ling | Entries tagged with wedding

Getting ready for the wedding was a long ordeal. Four bridesmaids and two moms, hair and make-up for all, including myself. Our day began about 9a.m. I didn't have anything planned for that morning. I was too tired to entertain and I think everyone else was also. I think having a full day before where you did all the really fun things really does sap the energy from you the day of the wedding. But we soldiered on and managed to finish with smiles on our faces.

Our make-up artist was Michele Hundley. She did an amazing job with all of us, making us all unique to ourselves and yet cohesive as well. The bridesmaids all wore the same color dresses, but they were able to pick out the one's they liked best. I can't recommend her enough. She's both professional and talented. Her make-up lasted throughout the whole day and through a couple of tears. She was able to put make-up on my eyes that didn't make me look like Mimi from that Drew Carey show. And I didn't feel like I was wearing a humongous layer of junk on my face. She's fabulous and I would sugest her as your make-up artist any day.

My hairstylist was a woman I found surfing the web. My usual hair stylist up and quit the salon 2 weeks before my wedding. I couldn't get in touch with her to see what was going on, so I hired someone else. The hair we had wasn't my dream hair. I would have prefered something else, but I don't think she could manage it. If you look through her portfolio, all her hairstyles are basically one kind with variations. Her work is decent, but if you want anything out of a magazine, she shouldn't be your first choice. She also didn't have a wrap to put around you when she did your hair, which meant that I had hairspray all along my neck and back. I had Katie help me wipe that all off before I put on my wedding dress. She also helped herself to some sandwiches without us offering any to her. She had told Chris and myself that she didn't want a break, she just wanted to work right through lunch and be done. But instead, she helped herself to the food we had and took a break anyway. Since I'm not giving her a glowing review, I'm not sure I should name her either. I think the hair came out decently well, but it's nothing that I'd had dreamed of when I originally came to her. I settled, but you sort of have to when you have less than 2 weeks to find a hair stylist who isn't booked.

Photography was by Sterling Fine Art Photography. He was also the one that took our photos for our engagement. He was pleasant and professional, and made sure that we all smiled even though we were all tired. Everyone liked him quite a bit and I think he took some fabulous photos of us. Our officiant was from Vows Are Forever, which is a family run organization. I liked them because they had someone help with the actual ceremony, telling everyone when to get in line, when to go, etc. It was a great relief to have her there knowing that nobody would be confused as to what they were doing or supposed to do. Flowers, corsages, boutiniere's were made by DSR Designs. She was budget conscious and the flowers looked great. I got orchids for everyone. My bouquet had roses, orchids, freesias and some other things. She also provides a throwing bouquet, which we left at Lou Gardens. But since we only had all of three single women, I didn't think there was a point in throwing them. Nobody wanted to catch them anyway, so we didn't even bother. We hired a harpist, but she turned out to be a harpy, so I won't be mentioning her either. Limo was by Mears Transportation and we hired it on as a charter, which was somehow cheaper than I thought it would be. But hey, I'm not complaining!

After getting ready at the Royal Pacific Resort, we took some photos before getting in the limo to Leu Gardens. By this point, I was so tired, I wanted to take a nap, but of course, I couldn't. I'd mess up my hair and make-up!

We were supposed to have the wedding at the Rose Garden, but it started raining and everyone was getting soaked. So the decision was made to have it indoors. The staff sent a big golf cart for all of us to get back to the main house for the ceremony.

Ryan was especially helpful here because he called the boys (who were in the room next door waiting as well), and coordinated with them to figure out what was going on. This is the one and only photo of the Rose Garden that we have. I didn't mind going inside. It was air conditioned! So we traded heat and beauty for comfort and dryness. I thought it was still a beautiful hallway.

I kept from crying up until I started walking down the aisle and then my face scrunched up horribly as I tried to not cry, but I just gave up. Tears came down for a small portion of the ceremony, but I got it all under control before it became these sorry sobs. Lots of people cried after that.

Jenn took care of the Harpy, which I didn't hear about until much later. I have to say that my bridesmaids were totally awesome during this whole time. They helped me with everything that day so I didn't have anything to worry about. I don't know how many other people can say the same thing. I love them all dearly.

Dinner was at Ruth's Chris and I tell you, I can't remember much of that at all. We had cocktails in the bar where we had sangria, fruit, crackers and cheese platter as well as a salmon platter. We were afraid that people wouldn't eat it all up, but that's never the case. People eat everything at weddings. Then we went to the reception room where we started dinner. Salad, filet mignon/tuna stack/chicken (some vegetarians traded theirs for a portabello mushroom), and cake for dessert, which we got at Louie & Maria's (an italian restaurant near our house). Everyone had a slice of chocolate canole cake and a blueberry,raspberry cake. Those were all eaten up as well.

I don't particularly remember much of the dinner other than that I sat down, ate the salad, got up, talked to people, sat down, ate the filet, got up, talked to people, sat down, toast, cake, eat cake, talk some more. I think it went spectacularly smoothly if I say so myself. Ryan, my Man-Of-Honor, gave my toast and made me cry, made Chris' mom cry too. By 9:30, the dinner was pretty much over. Only a few stragglers remained. My family packed up the gifts into their car and brought them to our room while we started on our way home. And by 11:00, we were back in our room. It was a whirlwind day, and a happy one. Thanks for all of you who attended and shared the special day with us.

Most everyone arrived at my wedding Friday evening. But everone seemed too tired to do anything except eat dinner and go to bed. Many of them traveled from California and needed to get up early in order to arrive at a decent hour. The three hour difference really does screw with you. But a few people returned to my room for chatting, until I kicked them out because I was too tired.

Saturday was when the fun really started. We had rehearsal at 10am at the officiant's office. They had a little walkway that doubled nicely as the aisle. It took about half an hour to get everything done, mostly because we didn't know who paired up with whom and what the parents were going to do. We went through 2 rounds before we called it a day. It was getting hellaciously hot by 10:30. My bridesmaids decided how they were going hold their hands, whether or not to open their parasols, etc. They discussed amongst themselves and agreed what to do, which made my wrangling much easier.

After that, we went to the cheesecake factory. We were originally going to go to a Thai place, but they had charged us twice for the same meal and they said they couldnz't find any record of that, so we said, forget it. Chris arranged for us to eat at the Cheeseczke Factory in Winter Park, which was about a 45 minute drive from the officiant's office. I thought that might have been too far to drive and I called the Cheesecake Factory at Mall at Millenia. Both were able to accomodate 30+ people on short notice and allowed for seperate checks. We opted for the Millenia one because they were only 10 minutes away. They were fantastic when we got there and served us well.

We took a short break to walk around the mall and then off to laser tag at Wonderworks on Sand Lake Road. We played two games, both of which, Ib got nearly the top score. My theory was that I'd run around and shoot. Peozple couldn't get me if I moved alot. However Dave B.'s method was much better as he found a corner to hide and shoot from and managed to get twice as many points as I did!

At one point, my brother and I were back to back near the wall and we got several targets that way, however, Dave Z(different than Dave B) came running up to us and got both of us, so we split up. During one game, I ran smack into Faust's chest. He's a muscled man who can lift about 350, so I just bounced. It's like hitting a wall, but I wasn't hurt, just amused.

The plan was to finish up with Go-Kart, but everone was tired from running two games, seven minutes each, so we just returned to our hotel where we just relaxed and either hung out in my room or at the pool.

Dinner was a pizza party at BJ's that we'd planned. It might sound like a kid's birthday party, laser tag and pizza, but we enjoyed it immensely. While at BJ's, we ordered a large Pizookie. It's a baked cookie with ice cream. We originally expected just a handful of us to eat it because we didn't consult with the second table, but the next thing we knew those scavengers came to our table like a group of starving vultures and devoured the Pizookie. It was all well and good though. Everyone took a small enough amount so that everyone was able to get some.

After dinner, we returned to the hotel where everyone offered to let us get some rest. But as we all know, hallway conversations always last a lot longer than you realize. By the time we were in our hotel room, it was nearly midnight. We were tired and ready for bed.

The one thing I regret is that I don't have photos of any of it.But at least I'll have the memories.

Hi everyone!! I know I've been gone a while, but it's been busy. Pre-wedding was full of getting ready for the wedding and post-wedding stuff has been wrapping up everything from the wedding. The wedding had some problems, but which weddings don't? I've never known anyone to have an absolute smooth and perfect wedding. But at least mine was short and sweet and the food was fantabulous (Ruth's Chris always has lovely food).

Most everyone arrived on Friday night and we went out to eat. Saturday was rehearsal, lunch, laser tag, rest, then dinner. Sunday was the actual wedding, which, as everyone says, the day moved quickly. The lovely people who attended and you may know were Jenn Reese, Emily Mah, Jae Brim and Deanna Hoak. (So they may write up wrap-up entries or mention it if they wish).

And this week, I'll be out of town. I will try to write up wrap-up reports, but it'll have to wait to be posted until I get back. I should have photos then. But I will say this, my bridesmaids and my man-of-honor took care of any emergency that arose. They are completely awesome!

Today's Friday Five involves school and whether or not you're in school. Since I graduated college way back in 1999, there's really nothing more to say about that other than that it was almost ten years ago and I hadn't even thought about that until the Friday Five brought it up and makes me think how old I am now and about all the hopes and aspirations I had back in the day that hasn't been fulfilled for one reason or another.

So I'm going to write about the wedding instead, which isn't all that less stressful. I vascillate between being excited and nervous to being stressed and worried. There's some work stuff I need to get done before the wedding, which is less than two weeks away. I try not to overbook myself for that, but things come up so that there's little projects here and there that I need to do before the wedding since I'm leaving for a week after the wedding.

Then there's adding that my esthetician left to move to New Jersey last month, leaving me with nobody I trust to wax my eyebrows. It isn't my esthetician's fault that she decided to move. There's no reason why she would stay an extra month just for me. There's a really interesting story about it that started with Oprah and ended with a broken marriage. It sounds awful and funny and totally not true, but it was. So she moved up to New Jersey with her boyfriend so that he could be closer to his father and thus make sure he's ok being single again in his 50's. I've had my eyebrows waxed crooked by several people who proclaim that they're wonderful at it and several people who have waxed my eyebrows to oblivion because that's what they thinklooks best on everyone. So I made an appointment with the hoity-toity spa that thought they were better than me. But at least I know the eyebrows will look good.

There are a lot of little things that need to be done that feels like a ton of stuff to do, but it's not. I just need to make some phone calls. It's about two weeks away. TWO WEEKS!!

So Chris and I went to the Clerk of the Courts today to get our marriage license. There was a hellacious drive, but that's neither here nor there. So here's the thing. Before you can get married, they make you read this pamphlet. So I was thinking it's a pamphlet on how sacred marriage is and how difficult it was and what you need to do to keep it going. So we got there, and there's this fancy kiosk. It's a touch screen, and you pick get a marriage license, pay ticket, or get passport. And then it spits out this fancy number with the time and date that you were there at. Anyway, that's not the most interesting part.

Ok, so we get this pamphlet that the nice security guard handed us to read while we were waiting our turn. And you know what was in the pamphlet?

Two pages of how hard marriage was and fifteen pages on how to get divorced. Oh yes, it was all about divorce. How property is divided, what happens to the children, alimony, child care, and how to file. Seriously. It's required reading before you can get a marriage license enacted into Florida law some years ago. It's expecting that you'll get divorced even before you get married. There's some absolutely wrong with that somehow.

The wind and rain has died down since last night. There wasn't anything except some banging that came from one of the trees by the house. It woke me up a couple of times during the night, but it wasn't anything that kept me awake the whole night.

The tropical storm is currently off the coast and will most likely gain strength. They're thinking that it'll hit land again, but it should swing up towards Jacksonville, so we won't be in the eye at all. We'll most likely get more rain and wind. It may or may not turn into a hurricane. It's hard to tell. I can see why people get complacent with tropical storms. There are so many that come through here without becoming a full blown hurricane that they don't really get to the store until it's too late and there aren't any more supplies left at the store.

The wedding plans are all set. The only thing that needs to be done is the Saturday before the wedding. We had planed on having things to do for the out of town guests. The problem we're running into is finding places to eat. We've got about 24 people between the family, bridal party and their guests. Unfortunately, the places that we've talked to all want us to set a menu and do the whole contract thing. We just want to be able to eat somewhere and have people choose what they want. The two places that we'd spoken to before suddenly want us to do that at $30-50 a person. So we're a little bit at a loss as to where to take people for lunch. I wanted to take them to places where they can't go elsewhere, but it doesn't seem like it's going to happen now. We'll probably end up at a chain that you could go anywhere. So we're still searching. Anybody have any suggestions?

While Chris and I were working on our reception manu, we lamented the fact that wine costs so much per bottle. We briefly thought about having a dry wedding since neither Chris and I are big drinkers. My family isn't either (My brother is a tea tottler). And with the exception of one or two friends, none of my friends are huge drinkers either.

But I know that other people enjoy a glass of wine with dinner especially since we'll be at a steakhouse. So we decided to limit how many glasses people could have by only buying a certain number of wine bottles. They'll have to ask us at the reception if we want to order more.

As a joke, Chris has been asking people if they've received their wine vouchers with their wedding invitations. When he did that with his dad, the man was not happy. You could see his face become stern as he was about to start a lecture about you can't do that.

"That's pitiful," he said. "We can't allow that."

When we told him we were joking, he gave a small chuckle. But I think he was still worried that we'd do something so ridiculous.

When we did the same thing to his mom, she was incredulous too and was relieved when we told her it was a joke. Katie joined us not long after we told his mother and she asked Katie if she received her drink vouchers. Katie looked quite serious and said that she hadn't.

"Yeah, if you have friends who don't drink, you could take theirs," I said.

But I think she's much more wily than the parents and just laughed. Now, the question is, did you guys get any drink vouchers?

So I have made up the invitations and stuffed most of them. I bought more than I needed because I knew there would be some goof ups and there were. A few of them were smudged because I have an inkjet printer and the paper is vellum. Also, I smudged some with my fingers and I miswrote some addresses.

I am awaiting a final list from Chris's family. Apparently, the mother's list does not include the father's list. So I am refraining from sending out the invitations until that's been recieved. I have also threatened to give him a cut-off date. If he doesn't get me the list in time, they won't be invited. That, of course, won't work.

I have two lists of people. The have to invite and the would like to invite. I'm sorry to tell you that the great bulk of you are on the latter. I'm sorry if you don't get an invitation. My venue just doesn't seat that many people.

I know it's always hard when someone you know is having an event and you're not invited. I remember in elementary school, this one girl was having a birthday. It seemed like everyone was invitedd except for me. But I'm not snubbing you. I just don't have an unlimited amount of cash.

Once I get my new 42 cent stamps, I'll be putting the pressure on Chris's dad to tell me who he needs to invite. Because I need to know how many people to invite.

It seems that the men have it so much easier when itcomes to preparing for a wedding. All they have to do is pick out a tux and remember to pick it up. Me, on the other hand, I have to pick the dress, pick a hairstyle, pick a make-up style, pick people to do both, pick a veil and pick shoes to wear. Even if we're sharing the duties on picking the reception, ceremony site and everything else, it still feels a little lopsided just because I have to choose on all these extra things.

But we knocked out another item to do from our list. We've picked out and bought our wedding favors from Lindt. We also ended up getting some free chocolates because we spent X amount of dollars. It's more chocolate than we would normally ever buy, but that's ok. We can give them away. Everyone loves chocolate, right?

I'm in the process of looking at veils and I really like the birdcage veils like this one.

All the one's that I like cost more than I want to spend. And I know that french or russian netting only costs about $5 a yard. But I can't seem to find a place to sell it that doesn't require a $30 minimum order for an 18" wide piece of netting. The 9" wide netting will only be wide enough to cover my face with just enough to clip to my hair and stitching netting together looks funny. So if you know of a place that doesn't have a minimum order, I would find it totally awesome if you'd let me know.

I'm not sure how many of you are interested in the wedding updates. Right now, I feel like all I do is wedding stuff and work. And since I don't write much about work, this is pretty much the only thing left to talk about.

So for those of you that are interested in wedding stuff:

We've locked down the florist. She's a woman that lives out of her own home. she doesn't have a stock of flowers in her workshop, but she does have a lot of photos of what she's done and we've talked about what I want. I'll have lavender roses, lavender freesia and green orchids in my bouquet. The bridesmaids will have green orchid corsages. The groomsmen will have maching boutinnieres. The moms and dads will have the same except in a creamy white. I didn't get bouquets for the girl's because they'll be carrying parasols and all that would be too much to carry.

I originally wanted them to have flowers in their hair, but after talking to the florist, I'm afraid that the orchids would just dry up and wilt in the heat.

I've also locked down the hairstylist, though I have no idea what to do with my hair. I can't find a hairstyle that I like. My dress has an art deco feel to it, so I was looking at hairstyles with finger waves. But I haven't found anything that I like. I also don't know if I should have a veil or not. So any nhelp there would be appreciated.

I have to order the cake from the restaurant we like. The cake will be really yummy, but it won't be a fancy tiered cake like if I went to a cake decorator. I'd rather have a cake that I know will be yummy than a cake that's pretty. I'm practical that way.

We've decided to get party favors from Lindt chocolate, which is one of my favorite chocolate companies. they have these cute party favor boxes that they'll put chocolates in for me. So that will be one last thing for me to pack once we get down to the wire. I'd show you the link, but they don't have it on their website. But the party favor holds a handful of truffles.

So what am I missing?

I have been totally remiss in keeping up with journals and emails. The only thing that I've kept up with is Scrabulous and that's only because I have a horrible addiction to it.

Wedding plans are going at a good pace. We've got a ceremony site, the reception site, a harpist, my wedding dress and a photographer. I realized that I needed to get on it when I called back Leu Gardens to book a date. I'd called them to get available dates a week and a half beforehand and they had pretty much every Sunday free in November. By the time I called them back, November was completely booked. They do 2 weddings a day and they were completely booked. They were booked in October too. The next available date was too close to Christmas.

I'd forgotten that Florida is a popular wedding destination and it's a huge industry here. So I got right on that, getting as much of the important stuff as I could. We opted to get married in September rather than wait until next year. The latest date we could get was September 21st. Any earlier than that and we'd be dying in out outfits under the opressive Florida sun.

I am already overbudget, but I knew that I would be. We originally planned on 50 people for the reception. We don't have a very large budget. Between the family and the bridal party plus guest, we have nearly 25 people already. I knew that I couldn't invite everybody that I wanted, but 50 was enought to invite a very small group of friends and have room for a few of the family's friends. However, it looks like the groom's family has a lot of friends. The short list is 20 people. They don't need to give me a long list. The reception site can't handle more than 70 people.

So knowing this, I'll be skimping on a few things. I got invitations at Michael's on Clearance that I will print myself. The bridsmaids won't be getting bouquets. I'm thinking of corsages instead that I may even make myself. But I think these things are negligible anyway. No one will remember what kind of flowers were in a bouquet.

Tomorrow night, we meet the officiant and then I need to figure out make-up. My hairstylist will do the hair at a reasonable price. And the other things will have to wait until we have a guest count. Like party favors and printing out programs. And of course, picking out a color for my bridesmaids. I can't figure out what color would be best with all the various skin tones and I need to figure that out soon or the bridesmaids won't have dresses by the time the wedding comes around. Did you know that it sometimes takes 12 weeks to get the dresses made? I can have it custom done for less time!!

How it was supposed to go was this:

On Thursday, we were supposed to go to Animal Kingdom. We would spend a wonderful day there as I took photos of several animals. And when I was particularly engrossed in taking photos (he says when we were in front of the lemurs, which is wear the tree of life is), Chris would get down on one knee and ask me the big question. We would then go to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. It would have been lovely and romantic.

How it really went down has more to do with impatience.

I had gone with him to pick up the ring, which in retrospect, was a bad idea. Because once I saw the emerald perched atop those diamonds, I wanted to wear it right away. But Chris said, don't you want to have something romantic? So I said, ok. Yes, I want something romantic.

Then as we were driving home, a good fifteen minutes later, I just couldn't wait. I said, "Ask me know! I want to wear the ring!" So at the stoplight, he turned to me and asked me to marry him. And ta-da! I am now engaged.

And I know so many of you want to see the ring, so here it is

Technorati : My Life, Wedding

The best man's speech was quite good. Burgess has been around since the dawn of time, but it seems that they've known each other even longer than that. I've been to a lot of weddings where the speeches were respectable, but none as heartwarming and uplifting as this one. It brought me to tears man. I blame him for the ruining the rest of my make-up and the destruction of my fake eyelashes.

So without much more ado, here is his speech (he stole the blue parts from the internet):

First off, I'd like to thank the Verner and Liu families for throwing this beautiful wedding. Let's give them a round of applause…

A wise man once told me the best man's speech should last as long as the groom makes love… thank you ladies and gentlemen… (sit down)

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Burgess - I have known Jimmy for about 17 years now and I have the great honor of being the best man tonight. I was pretty much appointed this job since the 6^th grade. I remember when I first met Jimmy in middle school, he was freakishly tall, kinda nerdy, goofy looking, ridiculously pale… I guess not much has changed since then…

One of my earliest memories of Jimmy was when we were in middle school playing flag football., and one of the larger kids decided to knocked me over instead of taking my flags, and just as soon as you could blink, Jimmy was right behind him, knocking his ugly butt out of the way.

I learned 3 things that day. (#1) Do NOT mess with Jimmy. (#2) Do NOT mess with me, when Jimmy is behind me. (#3) that Jimmy is a loyal and good hearted person. And it's because of these attributes that I've remained close friends with him since. This is ALSO why I believe he will be a great husband to Jennifer.

If you've ever hung out with Jimmy and Jennifer, you'll know within the first five minutes that they are perfect compliments for each other. For example, Jennifer loves to cook and… Jimmy loves to eat! Jennifer loves to make blankets, and Jimmy gets cold often… like a little girl.

It's no secret that Jimmy and Jennifer were high school sweethearts. Ever since the day they met, anyone who knew them, knew that they were destined to be together. So we waited…. aaaand waited…. And waited and waited and waited…. …. And waited. And in just 12 years of dating… Today our waiting has come to an end.

In closing, I've come up with a little poem that I think sums up marriage quite nicely.

The perfect groom is gentle, never harsh, cruel, or mean.

He has a beautiful smile and keeps his face so clean.

The perfect groom likes children, and will raise them by your side.

He'll be a good father and husband to his bride.

The perfect groom loves cooking, cleaning, and laundry too.

He'll do anything in his power to show his love for you.

The perfect groom is sweet, writing poetry from your name.

He's a best friend to your mother and kisses away your pain.

He'll never make you cry or hurt you in any way.

And if this poem stands to be true,then Jimmy, you really are gay.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let's all raise our glasses, and wish them all the love and happiness a couple can ever have. To Jimmy and Jennifer!

As some of you know, I went to back to California for my brother's wedding. He's been dating the same girl for 12 years and finally made it official on October 13th, which is also the same day that they started dating way back in high school. Though it was rainy the first few days prior to the wedding, on the actual day it was a pleasant autumn day.

The bride was lovely, the groom was handsome, and everybody had an awesome time. Some of his friends were having great times with alcohol, and how they managed to dance and keep the champagne in the glass was a little beyond me. One person had too good a time and dropped hers. But you know the open bar was worth it when that happens.

My brother, however, does not drink. He drank apple cider like me for the toast. My brother does, however, eat.

A lot.

After he finished his first round of food, he had to make the rounds and say hello to everyone. I, of course, went back for more food (hey, it's a buffet and he paid by the person and like 7 people didn't show up. Somebody's got to eat the food!). So when I went back to get more food, he pointed at me, at the plate and several of the dishes on the buffet table. He's a big eater. I don't know how he stays so skinny.

Everyone 20 minutes or so, he would return to that table and eat some more. He liked the roast beef! Luckily, he also eats vegetables. As noted in this photo above where he shows you the spinach salad he was eating. That's my Kimora impersonation. Like it?

And of course, I forgot to bring the big external flash. Boo me. So a lot of the outside photos are a bit dark. The on board flash is weak and harsh at the same time. But luckily, I was not the only person with a big fat DSLR. The professional photographers had several and a few of the guests as well. I am eagerly awaiting the professional one's. They took a million photos.

(Don't ask me about the gang signs, I don't get it.)

It was good to see my brother and all his friends. They love him dearly and I had a sense of envy over how close they seem. But my brother has always been more outgoing than me, so it's no surprise that he has so many good friends.

All of my photos for the wedding can be found here at smugmug. The best man's brother had a Canon Rebel XTI with external flash and his photos came out a lot better than mine. *Is insanely jealous* But you can find his photos over here.

And because it's my blog and it's all about me, here's a photo of me and Chris, pre-wedding ceremony and all the crying. Which totally messed up my makeup.