Now Begins "Happily Ever After..."

Cynthia Writes:

Hello everyone!! I can't believe it's been 9 months since we've blogged!

As you know, the wedding was September 10th, 2o11. For the most part, everything was pretty much how we imaged our big day would be. There were a few things here and there that we would have liked to change, but they were things that were out of our control.

Overall, it was a beautiful day and I think that our guests really enjoyed seeing the mesh of both cultures. First we had a Japanese ceremony (San san kudo) where we were both dressed in traditional kimonos. San san kudo is a formal and ritualized drinking of a small amount of sake, which is a ceremony of binding. My attire consisted of 3 layers, undergarments, kimono and uchikake. Wearing the uchikake was like wearing the most beautifully colored and embroidered heavy blanket ever! Luckily, this ceremony was held indoors. I believe the temperature was in the mid 90's that day so I probably would have fainted if it had been outside.

After the Japanese ceremony there was an hour long intermission during which the mariachi played. At this time we changed into our traditional suit and bridal gown. Right before the traditional ceremony began, I sent my sisters to surprise Tim with a gift. It was cowboy boots, a belt and a tejana (cowboy hat)! I told them they could give him the option to wear it during the ceremony or just for the reception. Of course, Tim being the "true Mexican" that he is, wore them for the ceremony and the rest of the night!

At the reception, our wonderful mariachi played during dinner. One of the last songs that they played was "Nube de mar (Kawano nagareno yoni)", which was half in Spanish and half in Japanese. It was perfect! Our centerpieces were small zen gardens that Tim and I made with a vase that had bamboo and cherry blossoms and our favors were chopsticks with personalized sleeves.

It made me so happy that people noticed all of the small details and work that I put into everything and it was nice receiving so many compliments! Like I said, both Tim and I worked on the centerpieces, my sister designed our invitations and I assembled them, I made my own bouquet, the boutonnieres for the guys, my hair pieces for both ceremonies, hair pieces for the flower girls, ring pillow, lazo, origami cranes for the cake, my mom made 200 miniature cranes (one to go along with each pair of chopsticks), and Tim's parents made our 1000 cranes!

It was a beautiful and memorable night. Thank you to our friends and family for sharing our special day with us and a special thank you to our parents and bridal party for all of your help!

So what do we have planned now?! Well, a week from today we start phase one of our honeymoon! (We originally had a 6 week honeymoon planned, but we split it up over the next year). December 3rd we leave to Costa Rica for 9 days. We hope to backpack through Europe for spring break, visit my family in Chicago in the summer, and if possible go to Japan toward the end of the year! We are very excited to travel and spend that time together, because once all of the traveling is done... we plan on starting our family!

Thank you Tio' Sam!

Tim writes:

So Cynthia just posted something regarding the postponing of the wedding due to fiduciary issues... in layman's terms... we is broke! So we figured that having a few extra months for me to save some cash would allow us to have the wedding that we want. And when I say "we," I mean Cynthia. Ha ha ha....

So I get my taxes done over the weekend and after having to pay a grand or so in owed taxes from 2009, my Tio (uncle) Sam a.k.a. da United States Government comes through and hooks me up with a HUGE refund! All in all, I can now pay for the wedding in its entirety by NEXT MONTH!!!! Pretty sweet right!?

The only problem now is that I have to pay for this honeymoon in installments every month. But now that I'm getting paid from the Sheriff's Office for my reserve time, this honeymoon seems more do-able than ever.

So thank you Tio Sam and God Bless America!

nine.ten.eleven.

Cynthia Writes:

Hello family & friends, big news... we've decided to postpone the wedding. GASP!! No, we don't hate each other, no one is getting cold feet & it has only been postponed not cancelled.

As you know we want to take a pretty big honeymoon and a few extra months will definitely help us save up a little more so that we are able to have the wedding that we want and the honeymoon of our dreams.

Honestly, one of the biggest reasons for postponing is that I wasn't willing to move the wedding to El Centro! I think it's a fair compromise. I'd rather move the date than move the location. Luckily we were able to change everything with no problems. My biggest fear was that one of our vendors wouldn't be available on the new date that we chose. But like I said, it was a breeze & the new date is set!

So what is the new wedding date? September 10, 2011. (nine.ten.eleven)

Happy New Year!

Cynthia Writes:


Happy New Year familia y amigos!! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. We had a nice little Christmas con la familia & spent the last 16 HOURS of 2010 at Disneyland! Even though I was sick, had a fever and was pretty much whinny the entire time, we managed to have a very nice time with the Rodriguez family!

2011 is going to be an awesome year for Tim & I! June alone will be very exciting. Not only because of the BIG DAY, but because we finally get to move back home!! I'm sure that moving, going to school and finalizing wedding plans will be pretty crazy, but it'll all be worth it. I'm sooooo happy to be back home with family and friends. Other June events include, my (24th) birthday ;), finally being done with school, and leaving on our amazing 10 week honeymoon! We've already been told by Tim's parents many, many times that we need to start working on giving them grandbabies right after the wedding! They have instructed to try everyday on the honeymoon...awkward! lol

When we return from the honeymoon we hope to buy a house and start our little family. It's so strange to think that by the end of 2011 we will be married, will have traveled to beautiful places around the world on an amazing honeymoon, have our own home and possibly be expecting!

It's almost unreal, as if I were writing about someone else's life, not my own... I never imagined myself marrying an old Japanese man! lol I mean... such an amazing, hardworking, patient man that loves me unconditionally!

I Love you HoneyPie! This is only the beginning of our journey!

The DIY Projects Continue!

Cynthia Writes:

After picking up my dress and veil last Saturday, I went shoe shopping with my mom and Tim on Sunday. I already had a specific shoe in mind and the plan was to go in, find them, pay and leave! But of course, it didn't happen that way. When I tried them on, they weren't very comfortable and the color was about three shades darker than in the picture.

Tim pointed out some shoes that I thought looked a little "mom-ish", but I tried them on anyway. They were pretty comfortable and the color matched my dress a little better, but I still thought it was something I'd like more for my mom. Fortunately, I took a flower with me that I had made (for my hair piece) to try to match the shoe color to. Jokingly, Tim said to make two flowers and put them on my shoes... and that's how my wedding shoes were born!

It's funny how with so many things I think I know exactly what I like and don't like. But when I try on what I think I don't like, it's what ends up looking the best!

Before going dress shopping, I thought I wanted something more contemporary and non-traditional. I also thought I wanted a small birdcage veil. But after trying on my dress with a more traditional veil, I really felt like a "Bride".

Moral of the story: Keep an open mind!

Having my kimono, dress, veil and shoes makes it so real! It's so exciting to see everything coming together and I can't wait for the big day when I get to marry my best friend!

Deposits and Dresses!

Cynthia writes:

Hello everyone. Sorry, I know it's been a while since our last post, but a lot has been going on since then. We pretty much have all of the big things out of the way. We have put deposits down for our ceremony and reception sites, DJ and our awesome photographer (Jacqueline Amparo). We actually met with Jacqueline at our ceremony site and walked the grounds a little, brainstorming. We are very excited, it's a beautiful location and she's just great, I know our pictures will be amazing.

Now the only thing left that requires a deposit is the mariachi (I'm going to request that they learn to play 'Beat It'! heehee) We got an awesome deal on the mariachi. We had called local groups in the Palm Springs area, but they were crazy expensive. They wanted $500 per hour, per musician. Plus, they were only 3 musicians. I'm sorry, but that's not a mariachi, that's a trio! Luckily one of the guys in Tim's class plays in a mariachi and they gave us a really good price. $400 per hour for 13 musicians AND they're coming from El Centro (a 2 hour drive).

Speaking of awesome prices, I also got my kimono for our Japanese ceremony. We were budgeting about $200-300 for my kimono alone. I got very lucky and found one for $54.49! That's including shipping...from Japan! I am extremely happy with it. It's a vintage Japanese kimono and it's absolutely beautiful!

I put this picture up just so you get an idea of what we'll look like. Fyi, I will not be wearing the wig!


So now I have my kimono, my wedding dress, and thanks to Tim's parents, my jewelry for the big day! They spent way more than what I was planning on spending on my earrings and necklace. I'm so lucky to have awesome suegros like them!!



Two things on our to-do list that we are looking forward to are our engagement session and menu tasting! We are going to shoot the engagement session at a Japanese garden in San Diego and we will be dressed in our kimonos. We decided to do the photos in kimonos prior to the wedding because the actual wedding day will be crazy enough. We want to get those pictures out of the was so we don't have to worry about them the day of and fall behind schedule.


There are many more exciting things to come. We will be starting with the invitations soon. I promise to post more often and keep you all updated!

Cranes, Cranes, Cranes!

Cynthia Writes:

On labor day weekend my bridesmaids and I got together at my cousin Diana's (far right) for a delicious breakfast and crane-making session!

Cranes have become our "unofficial" theme for the wedding. Instead of trying to make hundreds of them by myself, I decided that not only would it be a great excuse to have such a delicious breakfast, but it would be a good way to get my bridesmaids involved!

About a week before we got together I went online and looked up how to make paper cranes. Because I had a little bit of trouble trying to figure it out on my own, I made sure to have plenty of 'practice' paper for the bridesmaids before they were allowed to graduate to the origami paper. We had to convince a few of them that they were ready to graduate, while others were making birds that looked more like swans! (sorry Eli!) We were able to make about 40 cranes in 2 hrs.

Afterwards I went to make a payment on my dress. Because my 2 sisters (both on far left) were there when I picked it out, I took the the other 3 bridesmaids, who are also my cousins, with me so they could see it. It was so exciting to be able to put it on again and see their faces when I walked out from behind the curtain!

It was a good day, we'll be getting together again soon to make more cranes. Guess what girls... we're making a thousand!!