Category — my day

(The last shoes were my sisters… I just liked the picture)

I bought my shoes at Bandolino at the Irvine Spectrum, on sale, for $40.

Tip: Buy shoes you love! I wear mine all the time to work now and every time I do I am reminded of our day!

Images by Studio 7.

You can check out my hair category on the right to see all the kinds of wedding hair I was interested in. A little all over the place. Luckily I had Ramin. Do you need a wedding hair specialist? Call Ramin. (I will give contact info later on in the post.) She is amazing. I love her… and my hair? It has never looked better!

I loved my hair. Loved. It. Which was surprising (to me) because I wear my hair straight 100% of the time. When Ramin asked me how much height I wanted for the up-do I just looked at her, blinked a few times and quietly said (more liked asked) “none?”  She laughed, and then busted out some awesome wedding hair.  She was also a trooper, driving to my house at 4:30 in the morning to do all of our ‘dos. She brought along her assistant (her sister) to help her out.  If you are in Los Angeles, Orange County or San Diego and need a day-of hair stylist, give Ramin a call at (949) 690-7217. She is working on getting up a website right now, but take my word for it, you won’t be disappointed.  Also, if you just need a hair girl, her hair studio is in Corona Del Mar, at The Lab Hair Studio. I have been going to her for about 7 years, followed her to three different salons and will cry if she ever moves.  Oh, and when you are there, help a girl out and mention my name so I can earn the referral discount!

I had a few questions regarding the length of my hair. It is a little past my boobs (that is the best way I can explain it!) and super straight.

As for my hair accessories, I got the little trio of flowers from Handle and Spout. I looked into DIY’ing the hair pieces. There are a ton of tutorials out there and I love me some crafts. But I saw these, thought “I want them to look exactly like that” and then decided that the $35 was worth it to not have to figure it all out.

Tips: Regarding the hair, yes, it was an expense. Mine cost $120 and was a cost I set aside for myself (rather than pulling it from the budget).  Yes, I could have done it myself, but that day, July 18th, 2009, was probably the only day in my entire life that I will get my hair professionally done (oh, unless I am a bridesmaid for my friends… then I will call Ramin again!) and I wanted it to look gooooooood.

Working with a budget involves a lot of give and take. We made some big choices that cut (and raised) costs and aloud us to spend a little more (and less) in other places. (Spending that extra $400 on my dress/alterations definitely made for some creative number moving)

Choose what is important to you. What can you actually DIY, and what will actually drive you crazy and in the end, not be worth it.  You can do more than you think you can, the resources out there are amazing, but time, budget and craftiness will play a part in your decision making.

Images by Studio 7.

Oh my dress. How I love thee. (And I promise to get you cleaned… eventually)

These may be some of my favorite pictures… I love that dress!

Tip: When it comes to bridal gowns, finding one that you love, on a budget, can be difficult. I made the mistake of going to a high end shop first. Knowing that my budget was low, I wanted to spend $500, I knew it would be difficult to find a dress at a nice place. Little did I know it would be pretty much impossible!  I tried on a few gowns that I absolutely loved. The fabric was of great quality, the details were lovely and they fit like a glove. Unfortunately they also came with hefty price tags…  about $2,000 or so more than what I could spend.  I left that day loving wedding gowns, but uncertain where I would find one I loved that was on the cheap.

I did lots of searching online, and I finally decide to check out David’s Bridal. Just to look. I had heard mixed reviews and wasn’t too sure I would find my dress there. Boy was I wrong.

The service was impeccable. We went in the off season so I had a sales person who was only working with me, we brought in champagne and a few of my maids even tried on wedding gowns!  Yes, some (most) of the dresses I tried on weren’t really me… but then my (brilliant) sister asked the woman “do you have anything with lace?”  and out came my dress. I tried it on and wham. That was it!  It was a little over my budget at $700 but I didn’t want to pass it up. You see, this dress was a sample dress. They only had a few in select stores, waiting to see how it sold before putting it into mass production. This was the only one in this size at that location, and they were unable to order it. To this day it is not on the David’s Bridal website.  A (almost) one of a kind dress from David’s Bridal? Who knew!  Overall my experience at David’s Bridal was great and I would encourage any bride out there to give them a chance. It can’t hurt!

As for alterations, that did set me back an extra $200, but by that time there was nothing I could do about it. And actually $200 is a good price considering my dress is all lace. The fee covered bringing the dress up a few inches, doing a french bustle and bringing it in an inch or so. I would highly recommend my alterations lady, Mehtab. She is located in Orange County, is very sweet, quick and very helpful. You can check out her website here (don’t judge a book by it’s cover, if you know what I mean…)

All images by Studio 7 Photography

Like I had said before, the morning of the wedding I felt so sick. I don’t know what it was! I think it had to do with worrying about everything coming together just right. I knew that none of it really mattered, that it would be great and I was getting married, but I still worried. My sister put out a great spread for breakfast including mimosas… I couldn’t even drink one! It was terrible!  But once the photographers arrived, my nervousness started to fade. I think I just became to busy to be nervous. It was a full and semi-rushed morning, but getting ready at my parents house with all of my friends is a memory I will always keep.

Tips: We kind of made life a little more difficult by having a morning wedding and a cocktail reception, which worked in many ways but left us super crunched for time.  The ceremony was at 10:00 am, plus we had to take pictures beforehand because the reception was going to be too short to waste an hour of it taking pictures. So… we woke up at 5:00 am. Ugh. The hair dressers got there around 5:15 and the photographers showed up at 7:00. We were out of the house around 8:30 to take maids and grooms pictures and then to do the first look and the family pictures. Like I said, it was rushed. But rushed pictures was worth having the daytime wedding (which ended up saving us a ton of money).

We wouldn’t have been able to do it without having two photographers. I HIGHLY recommend having two photographers. Miah and Mike of Studio 7 were amazing. They have years of experience working together and once they arrived they were like a machine. Mike left to take the groomsman pictures while Miah took us maids out for ours, which saved us a ton of time.  I can’t say enough great things about these two photographers and would recommend them to any bride.  They are based out of Orange County but are happy to travel as well. You can check out their website here and their blog here.

So faithful readers (and new ones, hello!), the day has finally come. Recaps!  I whittled down my 1200+ pro pics to around 200… I broke it down into 22 categories… plus enough ‘favorites’ to do small weekend posts.  Basically I will be recapping my wedding for the next 5 weeks or so!  Overkill? Maybe. But I really want these recaps to serve two purposes.

1. so that you readers who have been with me from the beginning can see how it all turned out.
2. so that girls who are just starting their wedding planning experience can see what I did, and how I did it (pulling off a wedding in Orange County for about $12000.)

I will be doing general posts, like today’s ‘getting ready’, but a lot of them will be specific things like ‘hair’ and ‘dress’ and ‘flowers’.  I want the reviews to show not only pretty pictures but to be vendor reviews, tips and how much I spent-ish. I am not gonna go penny by penny, but I remember when I first started and I just had no idea. Like, how much should flowers cost? I had no idea, not even a ballpark. I want these recaps to be helpful!

So, get ready for some recaps. If you don’t need the details then skip the words and just enjoy the pictures!!

Oh, and happy Labor Day.

My little sister and my dad having an oh-so-sweet moment while getting ready.

(this moment brought to you by Studio 7)

I smiled so big when I saw this picture.

A little back story. A good friend of mine and my maids currently lives in Germany with her husband and brand new baby.  She planned a California vacation around my wedding and we were all very excited to see her and her new little one. Earlier in the day Lisa, the maid I am pointing at, was saying how incredibly excited she was to see Jocelyn and little baby Netanya.  I jokingly said that she was letting the new family steal my thunder and Lisa responded with “oh no no no, it is your day!”

We were standing outside the church doors, waiting for everyone to arrive, when around the corner comes Jocelyn, Sam and Netanya. Lisa let out a scream and had to hold back for a moment before running over to say hello. This picture captures me laughing and pointing at her thinking “See! Look at you letting her steal my thunder!!” while Lisa looked at me with a “oops! no!” look on her face.  It was hilarious!

I am so glad that Miah and Mike were there to capture moments like this.

Brushing my teeth, checking out the photographers taking dress shots outside. This is the part of the day where the nervousness started to go away.
The first hour or so of being up I felt like I wanted to throw up, I was so nervous! Seriously, I couldn’t even enjoy a mimosa without feeling sick. I think it had to do with how much DIY I had. I am such a planner and as of that morning all I could do was hope and pray that it would all turn out the way I had planned. But once the photographers arrived I just kept thinking how silly it was that there were men walking around taking my picture… and from there on out I was just filled with excitement!

(Image by Studio 7)

(pictures by Studio 7)

As I drove home from work today Bryan texted me : the pictures arrived

I will be spending the next few days and this weekend going through them all, picking my favorites and prepping posts.  I will pepper you with a few here and there between now and monday I am sure.  If you have any questions, comments, requests… speak now or forever hold your peace!

(photo by these guys!)