Mrs. Pearl, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 26, High school history teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 37, Software engineer
Engagement Date: No official date, we just decided :-)
Wedding Date: July 2007
Venue: St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Church, Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel
About Me: Mr. Pearl and I have been together for about four and a half years now. We've been "engaged" since 2004 and were originally supposed to get married in June 2006, but postponed the wedding to July 2007. I love shopping for housewares and office supplies, music, reading chick lit, football, and the diverse world of Los Angeles dining.
Part I: Let’s Get Beautified — pre-wedding prep
Part II: First Look — pre-wedding portraits
**all pictures courtesy of my photographer John Schnack
One of the most involved pieces of the wedding planning process was becoming familiar with the traditions of a Greek Orthodox wedding. I grew up in the Catholic church, but my family wasn’t really active in going to church or actively participating in faith-based activities.…
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Mrs. Pearl, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 26, High school history teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 37, Software engineer
Engagement Date: No official date, we just decided :-)
Wedding Date: July 2007
Venue: St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Church, Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel
About Me: Mr. Pearl and I have been together for about four and a half years now. We've been "engaged" since 2004 and were originally supposed to get married in June 2006, but postponed the wedding to July 2007. I love shopping for housewares and office supplies, music, reading chick lit, football, and the diverse world of Los Angeles dining.
Part I: Let’s Get Beautified
Every time I see our “first look” pictures, I think of a song that I’ve loved since my pre-teen years called “The First Time” by Surface. Specifically, this part of the song
Can you tell from the look on my face
That I love you more today
The first time I looked into your eyes I cried
Do you remember the first time
We fell in…
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Mrs. Pearl, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 26, High school history teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 37, Software engineer
Engagement Date: No official date, we just decided :-)
Wedding Date: July 2007
Venue: St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Church, Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel
About Me: Mr. Pearl and I have been together for about four and a half years now. We've been "engaged" since 2004 and were originally supposed to get married in June 2006, but postponed the wedding to July 2007. I love shopping for housewares and office supplies, music, reading chick lit, football, and the diverse world of Los Angeles dining.
***sidenote: our pro pics are in and they’re AMAAAAAAAAAZING! Seriously, I am in hardcore love with them.***
During the wedding planning process, one of the things I knew I wanted for sure was that I wanted to stay at the hotel our reception was going to be at. I wanted a pampered pre-wedding night that was relaxing and enabled me to spend a night away from…
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Mrs. Pearl, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 26, High school history teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 37, Software engineer
Engagement Date: No official date, we just decided :-)
Wedding Date: July 2007
Venue: St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Church, Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel
About Me: Mr. Pearl and I have been together for about four and a half years now. We've been "engaged" since 2004 and were originally supposed to get married in June 2006, but postponed the wedding to July 2007. I love shopping for housewares and office supplies, music, reading chick lit, football, and the diverse world of Los Angeles dining.
Dear Fed-Ex,
I know that you are professionals. I know that you are in the business of delivering packages. I also know that you are restrained by the laws of physics in how quickly you can deliver packages. However, please be advised that my photographer has shipped my proof book and my CD of high resolution images through your service. As such, I must demand that…
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Mrs. Pearl, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 26, High school history teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 37, Software engineer
Engagement Date: No official date, we just decided :-)
Wedding Date: July 2007
Venue: St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Church, Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel
About Me: Mr. Pearl and I have been together for about four and a half years now. We've been "engaged" since 2004 and were originally supposed to get married in June 2006, but postponed the wedding to July 2007. I love shopping for housewares and office supplies, music, reading chick lit, football, and the diverse world of Los Angeles dining.
During that post-wedding letdown period (where you realize that you’re not wedding planning anymore and miss the more fun components of planning the event), many women think about starting up wedding-related businesses. Sometimes it’s a fleet of fancy and the person gives up on the idea when they realize they don’t really like it. I have always loved planning events and did as much during…
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Mrs. Pearl, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 26, High school history teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 37, Software engineer
Engagement Date: No official date, we just decided :-)
Wedding Date: July 2007
Venue: St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Church, Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel
About Me: Mr. Pearl and I have been together for about four and a half years now. We've been "engaged" since 2004 and were originally supposed to get married in June 2006, but postponed the wedding to July 2007. I love shopping for housewares and office supplies, music, reading chick lit, football, and the diverse world of Los Angeles dining.
But bad for my waistline.
One of the yummy discoveries I made while visiting New York City was Crumbs Bakeshop. I blogged about this previously, so I’ll spare you the gory details revisited. My dreams of that time have come true! Crumbs Bakeshop has opened a franchise on the West Coast, specifically California. Even more specifically, in Beverly Hills, merely 2 blocks from Sprinkles Cupcakes!
The franchise…
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Create the honeymoon of your dreams.

Mrs. Pearl, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 26, High school history teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 37, Software engineer
Engagement Date: No official date, we just decided :-)
Wedding Date: July 2007
Venue: St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Church, Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel
About Me: Mr. Pearl and I have been together for about four and a half years now. We've been "engaged" since 2004 and were originally supposed to get married in June 2006, but postponed the wedding to July 2007. I love shopping for housewares and office supplies, music, reading chick lit, football, and the diverse world of Los Angeles dining.
When we went to the courthouse to get our marriage license, Mr. P and I decided to get a confidential marriage license. No, this doesn’t mean our marriage is a secret (or that we’re keeping it a secret). No, it doesn’t mean we love each other any less.
We chose to get a confidential marriage license for a couple of reasons:
1. We value some elements of…
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Mrs. Pearl, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 26, High school history teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 37, Software engineer
Engagement Date: No official date, we just decided :-)
Wedding Date: July 2007
Venue: St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Church, Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel
About Me: Mr. Pearl and I have been together for about four and a half years now. We've been "engaged" since 2004 and were originally supposed to get married in June 2006, but postponed the wedding to July 2007. I love shopping for housewares and office supplies, music, reading chick lit, football, and the diverse world of Los Angeles dining.
There’s no getting out of it now. . . we received our marriage certificate in the mail yesterday! Yes, we did get married on July 28. The county recorder told us to expect it in 20 days, but I guess they either worked reeeeeeeeally slowly or there was a glut of 7-7-7 brides in Los Angeles County (or both).
I took the certificate in to Mr.…
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Mrs. Pearl, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 26, High school history teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 37, Software engineer
Engagement Date: No official date, we just decided :-)
Wedding Date: July 2007
Venue: St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Church, Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel
About Me: Mr. Pearl and I have been together for about four and a half years now. We've been "engaged" since 2004 and were originally supposed to get married in June 2006, but postponed the wedding to July 2007. I love shopping for housewares and office supplies, music, reading chick lit, football, and the diverse world of Los Angeles dining.
Back in August, I blogged about my family’s strange disinterest in my wedding, including my cousin, who didn’t RSVP, but sent me a wedding invitation in the interim.
After receiving bizarre, bitchy messages from his beebee fiancee today claiming that I “bashed” my cousin in that blog post, I will amend the blog to say that about 5 days after I posted that message, we received…
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Mrs. Pearl, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 26, High school history teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 37, Software engineer
Engagement Date: No official date, we just decided :-)
Wedding Date: July 2007
Venue: St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Church, Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel
About Me: Mr. Pearl and I have been together for about four and a half years now. We've been "engaged" since 2004 and were originally supposed to get married in June 2006, but postponed the wedding to July 2007. I love shopping for housewares and office supplies, music, reading chick lit, football, and the diverse world of Los Angeles dining.
Happy first monthiversary to us! Exactly one month ago today, we were married in the best. wedding. ever (at least, in my opinion)!
We lived together for almost a year prior to getting married (and spent several nights a week together before that), so it’s not like we had to deal with the transition of merging lives and belongings. A lot of people who live together…
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Mrs. Pearl, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 26, High school history teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 37, Software engineer
Engagement Date: No official date, we just decided :-)
Wedding Date: July 2007
Venue: St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Church, Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel
About Me: Mr. Pearl and I have been together for about four and a half years now. We've been "engaged" since 2004 and were originally supposed to get married in June 2006, but postponed the wedding to July 2007. I love shopping for housewares and office supplies, music, reading chick lit, football, and the diverse world of Los Angeles dining.
1. He thoughtfully cleans up the mess from me making dinner, even though he didn’t eat what I made.
2. He takes me to 7-11 at midnight to fill an ice cream craving.
3. When I bring home the supplies for an ice cream sundae (that I’ve been talking about for literally 2 weeks), he laughs that I bought light vanilla ice cream, but doesn’t judge.
4. He’ll…
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Mrs. Pearl, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 26, High school history teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 37, Software engineer
Engagement Date: No official date, we just decided :-)
Wedding Date: July 2007
Venue: St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Church, Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel
About Me: Mr. Pearl and I have been together for about four and a half years now. We've been "engaged" since 2004 and were originally supposed to get married in June 2006, but postponed the wedding to July 2007. I love shopping for housewares and office supplies, music, reading chick lit, football, and the diverse world of Los Angeles dining.
On Saturday night, Mr. P and I went to The Grove for dinner and a movie. Apparently we have settled into this as our routine. We’re an old married couple after 3 weeks.I digress.
We thought about seeing Superbad, but after noting they already had a line at 9:30 for the 11:15 showing, we decided to skip it. We walked toward the exit and I heard…
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Mrs. Pearl, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 26, High school history teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 37, Software engineer
Engagement Date: No official date, we just decided :-)
Wedding Date: July 2007
Venue: St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Church, Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel
About Me: Mr. Pearl and I have been together for about four and a half years now. We've been "engaged" since 2004 and were originally supposed to get married in June 2006, but postponed the wedding to July 2007. I love shopping for housewares and office supplies, music, reading chick lit, football, and the diverse world of Los Angeles dining.
A couple of weeks prior to the wedding, I made the executive decision to hire a second photographer who would be with us to shoot getting ready shots. My photographer would have charged us a couple hundred extra per hour to be there while my bridal party and I were getting ready, and it was money I really didn’t feel like adding to the budget…
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Mrs. Pearl, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 26, High school history teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 37, Software engineer
Engagement Date: No official date, we just decided :-)
Wedding Date: July 2007
Venue: St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Church, Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel
About Me: Mr. Pearl and I have been together for about four and a half years now. We've been "engaged" since 2004 and were originally supposed to get married in June 2006, but postponed the wedding to July 2007. I love shopping for housewares and office supplies, music, reading chick lit, football, and the diverse world of Los Angeles dining.
Mr. Pearl and I decided we weren’t going to do wedding presents. However, he did decide to surprise me with a present the morning of. He was searching for something unique and meaningful that would last beyond our wedding day and he definitely found it!
I tend to be a one perfume kinda girl, normally sticking with Juicy perfume. However, Mr. Pearl bought me Fleurissimo. Normally…
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Mrs. Pearl, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 26, High school history teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 37, Software engineer
Engagement Date: No official date, we just decided :-)
Wedding Date: July 2007
Venue: St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Church, Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel
About Me: Mr. Pearl and I have been together for about four and a half years now. We've been "engaged" since 2004 and were originally supposed to get married in June 2006, but postponed the wedding to July 2007. I love shopping for housewares and office supplies, music, reading chick lit, football, and the diverse world of Los Angeles dining.
I am still on the high from my wedding. What an amazing event we threw! I couldn’t have asked for much more, as it was everything I imagined. But we’re about 11 days out and something has been bothering me ever since the wedding.
My family.
My immediate family was present at the wedding. I totally loved and appreciated not only their attendance, but their help on…
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