Wedding Day

It's amazing how much stress goes into planning a wedding. You feel everything must be perfect. It's all over with once you walk down the aisle. Time speeds up and in a matter of a few hours it's over. So many things change before, during and after. Hair, seating arrangements, music, friendships, etc. It's madness. It all seems like a blur to me now that it's over. I realized I didn't really have much control of how I wanted every detail to be. What you envision now will most certainly change on the day. In the end we just went with the flow of things and enjoyed the moment while we were in it. Everything came out nice, nicer than we expected. We are so very happy for everyone who came out and shared with us on our special day.

Wedding Dress

Simple and pretty. That's all I wanted.

Inspiration.

My biggest inspiration when it comes to anything girly is my grandmother. I remember going through her old photographs and thinking my god she looked like a model for Max Factor or something. She was always so pretty and made up. I love those days, when women looked flawless. I hope to look as pretty as she did on my wedding day :)

Wedding candle favors...

I love being crafty and have been making soy candles for about 3 years. I have made candles for showers and weddings so I figured, why not make my own wedding favor candles! I felt like making my own candle favors would make everything so special :) I am planning on dying them red and wrapping them in a pretty red tulle. Here is a pic of my soy votive candles without dye www.Lotussyfn.etsy.com

Update! I made them... :) I went to Joann fabrics and bought some 10" round red tulle for $2.99 and a pack of 72 white rose ribbon flowers for $4.99. After my soy candles were made I wrapped them up in the tulle, tightened the tulle with the ribbon flower and I had myself a wedding candle favor. Didn't have to spend much and it's handmade with love :)

I addded a little extra touch, each candle is scented with honeysuckle jasmine. My tables are going to smell so sweet and flowery.

My cake topper...

I ordered my cake topper today! I found this pretty Double Happiness cake top online. The symbol means happiness and good luck! I thought it would be a nice touch on the cake. Also, my soon to be hubby is Asian and I thought it would be nice for him and his family if I had a little Asian theme going with the red and the double happiness symbols. A little bit of both of us will make it sweet for our families and guests.

Here is a photo of my actual cake with the topper :)

Flower girl dress...

I found the most adorable flower girl dress on Ebay! Yes folks, Ebay has been my life saver! I only paid $15 plus shipping and it's perfect, just as it looks in the photo. Took 2 days to get here from Cali and it's brand new too. I ordered from For A Little Angel :)

Wedding invitations...

So I have a date set and a location. What's next? Wedding invitations! I started looking online to see if I would just order my own instead of having ones made by the banquet hall. I was surprised to find how expensive wedding invitations can be online. I was quoted $300 for 50 invites! Being that I am somewhat crafty I decided I would make my own. I went to the Michaels craft store and found some simple, pretty invitation kits. They are from GartnerStudios.com and it is a collection designed by the editors of BRIDE magazine. Luckily they had a set at the store that matched my color wedding scheme. Basically all I needed was a printer and some patience. The kit has a website that helps you on the how-to's and provides a template. Once you have everything you want typed up on the template it takes no time at all. Just print and create a pretty invitation.

Here is mine...

We found a wedding location en la CALLE OCHO!

We decided to just do it! We are getting married!!! I have a month to plan everything. It's crazy but I know we can pull it off :)

We started planning for a simple backyard ceremony but after much thought we decided it was a bad idea. Miami's August hot, humid, summer weather is just not ideal for a backyard wedding. Not to mention it's mosquito season. Our only other option? Banquet hall Calle Ocho style! :) We figured our guests are in the ac, banquet hall provides food, music, open bar and most important comfort. I don't have to worry about cleaning up when it's over which is a plus ;) Also, we would be spending about the same for a backyard wedding. Between food, cake, decorations, flowers, chair rentals, table rentals, canopy, etc, it all adds up and your stuck doing the majority of the work yourself.

We will be holding our ceremony at the hall as well as the reception. They set it up real pretty for the ceremony. I love getting all in one deals. My goal was to minimize wedding preparation stress and work within a budget.

I am happy about the location. We got a good deal and we constantly joke about how it is in a strip mall on Calle Ocho above a Valsan which is a Cuban store where you can find everything for cheap. It is also above a liquor store which can come in handy if any of our guests get extra thirsty (I kid) but it can't get anymore Miami than that ;) As long as the inside is nice and everyone has a good time we are happy.

I decided to go for a red and white theme. I love red roses and everything red. Red is a symbol of love, happiness, good luck and fortune. It's so romantic...