Weddingbee

Angeline and Jack
Intercontinental Los Angeles, Century City
May 12, 2007

We met more than ten years ago as sophomores in our high school honors English class and have been attached at the hip ever since!  He was my first boyfriend and I was his first girlfriend.  After being crowned Prom King and Queen, going to UCSD together for college, being on opposite sides of the country for two years, and a romantic proposal in Maui, we finally tied the knot on May 12, 2007.

Girls getting ready…

I gave the girls initialed towel wraps as part of their gift with ribbon that matched our wedding colors.

Our rings are both engraved 88 <3 63… the numbers were our old pager codes from high school!

This is what happens when you get a gift from your groom.

Oh, my lovely Lia… no that’s really her name.

Monogrammed dress label

My mom helping me with the jewelry

In honor of Jack’s late mother, I pinned a pendant that she gave me on my bouquet.

Boys Getting Ready…

My card to Jack.  Inside it says, “They’ll have to pry us apart.”

Since Jack loves watches and watchmaking, I got him watch movement cufflinks as a wedding gift

We wrote our own vows

Hahaha… those are cucumbers!  I was on the floor laughing when I saw this!

Momma looked hot that day!

Six of the most important ladies in my life

The Ceremony…

Trying to soak everything in…

BM Bouquets… brown pods, green hydrangea, monkey tail, and kermit mums wrapped with a banana leaf and brown velvet ribbon.  Thank you Martha Stewart!

“You may kiss the bride!”

My bouquet… a mix of gardenias, hydrangea, and peonies

Going To The Reception…

Hello, I’m married!

Yep, those are our feet!

The Reception…

Nice shot of one of the tables with a tall centerpiece

Theme and Decor…

We wanted something elegant and contemporary with very simple, clean lines.  The colors we worked with were sage green, chocolate brown, and shades of orange.  There was no obvious theme, but we tried to tie small elements together, like the use of squares: the invites, menus, menu folds, centerpieces, cake and favors were all square.

The mint leaf design used on the invitations, all paper products, and cake

My nickname is Gellibelly, so the favors were pear and peach Jelly Bellys

There were fun facts cards about us on each table for the guests to enjoy

The tables were named after places we visited together with pictures taken by Jack to celebrate his love for photography

Since we spent the last two years in Michigan, the Signature Cocktails menu included a drink called Detroit Red Wing as the “Something Borrowed” (along with Something Old, New, and Blue)

Menu

The design for our custom gobo was done by one of our high school friends and also used on the top of the menus

My cousin Noreen was a professional ballet dancer in the Philippines, and performed a ballet that was supposed to be a love story about us.

Doh trying not to go into the ugly cry… too late

No hands… at all!  I was impressed, hahaha.  For this I had to use “Bootylicious.”

The Honeymoon Suite…

I had to share because our bridal party (read: Best Man) had some surprises in there for us, hahaha.  My coordinator wanted it to be sweet and romantic but they wanted it to be a little raunchier, so they compromised and she was able to at least cover up one of the girl’s holes, lol.

Surprise!  It was so disgusting, hahaha.  You don’t even wanna know what was in those metal buckets between them…

They did an awesome job decorating our suite and setting everything up

The view from our deck was gorgeous

We were pooped… and went straight to bed after this… to sleep!

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Memorable Moments

• The heart-to-heart talk I had with my Maid of Honor in the hotel the night before the wedding
• Seeing Jack up at the altar for the first time as I walked down the aisle
• Jack and I talking to each other during the ceremony complaining of the our aching backs and how hot it was in the church, hahaha
• Our priest’s incredible homily
• Partying in the limo with the Best Man and Maid of Honor
• Seeing the ballroom before the guests went in
• Doing the Grand Entrance with our fun loving parents and bridal party to “Walk It Out” by DJ Unk after the DJ told us the file of the song we planned on using was corrupted
• Our first dance to “The Way You Look Tonight” (our Prom song)
• My Maid of Honor’s heartfelt and deeply touching speech
• One of our good (and very drunk) friends singing screaming Sublime’s “What I Got” at the top of his lungs.  I’m surprised he didn’t break the speakers!
• Our Best Man’s infamous dance to DJ Doc’s “Run to You”
• Being surprised by my family.  My dad and brother went to great lengths to make our wedding special.  They worked together to arrange and sing a traditional church song at our ceremony.  My brother wrote and arranged two songs that he performed as part of our entertainment at the reception that made our guests go wild!  For the father/daughter dance, my dad wrote a song about our father/daughter bond and my relationship with Jack called, “Daddy’s Little Girl” that my brother sang.
• Our guests coming up to us and telling us it was the best wedding they had ever been to!

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Some of the Things I Learned Along the Way

Don’t worry so much about etiquette.  Most of the rules (especially with regard to invitations) were written for a different day and age, and a lot of it doesn’t really make much sense anymore.  I did follow some etiquette rules, but some of them ended up being very impractical and it actually made it much more confusing for our guests.  A lot of people who aren’t planning a wedding don’t know much about etiquette anyway, so don’t sweat it!  You are the best judge of what is acceptable.   Go with your gut in deciding what to do if you’re confused by etiquette.

A wedding can be beautiful on any budget!   I am a real dunce when it comes to anything DIY (unlike some of the amazing Bees on Weddingbee!), but a lot of the personal touches that I added were also the most inexpensive.  Even if you’re not a DIY bride you can still find ways to make your wedding special without having to spend a fortune.  The trick is not to give up on researching for what you want and allocating your budget wisely.  Another thing you can do to make your wedding one of a kind is something that doesn’t cost a dime: have members of your family contribute something special!  It will leave you with memories you will never forget.

Above all, don’t stress yourself out trying to think of everything that will go wrong or about the things you never had the chance to finish.  There will always be something that goes wrong, so take it with a grain of salt and enjoy the rest of the day!  You don’t want to look back on your wedding day and remember how much you didn’t enjoy it because you couldn’t let go of one thing that didn’t go perfectly.  Relax, have fun with your guests and the relish in the feeling of being married!

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Conclusion

Wedding planning was fun at times and stressful at times, but always a lot of work!  I was lucky enough to get some great advice and ideas from other brides and Weddingbee, so if you have any questions, need more information on our vendors, or just need some advice, I would be more than happy to help!  You can reach me at gellibelly@gmail.com.  Thanks for reading and happy planning!

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