Featured!

Exciting news! Our wedding photographer just emailed me to let me know that our wedding is featured on Artfully Wed today! Perfect timing I guess, seeing as we just celebrated one year of marriage. You can check out the feature, which includes a few words from me, here.

Wedding Wednesdays : My Fave Wedding Day Memories

In celebration of G and I's first anniversary as husband and wife, I thought I'd take a stroll down memory lane and share my top five moments from our wedding day, plus one "best-worst" honorable mention.

The first look.

Even though the straps of my heels kept getting stuck to my dress, which kept getting stuck on nails in the wood deck, the first look was a wonderful (if comedic) moment. G’s reaction was a bit quieter than I expected it to be. When he turned around he just smiled, and then tried to hold back the tears. While we only had a few minutes alone, I think those few minutes helped calm our nerves and it was nice to be able to actually talk to each other, compliment each other, hug and kiss—the things you can’t really do during the ceremony!

Words with my dad.

Right before the walk down the aisle, I had a few precious minutes alone with my dad, who was just a big teddy bear on my wedding day, so emotional and nostalgic. Worried about my hair and my dress, I asked, “Do I look OK?” My dad didn’t miss a beat, replying that I looked like a supermodel. Later, during our father-daughter dance, he had me blubbering like a baby as he recalled his memories of me, as a baby. It was beautiful and perfect, even if I was ugly-crying the whole way through. 

Walking down the aisle.

As my father walked me down the aisle, to the Goo Goo Dolls song “Come to Me,” the scene before me was mostly a blur. It happened so quick! But I do specifically remember seeing my friend Stephanie absolutely beaming with joy for me. Next I saw my soon-to-be husband, wiping away tears as they fell from his eyes, despite having already seen me in my dress—proving that first looks do not in the least take away from the seeing-your-bride-walk-down-the-aisle experience.

The ceremony.

G and I wholeheartedly agree that the best part of our wedding day was the ceremony. It was so important to me that the ceremony be personal, meaningful and really reflect the significance of what we were doing—pledging to love, honor, support and cherish each other, forever. That’s why I took on the task of writing the ceremony, including a hand fasting ritual and a wine blending ceremony, and carefully selected two readings, one sweet and one funny. The pinnacle moment, however, was when G and I shared the vows we had written for each other. A close runner-up was when my groom slipped me a tissue just as our officiant-friend read the words, “These are the hands that will wipe away the tears from your eyes…” Perfect timing!

Our second dance.

While our first dance, to Train’s “Marry Me,” was certainly special, I felt infinitely more comfortable during our second dance. To kickstart the reception, the DJ put on John Legend’s “All of You” and our friends and family quickly joined us on the dance floor, making us feel less like the ice sculpture the reception revolves around and more like part of a great party.

The best-worst moment: 
When my hubby & his boys "broke" the dance floor.

It’s a year later and I don’t yet find this as funny as people assured me I would one day, but it was definitely a memorable moment that guests still talk about! G had already gained a reputation for his enthusiastic moves and one-armed push-up to the Isley Brothers song “Shout!” but he took his fame to a whole new level during our wedding reception. Now, it wasn’t really his fault, but as G and his groomsmen jumped up and down on the lower deck, our dance floor, one of the planks began to bend and bow. It didn’t actually crack and no one got hurt (thank goodness) but the lower deck with our sweetheart table was basically off-limits after that and the dance floor was moved to the upper deck. Suffice to say, we weren’t thrilled, but we have an interesting story to tell and some fun photos from what is now his most infamous “Shout!” performance.

(Photos by heidi-o-photo)

Wedding Wednesdays : Words of Love

With Valentine's Day almost upon us, I thought it would be nice to reflect back upon some of the lovely words that were spoken at our wedding ceremony last May. We had two readings, each given by longtime friends. Both speak about love but in very different ways. The first is romantic and makes my heart swell each time I read it. The other is offbeat and funny, mostly because it is such a true comparison. (You'll have to read on to find out exactly what love is compared to!)

Now for your reading pleasure...

"Love"
by Roy Croft

I love you, 
Not only for what you are, 
But for what I am 
When I am with you. 

I love you, 
Not only for what 
You have made of yourself, 
But for what 
You are making of me. 

I love you 
For the part of me 
That you bring out; 
I love you 
For putting your hand 
Into my heaped-up heart 
And passing over 
All the foolish, weak things 
That you can't help 
Dimly seeing there, 
And for drawing out
Into the light 
All the beautiful belongings 
That no one else had looked 
Quite far enough to find. 

I love you because you 
Are helping me to make 
Of the lumber of my life 
Not a tavern 
But a temple; 
Out of the works 
Of my every day 
Not a reproach 
But a song. 

I love you 
Because you have done 
More than any creed 
Could have done 
To make me good, 
And more than any fate
To make me happy. 

You have done it 
Without a touch, 
Without a word, 
Without a sign. 
You have done it 
By being yourself.

"How Falling in Love is like Owning a Dog"
by Taylor Mali

First of all, it’s a big responsibility,
especially in a city like New York.  (or, San Diego for us!)
So think long and hard before deciding on love.
On the other hand, love gives you a sense of security:
when you’re walking down the street late at night
and you have a leash on love
ain’t no one going to mess with you.
Because crooks and muggers think love is unpredictable.
Who knows what love could do in its own defense?

On cold winter nights, love is warm.
It lies between you and lives and breathes
and makes funny noises.
Love wakes you up all hours of the night with its needs.
It needs to be fed so it will grow and stay healthy.

Love doesn’t like being left alone for long.
But come home and love is always happy to see you.
It may break a few things accidentally in its passion for life,
but you can never be mad at love for long.

Is love good all the time? No! No!
Love can be bad. Bad, love, bad! Very bad love.

Love makes messes.
Love leaves you little surprises here and there.
Love needs lots of cleaning up after.
Somethimes you just want to get love fixed.
Sometimes you want to roll up a piece of newspaper
and swat love on the nose,
not so much to cause pain,
just to let love know Don’t you ever do that again!

Sometimes love just wants to go out for a nice long walk.
Because love loves exercise. It will run you around the block
and leave you panting, breathless. Pull you in different directions
at once, or wind itself around and around you
until you’re all wound up and you cannot move.

But love makes you meet people wherever you go.
People who have nothing in common but love
stop and talk to each other on the street.

Throw things away and love will bring them back,
again, and again, and again.
But most of all, love needs love, lots of it.
And in return, love loves you and never stops.

Do you have any favorite passages or poems about love? Share below in the comments!

(Photos from our wedding, taken by heidi-o-photo)

Six Months a Mrs.

G and I have been married six months today. It's kind of hard to believe, in some ways it feels like the wedding wasn't that long ago. And yet, I can believe it, because so much has happened in those six months. 

That whole moving across the country thing, then finding out we're not going to be here as long as we thought... Welcoming a new fur baby into the family... Struggling to find a job (not to mention local friends)... Pursuing new creative outlets... 

It's been a bit of a bumpy ride, for both of us, though I think we'd also both agree the transition has been tougher for me. And yet, there is no one else I would rather be on this ride with. My husband loves me through my moods and my insecurities. He encourages my dreams. He supports me in my highs and my lows. He tells me I'm beautiful when I feel ugly. He cooks dinner for us almost every night. He is probably a better man than I deserve. Our relationship isn't perfect and I think most newlyweds, if they're honest, will admit that the post-wedding period isn't a non-stop honeymoon. Especially when thrust into the midst of so much change.

We are not perfect, but I like to think we are perfectly imperfect for each other.

I have no doubt the next months and years will hold many more ups and downs, but I feel blessed and lucky to know that I will have G by my side through it all.

Today, the words spoken during our wedding ceremony, when our hearts and lives were bound together forever, are playing back in my head:

May these hands be blessed this day. 

These are the hands of your best friend, full of love for you. 

These are the hands that will work alongside yours, 

as together you build your future, your family. 

These are the hands that will cherish you through the years, 

and with the slightest touch, will comfort you like no other 

when the storms of life break ashore. 

These are the hands that will wipe away the tears from your eyes; 

tears of sorrow, and tears of joy. 

And these are the hands that even when wrinkled and aged, 

will still be reaching for yours.

I'm sure my hubby would smirk at the utterance that today is our "six-month anniversary" but it is kind of wonderful reflecting on this moment half-a-year ago, the commitments and promises made. These words, these memories, fill my heart with joy and remind me where this crazy journey all began... and where it's going.

(Photos by heidi-o-photo)

Wedding Wednesdays : A Friends & Family Photo Book

We (and by "we" I mean "me") spent hours, days even, going through our 885 wedding photos and selecting which ones would make the cut for the professional album our photographer, heidi-o-photo, was going to make for us. It felt impossible to narrow it down to 120 images, the max suggested by Heidi, and in the end we chose about 150 for her to use. That resulted in us paying to add seven additional spreads (our credit covered 10 10x10 spreads) to fit all those images. And yet, we still didn't get in all the photos we would have liked to have in our wedding album.

We received our album last week and it is gorgeous, heavy by the weight of thick, premium pages and a luxe leather cover, and the print quality is impeccable. And the album covers a lot of ground: the bridal prep, G getting ready, the first look, ceremony and reception, all the little details that were special to us. But what it doesn't have, what had to be left on the cutting room floor, are what I call the "people pictures": Family portraits, photos with our bridesmaids and groomsmen, and random shots of our loved ones throughout the day. While our pro album includes a handful of these photos, it is mostly (and appropriately) all about me and G.

But because our friends and family were an important part of our day, and our photographer caught some great shots of them, I decided to take those B-list photos and make a separate (and cheaper) album. There are lots of online services one can use but for this particular project I decided to take advantage of an offer for a free 20-page 8x8 hard cover photo book from Shutterfly that I received as a "thank you" for reviewing my wedding vendors on WeddingWire.

Our "Friends and Family" photo book arrived a couple weeks ago and I am thrilled with how it turned out. Of course it pales in comparison to the professional album, but the quality is good. The photos are bright and clear, significantly better in person than it was on screen, and the cover and pages are nice and sturdy. I paid $25 extra for lay-flat pages (a worthwhile investment, in my opinion) and sprung the 5 bucks for the matte-finish, fingerprint-resistant cover. 

Actually creating the photo book was a fairly easy and straight-forward process. I sometimes had a bit of trouble finding the exact template or grid I wanted to use that would fit the photos I had planned, and making sure that grid complimented the one I wanted to use on the facing page. My perfectionist, Type-A tendencies contributed a little bit of stress to the process. I created the "rough draft" of the album over the course of several hours one evening when G wasn't home, but returned a couple times in the following weeks to tweak and edit. I'm sure others would have completed their album much more quickly! But in the end I was proud of the album I had created. And when it arrived on my doorstep I was even more pleased with the final product.

Now, all our favorite people from our big day are in one place that we can flip through whenever we want to reminisce.

Here's a few of my favorite spreads, if you'd like to see...

Have you ever used Shutterfly? Or another online album-maker? I'd love to hear! I may make more photo books with my many iPhone and Instagram photos in the future. Even in this digital age, nothing beats seeing a photo in print.

Wedding Wednesdays : Artisan-Made Details & Gifts

Since I recently got hitched, and have all the photos from the big day, I launched a weekly series sharing my favorite images and memories, and a few tips and resources along the way. If you're planning a wedding, make sure to check out "The Credits" at the end. Enjoy!

While our wedding wasn't a complete DIY event, I would describe our day as semi-handmade. My husband and I spent many hours making items ourselves but we also supported many indie makers in the process, most found on one of my favorite websites: Etsy.

So today, I thought I’d share those makers and their lovely handmade goods that added to our unique, personalized wedding day.

(Lots of photos and shopping details after the jump!)

Wedding Wednesdays : The Details : Dessert Bar

Since I recently got hitched, and have all the photos from the big day, I launched a weekly series sharing my favorite images and memories, and a few tips and resources along the way. If you're planning a wedding, make sure to check out "The Credits" at the end. Enjoy!

Love is sweet, I'm sure you've heard, so a wedding wouldn't be complete without a bit (or a lot) of sugar.

I love the dessert bar trend and while my hubby and I knew we wanted a cake to cut, we also wanted to go beyond the traditional. I'm a fan of having a little bit of everything—a nibble of this, a nibble of that—opposed to a big piece of one thing. Not to mention a table covered in varying, bite-sized desserts is just plain pretty.

There was something for everyone on our dessert bar, which was filled with a mix of bakery-made and homemade goodies, for a personal touch.

We got our passionfruit chiffon cake from Twiggs Bakery, which has a storefront in the University Heights/ North Park neighborhood of San Diego. The sweet-and-tart tropical-flavored custard reminded us of our Maui vacation, where GT proposed. We tasted at Twiggs first, and while we tried out a couple more wedding cake bakers before making our final decision, Twiggs was impossible to beat. We were able to try all their cakes and frostings and the flavors were wonderful. But what really sold us was the affordability factor. Their fair price points (coupled with a military discount) enabled us to upgrade to a three-tiered cake (initially we were going two-tiered) and get a groom's cake. Being the huge football fan he is, GT's cake featured a Chargers theme. We went out-of-the-box with the flavor: Mexican chocolate, a chocolate cinnamon cake spiced with cayenne and black pepper and frosted with a cinnamon buttercream.

Friends and family contributed the mini desserts. Since I love fruity desserts and GT is obsessed with Oreos, my maid of honor—who is a master baker, in my humble opinion—made lemon bars and cookies 'n cream truffles. (She also made lemon-lavender shortbread cookies that were placed at our infused-water station, for guests to enjoy before the ceremony.) My mother-in-law made her famous Mexican wedding cookies, which I thought was a nice family touch, especially since GT's paternal grandmother was born and raised in Mexico.

And since I love macarons (who doesn't?), but they can be tricky to make if you've never made them before, we ordered six-dozen from bouchée, a gourmet organic confectionery maker, also based in San Diego. I picked flavors that complemented our color scheme: Pistachio, Rose, French Lavender and Nocciola (hazelnut). Those 72 cookies went fast—I think my hubs and I only had one or two each! In fact, all of our mini treats were gobbled up so quickly that we didn't even use the cute, hand-stamped to-go bags we made for our guests. But we did have lots of leftover cake. (Which we shared with friends and family for weeks after the wedding. And it was still good! That's sayin' somethin'.)

This is likely the final big recap post of our wedding day, but fear not, I will keep up with the Wedding Wednesdays series! There is still more to share (Etsy finds, albums, videography, pre-wedding ideas, DIYs, etc.). Plus, my bestie is getting married soon. (Not to mention several other friends! It's that time of life.) So please keep tuning in.

Also, if you missed any previous Wedding Wednesdays, you can catch up here:

Getting Ready: The Bride & The Groom

First Look | The Ceremony | The Reception

The Details: Stationery | Décor & Signage | Florals & Favors

THE CREDITS

SWEETS: Wedding Cake and Groom's Cake from Twiggs Bakery | Macarons from bouchée | Lemon Bars, Oreo Truffles and Mexican Wedding Cookies homemade

DETAILS: Custom Pale Gray Love Bird Cake Topper from Dances with Clay | Wood slices from Michaels | Colored glass cake stands and wood bark pedestal stands from World Market | Green ruffle plates from Anthropologie (discontinued, similar here) | Love is Sweet chalkboard-style sign from Hallmark | Blank place cards and decorative tape (for dessert signs) from Paper Source | Mini succulents (potted by bride and groom) from Succulents Galore

VENUE: Martin Johnson House

RENTALS: Platinum Party Rentals

FLORALS: Modern Bouquet

PHOTOGRAPHY: heidi-o-photo