Weddingbee Blog

So the portraits had been taken and it was time to start. At least for everyone besides me and my bridesmaids. We sat waiting in the house/changing area while everyone got to see the groom’s procession on the elephant. I’m so sad I never even saw the elephant in real life and only through pictures. I heard she was very sweet and well mannered, though.

Here is Tai the sweet 8,800 pound elephant from Have Trunk Will Travel.

Isn’t she pretty?

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After we all got pretty, we headed over to Saddlerock Ranch to take portraits. Mr. Margarita was already there taking pictures with his family and I really didn’t want to see him before the ceremony so we had a specific time I was supposed to get there. Naturally we were late, so we missed that window of time. I was kind of freaking out and I lost it a little on my Mom because she took forever getting ready, which was part of the reason we were late. It was a total bridezilla moment and in retrospect I feel horrible about it. We showed up to the site and had to coordinate with our coordinator (hee hee) Mary so I wouldn’t see Mr. Marg. She was the one who calmed everything down and actually told me to apologize to my Mom. I’m SO glad she did, because I would have felt way worse being a brat after all my parents gave me on my wedding day and of course, my 26 years of life prior to that day. Anyway, I digress…

So, here are some of Mr. Margarita’s family portraits they took before we got to Saddlerock:

Mr. Marg with his parents

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I’ve shown you some details and our wedding day outfits but I really haven’t been sure where to go from there. I’m going to do this as a chronological story of the day because that’s the only thing that makes sense to me. I know it’s not a shocking revelation and I should have come to this a long time ago. I blame the heat for my slowness. My goal is to finish all our recaps before our one year wedding anniversary (which is in 24 days!) though, so you’re gonna be getting a whole lot o’ Margarita in the next few weeks.

As, usual the day started out getting pretty with my lovely family, bridal party and friends. There were a lot of people, but luckily the bridal suite was massive, so everyone got ready in the huge dining/living room area and I got to have my own space in the bedroom. I was full of anxiety the morning of the wedding. I just knew we were going to be late no matter what time we started getting ready (of course, we were). Mr. Margarita’s family is incredibly punctual and usually 5 minutes early for things. My family is all scatterbrained and crazy and runs a minimum of 30 minutes late for everything.

On top of that, I think many brides must feel anxiety for a bunch of different reasons and I felt like there were a million things I was forgetting. My control freak nature was having a hard time leaving all the details to our coordinator. Of course, our fantabulous wedding coordinator Mary Sushinski orchestrated everything beautifully but it didn’t stop me from holding this coffee with a ninja death grip. Actually, it looks like a peaceful picture, but that’s not how I remember it…

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I left you way back in November with some of our wedding details promising to tackle accessories and outfits.

I had two outfits for our day - a sari for the ceremony and a lengha for the reception. The sari for the wedding was a ivory/cream color, keeping with Sri Lankan tradition. I had it custom made in LA by Mehr Design Studio (described here) along with my veil.

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Hi everyone! I know it’s been a ridiculous amount of time since I’ve posted anything. I’m not going to give any excuses for neglecting my bee responsibilities. I know I’ve been a bad bee but I’ll be starting up my wedding recaps soon, I promise. First I wanted to share our wedding highlights video from Robles Video. They did a great job putting this together, and I finally figured out how to upload it so everyone could see it. It’s kinda long, but if you have ten minutes, here it is:

Videography wasn’t high on my priority list but my parents really wanted a wedding video.
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Our fabulous photographer Dina of Andrena Photography has been slaving away to get us our pictures back. She sent us an online album of over 2000 images! I don’t even know where to begin in terms of ordering albums and I am even more confused about where to start blogging. Since she still has to retouch many of the images, I will start with the images of our decor that she’s already done for us.

We had such a specific idea of what we wanted for the florals and decor, and I was floored when I saw it all put together. We had notions of this romantic, garden wedding but with vibrant colors and an ethnic/Moroccan feel. The ceremony and mandap/poruwa were beautiful, but the reception honestly blew me away. It was like Jill, our florist and Mary, our coordinator had literally pulled the ideas from right inside my head. I am not going to lie, after the ceremony and pictures I was completely and totally exhausted. The ceremony ran longer than we thought, we had to rush through our couples pictures and family pictures and we missed the cocktail hour (we knew we would). I just wanted to go to bed. Then we walked up the winding path lined with hundreds of candles and when I saw our dream wedding I was instantly re-energized. I wish that someone took pictures of that candle-lined pathway because it was so dreamy and romantic.

So here are some pictures of the beautiful decor:

Here’s me and Mr. Marg cheesin’ on the mandap/poruwa.
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I’m still waiting for professional pictures but we just got our photobooth pictures back and they are so much fun I had to share. We used Cheesy Photobooths based out of the LA/Orange County area. They were so easy to work with and I love what they had to offer. The gave us unlimited double prints for the event up to 4 hours, digital CD of all the photos, on-site attendant, free setup/breakdown in the LA area, a custom digital banner and a scrapbook and supplies. They also had this bonus where they were giving us 2 extra hours of service free of charge. They also offer a and a 12′ screen free of charge (for the first client to book) that date. Not to mention that all the booths have a digital display screen on the outside so people waiting can see the pictures as they are taken.

Our guests loved thephotobooth and we got some absolutely hilarious pictures to prove it. The only thing I would change would be to put it in a more prominent location since some of our guests didn’t even know the photobooth was there. Also, make sure you tell your family and bridal party to get their turn in the photobooth. My family and most of our groomsmen/bridesmaids didn’t find the time to make it over and take some pictures.
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Our mendhi party was held at my house in Orange County the Thursday before the wedding. My mendhi artist insisted that I get my mendhi done the night before the party to let it really set in and get dark before the wedding. This forced me to stop running around like a mad woman and actually relax. Nothing like getting henna put on for five hours to slow a person down. Lucky for me, my MOH, bridesmaid B, and one of my best friends from college were there to keep me company, and even take my contacts out. Yeah, I know gross. I forgot to take my contacts out beforehand, and with all the henna on my hands it was up to my friend to take them out. Lucky for me she’s an ophthalmologist, so I was in good hands.

Getting my mendhi applied. The paste was black but it dyes (temporarily) the skin a deep red color.

I had to sleep with the henna paste so my SIL tied plastic bags around my hands and feet. It was honestly the worst sleep I have ever gotten. Not to mention that we (my MOH and college friend) slept Willy Wonka-style, so my tossing and turning all night affected them too.
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Our programs were a labor of love. All in all they took us literally weeks to complete! The reason it took us so long was because I didn’t plan out the supplies very well, and since we started with only a few weeks from the wedding, I was just over it. That said, I’m SO glad we put so much effort into making them because they were a huge hit at the wedding.

Here’s the result of our weeks of work (excuse the bad quality picture - my camera is on the fritz):

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I just got this email from BFF Bridal and had to share with the hive - 25% off Jennifer Behr!

Make your head happy by using the coupon code “BFF”.

Mr. Marg and I both had pretty crazy schedules leading up to the wedding and had a really hard time finding a weekend to come out to California together to take engagement pictures. Since the engagement photo shoot and print for our wedding was included in our photography package, I really wanted to squeeze them in somehow. So, between our schedules and our photographer’s schedule, the only time we could find to take engagement pictures was the day of our mendhi party. Since the mendhi party was at my house and only two days before the wedding, it was a crazy time for me. Not to mention, Mr. Marg had just arrived in Cali a few hours prior to the shoot. The real insanity was that it gave Dina, our fabulous and understanding photographer, only a 24-hour turnaround time to create a print for our wedding.

Dina agreed to meet us in downtown Long Beach to do the engagement session. She wasn’t familiar with the area and the lighting wasn’t ideal but she really made it work. We met at the Long Beach Aquarium and ran all over the place taking pictures. We posed around the many brightly painted buildings, got some ice cream as props, and took pictures in all sorts of shrubbery and bushes. Honestly, when we were crouching in those bushes and around planted flowers I was really starting to wonder what the pictures would look like. Little did I know that Dina would make it seem like we were in a field of flowers!

So, here we are appearing to be in a field of flowers (but really crouching in flowers surrounding a water fountain):
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Take one elephant and one groom…

one anxious bride…
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I’m SOOO excited! I finally got to see my sari and veil/dupatta! I can barely contain my excitement and want to show everyone. Sadly, Grandma and Momma Marg have banned me from showing anyone my outfits or jewelry before the wedding. Sigh. I guess something about “evil eye” and an element of surprise. So, here’s a little snapshot of my sari and my veil.

Mr. Marg don’t you dare peak! Even if it’s just a little taste, you are banned from viewing this!
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My makeup/hair people called me yesterday and cancelled my appointment for our Mendhi night. UGH! I was definitely upset/mad and had a little breakdown, but I’m back to normal now. It was after business hours by the time I found out, so I’m gonna have to try my best to find another hair/makeup person in a little over a week. Any suggestions for Orange County hair/makeup people would be greatly appreciated!

After receiving that bit of news, I realized that I’d never shown the hive what my potential hair styles are going to be. I’ve been collecting lots of pictures of different hairstyles over the past few months. I want an up-do for my first outfit (ivory colored bridal sari) and a half-up look for my second outfit (red and copper colored lengha). The problem there is that I don’t have a lot of time to change my hair and makeup, so I’m hoping that I can find a style that easily transitions from all up to half down without looking messy.

I gathered these images so long ago that I’m not sure where I got them. If you know the sources, please let me know and I will credit them!
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We are officially less than 2 weeks away from the wedding day! We’ve been planning this sucker since last March and we’re SO tired! Our wedding planning process has been filled with emotional highs and lows. If you told me a year ago that I’d be crying and angry about the cost of flowers and cake, I wouldn’t have been able to believe it. I can’t tell you how many times this year I’ve uttered the phrase “I just can’t wait until this is over.” Yup, I can be a drama queen.

Growing up you are led to believe that a wedding is all about the couple getting married. Realistically for South Asian brides (and for many other cultures I’m sure) weddings are about families joining together. Every person has an opinion about what you should do. Not only do you have to consider your parents’ opinions, you oftentimes have to think about grandparents, aunties & uncles (the real and fake), brothers, sisters, and cousins. On top of that, you have to make sure that you are respecting your culture and religion. For me, that involves respecting both Sri Lankan and Indian culture as well as the Buddhist and Hindu traditions. I’m not for a second complaining about our rich cultures and religions or our wonderful and well-meaning families. I love that our wedding encompasses so much history, life and love. We are who we are because of our families, our religions and our cultures, and our wedding wouldn’t be “us” without it. It is just truly overwhelming sometimes to try and consider all of it when you are planning a wedding. How can you fit so much and please so many in just a few hours on one day?
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