Well, the elements were stacking up against me BIG TIME for Karla’s wedding! From a few hours after her rehearsal Thursday night, I had caught the stomach flu. Friday was terrible, I kept anxiously obsessing over how much I needed it to be a 24-hour bug that it was more torture than any other sickness! So, for Saturday I called in the troops and had my husband, my assistant, and my mom come down to help set up the reception in anticipation that I wouldn’t want to move very much at all that day. I can’t tell if I felt better or if I was just BUSY enough to not think about it, but we made it threw and I think hardly anyone even found out about me being sick [besides the people watching me pop pepto bismol and chase it with 7-Up all evening! Haha!]. And, on TOP of that, I lost my camera charger- so no digital camera. You’ll notice that the quality of these pictures seem… well, disposable! And you’re right. But, 4 cameras later, I have something to blog about. The real story of my blog is this: Karla was SUCH a radiant and amazingly fun bride. She is the epitomy of being able to catch the pitfalls of the day with grace, and she was determined to enjoy her day and relax. She looked gorgeous doing it, too!
Let’s start out at the church! Here’s what the church looked like [unplanned event #1- the girls made pomanders for the pews but decided they didn't look right in there, so they scrapped the idea and the church went without decoration. Did the guests know? Never! It was a gorgeous church built in the 1800's and was perfect for Karla and Luis's traditional mexican mass- bilingual only because the priest didn't speak spanish very well!]:
And here’s my beautiful bride waiting for her walk down the aisle:
She had this beautiful basket of programs at the ceremony! Her colors were “fall colors” which were these gorgeous dark hues of burgundy and chocolate and then a pop of coral that she added in with the flowers and flower girls!
Here’s a few more of the ceremony and Karla. I tried my best to get a few of the Mariachi band that played the ceremony- who were AMAZING- but they didn’t allow flash in the church and you could tell my little Kodak wasn’t cutting it!
I didn’t get to stay the whole length of the ceremony, because I was headed over to the reception site [Villa Del Sol, in downtown Fullerton] but the Mariachi stayed and played 2 songs afterwards for the guests outside the church! Another ceremony hiccup the guests were never the wiser to? Karla had forgotten the lasso that was to be tied around her and Luis during the ceremony- what they did was clasp together all of the bridesmaid’s necklaces and voila! Impromptu lasso, nobody knew, and it worked out perfectly! But, as I said before… onto the reception I went!
Details, details, details! Karla had some of my FAVORITES worked into her big day! I didn’t get pictures of all of them, so the ones I didn’t get, I’ll just have to mention. Hopefully her photographers faired better than I did- I know they did, I saw them snapping away all night and I was so envious…
These strung lights were a MUST HAVE for Karla. We both fell in love with some pictures we saw from another couple who tied the knot at Villa Del Sol, and because of that Luis and some friends came over earlier in the day and strung them across! What a great sport he was. I have no idea how he did it, but the site just kept getting more beautiful the later it got, and the lights made such a huge difference!
The best part about this site is that it’s a 2-story open courtyard, so the 2nd story was a huge terrace area overlooking the reception below. Karla put a great lounge area up there, the caterers provided a few tables and chairs, and we put Karla’s “Sweet Shoppe” up there as well! Speaking of…..
Even with SO much candy, the guests loved this table up quickly! It was such a hit! Karla’s takeout boxes with monograms were SO cute and her “love is sweet” framed poem complimented everything perfectly! Now, let’s head back downstairs.
This is the gorgeous table set up. Karla actually BOUGHT chair sashes from LA and used them as runners. They were perfect! And they really brought a great splash of color. But, another snag in the night’s events was the wind! We broke 3 centerpieces while placing them out because the wind would knock them off the tables! We left the few we could and quickly improvised to change the centerpices to more candles and less shattering glassware… Karla took it like a champ, with a shrug and said “Oh wel! There’s nothing we can do, you know?”. It still looked gorgeous and had the same dramatic effect. In fact, one of the caterers said it was the most beautiful this courtyard had ever looked!
Karla provided dancing shoes for tired feet:
They had one of their GORGEOUS engagement pictures framed to sign:
Their gorgeous albums for their polaroid photo-guestbook [and, um, half of my husband's finger!]. Oh, and those little “leaves” are actually sticky on the back and made for scrapbooking, so the guests could use them to attach their photos!
Their escort cards were individual wine bottles and they were AMAZING. Of course, this is the best shot of them that I got. Bummer! But, you can imagine!
Here’s a terrible shot of her gorgeous little cocktail menus [which even had some helpful info on it, and invited the guests to stay until 12am and celebrate Mexican independance day with them!]
Her cake… I loved. It was an interesting shape, it was elegant, it was simple! Everything I love in a cake, and of course, it had a monogram!
Here’s a picture of the head table for you. Since Karla didn’t have a centerpiece planned but had bought a ton of stuff for me to use “at my discretion”- my favorite!- I came up with this:
I think the one GREAT thing that you didn’t get to see was Karla’s “while you’re here” cards, which detailed all of the things she wanted her guests to do [take a polaroid of themselves, lounge in the lounge area, get their sweet on, sign their photo frame, and of course shake their booties!!!]. I actually had one of these at my own wedding, and for Karla it worked perfectly because she really had a site with a great layout and it ensured that everyone knew how to utilize it!
Now, onto the night’s events. First thing’s first, the grand entrance:
And into their first dance…
Somewhere in the midst they fit in some food, but were quickly off to do some table visits…
Take note of that bouquet in Karla’s hand. Not HER bouquet, the other one. Karla and Luis are going to Europe for their honeymoon [Spain and Italy, specifically] and her co-workers made her a gorgeous boquet of Euros for them to take with them! I loved it!!
Time for toasts!
Following that, Luis made a touching toast to his bride, detailing how he knew he wanted to marry a girl like her and when he found her she blew everything out of the water! She really is everything Luis says she is, and more! They make such a lovely couple and Jordan, their son, already proves that they make cute kids together!!
Here’s a few shots of the father/daughter and mother/son dances:
And they followed those with a very special SURPRISE and choreographed SALSA dance! Let me tell you, Karla and Luis can work it- and they DID!
There were SO many little things in the evening that I missed! From the mini veils that Karla’s mom bought for the single ladies to wear during the bouquet toss [and they LOVED], to the traditional mexican elements like dressing up the groom as a housewife during one song… All in all [and between the LIVE salsa band and the DJ] the crowd danced their booties off and had a GREAT time doing it. The dance floor was PACKED and the caterers and I were moving tables out of the way left and right to make it bigger. Nothing says people are having fun more than that! All in all, and most importantly, you could see in their faces that Karla and Luis were having a great time! My very last picture is of them cutting their cake. And I must admit, I’ve never seen a more perfect slice of cake cut at a wedding, ever! Maybe the shape of the cake was to their advantage? It’s hard to say, but either way, that was one beautiful slice… before it ended up all over their faces, you know. :)
To Karla and Luis, you two get some REST and RELAXATION before you come home to Jordan! And I want to see some real pictures!
