Weddingbee Blog

I’m sorry I’ve been MIA lately—I’m in a last minute scramble for wedding stuff and I will have many things (programs, favors, escort cards) to share in the near future. In the meantime, I’ll give you some visuals of fantastical wedding cakes that make me hungry every time I see them.

Choosing our wedding cake was quite the process. My Mom used to bake/decorate cakes in Sri Lanka so she is obsessed with having an elaborate cake for the wedding. I think she’d make it herself if she wasn’t doing a zillion other things before the wedding. Our inspiration cakes were all elaborate and sari-like:

I have no idea where this image came from- let me know if it’s yours!

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I just flew back to LA tonight to work on our wedding, which is coming up in less than 30 days! It’s freaking me out a little bit, but some deep breathing, Coffee Bean and So Cal sunshine should help.

I am going on a site visit/inspection tomorrow with our wedding coordinator, the fabulous Mary Sushinski from Occasions To Remember and a team of our vendors (DJ, caterer, elephant person (ha), photographer, videographer, etc). With this appointment coming up, I realized that I never told the hive about our wedding venue.

Our hunt for a venue was long and full of struggles. A lot of options were crossed off our list right away because we had certain restrictions:

1.) Had to hold at least 350 people
2.) Allowed outside catering (Mr. Marg insisted on Indian food)

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Thanks to everyone who gave me some great ideas/advice for my heel dilemma. Yesterday I went online shopping and bought foot petals, insolias and superfeet. I figure one or maybe some crazy combination of them all will ease the pain. Now I am praying for mojo and hunting for a pair of flats, wedges or flip flops to wear if I can no longer move in my dream heels.

Flip Flops?

Casual Reefs in bronze or gold?

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I love shoes. Maybe a little too much. So when it came to my wedding shoes, I was in all out shoe mania mode. Especially since photographers take some fabulous pictures of your wedding shoes as seen in the shoe style posts regularly featured on The Bride’s Cafe.

I had dreams of Louboutins, Giuseppe Zanottis and Manolos. Then I found her. Prada Silk Cristal Pumps! Gold and silver! Crystal Encrusted Heel! Swoon.

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My love for photography started in my high school photo class and has been with me ever since. So naturally when we started planning for the wedding, I went on a mad hunt to find a photographer that blew me away. Turns out there are some seriously fabulous photographers in the LA area, but for some seriously expensive prices. A lot of my cost issues were because I needed a photographer for about 14-16 hours. Brown ceremonies are long and we like to party. Or maybe that’s just my family.

I felt like Goldilocks during my photographer search - they were too expensive, too posed, or too typical. There were also times when I liked their work, but it just didn’t feel right for some reason. Then I found Dina Douglass of Andrena Photo. Ahhh just right (for me anyway). Her work featured vibrant colors, great perspective and she was very familiar with South Asian culture. Dina even offers photography packages for South Asian brides that factor in the long hours. Not to mention the fact that she writes long, witty emails.

Her mad skills grace the latest Grace Ormonde Wedding Style. The photos are from a breathtaking wedding she shot in Udaipur, India a few months ago.

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I’ve shown the hive my bridal party floral ideas, so next up is the ceremony and centerpieces. These are some of the pictures I brought along with me when I went to visit/interview florists. Just a bit of advice - it helps immensely to bring inspiration pictures when you visit a florist. They will get a good idea of the look/theme/vibe you are going for, and if your vision is all over the place like mine was, at least they can tell you that and help you narrow things down.

Ceremony:
I want to keep the ceremony mostly white/ivory with touches of orange and bring in the rich plum color for the reception.

My vision is to line the aisle with large copper or dark wood bowls with dahlias in them.

From dreamy R. Jack Balthazar

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That title has nothing to do with anything, but that song is stuck in my head. Now I bet I’ve successfully gotten in stuck in your head too (muhahaha <— that’s my satisfied evil laugh).

Although this post has nothing to do with candy, it does involve sweet flowers. I was pretty floored when I first started looking at flowers. I had no idea you could do such innovative and beautiful things. I ogled at Preston Bailey and Daniel Ost, but then quickly came back to reality.

Daniel Ost is a genius

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I stumbled across Olivia Oberlin from my daily perusal of various wedding blogs and I fell in love. I think her fans are absolutely gorgeous and I am sure incredibly expensive (no prices on the website). Her fans got me thinking that it could be unique and beautiful for my bridesmaids to carry a fan adorned with fresh flowers instead of a bouquet. I’m thinking a few random flowers sewn onto the fan itself and a long strand of orchids trailing down from the base.

Olivia Oberlin Fans:

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My bachelorette was last weekend in NYC and I had SO much fun! My MOH kept everything a secret from me so I didn’t really know what to expect. Each day she gave me an envelope of what was in store for me for that day.

Friday me, my MOH and one of my best friends from college drove from Boston to NYC. We were running a little late so we rushed to the Residence Inn in Times Square, got ready in 30 minutes and ran out the door to meet everyone else for dinner. I must have mentally checked out already because on the cab ride to the restaurant, we realized that I parked my car in front of the hotel but never gave the valet my keys. Luckily the car was still parked out front when we got back to the hotel (phew!) and we hopped in a cab once again to head to dinner.

Dinner was at Holy Basil in the East Village. I have to say this was the perfect spot for a large group dinner. The restaurant was roomy (especially for a Thai place), the food and wine were great and not too expensive. We had a group of about 15 girls and 6 bottles of wine so needless to say there was a lot of giggling, laughing and general loudness going on.

All of us girls outside of Holy Basil (beautiful NYC bus as our background)

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Our invitations took me forever to finalize. I fussed and fretted over every little detail from line thickness to wording. I changed the paper, the design and I think lost my mind in the process. But I am SO glad I did because I ended up with these beauties:

Outside of our invitation with our monogrammed bellyband:

I love the huge lotus and the hanging garlands of flowers.
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I’ve been dragging out these ceremony posts (1 & 2), so here is the third and final installment of our ceremony. We’ve ridden elephants, been through a parade of drummers and dancers, and now we are about to light a fire.

Mr. Marg and I haven’t quite figured out how to make a smooth transition from the Poruwa ceremony to the Hindu ceremony, so I’m just going to jump into the components of the Hindu ceremony we decided to include. If anyone has suggestions or ideas on transitions, please let me know!

Sankalpa
Mr. Margarita and I will say these sacred vows together, promising to:
- Always have faith in the divine
- Always treat each other with love and compassion
- Keep the mind pure and virtuous
- Be strong and righteous
- Show good-will, respect and affection to our parents and family members
- Raise our children to be strong in mind and body
- Always welcome and honor guests who come into our home Read more…

I’m headed off to my bachelorette weekend extravaganza but I couldn’t leave without writing about my amazing and thoughtful best friend/MOH. She surprised me with this little puppy as a late birthday present:

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I thought I’d interrupt my posts on our ceremony to show the hive my bridesmaids and flowergirl outfits and their associated bling. My Mom and I went to Mumbai in December for one insane week of shopping and picked this all up in addition to 4 entire suitcases of saris, gifts, jewelry, etc.

I wanted to find four matching saris for my bridesmaids in a deep purple/plum color. Turns out it is insanely hard to find four matching saris and even harder to find them in a deep plum color. We were nearing the end of our trip so I decided to buy enough plum colored silk for four saris and four flower girl outfits. I also purchased some matching beaded borders. My Mom and I then took the fabric and borders to Sri Lanka to be custom made. I’m glad we did this in retrospect because I didn’t have to settle for a random color or pattern I didn’t like.

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I ended part 1 of our Buddhist/Hindu ceremony with the Ganesh Puja. Since it’s been a little while since the last post, let me set the scene.

Mr. Margarita will be standing at the front of the Mandap/Poruwa (platform) on the left side (from the audience’s perspective). Mr. Margarita’s immediate family and the Hindu priest will be seated on the left side of the Mandap/Poruwa. Mr. Margarita’s four groomsmen will be standing to the left of the platform facing the guests. My immediate family (minus my parents) and the Sri Lankan officiant will be on the right side of the platform. 400-500 of our family and friends will be seated facing the Mandap/Poruwa and waiting for the ceremony to begin.

The Procession
My four lovely bridesmaids will then make their way down the aisle and stand to the right of the Mandap/Poruwa. Following them are our four adorable flowergirls (ages 1 1/2 - 4 1/2) who will hopefully make it all the way down the aisle without crying or fleeing at the sight of 400-500 faces.
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My bachelorette is next weekend in NYC and I am having a hard time choosing a fun dress to wear on Saturday night.

Option 1 - Black Nanette Lepore dress from http://www.shopbop.com/

Front

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