Hawaii With three of my bridesmaids With two of the groomsmen Our wonderful friends who came out to Hawaii to attend our wedding Group shot! Something Old (the garter that Tizoc caught at a wedding 15 years ago) and Something New (personalized undies from PagePanties) Getting my hair done and keeping myself busy! My adorable flower girl She's a girl after my own heart! That's the most make-up I've ever seen in my life. Mom and I having a moment My aunt helping the girls get ready Bridesmaids getting ready I love the little white orchids in my hair. The lovely women in my family helping me put on the gown... ...then the garter... ...the shoes... ...and a few final touches. I love this picture of me and my flower girl. She's so cute! Mom helping with my veil before I walk down the aisle. My gorgeous bouquet! A close-up of the details A few pre-ceremony bridal pics Putting together the place cards before he gets ready. How sweet! He also put his groomsmen to work! LOL! Groomsmen's shirts. They were very grateful that I didn't put them in a monkey suit. He looked so handsome! No wonder I'm marrying this guy. Tizoc welcoming our guests. He was cool as a cucumber. A close-up of his bout. The bridesmaids carried these items to the altar. The ring pillow, box for the "arras" (gold coins), and wooden sand bottles. To bring us joy: our flower girls and their baskets My beautiful niece: our lei bearer The ladies The gentlemen LOL! Watch out N'Sync! Here's the proud father of the bride. Parents of the groom To perform our ceremony ~ Pastor Laki Kaahumanu We have always dreamed of getting married in Hawaii, and when I first set eyes on a picture of the White Orchid Beach House, I knew it would be THE place. We love it for its Old Hawaii beauty and its rocky, cove beach. And the scenery is just breathtaking! Everyone loved this place, and they never again questioned why we chose to get married on Maui. (Photos by Jessica Claire Photography) It was a beautiful morning DIY programs. We put one on each chair. The guys walking to the altar The minister blowing the conch shell to announce the start of the procession Bringing the leis Bridesmaids bringing the wedding rings and the arras (coins) Bringing the bride and groom's sands A good shot of the bridesmaids' wrist corsages. She stuck tissues underneath for the tear jerkers. Waiting for the bride to come... ...and there she is... ...In her crying glory! Seriously, I cried myself to the altar. I kept asking my parents to tell me something funny. He's really sweet! Lei ceremony ~ We dedicated leis to our parents as a token of our love Exchanging our vows My boohoo face Exchanging rings ~ to symbolize our commitment Pouring the sand ~ to symbolize our union Blessing of coins ~ a tribute to our Filipino and Mexican heritage Going for the kiss... Yipee! So happy! ~ Tear jerkers ~ A moment with my dad. He started to cry.... My sister and brother ~ we were ALL crying (see the tears on her cheek), but at least they had sunglasses on! I was a wreck! (Photos by Jessica Claire Photography) To the beach! One of my favorite shots I was just so darn happy! Like other brides before me, I was extremely obsessive about the details during the planning, but learned in the end that the ulcer was not worth the trouble. Everything went as planned, of course, but I didn't even notice the little details until I got my pictures back! However, for the sake of showcasing a year's worth of planning, here are a few of the details that consumed most of my time this past year. The rest was spent knotting! Oh the good old days! (Photos by Jessica Claire Photography) The reception area. I'm glad we went with a clear tent and colored linens. It made everything look bright and cheerful despite the somber weather. DIY place cards! Because votive candles were out of the question, I wanted to do something cool for our place cards and table cards. We used the sand from our hotel beach. Poor DH twisted all the wires by hand. Here's the table set-up (we had 6 total). We had it down to the lotus napkin fold. We had assigned seating so each place card was set on top of the napkins. The guys set them up early in the morning while the ladies were getting pampered. Ha! A close-up of the table card and centerpiece Favors courtesy of Auntie Nalani's cookies. We handed them out to each guest as they left the beach house after the reception. Our beautiful and delicious cake! A friend said it looked like a stack of hat boxes (square-round-square). The top and bottom layers are passionfruit, and the middle layer is chocolate and raspberry. I still dream about this cake. Mmmm... One of the best things about having a small wedding -- you actually get to eat! (Photos by Tad Craig Photography) We had our first dance as soon as we were announced at the reception. Somewhere over the rainbow... ...dreams really do come true. Slack key duo. The rain looked really cool from under the clear tent. More kissy shots Tossing the garter! I love the air shot of the garter. LOL! The new owners of the garter and bouquet. We knew that having a destination wedding meant leaving a lot of people behind. But our family and friends respected our decision and never once gave us a hard time about it. It is their support that had enabled us to follow our dream. My parents always told me to count my blessings. Here they are. (Photos by Tad Craig Photography) The men and women who gave us so much love and support on our wedding day. Our wonderful parents who gave us life and taught us the true meaning of love. Bride's family ~ Groom's family (can you say "My Big Fat Greek Wedding") Our dear friends who made our day truly special. We're lucky to have known such great people. And of course, the adorable kiddies who brought us so much laughter! I love this place. We threw a party in the evening at our honeymoon cottage to continue the celebration. I didn't plan this far into the wedding so everything pretty much happened spontaneously. I only booked a photographer, a bartender, and a couple of hula dancers, and rented some lights. Everything else fell into place because of our wonderful family and friends (a local family friend prepared the food, the boys bought the alcohol, my sister took care of the setup, my bro-in-law took the video, my uncle hosted the entertainment, a friend acted as DJ -- and he was really good), and everyone just had a really good time! So my advice, don't be afraid to ask your family and friends for help. They truly made our day so special. Lanterns and luminaries around the pool and the makeshift centerpiece I came up with a few minutes before the party began (from leftover pool luminaries). My niece sipping a cool lava flow. Stepping out for some nooky. Food and drinks (that's Stacey from Bars Are Us!) Waiting for the entertainment to begin. DH didn't know I was PART of the entertainment. And there I go! That's me in the middle, nervous as hell! We were doing an otea (the fast hip dance). This is all unrehearsed so I was PRAYING hard. I think this is the first time DH saw me shake my boo-tay! LOL! My poor DH! I was trying to teach him how to shake his hips. No use. I pulled my mom and sis to do an impromptu performance (they used to dance pro when I was a baby). They still got it! Mom knew all the moves to Blue Hawaii. Then it was the guests' turn!!! Everybody loves the Hukilau! And for the finale... Our awesome friend and DJ, Max, who kept the party going until the next day. We found him passed out in our living room in the morning. (Photos by Jessica Claire Photography) To come... One of my favorite moments in planning our wedding is creating DIY projects. We wanted our wedding to include as many personal touches as possible. I love the way our DIY projects came out, and we've received a lot of compliments on them. For us, though, they will always serve as a testament of our patience with one another and our ability to work together. Through a system of trial and error we were able to create the following items: (Please note: we worked very hard and spent a lot of time creating these items, but if you'd like to replicate or use any of them as ideas, PLEASE give us credit. Thank you!) Map of Maui Pocketfold invitations and RSVP postcards Save-the-Date MIBs Programs Table set-up (excluding centerpieces) Other items (no pics yet): OOT guest packets, guest book, display montage at the reception, thank you cards Photography ~ Various: J J J J J Jessica Claire Photography: Jessica is just amazing and we absolutely LOVE our pictures! We originally had in mind to book Jay Reilly, but because he was not available for our date, he passed on my info to Jessica. She then contacted me and we took it from there! Unfortunately, however, Jessica had another wedding the next day back in California. Fortunately, my wedding was in the morning so I told her she need not stay for our reception so she can catch an afternoon flight back, and it worked out well. She did the beach photo shoot the day before as well as covered our welcome dinner in lieu of reception pictures. The day of, we had her for 5 hours to take getting ready, ceremony, and post-ceremony pics. We had a fabulous time with Jessica and our photos are all so beautiful!!! Our family and friends couldn't believe how amazing they are. Tad Craig Photography: Luckily, our package with A White Orchid Wedding included 2 hours of photography. Because Jessica couldn't stay for our reception, we asked our coordinator to book Tad Craig for those 2 hours and have him come in during our reception (we chose him from their list of vendors because I've seen his work). Tad is really cool and laid-back, and he worked well under the rainy conditions (it rained on and off). I did feel bad that we hired him for the most part to shoot the family portraits and pics with our guests, which I think is the least favorite part among wedding photographers. But if he were put off, he never showed it. Tad is a really pleasant guy to work with during and after the wedding, and our photos came out beautiful! Lashawn Photographic: I have always like Lashawn's work, so when we decided to book a photographer for the evening party, I contacted him right away. We booked him for an hour and a half, but the night of, he stayed for 3 hours! He came early too! Lashawn is awesome! If you want non-intrusive, photojournalistic style, then he is your man. We never saw him take the shots, but two weeks after the wedding, we had a CD with a ton of photos! He works fast and is an awesome photographer. I wanted to surprise my husband with a hula and Tahitian performance. He knows I used to dance when I was younger but had never seen me perform. I originally hired another production company to provide the music and hula dancers but they had to cancel at the last minute. This wasn’t a big deal since they referred me to another company, owned by George and Diane Puoa. Diane met with me the day before to go over the details of the performance. She’s really sweet and we instantly clicked. The night of, because I was trying to keep it a secret, I had my cousin keep my husband busy while I don my hula outfit. And then with the sound of Tahitian drums I came out with two hula dancers to perform the otea (yup, the fast hip dance). It took a lot of guts but I’m glad I did it. Then I did a solo hula to the Hawaiian Wedding Song in front of my dear husband. When our guests asked me to do an encore, I pulled my mom and sister (who taught me how to dance), and all three of us danced to Blue Hawaii. This was truly memorable since the last time the three of us performed was close to 20 years ago. Afterwards, all the guests jumped to learn the “Hukilau,” then the entertainment ended with a cool firedance. The performances (including my otea) during the evening were unrehearsed but everyone was amazed! The musicians, “Uncle Lui” and his son, were really sweet and easily blended with our group. We had so much fun!  | |||