My Mrs. hoodie!
We saw each other before the ceremony. This was our "big
reveal." Brent joked, "What if I choose the wrong
door?"
I was showing
my friends my dad's pin and the locket with his picture that I attached
to my bouquet.
Brent
"eeew"-ed when our photographer said to kiss.
Lounge area centerpiece
Brent's cousin's daughter using the lounge area.
Table numbers & menu.
Wedding Programs
Our
serious look
Garter
toss
This is when I gave my mom part
of my bouquet to put on my father's grave. That's my brother and my
nephew.
NON-PRO PICS
The entire album on Flickr here
At the rehearsal with my BMs
The ceremony set-up (that's Kerim near the arch)
Brent's father married us.
The bridal party - Brent had a groomsmaid
Brent's family & I
>
Checking out the Polaroid guestbook - it was a hit!
The venue set-up!
Place cards - we used frames so they wouldn't blow away.
Taking some romantic shots as the sun sets.
Cake cutting - I love this photo so much because of our little flower
girls. They "eeeew"-ed everytime we kissed.
Brent and I lounging. We LOVED this furniture we rented from Kerim at My
Wedding Blooms.
Dancing!
VENDOR REVIEWS
All my vendors deserve A+++++++++! :)
Ceremony and reception location: LA
River Center
and
Gardens We LOVED our venue! We knew from the moment we saw it
that it was the place for our dream wedding. The venue
doesn't provide anything beyond the actual location (and 150 chairs), so
we brought in our caterer, rentals, alcohol,
coordinator, etc. It was a lot of work, but well worth it! Zenia, the
site manager, was easy to work with and very
responsive. TIP: The LARCG books up really quickly, so you have to book
early!
Photographer: Next Exit
Photography Next Exit are
absolutely AMAZING! They were the first photographers we met with and we
instantly clicked, but we interviewed three other
photographers just to make sure our choice was solid. Next Exit - with
their photojournalistic style and our chemistry with
them - had raised the bar so much that the others we interviewed didn't
even compare! We had a blast taking engagement photos
with Cat & Adi (Next Exit) on the beach back in September, which was
great practice for the big day. Along the way, Cat was
super, super responsive to all my questions. On the big day, they were so
great to work with! Chemistry with your
photographer really does make a big difference. They made it easy for
everyone to relax and everyone thought they were great!
When we saw the pics from our wedding, we about died because they were
so beautiful and EXACTLY what Brent and I had
hoped for! All my married friends who have seen them
have commented that they wish they could go back in time and hire Next
Exit instead - they're really that great! We'll
continue to use Next Exit for all our photography needs - pregnancy
photos, kids' portraits, family portraits, serously! TIP:
Don't skimp on the cost of your photography! It's an everlasting record
of your big day and something you shouldn't regret!
Florist & Rentals: Kerim from My Wedding
Blooms Kerim, a
Knottie favorite, exceeded my expectations! He was so great to work with
the entire step of the way. Even Brent was
thoroughly impressed (and that doesn't come easy). I didn't have a
specific floral vision in mind, although I went in not
wanting tall centerpieces - until Kerim invited us to swing by his
wedding (also at the LARCG) to check out his amazing,
beautifuly, tall centerpieces. I changed my mind to tall centerpieces
then and there! Kerim made all my floral wedding dreams
come true! He provided gorgeous bouquets for me and my gals, boutonnieres
for the guys, flowers for the mothers, petals for
the aisle and flower girls, a floral arch for the ceremony (which we put
over the cake during the reception), centerpieces,
cake flowers, and an arrangement for our lounge area - and everything was
GORGEOUS! Kerim officially expanded his floral
business into a more full-service wedding business, including rentals and
a day-of coordinator (named Ana), just in time for
us to try them out. All the rentals we got from him were great,
especially the chivari chairs and the furniture for our
lounge area! Brent and I had so much fun taking pictures on the lounge
furniture. And the lounge area was a bit hit with the
guests, especially those who weren't into dancing but still wanted to be
close to the festivities. TIP: Consider keeping an
open mind with your flowers, maybe just a color palette and a few flowers
you definitely don't want (like no carnations, for
me).
Day-of Coordinator: Ana from My Wedding
Blooms (discount
if you're using MyWeddingBlooms.com for flowers) Ana was definitely one
of our best wedding investments! Because LARCG
doesn't come with a coordinator (like a hotel would) and because you have
to arrange everything yourself (ceremony and
reception set-up), Ana was invaluable as she dealt with all of that. Ana
provided a great timeline for me and another version
specific to the vendors. She constantly checked in with me during the
planning process to see if I need anything. (She got a
quote for me from our alcohol vendor, which was really above and beyond
her day-of duties.) She's also done more than 20
weddings at LARCG (including Kerim's!), so she knows the place (and its
rules) inside and out. The only question I had to
answer all day was how to pronounce someone's name. Ana took care of
EVERYTHING! She made sure that the set-up and teardown
happened without a hitch. If there were any fires, I certainly didn't
know about them. TIP: If you can afford it, DEFINITELY
consider getting a day-of coordinator. Despite all the planning you put
into your day, you don't want to act as a planner ON
the big day. Let someone else take care of the hassles while you enjoy
your day!
Hair and make-up: Tess from The
Artistry Group NOTE: TESS NO LONGER DOES HAIR AND MAKE-UP FOR LOS ANGELES BRIDES. Even
though I was wearing a big white dress, it was Tess, another Knottie
favorite, who made me feel like an official bride! I did
a hair and make-up trial with her, which was lots of fun and turned out
great. And on the day-of, her hair and make-up made
me look (and most importantly FEEL) so, so beautiful! My make-up was
great and looks amazing in all the pics I've seen, yet
not overdone in-person. My hair stayed fresh and new for the entire day
and night, even after some heavy duty dancing! Tess'
assistant, Marlyn, did such a great job on all my girls. They all had
updos, but they were all unique. She also did our moms'
hair, which turned out fabulous (along with the make-up done by Tess).
TIP: If at all possible, do a trial. One of BMs is
getting married in July, planning to wear her hair up but isn't doing a
trial with her hair lady. However, after seeing how
my hair turned out, she's considering wearing hers half-up. A trial would
probably help her decide.
Caterer: Cook's
Gathering Tim Mcgrath is the owner and chef of
this catering company. Tim regularly caters dinner parties for Brent's
parents and their circle of friends, so he was very
eager to do our wedding, which he's recently expanded his business to
include. Tim doesn't provide rentals, so I had to
secure those, but he was happy to work with our rentals folks to secure
quantities, types of items needed, etc. He doesn't do
tastings, but we've been to dinner parties he's catered and it's always
delicious. Tim's food is absolutely delicious! He
catered our bridal shower (we had a tea party) and our day-after brunch,
in addition to our wedding of course. Everything was
fresh and amazing and yummy! And he's just a really nice person to work
with. I highly recommend him! TIP: Make sure you set
as realistic expectations as possible about guest counts. We ended up
with around 115 guests, instead of 150 like we had
originally expected. This threw off the catering needs quite a bit, but
we got everything straightened out with no problem.
DJ: Tom at California
Sounds I focused on the dinner time music
(our quartet played during our cocktail hour) and only gave him a few
must-plays for the dancing, along with DO NOT PLAYS,
which he really stuck to. My brother (he and I aren't close) really
wanted Tom to play some country song for us, but country
was on our do-not-play list. (Brent and I loathe country, as do most of
our guests.) Tom had promised he would only play
anything on our do-not list if I personally told him it was ok. So Tom
wouldn't play the song and I told my brother that we
did not want to hear any country. I really appreciated Tom sticking to
his guns! He was exactly what we wanted - there for
the announcements and not cheesey at all! Even my very proper FMIL said
he was great! (And she's hard to impress.) One of my
BMs, who is a country FANATIC, said that for a non-country songs wedding,
she really enjoyed all his dance music. The only
thing I'd do differently is I would have paid him ahead of time instead
of putting my FFIL in charge of it. He hadn't given
him the check yet and it was almost the end of the night (I had promised
Tom he'd be paid before the night was over), so he
had to ask me who was paying him. I think FFIL was waiting to see how big
of a tip he'd deserve. So, if I could change it, I
would have paid him ahead of time and then had my FFIL give him another
check for a tip at the end of the night. I don't
blame Tom at all for asking - I can only imagine how burned he's been by
not knowing who was supposed to pay him but didn't.
TIP: I collected all the songs I wanted to hear during dinner (from my
iTunes collection) into one playlist and did a
screenshot of that for Tom. I listened to that playlist again and again
on our honeymoon (while lounging by the pool), which
was like a mini-time machine back to our big day.
Cake: Susina
Bakery Brent and I tasted cake at like 6
different places (Susina, Porto's, Rosebud's, Bee's Knees, Cakery Bakery,
Jackie's) and Susina was BY FAR OUR FAVORITE! We
saved a couple hundred dollars by having the cake tiered instead of
stacked. (The bakery doesn't have to insert rods to hold
it up, etc.) Jenna, the bakery owner, is sooo, sooo nice and down to
earth - an absolute pleasure to work with. We chose the
Raspberry Lemon Dream (although we were torn between that and the Berry
Blossom, Susina's most popular flavor). On the day
of, we had so many of our guests tell us that not only was the cake the
best wedding cake they ever had, but the BEST CAKE
EVER (in general)! We will celebrate every wedding anniversary (and
possibly other celebrations) with Susina's Raspberry
Lemon Dream cake. TIP: We tried to cram as many tastings into one day as
possible. Anything more than 2 in one day is
probably too many.
String Quartet: No-named quartet with students from Northridge.
The leader is Petros, who can be reached at ando63 @
pacbell.net. I found a posting on Craigslist from this quartet, so I
checked them out. I never met them in person or saw them
play at an event, but I did get their demo CD, talk to a few references
and got one of their pictures of them at an event to
see how professional they looked. As a former band geek myself, I'm a big
supporter of student arts (and these students have
been playing for about 12 years - very well-trained), so after sufficient
investigation (and their very reasonable price) I
happily went with them. I didn't get to hear a lot of their playing at
our wedding because I came out last for the ceremony
(obviously) and was pretty busy during the cocktail hour, but what little
I heard was really great. My guests also told me
they did a great job!
Alcohol: Valley Beverage (818) 981-WINE (ask for Dawn). This
company will deliver a full bar and all the alcohol you
need for your wedding (including wine). They charge you for everything
and then they refund you for any unopened alcohol,
typically 1/3 to 1/4 back. They were easy to work with and met all our
requests for specific kinds of drinks (lots of
different kinds of martinis) and kinds of beer. This was perfect for a
venue like mine as we didn't have to deal with lugging
our own alcohol, ice, etc.
Jewelry (rings): Icing On The
Ring Another Knottie favorite, we
really enjoyed working with Icing on the Ring. Their prices were great
and this family-owned business didn't make you feel
like you were doing them a favor (like some of the other jewelers in the
downtown jewelery district did). We went during one
of their 20% off sales. The only issue we had is that they ordered the
wrong size for Brent's band, even though they had
measured him. So they had to order another one, which arrived quickly.
I'd definitely recommend them!
Jewelry (earrings): Ebay Seller 1goldone, also with a site
ParkAveDesigns.com Fast shipment, great price. I love my earrings! I
hope to find an excuse to wear them again!
My dress: Chrissy O
Bridal Very, very easy to work with.
They price-matched another online bridal vendor. I was lucky enough to
order from them before Maggie Sottero started cracking
down on discounted prices. Jessica, the woman who handles internet
orders, was really nice and super responsive. The dress
arrived exactly on time in fabulous condition (along with a garment bag
and a blue garter).
Bridesmaid dresses: Pearl's Place
Easy to work with and all
the dresses arrived to the four separate addresses with no problem. The
designer is Dessy, style #2018 in Cotton Candy. My hubby had a groomsmaid
and she wore the same dress as my girls but in black.
Parents' Gifts (embroidered handkerchiefs for moms): Linen Classics
(ebay seller - MaineMomOf4) This seller was really
fast and the gifts turned our really nice. Our moms loved the hankies!
Honeymoon: Hawaii, 5 nights in Kauai, 5 nights in Maui via Costco
Travel- I'll do the honeymoon review later. These
vendor reviews took a long time to do! :)
PLANNING BIO
THE PROPOSAL
We had planned a trip to Santa Barbara for the weekend. My FI Brent had
originally told me
that we had reservations at a place called Eagle Inn. When we arrived in
Santa Barbara on
Saturday, though, Brent said he had a surprise for me in Goleta (10
minutes north of SB). We
pulled up to a place called Bacara, which turned out to be a lavish
resort (with lots of
celeb clientele). Brent revealed that he had booked a massage for me
there because he had
heard the spa was great. After my massage, I was presented with an
envelope that contained a
hotel room key. I found the room, which had a note from Brent indicating
that we were
spending the weekend there and a map leading me to where Brent was
waiting. He was there,
all dressed up, on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Then he proposed! I
squealed with
happiness (and then cried from joy, too). We had dinner at a great
restaurant that night and
continued to have the most romantic and enjoyable weekend ever.
SECURED VENDORS
Ceremony and reception location: LA
River Center and
Gardens
Photographer: Next Exit
Photography
Florist: Kerim from My Wedding
Blooms
Hair and make-up: Tess from The
Artistry Group
Caterer: Cook's
Gathering
DJ: Tom at California
SOunds
Cake: Susina
Bakery
Day-of Coordinator: Ana from MyWeddingBlooms.com (discount if you're
using
MyWeddingBlooms.com for flowers)
Rentals: Kerim is expanding his business to rentals. My Wedding
Blooms
String Quartet: No-named quartet with students from Northridge. E-mail me
for contact info.
Jewelry: Icing On
The Ring
My dress: Chrissy
O Bridal
Bridesmaid dresses:
Pearl's
Place
Parents' Gifts (embroidered handkerchiefs for moms): Linen Classics (ebay
seller -
MaineMomOf4)
Honeymoon: Hawaii, 5 nights in Kauai, 5 nights in Maui via Costco Travel
COLORS
Pink and green
You can reach me at nannersp at gmail dot com.
Our engagement photos!
This is the e-ring. I knew what I didn't like, but wasn't sure what I did
what. Turns out
this is exactly what I wanted, I just didn't know it until I got it!
Here's an official pic of the ring:
The wedding band I'm getting to go with it:
We're getting married at the LA River Center and Gardens. Thanks to
Saige&John for allowing
me to use a couple of her pics. I
took some of these, too.
My centerpiece samples from Kerim at MyWeddingBlooms.com.
The first photo below is actually from my florist Kerim's wedding! The
second is another
tall centerpiece from our florist at our location.
<
/a>
We're going to have a lounge area, similar to this:
My maid of honor, Shelby, and I
Our save-the-date postcards designed by us, printed by
SaveTheDateOriginals.com
My invitations (sample photos)
Scan of our actual invites
What we got for our moms as gifts for the day of the wedding. From ebay
seller mainemomof4
What my bridesmaids are wearing, but in a shade of pink
Our flower girls (dresses from http://www.butterflyxc.com)
.
My dress, the ever-popular yet oh-so-lovely Maggie Sottero CapriMarie.
FIRST FITTING - March 22. The seamstress said I can't lose anymore weight
or else my dress will be too big!!!
The back. Love the bustle!
OLD PHOTOS - A couple things to
note: The dress is too big because I've lost 30 pounds since I ordered
it. Therefore we couldn't get the corset back tight
enough, like we will on the big day to make my waist look
teeny tiny after I've gotten it altered. Also, because it's so big, I
couldn't get it to
stay high enough on my chest, so imagine the top an inch or two higher
than it is in the
pics.
A model in the dress...
The dress on knottie Young_Love. I'm removing the row of roses, as
illustrated here.
I must have been subconsciously attracted to this dress because it's so
much like the one in
my all-time favorite movie...
My shoes - Coloriffics "Sierra" in silver from ShoeBuy.com
My earrings
My FI and I did Weight Watchers to lose weight for the wedding.
Before the wedding I
lost 35 and he lost 60! Here are some before and "almost after"
pictures.
Ironically, I think this cartoon is freakin' hilarious!
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