Weddingbee Blog

For people that want to do lemonade/ice tea/beverage bars or candy buffets, Crate and Barrel has some great affordable retro lidded glass jars. 2 gallon for $18.95, 1 gallon for $10.95 and 1/2 gallon for $9.95.

I love the beverage bar idea for an outdoor summer wedding. If you set it out before the ceremony begins, it’s also an excellent way for guests to have a refreshing drink and mingle if they arrive a little early. A nice little touch that’s afforable, thoughtful, and something your guests will definitely appreciate.

I went to my neighborhood salon - Salon de Quartier - to have a hair trial. I would want the curls more defined in the back, but generally, I like the way it looks.

Yuki putting some flowers in my hair. I want either lots of little flowers or one big one. Married girls — is it better to go with fresh flowers or get silk/hair pin flowers to put in your hair?

The back. Not crazy about how it looks. She did the look quickly — in around 45 minutes. She’ll obviously spend more time on day of. Plus, I was in a hurry to get to the hospital to see my new nephew.

I’ve been growing in my eyebrows so that I can start from scratch… but wow! They are hairy… I need to do something about them pronto!

After obsessing over every single detail, I knew in the end that I would really be the only person who noticed. But I’m an obsessive perfectionist and I wouldn’t be able to have it any other way. Yes people loved the little personal touches - the photo collage of guests, bathroom baskets, newsletters, etc. - but in the end I think only a couple of things had the biggest impact on the success of the wedding. It’s easier for me to see what really mattered in retrospect because at the time everything matters.

I truly loved, loved, loved my wedding day and I got so many letters, emails and phone calls from guests telling me that it was “the best wedding” they’d ever attended.

These are my top 5 suggestions for a great wedding:

1) A great band and/or dj/mc. You don’t need both, but you need someone that’s good. Music totally sets the tone for the reception - I’ve been to weddings where crappy music totally destroys the mood. At our wedding, a band played for the first four hours and we paid a little more for a dj to spin the last 1-2 hours. It was totally worth it - it really kicked the party up a notch.

2) A fun crowd. We had some really fun guests that were constantly on the dance floor for both fast songs and slow songs. They really set the atmosphere and guests that aren’t big dancers all danced.

3) Alcohol, alcohol, alcohol. We created two custom drinks - Love Potion (for the ladies) and Magic Mojito (for the gentlemen) and put the recipes in frames on the bar. This took the guesswork out of ordering so people were drinking these all night long. Many a guest were inebriated. We also ended up saving a fortune in alcohol by having custom drinks made from one type of liquor - I got a $1000 refund!

4) A day of wedding planner. They kept the flow of the wedding going and everything on schedule. So many things went wrong and my wedding planners were there to handle everything. They’re also a neutral party to help wrangle all your crazy relatives from both sides. I would have paid double for the peace of mind they gave me on the big day. It’s a stressful day and believe me you will absolutely need one.

5) Personalize it. Show your personalities/religions/cultures. We had a Paebaek ceremony to reflect my Korean background and most people told me that this was their favorite part of the wedding.

All the other things that I agonized over - linens, flowers, stationary, cake, etc. They didn’t matter as much in the end. I think the wedding would have been just as great with the 5 things above.

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I had 6 months to plan the wedding once I moved to New York. We already had the venue - the beautiful Westside Loft - but nothing else done yet. I started this separate blog dedicated to chronicling every aspect of my wedding planning and I quickly became OBSESSED with every single little detail. My subscribers increased quickly and xangans even forwarded the site to their engaged friends that weren’t on xanga. Soon I started receiving emails from prospective brides daily asking me for advice, thanking me for my helpful site and asking me if I wanted to plan their weddings. (I’m not going to plan any weddings except for those of friends because it’s hard work!)

I love blogging and I love weddings and I love helping people. My little wedding blog made me realize that I could actually turn all of this into a profession! Mr. Bee is also in the blogging industry so he helped me map out my business plan and the concept for a wedding website. I’ve been planning on launching www.weddingbee.com (the site isn’t up yet) for quite some time now. I hit some stumbling blocks and got a bit sidetracked for awhile, but I’m back on track so be on the lookout for the site launch soon!

On March 5, 2005, Mr. Bee and I got married exactly 1 year and 4 months after we met. Today is our 10 month wedding anniversary in fact. So how’s married life? It’s absolutely wonderful.

I know I never put photos of us up so here’s one I’m sending out with our save the dates.

I love how it looks like he’s crying. Bastard.
Suck it up and be a team player. We’re getting married and that’s that! Haha.
I love him. I love this photo. It shows our personality. We’re funny together.

Deeeeeeep down inside I know he’s happy.
Waaaaayyy deeeeep downnnnn!

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I’d been helping my parents out for 3 1/2 years when I first met Mr. Bee. It was one of the most miserable, stressful and depressed times of my life. I had been running my parents’ vocational school but after September 11th, all their schools were in crisis. Public programs the vocational school relied on were heavily cut because of the war, all schools that granted international visas had to go through a grueling renewal process. I oversaw every application, every contract, every site visit, everything for 4 schools during that time. It would be one thing if I were doing this for myself. Because I was doing it for my family I took so much personal responsibility - I felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders. Failure was not an option.

One day I just broke down and cried in front of my dad. I couldn’t take it anymore. My family felt immensely grateful for everything I’d done, but I was involved with everything from legal maintenance to finances to administration to day-to-day operations and they relied on me so much, there was never a good time for me to leave. I’d sacrificed a lot to help my family and I’d do it again in a heartbeat but it was time for me to be a little selfish and think of my own happiness. I felt so guilty wanting to leave but if I stayed, I would have died. I told them I’d oversee a summer program that was coming up and then I wanted to move to New York. My family agreed.

The summer program ended and on August 22, 2004 (about 10 months after I first met Mr. Bee), I moved to New York. I’ve suffered from anxiety, depression, and ocd for most of my life and this was honestly the first time I’d been happy in a decade. I don’t believe that you can find happiness through another person - you first have to be happy with yourself. And I was happy.

Mr. Bee and I always say that if it weren’t for September 11th, we never would have met because I never would have blogged about our school problems (which were a direct result of 9/11) and he never would have contacted me. Ironically we live right by the former World Trade Center site and pass by it on our way to the subway every single day.

I would have loved a beach wedding. I think my first choice, if money wasn’t an option, would be to have a wedding on the beach with a tent set up for the reception (yes here’s that tent thing again).

Here are some cute ideas for those of you who are planning to have their wedding on the beach.

I love the starfish on their lapel. This is such a cute idea.
(knottie: d&nalways)

Beach themed wedding cakes

Gift boxes & Bags

Placecards

Table Number

Favors

Invitations

Seashell bouquet & aisle marker

Cake topper

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It was now April and we’d been together 5 months. Mr. Bee’s parents were visiting for a week from the Philippines. I had already booked a flight to New York before they decided to come and was scheduled to arrive the day after they left but I changed my flight so that I could meet them. Dinner went off without a hitch. Mr. Bee’s parents were nice, friendly, and I don’t think they had any objections to us getting married. Phew.

I came back to New York in May. I knew that Mr. Bee was going to propose on this trip. We’d been together 6 months now and I couldn’t wait because 6 months may sound like a short period of time, but it felt like an eternity. My parents would never have let me move cross country to New York unless we were engaged and we desperately wanted to be together.

On May 7th, we returned to that same wine bar where we first met. One waiter was acting suspiciously nice and nervous when we arrived and to tell you the truth, he gave it away and I knew immediately but I played along.After our dinner the jazzy music playing overhead was suddenly eclipsed by Top of the World by the Carpenters.

When I returned home after I first met Mr. Bee last year, my dad caught me walking around the house singing Top of the World. He said to me, “Why are you so happy? You must be in love!” I wasn’t even aware that I was singing! Hehe and he was right of course. When I told Mr. Bee about this, he immediately downloaded the song and listened to it over and over. So cheesy as the song is, it kinda became our song.

I digress. As soon as I heard the song, I knew that he was going to propose at that very moment. Mr. Bee said all these wonderful things to me, but I was soooooooooo excited I’m not sure I remember it all because he opened the ring box while he was talking! He proposed and of course I said yes, yes, yes! When you meet the person you want to marry - you just know.It doesn’t take you years and years to decide if he or she is the one.We both knew that we were going to spend the rest of our lives together after that first week.

The waitress that kept refilling our wine the first night we were there remembered us too! Everyone is so nice to you when you get engaged I wish we could do it all the time.

When I returned home, I told my parents that Mr. Bee and I had gotten engaged. They were shocked. How could we get engaged without telling them?! In Korean culture you don’t just get engaged by yourselves… it’s something that’s decided and agreed upon with the entire family. I explained to them that that’s not how it works in America. Still they thought I was kinda crazy.

We ordered our Ketubah today from J. Levine. (For those of you who aren’t Jewish and didn’t watch Sex in the City, that’s a Jewish wedding contract which is signed before the ceremony). The Ketubah we chose is called “Tree of Life” and looks much better in person than in the picture below (the branches are gold).

Our wedding is not going to be very religious; we are skipping many of the elements of the Jewish wedding ceremony and are going to have the ceremony before sunset on a Saturday (a big no-no, but there are reform rabbis who are willing to do it). Maybe to offset this, we wanted a fairly traditional looking ketubah.

We chose the reform text, which is really nice (not sure if this is big enough to read). Our names will be written in the same calligraphy as the text.

I was gonna do cube vases but after much thought I decided not to. I have another idea. So here’s the research I did on cube vases just in case anyone else was looking for them.

Crate & Barrel
$9.95 - $14.95These modern, crystal-clear cube shapes are ideal for shorter, seasonal cuttings. Clear glass is handblown with thick, heavy shams and subtle curves on the interior of each wall. Use together or with other shapes and sizes for unique display.

Small Vase. 3.25″sq.x3.25″H / $9.95
Medium Vase. 4″sq.x3.75″H / $11.95
Large Vase. 4.75″sq.x4.75″H / $14.95

Romantic Flowers
small votive 2.75″ / $4.00 / box/24 $81.60 (save 15%)
large votive 3.5″ / $5.50 / box/24 $112.20 (save 15%)
small vase 4.5″ / $10.00 / box/12 $102.00 (save 15%)

medium vase 6″ / $19.00 / box/6 $96.90 (save 15%)
Jamali Garden Supplies
8′ cube vase / $18.00
Out of Stock

2 1/2″ cube / $2.50
case of 72 / $144.00

3″ vase / $2.99
case of 24 / $60.005″ vase / $7.99
Out of Stock

4″ vase / $4.99

5″ vase / $6.99
case of 12 / $54.00

Durwin Rice
3″ vase / $10.00
case of 12 / $102.00
case of 48 / $360.00

4″ vase / $15.00
case of 12 / $153.00
case of 48 / $540.005″ vase / $20.00
case of 12 / $204.00
case of 48 / $720.00

6″ vase / $25.00
case of 12 / $252.00
case of 48 / $888.00

Here’s 2 more sites i found: Armour Products & Etchworld