wedding planning: reception venue

last month was a bit stressful when picking on our reception venue. in my mind, i envisioned for something like this:

photo by katelyn james photography via style me pretty

there were so many similar images of beautiful venues on pinterest which helped me determine my priorities. i wanted a venue with high ceilings. a venue that could accommodate 300 to 350 guests. ample parking space. ability to decorate to our preference. a romantic ambiance. nice gold chiavari chairs. space for cocktail hour. 

...well finding a venue like that was way above our budget. we wouldn't be able to have a hotel reception because most hotels don't offer vietnamese banquet style menu. we definitely didn't want to deviate from that. i had to instead look into chinese seafood restaurants. many chinese seafood restaurants in the san gabriel valley have yucky fish tanks, golden dragon statues and outdated chair covers. the reception venue vision that i was hoping for was diminishing and it made me really sad for awhile. 

eventually, i looked at the bigger picture and realized that the reception venue is not as important. i had to remind myself that i would rather have a marriage more beautiful than my wedding. focusing my energy on our relationship and preparing for marriage is more important that stressing over a venue. i finally came back down to reality.  

after checking out a few seafood restaurants in the san gabriel area, we decided on capital seafood in monterey park. we've been to at least 3 weddings at capital seafood and the food is actually really good! although their parking structure is horrible, they have the capacity to host all our guests and the restaurant has potential to make the space romantic and nice. overall, i think we made a good decision and i know with my creative ideas, we can really transform the restaurant to our liking. 

i'm so glad we finally got that settled and done with! there is about 10 months left until the wedding! we have some fun things lined up next like wedding dress shopping, picking a florist, and invitations! until next time guys!

2015 powersheets: the good/bad in 2014

I have been following Lara Casey and have been working on the 2015 powersheets that she created. It has been a good tool for me to use as I prepare and create meaningful goals for this upcoming year. One of the steps in the powersheets is to reflect on 2014 and write down what worked and didn't work in 2014. So here it goes:

Things that didn’t work in 2014:

- I didn’t reflect and pray as much. I felt very alone and out of touch with God.

- Stephen and I didn’t have many date nights or explored with restaurants or new things that much.

- I spent too much time being unproductive after work and on my days off. I wasted time on social media and TV.

- I spent the year feeling not equipped or good enough to do something creative.

- Did not maintain a healthy lifestyle. Hardly exercised and bad eating habits.

- Sleeping habits were bad because I would only get an average of 5-6 hours of sleep.

- Family being separated by distance, which made it hard to connect and see each other. I missed my family a lot.

- Feeling stagnant at work.

- Added new retail debts

Things that worked in 2014:

- Stephen and I talked more, laughed more, appreciated each other more, fought less and got engaged!

- Built stronger relationships with my best friends Carol and Christine awhile living together earlier in 2014. We still manage to keep the relationship strong after we all went our separate ways.

- Stephen and I moved to North Hollywood. Our apartment feels homey and comfortable. We have maintained our space and kept it clean more frequently. 

- Freed up our income by getting rid of one car and the car loan payment. Thus giving us about $350 a month to save or pay it towards other debts. 

- Made new travel memories: spent 5 days in Cancun, weekend in Yosemite and weekend in Big Bear with friends.

- Grateful that work did not have many difficult challenges that I was not able to handle on my own. I felt I had more control and dealt with things more smoothly and effectively this year.

- Started my blog and began to post on a weekly basis. I am glad to have kept it going these last 3 months so far.

Making this list has helped me see how I spent 2014. I can acknowledge the good and bad and look forward to making positive changes to make this upcoming year the most intentional and purposeful one yet. So tell me friends, what went well/bad in 2014 for you? 

happy new year 2015!

oh my goodness! 2015 is here! the new year always brings mixed emotions for me. 2014 has been good to me and i'm sad the holidays are over. However, i'm looking forward to a new start! i'm hoping this year will be filled with intention and purpose! i'm excited to make this year count and marry my love in about 10 months!

december 2014 goals:
- send 4 snail mail to friends/family (check!)
- stay on budget with our christmas list (check!) and save $500 (saved 400!)
- blog at least twice a week 
- host a christmas dinner for stephen’s family (check!)
- visit two venues for our wedding reception (check!)
- dream about 2015 and start working on the power sheets (check!)

january 2015 goals:
- send 3 snail mail to friends
- save $1500 towards the wedding 
- blog at least once a week
- finish the power sheets 
- exercise/stretch weekly 
- start a better nightly routine (wash face, brush teeth, nightly prayer and sleep by 11am on workdays)

stay safe tonight friends! i will most likely be staying indoors and watching the nye countdown on tv. i will see you in the new year :)

merry christmas

Merry Christmas! I'm a day behind but I hope you all had a good day with family and loved ones! This Christmas season was nice because we didn't focus on buying extravagant gifts. Instead we tried our best to spend quality time with family and create lasting memories throughout the month of December.

We hosted a nice dinner with Stephen's family a few days before Christmas. It was nice to have everyone over to enjoy a nice cooked meal.

On Christmas day, I spent the day with my mom, sister in law and nieces. The men in our lives were at work or out of town so it was just the ladies together. It was nice to have quality time with them and attend mass together.

Merry Christmas from us :)

2015 daily planner

as the new year approaches, i have been searching for a 2015 planner. this is something that i will be using throughout the year to help me stay organized and help make this year more intentional.  while searching the web, i found so many pretty and unique planners that i wouldn’t mind writing in. i wanted to share with you three of my favorites in case you are looking for a planner too!

sugar paper: they launched several cute planners and you can get them at your local target. there’s only a few weeks left before they are gone. i went and purchased one as a gift for my friend and was debating if i should get one for myself. these planners are definitely great options but i ended up getting something else.

elle and company design: i recently found elle and company design and the monthly library subscription which has tons of printable for you to create and customize the perfect planner. i think the pages are so cleverly designed and simple to use. i already selected my planner for 2015 but if i had known earlier, this would have been my pick.

emily ley: i have been a big fan of emily’s work and products. i did use her simplified planner for 2014 and liked everything about it. it is so beautifully designed. i decided to use the simplified planner again for 2015 because of the the details and heart that went into this planner. 

wedding planning update

yay! i'm so happy to finally share that we set our wedding date. the big day is happening on november 14th, 2015! it is starting to get real now that we have the date. last month i also finally finished asking by best girl friends to be my bridesmaids. it was a lot of fun putting together little gifts boxes for each girl.

this month, i'm hoping to tour a few reception venues and select our favorite. i've been struggling on this a lot.  there's a particular style i invision for our reception but that's like $10k over our budget so i'm trying my best not to be so picky about the reception. i'll definitely share with you what we decide on once we have it all figured out. we have about 11 months to go and i cannot wait to do this thing with my best friend! :)

december goals

hi guys!

i can’t believe december is here! i’m looking forward to cozy nights by the christmas tree, twinkling lights, hot chocolate, time off for the holidays, and spending quality time with family. Here are my goals for this month and recap of last month.


november 2014 monthly goals:
- send 3 snail mail (i sent 2 out of 3 snail mail)
- have dinner with friends (check!)
- save $1000 (i only saved $500)
- blog at least twice a week (total fail, but i will try again)
- finalize wedding date (check!)


december 2014 monthly goals:
- send 4 snail mail to friends/family
- stay on budget with our christmas list and save $500
- blog at least twice a week
- host a christmas dinner for stephen’s family
- visit two venues for our wedding reception
- dream about 2015 and start working on the powersheets


do you have any goals this month? i would love to hear yours!