My Community Bio
	Knot Name:  islandbaby
	Wedding Role:  Bride
	Wedding Date:  January 16, 2005
	Location:  Live in Dublin, wedding in Sunnyvale, CA
	Age:  26
	What I do when I'm not on The Knot (occupation): Senior Logistics Coordinator
	Where you'll find me on The Knot (favorite board): Honeymoon
	About our wedding: I'M MARRIED!!!! To see PRO pics by Gene Higa, please click here Enter password 011605. Some professional pics by Gene Higa, posted with his permission. If you want to borrow these, PLEASE give myself and Gene credit! Thank you! My gorgeous bouquet The bride My stud Our first time seeing each other before the ceremony It's showtime... My stepdad walking me down the aisle. To have and to hold from this day forward... The new Mr. & Mrs.! "Big Pimpin' spendin' cheese..." Our grand entrance to "Big Pimpin'" by Jay Z. Our cake before the cut... And after... We totally should have cut a bigger piece, it was soooo good! These pictures in are non-pro pics taken by guests! And so it begins... Do you realize how hard it is to get out of a limo with a really heavy dress on? *Much* harder than you think! Here are my girls holding up my dress, on the way to seeing Kenny for the first time. My gorgeous girls The handsome guys Before the ceremony... We bawled our eyes out when we saw each other. I love this (fuzzy) pic- we look so comfy and content. My stepdad walking me down the aisle. I didn't think I was going to cry, but as soon as I heard the music and turned the corner, the waterworks rushed on! I looked at Kenny the whole way down and didn't stop smiling! Ok, so he saw me already BEFORE the ceremony, but he's crying as I'm walking down the aisle! Paul, the best man, is comforting him! And I HAD to put this in here. This is my 15 yr old brother in law. He is such a tough kid, but when he saw his big brother cry, he completely lost it and broke down! Paul's busy comforting him too! I thought it was so cute!! Vows and rings You may kiss the bride! Ladies & gentlemen, Mr. & Mrs.! Our grand entrance into the reception, walking into the beat of Big Pimpin' by Jay-Z (picked out by Kenny of course!). It got the crowd jumpin'! Our cute sweetheart table. First dance to Me & You by Kenny Chesney. We sang the whole song to each other. Good shot of my bustle- it stayed up all night! Father/Daughter dance. It was so emotional for both me and my parents (more for me!). Mother/Son dance. They laughed and cried! It was so touching. Our beautiful and YUMMY cake! The blue piping left everyone's mouths blue! I loved it, it came out perfect, as did the table decor! No cake smashing! We did get a little icing on our noses though for laughs! My lovely parents. My grandma and me! My sister and me! The happy couple! VENDOR REVIEWS: (Click on names for website links) The Historic Del Monte Building, Sunnyvale A+ Diane and Alicia were awesome during the planning process. Any questions or concerns that we had, they were immediately on top of everything. I must have emailed them a million times and they always got back to me right away. The staff was great on the wedding day, the food was sooooo good and presented beautifully! Everyone raved about how great everything was! I HIGHLY recommend the Del Monte to anyone looking for all inclusive packages (ours included the bakery and DJ, as well as gratuity and tax). Photographer- Gene Higa, Santa Cruz Ann Hamilton (Gene's assistant that day) A+ Gene was great from the beginning. The first time I saw his work, I knew he'd be our photographer. He was a big help to us throughout our planning and was very quick at responding to any calls or emails. He shot our engagement photos at Disneyland (which we LOVE!) and is overall just a great guy. He's been more like a friend to us, rather than "just one of our vendors." We LOVE LOVE LOVE our wedding photos and all of our guests at the wedding said Gene was so fun to work with and be around. Great guy, great work! Gene was assisted by photographer Ann Hamilton, who also does awesome work! She was great to work with too! We got two of the best photographers and are VERY happy to have worked with them both! Videographer- Precious Moment Productions (John Balbin), Santa Clara A+ Throughout our planning, John was great. Quick to respond to any questions or concerns we had, very informative, helped us in figuring out our music selections, and him and his assistant were so stealthy during the wedding, we didn't even notice they were there! We got our video back 6 months after the wedding (from my understanding, this can take a while!), but it was WELL worth the wait!!! As soon as I saw the menu page on the DVD, I started getting teary eyed! It was so great to be able to relive our wedding day. John was awesome to work with!!! Very high quality work! DJ- Kimbrough Salas, Mt. View A+ Kimbrough is the resident DJ at the Del Monte. We didn't meet before the wedding, but we were very confident that we didn't have to, since he has been a part of the Del Monte family for so long. He was very quick to respond to our calls and emails before the wedding. He played great music and everyone kept movin' their booties! Cake- A Piece of Cake, Santa Clara A+ Our cake was included in the package we chose at the Del Monte. We tasted the cake flavors, chose our favorite kind & colors, gave them a picture of the design we wanted, and voila! The results were great. The cake was seriously the yummiest I've ever tasted. Everyone raved about it and wanted more! Flowers- B&B Floral Design, Sunnyvale A+ Flowers weren't one of my priorities- I wanted something simple- white roses with some color, but not too much color. Mirtha helped me choose our flowers based on different pics we found and we decided to use pink as the accent color. I asked for some kind of blue flower to be added to the bridesmaids' bouquets to give it an extra kick against their navy blue dresses, and she found blue flowers with no problem! She called me a week before the wedding to let me know that the stephanotis for my bouquet most likely wouldn't be available due to the freezing weather and bad crops, but I was so pleasantly surprised when I saw stephanotis in my bouquet on the wedding day! The crystals in my bouquet added extra sparkle and everything was just GORGEOUS. Day of Coordinator- Nicole Huckaby, Fremont A+ I do not know what I would have done without Nicole. She was such a HUGE help from day one. VERY quick to get back to us about anything, helped figure out our timeline, contacted our vendors and confirmed everything with them, helped me figure out my bridesmaid & parents gifts, helped run our rehearsal when our officiant was late, kept our wedding events on time, decorated our ceremony and reception rooms beautifully! There's so much more that I can't name off the top of my head, but she was truly a lifesaver. Officiant- family friend= A We happened to get lucky and were able to have a family friend (who is a minister) perform our ceremony. He is a busy man at his day job, so it was hard to get a hold of him most of the time, but I got my mom involved (he's actually her friend), and she was able to regulate using her super mom powers. He did a great job at our ceremony, everyone thought it was beautiful and just the right length (not too long, not too short). Makeup- Lisette Townzen, San Jose A+ Lisette was so great from the start! She is such a sweetie! She did my first trial during the summer and we realized we went to high school together! She made me feel so pretty and the makeup stayed on without feeling heavy! She came early on the wedding day and stayed through the ceremony to touch us up, and stayed even longer while we did some post ceremony shots. She went above and beyond to make us all feel beautiful and it was great to work with her! Hair- family friend= A for hair, D for bad attitude! Ok, so I give her credit where credit is due- she did a good job on our hair. BUT, she spent wayyy too long perfecting my mother in law and sister in law's hair in the beginning, that when it came to everyone else, she did a rush job and their hair didn't end up the way it was supposed to. We ran late because she is a blabbermouth and doesn't know the meaning of "quiet." I may sound really harsh, but everyone was annoyed with her voice before their hair was even done. And since my girls were paying her to do their hair, they wanted it to look nice, without any lumps (which I thought was a reasonable request). She didn't want to fix anyone's hair after they were done (so they fixed it themselves), and she was talking crap about the girls while they were in the same room! Granted, we saved a ton of money using her, but I don't think it was worth all the irritation she brought to everyone so early in the morning. Dress & bridesmaids dresses- Elegant Lace, San Jose A+ Vonia was my consultant each time I went in to try on different dresses. She was wonderful. Knowledgable, very patient, helpful, just overall wonderful to work with. My dress came in early and the store stored it for free for a few more months. The bridesmaid dresses came in early too. Great store. Friendly people. Tuxes- Elegant Lace, San Jose A+ We were already familiar with Elegant Lace, so we decided on getting the tuxes there. The groomsmen stopped by to get measured at their convenience and when the tuxes came in, they all got together and tried them on and took them home. My stepdad's vest and jacket were entirely too big, as were my father in law's pants, but they came back the next day and the new stuff was already in. No hassle returning them either. And the price was fine, which included everything (jacket, vest, tie, pants, shirt, cufflinks, button covers, shoes). And it helped that Kenny got his for free =) Alterations- Zita Belz, San Jose= A+ (408) 629-8564 I'm not sure how many times a bride needs to go in for fittings, but I went about 4 or 5 in the span of 2 months, just to make sure everything was perfect. Zita is very good at what she does and does it quickly and thoroughly. Nice woman, great to have worked with her. Veil, tiara, jewelry- A Touch of Alex, Livermore A+ Sandra was a doll. She knows her stuff, has a TON of pieces, and recently opened her boutique. I was so sure of the kind of veil that I wanted, and she found a tiara that complimented my dress, and then found jewelry to completely match everything as well. Wonderful to work with. Bridesmaid jewelry- Jen Chu at Creme De Luxe A+ Jen is great! I ordered my bridesmaids jewelry as gifts and Jen made them in no time! The colors were perfect and the prices were very affordable! Here is a pic: Aisle runner- Nicole Roman, South Bay A+ Nicole is a very talented woman! This girl is artistic and has the prettiest handwriting! She went above and beyond and gave us a beautiful personalized aisle runner in our colors (silver & navy blue) that matched with our double heart theme! A unique piece of artwork that our guests hadn't seen before, that we will treasure! Hotel accommodations- The Grand Hotel, Sunnyvale A+ Andrea is great. She set up our group block and most of our out of town (and local!) guests ended up staying there, along with us. The guests raved about the beautiful hotel and friendly staff. Great place, convenient location (about a mile from the Del Monte), and they have a complimentary limo that provided us our transportation. My mom had breakfast brought up to our suite the morning of the wedding and everything was yummy. We even got a little basket of goodies and a bottle of champagne when Kenny & I got back after the wedding. Rehearsal dinner- Black Angus, Sunnyvale D We wanted our rehearsal dinner to be low key and casual. I called the restaurant up 2 months before the wedding to make reservations- no problem. The night of, we had really crappy service, missing food, a lost waiter, and a manager that wasn't willing to compensate us for anything, but finally gave in and offered some discount for our troubles. The attitude we received made it seem like we were inconveniencing them by having 13 people. And the restaurant wasn't even busy that night! I won't be going back there. Honeymoon- family friend= A+ Our travel agent has been a family friend since I was in diapers! She always hooks us up when we go to Hawaii, and this time with it being our honeymoon, it was extra special! She made sure we got exactly what we wanted and even sent us a little gift basket full of Hawaiian snacks when we got there! And let the honeymoon begin! Us at SFO bright and early! View from our suite First night in Maui- Hard Rock Cafe Me & knottie 0105bride. Like she said, hard core knotties up for a GTG anytime! And yes, that's my dorky hubby in the back! The famous banyan tree. This tree is HUGE! Haleakala National Park. The drive wasn't bad at all! Sunrise from Haleakala. It was amazing. It was cold, but we bundled up and were completely comfy. Being so high above the clouds was awesome. I know, I sound corny, but you have to experience it for yourself to know what I mean! Don't you love our get-ups? It was sooo windy and cold, but we were fine. Excuse the dorky looks! The silversword plant that only grows on top of Haleakala. This one looked kinda dead though. Yep, over 10,000ft above sea level. The air is thin, we had to take it slow! Ok, this was my favorite thing we did on Maui- ziplining! It was soooo cool! We're definitely doing it again when we go back! Here's us in our gear. And the fun part! Iao Needle Are we at the top yet?! I'm not, but he is! We drove around a lot and found a lot of pretty views of Maui. Love the water. And onto Oahu! Here we are at the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was my 4th time to the PCC and it gets better each time! This was the honeymoon/anniversary dance at the Ali'i Luau at the PCC. Of course I drug him up there! Bye Oahu! A pic of Diamond Head from the airplane on the way home. Gifts! We opened these after we got back from the honeymoon. Duplicate gifts- his and her matching clocks! Our photo mat guestbook signed! Someone scribbled in the lower right hand corner though! =( Shadowbox my sister helped me make. It has little momentos from the wedding! PLANNING BIO PICS Save the date postcards I made. Photo courtesy of Gene Higa. Our DIY invitations & response card. All of the pieces (the map is printed on the backside of the directions card): The finished product opened up: The finished product closed. The front has a bellyband that I made with the guests' names. The back has a tag that I made to keep the pocketfold closed. Favors- Hershey's Kisses inside! Made the labels on my home computer. Our cardbox! Thanks to knottie anirahc for the great idea! The top took me forever to do, so I had my mom take care of it! She did a great job! Thank you notes I made for my girls & parents & grandmother. They all have pics of me and them, along with their names (or thank you) on the front. Some of our favorite engagement pics taken at Disneyland. Photos and collage courtesy of Gene Higa! More engagement pics, courtesy of Gene Higa! Bio last updated 10/27/05.
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