It's been 2 weeks since our wedding and I can't help but reminisce on how it was beautifully executed... It was such a happy and memorable day. I still remember when I printed the wedding planner I downloaded online and I didn't know where to start with it. Then on our wedding day, when we got to the church and the reception venue, everything just fell into place and we were on a roll. Darwin and I make a great team! And we never got stressed throughout the whole planning. We made sure that we're well prepared on every meetings and that I always have the thick-purple-wedding-binder with me ready to ask only the right questions. We were also easy on decision making because we both know what we want and we have the same vision on what our wedding would be. A lot of our vendors says that we are easy to work with. :)
With that, I would like to share the details of our wedding and on how our inspiration was converted to reality. We also have some reference to Lakers + SATC + 500 Days of Summer to our wedding, which speaks of the things we like. We also did DIY projects that was so much fun to do!
Inspiration: I gathered pictures from various websites and magazines to build an inspiration board for our wedding. I looked for colors and inspirations that are beautiful to me and used it as basis for the overall look of our wedding.
Bridesmaids gown/flower. Cake. Reception decoration
Reality:
Inspiration:
Flower girl. Centerpiece. Picture frame
Reality:
On each table, we included a framed picture of our engagement photograph as part of the table decor. Each table has a diferent photograph. At the end of the night, our guests took the photos home as a souvenir :) 
Inspiration:
Bridal bouquet. Money card box
Reality
I want my bouquet to just have white & ivory roses. I have requested my florist to wrap the stems with ivory satin ribbon with pearl down the front center. It came out beautiful.. just as how I pictured it.
Jon has helped me create the money cardbox based from the inspiration I sent her. I love the leaf details that she added and it's so beautiful. You can buy those at etsy.com but it get pricey for just a box.
Inspiration:
Pronovias Bridal Gown
Reality
I tried 20 wedding gowns from 3 bridal boutique and this is the one where I said YES!!! I love the beading details and the silhouette of my Pronovias Sabala gown. It took 6 months to ship the gown from Spain and when Mary Linn's bridal called me that they have the dress, I was so excited that I immediately scheduled for first fitting! :) I love my gown and I'm preserving it!!! :) Thanks to Kalixa & Tutush from Mary Linn's Bridal for helping me with the gown fitting and alteration!
Inspiration:
First Dance: Check out the JK wedding here
Check out "The Office" version! here
Reality
We love the "Forever" wedding video on youtube and so we decided to make it as our first dance... with our own spin. The song we chose is the 'Forever' cover by Boyce Avenue. We took dance lessons in December 2009 but the whole choreography was done the night before our wedding. We want a song thats quite familiar with our guests, but not totally boring. The lyrics to Chris Brown's "Forever" is really appropriate for a first dance! 
LAKERS Reference
Darwin wearing Lakers cuff links. We're both BIG Lakers fan! Of course we have to put the Lakers in there somewhere! 
Sex and The City Reference
Me wearing Manolo Blahnik Sedarby d'Orsay. It is the same shoes worn by Carrie Bradshaw on "A Woman's Right to Shoes" (Season 6 Episode 83) when her MB's were stolen at her friend's baby shower. I'm so happy when it was delivered to me earlier than what I expected (click here for my tweet). Thanks to Jack of Manolo Blahnik in Wynn Las Vegas for expediting my order! :)
500 Days of Summer Reference
Our grand entrance song is "Make My Dream Come True" by Hall & Oates which is the OST of the movie. We love that movie so much that our engagement shoot location was also based on it :)
Reference to my Daddy
I'm a bride who will be walking down the aisle without my father, and so we wanted to honor my dad for the ceremony. Some of our guests doesn't know that my dad has passed away so Darwin spoke to the priest before the ceremony and asked him to acknowledge my dad and that we are honoring him with the memorial candle. It was nice that he did that. 
Other Details:
1) Midori sour as the signature drink to be passed around- Our event coordinator at the Marriott mentioned that nobody really consumes the signature drinks during the cocktail hour from her experience. We still insisted on having Midori sour to be passed around. We think it was a big hit! The green color of the drink matches our wedding theme and everyone seems to enjoy picking up a drink in addition to the two open bars that we had set up. 
2) Guest book + Red carpet Photo booth- Our guestbook was leather bound with pictures from our awesome photographer Joy Marie! Many of our guests complimented us on the guestbook! Our photo booth was a big hit for our guests! We incorporated props so that our guests can have fun posing for the camera! I love those "flava flav" pictures :)
3) Bridesmaids gifts: Swarovski heart necklace + Swarovski purse hook. All my bridesmaids were wearing their necklace on our wedding and they all look fabulous!
4) Groomsmen gifts: engraved green iPod shuffle + mini Patron bottle .The green ipod shuffle is perfect for the our "techie" personality and we engraved it with "Mitzi + Darwin 02-20-10". Darwin preloaded each ipod with songs that will be used on our wedding so that our groomsmen can use them right away and even on the drive from the hotel to the church and to the reception. 
6) Principal Sponsor gifts: personalized Choco Love Affair with our monogram and pictures on petit fours.
7) Glowsticks! Darwin thought of ordering glowsticks to add an extra fun factor to the dancing!
8) Picture frame - our photographer sent us an enlarged 16x20 picture of our choice and we had it custom framed at a framing store. The frame came out beautiful with a vintage look and same texture in the background of the photo. 
9) The view at the Marriott Marina Del Rey - Around April 2009, after getting engaged, Darwin and I started planning our wedding. He told me there's 3 locations he wants me to check out and he did it in steps, saving the best for last. We checked out a venue close to the church(Sheraton Universal) with a view of the L.A. valley. Another venue with a beach view (Sheraton Delfina) and finally the Marriott Marina Del Rey! At each location, i thought it was perfect---but he certainly saved the best for last coz' the Marriott was the best out of all of them. It has a breathtaking view of the ocean and the beaches up to Santa Monica. It also has an outside patio where our guests can walk and enjoy the view even more and take pictures. The other venues did not have those patios and you can only look out through a window. I loved it right away and we're sure it could change the whole feel of the wedding coz' of the venue. It was a wow factor. The view was beautiful during the day and night. 
10) "You Make it Real" by James Morrison. This is the song for our "same day edit" video. This song comes from the "He's Just Not That Into You" soundtrack, which is the movie that inspired Darwin to finally propose! (based on the Ben Affleck and Jen Anniston Storyline). Heres our same day edit:
Mitzi + Darwin 2.20.10 from Darwin B on Vimeo.
DIY Projects
My mom helped me in putting together the ceremony program/misalette, menu card and place cards. We always go to crafts stores such as Michael's, Joann's to buy paper, ribbons, ect. and Fedex Kinko's to make copies and to use their paper cutter. Steph and Jon helped me in setting up the candy jar and the money cardbox.
We have 5 menu selection. Choice of Beef, Fish, Chicken, Vegetarian or kid's meal. We put a "stamp" to make it easy for the staff to know our guest's menu selection.
I'm so happy with the outcome of our wedding.. I love weddings!!!
