Love each other.

*Warning: prepare for a loooong post

This is super exciting. A month old, but still super exciting.

My dearest friend and long-time penpal, Carizza, got married in December. She married the most wonderful man and married into the best family. I'm completely smitten with all of the Kors. Oh yes- did I mention? Carizza's new name is "Carizza Kors." Also completely in love with and totally jealous of the alliteration she gets to have for the rest of her life.

Carizza works for In The Now, a fabulous, high-profile wedding/event planning company in Orange County. In The Now designs, plans and executes the most beautiful weddings I've ever seen. I'm talking "this stuff goes in magazines"-good. Please check out their fun blog and give it lots of love. All of those Nowies totally deserve it for all the hard work they do.

Since Carizza does such terrific work in the wedding industry, we all knew she would throw the most perfect wedding for her and her husband-to-be. We were right. She didn't let us down. Carizza and the In The Now team did such a fabulous job getting the tiniest of details perfect for her special day.

We'll start from the beginning....

When Carizza first started planning her wedding, she announced- boldly, if I might add- that her color scheme would be: navy blue, orange, mustard yellow, peach and gold/silver. Sounds crazy, right? WRONG. This wild color scheme was gorgeous, classic and very Carizza&Devon at the same time.

Carizza gave all of us bridesmaids ladies an orange cardigan to slip on if we got cold. This pretty orange cardi has been a staple item in my closet ever since.


Carizza's gorgeous, one-strapped wedding dress. Simple, classic, romantic.


For those of you who don't know the lovely Mrs. Kors, she is a headband fanatic! Check out the "double headband" look she invented for her engagement shoot (photography by the talented Megan Hartley).

So instead of donning a viel for her wedding, Carizza was true to her stylish self and wore a flower headband piece. Originally, she bought two headbands but ended up stealing the flower from one and adding it to the other. Isn't she so clever and crafty? Yep. That's why we're friends.


Again- so clever. Carizza in her hotel robe wedding dress. Speaking of hotels- we stayed at the Hartford Hotel in Orange County and it was adorable. Very boutiquey and modern.


I learned these sweet ninja moves from the bride herself. My balancing act of getting the wedding dress down from the windowsill.

Ta-da!


The girls showing me how the invisible zipper thing worked.


The girls getting the bride ready.


Check out how those orange cardigans make our blue dresses pop! Excellent choice, Carizza.


Me freaking out about Devon showing up early for the "First Look" with Carizza. I was texting him telling him to wait outside. Bossypants.


All the ladies did a great job with the gold accessories. Jessica, the blonde to the right of Carizza in the photo, even had a gold piece of ribbon wrapped into her hair. It was gorgeous.


Pretty typical of us.


Kimmy, Jessica, yours truly and Stephanie. Bridesmaids for life. Well, hopefully not.


My favorite picture of Carizza and me. We're so happy!


The gang!


Reppin' In The Now!


The venue: Orange County Center for Contemporary Art. I loved the open rafters they had in their main gallery.


The bride & groom. So much love.


Carizza's brothers played the violin and ukelele to "Bubbly" by Colbi Caillat for the bridesmaids entrances and "Yours" by Jason Mraz for Carizza and Devon's entrance down the aisle.


A quiet prayer before the ceremony by Cor Kors, Devon's dad.


This picture makes me want to cry every time I look at it. This was such a beautiful moment. Everyone was so quiet and the two of them look so blissful and proud. I love it.


Thank goodness we got all of our tears out during the rehearsal the night before. We didn't have any left for the day of the wedding! When Devon was practicing his vows during rehearsal, I think it all kind of sunk it for everyone that, wow, this is the real deal. We all teared up and Carizza lost it. She had a good cry. As funny as it was having all of us blubbering up in the Kors' garage, it was really touching. In a hilarious sort of way.

The two of them did so great the day of the wedding. Their vows were flawless and personal.


The whole theme of the wedding was hearts. At the end of the ceremony, everyone threw confetti hearts! It was a cute surprise.


The Kors family. I am so in love with Devon's parents. They were so gracious and welcoming to me during the planning process. Carizza is one lucky girl and they're very lucky to have her as a daughter-in-law.


The Kors kids. Devon's brother and sister and their spouses. Those Kors know how to party! We all had a great time boogying on the dance floor together.


The lovebirds.


Love each other. And they did.


Carizza's ring size is a size two(?). Something incredibly tiny and crazy like that. Look how tiny her ring looks next to Devon's!


Table Two. The cool table. My table.


I had to resist the urge to swipe a sweet before the cake cutting. The salted caramel macaroons were to die for.


Oh god. My maid-of-honor speech. Somethings in life you're just not meant to do well. I think MOH speeches and duties are one of them. Unmarried friends, be warned.


One thing I loved about Carizza and Devon's wedding was that everything was personal and meant something special to them. They hired The Burnt Truck to cater their wedding because they have a date night there every Friday. The whole experience was really interactive. We got to walk up to the truck and pick up our order of sliders and tater-tots.


The cake cutting! All I could think about were those salted caramel macaroons... I was dreaming about them all night!


Signing the marriage certificate. Funny story: 40 minutes into my drive to visit Carizza a couple months ago, Page, my sister, called me. She had been meaning to pick up her official marriage certificate and finally did. She told me that I screwed up the marriage certificate and they had to do it over again.

She was kidding.

It wasn't funny. I almost had a heart attack. I was ready to turn around and go sign the darn thing again.

I was super nervous signing the marriage certificate for the Kors. Something about official documents makes me nervous.


Our farewell! Devon and Carizza had a sparkling exit and dashed home to pack for their honeymoon to Las Vegas!

(All photos courtesy of Megan Hartley Photography)

The entire weekend was beautiful and full of laughs. It was such a relaxing wedding and I loved every second of it!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to:
Megan Hartley at Megan Hartley Photography for all of the beautiful photos.
Carina and Susie at Flawless Faces for making us ladies look and feel gorgeous.
Sophie Pearl Originals for our fun wrap dresses.
And of course, the Nowies at In The Now. You guys rock.

I can't wait for more friends to get married! Friends, get on it.

2/1/2012
UPDATE!! Carizza and Devon's wedding was featured on The Wedding Chicks' blog! Check out their wedding story here and give The Wedding Chicks some blog love.