Our Work: Thuy's and Tot's special day

We've been so bad at updating I know! Wedding season is over and we are both taking a much needed break. Our goal before the end of the year is to record the work we've done throughout this busy season on our blog.

Photography by Adele Cabanillas

Of all the events we’ve had the pleasure of working, we at AIE found one we LOVE to pieces. Jackie had told me earlier this year "My ultimate dream job is to do a wedding at Hakone Gardens.” When one of our fave photographers, Thuy Le Tran, asked us to help her with her own wedding we were happy to oblige. I could hardly contain my excitement when she had told me her wedding venue was Jackie’s dream job. Let me tell you... the Hakone Gardens landscape in person, does not disappoint.

Nor has Tot’s and Thuy’s style. This wedding was so chic, crafty, and rustic that I could’ve just died with giddiness. Together, Adele Cabanilla’s Photography and Lynna Nguyen’s Photography captured the day so beautifully.

This wedding was so adorable it’s being featured in today’s Style Me Pretty’s blog. Here’s the link: Saratoga Wedding by Adele Cabanillas | Style Me Pretty via @stylemepretty

Congrats to the lovely couple on your marriage! Wishing you many years of happiness!


All Photography by Adele Cabanillas

Thank you to our fellow vendors that assisted in another successful event!

Photographers: Adele Cabanillas
2nd shooter: Lynna Nguyen
Venue: Hakone Gardens
Caterers: Ming Ta of Flourishing Gardens
Officiant: David Johanson
Bartenders: Richard Vo of Tipsy assisted by Austin Mosqueda
Florist: Ada Wong
DJ: Ngoc Hieu of X-Generation Entertainment
Lighting & Linen Rentals: Thomas Chou
Photo backdrop Rentals: Bwiebe Events
Hair + Make-up: Lili Li
Bridesmaid Make-up: Charlene Tran
Invitation Design: bride's diy
Invitation Printing: Vietnam Printing

Cheers!

Love & Celebration: Being Blessed and Inspired..

Having a daughter taught me so many things...like strawberry ice cream is the answer to all irritations and Daddies are the best playmates. My daughter, Jilian is a true blessing. She mimics my actions and makes me realize.. wait.. did I do that?? She is certainly my little teacher from heaven.  We just celebrated her 4th birthday a couple of weeks ago. 

Pictures by Lynna Nguyen Photography 
www.lynnanguyen.com

In the next few weeks, we are welcoming another baby into our lives!! This time.. A BABY BOY!!
Wil, Jilian and I are super excited and anxious!!  We can’t wait to meet Baby J. 

Pictures by Thuy Tran Photography
www.thuytranphotography.com

Even though there's more laundry, more drama, more patience needed.
There's also more purpose, more meaning, more love.
Even though I can get lost in my role as mother, it’s actually made me who I am and a better me.

I’m so blessed and inspired.. 

XOXO,

Celebration: Sending off the bachelor...

...into his rite of passage has always been a tradition. One I didn't think I would ever help partake in.

I have the opportunity of being a part of my two good friend's wedding this coming September. This is like my 10th wedding (including my own) I've been in. By now I know how these things work. Get the dress, help set up and attend the bach parties, same with the shower, then wedding day! Those are a normal bridal party duty. Of course I have to take it up a notch.

Shar & Gene's bachelorette/bachelor party was semi co-ed. We were schedule to be in Vegas the same time for their celebrations. Daytime maybe a meet up with the guys, maybe not. It was different, yet fun!

I am a BIG believer that the celebrants should shine by having their own custom shirts to wear out while they are in Vegas. Obviously I made the bride's shirt but this is my first ever bachelor's design. Knowing he was a gamer and working with one of the groommen, one of the bridesmaid, and the bride I was able to think of something uniquely his. Thanks Rene, Elena, and Shar for your help on this!

We've returned from Vegas a few weeks back and had a great time. Thank you guys for allowing me to part of your special day!

Do me a favor: ...and Personalize it.

This post will start off a new blog segment where we go over party favors. I'll feature ones we've created in relation to the post. For those who don't know the purpose of a favor (or giveaway) here's the wiki of it: Party Favors.

Today is one I've created for my friend Angela's wedding shower. The shower theme is "Kitchen". I went through various ideas of what to give to their guests. There are plenty of already made favors out there. I could have gotten a small whisk, salt and pepper shakers, or a cookie cutter. All great ideas but how does it relate to the couple? I dugged deeper and started looking around.

The Inspiration: I stumbled upon my inspiration in Style Me Pretty's post: DIY Project: Tea Tins. It was perfect. The colors are part of the wedding theme and the groom is from England. I notice in their household that they started this daily ritual of having tea after their meals. Nothing else could be so perfect. To put my spin on it we used loose tea and added a tea ball strainer. Then we packaged them in a box with a long folded card (inspired by Anthropologie’s) with a little blurb of our thank yous and description of the favor.

Source of image here 

  

Source of image here 

The Results:

So don't forget to make the party favors personal to the taste of the couple, kid, and theme. Good luck!

Great Finds: Beautiful Rustic Wedding Rings

Hi ya'll been quite a few months since I've last blogged. SERIOUSLY! AIE has been busy almost every month and the next couple of months it'll be so much busier. I promise to blog at least once a week regardless even if it's just a simple post. Sometimes photos do all the talking.

I'm a shopper... I can't lie! Shopping and I have a secret love affair... Shhh!!! My husband knows. Ha ha ha! I was looking for some rustic jewelry for an upcoming shower and found these fantastic wedding rings. I'm soo in love with it. Now there are a lot of vendors that does this style. Trust me I've looked. But after my ETSY search through several pages of results I had finally picked my top 3.

One Loom Studio's
Set of Two Engravable Wood Grain Rings

Peaces of Indigo's
Womens band ring with bark texture and carved initials in hearts (textured woodgrain recycled silver)

Monkeys Always Look's
Custom Personalized Band Ring Tree Bark - Redwood Tree

Happy Friday!!

P.S.
All sellers have granted the right for me to blog their items. Their names links back to their Etsy shop and the item photo and title links back to their listing.

Great Finds: Paper Source's Printable Invites

Source of image here

With gas price on the rose and unemployment is still a concern Paper Source save the day. Now these can be dressed up as fancy as wedding invites. So adorable. I love the lace in the image above. Great for bridal shower/bachlorette parties.

Source of image here

The embossed flowers paper could easily pass as a wedding invitation.

Source of image here

How about dinner party invite? See more here.

People & Love: Meeting new friends and inspired by them…

From every event we plan, we meet talented vendors along the way.  Margaret Jacobsen from Margaret Jacobsen Photography is certainly one of them. I wanted to hire a local photographer for my daughter’s 3^rd beach birthday party that was located in the Monterey area since my daughter’s birthday took place at SeaCliff State Beach.  I checked Craigslist and that’s where I found my new friend. It’s only been 6 months since I met her, but it feels like as if I’ve known her longer.  Margaret is so free spirited and her talent with capturing the moment is so intriguing. You can definitely feel the love when you see her photos.

Here are a few photos from one of the many moments Margaret had captured of my family. To see more of her work click here and here.





Thank you Margaret!

Love & Our Work: Happy V-Day

Happy Valentines or Single Awareness day everyone!

As promised here is a post on our latest photoshoot. All stationery were designed by me, maritessb. I've been working on designs but never had the chance to take photos of them. So I finally decided to suck it up and make time.

THE INSPIRATION: I love baked sweets. A few friends helped by donating a few of the goodies. The cake pops were done by my friend Miss G and the heart-shaped cookies were creations of Mrs. Angie and mom. Miss G just did a set for her daughter's birthday w/o bringing me any leftovers... So I guilt her into making me some. I asked Mrs. Angie for the cookies she gave away as part of her wedding favors because they are so cute and delicious. Everything else were baked by me! If I wasn't a license coordinator, part-time event coordinator, or part-time stationery designer... I'd be a baker. LOL!

Since I'm incorporating everything I "love" it's only fitting to do a Valentine inspired photoshoot. Cheesy as it may sound I LOVE Valentines even when I was single. I love how 1 day is dedicated to the expression of love for one another. Sure gifts are exchanged, wines are being poured, and tummies are stuffed but the whole point is to be kind to each other/yourself for one day. It doesn't have to be a romantic experience. I spent last weekend and tonight with family and friends. One of the best Valentines ever. Life is too precious! It's nice to be reminded to spoil someone or yourself in middle of the cold wintery season.

With that being said here are some of my photos from the shoot. My two lovely sisters (Jenn and Sheila) and husband helped me with the set up. You can catch the rest of the photos soon on our FB Page.

An overview of our spread: chocolate doughnuts, red velvet cake, cake pops with butter chocolate cake, mini cherry pies, pb&j sandwiches, brownies, sugar cookies. Books are loaners from the library and the plates are a combination of Martha Stewart, Anthropologie, Target, Etsy, and Micheal's.

The top right invitation is for little girl's craft birthday party. I'd thought using felt as a pocket folder would be so adorable! The middle right is a baby shower book invite with my own monkey character. The style of this invitation was inspired by Paul Frank. The bottom invitation is a "Bee Bee" shower. 

 The top invitation (in the set below) may look familiar. It's my own DIY wedding invitation. Here are the detailed instruction on this invitaiton here. Bottom left is a latticed punched invitation I did for Mrs. Angie's bridal shower. On the right is an invitation holder made from a dolie! I love that idea. The design inside is my spin on it. Look at our FB album to see the inside design.

This is a favor box I've done for Mrs. Angie's bridal shower (lattice punched invitation above). I'll post the photos of the party soon.

Thanks for checking out our work! Happy love day! Remember this is only 1 day... make it last throughout the year.

Love: Simply inspired and having your dreams come true…

This feels so surreal because I get a chance to help plan soirees with one of my best friends!! I’m so honored to share this dream with my Tessie. I heart her so much!!

Source of photo from our friend Grace

Tess and I helped many brides these past couple few years and each one reminded me of my own special day.

My wedding took place five years ago and I still get goose bumps when I think back to that day. I remember hearing from the distance, behind the church’s wooden double doors, our song “Here I Stand” sung by Jon and Nerizza Manongdo. I could feel the emotion with very word they sung as their powerful voices echoed throughout the church. I looked at my parents for a last glance when tears began to fall. Carol O., my day of coordinator, fixed my long cathedral veil and the train of my trumpet style dress. She asked me if I was ready and I nodded yes at the same time trying my best to fight back the waterfall of tears. As far as I can remember as a little girl, I’ve dreamt of this day and of this moment, but nothing could have prepared me for how it felt.


Seconds later, the church doors opened wide and what I saw was my dream through my veil; it was a beautiful sight. I was welcomed with the watery eyes and joyful smiles of our loved ones. As I walked down the red draped aisle, I could see at the end my groom with his beautiful smile.

Carol, my day of coordinator was my super hero that day. She made sure everyone was well informed and every little detail I planned out was well executed. Weddings can be so complicated, but ours was simply stress free– thanks to our Carol!! This special day truly inspired me to help other couples with their dreams..

Now that was my special day.. now let us make your day as memorable as ours..

All wedding photos were taken by Michael Loeb Photography

Our Work: Life's a Witch, take 2

Let me catch up blog posts of our latest work. If you've been following some of my stationery design on Simply Maritessb you would know that we've done a Wicked the musical themed party for Jackie, our BFF Jennie, and I's birthday in 2009. Jackie and I wanted to recreate that theme. So we met and hooked up with Thuy Tran Photography (one of our fave photographer to work with) to do a photoshoot last October (2010).

If you never seen or heard of Wicked the musical check their site for more info [click here]. We love the musical. A very surprisingly pleasant story about friendships, womenhood, and love. What a fitting theme for a birthday.

So we wanted the decor to represent both main characters in the musical the wicked witch (Elphaba) and the good (Glenda). Elphaba was viewed as the wicked witch because she was "different". Glenda loves to make people happy. Though they were opposite in personalities they were forced together as roommates at school.

In the room we had green and black to illustrate Elphaba. Pinks and white to represent Glenda. The signs we posted throughout the room are titles of songs from the play. The favors were $1 mugs from Michael's that have stamped vintage images that reminded me of the play (see image below for examples).

Source here

Food was a combination of Guapo Catering and some from our guests. The giant cupcake cake was made by Caketastic Designs. What's cuter than a big cupcake? It was sooo yummy. We love how she used a solid chocolate wrapper base. A technique similar to this.

Originally we planned a mock photoshoot but since the only day we had available to shoot was the day before my birthday we've decided to make it a pre-celebration. Our guests were 20 of my closest family and friends, which may be a lot for some people... but for me that just the bare minimum.

I hope you enjoy the photos as much as we loved putting it together. To see more check our FB Page.

Decor: An Inspired Event
Stationery Designs: MaritessB Designs
Photography: Thuy Tran Photography
Catering: Guapo Catering
Cake: Caketastic Designs by Freide