- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee Blog
The last bit of our invitations arrived today!
Our box tags with our guests’ names written on them by Bluebird Studios. Rebecca is wonderful and really responsive, not to mention fast! I absolutely love the tags, and she was so sweet when I asked her to write some names more clearly for my non-native english speaking family. They’re perfect! And so nice, she put a few with our names on it!
Ok ok, she’s not a child, but she is doing my hard work for me. After coming over and showing me how to sew, she promptly realized that if I were do this alone, I’d end up with myself sewn into a pillow and suffocated. So instead, my super awesome, helpful, crafty and pitying friend made 20 of the 105 pillows we needed, and took 5 home to do later.Look how excited she is! We removed the handcuffs for a little while because they were slowing down productivity…. but I figure a ball and chain will work nicely for next time we have a craft day. I told her we might even feed her next time!
Curse that morton and his damned feet… I mean 10% of people have it, but I have always cursed that toe. I wanted to wear these, so bad, so bad I might cut my toe off… Cinderella’s step sisters did it, and I’m about as evil as they are, so it’s only fitting, right?
so cute on the photo online
He knows I’m crazy, but he really didn’t expect me to use the full extent of that lack of reasonable thought towards the wedding… but when I asked him his opinion on box tops, he finally knew that I had lost it.
When Mr. GB and I had first discussed invitations, we didn’t think too much about what was going to go on around it, or on it really. Once we booked Good On Paper to do our letterpressing designs, I thought “oh, this will be simple”. Then I remember that I’m entirely unsatisfied with anything that is easy and live to make my life as difficult as possible. This is partially in an effort to coerce pity-back rubs out of Mr. GB, but also some kind of involuntary desire to make my brain twitch with agony.
This is how I came to want box invitations. I saw these two inspirations images online, and I had to have it.
from brides.com
Featured on Weddingbee
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
“Make an elegant invitation statement without the fuss. Stylish invitation sets with matching envelopes, reception and response cards included.”
Because the only person I know who can put up with my zooming in and nitpicking everything until it’s dead and bleeding is Mr. GB… and yet she was there, responsive and adjusting to every insane little detail that we wanted to change, or just see changed, and then change back, and then decide to weep over for a day, and then wake up and think “oh, actually, that’s perfect, I just had my 50 year old Korean woman brain in and thought it was fat”.
I took these photos when I was unpacking the box, so forgive the adorable ribbon that Paper Monkey Press used to tie them together. They gave us a ridiculous amount of extras, so we’re happy we have some to keep for ourselves and to, you know, feed to the puppies! We meant to do that.
Yesterday, we got a good 5-6 packages. I love packages, it’s like Christmas, only Santa is usually wearing a brown shirt and shorts. Sometimes he comes wearing a blue suit, and is surlier these days thanks to our normal mail carrier being MIA. How I miss her…Of the several 30lbs boxes, of which weak Mr. GB could barely carry, we received one from Paper Monkey Press! Our invites!! They even sent us free ‘Thank You’ cards!
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
I hadn’t planned on buying any lingerie for the night of… or after… honestly, I plan on passing out and not waking up for several days. But Agent Provacateur is having a sale, so for the sake of my own personal lust and the spending monster awakening in me, maybe Mr. GB will actually get treated. Or more likely he’ll just catch me standing in the mirror, after which I’ll promptly kick him out so I can continue to admire my lingerie in quiet solitude.
I’m absolutely in love with Agent Provocateur. They have a sweet pin-up vintage style where you can go for sweet, shy, but tempting coverage or just full on bondage style straps and pasties if you’re into that. They have a few locations within the US, but if there isn’t one near you… you can always browse their online store!
Items are 38%-65% off their sale selection. They also have a bridal line, which is still amazing, but not on sale. 
And besides, where else can you get soft seamed baby pink fishnets and a sailor pin-up swimsuit? Heck, I might get a swimsuit so I can put my sailor hat to use!
All this misery about bad bakers and the demon of alterations left me with a sour taste in my mouth about those kinds of vendors who prey on brides. I was feeling angry and disgusted with the bridal industry and felt a stomping tantrum coming on when I got a call yesterday from Jin Wang. She called to give me an update on my Thomas Knoell pin and I took the chance of asking her about a bridal gown alteration place she could recommend. Even though I didn’t buy a gown from her, and at that point had not even bought the pin, she expressed sympathy for my current dilemma and immediately gave me the name of the woman she recommends to all her brides that come through her salon. Jin has been nothing short of sweet and awesome, so I booked an appointment and renewed my faith in bridal salons.
Vendors affect me so much it’s ridiculous. I always get a little nervous when thinking about our venue, or like my anxiety is melting like ice cream when I speak with our coordinator. I really appreciate the people who are working to bring my wedding vision together, even if I am paying them. Last time we were in Tokyo, I brought back tons of magazines for my vendors, hard to find books, and Pierre Herme macaroons. I just cannot thank them enough for what they’re doing for me - probably because I’m also really too shy to say anything and just poke Mr. GB in the back. Seriously, I have a notepad where I write everything I want to discuss and make him study it in the car before we get out because I never have the courage to speak. Insane? Yes. But I’m slightly less insane than Mr. GB is patient!
I swear I won’t have another one of these. I had my side by side comparison of the two gowns I’ve been going back and forth on.
First, the Monique Lhuillier Scarlet. I’ll say that the alterations manager was just as horrible and awful in person as on the phone and yelled at me several times, demanding I tell her if “I have a problem” with what they were doing… not asking, just snapping at me. She basically told me I was stupid for asking questions if I did, and I spent the next several hours SEETHING. I watched her immediately offend another girl when I was leaving, looking her up and down and with the look of disgust on her face “god… you look tan, what have you been doing? AND you’re wearing ORANGE.” Mind you, this was another bride. Mr. GB left and immediately at the door said “god, what a rude bitch.” He’s far more patient and friendly than I am, and he was disgusted with her.
Ignore my otherwise sour expression and lack of makeup, I was angry most of the day because of my experience with her.
Mr. GB and I aren’t spending a lot of time thinking about the huge aspects of the wedding. We’re not fussing over flowers (I trust my floral designer 120%) and not making a big deal over linens or plates. It’s all about the details for us. While I was completely happy with the idea of standard white this and standard that, I didn’t want anything on the table that wasn’t either completely blend-in-plain or part of my.. er.. vision. It occured to me I didn’t want standard ugly salt and pepper shakers, and toyed with the idea of vintage ones, or most likely, none at all.
Then luckily, I found a picture of these little sake cups in a magazine, and since research and digging around for information is part of my job, I hunted down the location and found that the manufacturer/distributors of these cups was here in San Francisco at a place called Tampopo. A puppy dog face and a little tugging and we drove across the bay to pick up a bunch of these little cups as salt and pepper bowls. We figured two sets per table would be enough since we don’t expect people really to be seasoning their food.
But I hate salt and pepper bowls that you use your fingers in. It’s just icky to me - who knows where the finger has been! There are foul things on fingers and I don’t want them in my communal salt bowl. On went the quest for spoons.
I found this really easy pomander instruction on the d*s guestblog a while back, conveniently when I was preparing for my housewarming/engagement party. I bought floral foam, mums, and pearl headed pins and set to work.
It isn’t perfect, but it was easy and quick - so if you wanted to make some, I definitely recommend the above instructions! I’m sure with a bit of practice, they won’t look nearly as… err.. oblong.
Thanks so much for the support about my current dress, it has been causing more ridiculous amount of stress since I tried it on last week. I was in tears this morning thinking about all the things I would have to alter in order to even slightly ease the stress about it. Unfortunately, the bridal salon REFUSED to book me an appointment before August when I requested in June, and even gave me a hard time about letting me have one in beginning of August. So when I tried it on last week, they refused to pin me so I’d know how I’d look.
The dress is 2-3 inches too large on me in all measurements and I’m only 5’4″ and wearing flats because Mr. GB is barely taller, so it’s ridiculously long. The waist is several inches lower than my real waist, so I looked like I had midget legs. Of course some of this can be helped, but because of the structure of the gown, I’m not sure how much they can do. The straps are very wide on someone of my size, so they’d have to be thinned out, and once my friends managed to pull to sit on my shoulders properly, there was about 4 inches of overlap on the back, making it look… very awkward.
In all, it’s wholly unflattering on me the way I saw it last week. Thanks to the bridal salon for being entirely unhelpful, I have no idea how it will look if I alter it… that also being a concern. I doubt there are many brides who would buy this dress after it’s been shortened and altered to fit me.
I don’t hate babies. I don’t hate children. But I am incredibly uncomfortable and nervous around them, I don’t really know what to do with them. Mr. Gummibear loves watching me when I’m forced to interact with children. My best friend from elementary school placed her 5 month old little girl on my lap… I just stared at her silently. Mr. GB says to interact, but I just freeze, afraid I’m going to break it. He’s fine, he loves well behaved children - and particularly my friend’s son and daughter.
He wanted to have children at the wedding, at least a ring bearer and flower girl, but we didn’t know any children. A few months after the above awkward event, he asked me if we could ask her about having her two children as part of the ceremony. I told him that her son is a good age, but her daughter is only 1 as of this year, but they are both very very well behaved and really wonderful, so I imagine that if it were possible, they’d be perfect.
Determined, Mr. GB came up with the idea of having her daughter ride in a flower decorated radio flyer being pulled by her brother.
I haven’t talked much about my dress, I’m guessing because I never was 100% sure I got the right one. It’s coming back to haunt me, 5 months later.Does anyone else feel like being pressured to find a dress months before your wedding date puts it on the urgent to-do list? I wish I had spent a whole lot more time prior to my engagement looking at gowns so I had more research under my belt… alas, I waited until months after my ring was on my finger to look at dresses.
Before I go on, I want to start by saying I do love it. I’m just not sure it’s 100% me, and I’m worried about how I’ll feel several hours into the reception.
This is it, the “drama in the back” Monique Lhuillier Scarlet.
You could call me unphotogenic, you could call me shy, or you could just say that I really freaking hate having my photo taken. I’ve hated cameras for most of my life, I attribute that to the ridiculously long awkward phase I had growing up. Sometime between 4th and 5th grade, I got ugly, and it didn’t stop until after high school graduation. It was an unfortunate time for me, and thankfully, all evidence of my previous medusa-face years are locked away.
It didn’t occur to me until a few months into the planning that I was going to have to have photos taken. It was nerve-wrecking. I didn’t want to smile, or have photos of me looking wistful and in love. Honestly, the best photos of me are candid shots with my fingers in my nose or drooling. Mr. GB would mock me, laughing that there would soon be proof that I was alive. So when booking a photographer, I had very important criteria: to have as few posed photos as possible.
I’m paranoid of parents and family pressuring me to take a billion photos by a tree, trying to look my best in a fake smile. Taking the same photo over and over because they didn’t know if it was a good shot or not. That is my worst nightmare. So when we met with who would be our future photographer and he said, “If you want, when anyone else comes up to me to tell me to take a photo, I will tell them ‘I don’t do that.’”
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Mrs. Gummi Bear, San Francisco Age and Occupation: 25, Japanese Importer/Illustrator Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Game Developer/Programmer Engagement Date: April 15, 2006 Wedding Date: October 13, 2007 Blogging Since: June 19, 2007 Venue: Organic farm an hour from San Francisco About Me: I live for anthropologie, design blogs, sweets, japanese zakka, and vintage goods. We just bought our first home together and live with our two puppies and cat - it's a strange mixture of vintage, high-tech (we have 7 computers and 21 video game systems in all), and a whole lot of fur. Our wedding tries to embody the Japanese idea of "slow life", which is truly taking the time to enjoy food, company, and your environment!
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | 30 | 31 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
