Mrs. Glasses, Tokyo/Los Angeles, CAAge and Occupation: 24, English teacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, English teacherEngagement Date: September 2008Wedding Date: October 2010 Venue: Parents' backyardAbout Me: I’m an expat living in Tokyo. I’ve been in Japan for almost three years now, where I met my fantastic English fiance. It’s time to leave Japan, so we are planning a fun, intimate, backyard ceremony back home in the suburbs of L.A. in October. Our wedding will be a mix of my love for food, beer, my Japanese culture, and Mr. G’s Englishness. We are on a tiny budget and DIYing almost everything!
It’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty. Let’s talk about the actual ceremony portion of our wedding. I think this is the most wide-open detail of the day so I’ve really dreaded putting pen to paper, so to speak, and writing out what will go down. It’s also touchy for me because I know Mr. G’s parents won’t be there to celebrate with us which makes me want to cry! It would be really nice to have both of our parents there but Mr. G’s parents will be with us in spirit; I’ll leave it at that.
We won’t be having a religious ceremony as Mr. G is atheist and I’m Buddhist, but want to keep it as neutral as possible. And oh yeah, we’ll already be married! See what I mean by wide-open? All the traditional things that usually happen at a ceremony don’t need to happen at ours!
We need to pick an “officiant” of sorts who can at least MC what’s going to happen. We want our ceremony to be silly and fun and emotional and meaningful. Just how will we accomplish this? Read more…
Mrs. Sewing, San Mateo, CA/Honolulu, HIAge and Occupation: 24, Electrical EngineerFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Electrical EngineerEngagement Date: June 27, 2009Wedding Date: July 2010Venue: Anela Garden Chapel & Japanese Cultural Center, HonoluluAbout Me: I'm an easily entertained, compulsive idea-scheming machine who loves good art, good food, and a good engineering challenge. I'm planning a half-destination wedding on the beautiful island of Oahu - imagine a plethora of movies, art and games; savory Hawaiian food; blended Chinese and Japanese cultural details; lush, fragrant tropical flowers and all the air conditioning a NorCal native could want! And once I marry the love of my life, we'll come back to the 'mainland' to party it up all over again in my hometown of Salinas, the salad-bowl capital of the world!
After we traipsed around Tokyo with animals, the Glasses and more anime than I’ve ever seen in one place, it was time to get into full-tourist-mode.
We bought a one day free pass for the Tokyo subway, and off we went. Our first stop was the Ginza.
After about five seconds we realized we were way too poor and frumpy to actually do anything in the high-end shopping district. So we bought an $8 dollar salad (with pumpkin in it!) and considered our journey there essentially over. Read more…
Mrs. Canary, New YorkAge and Occupation: 24, MarketingFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Journalist/EditorEngagement Date: February 16, 2007Wedding Date: July, 2008Blogging Since: October 19, 2007Venue: Pier Sixty, Chelsea PiersAbout Me: I'm a born and raised New Yorker who loves all things crafty and artsy, food (cheese and dessert!), magazines, and shoes. I'm a power shopper always on the lookout for good deals or great quality-- sometimes I'm lucky and I find both! I love to dance and "shake what my momma gave me" but can also really enjoy a quiet night in with Mr. Canary and a good episode of Seinfeld or curl up with a good book.
This post was originally published on March 24th, 2008.
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After returning from my brief trip to Tokyo and seeing Mrs. Ant’s fabulous guide to Japan… I’ve been missing Japan even more.I never realized what a huge DIY and craft culture existed in Japan, well at least, Tokyo. During my first trip last year, I was overwhelmed with all the craft and stationery choices available. I literally, did not know where to start! This time around, I had some experience and a goal: to find Gocco supplies.
Shibuya in Tokyo was one of the areas I frequented the most for craft supplies because most of the craft shops I wanted to visit were in close proximity to each other. My favorite place to hit up was Tokyu Hands which had the largest selection of Gocco machines as well as inks and other supplies.
Upon arrival at Tokyu Hands I immediately asked the nearest sales clerk where I could find a Gocco… (please note that Miss Canary does not know a lick of Japanese, but would attempt to communicate mostly with hand signals and drawings). Read more…
Mrs. Glasses, Tokyo/Los Angeles, CAAge and Occupation: 24, English teacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, English teacherEngagement Date: September 2008Wedding Date: October 2010 Venue: Parents' backyardAbout Me: I’m an expat living in Tokyo. I’ve been in Japan for almost three years now, where I met my fantastic English fiance. It’s time to leave Japan, so we are planning a fun, intimate, backyard ceremony back home in the suburbs of L.A. in October. Our wedding will be a mix of my love for food, beer, my Japanese culture, and Mr. G’s Englishness. We are on a tiny budget and DIYing almost everything!
Keep on loading your inspirational wedding pics to the Weddingbee Gallery to see them featured here on the blog! Remember, your images must be under 1MB in size, or they won’t load.
Mrs. Sewing, San Mateo, CA/Honolulu, HIAge and Occupation: 24, Electrical EngineerFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Electrical EngineerEngagement Date: June 27, 2009Wedding Date: July 2010Venue: Anela Garden Chapel & Japanese Cultural Center, HonoluluAbout Me: I'm an easily entertained, compulsive idea-scheming machine who loves good art, good food, and a good engineering challenge. I'm planning a half-destination wedding on the beautiful island of Oahu - imagine a plethora of movies, art and games; savory Hawaiian food; blended Chinese and Japanese cultural details; lush, fragrant tropical flowers and all the air conditioning a NorCal native could want! And once I marry the love of my life, we'll come back to the 'mainland' to party it up all over again in my hometown of Salinas, the salad-bowl capital of the world!
Three of the last four weddings I have attended have involved Asian brides. And you know what that means, right? Dress changes!
Though I may only be half-Asian, I fully look forward to and embrace the tradition of changing one’s dress several times throughout the reception. Indeed, I had it all planned out. In addition to my traditional white gown and Chinese cheongsam, I would also wear a uchikake - the Japanese wedding kimono.
Mrs. Scissors, LaGrange, GAAge and Occupation: 25, Photography & Graphic DesignFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Engineering Grad StudentEngagement Date: January 1, 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: Ceremony - First United Methodist Church; Reception - My parents' house!About Me: I’m a six-foot-three bride with a fifty-foot personality! I love great art, fabulous design, intense color, tons of music, indie photography, watching movies on repeat, and being really awesome. This super-tall, Southern, loud, quirky, neurotic artist is marrying a German, quiet, silly, super-amazing roboticist in an eclectic, funky, fun, snazzy, technicolored June wedding. Anything is game for this shindig, for it is all about us! We’re bringing giant paper cranes, six-foot-tall portraits, fortune cookies, a photo booth, a club-circuit DJ, handcuffs, and possibly a kidnapping to this small Southern town. Watch out, y’all, and try to keep up!
This post was originally published on January 4th, 2010
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*Photograph by me
Paper cranes and I are like BFFs. When I was little, my father brought back an origami book from Japan, and I learned how to fold every piece of origami in the book by heart. I’ve since forgotten how to fold most of them, but not the cranes. I fold them when I’m bored, when I have random scraps of paper laying around, when I want an awesome engagement shoot (heh!), or just anytime. Read more…
Mrs. Glasses, Tokyo/Los Angeles, CAAge and Occupation: 24, English teacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, English teacherEngagement Date: September 2008Wedding Date: October 2010 Venue: Parents' backyardAbout Me: I’m an expat living in Tokyo. I’ve been in Japan for almost three years now, where I met my fantastic English fiance. It’s time to leave Japan, so we are planning a fun, intimate, backyard ceremony back home in the suburbs of L.A. in October. Our wedding will be a mix of my love for food, beer, my Japanese culture, and Mr. G’s Englishness. We are on a tiny budget and DIYing almost everything!
We are tackling the paper crane tradition. We’ll use the paper cranes to decorate our backyard. We’ll put them everywhere: hanging along the red brick wall that leads into our backyard, strung around our focal point/altar, hanging from trees and bushes, and scattered on the dessert, buffet, and guest book table. We’ll also leave some origami out on the tables along with instructions so guests can help us reach our thousand-crane goal.
Miss Peach, New Jersey/AtlantaAge and Occupation in 07: 25, Mechanical EngineerFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, StudentEngagement Date: January 27, 2006Wedding Date: March, 2007Venue: Korean Presbyterian Church of Atlanta + Flint HillAbout Me: Mr. Peach and I started dating our senior year of high school when we both lived in Georgia. Since then, we spent 6 years in a long distance relationship. And now by the grace of God, we've made it through; we are living in the same state again (NJ) and we are gettin' married! I was originally going to ask if I could be Miss Mango bc I loveee mangos sooo much, but in the end decided to be true to my GA peach roots! woot!
This post was originally published on October 31st, 2006.
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Anna Niponica custom designs beautiful dresses out of gorgeous silk kimonos — *sigh* They are based in Japan, however, they do accept orders from overseas via Paypal.
Mrs. Sushi, Hershey/HawaiiAge and Occupation: 27, Air Force PhotographerFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Laborer/Aspiring Hip Hop ProducerEngagement Date: December 25, 2007Wedding Date: March 2009Blogging Since: October 9, 2006Venue: Byodo-In Temple, Luau ReceptionAbout Me: I’m a notorious people-watcher who loves all things paper, food, traveling, grubbin’ on food, gossip magazines, food, sock monkeys…did I mention food?! Mr. Sushi and I are both haolepinos (half Filipino, half Caucasian) and hope to be able to somehow incorporate our cultures at our destination wedding in Hawaii. All while planning from the sweetest place in earth, Hershey!
Mrs. Sushi was married at the Byodo-In Japanese temple in Oahu, Hawaii. This post was originally published on October 27th, 2009.
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Our guests then went off to tour the temple while Frank went all paparazzi on our arses. We had about a lil’ over an hour to do photos before we had to load into the shuttle to make our way to the “reception”. Not having a wedding par-tay meant that whole hour was dedicated to us. That’s a whole lot of photos, yo.
For being a “small” temple, there was lots of scenery for photos.
Mrs. Sewing, San Mateo, CA/Honolulu, HIAge and Occupation: 24, Electrical EngineerFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Electrical EngineerEngagement Date: June 27, 2009Wedding Date: July 2010Venue: Anela Garden Chapel & Japanese Cultural Center, HonoluluAbout Me: I'm an easily entertained, compulsive idea-scheming machine who loves good art, good food, and a good engineering challenge. I'm planning a half-destination wedding on the beautiful island of Oahu - imagine a plethora of movies, art and games; savory Hawaiian food; blended Chinese and Japanese cultural details; lush, fragrant tropical flowers and all the air conditioning a NorCal native could want! And once I marry the love of my life, we'll come back to the 'mainland' to party it up all over again in my hometown of Salinas, the salad-bowl capital of the world!
After 20 days, I feel like I could write 50 posts on our honeymoon. But this is a wedding blog and not a deranged-fangirl blog, so I’ll *try* and keep it to a minimum.
Now, here’s basically how this trip happened. Mr. Sew planned everything. He did all the reading, all the talking, all the guessing, and all the map-directioning. I, his wifu, stood faithfully by repeating the same litany of Japanese words I had picked up.
Sugoii! (Unreal!)
Atsuiii…(It’s hot)
Itaiii…(It hurts)
Onaka ga peko peko! (Grumbly stomach…or something)
That, and the repetition of a commonly aired commercial I happened to get stuck in my head… Read more…
Mrs. Glasses, Tokyo/Los Angeles, CAAge and Occupation: 24, English teacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, English teacherEngagement Date: September 2008Wedding Date: October 2010 Venue: Parents' backyardAbout Me: I’m an expat living in Tokyo. I’ve been in Japan for almost three years now, where I met my fantastic English fiance. It’s time to leave Japan, so we are planning a fun, intimate, backyard ceremony back home in the suburbs of L.A. in October. Our wedding will be a mix of my love for food, beer, my Japanese culture, and Mr. G’s Englishness. We are on a tiny budget and DIYing almost everything!
Maybe Tokyo isn’t my hometown, but it sure feels like it. Remember when I lived there? That was pretty weird. I’m actually homesick for Tokyo—the lights, the quirkiness, the energy. Japan has four seasons, and in the winter in Tokyo it gets so cold it snows just a bit. Tokyo is most beautiful during the cherry blossom season in late March through early April, or when the leaves change color during fall (known as “koyo“). Avoid summer as it is unbearably hot and humid, and September is the rainy season and prone to typhoons.
Mrs. Penguin, Northern CaliforniaAge and Occupation: 27, Weddingbee Editor in ChiefFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Doctor of Physical TherapyEngagement Date: January 29, 2007Wedding Date: June 7, 2008Blogging Since: September 14, 2007Venue: Winery in the Gold CountryAbout Me: I love the Spice Girls, dogs with underbites, bean burritos, making messes, high fives, avoiding showers, crossword puzzles, blogs, weddings, and blogs about weddings!
To spread love for and to Japan in our own little way, today we’ll be featuring blogs and board threads past and present that feature Japanese cultural wedding traditions and the beauty of Japan.
If you’d like to continue the discussion, feel free to comment on the posts, or right here on our own boards on the Japan Earthquake/Tsunami thread which is currently stickied to the front page of the Weddingbee Boards.
Mrs. Lox, BaltimoreAge and Occupation: 33, Government WorkerFiance's Age and Occupation: 35. IT ConsultantEngagement Date: May 8, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Vandiver InnAbout Me: I’m an East Coast gal born and bred and a suburban brat turned city rat for the last year. Now Mr. Lox and I enjoy walking all kinds of places, having the coolest things around in our backyard, and especially our garage parking. I love gadgets, toys, Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby ice cream, monkeys, and our insane cats. I’m a blonde by birth and a redhead by choice. I’m that girl in the cubicle farm with all the cool toys and the file cabinet covered in magnetic poetry. I still use smiley faces in my emails, whether people like it or not. This is not the first rodeo for Mr. Lox nor me. And together, we are planning an intimate afternoon wedding on a budget we can afford by ourselves.
I have reason to believe a few of these little gals are still traveling to their final destinations, so even though it’s unlikely this will spoil anyone’s surprise I’m still going to draw it out. Alright, let’s admit it… it’s just plain old more fun for me this way! Anyhow, without further ado, let’s get to the goodies, and the invite I made just for the hive.
Mrs. Lioness, AtlantaAge and Occupation: 25, Physical TherapistFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, AttorneyEngagement Date: August 29, 2009Wedding Date: April 2011Venue: Anthony’s Fine DiningAbout Me: I’m a Southern girl with New England roots. I say "wicked" and "y’all" in the same sentence and I like to drink sweet tea with my lobster. Mr. Lion and I are both former Floridians now living in Atlanta, which fortunately is still SEC country...Go Gators! We both love baseball, coffee, traveling, cooking, and playing Words with Friends with each other on our iPhones all day long. I’m very passionate about the things and the people I love, and I tend to plan things with all of my heart...our wedding, of course, is no different! Oh, and also Mr. Lion is a first generation American of Cuban descent. I may look more like Lucy than Ricky, but I’m doing my best to incorporate some Latin elements into our vintage-garden-Southern wedding!
My trusty ol’ Epson has certainly been put to use while planning this wedding! Lots of card stock and tons of ink later, it’s printed everything from invitations to Save the Dates to all sorts of signage. Now that we’re drawing closer and closer to the big day, I figured it was about time to round up every last bit of leftover card stock and print one final paper project: the ceremony programs. And I’m really excited to share them with you! The project itself isn’t that exciting, but it’s a first glance into our ceremony, which I’m looking forward to more and more every day!
I designed the program to fit on #10 paper, front and back. I used Monterey BT, which has become one of our signature fonts. Instead of using Ecuyer DAX, our other signature font, I used another serif font to avoid too much clutter: the aptly named, Georgia. Then, I printed front and back on #10 ivory card stock.
After about five seconds we realized we were way too poor and frumpy to actually do anything in the high-end shopping district. So we bought an $8 dollar salad (with pumpkin in it!) and considered our journey there essentially over.
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
