Tikilife

The Magic of Iao Valley

2012-02-02T18:26:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited to finally get to share our visit to Iao Valley with all of you. This place is truly magical. You must go there when visiting Maui. Once we had made our way out of the airport and we were on the hunt for Geste Shrimp Truck (another must when you are on the island), I noticed these beautiful mountains and commented on how much I liked the looks of them. I even took the picture below of them. Little did I know that they were part of Iao Valley and we would be there in just a couple days.

The drive up to Iao Valley is very pretty. Also known as the Valley of Supreme Light, I could see why. There is so much to see. Really, make sure you check this place out on your next trip to Maui. I've even been thinking about going back there on our next trip.

When you get to the end of the road there is a parking lot that you pay to park in. Or you can park along the street for free. We just paid. It was only $5 and we didn't have to deal with other parking. It was also really close to the entrance. Every once in a blue moon, I like to go the easy route. Yeah, those who know me know that's not very often! :)

Hali'imaile General Store

2012-02-01T17:12:00.000-08:00

Once we were done swimming and had gotten cleaned up back into our vintage Hawaiian wears, we headed over to Hali'imale General Store to give their food a try as a possibility to have our reception dinner there. It was important to us to find a place that had great food, but wasn't too expensive, had a good vibe to it, wasn't too far from Paia, would be able to accommodate a larger party and our loud crowd wouldn't be heard over everyone else. After reading many on-line reviews stating this was Maui's favorite home town restaurant nestled in pineapple fields on the lower slops of Haleakala crater and many of the Hawaii brides from The Knot stating how much they loved this place, we decided to give it a try.

Hali'imale General Store is in the town of Makawao. Only 15 minutes from where we'd be staying. At least we already knew it met one of our requirements for our rehearsal dinner. It was also an easy drive over. But how would it meet the rest of our requirements?

The Town of Paia

2012-01-31T17:30:00.000-08:00

After we had our cake tasting, we headed into Paia. First thing on our agenda was to mail out our welcome dinner invitations for the wedding. We stopped in at the post office, mailed them out and talked a bit with one of the locals who said we must go to Paia Fish Market and get a fish burger before we left town. Since we already had lunch plans doing a tasting with our wedding venue, we weren't able to get lunch at Paia Fish Market, but we did stop by and check it out and added it to our list of places to eat when we are back for our wedding.

Just mailed out the Welcome Dinner invitations at the Paia Post Office.

Our other goal (yes, yes, I'm very goal orientated) for going into Paia was to gather information for our wedding guests on the town. We wanted to make sure we knew what the town had to offer, the feel for it and what it had that would make our guests the most happy. For example, they had a really cute shop, Alice in Hulaland that I know Amanda will love and I can now direct her to go to that store.

Ev'rybody Loves a Hukilau

2012-01-30T17:44:00.000-08:00

We interrupt our previously scheduled Wedding Planning Trip blog programming to bring you this post:

Oh, we're going to a hukilau
A huki, huki, huki, huki, hukilau
Ev'rybody loves a hukilau
Where the laulau is the kau kau at the big luau

1948 Jack Owens

Having a destination wedding that can be more costly for guests to attend we wanted to make sure to do as much as we could for our guests. You might remember from before when I talked about our wedding week activities. The first wedding activity we have planned is our Welcome Hukilau on the 4th of July!

While on Maui, we mailed out the invitations to our Welcome Hukilau. We loved the addded touch of the Hawaii postmark. Our guests already got their invitations so we can now share them with all of you! Feast your eye on these fabulous works of art and notice how the large graphic in the top right hand corner matches up with the graphic on the wedding week activities. Yeah, it's another one of those little details that we planned.
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Let Us Eat Cake!

2012-01-29T08:49:00.000-08:00

Mention cake and I turn into Homer Simpson. Ooohhhh, cake! Complete with a little drool running down my chin. It doesn't matter if it's cake cake, cupcakes or ice cream cake. I love it all. Well, except chocolate cake. Don't even get me started on my disgust for chocolate cake! Oops, too late!

Now you will notice that we did not even try any chocolate cake during our cake tasting. I hate it that much. I don't even want to try it. I don't want it touching my tongue. And I certainly don't want it ruining any of my wonderful tropical cake flavors!

We are having our cake made by Lezley at Mama's Fish House. Yes, that Mama's Fish House. The one every bride goes to on her honeymoon to Maui. The one with not only scrumptious food and delectable drinks, but also amazingly beautiful and delicious desserts. I mean, have you tried their lilikoi creme bruele or their Black Pearl? We are talking down right sinful!

When I first started talking to Lezley about our cake, I kept thinking how am I supposed to pick out cake flavors when I can't even taste them? It's not like it's only vanilla and chocolate (yuck). There were all of these other flavors to pick from. Flavors I'd never had before. Flavors if not done correctly, could be very very wrong! Truth be told, the whole idea of taking a wedding planning trip to Maui was all because we wanted to taste cake!

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A night on the West Shore

2012-01-28T08:17:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had such a long day that it felt like two days? That's how this day was for us. After we had our amazing whale experience and spent most of the day cruising around Lahaina, we headed back to our timeshare. When we arrived the night before it was already dark and when we left in the morning it was still dark, so this was the first time we were seeing it in the light. And it was beautiful. It was right on the beach with tons of tropical flowers.

Originally we were planning on having a little rest when we got back to the timeshare, but once we got there I wanted to get right in the water and pushed for us to get back out the door. Unfortunately, by the time we got down there the wind had come up and it felt to windy to go swimming. Plus, the water was pretty dark by that time, the area had a lot of coral and since we didn't know the beach at all, we figured better safe then sorry. I know, what a bunch of squares, we are!

The view of the beach from our timeshare.

Day in Lahaina

2012-01-27T17:13:00.000-08:00

Once off the boat, we bounced over to Lahaina Coolers for some breakfast. I looked up breakfast places on-line that were supposed to be good in Lahaina and this was one of the places that came up. Be warned, the menu they have on-line is not the menu they have in the restaurant.

I had macadamia nut pancakes with coconut syrup and Drew had an omelet. Like always, we split our food with each other. We always eat "family style". What did we think of it? It was alright. Nothing special and not somewhere that we would want to eat, again. If this is one of the best places Lahaina has to offer, it's not saying much.

After breakfast we set off to get some wedding shopping done and see some of the sites around town. We were on a mission to find a few more items for the out of town bags for our guests, plumeira flower clips and lauhala baskets. Lahaina has both ABC store and Hilo Hattie so we made sure to hit both. Between those places we found everything we were looking for. It was great to get all of that checked off the wedding to do list.

It's a little disappointing that Drew isn't wearing an Aloha shirt in this picture.

While shopping we stopped at the Honolulu Cookie Company to try some of their cookies to maybe get some for the wedding. Their cookies are a Hawaiian shortbread and are oh, so tasty. They had all the cookies out to sample and we tried some of every singe one. Our favorites were the original macadamia nut, pineapple, Kona coffee and chocolate dipped macadamia nut. Make sure to stop by one of their locations when in Hawaii. We didn't pick up any then for the wedding (doesn't mean we won't later), but we did get some to bring home to a couple people back on the mainland.

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People Watching Whales Watching People

2012-01-26T17:42:00.000-08:00

Huh? What? People watching whales watching people? I know, it sounds a little confusing. But bare with me and I promise it will make perfect sense.

Our first full day on Maui we got up bright and early to go whale watching at sunrise. It wasn't officially whale season, but it was just about two weeks before and there are always plenty of whales already there at that time. Why did we choose to go so early in the morning you ask? Well, for a few reasons.

First of all the light is said to be amazing at that time. Second, some say there are more whales at that time. Third, we were still on west Coast time. And last, but not least, there are way less people on the early morning boat trips. Not many ppl want to have to be at the dock at 5:45 am. And you know what? All of this was true.

It was still dark when we arrived at the dock in Lahaina. Which made for the Banyan Tree on Front Street looking really spooky and amazing, at the same time. Good thing was that free parking was really easy to find at this time of day. Not always an easy task later in the day in Lahaina. Or any of the towns on Maui, for that matter.

The Banyan Tree.

Arriving on Maui

2012-01-25T17:37:00.000-08:00

I've got to give you a little back story about the craziness of us getting to Maui. The night before we left, it started snowing. I'm not talking about a little snow either. It was coming down fast and a lot of it. Of course thoughts crossed our minds if we were going to be able to get out of the airport or not the next day.

Snow coming down at Knotty Cakes Ranch.

When we woke up the snow had already started melting, but not all was well. We went to turn on the lights and no power. We had to get ready for our trip in the dark! There was no making myself pretty since I could barely see. It's not easy getting ready with a flashlight in one hand. Luckily, we got out of there, to the airport on time and by the time we boarded, the snow was almost gone. Needless to say, we were more than ready to be on Maui by the time we landed!

Just a very little bit of snow left. Nothing was stopping us from getting to Maui!

Oahu Layover

2012-01-24T14:22:00.000-08:00

We are back from our trip and so happy we went! Actually we wish we were still there. Anyone want to get us a place to live on Maui for a wedding gift? Oh, come on! It's not asking for that much. :)

I wrote the blog below real quick in Honolulu, once on the plane and took the pictures with my iPhone while literally running through the airport to catch our flight to Maui. Unfortunately, I never had enough time to post it. I didn't even get back on my computer again until Sunday night. I still wanted to post it even though we've come and gone from Maui to hold you all over until we are able to post about everything we got done on our planning trip and everything else we got to enjoy. Seriously, there's a lot to share and we are so excited to share it with all of you.

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Aloha! We are on Hawaii! I can't believe it! Seriously, it's freaken unbelievable! I haven't been here since I lived here as a keiki (child) over 30 years ago. One short island hopper flight from Oahu and we will be on Maui!

This is one of my favorite vintage Hawaiian maps. Loved seeing a huge version of it at the airport.

Fly Us to Maui!

2012-01-17T17:40:00.000-08:00

We are all packed and ready to go to Maui! We've worked-out at the gym, built a base tan, waxed and had manis and pedis. Ok, I'm the only one who waxed and had a mani and pedi. But, Drew did shave.

Do you think we will be able to sleep tonight? I've been so excited, I haven't really been able to sleep that well all week. Instead I bounce around the house saying over and over, again, "We are going to Maui! We are going to Maui! We are going to Maui!" Go ahead and laugh, I do.

We leave early tomorrow morning and will be there for 6 glorious days and 5 relaxing nights. Yeah, we don't party it up at night like we use to. Now it's all about the relaxation! And of course, meeting with wedding vendors.

Don't even think about trying to come to Knotty Cakes Ranch while we are gone! ChiChi the Wonder Dog will be keeping a tight watch on this place! She's got tiny little teeth and she's not afraid to use them. She will open her mouth right up and lick you all over!

Oh, ChiChi! We will miss waking up to that little face every morning!
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Were you overly excited over meeting with your wedding vendors?

Making a List

2012-01-16T14:06:00.000-08:00

Checking it twice. No, I'm not singing Christmas carols. I have a strict rule against any Christmas music before Thanksgiving and after Christmas. What I'm talking about it making a list for all that we need to get done while on Maui for our planning trip. Sure, there will be a little fun squeezed in under the sun, but mostly this trip is strictly wedding business.

Have I mentioned before how I love making lists? Well, I do. I have a whole USB drive dedicated to wedding lists. I love referencing it and carry it in my purse with me everywhere I go. You never know when I'm going to need one of my lists.

At any one time I have more than one list going. I have lists for what still needs to be done for our Maui wedding, what still needs to be done for our Portland celebration, who's RSVPed, what they've RSVPed for, who hasn't RSVPed, what our Maid of Honor needs to do, what DIY projects still need to be completed, what Drew needs to do, food menus and so many more. But, right now the list that I am most focused on is the one with everything we need to do while on Maui to plan for our wedding.

I love me a good list!
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The One Where the Stress Sets In

2012-01-15T13:43:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how when you hit 6 months until the wedding that a certain level of wedding stress hits you. It sure did for me. I was going along fine, working on wedding projects, checking my list of what still needed to be done and then the stress hit. I figured it was time to start taking an assessment of what was causing me stress and how I planned on managing it before I ended up like the bride below.

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Now we did a lot of things early on to prevent some of the usual wedding planning stress since we knew weddings are supposed to be one of the most stressful events in one's life. Right up there with death. Lovely. We wanted to enjoy our wedding, not be stressed out over it. To do this we figured out exactly what we wanted for our wedding and stuck to our vision. We communicated what we wanted to our family and maintained firm boundaries with them. I can't stress enough how important it is to communicate to others about your wedding vision and to set boundaries. Doing so saved us a great amount of stress in the long run. Even if it was a bit stressful at first communicating that to everyone.

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Wrapping Up Our Wedding Invitations

2012-01-13T17:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we showed you how we made our mini luggage tags and enclosure card bundles for our wedding invitations. Today we are going to finish showing you how we put them together and wrapped them up.

You will also be lucky enough to see some pictures of our super cute Maid of Honor. I'm always the one taking the pictures, so usually all you get to see is my hand on these projects. Don't worry, my hand does make an appearance.

One of the things that is great about everything I've been working on with our Maid of Honor is she is happy to do all of the things I hate. I actually think she even likes doing them. She folded all of the tissue paper for the insides of the invitation boxes and got them all ready for the invitations.

While she worked on that, I filled in the numbers on the RSVP cards. That way guests would know exactly how many leis had been reserved in their honor. Just in case, they got confused by which names were on their invitation and thought they could invite others. In other words, Mom will not be able to bring her 50 boyfriends with her. Calm down, Mom. We know you don't have 50 boyfriends. You're an old maid now and only have 49. Sheesshhh.

It took a few tries to figure out exactly how to fold the tissue paper to make sure it fit inside the boxes correctly.

Mini Luggage Tags and Enclosure Card Bundles

2012-01-12T17:56:00.000-08:00

Whoops! It appears that we never finished posting about how we made our wedding invitations. We showed you the invitations in our reveal. Then we showed you how we made the bands for the invitation boxes and the bands for the pocket folds. And then, well, nothing. There was just so much other great wedding stuff to share this got put off for a while is all. Really, we didn't forget.

We are going to start off with a few bits and pieces of smaller projects that we did for the invitations. And apparently a whole bunch of other DIY projects, too. I forget sometimes how much we've done until I start looking through all of the pictures I've taken of all of it. Let's just say you have a ton of DIY posts coming your way. You're really excited, right?! I knew it! And back to how we made our wedding invitations.

I made a bunch of mini luggage tags that were used on the enclosure card bundles. To do this, I punched scalloped circles out of Tiffany blue paper stock and sea grass paper. After that I punched mini luggage tags also out of the blue paper and put eyelets in the luggage tags to be able to string twine through them.

You can get all of the tools I used at Michael's Art &Crafts.

New Year's Eve at Trader Vic's Portland

2012-01-11T17:56:00.000-08:00

How was your New Year's Eve?

Every year we go to our friends, Justin and Greg's house for New Year's Eve. They have a really big party and lots of our friends go. It's always a fun way to ring in the new year. This year we did a little something different. Oh, we still went to their party, but before it we went to a special New Year's Eve dinner at Trader Vic's Portland.

We got dressed up all fancy. I wore the beautiful vintage dress I wore in some of our engagement photos with a vintage sweater over it. I just love the way the bright yellow looks with the soft lavender. Don't you?

Drew wore his great vintage hula dancer tie I got him for his birthday a couple years ago. It's perfect for dinner at Trader Vic's. The manager, Sage, really loved Drew's tie.

Making Our Seastar Ornaments

2012-01-10T17:39:00.000-08:00

Fun fact: Did you know that starfish are in fact not fish and are now called seastars? It can be hard to break old habits on what you call things, sometimes.

We first mentioned our seastar ornaments in the Hawaiian Christmas bags that we gave to our parents and wedding party. Not only did we give these with the gift bags, but also to friends who we knew are coming to the wedding. For a quick DIY, I thought I'd share with you how we made them. Seriously, this is a really easy one.

First I purchased a Heartsy daily deal and used it to get seastar ornaments from The Shabby Chic Cottage. They were simple and exactly what we wanted. Next I went to Michael's Crafts and purchased ribbon in our blue wedding color. Our Maid or Honor printed up the graphics and words needed for this project for me. All other supplies, we already owned from previous wedding DIY projects.

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Hawaiian Christmas Gift Bags

2012-01-09T22:26:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited that we finally get to share these with all of you! We had to wait until after we'd given out all of the bags. The last one we gave to our Maid of Honor and her daughter this weekend.

Taking the idea of our destination wedding welcome bags to a new level, we decided to do Maui Christmas gift bags as presents this year. That way people could start experiencing the islands now and we hoped that it would get them even more excited about visiting Maui in July. At the very least, they got some of our favorite Hawaiian goodies!

First we started off by having reusable canvas shopping bags printed up with our wedding logo at VistaPrint. They were a great price and they turned out really nice. An even better price considering we had another VistaPrint Groupon to use for them. We got one for ourselves, as well.

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Under 6 Months!

2012-01-08T11:47:00.000-08:00

What? We are under 6 months until our wedding! How did this happen? Sometimes, (OK, most of the time) we can't believe how quickly the time is passing. Luckily, we are on track with getting everything done early and we're able to have a day of fun with our Maid of Honor yesterday and celebrated 6 months until the wedding with a bottle of bubbly. It was a super fun day.

In case you've missed any of our great wedding planning leading up to the 6 month lark here's a recap:

* We got engaged while at Tiki Ti in Hollywood California.

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Hey, Mr. DJ!

2012-01-06T17:42:00.000-08:00

Let's talk about wedding music. Or not. It's not like we ever really did. I mean we did, it just wasn't some big conversation. It went a little something like this:

K: I'm thinking we should just use our iPod for the music for the wedding. What do you think?
D: Uh huh.
K: Are you listening to me?
D: Ummm, yeah?
K: What did I say?
D: I don't know. Tell me, again.
K: I knew you weren't listening. I said, I'm thinking we should just use our iPod for the music for the wedding. What do you think?
D: Sounds good.
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Making the Cut

2012-01-04T17:44:00.000-08:00

Yes. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. Oh, hell no. Yes. Yes. Well, maybe.....

Does this sound familiar to you? One of the hardest parts of wedding planning for us has been the guest list. Deciding who makes the cut and who doesn't isn't as easy as it sounds. Sure, there are the absolute yeses that are no brainers, but there's a whole lot of gray area while writing up the wedding guest list, too.

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Since we are having a destination wedding and a celebration at home, it meant coming up with two guest lists. The wedding guest list wasn't too hard. We had a limit of 21 people, including us, due to our venue restrictions. (More on that later.) We decided to invite our parents, Drew's brother, my grandparents (Drew's grandparents are no longer with us.) and very close friends.

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Becoming Real

2012-01-03T17:01:00.000-08:00

While posting on The Knot this morning, I noticed my wedding counters. They read 2 weeks until our wedding planning trip to Maui, 6 months until our wedding and 8 months until our Portland wedding celebration. What? How did that happen? Where has the time gone? Then it hit me, this is really happening. I'm really getting married this year. All of a sudden this overwhelming wave of excitement urged through me while also wanting to throw-up at the same time.

A little while later my Maid of Honor emailed me about some wedding projects we are working on and mentioned that she had almost everything worked out for the bridal shower she is throwing me. She'd be making an announcement to me about it as soon as it was all ironed out. What? That's happening, too? Oh yeah. In less than three months. Again, I felt super excited and like I was going to throw up at the same time.

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Do It Yourself

2012-01-02T23:51:00.000-08:00

*Disclaimer* WEDDING GUESTS, do not read below or you will spoil some of the surprises for the wedding. Seriously, don't do it.

I'm warning you, wedding guests, as I shake my fist at you, don't look any further!
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That picture has nothing to do with this post. I just thought it was pretty and wanted something to use as a place holder to keep wedding guests from ready any further. Wedding guests, if you just read that you are in BIG TROUBLE! This is your last chance to turn away and not ruin any surprises for you.

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Welcome 2012!!!

2012-01-01T22:53:00.000-08:00

Seriously, it's 2012! The year we get married! The year we go to Maui! Twice! The year we get to have a big party and celebrate like it's 1999 with all of our favorite people! I loved yelling out after the stroke of midnight, "We are getting married this year!" I loved even more that our friends around us all cheered. After wedding planning for almost two years, we are beyond excited that this is our year!

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2011 was a great year. So great in fact, I didn't feel like I needed to make any New Year's resolutions. Or vow that anything needed to be different in 2012. I am beyond happy in where I am in my life right now. The best thing about it though, is Drew feels the same way. Drew even told me this whole thing yesterday about how we were meant for each other and no matter what we would have eventually found each other. It was so sweet.

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We Get by With a Little Help From Our Friends

2011-12-30T07:51:00.000-08:00

Hey, everyone! I need your help!

I met my friend Sarah when I first started planning our wedding on Maui. She was also planning a wedding on Maui and we became friends as a result. She has been a great help to me during my planning and I would like to very much re-pay her by helping her with a contest that she's trying to win for her little sister.

If you could please click on HERE, it will take you to Facebook to be able to like her picture and help them win. You will probably have to sign in to Facebook first. Once you are signed in like the picture that looks like the one below. Mahalo!

Wedding Trends 2012

2011-12-29T07:33:00.000-08:00

While planning ones wedding, surfing wedding blogs and posting on wedding boards you start to notice new trends. I've noticed a few trends that I think are really going to take off in 2012 in regards to weddings. Some of these are even ideas that we are planning on doing for our own wedding.

1. Wedding Themes
I've been seeing wedding themes all over the place. Themes are really fun for both the wedding guests and the wedding party. They give you a place to start with planning your wedding and a focal point throughout your planning. Depending on your taste, you can go subtle or really big with a wedding theme. Which ever way you go, remember it's your wedding and have fun with it.

Now how's that for a wedding theme?
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2. Mini Food

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Wedding Slack

2011-12-28T07:17:00.000-08:00

I have this whole week off from work. In fact, I don't go back to work until Jan 3rd. Woo hoo! Now my intention during this time was to work on many wedding projects and to finish cleaning out the basement so that we can move forward with the basement tiki bar. It does need to be ready in time for the Portland wedding celebration.

So, what have I done so far? Absolutely nothing! Yup, you read that right. Nothing! Boo! Not that I don't have a bunch to do. I have everything I need to do all kinds of wedding projects. I have plenty to do in the basement for the tiki bar, too. But instead, I choose to lay around all day with our fur babies and not do any of it.

Wasn't there something else I was supposed to do today?
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Maybe I just needed a day of nothing to fully get me on board with everything that needs to be done. Don't most brides have a time when they sort of hit a wall and need a little time off from wedding planning? They do, right? It's not just me, right? There is just so much to do with a destination wedding and a wedding celebration at home. So much to do!

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Our Last Christmas

2011-12-27T15:15:00.000-08:00

Or Why We Are Taking Time to Enjoy Our Engagement

No, no, we aren't splitting up. Drew will not be singing Last Christmas to himself next year. (Both one of our favorite Christmas songs, by the way.) What I am talking about is that this was our last Christmas together before we become husband and wife. Since we've hit the one year mark until our July wedding, we are having a lot of lasts. But, for some reason Christmas felt different. It made our upcoming marriage more real.

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Happy Christmas!

2011-12-25T07:35:00.000-08:00

From our ohana to yours, we wish you a very happy Christmas!

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How to Throw a Hipster Wedding

2011-12-22T15:59:00.000-08:00

Ok, this blog made me laugh. Make sure to click on all of the links and watch the video. I'll confess we are doing some of these things. A part of me wants to change it just because I don't want our wedding to be associated with being a hipster. On the other hand, I really don't care. These are things we love and I'm not going to cut them out simply because some guy on the Internets says it's hipster. He's probably hipster. This is probably the wedding of his dreams and he doesn't want anyone to take that away from him so he's playing it like it's just not cool. Enjoy!

Inspiration for your own hipster wedding.
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Are there any wedding trends that you think are over done and would like to see retired to the wedding hall of shame with puffy sleeved wedding dresses and headband veils?

Welcome to Paia!

2011-12-20T17:15:00.000-08:00

When deciding where to get married on Maui we considered many different locations. We knew we didn't want to be in a heavily tourist area or somewhere that lots of other weddings where taking place on the same day. We wanted a town that was more mellow and reminiscent of old Hawaii. After looking into many different options, our search ended in the little beach town of Paia.

This hospitable community of scenic views offers just about everything a traveler seeks: quaint shops, beaches, local art galleries, terrific dining for all tastes, surfing and windsurfing. Away from the crowds of Lahaina and Kihei, you will have the opportunity to discover the other Maui: the town of Paia on the beautiful north shore.

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Paia is a reflection of its history as a booming sugar cane plantation town with its old plantation style wooden buildings still intact. This quaint little beach town has an array of locally owned island shops, boutiques, surf shops, antique stores, bakeries and even an old fashion tattoo parlor. Award winning restaurants offer casual and full service dining with local and international culinary delights. All offer a warm welcome and friendly service, with an atmosphere unlike any other town on the island. Can you see why we picked this great little town for our wedding?

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Join Us at the Old Lahaina Luau

2011-12-19T17:35:00.000-08:00

Even though we are having a morning wedding ceremony and afternoon reception, we had a feeling that we’d want to keep the party going into the night. As a result, we decide to attend the Old Lahaina Luau after we have a little rest and freshen up a bit. We also gave our guests the option to join us.

Luaus in Hawaii go back to the old times. They have always been lavish food extravaganzas that were held for royalty, foreign dignitaries and 100s of guests at wedding, birthdays and christenings. Luaus often lasted for days, kind of like our wedding. They required an incredible amount of preparation, also like our wedding. Guests sat on mats on the ground at low to the ground tables piled high with food such as roast pig and poi. Everyone ate, danced, drank and sang. Again, very much like a wedding. We hope like ours! It was a true feat of aloha!

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Because of the history and culture of the luau, attending an authentic and traditional luau was very important to us. We wanted to have a true cultural experience that would reflect old Hawaii. The Old Lahaina Luau is just that. They take great pride in presenting an authentic Hawaiian Luau and providing an evening of award winning traditional Hawaiian music, hula and demonstrations. Guests are treated to a genuine reflection of Hawaii’s rich history while enjoying the sunset over the ocean. Not to mention a bountiful buffet of regional cuisine with enough variety to satisfy everyone’s palates.
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1 Month Until Maui

2011-12-18T14:26:00.000-08:00

We are in the stretch to our wedding planning trip to Maui! We leave in exactly 1 month and are beyond excited. When we first started talking about if we should do a planning trip or not we thought it was a luxury that we couldn't afford and weren't even sure if it was really needed. I started doing a little research into how much it would cost us and realized it was going to be a lot cheaper than we thought. We also knew that to be able to go over to Maui before the wedding would release a huge amount of stress for us and would mean we wouldn't be running around like nene with our heads cut off the couple days leading up to the wedding week.
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Time Keeps on Slipping Into the Future

2011-12-17T11:32:00.000-08:00

Drew and I first started wedding planning more than two years before our wedding date. Yes, almost a year before he officially popped the question with a ring. Before the ring we had a wedding date, knew we were going to have a destination wedding, decided on a wedding theme, had wedding colors and already had our venue booked.

With over two years out, we thought we had plenty of time. Plenty of time to get everything done. Plenty of time to have enough money to pay for a wedding and honeymoon. Plenty of time to finish restoring and building our tiki bar in the basement to have our Portland wedding celebration at our home. Plenty of time for everything. Now approaching the 6 months until our wedding mark, I am starting to worry a bit about having enough time. And well, I hate to say it, but enough money.

Wedding Shoes

2011-12-14T17:12:00.000-08:00

The story of how I found my wedding shoes isn't exactly exciting. I actually had them even before we got engaged. There was no drooling over different styles, surfing the Internet or searching on foot for long hours.

One raining Oregon afternoon, Drew and I found ourselves doing a little shopping at Nordstrom Rack. I happened to wonder over to the shoes, even though I really didn't need any and eyed a pair of beautiful red heels. I loved them the second I saw them and had to try them on. You've been there, right? They fit perfect. I didn't have any reason to buy them and certainly didn't need them. I figured they'd probably be way to expensive, but turned them over to see what the price was.
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Wedding Flowers

2011-12-12T17:36:00.000-08:00

One of the great things about having a destination wedding on the island of Maui is that it comes with its own flowers. We will be surrounded by fresh tropical flowers growing naturally. Not to mention that our venue is also known for their beautiful flower arrangements.
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Here a Moo. There a Moo. Everywhere a Moo Moo.

2011-12-11T20:24:00.000-08:00

Do you Moo? I hadn't myself until very recently. I'd toyed with the idea, but never actually joined in. I liked the idea of Mooing, but never thought I had a reason to Moo. That all changed a few days ago. Let me take you back to where in all started.

I was first introduced to Moo while reading Stinkerpants' blog. This was way back in the day when I still said I was never getting married. I even emailed Sara aka Stinkerpants at one point, telling her how much I liked her illustrations and thought they'd be so cute to use for something like a wedding invitation, but since I was never going to get married that wasn't going to be happening. Oh, the things we say!

Sara had all of these little cards she had printed up with photos from a road trip that her and her husband had taken together before they were married. The cards were from the website I'd never heard of before, Moo. She then took all of the cards and compiled them in a frame. I thought it was the cutest idea and such a fun idea/way to display a huge trip. I filed away the information on wanting to do this myself some day and went about my day.

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Wedding Week Activities

2011-12-10T22:15:00.000-08:00

Or How We Are Going to Fit a Whole Lot of Fun into 4 and Half Days!

One of the great things about having a destination wedding is all the days leading up to the actual wedding. All of the little ideas that you liked while looking for wedding inspiration can be given a chance to come to life. If you have 50 different ideas you like and only one day to do it all, you are going to have to cut out almost ALL of those ideas. I know, just thinking about it makes me sad, too.

We have three days of activities leading up to the wedding and one half day after the wedding. There are so many great things to do on Maui from sunset cruises to snorkeling to exploring the many beautiful beaches and so much more. Really, I could go on and on. Because of this it was in no way easy for us to decide what to do with our wedding guests and what was best for us to do on our weddingmoon. We wanted to show our guests an amazing time, but we also didn’t want them to have to break the bank to do it. We wanted to treat our guests to as much as we could, but we didn’t want to break our bank either. (Which really means putting it on a charge card. We all know how that goes, right?)

When selecting our wedding week activities we tried to find a middle ground on what we would invite guests to do with us. We wanted to make sure that they would all enjoy the activities and that we could cover the cost of some of them. We are asking our guests to travel to Maui after all and they deserve lots of little extras as a result of it. We came up with the following:

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The Second Reception

2011-12-07T17:45:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't been around for a couple days. Making big lifestyles changes has me very busy! So does all of this wedding planning. Especially since we are not only having a destination wedding, but also a celebration of our wedding once we return home. It’s like planning two weddings in one.

When we decided to have our wedding on Maui, we didn’t want to leave anyone out of our celebration even though we wanted to have a very small intimate wedding. The best way for us to do that was to have another celebration once we returned home to Portland. We let everyone know that we would be doing this and then it sunk in how much extra work it was going to be.

Don’t get me wrong, we are happy to do it. In fact, we are really happy that we will still get a chance to celebrate with all of our friends, no matter how many there are, and with all of our families, no later how big they may be. We just hadn’t taken into account how much extra work it would be when planning our wedding to also plan a reception at home.

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Getting Back to Health- Part 1 of a series

2011-12-05T17:08:00.000-08:00

When Drew and I first met, I was extremely healthy. I walked every day, did a work-out on a stability ball a couple days a week and really watched what I ate. I didn’t eat dessert or sweets, at all. I turned them down left and right. If I was somewhere that didn’t have a healthy food option for me, then I didn’t eat. Honestly, I was probably in the best health in my life. Then I fell in-love and all of my healthy habits went out the widow.

Drew didn’t like to go for walks. He liked to sit on the couch and watch movies. Since I liked him, I gave up my walks to cuddle on the couch with him instead of walking. Actually, now that I think about it, he didn’t like to do much of any exercise. Trust me, I tried.

He liked to enjoy alcoholic beverages at home. Something I didn’t do, unless I was having people over at my house. That was usually only for my birthday. There really weren’t a lot of times I drank at home. Well, except when Sex and the City was still on and my girlfriends would come over to watch it with me. But, I’d stopped doing that years before. I started drinking at home with him.

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A Wedding of Friendors

2011-12-03T14:52:00.000-08:00

Whenever people ask us what we are doing for the wedding and I explain it to them, their mouths fall open and they say it must be costing us a fortune. The truth of the matter is, it isn’t. We are doing our wedding very low budget. The only reason it sounds so great it our creative and talented friends providing their services to us as know as friendors.

A friendor is an awesomely amazing friend who provides a vendor service to you for free on your wedding day. Or at a very reasonable rate. If it wasn’t for these friendors, we wouldn’t be doing much more than eloping on a beach. Or not having the wedding of our dreams. Our friendors are the best that they come!

Thank you for being our friendors!
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Sharing Our Wedding Invitation with Family

2011-12-02T15:41:00.000-08:00

It was not an easy decision deciding to have a very small destination wedding and cutting most family out of our invite list. In fact, it was one of the hardest things about wedding planning. I guess, no matter what you have to make sacrifices somewhere. That was our big sacrifice.

Even though we decide to only invite our parents, my grandparents and Drew’s brother as our only family to the wedding, I knew it was still important to me to share as much of the wedding with all of my family, as I could. I still wanted them to feel as though they were a part of our big event. I’ve made sure to invite them to all of the wedding related events we are having at home, to send them the link to our wedding website and to share a copy of our wedding invitation with them.

Pretty early on, my grandparents let me know that they would not be attending the wedding. I get it, they are both in their 80s, don’t like to travel as much these days and they think that Hawaii is too hot. I get all of it. Doesn’t mean I wasn’t any less crushed when they told me they wouldn’t be coming. I really wanted them there.

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Destination Wedding Etiquette

2011-12-01T17:26:00.000-08:00

I’ve learned a few things along the wedding way about destination wedding etiquette and wanted to share it with all of you. Even though destination etiquette is very similar to etiquette for a wedding held at home, it does have a few twists and turns. Destination wedding etiquette isn’t as easily available and as a result, you really have to do a lot of digging to find some of this stuff out. The information below is based on some of the most common questions that come up again and again. When reading these answers, please keep in mind that you will want to factor in your own family, culture, customs and beliefs because only you know what those are and what will work best for all of you.

Before you pack, check out the destination wedding Q&A below.
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Q: I’m having a destination wedding, but my friends (or family) want to throw me an engagement party at home and invite everyone they know. Is this alright even though I’m not inviting most of them to the wedding? I really want to be able to celebrate with everyone.

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Wedding Ceremony: Unplugged

2011-11-30T17:16:00.000-08:00

With digital photography exploding over the past few years and almost everyone and their mom now having a camera on their phones, everyone likes to think that they’re a photographer. Even though most of them are not. When attending a wedding, we now see way too many guests snapping away the whole time on their cameras. Their faces staring into their LCD screens and many with their heads turned down. Sure, they are smiling, but they are all looking at these silly little screens. Have we reached a point where weddings have become over documented?

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This is something that Drew and I have thought a lot about and have talked through extensively. We have a fabulous photographer who will be documenting not only our wedding ceremony, but the whole 5 wedding days with our guests on Maui. Do we really need or even want every guest taking pictures with their cameras, phones and posting everything about the ceremony on their Facebooks while in the middle of our ceremony? Not really.

Rolling in the RSVPs

2011-11-29T17:49:00.000-08:00

Our invitations have been mailed out and the RSVPs are coming in! Instead of doing the traditional wedding reply cards, we opted to do electronic replies. This way, we could provide quests with additional information, as well as have a system that keeps tracks of everything for us. It tells us who's replied yes, who's replied no, what they have selected for the entree choice and the answers to additional information that we needd to gather. Such as, if anyone has any food allergies or restrictions. It gathers all of this very helpful and important information into one location and keeps it all properly organized until we are ready to use it. We can then download it to our computer, if we want, or just access it from our wedding website.

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As much as we loved the look of wedding invitation reply cards, doing electronic replies worked best for us. It saved us money and drove our guests to our wedding website to make sure that they went there to gather all of the information that they need in order to travel to Maui and attend our wedding. Being able to do electronic replies was a free option provided by our wedding website provider, Wedquarters.com. We highly recommend checking them out and looking into electronic replies.

It also makes it so that quests can reply much quicker, you don't have to worry about them losing their reply cards or them getting lost in the mail. We received RSVPs the very first day that guests received their invitations. We've already received seven YES replies to our wedding. Not bad, considering there will only be 21 at our wedding, including us. And so far almost everyone, except one, has selected the Catch of the Day as their entree selection.

If you haven't RSVPed yet, get on it! There are some fun surprises in store for our guests once they reply YES. We'd hate for anyone to miss out simply because they haven't RSVPed. In fact, for those of you who have your YES replies in before Christmas, you will all receive a little something special. But, that's a post for another time...

How are you planning on having your guests reply to your wedding? Have you thought about looking into electronic replies?

A Band for a Box

2011-11-28T17:51:00.000-08:00

Our other belly bands were used around the boxes that help our wedding invitations. We loved the look of our invitations being boxed and highly recommend for others to use the same idea. However, we will warn you that it is not the cheapest invitation option and will increase the cost of postage to about an additional $2 per invitation sent. You aren't really here to hear about the cost of our invitation postage though are you? Back to how to make our other belly bands....

First I used a circle cutter to cut large circles out of the same sea grass paper I used for the other belly bands. You can get all kinds of different circle cutters from many different places. I picked this one up at Michael's Arts and Crafts.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T08:34:00.000-08:00

From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving.

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I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new. -Will Carleton

Put a Band On It

2011-11-22T17:30:00.000-08:00

We made two different belly bands for our wedding invitations. There were the ones that went around the invitation box and the ones that went around the invitation pocket fold envelopes. Below are the steps we took to make the belly bands for the envelopes.

For the belly bands for the envelopes, I started off by punching scalloped circles out of card stock in one of our wedding colors.

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Tiki Wedding Extravaganza Invitations Reveal

2011-11-20T16:56:00.001-08:00

The moment you've all been waiting for! Pictures done by the amazing photographer, Sara Sanger. A huge thank you to our friend Nicki for doing the graphic design of our fabulous invitations, as well as spending many hours helping me put them all together. And now, our wedding invitation reveal!

Since we sent our invitations in boxes, we wrapped them in kraft package paper to give them a vintage feel. I wanted to use labels that looked like the old Special Delivery labels, but wasn't able to find anything like I wanted. Nicki made these ones for us that we loved and were even better than what we were thinking.

Tiki Wedding Extravaganza Invitations Coming Soon

2011-11-17T18:20:00.000-08:00

The moment you've all been waiting for! The unveiling of our Tiki Wedding Extravaganza invitations is almost here!

Many have been showing up in mailboxes across the US! Has one come to yours?

Tiki Wedding Extravaganza reviews:

Lise H- There's only one word to capture my feeling about your invite, phenomenamazeballsawesomesaucenesstastica! Love it! Absolutely beautiful. The only thing better will be MAUI!!!

Mom- Beautiful invitation! Love it. So much fun to open and see it all. Perfect for the couple and the event.

Brea S- It's seriously the most epic wedding invitation ever. I can't believe all of the enclosures and everything. If there was an award for best invitation suite ever, you'd definitely get it!!

Honey S- I'm really impressed with your invites!!! They are very very cool.

Tiki Wedding Extravaganza Invitations Coming Soon to a Screen Near You!

All photos are personal photos and are not to be used with out permission.

How to Send Your Invitations from Bridal Veil

2011-11-16T17:34:00.000-08:00

You heard about our trip out to Bridal Veil to mail our wedding invitations and now you are wondering how you can get in on this great Americana wedding tradition, right? Well, look no further! While at the Bridal Veil post office, I made sure to get the lowdown on how an out of town bride could also get in on the action!

The Bridal Veil post office is very small and the wedding industry has been a major part of keeping this tiny post office open. If you’d like to have your wedding invitations hand canceled with one of their unique postmarks make sure to follow the directions below and to not skip any steps to ensure that this great post office does not get closed down. Not only will you be helping keep a great piece of Americana history alive, but you will also have the most perfect postmark for your wedding invitations.

I will add that this post office is amazing at service. They helped me in every way and their delivery was super quick. Much faster than when I mail things out from Portland. We mailed out all of our invitations on Saturday afternoon and by Monday everyone had received them. Even those in California, Texas and Maryland! Now, that's service!

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Mailing Out Our Wedding Invitations

2011-11-14T10:18:00.000-08:00

We all had such a great time during our visit to the Bridal Veil post office. The place was just so cute and the woman at the counter was very helpful. I talked to her about some of the history of Bridal Veil and about all of the wedding invitations that went through there to get the special postmark.

Heading in to mail our wedding invitations!

She weighed our invitations to let us know how much each one would cost us to ship and gave us a large selection of postage stamps to select from. She also helped us figure out which domination of postage stamps we would need to use to have the right amount on our invitations. After careful consideration, we choose the monarch butterfly, wedding cake and wedding rings. We'd actually already purchased some of the wedding cake and wedding ring stamps, but re-purchased them to support this great piece of Americana history.

Bridal Veil Oregon

2011-11-13T07:30:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, 11.12.11, Drew, Nicki, Nicki's daughter, Mykal and I drove out to Bridal Veil, Oregon to mail mine and Drew’s wedding invitations. Since we weren't able to get the invitations out on 11.11 we all went to Bridal Veil on Saturday instead. Amanda, being the teenager that she is, had other plans and wasn't able to join us on our little adventure. Drew was pretty happy that he was able to go out with us instead of missing it like he would have if we had mailed them on the original date planned.

For those of you who don't know, Bridal Veil is a virtual ghost town located in the Columbia River Gorge, about 25 minutes east from our house, Knotty Cakes Ranch. It was established in 1886 during the logging boom of Oregon. As of November 2011, all that remains of this little town is the Bridal Veil Lodge, a cemetery and a post office.

Bridal Veil in the beginning.
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The Wedding Postmark That Wasn't

2011-11-12T08:42:00.000-08:00

Or How We Can All Really Be Morons Sometimes

Being detail oriented, no detail has gone overlooked during our wedding planning. Even down to the postmarks. We made sure to have our wedding save the dates go in the mail on 07.07.11 to have a postmark exactly one year to our wedding date. We also wanted our wedding invitations to also have a postmark with significance to us. We picked 11.11.11 to send out our wedding invitations and made a whole plan around it to be able to do so.

I worked longer hours earlier in the week to make sure I would be able to get off early from work on 11.11.11. Nicki did the same and made arrangements with her boss to be able to go with me to mail out the invitations and take pictures since Drew wasn't able to go. Amanda, Mom and Nicki's mom all knew we were going on this date to mail out the wedding invitations.

Nicki and I talked about it many times this week about how excited we were for Friday and to finally be getting our invitations in the mail. The invitations were a ton of work and we were so happy for them to be completed. As well as, for the wedding guests to finally get to see them. We haven't been sharing anything with anyone during the making process and are waiting to do so until after our guests have seen them first.

Take Me to Your Leader

2011-11-10T17:42:00.000-08:00

On our way back from the beach house in Manzanita, we stopped for lunch at Blue Heron French Cheese Company for lunch. After lots of samples and a delicious lunch, Drew decided to take ChiChi for a little walk around the property.

On the far side of the farm, there is a large field with a ton of cows. ChiChi bounced right over without a care in the word, happy to get some time to stretch her legs after being in the car for a bit. She could have cared less about the cows, but once they saw her, it was like they couldn't get enough.

All of the cow's eyes were on ChiChi. If she walked one way, they would walk that way. If she turned around and started walking the other way, they would all do the same. If she sat down to take a break, they would all just sit and stair at her. Drew and I had never seen cows act like this before and were cracking up! We wonder what they must have been thinking about ChiChi.

Once the cows saw ChiChi, they couldn't take their eyes off of her.

Notice how the cows watch her move.

Follow that creature!

Have you ever had any unusual animal encounters like this one?

All photos are personal property and cannot be used without our permission.

Wheels and Waves 2011

2011-11-09T17:59:00.000-08:00

We went out to the Wheels and Waves car show in Seaside for the third year in a row. This year our friends, Jon, Traci, Joe and Dana all joined us. As well as, ChiChi, the Wonder Dog! We checked out all of the classic vehicles while declaring which ones were our favorites, hit the vintage candy shop, enjoyed happy hour, rode some vintage rides, played a few games at the arcade, walked along the promenade and watched the sunset. The best part though was discovering a cotton candy machine that spun the floss fresh and came out warm. Everyone loved the fresh cotton candy, but it was Traci who was the most thrilled with it. So thrilled in fact, I looked up cotton candy machines on Maui for her to visit when we go for our wedding trip.

My favorite car of the day!

How cute are those little paws?

Traci was surprised the cotton candy was so fresh and still warm.

Oh, Dana!

Joe loved the bumper cars.

Dana bumps Jon, who in return bumps Drew!

I was all about the Tilt-A-Whirl!

The sunset that night was beautiful!

Knock! Knock! MF'ers! Yes, the big metal cock made an appearance at the end of our weekend.

Sending Out Wedding Invitations

2011-11-08T17:04:00.000-08:00

The wedding invitations are packaged and ready to be sent out! They look perfect! Nicki will be coming up this Friday and we will be taking a trip out to a very special place full of Oregon history to mail them out. It's the prefect place to mail wedding invitations from. I can’t wait to share with all of you where we will be going and what happens during our little adventure....

Hint: The invitations won't be mailed out from Maui.
Photo provided by Hawaiianstamps. com

Did you go anywhere special to mail out your wedding invitations?

Smuggler's Cove

2011-11-07T17:30:00.000-08:00

We actually hit one other place while on our engagement trip, but thought it deserved a whole post all on it's own. After dinner and dancing at the Tonga Room we headed over for our first visit to Smuggler's Cove! Unfortunately, Drew had started to get sick Saturday afternoon and by Sunday night was exhausted, so we didn't get to stay as long as we would have liked to. Still Drew was such a trooper and wasn't about to let us go to San Fransisco without going to Smuggler's Cove. Even thought we only stayed long enough to check the place out, take pictures and for me to have one drink, it was worth going. We both look forward to our next trip back.

If you didn't know Smuggler's Cove was there, you would miss it. Make sure to look for the red light to find it!

Top floor view.

Love the puffer fish lamp going down the stairs!

Smuggler's Cove signature drink comes in a mug you get to take home! Of course, they give you one in a box that's never been used. Always happy to add another Munktiki mug to the collection!

Add a little nutmeg to make your fire really spark!

Happy to finally get to see Smuggler's Cove!

Tribute to Tiki Bob!

How much do you love the way this place is decorated?!

Do you have certain places you always try to visit when you go on vacation?

All photos are personal photos and cannot be used without permission. Mahalo!

Engagement Trip to San Francisco

2011-11-06T15:49:00.000-08:00

Since we got engaged while on vacation and decided to have a destination wedding, it seemed only fitting that we also take a trip to celebrate our engagement and have our engagement photos taken. It'd been a few years since we'd been back to the area of California I grew up, it's one of our favorite places to visit and with all of the fabulous tiki is has to offer, we knew we wanted to take our engagement trip to San Francisco. This was our third trip to San Francisco together, so we didn't take as many photos as we'd usually take, but hope you enjoy what we did capture. Well, of course, besides all of those hundreds of engagement photos we took!

Our first stop after arriving in the Bay Area was to go straight to Trader Vic's Corporate. We picked up a few supplies for our Portland reception and also to see some great tiki items in the works. Two of the other huge tikis that are to be used outside of Trader Vic's Portland were on location and we thoroughly enjoyed being able to check them out. They are going to look great once they are in place at our neighborhood Trader Vic's!

It's easy to miss Trader Vic's Corporate if you don't know what to look for!

Dr. Funk's Son

2011-11-05T22:50:00.000-07:00

Dr. Funk's Son is yet another delicious drink created by the great, Trader Vic. Dr. Funk's Son is Trader Vic's version of the original drink Dr. Funk that swaps out 151 rum for Pernod. The drink is served in a spectacular tower of ice which helps to super chill the beverage inside. Due to needing a special mold to create this wonderful mound of ice, Trader Vic's is very limited to how many of these drinks they serve per day. If you haven't tried one before and would like to, which we highly recommend, make sure to get there early and put this magnificent drink order in on your first round. You won't be disappointed!

Or if you can make your own mound of ice, try it at home!

1 cup crushed ice
2 oz dark Jamaican rum
1/2 oz lemon juice
1/4 oz lime juice
Dash of grenadine
2 oz sparkling water
1/2 oz 151-proof rum
1 sprig mint for garnish
1 squeezed lime half reserved for garnish

Put the ice in a mixing glass. Add the dark rum, lemon juice, lime juice, grenadine and simple syrup. Stir to combine. Pour into a highball glass and top with sparking water. Float the 151 rum on top. Garnish with the fresh mint and squeezed lime half.

Recipe provided by Trader Vic's Tiki Party.

Dr Funk's Son encased in a tower of ice!

Drew loves the funk!

All photos are personal photos and cannot be used without permission.

The Creation of Our Wedding Invitation

2011-11-04T16:15:00.000-07:00

We looked through a lot of wedding invitations. And by a lot, I mean 1,111 of them. Give or take. Being a destination bride opens up a whole other ballpark of wedding invitations. We looked at them on the Wedding Bee, The Knot, Ceci, Etsy and just doing random Google searches. We saved a ton of images that we liked of invitations we were interested in and continued to go through them again and again, weeding more invitations out each time.

There was a suite of wedding invitations that we kept going back to by Ceci. If you don't know Ceci, her invitations are amazing. They are also way out of our price range. The price of her invitations is about what we are spending on our entire wedding. I kid you not. Regardless, these were still the invitations that we kept going back to and knew we wanted. They were the perfect blend of retro, yet elegant and would go perfect with our wedding theme. But, there wasn't anyway we could have them. Or was there?

An example of some of Ceci's work.
Photos by Ceci

We knew we wouldn't be able to have Ceci do our invitations for us, so we opted for the next best thing. And really, in the end, the best thing for us. Lucky for us, our Maid of Honor, Nicki, has mad graphic design skills and was able to take what we liked of Ceci's style to create the most amazing wedding invitations we have ever seen. I actually think they are way better than the invitations she used for inspiration. Again, I kid you not! We are so excited to almost be ready to share our invitations to our tiki wedding extravaganza with all of you.

Nicki and I worked all day last Saturday putting the wedding invitations together. She's coming over again tomorrow so we can get them finished up and packed to mail. We will be sending out the invitations next week! Wow! Next week! Once all of our little wedding party have received their invitations, we will be sure to post photos of them here. We can't wait to share them with all of you!

What inspired your wedding invitations?

We Got the Beat!

2011-11-02T18:27:00.000-07:00

For Amanda's birthday, Nicki, her daughter, Mykal, Amanda and I all headed to the Oregon Zoo for the day. It had been a while since any of us had been to the zoo and there have been many changes that have taken place there in the last couple years from a new primate center, to a lion exhibit being added and so much more. Even with all of these great additions, the real reason we went to the zoo was to see the Go Gos! You read that right, the Go Gos!

The Go Gos put on a great show and we very much enjoyed dancing to one of mine and Nicki's Jr High favorites, Belinda Carlise. She even sang one of her solo songs, Mad About You! Again, we scored seats right up in the front! We probably had more fun than our girls did; especially since Mykal said she didn't know who the Go Gos were! Oh the shame! The highlight of the night? All of us got guitar picks that were thrown out into the crowd!

Did you know that Winnie the Pooh is a Sun Bear?

Amanda and Mykal

New baby elephant!

Love the new lion exhibit.

All photos are personal photos and can not be used without permission.

ADELE

2011-11-01T17:51:00.000-07:00

Let me start off by saying that Adele sounds in person exactly as she does on her cds. There are no machines or mixing happening to bring us that fabulous voice. It is all her. Second, she is the biggest dork ever! And I love her for it.

Nicki and I went to see Adele back in August. We were right in the front and it was an AMAZING show. We had so much fun and we're so glad that we went. Adele was really wonderful and left you feeling like you had just sat down and had a conversation with you in your own living room.

She let us know this was only her second time performing outside and it wasn't something that she was very fond of. She doesn't like bugs so any time a moth would fly by her she would finish the song she was singing and then she would scream. She'd also wave her arms about and ask us if we saw how close it got to her. She had everyone cracking up. Honestly, by the end of the night she felt like a new best girlfriend. I can't wait to see her perform live, again.

Nicki, get over it! This picture is fine!

Adele was so grateful for her open welcome to Portland. She loved our Voodoo Doughnuts!

Adele would tell us where each song she wrote came from and the history behind each. Her album, 21, except for one song was all written about the same man and relationship.

She had such emotion in all of her songs. She didn't hold back, at all!

This would be the one song that was written about a different man. Can you guess how she felt about him?

Such an amazing show!

All photos are personal property and cannot be used without permission.

Sultry Summer Nights

2011-10-31T18:06:00.000-07:00

During August we were lucky enough to attend a fun benefit for Boys & Girls Aid. Boys & Girls Aid is a great organization in Portland Oregon who has been around for over 125 years helping to find homes for children through foster care and adoption. For many years, they have done another summer event, Barn Bash, but decided to take things in a different direction this year.

Instead they went for a sultry summer theme influenced by the tropics and Palm Springs. The event was held at the Oregon Golf Club starting in the later afternoon and going late into the night. It included an auction, beer and wine tasting, a flash mob, performance by Tommy Thayer and so much more! We are hoping to be able to attend, again, next year. We think you should, too. Come on, it's for the children!

Guests loved out vintage outfits.
Photo provided by Boys & Girls Aid

Beautiful Roses at Oregon Golf Club

Yes, there were acrobats!

The night was just getting started when the fireworks went off!

Is there any organizations in your area that you support?

Grand Exit

2011-10-22T18:30:00.000-07:00

Currently, I'm obsessed with making our grand exit. Drew, Nicki and our friend, Honey have all heard more than enough about it from me. Not it a bad way, in an I've run a bunch of ideas by them and gotten their opinions and ideas kind of way. We've looked at ribbon wands, flower petals, bubbles and more. Still, I don't know what we are going to do.

That's a whole lot of exit ideas.
Photos from Wedding Paper.

I love the idea of sparklers since the wedding is close the the Fourth of July, but our reception will be during the day, so sparklers really wouldn't work for that time. Plus, Hawaii has gotten really strict with their firework laws. It can be really hard to get sparklers, let alone the really long ones. Even if we will be there around the Fourth of July.

Read more »

Wedding Inspiration

2011-10-21T18:04:00.000-07:00

When we first started thinking about our wedding, I started searching the Internets for all kinds of ideas and inspiration. Of course, we couldn't just have wedding colors, but also needed a theme. We are the couple that plans each party around a theme, dresses around themes and pretty much enjoy fitting a theme in anywhere we can.

Once we decided to have a destination wedding on Maui, our wedding theme pretty much slapped us in the face. With our love of Hawaii, tiki and vintage, there could only be one wedding theme for us; Old Hawaii. I mean really, duh! You all saw that coming, right?

Below are a few photos I collected for inspiration. But, wait until you see what we are doing with this inspiration....

Love the colors and vintage feel in this inspiration board. And oh, that Hawaiian quilt!
Sorry, I've had this image for over a year and don't know where I got it from.

USPS to Increase Prices- Again

2011-10-20T17:34:00.000-07:00

The USPS is increasing the price of their stamps, again. The price increase goes into effect January 22, 2012. For those of you who buy your stamps in advance and didn't buy forever stamps, especially brides who bought the wedding cake stamps and wedding rings stamps, you better use them up before the price increase and you have to add another stamp. You know that never looks good on an invitation. I'm currently trying to come up with ways to make sure we use up all of our wedding-related stamps before the increase. Might mean sending out save the dates for our at home reception earlier.

Better use up these stamps before the price increase.

Use these ones up, as well.

We should have bought these forever stamps instead of the cake and rings.

Make sure to buy your forever stamps before the price increase on January 22nd.

Will the postage increase be an inconvenience to you?

All photos provided by the USPS' site. Oh, the services they do for us!

Tiki Wedding Extravaganza Update

2011-10-19T18:10:00.000-07:00

We've been working hard on our wedding invitations with our Maid of Honor, Nicki. All proofs have been approved! Enclosure cards have been ordered and are in route now! The main invitation and inserts are about to go to print! Once we have everything back from the printer, we will be putting everything together and mailing out the most amazing wedding invitations you have ever seen! Look for them soon in a mailbox near you!

Lack of Tiki Wedding Extravaganza invitation got you down?

Don't you worry your pretty little head about it! Your mailbox will be busting with an invitation some time before the holidays.

Both images provided by Wedding by Color.

Farewell to the Tiki Den

2011-10-18T17:59:00.000-07:00

We are so happy for our good friends and fellow tiki lovers, Jon and Traci, for purchasing a place of their own! However, it means a few changes and as a result, we must say farewell to their Tiki Den. We have had some fun times in their Tiki Den and it will be missed, for sure. Here's a toast to the Tiki Den and new adventures in Jon and Traci's new pad.

Notice the Fraternal Order of Moai fez on the top shelf; Jon's an official member.

There's some great vintage mugs in there.

Traci making up a drink.

FOM mug

One of my favorite lamps in their home.

Jon is very carefully measuring every ingredient out, just like a proper tiki drink should be made.

Laying a Pathway

2011-10-12T17:55:00.000-07:00

From the very beginning when we purchased Knotty Cakes Ranch, we felt that it needed a pathway leading up to the front door. It has a curved driveway and as a result does not have a straight path to the front. This actually ended up being a pretty quick project that was completed in less than a day. It made a huge difference on the look of the house and we are very happy with the way it turned out. What do you think?

First we tried laying out the path in a couple different patterns to find the one we liked best. We went with placing the stepping stones to look like diamonds to complement our front window.

Our friend, Jon, helped Drew lay the ground barrier and place the stones perfectly.

The hardest part was laying the stepping stones equal amounts apart. Of course, Drew measured it all out.

Love the finished look with the red lava rock added in!

We even added a few diamonds in the front for people to step on when getting out of their vehicles.

ChiChi worked so hard on the path, she thought she'd unwind with a beer afterwards.

Oh, ChiChi! Looks like you drank too much!

All photos are personal photos.

No animals were harmed in these photos. Come on people, she licked a can and then was laying in the sun!

Cleaning Up the Front Yard Take 2

2011-10-11T19:02:00.000-07:00

The landscaping at Knotty Cakes Ranch has been in need of great repair even before we moved in. The "clean up" that the previous owners did to the yard to sell it was less than desirable. Basically, they cut everything down and threw in a bunch of bark dust. Yeah, it looked bad! Real bad!

We had done a bit of clean up on it the year before, but there was still a lot more to be done. We set out on a Saturday with help from Mom and my best friend, Nicki, to pull the yard into shape as best as we could. We planted tons of bulbs, pulled weeds, trimmed grass, laid rock, planted shrubs and tress and started a pathway to our front door. After many hours and a lot of work, we had a front yard that we were much happier with.

Last year we cut this juniper back, but it never filled in like the other one, so we decided to take it out all together. Made a huge difference in the look of the yard.

Nicki and Amanda laying lava rock.

Nicki's got some muscles!

Nicki and I had to go back to Home Depot for more rock and stepping stones. We loaded this baby up all by ourselves!

Amanda laying more rock.

Drew and Nicki planting new mini-trees in the front.

Mom made the plant bed in front of the garage bigger.

We planted this tree last year and it's doing great. Looks even better with the new rock around it.

We repeated the mini-tree and shrub combo three times in the front yard. You can also see we started playing around with our new pathway.

The front yard looks so much better now. Notice Cupcake to the right? Both him and Radish love to walk up and down the new pathway.

Many Mahalos

2011-10-05T18:48:00.000-07:00

We are amazed, delighted and so very grateful for all who have already come together to help us make the wedding of our dreams a reality. We wanted to take this time to say thank you to a few amazing people who have gone above and beyond during our wedding planning process.

To our friend, Nicki, for creating exactly what we envisioned for our invitations, save the dates and everything else wedding paper related. How she was able to get into our heads and sort out all the madness we will never know! We are beyond thrilled with how everything is coming together!

To our friend Sara, for taking the most beautiful engagement pictures of us. We couldn’t be happier with them! The only bad thing is having so many great ones to pick from. We are so happy that you will be photographing our wedding and at home reception, as well.

To our friend Honey, for making us the cutest Maui Wedding Maps and other fun wedding graphics. We can’t wait to show you what we will be using the graphics for and to see how nicely the maps fit in with the wedding invitations.

To John, Kier and all the fabulous staff at Trader Vic’s Emeryville, thank you so much for your warm welcome in allowing us to take some of our engagement photos at your wonderful establishment, as well as making us so comfortable while we were there and providing us with such fabulous props for our photos. You all went above and beyond in accommodating us. Thank you, as well for all the great supplies for our wedding and at home reception. We can’t wait to put them to use!

To the staff at Forbidden Island Tiki Bar in Alameda, thank you so much for allowing us to come in to take more of our engagement photos and making us those super yummy drinks while we took them. We had a great night while we were there.

Many mahalos to all of you!

Engagement Photos 9.25

2011-10-04T19:45:00.000-07:00

Our second day of engagement photos were all taken at Trader Vic's in Emeryville, CA. We had a ton of fun getting to go in early before they opened and stayed even after they opened. The whole staff was so welcoming and accommodating to us. We are so grateful for that wonderful afternoon and all that they did for us.

The photos that were taken at Trader Vic's are now up on our wedding website. I'm not sure why, but I heard that some people were confused on where the photos where on our site. You will find them in the PHOTO GALLERY page which you can access through the menu on the left hand side of the page.

Here's a few of our favorites from that day for you to enjoy.

Engagement Photos 9.23

2011-10-02T09:57:00.000-07:00

We took our engagement pictures on two different days. Yes, we are those people! We also had 6 different outfits for our pictures. Yes, we are those people, too!

Our first day of pictures was taken on 9.23. They were taken in and around Union Square, Chinatown, Crissy Field and Forbidden Island in the Bay Area. We are beyond thrilled with how our engagement photos turned out on that first day. There were so many great ones that it was hard to narrow it down to the ones we loved the most. But, we finally were able to pick only 202 out of the 598 that were taken. HA!

Below, you will find a few of our favorites from that day. To see all of our engagement photos from that day, please visit our wedding website on the pictures page. All photos were taken by Sara Sanger Photography.

The Dress!

2011-10-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

I'll admit it.; I was pretty nerve-racked when I went to try on my wedding dress today. Sure, I didn't let anyone else in on it, but I was more than a little worried. Worried the dress wouldn't fit, worried I wouldn't love it anymore, worried that it wasn't really THE dress. But, mainly I kept hearing in my head the horrible things that a woman at the bridal shop said to me the first time I was there. (More on that at a later date.)

Doc, who knew wedding dress shopping could be so stressful?
Image from Wedding by color

All of that was settled as soon as I slipped into my dress. I saw myself in the mirror and instantly knew, it was THE dress. I still loved it as much as I had the first time I tried it on. Even more, actually!

Did it fit? Not completely, but in a good way. The size I ordered is actually too big for me now. Not going to complain about that! Just need to make sure to get a few alterations once we are closer to the wedding.

I can't wait to share it with all of you. But, you are going to have to wait about 9 more months to see it. You know, on our wedding day!

Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I'll Love You, Tomorrow!

2011-09-30T17:27:00.000-07:00

Wedding dress, you are only a day away!

Tomorrow is the big day! The day I pick up my wedding dress! Amanda, Nicki and Mom will all be going with me for the first fitting. I can't wait! I'm not even sure if I will be able to sleep tonight.

I better get some sleep so I don't look like the Corpse Bride tomorrow!
Photo provided by Wedding by Color

As excited as I am, I am also nervous. I haven't seen my dress in 6 months! What if I don't like it anymore? What if all those other dresses I looked at after I ordered my dress really are better? What if it doesn't fit!? What if?! What if?! What if!?

I know, right?!
Comic provided by Adam and Jenni Get Married

I guess we will just have to wait until tomorrow to find out....

Did you feel nervous when you were going to pick up your dress?

Back from Our Engagement Photos Trip

2011-09-28T18:35:00.000-07:00

We got back from our trip to have our engagement photos taken in the Bay Area on Monday. We had a great time catching up with friends, visiting places we love, checking a couple more items off our wedding-to-do list and of course, having our engagement photos taken. Sara did a wonderful job with them and we now have 598 photos to pick from! Not an easy task, I might add.

We are hoping to have our engagement photos posted later this week on our wedding website. We will post here once they are up for your viewing pleasure. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Preparing for Engagement Photos

2011-09-22T18:03:00.000-07:00

Drew and I knew that we wanted to take engagement pictures right from the beginning. We both love having our picture taken and love even more having our pictures taken together. We are both a bit photogenic and like to exercise this trait of ours whenever possible. Plus, engagement pictures would give us the oppurtunity to best reflect us as a couple, as well as our love for one another. And there's a whole lot of that love between us!

See all the love between us? Even when bloody!

Trader Vic's Grand Opening Night

2011-09-21T17:19:00.000-07:00

We came back later in the night on Trader Vic's Grand Opening with many friends for dinner. The festivities continued with Mayor Sam Adams declaring August Tiki Month in Portland, hula dancers, a fire dancer and free cake for all!

Approaching Trader Vic's.
Photo provided by Koifish Communications

Mayor Sam Adams and Paul and Deb Nielsen aka Mr & Mrs Munktiki
Photo provided by Koifish Communications

Super yummy green tea cake with poached strawberries and azuki bean filling.
Photo provided by Koifish Communications

Drinks are arriving!

Paul's really excited over Jon's menehune.

Drew catching a wave! A mai tai wave,that is.

Liza and Lise

Maybe this was why Paul was so excited!

Lovely ladies!

Jon was pretty happy when the manager, Sage, brought him the female menehune, a well.

Looks like we were already through our first round of drinks and waiting for more!

Ignore whatever Liza is doing...

Joe, the drink's a Rum Giggle, not a Rum Hurt.

We tried the curry that night and it was so yummy.

She's hot.

Coffee Grog, like Spanish, only better!

Drew loves his grog.

The hula dancer did all different dancers.

Looking pretty good at the new Trader Vic's Portland!

Love the orchids they added to the water fountain for opening night.

*All photos from personal collection, unless otherwise noted.*

Engagement Pictures Trip

2011-09-19T17:43:00.000-07:00

We leave Thursday morning for San Fransisco and are so excited to do so. Not only will we get a couple of days off together, be visiting one of our favorite cities and get to spend time with friends I grew up with, but we will also be taking our engagement pictures. Yes, we are going all the way to San Fransisco to take our engagement pictures!

Since we can never seem to count on Portland weather anymore and I grew up in Sonoma County, we thought that taking our pictures in the Bay Area would give us the opportunity to include a piece of my home in our wedding, as well as a much better chance for nice weather. What is the weather forecast for this week, you ask? If just so happens to be high 70s and sunny! Perfect San Fransisco September weather.

Photo from Smashing Magazine.

Besides, we are having a destination wedding and got engaged while on vacation. Don't you think we should do destination engagement photos, too? We certainly thought it was a great idea.

We have two days planned for taking engagement pictures around San Fransisco. The great photographer, Sara Sanger, will be taking our photos. She specializes in commercial and band photography, but every once in a while will photograph a wedding at the pleading and begging of her friends. This is how Drew and I got her to take our engagement pictures. She will also be traveling to Maui with us to take pictures of not only our wedding, but all the days leading up to the wedding and our trash the dress photos. Evey time I look through her portfolio, again, I feel so lucky that she will be taking our pictures!

How could we not get excited over photographs like this?

Photo by Sara Sanger

Did you have engagement photos taken? Where did you have them taken?

Grand Opening of Trader Vic's Portland

2011-09-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Update: This post has been updated with additional photos.

Trader Vic's Portland was scheduled to open for their big grand opening on August 1st at 3:30 pm. I went down a bit early and got in line since they were giving away a little something to the first fifty costumers and of course I wanted whatever it was. I was a little worried that I might be getting down there to late, but was happy to see I was the second person in line. Shortly after that our friend Liza showed up and then our friend Greg.

All the workers were frantically trying to finish up all the little touches before the doors opened!

Just a few more touches...

Waiting in line for Trader Vic's to officially open.

John, manager of Trader Vic's Emeryville, and Kimmy.
Photo provided by Koifish Communications

What did the first 50 through the door receive? A free Mai Tai, of course!

Greeted with a mai tai.
Photo provided by Koifish Communications

And a lei.
Photo provided by Koifish Communications

Love the new Shag bartender shirts.

Our friend, Greg, wearing a fresh orchid lei. They were also given out to the first 50 people.

Trader Vic's drinks are all about the garnish.

Kimmy and Liza enjoying free Mai Tais.

Love the angles of the ceiling.

A over 100 year old fertility artifact.

*All photos are from personal collection, unless noted.*

Fourth Anniversary at the Beach House

2011-09-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

Since we've been working on Knotty Cakes Ranch so much this summer, we haven't had much time for out of town fun. We have been going out to the beach house every year around our anniversary so we made sure to take a break from all of our hard work and get a way for a weekend, just the two of us. This year was another wonderful weekend at the beach house celebrating four years together.

The beach was beautiful for a walk, but a little windy!

I'm really stuck on Drew!

Mustache soap.

Beaver soap.

*All photos from our personal collection.*

THE DRESS is In!

2011-09-15T18:11:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember that I found my wedding dress this past April. If you missed the post about finding my dress, you can read it here. When I ordered it I was told that it should be here in August. Well, August came and went and still no dress. I was starting to get just a little bit worried when I got a call on Tuesday saying that my dress was in!

Image via Wedding by Color

I made an appointment to try it on and pick it up on October 1st. I hated having to make it more than two weeks out, but we are about to go on vacation to San Francisco to get our engagement pictures taken, as well as visit some Bay Area tiki and hometown friends. So there just wasn't time to go do it before we left. Plus, both Mom and my Maid of Honor, Nicki wanted to go with me. I also still need to finish getting all of my undergarments to wear under the dress before I try it on. Ooh la la!

Brides of the headless horseman?
Image by Couture Allure

Knowing that your dress is here and not being able to go get it is even worse than your delivery date being late. It's sort of like the dress is mocking you in the way a cupcake does when you are trying to not eat sugar. I'll just try to not think about the dress in the same way I would try to not think about the cupcake, until it consumes me, I can't take it anymore and I consume it! Of course, I won't eat my dress. That would just be silly.

This image is all over the web, but no source was listed.
I'll be happy to source it, if you know where it comes from. :)

Trader Vic's Portland Soft Openings

2011-09-14T18:41:00.000-07:00

We know we've been lagging a bit on all of the blogs for Trader Vic's Portland. I guess we've just been at Trader Vic's too much to post about it. We attended the soft openings, the official Grand Opening, came back for dinner later that night and have been every week since it's opened. Some weeks more than once. To move alone with our Trader Vic's Portland posts, we will get started with the soft openings.

We attended two different nights of the soft openings at Trader Vic's Portland in July. The first night we sat in the dining room. We were so happy with how the place turned out. It was the perfect blend of vintage meets modern. Really, we couldn't say enough about how awesome the decor is. We are so lucky to have Trader Vic's back in Portland and for it to have come together so perfectly.

Above the main dining room.

Hostess station.

We were also very happy with all of the food and drink we had both nights that we went to Trader Vic's, They have different menus in the dining room and bar area so going both nights gave us the opportunity to try them both out. We both agreed that we enjoyed the dining room menu best, but also enjoyed many items on the bar menu, as well.

The peanut butter that comes with the bread is whipped with coconut!

The Coral Reef is a refreshing non-alcoholic alternative.

Drew and one of his favorites, the Peach Tree Punch.

The stuffed artichoke is very rich and flavorful.

The edamame ravioli is one of our favorite dishes.

The smoked tofu salad was another favorite.

On your way to the restrooms you pass this great mask.

We were just so happy to have found out that our dinner was "taken care of". Thanks, John!

The great Chinese wood-burning oven.

This wall is made out of all live plants.

One of the two tikis outside the front door. This one was used as the inspiration to the Munktiki mug.

After we enjoyed a great dinner at Trader Vic's, we returned the next night on our way out of town to the beach house to sit in the lounge. This gave us the opportunity to try a few more drinks and the bar food menu.

Welcome to Trader Vic's.

I gotta pee!

The Misty Mountain Wild Mushroom Rolls were so yummy! Just wish they weren't so expensive.

Enjoyed another great night at Trader Vic's Portland!

*All photos from our personal collection.*

Tabu! Tiki Kon 2011

2011-09-13T20:29:00.000-07:00

Tiki Kon Tabu started out on Friday July 15th at The Matador for drinks. Not really sure why it started there since it's not exactly tiki. I don't even think it's kitch. Nor do they serve tiki drinks. But, they do have a photo booth and we of course got pictures in it!

Next we moved over to Ella Street Club where the Surf Weasels, Wavesauce and Guantanamo Bay Watch performed. Again, no tiki drinks to be found. Ella Street Club is also very small and very hot. I don't know what it was, but we just weren't feeling Friday night's event. We know many other people were feeling the same way about Friday night. You can't win them all, right? But, we did think the hula hoop dancers with light-up hula hoops were fun!

Light up hula hoops!

Saturday's events started off with a private event at one of our favortie bars, Thatch. While there we got to catch up with our friend, Elicia, who was down from Seattle for the event. We then boarded a bus to The Original to see the Mods and Gods exhibit. Since we had already seen the exhibit earlier in the month, we took this as the perfect opportunity to get some food in us. We love The Original and when at a drinking event, you need to take every opportunity you have to really eat. We were suppose to go to another place after The Original, but it didn't pan out, so we just did a drive-by of the new Trader Vic's instead.

It was just a little bit early in the day for so many to already look so drunk...
Photo by Justin DuPre

The nice thing about having some time between Saturday's events meant getting to have a little rest and time for an outfit change! I mean, who are we kidding; it's all about the clothes! And hair! And shoes!

This year's Tiki Kon was held at the Kenton Masonic Lodge. It was a bit out of the way for many who were attending, especially considering it was a drinking heavy event. The Mason Lodge also had some interesting rules, like not being able to drink where the band was playing. And having to use this own bartenders. Which made for some off tasting tiki drinks. I know the bartenders thought they were being nice pour the drinks heavy, but us tikiphiles know it messes with the delicate balance of a perfectly flavored tiki beverage.

Tabu Tiki Kon 2011
Photo from personal collection

Kimmy and Drew with the great new tiki designed by Noel.
Photo by Elroy Art

Of course, Noel did a fabulous job on the decorations he does every year.We can't wait to have him do a few pieces for our own home tiki bar. The best piece was the HUGE tiki he did that was set up in the ballroom. Especially, if you looked to see what he had under his skirt!

Noel's Tiki
Photo from personal collection

What's under his skirt, Deb?
Photo from personal collection

Well, HELLO!
Photo from personal collection

There were some new vendors at Tiki Kon this year, as well as some from previous years. The food they had at the event was really yummy. The drunken noodles and guava strawberry cake were both very tasty. We actually didn't know that there was going to even be food there. It was a nice surprise.

There was a long line for drinks all night long. As well as many, enjoying the great food.
Photo by Elroy Art

Its not the I'm not happy, its that I'm chewing.
Photo by Elroy Art

Sneaky Tiki and the Lava Lounge Orchestra entertained us throughout the night with their exotic sounds and laid-back music style. Sadly, we didn't get to enjoy them as much as we would have liked since we couldn't bring drinks or food into the ballroom where they were playing.

The Lava Lounge Orchestra
Photo from personal collection

We got a little tired of the long drink line and a bunch of us popped across the street to the Kenton Club for a bit. They have tasty Bloody Mary's there and many of us indulge in a round. We didn't stay long though to not miss anything at Tiki Kon and also all the hard work our friends put into the event.

Having drinks at Kenton Club.
Photo taken by a friend of Annie

Good thing we got back to the event when we did! Hula dancers had arrived and full on hula was going down. Everyone enjoyed seeing all the different types of Polynesian Islands dances, before the night came to an end.

Got Hula?
Photo from personal collection

The last day of Tiki Kon 2011 started off with an all-you-can-eat brunch at the Alibi. The Alibi doesn't normally do brunch, but they do a big production for Tiki Kon every year. They do a good job with the food and the ambiance is perfect. It was a great morning with friends topped off with festive swag bags filled with items by The Hana Shirt Company, Trader Vic's Portland and B.G. Reynolds Syrups.

Brunch at the Alibi.
Photo by Koifish Communications

Next we boarded a bus for the 9th Annual Original Home Tiki Bar Tour. Our first stop was the newly located, Bamboo Craftsman, where we toured the grounds while enjoying drinks made by Blair Reynolds. You know, Bamboo Craftsman could be a great location to do a bigger part of the Tiki Kon party. The Saturday night event could be great there!

Don't hate us because we are ridiculously cute together!
Photo from personal collection

All aboard the tiki bus!
Photo by Koifish Communications

Lining up for drinks.
Photo from personal collection

Drew in the bamboo gazebo.
Photo from personal collection

Kimmy & Dana
Photo from personal collection

After Bamboo Craftsman, we re-boarded the bus and headed for an old home tiki bar favorite. Many new additions, such as a surfboard bar had been added to the tiki bar beach shack that was already there. Again, we were treated to more drinks made by Blair that we sipped while exploring the grounds.

Photo from personal collection

Out by the pond.
Photo by Koifish Communications

Loved these lights! May need to get some for our yard.
Photo by KoiFish Communications

Blair making up drinks.
Photo from personal collection

Photo from personal collection

Oh, the voodoo that you do!
Photo from personal collection

New surfboard bar.
Photo from personal collection

By this time, it was really getting cold and everyone was ready to get back on the bus to crank up the heater. Yes, in July! Its been a cold summer in Portland this year.

Our last stop of the home bar tour was Munktiki Manor. Munktiki is the father and son dynamic duo of Paul and Miles Nielsen, who make fantastic ceramic tiki mugs and other oddities. We were lucky enough to have them re-locate to Portland last year and even have them move into our neighborhood. In fact, many people thought we bought the house that Paul and his wife, Deb bought. We did look at the house, but are so happy that they are the ones who bought it and we have become such good friends with them.

Once we arrived at Munktiki Manor, we were happy to see that many of our friends who did not make it to Tiki Kon this year were waiting at the house for us all to get there. Even my daughter, Amanda, who had gone over early to help Paul and Deb set up was there.Even better, the sun finally came out!

Cannonball!
Photo from personal collection

Drew and his commitment to being able to ride the floateys was really the main attraction of the party!
Photo from personal collection

Photo from personal collection

Until next year, Tiki Kon!
Photo from personal collection

Thanks to Craig, Heather, Noel, Kim, Blair, Sarah, Joe, Dana and all the tiki home bar owners for another fantastic Tiki Kon! We hope to make it, again next year. If we aren't gone for our wedding or honeymoon, that is.

Knock! Knock! Motherf'cker!

2011-09-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

A few months back on the Knot's destination weddings community board, another bride posted a link to a blog that she said made her laugh so hard she cried. I myself, love a good "laughed so hard that I cried" that I had to read it. I, too laughed so hard that I cried. Then I tried to get Drew to read it, but he was to "busy" with something (in the bathroom) and I knew that he couldn't wait to hear the blog so I read it out loud to him. Or at least, I tired to. I kept laughing so hard I could barely breath. Which makes it very hard to read aloud. Still through my tears and laughter, he laughed pretty hard too. This blog was our first encounter with Beyonce.

If you haven't read this blog. I highly recommend it. I have revisited it more than once and I still cry with laughter each time I do. Do yourself a favor and go here now! My only complaint about the blog is that Beyonce is actually not a big metal chicken, but a big metal COCK! Even better, in my book!

Some time passes after first reading about Beyonce and as good as it is, I kind of forget about it. Then one day I am meeting my friend Lise for lunch, round a corner and BAM! There's Beyonce standing there on the corner just waiting for me. With rocks on her feet even! That's when I first become obsessed with Beyonce.

Knock! Knock! Motherf'ckers!

I text Drew to let him know I just found a Beyonce and send him the picture. I also let him know how much I "need" one. How the blog was wrong because 4 years, not 15, is really big metal cock. Everyone knows that! And he must go with me to look at it after he gets home from work. Which of course, he does.

By the time we get down to the shop, I have Drew fully convinced that we do "need" a big metal cock for the yard. He could keep guard next to the front door. He'd keep evil salespeople and children out of our yard and we could hang a small black board around his neck to leave our friends notes. Since our friends are so awesome, they would all love Beyonce and they would leave us notes back.

So Drew's fully on board with this big meal cock as we round the corner and his face drops. He asks, "That's it? That's the big metal cock?" "But it isn't big enough." And he was right. It wasn't big enough. It was only 3 feet tall. We need one that's at least 5 feet tall.

Now I really want a Beyonce of my own. I envision all the things I will do with it and all of the joy it will bring to our lives. I search for big metal chicken and big metal cock on-line, but it doesn't give me much. It brings up the original blog, some small kitchen chickens and some wall art. Not at all what I am looking for. Then I come up with the best idea ever!

I added Beyonce to our wedding registry! Yes, I did! You can check it out here. I know I will come across another and I need to be prepared with the cash when I do. I'm sure someone is going to want Drew and I to have the joy of a big metal cock at our front door!

A little more time goes by and Drew and I are driving down the road to Tillamook. Yesterday, actually. We see this crazy store called Flamingo Jim's and are both frantically scanning what's in the front yard of this place when Drew yells out, "They have big metal cocks!" He slams on his brakes, turns around in the street and pulls into a parking stop. I am so excited I jump out and go running over. Finally! A Beyonce of our own!

Oh, sweet Beyonce! How I have longed for you!

As I am running over, I suddenly stop in horror. Beyonce has a tag on her that reads "SOLD"! Say it isn't so! I finally find the Beyonce of my dreams and she's sold! I think about removing the tag. I think about sticking it on something else or just crumbling it up and sticking it into my pocket. But, I can't do it. My dreams of owning a Beyonce of our own are once again, CRUSHED!

I go in to talk to the guy about the oil drum "roosters" he has outside and try to get any information I can out of him about them. He tells me that they've been there for about 4 months and he had others, but they all sold. That's the last of them. But they sold so well, he's planning on getting in more next year! This is music to my ears and I run off to share the glorious news with Drew. We, of course, make plans to come back next year and I will be stalking them with phone calls until then to check-up on the arrival of our Beyonce.

Until next year, my sweet Beyonce, when that tag reads "SOLD" for me!