"Someone like you
And all you know
And how you speak
Countless lovers undercover of the street

You know that I could use somebody
You know that I could use somebody
Someone like you"

Kings of Leon

All my cleverly planned meals

Our caterer is having an Open House next weekend where we'll get another opportunity to taste their food. They will be serving a spread of their most popular options giving us a chance to sample everything and narrow down our choices. After enjoying our first tasting we are looking forward to the wider variety we will experience here. We will also get a chance to see how food is displayed, how tables are arranged, and how the staff works. I'm really excited.

All of this has got me thinking about the type of service we want at the wedding: buffet style or sit-down dinner. It was easy to decide that we want our guests to be greeted with drinks, hors d'oeuvres passed around, one appetizer/themed station, and an open bar, but this whole service thing is a bit more complicated. Add the opinions from the family and the decision has been difficult.

Both buffet and sit down dinners have their good points and there is definitely a distinction between the two. Buffets allow you more time to socialize and choose your own portions, and sit-downs let you relax and get pretty plates of food. To help ease the decision I compiled a list of what we like and don't like about each style.

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Buffet Pros:

• Guests can socialize while in line allowing the photographer a chance to get some nice shots

• Guests can choose their portion size, sides, entrees, and return for seconds, even thirds

• We can have a themed table or carving station for tri-tip

• We don't have to worry about organizing who gets what entree (fish, meat, veggie)

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Buffet Cons:

• Waiting in line

• Some guests will get their food before others

• Not as easy as being served

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Sit-down Dinner Pros:

• Food arrives plated beautifully

• Easier for older guests and kids

• Everyone gets their food around the same time, less time spent waiting

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Sit-down Dinner Cons:

• Having to track who ordered which entree

• Figuring out a way to cleverly note it on escort cards/make it look like part of the design
  

• Guests could change their minds

• Portions will all be the same, leaving some people hungry

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Right now we're leaning towards the buffet. We just want the food service to go as smooth as possible. Also we might compromise with sit-down service for salads, and then buffet for the sides and entrees. Of course there's also the family style service...

How did you decide on your dinner service? What are your experiences with buffet and sit down dinners? Do you have a preference?

Breaking News: Tom and Gisele got married!!

Blog title is from lyrics by Tegan and Sara

You've got me feeling hella good

No Doubt just set their dates for their summer tour!!!

Tickets go on sale 3/7/09 and they are hitting so many California cities I can't contain myself. Do we bachelor/bachelorette party in Vegas at the Tiger Jam, visit college friends in San Diego and take in the concert at Cricket Wireless Amphitheater, how about we do a Nor Cal trip to visit the future in laws in Sac and see my brother in SF while catching 2 shows that weekend? But of all the shows to see, the Irvine Meadows (now called VW Amphitheater but I grew up calling it Irvine Meadows so I'm sticking to that) shows on July 31 and August 1 are the must attend shows. It'll be their homecoming and you know bands close their tours in stellar ways.

It's such a joy to see how far they've come. And marriage/weddings have been song subjects along the way.



Tragic Kingdom's "Hey You" describes a deep desire for marriage although one might not be ready. Thinking solely with your heart and dreaming of fanciful things, but not using your head.

No Doubt - New Music - More Music Videos

Then there's "Simple Kind of Life" from Return to Saturn, which struggles with a longing to settle down and get married, but also wanting keep a career and independence.

No Doubt - New Music - More Music Videos

This is followed by Rock Steady's beautiful "Underneath It All" (one of my all time favorite songs) where the journey has brought the realization that this is someone who you want to share the rest of your life with.

Gwen went on to have such a beautiful and stylish wedding.

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The invitation is glamorous yet simple. I love their GG icon on the invitation cover, it like a heart.

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The beautiful couple. I love the style of Gwen's veil. And you can see the use of the GG icon above them.

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Gwen's wedding gown is among my favorite dresses. Designed by John Galliano, the dip dyed gown went from white to hot pink. It's a beautiful interpretation of her personal style.

Now how do I get tickets to each aforementioned show onto the registry??

Do you have a favorite celebrity wedding? Are you excited for any summer concerts?

update: No Doubt will be on Gossip Girl. :) woo hoo!

Blog title is from lyrics by No Doubt

I'm in love, sweet love

In an attempt to keep a local flare and support local businesses, we had the idea of using candy and sweets companies from Santa Barbara area as vendors for our candy buffet and out-of-town guest bags. The following are a few places we enjoy.

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My favorite SB coffee shop, Santa Barbara Roasting Company, sells coffee beans, tea, mugs, and clothing. SB RoCo is not a candy shop, but I think guests would like a sample bag of flavored coffee. It beats hotel coffee and gotta love the coffee bean cartoon relaxing on the beach.

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I'm not really a biscotti eater but the flavors of SB Biscotti sound delicious. I think these would go nicely with coffee from SB RoCo.

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Macadamia Nut is one of my favorite nuts and this flavor sounds so yummy.

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An assortment of mints, pecan clusters, fudge, and specialties are available at Robitaille's Candies. The family owned company located in Carpinetria, a few miles south of SB, gained fame when their mints were chosen as the official candy of a Presidential Inauguration. All of their candy is hand made, and you can visit their location or order online.

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Pecan caramel clusters are making my mouth water.

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White chocolate coconut haystacks are yummy too. I would love to have Robitaille's Candies as part of our candy buffet.

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Located on Stearns Wharf, Mother Stearns Candy Company carries salt water taffy, truffles, fudge, vintage candy, popcorn... a sweet tooth's dream :)

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Jessica Foster Confections creates handmade, gourmet truffles in deliciously sweet flavors for any occasion. How can you go wrong with flavors like milk chocolate coffee, dark chocolate chai, white chocolate green tea?

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Packaged so nicely and perfect for a candy buffet, the only problem I see is that I would want to keep these all to myself.

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A local cookie delivery service, HotCookie.com, provides "fresh, handmade cookie gifts for all occasions". These cookies would be a welcome surprise in out of town guest bags.

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I love their saying "...because you can't eat flowers." So true and so yummy.

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Chocolate chip, butter cookie, oatmeal chocolate chip flavors. Cookies are so great for a late night snack.

These are just a collection of ideas from SB area candy and sweet shops. While we love all of them, our budget will only allow us to use a few for the wedding.

Will you be using any local companies for your wedding favors, oot bags, candy buffet?

Blog title is from lyrics by Anita Baker

Over the rainbow

I have been so wrapped up with creating inspiration boards (i, ii, iii, iv) that I never mentioned how and why we chose our colors. So before I post any more purple and yellow accessories or Lakers inspired anything, here is the story.

Much of our wedding details have been my decision. The mister is very happy to put the planning/budgeting/creating process in my hands. With this type of free range I wanted to thank him by asking his opinions on certain aspects like cupcake flavors, music choices, and grooms men's attire. But I also wanted to have his personality in the details, even if he wasn't the one making the decisions.

What better way to affect details than wedding colors. It's a perfect idea, wedding colors would dictate the overall look, feel, and style of our wedding. If I chose a color or colors that fit his style and personality, he would be represented. Table runners, flowers, envelopes, and favor boxes are just some details directly affected by colors.

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So I started the color search with our favorite colors: pink and blue.

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Then checked Style Me Pretty and Snippet & Ink for inspiration boards and eye candy. I love these sites because everything is sooooooo beautiful. The posts have such gorgeous photos which help with ideas on incorporating your color into all the details of your wedding. As my mind spun with ideas, my heart loved combinations of pink and blue or pink and green.

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Blue is the mister's favorite color. It's cool, calm, and fits our ocean side venue. I liked the look of a dark shade of blue and a lighter shade of pink, or an aqua blue and a hot pink.

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Pink is my favorite color. Its shades are cheery, uplifting, girly, and bold. Green was a perfect compliment to pink. It balanced the femininity of pink. Green is also a color the mister likes to wear.

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Pink and green looked very nice with a pop of yellow. The color yellow reminds me of summer so the color as an accent works so well.

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I had thought about a mix of just pink and yellow. But it wouldn't be very representative of the mister.

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So how about a mixture of pink, blue, green, and yellow. It's bright and bold and calming all at once. When I saw the board above I was just about convinced that those would be the colors of our wedding.

And then it hit me. Purple and Yellow. Iris and Lemon. Plum and Banana. Lavender and Daisy. Forum Blue and Gold. Lakers colors. The colors that have been there all along :) The colors of our favorite team, a team we cheer on and watch without fail, a pasttime we enjoy, and one of the main interests we've shared over the years.

While the colors aren't neccessarily our "favorites", I think they represent our personalities quite nicely.

Pamella Roland dress, the knot chairs, Lakers logo, yellow flower, LO
Versace shoe, VB dress, JW dress, table scape
T&Co ring, cake topper, flowers, place cards, cake

And so we arrived to our colors :) It was a bit of a journey but I'm glad it's a representation of the two of us.

How did you choose your colors?

Blog title is from lyrics by E.Y. Harburg

Thank you for being a friend

I received this blog award from Melissa at M & M Wedding. It's super cute and I'm glad to pass it on. Horray for wedding blogs!

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”!

So I would like to pass this onto these cool bloggers (in no particular order):

A Sweet Wife
Bride Sophisticate
Canadian Bride
Dot the i Wedding
Happily Ever After
Peachy Keen
Throw The Rice
Wedding Peephole
With This Ring

Blog title is from lyrics by Andrew Gold

"Find a path that is your own
Love will open every door"
Christina Aguilera

Rooftops and Invitations

I received an email reminder to start looking for and booking our invitation designer. With the wedding about 7 months away we can still leisurely gather ideas, but knowing the many details left to finalize means the pressure is on. The save our date maps provided our guests with a sort of wedding stationery amuse bouche. Our plan is to work that initial look and feel in the invitation suite, to make it flow. We have to consider the wording, font, font color, design accents, printing style, paper, envelopes, addressing, etc. But before we do all that, we want to start with looking at design themes.

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While we like flourishes, calligraphy, and flowers, we also want to incorporate Santa Barbara locations into our theme. One favorite SB location is the Canary Hotel. It's a hotel we considered when scouting venues, built during our college years making it a fairly new hotel in the city. It's location is perfect walking distance to downtown's shopping, dining, and sightseeing, but far form the beach. What it lacks in distance it makes up for in the view. The Canary Hotel has a rooftop terrace with a 360 degree view of downtown, the mountains, the ocean, and the mesa. It would be amazing to get married under the warm sun and celebrate under the stars :)

Source Amazing views and an intimate feeling.

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So with the Canary Hotel as a starting point, and a theme of love birds, nature, and branches, here are some invitations from hello! Lucky and Wedding Paper Divas that I can see at a Canary Hotel wedding.

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hello! Lucky is one of my favorite invitation companies. They have a beautiful collection of letterpress and digital invitations that come in a wide array of colors to match your wedding colors. I love their interactive site. It allows you to estimate price based on quantity, personalize your design with paper and font choices, fill in your own text, and provides a preview of what your invitation would look like.

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They also have corresponding: RSVP card, save the date card, wedding announcement, thank you card, accommodations card, reception card, directions card, menu, place card, seating card to complete your stationery suite.

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With an easily navigated site, plenty of design and color choices, helpful personalization browsing, and etiquette tips, Wedding Paper Divas is one of my favorite stationery companies.

Source I love the look of this invite and the yellow color.

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I love browsing stationery sites. They overflow with inspirational eye candy.

What are your favorite invitations websites? How did you choose the design of your invitation suite?

Blog title is from lyrics by Dashboard Confessional

Dress you up in my love, part V

My dress arrived on January 30th (just 2 weeks after we ordered it) and we picked it up last week. It is white and sparkly and makes me happy. I tried it on at the store and attempted to teach my mom how my consultant helped me into the dress: unzip the top and gather the skirt material together so there is a definitive tunnel from bottom to top, then placing everything over my head so that I could get into the dress from the bottom up. It was definitely easier said ;) But once I got in and twirled around, I was happy.

Train detail. It has a semi-cathedral train that needs a bustle.

Between the time I ordered the dress and the time it came in I was worried that I had picked too soon. But putting on my own dress, new and white, made me fall in love with it all over again.

Skirt detail. My mom was trying to spread it out.

The dress is described as having "net over satin, re-embroidered lace with metallic accents, crystal beading and sequins".

Back of the dress. I like the ruching.

I hadn't brought heels to wear so the skirt was dragging a little. And the bust was definitely coming out. We plan start the fittings in June or July.

Details of the side of the dress.

With the dress decision done, I can move on to shoes, veils, jewelry, clutch, and any other accessories :) I'm also trying to figure out my something blue.

How long did it take for your dress to arrive? Did you fall in love with it all over again?


Blog title is from song by Madonna

Do my best with every breath that's in me, blessed to see you never go

My cousins, brother, and I sandwiched between Lolo and Lala at the big house.

I have two living grandparents, my maternal ones we call Lolo (grandpa in Tagalog) and Lala (Lola is grandma in Tagalog, but she wanted to be fancy). They have fifteen grandchildren and I am the second oldest. When compiling our guest list last year, I realized that they would be the only grandparents at the wedding and I would be the only grandchild whose wedding they could attend.

My grandparents live in the Philippines. Lolo is 79 and Lala will be 77 in April. They visited us plenty of times throughout the years, most recently in 2006 and again 2007. Their most recent trip was planned as probably their last to the US, until I told them I was getting married and their presence would be an honor. Now they make plans to return to the US to celebrate the wedding in what will basically be their last trip to the US.

Lala and I during her summer 2007 visit

This realization makes me both happy and sad. There is happiness in the fact that they are healthy enough to travel, have the means to travel, and are able to see a grandchild get married in their lifetime. But the sadness is the reality of their aging. Lolo and Lala's ages mean bodies that need assistance when traveling, eyes and minds not as sharp as before, and seeing just one grandchild get married in their lifetime. They have 4 grandchildren in my age group, all are currently single. Even if they were to wed over the next 10 years, 3 of the 4 live in the US and travel may not be feasible.

Lolo and I relaxing in my living room

So I want to have a tribute to them during the ceremony or reception, similar to honoring the faithful departed, but as a celebration of their company. My head is racing with ideas. We can mention them in our ceremony programs, have a special dance with them during the reception, present them with gifts of gratitude, have orchid centerpieces (my Lala's favorite flower) and almond roca in the candy bar (my Lolo's favorite candy). Ultimately, I think the most important thing is to recognize their attendance at the wedding. And I am so thankful, blessed, and very fortunate for their presence.

Are your grandparents able to attend your wedding? Will you do something to recognize them?

Blog title is from lyrics by Christina Aguilera