Weddingbee Blog

So, remember my eyelash post a long while ago? The general consensus from the comments (thanks everyone!) was to go for the faux lashes. While I really liked how they made my lashes extra long and flirty, I did notice that the density of lashes at the band really changed the whole look of my eyes in general… and not in a way that I necessarily wanted. Even more of a deterrent in the case for the falsies was Mr. Plumeria’s immediate reaction: “Ew. You look so much better without them. You look like a doll in those pictures.” *sees my face sort of fall* “Well, I mean, it’s really up to you and what you feel would look best. Do whatever you want.” Then, inserted hastily: “But, ew!”

I had a sinking feeling right away that they were not going to work, no matter how dramatic they might look, because I do NOT want to walk down that aisle to him with him thinking that I look like plastic. In the end, I don’t mind so much because I’m not quite expert at applying them anyway… and I can always save them for a night out sometime.

So I embarked on a journey to find the perfect mascara to give me some length, but without the unnatural look of the false lashes. The main requirements? Absolutely smudge-proof, even through potential tears, and absolutely clump-free as well: the two reasons I had liked the false lashes. If I could find a miracle mascara that could do both of these, then there would be no reason to wear fakes.

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My gown arrived last week, in the nick of time for our formal portraits this weekend (!!!), and given my dress track record, I can’t say that I wasn’t slightly apprehensive as I headed over to Debra’s store (Dori Anne Veils) to try it on and then take it home with me.

All I can say is: I shouldn’t have worried. The dress is even more gorgeous now that it’s in my size, and I cannot wait to wear it!! I feel doubly blessed because I get to wear it and get all dressed up twice: once for our portraits, and once more for the wedding. This is truly my dream gown - its crystal and embroidery details are simple but stunning, the silk taffeta is airy and makes delicate swishing noises, and the overall silhouette is exactly what I’ve pictured…

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One thing I’ve realized as I plan for our wedding is that the big day isn’t just for us, but for our parents, too. I have a very close and nurturing relationship with my parents, and I know that they are anticipating the wedding day with almost as much eagerness as I am. My mom doesn’t normally show a lot of emotion, but I know that she is super excited to be the mother of the bride on that day. I can tell, because she is so excited about what she is going to wear and finding accessories that will match! My mom searched around for a dress for a while before finding one that she really liked - and to my surprise, she found it online! Chadwicks.,/ has a nice selection of well-made gowns at affordable prices. One of my mom’s good friends surprised her by purchasing this gown for her, after my mom showed it to her online:

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No, I don’t know even a shred of French, but my cousin does, and she expanded the normal abbreviation in the subject title of her RSVP email. Yep, that’s right — an RSVP email!

I think, while it may be considered a wedding faux pas (I’m busting out all the French I know in one post! ), including an email option on the RSVP card was one of the best choices Mr. Plumeria and I made, simply for the convenience of our guests, and subsequently, for ourselves! We are just starting to send out invitations in “waves” to our hundreds of guests, and so far I’ve received over ten replies, both accepting and declining with regrets, over email (a common comment is that they don’t want to tear the RSVP card off because they think it’s pretty! Oh be still my heart. Hahaha!).

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So, here’s a breakdown of how I did my invitations for those of you who asked. I’ll post more about the other paper goods (programs, etc.) I did in the same print run a bit later, as they get assembled.

To start, everything was designed in Adobe Illustrator CS2, which combines the means to draw graphics, such as the modern floral motif I created for the invites, with the capability to add text and do single-page layout work. This and Adobe InDesign are two programs I use daily at work and for most of my other projects as well.

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Albertsons?!

Yep, that’s right, and they’re beautiful, too!

Recently, I went to a San Jose bridal fair with my future mother-in-law, who works at the corporate level for Albertson’s/SaveMart’s floral department, and checked out all of the booths while she supervised her own. Coming back around full circle after a trip around the whole show to the grocery store chain’s table, I realized that not many people are aware that such places do provide wedding flower services. Even those few people who do know of grocery stores’ offerings might not realize the host of options and the level of quality they can provide. (Added bonus: they do cakes and cupcakes, too!)

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For me as a graphic designer, the aesthetics of our big day have become the biggest creative problem I’ve tackled yet, and it’s probably been one of the most frustrating design processes I’ve been through. Why? Because I keep changing my mind!

You may remember a long while ago, when I happily posted about nailing down a design for invitations and other stationery. Little did I know that that was far from the truth: the motif I shared back then was number seven out of eleven concepts that I didn’t end up using. I finally made my decision and had the invitations printed at a local East Bay press in the last two weeks… and I must unashamedly say that I’m proud of how they turned out! And here they are, designed from the heart:

The outside envelope is a clear vellum Policy #10 envelope, from envelopemall. A custom “To:” label is stuck on strategically to hide personal information (which, on all these pics, has been blurred). All inks were custom picked: a light teal blue and a subtly metallic gold-green.

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I know I’ve been MIA this past week but I promise lots of wedding-related projects have been happening that I’ll share with you all soon! For now, though — just thought I’d let you Cali girls know that Cherished in Walnut Creek (East Bay Area) is having a big closing sale from this Saturday, March 3rd, to next Saturday, March 10th, with already-reduced prices slashed an additional 10-80%. Cherished is a consignment bridal shop that, judging from their online catalog, carries many high-end designer gowns for way less than half the original price. As a disclaimer, I haven’t been there personally, as my gown search is over, but for those of you still shopping, a visit could yield a real bargain. Check them out:

CHERISHED
2635 N. Main Street
Walnut Creek, CA 94597
(925)280-0128
www.cherishedweddinggowns.com

They do sell online, but for other brides around the U.S., check out www.bridepower.com as an additional resource which seems similar to Cherished. I’ve seen several Knotties who have found a gorgeous, well-made sample or consignment designer dress on Bridepower for a mere fraction of the original retail price. One small policy to take note of: the best deals ($499 or less) are not cleaned or repaired by the company if they need a little bit of help — the individual listings usually have some sort of description regarding the gown’s condition. Most seem to be in excellent condition, and still, if one can snab an Amsale, Vera Wang or Reem Acra creation for a price as low as $199, getting it freshened up on one’s own could be well worth it!

And up soon, for the SF area brides: stores I went to during my own gown search, and which ones you should visit if you’re in the middle of yours!

I got the latest ads for Sephora in the mail the other day and noticed that they now carry the Zeno (or did they always and I didn’t know?). I had forgotten completely about my experience with this product, but now that I’ve been reminded I thought I’d share a review with you all. I know most of us are planning to use makeup on the big day to even out and cover up, but wouldn’t it be best to not have to?

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For our wedding, the roles of flowergirl and ringbearer are both held by children who are very dear to us. I picked out a flowergirl dress that I thought was adorable a while ago and ran it by the little girl’s mother (my future sister-in-law) and my future mother-in-law. When both of them heartily agreed that it was one of the cutest dresses out there, I ordered it. I only have one FG, so I didn’t mind that the price was a bit higher than most dresses; I only had to buy one. (I’ll post pics when it comes in!)

However, for those of you who have several little ones or are looking for cheaper options than what’s offered in the bridal realm, I was at Target the other day and saw some worthy flowergirl dress contenders. I presume they’re in for Easter, judging from the white straw hats adorned with plastic flowers in the accompanying display, but if your colors happened to match, they could pass for wedding apparel in a heartbeat. Here are some of the pickings, from Target.com:

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Let me start out by saying we’ve never been really big on celebrating holidays together. In fact, the first year we were dating, we didn’t even remember our one year anniversary until the day afterwards! And when it comes to birthdays, it’s not uncommon for our gifts to each other to not be a surprise. Yeah, I know, boring. Last year, we didn’t do anything for Valentine’s. This year, though, we did both do a little something nice for each other, and I have to admit I really enjoyed the special treatment.

Over the weekend, I visited Aran’s Colour and Glaze Studio, a little paint-your-own pottery place in the small city of Castro Valley, in the East Bay Area. Aran’s has been a favorite place of mine to go to to relax and let some creativity flow: aspiring artists pick out a blank, unfinished white piece of pottery, paint it with the provided materials, and return to the studio a few days later to pick up the final, glazed piece. The beauty of the whole process is that the result is a one-of-a-kind and personalized gift, and it’s fun, too! (Hmm… bridesmaids’ gifts, anyone?) I made a mug there a long time ago for Mr. Plumeria, but it has since gotten chipped, and Valentine’s was the perfect excuse to make a new one. Last time, I did an abstract, bold graphic across the entire mug. This time, I decided to make one that he would love: a Super Mario brothers mug!

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I’ve heard from other brides that a “wedding purse” is really not needed. When I thought about it, I realized that I’d never really seen photographs of a bride carrying a purse around on her wedding day. Upon “further research” (aka. looking through Knot bios and other people’s photos), it seemed that the bride carried only her bouquet, and her purse, if she even had one, ended up getting toted around by the bride’s mom or Maid of Honor. I had to concede that a purse for me on the wedding day, much less a matching purse, was an unnecessary luxury.

But nevertheless, I bought my wedding purse some time ago on Ebay, and it’s pretty, sparkly, and somewhat matches… and I couldn’t be more pleased about it. When I first won the auction, the seller was out of stock of the right purse, so I had to wait a little while to receive it (he did offer me a choice of any of the other ones he had, but I decided to hold out), but it was worth it! It came in the mail a little while ago, in perfect condition and exactly what I’d imagined.

I purchased the silver one so there would be a slight chance I’ll get to use it again, maybe for a fancy dinner or something. Since my dress has silver embroidery, I figured it would be fine. (Ironically, a reader posted a while ago looking for the white version of the exact same clutch, so I know that does exist, as well.) It’s a clutch purse, but has two different handles to use if desired.

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I blogged a looonnnng time ago about Hibiscus Florals, a Canada-based company that specializes in “silk” florals that are exceptionally well-made and realistic-looking (perfect for destination brides who want to take care of this ahead of time, or outdoor brides with bouquets of more delicate blooms, to ease worries about wilting).

I decided a while ago to order a customized bouquet and boutonniere set to use for our wedding portrait shoot, which is scheduled for a month or so before the wedding. I worked directly with Jackie and Mark, the two owners of Hibiscus Florals, and my experience collaborating with them was absolutely wonderful. They asked questions, clarified things for confused me multiple times, and went above and beyond to exceed my wishes!

Finally, yesterday evening, my beautiful bouquet and boutonniere arrived. I couldn’t even speak when I saw the contents of the package — the items inside look so real and live, even close up it’s hard to tell that they’re not. The bouquet looks even more beautiful than I imagined, and if my future mother-in-law was not in the floral business and handling all of our flowers personally, I would definitely use it for the actual wedding day (and trust me, I’m picky!!). I think, at this point, some photos are in order…

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I’m blessed with fairly non-tempermental skin that breaks out occasionally, but usually is pretty calm. It’s combination — I tend to get oily around my T-zone around midday, while the tops of my cheeks and the rest of my face stay more dry.

I worked in a flagship Bath and Body Works store with my best friend, Jasmine, for a few years in high school, and we both became skincare nuts for a little while. The flagship stores sell a lot of third party, high-end brands like Murad, Peter Thomas Roth, DDF, Molton Brown, and others — so there was a lot of opportunity to get sucked into buying products full of mysterious ingredients and promises of beautiful skin on their packaging. And we did get sucked in sometimes!

What I ultimately learned after applying all sorts of different things to my face? The more basic (and, usually, cheap), the better a product worked for me — with the simple reason being that the expensive products tend to have more complex ingredient lists. More ingredients = more potential components for your skin to react to and flare up in retaliation.

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Like a few of the other Bees, Mr. Plumeria and I do not currently live together — so starting out together as a married couple is REALLY starting out together for us. In terms of furnishing our home, I have a lot of decorator odds and ends and kitchen items from the college days, not to mention plenty of paintings and artwork (also from the college days, as an Art and Design major), but not much to speak of when it comes to furniture.

We had earlier resigned ourselves to making do with my college futon as our sofa and getting cheap IKEA and/or used furniture for everything else. Somehow, though, things furniture-wise have been falling into place unexpectedly. Just last week, we went to see some of my wonderful relatives, who offered us their sofa and loveseat set, as they are buying some new ones to fit the decor in their home better. The set is only a few years old, practically new in appearance, and as modern as I could wish for!

And now, just a week later, this, as an insanely generous wedding present from my grandparents: the Carolina 6-piece queen bedroom set from Costco, now on sale at Costco.com! We’ve been joint Costco members for a while, and I have to say that shopping at the large warehouse store has helped us to save money, but this well-made furniture set is probably one of the nicest things we’ve gotten from there.

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