Our Anniversary

Today marks Mike and my one year anniversary. The year flew by so quickly, and I cannot believe that one year ago we said our vows to be together forever. I also cannot believe that we have been together for almost six years (5 years & 11 months). I guess we must really like each other. :P

Unfortunately we are not spending the day together and have spent most of the year apart than together. Our "forever" will just have to begin later on this year after I defend my thesis. I told Mike that he didn't have to make a special flight to Illinois to be with me on our anniversary. After all, it is just one day and we have a lifetime to spend with each other.

I've mentioned to people that being in a long distance relationship has been the most difficult challenge for me throughout my four years here pursuing a PhD. Surprisingly, it has not been the rigor of the program or the occasional 14-hour days of research; it was knowing that the love of your life lives 5,000 miles away and is a 5-hour time zone away (Thank goodness for cell phone family plans). But on the other hand, it makes the little time that we have together much more precious.
Mike, if you're reading this, don't get mad at me for wasting time blogging. :) Happy Anniversary! I love you very much, husband!

Wedding Pictures!

Yay! We finally received our professional wedding pictures! You know what this means? We'll finally be able to send out our thank you cards. We actually wrote them all by the end of August, but have been waiting for the pictures to come in to add it to the thank you cards.

This picture gives you a glimpse into our wedding. Yes, there were sock puppets there! I didn't know this was happening, but it was quite funny.

Here's a pictures of my "bestest" girlfriends in the whole wide world! I've known all of them for at least half of my life). Can you guess which one is my sister? I'll give you a hint, she's the only one that was not in marching band and instead was on the field as a cheerleader. (I guess that means I'm suggesting that marching band people have a "look"?)I'm trying to figure out where I should upload the pictures so that I can send a link to people who have been asking about pictures for a while. I'll get around to this later on in October.

wedding notes

I'm currently taking a break from writing wedding thank you notes. You cannot imagine how many times my hand has cramped up while writing these things.

Here's my notes for future brides:
1. Pace yourself. Set goals to complete XX notes per day. Our other goal is to complete all the thank-you notes by the end of August.
2. Invest in some really good pens that do not smear. I'm currently using a black zebra 0.5 Sarasa pen (my current favorite pen at the moment). Mike is using the new Uniball Signa pen.
3. Split the task between both you and your husband. It makes the task much more manageable. Plus it's a fun bonding experience for the both of you.
4. College note-taking comes in really handy when writing these notes. I used to furiously scribble notes in college, Mike rarely took notes. I think my notes/hour rate is much greater than his.
5. Mail this thank-yous out as soon as you can. We're aiming to mail them out by the end of September. Our rate-determining step is that our photographer went on vacation, so we won't receive our wedding pictures until mid-September.

Wedding Teaser

Here's a wedding teaser. A candid shot of the wedding party in the elevator on the way up to the reception.

It's almost time...

In less than 24 hours I'll be Mrs. T.
After all the wedding stress, we're ready to get married and we still like each other. :)
The good news is that everything has been working out and we've been double and triple checking things to make sure things are okay.
Me, being last minute am searching for the right wedding party entrance song. I think I've decided on the "Enchanted Suite" from the movie Enchanted. It's such a cute movie! I have the DVD and CD soundtrack!
Then it's off to the hotel....will write more later (especially about food).

Preview of wedding stuff. My hair and make-up trial.

Wedding

The countdown to the wedding is now down to less than three weeks. In less than two weeks I’ll be back home in Honolulu. I’m mildly freaked out about the whole event. I was never the type of girl who dreamed of her “fairy tale” wedding or planned out the details when she was six years old. If I had my way, there would have been an easter egg hunt, piñatas, and an “iron chef”-esque challenge. Everyone would be having a blast, playing games and winning prizes. Lucky for me, there is a smidgen of the wedding that I actually have control of, so there will be some non-traditional activities.

Okay, back to the reality of the matter, I’ve been crying more sad tears than happy tears these past few days. I guess that’s inevitable when it comes to planning a wedding for ~300 guests...and you live miles away. Luckily, I have a really caring sister and awesome and supportive friends both back in Hawaii and Illinois.

My advice to future brides:

1. If you do not want a big wedding, then be firm and stand your ground (whether this is against your parents or fiancé).
2. It’s YOUR wedding. There is no “right” way that a wedding should be. Do not let others control your wedding or do not let others dictate or guilt you in what is appropriate.
3. Remember to smile and breathe. Things are not as bad as they seem.
4. When in doubt, eloping is just fine.

Pictures: Top-where the ceremony will take place; Middle-same buffet we'll be having; Last-my friend who took me as his "date" so I could scope out an actual wedding at the venue (it was last year during Winter Break).

The Big Day

It's technically less than one month away! OMG! So the blogs will slow down as I scramble to finish up some research and then fly back home to Hawaii.

Today the starbulletin.com had an article about the Four Seasons Resort Lanai, the Lodge at Koele. According to Travel and Leisure magazine, it's ranked the 15th best hotel in the WORLD! And guess who's going there for her honeymoon?

I've never been to Lanai before, but I've heard that it's supposed to be gorgeous! We decided to just take a honeymoon to another island because I have to return back to Illinois and we also plan to save up for a big trip next year (I'm crossing my fingers and hoping Italy...plus there's a conference next summer in Florence that I would like to attend).

This will be a food quasi-wedding blog for a few more weeks. Planning a wedding is quite time-consuming. And we haven't been following our budget as well as we had planned. We're conservative people, but we've been splurging a tad bit...I think we've spent over $10,000 and we haven't even paid off our vendors or for the food and drinks! That's just downpayments and misc. stuff. Considering that I don't get paid much as a grad student...yeah, we'll be eating 10 cent ramen for a while....maybe 25 cent ramen. Lucky for us we've never had to pay for school so both of us were/are debt-free from college.

***Factoid: In Hawaii, it's customary for the bride and groom to cover all our wedding party's expenses. so for us, that tacked on about $2000 right there! Weddings are crazy!

FYI, for any Hawaii brides to be out there:

Our Vendors:
Hair and Makeup - Dorys Foltin
Photographer - Mark Nomura
Videographer - imaginewurks
Entertainment- Jon Yamasato and Darin Leong
Florists - Eventful, Lei's by Ron (808)838-1455
Invitations - My mom, paper from paper and more
My Dress - Kiyomi's (which my mom told me will close down this summer)
BM Dresses - Ann Taylor
BM Shoes - Shoebuy
BM Accessories - Tsang and Mirai
Tux Rentals - A Black Tie Affair (808) 732-9474
I'm probably missing some vendors, but everything Else - My mom, and Mike and my family and friends

teaser

get excited! i will be blogging and posting food pictures from roy's waikiki, satura cakes, chinatown, grand cafe, basta pasta, top of waikiki, cpk, and shokudo.
i haven't uploaded those pictures yet, but for now, i'll post a wedding dress teaser. i initially wanted a simple dress with no lace or beading and a tiny train if any at all. i guess shopping with your mom changes things.