Wedding Date on Nov 18, 2017

Mike and I met online, and my first date with this guy with the same first name as my dad was on my dad's birthday, December 21st, 2015. We went out again on the 26th, and on the 28th, Mike took me on our third date to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California. He told me I had met MY match, and if I was willing to date him exclusively, he was going to go home and delete his dating profile. The next day I told my brother I had met the man I was going to marry. I was so confident of that fact I waited until our wedding day to tell Mike this very story in front of all our guests at our reception. We were engaged in July 2016, and I immediately said to Mike that I had no desire to get all dressed up for a wedding during the summer in Southern California! We chose November 18, 2017 for the weather, and also because my husband is half Chinese, and the number eight is synonymous with good luck and fortune in Chinese numerology.I have to say, planning our wedding was so much fun! I think if I were younger I would have had more difficulty making decisions, but at 40 years old I found it quite easy. I found my dress at my first bridal appointment, I only looked at one venue, I only met with one photographer, DJ, etc. Of course, none of it would have gone so smoothly if I had not had the most amazing wedding planner. Mele Amore Events was on the list of recommendations from our venue, The Estate on Second, and I was so fortunate to be paired with LanAnh Ho. She made it so easy to keep on schedule and within budget, and she's such a wonderful person. The worst part of the wedding being over is how much I've missed her since!When we were first engaged, we wrote lists of our non-negotiable guests who had to be at our wedding. When I told my dad that added up to about 65 people, he said, "Let's make it a hundred." I said at my age I wasn't sure I needed the big wedding my sister had at 24. My dad's response was, "Your mom and I go to a lot of funerals these days. Let's have a party!" So we went for the whole shebang, with our guests' experience the top priority. I wanted a venue that felt comfortable, had great food, and great service. The Estate on Second, owned by Jay's Catering, offered all of that in spades. Our guests rave about our food to this day.When I was younger, I always said I'd wear the biggest ballgown on my wedding day. But once I was actually a bride-to-be, I no longer wanted that. Much of my day-to-day style is inspired by the 40's, 50's and early 60's, so when I found House of Mooshki's website, I fell in love with their tea-length dresses. As luck would have it, they were coming from the UK for a trunk show in Southern California not long after I got engaged. Knowing my dress was going to have that #MooshkiTwirl, Mike and I took dance lessons so our first dance could be an East Coast Swing with lots of twirling! My red shoes from Shoes of Prey and Mike's red tie were our lucky color in place of our "something blue" as a nod to Mike's Chinese heritage.One of the things Mike and I bonded over quickly when we met was our mutual love of our families. I'm fond of saying that it's so nice to genuinely like people you're supposed to love. Our bridal party consisted only of our relatives, and one of the best things about our wedding day was having all of our loved ones in one room and our marriage creating a big family out of all of us. And the very best thing to come out of this is I am now married to my very best friend.