Ken & Barbie Events Elvis will be in the house…. Tom Lagravinese from http://www.Tomedy.com. Join us at Everything Love! You don’t want to miss it!

Whether you are looking for an Elvis Show, or Elvis for a private party, Tom is the performer you are looking for. No audience is too big or small for Tom!
The Personable Entertainer!

When we all hear the word getting hitched or eloping we think about the typical Elvis wedding. There are many ins and outs to destination weddings but here are are some reasons to do the destination weddings.

1. Cost efficient – Some destination weddings can be costly but if you stick to a budget and remind yourself that you will get to spend more on the honeymoon it is well worth it.
2. Small & Intimate wedding – Everyone has there customs and in reality we will always have a major list. The plus about destination weddings is that your guest list can be as big as you want it to be. Only about 20%-25% of your guest list will attend. Don’t expect monetary gifts from guest that do attend because them attending your wedding is there gift. However, your chances of receiving gifts from non-attendees will increase. In the end you will have the closes people you want to attend.
3. Honeymoon plus – Spend more on your honeymoon. There are many honeymoon packages available at many destination hot spots.

Here was Carline’s Vegas Wedding!

Date: October 12, 2008

Location: Las Vegas, NV (The Strip – Welcome to Vegas Sign)

Theme: Vegas

Honeymoon: US Cross Country Road Trip

Wedding Checklist

Stationery Save the Date Invitations Wedding Reminder Location Map Thank you Cards Attire Wedding Gown Alterations Veil Carline’s Shoes Hair Make-up Anthony’s Tux Anthony’s Shoes AJ’s Tux AJ’s Shoes Wedding Accessories Wedding Theme: Vegas Old New Borrowed Blue Garter Purse Emergency Kit Floral Brides Bouquet Boutonnieres Gifts Guest One another

Media Video – tapes Photo – memory cards Photo Locations iPod mp3 cable Ceremony Location Vows Unity Candle Guestbook/Scrapbook/Album Pens Reception Party Bus Wine Liquor Juice Water Fruits Crackers Cheese Cake Music Brunch Locations Reservation Accommodations Hotel Airport Remember Marriage License Create Bridal Registry

DIY Ideas

Stationary

Newsletter Invitation

Cover pages has how we met, important dates, and a formal invite. Page 2 has “about the bride & groom”. Page 3 has our wedding website, wedding registry, and the recipe of our love: our son. Page 4 has travel arrangements: flight and hotel with a location map. Page 5 has the wedding itinerary, honeymoon plans when and where to RSVP, and our contact information. Finally on page 6 has our pictures, closing statement, and countdown.

Download Adobe Flash Player.

FlippingBook WordPress Gallery

Attire

Bride

The wedding gown was a Maria Cross inspired chiffon dress designed by Faviana. Maria Cross wore a goddess gown at the 2006 Golden Globes. It features a deep V-neck and rouched bodice gets stunningly embellished with a lavish gem ornament on both sides of the straps. A bottom flares offers dramatic detail! If the bride has large breast you can add an applique. The blue dress is the original that was tried on for size and it was ordered in ivory. The v-shaped applique was stitched to the dress. This gave it a custom look to the dress, $350 with alterations and applique.

The hair was picked up half up with two pieces of hair in the front coming down and the veil was placed in the pony tail done by the bride. The veil is a Isaac Mizrahi mid-length veil in igloo, $20 at Target. The make-up was done a Sephora for FREE. The earrings and bracelet set was “something borrowed” from Mom. The wedding ring was “something old” from Mom, and the “something blue” was my garter purchased, $5.99 at Walmart. The two tone gold heels were 3″ high, $29.99 at Marshalls. After the ceremony, pictures, and several hours walking around the flats were put on. These flats are very Greek looking and matched perfectly with the dress. It was a white base with gold and silver detailing around the shoe, $10 at Loehmann’s.

Groom

Anthony decided to buy a suit instead of renting a tuxedo. The wedding wasn’t black tie or formal but semi-formal/casual. Anthony’s suit is a three piece pin-striped dark gray suit. He spiced it up with a deep fall red tie and white button down shirt. The cuff links also gave it a “GQ” look with the letters ‘C’ and ‘A’ in gold over onyx, set on gold with clear rhinestones. The shoes were a gift. They are soft black leather with a strap over buckle. This whole ensemble was $250 with alterations and accessories at JC Penny.

Our Son

Our son, Anthony, also had a three piece we mix and matched from Children’s Place. The suit coat and slack are black suede, $24.99 for the blazer and $19.99 for the slack. Two years old aren’t really keen on staying dressed and feeling comfortable so instead of a button down shirt and tie a long-sleeved turtle neck cream onesie was substituted, $5. It was accented with a fall diamond pattern sweater vest, $14.99. The shoes are black leather with a Velcro strap, $19.99.

Floral

All floral arrangements were purchased at Michael’s Arts & Crafts. For the Bride’s bouquet we purchased three bunches of silk flowers from , $6.99 a bunch. The stem was wrapped in the material cut from the wedding dressed and the base of the stem was wrapped with 3″ white sheer ribbon, $2.99 for the roll. From the bottom up we cris-crossed .5″ white satin ribbon to the base of the stem and tied two bows, $1.99 for three yards. This lovely arrangement was created by Maryjane, Carline, and there Mom. The Groom had a two bud silk rose arrangement, $3.99. Our son had one bud silk rose arrangement, $2.99.

Favors

For our guest we purchased one box of Best Occasions’ bottle favors kit, $24.99 at Walmart. It came with the bottle, pre-cut ribbons, and sticker labels. We purchased two bags of ‘Thank You’ charms to slide onto the ribbon before tying the knot, $2.99 each at Michael’s. Carline created the labels on the computer, printed them and stuck them on the bottles. We filled the bottles with sweet ‘n salty mix, $5.99 for a box at The Christmas Tree Shops.

Media

The party bus company recommended we go to the Bellagio Hotel to take pictures because they had a Fall/Halloween theme setup in the lobby. It was beautiful. Visit our wedding/roadtrip website for more photos. We took pictures after the ceremony.

Ceremony

After viewing chapel after chapel we decided to be different and get married in front of the sign at midnight. We had a great officiant, Rev. Ron Perry Sr., him and his wife are both sweethearts. $200 fee for after 10pm ceremonies on the Vegas Strip – worth every penny. We had a traditional Catholic ceremony and had the opportunity to say our own vows as well.

Carline did her vows about a month before the wedding and left them written in her mother’s house so her mother sent them to her. If it wasn’t that she wrote them we wouldn’t remember what we said and the video was to windy to understand. On the other hand, Anthony said his vows from the heart. It was beautiful but in the moment and excitement we all forgot what he said.

Reception

We wanted to enjoy what the Las Vegas strip had to offer as we partied after the ceremony, $466 with Celebrity Coaches. There was a confusion at home office and we got the wrong bus do to homecoming but they still sent us a bigger bus and at a cheaper price. It didn’t bother me that Zappos Shoes was printed all over the bus. They even asked if we’d like to have them had the shoes to the back of the bus instead of can. We had the bus for four hours, we went from tip to tip on the strip and stopped in the Bellagio to take photos. We had our first dance enjoying the views of Las Vegas’ nightlife.

Our cake was spectacular from Freed’s Bakery. Our son’s God-father went with the Groom to pick up the cake and said, “They have the best cannolis I have ever eaten!”. He talked about it all weekend. We ordered the With A Little Bit of Luck Wedding Cake, $269 for the cake and $19.95 for the cake topper. Contact them for your quote. Our first layer was velvet cake and cream cheese. The second layers was chocolate cake with Freed’s Signature Bavarian Cream filling, raspberry puree. Um delicious.

Accommodations

Flights all ranged depending where people were coming from but it ranged from $250 – $500 round trip. Hotwire.com was a good site to work with and the cheapest deals available. Our hotel Circus Circus was the only family orientated hotel on the strip with the most reasonable prices. $56 a night (Book early).

Remember

Before going to Las Vegas we printed out the marriage license applications and had our cash ready. Check with the bureau to see what types of payments they received we had to go to the ATM because they did not take debit, $50 it is now $60. We went the day before but in the State of Nevada there is no blood work or waiting period before the ceremony. Get directions and save the site. After getting married we lost the paper we had to send in to get the certificate of proof and we got a lot of spam in the mail for us to pay $40 to get it. We called them and they said just send in your marriage information with date, etc. with a $10 check or money order. Always good to call before hand. Las Vegas also has a good system that you can check for your certificate number before hand too.

We did our register three months before our trip began, Travel’s Joy. We put items for our trip/honeymoon. This worked out very well since our honeymoon was a two week cross country road trip. After coming home we uploaded all of our pictures from our trip and wedding onto Shuttlerfly. Great idea to stay connected and fill in details. Friends and family could purchase items to send your or for themselves. There is no fee for the site or expiration date. Sign up for there mailing list to get coupons and discounts.

---

If you would like more post or information such as this one please comment. Carline has a lot of information on destination weddings, Las Vegas weddings, and road trips. She has a pretty good check list for packing and the trip itinerary. Enjoy.

Since the start of the world’s mourning the passing of Michael Joseph Jackson it did not phase me. I thought of him as a celebrity, a performer.

I heard the news, caught glimpses here and there, but I really didn’t want to hear or should I say follow the story. I couldn’t get past the negative things that have tainted his legacy. He was a celebrity like any other. Not to mention the death of other celebrities that week. Don’t get the wrong impression I am a fan. A fan that saw him as an artist.

It wasn’t until today, after I read my mother’s email from Puerto Rico that she sent to my sister, brother, and me. It read:

WOW I CRIED AT THE MEMORIAL SPECIAL OF MJ. THAT WAS EMOTIONAL. AND PAINFUL I CAN’T IMAGINE ONE OF YOU GONE IN ANYWAY. I WILL DIE AFTER THAT.PLEASE TAKE CARE YOUR SELF. OK

LOVE YOU ALL/

MOM

I know very heart felt. Still having some sort of indifference I continued about my day doing work. I don’t have many channels at home so I didn’t bother trying to look for a live feed online to watch it. As 11pm rolled around and Dateline was about to begin I see the previews about the memorial. I left the channel on as I was skeptical now. I actually found beauty by the crowds of people gathered together. How they previewed people all over the world. 15 minutes into it Maryjane calls me for the 50th time today as always to ask me if I had seen the memorial and that she was touch by it and so forth. I cut it short so I can actually pay attention to watch Dateline. I think it was beautiful, I now had to watch the whole thing not just highlights. I googled every search possible knowing that someone had the whole video of the memorial. Final ABC gave me the pleasure, http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7934385.

After completely watching the whole memorial service I thought to myself this was not only a memorial service but a remembrance. I put my negativity aside and viewed Michael Jackson as the world viewed him, a King, or as Shiela Jackson Lee best stated it – a Samaritan. Looking back to all the good deeds that Michael Jackson has done had made a world of impact. I believe because he had to grow up fast that he felt he should help those in need and make a difference to touch one’s life. I saw the last video rehearsal he did for is planned tour and although he had a smile and was more energized than he had been in a long time he looked sad or alone. I think that R News in Rochester, NY put it best that the legacies in our lifetime had hard times too but during a loss we tend to forget about ones flaws.

We are active women ourselves but when NBA player Kobe Bryant stated, “Michael Jackson holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the most amount of contributions to charity from a Pop Star.” I was impressed. It was like the media really sheltered these accomplishments but couldn’t help themselves to broadcast on every media source possible about the negative stories.

The whole ceremony was beautifully done and organized. The music was peaceful and I could not help but be touched by John Mayer’s guitar performance and Jermaine’s performance of “Smile” by Charlie Chaplin – Michael’s favorite song. This makes me think of one of the wises songs in Spanish – “Que Me Lo Den en Vida” by Gran Combo. This song basically says “What you want to give me, give it me when I’m alive” we often express how we feel after one is gone, send flowers, and shed tears. How could that person know how you felt and appreciated them? Give it to that person before they are gone! I love you Mom & Dad. You guys too Maryjane & Dennis.

MJ memorial closing statement.

I could not help to think of all the great legacies that made a difference whom were also celebrities. So why are we posting this is our site? This is a major event in our time. I remember growing up and meeting older people about major events in there time like the great depression and baby boomers. I now see myself having a wealth of information for my children and future grandchildren and so on. Literately history in a making. I can hear the questions now and they think I’m a old wrinkled woman with too much grandma perfume and strong cat smell. “Where were you when Elvis died?” Where were you when the World Trade Center went down?” Where were you when Hector Lavoe died?” “What happened during the New Millennium Recession?” “Where were when President Obama was elected president?” “Do you remember when Michael Jackson died?” This is a Ken & Barbie Event announcement that affects us all. It’s an event in our life we will never forget.

I can now contribute to history, not as much as legacies such as Michael Jackson but still a contribution.

I continue to be a fan of Michael’s work but now a respected fan who finally saw the big picture that the whole world sees as well.

For the King of Pop!

- Carline