Caon - Aromatherapy Salon

I have tried out beauty salon treatments for a few times (LPG Cellulite Treatment and Massage Therapy for example) but none of them was worth the money to sign up...

However, lately, I had a chance to get an Aromatherapy Massage for our wedding (because the salon was located near home) and found it really suits me well!!!

Aromatherapy is a form of alternative medicine that uses herbal essential oils, and other aromatic compounds for the purpose of altering a person's mind, mood, cognitive function or health.
Sounds really complicated but to put it simply, VERY RELAXING!

My favorite herb combination is rose otto, geranium, and frankincense. It balances female hormones.

Lately, I had seasonal herbs combination, as well! Rose geranium and basil combination is good as season changes to winter. Rosemary and yuzu (citron) combination prevents colds and feeling of cold! It is said to be good for your body to inhale and intake seasonal herbs. Amazingly I real experienced it!

My next appointment is in the end of December. I try to go there (caon) once a month :D My darling always comes with me to have a short aromatherapy since the place is for both men and women!

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First Marital Anniversary

It's been already a year since we filed our marriage paper!!!

On 11/22, we reserved an Italian restaurant called "Passo a Passo" in Monzennakacho, which was the prize for Jambalaya Original Recipe Contest 2010.

The dinner for 2 was worth 100 bucks per person! The special course of the day was gibier. Gibier means wildlife animal. Believe it or not, we had cave bear dishes!!! The cave bears grew up on oranges, so they don't have strong taste! All dishes were amazingly delicious!!!

For Pumpkin Risotto, the owner chef Arima used Calrose (California rice) which he newly harvested in California. It went great with Mozzarella in the center! Mmm!!! I couldn't believe it's the same rice I used for the contest...

And of course, the wine they served was really great! At first, I was going to try different kinds, but I stayed with Barbera del Monferrato Superiore 2003! The wine is made of classic grapes of Italy's Piedmont region. Fruity fresh wine but has a deep aroma. I love the way it tastes casual ;)

For dessert, we had pear compote. How come the chef knew that it was our anniversary!? On our plates, he wrote "Auguri (congrats)" and "Buena Felicita (best wishes)" :D

Thanks to the chef and his wife (she served our table)! We had a heartwarming anniversary.

Then last but not least, my darling gave me a sweet gift with an adorable message card. He wrote, "Please use this hand creams and let's walk hand in hand forever"!

Yes, I will!!!

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Sweet Gift From My Sister

My sister gave me a handmade photo album of our wedding.

How sweet she chose pink heart-shaped album! I loved the way she put those cute & glittering stickers to decorate the pages :D Those stickers are put it in the way I want! I think only siblings know this kind of tastes, you know! hehe!

Lots of thanks!

XOXO

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After The Wedding

Believe it or not, a day after the wedding, we had an appointment with our construction company regarding our renovation. Before the appointment, I had few things to discuss with my darling but...

See how tired my darling was... he said he is listening to me but I don't think so...

hehe!

Our wedding posts are labled HERE!

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Gifts of Money

When you are invited to a Japanese wedding reception, you are expected to bring gifts of money to the couple. The amount is generally approximated in advance by the level of one's income and social station. There are many online Q&As regarding the amount, but the innocuous amount is 30,000 yen (about $300). Be sure to use the special envelope for congratulatory gifts of money with the gold and silver (or red and white) strings. There are many cute envelopes at stores these days!

At a Japanese wedding, guests will receive physical gifts (including food and drink) of about the same value as the monetary gifts they brought. Also, for the guests who come a long distance, almost half the amount of transportation expenses are paid and accommodations are arranged. Thus, you don't have to deduct the expenses from the gifts of money you bring. Long ago, it was said that the gifts of money helps the couple to start their new life together, but nowadays it just helps to pay for the incredibly expensive reception.

Knowing the facts behind, if you cannot afford it, excusing yourself from attending the reception is not at all discourtesy.

Anyway, how about in your country?!
I am really curious to know how the wedding works out!!!

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Wedding Favors

Wedding favors are the gifts given as a gesture of appreciation or gratitude to guests from the bride and groom after the wedding reception. In Japan, we usually combine a food gift and a product gift.

The most popular food gift is Baumkuchen, since it represents longevity and the long-lasting prosperity of the family. Of course, you can present a pound cake or whatever you like, but we chose Baumkuchen without question! Same as our wedding cake, our Baumkuchen is from the pastry shop anniversary!

Then the most popular product gift is a "catalog". I don't know how we call it in English, but we call it "catalog gift". As you can see, it's a catalog that you can select an item that you want to receive later at home! Long ago, it was simply a booklet, but nowadays, it's in an album style, so you can use the album later!!! You can include a thank you card in the catalog, too! No wonder I chose the heart-patterned album. hehe! Of course, instead of catalog gift, you can present anything you like, but we wanted to give our guests a choice ;)

Last but not least, we also prepared a petit gift. It's a butterfly with 5 Jordan almonds. Five Jordan almonds symbolize five wishes for the bride and groom: health, happiness, fertility, financial stability, and longevity ;) I hung them on my arm and gave one by one to the guests when we saw them off! Why not heart?! Because we wanted to close with a butterfly since our invitation card was a butterfly, too!

Hope you enjoyed our idea :D

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Already A Month!!!

Can you believe it?! It's been already a month since our wedding!!! Time really flies!!!

Should we celebrate it tonight?! Maybe too much! Ha-ha!!!

Anyway, as you can see, my gel nails are all cracked!!! I was going to remove them yesterday but I put off the day till Friday because I love them ;P For my cooking, I can't do them again, but I really think gel nails are cool!!!

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GOTO FLORIST

Our wedding theme was "Heart Full NY Central Park". GOTO FLORIST decorated our wedding hall (LA COLLEZIONE) to meet our expectations.

A month before the wedding, we had a meeting with president Goto. On that day, we couldn't see all the flower arrangements but had few samples and drawings. One of the samples was the heart-shaped flower arrangement for guest table C. (left bottom drawing)

What was amazing was president Goto's creativity! In the vase, he put some strawberry jam to make it look red and sweet! Moreover, he said he's gonna use red sand, stones, gel window stickers and many other fun stuff on the day! The flower as you can see is no longer flower, but a creative object. He says he wants everyone to see, touch, and play with it. Isn't that amazing?!

However, we were worried about the Central Park, since we only saw the drawing with a huge heart in the park... we had an option to remove the heart from the park since it cost a lot, but we kept it because we thought it would be something nicer than what we expect...

... and that was true! The huge pink heart was in nice contrast with the green park!

Everything was beyond challenge! The lawn grew beside the guest tables was just like the Central Park, with some trees and rocks, of course! You can find birds and squirrels in the park, too! In the park, there is a table where you can have a break. In contrast, all guest tables were decorated with heart-shaped flower arrangements. Small hearts hanging from the ceiling created shadowgraph of hearts. (you can see the shadowgraph HERE)

It's been already a month since our big day but I still feel excited when I see those pics ;)

Many many thanks to GOTO FLORIST!!!

Anyway, it is time to remove my wedding nails...
Now my gels are all cracked X(

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Brothers and Sisters

During the wedding reception, we planned a surprise for our siblings!

We decided to walk out with them before we change costumes. I have two younger sisters and my darling has two younger brothers. We are the oldest ;)

My sisters wore elegant furisode (振袖) which is a traditional long-sleeved kimono for unmarried women. My darling's brothers wore suits because many men usually wear suits at the ceremony.

Do we look alike?! he-he!!!

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Wedding Ring Pillow

Wedding ring pillow is a pillow that has ribbons to tie the rings. Some people make their own, but frankly, ring pillow can be anything!

We first thought of using an apple, putting rings through its stem. But surprisingly, most apples at supermarkets have short stems, so we gave up.


Then later, by a lucky chance, my darling found this cute little heart-shaped leafy plant at a general store! It nicely matched our wedding theme: full of hearts!

By the way, our wedding rings are here ;)

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Our Marriage Vows

As I wrote before, we wanted our wedding to have a real homey feel, so we chose Civil Wedding Ceremony (人前式 - Jinzen Shiki). It is a nonreligious wedding ceremony that bride and groom read out their own vows in front of those present, implore them to validate the marriage. Our marriage vows (originally in Japanese) are the below :D

---------------------------------

Darling & Me:
Our Vows

Me:
We are happy to have our wedding in front of all who made time to be here today.

Darling:
Here, we will make 7 vows.

Me:
1. We will take care of our family.

Darling:
2. We will never forget to care for others.

Me:
3. We will build a family filled with love, laughter, and happiness.

Darling:
4. If we have a quarrel, we won't be stubborn, but listen to each other.

Me:
5. We will make a relaxing home, without stocking up on things.

Darling:
6. We will be never too busy to spend time together on weekends.

Me:
7. We will do moderate exercise and have well-balanced happy meal, to live long together forever.

Darling:
We will stamp our vows indelibly on our minds, share our joys and hapiness,

Me:
overcome our pains and sorrws together,

Darling & Me:
and together, we hereby pledge that we will bravely lead our lives hand in hand.

Darling:
2010.10.10
Groom, xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx.

Me:
Bride, xxx xxxx.

---------------------------------

Believe it or not, we practiced reading them out in the morning of the big day! Ha-ha!!! However, my darling didn't make a mistake! Me?! I misread words X(

We then signed the certificate of marriage in front of our guests.

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LOVE Pink Brownie

This is another wedding idea.

We served our guests with my pink brownies (top left one) along with recipe cards!!! My wedding coordinator was kind enough to ask her friend (patissier) to create them for our wedding. Remember it or not, what we printed out at Kinko's were recipe cards ;)

BTW, white square cake (top right one) is our wedding cake. Mango pudding in the spade-shaped dish and Almond Pudding (杏仁豆腐) in the heart-shaped dish are desserts for our wedding reception foods.

I'm glad everyone enjoyed them!!!

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Wedding Cake Rental

What is your ideal cake-cutting ceremony?

Mine is to cut a huuuuuuuge wedding cake :D

However, it costs way too much to order a huge real wedding cake, so we decided to rent a fake one!!!



Long ago in Japan, renting a fake wedding cake was nothing special, but nowadays, people are more for edible ones. Thus, you can hardly find a shop to rent a wedding cake. It took me about a week to find one!!!

As an option, we bought a two birds ornament on top of the cake, which matched our wedding theme perfectly!

Of course, we served our guests with real pieces of cake from one of the finest pastry shops called anniversary ;)

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Our Photo Montage Video Presentations

Yes! We did it!!!

I think this was the heaviest task we had in our wedding preparations!

As I wrote before, a childhood photo montage video presentation is the highlight of entertainment for the guests at the wedding reception in Japan. Therefore, we planned to play our original video during our reception. First, it was tiring to look for the software that works on our PC. Believe it or not, we went back and forth the electronics retail stores for many times to exchange the software (for many reasons)... Then another tiring part was the creation! Since it was a project of our two, we had to go over the video together and edit. Needless to say, there is no peace. I don't remember how many times I argued with my darling...

It was hell in many ways, but I'm glad everyone liked it! We also played an end-title roll video in the end of the reception to thank everyone who attended and contributed to our wedding.

Now I uploaded those two videos on my YouTube account. Sorry, they are set as private, so please feel free to send me a request if you want to take a look ;)

Childhood Photo Montage Video Presentation

Combined with our favorite music, from childhood photos to dating and engagement photos, this video is a special reflection on our past to tell the story of us, who eventually meet and fall in love.




End-Title Roll

Credits combined with our favorite music and photos. We listed names of our guests and people who contributed to our wedding.




Hope you enjoy them :D

※結婚式に使ったプロフィールビデオとエンドロールです。ソフトはPhoto Movie Studio 5 Weddingを使用。YouTubeに限定公開していますので見たい方はリクエストメッセージを下さい☆

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