I need to learn to not stress out, or at least not so much.  I've produced a small zit on my forehead and a pretty sizable one around the mouth area, kinda cindy crawford-ish area but NOT CUTE.  

Anyway, now that I am not stressed so much, I can happily share the pictures I just downloaded from Saturday.  Thank you again SO SO much- Aunty Ruby, Aunty Bet, Aunty Denise, Marilyn, and my awesome bridesmaids Samantha, Casie, Becky and Jenny...all for donating your saturday to come and help out!  I appreciate it so much and love you all!


Check out Aunty Ruby's food "hawaiian themed" and her decor!  Impressive!  And Aunty Bet's cupcakes she made- the green and pink slippers (HOW FESTIVE is that? I LOVE it) and seashells!!!

Ok, so after the headache and worry and drama, I started researching online frantically trying to find a seamstress or tailor in the area... I called around explaining my situation but it was so hard to talk to them.  I called the place I took a dress into last weekend and the girl was really nice, said it could probably be done, and handed me off to her dad, the seamstress... he probably didn't mean to yell but kept saying "custom made shirt you need, idk how much! could be $100! Idk!" And he wouldn't give me an estimate and wasn't understanding the scenarios I kept giving him so I got frustrated... then... all of a sudden DING!  The light went on!  I was so happy I thought of an alternative... The Sewing Arts Center!  I took a sewing class there last year with a friend and was like, ok my teacher Russell has got to know someone... so I emailed him and got an almost immediate response.  He said he was pretty sure he could find someone to do it for me, just to give him my budget.  So I ran home, grabbed everything and went over to meet him.  He took a look and said it actually didn't look bad, but most people are the most critical on their own work.   He also took a look at the pattern and said that Simplicity patterns run one size larger than normal.  Which makes total sense why everything looked so big.  Hector's was the only one finished but I think it will be OK on him since it's an XL and he actually usually wears an XXL.  However, for the other XL, 3 L's and M we cut it probably won't work.  He said to measure all their chests and figure out their size based on that measurement.  What will probably end up happening, is the other XL for Roenicke will have to get tossed, a L from one of the other boys will be his, the other 2 tossed...Abe's Medium will be for Scott or Vince and we'll have to cut another Medium and one small.  It's a GOOD THING I bought a lot of extra material so we should be fine.  But yes, he's going to have them done and even though it's costing more than I anticipated, I think it will be OK... at least nothing super unreasonable.  SO PHEWWWWWWWW

Also, here is Sean at Macy's...having fun with the scanner!

I almost forgot!  After ordering and experimenting with the right sized vase, I think I finally found a winner!  Today I experimented with the apples and the submersible light... I think I need to figure out something like a wrap around the bottom so the light isn't so visible (your eye is just drawn there immediately) or another kind of light... Currently doing research on alternatives...

I'm a little stressed right now but I'll start with the good things which will hopefully calm me down a little haha... so last week Sean had Thursday off because he had to work all day on Saturday.   My awesome boss gave me the approval to take a long lunch to go downtown with him.  Sean picked up his wedding band-- yay!  And I actually found mine too!  It was NOT what I was envisioning or planning for, but I'm happy with my find!  Originally I had thought I didn't want a band...but then I realized that you dont' want to really wear your diamond everywhere-- the beach, the gym, etc... so having a band really is useful.  So then I envisioned just a simple band with little diamonds around... well when I started trying some on, because of the way my diamond is placed, it kinda stuck out and didn't fit well together.  So then I found this example of a curvy one that kinda has a nook for the diamond and wanted one made like that and was set on that.  Well while we were downtown I was trying on some just to see what they looked like and for fun, I grabbed one that was diamonds intermixed with pink sapphires.  Ooohh I really liked it!  So did Sean!  I always thought I wanted something pink-- my ring? my dress?  Something!  But then when it came down to it, I was like no, that's just not practical.  Well unplanned, it totally works out.  I have my little bit of pink that is subtle but great!  Sean really liked it too, he said it was unique.

Still going with the good... our invitations are almost ready and to be sent out to the printers... Aya did such an amazing job...

Sunday Sean and I went to finally start shopping for his suit.  We first went to Macy's and everything was black, navy, black, black and black... I was like uh-oh all the summer stuff is gone!  Hence why Jenny found all those beige suits at the Banana outlet... anyway, we started looking through the sale items and there were only 2 beige suits- a little darker than what we had planned for, but Sean decided to try it on anyway.  Oooh it was really nice!  It fit him too.  So wow, that was easy.  We paid for it and were on our way!  But wait, not so fast yet... we actually started our registry.  My mom suggested I register for a few items for my shower.  In Hawaii, it is the norm to give money at weddings for a present, but she said I should register for my shower, and Sean sure had fun zapping that gun away! 

Ok, so Saturday we had a little sewing party.  We were to begin sewing the groomsmen's shirts with our material.  It was Sean's mom Marilyn, Aunty Bet, Aunty Ruby, Aunty Denise, Jenny, Becky, Samantha, Casie and I.  Unfortunately not many of us were seamstresses, so Marilyn and Bet were the sewers an the rest of us were cutters, pinners and ironers.... Aunty Ruby did make an amazing "hawaiian themed" lunch for us... it was so impressive, even down to the decorations.  And Aunty Bet made these amazing red velvet cupcakes with pink and green slippers and shells that were edible!  I will post pictures later.  Anyway, I was there for about 12 hours and it was a lot of work, I felt really bad that I couldn't do more :(  Sean's mom and Aunty Bet were the faithful sewers.  We had ziplocks with each boys name on it and the size we were making for them and all the pieces to make the shirt so that it was ready for sewing.  Most of the shirts were semi- put together and the only issue we had was that the sizes seemed to be larger than they were supposed to be... like the large looked way too big for Vince, Scott & Ryan.  On to the thing I'm worried about... Sean's mom called me last night around 10 pm and said I'd better come over tonight because the shirts didn't look good.  She said if it were Jimmy having to wear it she'd throw it away and buy him something :(  The only problem is, the whole wedding is kinda centered around this fabric...the cake, boquets, invitations which are at the printers this week... to not have them in those shirts would totally ruin my whole vision of the wedding.  I know it's not the worst thing in the world and if we REALLY can't make it work, I still have time to figure something out, but I'm just really really crossing my fingers and praying that it'll be OK... I'm so worried though!!!

I thought I had blogged about our trip to downtown LA's jewelry district but I can't seem to find it in any of my blog entries.  If I did write about it, apologies for the duplicate.  I just downloaded a picture I snuck on my iphone... this is just one of the little "rooms" with tons of jewelry "stores" in them.  There literally must have been thousands!  It was a bit overwhelming, but our main focus was to find Sean a wedding band so that at least narrowed down our options.  He initially thought he wanted a Tungsten band, but after trying on a whole bunch of them, he found it to be too heavy for his fragile fingers hehe... no but really, they were too heavy for him so he went with Titanium!  And the man who said he wanted no bling, just simplicity actually liked the look of one single diamond stone in the center.  It's really tiny but I was surprised that he wanted bling at all!  It made me proud ;-)  Anyway, it was quite an experience!  I like a dummy, forgot my ring at home (well, not really forgot, but left it there because we were house sitting for the Smiths and then going out for 4th of July and I didn't want to leave my ring in the car or wear to the beach...) but that kinda took away from me being able to find a band.  Oh well, at least we found Sean's!  

So apples have been kind of my inspiration.  I've seen a few arrangements for centerpieces which have kinda led my creative stylings that way... I have always been brainstorming on how to incorporate them in other ways and came across this handy little tool online!  It carves out a space for a tea light in fruits, veggies, etc.  So I ordered one and tried it out with a green apple and an "everlasting tealight".  One downside of my outdoor wedding I do have to say, is the inability to really use candles.  I feel like candles bring such an automatic sense of romance and ambiance to the setting, but with the wind factor we will have, it's very difficult to use candles outside.  BUMMER!  A lot of my ideas for centerpieces and decorations all have candles in them.  I especially love floating candles, but I guess I wont' really get to do that.  These everlasting fake ones are OK, but really don't give off the same effect.  So we'll see!  I do think this carver thing is really cool though!

Ok, what else... I am trying to decide upon a harpist and flutist or just harpist.  It's an extra $200 for the flutist and the samples I have heard online make me want to have a flutist, but now that I am actually seeing how much everything costs and where is this money coming from, I may have to pass.  The only problem is that the samples they provide online don't really have any harpist solos so it's hard to tell what it will sound like.  I've been emailing with Kimberly Bento, who'd be our harpist, but she is unable to send us any samples.  Kind of a bummer!  She will be at the Bridal Expo this weekend so hopefully my mom can go for me and listen some. Last weekend Sean & I sat down and went through the songs available for the ceremony and marked down potentials.  And good news relating to that, we decided on our first dance song!!!  Whoohoo!!!


Last night I met up with Aya to go over invitations, things are moving along nicely and she is just so so talented.  I feel so lucky to have her helping me!  Every design she had was great, which made it even harder to decide hahaha... but Sean & I finally decided on our invitation as well as our monogram and our font for the invite.  I am very excited to get it all to the printers and then assemble and send out!

131 days til the wedding eeeek!  Samantha and I have been discussing the bachelorette party next month and I am getting so very excited for that.  A bunch of us will be going to Vegas for some pool time with a Cabana (YESSS), some drinks, some dancing, maybe some gambling!  I can't wait!  My boss also approved me leaving a little early that Friday so I'm excited to maybe get there a little early and get some extra sun in at the pool, so far summer in LA has SUCKED big time and it's been ugly and cold and foggy... basically not summer! 

So I have the best Maid of Honor in the world!  I know I've said it before but it's true!  This weekend we got together on Saturday to do some wedding errands.  First we headed over to JoAnn's and picked up some cardstock to experiment with for invitations and found these cute little pink slippers that were on sale for the girls.  It's kinda a surprise as part of their present from me... a little "get excited for hawaii and thank you for being my bridesmaid" gift.  I don't think any of them read my blog besides Sam though so I can blog about it!  I want to put in a little sunscreen, slippers, possibly a swim suit... It's gonna be so fun!  Ok, next we drove over to Michaels and on the way we stopped at Old Navy to look for tanks for the girls.  Sam bought these iron on rhinestone appliques that say "bridesmaid, maid of honor, bride, flower girl" so we can make our own tanks.  Old Navy had a great sale going on- $5 tanks!  It was perfect until we could only find one in the size we needed and color.  The lady looked it up and it looked as if Manhattan Village had more available, but when Sam went back on Sunday they didn't have any!  :(  I thought I found it online but at second glance, it wasn't the right one.  SHUCKS!  So now we are in search for more tanks...  Anyway, Sam was a good influence on me, we didn't go shopping at 3rd street, just Old Navy, 1 store of "looking" and then to Michaels.  There I bought a basket and cellophane to wrap Tiff & Scotty's engagement present (Tickets on southwest for 6 man and a 6 man survival kit).

Then it was time to eat and per our usual, we couldn't decide.  Finally we decided to go to Century City and we had lunch at Rock Sugar.  It was great!  We stopped in to CUSP because they were having a sale and tried on a few cute things... it was there we came up with the "bling" theme for Vegas.  Still not sure if it's going to happen but how fun would that be?!  For Krystal's bachelorette we did a flapper theme which was so much fun and great for pictures.  We've been trying to think of ones for a night in Vegas but hadn't came up with anything good yet.  (Twilight was an option hahaha).  I think this one could be great, so fitting for so many reasons, but only if I can find a blingy white dress I love!  I've been scouring the internet all day yesterday and today.  Well, at Cusp I tried on this Alice + Olivia dress... sequined on top and ruffled on bottom and it's just absolutely adorable... I mean how can you go wrong with ruffles and sequins!?!?!?  Impossible.  Anway, after much debate and walking around I decided to go for it.  I had been saving a Westfiled Mall gift certificate since Christmas and have been very cautious on what I spend it on, but decided this would be a good one & that I could use it for something wedding related.  I think it will be my rehearsal dinner dress!

This weekend, mom & Aunty Peggy also went looking around at venues for my shower.  SO nice!  Mom said that Waioli Tea Room would have been perfect because they have a private room that is ALL PINK!!!!   Unfortunately it is booked on the weekend we need to have it!  DARNNN!  But they visited 2 other venues and I think they found a winner... we will see!!! 

I talked to Aunty Liane via email today and she has also said she'll help with the breakfast the day after.  It's so nice to have such great friends and family helping with the big day.  Without all the help from countless friends and family I really have no idea how I'd do it. 

Shout out to James Smith!  (Sean's dad) HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

So part of my vision included clear, glass plates.  However, I couldn't find anyone on the island with these... or for a reasonable price.   Event Essentials had these adorable clear glass circular chargers with rhinestones all around the edges, but they only had like 150 in stock AND they were like $7.50 each to rent!  Crazy! 

Well I put my crafty mind to work (and yes, I have a pretty crafty mind when it comes down to certain things that I want!)  I proposed a "trade" with one of the rental companies I was talking to back a few months ago and said hey, If I purchase these plates and have them shipped to you, we use them for my wedding then you can keep them as part of your inventory for free, will you rent me the utencils and glasses for free?  I thought this was a pretty fair trade, especially because I still have a hard time paying .65 per utencil and then another like .80 per glass.  It doesn't sound like much, but you add 2 forks and a knife times 200 people and it adds up for just utencils!  Welll, they got back to me and said the most business-like trade would be to "reimburse" me for my spending on plates by taking that amount off my bill of rentals for everything else.  I think it works out quite nicely!  They get to add clear plates (both entree size and salad sized ones) to their inventory (and rent them again and again and again and probably make 100x profit) and I get my clear plates that I wanted and a discount!  I don't need 200+ glass plates for anything I don't think haha.  Plus this way, they can transport them with their crew and be in charge of cleaning them etc.  It ends up being a little silly, since I've decided to go with white linens, but I still think the clear will look nice!  :)

Today, I was going to order my 3rd shipment of plates to my parents house and when I was going to check out I saw a discount!  4-3 promo!  So basically I paid for 3 boxes of 12, but got 4!  Pretty sweet!  Too bad I had already purchased another 20 boxes, but hey, I'll take what I can get.  It seems I ordered the last of the salad plates though, so hopefully that's enough!  It was definitely the best news of the day though!

Ok, so I've calmed down a bit... after my freak out on Friday, I went to the gym with Alex, where he absolutely KICKED MY BUTT.  I was sore all weekend and still am not fully recovered, but it was good for me.  I talked to Sean about it and feel better too.  We just really have to be careful in our decisions!  


Saturday we went to Chinatown for some dim sum, then we headed over to the jewelry district.  Holy COW!  That place is seriously nuts!  Vendor next to vendor next to vendor... it never ended.  There must have been thousands and thousands of shops just in that area, all selling jewelry.  So there was definitely a surplus.  We were mainly searching for Sean's tungsten ring, but after trying on a bunch (and getting a few stuck over his poor knuckle that got all torn up) he decided he wanted titanium instead.  The tungsten was too heavy for him.  And in the end, he also decided he wanted one little diamond bling in the middle.  I was pretty shocked!  It looks nice though.  Glad we got his ring all picked out.  Deposit was paid and it'll be ready in two weeks!   I accidentally forgot my ring at home... I know, how STUPID.  So I wasn't able to really try any on and match it.  But it's ok, not really a priority since I already have my beauty, the band is not as important to me.  


Unfortunately, that's about all we got done this weekend.  I had the day off yesterday so I was able to go over to paper source and purchase the matching envelopes.  I also got a few more embellishments there just in case.


I also walked into the GAP in Beverly Hills to see if they had the clear jellies for the girls.  When I had called a few weeks ago, they said they had limited stock and most places had like one size 7 and online the 7's were sold out.  Then last week I checked again and the clear jellies were taken off the website all together.  To my surprise they had all sizes in multiples so I was very excited.  To make it even better, the entire store was 30% off!  So I grabbed 6 pairs for my bridesmaids and was on my way! :)