misadventures in wedding planning

Where to find me now

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:09:00 +0000

Apparently this site gets an average of 134 visits a day! That's more than all of my blogs combined. I wish I still had fun and silly adventures to post on this blog, but alas, my misadventures in wedding planning have come to an end.

Right now I find myself happily married for, going on, my 2nd year. My thoughts so far on marriage can be found on this post in my regular blog Funk in Deep Freeze. But to sum it up over here, I'll pull a quote from that post...

"...Along with the repetition of 'how’s married life,' people always say 'the first year of marriage is the hardest.' But that must not always be the case! Because the thing is, nothing has really changed for us. ...the fact is Aaron and I both entered into this marriage knowing and agreeing with what each other wanted and expected from it, which has made all the difference.

"Of course year one of marriage hasn’t always been sunshine, lollipops and rainbows everyday. We’ve had rough patches and fights for no reason and fights for good reason. But those times have been few and far between. For the most part being married has brought us closer than I ever thought possible and it has actually made our lives easier!

"So, my thoughts on marriage so far… it’s pretty damn awesome."

If you're still hankering for fun wedding planning goodness, you can also find my at my new job, which I'm super proud of and lucky to have, Managing Editor of Offbeat Bride. I mostly post bride profiles and nerdy wedding content, but I also write posts like 17 wedding bouquet alternatives for fearless brides and, my personal favorite, Torture-free wedding showers.

So, yeah, hopefully this wedding planning blog has helped some of it's 134 daily visitors. Thanks for reading and being interested in all the misadventures. And be sure to check out Offbeat Bride and Funk in Deep Freeze for more Megan-related material. :)

How We Spent Our Wedding Night...

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:14:00 +0000

It's no secret that Aaron and I spent our wedding night at the Best Man's condo instead of our room at the Four Seasons. It is also no secret that we both passed out on the floor of said Best Man's condo. It is also no secret that I was the first one to pass out on the floor in my wedding dress- NOT from drunkenness, but from shear exhaustion. I was just one tired bride with no energy left to drive to our hotel and go through the whole check-in process. Knowing this Aaron just changed out of his suit and laid down on the floor and fell asleep with me- nose to nose. I have a faint memory of this.

Recently Aaron's Best Man, Daren, sent me the photo he took with is cellphone of us sleeping on his floor and it's the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life...

our wedding night.

"Something Blue" photo inspiration board

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 03:39:00 +0000

So... I think this one is now my favorite...

I have two shoe choices in this one. I'm partial to the blue chucks but then those "Sailor Jerry" leopard print shoes
are kind of awesome too!!! The birdcage veil and flower combo thing can be worn together or separately to make for some different looks. And then that bridge in the picture is in Downtown LA behind Aaron's rehearsal space. it's complete with awesome graffiti and train tracks which would make for some really cool backdrops.

Sigh, I just don't know.

And I still haven't found a photographer yet.

Classic 1950's photo shoot idea

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 20:33:00 +0000

Ok. So this is my "classic 50's style" photo shoot inspiration board. The dress is from

The dress is from the 1950s, I found it at PoshGirlVintage.com, but it was already sold or else I'd snatch it up. The cute girl in the veil and the black & white photo I found on Off Beat Bride. She TOTALLY inspired this idea, including the cute all white pumps. I figured Aaron and I could grab our pitbull Jackson and do some awesome shots with my grandpa's red 1957 Ford.

The Mod wedding dress inspiration board

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 08:44:00 +0000

Okay, I'm putting inspiration boards together using the 3 dresses that I blogged about in my previous post (and maybe more dresses if I find them). I'm hoping that maybe an awesome photographer out there will see these and get inspired to do a free shoot just to have this in their portfolio! ;) So here we go...

The dress is from Timeless Vixen and inspired this whole thing. The awesome vintage blue suede shoes from the 1950s. The birdcage veil is from Sposabella. It's kinda Jackie-O-fabulous. I just found this cool polaroid of a guy in a mod-looking suit. I think Aaron would look super sexy in that outfit. And now you're asking yourself, what the heck is with that Volkswagon!? Well, my grandparents have one exactly like that and in that color. I'm thinking that it would be super cool to take pictures with. Am I right?

What do you guys think of this board?

it's official!

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:52:00 +0000

our marriage license came today!!! The name change begins in earnest after the holidays. :)

the search for the fake wedding dress!

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:45:00 +0000

The fun part about entertaining the idea of an after-wedding photo shoot is picking out a new "wedding dress." Since I don't envision the shoot being at a crappy beach in LA, and since I stopped busting my ass at a personal trainer, and since the bottom of my actual wedding dress is completely trashed with salt water, sand and red dirt, I thought I should buy a different dress for the new shoot. I'm thinking vintage, tea length and cheap. Something like these dresses...

This dress pretty much typifies the kind of look I'm going for. It's a 1950's White Tea Length Wedding / Party Dress from Posh Girl Vintage. And I'd buy it in a heartbeat... if it wasn't sold already.

This one is pretty damn amazing. It's from Timeless Vixen and it's currently still for sale. It's about $200 more than I'd want to spend though. But still, it's kind of awesome and it has that "something blue" built in.

This one is my favorite though for some reason. It's a white taffeta dress from Timeless Vixen and the price is PERFECT! I'm just not sure how this would look on me. It might look a little strange.

But I just don't know!!! Arg. I need advice.

After-Wedding Photo Shoot inspiration

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 04:35:00 +0000

My good friend (and ex-boyfriend) Billy got married this past September. He's one of the 3 friends of mine that got married this year! He and his wife are lucky enough to be good friends with one of the most amazing wedding photographers in the area- Jasmine Star. Un-luckily enough for them she was unavailable to shoot their actual wedding. But then luckily enough for them again she offered to do an after-the-wedding photo shoot that produced pictures so beautiful I wanted to kill everyone involved out of jealousy...

Amazing right? Aaron and I don't have photos like these. I went through our photos recently and realized that there aren't any photos that documents me as a bride looking beautiful in my wedding dress and awesome orange shoes. There's only ONE photo of me and Aaron that captures the romance of us as "bride and groom." It's the one that my MOH took and you can't see our faces. But I would LOVE have photos like these that capture us as a "bride and groom" that aren't forced and unnatural, like when our photographer tried to force us into cheesy poses. Somehow Jasmine got Billy and Natalie to pose but it feels right and looks great. I want that!!!

So here's where I'm going with this... I'm thinking of doing an after-wedding shoot. It took me a while, but I finally got up the courage to ask Aaron if he would be willing to go along with the idea. He fought it at first, but when I showed him the pictures of Billy & Natalie he understood. And he said he's on board! But I have to do all the work.

Now I just need to find a photographer that I can afford. Any ideas out there??? Keep in mind that I'm unemployed.

misadventures in wedding photography

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:11:00 +0000

I've had this on the back-burner FOREVER because my mother said I couldn't write bad shit about the wedding photographer. But since he still hasn't completed everything our parents paid for, I'm publishing it now....

So mom hired this photographer to shoot our wedding. He was AWFUL. During the wedding he was so awful that he was pissing me off. After the wedding we found his pictures to be so bad that we laughed our asses off one night. Now that some time has gone by and I've seen all the pictures from most of the people that were there I am getting angry again. Friends and family who happen to have cameras captured some of the moments after the wedding even better than the photographer that we paid thousands of dollars!!!

Let's play "who captured it better"...

photographer A or Photographer B

Did you say B? Me too! And Photographer A was the guy my mom hired. AND he was the one that suggested Aaron pick me up! Why!? So he could take a picture that looks like Aaron's giving me a very awkward hug!? If you're going to frame the photo like that, why have him pick me up at all? And that island in the background looks like a lump growing out of Aaron's head. Did he not notices that? It's called "being aware of the background" guy.

Photographer A:

or Photographer B.

Hmmm. I chose B. Picture A looks like Aaron's regurgitating food and I'm eating it out of his

beak baby bird style. Or it looks like our faces are melting into each other. Either way, it's not flattering. When looking over the photos that Photographer B took she told me that she was wondering why Photographer A was taking a picture of you guys with the sun right between us when the sun setting to the left of us looked so beautiful. But I have to give a little thanks to Photog A for setting this shot up. If he wasn't making me so angry, Aaron would never had started slow dancing with me on the beach to try and make me smile. Of course Photog A didn't take a picture of this, he was too busy trying to make us fake kiss each other in an attempt to make (and I quote) "the sun burst between your lips." Yikes.

Photographer A or Photographer B

Who is that couple in Photo A? You mean the ones awkwardly walking down the beach, taking a step and looking at each other, then taking another step and looking at the ocean, then taking another step and kissing each other? And trying really hard to coordinate these steps while wearing wet wedding clothes and walking on sand and holding hands? Yeah, that couple. I don't know, let's look at Photo B to find out... Oh! It's Aaron and Megan of course, aren't they funny. Look how well their personality comes out in Photo B. And they aren't doing anything fake. FYI photographers- that's always a good photo op, a natural and happy couple.

Photographer A:

or Photographer B.

Um, yes, hi, I have a question Photographer A- Why is the ocean above us? And also where are our feet? Phew, no worries, Photographer B found our feet for us, and also put the Earth back on it's proper axis apparently. Thanks Photographer B.

Photographer A or Photographer B

Now these photos were taken at the exact same moment and yet it looks like two completely different experiences. And Photo B is one of my most favorite photos from the entire wedding. Photo A is actually not a terrible photo but it looks like Aaron's trying to crush me to death, and the angle is one in which I have to crane my neck and look out the corner of my eyes to smile at the photographer. Photographer B positioned herself in such a way that it looks like Aaron and I are the happiest (and only) people on the planet. Plus look how amazing the sky is, it makes a much better background than tourists in bathing suits.

Photographer A or Photographer B

This one makes me laugh every time. Photographer A just wrote our names in the sand and then apparently messed u pon what year it was? I don't know. And then just took a picture of our names. Photographer B, getting the idea from Photographer A, wrote "Megan & Aaron" which made more sense and then took a picture of the beach on which we got married. Yeah, I think i'm going with B on this one.

And finally... the man kept telling us to NOT SMILE! WTF!? Who tells a bride and groom on their wedding day to not smile.

smile v. no smile

In the second picture I'm telling Aaron and I'm about to kill our photographer in 2.5 seconds if he tells me not to smile again.

AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

my wedding inspiration board

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 20:51:00 +0000

It's a little late for it, but I put together an inspiration board for my wedding anyway-

please make all checks payable to "Megan Finley"

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:28:00 +0000

I am officially "Megan Finley" at my bank!

I recently had a check made out to my married name and that sorta' freaked me out because I haven't gotten my name changed yet. The official marriage license doesn't come for like 150 days after we got married and I have a little more than 100 days to go!

But apparently it's acceptable to bring a copy of your marriage license to the bank. (Just in case, they needed more proof I was armed with our wedding pictures and a link to our registry.) I was not only was able to cash the check but the lady also officially changed my name for me!

1 name change down - 150 billion to go.

NEW wedding pictures from my m.o.h. AMY!

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:25:00 +0000

My best friend and co-Maid of Honor, Amy, is a very talented lady. She's an wonderful friend, incredible cook and AMAZING photographer! (She's actually the one that inspired me to try my hand at photography which is now my favorite thing in the world.) So it wouldn't be surprising that even though she was busy being IN the wedding, she actually took some of the most amazing pictures of the wedding. My favorite thing about her photos is that they capture us as a couple perfectly. She caught the goofy-but-so-very-loving side of us that none of the other photographers really captured.

Check out the awesomeness that is Amy's amazing wedding photography...

my favorite photo EVER!

My NEW Maui Wedding blog

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:00:00 +0000

It's official, I am obsessed with Maui weddings. And since my brain is filled with so many useful facts and tips on planning one, I've started a new blog about- you guessed it- planning a Maui wedding.

It's called My Maui Wedding - "Local Style" and it's all about how to plan a wedding doing what I did, using almost all local products from the invitations to the favors to the photographer. It encourages the future Maui bride to help support the local economy and at the same time save tons of money on shipping! Plus it pretty much makes planning a wedding on Maui from a remote location super simple. :)

Blogger is a little less dead to me now

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:58:00 +0000

So I figured it out!! I spent all night fighting with Blogger- went through all the 5 steps of grieving it felt like. I was in denial thinking, no this can't be, why would Blogger be this much of a punk!? Then I was angry, furious, cursing my wretched fate of not ever being able to check my email and blog at the same time. Of course I thought about emailing Blogger and begging them to let me change my email address, don't they understand that I'm married now, it's not my fault! Then depression set it and I put myself to bed. And I was ready to accept it this morning when I had a brilliant idea!

Well, I have to give a little credit to my buddy Sabrina over at the Introverted Bride, her comment on my last post sparked a crazy little idea in my head...

Now pay attention newly married bloggers, this could help you out when you "make the change."

From my old email address, I invited myself to be a member of Misadventures in Wedding planning! Then signed on to my new email address and accepted the invitation. Now the Misadventures shows up on my dashboard under my new email!!!! OH HAPPY DAY!!!

Oh wow, I just had deja vu.

Anyway, the crappy part is that if I want to erase a comment or do anything more than just post I have to undertake the Hurculean task of signing out and then signing back in again to do so. See? This is why I said "a little less" dead to me, Blogger.

good one, Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:22:00 +0000

So I changed my email address to have my new last name, which I've been dying to do! But I'm soooooo annoyed that I can't transfer over this blog to my NEW gmail account. Soooo freaking lame. Thanks a LOT Blogger. Way to make it even harder on us newly married chicks. Guess I should have just contacted a psychic 7 years ago when I opened a gmail account and found out what my last name was eventually going to be for the rest of my life. Or maybe I just shouldn't have started a blog until after I got married so that I could have all my online activities on one account. Boooo.

I don't know, I guess that it's not that big of a deal, but it the principle of the thing, ya know?

Happy Time Wedding Day Beach Day

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:45:00 +0000

There are several reasons that I look so happy in the picture to the left. One reason is because it was taken on the morning of our wedding. This is us right after waking up on the happiest day of our lives. Another reason that I'm smiling is because Aaron was going to make sure that I had my first stress free day since i arrived on Maui....

Every day leading up to the wedding I was just getting more and more stressed out. There seemed like there was NO END to the things that I needed to get done. When I finally let it all out in a mad-woman rant it was the night before our wedding. I went off to Aaron and his best man about how stressed I was and how I wasn't even enjoying myself at all and how having a wedding was the worst idea I'd EVER had. So Aaron, deeply upset that his lovely bride was so miserable during her wedding festivities, took it upon himself to plan a day of fun and NO STRESS for me. He decided that the next day, the day of our wedding, I was going to have an amazing day.

And how did he do this? Two ways- getting me to write a list of rules for everyone to follow on the day of the wedding. (The only one I remember anymore is "No one asks me any questions." lol.) And the other way to reduce my stress was to plan a fun beach day.

the bride & groom hours before the wedding

So hours before our wedding we called up all our friends and had them meet us at our favorite beach- the shark attack beach! :)

our friends from LA arrive at the beach!

And it worked! I had the BEST time that day. Throwing tradition and worries aside, Aaron and I sun bathed, snorkeled and played frisbee with friends at the beach up until, oh 2 hours before the wedding!

John brought the Zinka, I chose white since it was my wedding day!

my cousins chose to lay out in style at the Four Seasons with a nice view of our beach party

so did the rest of my family

my sister definitely had a relaxing day

jessica and me goofing off.

my hero!

And like magic, I was stress free and having fun! Which set the tone for us to have the most amazing wedding.

I wish it was in the hearts of all

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:57:00 +0000

I had to post this video on here for several reasons-

1. The passage of Prop 8 has deeply affected me, my friends and my ideas of marriage & weddings in general. And this, after all, is my blog about such things.
2. It's the most sweetly passionate of negative responses to the passage of Prop 8.
3. Plain and simple- it's one of the best descriptions of marriage and what marriage means to me, that I've ever heard.

And all this from Keith Olbermann, who, as far as I knew, was just some sports commentator!

wow. just wow.

Welcome to Maui Party

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 20:02:00 +0000

Instead of a "Rehearsal Dinner" Aaron's parents hosted a "Welcome to Maui Dinner" as there was no rehearsal. Everyone who came to the island was invited and it was a lot of fun. Except for when I got stung by a wasp. THAT was more than not fun, that was excruciating.

We had the dinner at a friends restaurant in Kihei- Matteo's -and it was fabulous!

the bride and groom outside of Matteo's

me & Raina- she did my hair right before the party!

Aaron and his Best Man, Daren

the guests start to gather at Matteo's.

Judy with the shark ballon!

My mom and sister found this balloon and brought it to the party.

me, my cousin Dana and my mom

we went around handing out all the "Welcome to Maui bags" to all of our guests.

"the kids table"

I was being stung by a bee as this picture was being taken

after being stung the the bee.

Raina came by to comfort me, I cry and hold a napkin filled with ice to the sting and my sister is behind me laughing!

Aaron's dad's amazingly sweet speech.

We got a cake for Aaron's parents 40th wedding anniversary!!!

At the end of the night our friends came together and read the haikus they had written about us. The haikus were inspired by the fact that "Megan and Aaron" is five syllables.

Erik reading his haiku.

I can't remember any of them at the moment so I will write another blog about the haikus later. But the one I do remember is this:

Megan and Aaron

and Aaron and Megan and

Megan and Aaron

Amazing. And so was the entire party. We had a great time and great food and even greater company. And it helped set the tone for an awesome wedding.

THANKS LARRY & STEPHANIE!!!!!

oops, i mean

MOM & DAD!!!!

Behind the scenes freak out

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 20:31:00 +0000

So after the "Welcome Bag Slave Party" all our friends had left, except for Raina. She stayed behind to re-dye my hair because it didn't take as well as it should have the first time. My hair likes to reject all things unnatural. It's annoying. Raina dyed my hair and while I sat there with gunk on my head she cut Aaron's hair.

cutting Aaron's hair on the lanai

Raina cut Aaron's hair and then did my hair for the Welcome Party and as she was packing up her stuff I went to change into my fabulous dress that I love just as much as my wedding dress! Of course I hadn't tried the dress on since I bought it almost a year before and after working out like a mad woman for the past 2 months the dress ended up being too big!!!! It was practically falling off of me. I looked like an idiot.

I rushed into the kitchen in a blind panic and in tears over my dress. Luckily Raina is my guardian angel and said to find her a needle and thread and she'd take care of it.

raina altering my dress

I may not have a dress, but damn my hair looks gooooood.

So there i was a little less than an hour before our Welcome Party in a towel with my friend Raina altering the straps of my dress and Aaron and his best man Daren drinking beer and messing about, totally oblivious to the fact that I was about to loose my mind!!!

Aaron dancing and Daren surfing the net while I was loosing my mind.

But Raina pulled it off, after taking in the straps it looked like it fit a lot better, my hair looked amazing and Aaron, well, it'd take Aaron until that night to realize just how stressed out I was.

"Welcome Bag" Slave Party

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 20:15:00 +0000

A destination wedding means a lot of things- an exotic venue, an excuse to bring both families together for a fun vacation and lots and lots of scrambling to get things done at the last minute.

One such project that required much scrambling and forcing the bridal party and friends to be our slaves was the "welcome bags" for our out of town guests (which was everyone). At first all we had to do was stuff 60 bags with 11 things. And then my mom and my cousin Dana went shopping and brought back 4 more items to include to in the bags. That means 15 different items in each of the 60 bags. Yeah, it got kinda crazy.

I don't have any pictures of us gathered around my cousins outdoor dinner table and going at it assembly line style. It was in charge of opening the bags and inserting our "save the sharks" pamphlet, erik was the tiny bottles of Maui Babe sunblock, Sean was the fans, John was- oh I can't remember any more! But in the end Jessica and Kimmy checked all the bags to make sure they had everything and then made them pretty with blue tissue paper.

THEN... Dana and my mom came home with yet another project. They completely emptied out a grocery store of all their Local sandals in order to pass them out to all our guests as favors to enjoy during their trip. They also bought baskets to group the sandals by sizes to make it easier for people.

John, Dana & Erik slaving away over sandals.

Finally after 2 hours all 60 bags were assembled. There are no pictures of this either because at this point i was so stressed out that I was tearing out my hair. But that's a different blog...

A sad day for marriage

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:34:00 +0000

Dear California,

Remember when I said that I was proud of you? Yeah, I take that all back. You've deeply disappointed and saddened me today. And I'm absolutely disgusted by how many ignorant and hateful people went out of their way to make marriage an exclusive right. It's sick.

I'm really glad that Aaron and I got married during a time when anyone else from our home state had the right to do the same! Having our wonderful wedding and being married for the past 3 weeks has been the most amazing experience of my life! And I just can't understand why anyone would want to rob someone of this!? It's so angering!!!

I had a moment of happiness last night as I watched Obama get elected President. This country took a huge step forward while this State took a huge step back. All the good feelings from last night have given way to depression and embarrassment because prop 8 was passed. Hope you're proud of yourself California, because I'm not anymore.

Regretfully yours,

Mrs. Megan Finley

Megan & Aaron's Awesome Maui Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

So Aaron and I got married on 10-10-08 on Keawakapu Beach, Maui, Hawaii. Our wedding was almost exactly a year from when he was attacked by a shark. Actually, two days ago, the 29th, was his shark attackiversary. And today, HALLOWEEN, is the anniversary of his big surgery! So I thought it would be fitting to publish our wedding blog in honor of the attackiversary and the surgeversary and show you a bit our particular off-beat wedding.

A local Hawaiian man, Kimokeo Kapahulehua, arranged for Aaron to be brought into the wedding on a canoe, paddled by his own canoe team.

A team member blows the conch shell as Aaron and the crew leave the beach

the canoe coming in for a landing

the SOAKING WET groom running up the beach

Aaron was seriously drenched. The waves were extremely choppy and Aaron was told to lean over to balance the canoe. On the first stroke the person he was seated behind splashed water right in his face and soaked him. His thought was, 'at least I don't have to worry about getting wet anymore!' So once he hit the beach he ran up to our guests who were waiting on the shore and did the "wet dog shake" to try and dry off. When that didn't do the trick his best man was there with a new shirt and his suit jacket.

The video of Aaron's entrance

our bridal party (not pictured, Aaron's best man who was bringing him his shirt.)

During this time my dad and I were taking our really look walk down the beach towards my adorably wet groom.

my dad walking me down the "isle"

(get it? isle? island? maui? beach wedding? oh forget it.)

my dad "pounds it" while I "shaka," yeah, this was a serious wedding.

Then I joined up with my wet hubby. The man who married us ended up being a friend of Kimokeo's because Kimokeo was still in the hospital. But Michael was awesome.

surrounded by our friends & family

reciting our vows. this was definitely the line that went

"And promise to always try my best to understand you."

And then it was time to kiss and be married! whoo hoo!!!

After we were man & wife, Aaron and I held a special ceremony to honor the shark that not only let Aaron live but inspired this whole wedding thing.

Aaron & Megan offering a ho'okupu (gift) of maile leis to the mano (shark)

And then we were married, the shark had been properly thanked and now it was time for photos! The photographer my mom hired was a total jackass who ended up just pissing me off (but that's for another blog), so my friend and underwater photographer Benja took over. He's the one who's taken most of the photos you're seeing in this blog. He's amazing. He also ended up being one of our "witnesses."

what up Benja!? we're married now! and aaron's legs took HUGE.

the bridal party "shaka"!!!!

I love the above photo, it shows so much about what I loved about our wedding. First of all you can see the groomsman's funky plaid shorts, and then the rainbow sandals we got everyone as bridal party gifts, then there's the ankle leis that my sister and best friend made themselves right before the wedding. You can see my friend Amy's awesome foot tattoo (who doesn't love tattooed bridesmaids!?) And finally my dress getting wet!! I had to literally ring my dress out after the photos!

After all the photo craziness my HUSBAND and I literally told everyone to "f*** off" while we had a moment to ourselves to watch the sunset.

our sunset

Then it was time to party!!! We had our reception at the restaurant right up the beach called the Five Palms Beach Grill. First things first we had everyone sign the guest book- our Polaroid guest book! Only WE didn't really have people do that, we asked our good friend Kimmy to help us with that.

Kimmy mans the Polaroid guest book station while Amy & Ari wait for their pic to develop.

It turned out so well, I've looked at it so many times since our wedding

the patio reception

our awesome coral centerpieces & our even awesomer friends

our shark fin soap wedding favors.

The money we spent on these went to go towards saving the lives of sharks.

the BEST cupcakes I've ever had in my LIFE.

We were all about getting our guests fed asap because we've been to too many weddings lately where we weren't fed until the bridal party had been announced, then the best man made his speech, followed by the maid of honor who told stories about the bride from when they were in high school and on, and then the parents made their speech. So we had our guests eating dinner while the speeches were made. They were mostly your typical speeches except for my Man of Honor who played the ukulele that I bought him and sang the Ben Fold's song "The Luckiest" because it's one of my favorite love songs.

Erik rocking the uke.

Then we danced.

dancing barefoot, standing on Aaron's feet.

The first dance was pretty awesome because Aaron surprised me with the song. I had NO IDEA what was going to be played and that was one of the things that I was really excited about. He chose "We Dance" by Pavement. It was perfect.

Then everyone danced for the rest of the night! It was so much fun.

And then it was over.

And now we're married! Rock on.

Returning to the scene of the crime

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:58:00 +0000

Aaron was determined. The minute we got to Maui all he could think about was "going back," returning to the scene of the shark attack and conquering his fear and moving on.

The first day was filled with wedding stuff; picking up chocolates, checking on our packages and unpacking. But we had time first thing in the morning on day two, before meeting with the cake lady and the going to the reception site, to head out to the Four Seasons and face our fear.

I'm not going to lie, I got a little freaked out. I was all big talk about how I wasn't going to be scared and I was going to be by Aaron's side to be there to comfort him. But when it came down to it... i was seriously terrified. And Aaron was cool as a cucumber, what else is new.

Aaron- ready to take on the big fish.

Thankfully there were TONS of people out there snorkeling, so it made us feel a lot more confident. So we did it! We took a moment on the shore to reflect on how far we've come since the last time we stood together on this beach. And then we jumped in a swam to the spot and took some pictures to comememorate this historic moment. lol.

back at the scene of the shark attack!

the view of the Four Seasons from where Aaron was attacked

Confession time again, we both got freaked out. Of course the skies got cloudy and grey the moment we swam out the that point and it didn't help our already shaky nerves. And then all of a sudden we noticed that all the other snorkelers we saw out there were gone! So we had our moment, made it quick and then then swam back as fast as we could!!!

a proud moment- we eat fear for breakfast! :)

This was the most important thing on Aaron's agenda and I'm really glad we got to do this together. And the rest of the times we went to that beach and to that spot were accident and shark free, I'm happy to report.

Visiting old friends

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:55:00 +0000

One of the first things we did when we got to Maui was to visit Kimokeo at Maui Memorial. We wanted to see for ourselves that he was okay and we also needed to meet with him to go over the wedding ceremony plans. When we left for Maui there was still a good chance that he was going to be able to do the ceremony. But when we got on the island and he still wasn't being released from the hospital it became clear that it may not work out for all of us. So Kimokeo brought in his friend and fellow native Hawaiian, Michael Gerard to be his backup. He was there at the hospital when we came to see Kimokeo.

First of all, being back at the hospital again was weird. Aaron hadn't been there since he was released from there last October. And the other eerie part was that it was all decorated for Halloween, just like it was when Aaron was a patient. It was soooooo strange to be walking through those sterile halls with paper skeletons and smiling pumpkins and cotton cobwebs adorning all the walls again.

Anyway, Kimokeo was in good spirits when we saw him. His girlfriend Ryn was there as well and I was excited to meet her. (She's such an amazing woman and she'll play a bigger part in this whole wedding thing later on.) Kimokeo sat us down and went through what was planned for the ceremony. There were to be 10 conch shell blowers, 2 separate shark ceremonies and a canoe ride, to just name a few of the things. All of this sounded amazing. And then he asked what the groomsmen would be wearing. I told them orange and turquoise plaid shorts and they all laughed at that, saying something about us being Phillipino or something. ;)

We left the hospital feeling good, feeling excited and feeling lucky that a good friend of ours was well on the road to recovery.

Before we left though Aaron had to stop at one place...

then

now

Our wedding cupcake display!

noreply@blogger.com (megan) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 07:31:00 +0000

So the cupcake display that ordered from CupcakeTree.com I made was supposed to look like this:

But on the day of the wedding, when the cupcakes finally arrived they were TOO BIG TO FIT UNDER EACH EAVE!!! (Now those are some bad-ass cupcakes!)

Of course, I had no idea what was happening, I think I was signing our marriage certificate at that point. So the employees at the Five Palms were kinda freaking out. One of them asked my sister "how important is this cupcake tower to the bride?" And my adorable sis answered, "really important, she made it herself." And of course I wouldn't have cared in reality. But because my sis put the fear of god into the guy, he ended up pulling off something really amazing!...

How cool is that!? I think it ended up looking like a coral reef or something. Apparently, the Five Palms guy just had this stroke of genius, ran to the kitchen and came back with bowls and plates of various sizes and then made this! I think my sister approved...