Getting Ready {The Bride-ME!!!}

So, now it's my turn to share the photos of me getting ready. I really didn't intend to have so many LOL... but Jordana (Hazelnut Photography)took some fun action shots, so i had to share. Considering how whirlwind the weekend got, it meant a lot to spend that whole Saturday morning with my bridal party, the moms and my aunt... it was "our time"... and since we had a stellar team of hair (Chelsey B) and make up (Moira Taylor) - we were in great hands!

One of my favorite shots was this black and white... I loved that our make up gals insisted on seating us near the balcony - sure they got natural light, but we got an amazing view! :)

The Newlywed Kitchen Review {Introduction}

I was recently asked if i would review a cookbook. To be honest, I didn't really think twice about it one way or another, but figured - why not... so I said yes. I figured, what would it hurt to learn a recipe or two and get to use the material for my blog at the same time. Win-Win!

Well let me be honest, I spent a majority of my cardio work out last night trying to get through this book...and I say trying b/c there were such cute stories about couples who cook together, or reminiscing about their first honeymoon dinner in between these pages of great recipes... so I'm not even done with the cookbook. I haven't even bought one thing for a recipe, but i'm SO excited to try this. What was an initial small amount of interest in this, is now super duper excitement...  Here's a pic by me of the media newsletter and book I received.

And a close up pic of the book...

Cake Topper Giveaway!

As I mentioned earlier, my friend Caroline from Made with Love, By CCarolee has agreed to do a giveaway for one lucky reader for some adorable cake toppers!

She made my adorable cake toppers of me and the hubby with Juneau and Kota.

Wanna win?

Recap of the PaperCake Designs Giveaway...

Remember when Weddzilla had the contest for the customized map giveaway from Larissa at PaperCake Designs... (yes she did my map too and I loved it!!). Well MaryKate and Joe were the winners and I am excited to show you the final product...

The design was created to match their already created invitations... so check out the gorgeous map made!

and here is the invitation below (but MaryKate's was in the matching green above)...

Weekly News and Sales

MagnetStreet Sale (I puffy <3 them)

Did you know Better Homes and Garden is getting into weddings??? 

BHG.com has just posted a free Wedding Planning Newsletter and has updated the site with other forms of wedding stationery. There are lots of suggestions for wedding programs and thank-you notes – from the very elaborate to make-it-yourself examples – that your readers might like to consider for their weddings. BHG.com also has lots of photos of wedding receptions, with ideas for seating, wedding toasts, color schemes, centerpiece flower arrangements, and even cutting the cake.

Head on over and check it out!!!

Want to win a Perfect Wedding Giveaway from Vistaprint?

To Enter: Check out The Vistaprint Perfect Wedding Giveaway or visit our Weddings by Vistaprint Facebook page to get more information and enter to win!

Prizes: Leading up to the Grand Prize, we’ll be giving away great prizes including Flip Mino Camera’s, Nikon Coolpix Camera’s, Victoria’s Secrets  and Amex Gift Cards as well as many other items. One prize will be given away each day for 31 days! **Unfortunately, this contest is only open to residents of the United States.**

Couples can enter to win on Dexknowsweddings.com or on the DexKnows Weddings Facebook fan page, by sharing what recessionista inspiring alternatives they plan to use at their wedding. A recessionista is stylish, yet frugal and ideas should be as creative as the recessionistas themselves. For example, gerbera daisies instead of roses.

DexKnows Weddings celebrity wedding planner, Yifat Oren will pick the most creative finalists and winners will be chosen based on online public voting. Four winners with the highest number of votes will win.  Couples must be planning to get married after June 1, 2010 and before June 1, 2012.

Getting Ready {The Ladies}

So, the getting ready saga continues... here are some photos of my beautiful ladies getting ready...

My BM getting her hair did...

Getting Ready {The Moms & Auntie & lil' ones}

So, we had gotten a nice honeymoon suite for our wedding weekend b/c i knew i was gonna have oodles of ladies in the room getting ready. From my bridesmaids to flower girls, my Mom, MIL and Aunt also joined to get their hair did (Chelsey B is fabulous) and make up did (Moira Taylor Make up).  Good thing for beautiful spacious room with beautiful views (and excellent group rates!!)  :)

So let's start this off with a beautiful picture of my gorgeous mom after she got her hair did! :)

Getting Ready: {The Guys}

So, remember the post about the hubby concerned about the gentleman's getting ready photos? Well, as I promised, there were no men in boxers jumping up and down on the bed photos that he thought he may have to take... the photos themselves make the boys seem relatively well - behaved and tame... perhaps that was b/c i was in the Suite above them?

My favorite though was this shot:

 He was being held captive... LOL.

A few other good ones...

Talent Exposed {Cake Toppers}

So you remember my oh so adorable cake toppers? I'm sure you do, if you don't, here's an image to remind you!

Welcome Party Fun

So here's a recap of just some fun pics from the Welcome Party ... to see a recap of Rehearsal Meal / Welcome Party Events, Click Here!

Let's start with the great food:

 This was one of the offered meals...

Great News

I am excited to let the Relentless Bride readers that I am currently working on something very exciting for y'all...it's such a HUGE surprise. Super super thrilled and can't wait to unveil it in the coming weeks... stay tuned! :)

The Wedding Dance {She Said: Finale}

Ok, so you probably read my hubby's post about our first dance...he claims he wasn't in a panic, but i kind of was. Yes, go figure... as you know from my first post... I'm the one who loves to dance and wanted to do something jazzy for our first dance.Go figure, i started rethinking the steps in my head and almost backed out. I said on the shuttle on the way to the venue "we can just jr high sway, i'm ok with it." and he looked at me with shock, and shall i say it, slight disgust (and a bit of a smirk that the tables had turned)... "No WAY! we practiced and we know this, we are definitely doing this dance and we will enjoy it!"

Well, as you can see in the video (non-pro; shot by a friend) below, not only did we enjoy it (we truly did) but our guests did too! We had such a blast and as nerve racking as it was, my focus was on my husband. We missed steps... we definitely did. We didn't quite do the right beat, i couldn't quite find my form (we usually require about 20 minutes of warm up; which with the rain - we didn't have a practice dance prior that we had planned)... but we just smiled. we laughed. we stared into each other's eyes... and it was so romantic.

The Wedding Dance {He Said: Finale}

All the eyes were on us. The spotlight shined down.

We didn't panic (or at least I didn't). This was because the lessons we got from Deborah, from The Wedding Dance Specialists were even better than advertised. Although we may have missed a step here or missed a step there, not a soul noticed.

The GARTER GIRL

Recently I attended the launch party for Julianne Smith's new Garter Line and The Garter Girl Website and The Garter Girl Blog.  As you know, she custom designed my own garter (which i love) so I am a big fan. She's also in the DC area, so she's one of my FAVE peeps in the wedding industry. Sweet, stylish, uber chic and just downright honest and kind... it's hard to come across such all around good person, especially one with such skill... So i had to do a highlight, b/c her new line is DROOL WORTHY!  Downright, gorgeous. Made me wish (for the first time since I got married), I had gotten married AFTER seeing her stylish new line of garters!

A couple of my PERSONAL faves...

 Isn't she lovely? And since you can customize it specific to your wedding, you could incorporate a beautiful blue for your something blue or even your wedding colors...

PaeBaek {The Ceremony}

So now that you have seen the venue, the getting ready photos and the decor for the PaeBaek, let me show you some photos of the PaeBaek Ceremony. (An Explanation of PaeBaek)

So we start with the groom's side, and my MIL got into Korean dress... doesn't she look fabulous?

First we bow... and this is very hard to do. My head piece wanted to come off, and what you don't see is i'm trying to bow indian style. This is why the bride needs assistance. LOL. Especially getting up!

Bridal Party {The Little Ones}

I just had to show you how cute my little ones were for our wedding... It's a bit of boasting and bragging for me, but its also because i'm kind of in withdrawel and miss them so much...

 Here they are just messing around at the Welcome Party

And here are some from the wedding...

Wish Upon A Wedding

So sad i won't bein Cali for this fabulous event, but our dear friend Dana aka The Broke Ass Bride is heading up the PR/Media for the LA Chapter... so if you can't attend, be sure to help spread the word...

Bloggin' Mom

My mom is so adorable... she posted about our 1 - month anniversary on her blog. Too cute! Check it out here!

Gotta love her, she even included a picture of the dessert we got at our dinner!

NYC BRIDAL FASHION SHOW TIX

The Wedding Salon will collaborate with Bridal Reflections to close out Bridal Market Week with the ULTIMATE BRIDAL FASHION Show with special appearances by David Tutera and Ines Di Santo!

Wanna go? The first TEN Relentless Bride Readers who register using the code pasted below will get in FREE to this EXCLUSIVE EVENT!!! Wanna go... click below!

1-Month Dinner celebration

Last night FH and I went to a nearby restaurant to celebrate our 1 - month Anniversary. He picked the place and I opentable'd it. I mentioned in there it was our first time dining as well as a celebration of our anniversary!

It's an Indian place that claims to make food "even your Indian mother can't imitate." So, i very excited to try it but also ready to be let down as i often am in this area...

I have to give it RAVE reviews... not only was the food delicious, but the service was impeccable... Where is this, you ask?

Rasika Restaurant... Amazing!!!

Here are a few photos!

Happy 1 Month Anniversary

Today we celebrate one month of marriage. One month of being husband and wife. One month of being a legal family... and i can tell ya - i love every second of it!!! YAY!!!

and yes, i am still putting my dress on post-wedding (note the wedding painting hangin in the back...) LOL

and my husband calls me a whack-a doo but i know he loves every second of it!

Happy 1-month sweetheart... i guess time flies when you are having fun, and this past month has flown by. I can't wait to see what the future holds for us!

PaeBaek {Decor}

So this is the decor that we rented from Angel Catering... as discussed in an earlier post, you can see we had the complete PaeBaek outfits on (see Here), so now to see how the stage was set... El Torito Grille was so open-minded about letting us do this whole set-up on the patio, in fact the manager - Jessie actually googled it and read into the tradition - he seemed more excited than we were about the whole event!

Here are a few photos my friends took:

Happy 36th Birthday Baby Boy!

Yesterday marked the 2nd year anniversary of the engagement proposal - but the bigger celebration was that it marked Kota's 36th Birthday... Well some say 36 (this formula is based on first year equaling 1 year and 7 years for each human year after) and some say 37 (this formula is based on 10.5 years first 2 years, and 4 years each year after) - but either way, Mr. Kota turned 6 human years yesterday!

So to celebrate Easter, anniversary and especially Kota's birthday - he had a dog partay!!!

Here are some fun photos from the day.

PaeBaek Ceremony {Getting Ready}

So immediately following our rehearsal, we headed over to El Torito Grille and had to start getting ready for the PaeBaek. We decided to do this a bit last minute but it was such a great decision... it brought in my Korean culture but it also had its entertainment value... We used Angel Catering and they were AWESOME. The guy who helped us went above and beyond and they provided all the set up and the special Hanbok outfits specifically for this event.

So here I am getting ready in the bathroom:

Rehearsal/Welcome Party

Picking our Rehearsal/Welcome Party Venue was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be... I'm not sure why, maybe b/c we didn't have a solid number to work with until the end or maybe b/c a lot of places had hidden fees that we just couldn't justify splurging on when it came to sign the contract... We didn't feel like we were asking for too much - I mean, all we needed was a space to fit about 75-85 people mid-afternoon... I mean, we did it at 3pm to help alleviate the costs and also avoid the mad friday evening dinner rush.

Well, after four different sets of invitations were created... we finally sent them out. But with the snow delaying the USPS, many people didn't get these invitations in time. What made things even more fun was that the venue we thought we had booked really couldn't accommodate our party size... so I fell back on a plan that I looked into but didn't fully get to explore and it turns out - it was the best decision!!!

Our rehearsal/welcome party venue was at the El Torito Grille in RSM. Jessie, the manager was fabulous... and when i came in less than a week before the event date, he walked me around - showed me my options and listened to all that I was hoping to accomplish in this short period of time we had at the restaurant. He was FABULOUS.

Here are some pics of the venue: