Dress Shopping - Take One

Remember how I said I was going to eventually write about my wedding planning process...well the time has come. Over the course of the next month or so, I will put up one maybe two write-ups each week that will be wedding related. I will continue to update my blog as usual with running related postings as well in case weddings are of no interest to you. I know they were of no interests to me until I had to plan my own. Okay, here we go...

Let's go back to early 2012 or perhaps it was even late 2011, I was randomly at a David's Bridal one day with my sisters helping my mom look for a dress for my other sister's wedding. I wasn't even dress shopping at the time but at the urging of my sisters, I threw on this dress just for fun. I really liked this dress and especially the ruffled neckline. At the time, this dress was a high contender for being "the" dress. When I came back months later and looked at it again, I didn't like it as much and so the search continued.

Last summer was when I officially started dress shopping.

We went back to David's Bridal because for some reason it seemed like a good place to start.

My little niece was not even walking by herself at the time. I remembered being really worried because I really wanted her to be the flower girl at my wedding and wasn't sure if she will be walking on her own by then. Look at those little chubby thighs!

To make a really long story short...I did not have a very good experience at the David's Bridal that day. I remember calling the shop on a Monday for a Saturday appointment and all they had that day was a late afternoon appointment so I took it. I came in that Saturday with my sisters during my scheduled time. Before I go on, I just want to say that I am a patient person most of the time but this day really pissed me off. It was supposed to be a fun day but we waited for almost 30 minutes before a consultant came to greet us. The staff is not very friendly because they always overbook.

Anyhow, after the consultant finally came out to greet us, she led us back to the dressing area and asked us to have a seat...for another 20 minutes before she came back again. She was helping 4 other brides at the same time. WTF! I was really upset by this because if they were already booked up, they should have just told me on the phone when I called that they did not have any openings. I would have gladly came back on another day when I could be properly helped. Instead, they jammed me in a timeslot with 4 other brides to be assisted by one consultant.

Of course this was a formula for diaster because she was so busy that she was not really even paying attention to me the whole time. I needed help because I had no idea what style of dresses would work on me. All she did was go grab an armful of dresses, hung them up in the dressing room and left to go and help the other brides. She wasn't there more than half the time to help me get the dress on or pin it up and if you have ever had to try on wedding dresses you know what I'm talking about. They are not like regular dresses. It's like a puzzle to get it on correctly and tie/button everything up.

After not helping me much during the consultation, the consultant had the nerves to try to pressure me into buying a dress that I thought was just decent. I didn't know any better at the time and almost gave in because I was afraid of having to go through another day like that again. It was 4+ hours of dress shopping hell! Luckily, I decided to sleep on it before making my final decision. Needless to say I never stepped foot back in that place again. Oh and don't make the mistake of giving them your name or info because you will start to get mysterious calls and mail from wedding vendors far and wide. You've been warned.

I'm sure not everyone goes through this with this place but they treated me terrible and I'm glad I didn't spend my money here. So this was the dress that I almost purchased and yes it looks fine but to this day I am so glad that I decided to sleep on it. This wasn't the best start to my planning process but things definitely got better from here on out.

Glimpses

I spent most of this week adjusting back to my regular daily routine. It's been a busy week but for some reason it has dragged on. I had hoped to post more than once this week especially with everything that has gone on this past month but that didn't happen. Before more times passes, I want to at least put up some photos of the past couple of weeks. It's been crazy but amazing! I hope to be able to go more in details about my wedding and honeymoon but for now here are a few glimpses.

Wedding day!

Our honeymoon to the Turks & Caicos Island! This place is just spectacular! I will definitely go more in depth of the trip for those who are interested.

Finally, I am running the LA Marathon this weekend. It will be my 8th LA and my 21st marathon. I'm really nervous about this one as I am severely under-trained. I spent most of January and February finalizing details for my wedding and did absolutely no running while on vacation. I got back in town just in time for taper week. It's strange to call it "taper week" since I have not been running much. Poor planning on my part for sure. All I have to say is that sh%$ is going to hit the fan this Sunday. I'm going to use the race as a training run for Boston which is coming up in about a month. I have a couple of races in between the two which I am also not prepared for. I must have been nuts to think that I could pull this off. This is definitely not ideal but as always I will make the best of the situation or die trying.

I Do!

Today's the big day!

Legally Binding

We are about ten days out from the big day! Today we went to the county clerk's office to file paperwork for our marriage license. We would have gone tomorrow to coincide with the big red heart day but did not feel like waiting in a giant line. Ten more days until it becomes official!

Shower and Awesomeness

It's a little over a month until my wedding and my sisters threw me a bridal shower this past Saturday. It was a fun day of fine dining and spa-ing. Definitely my kind of day. I love spending time with these lovely ladies!

Check out this cute dessert tray that the hotel sent over to the relaxation room for us! Massages and sweets...I can do this all day!

A big 'thank you' to my sisters for spoiling me and letting me act like a princess for the day. I finally got a chance to wear this pouf-y dress that has been sitting in my closet for a while now.

Later that evening, we made pizza for dinner. Sister K mentioned that she had made pizza the other night using some pre-made pizza dough that she found at Trader Joe's. We made a quick trip to TJ's, picked up a couple of items and an hour later...tada! This one is prosciutto and pineapple on garlic and herb crust. We should have used less of the prosciutto or regular ham because prosciutto gets salty when you cook it. We made another one that was rectangular and it was pepperoni and mushroom on a wheat crust. The pre-made dough was pretty good. My dough stretching ability was not so much.

Today was another fun day as I had a lunch date with my very awesome Ragnar van-mates sans Sandy (Becka, Julie, Shannon and Heather) and met blogger and Disney fanatic Krissy who was in town with her family for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon weekend. Becka, Heather and Krissy ran all the Disney races this month so head on over to their blogs to check out all their cute fun photos. This is definitely going in the books as one of the best weekends ever!

That Was Cake

I had meant to post about my wedding planning process along the way but I just could not find the time nor motivation. So let's start here and see how things go...

This past weekend, the mister and I went to pick out our wedding cake. I'm currently neck deep in wedding planning but I've been looking forward to this part for awhile now. I don't know much about floral arrangements, sweetheart necklines or unity sand ceremonies but cake I know...or so I thought.

We are getting our cake made by Creative Cakes. They are located in old town Orange and as soon as I walked into the shop, I knew this was my kind of place. It was bright and full of beautifully detailed cakes on display. I was a little overwhelmed at first but after analyzing each cake thoroughly I was able to narrow it down to a few, then a couple and finally 'the' cake!

The cake we picked out is one of these. Can you guess which one? If you are attending my wedding, you will find out there! ;0)

So this was the fun part...the eating of cake! I was really excited to finally taste my wedding cake. Being the foodie that I am, I was more concerned about the way it tasted than the way it looked but there was no need for my concerns because the cakes were moist and the frosting selection were all very good. We both knew exactly which ones we liked as soon as we started the tasting because combined we've eaten a lot of cake in our lifetime. We agreed on three different cake flavors paired with three different frosting. It's nice when things work out because there would have been an arse-kicking in the parking lot if I had not gotten my way. I kid.

Another item off the to-do list. Yay! We're almost at the finish line honey!

Mokkoji Shabu Shabu Bar - Irvine, CA

I can't say that I had a very productive weekend because it was the first weekend in a while in which I was able to relax at home and basically do nothing. That was pretty much exactly what I did...nothing.

My brother-in-law E and Sister S hosted an early Thanksgiving at their place. As you can clearly see, it was fabulous! They sure can cook!

We also meet with our wedding officiant on Sunday. This is him here marrying another couple. They call him the 'marrying man', if that's not credibility than I don't know what is. We were supposed to meet at a Starbucks but it was so crowded that we had to move the meeting to a nearby Subway sandwich shop. And so we all sat down inside a Subway that day and hashed out what I hope will be a fun and sweet ceremony.

Source

All the mawwage talk really built up an appetite. Well that and the fact that we had only eaten one meal that day. We didn't know what we wanted at first so I asked M if he wanted something healthy and he didn't seem to mind so I took him to Mokkoji, a shabu shabu joint I stumbled upon after shopping at Kohl's one day.

Shabu shabu is basically the Japanese version of hot-pot, which is just cooking your food in a clear broth. Yes, you literally have to cook your own food but that's half of the fun. After you sit down, they bring out a pot of hot seaweed broth, if you don't like seaweed, don't worry because you can hardly taste it. Along with the broth, you also get a bowl of ponzu dipping sauce (an aged soy sauce with a vinegar-y taste) and another bowl with just black sesame seeds in it that you can grind up with a wooden pestle that they provide. They then pour a smooth peanut sauce over the ground up sesame. So you get a light sauce and a more rich sauce. I love the ponzu sauce! I think it goes good with everything.

It was at this point that our waitress pulls out a small amber colored bottle with a dropper top from under the counter. She then asked if we liked it 'hot', well yeah but what the heck is that stuff? It's pure capsaicin she tells us, it's the stuff that makes things hot. We decided to pass on it but the waitress informs us that the restaurant record was 35 drops by some guy. Probably a crazy guy if you ask me.

So this is what you start with...

Then you order your protein. M ordered the 2 item combination of shrimp and chicken (2-ways, whole and ground up and formed into meatballs).

I ordered the salmon and boy was it was fresh and fatty. It was so good! I ate some of it cooked and some of it raw. It was good both ways.

So this is what you end up with after you throw in everything on the veggie plate that comes with your protein order. The plate includes baby bok-choy, udon noodles, Japanese squash (kabocha), sprouts, napa cabbage, enoki and oyster mushrooms, mustard greens, a couple pieces of sliced carrots cut in the shape of flowers and a cute block of firm tofu with the restaurant's name branded on it. So you basically just throw all the veggies in the pot so that the broth can get all nice and flavorful and then you slowly cook your protein as you eat so that it is piping hot and not get overcooked.

If you still have room after your meal, they make you an after meal  rice porridge with the leftover broth from your pot. When you are done eating your main meal, they come over and scoop out any remnants from your pot and then they put in some regular white rice, finely chopped carrots and onions, sesame oil, a red spicy red sauce (sorry I forgot to ask what it was) and a fermented sesame paste (black in color). They stir it until all the liquid is gone and the rice has a risotto-like consistency. The rice is really flavorful and I am normally really full by this point so I usually take it home for the next day. On this particular visit, one of the chefs recommended that I heat it up the next day and serve it with a couple of fried eggs on top. Genius!

I forgot to mention that you also get a nice face steam along with your meal. This is like the poor man's special blur feature.

Mokkoji Shabu Shabu Bar
14041 Jeffrey Road
Irvine, CA 92620
949-451-0011