Who Doesn't Love Chocolate?

A while back, I posted about our wedding favors and asked for suggestions on what to fill the containers that we had purchased ahead of time. We got so many suggestions and found a great solution to our problem. During the holidays, Costco has tons of chocolates/candies that are only available during the holiday. We decided to use he truffles from Around the World that they sell as our wedding favor since the favors needed t be pre-packed weeks before our wedding day. I didn’t want to be stressing and losing sleep over these favors days before the wedding so we needed something that was pre-packaged and will stay well inside our containers without the need for refrigeration.

The truffles were individually wrapped and came in 6 assorted flavors. We filled each container with 6-7 truffles each and used a sage green satin ribbon that I purchased in downtown L.A. a while back during one of my wedding shopping sprees. We then bought artificial white flowers to put in each favor as an accent along with our tag. We used the same monogram that one of our groomsmen designed for us (same one that’s on our cake) on our tags.

We recruited my cousins and my MOH’s bf to help in filling the favor containers while I baked some brownies as a thank you to our laborers.

The finished product.

We got so many praises over these truffles that they became an instant hit at our wedding!!!

Gifts for my Girls

I wish I would’ve gotten a better picture of my bridesmaids’ gifts but as it got closer to our wedding, the busier and crazier it got so I never got a chance to take a picture of all of the bridal party’s gifts. Here’s what I did come up with:

1 large tote to hold of all the gifts (a friend of mine bought the totes while she was in Hawaii just recently)
1 black wristlet from New York & Company
1 pack of Target note cards with their respective initials
1 gift card (either a Visa gift card that they can use anywhere Visa is accepted or a gift card to Melting Pot for a night of fondue. I gave 2 of my bridesmaids that were married the Melting Pot gift card for them to enjoy with their hubby and have a date night on us while the non-married bridemaids got the Visa gift card.)
1 pair of pearl earrings (to wear on the wedding day)
1 pashmina shawl (to use on the wedding day)
1 bottle of our favorite wine from San Antonio Winery in Ontario , Ca. Our bridal party received a bottle of Stella Rose (red wine) or a bottle of Moscato Asti (white wine). We just discovered this wine late last year from a gathering we attended and just loved it.

Along with everything that was listed above, we also bought the shoes for our bridesmaids as a thank you gift to them.

All of our bridesmaids loved their gifts and the presentation too. Most of them didn’t expect those gifts during our rehearsal dinner so it got them really excited to use the stuff for the wedding. I ordered some personalized satin ribbon and used that to tie all of the gifts together. Here are 2 of my bridesmaids anxiously opening (& reading) their gifts.


Personalizing each gift to cater each bridesmaid was really hard for me since they were all so different (yet alike) from one another. My lesson learned putting together the gifts: really consider who you’re giving the gifts for. I found that getting something that I know everyone will enjoy was the key component for me while shopping for these things. I didn’t want to give them something just for the sake of getting them something.

The Garter Incident

Recently, I blogged about the plot that our groomsmen had planned for Mr. Gardenia for his garter toss. Definitely a memorable moment for all since it had everyone up their seats and just watching for that initial shocked look in Mr. Gardenia’s eyes. It’d be safe to say that Mr. Gardenia is the shy one – the introvert in our relationship which is why he did not look forward to being the newlyweds because it meant the center of attention. He’d rather blend with everyone else though it was difficult to complete that task with my big wedding gown. With that said, his groomsmens knew that they had to do something hilarious just to get him comfortable during the garter toss.

Here’s the setup. I sat down after my bouquet toss and Mr. Gardenia got ready to search for the garter. Little does he know that one of our groomsmen came with one of the bridesmaid’s pashmina to use as a blind fold. Once Mr. Gardenia was blind folded, I switched seats with one of our other groomsmen (who apparently has smooth legs, maybe smoother than mine) and moved my gown closer to GM so that Mr. Gardenia wouldn’t get suspicious. I think Mr. Gardenia got up to mid-thigh when they finally told him to take off his blind fold and as you can see from his reaction – it’s PRICELESS.







By the way, our groomsmen that played bride for the garter toss also caught the garter when Mr. Gardenia finally got it from me. Are you doing something unexpected like this for your wedding?

PhotoBooks: A Nice Gift

My MOH recently gifted me a blurb book showcasing all of the pre-wedding events that we had from our getting to know the wedding party barbecue, my bachelorette/girlie gathering day, my work happy hour/bridal shower and the bridal shower.

I just love my blurb book and it makes for a great coffee table book to look at and remember how much we’ve had. It's a standard hardcover book with a landscape layout. It looks like they have tons of templates to choose from so it makes it a lot easier for users to complete their books. Shipping took about a week which wasn't bad i you're not in a hurry. The cost is about the same as Shutterfly, maybe give or take a few dollars. Here are some pictures of my blurb book...

We also did a photo book guestbook for our wedding and used Shutterfly. I had a great experience creating our photo book since I found it very user friendly. I’ve been comparing different services to find out which to use for our wedding and honeymoon photos like Shutterfly, Blurb, Kodak Gallery and others. I think we'll be making at least 6-8 photo books since we'll be sending a book to our relatives that are out of the country and couldn't make it to the wedding plus a book for our hm pictures also. Do you have any recommendations to make the decision making easier?

Mrs. Gardenia's Top 10 Wedding Moments

10. Waking up to “Going to the Chapel” playing in the background.

9. Having all my bridesmaids and family around me before going to our ceremony just comforted me knowing that everyone is behind us during this union.

8. Seeing my dad in his tuxedo. This is the first for my dad with his tux so I felt so overwhelmed seeing him all spiffed up.

7. No Rain – It was forecasted to be raining all weekend during our wedding and the rain had started early in the morning and stopped just in time for our ceremony and reception.

6. Walking down the aisle. Though we had close to 200 guests watching us, all I could see was Mr. Gardenia waiting for me at the end of the aisle. He’s like that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. J

5. Father-Daughter Dance. As we danced, my dad asked me if I was happy and I said “Yes” and thanked him and my mom for everything that they have done for me and for our wedding. He says he’ll do anything for me so he’s glad that I was happy.

4. MOH Toast – she was really nervous since she’s not one for public speaking but did it so eloquently. She just talked about our unbreakable sisterhood and the friendship that we have between us.

3. Seeing the reception ballroom for the first time. It was when we realized that our entire vision of our wedding day has just been executed so beautifully.

2. Garter Toss – our groomsmen concocted of a plan to give Mr. Gardenia just what he deserves. One of our groomsmen filled me in on the plan prior to the garter toss. While I was sitting down for the garter toss, Mr. Gardenia was blindfolded by one of the guys. I switched with one of the groomsmen (I guess he was the chosen one since he had the less hair in his legs and would be more convincing.) and had Mr. Gardenia starting to feel him out for the garter. They really played it so nicely since my gown was over the groomsmen’s leg so it seems as if I was still sitting in the chair. Garter: $10 dollars. Mr. Gardenia’s reaction: PRICELESS

1. First Dance - During our first dance was when it all sank in that we’re married – and I am now a Mrs.

Have Some Cake

Since my long hiatus away, I was doing some reading and catching up and was excited about Miss Donut's blog about her Martha Stewart inspired wedding cake.

I immediately loved that cake and remembered tearing off that page in the Martha Stewart magazine when it first came out. I knew that it was something that was gonna work for us since our main color was sage green. During our cake tasting, I took the picture along with the monogram that one of our groomsmen designed for us to our baker, Rockwell’s Bakery in Orange . We were so excited to see the end result so as soon as we walked in to our ballroom, our eyes took us to the cake.

The cake was a 4-tier masterpiece with different flavors for the first 3 tiers. We had white cake with a strawberry mousse, marble cake with chocolate ganache and a red velvet cake with a cream cheese frosting. We were lucky enough to try all 3 flavors and loved every bite. The hydrangeas that filled each tier were provided by our florist. The best part of our cake is that we get a free cake on our 1 year anniversary from our baker as a thank you. No need for frozen wedding cake in 2009.

I'm back!!!

I am back, after such a long and very much needed break from it all (Christmas holidays, wedding preparations, rehearsals, wedding, honeymoon, birthday and being sick and injured) - I am back and now a MRS!!! Our wedding was the first weekend of 2008 and though it was a rainy Southern California Saturday, everything turned out so well. It’s definitely been such a surreal feeling calling Mr. Gardenia my husband but what an exciting and wonderful feeling.

We left for Maui a week after our wedding giving us an opportunity to spend some time with our OOT guests and get settled in our new home. Our honeymoon accommodations were a gift from a family friend of ours so we were able to stay at the Kaanapali Beach Club (formerly Embassy Suites) in Maui . We stayed in Maui for 7 days and enjoyed every single second of our honeymoon vacation. Mr. Gardenia and I enjoyed the sites, a wonderful luau, the Maui Ocean Center , black sand beaches, rain forests, waterfalls and even the local Maui Medical Center . Yes, the medical center.

Mr. Gardenia and I were hiking through one of the waterfalls in Hana when I slipped on one of the rocks and suffered a bad sprained ankle. We visited the Maui Medical Center and ended up leaving there with a temporary cast plus crutches. I felt really bad that incident had to happen but it truly gave us an opportunity to relax and enjoy everything at Maui . We did a lot of driving around the island that we both truly enjoyed. I celebrated my birthday (my first birthday as a Mrs.) in Maui on our last night with a delicious luau at the Hyatt Regency hotel.

There's definitely a lot of blogging that I have to catch up on with my wedding details & DIY, wedding pictures, more honeymoon pictures and my wedding lessons learned. I have missed everyone from Weddingbee and looking forward to sharing with everyone once again. Also, welcome to the new bees and I'm excited to have more bees in the family. and how exciting to hae a weddingbee shop. I can't wait to go shopping!!!!

I must apologize for the mini-break that I took from blogging but I must share that...

I am now officially MRS. GARDENIA.