Everybody's laughin', sunshine day...

The Ceremony
At 5:30, the sun was slowly beginning to make its way down. Unfortunately, not fast enough for those standing at the alter. Check out Mission Impossible: Budget Wedding in LA for his hilarious take on the heat.

I cry at almost every wedding (even weddings on TV) and this was no exception. My fiance', mr. c, was their officiant (Deputy Commissioner of Civil Marriages to be exact).

The (self-proclaimed) Wedding God

It was a lovely, short and sweet ceremony. Even though I heard the mr. c's speech several times prior, I still can't get over how beautifully written it was, with the utmost respect and love for the bride and groom, tied in with his undeniable sense of humor. Now I kinda wish he could perform our wedding. Just kidding, mr. wook...you are going to rock our wedding.

Things I gathered from the ceremony:

• Short, sweet, and funny is the best combination.
  
• The bride and groom really rocked their own vows. We will not be writing our own vows because I cry too much.
• If you are not sitting in the front row or an aisle seat, it's hard to see...we are thinking of having our guests sit at their tables for the ceremony. Since chairs are not included in our venue, this will save us some money.
  
• A microphone stand might be nice for the officiant because mr. c was having trouble juggling the mic and his notes and at one point, the rings.
• I love the content of their ceremony programs. Each person in the wedding party, the officiant, and the ushers had a personalized one line description. And, on the back, they wrote a nice thank you to all their guests.

I know you can't read that! Click on the image!

Everybody's smilin', sunshine day...

Congratulations, mr. and mrs. a!

photo by char.

I admit, I used our friends' wedding as a trial to see how our mutual friends "behave" at a wedding. I've gone to my share of weddings in the past few years, but this is the first with so many of the friends that we will also be inviting to our wedding. Sorry for you using you, mr. and mrs. a, but thank you for an amazing and "memorious" wedding. There are so many things that I want to share from this Sunday wedding in June at the Friendly Hills Country Club.

Friendly Hills Country Club image from Here Comes the Guide

My notes overall:

• By far the most fun wedding that I have been to.
• The Friendly Hills Country Club is a beautiful place to get married.
  
• A Sunday wedding might suck for many because they have work on Monday. Not for me because I'm on summer vacay. Bring on the vodka tonics!
  
• I saw my uncle's best friend. His wife is the groom's second cousin. Is that relevant to anyone besides me? No...but how random is that? I guess it just shows how small this world is.
• I met EBM of Mission Impossible: Budget Wedding in LA. His fiance' is a lovely, sweet girl. And, he is a nice guy, always with his camera in hand, except when he is getting crazy on the dancefloor. We met, we chatted, and we took pictures in the photobooth:

I feel my luck could change.

mr. c and I were so excited about our finds at the Rose Bowl flea market, we didn't want to wait another month for the next one. So, we went to the Melrose Trading Post (aka flea market) on Sunday. On the plus side, the entrance fee is much cheaper -- $2/person (or $1 with student ID) compared to $8/person at the Rose Bowl. However, this one is considerably smaller and we were not as lucky this week, not finding anything. Even though I know that flea markets are going to be hit or miss, I was still disappointed.

My disappointment lessened when we stopped by CB2, Crate & Barrel's more budget-friendly store. I LOVE this store. I wanted to buy so many things but had to focus on wedding finds only. We got all three of these:

cb2 lumiere candleholders on each side ($3.95 each on sale) and mahal vase in the middle ($4.95 on sale)

I so wish they had these in yellow or black:

cb2 hourglasses: green (60 min. $29.95; 15 min. $9.95) or gray (15 min. $7.95 on sale)

I thought again about adding gray or green, just so I could get these but the rational side of me kicked in and I (reluctantly) put them back on the shelf.

My disappointment lessened even more when we stopped by the Grove. The Sprinkles van just happened to be making it's first appearance on Sunday:


Even better, they were there to promote a movie, (500)Days of Summer, and gave away 500 free red velvet cupcakes. You can follow the Sprinkles mobile on Twitter here, but don't expect free cupcakes. Cupcakes are $4.00 each ($0.75 more than in the store). Yes, that is quite pricey, but if it ever came to South Bay, I would pay the extra money...I'm sure I'd be saving on gas and the headaches of the 405 right? The Sprinkles mobile will also available for private events. Check out the article in the LA Times here.

I was a splishin' and a splashin'.

I've been splashed by Megan Marie of Project: Bride (who has amazing ideas, by the way)! Thanks, girl!

The Splash Award is given to alluring, amusing, bewitching, impressive and inspiring blogs. When you receive this award you must:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate up to 9 blogs which allure, amuse, bewitch, impress or inspire you.
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let your nominees know that they have been splashed by commenting on their blog.
5. Remember to link to the person from whom you have received your Splash Award.

I look forward to new posts by...

Mission Impossible: Budget Wedding in LA because he is honest and funny. Randomly, I am going to meet him on Sunday at a mutual friend's wedding.

ED Austin Photography because she is our photographer's wife and second shooter. I can't wait to work with both of them.

Erin Hearts Court because their photos are amazing. I am obsessed with the Yellow Balloon Engagement Session.

beauty booger because she loves all things make-up. I love that she is always trying new things.

Baby, now that I've found you, I won't let you go.

My latest favorite obsession is the Pasadena Rose Bowl flea market.This past Sunday, we set out in search of treasures in the midst of all that trash for our DIY centerpieces. I have strayed away from my desire to use manzanita branches with pomanders for this...

Dining table full of purchases from the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market

For her upcoming wedding, my friend, miss care, is asking her guests to b.y.o.C. (bring yo' own CENTERPIECE) with her color scheme guidelines, for the table they are going to be sitting at. How cute, creative, and budget-savvy is that!? I just barely met her last year, but she is one of the most creative people I know. She and her fiance' used my classroom a couple of weeks ago to film part of their VIDEO WEDDING INVITATIONS. Again, cute, creative, and budget-savvy!

mr. c and I are not as brave (and by brave, I mean trusting) as this lovely couple to put the centerpieces in the hands of our guests. But, I love that each of their centerpieces is going to be different and unique. So, I am now committed to DIY-ing all of our centerpieces by turning cheap finds into one-of-a-kind vintage-modern decor.

So, here are the pieces of trash that I am going to turn into creative centerpieces (hopefully not into pieces of trash in other forms):

Oops, and one more purchase that I forgot to mention...a 1950's ivory lace tea-length dress, probably to be worn for our Trash-the-Dress session with Chris Austin. It's totally not something I would normally wear and I love it.

Fruit salad, yummy yummy...

...will not be on our menu (the fruit salad part...the menu is yummy yummy!).

After months of e-mails, too many phone calls, and negotiations, we booked our caterer. This vendor booking has been the most stressful, mostly due to the contract that eats up a huge chunk of our budget. I found our caterer through a post on Mission Impossible: Budget Wedding in LA. He had me at "drop our costs substantially," "crazy good," and "lack of service fees." Thank you, EBM, who I have been randomly stalking in this craziness that is the wedding blog world, just recently to realize that I actually met you prior at your double engagement party with two of our good friends. Now our friends will be lucky enough to enjoy the catering of Michael C. Events twice within a year.

Now Michael C.'s website is not at all my style and if I were to be the judge-a-book-by-it's-cover girl that I admit I sometimes can be, I would not look any further than the traditional-wedding-looking homepage. But, I'm glad I did. Michael C. is accommodating and professional. He is also super prompt with replies. Personally, I prefer e-mail, but he seems to like chatting on the phone. He drew up a menu and estimate quickly and I just as quickly rejected him because of my mistakes in my proposed food budget calculations.

I set our food budget too high.

Mistake #1: I thought "lack of service fees" was in reference to the services provided (chef, cooks, servers) so when I saw $xxx.xx in staff fees, I was like "Whaaaaaat?!"
I learned something new that day via dictionary.com:
service fee: n. An additional charge for a service for which there is already a basic fee.

Damn.

Don't get me wrong, I am thankful that Michael C. doesn't tack on service fees...but, still disappointed that staff fees are an added cost.

Mistake #2: rentals = expensive.

Damn again.

Lucky for us, Michael C. was able to work within our lowered budget and provided us with an estimate that we were much more willing to consider.

The tasting venue was quite a drive for us, way up in Santa Clarita, but as promised, worth the drive. Things that irked me: We didn't get to taste 2 of the 3 appetizers on our menu and he changed a couple of ingredients in some of the dishes without telling us and that mr. c called him on. However, he did throw in other options for us in the tasting that actually made us change our original menu. A couple of standout dishes:

Organic Broccoli Bisque - Creamy but light deliciousness. It reminded us of the Edamame Soup from The Open Door in Monterrey Park.

Wild Black Cod - Melt in your mouth yummy goodness.


New Zealand Baby Lamb Rack - Before the tasting, I was not a fan of lamb. Now it is on our menu.

Cannele de Bordeaux - Yumm.


Our final menu is even more yummy and even more amazing. My dilemma now is deciding which entree I want...lamb or black cod. I am drooling just thinking about it.