Save the Dates

I'm hoping our Save the Date cards will be going out within the next two weeks. We made it ourselves. Mr. R. works for a commercial printing company and they were nice enough to let him print our Save the Date cards for free. That saved us ALOT of mula!

Here it is:




All I have to do is glue the ribbon (purchased from the Ribbon Factory Outlet), put a magnet on the back, and address them. Image was purchased from istock.com.

We bought the Martha Stewart pen glue and man it didn't work! The ribbon wouldn't stick. So we tried Krazy Glue. It worked, but Mr. R. was able to flick it off. =( So we're going to try to super glue it.

*crosses fingers*

Engagement Encounter Retreat

As required by the Catholic church, any person who would like to get married in a Catholic church is required to go to some engaged encounter retreat. Mr. R. and I were honestly excited about the whole thing. We didn't know what to expect.

Our retreat was in Santa Barbara. We arrived Friday evening. Checked into our dorm rooms. Mr. R. had a cell. His room was just curtain, a bed and walls. Oh and I can't forget the metal chair in the corner. LOL. My room had to be twice as big as his. It had a closet and even a sink as well.

It was a beautiful place. I would say that Mr. R. and I did not benefit from it as much as the other couples did because we practically have talked about our issues and future together already. It was nice to revisit them though.

Our Vendors

We have all our vendors booked! Well most of them. The only thing left is the cake, but that shouldn't be a BIG problem. I'm so glad! It's such a relief!

Photography: Harvard Photography - La Palma, CA
We met with 2 photographers (or was it 3? I don't remember!), and ended up going with Harvard. Mainly for the following reasions:

• They were nice enough to give us split hours (since there's a big gap in between our ceremony and reception).
• They threw in a 2nd photographer for FREE. We couldn't turn down the offer after this!
• They produce everything in-house, including their albums. =D
• They were friendly!

Videography: Robles Video - Brea, CA
Very family orieted company. We went with them because they have filmed at our ceremony site many times and knew what they could do and could not do. We couldn't resist the unlimited filming time for their price. =D

DJ: The DJayCompany - Alta Loma, CA
We had two choices for our DJ and we really liked how Jay was more down to earth and up front with us. Plus we got $100 off for booking them during the Holiday Season. They are a web based company meaning we can listen to their songs off iTunes and plan everything using their system. They'll even purchase music for us that they may not have!

Wedding Consultant: Joyful Weddings and Events
Courtney is a sweetheart! I really can't wait to work with her and her assistant Darcy. She has been very helpful these past few weeks. Darcy will be our Day of the Wedding Coordinator.

Florist: Thuy's Bridal - Garden Grove, CA
Finding a florist was the most hardest part next to finding a reception site! I don't know how many florists we met with but damn, it got a little stressful. They were able to give us flowers, decor for the head/cake table, chair covers + sash, centerpieces, and others for less than what other florists were charging us for. Plus they've decorated at our reception site numerous times. Oh and they threw in a little something something for our centerpieces which was a BIG plus! ;D

Others...

Bridal Gown: Mariposa Boutique - Anaheim, CA
I love Kaycee! She is the sweetest person! She was my consultant and she is the owner of Mariposa. She was very helpful! I really love her boutique and her employees! Mariposa was the first and only store that I went to. Their customer service is excellent!

Bridesmaids Dresses: Alfred Angelo - Brea, CA
This was the closest one to my house. I knew from the start that I would most likely be going with Alfred Angelo because my cousin got her bridesmaids dresses their and I liked the quality of their dresses. I was set when I saw their 2008 catalog with our colors. =D

Tuxedos: Friar Tux - Brea, CA
TBD!

Invitations: DIY
I'm totally making our inspired weddingbee.com invitations. I already made a mock up and it's the cutest thing! I'm even thinking about doing it as a side job since I've been getting many compliments about it from those who have seen it. ;D

Honorable Mentions

Florists: Flowers by Linda
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet lady! I would have loved to work with her! She has been making flowers on her own as a side job for the past few years. More professional than most of the florists I have met with who have been in the business for years. She was my second choice!

The Sites

We will be having our ceremony at a beautiful churchin Diamond Bar, CA. We will not be having it at my home parish because it's too hard for me to get married at the same place my grandma had her funeral services at. Too emotional. The priest at the chruch was kind enough to take us in due to my situation.

It took us forever to decide on a reception site. We are having about 300 guests and there's not that many sites that can hold that much for a cheap price. Our parents picked out our reception site since they will be paying for the reception portion. I honestly asked them if that was the place they really wanted because I liked this one other reception site and it was way cheaper, but that was the place they really wanted. The place is huge! ;D It is about half an hour away from our ceremony site. It is also down the street from Disneyland. ;D

The Proposal

His side of the story...

I decided to finally get Ms. A. the ring of her dreams back in the month of Ms. A. after she finally completed her Master's Degree program. I was waiting for the perfect time to pop the question. After receiving the blessings from both my parents and her parents, I figured it was now or never. On the day of the proposal I had called the concierge to spread flower petals in our room while we were out having dinner at Lawry's. We went out to dinner and came back to the hotel. We walked into the room and there were the petals all over the bed. I told Ms. A. to close her eyes and cover her ears. As she was doing so, I kept asking her if she was peeking. I went to the curtain of our room to show the scenery (night lights of Vegas, specifically the Eiffel Tower as our backdrop) and grabbed the ring out of my bag. I knelt down on one knee in front of Ms. A. and shouted at her (she couldn't hear me) to open her eyes. That is when I asked her to marry me. She began crying and said yes and cried some more. Soon afterwards she began hitting me, then hitting me some more. It was the perfect night!

Her side of the story...

Saturday morning was when Mr. R. and I had planned to leave for Vegas. My parents were going to Santa Barbara. When I was saying bye to my mom she was in one of the most joyous moods ever. As she was walking to the van she said, "Call me when you win the jackpot!" I was like "Okay!" And she kept saying that to me everytime I called her during the weekend. I was like "Why does she keep saying that and why is she in such a giddy mood?" So Sunday comes along. Mr. R. and I ate breakfast in our suite and then hit the lazy pool at the MGM Grand. We went back to our suite to get ready to go eat at Lawry's. I kept asking him what we should do after we ate. He kept inisiting that we come back to the hotel so that we could change. In my head I was thinking "What for?"

When we got out of the hotel elevator, there was a housekeeping lady standing very close to our hotel suite with the biggest smile. I thought to myself, "Geez..why is she smiling so big?" Then we walked into the room and there were pink flower petals spread all over the bed. I was like "Aww!" and I thanked Mr. R. for his sweet gesture. Then he started thanking me for everything, for being me, for my support, etc. Then he walked me to the middle of the room and told me to close my eyes and cover my ears. I was like "uh..okay?" So there I was just standing there doing my best to not peek or hear anything. I wasn't expecting a proposal. I thought he was going to give me a stuff toy or something! Hehe!

I heard him faintly talking, but I wasn't sure what he was saying. Then I heard him yelling at me to open my eyes. When I did, there was Mr. R. on one knee with the jewelry box opened with a shimmering ring, asking me to marry him. Of course I started crying and I said yes, and cried some more, and started hitting him.

I TOTALLY wasn't expecting it! I was so in shock that I wanted to throw up. I told myself I better not because our dinner was expensive. Hehe!

After everything, we took a walk down the strip as the future Mr. & Mrs. RM. =)

How We Met..

Her Story...

Page me, beep me, if you wanna reach me!

In March of 1998, Mr. R. and I were introduced over the phone by Ms. L. When I heard his voice I thought he sounded cute. From time to time we would talk on the phone or page each other , til it became a habit. I was crushin' on him. One time when I was going to page him I heard some girl on his outgoing voicemail message. Stunned, I hung up the phone and later told him that I couldn't call/page him anymore because my parents got mad at me because of our phone bill, but on the reals, I was a bit broken hearted.

A few months passed and one day Ms. L. and I went to the movies. It just so happened that Mr. M. (Ms. L's bf at the time, who was Mr. R's bestfriend) was going to be there as well with his friends. When we got there, Ms. L. was looking for Mr. M. and I was going to pay for the tickets. When I was standing in line, I realized that my wallet wasn't in my bag. I started to freak out. I looked up to look for Ms. L. and I saw Mr. K (part of Mr. R's high school circle of friends) and some guy walking with him. I was wondering who the guy was because I knew who all the guys were except for him. I called Ms. L. over and told her about my wallet and the guys decided to do something else because some of them didn't want to watch Godzilla (lol). So Ms. L. ended up paying for the tickets and as we were walking to the movie we were going to watch (Bullworth), I asked her who the other guy was and she said "Oh that was Mr. R." And I was like "WHAT?! WHY DIDN"T YOU TELL ME?!" So later that evening, Mr. R. paged me saying that he saw me and the rest is history ...

His Story

Who's that girl yelling?

So one day my good friend Ms. L. called me on three way with this other girl on the line who's name was Ms. A. I wasn't able to talk long because I had Tae Kwon Do to attend to for the night. (Don't laugh, I had a mean round house kick.) After that we were talking almost everyday for a good month and really got to know each other. Unfortunately we had lost contact for a bit, due to some other girl, but luckly that didn't work out. One day me and a bunch of my buddies headed out to the West Covina Edwards to meet with Leah and hopefully watch a movie. At the time I heard this familiar voice yelling "DAD, HAVE YOU SEEN MY WALLET!" I thought wait a minute, I know that voice. Went back home and left a voice mail on her pager and asked her is she was the one yelling for her wallet at the theater. If it wasn't for that day, we probably may have never spoke to each other again. I guess it was meant to be!

Orange & Pink!

My first post as Orange & Pink! I'm excited to start this blog, though already have tons of different ones! Hehe! I'm excited to share our journey as we become Mr. & Mrs. M! ;D