Geraldine & Michael's Wedding 11/19/11 Vegas

This past year I had the honor of being a bridesmaid to one of my dearest friend Geraldine! I was elated for Gee and Mike when I heard that they were engaged and then when she asked me to be a part of her wedding...all I could think about is how can I help her plan the ultimate wedding??? I know the stress that comes with planning and anything I could provide, suggest and assist; I did! Obviously, I cannot take all the credit with the ideas but I help guide her maid of honor, Sharon in the right direction. We were savvy shoppers and I was all about making sure she got the best for the lowest price possible! That meant taking several trips to downtown LA to find the perfect bridesmaid dress for a reasonable price, a lovely veil and hair piece for close to nothing (in the wedding world) and any specialty item I could find for wholesale price!

Although I was not a coordinator in this event, I offered to help her with the program pages, guest seating display and place cards/party favors. It definitely took over 2 weeks worth of man hour to put this all together but it turned out fantastic! I even personalized her garter with her wedding colors and something blue:) I also helped with hair and make up on the wedding day! 8 girls= waking up at 7am! And lucky for Gee, I did it for free:)

After rehearsal, we ran to several last minute issues but I helped Gee calm her nerves and took some of her stress away. After all, the bride to be needs her beauty rest and relaxation time the night before the wedding! On the day of the wedding, like any other wedding---it is a tad stressful! One thing I learned from previous weddings was to never let the bride know when something goes wrong. If you have to lie to her and tell her everything will be fine and not to worry about the details on the day of her wedding, then that's what you just have to do! For example, when we got to the church, the florist ran late and our bouquets and the flower girls' pompoms were no where in sight. The bride was a little upset but I spoke to the florist and she reassured me that it will come right on time. Of course, the bridesmaid and brides bouquet made it JUST in time but the florist forgot the flower girls' pompoms. As any wedding coordinator would do, you tell the bride not to worry and that it will come whether or not it does. The wedding ceremony goes on regardless of who and what is not there. :)

Even when everything is planned to a teeeeee, not every detail will play out as you would like. BUT the important thing is that as a bride & groom, you enjoy it stress-free! That's why its so important to have someone assist you through the last month and day of the wedding!

Place cards, wedding favors, program pages and the garter!

Killing 2 birds with 1 stone by making a place card/party favor  & thank you:)

The MOH: Hair & Make up by Thu :)

Psister:)

Just like formals! 

The church setting was just amazing.

Finally walking down the isle as man & woman:)

Your first dance your dad should be like this! Love this!

If you're the bride, you should always have a picture with you holding your bouquet. 

The happy bride and groom after their money dance!

Congrats to my dearest friends Gee & Mike!

New Blog Name inspired by my Love Gets Sweeter dessert table!

I decided to change my blog to "Love Gets Sweeter" after creating a dessert table for one of my dearest friends Geraldine who's wedding is in November 2011! Love does get sweeter every time! 


Especially with a dessert table filled with brownies with walnuts/powder sugar, chocolate chip cookies, white chocolate chips w/ macadamia nut cookies, peanut butter and vanilla candy dipped pretzels, spice, chocolate and red velvet cakepops, chocolate macarons with dark chocolate ganache, pumpkin macarons with pumpkin buttercream and almond macarons with swiss meringue vanilla buttercream filling, and 2 speciality Filipino desserts; which were banana pineapple pancakes and banana lumpias!

This past weekend, my friend Jen (from Make It Pop<www.makeitpopsweets.blogspot.com>) and I packed our goods and had a mini road trip to Las Vegas for Geraldine & Michael's Wedding Shower. 


To create a simple backdrop, we made pompoms using tulle in white and coral! Those turned out great! We set out white table cloths for the tables and arrange coral and ivory daisies. I bought glass vases from the Dollar Tree and I found these awesome 3x5 brown and gold picture frames and printed pictures from their engagement session with Moxie Photography and places those beside the floral arrangement. I asked my sister to make the cakepop stand which turned out perfect! And definitely by shopping around for the flowers in DT LA and buying the vases from the Dollar Tree, I was able to save a lot of money for her sister!


Being a part of the wedding party does have its benefits! I get the opportunity to be creative and let my creativity and party planning dreams flow out like a stream! But the most rewarding part is seeing my friends and their family enjoying every bit of it!


Here are a few pictures from this past weekend:)

Love Gets Sweeter Dessert Table

Cookies, Brownies and Pretzels

Macarons, banana lumpia and banana & pineapple pankcakes

Cakepop stand made by Thy

Our little set up

Cute frames and simple floral arrangement! 

The Bride & Groom

The Hostess & Bride

Bridesmaids, Maid of Honors & the Bride

College Friends :)

The Bride to Be-Geraldine:)

One Stop Shop Event-Co Hosting Gig:)

A Dirty Thirty Birthday Celebration in San Diego

Planning a 30th birthday party for my aunt was just the beginning of my journey!

My aunt loves pink and naturally, we went with a pink and purple theme for the girly girl that she is! We had a $250 budget for cake, decor and snacks to keep it simple since the suite at the Hilton Hotel in SD wasn't that big.

Here are few pictures from her birthday! I know you'll love the cake we designed!

Happy 30th Birthday Stephanie!

Cindy & Jeffrey Chen: My First Wedding!

Cindy & Jeffrey has been together for over 15 years and they finally tied the knot on August 20, 2011 at Kenyon Estate, Vallejo Ca. It was an Asian Contemporary inspired theme with orange and grey colors.

This was my first wedding and first big test! I was nervous but definitely more excited to help my cousins make their dream wedding come to life!

Not only was I asked to be Cindy's maid of honor, I became her wedding planner! For this wedding, I really listened to the bride and groom for ideas. For the couple who didn't have much time to plan for a wedding because of their work schedules, I put a powerpoint of ideas together for them and they loved it and said "Can I purchase that plan???"! I called it my "Asian Contemporary".

For the "do it yourself" bride and groom, they did not have the diy skills! I offered to design and set up their dessert bar which required me to take several trips to LA to get wholesale candies and several trips to Ross and TJMax to find the perfect sets of plates and jars for the display. While the trips were tedious, I was able to do their dessert bar for about $300! That's a steal! The dessert bar included various orange/peach candies, minimal silver/grey because they were hard to find-surprisingly. Her sister made mini cookies and I enlisted the help of my friend Jen from Make It Pop Sweets http://makeitpopsweets.blogspot.com/ to help me with the cakepops! A great and easy way for me to display the cakepops was to cut the styrofoam to fit into a square bowl and then fill the top with crystals! It looked great!

Additionally, I enlisted the help of my sister and cousin to make the fan program pages. Those were a pain and I will probably never do it again. However, the end result was perfect for their outdoor summer ceremony to help the guests stay cool while they took shade under orange parasol umbrellas; which we placed randomly on each row. The orange parasol umbrellas was a simple yet clever piece to have. It really brought the ceremony to life!

We also ordered 8 inch lanterns to hang at the end of each chair during the ceremony and the one idea that I absolutely love that came to life were the 3 inch lantern placecards! Those were unique and definitely tied the Asian Contemporary theme together at the reception tables.

On the day of the wedding, it was hectic because the vendors were late. I was actually the official-unofficial wedding planner because they had hired the day coordinator when they booked the estate. To say the least, I don't think they did a great job because I was running the show for them! But all in all, without everyone's help, the wedding wouldn't have looked as fantastic as it did.

Here are a few pictures from the wedding!