After our first look and couples portraits were completed, there was nothing left to do except it. You know, get married! Our site coordinator quickly lined everyone up and before I knew it, the processional music was already playing.
Our awesome musician, Jason Sulkin!
We chose “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” for the processional because it’s a classic and beautiful song. Jason has a sample of his version on his website if you care to listen. As soon as I heard those first few chords, it seemed like the clock starting going at hyper speed. From that moment on, the day started flying by way too fast.
Although the weather cleared up for our wedding day, some of the ground was still muddy, so we didn’t get to venture too far for our couple portraits. As much as I was looking forward to an awesome photo shoot next to the venue’s ferris wheel, I didn’t even care the day of the wedding. Maybe it had something to do with my new-found calm.
Or else, I didn’t want to get my kick ass shoes all muddy.
Priorities!
The rain did make everything look more green and fresh for the photos. We took advantage of all the greenery around us.
After my bridal party finished getting ready and Mr. Warbs’ crew finished lacing up their Chuck Taylors, we all headed to the venue. The bridal party rode in a shuttle provided by the hotel and Mr. Warbs and his groomsmen piled into his dad’s car. During the short drive, two things happened simultaneously in both vehicles.
We both freaked the f#*@ out.
As we rounded a curve climbing up into the hill, I yelled “OH MY GOD! I forgot the marriage license!” The license had been left behind in the hotel room. I guess I freaked everyone out, including the driver who hit the brakes for dramatic effect.
A little ways down the road behind us, Mr. Warbs said, “Sh@#, I forgot my vows!” His dad said, “Well, we’re not going back, we’re already running late. So you better start writing!” Ha!
After I finished kicking myself, I asked the bridal party which one of our friends was still at the hotel. We were able to get ahold of two of our friends who talked the hotel into letting them into my room to grab the license and meet us at the venue. Thanks for saving the day, Jazzy and Jo!
Meanwhile, Mr. Warbs frantically rewrote his vows on his cell phone. When he finally arrived at the venue, he emailed the vows to our coordinator who printed them out for him. How freaking crazy is it that we both forgot something major on the day of our wedding? Crisis averted, but we were both feeling pretty frazzled heading into our first look. Especially me.
While I was anxiously getting ready, Mr. Warbs had a much more casual morning with his men. Since I obviously wasn’t around to hang out with the guys, I decided to let him speak to the hive about his experience. Also, instead of writing a blog post, I get to eat a brownie!
Just kidding. I’m obviously going to eat MULTIPLE brownies.
Without further ado, here is Mr. Warbs’ take on our wedding day!
The morning of our wedding day, I woke up early and checked the weather. Clear as a bell! Then it hit me: after fifteen months of planning, our wedding day was finally here! I was finally going to get to see all of my planning come to fruition. All of a sudden I couldn’t wait and I wanted to get married immediately. Too bad it was only 5:00AM!
After eating a light breakfast, jumping up and down on my bed, showering and finishing up my vows I made my rounds to wake up the bridal party. Most of us had rooms on the same floor, so I went door to door demanding that everyone get showered and head over to my room to get ready. I was kind of a brat, but my family has a reputation for being a wee bit tardy. Thankfully, everybody got a move on and before I knew it, my make-up artist and videographer had arrived! I only had to wait a little longer before I could get fancied up with these little things:
The morning of our rehearsal I woke up to the sound of a bride’s worst fear: rain. The week of our wedding, it rained nearly every day. Heavy rain. The forecast showed a slight chance of rain on the days of our rehearsal and wedding, so I went to bed Thursday night confident that the weather would cut us a break. But literally the second I woke up, I was filled with dread. I just knew our wedding would get rained out.
The weather was so intense that we were forced to hold the rehearsal indoors because the grounds were flooded. The rain didn’t look like it was letting up any time soon. As you can imagine, I was freaking out.
Ha, look at our faces!
Sadly, that was the only photo from the rehearsal. At one point we decided to line up outside when the rain was a bit lighter, but we ended up rained out almost as soon as we started. Eventually, we got all of the logistics down and headed back to get ready for the best part of the day: dinner!
Well, it’s officially recap time! I couldn’t think of a better way to start than to show you our wedding video, so let’s jump right in! Our videograhers did an amazing job of capturing the essence of our wedding, and making us look good in the process. One disclaimer: I can’t dance. Don’t judge me for busting out the same dance move over and over again!
Melody + Jason from Lovebirds Film on Vimeo.
So, it appears that it has been more than two months since my last post. Whoops! Just know that the Warblers have been busy. Busy snatching up houses! OK, only one house. We are officially homeowners! It was a very long and stressful process, we were in escrow for more than 60 days. The week that we closed, Mr. Warbs had to go to Houston for work which left me to deal with packing, moving and furniture deliveries by myself. But, we’re in the house now and that’s all hat matters. Now, shall we commence with the honeymoon recap?
That’s more like it!
After a busy week in Oahu, we were more than ready to relax in Maui. In fact, that’s pretty much all we did in Maui. We hung out and relaxed in our pimped out condo. We managed to get a good deal at the Outrigger Palms in Wailea. I would definitely recommend the company. Our condo came equipped with a huge kitchen, living room, balcony, deck and two bathrooms.
When we first got to Oahu, we were kind of in a mad panic to see and do everything. Our first couple of days on the island consisted of waking up early, going sightseeing, staying out late, and dragging of exhausted bodies back to the hotel. On about day three, we finally slept in and it was GLORIOUS. I love sleep. Especially blissful honeymoon sleep. I highly recommend it!
North Shore
After that wonderful day of rest, we took a more relaxing approach to our honeymoon. One day we decided to rent a car and drive to the North Shore. We didn’t have a destination in mind, which was great! It was fun just driving, kind of like a mini road trip. The North Shore goes on forever.
Oh, hello Paradise.
Even though we got off to a rough start, the rest of our time in Oahu went off without a hitch. Waking up in paradise every day definitely helped! With less than a week to spend in Oahu, we wanted to explore as much as we could so our days were packed full of activities. We both had things we were looking forward to: Mr. Warbs really wanted to go to Pearl Harbor and I really wanted to go on a LOST tour. Completely different right? We were able to do both and then some!
Pearl Harbor and USS Missouri
Everybody always says if you ever go to Oahu, you just have to visit Pearl Harbor. It’s true. Once you get to the USS Arizona, there’s just a change in the atmosphere. Reverence probably is the closest word I can use to describe looking at all the names on the wall. Reverence and humility.
You can’t bring anything except a camera into the memorial. No exceptions!
After a long, cramped flight, we finally arrived in Oahu! We hopped on a shuttle to our hotel and, 45 minutes later, we checked into our temporary home for the next week. The Courtyard Marriott Waikiki is a decent hotel, but it wasn’t overly extravagant, which was fine because we didn’t spend a lot of time in our room anyway. Other than sleeping and you know.
Even though we were dead tired from the early flight, we went out to explore right away. The drive from the airport only showed us freeways and industrial buildings. We wanted to see Oahu. The beach was only a few blocks away from our hotel, so we strolled on over. And it was beautiful.
Before I recap our honeymoon, I want to start out with a few tips. While some of my tips are Hawaii specific, I think most can apply to any honeymoon destination. When Mr. Warbs and I were planning our trip we had so many questions! Most were answered just by doing things, but we did second guess ourselves a lot. So if any like-minded brides are on the fence about something, take my advice…
DO
Fly First Class.
Yeah, I know what you’re thinking and believe me I’m not made out of money either. That shit can be expensive. BUT, you’re on your honeymoon. You only get a few of these! (Points for movie reference). Mr. Warbler and I didn’t fly first class and we regretted it for a couple of reasons. First of all, our flight to Oahu was five and a half hours and we had really crappy seats. We sat in the back row where you can’t recline your chair back for those extra centimeters of space. It was especially uncomfortable because we’re really f@*kng tall.
We were giants in Hawaii.
Weddings are strange. They’re all about parties and gifts. Sure, it’s really about two people pledging to be together forever, but technically that part only takes up about an hour of wedding time. During my bridal shower, BM Tata said it was a party to celebrate another party. So true!
When it came to gifts, I was baffled at the amount of gift giving that is actually involved in weddings. Engagement gifts, bridal shower gifts, wedding gifts, gifts for the bridal party, gifts for parents and even gifts for each other. That’s a crazy amount of gift giving if you ask me!
Originally Mr. Warbs and I weren’t going to get each other gifts. Partly because we didn’t think it was necessary and also because we don’t make buying gifts for each other easy. Mr. Warbs is the worst person ever to shop for. He has two watches that he won’t wear. He scoffs at “superfluous” gifts such as cuff links, because he feels he’ll never wear them again. And he won’t give you a single hint as to what he actually wants or needs. In short, you have to literally be a mind reader in order to get him presents. So when he said we didn’t need to exchange gifts, I was so relieved! But, the sneaky guy ended up getting me a gift anyway! Technically it was a gift for the both of us…
Read more…
Seven months ago, I bought my wedding dress and didn’t show you guys any photos because Mr. Warbs reads my blog religiously (like a good husband). It was really important to me to keep the dress a secret from him, and I’m not good at keeping secrets or lying. I can’t even tell little white lies usually. I’m the worst because I either admit it right away or over-complicate simple things. Whenever I tell a lie, it usually goes something like this:
Mr. Warbs: So, did you eat the lunch I made you?
Me: Um…yeah. I did.
Mr. Warbs: Did you like it?
Me: OK, I went to Curry House instead. I’m sorry.
Mr. Warbs: Why did you lie? And why did you admit it right away?
Me: I don’t know. Sorry. I felt guilty. Sorry.
Mr. Warbs: It’s OK. I knew you were lying. You’re terrible at it.
Me: I know.
So after I bought my dress, I vowed to keep it a secret from Mr. Warbs until the wedding. The best thing I could think of was to keep the dress out of our apartment. However, the dress didn’t need any alterations (because it was obviously perfect and meant to be), so I was able to leave David’s Bridal with it. MIL Warbler offered to keep it at her house, but I was afraid that it would be the first place Mr. Warbs would look. And I kinda didn’t want the dress out of my possession. I loved it so much!
Hey there, hive! Mrs. Warbler here.
We got married!!!
Guest photo
The day started off pretty touch and go, but in the end it was the best wedding I’ve ever been to. I know I’m biased, but all of our guests said the same thing! There was just so much love, and every single person invited helped make our wedding what it was.
Mrs. Warbler, Long Beach/Malibu Age and Occupation: 24, Quality Assurance Editor Fiance's Age and Occupation: 32, Handheld Administrator Engagement Date: December 7, 2010 Wedding Date: April 2012 Venue: Calamigos Ranch Malibu About Me: I’m a Korean BBQ loving, cheesecake enthusiast bride living in the LBC! By day I write and edit for an online search engine marketing company. By night I am a volunteer food taster of all that is delicious. I am fortunate to be marrying an amazing man who loves me and my quirky ways. I love food, books, indie music, and Harry Potter. We are planning a small, intimate wedding up in the Malibu Hills with our closest family and friends. With the help of my wonderful fiance, our loved ones, and red velvet cheesecake, our wedding will be glorious!
