"I just wanted to tell you guys that this site is awesome!!! I wish I knew about it when I got married last year. I really like it. Good Job!!!" -- Ani
This is Marineh, co-founder of Harsanik.com with another update on my wedding planning adventures!
On Saturday December 26th, Shant and I drove to the Taglyan Cultural Complex to meet with their venue and bookings manager, Aram, and finally see the banquet hall for the first time. Both Shant and I had a good feeling about the hall since we loved all the pictures we had seen of Taglyan, we really liked the location (close for both families), and it would mean we would get to work closer with Christine from Fancy That! Events since she is the Marketing Director at Taglyan!
When we got to Taglyan, we parked our car and walked outside through the pretty gardens before walking into the hall. We were already in a great mood since we both loved the garden area and we knew it would be perfect to have our cocktail hour outside since we were planning on having a summer wedding. I could just imagine all my guests mingling there after the valet takes their car. Maybe we can even have a bar in the garden serving our signature drink?
When we walked in, we were immediately greeted by Aram. Aram was extremely nice and he showed us around. First, we saw the foyer area which was very elegant and well designed. Aram also showed us the garden and explained that all the outdoor lighting could be customized to match your wedding colors. They also had speakers in the garden area in case you wanted to play the music outside as well. At that point, Shant & I decided our cocktail hour would be both indoors & outdoors (garden & foyer).
Next, Aram showed us the gorgeous banquet hall. I had seen many beautiful photos of the inside of Taglyan, but seeing it in person was even more beautiful. Aram gave us a preview of what the lights could look like and explained that we could decide what color to display at what time – eg. blue for the main entrance, pink for the first dance, etc. Aram also explained that all the speakers were built into the ceiling so there would be no need to have large speakers on the stage. We both loved that aspect because we know nobody likes to sit at the table that’s closest to the loud speakers! Overall Shant was very impressed by how technologically advanced Taglyan was since everything seemed to be controlled electronically and appeared ready to go. Shant has an engineering background so of course he was most impressed by the electronics while I was wowed by the beautiful ceiling lights!
The last few stops of the tour were the bathrooms and the private bridal room. The bathrooms were not only impeccably clean, but also very nicely designed. We also liked how we would be given our private bridal room that we could share with our bridal party and have a place to lock all of our things.
At the end of the tour, we said bye to Aram, and Christine from Fancy That! called me and walked us through more details. She clarified that the hall fee includes the room rental, the garden, all catering by Divine & Food Catering, which is their exclusive in-house catering department (I’ve heard great things about their food), all tables, chairs, and linens. We really liked that pretty much everything was included, and Taglyan felt like a complete solution. This was a better option for us versus renting a hall but then needing to worry about every little detail from draping to tables to silverware.
After a few more details from Christine, Shant and I were sold and we agreed to sign a contract and give our deposit to lock in Taglyan for our August wedding!
Note: I know I’m really behind with my blog – I have over 2
months of wedding planning to catch up on! As you can tell, wedding
planning is a lot of work and it’s keeping me super busy! But I promise
I’ll get caught up over the next few weeks so look out for more regular
updates…
Shant and I spent December 24th surrounded by family. First we visited
his family for a Christmas lunch, and then went over to my parent's
house for a Christmas dinner.
Everyone was asking us when and where we were planning on getting
married, and I responded summer 2010. I've always liked summer
weddings. And I knew I could plan a wedding in less than 1 year, thanks
to all the wonderful vendors I've gotten to know over the years! As for
location, I knew I wanted an Armenian hall, and my favorite one is
Taglyan, specifically because of its gorgeous ceiling.
So the next day, December 25th, I started texting with Christine
from Fancy That! Event Design & Coordination to start planning. Christine is also the Marketing Director for Taglyan, so I knew she would be able to help me find a date and help out with all the details that come with booking the venue. Luckily, we were
able to find a Saturday that was available. Thanks to Christine's help,
in less than 2 days, I had pretty much selected my hall and set a date!
I scheduled a meeting at Taglyan for the next day so both Shant and I
could see the hall for the first time.
Planning Status:
It was December 23. I had driven back from San Diego to my parent's
house in LA to spend the next several days with family. Around 8:30pm,
I got a call from Shant and he declared:
"The game has started. Here is
Clue #1. Be at the location where we had out first date and I
gave you the Play-doh in 15 minutes".
I was confused. The game? Am I
supposed to go alone? Is he going to be there?
Regardless, I ended up driving to Pasadena to the cute French
restaurant where we had our official first date (the Play-Doh is a long
story). As I was driving, I started to put 2 and 2 together: we
talked about the ring, I knew we were ready to get engaged, and he was
putting me on a scavenger hunt that usually ends with something.
I almost called my friends to tell them I was going to be proposed
to, but decided to hold back since I didn't know 100%. When I got to
the restaurant, Shant wasn't there. I ended up sitting at the bar, and
when looking around, I noticed there was an envelope underneath the
Christmas tree that said "Marineh - Clue #2".
My clue instructed me to go to the front lobby of the hotel where
we had our one first anniversary, which was at the beautiful Langham Hotel (what
used to be the Ritz Carlton). When I got to the lobby, the hotel staff
gave me Clue #3 - go to the hotel bar and look underneath the Christmas
tree. Clue #4 - go to the hotel jacuzzi. Clue #5 - go to the balcony of
the hotel room where we stayed for our 1 year anniversary. I walked
over to the grass area (our room was facing the pool) and there I saw
Shant, standing waiting for me! After hugging and a few words, he got
down on one knee and asked "Will you marry me?"
Of course! I was so thrilled!! The night ended with lots of phone
calls and texts to my closest friends, and hanging out with my family
to celebrate the great news.
Tip: It's a good idea to videotape the reaction of a few people when you tell them you're engaged. I
asked my brother to record my mother's reaction when I told her since
she was so surprised!
Generally the first thing that you have to plan for a wedding is the
ring! Well it really depends on the couple. Some guys completely
surprise the girl so she has no chance to pick out her ring. Other
couples mutually decide to not have the girl involved with the picking
of the ring. And other couples agree to have the girl be involved with
the process. What you choose is completely up to the couple.
In my case, Shant and I had talked about getting married at some
point, so I knew he was planning on proposing in the near future. Shant
asked me if I wanted to be involved with the ring selection and I said
yes. I figured it's a piece of jewelry that I'll be wearing for the
rest of my life, so I would like to have a say in what it looks like.
The first step was to go ring shopping just to get an idea of
what's out there. We ended up going to a few jewelry stores and
educating ourselves on the 4 C's - Cuts, Carats, Clarity, and Colors.
(For more information on the 4 C's and other guidance about rings, visit the Vanna K site).
I decided that I liked the round cut
best, and I liked the pave style (when you have diamonds around the
band).
About a month after our first outing, Shant called me and told me
he wanted me to get my ring finger sized. He also told me where he was
planning to get the ring from - Vanna K Bridal!!! I was so excited! Vanna K
is a leading bridal and fashion jewelry designer and was one of the Platinum Sponsors of our bridal show. Vanna K Bridal is known for its extraordinary quality, beautiful designs and one of a kind jewels. I was
absolutely in love with all their jewelry.
So I made an appointment with Vanna K Bridal and took 2 of my closest friends for a private and exclusive viewing of the Vanna K Bridal Collection (of course I wasn't going to go to a jewelry designers office alone!) Not only did I get my
finger sized, but Arch and Nareg of Vanna K Bridal gave us a private tour of its facility and let us into their vault where we got to try on over a 100 rings! It was surreal! So many diamonds!
Overall, Vanna K Bridal was so great to
work with. They not only educated me about rings and the different settings, but they made the whole process a whole lot of fun!
After a few hours, I ended up selecting about 10 rings that I really liked, and as Arch said, the rest was up to Shant.
Before I get into the details of the wedding planning, I figured I
should start with a brief introduction of me and Shant. We have been
together for 4 years. We met in Los Angeles while he was in law
school and I was working. After dating for about 6 months, we ended up
moving South for our new jobs. I moved to San Diego to start working at
a new company and Shant moved to San Clemente to start working at his
law firm.
Dating Shant has been such a wonderful experience! We have a very
easy to manage relationship. We're very alike, we enjoy very similar
types of things (lots of outdoor activities like surfing, skating,
hiking, etc) and we get along very well. Both Shant and I are Armenian - except he doesn't speak Armenian very well and isn't as much in tune with
all the traditions and cultural things. (You'll find out that this
becomes a factor as we start the wedding planning process)
Hi everyone - my name is Marineh and I am one of the co-founders of Harsanik.com. After working on Harsanik.com for over 3 years, it's finally my turn to plan my own "harsanik"!
On December 23, 2009, Shant, my now fiancé, proposed to me. It was one of the most exciting days of my life, and since then, I've been in full wedding planning mode.
I have decided to blog about all my wedding planning. adventures. I plan to share all my wedding planning highlights with Harsanik.com readers - the good, the bad, and the ugly! I plan to blog about everything from the ring, the proposal, the engagement party, the wedding dress, and much more!
I hope you find this blog interesting and hopefully you are able to learn a few new things about the whole wedding planning process.
Come back often as I plan to post something on a regular basis.
For now, here is a picture of me & Shant from New Years Eve!
Every girl dreams of planning a wedding with an endless budget. But few actually
get to live that dream. That's where Platinum Weddings comes in! This popular TV
show captures stunning weddings with nearly unlimited budget.
We're excited to announce that an Armenian couple is featured on an
episode of Platinum Weddings! Natasha & Raffie got married last September
at The Four Seasons in Westlake Village. Many of Harsanik.com's very own vendors
were used for this wedding, including Duke Photography and Royal Gor Video!
Thanks to one of our Harsanik.com users, we confirmed that Natasha & Raffie's wedding is the 3rd Armenian wedding featured on Platinum Weddings! In the first wedding, the groom was Armenian and the couple was married in Dana Point. In the 2nd wedding, the bride was Armenian and the couple was from Florida.
If you haven't seen this episode yet, you can catch it again this Friday, January 22 at 3:30pm on the WE channel. So if you want to
see what a $500k+ budget wedding looks like, make sure to set up your Tivo!
Click here to go to the Platinum Weddings website for more info about this
extravagant wedding and to learn about the couple.
In anticipation of the 2010 wedding season, Taglyan Cultural Complex officially launched their fresh new approach to catering special events with Divine Food & Catering. Divine is the exclusive caterer of the venue and also offers catering for off site events! Whether you want to keep your Armenian traditions alive with an abundant family style menu full of rich cultural dishes or you prefer a five-course plated meal, Divine will customize the menu for your special event. Divine was a proud sponsor of the Jobyna's Bridal by Ines Di Santo grand opening at The Americana offering their excellent wait staff and unique & customized hors d'oeuvres to reflect the opulent glitzy theme of the party! Think shrimp shooters in mini shot glasses with crystal embellishments spelling out "LOVE".
Contact
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for a consultation to book your Divine event!
Last month we were so exited to attend the grand opening party of legendary luxury bridal gown designer Ines Di Santo brought to us by Jobyna's Bridal at the beautiful Americana at Brand. The event featured beautiful florals by the team at Tic-Tock Couture, rentals and event design by White Night Designs, catering by Divine Food & Catering of Taglyan Cultural Complex, photography by Duke Photography and music by DJ Heartbeat. The new boutique is chic and modern just like the gowns it stores. Contact Jobyna's for an appointment to find your dream dress!
Wow, we can't believe it has already been a week since our first ever bridal show! We want to thank every single one of you who attended the show on Sunday November 8th. We had a great turnout with over 50 vendor booths and 800 guests at the show. All the vendors were pleasantly surprised by the large number of guests, especially the bride to be's!
The Premier Bridal Event definitely exceeded everyone's expectations, including our very own! The feedback we heard was that the bridal show was "elegant" and "classy", and everyone enjoyed checking out the amazing work of our vendors and getting free cake tastings at every corner of the show! The live performance by Mamikon Arutyunyan at 1pm helped get even more energy in the room as the "sazandar" played some traditional Armenian music. Next up was a fun performance by the famous Sako and Maestro Albert Bulbulyan! At 2:30pm, we had a beautiful fashion show by R-Mine Bridal Couture. All hair & makeup for the models was done by Hair Spray Salon, the out-of-this-world jewelry was from Vanna K, and the "bling" headpieces were from Addicted 2B Jeweled. Since many people didn't get to see all the girls walk down the runway, we had the models sit on the stage after the fashion show so people could check out their gowns and hair & makeup from close up.
The last highlight of the show was the raffle. We had some fabulous raffle prizes donated from our vendors, including a $400 gift certificate from Cake Studio, a $2,000 gift certificate from Taglyan Cultural Complex, and a hotel package from The Langham Hotel! The show ended at 5pm and all the registered guests walked away with a cute tote bag and the first edition of the Harsanik.com Magazine!
We also want to recognize our partner Christine Zohrabians of Fancy That! Events who helped make this show possible! We were honored to partner with Christine in planning every detail of the show. Her eye for design and her attention to detail helped make our first bridal show not only beautiful, but also seamless. Lastly, we want to thank our volunteers, our friends, and our families for all of their support and help throughout the planning of this event.
Now it's time to check out the amazing pictures!!! All photos are by the talented Kris Kan. Check out his amazing work and even more photos from the show on his blog. And we hope to see you again next year!
Blog 
Everyone was asking us when and where we were planning on getting
married, and I responded summer 2010. I've always liked summer
weddings. And I knew I could plan a wedding in less than 1 year, thanks
to all the wonderful vendors I've gotten to know over the years! As for
location, I knew I wanted an Armenian hall, and my favorite one is
Generally the first thing that you have to plan for a wedding is the
ring! Well it really depends on the couple. Some guys completely
surprise the girl so she has no chance to pick out her ring. Other
couples mutually decide to not have the girl involved with the picking
of the ring. And other couples agree to have the girl be involved with
the process. What you choose is completely up to the couple.
Before I get into the details of the wedding planning, I figured I
should start with a brief introduction of me and Shant. We have been
together for 4 years. We met in Los Angeles while he was in law
school and I was working. After dating for about 6 months, we ended up
moving South for our new jobs. I moved to San Diego to start working at
a new company and Shant moved to San Clemente to start working at his
law firm.
