okami.mami's Planning Bio

Debra and Gregory ~ April 10, 2010

It was love at first…wish!

Greg and I met while working at a local movie theater in the summer of 2003. I was wary, but he won my heart! He said his birthday wish that year was for us to go out on a date (how sweet!), how could I resist! We had our first date on my favorite holiday, the 4th of July. A week later we shared our first kiss on a park bench looking out to the Queen Mary in Long Beach. It was so romantic! We’ve been inseparable ever since.

The Proposal

4/4/09 – Cherry Blossom Festival in Downtown LA

Greg had planned to take me into the Irvine Japanese Garden and propose on the bridge, but it was closed! We admired the garden for a few minutes and took some pictures. It was so idyllic. The sound of water flowing was so relaxing, even with the loud sounds of the city echoing in the courtyard. We decided to get something to eat and then walk around the festival to shop and watch the performances. After dessert, he said he wanted to go back to the garden. I should have known something was up, but I really didn’t think it would be THE day. We watched the garden from above and it really was the perfect moment. He whispered a lot of sweet things in my ear and then turned me around as he dropped to his knee. It was very sweet and intimate. Nobody else was around! All I could hear were his words and the sounds of the water. The ring is an Asscher solitaire in a platinum cathedral setting. I LOVE it!

Standard Knottie Disclaimer: I started to “right click and save” like crazy! If I’ve used your work, please let me know so that I can give you props! Page me on the LA Boards.

Ceremony

We booked The Arcade Building in San Pedro for an intimate ceremony. It’s a quiet little building not too far from the harbor. The ceremony will take place in the courtyard at the Italian fountain. We really love that the site coordinator will allow us to seat people on the balcony overlooking the fountain. Score!

We're also so psyched at being allowed to have flowers floating in the fountain. We're going for the same look as Beltran Bride's fountain (below). Just beautiful!

Reception

We have booked the Betty H.Reckas Cultural Center in Long Beach for our reception site. We like the simplicity of the ballroom and the ample parking is a plus! We are using TGIS Catering, which is exclusive to the venue. Their food is really yummy and the presentation is great!

Inspiration

We want our wedding to be remembered as beautiful and classic. Our love for the Japanese culture is our main inspiration, but we’d also like to incorporate touches of vintage glam. The color scheme we want to work with consists of slate gray, pale pinkpeach, ivory, and Stardream Quartz(for the paper goods). After hours and hours of searching, I finally found scrapbooking paper with images of asian blossoms that’s perfect for us! It has all of the colors we love and will line our invite and RSVP envelopes. The image is from www.paperwishes.com

This first inspiration board has the feel we are going for. It is from www.ElizabethAnneDesigns.com.

The second and third inspiration boards are from www.snippetandink.com.

Bride's Attire

My dress is of the Mon Cheri Bridals line - Gracie #18251. It is embroidered with Swarovski crystals and has satin-covered buttons going all the way down the chapel train. I got a DEAL (under $500!) at Ebay store Pink Ribbon Bridals. Pics of the dress in Champagne are below!

I plan to wear a chapel length veil, and possibly switch to a DIY birdcage for the reception. As for shoes, I LOVE the way colored shoes look on other brides, but I'll be sticking to white satin that can be dyeable after the big day. These beauties are called Katell from Calvin Klein. FI thinks they're super sexy. I LOVE them!

Hair/Veil/Make-Up Inspirations

These are ideas that I LOVE! The first veil shot is courtesy of Myra Callan from Twigs and Honey. I'm also going for a chapel or cathedral veil. This second shot is from Mrs. Coconut from Weddingbee.

I’m loving the idea of a hair flower for added glam. I’m going for something similar in style and size the pretty duo on The Knot. As for hairstyles, I’m looking for something simple that doesn’t require tons of work or hairspray, yuck! The first ‘do is from a Martha Stewart Weddings spread, the second from The Knot. The lovely make-up shot is from Katelyn on Weddingbee. I love it!

My DIY Birdcage

I bought the fabric from fellow knottie JulyBM08 and basically used the instructions from Feathers and Pearls. I made two different sizes for more coverage. I don't know which is best and will decide later. *Link is posted below :)

Groom's Attire

Greg will be wearing a gray suit. He knows that he would like a lighter shade of gray and that he doesn’t want to wear a white shirt. My only requirement for him is that it needs to be 3 pieces. These 2 suits are from Valentino (left) and Burton (right).

Wedding Party

My maid of honor will be wearing a lovely J Crew beauty. We didn't plan on this kind of fabric or even the color, but we both just love it!

The best man will wear a standard black suit. I was a little worried about him not matching with the groom, but after seeing this real wedding with the same dynamic I think it will be ok. Image by Theorie via The Bride's Cafe.

This pink flower girl dress is to die for! It is from Etsy seller The Boutique Baby. I had my heart set on it, but one weekend we were window shopping and came across a different, more age-appropriate outfit. We bought the dress at Strasburg Children at the Citadel Outlets. She will be wearing a pink sash in the same shade as the MOH dress.

Flowers

Although I LOVE flowers, I’m trying not to go overboard in order to stick to the budget. We’ve decided to keep it simple with low centerpieces and lots of fillers. Here are some ideas from Courtney of Flush Designs that I'm soo in love with. The eucalyptus is soo pretty with softer pinks! The first two are mock-ups and the the next three are the final product. The last image is from Quinndalyn and has the actual mix of flowers that I want to use. Ideally, I will end up with the "trial pieces" using Quinndalyn's flowers (if that makes any sense).

MY Flowers! Oh, how I love flowers! My aunt brought over the mock-ups for our reception centerpieces and I'm very pleased with them. Of course, Fall flowers had to be used but I love them nonetheless. I'm mostly in love with the eucalyptus and the way pink and white looks against the leaves. *swoon*

Reception Ideas

After seeing Mrs. Glitter's table on Weddingbee, I think I can go with charger-less tables. I bought a crazy amount of ribbon from Fabric Barn in Long Beach and plan to tie a bow on our dinner napkins and menus. I also bought ivory satin overlays from eFavormart.com. For table numbers I'd like to use Sake or Japanese vodka bottles with labels like these from the Vintage glam Blog.

I am so excited about the cake! The first cake is from Roosmoor Pastries, second from Great Dane Bakery, and the last I don't have a source for (sorry!). I also would love to have a tribute pics of our family weddings either at the cake table or nearby. We may not have room with the cake and will have to put the tribute photos at the guest book table, like the one pictured (source also unknown!). The inspiration shot of the tribute photos is from Jen Kroll Photography. I also found this cute birdcage at Marshall's to use as a cardholder. I love it!

Paper Goods

I bought all of my gravel pocket folders during the big sale on www.paper-source.com I got them for 50% off! The invitation and inserts will be printed on Ecowhite cardstock, but I haven’t decided on the envelope colors yet. These beauties are from Lilikoi Press on Weddingbee PRO.

These are my lovely little paper products! The envelopes are Stardream Quartz and the Pocketfolder is Gravel, both from Paper Source.

Our STD's are done! I had them printed on postcards from Vistaprint.com. I created these photo share/taxi cab cards to display at the reception. They will probably be on the bar and by the guest book for people just to grab as they walk by. The designs will be printed on a double-sided business card.

I finally finished our photo guest book! We uploaded our favorite e-pics to Photoworks.com and created a 12x12 hardcover book. I made sure to leave enough blank spaces throughout for our guests to sign or leave little messages. We really love the outcome!

I looked patiently for vintage postage stamps to use for our paper products that would be hand delivered. I knew I wanted Japanese inspired stamps and found them on Ebay.com from seller daffodildeb. We couldn't be happier with them! There are soo many in the packet. Look how cute they are on our STD's!

I was going back and forth on ceremony programs, not being sure if the work was going to be worth it. I finally found an idea that i LOVED and wanted to personalize it. I also wanted to thank my aunts for the flowers they are purchasing and the programs are the perfect place to do that!

The inspiration photos below are from Intimate Weddings. The template I used is from Aylee Bits. My programs are on the right, below. Unfinished, of course. I created a wedding day word search with our names and a few other details. I don't remember which online generator I used, but it was free. Just google it, you'll get tons of them!

DIY

I had hoped that my abuelita (grandmother) would be making our ring pillow inspired by this Martha Stewart design. I decided not to bother her with extra work and instead asked her to bring a ring pillow back from her recent trip to Mexico. She brought back two lovelies, one white and one ivory. There's something sweet about the fact that they come from the our family's hometown.

I made 5 of these bouts (below left) with silk flowers from Michael's for the dads, close uncles, ring bearer and the best man. FI will be wearing a fresh bout.

I’ll also be taking on the HUGE task of making tissue paper flowers. I need to make 6 pomanders, two wreaths, and a “flower bed” for the escort cards. I know how much of a pain in the neck these are so I’m getting an early start. Here’s the first one! (below right) I used light pink and French vanilla colored paper. 6 sheets total – alternating pink and vanilla.

Here are some images of real DIY projects that inspired me to make the infamous tissue paper flowers. First up are VintageGlam's pomanders, then coffee filter pomanders from AliceW, more pomanders from Etsy Seller Anne Musing, Like Frankie Said's wreaths, Martha Stewart's napkin holder, and this crazy escort card flower bed from A Stunning Affair. Yeah, I'm nuts.

Update!

Here’s the first pom I made. It took a whopping 35 flowers to create! At first, the pom is not even all the way around. All I did was cut the excess length off the longer flowers, and voila! It’s sooo cute! I definitely have a lot of work to do.

The wreath needed about 65 flowers, half the size of the ones I used on the poms. It takes a lot of patience, but I really love the outcome!

The idea of drink flags was always in my mind, but I didn't think I wanted to take on this task. BUT, I found a great, easy tutorial from Martha Stewart using only ribbon. This was a fun and easy project. Check it out!

Semi-DIY Garter

This baby cost me a total of about $3.50. I bought a white, lacy garter from the Dollar Tree and stripped it down to the satin and elastic. Then I got this cute 3-tiered blue and white lace trim from Joann's for $1.50 and a blingy button from WalMart for about $2.00. To correctly attach the new lace, I had to take the whole garter apart and sew it back together by hand. It was a little bit of a pain in the neck, but the result was worth it! I added the blingy button on the knot of a simple bow made with ribbon I already had in my stash. I regret not taking pictures of all the steps so I can show my fellow knotties how I made it :(

Favors

We booked Cheesy Photobooths for our guest favors. The few guests that know about it are really excited. We'll TRY to keep it a surprise for everyone else.

We'll also be giving out a "midnight snack" as our guests leave the reception. Tucked into a mini Chinese takeout box will be some yummy Japanese treats. The pic of the silver takeout box is from Beau Coup and the candy is from Little Tokyo. How did I choose? I picked the cutest packaging and then picked the one's that tasted the best.

The favor tags are DIY with my handy tag-shaped paper punch and my super Xyron. I printed the text, ran them through the sticker machine, punched the tags and then attached them to the back of my printed paper, also punched into tags. Phew. It was a lot of work, but it's so worth it.

Knottie GTG at Barney's Beanery

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Vendors

DOC – Ida Gardner
Reception Venue – Betty H. Reckas Cultural Center
Caterer – TGIS Catering
Ceremony Site – The Arcade Building
DJ – Family Friend – DJReel
Photographer – Nataly Lemus Photography
Favors – Cheesy Photobooths
Invitations DIY with – Paper Source
Freeze Dried Petals - Flyboy Naturals
Tissue Paper for Flowers and Mini Take-out Boxes- Paper Mart
Table Linens - EfavorMart
Photo Guest Book/B-pics Book - Photoworks
Ribbon/Crafts - Fabric Barn Sewnique
Vintage Postage Stamps- Ebay - Nature’s Wonders
Shoes - Zappos
Save the Date's - DIY with Vistaprint
Personal Flowers - Commerce Flowers
DIY Birdcage Veil Instructions - Feathers and Pearls
Rings - Icing on the Ring (IOTR)
Programs - Intimate Weddings Blog
Program Template (email me for the MS Word file) - Aylee Bits