Our Wedding: Gratitude

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Abril

Ok, so I lied (accidentally!), this is the real last wedding related post. After I published the details of our reception, I realized I was missing a very important publication…the thank you’s to all the people that contributed to make our wedding just perfect.
First, I gotta thank the fabulous guy behind my bridal hair & makeup, my talented friend Lino Martinez. Not only is he a gem as a stylist, he is one of the kindest, sweetest people I’ve ever met and I’m lucky to call him a friend. He captured to perfection the look I had envisioned, which was natural and effortlessly pretty. If you are in the Phoenix area, you can find him at Park Avenue Blow Dry Bar & Salon… I promise you, once he does your hair, you’ll never let anyone else touch it ever again!
Then comes a huge heartfelt thank you to the talent behind our wedding photography, my friends Steven & Clarissa Toupin. Steven is the one with a passion for photography, the eye behind the camera, but his lovely wife Clarissa played his assistant for the day, and together they proved they’re a match made in heaven in more levels than the clearly obvious. They were so diligent in making sure they captured every moment and every detail all throughout the day. I knew they would be awesome, but they surpassed every expectation I had. I keep insisting on Steven becoming officially a professional photographer because so far photography has only been a hobby in his life, but he’s so talented and professional, he really needs to start offering up his services to the general public. I feel so fortunate he agreed to be our photographer on our special day.
Finally, a big fat thank you goes out to my bff’s, my girls, the ones I can always count on: Dalia Bahena, Ann Tyburski, Mariana Oropeza and Artemisa Salinas. They’ve been there for me through thick and thin for years, and on my special day, they made sure everything at the reception looked like I had planned. My wedding flowers were all DIY, from my bouquet (another thanks to my dear Lino, he also helped me on this one!) to the centerpieces, and they were the ones to set up the flowers and decorations in the dinning room. They did such a fabulous job, the flowers looked exactly like I had pictured, and everything looked just beautiful. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you friends! An added thank you goes to my girl Dalia, who was my right hand person all day, helping with this and that, putting up with my bossiness without a single complaint…there were no official bridal party titles given, but she truly played the role of my maid of honor, and I can’t thank her enough.
So, thank you, thank you, thank you all for making our wedding just perfect! I am forever grateful to have had you all been such a big part of this special day, and even more grateful to have you all as dear friends.

Photos by Steven Toupin

Our Wedding: The Reception

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Abril

You can sigh with relief if you’re tired of all the wedding-related blog posts since today I bring you the last installment of them. The last thing to cover about it is our reception, which wasn’t your typical reception party and more of a celebratory dinner.

Like I’ve mentioned before, we decided to keep things simple and somewhat low-key. Even though we were all dressed up, the vibe throughout the whole day was laid-back and relaxed; I felt like I was just hanging out with my favorite people, enjoying every second of it. For family photos we even did some silly shots that ended up being my favorite compared to the classic serious family portraits (which granted we also did). Though the atmosphere was laid-back, we did have a formal dinner with amazing food and plenty of wine to go with it; however no dance floor, band or DJ (my playlist played thru the sound system) were involved, not even a wedding cake.

Family, friends and food were all we needed. Our guest list consisted of 35 of our closest and dearest. There were a lot of extended family and friends that we would’ve loved to have invited if we would’ve gone the huge wedding route, but because we wanted to keep things small and intimate, we only invited those people that in some way or another have been a big part of our journey as a couple. That included our parents and siblings, and a few friends.

Of course being a foodie, food was very important to me and I wanted to make sure everyone enjoyed a delicious dinner. Arcadia Farms, with their mostly local and organic ingredients as well as wonderful chef and recipes, didn’t disappoint. Everyone commented on how amazing every course was.

Right after the ceremony, we all walked next door to the private dining room where dinner was held. We had a cocktail hour, with red wine sangrias, champagne, red and white wine, and passed hors d’oeuvres. Then came a 3 course dinner which included the following: a strawberry salad with strawberries, toasted almonds, mixed baby greens and a poppyseed vinaigrette; for an entrée, guests had a choice between butternut squash ravioli in a walnut sage cream sauce (my personal favorite!) or seared salmon with sweet corn, shiitake mushrooms and spinach with a Pinot Noir butter sauce; and finally for dessert, in lieu of a wedding cake everyone was served their own individual baby cake, which they could pick among dark chocolate raspberry, tuxedo (another favorite of mine!) or red velvet cake. If you ask me, it wasn’t only a memorable occasion, it was also a memorable meal!

As usual, I leave some photos here for you to enjoy.

Photos by Steven Toupin

Our Wedding: The Ceremony

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Abril

Yes, I still have more wedding photos and stories to share. Today’s post is dedicated to our ceremony, which was the most important thing of all to me. When it comes to weddings we often get caught up in the details, the dress, the party, the flowers, the reception, and forget what this is really supposed to be about… two people standing before each other professing their love and commitment out loud in front of their loved ones. Of course, this ritual usually involves a legal contract and its signing. But this wasn’t the case at our wedding. Why? Because we had already been legally married for 5 years.

We had a justice of the peace ceremony back in November 2008, just the two of us, a couple witnesses and the judge. No fuss, no muss. We had a lovely dinner after to celebrate and an overnight stay at a luxurious resort, but that was it. We didn’t even have wedding rings…heck, I didn’t even have an engagement ring yet. It was less than romantic circumstances that took us to get legally married at the time (if you’ve read Liz Gilbert’s Committed, well it was something along those lines), so when the decision was made and my man asked me if we should get an engagement ring and all, I said no.

I didn’t want those less than romantic circumstances to be the main reason we got married and we weren’t yet truly ready to mean the “Til death do us part” aspect of marriage, but we also didn’t want to risk not being able to have a life together in the future if we ever decided we were finally ready. So we agreed that we would get legally married but he would save the proposal and the wedding for a time when we really felt we were ready to say our vows from the bottom of our hearts and not just because of legal matters.

So we signed our marriage certificate in 2008, he proposed to me on Christmas Eve 2009, and after years of fussing about wedding details, we finally decided to keep it simple and walked down the isle on our 5th anniversary of being legally married. A non-traditional way of doing things, but that’s just us! We’ve never really been the traditional kind.

We didn’t have bridesmaids or groomsmen, there was no real tossing of the bouquet or garter, there was no religious minister involved. However, the most important tradition of all, reciting both traditional vows as well as our own, was the thing we cared about the most. It was a very emotional moment for both us to finally face each other, pouring our hearts out with our closest family and friends as witnesses.

Also, we may have started a new tradition of our own with our wedding rings. We did finally exchange wedding rings and they are a very special set. They were the rings my in-laws exchanged when they got married 44 years ago (they upgraded rings 20 years into their marriage, and after decades of being kept in a safe box, the original bands were generously given to us as a gift ). A beautiful set of identical thick gold bands with a line of 5 small diamonds in the middle. Of course not only do I love their vintage beauty, but the sentimental value and meaning of them is what I love the most. Hopefully, they’ll also function as lucky charms so our marriage is as long and happy as my in-laws’ has been. Then we will pass them on to our own child, and I think that will be a nice new family tradition.

Whether you like to follow old traditions or create new ones on your wedding ceremony, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, because one thing is for sure, it’s a precious but very short moment in life. Luckily we can hold on to it forever in our memory. Here I leave you with the images of such special moment.