Weddingbee

Mr. J and I planned to say a few words of thank you during our wedding reception, but we were running a bit behind schedule and we didn’t have time. I’m sad about that because I really wanted to publicly thank my parents for everything they did to make it such a beautiful day. Since I couldn’t thank them there, I’m going to thank them here, as publicly as I can:
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I’m going to backtrack a little while I wait for our professional pictures to come back…

In May, Mr. Jasmine and I met our valima photographer, Laurie Tennent, in Millenium Park. My mother-in-law wanted to create a photo guestbook for the valima and she asked us to take some engagement photos with Laurie. We met Laurie in the park on a *ridiculously* cold day for May. I was all bundled up in a black coat which I threw off to take pics and would throw back on between shots. I felt very much like a ANTM contestant

I’ve featured some of my favorite shots below. Laurie was such a joy to work with and I think she really captured our personalities. I would definitely recommend her to any Michigan area brides looking for a photographer!
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On Saturday, Mr. Jasmine and I had our second reception at the Hyatt Regency Dearborn. The second reception is called a valima and it’s thrown by the groom’s parents as a celebration of the newlywed couple. Valimas are typically just as formal and grand as the wedding itself and my mother-in-law did an amazing job planning a beautiful celebration. Since I had no hand in planning the valima, all the decor and details were a surprise to me as well.

Here are some non-professional photos of our second reception:

The beautiful centerpieces:

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with my beloved wedding coordinator, angel swanson

While I’m waiting for our professional pictures to come back, I thought I’d start on some vendor reviews. I chose almost all my vendors based on vendor reviews I found online, so hopefully my comments will be just as helpful to other Los Angeles/Orange County brides-to-be.
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Our amazing photographer, Marisa Holmes, just posted some of her favorite shots of us on her blog, and of course, I had to share with my beloved bee readers. I will definitely be blogging about the day in much more detail when I have all the pro pics back, but here are some of the highlights. All photos courtesy of the very talented and super sweet Marisa Holmes:

in the makeup chair…I was so tense!
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Mr. Jasmine and I just wanted to say a quick hello to everyone from our minimoon in Las Vegas! Saturday was the most beautiful day of our lives– we could not have asked for a better wedding. Definitely look forward to lots of details and beautiful pictures when we get back, but for now, here’s a little teaser shot from our super fabulous (and gorgeous!) photographer, Marisa Holmes:

When Mr. Jasmine and I got engaged in March 2007, Weddingbee quickly became my savior, my confidant, my lifeline. I was among the first of my girlfriends to get engaged and I had a million questions, concerns, and ideas. And poor Mr. Jasmine was in way over his head– he had no idea about this world that revolved around “fondant” and “chiavari”.

So when I found Weddingbee, I knew I’d found a home. A wonderfully supportive, kind, and inspirational community where no question is too silly and everyone is just as excited as you are that your invitations came in or that you booked your photographer. And when I joined the team as “Miss Jasmine”, I joined a really special group of women who have definitely become my friends.
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I’m happy to report that I’m blogging from sunny Southern California! I’m here to enjoy a wonderful, relaxing week at home before the big day and I’m getting so excited. I realized today that I never blogged about our ceremony and reception furniture, so I’m backtracking a little bit.

Our ceremony will be held at the InterContinental garden, underneath a billowing white canopy adorned with dark pink blooms. Mr. J and myself, along with our parents, will sit on the chairs below, swagged with complementary dark pink silk shantung:

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I know I post about my mom a lot, but I really do think she is the best. She is just so creative and talented and generous– she is everything I aspire to be. She’s put her whole heart into adding special homemade touches to our wedding and I tear up when I think about being surrounded by little reminders of her love on my wedding day.

Her latest (and possibly greatest) DIY project is a guestbook for our mehndi. We’re having a polaroid guestbook for the wedding, but we wanted to do something a little whimsical for the mehndi, which is traditionally a more casual event. So my mom came up with a really creative idea, inspired by something she saw in the Stampin Up catalog.

First, she cut out tons of orange and yellow flowers using different hand punches(orange, yellow, and green are traditional mehndi colors). She layered cut-outs in different colors and patterns to create the lovely, sweet flowers below.

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I’m in a grumpy mood today because of a court appearance that didn’t go quite the way I intended (as a lawyer, not a defendant, thank goodness!). Anyway, don’t these people know that I’m getting married soon and my priorities are all askew? I’ve decided to channel my case of the grumps into something for the greater good. Here are a list of my registry gripes and grumps: hopefully this will help some of you who are considering what stores to choose for your own registry. And so I’m not a complete shrew in this post, I’ve listed the number one pro of each store.

(1) Crate & Barrel: No Thank You Manager!?!?
WTF Crate & Barrel? It is so bizarre to me that one of the most popular stores for wedding registries lacks a thank you manager. So far, I’ve found the thank you manager to be a really indispensable resource and it’s so annoying that Crate & Barrel lacks an easy way to manage who sent you what.
BUT…Crate & Barrel has such a great variety of items at different price points.
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