- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee Blog
Ever since my study abroad program in Florence during my junior year in college, I knew I had to go back for my honeymoon! I seriously thought Italy was the most fascinating place– and also the most romantic! Mr. Caramel really wanted to relax on our trip and not get too caught up on sightseeing, so we settled on Venice with a 1 day trip to Rome. We thought Venice would be a relaxing place to stay since it’s pretty small.
*Eats & Hotel Commentaries from me!
VENICE: The next best part of our time in Venice was our wonderful hotel room! The Hotel Antiche Figure was where we spent most of our time. It cost about $230 a night, which is pricey, but totally worth it. The view is right on the canal, the service is AMAZING, and they provide free internet (great for posting pictures and then clearing your camera) and also free outlet converters! They were great about waking us up, giving us maps and explaining every detail of where to go and how to get there. Also, their free breakfast is pretty decent and saved us a lot of money. They provide free muffins, crossaints, jams, nutella (of course), cereal, coffee and fruit. They are also located directly across the bridge that is in front of the bus station, so the location is great!
Mr. Caramel thought up the phrase “a glimpse,” and that’s what we had engraved on our bands. “A glimpse” meaning (what we believe) is like a glimpse of what our marriage with God is like, or what a taste of heaven or true unity in heaven is really like. Or “a glimpse” meaning a tiny fraction of what our love is like compared to God’s true love. There are many explanations of this phrase, but I like that there are so many depths to it.
Here’s a photo of our rings- all credit to my friend who also took our traditional ceremony pictures!
Currently I have been working on our lovely Thank You cards. Ever since I fell in love with these adorable stamps at Michael’s, I’ve been dying to use them!
Mr. Caramel and I debated a few times on whether or not we wanted to do the traditional Korean ceremony. We kept thinking that we would do it for the few relatives traveling from Korea to see us get married. But after going to my cousin’s traditional Korean ceremony and seeing the big headache of arranging a whole other event on top of the wedding– we basically said “heck no, please.” Our parents were okay with whatever we wanted to do–they knew that we weren’t very traditional so they left the decision to us. (Yeah lucky us we had very non-demanding parents!)
At the last moment we decided to have one if we only invited very close family members. We held it at my parents’ house and it ended up being only about 25 people, which was perfect for us! It wasn’t crazy and it was comfortable and pretty painless. The whole thing took about 30 minutes and we got to eat delicious food afterwards! Plus we made a lot of extra money, which was helpful for our honeymoon.
If anyone is teetering on the idea of a traditional ceremony, I would really have to say that I’m glad we did it. You only get married once in your life– what’s one more thing? Plus you have pictures to remember the event and it might mean a lot to your relatives. We even got to tweak things around to make it more comfortable and less stressful.
Featured on Weddingbee
Unique Wedding Favors
“Add a memorable touch to your wedding with unique favors that match your theme.”
Mr. Caramel and I had a wonderful first Thanksgiving together! It was very odd in many ways because nothing we did was very traditional, and everything was last minute. However, there were moments when we were able to share the things we were thankful for. 2007 has been a very memorable year for us since our engagement, our wedding planning process, our wedding and our first holiday season together was all in the same year!
I am thankful that:
-our wedding wasn’t a disaster! In fact, the ceremony was everything we wanted it to be!
-we still text message and email each other that we miss each other throughout the day
-our families didn’t clash or kill each other
-our new, humble apartment is finally coming together (tossing out hundreds of boxes everyday finally paid off!)
-we both have best friends who threw us the most memorable bachelorette/bachelor party ever!
-we had no problems traveling to Italy (luggage, finances, food poisoning, etc)
-our transition from engagement to marriage has been extremely comfortable and not awkward or frustrating
-for our gorgeous wedding pictures… It really was worth it to pay for a great professional photographer.
-for the Weddingbee! I love this site and everything it does. All the advice, links, deep thoughts, cute ideas and bonding experiences really made my wedding process so much more fun!
a kiss to the Weddingbee!
I got to thinking about the concept of marriage…. how crazy and insane of an idea it is! Two random, unrelated (hopefully!) people are supposed to live and breathe next to each other for the rest of their lives. At your wedding, you’re not only marrying your husband, but you’re marrying his past, his parents, his siblings, and everyone involved in his life. It’s weird to think that I have two mothers and two fathers now. As I shook hands with a tiny grandma who had been a part of his childhood, I wondered what kind of child Mr. Caramel was like.
I also wondered how much of our childhood grows and becomes a huge part with us in our marriage. For example, Mr. Caramel’s parents are divorced and my parents don’t exactly have the perfect marriage. In fact, I would say that they’re only together because of my sister and I. If you grew up watching an imperfect or dysfunctional marriage, does that make you cynical and pessimistic about your own marriage? Or does it make you more determined to make a great marriage?
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
For the past few days I’ve been working on our thank you cards. I really wanted to hand write regular cards since no one really seems to do that anymore, but the photo card idea is so convenient! Plus you save stamp money by using post card postage instead of regular postage. I asked our photographer to send me 3 hi-resolution digital images from our wedding and threw it onto photoshop to play around with.
Here’s what I came up with:
Often brides don’t know what’s going wrong during their weddings. I was pretty aware of all the details going wrong, however, I put myself in an “I am not going to lift a finger” mood on the Wedding Day, so even when I could have fixed something — I didn’t. I knew that once I started, I wouldn’t be able to stop!
These were some details I knew were going wrong:
- People were late! Even though I had asked people to come at a certain time, almost everyone involved in helping came 30 minutes -1 hour late. The wedding started exactly 1 hour later than the time given on the invitation.
- Our polaroid booth was not happening. I noticed that as soon as I saw the reception. It turned out that everyone forgot about the box of polaroid gear and it was sitting in someone’s trunk all night. Now I have a brand new polaroid camera with 60 sheets of unused film.
Okay here’s my last batch of photos from the reception! I always thought reception pictures were boring, but these came out great!
In my vendor reviews, I wrote that I didn’t really like the way my hair vendor did my bridesmaids’ hair. I was looking over some pictures and found a great picture that shows why I didn’t like their hair. When hair is curled wrong, it can look flopped or look like it was curled the wrong way. Here’s an example of what I mean:
You can see how some strands look straight (which means they either missed some strands or they didn’t curl it right) and some of the curls are awkward.
Here are some pictures of our wedding! Since we have sooo many, I’ll show them a few at a time. First off, here are the “Getting Ready” shots.
My beautiful shoes!
Now that I’m back, I can really give my final grades on my vendors. Overall, I was happy with most of them but here is my report card:
Duke Photography: A++! I absolutely loved my photographer. Not only was he classy, super nice and very efficient — he had to deal with a lot of problems and was really cool about it. He would say, “Don’t worry, let it go. Remember… just have fun!” He was also very fast in changing lens and making quick decisions. He was very upfront and honest with you, but at the same time he was always gentle and very sweet. And his pictures were awesome!
Renaissance Montura Hotel/LAX: A+ This newly remodeled hotel was great to us! The room was a bit tiny so we were all smushed in 2 sections of the ballroom, but I think it was okay. The food was pretty great (I had never really experienced great wedding food) and the fruit fondue was a hit! We rented our own lights and sound equipment so I can’t really speak for their stuff. Their dance floor was spacious and I liked the arrangement of how the room was set up.
We’re back from our honeymoon!! It has been a wonderful 2 weeks and I feel like I’ve been living a dream. Our honeymoon consisted of lots of Italian food in Venice and Rome, a spontaneous stay in New York City, and then it ended with a trip to Vegas. I will definitely be working on a vendor grading list soon!
I don’t have my professional pictures yet, but here are a few from other people’s cameras as a sneak peek!
I’ve been so busy that in the past few days - I got myself married and am now in Venice, Italia! (The room gives us free internet!)
Sorry to post in such a rush, but here are some pictures for your lovely eyes until I get back:
Mr. & Mrs. Caramel
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Mrs. Caramel, Los Angeles Age and Occupation: 24, Art Gallery/Museums Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Engineer Engagement Date: January 8, 2007 Wedding Date: October 6, 2007 Venue: a beautiful church and hotel reception About Me: I love dancing, singing, eating out, eating in, surfing on the net, and brainstorming fantastic ideas. I also love cats, coffee, and know every quote written on Sex & the City. I'm known to laugh really loud and have really crazy hand gestures while I talk. My fiance writes songs and I take pictures. What else? We're just a crazy young couple in love, trying to make a fabulous wedding!
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | 30 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
