Santa Barbara Photo Shoot

This weekend has been crazy!! I catered my first tea event for 60 guests on Sunday (which meant prepping all night Saturday = no sleep! and lots of help from my cousins and Kev) and then trial hair/makeup this morning before our photo shoot at Santa Barbara.. busy busy busy!

The photo shoot was fun! It was kinda awkward in the beginning, but a lot easier by the end of the day. Kev is a natural at this apparently.. haha.. Aaron (our photographer) would tell Kev to get closer.. and closer.. and "connect".. at first, we were like.. connect? like KISS?

We also brought Ronald & Batman with us and Natasha, one of my bridesmaids, was awesome to come along with her dog, Lucy, and dog-sit for the day when we weren't using the dogs in the shot.

Our first shoot was at the Goleta Train Depot (this train station is such a hidden gem and such a beautiful place to take pictures) Since I didn't take any pictures of my own today, I searched for some pictures online of this train station, but none of the pictures really does it justice:

We spotted our next photo spot across from Goleta Train Depot in an orchard field. So we thought.. why not? So technically, we did trespass onto private property to take pictures.. but it was totally worth it. :) And what an amazing coincidence that it happened to be a lemon orchard! We have a sparkling lemon beverage that we're serving during our wedding.. so it was a perfect way to tie that into the wedding. Apparently, Goleta is known for their lemons! I found this image of a lemon orchard and a vintage postcard from Goleta:

Then we didn't want to miss the sunset, so we rushed to Franceschi Park.. a beautiful hidden park up in the hills of Santa Barbara overlooking the entire city. I have no idea how I stumbled upon this park 3 years ago. I just went past the Mission and get driving up the hill until I came across this park. Then for our 9 year anniversary, we went to Santa Barbara and I took Kev to this park. It is truly breathtaking at sunset.

Here are some photos when we went there for our anniversary.. and yes, we did take pictures as you can tell from the shadow on my sweater.. haha. At least this time around, we went with professional photographers to take a picture of us sitting on that exact bench. :)

only 72 days to go!

Look at this cute icon I found on moo.com:


updates:
- booked invitation designer: Scott Wallin @ Spiffy Press
- booked videographer: Gilber Le @ Americana Cinema
- trial makeup w/ Grace of Beauty by Grace on 3/22 before engagement photos
- engagement photos @ Santa Barbara w/ Aaron Gil of Fotonuova on 3/22

- bought wedding favors @ LittleThingsFavors.com

- bought flower girl dresses @ MyGirlDress.com

- bought wedding centerpiece votives, jars, & candles @ Moskatel's in Downtown LA

I can't believe there's only 72 days left to go.. there's still quite a bit to do.. with the major one being... wedding dress alterations!! eeekk! I'm making progress with working out and personal training.. but really got to focus on the eating. There's just too much food all around me (especially working at a restaurant company).. Time for extreme self-control. This has been a slow week since I sprained my back on Sunday during an exercise and had to take Monday and Tuesday off work to re-cover. I tried swimming yesterday, but still have a couple days before I regain enough strength in my lower back to continue with TKB (turbo-kickbox) and my regular workout/training routine.

We're really excited about the engagement shoot at Santa Barbara this coming Monday. Our photographer and I have been working hard on finding great locations to shoot at. I'll post pictures on our wedding website soon!

New Years has come and gone

January passed by in the blink of an eye..

updates:
- booked makeup artist: Grace Illasco @ Beauty by Grace
- booked florist: Michelle Kim @ Larchmont Village Florist
- met with designer Scott Wallin @ Spiffy Press for invitation design
- refined wedding colors and theme
- on the hunt for a videographer since the one we wanted was already booked..
- setting a date with Aaron Gil of Fotonuova to take engagement photos at the Santa Barbara train station
- Bridesmaids dresses arrived
- taking West Coast swing dance classes at PCC on Mondays & Wednesdays until 2/17.. then we're scheduling for some private lessons!

Seems like the updates are getting longer and longer.. which only means the wedding is going to be here in no time at all. On a personal update, I started personal training a few weeks ago which has been amazing so far. I'm looking forward to the results and happy that I'm finally exercising again. Kev has been supportive and going to the gym with me when he can.

Last night, we had dinner with the moms (Kev's mom and my mom) and Kev's grandma to go over wedding plans. We've been working so hard on the wedding plans that we were nervous they were going to completely throw off our plans.. but it actually turned out really well. We were able to share our plans with them, get feedback on what we could do differently and leave with all of us having a better understanding of what to expect on that day.

With that, let me leave you with this incredible wedding blog that I find myself constantly going back to for inspiration: http://snippetandink.blogspot.com/

Honeymoon decisions - Cross-Country USA or Backpacking EUROPE??

Merry Christmas!!

I can't believe it's already Christmas and there's less than 6 months to go until the big day! This year, Kev surprised me with an awesome gift (a Garmin nuvi GPS.. so I never get lost) and a cute card with a poem he wrote:

'Twas the night before Christmas and boy was I busy
I cooked up a feast, but man am I dizzy
I planned ahead this year, I hope you are proud.
Finally for once, right before our vows.
You are so special to me and I can't wait till May
Merry Christmas babe, until our big day!

Love,
Kev

The card read - "I'd make a Christmas wish, but you already came true." :)

Thank you babe! Of course, I didn't disappoint either. I got him Cole Haan socks (so he won't have cold feet.. get it?), Frosted Cranberry candles & fragrance oils from Bath and Body Works (his favorite scent), $80 gift card to Sports Chalet so he can buy his bball shoes, and... dun dun dunnnnnn.. A Nintendo DS lite!! ;)

Anyway, with some time on my hands this Christmas day, I am daydreaming of our honeymoon and can't decide between

Cross-Country USA Roadtrip: http://www.roadtripusa.com/

or

Backpacking across Europe: http://www.backpackeurope.com/

What do you guys think?

Happy Holidays to you and your family!

I said YES to dress!

I never thought wedding dress shopping was going to be this easy!

I've always wanted to check out Marylinn's bridal in Pasadena, but felt the dresses would be completely out of my price range. However, a week ago, I got an email from theknot.com about their "Black Friday, White Gown" sale from November 27-29. I was leaning towards renting my dress to save some money, but I thought, what the heck.. let me call and make an appointment. By the time I called, they were all booked for Friday and Saturday, but I managed to squeeze in a last minute appointment for Sunday.



When I got there, I had no expectations of finding a dress. There were some beautiful dresses in the front, but way out of my price range. We hit the jackpot in the back room where all the Black Friday deals were. With the help of my mom, my 3 cousins and my maid of honor, we picked out several great dresses for me to try on. My sales rep, Desiree, was really friendly and helpful in helping me get into all the dresses. I tried on 4 dresses and with no expectations at all, I said YES to MY dress! I was really lucky because all the dresses were so beautiful, but the second one I tried on stood out the most! The dress fit me (very important), it complimented my wedding theme and colors, it was in amazing conditions, and originally listed for $1,750, it was a steal for $399!! I never thought wedding dress shopping was going to be this easy! It definitely helped to have the support of my family and friends and a sales rep that was friendly and helpful. The only thing missing from my experience was having all my bridesmaids there.


No pictures of the dress here, since my fiance hasn't seen the dress (and won't until the wedding).. but here's a picture of Desiree, the wonderful sales rep at Marylinn's Bridal, and me:

My missing tea tins have arrived! Except, I had to re-place the order so technically, the missing tins are still missing..

Either way, I'm excited they're here! And I love the tins! I did expect them to be a little bigger since I'm using them as vases for the wedding, but I love the design! If not as vases, I'll fill them with wax and make them into candles.

Tea Tin Candles:

Flea Market treasures

I went to the Rose Bowl flea market this past Sunday with one of my bridesmaid. Originally planned for 7am, we ended up going around 11am (in my defense.. 7am is REALLY EARLY for a Sunday!) Since K & I had to be at a baby shower in the O.C. by 1pm, our time at the flea market was really limited. My mission was to find a vintage suitcase to use as the card/money box for the wedding. Although we got sidetracked a few times (there's just WAY too much cool stuff at the flea market) and ended up browsing a vintage jewelry booth for 20 minutes. Not good considering we had only one hour to complete my mission. Good because I got a really neat gold/orange ring with an elephant carving made from a vintage earring for $10.

We hit jackpot when we walked into the anitque section and I got this vintage dark blue canvas suitcase for $8 (thanks to my bridesmaids awesome negotiating skills).

I'm going to fix it up and apply a gold finish on the metal latches/hinges. I bought a "Rub'nBuff" antique gold wax metallic finish that seems to do the job.

Before After

For $8.. I'd say I accomplished my mission.