Our Day!

So here it is over a month after our wedding and I'm finally getting around to this post!  After a couple months of illness I had a lot to catch up on with life  - selling off  leftover wedding stuff, getting my name changed at the various institutions, joining our various accounts and insurances, as well as my ongoing job search.  I'm still slowly rolling out all my thank you cards to our wedding guests so my apologies that its taking so long!

So let me try to highlight some of the details with photos, and give my props to all the people who made this day happen.

Stephen awaited my arrival in front of our Sofreh Aghd, to get his first glimpse of my bridal visage in the mirror

Pre-wedding prep!  I got some hi-lites added to my hair to brighten up my face.

Haydee Reyes over at E&D Salon over on Felicita in Escondido is amazing!  She does all the modern designer color styles like ombre. and she came out to my home on my wedding day to do my up-do. I have video footage of my hair being done but I didn't really get any pictures that show off the details of my hair when I had the veil off but you can see it in some of my wedding pictures below.




I wanted to do a special manicure for my wedding, so I went to my go-to girl for nails - Sonja Maree.  She has a little salon space in the Sola Salon Studios in San Marcos, and she works with acrylics.  What's always been amazing about her is how creative she is.  I can send her pictures of nail art ideas that I'm interested in, and she always comes up with the best design that fits me & my personality.  How do you like my wedding dress & tux nails? :)

My wedding makeup was actually a wedding present from our dear friend & realtor extraordinaire Shannon.  Her daughter, Annabeth Barre, works at the MAC store at the North County Fair mall in Escondido.  She was able to give me the look I was going for - fairly natural with eyes that pop. Not only that, but my makeup held up the entire night!  That might not sound like a big deal, but if you knew how many happy tears I was shedding (the entire ceremony!) you would have expected me to look like some kind of goth-mutant raccoon!  But nope, thanks to Anna's handy-work, I was able to look human all day & night :)

J&N Transportation had a great deal on Living Social for a limo

I may not have a birth father, but I'm lucky to have my Grandpa & Step-dad Patrick

father-daughter dance <3

Our only dance of the night :)

My girls!  Without Odette & Laurie, this event would not have come close to resembling a wedding.  When I started to fall apart, these ladies stepped in and gave me the push and encouragement I needed.  They convinced me to try on actual wedding dresses, and put more effort in to decorating and planning.  In fact, the majority of the decorating was done by these two angels and their families.  They kept me laughing during all those times I wanted to just cry and give up.  All the beautiful flower arrangements Odette put together from our trip to Wholesale Flowers in Linda Vista kept my flower budgets down to only a little over $100.  And Laurie gave her beautiful gift of song during the sugaring portion of our Persian wedding ceremony.  I can't even reminisce about these two without getting teary eyed.  I hope I can have the chance to be such a good friend to them too!

My highschool besties!  We might have met up separately over the years, but this was the first time since highschool since the 5 of us were all together.

My cousin Marlena, my maid of honor, best friend, and sister.  My very first friend in life, there have been times where we've fought like cats (claws and all!) and fallen out of touch, but when it comes down to it, we're close as always. I'm so lucky to have her back in San Diego, back in my life and by my side.

Besides Marlena, my bridesmaids are all amazing women.
Roxy - I may not have known her as long as the other girls, but she has been a dear friend of Stephen's for a long time and I already love her like a younger sister.  When I was sick she stepped up and put in a lot of work on crafts for my decor, and she & her boyfriend Kigh (groomsman) both stayed late after the wedding helping us clean up and gather up all our stuff.
Mija - Stephen and I wouldn't have met if it weren't for her encouraging me to try online dating again!  Mija's boyfriend Alexander did the majority of our wedding photos, along with our engagement shoot in Balboa Park.  We've both been through ups & downs in our relationships over the years and I am so lucky to have had her by my side at my wedding.  I hope I will be celebrating with her someday!
Marlena - see above :)
Junko - is she really younger than me?  This girl is wise beyond her years and someone I look up to.  Throughout my relationship and engagement she was always a great sounding board and offered her blunt and honest opinion when I needed it the most.  She always helped me to see things in a different perspective.  She's a kickass career woman, mom and wife - a role model for what I wish I could be.



Our groomsmen - minus the best man!  These fine gentlemen have all been wonderful friends to Stephen for many years, and now to me too.
Paul, Eli, & Kigh - we are so lucky to have you in our lives. They all helped out so much too - music, video, setup & tear down.

With my grandpa and his wife Lee

Stephen's parents <3  Thanks for the man I love.

My mommy - he aloha pau ole, ku'u makua

My mom and Step-dad Patrick flew down from Washington the Tuesday before our wedding, and worked non-stop to help with all the last minute prep.  Stephen and I were both coughing our heads off, so my parents stepped in and did final arrangements with the lodge, all the preparations for my rehearsal dinner & post-wedding lunch, shopping, and just generally took care of our sick, pathetic, asses. They both work so hard, I wish I could've given them a vacation, but my wedding was just more work for them!  I don't see them nearly enough and miss them dearly.

These girls would have been in my bridal party if they were local!
My dear friends - Gina from Malaysia and Atsuko from Japan

Emi, Atsuko & Hide (also from Japan!)

Throughout the night, Stephen got to perform with the various bands he's involved with.  His reunion with the band SoulRaye had his adrenaline soaring all night and Krissy's singing gave me goose bumps!  I was lucky I had at least one dance with him, though :)

Our toast

My beautiful friend Jeni made a beautiful toast to us.  She's been like a sister to me since high school, and my grandma always referred to her as her "Chinese granddaughter."  I hope to celebrate many more things with you, my sister.

Our Best Man Jerry was our MC for the night, and even provided his original song and music for our first dance!

CAKE!!!  Look at those details - can you see our initial blocks done in sheet music?  My dear friend Mayra really captured our theme and personalities in the cake table she put together for us.  Not only that, but her cakes are amazing!  Stephen normally HATES cake, but these were so moist and not overly sweet, he kept going back for more!  Mayra kicks ass at her office job AND still rocks it on with her baking on the side - how does she do it?

Mayra, baker extraordinaire, and Krista

Thoroughly exhausted and ready to enjoy the king-sized bed for the night!

Of course when we got home we had help opening all the presents!

Well I guess that's it for now. If I loaded all the pictures and videos from this wedding this blog would probably crash, but the majority of them are already on my Facebook album.  Now I really need to focus on getting my Thank You cards out, I'm lagging big time!  More to come soon on our mini-Honeymoon in Palm Springs and other recent developments :)