Monday, January 21, 2008

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.