DerKaloustian Wedding

The best roommate in the whole wide world stopped services and picked out her own “permanent rommate” on Saturday in Los Angeles. My roommate from college Maral married Vicken DerKaloustian. It was an awesome Armenian wedding. I love everything about Armo weddings. The cross they hold over their heads in the church ceremony, the language that I have to keep nudging people to understand, the feast of food (I love the hummus and those grape leaves with tge  rice) the money tossing, the dancing or fly swatting! Maral planned a beautiful, elegant and contmporary wedding that totally fit her personality. It is such a treat to watch your friends get married. People you have seen through their entire relationships. I remember the days when we used to have to make Vicken watch Brokeback Mountain with us and swear we wouldn’t tell anyone he watched it. Or in the beginning when he’d spoil Maral with awesome gifts and we’d claim, “Hes a keeper.” To think their married now. Time definitely flies…from Creeker to Bride..Poof!

She is so AMAZING...He is so LUCKY!

The people I impressed with the volume of my voice over dinner

Married! Married = Money! Money!

Married! Married! = Getting thrown in the air

The Creekers!

Everythings cuter when it's toddler size

Later Armos...

Tyler and Becky Waldron’s Wedding

  

On August 22nd, 2009 Tyler Waldron became the luckiest man (and Mormon) alive when he married my best friend Becky Lynn. God really did get out his best spices and fairy dust when he made Becky. She’s beautiful, but down to earth, smart but totally quirky,  funky yet classy and forward thinking yet thoughtful. And did I mention INSANELY good at planning a wedding ?

Now, when I hear ”Wedding in the park” I think a bucket of KFC and grandma’s old blanket, but Becky sees the cutest wedding on earth…and that is just what she put on for all of us at Heritage Park in Fountain Valley.

Beckys wedding was probably the funnest I’ve ever been apart of. Everything from the flowers to the lemonade stand were a “family/friend affair.” All us bridesmaids got together the night before the wedding with another high school friend Nicole and made all of our own bouquets, boutineers, and crosages…while Becky made her rockin’ veil with a yellow flower (white flower out, yellow flower in, per my suggestion

Becky didn’t get to bed till’ 3 am that night/morning and had to wake up at 6 for her sister in-law Sherri to do her hair. But, it was so worth it to see her come out of the Newport Beach Temple lookin’ like the hottest (yet modest) wife in the WORLD! Her gorgeous dress was designed by no other then the awesome and amazing wedding dress designer, but HERSELF!

But, all in all when I think back on the day I don’t necessarily think of a “man and woman” coming together, I think of a family coming together. The way the day went with groomsmen hanging ribbons, brothers DJ’ing and all the 50 or so little kids running up to the Lemonade Stand (that her brother Dan painted)  to get lemonade, water and kool-aid…and how cute all of them looked with their mouths and chins stained with red. I’ll think of how freakin’ funny all the nieces, nephews and cousins looked dressing up in costume for the the PhotoBooth. How gorgeous the 150 yards of Triangle Flags her mom cut and sewed looked through out the park, in the gazeebo and on the dance floor. How much fun people had playing all the games set out in the park like, Bocce ball, Badmitton, Bowling, Smash ball and Croquet. No, this wedding reminded me not of the beauty of a man and woman coming together, but of the beauty that man and woman can make by creating a family to love and to cherish… and how blessed I was to be apart of it.

Becky Lynn’s Bridal Shower

Hey ya’all! Wedding Season is in full swing in the OC! And on this very beautiful Saturday in Newport we decided to host Becky Lynns Bridal Shower. I had a lot of fun helping with it. I tried out some new Bridal Shower Games like:

1.) Bridesmaids Dresses Between Decades *I got a dozen dresses between 1989 and 2009 and had all the women guess what year the dresses were worn.

2.) Peeling Apples *They uh..”Peeled apples” with a knife. Cause a good wife should know how to peel an apple for say a pie, dipping in caramel or just showing her hubby how handy-dandy she is! It was pretty funny how many girls said, “Isn’t this dangerous?” Ah! The 21st century woman with her protective peeler and mase! I love it!

3.) And I couldn’t leave out “How well do you know the bride and groom” game.

The games were a hit! Another new fangled idea of mine was name tags. There were like 60 women invited from both the groom and brides familes so I thought everyone could figure who was who by “Flower name tags”. You write your name on one leaf and how you know the bride-to-be on the other leaf. All the older women esspecially loved it I used Martha Stewart papers and Buttons from Micheals. Hot gluing the buttons and pins on the back.

I think the funnest part of the Bridal Shower though was the “Brides Cake.” Becky loves to play the guitar (and she’s quite good too So I made the Bridal Shower cake into the shape of a guitar. The “Brides Cake” is kind of a twist on the “Grooms cake” where you take something that reminds everyone of the groom and make it into a cake. (PS..Big THANK YOU to my Mama for helping me make the guitar and coaching me through my minor melt down over a rice crispy heart recipe Friday night. You have the patience of a saint. xoxo)

We used Becky’s Grandmas backyard for the shower. Isn’t it beautiful? I can’t wait till the wedding! Only one week away! Wowwza!

Wet and Wild Engagement Photos!

When it comes to engagement photos a princess must ask herself, “Do I want pictures of me in my turtle necked frock, wearing grandmas brooch and my beau wearing a tux that cuts off the circulation of blood to the part of his brain that controls his facial expressions” or “Do I want to wear a sexy black dress, some stilletos and take my lover to the beach and show the locals how babies are made?” Hmmm…Toughie… For my hot friends Heather and Milan some sand and grind suited them best!

Their engagement photos were shot by Heavenly Portraits. More of these wet and wild photos can be seen on the Heavenly Portraits blog.  Check it out. Definitely a talented duo of photographers.

 

These are probably some of the hottest engagement photos I have ever seen! I love the one where the wave is totally working him. Note to princesses: Real Kings dont mind getting their threads a little damp in order to get a smooch from gorgeous you!

So, I’ve worked as a photo assistant in the past and I think there are definitely some questions you should ask yourself before you choose your photographer. See below and have a royaly, fabulous day!

 

1.) Does your photographer jive with your princessy ways? If you dont like the photographers personalities, they’ll end up bugging you all day. When you are interviewing look for someone that you would want to invite to your wedding.

2.) Does your photographer know WHO the royal family is? One of my girlfriends got her photos back and saw that their were tons of candid shots of a friend-of-a-friends kid playing around the cake-cute, but not what she wanted…and no pictures of her Grandma at all-what she wanted. It may sound a tad over the top, but a real Princess takes care of business before the big show. So gather some snapshots of the people you want pictures of and show them to your photographer fella and tell him who you really want pics of. Otherwise you’re going to have some great high definition pictures of your cousins flavor of the month that he met at a bar to treasure forever.

3.) And remember Princesses, photographers dressed in black are not former crystal ball readers dressed in black…they can’t read minds….If on your wedding day you have noticed that the photographer hasn’t shot any formal picture of you alone in your gorgeous princess dress that took a month to pick out then you better say,  “Hey! Dude with the camera! Would you mind shooting that baby over here?” Yeah, it may feel a little awkward, but a real princess knows how to communicate what she wants gracefully…and I know you can do it!

Love,  Princess Nini Spice

 

My Marie is Married!

 

…and another one bite’s the dust…. a couple weekends ago wearing a gorgeous Mon Amie wedding dress one of my sweetest girlfriends Marie got married in Laguna Beach to one very LUCKY dude named Gregg. Their ceremony was uber-duber beautiful on a cliff over looking the ocean. It was a beautiful Southern California day that turned one of my favorite girls night-gal-pals from a “Miss. ” to a “Mrs.” Marie is a testament of “Everything happens for a reason.” So all you single gals take a good look at Gregg (who is the most amazing guy ) and remember to hold out for THE BEST guy who will treat you like the princess you are! 

Before meeting Gregg I really thought there was no guy good enough for Marie. I mean she is so sweet, so kind, so faithful, so patient, so smart…I felt like they discontinued the matching “ken doll” to the “Marie Barbie collection.”  And then he shows up with this humility, kindness and prince charming good looks and boom….I’m left drinking latte’s and eating dinner by myself! Oh well, it’s my philosophy that the fun of “Getting married” is actually the journey of “getting” there.  It’s the journey of horrific blind dates, meeting strange men and having to ride home in a cab with a martini on your skirt and calamari in your hair that makes eventually “getting married” so fun.

So I did what I do at every wedding I attend, I clocked the left ring finger of Marie and Gregg’s wedding photographer Trever Hoehne . What? Like you don’t do it? I thought hey, he’s artsy, he’s cute and then my girlfriends leans in  and says “and he’s ENGAGED!” Oh well, good for his chick, cause he is one impressive dude who took some awesome pictures of this wedding. Check em out on his blog: http://treverhoehne.blogspot.com I love weddings and I Love you Marie and Gregg! Love, Princess Nini Spice xoxoxo

“Where there is LOVE there is GOD also.” – Leo Tolstoy

Bridesmaids Dress Tip…

Oh violet bridesmaids dress, I loved you so,

I miss the way you gently made my waist grow!

Yet I will always have affection for you Periwinkle blue,

the way your long chiffon protected me from groomsmen spew.

But, no one compares to you Hooker Red,

The way you kept all eyes on me as the conga line was led.

Oh bridesmaids dresses, you are a honor to wear,

True friendship wears all colors without a care.

Now that I have probably dis-throwned myself from ever being asked again to be in another wedding for the rest of my life I can blog this morning…..(*Side note (or attempt to get foot out of mouth)…I really have felt honored to be in every wedding that I have been asked to be in. No matter what the dresses have looked like, I think its an even trade for the jokes I make during my speeches So a friend of mine is getting married and she has led her ladies passed the Jessica McClintock, Macy’s and Bloomingdales stores and decided to stop in front of  Anthropologie for her dresses.

I think this is a genius idea! One of the girls in the wedding said, “I will ACTUALLY wear this dress again.” I took a look at the Anthropologie dresses this morning and they are so super duper cute! If you are going to spend $150 -$200 on a dress then what better place to spend it then at a place that you can also pick up some new drawer knobs? Cuteness all around! Check out the Maritime one below! Have a great weekend girls!

Love, HonestChitChat