Coffee Filter Roses

Cyn and I decided that we wanted to attempt the coffee filter flowers that was featured on Martha Stewart's website. This lady makes beautiful realistic roses out of coffee filters. I went to check out www.mommymakesroses.com and realized that she's selling each for $70-$100! They're coffee filters! But after attempting to make one... I can understand why it's so expensive. It is definitely time consuming, but also kind of fun. Our first rose was not the best, but the second one was much better. We got the hang of keeping the tape tight, keeping the petals level, etc. I think we need to work on the paintings a bit more, but overall I am pleased with the result. There'll be a vase full of coffee filter roses on the reception table.



Starting of the rose.



After all the petals were on.



It's coming together! This is my second rose.



Painted with a base yellow color. It's still wet.



Painted base yellow, then with a light light pink accent, and a darker pink outline.


Final product... after drying and curling.

We can get married!!

Ryan finally go the marriage license! Now we can get officially married. For $55 you too can get married... and for an additional $25, you can get married right on the spot!

Ryan puts up a lot with me. Since we're not getting married in the county that we live in, I wasn't sure what the process was. So I nagged him until he went and got the license. I love you hon! :P

Wedding Favors

How often do you go to a wedding and you get these really cute but completely useless favors? Ryan and I didn't feel like spending the money on favors but instead we've decided to donate that money to the animal shelter where I got Midas and India. $1k to help animals is so much more worthwhile than buying knickknacks that you throw away at the end of the night. However, my mom didn't like the idea of the guests not getting anything so we compromised. She suggested alcohol for everyone... that completely out of our price range. I liked the personalized M&Ms, but after researching that... do you know how much that costs?! In the end, I found these really cute mini round labels on Ebay that you can stick to the bottom of Hershey Kisses for about $30 (for ~1200 labels). I also ordered 300 9" round tulle circles ($18) off of Ebay. One night, a couple of my girlfriends came over and we polished off making 300 Kiss bundles.

4 -- 5 lb bags of Kisses - $37
300 9" round tulle in gold - $18
11 sheets of mini round labels - $35
ribbons - $6
labor - free
total: $96





The tiny picture of the bride and groom was so adorable. Ryan commented on the fact that the bride is taller than the groom. :-P I know.


Completed favor bundle. The ribbons were left long for later when a tag is to be attached.




300 Hershey kiss bundles....

22 Days! EEK!!

I can't believe that it's just a little over 3 weeks and we'll be married. How's the stress level? Well... I think I'm doing pretty well. Occasionally there are the spurts of panic when I realize how much more we still have to do before the big day, but other than that (and a few other hiccups) it's going pretty well. In the end, I'm more anxious than stressed. June 1st can't come fast enough. The blog thing hasn't been that successful, I've been slacking. But I do have excuses! :)

Most of the invitations have gone out and been returned. The biggest headache associated with that will be the Chinese side. For some reason, they don't feel the need to RSVP. I just know that some of them are going to show up with the whole family in tow. It seems that we will be able to squeeze everyone in under 230. That's great! We had invited over 300, estimated 250, expected 280, and it seems like we'll be golden at 230! LOL my coworkers thinks that's a huge party. They are surprised when I tell them that 230 isn't big at all. My family itself will take up over 150 or so.

I've received tons of praises on the quality and look of the invitations. Everyone's surprised that it was handmade. Thank you to all that helped out. It was long and tortuous, but well worth it.

Beware! Bridal Scam!!

I just got a call from this lady that claimed that I had won a raffle... a 2 night 3 day or something like that all inclusive vacation in Bahamas or Cancun... my choice. Sounds too good to be true. She was laughing at the fact that I sound so skeptical about it. All I have to do is go to this bridal showcase at Loews Annapolis Hotel on Sunday at a certain time and give them a claim number to claim my prize. Granted, it's legit so it's not really a scam. I did some search online and this is a common scam. They call and say that you won because someone entered your name on and online raffle or you went to a bridal show and it was entered that way. You have to go and claim the prize by showing up and sitting through a 90 minute cooking showcase. Not too bad if you're not busy and want some free food and don't mind being talked to. BTW, don't think airfare is included.

Honeymoon!

We're going to Maine! Lobsters here we come!

... I travel for food.

Invitations DONE! Well.... almost.

Finally! They're done. Well... actually most of them are done. I ran out of $.41 stamps so about 30 of them will have to wait to be finished tomorrow. Halfway through stuffing the envelops, I realized that I forgot to mention the hotel, so I quickly came up with a hotel and things to do around the area insert. Thanks goodness I didn't need too many of them, since only Ryan's extended families are coming from out of town.

I tried to keep with the same colors as the Save the Dates... red, black, cream, and gold.

Hua and Cynthia helped me finalize a design for the invites. I've already decided on a tri-fold design. But I couldn't figure out the color or the design. I knew that I wanted to keep the flower theme going. Ryan's mom had sent me a few designs that she came up with, after playing around a bit, I combined her designs and what we came up with. First, I wanted to have the double happiness design somewhere on the invites...but the design was just too large. In the end, we still embossed the design just like in the STDs and just cut the character out of the square and backed it in gold. This is tacked on to the flap of the invites.


A pile of double happiness squares ready for the next step.


Red tri-fold invite with the square double happiness.


Working on the front design.


Pasting the English insert.

When you open up the invite, the middle will have the English portion, and the left flap will have the Chinese. I found a template for the Chinese online and had my sister-in-law type it out in Word since I couldn't type Chinese on my laptop. Unfortunately, it was done in simplified Chinese...which I think most of the my family reads. However, I can only read a limited amount of Chinese and most of that is in traditional. It also gives it a bit more of a classy feel. The next day, I actually figured out how to type the Chinese on my own computer... Windows comes equipped! The best part was the IME pad! For the characters that I couldn't read, I was able to write out on the pad and it recognized the characters for me! GREAT!



Finalized inside.

Later on, I realized that the RSVP cards needed to have Chinese too! Unfortunately returning response cards to wedding invites isn't a Chinese tradition. I'm hoping that most of my guests will return the cards.

I made two different types of RSVP cards. The one lined is for the guests where their whole family is invited... i.e. relatives. The two lined ones are for Name and their guest. The guest list is already over the limit right now. I know the two lined card is a bit blatant and obvious and maybe a bit rude, but I need it to be obvious. I added the flower stamp on the corner of the cards to make it a bit more fancy.

There were a few other inserts that needed to be added into the invites... direction cards, registry info, and hotel info.





Ryan made the direction cards and they're printed on gold parchment text paper. I was able to cut squares of vertical lined vellum to face the RSVP cards and use the leftover vellum for the RSVP and hotel cards. All papers were bought from paperandmore.com. A great site!

Registry Cards... To Insert or Not To Insert

While researching registry cards, I became enlightened to the fact that it is generally considered bad form to include any form of registry mention in your invitation envelopes. Etiquette suggests that registries should be informed by word of mouth, or through the invitations to the bridal shower that someone else holds. I would say that about 80% of what I've read online says not to, don't do it, it's never right, etc etc etc. 15% says to go ahead, it's efficient and their guests actually were happy that the information was included in the envelope. The rest says it's up to the bride and groom, and that times are changing. I'm more inclined toward the latter 20% of the people. I've invited a lot of people that I don't know and certainly don't expect them to go out of their way to figure out where we've registered. In the end, I printed up some cards and they will be an addition to some of the envelopes. The Chinese side gives red envelopes, so they won't get a card in theirs.

On a side note, I hit upon a couple forums while searching on this topic. I have to say that there are some real snippy, nasty, and just plain ridiculous brides out there. Can't we just get along?

Dresses and more dresses

Last weekend, N and I drove up to Pittsburgh to visit K for the weekend. Our main goal was to finally track down some bridesmaid dresses. We hit up Alfred Angelo and after many many dresses where N's comment was "I'm neutral," we finally found one which she gave more than the usual comment. We knew that was it. Originally I had planned on picking the color and letting them pick the style. Unfortunately, that turned out to be too hard to accomplish, so we settled on one dress for all three girls. We ordered N and K's right there. F called the next day and gave them her measurements. Even though we found the dress that we liked, we weren't too enthusiastic about the help. The girl just seemed so uninterested and her comments were pretty funny if you think about. However, she should think a bit more before she opens her mouth. Either way it was a relief to finally get the dresses. I think they may have to be altered.

Right afterward, we decided to hop over to David's Bridal that was down the road. I'm still in search of an evening gown. After a quick browse, we found this pink slinky sequine endowed dress that was hanging in the front. I decided to try it on... let's just say that if I wasn't so vertically challenged, the dress might have worked... the lack of support and the boobage exposure was the other reason it was not chosen. I felt cheap. But nevertheless, the visit was a success. We left the shop with a nice dress... size 2, it will have to be shrunken. They don't make things any smaller for bridesmaid dresses or specialty gowns.

Speaking of which... my wedding gown is still at the shop. I was supposed to have picked it up about 2 weeks ago. Such procrastination.

Photographer and others

Originally I was going to go with a wedding center in NYC mostly complete package. I know some of my cousins did that.... makeup, hair, glamour shots, photographer, videographer, dresses, etc with this lady Lucille. She used to work for the same wedding center that my mom's cousin used to/still work for. Recently she opened her own shop, Just Pretty. A few months ago, a family friend got married and hired her for most of their stuff also. I was able to talk to her so hopefully I can hire Lucy to do my hair. A few years ago, when my cousin Dawn got married, I was her maid of honor, Lucy was doing the hair and make up again. We were talking and she said that she was waiting to do my wedding... afterall we have the same name. LOL so I guess I'll get her to do my hair and make up. She'll do my BMs, and the moms also. Although, the Chinese girls in NYC tend to go a bit crazy with the hair and make up, so I'll have to have her tone it down a bit... I want classy and elegant. Not funky and overly pale. We'll make the trip up to NYC in a few weeks to go check out her store and maybe see if I can rent a dress or two from her.

As for photography, my friend Hoho is going to be the main photographer. I haven't decided if I'll have anyone else, but he does a really good job, especially the "in the moment" type ones. www.ihostar.com

Wedding Gown

Late last year, during Christmas break my BMs and I braved the awful traffic on 355 to go to David's Bridal to find their dresses and my gown one Friday night. I hate driving on that stretch of the road. We were late, but eventually got down to business. Only Frances found a dress that she liked... though I don't think she cared too much. Karen and Nancy didn't really see anything that they liked. The plan was for me to pick the color and they pick the style. I didn't want to be one of those bridezillas that had to have everything my way. Unfortunately, we couldn't find anything that they liked or that I liked. So we moved on to the wedding gown. Back (before I got engaged), N and I were visiting K in Pittsburgh for the weekend and decided to go to try on some dresses. I liked many but one stood out to me. It was ivory and champagne colored, split front. This time, I tried it on again, along with some other dresses. It still looked good and still liked it... until the last dress. It was red bordered with a red train. Loved the train, but the front was very plain. I liked it, but didn't liked it that much... until the lady put the matching veil on.. that completed the whole picture. As we were leaving the lady whispered to us not to buy the dress yet, wait a few more weeks after the New Year when the sale comes around again. She was very nice, N loved her. Originally I had planned to rent the dresses from one of those wedding centers in NYC... all my sibs and cousins did that. I mean, why buy the gown when you only get to wear it once. I'll probably try to sell it afterward. My future in-law made a comment when we were making the StDs once that it's such a romantic idea, that I could pass the gown down to my daughter. LOL I looked at her and said that I don't think my kids will be my size. Hehe she had a startled look then started laughing. Anyway, I bit the bullet and bought the gown over the phone and all the accessories that went with the gown. Somehow, I knew the lady ordered the wrong veil... considering the price that she quoted me was $100 less than what it should have been! Anyway, last week N and I went to check out the order and did a fitting. It was petite 0 already, and still needed to be hemmed and probably (hopefully not) taken in a bit. The veil was wrong, but we remedied that. I was worried that I wouldn't like the dress anymore, but it was still looking good...wrinkled, but good. The fitting lady was awesome and had some great advices. My heart hurted a little at the price of hemming and everything else, but I'm trying not to think about it. I highly recommend David's Bridal on 355, the service is outstanding. Comparably, it's not that expensive... but damn. Weddings are expensive... maybe we should elope.

In a few weeks, N and I will be meeting K again in Pittsburgh to go to Alfred Angelo's and see if we can finalize the BM dresses. I still want them to pick their own... but I may just again bite the bullet and pick their dress.

Registries

Last night, we finally went out to do the registry. This is supposed to be the best part of getting married right? What took us so long? Well, we couldn't really decide where to register and there wasn't really anything that we really needed or wanted either. Anyhow, we went to Bed Bath and Beyond. After all, everyone registered there. Ryan had control of the scanner, he wouldn't give it to me. Not because he wanted to scan things, but because he didn't want me to scan everything that I saw. :) Not that I would. After a couple hours, we only came up with maybe less than 20 items on the list. A couple items were pretty pricey, i.e. food processor, sheets, etc, but we also had some things on there that were $2. Granted, we certainly don't want our friends to spend a lot on us... those pricey things are for relatives... One point of contention was towels. We have them, I said we could always use more, he relented, we couldn't agreed on color, so I gave up. That's how most of our items got on the list.

We need to find another place to register at.... later at home, we signed up at Macy's, but there wasn't anything that we liked online so it's currently empty. Maybe Amazon.com. The problem is that we want to be able to touch and feel the items before we decide. Oh well, we still have a few more weeks to figure this out.

Save The Dates.. finally gone.

They're finally done and sent. Not everyone got one though. Some of my relatives (aunts/uncles) didn't get one. I'm not sure they would know what to do with it. It's traditionally not done in Chinese. They'll just wait for the invitation. Now that they're sent, I can show the inside. Check the first post to see what they look like on the outside.


The "xuan xi" is embossed in gold on black cardstock, trimmed, and pasted onto gold metallic cardstock.


The text was done in Word and printed on sand cardstock.

All the paper supplies came from paperandmore.com. A GREAT site! The red paper came from Stampin' Up. The xi stamp I ordered off Ebay from someone in Hong Kong I believe.

Up to Now and More to Come

Originally the date was set for in the fall. I asked my mom to call the reception restaurant to see if they were available September or maybe May. Ryan and I had tossed around the idea of moving the date up to the end of May. My mom had her "Qing Jia Mu" (my sister's mother in law) call the restaurant to make the arrangements since Auntie E and the management are friends. Mom called one morning and said that we're set for May, and I had a minor panic attack. So the date is now in May.

Since then, we've attended and finished PreCana or premarital class. We've met with our presiding priest and reserved the church. Fingers crossed here... I'll explain in a bit. Went dress shopping with my bridesmaids. Ordered the dress and accessories. Arranged for a string quartet for the ceremony. Requested a friend to take pictures. Worked on Save-the-Dates.

When we met with the Father, he said he'll check with the church to see if they're free that day. And if we don't hear from him, that's good news.... meaning he'll call us if there is a problem. We didn't hear from him. So hopefully that's good news.

There are so much more to do...
Send save-the-dates, make and send invitations, arrange for makeup and hair, rent tuxes, flowers, menu selection, cake, favors, gifts, ... and so much more. Maybe I should be more anxious.

Save the Dates

So this starts my new blog. I'm going to try to document my wedding planning and DIY projects on here. Let's see how well I keep this up.

The wedding is in less than 4 1/2 months... I feel like I should be panicking a bit more. But I just can't seem to work up the energy or interest to actually get down and do things. I ordered my dress and accessories and they've arrived at the store. Next weekend we'll go and check it out. Hopefully I'm still happy with my decision. For the past two weeks, I've been on travel for work which put me a bit behind on the Save-The-Dates. Really it's a bit late to send them out, but I like the idea of them and they're already made. I know it's another money sucker facilitated by the wedding market, Save-the-Date announcements aren't usually done for a traditional Chinese wedding. But then... we're not exactly going with the traditional... American or Chinese.

While I was in Alabama, I drove over to Georgia to visit my future in-laws on the weekends. Ryan's mom came up with the design of the cards. The flower design is from Stampin' Up which we stamped on off-white card stock then embossed in gold.

The design is then trimmed and glued on black. After trimming, it is glued onto red card stock. I still need to include the information and add one more bit of decoration on the inside. The final result is elegant and classy. It's a bit more fancy than most Save-the-Date cards on the market, but overall it looks great and cheaper to make. Not to mention I had a great time making these. Stamping is fun. I can get into this.

Did I mention cheaper? After doing some market research... single sheet announcements are around $1 each... give or take some. We made 150 cards.... which would bring us to $150 + shipping + tax had we ordered it. Since we already had the stamp and other stamping supplies, we only had to purchase the paper, which was less than $30.

While I was in Georgia, we brainstormed a design for the invitations. With my color theme or red, gold, cream, and possibly black we were able to come up with some ideas. It's still a working progress. :) Eventually I'll have pictures up... once they're made and sent out.