Needless to say, this team is a bit behind. Still, I hope you enjoy our wedding album as much as we did & even more, glean some vegan celebrating inspiration!…

Cry baby.

Love this walk...

Our original caterer flaked for part I of our vegan food "elixir suaree", thank GOODNESS for our angel, Melanie Edwards, who came through in the clutch, & hooked us up w/vegan sushi!!

I call this pic, "besos"...

Sooo sad we received very few pics of our insanely good VEGAN FOOD! Even my father was caught going straight for the stationery appetizers! A travesty, no less, that we are sans pics of the PASSED appetizers which included (the best) bruchetta I've ever tasted, mini "cheeseburgers,mini grilled "cheese" paninis, & heirloom tomato truffled martini glass mashed potatoes. Yes folks, this was "cocktail hour" #2, though this was only the beginning...

This would have been sooo magnificent had we been able to use REAL lit candles in the trees...The City of Pasadena shut that down. Fun theme though. Whaddya think?

Michael C's dinner menu? Absolutely, positivelynothing short of DIVINE!! The gods of great taste & good fortune were definitely smiling upon us...& my DEAR INCREDIBLE friend Sue, helped me search through craziness & high water, to get a deal on 80 square gold chargers...:)

Teaser: Coming up: red carpet, belly dancers, vegan cupcake bar, & of course…the culinary main event!…

Thanks & stay tuned!

XoXo,

VB

Bride (really couple) of the month, Yay! www.RawBrides.com

Hi Family!

While I’ve been off immersing myself in all things real estate, good things are a brewin’.

A) A VERY cool site w/a VERY cool owner (Denise) interviewed me and selected me as bride of the month! I’m honored. She found us all the way in the UK & reached out to connect based on our joint mission: to help brides to be save the planet, eat better, and have more toned buts on their wedding day! (Lol) – if so chosen.:):) Check out the article & Denise’s oh-so-cool website and raw diet plan for bride’s to be here:

http://www.rawbride.com/2010/03/bride-of-the-month-candy-tolentino.html

A-N-D

B) It’s that time again! You came, you saw, you asked, so we’re hosting another cooley-high, life-changing, Earth Cafe Cheesecake giveaway!

Rockin Raspberry Raw Vegan Cheesecake courtesy of www.EarthCafetogo.com. You get the whole thing of course shipped to your door (individual slices sold in stores). Hand made w/organic ingredients, gluten-free, dairy free, "living", and incredibly good-tasting! You haven't died but you've gone to heaven!!

Opinions/predictions/questions about the real estate market?? Leave ‘em here & enter to win:

www.YourHolisticAgent.com/blog .

Wedding Album PART DUEX coming SOON!…

W/love,

V.B.

The Vegan Groom Speaks up!

I confess that I’ve been feeling selfish lately.  Turns out that I have some really great wedding vendor info that I’ve been just sitting on, so I’m sharing it with you for your benefit, and to ease my conscious!

I’m going tell you all about one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long time (besides the obvious VERY best decision of marrying Candy Tolentino, The Vegan Bride!).  Simply put, it was choosing Phil Birdsell as our wedding DJ.

About two months before the big day Candy and I were on a scouting mission at a local bridal fair when we first met Phil Birdsell. We weren’t there looking for a DJ -  we were just looking for DIY ideas – but, as will soon be elaborated upon, Phil Birdsell seemed to sense our needs.  My “first 3 second” assessment of  Phil was that he was friendly, really really into his craft, and very professional.  The remainder of my experiences with  Phil only confirmed my initial assessment.  The reason we weren’t looking for a DJ was because we had decided that in the interest of staying on budget that we probably needed to just throw a bunch of songs on the iPod and call it a Day. I’m REALLY glad now that we didn’t stick to our initial plan, because I’m afraid we might have end up calling it a Bad Day.

We met with Phil about six weeks prior to the wedding and talked about what we were hoping for in our event.  Phil was extremely organized, and was intent on understanding all of the ideas, nuances, and preferences that we had for our event.  He wanted to bring to life our our music, not just play his music.  He wanted to deliver exactly what was in our mind, not what was convenient for him to deliver.  For example, Phil asked us not only what the different genres of music what we wanted to have played during the different parts of our cocktail hour, dinner, and dancing, but he also asked us to give him any specific songs that we wanted so that he could make sure to include the.  And the Vegan Bride does lover her music!  I don’t think Phil realized that he was going to get such a long and obscure list of old-school rap and R&B songs when he asked that question!   Candy came up with a list of songs that people hadn’t heard for years.  Guess what?  Phil already had most of these songs and the ones they didn’t have he went out and found just for our event!

We were impressed with Phil’s preparation and organization for sure, but because this was my first wedding celebration, it still wasn’t obvious to me how important of a role the DJ plays in the pacing and cohesiveness of an event like this.  Turns out that having a great DJ is EVERYTHING!   Especially for our celebration.  You see, as our wedding day approached, we found ourselves SO behind we didn’t have time for a proper final meeting with Phil to carefully go through our timeline again, along with all the rest of our wants, needs, and details for the evening.  This wasn’t completely bad though, because it provided a wonderful opportunity for us to see the true talent Phil Birdsell has.  We basically gave Phil by a VERY rough timeline for the evening along with a quick note that said “Phil at this point we are so behind all we can say is that we’re glad we can trust your professionalism and know that you will pull this off for us and we apologize profusely”.  And pull it off he did!  From the announcements made to help direct our guests from location to location within the building to the announcements of the evening’s entertainment, to the introduction of the bride and the groom, etc.,  Phil was on point to make the evening a seamless experience for us and our guests.  The guests had NO idea that our event and entertainment program was not carefully planned and well rehearsed!  Can you imagine if they could tell?  Phil basically turned what could have been a mediocre arrangement of tradition and entertainment into a wonderful, seamless, and enjoyable event for us and our guests.

Based on our experiences, I cannot recommend strongly enough to work with a professional, and to NEVER work with a recreational DJ. If your DJ has a day job, you’re probably going to be disappointed. Go with a professional, someone who DJs for a living.  Phil Birdsell is a professional DJ.  His livelihood is at stake, along with his reputation, at every single event that he does.  And Phil takes his job very seriously.  He loves what he does, and he does what he loves.  I felt that our wedding was the most important job that Phil Birdselll ever did or would ever do, and I have every reason to believe that each of his clients feels the same way.  He’s NOT a guy with some sound equipment you can rent by the hour, rather he is a consummate professional that will bring an element of style at to your event you would otherwise not have.

To drive this point home further, let me digress for one moment…  As you may know our wedding celebration took place at two separate venues – the ceremony at one, and the reception/dinner at the other.  Because of the short amount of time between events (the guests were transported between the venues on a chartered bus) we elected it to have Phil join us for the reception portion of our event only, to allow him adequate time for setup sound checks, etc.  So for the ceremony, we hired a guy from craigslist with some speakers who was willing to push the play button for the CD that we created with selections for our ceremony.  This was an BAD choice.  It turns out that I forgot the CD of classical prelude music in the limo which caused about a 20 minute delay in getting it to the sound guy.  So in the meantime, as our first guests begin to arrive it to be seated, they got to enjoy popular Elvis hits.  Now this would have been fantastic, if our event was being held at Graceland, but it was not.   It was in a beautiful garden setting that begged for equally beautiful, soothing, and romantic music.  Now I know that I can be a bit demanding at times, but when you’re an advertised “DJ” who has agreed to provide and operate the sound equipment for a wedding ceremony, is it possible that a backup CD with a couple of standard wedding ceremony classics might be a good thing to consider bringing?  In the words of the Vegan Bride, “is it me?!”  Now, in case you missed the point of this story, let me summarize it for you here.  If we had used a professional DJ for the ceremony, as we arguably should have, then I (the Vegan Groom) would not have been up mixing my own CD of music for the wedding ceremony at five in the morning the night before the biggest day of my life and our guests could have heard exactly what we wanted them to be greeted with.

You should also know that in addition to being a professional DJ Phil Birdsell is also an accomplished entertainer.  Since we trusted Phil, we gave him carte blanche to sprinkle any impressions jokes or any other elements of entertainment over the event in keeping with our our theme and our agenda.  Now some people with big egos might have abused this and turned our event to showcase of their own talents, but not Phil, not in any way.  He knew exactly what and when to add to fill the slow spots and to enhance the bright spots of our evening.

As a final note, in good conscious I must  leave you with a warning.  There is one major downside to having Phil Birdsell as your DJ, and I’ll explain by way of example.  I recently attended a friend’s wedding and found his DJ to be so awful in comparison to Phil that it distracted me from being in the moment with my friend.  Their DJ did not even seem to know how to use his own equipment (the sound levels were WAY too loud causing distortion and muffling making it very hard to understand the DJ, the musicians, the toasts, etc.).  I also found the other DJ to be shockingly rude and annoying toward the guests.  What a shame!  So, as long as you’re okay with your event DJ (a.k.a. Phil Birdsell) setting a standard of excellence that may cause you to be annoyed with other people’s DJs, then with a clear conscious, I enthusiastically recommend Phil Birdsell  for your next event or wedding.  And even if going to busted parties is not your thing, I STILL recommend Phil Birdsell for your own event.  Just don’t forget to take your Prozac before going to every OTHER event for the rest of your life!

Well, after weeks of washing 750+ moldy dishes, lugging heavy trees (yes, full-on trees & other wedding effects have COVERED our living room like a real-life Sanford & Son) & working around the clock, WE NEED A VACATION/HONEYMOON! So, what’s a wedding sticker-shocked bargain-hunting vegan bride to do?? Well, w/some crafty pre-planning & a little bit of blessings & luck thrown in, I devised  a plan to have a “dream vacation” on a dollar budget. To be more specific, we fetched accommodations for 9 nights including roundtrip airfare for us BOTH nonstop to Oahu & from Maui for about 225 dollars!- (also INCLUDING the ugly $75 fee for using our miles w/less than a 21 day advance!) I asked vegan groom to stealthily charge every conceivable  business & personal expense on miles & points cards for the past few months (that got us our airfare). I then dug up a timeshare “preview week” on Maui I’d purchased a few years back that was lost because it had EXPIRED. I called… begged, pleaded & offered the farm (well, more like 2 hours of our lives to sit through a time-share presentation while on vacation). Hey, we can suffer a high-pressure sales pitch in the name of a 7 night beach front one bedroom luxury suite on Maui!! We also wanted to see Oahu w/Honolulu & Waikiki beach, so we found inexpensive lodging for 2 nights, (About $55 a night + tax for a decent hotel!) We’re staying w/VeganGroom’s brother for 1 night…all totaling 10 days, 9 nights, Oahu & Maui for  $225 room & airfare. (Did my best to get good rental rates on cars too, there’s also the inter-island flight we purchased at $55 ea. including fees, as well…I’ll blog about that perhaps soon as well, but off to the airport now!). Hopefully we have some FABULOUS adventures ahead of us…snorkeling, zip lining, & a true luxury we’ve missed out on for months & months, some SLEEP!! Promise to keep you posted! Love ya! C

Whew, to properly recover, I think we need to sleep for at least TWO WEEKS, but before I lay my head down, quick, special special thanks to:
Toki Cavener Photographer – (www.tokisphotos.com) -This vegan hipster lady has vision, panache, talent, willingness to hop on a plane to get it done AND she’s even super NICE y’all. Thanks Toki!! Can’t wait to see the photos & the amazing photo book & thank you cards!
Phil Birdsell Wedding DJ – (www.philbirdsell.com) This man loves what he does & it SHOWS! Can’t get Chuck Woolery for your event? Hire Phil! They look like brothers, have the same charm factor, but Phil EVEN broke out into a full on Michael Jackson dance that had the crowd roaring (I joke to you not). Though we got him our OBSCURE old-school hip hop, disco & r & b classic request list that everyone but your mamma had forgotten about…he worked it out, last-minute, & made the music a HIT! Thank you Phil!!!
Nikola Ahaiwe Of Platinum Touch Events (who we drove completely nuts) & her 3 AMAZING assistants, Sagevee (sp?) (so sweet & helpful)! Jackie, (helped me so much upon upon “hello”, super nice nice & just the calming touch that every bride needs)  & Vanessa (extremely professional also & on it on it on it!!) Thank you all so much for going above & beyond!!:)
May Lindstrom of Green Blossom Beauty - (www.GreenBlossomBeauty.com) – Oh May, who held my dress while I peed, talked me off the ledge when I was worried I’d left my written vows, (which themselves, hadn’t even been completed) & lastly, re-glued my Tyra-esque gigantic eyelashes on, again & again all day through the tears. Thank you thank you thank you so much! A complete vegetarian beauty in her own right, check her out as she is the only TRULY GREEN makeup artist in the free world we know of (her kit being totally non-toxic, sans the eyelash glue which we crazed brides are intent on having). Also special thanks to her team-member “Christopher” who flawlessly did my hair! Please send me over your url as well, if you have one! Thx so much!

Vanessa of VanessaBellyDance.com- She THRILLED our guests with her unexpected sword dance & danced her way into our hearts forever! Her co-dancer was fantastic & awe-inspiring as well! The SWEETEST woman with the best dance company ever-check her out NOW!         (There are more thanks to other vendors to come, this is just round one).
FRIENDS whom the day could NOT have been “pulled off” without:
Melanie Edwards & Steven Edwards- Our own personal heroes, who stepped in & saved the day when our caterer ambushed us, we had no location for the wedding brunch, & when we needed to believe there was still some good & righteousness in the world! We love you endlessly! Thank you!!!

Bishop Everitt: My friend Evan (who gets married this weekend, hopefully not amidst all the stress & chaos we went through) left a message o my voice mail yesterday proclaiming “The highlight of the entire event was when the Bishop so humorously portrayed your story”. Wow, the Bishop MADE the highlight! No words can express how grateful we are to him.

My dear, relentless & beautiful friend Sugania Nivalapan -OHMYGOODNESS. I wore Sue’s jewelry, I carried her clutch, her vases, bowls & decorations my house is STILL adorned with. Sue was part of the crazy team who stayed up until 3 IN THE MORNING the night before, washing, counting & boxing 1,000 + dishes, glasses, cups, plates, decorations, etc. Not to mention Sue’s running ALL OVER downtown, even the MORNING OF to find a petticoat, & previously, gold chargers, square plates, tablecloths, ribbon, you name it. My heroine! ( Full posting on all the specifics from everyone coming soon!)

Vanessa Araiza- Not only did she dance w/Sue, Josh & I during our “surprise number” (video soon to come!) She ran & picked up BOWLS for chimichurri sauce the morning of! She’s the best friend every girl wishes she could have!

Josh’s family- Dad, Brent, Reagan, Melanie, even little Hayden!! Thank you so MUCH for staying up all night to help, delivering tables & chairs for the brunch, washing 1,000 dishes, & all of your love & support! Goodness Gracious did we not know what we were getting into, huh!?? Thank you so much!!

Mommy: You sent checks every week & love everyday. Thank you SO MUCH!! We love you!!

Special Last-Minute, unexpected Thanks!:
Paige of Mabrials’ Bridal- (http://www.mabrialsbridal.com) SAVED THE DAY!! Rather than me surf the net ENDLESSLY for weeks at a time, finding the dress of my dreams, more search for a seamstress who could pull it off, receiving the dress months later & months late, only to discover it looked NOTHING like the original & couldn’t be worn, left in a complete tizzy & THEN finding Paige…I only WISH I could have happened upon her bridal shop sooner, spent a 1/2 an hour looking around & then have had Paige (the kindest woman in the world) ship me the dress SHE suggested for me, which was completely beautiful & a fraction of the cost of couture dresses at typical bridal boutiques, the end. More on the dress drama & also Paige’s beautiful designer gowns at fantastic discount prices later…for now, COMPLETE THANKS!!
Bob of BartenderswithSpirit.com- WHAT impeccable service they provided!! He too helped us last minute, doubled our staff on 12 hours notice, took care of EVERYTHING service related, (we didn’t have to buy a single jar of juice, for the reception, or even a cup) & he & his staff did it all w/a smile. We paid them full price for everything (gulp) but the service was SO GOOD, they were so well-dressed, professional, attractive & on top of things, & LESS EXPENSIVE THAN MOST, WITH M-O-R-E service (i.e. they SET UP & BROKE DOWN for us…whereas some other service staff vendors only serve) so we were just in awe of how good they were! Call them on the jiffy!

Thanks so much to all of our friends & family members who hopped planes, trains & automobiles & broke the bank to be with us! There are so many cards & so much love, we haven’t even gone through them all yet! Thank you thank you THANK YOU! Ok, I promise to have the FULL SCOOP very soon…for now, I leave you with part 1) of the dress debacle. Here’s the “To Die For” Pronovias dress I originally found & commissioned:

THE Wedding Dress of My Dreams...Courtesy of www.Pronovias.com

Here is the dress that was delivered: (I call it “The dress that Couldn’t”) Once we’d reached a week before the wedding weekend & two months behind the LAST DAY of the dress mock up promise date, I gave up, but here it ’tis:

Dress 10/2/09. Me, no makeup, trying to hold in the tears/stress. It was "poofy-er" in the midsection but I gathered in the sides (that are huge in comparison to my waist/original dress) because she asked me to - it is also pinned DOWN in about 25-30 places to tame the "ruffles" because I asked her to)...There was also a bow, but it had fallen off...

A lot of stress, & this is just the beginning.

Hopefully once we post some VIDEO from the day however, the ACTUAL dress, descriptions of the FOOD & the video of our surprise dance number, there will be some smiles. Love you all, now off for some SLEEP!! C