Real Weddings Update

Today I have a quaint wedding to share with you. Laura and Chris were married by Reverend Rodney Shim at Waialae Beach Park on March 9, 2008. Take a look:


(click on photo to enlarge)

Photography by Kai-Photo

Cocktail Favor Boxes

Wedding Favors are meant to be a Thank You gift for your guests who spent time, money and energy in celebrating your wedding day. This is especially true for destination weddings where your guests travel hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles away from home to come to come to your event. I say ditch the Jordan Almonds and go for something a little more thoughtful when it comes to favors.

In the case of Hawaiian destination weddings, I like to use something that will introduce your guests to the islands. The example below is a Hawaiian Cocktail in a box - everything you need to make a Blue Hawaii. The packaging is Hawaiian Lauhala, a woven basket-like material that comes in all sizes of boxes and bags. Also notice the personalized tags from www.myweddinglabels.com. Favors like these are fun to create and much more fun for your guests to receive.

DIY Save-the-Date cards

Today, I have an adorable DIY to share - created by a bride and groom who will be getting married here on Oahu at Moli'i Gardens in September.

Melissa and Danny live in San Jose, CA and they will have many out-of-town guests traveling to Hawaii to come to their wedding. Instead of sending traditional save-the-date cards, they sent luggage tags to their guests for a practical and trendy alternative.

How did they do it? This is how:

- Found a nice picture and lightened it a bit so the black text would stand out
- Downloaded fonts from www.1001freefonts.com
- Finalized the layout (front and back)
- Chose ribbon
- Ordered the color print + laminate job + cuts from a local print shop (San Jose Blue)
- Cut the rounded corners themselves with a corner cut punch and punched the corner holes
- Measured and cut all the ribbons in advance






These save-the-dates are extremely versatile and cost-effective! Any picture, any mood can be created. All you need is a whole punch, a computer, and some creativity.

Wedding Cakes from Cakes by Rose

Continuing with the bridal show fun, today I just have to share with you the wedding cake that could possibly be the best cake I have ever eaten. I had the pleasure of working next to the very talented Rose, from Cakes By Rose at the San Jose Bridal Extravaganza. I think I ate about five of her delicious little samples last Sunday. The cakes are beautiful on the outside, and they absolutely melt in your mouth with a variety of unique flavors and ingredients that aren’t typical of wedding bakers.

Cakes By Rose is based out of Menlo Park, CA and serves the entire San Francisco Bay Area. She does incredible design with fondant icing including extravagant and whimsical cakes in all different colors, shapes and sizes. Flavors include: Lemony Blackberry, Almondine, Hazelnut Crunch, Hawaiian Carrot, Strawberry Dream, and more. Just read the descriptions of these flavors and your mouth will be watering, trust me.

These are only a few of her lovely cakes, so browse the Cakes by Rose website and prepare to be impressed (and hungry).











Pictures by Rose Graboski, Cakes By Rose

Marizette Paperie Invitation Boutique

As promised, I will be featuring a few awesome wedding vendors from the Northern California region this week.

First, I absolutely fell in love with the stationery from Marizette Paperie Invitation Boutique in San Jose, CA. These invitations are a perfect mix of class and charm. They are made with fine exotic papers and embellished with an array of accessories. Each invitation is designed specifically for the couple for a perfectly personalized stationery set. These few pictures are only a glimpse of the variety that Marizette offers.

These invitations are absolutely beautiful and unique. They start at $5.00 each and can reach $25.00 each based on the complexity of design and the price of materials.

If you live in the San Jose area, or just appreciate the beauty of these little works of art, check out the Marizette Paperie website and browse through their collection!

Here's a taste of what you will find:









Invitations and designs by Marizette Paperie Invitation Boutique

Northern California Bridal Shows

Sandra and I have spent the last week in Northern California with Oahu Wedding. We participated in the Bridal Extravaganza in San Jose, CA and the Bridal and Party Faire in San Ramon, CA. We displayed pictures taken by Josh Johnson as well as venue pictures of Anela Gardens in Honolulu, and tropical flower arrangements.

It was a great experience and I was extremely impressed with all the great ideas of other vendors in the area. I will have a few great Bay Area vendors to showcase in the next few days! Check up tomorrow for great ideas from the California wedding market!

Josh Johnson Wedding Photography

Recently, we have been doing some major renovations on our website. I will have a lot more to let you in on when we begin uploading the new stuff, but for now, I want to talk about our brilliant photographer, Josh Johnson. In the midst of all the online and advertizing work, we have had to put together photographs and organize files of stuff that we have had for a while and hadn't put to use.

I recently made a few collages for the website and other things from Josh's pictures. I just want to take today to showcase the wonderful work shown here by Josh. He is such a brilliant artist. He catches the tiniest, yet most perfect glances and moments between couples, and the color in each shot is just amazing. Take a look at some of these photos from Josh's beautiful portfolio:


Bottom right picture by Anela Gardens