{wedding week}: Pro Pictures!

And it's a wrap! Today marks the end of wedding week and I really hope you
all enjoyed it. It seems like you all did from the results on my latest poll
and that makes me immensely happy. I'm always worried this blog is boring and
that no one is reading, but seeing people actually voting (& positively at that!)
has definitely given me an ego boost in regards to my little space in the
blogosphere!

Anyways, back to my final wedding related post:
My wedding day was absolutely fantastic. I could not have asked for a better
day/night. I wish I could relive it over and over again. It was so full of love
and happiness, which in reality is all you need in life. I hope these pictures
reflect all the wonderful emotions we felt that day as well as the love that
Augi and I share with one another. It really is so special and I feel so lucky
to be married to my best friend and the most amazing man in my little universe.

This has been the most wonderful year and I cannot wait for all the rest to come!!!
We ship out Sunday morning to celebrate no longer being newlyweds (or are we still?)
on our Southern Caribbean cruise and will definitely return with stories, pictures,
and your basic regularly scheduled Meli-isms.

See you then!
♥


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
*All photo credits go to Maloman Photographers.

{wedding week}: Rehearsal Dinner

I remember how surreal the day/night of my rehearsal dinner was. I
could not believe that my wedding was that weekend. All our family
and friends were in town, we were running around doing last minute
errands and I was trying my best not to freak out! Actually, I was
pretty proud of myself for being so mellow (something I am usually
not).

The weather was amazing - very cool, breezy and sunny. I couldn't
have asked for better weather for an outdoor wedding.


Being a ham.


Although I was trying my best to be a goofball during this practice
down the aisle, inside I could not believe it was happening after TWO
years of planning.

Quickly after rehearsal, we headed to my father-in-law's home, where
both my in-laws were hosting the dinner. When I walked in through the
door, I was blown away. I don't know how many times I just gasped and
thanked them over and over again. The decor was stunning, everyone
commented that we should get married right there because everything
looked amazing!


Gorgeous table set up's with photo votives of us through the years!


Another shot of the longer tables.


The lounge area - cool or what???


The flying V groom's cake I ordered for Augi - how awesome did it turn
out? It was the hit of the party!


My gorgeous bridesmaids!


My gorgeous hubby-to-be! ;)

{wedding week}: Details!

Well, I think it's pretty obvious that I tend to focus on the details when
planning something from my previous posts, so I decided to give my wedding
details their own personal wedding week post!

The hubs and I did a lot of DIY projects throughout the course of our
wedding planning and although it was very stressful and tiring, I wouldn't
have had it any other way! We were able to personalize our wedding in a way
that would have been impossible with store bought items.

So without further ado, here were my glorious details:


Both his&hers CD favors with our favorite love songs.


Our menu's that the hubs designed and we printed ourselves.


MR & MRS letters that I bought and painted from Michael's for our sweetheart
table.


Our placecards that we also designed and printed ourselves.


Our ceremony programs that again, we designed and printed.


Petal cones that I put together myself so we could get pretty pretty petals
slapped in our faces ;)


Quite possibly my favorite detail: our guitar sign-in. Since my hubs is a
musician and we are both huge music fans, we figured it would be fitting.
The best part is that this was a wedding gift his mother gave his father on
their wedding day. It was a perfect way to retire it.

{wedding week}: Bridal Shower

I really really enjoy throwing parties. If you know me personally,
this is something you cannot deny. I love being around people, I love
making them happy and I just really really enjoy social events (with
people I like, of course). However, "showers" always turn me off. I
am not the girly type that enjoys opening present over present in front
of a crowd "ooooing" and "ahhhing." And don't get me started on stupid
games. So when it came time to plan my bridal shower, I wanted something
different.

I know it is not very traditional for the bride to plan her own bridal
shower, but I did. And I'm so glad I did. I was in control and I loved
it! I decided to have it at my father-in-law's amazing Italian restaurant
and kept the guest list under 30 to make it more intimate. I worked very
hard on making the afternoon very special and unique mostly due to all my
little details to fit my flower theme.



Delicious menu choices :)



Personalized Jello injectors - a family tradition.



Flower box favors with yummy M&M's inside.



Flowered guava cupcakes that were oh-so-delish!



My gorgeous centerpieces!



A wish bowl set-up for guests to leave me their well wishes.



A scrapbook of Augi & I's relationship made by my sister.


A very un-cheesy game of Meli Trivia!

All photos courtesy of Studio By Carmen.

{wedding week}: Decor

I scoured through many magazines, Knot bio's and watched plenty of
wedding shows during my engagement just to get some sort of idea of
the look I wanted to achieve for my own big day.

We went through various color schemes before deciding on light pink
and chocolate brown as our palette for the wedding.



It wasn't long after that we decided on a "look" for our wedding. We
are both not very flashy people and really liked the whole Asian
minimalistic feel that I kept spotting around my wedding blogs. Plus
I loved the juxtaposition of an extremely modern wedding at a historical
ancient venue.

These were our inspiration photos:

{wedding week}: "The Look"

Every bride knows that the best part of planning a wedding is getting
to go shopping for your gorgeous gown and I was no exception! Probably
a month after I got engaged, I started shopping with my fabulous
girlfriends. I knew I was ridiculous, but I didn't care. I love shopping,
I love fashion, so this was a dream come true. I tried on so many
ridiculously beautiful gowns (and ridiculously horrible ones) before
choosing "the one" at Chic Parisien on Miracle Mile, a very
popular wedding dress destination.

As I was walking around the store, the saleswoman kept grabbing all these
dresses she thought fit "my style," but as I passed by another bride
looking at herself in the mirror, I couldn't tear my eyes away from her
beautiful gown.
"I want to try on that one."

And the rest as they say, was history.



She was Monique Lhuillier's Nadia and she was stunning. I felt like a
princess yet still like me, which fit the feel I wanted to acheive.


I added an oatmeal colored sash and a gorgeous crystal and pearl brooch,
which was a gift from my mother to complete the outfit.

And finally to complete the entire bridal look, I wanted a loose and messy
updo with dramatic eyes and pale lips. These were my inspiration photos:



The final look the day of the wedding couldn't have come together more
perfectly had I tried! My hairdresser is always extremely talented, but I
felt like that day she had sprinkled some special fairy dust on those magic
hands of hers! My hair was truly a work of art.





And my gown was more gorgeous than I had remembered. Unfortunately, I have no real
bridal portraits to speak of from my wedding day, which is a bummer, but my hubs
reminds me every day of how beautiful I looked on November 17th and every day
that has followed.

{wedding week}: The Venue

So to celebrate the week leading up to our one year (!!!) wedding anniversary,
I decided to take a page in the book of Bryn, one of my favorite all-around bloggers. I will
be posting little tidbits and details from our November 17th, 2007 wedding
as the week progresses and before we head out for our Caribbean cruise!

I had to start with our amazingly gorgeous venue, The Ancient Spanish Monastery.
There was no way I was going to say no to this place! Ever since I was a little
girl I dreamed of getting married at the monastery. It was so beautiful and
different. It didn't feel like you were in Miami and that would probably
be because the monastery was relocated in wooden crates and rebuilt stone by
stone in the 1950's. The place is amazing.

Only a few short weeks after our engagement in late 2005, I hightailed it over
to the monastery to book a date. They were not available until 2007! I could not
believe it. I had to decide whether to get married on a Sunday or to make our
engagement a very long one. After sitting down with the hubs, we decided to wait
it out and booked a date in late 2007: November 17th to be exact. The monastery
was definitely more popular than I thought!

The day of the wedding, I couldn't have asked for a better setting. All our guests
raved that they did not feel like they were in the United States, much less Florida!
I did not do any uplighting or any heavy decor (I'll go into that later), I thought
the venue was beautiful on its own and did not need to be cluttered. And I think it
worked out perfectly!


We had our reception in the Cloisters.

And our ceremony outside at the stunning and underrated Loggia.

And here's what to expect for the rest of {wedding week}:
Today/Day 1 - Venue
Day 2 - "The Look"
Day 3 - Decor
Day 4 - Bridal Shower
Day 5 - Details
Day 6 - Rehearsal Dinner
Day 7 - Pro Pictures

After a hiatus

I am back!
OK, so I didn't mention said hiatus, but I decided to take one because things were busy busy. I have decided that I am becoming more and more like my husband in that I am acquiring all these new hobbies and I just can't keep up!

- blogging
- digital scrapbooking
- project 365
- new PS3 (not a hobby but definitely a distraction)

OK, so that's not so many but paired with working full time, constantly checking in on my thesis process, registering for school (again!) for the spring semester and an always buzzing social life, I am wiped out! Plus the Holidays are coming. Ugh, how I dread Christmas.

The good news is that we will be celebrating our first year of marriage in exactly 2 weeks from today! Unbelievable! I remember our wedding day like it was just yesterday...and because of that, I will be posting random details from our wedding on the blog until we leave on our anniversary cruise next weekend!

And so I leave my readers with something worthwhile, I recommend all of you check out this extremely talented musician: Santogold.



She reminds me of someone in between MIA and Gwen Stefani, which of course equals brilliance. I've enjoyed listening to her self-titled CD for a couple of weeks now while driving with my windows down. Is there really anything better in life than love, music and sunshine? I don't think so.

Have a kick a** week!
♥

Still Motion

I can say with every fiber of my being that I completely and utterly love my wedding video. I have sang its praises on this blog before. I just really really love it. I could probably watch it every day and not tire of it.

But with that said, I stumbled upon this ridiculously talented videographer via a post on The Knot and was blown away. There are really no words to describe this team's work. Let's just say that I wish I could get married again just so I could book Still Motion. They come with a hefty price tag, but I've never seen something that is so worth the big bucks.

While scouring their blog, make sure to check out their tribute to The Beastie Boy's Sabotage using a wedding party's groomsmen. Flipping genius.

These are two of my favorites (so far):


Jess + Ryan's Highlights from StillMotion on Vimeo.


Cheryl + Andrew's SDE - Vancouver from StillMotion on Vimeo.

Trashin'

On Sunday, the hubs and I will finally be doing our Trash the Dress photoshoot with our favorite local photographer, Studio by Carmen. She did my boudoir photos as well as my bridal shower photos and I couldn't love her more. She's just an amazing person with great ideas that makes you feel so comfortable in front of a camera. I am extremely excited.

For those of you that don't know what a Trash the Dress shoot is, it is a photoshoot where the bride gets her dress dirty, wet or destroyed - based on the level of trashing you may wish to partake in. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), I will not be using my actual dress as it was a Monique Lhuillier and I just can't bear myself to do that to a gorgeous ML gown. Plus, I'm still trying my best to sell it, which is proving to be very difficult. So I bought an affordable dress a few months ago from my favorite store in the world, Target. You can never go wrong with Tar-jay, my friends.

We are shooting at Crandon Beach, which is located in Key Biscayne. I didn't pick it that much for the beach as for the surrounding areas. There are gardens that used to be the site for the old Miami Zoo, which is covered in vintage animal cages. Can you say cool? Also, there is a fun kids' playing area and a roller rink. Finally, the best part of it is a carousel!

With our 4:30pm meet time, I hope we have enough time to get all the shots I have imagined! I'll definitely share them with you on the blog once we get some teasers back. Pray for good weather and clean water!!!

Have a great weekend, everyone :)

Wedding Movie

My fabulous videographer, Artistry Wedding Films, sent me a link to my wedding movie this afternoon. I was warned not to watch it until my DVD arrives tomorrow, but I have no self control. I saw the email on my iphone while driving home and sped the rest of the way to park myself in front of my computer and watch.

I was definitely not disappointed. The video is freaking a-ma-zing. It managed to capture the exact emotions I felt that day, but had forgotten. It was great to see all the special people in our lives and their reactions to our day. Little things like guests laughing at what we had written in our programs about the bridal party, parents crying during the ceremony and people really getting down and dirty on the dance floor.

It was just such a special day and I realized that it really was the happiest day of my life so far. Everything I felt that day was so amplified - my little heart was filled with so much love. For all those brides-to-be reading this blog, I can honestly say without any doubt in my heart that it is worth all the stress. Trust me.

And without further ado, I present my wedding movie. I warn you, it is about 40 minutes long, so get comfortable.

http://wms3.streamhoster.com/artistry/Meli&AugiMovie2.wmv

Back in Black!

I'm back!!!!
We had a great time in Virginia, even though I'm pretty sure we spent the majority of our trip traveling in some way either by car or plane. The wedding was absolutely spectacular and very romantic. Congratulations to Mel and Bill!



Ever since arriving back, I've been catching up on my online life (very tiring) of blogs, facebook and gmail. Upon beginning my music updates, I stumbled upon this little enticing tidbit on Blamo, my favorite Smashing Pumpkins fansite:

To celebrate the band's 20th anniversary, The Smashing Pumpkins will be playing select U.S. cities in August and September of 2008.

No dates or cities have been announced but expect the band to revisit a few specific places that were missed during the last U.S. tour...

Could Miami be one of these mystery tour dates? I certainly hope so. I am still getting over my pain when the festival the Pumpkins were headlining down here in Miami was postponed indefinitely and then canceled altogether. That was not a pretty day in the world of Meli.

I'm still patiently waiting for Corgan and crew to make their way down here again, but dammit Billy, you are pissing me off so lets get to it!

Happy Memorial Weekend!

There's nothing like a 3 day weekend!
Hope you all have an amazing time and please don't do anything I wouldn't. ;)

The hubs and I are flying into Washington, DC tomorrow morning with friends to attend a good friend's wedding in Virginia. Unfortunately, we are leaving on Sunday so we won't be able to do much sightseeing, but it should be a good time with close friends and beautiful scenery.



Congrats to the soon to be Mr. and Mrs.!

I need to move on.

Is it weird to be obsessed with a wedding dress after you've been married for 5 months?
OK, I know the answer to that question, but this little number has been taunting me every time I log into The Knot. Isn't it beautiful?

It's so vintage glam - totally up my alley. Too bad I won't need a formal gown again until my unborn children get married.

Damn.