Postcard Guestbook

Guestbook wise, I originally wanted to do a Quaker style wedding certificate, but in the end, I didn't have time to design one and didn't have the $$ to have someone design one for me. So, instead I went the route of vintage style postcards. I stuck 2 stamped postcards in glassine envelopes for each guest/family, one for them to mail to whomever, one addressed to us.

More on these here.

Well, with only 20 wedding guests in tow, that narrowed down to only about 7 couples/families. That means, essentially I should have received about 7 postcards in the mail. Nope. It was a postcard guestbook FAIL. Out of 19 people/7 families, I received 4 postcards, 2 of them were from the same person. hehe. Yup, my bestie mailed me back both her postcards.

I shouldn't really be surprised, I mean only half our guests mailed back their RSVP, so why would I think any different with pre-stamped postcards?!

In case you were wondering what the postcard said: "Hey Auntie! We have a groom over here!!! A traditional wedding $3000-10,000 plus dollars, seeing your groom shake his tail feather in a grass skirt and coconuts...priceless." Bestie is referring to this. Her other postcard talked about her daughter (our flowergirl) running away from the aisle. ;o)

Either way, I'm gonna show you how we decided to keep our (4) postcards...

In this super cute wooden album we got at the Aloha Swap Meet for $8.00! woot, woot!

I love this album because you can easily display the postcards and easily pull it out of the album to read the postcard. Double score. Not that it takes much to read 4 postcards. :oP

We had spare postcards, so I decided to stick them in the album too, that way the album looked more "full".

It's a shame my idea didn't work as hoped, but ehh..what can you do.

Staying Organized

I can't speak for everyone and I'm definitely not some organization queen. In fact, if you were to see my work office, it's what I like to call an "organized mess", but I do know where everything is located. Okay, I know where things should be located. BUT I did manage to stay pretty organized during my wedding planning. I kept everything in one binder. Everything.

I know some gals buy those nice, fancy, overpriced wedding planners, but with planning a destination wedding, a lot of what they had in those thorough binders didn't pertain to me and my minimalist destination wedding. And I'm cheap; I used a plain, 1 inch, white binder. Now don't get me wrong, I did spruce it up in my own way.

I had dividers separating different sections, ex. Ceremony, Reception, Travel, Receipts, etc.. In each section, I had not only the agreements and contracts of each vendor (I had all my vendors that had to do with the ceremony in one section and all the vendors that had to do with the reception in another section, my hotel reservations, car rental info and travel itinerary in the travel section, etc.)

but I also kept all printed email conversations (if I dealt with them via email) and receipts of payment. I also made sure that I had every vendor's contact information, just in case.

I had ALL papers for each vendor placed in a page protector. So, if I had a 1 page contract with my photographer, plus 2 pages of emails and 1 page invoice, they all went in one page protector. That way if I needed to find my invoice from my photographer, I knew it would be within that page protector. I also used a single page protector to keep my one-time purchases (ie. ribbon from the art store, shoes from zappos, etc.), so that I could keep track of all my purchases (great for figuring out your final cost of your wedding later).

When traveling, I kept this in my carry-on, that way I had all my information and I didn't have to worry about me losing proof of payment or vendor contact information in any possible lost luggage.

It was real convenient to refer to my binder for our plane itinerary, then double check it for our car rental, and check again for our hotel address and reservation information...all in one swoop.

How did you stay organized?

Tattoo update!

A lil' over a year ago, I surprised the hive (and my 'rents) with my...um...massive (?) piece of art. I've had quite a few of bees ask me how it's been going, if it's done yet, etc., so here's an update. My tattoo is definitely not done yet, but I have had much done since last time you saw it.

Just a quick recap...
My first session: Say goodbye to the ol' stamp tramp.

Last time you saw my tattoo, it looked like this.

See that space on my left shoulder? I had planned to get our wedding venue there. I thought it would be a nice way to commemorate our marriage without permanently putting names and dates on me.

Our wedding venue (photo by Frank Amodo)

Here's a close up of how our wedding venue, the temple, looks so far. Still have a lot of shading to do. Can you see the resemblance?

And now for the current photo:

Art work done by Cooper from Visual Addiction

As you can see, I still have a bit of way to go. Lots of coloring and shading still needs to be done, but all of the outline is done (phew!).

30+ Years of Bliss

Today, good ol' Saint Patrick's Day, is my parent's 31st wedding anniversary. I don't know the whole story, but the jist of it is, they paid minimal bucks and eloped in California. Remember, I said eloping ran in my family.

My parents have been a very good influence on me and my views of marriage. I definitely look up to them and hope to base my own marriage off of their own. The secret to their marriage...date night! Since I could remember, my mom and dad have ALWAYS made time for each other. Every week they go out. Every week. Obviously when I was younger, it was more of family time, but now that my brother and I are grown and out of the house, they still go out one night every week. Sometimes it's to dinner, or out for some drinks, or a movie or a show, but EVERY week they go out. While we can't necessarily afford to go out every week, we can definitely make time for each other every week. They still cuddle on the couch together and hold hands when they walk down the street. I love it. It's nice to know that 30+ years later, you can still act and love like teenagers.

Here's an extra pix, since they look kinda gloomy in their marriage photos. Cheer up mom and dad, you got married (and had me ;o) )!

Much better! :o)

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!!!

Two Years.

Woot, woot! Today is our 2 year anniversary.

"But wait, Mrs. Mek....wasn't your wedding just last year?!"

Umm...yeah...let me explain about that.
December 2007, I got engaged. Ironically Mr. Mek was ready to get married and I was...hesitant. Not that I didn't want to marry him, I just wasn't sure I wanted to do it NOW. He was hinting for a Summer 2008 wedding, I was pushing for a Summer 2009 wedding. I just wanted more time. We compromised and agreed to a March 2009 wedding. After deciding to get married in Hawaii, there were a few other factors that led us to our date in March; my brother and cousin both would be on spring break from college was the main one, along with not wanting to get married in Hawaii in the middle of summer. Either way, we chose March 2009 as our projected wedding date.

In January and February of 2008, Mr. Mek and I had some turbulence happen in our life. I won't get into details, because it is quite personal, but I will say that it's the type of happenings that make you realize how much you really, truly love someone. At that point I knew that Mr. Mek was someone I could live without, but I didn't want to. So with a 2009 Hawaii wedding in the making, we jumped the gun and ran to the court house and got married on our wedding day...a year early. Since most of our family already knew that we were already planning a wedding, we didn't say anything. It wasn't intended to be a secret, but our lack of sharing this lil' detail ended up becoming a huge secret in the long run.

Most of our family and friends know the truth now (I'm sure there are a few who haven't heard). I can't speak for Mr. Mek's family, but I don't think it was a real surprise for my family; this is just the sort of thing that I would do. :o) My parent's got married in California for $20, rings bought from a pawn shop...it's in my blood. :o)

Being in the military, we do benefit from our lil' elopement. We get dependent pay (which we saved and put towards the Hawaii wedding) and Mr. Mek has use of all my military benefits (health care, PX/BX, free gym, access to posts, etc.).

I do apologize to the hive for keeping this lil' tidbit from you, but it wasn't just you, we kept it from EVERYONE. Even our own parents. Still love me? How about if I share some photos?

March 05, 2008 @ the court house. The REAL deal.

Yes, we are dorks that like to color coordinate. :o)


March 05, 2009

photo by Frank Amodo

and now...

Ironically, we're spending our anniversary in the city of elopements...Vegas, baby! Off to gamble our future children's college fund away...

Anyone else getting married before the wedding?

Mek's Budget & Reviews

Being Filipino AND Pennsylvania Dutch, I come from a very financially conservative family. -aka- Frugal...cheap..ehh, whatever you want to call it. I am known as the coupon queen at work. Seriously, I have coupons for EVERYTHING. Our wedding really wasn't any different.

The breakdown:

Date: March 05, 2009

City, State: Kaneohe, Hawaii

Budget: $10,000

# of Guests: 21

Ceremony Site/Type of Venue: $738. Byodo-In Temple. $700 for the use of the temple grounds for 2 hours (this also included a photography fee to photograph on their grounds). We spent about $38 in ribbon and paper lanterns to decorate the aisle. We figured that the temple grounds was so beautiful, there was no need to spend too much money on decor. I'm glad we went this route; the temple is BEAU.TI.FUL.

Reception Site/Type of Venue: $795 (about $37.85 per person). Germaine's Luau. My wondrous folks were generous to gift this to us. Most of our guests were first time Hawaii visitors and since we're pretty laid back, we decided to forgo a traditional luau and take them to a luau instead. This is open to the public, so the general public was at the luau with us. We got a great deal in cost using a military discount. The luau included a yummy Hawaiian buffet (with cake!), few adult beverages, and 3 hours of entertainment.

Caterer/Food/Drink (per person if available): $0, included with luau.

Bridal Gown & Alterations: $373. $320 for my dress, which was purchased off of ebay. $53 for alterations, by Karen Chow, a godsend!

Bridal Accessories (Veil, Undergarments, Shoes, Jewelry): $120.94. Includes hair fascinator, 2 pairs of shoes (pair for the ceremony, pair for the luau), earrings and undies. This also includes the $12 I spent on our flowergirl's dress and her parasol.
Groom’s Attire: $492. His suit was custom made by Island Importer, $300. Shoes were also custom made Nike sneaks, $107. Shirt from Express, $35. Minor suit alterations, $50. Stationery/Postage: $253.09. Includes our wedding invites, our Passport STDs, and inserts for our welcome bags.

Photography: $2094.24. Frank Amodo is wondrous and totally worth it! Nuff' said.
No, but seriously, we hired him for as long as we could afford to (which was 4 hours) and it really was totally worth it. I wish we could have been able to have him ALL day, but our budget couldn't cut it. I would rather have a AWESOME photographer for half the day, then a so-so photographer for the full day.

Ceremony Music: $150. I never went into this, mainly because the vendor ticked me off. I ended up hiring an ukulele player off of craigslist. I really did get an awesome deal, but the guy changed his prices on me 3 times. THREE. I really would have paid his top price to begin with, but it was more of the principle that you don't change your prices 3 times in a 30 day period (this was even after I talked to him on the phone). I would have went another route, but I waited 'til the last minute and really didn't have any other options. In all honesty, I don't even remember him playing. At all. I'm sure he did...I was just too busy trying not to trip down the aisle to notice.

Flowers: $50. We really didn't have flowers; no bouquets or bouts. We literally waited 'til the last minute to pick up leis for our lei ceremony. Literally, as in the morning of our wedding day. I really wish I would have got better (and prettier) leis for our family members. That's what happens when you wait until the last minute.

Officiant: $250. Alice Inoue. ::love.her:: I could have gone through the temple and used their officiant for $50 less, but I really liked how organized Alice was and it was totally worth it for my piece of mind. She really spoke from the heart and our ceremony didn't feel scripted at all.

Coordinator: $0. I really relied on friends and family to help out here. Bestie Lauren and her husband, Kirk, really came through for me. Kirk has done TONS of events at the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort and helped out by providing me ceremony chairs, setting up and tearing down our ceremony site. He's starting to branch out into coordinating; hit him up if you're getting married in Hawaii. khedani@yahoo.com

Hair/Makeup: $273. Includes hair and make-up (including airbrush make-up and lashes) for me, my mom, and MIL. May is such a doll. She is the sweetest girl ever and she knows her stuff! Heart her!

Transportation: $405. Through Hickam's ITT (military travel), we were able to get a shuttle van to pick up all of our guests, staying in Waikiki, at their hotel, take them to the ceremony in Kaneohe, from the ceremony to the Luau (on the other side of the island), then back to their hotel (about 9 hours). They even upgraded our van to a shuttle bus. I originally called 3 local transportation companies and they wanted to charge me twice the amount for half the time. We really scored on this one!

Favors: $63.40. At our welcome BBQ, we gifted each of our guests with a bag of PA and Hawaii local goodies.

Wedding Party Gifts: $115.05. We didn't have a wedding party, but I did gift my two besties a custom blurb "yearbook" of our friendship, along with a few other goodies. Just because they weren't "official" bridesmaids, didn't mean that they weren't there for me for everything, wedding related and more.

Flight: $1541.60. Roundtrip flight for two.

Car Rental: $260.21. One week car rental.

Hotels: $600 (for 9 days). We used timeshare for 7 of the days and Hale Koa (military hotel) for the other two. We figured we wouldn't be in the room much, so no need to go all out.

WEDDING DAY TOTAL: $8574.53
TOTAL COST PER PERSON(divide wedding day total by # of guests) : $408.31

All Inclusive Costs:

Welcome BBQ: $153.55. Includes a pavillion rental from Bellows and food.

Wedding Bands: $699. Mr. Mek's ring was purchased through the AAFES catalog (for military peeps). My ring was purchased while in Hawaii from the NEX, literally a week before the wedding. This was planned; I REALLY wanted my wedding ring to be Hawaiian jewelry and it's always much cheaper to purchase from the military stores (plus no tax!). Our rings totally don't match each others; we figured if we were the ones wearing the ring for life, might as well pick out what we really like.

Honeymoon: $374.90. Includes 2 RT tickets to Big Island from Oahu, 2 night hotel stay (does not include meals or tours).

ALL INCLUSIVE TOTAL: $1227.45

GRAND TOTAL (wedding day total + all inclusive total): $9801.98

Not too shabby for a destination wedding in Hawaii. Sure, we didn't have 300+ people or our own intimate reception with a cake, but it was totally us. For you military peeps out there, utilize your military discounts! We saved thousands alone on just the reception luau and transportation. Its doesn't hurt to ask, the worst they can say is no.

Big Island Minimoon

Our wedding was my third trip to Hawaii in 4 years (Mr. Mek's 2nd trip), between that and having lived on Oahu in my younger years, I have already done almost everything there is to do on Oahu...times 3. This time I wanted to do something a lil' different, so Mr. Mek and I decided to fly to the Big Island for a few days.


We stayed at the Kilauea Military Camp (KMC), which is a cottage and resort based at for active and retired military. Not only was is super affordable, but it is located right in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We had a cute 1 bedroom cabin with a jacuzzi tub and fireplace, ALL to ourselves.

source for top right photo

Just like on Oahu, the weather was less than desirable. Initially, we had planned to hike the volcano ourselves, but since it was cold, windy and very wet, we ended up taking a van tour instead. We were the only ones on the tour though; it was like we had our own personal tour guide that day. :o)

Kilauea's blistering lava flows meet the sea

Craters, lava, museums....nice way to spend a cool rainy day.

Pele, the volcano goddess.

We walked though a 500-year old lava cave formed when an underground channel of molten lava drained from its cooled walls forming a massive, hollow chamber. A rain forest awaits at the other end of the tunnel.

KMC had a lot of indoor activities (thank goodness!), besides spending time alone in the cabin (ahem!), we had some drinks and went bowling (they also had an arcade and a movie theater).

Yeah....we suck. Mr. Mek's Wii bowling skills are no match to real bowling.

After a week + of family and friends, it was really nice to take it easy and spend some alone time together. And then....it was back to the "real" world. Blah!

Ohhh Hawaii...'til next time.

Our "honeymoon"...mini moons..I mean, many moons ago.

The weather was unusual for Hawaii. While the winter months are usually cooler and rainy, it was extremely windy while we were there. And while the weather was still 20 times better than March in Central PA, it was still not swim suit wearing, beach swimming weather. We were in Hawaii for a total of 11 days. It was our wedding and mini-moon rolled all into one. Here's a quick rundown of some of the things we did:

You already saw us hike Diamond Head; we also did a small hike on Maunawilli Falls Trail. Lots of mud, (man made) stairs, and a cool refreshing waterfall.

We did this hike the day after our wedding, remember when I said that I got eaten alive on our wedding day? I was not exaggerating! Need Proof?!

Oh what?! You can't see them? Here...let me point them out to you...

Seven. 7. Seven misquito bites and that's only on one arm. Forget my other arm or my back.

Went shopping at the Aloha Swap Meet (one of my favorite things to do when visiting Oahu)! We meet my girlfriend there and, totally unplanned, we were wearing the same shirt. How middle school are we?!

We didn't go swimming, but we still made it to the beach.

Mr. Mek spit rhymes over beats made by street performers in Waikiki.

We par-tay-ed with our friends!

Has no idea what's going on in these two bottom photos...but they crack me up every time I see them.

We went to the Dole Plantation, got a lil' pineapple ice cream, took a train ride to toured the pineapple fields and ventured through the pineapple maze (for 2 hours!).

And our Hawaii mini-moon didn't end there, we then took off for the Big Island for a few days. More to come!

A Hawaiian Affair: Shake your grass skirt!

Our wedding must have been exhausting; once our guests loaded up onto the shuttle...about half of them passed out...

except my handsome Mr. Mek, who was just glowing. And why wouldn't he be glowing?! He just got married to me!

Sooo...you might have noticed that every time I referred to our "reception", it was in quotation marks. Well, that's because we didn't have a traditional reception. There was no grand entrance, no toasts, no cake cutting, no dancing. Instead, we took our wondrous guests to a luau. Not even a private luau, but one open to the public (ie. LOTS of tourists were present). Because the dinner part of our wedding day was very casual, we didn't hire our photographer for the rest of the evening. Yep, we only had him for the ceremony and picture time. The rest of the evening we relied on our family and friends (and some taken by me, bride or not, you can't separate a photographer from their camera) to supply us with photos from the luau.

We took our guests to Germaine's Luau; which is probably the more casual of the luaus on Oahu(versus Polynesian Culture Center and Paradise Cove), but has more of a party atmosphere...which is what we were going for.

You can see how they had the seating set up:

co-worker "C" & PA friend "A", Isn't it cute that they color coordinated with each other!

Part of the admission to the luau (besides the awesome Hawaiian buffet dinner) was drinks. Every person got tickets for 3 drinks of their choice (non alcoholic beverages were unlimited). We "splurged" ($8) on these glasses for our drinks, which were twice as big as the cups the bartenders give you for drinks. Every time we went up for drinks the bartenders would either refuse our drink tickets or give us an extra shot to congratulate us getting married.

The luau kicked off with the imu (underground oven) uncovered, and the Kalua Pig is brought out. Soon afterward, we feasted on an all you can eat buffet that had an array of tasty Hawaiian and American selections; unfortunately no one got any photos of the delicious food. I think we were salivating at this point and only had eating on our minds. :o)

As the show was beginning to start, the host asked for 3 male volunteers. Bestie Lauren's husband started yelling "Auntie, Auntie....WE HAVE A GROOM!". That got their attention, and Mr. Mek was called to go backstage.

Bestie Lauren and hubbers Kirk

Mr. Mek came back out sportin' coconuts and a grass skirt.

He was to have a hula dance off against 2 other luau guests. Contestant wins by audience cheers. Mr. Mek definitely was a good sport about it, but he lost to the guy with the pink grass skirt.

Next the real dancers came out and put on a great show! A lil' eye candy for the guys and the girls. :o) Side note, doesn't the girl on the right kinda look like Mrs. Penguin?

The moon was amazing that night. It might be hard to see in this photo, but there was ring of light around the moon. Gorgeous night!

So I lied. There was some dancing. And by that, I don't mean the hula dancers and Mr. Mek's lil' hula dance. Mr. Mek and I were called onstage and we had our first dance (to the Hawaiian Wedding Song) in front of EVERYONE; our 20 guests and the 200 "guests" of Germaine's. As someone who doesn't like to be the center of attention, I think I was mumbling to Mr. Mek the whole time about how people were looking as us.

Secretly, I'm glad our friends took photos.

Everyone had a great time.

How cute are my 'rents?!

The end of the luau was the end of our wedding night. Our guests piled onto the shuttle to head back to Waikiki. Originally we had thought we might go to a local bar for a post wedding drink, but everyone was pooped and totally crashed on the way back to Waikiki....me included!

You've seen me get glammed, our intimate first look, you've seen all the details of our wedding, followed through our lei ceremony, watched us exchange rings, met our famlies and viewed our favorite photos. Welp, that's it for the wedding day recaps. No worries, you haven't gotten rid of me yet. I still have a few Hawaii vacation/Honeymoon posts and I still have a budget recap for you guys!
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Previously:

Picture Time, Picture Time!
My Ohana
Ceremony - Take 2
Ceremony - Take 1
Ceremony Details.
The first look.
Gettin' glammed.
Welcome BBQ