Confessions of an Engaged Chick: Venue List

First of all, I am loving My Bride Story's new layout! So dreamy and chic!

Secondly, I was perusing through my list of wedding blogs a few weeks ago and found these! I feel like I opened a treasure box and this will hopefully help us find a venue. Our deadline to find a venue is the end of this month so must hop, hop to it! I thought I'd share the lists with the bride-to-bes to make venue searching a bit easier. The first file is an excel sheet with a list of Los Angeles wedding venues along with their website, address, price, contact info and other necessary details. The second is from The Relentless Bride's website. Not only does she have details on all the venues she researched in Southern California, but she also has pictures! What a hidden gem! Thank you to both and happy planning!

Los Angeles Wedding Venues:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pIXJMbKDLXgUjZl8CpKH9QA

The Relentless Bride:

http://www.relentlessbride.com/search/label/Wedding%20Venues

the engaged chick, angela

Nayun & Paul's E-session

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season full of lots of laughter, good food, family & friends. Nicole & Scott's wedding at La Venta Inn was our last wedding we had in 2009 and the photos will be up in a couple of months to reveal the details.

We're ready to kick off our 2010 wedding season in two weeks with Nayun & Paul's wedding at Casa Del Mar. Stay tuned for 'music & guitar' inspired wedding and I'll be sure to capture a clip when they sing the JUNO song "Anyone else but You" with their guitars. :) You don't want to miss this! Meanwhile, enjoy these dreamy engagement session taken by Stephanie Williams Photography.

Good-Bye to 2009

Now that I’m getting ready to say good-bye to 2009, I have to admit that it has been a year filled with joy, love and gratitude with many rewards, but it has had its fair share of challenges. If I am to describe this year in one word it would be “being stretched.”

1) Being stretched while giving birth to our baby boy. Stretching my legs and every muscle in my body to pop him out. (sorry, if this giving you visual images in your head! lol) and can’t leave out the horrible stretch mark. :)

2) Being stretched and learning how to manage my time and to multi-task with a gazillion things on my to do list.

3) Being stretched to move out of my comfort zone and the life that I was used to a long time ago. All I wanted for Christmas was to sleep for 12 hours straight, with no interruptions. I miss the good old college days where I slept till noon.

4) Being stretched in patience and love. To learn to understand and take care of the little guy and the big guy of the house. Having this little guy taught me a GREAT lesson: to respect & appreciate my husband so much more. Yes.. he is my better half.

5) Learning and stretching my inter-personal skills, being able to quickly understand and figure out what my clients need from me.

I won’t lie. I have had my fair share of melt downs, and on occasion I sobbed like a baby for hours. (I blame my messed up hormones after pregnancy! lol) But, there were also many times I felt I had everything under control and gave myself a pat on the back for giving 100%, and doing the best I can.

At the end of the day, I learned that I don’t and I can’t have control over everything and I have definitely been stretched to my limits this past year. I know that along the way I may have disappointed people, I’m not saying this to justify my shortcomings, but one thing I learned was how to say “No.” and knowing what I can and can't do. However, saying “No” made me prioritize what's important which I am very grateful.

As I welcome 2010, I have decided to go against a tradition of writing down a list of New Year’s resolutions. I feel like a list of resolutions can only prove that you are a good-enough person by keeping to your list, or a failure by not keeping your word. I already have my to-do lists on a daily basis I don’t want yet another list of resolutions to dictate who I am as a person and what I am capable of doing as a person.

However, I do want to hold on to this verse and I want it to be a daily reminder to me throughout 2010.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me" 2 Corinthians 12:9

Let's welcome the New Year with gratitude and hope, with a little room to grow.

Happy New Year!

Yours Truly,

Esther

A huge shout out!

As you may have noticed, our new website & blog for the year of 2010 is finally up!
A huge shout out to Ellie over at Rainy Day Templates for being absolutely wonderful to work with. I would highly recommend her to anyone looking to freshen up their site for a very reasonable cost. Thank you Ellie for being so patient, quick, and sweet!

Have you also noticed our clean, fresh logo? I cannot thank Yooli Lee Designs enough for her professionalism, talent and going the extra mile to come up with the new logo just in three days. She's also putting together my letterpress business cards & custom envelopes and I am so ready to pass them around!! If you're a small business owner looking for a fresh logo, I would definitely contact her NOW!! Very affordable for the amount of time & effort she puts into her work and I would also highly recommend her to any brides who are looking for custom invitations.
I'd also like to thank Christine & Angela, my dear assistants for revising our website content and for their ever-ready assistance. And last but not least, my good friend, Wan for answering all my technical support questions about hosting, email issues & all that stressful stuff I wouldn't want to go near, thank you!!!
We also created a Fan Page on Facebook & finally joined Twitter so please follow us around for updates.

Happy Holidays!

Saw these great gift wrapping ideas over at Style Me Pretty done by Summer at Grey Likes Weddings so I had to give it a try.

Aren't these too cute for words? These gift wrapping ideas would be great for any occasions! It seemed fairly easy enough so I hunt down our storage closet like a mad woman to find similar materials and this is what I came up in 15 minutes. Cost? Nothing!! I'm serious... They were all leftovers from past weddings and stuff I collected in years..

No Christmas tree for us this year because we all know this little trouble maker is gonna knock down the tree..
Our last wedding of the year is this weekend and we're ready to kick off 2010 season in full gear in a few weeks! Have a wonderful time with your loved ones and be sure to check out our new look soon.

Confessions of an Engaged Chick: Lined up in Vintage Wallpaper

Instead of sending out the usual card in an envelope, the ladies over at 100 Layer Cake did a little project where they used vintage wallpaper to line the inside of envelopes and then used the rest to make flowers to place on the plates as name cards for the reception! Such an easy way to add a touch of romance into your regular ole' save-the-dates cards and invitations. On top of all that, they used vintage wallpapers because it was material they already had in hand. Great tip to save money! Look around your house and if there's anything lying around that you don't need, use it to get creative with your decorations! Saving money is always a plus.

via 100 Layer Cake

the engaged chick, angela