Cream or Sugar? - Bridal Shower - April 26, 2009

So Sunday, April 26th, was my bridal shower in California. I had such an amazing experience...the whole party was extremely well planned and above and beyond my expectations. I, first of all, have to thank my shower planners and helpers, Kathy, Charissa, Carrie, Paul's Mom (Judy), Michelle Opitz, Niki, Sarah, Jen Gamboa, and I hope I am not missing anyone else that was important on this special day.



So although I knew that it was on this Sunday, it was at my house, and it was a tea party, I had no idea about any other details about the party. I kicked myself out in the morning so that I wouldn't get in the way. I had a gift certificate from Burke Williams which is a spa (I went to the one in Santa Monica) and spent a couple hours there. They have facilities where you can spend some time in the jacuzzi, steam room, pool, etc. I had an appointment for an hour long massage (which I've never really had one before in my life...not that I can recall). It was actually a gift from my producers for editing the Comic Con sizzle reel I did in July; so I've held it for a very special moment, and I thought that pampering myself before the shower was the perfect opportunity.

I have to admit. I was feeling a little bit nervous mostly because I had no idea what to expect. I was tense when I got to BW, especially since it was my first time, and I had no idea what to do or where to go. Overall, it was a good experience. I tried all the goodies they had there for us. I got my hour long massage. It was pretty relaxing...I think I snored once when I got really relaxed and started to drift off to sleep. I guess that's when you know you've got a good massage. BW is a really cool place, but clothing is optional. I'm too self-conscious to take advantage of the free-style, but that is what they offered. Also, they have practically EVERYTHING. I mean it. You change into robes and slippers. There's unlimited towels and cooling clothes. After you are done at BW, you can style your hair with all sorts of hair products. I gussied myself up, and came back in time to get ready for the bridal shower. After all that special treatment, I kind of kicked myself for not redeeming my certificate earlier. I felt pretty good...nice and loose which is rare. (I keep a lot of tension in my shoulders. They are always hard as rocks, and I told the masseuse to be tough on me because I like it deep and rough. That's the only way to get my muscles loose. Okay!).

All sorts of craziness was happening all around me at the house. I tried not to peek at all the goodies they were preparing (and there was a lot). Lots of gals were in the kitchen cooking up treats. They set up the guest sign in table, and they recruited the boys to set up the backyard (which I was absolutely not allowed to see.) They also asked me a whole bunch of questions for a game they were preparing. I must say, it was a pretty hard quiz.



See how you would have fared if you participated (I'll post the answers later):

How Well Do You Know Donna?

1) When is Donna's birthday?
2) What is Donna's middle name?
3) What color are Donna's eyes?
4) Where was Donna born?
5) How many siblings does Donna have?
6) How old was Donna when she had her first kiss?
7) What is Donna's favorite food?
8) What was Donna's first pet?
9) What is Donna's favorite color?
10) How old was Donna when she started taking hula lessons?
11) What sport(s) is Donna currently involved in?
12) What kind of car does Donna drive?
13) Where did Donna study abroad?
14) What restaurant chain did Donna used to work in?
15) What is Donna's favorite movie?
16) How long have Donna and Paul been together?

BONUS: Name 3 of Donna's hobbies?

EXTRA: What's Donna's height?

So I prepared some answers for them, but honestly, I don't reveal a lot of this information to people. Some of these topics just don't come up, and I don't think there is anyone in this world (not counting Mom's relatives) that can remember or pronounce my middle name. I couldn't wait to find out what exactly people knew/remembered about me.

I wore a black and white dress that I really love with some sparkly shoes. They traded out my black sash for a light green one because of the pastel theme. I later found out why when they handed me a really big floral hat (color coordinated just for me) with a veil attached which I had to wear the entire time. I wasn't used to my head being so big; so I kept wacking people in the face when I greeted them. I don't know how ladies in the 1800s did it. One good thing was that I was very well shaded from the sun which was nice. After looking at all the pictures, I wasn't as goofy looking as I felt at the time, but it was definitely an interesting touch to the "tea party" theme. After a while, I did feel kind of prim and proper. If I didn't hold my head up right with my back straight, I wouldn't have been able to see anything.



So I walked out, and forgive me that this blog is long-winded...there's just a lot to remember. So I walked out, and there was an incredible set-up complete with tables decorated with cute plants and tea utensils, a huge tent, a whole table filled with cookies, etc. Then, I spotted something on the table...I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was a tea cozie (a tea pot cover to keep it warm) with my protea floral design embroidered on it. It looked really amazing, and I whipped it up so that I could see it better, and underneath was a really cute see-through teapot with a blooming tea (already in full bloom).




This was a special tea pot where you can seep tea clusters that bloom into a beautiful "flower," and they taste really good as well. Then, I saw my cake!!! It was a cake made to look like a tea pot set. It looked so good, I didn't want to eat it. That was Jennifer Gamboa's contribution. It was made out of fondant, and she shaped all the flowers. Also there's 24 karat gold dust on it as part of the design. First time, I've ever eaten gold!



I loved all the guests who could made it, and I missed all the others who couldn't. I also loved the way that they interacted together. My favorite memory was of Heidi Jariwala (friend from work and Mary Kay) who was in the middle of correcting one of my newest friend's quiz (Marissa from curling), and she said, "Marissa, whoever you are, I'm looking out for you, girl." And she proceeded making it possible for Marissa to get more points for her close enough answers.

Also, I had to take my own quiz about Paul. It was also hard, but i think I did a pretty good job considering. A couple things I knew about Paul was that his favorite color is black, he was afraid of a rooster as a child, and his nickname is "Woggie." I failed on what his first job was (lunch line in high school), who his first kiss was (Neolle Tevault), and what his name was if he was a girl (Tiffany Nicole).

We played various games, but the last one that was really impressive was when everyone had to take their purse and participated in a scavenger hunt. Kathy and Carrie would call out items to take out of their purses, and the first one to retrieve the item would get a point. The person with the most points win. There were some interesting items (mostly joke items) like a blue highlighter, A calender page of April twenty-something, and a condom. The winner of the night was Jaclyn Austin who had an overwhelming number of items in her purse. I will take her anywhere with me from now on. She is prepared and deserved that prize!



So according to bridal shower tradition, when I open presents, each ribbon I cut or break would be a child that I would have in the future. In the end, I will have 4 kids. I think I really disappointed Kathy because she had a scheme with her present which was covered with all sorts of ribbons, and I just kind of slid it all off. I really didn't mean to do it that way, but I was faced with a challenge, and I just couldn't let her win without a fight. One present which was from "Winkie" (my cat) wrapped by Jared (with love), was impossible to open with out breaking the ribbon. I kind of think it was fixed when one of the ribbons was already kind of half cut....Jared created a "cat wrapping" filled with claw marks, cat hair, and just terrible wrapping. Way to play the part, Jared.

I couldn't believe all the details that went into this party, and there's so much more to talk about like the favors, recipe holders, that were given to the guests. I have dozens of recipes for love and for cooking. My most interesting one is from Grandma Backman (originally from Oma which is Paul's Great-grandmother) for Grog. I can't wait to try that one.

I also had a very lovely and creative practice bouquet made by my friend Amiee Katz. She did such a wonderful job. Don't you agree?



That's all for now. Hope it wasn't too long to read.

Magic Silver Pens

So I picked up my bridesmaids dresses this passed Sunday. I was really excited because these dresses arrived a week earlier than planned. I had to make a special order because they didn't have a dress on display in my color; and I was kind of nervous just in case the burgundy color didn't come out right. I didn't actually have to worry about that since the dress color came out beautifully. BUT I was very surprised to see that the beading ended up being more of a yellow/gold/red instead of a red/dark red or red/silver color. You see this dress was not available as a sample in person in my color, and when you order it in burgundy, I guess it comes with gold/red beads. The samples dresses I saw were in other colors (red dress, red beads) (purple dress, silver purple beads), and so I assumed that it was going to be in those color combos.

Lesson #1: never assume anything. I was a little worried. I immediately called Paul, even though there wasn't really anything he could do at the moment. I think he just calms me. So Paul thought that it wasn't a big deal, but it kind of is a problem since silver was our other wedding color. We have a word for wrong color combinations in Hawaii, you know like wearing pink and orange together. I don't know how to spell it, but it's not flattering. I tried not to freak out since there's no way to replace the dresses. My friend, Jen, came with me to Michael's Arts and Crafts, and she picked out a silver fabric pen that we could use to paint the beds the right color. I did an experiment on just beads (not on the dress) to see what it will look like, and if it would flake off. Jen had a red bead flower and when we started inking out the beads, it completely covered up all the red and didn't come off when it was dry. I had hope.

Lesson #2: If you have a problem, friends will be there by your side to help. I did a little section on a size 8 dress, and it looked okay. It took me about an hour to do all the beads on that one dress, but in the end it looked fabulous. Paul said that he couldn't even tell that the beads were gold to begin with. I'm sure I have a few touch-ups especially when we see the beading in the sunlight, but I am kind of relieved that this problem could be solved. I just need 5 more hours to fix it thanks to my magic silver pen.

Lesson #3: I can turn anything gold into silver!

I'm hoping that is will be the biggest problem I will encounter, but knowing how weddings go, that always isn't the case. I'm going to try to take everything in stride and not sweat the small stuff.

1 Day Until Papercut Hell

So it's Wednesdayy, and I've been trying to prep for the invitation making party which will be on Thursday. I've collected a lot of the supplies we'll be needing to make everything. Thank you Michael's Arts and Crafts and JoAnn's for their 40% and 50% off coupons. I've been trying to get a head start on the cutting of the main red card. It's a little tough to cut in between all the errands I have to take care of, but I've been getting about 10-15 cuts everyday. Yesterday, we finally had a total of 90 red paper main section cut out. Paul helped out, and he did a good job. Of course the red cutouts still need to be folded and all the other pieces still need to be cut and glued together. Some of Paul's family and our friends are going to join us with some wine (could be a dangerous combination...if the lines aren't straight, it's all my fault) and we're going to work like a sweat shop with good music and good company. Honestly, I don't think we're going to finish everything tonight, but I'm sure we're going to get a huge chunk of it done at least. I'll update you with the play-by-play on Friday cause I know a lot of interesting things are going to happen. I better stock up on neosporin and bandaids. It's a good thing I chose "blood-red" paper. =P

Sample Invitation

So Sarah and I just completed the next step to the invitations. Our paper and monogram stamp came in the mail; so we tried to make a sample invitation to get an idea on what it should look like, and to foresee any problems in making it. It's a good thing we did because with our first trial with the invitation, we used a 2 tone paper (2 colors on one sheet of paper) which made it hard to imagine what it would look like if we did it with 2 separate sheets of paper because we could not find a 2 tone paper in our colors; so what we have now looks slightly different from our 1st sample, and more creme stands out in the cover. It is not a big deal. Sarah had a really cool idea to make a burgundy frame offset in the center so it breaks up the creme a little more, and that problem was averted. There are a couple more things that still need to be done. We still need to make one more stamp, buy some vellum, design the wording of the invitation, design a map, buy postage, etc. I have to find a non-liquid glue because the liquid ones seem to warp the paper. Sarah showed me this glue applicator in which it attaches sticky dots, and I think that will work well. There's plenty of options for tacking now that scrapbooking is such a popular thing. Once we get all the pieces together, we'll have a party, maybe serve a little wine. The invitations need to get out by the end of next week. So I am getting kind of nervous. I'm sure we can gather a whole bunch of people, set-up an assembly line, play some loud music and get it done.

Paul's Wedding Band

So we bought the last of the rings on this past Sunday, and choosing this ring went smoother than expected. We had gone to Robbin Bros. earlier and found a couple styles that we liked. One of which was a white gold ring with thin double ropes on each side. We were going to give it a brush finished look in the middle section. Well, we came back, and did another sweep through their selection. For men's rings, there wasn't a lot of selection compared to women's rings, but we systematically went through each case, picking out a ring that caught our eye. Paul's tastes are really easy enough, and we chose 5 or 6 rings that were actually very similar but had some differences: brushed, flat, beveled edges, concave edges, etc. He even tried on a black ring. (He likes the color black). That ring was very cool looking, but we thought about it, and it's not a ring that would look good as time goes on. So we went more of the traditional route and picked a white gold, flat ring, with a thick band and brushed look. And I recall that there were 2 bands of decoration along the sides...I think. We saw a lot of rings that day. It looked really nice on Paul's hand especially since he has really long fingers, and of course as long as he liked it, that was the main thing. We've been really productive with our wedding preparations, and it is such a relief to get this finally done. One thing though for others to keep in mind when you are buying your ring is to do your purchases before the prices of gold rises (which is not something you have control over), and if the sales tax gets raised which is what happened in California. Damn it, California deficit! It makes a big difference. =P No matter, in the end, we got a really nice wedding band, and we really like working with Robbin's Bros. They've been so helpful and patient each and every time we come by. They have never pressured us into buying any ring. Plus, they clean my engagement ring every visit and make it so shiny and beautiful when I leave. I highly recommend them.

Cinderella's Glass Slippers

This week we actually accomplished quite a lot, and I am very proud of us. I'll have more blogs to follow since there's a lot to highlight. So stay tuned...

I have been searching for some good wedding shoes everywhere for the past year. I can't really say that I am picky just looking for a few specific things: 1) I was envisioning in my head...silver with sparkles to go with the glamour/Hollywood theme 2) They had to look really dressy with some straps 3) I had to figure out a solution for the grass since we will have an outside ceremony, and I didn't want my heels to get stuck in the grass but have somewhat of a heel so that Paul doesn't completely dwarf me (which he can with his 6 ft frame against my 5 ft no-heeled self) 4) They had to be somewhat comfortable.

I did one thing that I don't often do to find these shoes. I went to Macys. I really do like everything in that store, and their style is really classy, but really expensive; so I usually kind of walk through that section to just enter the mall. But I decided that I wasn't getting anywhere with the other stores, and it wouldn't hurt to look. Maybe I could find some inspiration. There wasn't a lot of selection, but I did find some really beautiful shoes that had everything that I was looking for. It did come with a slightly hefty price, but I figured with a few Mary Kay sales, I could offset this cost and put it right back in my budget. In fact, in only a couple of days I am actually already more than halfway there. Thank goodness for goals. They really make things happen. Paul was with me...poor thing. He did a good job enduring my shopping spree and was actually quite helpful and supportive. It took me a while to come to a decision, but I bought the shoes...It's absolutely gorgeous, and I tried them on with the dress. I know that no one can actually see my feet during the ceremony or ever really, but I feel really special wearing them, and I'll take a few cute pictures of my feet.

The shoes are silvery with straps that wrap around the toes and around my heel. There's 2 sparkling globes that connect the straps together that line up in the center. The heel itself is a wedge shape so that means the heel is wide, and it won't sink into the grass. It is 2 inches high, and it is clear. It reminds me of glass slippers. I feel like a princess wearing these shoes...

So I am definitely excited about finally finding these shoes, and that means I can get my alterations for my wedding dress done. I love checking things off my list!

A Thousand Memories or More

So I didn't realize how many photos both Paul and I have to sift through. Plus last year, my computer died, and so a bunch of the photos can only be found on back-up cds and such. It is making this part of the process very challenging. Although it is really great to remember all these events again some of which I haven't thought of in a very long time. For example, there's this one camping trip one spring break that Paul and I went on with a couple of friends. We traveled all the way to Crescent City which for us was a 14 hour drive north. We wanted to see the Redwood trees. We learned a lot about this city especially since it really wanted us to stay. Chris' car broke down once we got there and right before we were about to leave. We stayed an extra day and got to know George's Auto Part's really well. I will never forget that trip, and I hope to insert a handful of these photos somewhere in the slideshow or something. There's these staged pics that the boys did, and they looked like members in a Contemporary Christian band posing for their cd cover. You'll see what I mean, and they'll be in the wedding. Sorry Chris and Timothy, but these photos are classic. It's kind of incredible all the things we did together, places we traveled, jokes we told, and pictures we took. I am extremely grateful for all the photos that we have saved. I also cherish the rare photos of my family taken in the Philippines. Those are extremely precious to me. And I have to say that my mom and dad were really cute growing up. =P I'm sure you all know that I love to take pictures, and there will definitely NOT be a shortage of photos in the future. I'm hoping we can zip passed all these thousands of photos to make Kevin/Brad's (slideshow editors) and Mahalia's (Guestbook designer) easier. Time's running out! Ekkk, only 79 more days to go!

Stamps

So we ordered our first stamp today at www.rubberstampchamp.com, and I can't wait to see it. We could have made the same order at Staples, but it's a little more expensive and it would have taken 10-14 days until it gets delivered to the store. At this website, it offered free delivery with purchases over $10. It did take us a while to figure out how to make the monogram 600ppi so that the quality of the stamp will be high. Jared helped us out by first making the graphic in Illustrator, and then we were able to export it in whatever settings we needed. We figure that this monogram stamp would be good to have to embellish not only our invitations which was the original purpose, but also other things such as the program, envelopes, etc. and we can make it in different colors and textures. It's going to be fun, and maybe a lot of work, but it's kind of nice to have something so personal that we could probably use again for things other than the wedding considering that our initials probably won't change...unless I could call myself a symbol like Prince later on in life. I don't want to imagine what a monogram of that sort would look like...

Love Quotes and Poems

Just to get everyone in the lovey, dovey mood...I came across a few of these and thought I should share:

From "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven," in The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats:

But I, being poor have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

From The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran:

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

From "Somewhere I Have Never Traveled," by E. E. Cummings in Complete Poems: 1904-1962:

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose

From "Sonnet 116," in Love Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken

From "How Do I Love Thee?", by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in One Hundred and One Classic Love Poems:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach

From Beloved, by Toni Morrison:

Paul D sits down in the rocking chair and examines the quilt patched in carnival colors. His hands are limp between his knees. There are too many things to feel about this woman. His head hurts. Suddenly he remembers Sixo trying to describe what he felt about the Thirty-Mile Woman. "She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind."

From "A Poem of Friendship" in Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day by Nikki Giovanni:

I don't want to be near you
for the thoughts we share
but the words we never have
to speak.

From "The Book of Ruth," 1: 16-17 in The Bible

For whither thou goest, I will go;
And where thou lodgest, I will lodge;
Thy people shall be my people;
And thy God my God.


Happy and thrice happy are those who enjoy an uninterrupted union, and whose love, unbroken by any sour complaints, shall not dissolve until the last day of their existence.

~ Horace

Guest Bloggers!

In addition to Paul's blog, we have one submitted by Jared Sams, the Best Man. I put it on the Hula Happenings blog since it's advice on how to pay for the trip to Hawaii. Jared's definitely a funny guy...THANK YOU for adding your thoughts to the mix, Jared.

If you want to see his article go to:

Jared's Blog on Hula Happenings