Weddingbee Blog

Invitations from Fete. Many more cute pictures on their site! Lots of original stuff but very pricey.

I’m afraid that when my daughter gets married one day, I will be a MOMZILLA.

$20 - $30 invitations from Paper Girl. The designer is Asian so she has lots of Asian themed invitations on her site.

There’s a weddingthings store open in Manhattan!

Some of you are wondering why I’m doing everything for my brother’s wedding. My brother’s fiance is from Korea and moved here a couple of months ago. She doesn’t speak English nor does she know what goes into planning an American wedding. My brother, being a guy of course, is very happy to leave all the details to me. It’s been a challenge coordinating with my brother, his fiance, my parents, guests from overseas, while planning the entire thing in 2 months, and doing it all from New York while the wedding is in LA. But hey I love a challenge.

In Korea they don’t have mother/son and father/daughter dances or any dances for that matter. My brother’s fiance wasn’t comfortable with the idea of doing a father/daughter dance so I came up with an idea to do a family dance instead. My parents, her parents, my brother and his wife, and me and Mr. Bee will all dance together.

The problem I’m facing is selecting a song. I need to find one like today because everyone is eager to take dance lessons! It has to be a song that everyone knows (that’s a very tall order) so I’d rule out any recent or pop songs as well as being appropriate for the occasion. I was thinking about Stand by Me, The Greatest Love of All, The Rose, Unforgettable. Any other suggestions?

My dad wants to use What a Wonderful World, but we already used it for our father/daughter dance at my wedding.

I forgot where I got this idea from (I think it was my aunt), but I’m planning on doing an “icebreaker game.” We’re going to tape winning tickets underneath chairs before the reception. When all the guests take their seats, we’re going to ask them to look for a winning ticket under their seats. Winners will come up to the dance floor to collect prizes. I think this’ll be a great way to break the ice, and who doesn’t love winning?

I need some ideas for prizes. I was thinking about spending around $50 for each one and it has to be something that everyone likes. Any ideas on what I should get?

PS - A great way to get shy guys to join in on the garter toss is to attach a $50 or $100 bill to it. The men will race up there! We’re not planning on doing a garter toss though - I don’t see it too often anymore. Perhaps it’s going out of style?

I needed wedding invitations asap and the fastest turnaround I could find was at mygatsby. The bride’s side is all coming from Korea so they don’t need invites - these are mostly for our parents’ friends. I liked these fall themed invitations from Papeterie but they would have taken too long to print.

I found a similar invitation - the Madison - at mygatsby. Here’s the timeline for the turnaround:

• September 28th - Placed the order online.
• October 6th - Received proofs via email (6 business days later. They said it would take up to 7-10 business days)
• October 6th - I approved the proofs the same day.
• October 10th - Invites were shipped out. (2 business days later. They said it would take 5-7 business days to print)
• October 11th - Received invites.

I was very happy with the speed with which everything was completed - 13 days from ordering to receiving. It doesn’t look like it in the picture, but the invitation layer is more gold like the invite above.

The total for 50 invitations, RSVP cards, RSVP envelopes, inner and outer envelopes, return addresses printed on the outer envelopes and rsvp envelopes, and s&h came out to $206.10. We had to affix the invitation layer to the backing layer with double sided tape because it would have taken them up to 4 business days longer if they assembled it. (and we needed them asap!)

Though I still like the ones from Papeterie better, overall I’m very happy with the way they turned out. They used thermography printing (much to my happy surprise), cardstock quality was very good, plus they were a bargain. The only problem was that the outer envelopes they sent us were too small. I called them and they happily shipped us a replacement.

If you’re looking for affordable, quality invites with very quick turnaround, I’d highly recommend mygatsby.

I went to a food tasting with my brother’s fiance and Mr. Bee on Friday at the wedding venue. My brother couldn’t make it because he was working and he’s fine leaving all the decisions up to his crazy sister. When we arrived, a private room was set up complete with place settings, a bread basket, and chilled champagne!

There were even cute little pats of butter and a waitress in formal wear serving us like we were in a restaurant.

They started with the crudites that would be served during the cocktail hour. Cheese, crackers, fruit, and veggies with dip.

I didn’t take pictures of the hors douvres (I have to look up the spelling of that work every single time!) and salads we tasted. We were busy chatting away about details so I couldn’t bust my usual psychotic picture taking skills. We decided to go with crabcakes, spanokopitas, and beef wellington for the hors douvres and a mixed green salad with balsamic vinaigrette for the salad. We didn’t think our guests would really like the fancy salad with pears and cheese. (Koreans don’t really like cheese).

The guests have their choice of chicken breast w/ port wine sauce, grilled atlantic salmon w/ champagne butter sauce, or roasted prime rib au jus. The main entree also includes roasted veggies and mashed potatoes. We decided to only offer the choice of chicken or beef because the salmon was just so-so, and because we didn’t think many people would order it. Unfortunately I didn’t eat any of the food because I just had my wisdom teeth pulled so I can’t tell you how good it was. They tell me it was pretty good though - especially the appetizers.

On Saturday we went cake tasting at Hansen’s Cakes because our venue includes a cake from this bakery. This is one of the most famous bakeries in Los Angeles, but I really don’t understand why! Their cakes are so ugly. Tons of celebrities bought their wedding cakes here including Julia Roberts and I forget who else. The walls are lined with celebrity pictures though - we went to the location in Beverly Hills. The cakes that were included in the package were ooogly. But the upgraded ones were oogly too so I asked them for a plain three tiered round cake with pearl dots around the bottom of each layer. Kinda like this but without the lettering.

We’re gonna load it up with fresh flowers to make it purty. Phew. It’s hard work planning a Los Angeles wedding…from New York… in only 2 months. Wedding is one month away now. Oh my.

So to save on costs my best friend’s lil sister who does graphic design said that she would create our invitations and programs as our wedding gift. Woohoo!

So since I’m sticking with the green theme here are a few that I like:

manifesto letterpress - this was in the fall issue of Martha Stewart weddings:

Isn’t it beautiful? I love how it’s so detailed. I’m sorry if it’s not clear. I scanned it. Their site is a little outdated so if you want a sample you need to call them. The cost: $15.

: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA”>elum these are really pricey. I mean really pricey. They carry it at kate’s paperie

rock scissor paper believe it or not, they also sell panties.

papeterie store this one is definitely one of my favorite sites.

: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA”>

: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA”>They actually have a lot of cute stuff on this site. This is also where I found the program design that i like. I love how it’s verry personal and has photos of your bridal party and family.

: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA”>smudge inkNK

I want to do a food favor for my brother’s wedding because they’re practical and economical (since I’m paying for them). I’m deciding between chocolate (leaves or truffles), jordan almonds, and marzipan.

This is the jordan almond autumn mix or I could do pink and orange to match the color scheme.

If I do the marzipan, I’ll package one of each into a see through bag or box.

Which do you like best? What are you doing for wedding favors?

I made these for the girls back in September. The blank printed cards were designed by Elum and I bought it from a stationery store in Hoboken, NJ. I made a stencil of a dress, traced it on the envelope, cut it out, and outlined the dress with a sharpie marker and drew a hanger. Then I wrote up a poem to each individual bridesmaid to maker it personal and printed it up, cut it out, and then pasted it to the inside of the card and voila! Badda bing-badda boom!

one of my bridesmaid’s and i went to sae young vu on thursday. this is the dress she likes. it looked good on her but the more i look at it i’m not too sure about the color of the dress. originally i wanted to go with their bubble green but i think it is too green. the green she has on is called apple green and the manin color is coral. well we go back this saturday with one of my other bridesmaids so i’ll take more photos then.

more photos to come after our trip there next saturday…

these are the dresses i’m letting them choose from. she has on dress #5 but has a sash tied on and the trimming pinned in.

Amsale: silk taffeta. Strapless gathered column gown w/ crystal applique at low hip. Slim flare skirt w/ chapel length train.

I love it!!!!

Everyone danced so much at my wedding that by the end of the night the women were carrying their shoes. Even I changed into slippers halfway through the reception and my heels weren’t that high. For my brother’s wedding, I’m making a slipper basket so the women can dance the night away and rest their weary feet in comfy slippers.

It’s a 100 person wedding and I’m going to buy 40 pairs of slippers. I was thinking sizes 6, 7, and 8. How many do you think I should get of each? Maybe 10, 20, 10? It’s better to go a little bigger than smaller. My friend’s sister sells these slippers so I’m getting a great deal. The entire project is costing me less than $100 and I think the guests will really appreciate it!

I haven’t been booking appts to go into bridal stores since I’ve gotten engaged. In fact the only time I went to check out gowns was before I was even engaged at the vera wang sample sale.. all I’ve been doing is searching on line just to get an idea of what styles were actually me. I had my heart set on the vera wang that I saw on their website and I was like “THIS IS IT! THIS IS THE ONE!” But time passes and you’re like “eh, it’s okay”. So I’ve been searching here and there on internet highway. I wasn’t sure if I was an a-line type of bride. I mean I’m small. My waist must be 20 some inches and I’m like 5′2……hmmm….okay not 5′2 but more like 5′1 and a half. Ball gown? Hell no. unless I want someone to pick me up by my head and shake me like a bell. Spaghetti straps? Hmm maybe? Halter? I don’t think it’s me. Then last week as I was surfing the internet for the umpteenth time I found it!

It was white, simple, different, and beautiful. I saw it. I loved it. I wanted it. I printed that shit up with a quickness. People at work are like “yeah it’s pretty but don’t get your hopes up too high. It may not look right on you.” Which is true but I just knew. Just a susan hunch cause when I saw it online I was like just staring me in the face saying “when you gonna come pick me up bitch”. I COMING FOR YOU!!!!! PLEASH WAITING POR ME!!!

So yesterday anna and i went to check out this sample sale at kleinfeld in manhattan. We got a woman named barbara. First thing she asked was “do you know what you’re looking for?” I gave her the photo I printed up and she said “We have it. Do you want to try it on?” I gasped. I mean I literally gasped out loud. She laughed at me. That’s ok. She had “the dress”. She brought it in and anna and I are looking at it up hung up inside the garment bag. It looked average? I was praying that it would be a different story once it was on me. Then barbara told us that since we only had an hour to go pick as many dresses and bring it back to the room to try on. Anna took one aisle and I took the other. “how many did you pick out anna?” I yelled out to her while skimming through the racks. “4! How about you?” I looked at what was draped on my arm…”ONE!” hahahaha she yelled at me to find one more so I found another one and we took them back to the room. We decided that we would save “the dress” for last. The first one I tried one was….eh too poofy. The second one we liked. It had this sash type of style that draped across the front and went from one shoulder and went down along the hip and the skirt was overlapping in the front. It was really pretty. I tried on this one Justina McCaffery ball gown. We called it the “whip cream” dress. It was just layers of poofiness. Not me. I tried on everything we brought into the room which was probably a total of 8-9 dresses. Finally I tried on ‘the dress’. I looked over at anna and she was tearing man! Bitch! Made me tear too. Shoot. It was stunning though. I loved it. anna kept saying it was gorgeous. it was though. i can’t really describe what it looked like but it was absolutely beautiful. I felt like morpheous after he found neo but instead of the matrix theme song it was handel’s messiah all the way baby! I was in a daze after we left the store. I called c to tell him the news.

Me: I found it
C: really?
Me: yes. I’m in a daze. I’m happy
C: that’s good hun how much is it.
Me: um…I’m not telling you
C: stick to the budget! How much is it?
Me: I’m not telling you
C: all I’m asking from you Is that you stick with the budget.
Me: ok fine.
C: how much is it?
Me: I’m not telling you.

Bastage. You can’t get it out of me!!! VIVA LA SUSAN!!!!

Vermont was very nice. The Equinox hotel was very overpriced - I suggest you stay in a B&B instead.

We took engagement pictures and while they came out “nice” (i.e. my mother LOVES them), they weren’t really what I wanted. Way too “posed.” Plus the hotel didn’t have our room ready until 4pm and we were taking pictures at 4:30, so I didn’t have time to do my hair, etc. They were pretty cheap so I’m disappointed, but not too upset. At least my parents and grandparents have a few nice pictures of us to frame and we have a pic to send to the NY Times.

I don’t think we will take engagement pictures in NYC. I don’t want to waste any more money and we don’t really need them. Here are a few (there were 90 total ).

*EDIT*

Thanks for the compliments on the pictures. I like how they came out but they are just not the type of e-pics I was hoping to get. I wanted the “frolicking in the park” type where the photographer is just an observer. Anyway, these are nice pictures for what they are.