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I’m a big advocate for splurges. Not crazy-break-the-bank-and-now-we-can’t-eat-this-month splurges, but rational, this is super important to us, and we’ll really LOVE it and REGRET it if we don’t splurges. At least that’s my definition of rational. Because at the end of the day/month/year/wedding no one is giving us a gold star for our impressive budgeting abilities, or for cutting every possible corner and screwing the artists who are making our day special. I admit it’s taken me a bit to get on board with all this wedding planning business and I still don’t actually like gushing about all things wedding in the real world.
Shh—that’s why I LOVE blogging so much. So anyway, while there are plenty of “necessities” (hello, giant cake) that we aren’t even considering, one thing is incredibly, fantastically, deliciously important to us.
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Shushu1208 shows off her solitaire engagement ring in some dried anniversary roses.
Keep on loading your inspirational wedding pics to the gallery to see them featured here on the blog! Remember, your images must be under 1MB in size, or they won’t load.
When we met with our venue, the manager informed us that it would be very feasible for us to create some signature drinks to be served during the cocktail hour/reception. Of course, we want to allow our guests to order drinks of their choice, but I think it would be very fun to concoct a few special “somethings” for them to sip on! We want to have at least two cocktail options, and perhaps name them after ourselves (if we can be creative enough)!
There is so much inspiration out there, it’s overwhelming! First, I hopped over to The Knot to check out some photos in the gallery…
If you’re looking to make a bold graphic statement with your invitations or any of your paper products, a pattern is a pretty good way to do that. I decided to use a pattern to tie together our Dorothy Draper theme but unfortunately, couldn’t find anything pre-printed that fit my colors or ideas.
So I’m going to share a little chevron pattern tutorial. We’re going to be doing this the dumb way — there is a way to make patterns in Illustrator, but these directions will work in Word.
1. Start with a filled rectangle shape. Depending on how thin or wide you want the chevrons to be, adjust your rectangle’s size. Then rotate it. I do 45 degrees, but this is also a personal preference thing.
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This past weekend was just amazing for Burger and me. We made a trip to his hometown for my first bridal shower with his family. It was an intimate affair filled with lots of love - and it was ridiculously fun!
Burger’s family is just wonderful, and they always make me feel so at home. This was a very special day for me, because my parents were finally able to meet a lot of his extended family members!
Lots of food, mimosas, desserts, games, and presents later - my love cup was overflowing. 
Here are some pictures from the afternoon (excuse the poor quality, my camera was misbehaving for some reason):
The beautiful flower arrangement Burger’s aunt had made, complete with a fantastic Lladro statue that Burger’s mom got for us - she knows how obsessed I am!
I believe in going big or going home, so my first project for our wedding was one that will be pretty visible for our guests: our cake topper. I should have started small, but I’ve never been one to follow logic. I did do something rather small after our wood painting adventure: I bought and snazzied-up (it’s a word) the glass containers for our sand ceremony.
I got the glass at Michaels (naturally) for a total of about 15 or so bucks. I chose these particular ones for three reasons:
Using my brand new, first ever glue gun (see also: mini, lime green glue gun):
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
*Ding*
“Round One! Ready…. FIGHT!”
Let’s examine the process of YUDU screen-printing, shall we?
First we printed out our stencil. This took, oh, about THREE tries, due to our printer’s refusal to cooperate. We decided to go for the heart instead of the Star Wars symbol, which we had debated about before. I’m a little sad about it, but Mr. Sewing thinks it’s best to confuse as few people as possible.
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Our newest bee is a Chicago transplant planning a wedding in her hometown! She’s known as Miss Hot Wings, but you can call her Miss Hottie for short. 
Please join me in welcoming her to the hive!
Miss Hot Wings, Chicago/San Diego
Age & Occupation: 28/Psych Grad Student
Fiance’s Age & Occupation: 32/Psych Grad Student
Engagement Date: December 20, 2008
Wedding Date: August 2010
Venue: Ocean View Villas/Jasmine Seafood Restaurant
About Me: I am a psychology grad student living in Chicago and planning my wedding to a fellow psych grad student. I am a Sunny So-Cal bred gal who trudged across the country to follow her love of psychology and ended up finding a partner in the process. I am overly passionate about anything I involve myself with. I am an activist, a foodie, a reality TV watching junkie, an over-analyzer, a photography obsesser, and am utterly cheesy to the core. This is a story of what happens when a boy and a girl meet, fall in love over academic dorkiness, and a shared love for life. We (mostly I) are planning our semi-destination wedding in my hometown of San Diego. We are excited to bring our families and friends together from across our lifespans to celebrate our future in a grand 400+ person culturally blended affair!
It was time to kick off the celebration! We invited all of our OOT guests and my Pop’s bruddahs to join us for our quasi-rehearsal dinner. Quasi, because the wedding rehearsal was scheduled for the following day, and our wedding the day after. Moving the rehearsal dinner up a day was a tactical move on our part. We wanted our friends to get loose and enjoy themselves without worrying about headaches, oversleeping, cravings for pho (best cure for hangovers), etc. on the day of the wedding. They had all day Friday for some R & R. Yup, our friends can definitely throw back a few. 
We hosted our dinner at Tiki’s Grill & Bar in Waikiki. Wanting something private, we chose the Coconut Club room. It’s on the top floor of the ResortQuest Waikiki Beach Hotel, and it has a lanai (Hawaiian for patio) big enough to seat our 60 or so guests. The room itself isn’t all that special, but the sunset view from the lanai was priceless. It was seriously postcard worthy.
We were running a bit late, but thanks to island time, our late was actually early. Our friend, Dan, was the last to arrive. He snapped this photo of us greeting him at the door, and apologized for being late. The waves kept calling to him. Late because of surfing, haha! I love Hawaii.
My search for the perfect wedding shoes has not been an easy one, and unfortunately, this story has no happy ending yet. I thought that I had hit the jackpot when I saw these on the Nine West website:
They were almost perfect: A beige satin with a slight sheen, pleats (which also make an appearance in my dress), and a darling embellishment. The best part?
No, it’s not a typo, I know it’s actually “sense and sensibility”, but that makes absolutely no sense in the context of scents, now does it? Confused yet? 
Well, if you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m talking about perfume—the nectar of loooove. Or allergic reactions, or stank, depending on the perfume 
. But we’ll stick to the lovely kind.
Anywho, I have a total weakness for perfume. I love it. I would bathe in it, but I don’t want to be one of those people. You know, those people you pass in the mall and their scent trails them for… oh… 3 miles? As much as I love perfume, I’d like to think I have a little more restraint than they do.
Before I get ahead of myself, I want to take a minute (just sit right there, I’ll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air… sorry.) to tell you about my favorite scent memories (smemories?).
A few months ago, dear Mama Pencils and I were engaging in one of our now-regular phone conversations about “the wedding”. In this particular convo, she was updating me on which of my relatives would be making the trek to Maryland. It turns out that none of my father’s side (all of whom live in Idaho) would be RSVPing “accepts with pleasure”. It also seems that none of my cousins who live in Idaho will be able to make it. My parents’ friends and the family that used-to-live-next-door-and-then-I-babysat-their-children-for-ten-years that all live in Idaho won’t likely be coming, either.
I was beginning to notice a trend… Mr. Pencils took one look at my face, listened to the list of people that wouldn’t be coming and suggested a remedy (he’s solution-oriented, he is).
A second, smaller reception in Idaho in July!
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While I wait for my pro pictures, I decided that I needed to finish blogging about my wedding planning, since life had gotten a bit crazy in the past couple of months… so here I go!
Some girls dream of their wedding gowns their whole lives. Most women search until they find THE wedding gown of their dreams and want to wear it as long as they can. I am not one of those girls. OK, I have dreamed about the big white gown, but my style has changed over the years and… to this very day, while I love my dress, I would also have been happy with almost any other dress that fit me well and looked good.
My ideas of wedding colors, theme, style have all changed (even considerably since I’ve been ENGAGED). But there is ONE thing that I’ve always known I was going to wear…
And that would be a Cheongsam/QiPao. This is a traditional Chinese dress that most brides usually wear during the reception, as you walk around and greet each table. Traditionally, it is a mandarin-collared, red and gold (colors that represent happiness and prosperity, and also are classic wedding colors in Chinese culture) form-fitting dress, typically with a Dragon and Phoenix, which symbolize a male and female counterpart that represents the bride and groom. I know there’s a lot more history and symbolism in these dresses, but… that’s what I know off the top of my head.
At any rate, growing up going to tons of Chinese weddings and looking at my parents’ wedding pictures, I always knew I wanted to wear a RED Cheongsam (red is my favorite color!). My grandma actually made my mom and my aunts’ gowns, but as my sweet grandma is now 98, that is no longer feasible. So I set about on an adventure to find a store in California where I could get a custom-made Cheongsam.
Here are some real-life inspiration pictures, for those of you interested in seeing a few different styles/designs.
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Let’s talk about our save the date fonts.
I chose Leitura Display, a professional font set. For $50 I got three full fonts (including glyphs) and it makes all the difference in the world. Free fonts are awesome for novelty usage, like signs or labels, but become less than optimal while designing a full suite. For instance, a free font I tried had no apostrophe. That’s trouble.
So I bought Leitura knowing I’d have some options - a solid serif and a cool novelty set.
Before we get to the big grand finale moment of the ceremony, let’s chat a bit about kidlets. Whether or not you have children as a part of your ceremony, or guests at your wedding, is a totally personal decision. However, I am a huge advocate for having kids present! Just remember, if they are present, they will get bored during the ceremony. It is just a fact of life that children will get bored during readings and vows and speeches and kisses, even if you do them quickly! Our ceremony clocked in at just under 19 minutes, and yet our photographers still got these awesome shots during the ceremony:
Bored.
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