Our Pictage site

http://www.pictage.com/450220

Thanks Everybody!

What a great party!

We wanted to thank everybody for coming out to celebrate with us!

We had a great night and we hope you did too!

Don't forget to share your pictures with us...
www.marieandjameswedding.shutterfly.com
The password is in your party favor album...

Our photographer's website is
www.blogjerry.com
Watch out for our pictures - they should be posted in a few weeks!

Marie and James

PARKING

There is a parking garage on Third and St. John St.

RECEPTION

Hi everybody,

Cocktails and Hors D'oeuvres will be served at 6pm instead of 5:30pm.

We realized our schedule is going to be very tight with a 5:30 start time.

Sorry for the inconvenience this may cause!

Fairmont websaver discount

There's a websaver discount on the Fairmont website, starting at $109 + tax:

http://www.fairmont.com/SanJose/

Please be responsible!

James is drooling over the liquor list right now...

We just wanted our guests to be safe. So please be responsible and don't drink and drive!

We have blocks of hotel rooms reserved at
Fairmont San Jose
Ramada San Jose

Please ask for the CENTENO/ISAAC discount!

Thanks,
Marie and James

Meal Selection

Hey all,

Just a reminder that our RSVP deadline is on Friday!

Please let us know if you can make it or not...If you can make it, please let us know your meal selection:

Filet Mignon
Prawns and Chicken
Butternut Squash Risotto

Email us at marieandjameswedding@gmail.com

And let us know who's having what!

Thanks,
Marie and James

Hotel Information

We have blocked rooms at two hotels in the downtown San Jose Area:

San Jose Fairmont
170 S. Market St.
http://www.fairmont.com/sanjose/
Rooms are $145/night
Suites are $225/night
1-800-346-5550

San Jose Ramada
455 S. 2nd St.
www.ramadacalifornia.com
rooms are $79 or $84/night
1-800-272-6232


Please refer to the CENTENO/ISAAC wedding block to receive the discounted rates!



If you're planning to stay for a week or longer, another option is staying at a timeshare...

http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/usa/california/san-francisco-bay-ar#5344

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/vac/

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/vac/

AC seat sale

Hey Canadians,

There's a seat sale again!

www.aircanada.com

It's probably the last one before summer starts!

Invitations

Just wanted to thank the team who put our invitations together:

Kev - Thanks for realizing the vision and bringing it to life! Your hard work and patience (with me) really paid off! The invitations are amazing... as you can see.
See? Guys can scrapbook (with a little help from females!)

Jo - Thanks for doing the New Year's spread! It was really short notice and you totally exceeded my expectations!

JB - Thanks for the gift of print... and again, sorry for the short notice!



The invitation was designed to look like a scrapbook. I had the vision in my head forever, but I didn't want the invite to look like a bunch of photocopied pages... (which it doesn't! Thanks guys!)

Some people have missed some things, so I'll explain some of the pages:

The center spread is a tribute to our long distance relationship. It's the Bay Bridge and Toronto skyline at night... pretty, eh? I think I'll have it enlarged and framed!

The RSVP page isn't a tear out... thought we'd conserve SOME paper and have the guests RSVP by email or phone (and please let us know your meal selection!)

The last page is a replica of the last page of James' proposal scrapbook... It looks exactly the same - down to the heart shaped silver brads!

Thanks for your help guys!

Attire

Formal Attire

Shuttle

Please let us know if you'd like us to arrange transportation for you on the big day!

(let us know if you have transportation covered if you're an out of town guest...)

email us at marieandjameswedding@gmail.com

Air Canada Seat Sale

Hey Canadians!

Air Canada is having a seat sale right now!

www.aircanada.com

Check it out!

Ceremony

Our Ceremony will be held at

Transfiguration Catholic Church
4000 E. Castro Valley Blvd
Castro Valley, CA
94552

Reception Venue

The reception will be held at

Corinthian Event Center
196 N. 3rd St.
San Jose, CA
95112


After weeks of looking for a reception venue, James and I were pretty frustrated because we couldn't find THE spot...

As soon as we walked in the Grand Ballroom, I got shivers and whispered "I think we found it"...

What do you want to hear?

Hey all,

We'd like to know what you'd like to hear at our wedding reception...

Name the song, artist, genre... whatever you like!

We'll try our best to accommodate your ear's needs!

click on comments and type in your song request!

Flights from YYZ to SFO

We're working with a travel agency to give you the best rates!

right now we have 3 flight options:

1. July 17- July 21
2. July 10- July 21
3. July 17 - July 27

As of today the rate is $359 + $110 tax.

Please contact us by February 15
at marieandjameswedding@gmail.com and let us know if you're interested in any of these flights!
(we can change the days also)

The Proposal...

This is as much as I know about the proposal...

I know it took A LOT of work and planning to get everything done!

let me preface this story by telling you a few things about James:
1. If you know James, you know he does everything in the Eleventh Hour (hence the ELVNTHR license plate!) So it was no surprise to me that he needed more time with my Christmas present for me in 2004.

2. He's a pack rat... He keeps everything! Actually, he used to keep everything... nowadays, he'll get rid of things if he doesn't need it anymore.

In January 2005, I had to go to Montreal for a work-related event weekend. The company I worked for sent their top employees on a mini-vacation and spoiled us with spa-treatments, superb dinners and set us up in a swanky boutique hotel... Since it was right before James' birthday, he agreed to meet me in Montreal (his favourite North American city) and we would celebrate his birthday there.

After breakfast on our second day (January 30, 2005) in Montreal together, James decided I could open up my delayed Christmas present... actually, now I don't remember if it was actually my Christmas present or our Anniversary (December 30) present...

anyways, he made me wait in the bathroom while he set everything up - (I noticed the big luggages when he arrived in Montreal, but he made me promise not to look in them!)
He set up his brand new video camera to face us while I opened the present (I thought nothing of it because it was a brand new camera and James said he wanted to test it out). He also put in his brand new John Legend CD (i thought nothing of it either... James loves to listen to music, especially new CDs)

I sat down on the bed and he presented me with this HUGE scrapbook... and told me to look through it in order....

I started crying when I opened the first page.

It started off with a few pages of our first emails to each other... I read EVERYTHING... it really made me laugh at how cheesy we can be!

James had all the pictures to capture all our special moments with each other... our travels, birthdays, anniversaries, new years (we try to spend New Years in a different city each year), pictures of the important people in our lives... but he also had concert tickets, movie tickets, plane tickets, greeting cards, subway and train maps, napkins from restaurants... you name it, he had it in there!

It was a huge scrapbook and it took me about an hour to go through it!

James was pacing back and forth a little, changing the songs on the CD and checking his video camera... I thought he was just getting bored because I was taking so long to go through the scrapbook... but I couldn't help it! Each page brought back so many memories!

I finally got to the last page and I stared at it for a little while - I couldn't really see what it was because my eyes were blurred from (happy) crying... it was a picture of my ring! and James was kneeling next to me and he was holding the ring... he popped the question and I said

OF COURSE!

Then I asked "who knows about the engagement?"
James chuckled and said there was more...

again I had to wait in the bathroom....


James asked our families and friends to submit a "testimony" for us... some chose to write letters, make cd's, draw pictures and send video submissions... I cried again - some of the letters were really touching...some submissions were really sweet, really thoughtful and some were really funny! a few pranksters decided to film a news broadcast and recreated the night James and I met!
There was a lot of thought and creativity put into these testimonies and we really appreciate everybody's time and effort!

It was definitely THE perfect proposal...
GOOD JOB JAMES!

How it all began (HERstory)

It all began on one fateful night in November 1999…

James and I both attended Auntie Cecille and Uncle Vic’s 25^th wedding anniversary. James and his family flew to Toronto from California for this special event. I was working until 8pm that night, so I didn't even know if I could make it to the party on time! I went anyways, knowing I'd be very late. The party was already in full swing by the time I arrived! I was greeted by Rachel and she introduced me to all the cousins from California. As I reached over to shake his hand, clumsy little me knocked over James’ drink onto his lap! If that doesn’t make a first impression, I don’t know what does! I don’t remember talking to him much that night… who knows? Maybe we did… all I know is that there were A LOT of cousins there (little did I know, there were much more of them in California!)

A more casual and informal get-together was held at the Barrientos residence the following evening. James tagged along with Rennie to pick me up… he reminded me that it was him who I spilt the drink over! He taught me how to play Trump with the other cousins and we also had a long conversation… ending with the exchange of email addresses. I didn’t think he would remember my email address because… well… everyone had a lot to drink… I definitely didn’t remember his!

To my surprise, I received my first email from him! It was great to hear from him because we got along so great that night! Our almost daily emails turned into almost daily phone calls until I mustled up the courage to visit him in California in December 2000… I thought what the heck, the worst thing that could happen is I get to see San Francisco!

I’m glad I took that chance to see him because we had an amazing week… he really swept me off my feet! He showed me the sights of San Francisco and the Bay Area and we spent New Year’s in Reno with his friends. But the best thing of all was getting to spend time with James in person and getting to know him better. We decided that we could do this! We could make a long distance relationship work! The week came to an end and I was really sad to leave… I cried the entire 5 hour flight home!

And so began our long distance relationship… I racked up frequent flyer miles, I learned which calling card had the best rate and whenever I looked at a clock, I knew what time it was in Toronto and California… (3pm/12pm I would think to myself!)

up next... our Engagement story (to be written by James, right?)

Welcome!

Thank you for visiting our site!

This site will be used to give our guests information on our upcoming wedding.

We will be getting married on
Saturday, July 19th, 2008

SAVE THE DATE! ... book your vacation days too! ;)


Stay tuned for details on:

Transportation - we are working on giving our guests the best airfares! we're searching for the best group rates to accommodate as many people as we can!

Hotels - We're working on booking blocks of rooms at various hotels in San Jose and the San Francisco area (if you plan to stay for more than the weekend!)

Things to do in the bay area

and of course... THE WEDDING!

You can email us at marieandjameswedding@gmail.com

Thanks!
Marie and James