Let me tell you a little bit about my wedding...

We had about 140 people, 4 bridesmaids and 4 groomsmen, 2 flower girls and 1 ring boy.

Our ceremony was at a church (Grace presbyterian church) at 3 pm in the afternoon on 5/27. Our officiator was a family friend and the wedding coordinator was the pastor's wife.

I had my cousin play a violin piece and a friend sing a song, and had a brother read a scripture passage. (These are good personal touches)

We had a unity candle lighting, which consists of two candles lit by our two moms, then we used those two candles to light one middle candle, representing our union of two families and souls.

 

We had a friend sing a song called “one hand, one heart” during the unity candle lighting, which was appropriate. We had an organist playing all the songs during our ceremony. Our ceremony lasted about 45 minutes. We had bubbles at the end of the ceremony instead of throwing rice because it was prohibited at the church (most churches nowadays prohibit throwing rice because of birds).

We rode in a SVU limousine which could fit around 16 people.

Our wedding reception was at a private mansion. Cocktails started at 6 pm and went through 7 pm .

During the cocktail hour, we served hors d'oeuvres and cocktails, and lemonade for people who don't drink alcohol.

At 7 we had announcements and first dance. Our first dance song was “Fly me to the moon” by Frank Sinatra. We had a 8-member band playing music. Then we had Father and daughter dance, which was “The way you look tonight” by Frank Sinatra and the mother-son dance, which was “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong.

After the dances, we had our speeches by the best man (marc's brother) and matron of honor (my sister-in-law) Then we had champagne toasting.

Then we had our dinner. Our entrée choices were Filet Mignon and Chicken stuffed with proscuitto and a vegetarian dish which was vegetarian risotto. For dessert, we had a mini-pastry station and a chocolate fountain with 6 different dipping items, which was a big hit. Then the cake itself, which was raspberry marble cake with white chocolate frosting. The cake cutting was at 9 pm .

Around 9:45 we had bouquet toss. I had a throw-away bouquet that we ordered, which was different from my bridal bouquet. Then we had garter toss. Marc took the garter out from my leg, and threw it. Then the guy who caught the garter put it on the girl who caught the bouquet, which is the tradition.

The music played until around 11 pm when the reception ended.

Our wedding color was red, which was the main color, then there was gold and ivory, which were the secondary colors. These were how our wedding colors were used:

  1. I wore an ivory dress, with hints of gold. My earrings were gold and ivory, and my bouquet was mainly ivory with some other pastel colors, while Marc wore an ivory shirt with black tuxedo, and had an ivory rose boutinnere.
  2. Bridesmaids wore red strapless dresses with bouquets of red and ivory roses. The flower girls wore ivory dresses with red sashes at the waist. They also wore flower crown consisted of red and ivory roses.
  3. We had a signature drink during cocktail hour called “rum runner” (we chose that cocktail because rum is type of alcohol from Caribbean and we are going to Caribbean for our honeymoon) The drink was red in color. We also had lemonade for our non-alcohol drinkers, which was kind of gold in color.
  4. Our cake was a 4 tiered fondant cake. It was ivory in color, and we had gold trimming around each tier, it was raspberry marble (red and ivory), and also had a gold cake topper, with our initials on it.
  5. We had a professional lighting company come in to do our lighting at the reception. The lighting was, of course, red and gold hues. We had a pinspot lighting on each of our centerpiece candles and on the cake.
  6. We had our names and date of the wedding engraved on our personal cake cutting knife and server.
  7. Instead of just signing a guest book, we had each guests fill out a piece of papers to answer questions like “where did you travel from?” and “how do you know the bride and groom” and “what is your favorite bride/groom memory?” and “what is your advice to the newlyweds?” I think it's better than just signing your name. It also gives the guests something to do during cocktail hour.
  8. We had some of our childhood pictures and family pictures scattered around the mansion, so that the guests could enjoy them. We had a big picture of us at the entrance of the mansion.
  9. We had these baskets in the bathroom that contained “emergency items” such as Tylenol, advil, stain remover, bandaids, deodorants, so that the guests can use them if they need to.
  10. Our favors represented our background. We had pralines from New Orleans , in pouches that we got from Korea .

And well, that's pretty much my "summarized story" of my wedding day ;-)

Now, you may be thinking that I spent a small fortune to have this kind of wedding...

Well, let me tell you that although I indeed spent a "reasonable" amount of money, I was able to spend far less (and got even more for my money) than what I'd have had to paid if I didn't know everything I've learned by research and experience.

Not to mention that I was able to succesfully plan my wedding with my lovely husband Marc without the struggles, overspending, and stress that a normal bride would have had to go through.

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