THE wedding

this was probably the busiest i've ever been...preparing for a wedding. note to self...marry someone rich so i can hire people to do everything! but it all paid off because in the end everything came together beautifully!!! and after seeing my two besties at the happiest they've ever been...i'd do it all over again.

so since march was wedding month, i had spent the first two weekends flying to cali to help out with as much as i could. and then i flew out the weekend before the wedding and stayed until the big day. i brought my sister along with me the week of the wedding cause i knew there would be a lot to do. and boy was a right. as soon as we got there we went straight to work. here's a play by play of our schedule for that week:

friday:
- arrive in orange county and head out to coto de caza (where the real housewives of orange county live) to pick up the brides head piece and a few silver platters for the hors d'oeuvres
- head out to murrieta thinking we would get some shut eye. WRONG. programs had to be glued to cardstock, on both sides...so instead of waiting til the next day we started it up at midnight and finished by 4am.

saturday:
- BALL day! cutting out 1800 paper circles...then folding and gluing them together to make a total of 90 balls! this took us literally ALL day...from 10am-7am the next day

sunday:
- day of rest...oh wait...that is after ironing approximately 100 chair ties.

monday:
- ironing 30+ huge table cloths
- ironing 100 seat covers and figuring out how to store them

tuesday:
- salon day!!! getting our nails did with the bride
- continue ironing 200+ more seat covers

wednesday:
- visiting the venue to map out the ceremony
- chopping up veggies, baking cakes and making pudding for desserts, and skewering grapes for pupu's

thursday:
- rehearsal day! headed up to long beach early to get a few last minute items for the wedding
- arriving at the chapel on time...only to wait an hour since everyone else (who lived the closest) came late. hahaha.

friday:
- crunch time...chopping up the rest of the fruit for the hors d'oeuvres.
- practicing the taualuga with the bride
- loading up the cars with everything that needed to be transported to the venue the next morning

saturday:
- waking the bride up at 6am to start getting ready
- waking up the rest of the bridesmaids to get ready as well before heading over to the venue to help set up
- returning to the house to send the bride and groom off for the bridals while the rest of us get ready...
- head to the venue and then....GAME TIME!!!!

everything about that day was BEAUTIFUL!!! and i know i've said this before but i'm over the moon happy for these two...because of everything that they have both gone through to finally come together. and i'm just so happy to have met both of them and be part of that special day. here's some pix from that crazy week!

the besties

in a previous post i know i mentioned that two of my very best friends were getting hitched...to each other. this was definitely a first for me...the whole being close to both the bride and the groom. so naturally i was chosen to be the maid of honor. hahaha...nah..jk. well...the time has come for these two to get married. but before i get to that i have to share the story of how i've come to know these two beautiful people...and how it alllllll happened.

first meet the bride...ms ana eileen aiono
she and i met in the spring of 2006. she and her niece, morgan, just moved out to hawaii from arizona and started working with me at turtle bay. because they were new to the island, i took pity on them since they had no friends and introduced them to my friends. hahahaha...totally kidding bout the taking pity part...but i did befriend them and introduce them to the YSA scene in laie. they came at the right time too because me and my roommates were in the process of house hunting for a bigger place, and since ana and momo were so over paying for their overpriced apartment, we invited them to move in with us. and that began our bond as musicbox sistahs for life!



then there's the groom....gregory robert dowden
we first officially met the summer of 2007 at a ysa ward activity. i had always heard so much about him from my other friends who went to school with him at byuh his freshmen year. he left for a mission, went to school in utah for a couple years and returned to byuh to finish up. i would always hear stories about them and this white boy greg. so when i first met him...he was like..."hi..i'm greg." and instantly i knew...he was the white boy. it wasn't until later that year...after winter ball i think, where we became close. next thing i know is i was picking him up from the airport after his winter break and we hung out pretty much everyday after that.


 they both met each other in the ward the same year i met greg. ana's sister in law is from the same area greg's from and she actually worked at his high school. so when he first came back to hawai'i that's how he introduced himself to ana. but i don't think they started hanging out til later in 2008 when ana came back to visit and i was hanging out with greg...so naturally she started hanging with him as well. then when he went back to cali that year, they met up there and started hanging out there, and developed a lasting friendship. they've seen each other make it and break it with past relationship, yet always seemed to miss each other when it came to developing that "more than friends" relationship. but now finally after 4 years...they have turned a new page in each others lives, and are not stuck with each other..FOOORRRREEEEVVVEEERRRR!!! lol

prayer, meditation and dance central

this past saturday was the 2nd stop in a 3-part bridal shower series. with the eat, pray, love themed bridal shower extravaganza, and the "eat" part already taken care of...it was time to head out to india, arizona for some prayer and self discovery. since the bride to be spent most of her time living in arizona, (and with the maitron of honor living there), it was only appropriate to have everyone there join in on the celebration.

the beautiful matiron of honor (niece of the bride), ms. morgan casey gilmore along with her mother (sister of the bride) played hostess to the festivities. to keep with the "pray" theme, the gilmore home was transformed into our very own indian temple. complete with specific chakra colors chosen for the bride.

red...the base...to ground spirit forces in body
orange...sacral...utilization of creative forces in all aspects of being
green...heart...release emotionally suppressed trauma
indigo...third eye...clearing subconscious to channel intuition

it was beautiful! the mellow bollywood tunes playing in the background definitely set the mood and had everyone feeling like we were in india.

later...alberta...the bride's eldest sister, who just so happens to be a practicing yogi lead us in some simple meditation and prayer exercises that put us all in a state of peace...and sore arms. lol. the food was delicious...and the company was more than entertaining. one of the highlights of the night for myself was meeting up with this beautiful mama.

i've known ms. robin almost as long as i've known ana and morgan, and now that she resides in arizona, it was so nice to see her and just crack up for days talking about all our adventures back in hawai'i.

after we got all relaxed and ready for bed...morgan just had to challenge us all in the art of dance! lol. so this is what we spent the rest of the night doing. lol.




it was nice to chill and hang out with the rest of ana's family out in az...even if it was for a short trip. this just makes me even more excited for the final shower in cali...where we'll be celebrating love in bali, california.

bridal shower extravaganza!!!!

so in a previous post I mentioned how two of my besties will be getting hitched in a few months. well as is tradition, i had the pleasure of hosting a shower for the bride. one problem...she lives in cali, and i live in utah. solution....fly her here!!!

bunzie boarding her flight in long beach. next stop salt lake city!

the theme of this bridal shower extravaganza was based off of the movie/book "eat, pray, love." it just so happens to be one of the brides favorite movies, and she always talked about how she wanted to go on a trip similar to that of the author's. so what better way than to create our own little version of it for her?! first stop...ITALY...via utah. lol. yup...we jump started the tri-state event with an italian based shower complete with italian cuisine...spaghetti with meatballs....hahahaha...(hey...i had to feed a lot of people so this was the easiest way to go). along with salad and garlic bread (thanks to my big sis), and a chocolate fountain for dessert! the decor was simple with red and white checkered table cloths and a simple glass vase with dried pasta for the centerpieces.

some of the decor...soooooo simple

but i think the highlight of the night...aside from the bride to be...were the games! i had asked one of my fellow music boxers, raija, to plan a few games for the occasion. raija was ana's actual roommate in the music box, and they have a special connection, so she went ALL out with her games!!! i mean...ALL.OUT! with a full on intro for both too! it was so much fun! the best part was one of the games she planned was the traditional toilet paper wedding dress competition...but raija added a little flava to it. she straight busted out the project runway wedding dress competition!!! it was ridiculous!!! everyone had their own little kits to see who could come up with the best wedding dress...best wedding accessories (accessible on bluefly.com..and yes she really said that)...and best honeymoon outfit! i wish i had videotaped her introduction because she was just on point with the terminology and everything! it was great! i never had so much fun making a toilet paper dress! lol

our project runway contestants...lol

not only did she outdo herself with the games, but with the prizes as well! one of my faves was the homemade biscotti. not only was it delicious...but the packaging was the cutest ever!

raija's prizes for the winners. soooo cute

afterwards...it was my turn to buss out a few more games. for those of you who know me...i like to plan ahead...but there are times when i tend to do everything at the very last minute. this was one of those occasions. i've thrown many a bridal shower before, and have attended many as well...but i couldn't, for the life of me remember any of the games we played! so i called my trusty bff maria...and she refreshed my memory and MORE with these little treasures.

the first game i had everyone play involved a golf club and toilet paper. lets call it toilet paper on a stick. i had 4 teams of 2 partner up, and one person had to stand on one end of the room with the golf club between their legs (handle sticking out) while the other person waited on the other side with 4 rolls of toilet paper. that person had to walk across the room with a roll of toilet paper between their legs to their partner, and transfer the roll onto the golf club without using their hands. it was HILARIOUS!!! pictured below are our winners in action...eileen and crystal. man...eileen was booking it back and forth with those toilet paper rolls!

eileen working it with that toilet paper! hahaha

next we played a hot dog game. i had strung a thread through the ends of hot dogs and had everyone tie it around their waist so the hot dogs would hang between their legs. hahahaha. then i put a plate of tacks on the ground and everyone had one minute to get as many tacks as they could on the hot dog without using their hands. they could still adjust the string...and that was the hint to winning the game. the methods used to get those tacks were crazy funny!!! there were tacks flying everywhere!!! hahahaha. in the end...crystal came out victorious...AGAIN! she was the smart one who used the string as opposed to using her body. lol. i wish i got more pictures of everyone trying...but here's one of some of the contestants before the game started.

eileen and lindsay getting ready to play

the last game was a fun one. i had two gift cards wrapped up in tissue paper and a lot of tape. each group was given a dice/die?? and every person took turns rolling. who ever rolled a one could start unwrapping the card. the catch was everyone else could keep rolling until somebody else rolled a one. once they did, they could take the card away and have a chance at unwrapping it. whoever unwrapped the card was the winner. at first it seemed a little slow, but as each layer of tape came off, the volume got louder and louder. with people yelling "ONE" every time a one was rolled. lol. in the end, the two players who joined the game at the last minute came out victorious...hahaha.

molly and shelby...last to join in and end up winning

the shower was a huge success. what was supposed to be a small and simple event, turned into an evening full of good people, good food, and good good fun! congratulations ana!!! march is just around the corner!!!

some of the music box ladies with honorary musicboxer malia...lol