How Mr. Mek and I became to be

I wish I had some romantic story to tell of Mr. Mek and I. I wish I could tell you that I knew he was the one right away and that it was love at first sight. It wasn't like that at all. First off, we met in a bar. And I'm pretty sure I was pretty tipsy. hehe.

It was Wednesday night (yea, call it my mid-week stress reliever) and my girlies and I headed to our usual Wednesday night locale at the local watering hole. I'm a happy drunk, so after throwin' back a few beers and some shots with the girls, I was being my friendly self and saying hi to random strangers at the bar. Mr. Mek crossed my path and I said, "hello".
Mr. Mek: What nationality are you?
Me: White & Filipino.
Mr. Mek: Me too!!
Me: No way! Here's my phone number.
Done.

I got the traditional 2 day call back and while I'd like to say the rest is history, it wasn't so easy. We "casually" dated for months and he would tell me he wanted to be "official", then take it back; he also took back the first two times he told me he loved me. LoL. Our first year was rocky. We dealt with insecurities, trust issues....we even broke up once for about 4 months. Then Mr. Mek got into some trouble. And I was there for him. For ALL of it. This gave him a whole new respect and appreciation for me. I forgave him for the past and after time we formed a new relationship, a more full-filling one. Two years after all the drama, our relationship now is stronger than ever.

Ever hear a song that brings you back to a specific time or reminds you of an event in your life? This song by Murs, Love and Appreciate, explains how our relationship went, in a nutshell.

What song explains your relationship?

"Aloha! Welcome to Hawaii" Bags

Or should I say boxes.

I've already talked about our Welcome BBQ, now I'm on to how to greet our guests with much aloha (love). Welcome bags! This has been done time and time again; Mrs. Lemon, Mrs. Hydrangea, Mrs. Onion, Mrs. Cream Puff, to name a few. If budget wasn't an issue I'd wow my guests with Lauhala Tote Bags to hold my welcome bag contents.

source

But budget is an issue, so instead I'll wow them with much affordable, ever so popular, gable boxes. Now before the wonderful world of weddingbee and the knot, I had never in my life ever heard of a gable box or knew what hell a gable was. I was lucky enough to buy a knotties left over gable boxes and paid about .76 a box (that includes shipping).

Now for my "wow". Jon, who also did an illustration for my STDs, made these ohhh sooo cute "cut out" cartoons of Mr. Mek and I.

I love being clipart! I threw this illustration over an old postcard I had scanned in (I lowered the opacity of the postcard) and ta da...

Well..there was some ribbon added for pizazz.

Close up of illustration. It's about 4x5 in size and I printed 4 on 8x10 label sheets.

This photo is for aesthetics, I used double sided tape to attach the ribbon to the box.

Future Posts:
OOT box contents

Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair...

~Susan Polis Shutz

I'm not a veil or tiara kind-of-a-gal. It's just not my cup of tea. I'm a hair flower kind-of-a-gal. And while I did ponder the thought of putting a real flower in my hair, I came across etsy seller, myrakim of Twigs and Honey. She does beautiful work! I contacted her right away (she's a very busy woman!), and 3 months later she custom made me this:

I love how it has red accents, pearls and some of the fabric used for the hair piece is the same type of fabric my dress is made out of. Love, love, love it!

Even the packaging was sweet!

Love the polka dotted tissue paperDirections on how to best secure the hair flower were included

This what the hair comb that is attached to the hair flower looks like

Here's my 2 minute trial. Don't mind my messy, knotty hair (it was up in a bun all day), or the toilet paper in the background. hehe.

Check out Myra's blog for more of her fabulous work: http://twigsandhoney.blogspot.com/

I've been Tagged!

I've been blog "tagged" by Amber of The Sweeneys, so here it is...

4 Things I Did Today

1. Visited the local vocational school today.

2. Took *funny* photos of my co-workers. (see image on right. Note that the suit he's wearing is backwards; the butt pad is on the front)

3. Also took serious work photos.

4. Ate lunch at the 'rents house.

4 Things On My To Do List

1. Got my 3 hour non-credit course tonight at the local community college

2. Gotta clean house. :oP

3. My dad's been harassing me to contact banks about refinancing my house.

4. Take photos of Mr. Mek's lil' boy. We're going "cheap" for Christmas this year and Mr. Mek's family is getting photos of the lil' one.

4 Of My Guiltiest Pleasures

1. Food. I'm such a foodie. I love all food. I'm a food whore.

2. Reality shows. I admit it...I love 'em. The Hills (which is a totally pointless show, I admit), Jon and Kate plus 8 (a fave!!), Rich Bride, Poor Bride, ALL medical surgery shows...love 'em!

3. Cereal. I know this goes along with food, but I seriously could eat cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It needed it's own number.

4. Airports. What can I say? I love traveling and I love airports.

4 Random Facts About Me:

1. I swear I'm dyslexic. Never been diagnosed with it, but I swear I am...especially when it comes to numbers.

2. My first job ever (besides babysitting) was teaching swim lessons to 3 and 4 year olds. I was 14 and got paid under the table. I loved it.

3. I've been to about 12 countries, and have lived in 4 different countries (including Italy, Japan and England).

4. I can blow bubbles off my tongue. My dad thinks it's gross.

And now, it's time for me to TAG you! and I TAG...

A Wedding in Hawaii, How Original

s + d- The DIY route to wedding planning!

Budget Savvy Bride

so get to blogging!

Welcome...

With having a destination wedding that is pretty costly to get to, Mr. Mek and I wanted to have more than just the wedding for the guests to look forward to. Unfortunately we are on a tight budget and can't afford a great adventurous event for all the guests. Our first (and best) idea....a welcome BBQ!

source

What a great, casual way to hang out, introduce and bond with family and friends.

Our next task was to find a location to have said BBQ. I was thinking something by the beach, that (of course) had easy access to some sort of grill. Knowing a lil' of Hawaii (being that I had lived there in my younger years), my first thought was Barber's Point; it's a military beach of sorts, they have cabins and camping. Which got me thinking of other military facilities. Bellows, another military beach....and a much nicer one at that (it's Air Force "owned", no offence to my brother branches). A cabin at Bellow's would be perfect! We'd have access to a grill, a kitchen, the beach (and showers for after the beach). Perfect, perfect.

In June (about 9 months before needed date) I called Bellows to find out their availability. They were booked. Till May of 2009. No joke. I was bummed, but no biggie. What were our alternatives? Well, I thought about just trying my luck on getting a picnic table on welcome BBQ day, but what if there weren't any tables available. Or what if I can't get access to some sort of cooking device? What's a BBQ without the cooked food? I also was looking forward to the option of cold beverages, the alcoholic kind, and I knew no beach in Hawaii was going to allow that. Our last resort was to have it at our rented condo, but a BBQ inside didn't sound appealing. I did ponder the thought of having an ice cream social instead and having that held at our condo...that was my last resort option.

Months later and still no plan. I was aimlessly looking at the Bellows website again and came across a link for "facility rentals"....they have rental pavilions! I called Bellows again, and wouldn't you know it, by this time their cabins were booked till September 2009, but for welcome BBQ day all 3 pavilions were free. So for $75 I booked it.

source

Yes, it might be a lil' pricey for a BBQ venue, but I can relax and be stress free about having to find a place, it's by the beach, there's a grill, you can drink at the pavilion (no drinks on the beach), and for a $2 volleyball rental there are volleyball nets nearby. Sold.

My DIY "Air Makers"

I have been doing lil' wedding poop projects here and there, hoping to get most out of the way so when I finally am in the final weeks I'm not running around like a headless chicken. So my first project....palm fans!

inspiration knottie: Married2MrWright

My idea was to have these efficient palm fans sitting on every chair at the ceremony, so when the wedding guest sits down they have their own "air maker" for comfort during the ceremony. In "the knot" world it's not the most original idea, but I can guarantee that no guest attending our wedding had a palm fan waiting for them on their seat at any other wedding they've ever attended in the past.

So Mr. Mek's mother's friend (did you get all that?!) had a trip planned to the Philippines and I asked her is she could bring me back some palm fans. I originally looked online to order them and the cheapest I saw was $8.99 per dozen. Not too bad, but knowing that these are made in the Philippines, I was pretty sure I could get them cheaper. Hey, I'm on a budget! Sure enough, 25 fans were brought back for me. I actually have no idea how much they cost since mother-in-law Mek wouldn't let me pay for them, but I'm pretty sure it is somewhere around $5.00 for all 25 or some outrageous price like that.

Next step....make them puuuuurty.

My supplies: palm fan, scissors, glue gun, glue sticks, ribbon.

Step 1: Feed ribbon through fan, there should be a opening or a whole of some sort that makes this step easy.

Step 2: Wrap ribbon around handle and feel through opposing whole. Alright, so I'm not the best at giving directions! Hopefully my images speak volumes.

Step 3. Keep wrapping ribbon tightly around handle till handle is completely covered.

Step 4: Hot glue end of ribbon to fan. TaDa!

Pau!

Brings back some color to these natural fans. After seeing knottie eyeheartmike use colored fans for her wedding, I wished I would've gotten red fans instead. Oh well.

knottie: eyeheartmike

And this is the look I'm going for...

source: unknown

knottie: Mrs.Winter

knottie: plumeriapal

Forgive me readers...

For I have sinned; it has been 33 days since my last confession post.

I have been extremely busy lately; with seminars, work, a lil' freelancing. I'll even prove it! Remember those wedding invites I did for my friend, Wendy a few months back? With planning a wedding on such short notice she was on a major budget, so I helped her out by being her wedding photographer for the day. My co-worker Palermo was a great help to me by being a second photographer.

She had a laid back, relaxed wedding despite the hardships she went through the last 15 hours before the wedding. Could you believe she stubbed her toe on the eve of her wedding soooo bad that she could barely walk, let alone walk in heels. On wedding day morning, she was to meet the hair stylist at 9am; the hair stylist had totally forgot about the appointment and didn't show till after 10am (the ceremony started at 11am). That gave the bride about 20 minutes by the time she got back from her hair appointment to get dressed and put her face on. Needless to say everything went on without a hitch after all the morning drama. Here let me show you...

click on image for bigger image

I do not claim to be a wedding photographer by any means, but for a friend on a budget I can make do. :o)