Sewn Together: Married!

It was a traditional ceremony.

Though at first I had planned on us writing our own personal vows, Sak really felt it would be better to stay traditional - and sometimes straight and to-the-point can be a good thing.

First, my cousin read our chosen Scripture verses - 1 John 4:7-16.

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him."

Pastor E did a little sermonette on the marriage next.

Some even got a little emotional.

While others read their programs. Haha!

We exchanged our vows.

"I, Penga, take thee, Sak to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God’s Holy Word; and there to I give thee my pledge."

And swapped our rings.

"With this ring I thee wed, in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

We prayed.

And lastly, Pastor E declared us husband and wife, and told Sak he could now salute his bride for real.

We were married.

(Creepily) Hehehe. Married.

We excited to the brassy tunes of the Star Wars Throne Room song.

And since we never discussed an exit strategy, Sak's grandma booked it out of there right after we did.

Obviously ready to party.

(All images by Terra Photography)

Our wedding week in review:

• We took care of some last minute DIY details, and officialized everything.
• We vacationed with our out-of-towners, and threw a yummy welcome beach brunch.
• Sak saluted an angry dragon during our wedding rehearsal, and we sniffed at our dinner.
• Wal-Mart crashed my bachelorette.
• The women magically transformed, and Sak tied me into our dress.
• There was a windy photoshoot on the beach, and then we hung out at the chapel in flat shoes.
• We marched to the altar.

Sewn Together: Down the Aisle

Once everyone was successfully herded into the chapel - it was time to get married.

The rehearsal paid off, since everyone floated down the aisle perfectly.

Sak and his paternal grandmother.

Sak-brother and their maternal grandmother.

Saka-parents.

Penga-Mom and brother.

Penga-Sis.

Happy face!

Well, everyone did a good job except for the bride, I should say.

Anxious like none other, I preempted my queue and dragged my dad down the aisle at a near sprint.

The song we chose was an orchestrated version of Final Fantasy VIII - Fragments of Memories.

It starts nice and flowy, and eventually picks up into something of a march (around the 2:40 mark). I was supposed to start walking at the march part.

However, the march didn't actually start until I was up at the front, grinning stupidly at my almost-husband. Oops.

Sak later confided his disappointment in my lack of musicality, but secretly I think he was pleased at me rushing to meet him like an obsessed groupie.

At the altar, Pastor E asked who was giving me away. I know there's good reason not to like this tradition - as I am certainly not anyones property.  But here's how I've come to see it: before Sak came along, the "owners" (after God, of course) of my love, priority and general day-to-day craziness were my immediate family members. They were the first I ran to when I had news, the first I complained to when something was wrong, the first I asked for help with decision making and the first to whom I confided my plans. That person is now Sak.

So when my father proudly answered, "Her mother and I [give penga to be married]", I had absolutely no complaints. To me, it speaks of my parents' willingness to take backseat to my husband's needs. My family will always be my family, but now Sak is my primary family - the one I am most responsible for caring for.

"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." - Genesis 2:24 KJV

So finally, with a kiss on the cheek from my father, I stepped up to the altar to join my beloved.

And then it was just me

and Sak

on the verge of becoming husband and wife.

(All images by Terra Photography)

Our wedding week in review:

• We took care of some last minute DIY details, and officialized everything.
• We vacationed with our out-of-towners, and threw a yummy welcome beach brunch.
• Sak saluted an angry dragon during our wedding rehearsal, and we sniffed at our dinner.
• Wal-Mart crashed my bachelorette.
• The women magically transformed, and Sak tied me into our dress.
• There was a windy photoshoot on the beach, and then we hung out at the chapel in flat shoes.

DIY Tissue Packets

Sometimes, I feel like I'll really miss this wedding planning business. I've had so many amazing conversations with Sak during the process. Sure, some of them involved fighting, but there were also plenty with riotous laughing and victory dances around the living room.

Take, for instance, this super cute "tears of joy" project by the talented Mrs. Sunrise:

I was instantly smitten, and wrote "tissue packets" up on my pet-project list.

As soon as all our "required" projects were completed, I followed Mrs. Sunrise's tutorial, and gathered my supplies.

I won't rehash her step-by-step process, but I added some red ribbon and a little image to about 40 packets of Target brand tissue.

Now, what does this have to do with Sak? Well, see for yourself:
The importance of tissue packets as told by Sak. True conversation.

The funny thing is, Sak probably has a point. I will be one surprised Penga if anyone starts crying. We come from rather unemotional families. But there are more than enough people with chronic allergies. So it's not too far-fetched.

Anyway, just another sweet, cute idea - ruined by a couple of nerds with too much pre-wedding time on their hands. I love it, and even better - Sak loves it.

Are your guests more likely to sneeze from flower pollen, or from flowery sentiments of love?

Ring Box

We don't have a ring bearer, due to lack of cute little children or fuzzy pets. Sak's brother will simply carry them in his pocket.

And trivial as it may be, I wasn't satisfied with the box our rings came in.

It's grey and boring, but more substantially - it's really big. I didn't think it would fit comfortably in Saka-bro's pocket.

Instead, I thought of how fun it would be to put our rings in a capsule ball - like the kind you get $1.00 Pokemon toys from.

(source)

Though unfortunately, Sak wasn't having any of that. Here's what he sent me in response to my e-mailed idea:

"The problem with capsules:

Setting: outside in the parking lot
1)Saka-bro gets out of the car and the ring capsule falls out of his pocket.
2)said capsule begins to roll in the lot picking up speed
3)rings falls into storm drain, never to be seen again.

...so I'd say go with a box"

I emailed back, "Can I at least decorate the box?"

To which he replied:

"This falls into the category of details that will cause penga to forget the more important things. She will end up doing everything even more last minute, and then she'll find some way to blame me."

Who, me?

Undeterred - I decided that if I couldn't use a capsule, and I couldn't decorate my own box, I would at least find an interesting pre-decorated box. Like these:

(Etsy Source: NotableNotions)

The brocade-covered boxes were not only super-cute, but cheap too, at 6 boxes for about $5. The only problem was the fact that they came in randomly-assorted packages. Of course I wanted the red box, but there would be no guarantee I'd get one.

I forked over my electronic $5 anyway, and begged in the comments for a red box.

And lo and behold, the seller was sweet enough to give me not one, but TWO red boxes!


They are really small though, so our rings will have to snuggle.


Cute, small enough for a pocket, no precious DIY time used up - check!

What are you holding your rings in during the ceremony?

Just a Few Words

So I took a stab at writing my own little "letter" to read to Sak at our ceremony. My thoughts are to read our heartfelt sentiments to each other, then commence with the rings and traditional vows. I always love it when couples say something personal to each other. There's something that just seems so special about it.

(source)

Anyway, I think I came up with a fairly good little piece. It conveys what I feel about as much as words can express, and I tried to keep the inside jokes and anything else that might be prone to "dating" out entirely. It's honest, light on froof, with a touch of my own quirky spirit. I think Sak would like it.

And speaking of Sak, as far as I know, he hasn't written two words. I know he's not entirely comfortable having his writing compared to mine, as he has always been strictly a numbers guy. But I know whatever he ends up writing will still be from his heart, whether it's eloquent or not.

I imagine he'd say something like this:

(Manga image from Hot Gimmick, by Miki Aihara)

*Sigh* So here's the options -

Do I:

1) Share what I have wrote and look over his to make sure they are roughly the same length and seriousness? I mean, I've been to a wedding where the groom wrote completely beautiful things, and the bride's was one big light-hearted inside joke. It didn't mesh to us confused guests - but then again, the guests don't really matter when it comes to one's personal statement towards the other, do they?

2) Keep everything completely hush-hush and be in for a surprise.

3) Give them to a 3rd party to evaluate for us.

As much as I want to express how much my future husband means to me, I don't want him to have anxiety over this. Bad things happen when Sak has anxiety.

Did you or will you write your own sentiments? Is it a secret or are you well rehearsed?

I need my princess leia, er, husband!

No joke, this is how I envision myself walking down the aisle:



*sigh* my dream! Saka says no way. But I mean, come on, Dad can even do the wookiee yell halfway down the aisle! :D

What kind of music should I use, if I can't use this? Instrumental Christian contemporary? Final Fantasy Instrumentals? There's just so many choices!

What are you doing for your "walk"? Are you keeping it simple or making a dramatic entrance?

Anela Garden

Sak and I were ready, credit card in hand, to book our ceremony location at Haiku Gardens.

Receptionist: "Oh, we're sorry, but unless you are also booking your reception through us, we cannot give you our Saturday evening time spot."

Wait, what?

And with that, it was back to the drawing board. We couldn't change our reception location since their restaurant is not big enough for 150 guests.

Now what did we need regarding our ceremony venue, again? If you recall, Sak specifically said, "No beaches". So that left gardens, churches and chapels.

There are some beautiful, beautiful gardens in Hawaii. But come on, it's Hawaii. We could get married in a parking lot and it would probably still be gorgeous.

Mom-Penga chimed in with an important note, however:

"You know, I don't think we'll be able to handle being outside in hot Hawaii weather! We'll probably all pass out or something!" Mom worried. That's what happens when you live in a fog-bank your whole life.

So next was churches. I found out quickly that most churches will not marry people outside their church, or outside their denomination. Not to mention let a non-denominational pastor in to do the officiating! Our pastor from my hometown church is coming with us, so we'd need a place that would let him do the marrying.

So chapels, right?

We looked around, and found this place. Anela Garden Chapel.

A little history on Anela Garden - apparently they originally catered only to Japanese couples looking to get married, but to increase business they decided to open the place up to the locals and mainlanders. It's a wedding Disneyland, in my opinion. Brightly colored, with every traditional wedding photo-op imaginable. The chapel with stained glass window, a gazebo, a water fountain, a balcony, a staircase, a garden. DISNEYLAND!

Now, normally I might be a little put-off by the pre-fabrication of it all. But I'll tell you why I'm not.

1. Sak likes it.
2. They don't have those outrageous "mandatory" package deals. I can bring my own Pastor, etc.
3. The guy was really nice on the phone. Customer service is realllly important to me, and it's no fun to call someone only to have them sound demeaning or sour.
4. When all said and done, I will have great traditional photos.
5. It's not 4,000 dollars expensive.
6. It's only 9 miles away from our reception ballroom.


Now, the downside would be that I only get an hour in this place. But no worries, it's right across the street from a park (and the Honolulu zoo!) so we can just jog on over for more pictures if need be.

All and all, seemed like a solid deal. So I called and sent in my deposit. I got my confirmation quickly, so it looks like we should be all set this time!

Was booking your ceremony location "smooth sailing", or did you have any "rough turbulence" along the way?

Venue Variations

Now that we have a reception location, the next question to ask is - where to have the ceremony? Without the two building blocks of a wedding (ceremony and reception venue) it's a bit hard to move onto the rest of the details.

We've looked (online) through a lot of places. The criteria we want? Something scenic for pictures, something not too blasting hot, something not too "touristy".

Here's the first place I liked: Wai'oli Chapel

(source)

(source)

The problem? It only seats 30-40 people. Even if a lot of Sak's relatives don't come to the ceremony (as his mom predicts), we'll probably still be over since our guest list is at about 150.

So our second (and more realistic choice)?

Haiku Gardens

(source)

This place is seriously beautiful. And located North enough (Kaneohe) to not have crazy hot weather like Honolulu.

The downside is that it's a little higher than our projected budget. But I guess it's okay. You're paying for the privacy you can't get from a beach or state botanical garden. And the chapel seats up to 150, so no space limitations. Parking is free as well.

So unless something miraculous comes up between now and tomorrow, we will probably book this place. We called and they confirmed our date availability.

Did you fall in love with a venue too large or too small for your guest size? Did you move on with a wistful sigh, or modify your guest list instead?