A Beautiful Wedding by KGM Weddings

This lovely outdoor Malibu wedding by LA based wedding planner extraordinaire, Krista Malinin for Amber Events (Krista is also a friend of mine!) was recently featured on Style Me Pretty. How stunning are these photos? Who knew there was a venue in Malibu that had zebras!?!


Krista (she's in the middle in the below pic) described Saddlerock Ranch as "a rustic venue, located in the Santa Monica Mountains of Malibu. Exotic animals (like horses, buffalo, camels, zebras, llamas, sheep, and peacocks) roam the 1,000 acre farm. The vineyard setting, where Melody and Michael exchanged their vows, is secluded and stunning. It created a breathtaking backdrop to an emotional ceremony and fun-loving reception."


To see more from this rustic wedding as photographed by Suthi Picotte, visit Style Me Pretty. To read Krista's post Q & A with the bride and groom, visit Krista's blog.

Congratulations to Krista on planning such a gorgeous wedding and being featured on SMP.

Congratulations Bi-Coastal Bride!

Today is Tamar's, aka Bi-Coastal Bride, wedding day. (Remember her awesome Scratch n' Save-the-Dates?) Hope you have a wonderful day with your friends and family. A big thanks to A Hot Pink Petticoat for introducing us to you!

A Week in Pictures

I'm back! And unfortunately, back to reality. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter. I spent mine at the BF's parents' eating way too many schnitzels. Yummy. Here are a few photos that sum up my week in LA and Vegas.

View of LA from Yamashiro

The food at Yamashiro is so delicious. And you can't beat the view. The restaurant itself is a beautiful Pagoda-like mansion which houses a lovely Japanese garden. Good news for you potential brides out there who want an Asian flair to your nuptials - Yamashiro is available for weddings.

Ready to hit Vegas!

How oddly fascinating is this flower vending machine at the Vegas airport?
(It was right beside the restrooms.)

The view from our Caesar Palace's hotel room.

Me getting ready for some poolside fun while the BF works.

Me tanning at Garden of Gods Pool complex

Hello Vegas!

I won $45 at the Sex & the City slot machine!

Me peering into Jimmy Choo, looking at the goodies longingly.

Date night at Mario Batali's Carnevino

The best filet mignon EVER.

One of the best things in life - Room Service!

Back in LA, shopping on my favourite street. (3rd street promenade)

Picked up some Easter goodies from the best cupcake place in LA.

Trying the new mango froyo at Pinkberry.

L.A. Bound.

I know I owe you "Being a Bridesmaid Part II - What a Bridesmaid Needs to Know." Forgive me, it's just been such a crazy week! I've been trying to get everything done before I leave on vacation next week. Yep, I'm off to the west coast home with a little jaunt to Sin City! I'm so excited. I will try to post Part II this weekend. Have fabulous weekend!

Brekkie in the O.C. with Pink Argyle

Greetings from La La land! While most of you have already headed back to work or school, I'm luckily enough to be in week 2 of my vacay. Sigh. Life is good. Did I mention it's been sunny and warm?! The BF and I have been pretty busy seeing friends, family and not to mention throwing a New Year's Eve party! This past weekend, the BF, being the good BF he is, drove me to Laguna Hills to meet Mo from Pink Argyle. Mo and I had pondered where exactly to meet since she's in San Deigo, and I'm in LA. Luckily, someone on Chowhound had already posed the question and in response, the Break of Dawn was recommended. Now this was the second time I had met someone through my blog, the first being Jess from JessReads whom I met at the Sash & Bustle opening. With Jess, neither of us knew what we looked like, we just knew each other's names and we both live in Toronto - akin to a 'blind friend date.' With Mo, it was a bit different since we've gotten to know each other through our blogs and have even exchanged emails. In other words, I really feel like I know Mo.....even though we had never met. Oh how technology brings us all together! Mo and I (and the BF aka my chauffeur) had a great time chatting. It was really like seeing an old friend I hadn't seen in awhile. Mo and I discovered we had a lot in common....we are both of Asian descent, we both have 2 sisters, we are both wedding bloggers and we both have ex-boyfriends who became 'mystics' in exotic countries (long stories).

In addition to the great conversation, we chowed down on some delicious breakfast. I had the Potato Skillet.


And the BF had the yummy omelet.

In you live in the O.C., I highly recommend Break of Dawn. Thanks Mo for a great time!

Have you met your 'blogger friends'? What was it like?

It's Raining Babies!

As you all know, my cousin D is having a baby and a couple of weeks ago, I helped throw a baby shower for her. We decided to have the shower at the Chado Tea Room in Pasadena, CA. The staff at Chado Tea Room were great. So friendly and helpful. Here are a few pics from the shower.

Chado has over 300 varieties of tea. We were lucky enough to try quite a few flavours including White Champagne Raspberry, Chocolate Mint and Ginger Peach. Some of us even bought some to take home!

Remember the baby graphic the BF's partner whipped up for the invitations? Well, I also incorporated it into the favours and the 'shower game kits.'

I bought the favour circle stickers from Michael's. They came with a printing template which made printing super easy. The ribbon is also from Michael's.


The 'shower game kit' was an envelope that came with three games: 1) Baby Scramble (i.e. Jumble with baby words); 2) Dirty Diaper (more on that later); and 3) TV Kids Trivia.


How cute is this floral centrepiece? Love the glass baby block vase. We had two of these at the table.


The afternoon tea menu at Chado is delicious! Sandwiches included smoked chicken with cranberry sauce, cucumber with cream cheese and green onions, and smoked salmon. Each tea rack came with freshly baked scones with fresh cream, fresh berries and jams. Since we had ordered a cake from Vanilla Bake Shop for D, we decided to skip Chado's usual slice of cake and opted for chocolate dipped strawberries.


After gorging ourselves on the yummy food, we opened up the 'shower game kit' and got started on the games. The 'Baby Scramble' and 'TV Kids Trivia' were pretty straightforward. 'Dirty Diaper' was probably the most disgusting yet fun game. The night before the shower, the BF and I bought a handful of chocolate bars and melted them in diapers. Yep, super gross. At the shower, each diaper were passed around and the guests had to guess what chocolate bar was melted in the diaper.



After the games, the Vanilla Lemon Berry cake from Vanilla Bake Shop was brought out. All I can say is the cake was 9 inches round of pure heaven.



D elected not to open gifts at the shower since we really didn't have the space and D didn't want to subject her guests to an endless barrage of onesies.

However, I had to share a pic of one of the adorable gifts she received. One of D's friend made her this amazing onesies/socks/shoes tiered 'cake' as a gift. Cute non?


D and her guests had such a great time. I highly recommend Chado Tea Room for any type of shower or maybe for a 'ladies' luncheon.' ;)

Do you heart afternoon/high tea as much I do?

In Love...

....with this wedding. The dress, the shoes, the swiss dot veil, the venue (Marvimon), the photo candy (by Sarah K Chen). To see more, click here to take you to Sarah's blog. You won't be disappointed.

The Unbride is Back!!

After a small hiatus, the Unbride is back, and with a brand new site! It's pretty awesome looking, no?


To celebrate her site's re-launch, The Unbride is giving away to one lucky reader a birdcage veil from Castle Bride Couture. Below are some of Castle Bride's veils. To enter, head on over to The Unbride! Plus, you can see which veil The Unbride's alter ego, LA based photographer Justine Ungaro, wore on her big day.

I'm loving the middle one in the bottom row. You?

via The Unbride

Random Tidbits from the Interwebs

10 Questions to ask your venue - A Hot Pink Petticoat --> Very helpful regardless of the type of event you're planning.

Why Wedding Planners are Awesome - KGM Weddings --> Learn the difference between a 'wedding coordinator', a 'wedding planner' and the ultimate, a 'wedding producer'!

Are you a 2010 bride? Interested in blogging for Weddingbells.ca? Want to win a trip for two to Mexico? Then click below!

Sash and Bustle is now blogging! - I'm anxiously awaiting Sash and Bustle's September opening. In the meantime, I'll be blog stalking them!

Photo Candy by Jessica Claire

Jessica Claire, a SoCal based photographer (who was named one of 2008's top 10 wedding photographers in the world by American Photo Magazine), just recently posted photos from this wedding held at a gorgeous historic theatre. Jessica did an amazing job of capturing the grandeur of the theatre, especially in this shot. In Jessica's recap of this wedding, she mentioned that the couple had a private dinner while their guests enjoyed the cocktail hour. While their guests sat down to dinner, they went from table to table to greet their guests. What a great idea! I know so many couples who don't get the chance to eat the delicious food they've chosen (and have usually eaten nothing all day!). To see more photos from this wedding, click here to take you to Jessica Claire's site.

A DIY Travel Themed wedding

You MUST hop on over to LA-based photographer Caroline Tran's site to see this oh-so-pretty DIY wedding. Caroline does an amazing job of capturing Jenny + Yoongu's story both in pictures and words!

DIY Floral Workshop

Happy Monday!

For those of you who live in my second 'home city', Los Angeles, just wanted to let you know that {grey} likes weddings is hosting another DIY Floral Workshop on May 31, 2009. For more details, click here. You don't have to be a bride to sign up; it's open to anyone with an interest in flowers! I so wish I could attend, but I'll be here in T.O. Boo.