Showing posts with label Wedding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wedding. Show all posts

Sunday, August 31, 2014

RJ & Sarah's Wedding

Yesterday we were lucky to be invited to our good friends wedding at Cal Tech in Pasadena. 


The weather was hot but luckily we found a shady spot. 

They were also serving delish flavored water. Andrew went with classic lemon and I went with cucumber. It always reminds me of a spa when I drink cucumber water and so it put me in a relaxed mood! 


Here was the entrance to the Atheneum and where dinner took place. 


Donna and Jerry were a handsome couple and definitely brought some dapper-ness along with them!


Andrew was handsome as well and very excited to be wearing his pocket watch (you can catch a glimmer of his gold chain). 


Since we had to sit outside in the heat for a bit (the bride and groom were fashionably late, as they should be) they arranged for the guests to have these beautiful sandalwood fans. And they smelled as beautiful as they looked. 


After the ceremony we took a group shot of everyone at the wedding and were ushered inside for cocktail hour. There we were met with this nice blackboard.  

We grabbed a couple cocktails and headed outside (in the shade) for a table. 



This is the first time the whole clan was together since the wedding, so we had to take a few family shots. 

And another angle so you can see the beautiful pillars at Cal Tech (hint: the entire campus is absolutely gorgeous). 


And now that Donna and I are all dressed up we had to get a couple photos of the two girls! 


And the necessary close up! 


Luckily we were able to sneak a chat in with the mother of the groom and we convinced her to take a picture with us! 


After we downed our cocktails we were given the dinner chime that told us to make our way to our tables. 


Nearly as soon as we sat down the bride and groom had their first dance.


Midway through the first dance the bride and groom invited everyone to join them on the dance floor. 




After the first dance we witnessed a cool Polish wedding tradition. The Grooms parents invite the bride and groom to take some bread and dip in salt. This is to symbolize the ability to get through hard times. The whole process is followed by a shot of vodka and water. The idea is that the head of the house is the one who drinks the vodka. The bride of course was the one who got the shot of vodka. 


It was nice to enjoy a wedding that's not your own. Andrew and I were able to relax with a couple drinks and hang out (which was not the case at our own wedding)! I highly recommend  crashing others' weddings because sometimes your treated to fun details like these place cards...


Or this cute thank you note from the bride and groom. 

Really the whole night was just a wonderful experience and we were thrilled to celebrate in our friends big day. 


One down, one more to go! 

Monday, August 18, 2014

Pre-Wedding & Awesome Friends

Whoever started this whole trend of organizing a wedding is absolutely crazy. Now that it's over I'm looking back and almost wished we had eloped like Andrew wanted. The only thing that made this whole thing worthwhile was to hang out with friends and family I hardly get to see!

The biggest highlights were getting to spend time with all my kiwis that I haven't seen in years. However, the most special shining star was my friend Liz, who flew over 2 weeks prior to the wedding and helped us with absolutely everything. 

Liz - She's going to kill me for posting this pic!

She was literally one of the only reasons half the stuff on my to do list actually got done in time! And...she brought over some of my favorite NZ foods!!

V and Vogels...you can't go wrong!

She forced me to workout...

First time doing CrossFit and crushed it!

And scheduled a time for us to get our nails done...

Oh so sexy

Showing off her new tallons

And she helped clean our house - not an easy task! She couldn't have been a more perfect house guest, so thank you, Liz, for being an awesome friend and helping us get through one of the most stressful times of our lives!

Monday, June 23, 2014

LA Bridal Shower

Last weekend some lovely family friends threw me a bridal shower in LA! This one was held for all our family in friends in and around LA (I will be having another one in SF for all our family and friends up there). The shower was stunning and Marion planned the whole event down to the last detail.

Quick pic before heading off to the party!
 That morning I had a trial run for my hair, which I think went really well. We decided to go with a side swept look so the back of my dress can be played up.

Front door

So pretty
This lovely bouquet greeted you as soon as you arrived!

Backyard setup
Lunch was set up outside, and I managed to grab a few photos before everyone arrived. 

The table set up
Marion was so sweet to decorate according to the wedding colors. Also, green just happens to be my favorite color in general!

She even has beautiful silver!

Table bouquets and wine glasses
 Not too long after I took photos, everyone started arriving. 

Helen and Donna 

Me and Kaity

My mom and me

My mom, me, and Donna

Annie and Bridget

Pat, Donna, and Kaity

Caroline, Heidi, and Angie
 We spent time chatting in the living room before heading out to the garden for lunch.

Michelle, me, and Heather

Enjoying lunch
We ate and caught up before we played a few games.

Pencils with 'wedding bells'
Donna got these fun pencils!

Michelle and Heather

Me opening presents
 After a few rousing games we moved back inside to open the presents. Everyone at the shower was given a room to get a gift for and some people were really inventive with their gifts!

Marybeth creating one of my ribbon bouqets
 So while opening gifts, the women told me about a horrible old wives tale that says the number of ribbons you break is how many kids you will have! Some women even went to the lengths of purposely wrapping the ribbons so tightly that I had to break them! Haha! All in good fun though. I ended up only breaking 3, so that's not too bad!
Ribbon bouquet #1
 I did, however, end up with so many ribbons they had to make 2 bouquets! 
Ribbon bouquet #2

My mom, me, and Donna
I was so happy to have both my mom and Donna there for the shower. Not the best photo of Donna, but it was the only one taken at the end of the party.

Marion, me, and Donna
Marion was such an amazing hostess! She really pulled off a beautiful shower. 

My mom and me

The girls


I had such a good time and was so happy to see everyone. Thanks to all you wonderful ladies who came out to help me celebrate my upcoming nuptials!