A Hawaiian Affair: Girls gettin' glammed.

And so....the recaps begin!

[all images courtesy of Frank Amodo, unless otherwise noted]

Above photos were taken by bestie, Bear.

Mr. Mek and I had a fairly busy morning. After a well rested night together (we both crashed fairly early the night before), we had gotten up around 7am and ran down to Watanabe Floral to pick out leis for our wedding ceremony. Talk about waiting til' the last minute on that one. Luckily they had was we were looking for, a white jasmine lei and a maile lei. Then we remember that we were supposed to turn the rental car in....the day before. So after a quick trip to drop off our rental car and an even quicker breakfast, we said our good byes for the first half of the day and Mr. Mek left to relax in my 'rent's room.

By the time I got back to my room, May, our H&M stylist was already working her magic on our moms. While May was working her magic on me, my two besties (and kiddies) came over to get ready with us. Frank, our photographer, arrived shortly after I got all dolled up and shot some of the chaos that was in my tiny hotel room.

Mommy Mek on the left, MIL Mek on the right. (photo by Bear)

Wishin' I had gotten a "pretty" hanger, although my clear plastic hanger doesn't look too bad.

I was a two shoe bride. One pair for the ceremony and a more practical, comfortable pair for the luau.

And the grooming chaos beings:

Bestie, Bear, doing her step daughter's hair.

Bestie, Lauren, helping me put on my jewelry.

Helping MIL Sushi with her hair.

Helping Bear with her daughter's hair. She's also our flower girl, although instead of flowers she'll have the parasol she's holding.

For some reason I love this photo.

Our flowergirl, isn't she adorable?!

Meanwhile, here is what the guys were doing:

Absolutely nothing! (photo provided by Bear)

In the midst of the chaos, I remember that Mr. Mek and I were supposed to exchange cards at our "first look" meeting (more on that later). Only, neither one of remembered or had the time to purchase cards. Luckily, I had extra note cards that I had gocco'd as thank you cards for our vendors.

Despite having 4-5 grown women, 2 kids and a photographer in a tiny hotel room, Frank managed to capture some great portraits that made time seem to just stop in place.

Sisters

"Hmmm...wonder what the day has in store for me today."

Welcome! Here are some gifts...

Two days before the wedding we hosted a Welcome BBQ for our guests. Really, it was a way to spend some time with everyone and to let everyone meet and get to know each other a little better before the wedding.

Let me start by saying that our welcome BBQ did NOT go as smoothly as planned. First off, the weather in Hawaii, while we were there, was extremely windy and more rainy than usual (even considering that Hawaii is usually quite rainy in the winter). We had our BBQ held at Bellows, which is an Air Force owned beach. I thought I had done my part and did all the legal paperwork to host our event there. I had to collect all of our guest’s driver’s license number and their vehicle information and fax it to Bellow’s security forces 48 hours before the event. The day of the event, my family and I get to Bellows and check in. It was soooo incredibly windy that we were afraid everything was going to blow off the tables and it definitely was too cold and windy to take a dip in the ocean. As the guests start to arrive, my dad and I start to get hounded by phone calls. The guard at the gate won’t let them on the post. We had about 11 people that were stuck…off base. When I checked in for our pavilion by the beach, they forgot to inform me that I also had to check in with security forces to confirm the guest list I faxed them 2 days prior. Needless to say, one of the guests waiting outside the base is in the Army and he ended up signing everyone in as his guest. So 30 minutes later, everyone was on the post and starting to enjoy themselves.

Unfortunately I was enjoying the day more than documenting it, so I don’t have many photos of the BBQ. :o( Here are the few photos we do have:

Mr. Mek adores the kiddies:


We got the buckets for $1 from Michaels and put cookies, stickers, coloring books and crayons inside for the kiddies. The kids put the buckets to good use!

See how windy it was. There was no beach swimming on this day. :o(

I didn’t even take photos of the welcome boxes I made for everyone. But I luckily one of our guests did:

(rocks were placed in each welcome box so they wouldn't fly away at the BBQ)

There was some variation to each box, but some of things we provided were:

• Cookies from the Honolulu Cookie Company
• Map of Oahu
• Crossword Puzzle
• Beach Ball
• Water Gun
• Playing Cards
• Postcards
• Stickers
• Hershey Kisses (to rep' Hershey, PA)
• "Survival Kit" (included Spongebob and Hello Kitty band aids and Tylenol)
• Photo sharing Card/Instructions
• welcome letter with wedding day timeline (vector images from www.istockphoto.com)

While I didn’t have "official" bridesmaids, I did have my two oldest and bestest friends in tow. So, to show my appreciation of them over the years, I made them their own little gift bags. My main gift to them was a blurb book I made to showcase our friendship over the past 16 years. It took months to put together. Without them knowing exactly what I was doing, I asked them to send me photos of us and letters we wrote to each other over the years. Here’s how it turned out:

Amariah Rauscher from ollie ollie drew me this great illustration, which I used for the cover of the book.
On the first pages I indtroduced ourselves. "These are a few of my favorite things....when I was 13." In our middle school days, we passed around a lot of slam books, so I used the infomation from them to add to this page. I scanned in our signatures from old letters and added an old yearbook photo from our tween/early teen years.

There were lots of photos from our early teen years...

and I went through TONS of old letters, picked out the best ones and added them too.

I also made sure to add our most current accomplishments and milestones.

I ended the book with a poem of friendship and a photo of us when we were 18.

So while our BBQ wasn't the fun in the sun I was hoping for, I did get to thank all of our guests for joining us in Hawaii with lil' gifts. :o)

A family hike: Diamond Head

We finally got our wedding photos back from our photographer, so while I swift through 1500+ photos, I thought I'd talk about the couple outings we had on the days leading up to the wedding day. First up, our last minute, totally not planned family hike up Diamond Head.

I go back to Hawaii every few years to visit friends and every single time I'm there I make sure (and usually drag my friends) I get a chance to climb Diamond Head. Not only is it breathtaking once you get to the top, but it is very nice and easy (and good) exercise.

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Don't we look like tourists!

Hawaii's most recognized landmark is known for its historic hiking trail, stunning coastal views, and military history. Diamond Head Trail is 1 ¾ miles with two sets of stairs, one with 99 steps and the other, 76 steps. There is also a 225-foot tunnel.

My family:

Diamond Head Lighthouse

We made it to the top and unfortunately it was very windy and cloudy. We didn't get our postcard shots of Waikiki this time.
See how cloudy it is...

On our way back down, we ran into my friend and co-worker trekkin' their way up the rock.
We had 11 family members truckin' up the crater (including us).

It was great having a family outing like this and one of my favorite outings during this trip.
I really hope we do more massive family vacations in the future!

Bee Cameos!

Earlier this week Brooklyn Bride had posted about One Elf, a charming lil' etsy store that sells the most adorable cuff links, charms, earrings, etc. Seriously, how cute are these?!

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Got a groom with a sweet tooth?! Check out these cuff links!

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Look closely, you can get your initials carved in the tree stump!

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Our own bees are sooo famous, they are replicated! :o)

Mrs. Cupcake

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Mrs. Cookie

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Mrs. Avocado

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Mrs. Cherry Pie

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What are your favorite Etsy finds?

Rockin' the trial, out on the town.

The one disadvantage of having a destination wedding is you don't have the convenience of having a trial or even a taste test at your leisure. We got to Hawaii a week, one week, seven days before the wedding. That gave me seven days to visit our venue, have a hair trial, and get all those itty bitty lil' details in check; all while trying to relax, have fun and entertain with our guests in paradise.

Two days after we got to the rock, I had my hair and make-up trial with May from Beauty by May. If you don't remember, I was looking for a half up/half down do with dramatic eyes.

Before:

Yikes!

After:

Makes me wish I had some one to do my hair and make-up everyday!

I paid extra for fake lashes and air brush make-up. The eyelashes were interesting. I've worn fake lashes before at a friend's wedding, but these weren't the strips of lashes, they were individual lashes. I'm not sure if there's a huge difference in results, but I was happy with them. The air brush make-up was very light and flawless. Totally loved it!

Since I had paid for the trial, I figure I might as well get my moneys worth, so I rocked it out that night. I gathered all my friends and we went to Dave and Busters for some game play and a few drinks.

Me and my two bestest and oldest friends I have, back from when I used to live in Hawaii


One of my bestest PA friends and her boyfriend (who also happens to be my co-worker), shootin' up aliens.

Me and my "baby" brother. Isn't he a cutie?!

Mr. Mek., L and my brother totally killing it on a trivia game.

My brother, Mr. Mek and I playing a racing game. Mr. Mek was cheating and I was obviously upset about it. :o)

The whole gang! Everyone put their tickets together and we got light up lollipops. Somehow Mr. Mek got the ONLY blue one. :oP

This was also one of the only nights that I had all my friends together for a night out. Plus, I got to test how long the make-up and hair would last through the night.

Anyone else got a trial, then went out?