LEGOs + Crafts = Wedding

While most people just have to worry about flowers from a florist for their decorations, we had a bit more to think of.

Everything about our wedding, other than the linens was created and/or purchased by us. It all started right after we got engaged. I decided I want something that lights up for our centerpieces, so we found cool fiber optic centerpieces online. We ordered thousands of LEGOs to put around the centerpieces along with who knows how much candy from Costco. Centerpieces were done, simple yet completely fun.

The centerpieces (this table had a lot more LEGOs) but you get the idea..

In addition to the centerpieces on the tables, there were the favors, which were nothing more than cute little frosted chinese take-out boxes with a note in them. Sounds lame, but I figured it simplified the process by just allowing people to take what they wanted as a favor. We didn't have to pre-pack candy or legos in boxes, it became each persons own choice.

You are probably thinking the decorations were all as easy as what I've written about above....wrong. Those were the simple things and there were some simple signs just printed with a red border, but everything else was outrageously work involved starting with our invitations, through the table names and usher cards.

All of the usher cards with a LEGO figure for each person :-)

I'm not sure when the idea arose or how I even thought of it, but some time about 2 years ago after buying the red and black paper I was thinking through design options and came up with this great idea to rivet everything together. I will admit that everything that was riveted together looked cool, but Kevin will tell you how much of a hassle it was to make all of them (and I don't disagree). For everything we had to punch each layer of paper separately while keeping them so they would all line up and they we had to align everything and rivet. Sounds simple, until you have to this well over 10,000 times. You heard me right, between the invitations, response cards, table name signs, usher cards, and thank you cards (don't forget the mess-ups too) it was tens of thousands of hole punches that had to be made. Kevin was a trooper and we somehow got it all done. Everyone was amazed with the design and wanted to know how we did it. I am glad all of that torture and work paid off and made everything awesome.

Table Name Sign on our table.....more rivets

The last big crafty project we had was the chuppah, or should I say "wedding house." We had agreed early on to have one, but didn't want to have a quilt for the top. So I decided to sew all of the fabric ourselves. I must have thought I was some sort of Martha Stewart sewing wonder, because this process turned out to be a nightmare. Originally it was going to be red on the inside and black on the outside, but I quickly gave up dealing with two layers of fabric and we settled on solid black. After hours of ironing on stitch-witchery (so I wouldn't have to sew) we finally had some semblance of a chuppah. In the end, it didn't line up perfectly, but it was good enough for the purpose we intended. In the end I am glad that I made the fabric structure, but I don't plan on doing it again.

Our Chuppah - simple and not perfect, but it worked :-)

Needless to say, it was a long process of arts and crafts that took months and months to complete, but in the end it all looked AWESOME. It was so wonderful to see people notice all the small details and tell us how cool everything was. We couldn't ask for more.

We can only hope that arts and crafts from here on out will not involve repeating each step 10,000 times, or any riveted. I think we have fulfilled our rivet quota for life. :-)

Run Forrest Run

After an exciting yet super busy two days, we weren't done yet. The entire bridal party headed out on the walk to Bubba Gump's for our rehearsal dinner, or should I say "night before the wedding dinner" since we did not have a rehearsal.

I had originally been quite scared of the walk after driving to the hotel, there was a gigantic hill and everything seemed further apart than I had imagined. Nevertheless, I decided that I would at least try walking to dinner and maybe find a ride home afterwards. We set out at about 5:40 on the walk that was less than a mile.

The bridesmaids on the walk to Bubba Gump.

It was an easy walk in the end and we made it to the restaurant with no problems. There was already a group of people waiting for us. We let the host know we were there and they proceeded to get everything all set up. We were led in to our dinner. There were a number of round tables and a couple of booths set up for us. It was just the casual atmosphere I had hoped for.

I convinced Kevin to wear the "groom to be" pin.....and also forced him to take a picture wearing it :-)

Everyone wandered around trying to figure out how we would seat ourselves, since I hadn't made a seating plan. In the end it all seemed to work out. We met our waiters and began eating our salads. Once we ordered the entree we wanted, the fun really began. They began the Forrest Gump trivia questions. It was such fun to see what people knew about the movie. I probably should have known all of the answers since I had just watched the movie 6 days earlier, but it was fun either way. There were fun prizes including bracelets, shot glasses, bbq sauce and who knows what else.

After wonderful chatting time, our meals came out. The food was quite delicious, but the garlic bread was by far the BEST thing ever. I could probably live off of that bread if I needed to.

Kevin enjoying the AWESOME garlic bread.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the table next to us were ordering alcoholic beverage, which of course I don't drink, but I found out they came in light up glasses. I decided to order water in a light up glass. It seemed like a good idea, until the cup came to the table. The flashing lights were so bright that I began to get a headache. So I had to sacrifice the awesomeness of the cup and turn the flashing lights off.

Just a few of the tables at the dinner.

During dinner, Annie and Bob made very nice speeches and Annie surprised us with "All is well in the land of Kevin and Lindsey" shirts. It was such a sweet idea and we were glad they were not some crazy shirt with our wedding date on it.

Everyone chatted and enjoyed the time together. A few of us got some fun stuff at the gift shop including myself. I got an apron, and oven mitts which I will need to use any time I cook shrimp from now on. After what could only be described as an AWESOME day and dinner we headed back to the hotel. The walk seemed easier going uphill which makes no sense, but it was a lovely walk.

All of the boys chatting it up after dinner.

Everyone in the bridal party, except Adrienne, came up to our suite and we just hung out and chatted and enjoyed the evening. It felt almost like college when you have no obligations in the world to worry about. We all caught up with each other and told super funny stories. It was such a wonderful way to end the day.

We were able to get to bed around 11 that night so we wouldn't be too tired on our wedding day.

With everything going so well, we had no worries that the wedding would run just as smoothly.

Fun Times with the Bridal Party

Friday had arrived and we had big plans. Since our bridal party is from many different placed, 4 states to be precise, we decided to have just fun time together on Friday with everyone so they could all meet and get to know each other a little bit.

Kevin and I started the day by ordering Togo's for Saturday lunch before the wedding, and then headed down to Irvine to Z Pizza. We got there early and then took over the majority of the seating for our large group of about 12 people. The staff was super nice and accommodating. We had a hard time picking the pizzas to order, since there were so many delicious combinations. Ultimately we settled on a hawaiian pizza, one that had tomato and basil and another one with artichokes and mushrooms and such.

All of our wonderful friends and family found the restaurant and we promptly devoured to pizza. It was so delicious, and it was so wonderful to have everyone together. After a lovely, casual and totally fun lunch we headed to Boomer's for mini golf fun times. We traveled there in a bunch of cars but maintained one single file line the entire way.

Once we arrived in the parking lot at Boomer's, we gathered everyone around and gave out the groomsmen and bridesmaid gifts. The girls received monogrammed bags, with chocolate and necessary things for the wedding, along with a lego heart necklace and a unique black and white bracelet. They all seemed to love them which made me so happy.

My beautiful bridesmaids with their adorable bags.

The boys gifts were wrapped in trash bags, and when they opened the bags they found two Nerf Vortex guns in them. They wasted no time opening the boxes and began shooting at each other. The little bright green disks ended up all over the parking lot. It was great fun to see them all enjoying the gifts.

The boys posing with their guns.

After tons of nerf gun fighting we cleaned up the parking lot and headed into Boomer's. Kevin paid for mini golf for everyone along with a few unlimited video game cards. We mini golfed altogether, which takes a while with more than ten people, but it was tons of fun. We free styled the majority of the way, with multiple people hitting balls at the same time, so there was the risk or two ball collided. The group had a number of hole in ones in addition to tons of fun.

Mini Golf Fun Times.

When the first round of mini golf was done, all of the girls except for me, decided to do a second round of mini golf. I headed inside with the boys to start the arcade time. After hours of fun in the arcade, we had racked up about 500 tickets. The tickets didn't get much in the end, some goo, a yo yo, and an assortment of candy.

Enjoying some fun video games.

We headed back to the hotel to prepare for dinner, except we hadn't totally planned for traffic. The drive down to Irvine was so easy and traffic free, but driving back up the 405 during rush hour was not the most practical idea. Thankfully we all made it back to the hotel in time so that people could check in. We met at our suite before beginning the walk to Bubba Gump's for dinner.

Staring the walk to dinner.

After such a fun day, we still had our rehearsal dinner to go to. We could only hope that the excessive amount of fun would continue into the evening :-)

Driving into our future

Well, nearly 3 weeks after our wedding, I have decided to finally blog about the whole experience. Maybe I should start with the 2+ years of engagement and all of the wedding planning that went along with that, but I will choose to forget that chaos. Instead, I will blog about our wedding weekend, starting with our wonderful drive down to Southern California.

After class until 9 pm Wednesday night, Kevin picked me up. Of course me being me, everything was already boxed up and organized by importance an

d how accessible it needed to be in the car. Kevin, being the wonderful person he is, let me go to sleep while he packed the car.

I woke up Thursday morning to find the living room and dining room void of boxes and our little car packed to the brim with way too many boxes. Kevin somehow fit it all in the car. We packed our final few items that morning and set off on our journey at about 8:30 am.

Driving down to So Cal.....sometimes I worry we have too much fun together :-)

The drive down to L.A. is a drive we have done many times, but this time was extra special. We got lucky with an easy drive down to SLO. Made it there in time for lunch. We had planned to eat at the Chinese Buffet where we ate on our 1 month anniversary, but I had looked it up on yelp and found out it had closed. So we reverted back to our standard procedure of Firestone. We had a lovely lunch eating delicious food, and in no time we were back on the road.

After another few hours, we made our standard bathroom stop at my parents house and then at about 4 pm we headed out again to get to the hotel. After what L.A. drivers call normal traffic, and what I call a nightmare, we finally made it to the Hilton. We had a littl

e trouble and should have followed the GPS versus the signs on the road, got a little lost, but made it there anyways.

We parked in the underground parking and checked in. We returned to the car with one of those fancy cart things and piled on our luggage and the suitcase full of candy (didn't want it to melt). After dropping off the welcome bags at check-in, we headed up to our hotel room.

The door to our suite.

Because we had a block of rooms we knew we were getting a room upgrade, but we didn't quite know what to expect. We got to the 14th floor (out of 15) and headed down the hallway. Our room was at the end of the hallway....with a name on the door. Yes, our hotel room had a name. I thought only celebrities stayed in rooms like those. The best was yet to come. We opened up the door and saw the huge room. It was a wide open suite with a lovely decor. We were quite excited and then we headed out the balcony. I had read on line that a lot of rooms have a shared balcony and so that is what I expected, or a little juliet balcony. We opened the sliding door and saw some pool lounging chairs and then turned the corner and saw a dining table for a lot of people. This whole balcony was our, and in fact, it was bigger than the hotel room itself.

Part of Our Hotel Room, can't see the dining table since that is where I am taking the photo from

Our Crazy Huge Balcony - I believe there were enough seats for 11, but space for way more

After trying to control our excitement and shock about the room, we put our luggage in the walk-in closet and returned the bell-boy cart thing downstairs. It was time to head out to dinner with Annie, Bob, Jan, Paul, David and Ruth. We made it to Baja Fresh just a little bit later than expected but it was still great to see everyone. Once they found out why we were there ("rehearsal dinner") they gave us free chips, it was a nice gesture.

After a lovely, casual dinner at Baja, we headed over to Baskin Robbins with Kevin's parents to pick out our wedding cake. We found two choices that had mint cake.....our choices were either scary balloons or a colorful paint swishes. We went for the not scary one. Kevin tried to be funny and say that we were last minute picking up a wedding cake, and I of course didn't get it and told the lady what was actually happening. I really didn't mean to ruin Kevin's joke. We paid for the cake and headed to the church.

Yes, this is from the wedding, but you can see our awesome ice cream cake with the painty swipes on it.

That night we were taking down the choir risers. There were bunches of people there, so I ended up sitting and talking with Ruth while everyone else did all the work. It was a good deal if I do say so myself.

So now, after a crazy busy day, we headed back to our amazing hotel room to relax. Kevin's parents came with us to see the room and Libby met up with us as well. When we got back to the hotel we had a lovely tray from room service on the table. It was a fruit and cheese tray with crackers. We all enjoyed bits of it while we sat on the balcony taking in the view. It was a great way to start off what would surely be an exciting weekend.

Sitting on the balcony enjoying the yummy food :-)

After a crazy busy day, we could only hope that the rest of the weekend would run so smoothly.

We're Married!!!!!

This past weekend Kevin and I got married. The wedding was on our 6th anniversary and it was the most awesome day ever. It was full of fun, family and friends. In addition to that we had a great weekend with everyone as well. It will take a lot of posts to show all of the cool things from our special weekend, so watch for those.

Here's to hoping the awesome fun times of our wedding carry over into our everyday lives. :-)

I'm a Slacker

So, I have come to the conclusion that I am a blogging slacker. It's not that I live a boring life....well maybe it is. I do thrive on the routine of my life.

Let's think of why I haven't had time to blog....oh yeah, our wedding is in 3 weeks and essential the week before and after that time I am taking the national court reporting test.

Just wait until 6 weeks from now when I am free from all of this work I have given myself. Watch out, there may just be a blogging explosion.

Here's to hoping that after the wedding and RPR test I go from a blogging slacker to being a blogging overachiever :-)

9-11-01, 10 years later.

I'm not the type of person to write about current events or politics, but this day has a level of significance that cannot be avoided. September 11th is that moment for our generation.

Throughout school they would always teach us about these moments that change history, such as JFK's assassination, but I never assumed there would be a moment like that for my generation.

I distinctly remember September 11, 2001. My dad woke me up before he left for work and, in my hazy half-awakeness, he told me that a plane crashed into one of the Twin Towers. In reality, I had no idea what the Twin Towers were, but I went in the family room and turned on the news. I was confused as to what was happening. Was this some sort of pilot error?

I sat watching the morning news, and then turned away for some reason, and turned back on the screen and a second plane had hit the other tower. Part of me is upset that I was not watching the news and seeing the second plane, but another part of me is thankful I don't live with that memory. I know they replayed the crashes on the news, but I don't think I ever watch the actual impact, so thankfully that image is not in my mind.

Despite the chaos of that morning, I proceeded to get ready for school. I sat back down to watch the news, and the first tower began to collapse. I, along with the rest of the nation, knew at that moment that this was a significant event.

My mom dropped me off at school and, of course, the conversations at school that day focused on only one thing. There were announcements over the loudspeakers to not turn on the T.V.'s in the classrooms, but that didn't stop anyone. We spent that day watching the news reports of what had taken place that morning. Instead of studying history in class, we were watching history be created.

I have spent the last 10 years coming to understand how significant one moment can be in history, and how that one moment can define a generation. September 11th was the biggest terrorist attack on the U.S., killed thousands, and sent our country into war. Not only did I watch a defining moment in history, I saw a war begin, I have watches news reports of the deaths of soldiers.

I woke up that morning, ten years ago, worried about Spanish class and getting homework done, I had no idea that it would be a day so significant in history.

While I am thankful that no one I knew was hurt or killed on that day, I know thousands of other families suffered severely. It is a day that will live in history, but a part of me wishes it is a day that we never had to deal with.

Here's to hoping that September 11th, 2011, 10 years after such a tragic day, can be a reminder to our country to unite and have pride in what we can achieve and how well we can work together. :-)