This is mrsrose2b's Orange Wedding!

Dear brides to be,

I am writing this blog to share some information with you. Do not use Enchanted Gardens florist in Temecula. The girl's name is Kim Camacho. She RUINED my wedding! When I stepped off the bus on my wedding day and was about to walk down the aisle I was in tears when I saw my bouquet and my centerpieces!! They were NOTHING like the sample she gave me. I am currently working with my lawyer to get my money back. I gave her 2 weeks to "review" my pictures and work this out in a friendly manner but she is not responding to my e-mails any more.

After I gave her the $800 deposit I found some HORRIBLE reviews on her on some websites and everything those websites said were also demostrated at my wedding. Now, those reviews that I so kindly told her about are GONE! So this is MY blog and she can't delete what I say so I will keep re posting this until I feel I have reached as many brides as possible. I do not want another girl to through what I went through on my wedding day!

1. She will call you sweetie NON STOP and talk so fast that you can't even understand what she is saying. And the pictures that she shows you are not what you are going to get!

2. She will almost dissapear right after you give your deposit. You will have to hunt her down just to get an updated contract or the pictures that she promised to send you a week ago. (Talk about adding more stress to a stressful situation)

3. She will show up at your wedding looking like a slob - that came from my guests! Wearing shorts that are too short, a knee brace and baggy stained sweatshirts.

4. My grandmother's corsage was DEAD and crispy

5. The dahlias were not even the same that I had picked out

6. My bouquet was half the size of the sample she gave me and I agreed too

7. As you can see from the pictures the centerpieces were NOT what I paid for and agreed too

8. My flower girl did not have a halo.

9. And she didn't even leave me a toss bouquet. I had to throw something that was thrown together at the last minute by a staff member of my venue.

It looked like she threw my reception together in about 10 minutes - literally. I used to have a really nice blog about her but I deleted it for the obvious reasons. BEWARE brides- she told me that she generates a lot of business through Wedding by Color!

-Everything I have said is MY opinion and the opinions of my guests-

Hi Ladies! I haven't been on in so long! Things got so crazy before the wedding! All I have to say is that the time flew by too fast! I'm already married and back from Cabo! The wedding day did not go as planned. We had many dissapointments which I will tell you all about later. I have a few people to talk to first. But anyway, at the end of the day, I'm married and everyone had a blast! I got to see all of the professional pics online today and they are just AMAZING! Our photographer was perfect! If you are a Southern California bride check out Hulse photography! I will post his pics as soon as I get the disc!
I hope everyone is doing well and having good luck with planning! Will post again!

So the picture is similar to the shoes I bought. I can't find a picture of them online but they are Stuart Weitzman, open toe, bridal sandals I guess you would say.. Are you supposed to wear hosiery with open toed heels?? I really wanted some peep toe pumps but I can't find my size any where!! What do you guys think?

Are they really necessary? How many of you are doing both or just picking one maybe? I don't know what to do! I have so much on my mind and the wedding is 25 days away!! Ahhh! I've really ran out of time so I don't know if I should order some and put a rush on them or attempt DIYing them this late in the game.... :( My mom seems to think they are not needed but everything that I've read seems to say otherwise.. We are having a formal sit down dinner and an outdoor ceremony at the same place... Help me please!!

Doesn't that color look amazing on her!! My maid of honor is my best friend Jenna, we've been friends since the 4th grade. We don't really hang out that often because she works on cruise ships and I am living in Toronto but she is the one that introduced Jason and I! I'm getting so excited now!!! 27 days and counting!! So much to do still!!

I LOVE these, found them on ebay but they are 90$!! So I'm going to make it! Not exactly this one but something very similar! Any helpful hints??

I just need to get the candy now! I am going to do something really crazy! One half will be the grooms side, with all of his favorite candy and the colors of his fav. hockey team and then the other half will be my side! I'm going to have lots of gourment popcorn, nuts and some jordan almonds! I can't wait to see it all but together!!

I ended up getting our bands from Diamonds International in Nassau Bahamas! Ladies, it's worth it to go down there and get your rings!! I got such a good price and tax free of course! I love the Bahamas!
Jason's ring is a Tungsten and mine is white gold with 5 diamonds TCW - 1 carat. I LOVE the rings and can't wait for us to be able to wear them!

Well not on the proposal LOL I mean better late then never for me to post about it! My brain is fried from wedding stuff and FH and I aren't speaking at the moment, so why not wright about the happiest day of my life so far!!

Jason and I have been together for almost 2 years. We have done some amazing things together! He took me to Barcelona for 2 weeks early on in our relationship and then he took me to Paris for new years last year! We've gone on a cruise to Jamaica and then I introduced him to my favorite spot! VEGAS! I'm a Southern Californian who has been going to Vegas at least 5 times a year since I was 18! Vegas isn't really his cup of tea but he enjoys it because I do.

So for my 23rd birthday this past April he asked me where I wanted to go and I said Vegas! He got us a room at the Paris, since we had never stayed there before. He also booked us reservations at the restaurant there for my birthday dinner! He had been telling me for a week that he had 3 birthday presents for me. One big one, one medium one and then one small one. I knew something was up because he was acting strange but I didn't know what to think. The morning of my birthday I was so excited that I demanded to open my presents in bed before breakfast! He handed me two gifts and said that he was sorry but the small one got left in his back pack at home so I had to wait until we got back to California so I could get it. I opened the ones I got and I got a blanket and a shirt. I was like ok thank you! Feeling a little bummed we went to breakfast. Then for dinner we got all dressed up and when I saw our table it was covered in rose petals and over looking the Bellagio fountains! I KNEW something was going on when the waiter was grinning ear to ear the whole time. But we ate, dinner, dessert, and had wine and then left! I was like what the hell!! Then he took me down by the fountains, we stood there for so long!! People came and went, I was freezing in my mini dress and my feet were killing me! Jason was figeting none stop and I was like ok what is going on. Then we went in to Bellagio for a drink and on our way back to the hotel we stopped along the walkway behind the fountains. He pulled me to the railing and said I have one more present for you, the small one. And out came this little velvet box!!! He didn't get down on his knee but it was the most perfect moment ever! Even though I was suspicious, nothing could have prepared me for that moment! It was perfect!

I was just registering for gifts online and due to the situation, half the guests are Canadian and half are American, not to mention West coast and East coast, picking stores was not easy. I ended up picking Bed Bath and Beyond and Crate and Barrel. We have pretty much everything but we don't have a lot of decoration or stuff like that so some of the things I registered for are pretty pricey. I tried to have a big variety of prices though.

What kind of stuff did you register for? Average costs? What was your most expensive thing? :)

My most expensive thing is some iron globes which are really neat, they were about 500$ though!!

I can't believe it's 35 days until the big day!! It seems like the last time that I looked at the countdown it said 65 days!! I still have soo much to do!
Just thought I would make a list...

Order candy for candy bar
e-mail the reverend with what we would like said
e-mail the DJ with our song choices
Make programs, menus, and place cards
Make chandelier strands for centerpieces
Register for gifts
Get gifts for parents, grandparents and bridal party!
Find transportation...... yuck....
Go for my trial hair and makeup
Get a block of rooms...
Organize rehearsal dinner
Find a get away outfit
Buy last minute things for decorations
Bathroom baskets
Welcome baskets for out of towners
and make my card box!!!
YIKES!!
I know there is more... I just can't think right now!

Anyone else in panic mode?

haha my cake topper arrived and I am not in California right now so I haven't seen it in person yet!!! My mom said she can't tell that it's an R but then she realized that she was holding it right in front of her face! I was like people will be seeing it from across the room!!! I can't wait to see it, everyone said it is really sparkley!!! YAYE!!

Does anyone have any ideas on how I would go about making a wine barrel?? I thought it would be cute to have a wine barrel covered in corks for my card box but I have no clue where to begin!

Paper mache maybe? or wood? Any ideas??

LOVE them!! I can't wait to see everyone wearing chocolate brown!! All the measurements are in and ready to go! Yaye!

Is anyone else going brown instead of black?

I mailed my invitations out 2 weeks ago, I took them to TWO (2) different post offices to see how much it would cost to send them. BOTH post offices said the US ones will cost .52 and Canada ones will be $1.00. So I bought the stamps and went to mail them and made sure with the guy that everything was ok and he said Yes you are good to go! The next day my grandmother called me to tell me that 20 out of 60 invitations just got returned to her with big red stamps on them saying postage due!!!! So my grandma took them to the post office and they said that the US ones need .40 more cents and the Canada ones needed .04 more cents!! So I was like well what has happened to the rest of the invitations?

We are tracking down every single person and asking them if they received an invitation or not....

Some people have gotten them no problem and a couple people have had to go to the post office and pay the extra postage....

This is so embarrassing!! I just hope this is the only big thing that will go wrong with the wedding... something always happens, right?

Needless to say I didn't have enough time to buy new envelopes and re address every invitation! I'm still so bummed!!!!!! :*(

I went in for my first fitting and I'm so happy that I don't really need much done!! With the slip I don't need anything off the length! I am getting it ready for a bustle and also decided to have the girl turn it into a sweetheart neckline!! I'm so excited!! I was so lucky to also have my flower girl and her mom who is one of my bridesmaids there with me!!

So I have a couple different ideas but I can't decide and I want to order my candy soon!!

Choice 1 - Crazy colors all assorted candy

Choice 2 - All different shades of purple

Choice 3 - Wedding colors, purple, orange, brown, cream

or Choice 4 - I'm surprising my groom with a grooms cake of this fav. hockey team and with a garter with same colors - red, white, and blue so I was thinking of putting the grooms cake on the candy buffet and having all of the candy match the cake!

Where do people usually put the grooms cake?

Please vote!! I need help!! :)

WOW!! What a busy 2 weeks I've had!! FH and I met with the florist, the wedding planner at the winery, the DJ, the tux shop, and we took our engagement photos!!! I'll post them as soon as I get them! The florist gave us a mock up bouquet- which I LOVE! It is EXACTLY what I wanted! And also a centerpiece. I did make a couple of changes to it though. We replaced the orange rose with a milk Gerber with a chocolate brown center and we changed the yellow rose to a Texas yellow which is a deeper yellow! I'm so pleased with everything! I'm getting even more excited now!
What do you guys think?

Well not totally, I went to the eye doc. today to get some more contacts. I was there for 2 and 1/2 hours!! They did all the stuff and then they gave me a trial pair of glasses to try on and I couldn't see anything! Everything was blurry and in doubled.
Then the doc asked if I have been spending a lot of time on the computer.....

Uhhhh DUH! I said I'm planning a wedding, I work on a computer all day and I am a nerd so Yes. I average maybe 8-10 hrs a day on a computer.

So in the end I had to have my eyes dilaited and I walked away with a pair of hot pink computer glasses... The doc. said my eyes were focused for computer reading that is why i was having trouble viewing things far away!
Go figure!!

So if you are have been getting headaches or feel that your eyes are strained and notice a change in your vision, pick up some reading glasses and use them when you are on the computer! Mine are only +1 s but I already notice a difference!

I just ordered my topper from couture toppers! I've been going crazy over this for days and I finally just made up my mind and ordered! I did do the whole DIY breakdown and I figured the $60 I would have saved wasn't worth my sanity! I hate working with little crystals and glue, I'm a bit of a clutz!
I am however, going to order some Hotfix Swarovski flatbacks from Ebay and glue them on to the ribbon for my cake to add some extra bling bling!!
I can't wait to see it!! It will be an "R" not a "G" or whatever that is! Same colors though!!

Seriously, where did it all go? I set my budget really low because I watch all of those bridal shows and 9 times out of 10 the couple goes way over budget. So I figured start low and just expect to go over and then the over amount really won't be as bad as if I set a "real" budget. HA! I was so wrong.... FH and I did a budget worksheet on Excel a few months ago and I have been adding little things here and there and then today I went on to check and actually erase 2,000 from it when I saw what we are already at! We are at 23,000.... But I still need to book, transportation, hair, makeup, and all the "liitle" things. I have no favors, no gifts, no placecards, no envelope box, or even a guest book!! Oops!!
Is anyone else doing as bad as I am??
:*(

This may be a stupid question but I'm a little confused. I travel all the time. I am currently in Toronto but I am an American and I don't even have a Canadian Visa. I always get hasseled at the border and I always get sent to secondary inspection and grilled about my relationship with a Canadian. blah blah blah!! Anyway, just wondering what happens when we fly from Los Angeles to Cabo and then Toronto. My name on my passport will be my maiden name right? So do flights need to be booked in my maiden name or married name? Also, does anyone have any experience crossing into a country after marriage to a citizen of that country? I'm just a little worried that I'm missing something here....

Any information would be so helpful!!!

Ebay has some really neat stuff!! I just bought a garter from garters by Kristi. It is the colors of Jason's favorite hockey team and even has a little charm!! I got 2 garters (one keepsake) for $31.00! Not bad! Check her store out, she has like every sports team, even college! I can't wait for the groom to see it!

Photographer - done!!
I really struggled with the photography thing. I am super picky and I was looking for a certain style. I wanted a photographer that could capture the love and joy, not the crying and serious side,but also has an artistic flare. I love to laugh and smile and have a good time, I needed a photographer to match my energy. I swear, I looked at every photographer's website in southern California. The ones I liked were already booked and all the others were just so so. Yesterday I looked at my preferred vendors list from the winery, again, and I saw Hulse Photography... hmmmm... I must have missed him. So I googled him and went on his blog. WOW!! Exactly the style I was looking for! He has slideshows of a couple weddings from the winery we are getting married at and I sat there crying as I watched! I can't believe that in a few short months I will be the one being photographed! I e-mailed him right away and to my surprise he was not booked for Nov 1!!
They will be sending me the contract today!! I'm so happy!!


http://hulsephoto.typepad.com/hulsephoto/2008/04/falkner-weddi-1.html

I've been going back and forth now for a few months... 1st I wanted to give handmade cork ornaments, then I wanted a smore bar, then a candy bar, and then a PHOTOBOOTH (which was axed by Jason that day) and now I am IN LOVE with Chocolate menus!!!! I found them on the knot and I talked to the lady yesterday on the phone. They are 100% custom, you can get any color, any monogram, any border, any font and even add photos! Just like invitations you get 2 proofs before you sign off on the final! The company is called candy art usa. They start at $6.00 each and can go up to $15+. The size I like is about $9.... I think that it is 51/2 by 31/2...
This would eliminate the candy bar and the printed menus so maybe it's worth it!
What do you guys think?

We are getting a really really good deal on this all inclusive place, it's called Riu. Our friend who introduced us works in Cabo a lot so he is getting us his corporate rate! He is also buying our airfare!! yaye!! He flys all the time, all over the place so he has millions of points racked up! We are so excited about going to Cabo! We've both been all over Mexico but neither one of us have ever been to Cabo! I can't wait for the swim up bar!! Where is everyone else going?

I LOVE the idea of having a slideshow at the reception but it is causing a ton of problems. My fiance and his bro (best man) think that we are getting ripped off by the Dj for the rental of equipment and "montage fee" of 75 cents a photo.... we already booked the Dj and I've used him for parties before and I know he is good. Also, has anyone ever heard of a power point show to go along with a toast?? I don't want my wedding to turn into a conference hall!!!! aaaahhhh
I want a slideshow but I don't think that it needs to go on all night long with 1,000 different pics.... what do you guys think?

** UPDATE **
I decided to order my invites!! I ended up changing my mind a couple of hundred times making a ton of different samples. I realized that if I try to do these myself I will NEVER get them done. There is always room for improvement right?! So I'm ordering from The Green Kangaroo. I will be spending $300 more then if I did them myself, but my sanity is worth much more than that!

So here it is! I think I will go with the brown folder, diamond sparkle paper and maybe dark purple accents.. I haven't gotten that far yet! :)
What do you think?

DIY
FI doesn't like metallic paper but I LOVE it so we are trying a few different options! Tell me what you guys think! We are also thinking of adding a picture of us onto the pocket... please disregard my uneven cutting, I don't have a paper cutter yet and I have terrible glue! Inserts were done with a pencil because I was too lazy to try and print them! :)

So my mom has decided to buy the bridesmaid dresses and flower girl dress. I haven't told my girls yet but I'm know they will be thrilled. So my question is, what do I ask them to pay for? Who pays for their hair and makeup? Shoes? Jewelry? Originally I wanted to give them earrings but know I'm not sure it's in the budget! Any suggestions?

I can't decide what to do for invitations... I'm running out of time to make a decision!! I bought these from Michaels but have had nightmares about them so I would like to do something else... I really really want to make my own but I don't even know where to begin! I would love to have them professionally done but it is expensive!! I am going to try and get to a paper store this week and get some ideas!! Has anyone else bought these from Michaels? If you are making yours, how did you find the design?