Decorations for the wedding.

There were so many pins on Pinterest for my future wedding, that I had been saving for a while! So many ideas that I really didn’t know where to begin. I decided to start with the flowers because I personally think everything should match them. We looked into pricing of flowers at a local florist and the pricing was over 3K minimum for a wedding and another place was 5K and the only way it would be different is from a place in San Francisco that would choose the flowers for us. I wasn’t a huge fan of someone else choosing the colors and types of flowers. Mainly because my mom and I were allergic to different flowers and I already had my own color scheme. I knew I wanted orchids and lilies, and our colors for the wedding were Dark Blue and white and silver. One of my coworkers suggested we do fake flowers instead. I really liked that idea and ran with it! I looked all over Etsy and finally found a place who’s faux flowers looked quite real(Justanns) ☺ So we got a quote with a price under 600 dollars and ordered the flowers. We wanted the bouquets to double as the centerpieces too. Below are the pictures of the bouquets from our wedding!

Next was the tablecloths. I really wanted something that would stand out and would make a statement. After a lot of searching I found these.

CV Linens Glitz Sequins

I got vases from the save-on-crafts website and mirrors to go underneath and accent it.

save-on-crafts

We then needed table numbers which I went back to Etsy for.

MemoriesEngraving

Our place cards for the seats were shells that I had found on etsy! The color matched great and was a nice keepsake for everyone to take home.

Calligraphy on Mussel Oyster Shells

Our cake stand was definitely a nice one and we were expecting it to be metal lol so when it was delivered we were quite surprised that it was so light weight. It was a high density foam with a foil casing to look the part and withstand a heavy cake. We would have known that if we had thoroughly read the description haha.

Cake Stand Antiqued Victorian 14"

The cake topper was a custom one with an outline of a bride and groom with their dogs.  We got to pick out which ones looked most like our own! We have a whippet and a lab/shepherd mix .

Bridesmaid Gift Hanger

The cake cutting set we got from things remembered and they were gorgeous! We got them engraved as well.

thingsremembered Crystal-Leaf-Cake-Server-Set

My mom and I went to Michael’s and purchased these cute little wood love signs. Which I followed up with a coat of sparkly blue spray paint.

love wood script by artminds

I found approximately 75 battery operated candles in mercury glass votives on wedding recycle for only $50 it was so worth the money to have candles everywhere! ☺ Below are the ones we got that you can purchase from Michaels however the ones we bought on wedding recycle came with the candles as well.

Mercury Glass Votive

My mom and I started going through some of the stuff in her kitchen and we found some amazing hand painted glasses that she had bought for $5 at a garage sale years ago! They were so gorgeous and I asked her to please let me use them for the wedding as our toasting flutes! My mom not only let us use them but gave us the entire set of 6 that she had.

Unfortunately rob and I could not agree on a card box originally and it was the only argument we had through the whole process. We finally agreed that it was too trivial an aspect to argue about it and we did away with it. However we were told a couple weeks from our wedding that we were required to have a card box so I found a wire present card box at target last minute. Here's how it turned out.

For the filler decorations we decided to do a bunch of old pictures of us and our family from when we were kids. I also labeled all of them on the back to which I received a lot of compliments from our guests on. Not everyone knew each other so it was also a good ice breaker.

For the Table number directory. I got a nice frame from michaels and placed painted cardboard for a background. I spray painted the cardboard black and then strategically placed the love signs for the centerpieces on the board and spray painted it blue. It was a little hard to keep them in place while getting a good outline so if you try to do it I would suggest having someone who doesn’t mind getting paint on them to hold it down. Then I took a white chalk pen and wrote in the tables and where everyone was to sit. The stand was also from save on crafts.

We both agreed we wanted a non traditional guest book. Our friends had gotten a frame with a matte around the picture big enough to sign on and we loved the idea of being able to hang our guest book on the wall. So we went on etsy :D and found alphabetcanvas. It was easy to customize to make it exactly the way we wanted it to look.

Below was the final look! I was so happy with the way it all turned out.

Finding a Wedding Venue - Bay Area

I must say when Rob and I started planning our wedding, we did not expect that the venue would be the hardest part. We searched high and low for a venue for about a year! We couldn't find an agreeable wedding venue that we both wanted at a price we would not regret later. In fact we almost got married at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Manteca. Which would have been great except for the heat. In the middle of July all of our guests would be near a heat stroke in formal wear. We were very grateful for the offer though, we knew we would just have to change the attire. However shortly after telling my in-laws, Rob's Grand Mom sent us a nice donation in the mail for our wedding. It was a blessing but also we felt we owed it to her to find a venue and do things a little bigger. So we were on the hunt again. 

At first we had wanted a venue outdoors but we couldn't decide if we wanted it by the beach or in a forest and there were quite a lot of other possibilities. We also had to think about a location all of our family could get to and find accommodations. We had a lot of family that would be driving from Nevada and Los Angeles and Sacramento. That just wasn't okay to have our family come to our wedding and have to drive back without having anything to drink and leaving right after the ceremony. So we came to the conclusion we wanted it at a hotel and nearby our home in the bay area.  

After my web search of dead end hotels with outrageous pricing and crazy locations we came to the Sainte Claire Hotel in San Jose. I fell in love in the pictures however they do not do that hotel justice.I emailed and asked for an information packet as well as a list of available dates. Rob and I had really wanted to have our wedding on July 18th because it was our original anniversary date. Unfortunately they did not have that date available, but after discussing it we agreed we would be okay with that for the right venue. So we agreed to go look.

When we went to see it they were in the process of renovating this historic hotel which was both great and worrisome. I was worried about the noise during the wedding and room availability. Luckily after inquiring I was informed that the construction was going to be completed before the date of our wedding!! I was very relieved. One of the small details I liked about the hotel was the name, “The Hotel Sainte Claire.” They had informed me that the name would soon be changing to The Westin San Jose, which doesn't sound as historic or prestigious as the old name but what can you do? I was pretty excited about the historic part of the hotel. It was built in 1929 and had an italian renaissance feel to it. The hotel also came complete with a couple of awesome ghost stories :D if you are like me that was quite an appealing aspect because it added to the mystic of the hotel.My mother and my now husband went with me to see it and we all loved it. 

For more information and history on the Westin San Jose please go to: http://www.westinsanjose.com/hotel-history

To our amazement the hotel was in our price range and the coordinator was extremely helpful and accommodating, even creating a custom tailored package for us so we didn't have to do any of the unnecessary things. We also got the package to include a custom wedding cake from a local bakery and a day of coordinator with getting ready rooms and snacks!

The wedding venue was the hardest thing to find but it definitely made our wedding perfect :)

Photo Credits for all Sainte Claire/The Westin San Jose Photos on this post are from http://www.westinsanjose.com/

Halloween Nail Art

Good Morning Everyone!!! In the spirit of Halloween for the Ladies I have some Halloween Nail Ideas and Tutorials.



This one my boyfriend picked out altho not scary it's still kind of cool! Sorry no tutorial for this one but with some white nail polish and a fine brush with a steady hand it should be fairly easy to match this design.

This one I love because it's girly and at the same time has the halloween touch to it. Here's the tutorial: bloody nail art

These are a fantastic idea if you have an artistic friend or are great yourself at fine details. I'm considering trying this one. There's no tutorials on this one either *sad face* but if I do it I will make one and add it here.

These are awesome! The blog it comes from is equally as awesome: Halloween Nails

These are amazing! If I could do this I would love it (: Such Detail!!

These are cute and very customizable! Great for a Halloween party or just for at the office. Here's the link to tell you what you'll need to do this: Jack O Lantern face nails

Scary Halloween make-up

So as promised I'm starting in on my scary halloween make-up faces! The ones that take a lot of work so make sure you have time if your gonna try these.

This one is awesome! Again a little time consuming but scary great. This page also has a few more tutorials on different faces and scary make up for halloween: Scary Halloween Make-up tutorials

This one is great it's kind of difficult to look at this is the tutorial: scary halloween make-up alcohol based make up

This isn't that scary but still difficult to just look and not stare! There's no tutorials on this one or the next however they are pretty interesting!

Note the contact lenses in both pictures. They really ad a nice touch!

This is awesome although the webpage is in Dutch but google chrome translates it for you so there should be a tutorial there: Scary!

I love this! Unfortunately the link is dead but this is cool.

Beautiful Halloween Make-up

Yup it's my favorite time of year again!! It's raining just in time for Halloween. Hopefully it doesn't rain on halloween like so many before it! Halloween make up is my favorite! I've seen so many different techniques and it really is something to look at. So many people come up with wonderful ways to express themselves for halloween and they do great jobs at it!! Here's a few of my favorite beautiful but halloween make up faces (I will post one about scary halloween make up as well in a few days if not tomorrow)

This one by far is at the top of the list. She did it herself and has a tutorial on her website. With all do respect because I love it so much I'm going to post the link: Awesome Fallen Angel Make up tutorial

This one is beautiful Vampire Make-up! Simple enough but easy to make it your own as well! Here's the link with tutorial as well: Sexy Vampire Make-up tutorial

This one is Fine on the Detail so you would probably need a steady hand and some patience for this one! But it's cute and sexy at the same time. On my 3rd favorite of the list the Sexy Cat Halloween Make-up:  

Sexy Cat Make-up

This is what I think of on Día de los Muertos! I love this Make-up I just wish there was a tutorial to go with! I will settle for the picture tho it's beautiful and the flowers in her hair really add a great touch.

This one is gorgeous as well, the spiders add a nice touch! No tutorial on this one either tho unfortunately if anyone finds it let me know

This one is also beautiful and simple perfect for going to the office and what not! Very customizable as well!

Found the above on Pinterest these are the instructions: Cut out doily to mask shape, coat with lacquer or glue to make firmer, stick diamante's in place, elastic to tie on each side.