Wedding Details
Wedding Details
W were married on May 17, 2008...
We are BIG on the Do It Yourself phenomenon...partially to save $$$, but also because we are such a talented and creative bunch that it only makes sense to do things ourselves exactly as we want them to be done. Due to this, most of the wedding details will be personally handled by one of our own family members. From the wedding dress to the cake, most things are being made by hand, by US.
Wedding Day Photos:
These are a few that were taken by our photographer Katie (of Red Loft Studios).
Engagement Photos:
To see a sampling, please visit my "engagement photos" album in the sidebar of this page.
Vendors:
Location: Hotel Laguna (www.hotellaguna.com). We will be married in the Rose Garden and our reception will take place in the Laguna Room, which is on the beach, just steps away from the ocean. The coordinator, Damon, is simply amazing and was wonderfully accomodating throughout the whole process. I cannot stress this enough. I stayed at the hotel the night before the wedding, and Damon even called me a few minutes after I had arrived, just to check and make sure I was settled in and to see if I needed anything. It was this kind of attention throughout the entire process, including the entire wedding day. He handled it all, making things appear to go smoothly even when there were bumps along the way.
D.J.: Eric, from SoCal-Djs (www.socal-djs.com). We were absolutely blown away by him. Wonderful service at a fabulous price (which also included an assistant). He was very accomodating and knowledgable; knows how to work a crowd. I received SEVERAL recommendations from local "knotties" to use his services, and was NOT disappointed. I had several guests comment to me about how much they enjoyed the music. And he played a LOT of the music we requested; whereas other djs we had interviewed beforehand said that they could guarantee only a few songs. Eric was wonderful and I woudl definitely recommend him to others.
Photographer: Katie, from Red Loft Studios (www.redloftstudios.com). We LOVE her creative angles and the studio's artistic edge, overall. I can't say enough good things about her, really. She was professional through it all, but friendly and outgoing and really put us both at ease. From our engagement photo shoot, to the photos the day of the wedding, everything was fabulous!
Videographer: Charles and Kelsey, from Charles Lauren Films (www.charleslaurenfilms.com). You have GOT to check out their demos. They are soooo creative; not just in the editing process, but in the actual filming, as well. Here is a link to our same-day edit preview that they put together for us on the spot: http://charleslaurenfilms.blogspot.com/2008/05/may-17-2008-same-day-edit.html We weren't even aware that they would be doing this for us; but, the next thing we knew, they had set up a small table out of the way, next to the dj, and were playing this at the reception. Guests were absolutely blown away! I didn't get to see it till late the next day, so I hadn't realized that they had even added music to the video. It was so beautiful, I actually started to cry as I watched it!
Makeup Artist: Makeup By Berit. (www.makeupbyberit.com) She is so fabulous...knows what she is talking about, and takes the time to customize everything. She was recently voted as one of three of OC's HOTTEST makeup artists. Very personable and easy to be around. The wedding day was chaos and my room was FULL of people, but she managed to keep everything running smoothly.
Offiicant: Rev. Bruce Danzara (www.4wednet). Great in person. He also made us feel better with the fact that he has complete "scripts" for the wedding ceremony posted on his website. We got to pick and choose what he will (and won't) say, without any fear that he would stray from that.
Invitations: Isabelle, from Taylor Your Memories (www.tayoloryourmemories.com). We had an absolutely HORRIBLE experience through this company!!! Though still long, here is the short version: They assured me that they were able to print our custom design (created by Tony). On our initial meeting, I showed them a sample of what we wanted, and was assured that thermography was okay...only to find out much later that it wouldn't work with our design, and she claims never to have seen that original design in the first meeting. I tried to get printing specifics from Isabelle, as far as program file preferred, CMYK or RGB, room for margin, bleed, etc. She told me "not to worry"...to just send the file and they'd work with it. I should have worried. Needless to say, we had to change our files several times along the way. She was horrible with returning calls AND emails, and usually I was the one to have to track her down. I found out along the way that they didn't normally take custom orders (probably just didn't want to turn down my business and was making it up as she went along...), and they were working with an outside printer (I could have sent it directly to the printer and bypassed her and all this grief)!!! I was told that the turnaround time would be 3 weeks at the LATEST, but it went longer than that and, again, I was the one to call her and figure out what was going on...the printer still hadn't done our order and only then (after the "guaranteed" turaround time) did we learn that the files needed to be altered a bit MORE. We picked up the envelopes so we could at least start addressing those, only to be given the wrong envelopes. When I realized this and called Isabelle to notify her...she already knew, but just hadn't bothered to call me to let me know. They cut the printed invitations, rsvps and maps in-house, and all were cut crooked... most are at a distinct angle, and the colored borders are off on most of them (some sides cut thinner than others). The last straw came when we picked up the printed portions of the invitations on a Wednesday...and I was finishing putting them together a week and a half later, only to RUN OUT OF MAPS AND RSVPS!!! I called and emailed Isabelle, and only received a call the following day, several hours after they had opened (and after I called again). She tried to laugh it off, saying that when Tony had picked up the order, the rest of the rsvps and maps had been mistakenly left on the counter...she thought we would be back in, so she never bothered to follow up with us!!! Absolutely HORRIBLE. And beware...she also runs wedding coordination service.
Details:
Asking my Attendants: I wanted to do things in a creative sort of way. So I made these "attendant survival kits" containing the following items, along with a list to explain each one:
- 2007/2008 calendar with my wedding date circled... for keeping track of all of the wedding related plans
- small bottle of tylenol... for when talk of the wedding starts to give you a headache
- stress ball... for when you really really need to just squeeze something (and it's not nice to use my neck); and no fair throwing this at my head, either
- small bottle of tequila... for when the above items don't help much
- photo of tony and myself...to remember the reason behind all of this in the first place.
Colors: My favorite colors are purple and silver, so of course we are going with that combo, in nice, muted tones, of course. Recently, I have seen several articles in bridal magazines about how that color combo is the "next big thing." Who knew I was so trendy?
Invitations: These were designed by Tony...being a graphic artist and all. The invitations came out beautifully, but this was due to the design and NOT the vendor we went through, which gave us nothing but headaches (see my detailed vendor review, above). Thermography printing on Envelopments paper and pocketfolio, with a silver envelope to send it all. Shown below, with some details whited out:
Ceremony: Mari (groom's sis and Matron of Honor) did most of the actual work on the ceremony decor. She created the artificial flower arrangements which were used on the gazebo and also painted and constructed the lanterns to line the aisleway. She sewed the slipcovers for the chairs at the ceremony, and even created the aislerunner, complete with hand-painted monogram and border design. This woman is a godsend! Tony drew a portrait of the two of us, which was placed on an easel at the entrance to the ceremony, and then moved to the entrance of the reception.
Reception: We picked out material to use for tablecloths and they were sewn by Tony's mom. The centerpieces were 3 various sized vases (cylinder or cubes) covered partially in vellum, with submersible floralites so they are illuminated somewhat from the inside, with minimal flowers in each vase. White chaircovers for all chairs. Out on the patio, the lanterns from the ceremony were hung from the iron fencing for a little more decoration. The cake table and sweetheart table had different tablecloths from the rest of the tables.
Guestbook: This was something quite different... we created little "thought bubbles," in keeping with the comic-book style, and placed one "bubble" at each place setting, along with a different question/prompt on what to actually write about. Guests were asked to deposit the "bubbles" into a glass jar on the cake table, and will be put together in a flat album at a later date.
Flowers: Thank goodness the LA Flower District is only an hour's drive away. Most of the flowers were ordered from there ahead of time; the grand total for ALL flower arrangements came to about $300. That includes centerpieces, bouquets, bouteniers, and flowers for our parents, too. Mini calla lillies were used in the centerpieces and bouteniers, and bouquets consisted mainly of peonies and calla lillies.
Cake: Tony's sister baked the cake and Tony's mom did the decorating. She is a WHIZ at fondant creations...but Tony doesn't like fondant, so we went with buttercream instead. The flavors... a white cake (Colombian-style recipe with an almond flavor) and a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache. Something different, however, is that both of these flavors were in EACH SLICE of cake. They will not be separate layers but will be stacked on top of one another, separated by the chocolate ganache, so that each guest got a taste of each flavor instead of having to choose... Some guests have told me that this was the BEST cake they had ever tasted!!
Bridesmaid/Attendant Dresses: Again, bought the fabric from the LA Fabric District... Silver silk under a purple chiffon...drapes beautifully. Even found (Nina) shoes at Macy's to coordinate perfectly with the color!
Tuxes: Tony's mom made all of the vests, ties and pocket handkerchief in a dark silver/charcoal color. The tuxes were from Friar Tux.
Hair: I had been growing out my hair ever since I got engaged over a year ago...(since I'm having a voluminous gown, and I have a small head, I wanted to balance things out a bit). However, I am NOT a "long-hair" type of person...and I did not LIKE my long hair at all. So, I went to see my stylist a few months before the wedding (whom I've been goingto for about 5 years now) and she chopped it all off into a CUTE bob. (LOVE it!) AND she gave me a fantastic deal on clip-in extensions (of real human hair), so I STILL got to have my up-do for the wedding day! Tony's sis made my headpice to match my dress...not a tiara, but a split band that tucked into my hair (not like a headband). I got to wear a huge (heavy) pile of curls on top of my head...took nearly 100 bobby pins to hold it in place, but looked gorgeous!
Shoes: I am not a "shoe" person and don't normally wear heels. So it has been difficult to find shoes that I like. That, and the fact that I needed to find them BEFORE my dress was made (easier since it's being hand-made, so the hem doesn't need to be adjusted later)... I didn't want to spend a fortune on shoes that might be seen once in the night, during the garter toss. I SWEAR I have gone through about 10 pairs of shoes that I have bought (and returned) so far, ranging from Payless to Macys. I didn't want to spend a fortune, but also wanted something NICE. I finally found "THE" shoes at DSW Shoes...they are plain platinum silk (to match the threading in my gown), about a 2" heel, open toe sandal by Mootsie Tootsie...It figured, though...I even had to exchange the first pair of THESE that I had bought, since it looked like a dog had gotten ahold of them; there were punctures in the heels of BOTH shoes!!! But, all is well now. And, to make things even better, my future mother in law decorated the shoes, adding crystals and stitching to coordinate further with my wedding gown.
Purse: I bought a plain platinum silk purse from Macy*s and Tony's mom "blinged" it up a bit, adding crystals and stitching not only across the top of te purse, but also in a swirl design to further coordinate with my gown.
Our Rings: I love my engagement ring. I am not much of a "jewelry" person, usually choosing to wear sterling silver and spend my money on other things. So I wasn't too particular about what I wanted in an engagement ring...or so I thought. I didn't like rings that looked like they have doorknobs for stones, so Tony got off light there... I preferred white gold to yellow. And I like the rings where the band is curved a bit, in a "wave" of sorts to meet the center stone...not a straight band. I didn't realize how rare these types of bands seem to be. But he did a WONDERFUL job finding the perfect ring for me. My mom (who IS a "jewelry person") said it was a wonderful diamond...very clear. The ring is from Robbins Bros. Since I prefer simplistic jewelry, I will be foregoing the traditional wedding band and will simply wear my engagement ring, which, in essence, became my wedding ring as well. Perhaps I'll get a band to coordinate on an upcoming anniversary...
Tony got two bands (lucky man)! Here's why... I received an email sponsored by theknot.com saying that this particular jewelry store in the LA Jewelry District called Icing on the Ring (once more...gotta love Los Angeles) was having a sale where ALL bands would be 40% off their normal price. And since this is the jewelry district, the prices are already low to begin with! The selection of men's rings was the largest we had seen by far...Tony found two rings he absolutely loved and couldn't decide. Well, since the prices were so low and the wedding was so far off (he was sad he couldn't wear his ring yet), I decided to buy BOTH of the bands; one as his wedding ring and one to wear as an "engagement ring" for now...
Bridal Gown: It is SPECTACULAR! Tony's mom being a seamstress, the dress was made it from scratch, and the design is completely original. Includes detailed hand-embroidery in platinum threading on the bodice and the skirt, as well as hand-beading with small beads and crystals. The train is removable, so that there is no bustling needed for the reception, with the same design on my train repeated on the back of the regular skirt so it will be seen at the reception. Let's just say that if this dress were sold in the stores, it would probably cost around $10,000.
Bridal Party:
Matron of Honor: Maria Signaigo (groom's sister)
Bride's Attendants: Jennifer Ritzo (friend since 1st grade), Michelle Kim (friend since 2nd grade), Shaun Simmons (bride's brother)
Best Man: Larry Signaigo (groom's brother-in-law)
Groom's Attendants: Eddie Goicochea, Fred Oliviari, Mindy Cherri
Flowergirls: Grace and Laura Signaigo (Tony's nieces)
Ringbearer: Michael Signaigo (Tony's nephew)
Honeymoon:
We went to Walt Disney World for our honeymoon, staying at the Carribbean Beach Resort. Tony's parents gave us this trip as a gift. It was absolutely WONDERFUL, and we had a great time! (Pal Mickey ROCKS!)
