Weddingbee Blog

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).
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If you hadn’t guessed yet, here are a few photos with clues from our second anniversary shoot by the fabulous and super-talented Steve Koo AKA Mr. Stiletto (who was nice enough to squeeze us in for a shoot while visiting New York last month).

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All photos courtesy of the amazing Angelica Glass, unless otherwise noted. Please note that the photos have only been color-corrected and not fully retouched.

When we booked Angelica, we knew that we definitely wanted a day-after photo shoot. With a large wedding, we knew our time for portraits was limited and what better reason than to get back into the wedding garb and traipse around Brooklyn for an afternoon?

We booked the shoot for about a week after the wedding. We were lucky and got gorgeous and cool weather, despite it still being the height of summer. I got out of work early and the lovely Sachiko Yanase made a house call and did my hair and makeup. I got back into my wedding gown and Mr. Canary got suited up and off we went with Angelica to Empire-Fulton Ferry Park in Dumbo, Brooklyn. We had a blast and the park is still one of our favorite Sunday afternoon spots.

Here is a small collection of the shots from the day:

Under the weeping willow

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All photos courtesy of the amazing Angelica Glass, unless otherwise noted. Please note that the photos have only been color-corrected and not fully retouched.

Early on in our planning, we decided we wanted a photo booth but didn’t want to invest in a real photobooth. Lucky for us, our fantastic photographer, Angelica Glass, was able to set up a camera and the second shooter to capture photobooth-esque images. Thus, our faux-to booth was born! Our florist had set up tall and dramatic curtains to warm up a long hallway and we used that as a backdrop. We didn’t have the foresight to get props, but the results were pretty fun and candid!

Right before the photobooth was set up, I went upstairs to change into a traditional qipao that I had custom-made in Shanghai. We wanted to incorporate the gown in there somehow and share some of my culture with guests who were not at the tea ceremony. After I changed, Stacy, my wonderful hair stylist extraordinaire put my hair up in to a nice but dressy ponytail so I could dance and romp without worrying about messing up my hair.

The Brothers Canary and me in my qipao. The front has an gold embroidered phoenix motif.

And here are some our favorite photobooth images from the day:
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All photos courtesy of the amazing Angelica Glass, unless otherwise noted. Please note that the photos have only been color-corrected and not fully retouched.

While we, with our parents and bridal party, were waiting behind the scenes to make our grand entrance, the guests were welcomed into the dining room (which had been transformed from our ceremony space) to find their seats for dinner.

One of the many reasons we loved having our wedding at Pier Sixty was the way the dining room was “unveiled” for the guests. The dining area was separated from the cocktail area by large, paneled, garage-like doors. While our guests were chowing down on hors d’oeuvres, the Pier Sixty team and our floral team, Atlas Floral Decorator was busy turning the room. When the room was ready, the doors slowly lifted up and we could see everyone just pausing and watching in anticipation as the room appeared in all its perfection…

Individual votives hung over the dance floor, so it seemed as if it was lit up by tiny blazing stars.

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All photos courtesy of the amazing Angelica Glass, unless otherwise noted. Please note that the photos have only been color-corrected and not fully retouched.

It was time for all of us to be announced and introduced. At our last DJ meeting, we supplied our DJ with a list of the names and phonetic pronunciation notes for each name so that there would be no pronunciation mishaps. Our DJ was super grateful for the list and no one was miffed because their names were all pronounced correctly. Mr. Canary has a complicated last name that a lot of people mispronounce, so it was a definite win-win!

First our parents and the bridal party were announced. Some of them hammed it up more than others…

Then it was finally our turn to be introduced for the first time as Mr. and Mrs. Canary.
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All photos courtesy of the amazing Angelica Glass, unless otherwise noted. Please note that the photos have only been color-corrected and not fully retouched.

Here I am, back again, all out of excuses… except this time I’m motivated to completely finish my recaps! I’m embarrassed to say that I had the outline for all my recaps completed last September and have only started to review and fill in the blanks. So forgive an old married bee with good intentions of sharing her wedding for being so late with the recaps.

Onwards!

We last left off after the ceremony processional.

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I got a chance to stop by at the second annual Martha Stewart Holiday Craft Sale. I had the best of times last year collecting unique holiday gifts, so I made sure to block it out on my calendar again this year!

The sale takes place at Martha Stewart headquarters in Chelsea, New York. Many of the editors from the staff get to be vendors selling items they make in their spare time. It’s a great way to catch a behind-the-scenes glimpse and also purchase some of these beautiful items for your very own. If you’re not in the market for holiday gifts, it’s a great way to collect items for a wedding (accessories, bridesmaids gifts, stationery). It’s also an excellent way to source unique vendors or see one of your favorite blogger-vendor’s work in person.

Upon entering, you can stock up on some much-needed Martha Stewart craft goodies for the holidays.

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I’m going to have to interrupt my recaps so that I can share the wonder of amazing photography and fun holiday cards. Like other married bees, Mr. Canary and I caught the photography bug and decided to commemorate every wedding anniversary with a photo shoot. That way, we’d always have at least one good photo of ourselves and when we start a family, we can also use them as family portraits.

The hard part was deciding on a photographer. When I began my planning, I was inspired by many brides, but one who really stood out was Yvonne Wong, who I wrote about here. After her wedding, Yvonne started her photography business in Seattle. Mr. Canary and I had a wedding in the Pacific Northwest in August and after a few emails we learned that Yvonne was available at the same time and was totally on board with a couple’s shoot. So, on a beautiful summer afternoon, we met with Yvonne and her husband, David, in Redmond, WA and frolicked through the open fields, laughed, and snuck into an old warehouse and the results were these fantastic shots.

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All photos courtesy of the amazing Angelica Glass, unless otherwise noted. Please note that the photos have only been color-corrected and not fully retouched.

Well, hello, again hive. It’s been over a year since we’ve been married and I really don’t have a good excuse for not finishing my recaps. Married life is wonderful and after the wedding, I realized that planning it had encompassed my life for about 18 months. So after the wedding, I dove right into my former life again—seeing friends, dabbling in various hobbies, and spending time with my dear husband. But I am determined to finish my recaps and share the rest of our wedding day with you. I’ve been constructing the story of our day from all over the place, but I will now continue along in a more structured manner.

Where did we last leave off? Ah yes, we had a photo session at Bryant Park and then we were off to our venue for the ceremony and reception.

The ceremony required the least amount of planning (since our wonderful officiant took the reins and guided us through the entire process). The rehearsal took place an hour before the actual ceremony, which was fine by both Mr. Canary and me because we’d already had our “first look” earlier in the day. We did a quick run-through with Christine at the helm directing us where to go and it took all of 15 minutes. The highlight of having the rehearsal on the day of the wedding was that I really had a chance to soak up all the hard work our florists had put into decorating the space. Instead of a traditional altar, our fabulous florist created an arbor/archway which would be reused during the reception. It was such a beautiful yet simple focal point.

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Although I am no longer a bride, like other married bees, I do get super excited to help my bride friends. Last night, I made out-of-town bags for a couple getting married at Stage Six, Steiner Studios at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in September. Since I ran out of time to make bags for my own wedding guests, this was a chance for me to live vicariously through my friends!

Instead of a monogram, the bride created a “chop” which included the bride and groom’s last names, that was printed on their invitations. I love it—elegant, classic, yet very minimalist and modern. I used it as the theme for the entire out-of-town package.

The components of each tote included:
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In a true procrastinating form, I have not yet buckled down to finish my recaps… but guess what? Our wedding movie trailer arrived in my inbox last week! And even better? We love it! It’s gotten me back into rosy wedding thinking, and might even motivate me to finally pick out our photos for our album (I know… I know…). Maybe the other married bees can relate to my utter lack of motivation to tie up all the remaining loose ends of the wedding. I loved planning our wedding. I loved our wedding day—it was perfect. I feel like I love it so much, I’d be quite happy to keep it tucked away in a little box cased in all its perfect glory. But I still have to pick out our photos, or start working on a honeymoon album, or gather all our wedding momentos and put them into show box or scrapbook. I will get there eventually.

But for now, I present to you our little wedding trailer. It’s about three minutes long and really captures the spirit of our day. We hired Ray Estrada of Timeless Treasure Films to shoot the wedding and tea ceremony and they were, in a word, fabulous. From the moment I emailed Ray, I knew we were working with a true pro. He answered all my questions without hesitation and almost immediately. And his packages are all quite reasonable for the caliber of work produced.

On our wedding day, Ray and his assistant showed up bright and early. They were completely unobtrusive. I did not even notice that they were there the entire time. They captured moments and shots that I don’t even remember happening!
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Image from here

As part of spring cleaning, and just a new found motivation to get in shape and be more active, I decided to get on the bandwagon and do the Blueprint Cleanse. To be honest, I’ve never been a fan of cleanses or fasts. I’ve witnessed a few of my friends on the Master Cleanse– the maple syrup concoction did not seem at all appetizing to me. But after some thorough research and reading the info-packed Blueprint Cleanse site, I decided to give it a shot. What sold me was that the program was not about fasting, but more about replacing solid food with fresh and unpasteurized juices to detox your system.

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