Angel Bride #10 - Rebecca

Ah, Rebecca - it was really hard to not skip ahead to her! If you ever get to meet her, her new husband Jesse or her father Phil, you'll understand why in a less than a minute!

I've done two Bridal Shows, just two - and I always give away a Platinum Planning & Coordination package as a raffle prize at each one. Rebecca was the winner from the Weddings on Ice Show that I participated in. After I contacted her, I also came to find out that she is the sister of Phil - from Phil and Daisy! Omigosh - this wonderful sister who penned such a heartfelt letter on behalf of her brother although she really needed the help herself, had just won the very same thing she'd enabled her brother to have. (K-A-R-M-A)

Rebecca chose to do most of the planning herself, with phone and email support - twice she was ready to turn it over but realized after we talked that she was good to go and doing a fabulous job! We provided all the 'pretties' for her wedding along with the Day of Coordination and serving. Their venue? Puddingstone Resort in San Dimas - which BTW is a breathtaking venue if you haven't been there!

The wedding date? May 9th - which also happened to be Mothers Day as well as Jessee's birthday, which I later found out! (NOW I know why you picked that day!). Because we'd had Rachels wedding the day before and didn't get home until almost one am (verrry sleepy) and had to wash all the white linens on top of both unloading from Rachel and loading for this one - it was more than a bit chaotic and we left later than I wanted to. (Yes, I will admist I'm one of THOSE people who wants to arrive early). We got there and just about everyone decided to come early - OMG!!! Fortunately the venue had the chairs all set up so we got to work putting things together - guess what? gail force winds again - okay, no tents or gently flowing anything....lol Improvisation is key I kept reminding them both. We got everything ready to go despite the wind (which died right back down in time for the ceremony to start).

Every wedding is incredible - that last moment of queuing the groom to take his place, fluffing the train, that gentle touch on dads sleeve asking, 'Are you ready?' as he's about to give his little girl away - and the anticipation on the brides face - oh...makes me cry every time! That is seconded by the father daughter dance - I must admit that this one topped em all! I have never seen such a loving relationship between a father and daughter, so many tears, so much joy during that dance - and the crowd loved it too! =)

For me personally, this day was incredibly special. My crew consisted of the love of my life, my husband Cliff, and two of our four girls, Courtnea and Aleksa, and my mom. What a wonderful way to spend Mothers Day - doing what I love with the people I love!

[picture to come]

Angel Bride #9 - Rachele

Rachele found us from the CL ad that we run down in San Diego for our 'rental' package; she told me that she and Andrew had a quick civil ceremony last year because he was going to be deployed and they wanted to be married before he deployed. Now he's back and they would like to get married the way they wanted to originally. Being the proud wife of a retired marine I jumped at a chance to do whatever I could to help a fellow marine! I told her that whatever they need to let us know and we will be happy to provide;

Their venue was the beachside Cantina on base at Camp Pendleton - lovely indeed and very affordable for anyone, but especially so for a young marine couple.

She came up to the office and looked through our stuff - even made a second trip back with one of ther Bridesmaids, Kelly [hi Kelly!! =)] We got their list created, and told her we would come set up and work the event for them if she would like (same thing we do for all Angel Brides when we don't have other events), but in this case I had another Angel Bride wedding the next day that also needed the white linens so I HAD to bring them home so I could get them laundered and hung for the other wedding.

What an amazing couple! Our volunteer servers were so happy and felt so welcomed that they'd have done it again in a heartbeat! Rachele came and worked not only a wedding before hers, but again in June when I needed some extra hands was right there - not 10 days before a major move.

Angel Bride #8 - Aimee!

Aimee placed an ad on CL looking for a wedding gown - just a wedding gown. She and her long time love were ready to finally get married, budget or no budget! I emailed her and after we determined her size, invited her to come in and take a look at our gowns to see if there was one that would work for her. She brought her Maid of Honor and I had my Assistant (who happens to also be my sister) Kelly with me. I asked Kelly to come because I wanted her to know what it's like to experience the Angel Bride phenomena!

Come meeting time, in walks this wonderful woman, her MOH and her Grama - oh Grama was the sweetest thing! After our introductions we got straight to the gowns - I brought in all the ones in her size, laid them out on the table and left the room so they could do what they needed to without extra eyes. She found one that fit like a glove and she just shined in it! She walked out and Kelly was standing there ready with a couple of veil options and hair pieces. The smile turned into a sunbeam and you could just tell that this bride realized she was going to have that wedding gown afterall!

Because we'd spoken so much on the phone and via email, we all sat down and continued visiting - as we were talking we started asking questions about the church decor and the reception (to see if we could help any further). I showed them the silk flower arrangements we had that Toni had made for her wedding and we decided they'd dress the aisle perfectly, so on the list they went! As for the reception, well they were planning a back yard barbeque - as she talked, you could visibly see the smile begin to fade just a little. I looked at her and said - can I ask you a few questions? "If you could decorate however you wanted - what would you have?" We talked it through, and I said okay hold on real quick, got up and disappeared out of the room, leaving them with Kelly who I'm sure at this point is wondering 'what in the world am I supposed to do NOW?' I walk back in, armed with my pretties! I put down the black linen, the red charger, the white plates, glasses, napkings, virtually set a sample table and say - something like this? When she realized we were offering to let her use all our items at no charge there were some tears - by all of us. Aimee is such a gracious woman that we couldn't help but take it further - they live locally, so of course we'll bring it all to you and help set up. We tossed out the offer of helping serving and Day of Coordination and she couldn't help but laugh, smile, cry - many emotions. She called Steven from our office and told him that they were going to have an amazing wedding!

Despite the gale force winds that happend that day and some very tired flower girls -we had their back yard all set up and ready to go, the church decorated and a wonderful, touching love filled wedding took place. We learned the Ice Cream and Cake dance - who knew there was an Ice Cream and Cake dance??



Aimee has ended up not just being a former bride, but has turned into one our forever friends! She has made it known that she will be there to help anytime we need her - and she's always on the lookout for great FGM stuff, too!

Angel Bride #7 - Tina

I actually found Tina - she'd placed an ad on CL - the saddest little ad I've seen. They had the venue, an old church in Brea - very dark, dim, and gothic looking. Not at all what she'd envisioned for her wedding day. She just wanted to make it something even close to what she was hoping to have.

It took a few attempts to get ahold of them, and it was actually Kyle that called to make sure it wasn't a cruel joke. It took a little convincing, but we got them to come in, and I told them to take a look and they could use whatever they wanted. They didn't want anything for the reception, just the church.

Kyle was very excited, but poor Tina was incredibly overwhelmed and couldn't come up with anything solid to ask for. This was a big turning point for me - I realized so many things thanks to Tina and I can't thank her enough. I realized that 1)what seems to me to be just 'stuff' at time and 'no big deal' ISN'T just stuff or no big deal to someone who has nothing; and 2)that I need to not reveal the 'closet' until after we have gotten through the haze or realizing that someone really is offering to help and really isn't asking for anything in return but a picture (well, okay a thank you is always nice, too). So the first trip came and went - they came back again with help this time - they came back two more times as a matter of fact and by the last time, she was smiling as she tried on veils and tiaras!

We got them loaded up with all the pretty stuff - they came back a few days later with tales of a lovely wedding and many new additions to our Fairy GodMothers Closet as well as the important lessons I got from them. Thank you so much Tina & Kyle

Angel Bride # 6 - Daisy

Oh my gosh - Daisy and her fiance Phil came to me through my dearest friend Kim Turcotte - an amazing floral designer with a heart the size of Texas! She has an organization called Weddings on Ice and together we decided that we wanted to give a wedding away - she put an all call out through the Register, ran a contest for a military couple. Being the proud wife of a retired marine (Semper Fi) I was sooo in from the get go. We had our first couple who were both active duty - we were so excited! Sadly the conflict of last year called them both to deployment but we already had the date set!

Fortunately for us, Phils sister saw the all call and sent an amazing, loving heartfelt letter to Kim telling us the story of Phil, Daisy, their love, him going into active duty and their wanting to be married prior to him going so that he could know solidly that his wife and son were taken care should anything happen to him during this deployment.

Oh, this was amazing we though - and thus the planning began - I handled the couple, Kim handled just about everyone else. I reached out to my dear friend Rev. Ogannes Agayan (www.idowithyou.com) and asked him how he felt about performing a wedding - ON ICE! shared their story with him, and he was in!

Kim and I met with the couple to discuss details of what they'd like to see happen, told them of all the regulations of the arena that offered the venue for the wedding, revamped how we were going to do everything..... wow, a wedding on ice - capacity crowd, televised, young couple... what were we thinking? I could see the disappointment in their faces - 2 minutes for getting on the ice, 2 for the ceremony, maaaybe 3 and then 1 to get off - regulation says there can only be 6 minutes between hockey periods. Aye Carumba batman -

So....back to Rev. Ogannes I went, asking him if we could do a second, much more intimate, relaxed ceremony - a do-over - just for Phil and Daisy. Of course he proclaimed. To see them smile and be happy again was such a blessing!

The dress - oh the most amazing dress! and I am so very proud to say that it came from my very own FGM Closet - a brand new gown I purchased not a month earlier, never been worn or even tried on - I pulled them all out for her to look at and see if one spoke to her. We found one that would work, it was 'okay'. We talked about her style, her dream and I suddenly remembered having one more gown hanging at home. A quick phone call, in comes the gown, I opened it and her eyes lit up! This was the one!

The wedding day - wow is an understatement! The arena approaches me with a photographer who's going to shadow me around for the day - me?? okay whatever keep up. We talk, she snaps pictures, we get Daisy ready, she's (Maya, I think)silently snaps away - time for the big reveal to the mom - she got it on film - amazing! Such a wonderful day!

About a week later I get a call from her editor - they want to interview both myself and Daisy to write the article that matches the photos - the little pictorial spread had grown. Daisy's quote? "Next to the birth of our son, it was the best day of our lives". The article was published in the April 25th edition of the Inland Living Magazine!

Here's to Phil and Daisy!

Thanks to my dear friend and colleage A. Michaels Photography for the use of the photo!

Angel Bride #5 - April

April is one of my brides who needed rental stuff but had no budget for the normal route. She saw one of our ads on good ole CL and responded with her list.

We put together a package deal where basically everything you need for 150 people, we offer it one of two ways - if you have $350.00 you can 'rent' it - if not, you can 'borrow' them. We ask that you take care of them and also contribute something else back to the FGM Closet. If we have volunteers or team members available we will offer to go help set up and tear down if they want or need it. But sometimes? they just need the stuff and want to do it themselves, which we fully support.

Her wedding colors were something that we didn't have in stock, so I bartered my fees for fabric with one of my other clients who was already ordering organza in bulk. We made overlays and chair sashes to match her colors.

Delivery was fun - the first batch was delivered no problem, but they forgot a few items and we were still finishing up making the linens. So we made a second trip for delivery - bumper to bumper traffic! Arrived to drop off at 10pm although we left at 5:30pm.... (minor route detour there)

I heard back that the wedding was gorgeous, got pictures in my inbox and a major contribution back to our closet - thank you so much April and your wonderful mom, too!

Angel Bride #2 - Kortney

I just love Kortney! I met her through her posting on Craigslist - she posted not long after Kerrys third update to her ad on CL - this would have been in August. Kortney believes not only in pay it forward, but doing so in advance! She came and helped with Kerrys wedding preparations on more than one occasion - came and worked my first bridal show with me and worked the December 5th wedding with me -and even brought a friend! I was so inspired after hearing that Kortneys fiance' Charles lived in Vegas, wouldn't be moving out here until not too long before the wedding, so she was doing most of the planning on her own - and all of the money was coming from them as well.

The venue that was offered to her was a lovely older church that isn't used for weddings and receptions very often, but it was perfect for what they needed and wanted. The folks at Grace Bible Church in Fullerton couldn't have been more accommodating!

Many wonderful people from Team Angel came together to make an special day amazing - Kitty put on a spread not to be beaten for an unheard of price she'd seen Kortney working at all of my events and said - "Oh we need to take good care of this girl!". I was so excited to learn that Rob had stepped in and taken on her wedding - he is such a sonsummate professional that is pure joy to work with! Michelle from Mire La Chancla jumped was IN and made a gorgeous pair of Havianis. Will would have been there but had already been booked on that date - but the photographer she got was excellent and took some amazing photos.

It was a beautiful wedding - filled with many of lifes precious moments to include a family ceremony to include Gabi and a father daughter dance that would melt your heart.

Kortney, Charles and Gabi - thank you so much for everything you've done for us here and for allowing us to be part of your amazing day!