Luncheon Pictures!

The night before I put together a little swag bag for the girls to take home. It didn't contain much, but I wanted to give them a little something to show my appreciation. Each bag had a copy of the "Bridesmaid Chronicles" {my very own newsletter, lol}, a scented candle, cute pocket tissues, photo keychain, postcard to my lovely blog {they better support my blogging!}, and personalized shirts.


Originally I only intended to do shirts for the bridesmaids and my mom, but something took hold of me and I ended up getting a shirt for EVERYONE who was attending. I had a total of 10 shirts, but that included my future mother in law, my grandmother, my godmother, and my little sister who's a Jr. bridesmaid.

The only difference in the shirts was that I got embroidery for my mom and I. Everyone else's was done a little differently, but please don't get me to start explaining it wrong! All the work for the shirts was handled by Shay's Corner. Shayla did a wonderful job and nailed my vision!


On the day of, my bridesmaids came rolling in one by one. We got off to a late start, but since my bridal party is all family and the luncheon was rather informal, I didn't stress it too much. In the middle is my cousin Nikki who is also my maid of honor. On the left is my little sister {mini-me}.

Nikki has the biggest boobs and I always sqeeze them. LOL. I think I've become a bad influence to my little sister.


I set out the bags on a table and had the rest of the shirts under a cloth because I wanted it to be a surprise to everyone.

Once everyone got settled in a little, I made an announcement telling everyone that they were dressed wrong for the occasion {they thought I was crazy at first}. Then I revealed the shirts.

Everyone made a mad dash to the bathroom to change! {mini-me is always in the mix!}

Not too soon after that, the Medndi started. Akiyo fit right in with my family and made everyone feel so at ease! There goes mini-me again, she was the first one to get henna!

This is my future mother inlaw's wrist. She opted not to do her hand {boooo!}.

My Godmother did her ring finger and the inside of her palm.

She could not part with my delishes deviled egg as she took the picture! She's going to kill me for posting this! {love you auntie!}

The dare devil of the day was none other than my mother. She got Mehndi on her hand, but since she has keloid skin and can't get tattoos, she decided to live out her dream of getting my father's name on her chest {ay yi yi...gotta love my mom and her henna boob}! lol.

Then it was my turn! I let Akiyo have creative reign to do whatever she wanted to me and I was so pleased with how it came out!

This is my hand at the end of the night after the mehndi was starting to dry and flake off.

This is how it looks after the Mehndi is all peeled off and it will remain this way for the next two weeks! I can't stop looking at it!

Here's my palm.

It was so much fun and I can''t wait to have more bridesmaid get-togethers!

The pictures didn't really do the event justice, but hopefully you'll get the jist of how things went!

Here's some random pics:

My flower girl was all over the place! Ever since she started walking, she can't be stopped. Let's hope she'll walk down the aisle with no problems on the big day!

She also ate from anyone's plate that had food!

A Teaser Pic

{In this pic: my mother, sister and cousin}

I really hate to do this to you, but unfortunately I don't have all the pics in from the bridesmaid luncheon yet. I will say that it was really fun and my bridesmaids had a blast. I'm hoping that I will be able to do a full detailed post tomorrow, but in the meantime I'll do a quick review!

I have 1 Maid of Honor, and 3 Bridesmaids. I was down one bridesmaid at the luncheon because her job was giving her a hard time about taking off. The missing bridesmaid happens to be my older sister and we just found out last week that she is expecting {hence, the fish dreams I talked about in my last post}. Did you really think it was me??? Nope, not this sister! Give me another 6 years or so! I really hope it's a boy because I currently don't have a ring bearer and I think it would be so cute to have a little wagon decorated with tulle to pull "him" in.

The Mehndi artist was a HUGE hit. Everyone loved it so much that they want to get together in the summer and do it again.

The food, drinks and company were all amazing and I'm even more excited about the wedding now.

More pics to come...promise!

Countdown to Bridesmaid Luncheon!

So the big day is almost here and I am feeling...exhausted! Don't get me wrong, I'm excited but there are still a few things to do and this past week has been eventful to say the least. Note to self: request a day off from work the day before ANY event, no matter how informal it may be.

Last night I put together the swag {I love this word} bags for the ladies. The day before, I received a very special package via UPS that I ordered for the ladies. All that's left to do is buy the food, prepare it, and have fun. Seems simple, but I'm in dire need of one of the mimosas from above.

Today I will be taking my grandmother shopping because she is making her lovely pineapple coconut cake from scratch. It is so good that it will literally make the most non violent person want to reach out and hit someone. LOL. Mr. Golden will not say "I DO" if I don't learn the recipe, so I will be getting my share of Domesticated Wife 101 this evening!

So I will be back on Monday, hopefully with lots of pictures to show you all. I wanted to hire a free lance photographer for the event, but the guy who my family usually uses is going away this weekend for superbowl {arg!}. But not to worry because I've passed the job on to Mr.Golden {he should be quite the happy one}!

Next time you all see me, I will be all Mehndi'ed up {is that even a word?}, and a few thousands poorer since I have to make a drop off deposit at my reception hall on Sunday. Excuse me while I barf. {lol}

Have a great weekend everyone!

oohh, p.s.

I have a huge announcement to make next week. I'll give you a hint {dreams of fish}!

A Sneak Peek!

My upcoming bridesmaid luncheon has been the attention of quite a few of my threads. I've posted here , here , yet again , another , and another. As you can see, I'm anticipating it to be a really nice {but laid back} affair. The way I see it, this luncheon will be pretty much kick start the activities of my wedding.

Now that the invites have been officially put in the mail, I can finally share them with you all!

Each of my special ladies will receive a gold pocket sleeve envelope:

It'll be addressed to them personally:

They will pull it out of the sleeve:

Each card states: "Golden moments make golden memories"

I can't wait to see what kind of memories we will make at this event! Special thanks to my partner Eliana at By Your Side Events for helping me with my design concept! More fun details to come soon!

Seriously, What is Wrong With Me?

I still have not done the invites to my bridal party luncheon. My goal was to have them out early this week, but it looks like they will be getting mailed out early next week. I am working on the design template today and maybe just maybe, if I'm good, I'll be able to mail them out first thing Friday morning.

I guess I've been slacking since technically, all my girls know about the event and have already cleared their schedule off for that day. But notifying them by only phone just won't do- or should I say- is not how I do things.

I've been emailing the embroidery company I'm using back and forth today in order to get the shirts I'm having done for my bridesmaids set up.

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Still on my list of things to do:

-Buy ingredients for the lunch

-Put together favor bags

-Update bridesmaid newsletter

-Work on questionnaire {this will help me decide on what to get them as gifts for the wedding}

-Inquire about having the event photographed and filmed to start the process of my wedding documentary for the video montage.

How did my luncheon get this big? lol.

Mehndi Artist...Officially Booked!

Last night I officially sealed the deal with the mehndi artist. Her name is Akiyo and she is super sweet. I look forward to having her at my bridesmaid luncheon and working with her on future endeavors. For a full bio on Akiyo and to see more of her work, check out my post here.

Mehndi Artist...Almost Booked!

In fact, I just got off the phone with her and I am SUPER excited. I just have to finalize some stuff with her and send a deposit and it will be a done deal! Two hours of Mehndi design with my awesome bridesmaids, mother, and God mother is going to be amazing. I just realized this morning that Mr.Golden is on vacation that weekend so maybe he'll come towards the end of the luncheon {girls only event!}

I'm so glad that my budget allowed for it because it wasn't looking too good at one point considering I had to get some unexpected work done to my car.

Even though I'm not hindu, I am half Trinidadian. Trinidad is a mixed country made up of West Indians like myself and Hindu people. Even some of the soca and chutney music that I listen to have versus in Hindu language {Hindi} in it, so I am not totally off my rocker by incorporating this culture into some of the aspects of my wedding!

I can't wait for my hands to look similar to this:

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or maybe this:

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And because I'm the bride, she mentioned that I could get my feet done if I want to {and if time permits since she charges by the hour}:

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I can't wait til the 31st!

Bridal Party Lucheon- Pt. II

So yesterday I laid out the overall plan for my bridesmaid luncheon, but there's more!

Disclaimer:

Ok, here's the thing about me. I love culture, and not just my culture, but ALL cultures. Although I'm not Irish, I begged Mr. Golden to no avail about having a bagpiper at our wedding. My mother {who happens to be missing a few cards in her deck..lol} swears that she's breaking glass and saying "Mazel Tov!" at the wedding. And if the ceilings weren't so low at my venue, I just migh have had people hold me up in the air in my chair.

But to bring it back to reality, I'm not going to be doing those traditions because besides not wanting my guests to look at me as though I've lost my royal mind, they're really not authentic to my wedding day. However, that does not mean I can't have some pre-wedding fun with them!

To cut right to the chase, I'm going to turn my bridesmaid luncheon into a Mehndi party!

According to Wikipedia, "Mehndi is the application of Henna as a temporary form of skin decoration, in South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Somalia as well as expatriate communities from these areas. Mehndi decorations became fashionable in the West in the late 1990s, where they are sometimes called henna tattoos."

In a nutshell, I LOVE IT. Everytime I see it done on T.V., I wish I could trade cultures! I had it done about a year ago at a carnival and it was great. I thought it would be a wonderful treat for my bridesmaids and I. Here are some of my favorite designs:

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Mr. Golden thinks I'm absolutely nuts but he loves and accepts me this way! What are your thoughts?

Bridesmaid Luncheon!

Asking your favorite ladies to be apart of your bridal party in chic, cutesy ways seems to be the route many brides-to-be are taking these days. There's so many things to make the "asking" special such as "Will You Be My Bridesmaid" poems, and personalized cards and trinkets.

Unfortunately for me, I was so excited when I got engaged that I just asked my girls immediately after telling them I received the ring. Had I just breathed for just a split second, I would have probably jumped on the cutesy she-she-foo-foo bandwagon ways of asking my ladies in waiting.

Instead, I have been waiting and anticipating for January 2009 to host a Bridal Party Luncheon!!! Ahh, so you want to know what this entails?

Well, it's going to be a small but tasteful affair held at my grandmother's house. I chose my grandmother's house because it's intimate and spacious enough for this type of gathering. It is also the place where my girls and I will get dressed at on my wedding day.

Each lady will receive an invitation which I intend to design. {pictures to come!}

On the day of, each lady will get:

A custom embroidered bridesmaids shirt. {This is not how it will look, but I just decided not to leave you picture-less!}



A bridesmaid newletter edited and published by yours truly. It will act as a way of keeping the ladies updated about fittings, meetings, and deadlines. {Truth is, I personally just enjoy making them..lol}

A gift bag filled with some trinkets. So far on the list, I have: scented candles, pack of tissue w/ design on it, lip gloss. {I will be hitting up stores for the post holiday sales for more stuff}

And for the menu:

Appetizer & Dinner
Salad
Bruschetta
Spaghetti w/ fresh italian garlic bread

Dessert
Chocolate covered strawberries
Pineapple coconut cake
Vanilla icecream

Drinks
Mimosas

I can not wait! What's even better is that I'm reveiling the big surprise about the luncheon in tomorrow's blog! Stay tuned!