Woohoo, I’m married!

I recently took the plunge and I’m high on the excitement of it all. Just an update on the guy, my guy, he’s simply amazing. You know, when you read about it or see it in one of those movies or some expert gives us advice about a relationship that just seems to good to be true, well, I got it. All right, it’s sappy (insert vomit bag here for all you naysayers), but I’m happy and I wish many of you the best of luck in finding the right man too.

Onto the wedding planning—I knew with my organizational skills I could do most of the research and leg work, but I’ll admit wedding planning is not all cake and roses. After choosing the venue, flowers, dessert (we went with bundt cakes), photo locations, stationery (kind of tedious, but weddingpaperdivas.com was my answer) and much more we chose a wedding coordinator to make the rest happen on the day of our big day. Phew!

The best part of planning was the dress and the food tasting. Gorgeous and yum.

I didn’t want a traditional wedding dress, nor did I want a white dress. I wanted a dress that didn’t scream wedding, but rather spoke of glamour with a hint of Grace Kelly. And French designer Lloyd Klein was THE answer. He didn’t have me go through the racks instead he sketched 33 possibilities and we chose a beautiful pale pink/peach one shoulder draped gown. The House of Lloyd Klein has dressed some of Hollywood’s greatest and latest like Kate Beckinsale, Sarah Jessica Parker, Toni Collette, Renee Zellweger, Vanessa Williams, Becky Newton, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Eva Longoria, and Hayden Panetierre. And upon completion we realized I could wear this again—like on the red carpet with as he said, ”a little tweaking.”

For dessert, we wanted several flavor choices. I’m a bit of a sweet freak. I fib; I am a full throttle sweet fiend. I will gladly tell you where the best cupcakes can be found and which flavors are better at each boutique to the best chocolate chip cookies and ice cream sundae. (Side note: In LA go to Milk for the blondie ice cream sundae and cookies and to Café 101 diner for the brownie waffle.) And when you want the ultimate delicious success you go to Kiss My Bundt. We chose three flavors for everyone to be able to try—maple with maple glaze (tastes like the best damn pancake you’ve ever had and Owner Chrysta Wilson makes a maple bacon version), red velvet with cream cheese frosting and marble cake with vanilla butter cream frosting. We rented a wooden multi-tier display and chose a white fabric with silver beading to wrap the tier.

When it came to photography I patted myself on the back for hiring Michele M. Waite. Being a former magazine fashion director I wanted to skip the stereotypical cheese of wedding photography. I kid you not when I write that I researched 36 different photographers in the LA area that ranged in price from $4,000 to over $8,000 and nobody really moved me. One photo on our wedding coordinator’s blog, simplymodernweddings.com lead me to Michele M. Waite (michelenwaite.com) and we flew her down from Bellingham, WA. She’s phenomenal, her site rocks, and she didn’t cost me any more than I would have paid locally.

Location, location, location. Photos should be more than just the church and family. We location scouted ahead of time and sent her photos-the public cove at Terranea Resort in Rancho Pales Verde, the field next to the chapel, the Santa Monica Pier and our own front yard with green high hedges.

When it comes to stationery I was exhausted after spending 10 minutes looking through the shelves of binders filled with Kate Spade to Crane Company invitations at my local paper shop. An hour and a half later I was cranky, bored and hadn’t found the right combination. We stopped at several more stationery shops for the next two days coming up with plans to print our own to save money or succumb to the overpriced packages even when it didn’t fit our look. AND then after a few hours on the Internet I found my solution at weddingpaperdivas.com. I could choose from an endless array of styles, choose specialty colors, fonts, and even change, for example, a reception card into a card about our website. Additionally they constantly had sales so we saved on printing out our menus and thank you cards as well. They were really on top of the printing process with calls and emails to ensure we liked our pieces.

Another quick tip: don’t hesitate to consider renting additional, color-specific linens to substitute for the ones you are given automatically by the venue. We chose a silver-gray color to enhance the color scheme we chose for our wedding, including peach, pink, yellow and silver.

What to know as you plan:

Couple’s Website:
Set up a website for you and your fiancé with all the info about the ceremony, reception, directions and more. TheKnot.com is an ideal source for creating a wedding site since it’s all there for you and simply choose the template, add a few photos and add the info.

Registry:
This is a place where you can subtly add in your registry information. If you create your own website or use another site to help DO NOT place our registry info on the home page—tacky. And do not put your registry info with the invitation. Listen, everyone knows to give a wedding gift and when he or she get around to shopping for it, they’ll ask you, a close friend or find on your site where you’re registered.

NOTE to those invited: Unless you are a close friend search their registry first. The couple chose those items for a reason; they want those items. If the registry is dwindling and all that left is a bunch of pot holders and spatulas then give them a call, email or talk to one of their close friends and find a different gift to give, like membership to a wine or cake of the month club, multiple yoga classes, a Kindle downloaded with several bestsellers, camping gear for the couple who loves the great outdoors or kick ass seats to a concert. And don’t dismiss the power of a slim wallet filled with gift cards to Amazon.com, The Home Depot, TJ Maxx and Starbucks or simply an exquisite orchid with an Amex gift card.

Important note to gift giver and gift receiver: Invited: Take care of the gift giving within three months. The longer you wait, the more awkward it will be the next time you see the newlyweds. For Newlyweds: take care of those thank you notes within a month of the honeymoon. Believe me, people talk. My mother and her friends routinely check in with each other to ask if thank notes were received.

As for Daysun and me, we already have everything we need for our home from china to wine glasses to towels so when people inquired we suggested a gift towards our honeymoon to Fiji & Australia. Upon returning from our amazing honeymoon, we shared an album of photos on Facebook and wrote thank you cards to each friend and family member with notes on what their gift allowed us to explore and enjoy like a picnic on a deserted sandbar to snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef. (Thanks again friends and family.)

Wedding Coordinator:
Whether you have the money to hire someone from the start to alleviate the stress or just need a little extra help a wedding coordinator can be invaluable. We hired Christina Wright from Simply Modern Weddings when we saw her in action at another wedding. We chose to have her take care of the actual big day and finalize contracts once we made choices. She rocked. I’m so organized and she matched me perfectly. She coordinated the whole day with a seamless timeline and the day was flawless, fun and stress free. I didn’t have to think about a thing, just show up and smile. And get married!

Cocktails before the reception:
If you have cocktails before your official reception starts be sure to offer some of your guests seats. No girl wants to wear out their standing in heels before they dance time frame. We had our reception at the Loews Santa Monica specifically because of their view of the beach, ocean and Santa Monica Pier brightly lit at night. We loved the terrace at Loews so we rented sleek white leather lounge furniture to add on the terrace along with cocktail tables.

Bridesmaids/Groomsman:
It is not a requirement or the essential building blocks to a successful wedding to have wedding party. 90% of your female friends would rejoice if you chose to skip having a wedding party. Truthfully, it just depletes our bank account to buy a bridesmaids dress of someone else’s choosing, pay for a bridal shower, bachelorette party, multiple gifts and travel.

If you choose bridesmaids, cut down on the number of ladies you choose and please don’t try to turn them into replicas of each other. Choose a dress that comes in various styles so your friends can choose a style that best fits their body type like halter for busty girls to an a-line bottom half for pear shapes. Stick with just the dress that coordinates them all and make a suggestion for the color of heels, not the actual shoes, to pair with the dress. DO NOT make them all wear the same heels and jewelry. These are your friends not paper dolls cutouts. They are there to share your celebration not report for boot camp.

Ceremony:
Used to be you had your dad, your brother, some man walk you down the aisle to give you to your new husband. Consider breaking the old stereotypes. If you’re close with your mom have her walk you down. OR have both parents escort you, OR shine all on your own down the aisle and have your husband-to-be come meet you halfway and walk the rest together.

Toasts:
Sure there’s the customary toasts from a guy and girl in your wedding party, but if you buck the trend like we did you can ask your charming, creative, clever friends to come up with an inventive ”toast” at your wedding. We had our two dear friends; Jordan Feldman and Tracy Metro add some hilarity at our wedding. Tracy bounced from roasting us to intimate notes and Jordan wrote new lyrics to REO Speedwagon’s, TK to sing how we needed to take him on our honeymoon. He offered to be our personal valet and personality prostitute.

Wardrobe Change:
A wedding dress can be a bit cumbersome when you really want to hit that dance floor. So there’s nothing wrong with a girl making a wardrobe change once the important photos have been taken.

We plan to go forth and enjoy life!

Photographer: Michele M. Waite (michelemwaite.com)
Chapel: Wayfarers Chapel
Reception: Loews Santa Monica Beach
Wedding Coordinator: Christina Wright (simplymodernweddings.com)
Flowers: La Vie En Rose (lavieenrosela.com)
DJ: Red Shoe (redshoela.com)
Dessert: Kiss My Bundt (kissmybundt.net)
Dresses: Lloyd Klein, Valentino
Shoes: Rene Caovilla
Menswear: Hugo Boss, Paul Smith & Ralph Lauren Purple Label