Jun 9 2010

A toast…………

Our first year anniversary was sweet :)

These are the peonies my husband got me.  Aren’t they beautiful!  We received a complimentary 1st year anniversary dinner at the Summit House Restaurant, first we popped open the champagne and we started with crab cakes and salads, then we ordered steaks, which were served with potatoes and of course the cream corn.  Ended with a delicious desert of an english trifle and some other chocolate, chocolatey dessert.  Our waitress was super nice, the food was delicious, It brought back all of my memories from our wedding, and there was another wedding taking place so I was just imagining that one year ago that music was coming from my wedding, we danced till close to 1 a.m…..

Jason bought me the cutest card, I want to share it because it’s too cute- his personal message was so sweet on the back, but I will share the front with you….

Haha~

This card is too accurate- check out the t.v.!

A toast to us…….

I love you till death do us part…..thats me and Jason, in the photo and in the tiny coffin….for ever <3


Jun 5 2010

Happy One Year Anniversary to us….

Wow, I can’t believe that we have been married a whole year!  It doesn’t seem like 12 months have gone by but they have.  At this exact time last year I was asleep trying to get rest before the big day ahead of me.  I remember I had a stomach ache that night, I think it was my nerves because there was a good chance of rain, and I got married outside, out in the open, under a gazebo that we spent a lot of money decorating with flowers. If it rained it would have forced us to have the ceremony in the reception room which would have been the worst thing that could happen because I planned an outdoor wedding, with the sun setting, wind blowing, and you know the rest.

Many people don’t know this but you know how somethings are bound to go wrong at your wedding, well one pretty big thing went wrong- and it’s pretty ironic what.  Out of alllll the brides gowns my grandmother has made/ altered/ busselled, my dress of all dresses decides first of all that it isn’t going to bussell and as my poor grandma tried to fix that right before we were announced to the reception, she noticed that the bottom of my zipper had split open, I didn’t panic, we did our first dance and right after I slipped into a room where she proceeded to try and close up the bottom of my zipper when the whole zipper split, as in zipper is no longer sewn onto the dress on one side!! OMG I was a little concerned, okay a lot concerned, WHAT AM I GOING TO DO???? Then the awesome Summit House staff came to the rescue with 2 needles and thread- I threaded them, because I had the best eyes in the room and my grandma sewed up and my hairstylist came to assist and she sewed down, they met in the middle and my dress was sewed shut.  Nobody even noticed, my poor grandma almost had a heart attack, I went out and enjoyed the rest of the night.  (Let me just clarify my grandma didn’t make my dress, It is a Pronovias La Sposa, and it was fine, we think it got snagged when we zipped it up that day…so it couldn’t have split at a better time really.)

The only thing I cared about that day was that it didn’t rain and It didn’t, It was a beautiful day! I was so grateful for the sun that my dress splitting open wasn’t going to phase me….Needless to say I didn’t pee the entire night, and once we got to the hotel Jason literally had to cut my dress off!  I look at my photos and I love that day, I loved our wedding, all of the hard work, the blood, sweat and tears were all worth it, because I can look back at my amazing photos and film and they take me back to that beautiful sunny day, it was perfect….

And just like that a year has passed!  We can’t believe how fast!  This year has been great, we have enjoyed being married, eachother, and doing whatever we want….as in we aren’t responsible for another person- yet…We are going to enjoy our summer, go camping, sleep in, go on last minute trips, and then we will see where this next year takes us….into parenthood perhaps?? That’s exactly where our family wants us to go!  We want to go there too, but we don’t exactly have it all planned out so we will just have to wait and see….I swear not a day goes by that someone doesn’t tell me to hurry up and have a baby… Today it was my sister, over the phone as she was in a store looking at baby clothes.  Maybe we will shut them up this year?  Haha- my dad already has a nickname picked out!  I would like to say to Jason, who is probably the only one who will read this, Happy Anniversary!  I am blessed to have you as my husband, you have a big heart, you are caring, loving, thoughtful, I can’t imagine my life without you, and I look forward to our future, I love you! Year 2- here we come!

Since I didn’t have my blog last year to blab about the details of our wedding I have done so here.  I was going for a classic feel for the wedding, I wanted everything to be timeless as in I won’t look at my album in 10 or 20 years and say omg why did I pick that!?  I went with simple, elegant, classic, with a vintage feel, because I feel certain vintage styles are classic.  Originally I wanted a certain goldish greenish tone for the dresses, it was impossible to find last year so I went with a pale yellow, which echoed in the flowers, the printing, and the groomsmen ties.  Everything else was ivory with pops of black here and there.

The details:

Flowers: Commerce Flowers, The BEST! lots of orchids cymbidiums, oncidiums, and phaleonopsis (my favorite) 2 big ones in my hair, ranunculus, dahlias, roses, hydrangea, they were beautiful, I did a mixture of tall and short arrangements on the tables, the tall were in glass cylinders full of water and a sweet orchid inside and the big arrangement on top stretching high with oncidiums and black twigs that I don’t know the proper name for, the short arrangements were in black urns. The gazebo was decorated beautifully, I loved it, and my favorite little detail were the strung white orchids that swayed in the breeze!

Dress: Pronovias- La Sposa – Spanish style dress, fitted with a small train, top fully beaded and bottom fully beaded, it was heavy! I tried on about 12 dresses, it was the last one, my mom and sister loved it, I loved it, done deal!  I wasn’t the girl who went to 12 places to try on 100 dresses, It was an easy decision for me.  My priorities were straight and I wanted to buy a beautiful gown in a certain style that fit me well at a good price and that is exactly what I got, at an amazing price which helped my decision making process I’m sure….I’m a smart shopper people, it runs in my blood.  I’m sure most brides don’t think about the deal they’re getting so much, but it gets me excited!

Shoes: Jimmy Choo— just kidding :) How bout Chinese Laundry 4 or 5 inch platforms- $15 found by my mother, the most comfortable shoes I own!!  I was prepared to pay hundreds for the right shoes, I was going online and had my eye on some Kate Spade platforms.  They had to be platforms, and they had to be high because my dress was long and we weren’t going to hem it, with the entire bottom beaded it would have been crazy to take off an inch or two.  One day my mom handed me a box with these sexy satin off white peep toe platforms with an ankle strap and bling buckle!!! PERFECT!  I told you it runs in my blood :)

Veil: Spanish style mantilla handmade by Cuca- shes like famliy!  She Cut the material to the length I wanted (fingertip), took out the beads that the lace trim had and replaced them one by one with beads of my choice, dyed the veil to give it that vintage color…..It was heavy and beautiful and I will cherish it forever, the veil being handmade by our long time family friend who I have grown up with and worked with for many years, seeing her on a daily and retired right after my wedding, I hold the veil close to my heart, it is priceless!

Venue: The Summit House Restaurant in Fullerton- Love this place and the staff, they were amazing! The food is to die for!!  Food was high on my priorities, It’s a great surprise to go to a wedding and have exceptional food, not the same old dish….the hors deorves were delish…even though I didn’t get to enjoy them really, I know that our guests loved them, they were passed out to our guests, coconut shrimp, brushcetta with some kind of mango salsa spread, tender beef squewers, and I forget the other one.  Dinner was amazing, the cream corn is a reason to go there!  The portions were very generous, with all of the appetizers, and dinner people were more than satisfied.

Bridesmaids wore BCBG, silk, long, pale yellow gowns that I love in my photos- they were the most beautiful bridesmaids I’ve ever seen!  They all wore gold shoes of their choice and I made them all matching yellow crystal necklaces, earrings, and bracelets.  My maid of Honor, My sister Natalie wore a dress that was a bit different and I made her two special bracelets and chandelier earrings.  She gave the most touching beautiful toast that made everyone cry, mostly her—she even got a tear out of me!  I can only hope to give one half as good at her wedding.

My Jewelry: I started off with simple small earrings, changed into my own creations of crystal and pearl chandelier earrings I made the night before, I wore my grandmothers old pearl bracelet, and also a Nadri bracelet I bought myself, and a ring my mother gave me when I graduated college.  I did have something old, new, borrowed, and blue….

Photography: Bob Ortiz Photography, I chose him for his many years of experience and his classic style, he also knew how to handle my crazy family:)

Film: Renaissance- LOVE THEM, Chrissy shot the wedding and I can’t say enough nice things about her, she was amazing, and put up with my crazy requests until the end, a husband and wife team, I only dealt with wife and she is the sweetest person!

Favors: frosted with black damask tea light holders, and take home photo booth pictures

Cake: I wanted it simple and sweet and thats what it was, made by Luz who taught me how to decorate cakes.  Let’s face it the cake gets eaten and digested within minutes it is gone- It wasn’t a major player in my decor, Ironic being that I love beautifully decorated cakes, so much so that I learned how to decorate them myself, I love food networks challenges, all the cake shows, I love decorating cakes, I appreciate the time and creativity that goes into a fine cake but I know most people don’t and for my budget the cake was not high on my list.  I wanted it to be pretty, and tasty and thats what I got, again, for an amazing price!

Printing of menus, favor tags, programs and Table cards: my printer with the help of the custom design monogram of our initials with the damask and colors I picked by: Print my Party

Name cards were supposed to be computer printed but when none of us could figure it out, I ended up hand writing each one in calligraphy, they came out very nice.

I wanted to make the day beautiful on our budget and I think we did a great job, it looked like we had a bigger budget than we did, quite a few guests say it was the best wedding they’d been to, and that is what I wanted a memorable day for our family and friends and for us, we had an amazing time !!  Good people, good food, good music, just a great time and I would do it all over again if I could….


Jun 3 2010

The Salas Wedding

Saturday May 29th David and Michelle had their big wedding on their one year anniversary.  One year ago they were married by the court and spent the next year planning their wedding.  It was a sunny day, not too hot, not too cold, all of their family and friends gathered to share a very special day with them.

I love these flower pillows that the ring bearers held…

Beautiful arrangements…

The mariachis were great…

The groom and his mother…

These red arrangements had some of my favorite flowers in them including dahlias and ranunculus…

Mr. and Mrs. Salas…


May 24 2010

A Must Read….

The Shack, by WM. Paul Young was recommended to me by a few close family members who stressed that  it is a must read.  I bought the book and quickly read through it up until I was about 50 pages from the ending.  I don’t know what happened but I must have gotten distracted because It wasn’t until today, months later that I finished the book.  Now I am passing this must read on to you.  The Shack is a #1 New York Times best seller with over seven million copies in print.  This book brought me to tears a few times, both happy and sad.  It has made me think about my life, and beliefs.  This book could help somebody who is battling with why bad things happen to good innocent people.  It left me feeling I want to live a better life and I love that kind of book!

I would love to see this book made into a film,  the book was written beautifully, it really gives a great description so that you can really visualize the scenes.  I think it might be hard to make a movie that is gonna be better than the way I imagined it but I think it would be great to reach so many more people.  To read more about The Shack experience visit here.


May 23 2010

Advancing to CIF Masters!!

Yesturday were the CIF southern sectional finals, which I was unable to attend :( My little brothers both ran and they are both going to next weeks CIF Masters!  Whittier Christian is the only other school in the area with more than one person advancing… I was so bummed I couldn’t be there to watch them, but I will get another chance on Friday! Jason took these pictures, not too shabby :)  We are very proud of them and their hard work and determination!  Read the article in the Whittier Daily news. Hopefully La Serna doesn’t overlook their accomplishments!

Here is Adam, the older brother showing off his medal…


May 21 2010

Came home to a bird in the house…

I took this pic a few weeks ago….this nest is in our backyard and is built every year.  These birds were there one minute and gone the next just like that…Empty nest.  There were about 4 or 5 of them in there, its so crazy how they do all of this.  Now the birds are back, we think they are the same birds, I don’t know but a new bird is about to lay some more eggs….Its a popular spot. Up close this is kind of a gross picture but I love it- we are thinking we are going to get a little birdhouse for the birds so they have a better nest to come to…plus it’s kind of messy, all the twigs end up all over the patio.  Yesterday when I came home there was a bird in the house! I think it came in through the doggie door- it was trapped, luckily it flew out the door and was unharmed.  We saved the bird!


May 18 2010

Happy Birthday to US!!

May 16th is my birthday!!Well my birthday and my sisters birthday…Let me explain, I was born on May 16th and two years later my little sister was born on May 15th, steeling my thunder!! Oh but wait! She wasn’t the only one, when my mother was in labor on May 16th, my pregnant aunt- her older sister was like 7 months along and started to feel sick, she gave birth to my cousin the exact same day, in the same hospital, and the two sisters shared a room, it was in the Whittier paper and everything! Pretty cool story…So growing up we had one big pool party every year for the 3 of us.  Now that were all grown up, we don’t have pool parties anymore but my sister and I usually spend at least 5 days celebrating between our two birthdays, and our two sides of family- I love it!

The weekend started off with a steel pulse concert at Hollywood Park…It was great, and even greater was the $8 admission!

Saturday we had a yummy BBQ and we had our own cakes :)

Saturday night we went out to a great little hidden place called Dinner House M

On Sunday when I finally opened my eyes at about noon, we made our way to BJ’s where we had our own pizookies!!

I felt very lucky this whole week to have so many people loving me on my birthday, In my family we celebrate birthdays, I like to celebrate for other people too so it means alot to me when my birthday comes around and people enjoy celebrating with me the way I do with them.  I am so lucky in so many ways and I count my blessings… I have a good feeling about this year!!!


May 13 2010

May is Crazy!

I have neglected posting anything here, there has just been soo much going on- All good stuff! There are so many things I could post about separately but I doubt that I will… My mothers 50th was really great, everything turned out the way I planned it, we had a great time!  We planned the whole thing from the place, food, music, flowers, cake, etc…. Alot of  people told me I should be an event planner that night… Hire me then!!

My mom likes animal prints, so the first thing I chose was this invite, It was so perfect for her.  We worked off this invite for inspiration on the rest of the party…Go to Zazzle it was soo easy to customize this invite not too mention affordable and shipped fast!

This is a picture of me in the cake decorating process…

These are the flower arrangements we made…

Here is the Hand Painted Banner that Albert (sisters artist boyfriend) made….

These are the cake, cupcakes, and table seating chart we made…

Here is the family…3 girls and 2 boys…If this is what 50 looks like bring it on…(in 20 years:) God bless her heart she shuts her eyes in every photo:)

Mothers Day was the very next day- Happy late mothers day to all of the mothers out there, we were recovering so we didn’t do much…We planned to go to Glen Ivy hot springs in corona the following day…Me, my two sisters and my mom, It is our 2nd or 3rd year of doing this and I hope we continue it every year, it’s so relaxing and nice to spend the entire day lounging around with the women in my life I love the most! After the spa we went to Dinner at Bennihanas, my mom had a birthday coupon of course!! It was delicious, after all that, I was soooo relaxed and ready for my bed. Click here to get your $30 off birthday coupon!!

It was a beautiful day…

My sisters and I…

This is us at the end of the day looking like we feel… soooo relaxed!

This week my birthday festivities will kick off!!!

My birthday officially started off on Tuesday, me and Jason went out and finally purchased our brand new imac!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love love love it, it’s unreal to work on such a computer compared to what I was used to- My husbands birthday present to me,  It is our new addition to our family, I joke that I named it Macssy :) It has its own photobooth!!! HELLO, I love this feature! I never want to leave this seat! I can’t take it with me though, it’s a desktop… Thank you to my husband, I love you!!! Hopefully this computer will take us places my old dell couldn’t….it was a good run with the dell, it finally past away- mostly anyway…we were expecting it and it finally happened…RIP.  I am no longer a pc I am now a mac- once you go mac you never go back! Its true- I’m in love.  Now all I need is an iphone! Damm Verizon, I am growing impatient waiting for them to carry the iphone!

Friday we will start off the birthday weekend with a Steel Pulse show at Hollywood park! Saturday will be family day, and party time Saturday night with the friends, Sunday we are planning another family day probably at Farells ice cream parlor, which we used to go to a lot as kids, yummy! So it’s a busy time, May is crazy!….but sooo much fun!


May 5 2010

Temecula Shootout

On Friday I went to my first workshop… shootout in temecula.  It was a beautiful day, It was so much fun! The models were great, the leaders were great, the ranch was great, the weather was great, the tacos at the end were great! I had a great time! Check out the photos I took…..

I can’t wait for the next one!


Apr 26 2010

Smiles

 This week on I heart faces the theme is “smiles”………This is Dominic, and he is all smiles when hes infront of the camera.