Weddingbee Blog

MY DISPOSABLE CAMERA NIGHTMARE. DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU.

Last week, I picked up my disposable camera pictures from the wedding. Some of the rolls weren’t able to be processed at all, more than half the prints didn’t come out and the most of the ones that did were of very poor quality. The culprit?

Evidently the company I purchased the disposable cameras from taped film onto old film cartridges. I think they bought film in bulk and then taped them onto recycled film cartridges. See this label? It’s a sticker they printed themselves and put over an old Kodak film cartridge. (Ilford is a brand of film.)

Do you see the crease down the middle on the white tape on the film? When this was put into the developing machine, the tape was too thick for the machine to cut through. The machine jammed and the entire roll was exposed and lost forever.

These are wedding cameras - a once in a lifetime event!! I feel so ripped off!!! All those priceless pictures…. gone.

I’ve read warnings about wedding disposable cameras - how you should have pictures from a disposable camera printed first to see the quality. But I was busier than a bee and I decided at the last minute to have disposable cameras. I never thought that it would happen to me! I’d recommend just buying those Kodak or Fujifilm disposable cameras. At least you’ll know they work. Here’s a template you can print to make your own disposable camera covers.

I’m sending a copy of this blog to the camera company. I’m waiting for their response.

****

Thank goodness for digital cameras or I might really have been devastated. My friends have sent me digital pictures through shutterfly, ophoto, and imagestation. I’ve printed pics through all of these sites and photoexperts - I want to see which one comes out best. I’ve received my pics from photoexperts and ofoto so far. The ones from ofoto are a little bit better, but not much. Here’s an overview of the sites:

Shutterfly

• lets you download condensed image files
• lets you make adjustments such as cropping, red eye removal, add borders
• prints are 25 cents each but if you prepay for prints, they’re as cheap as 19 cents each. I paid 20 cents.

Ofoto

• no photo adjustment options
• lets you download condensed image files
• 25 cents per print

Imagestation

• lets you download full size images
• no photo adjustment features
• 19 cents per print (on sale for 17 cents right now)
• you can avoid shipping charges by picking up your prints from cvs stores

Photoexperts

• no photo adjustment options
• 9 cents per print, but $1.99 developing fee

I think I’ll also check out Snapfish. I’m still sorting through all the pictures. I’m making a photojam for everyone who attended and couldn’t attend the wedding. You can try a limitied version of the software for free - it’s pretty cool. It lets you add music and effects to your pictures and turns them into a story. My friends and family love them whenever I make one.

I know I promised pictures…. I’m still going through them!

Honeymoon pics at last!

It was very easy to travel in Spain because it felt like California in many ways - the weather, the palm trees, the architecture. My high school Spanish came in handy, but it’s pretty easy to get by without speaking the language.

Our Spain itinerary:

Day 1 - Arrive Barcelona. Sleep. Eat.

Day 2 - Half-day bus tour of Cathedral, Olympic Stadiums, and Spanish Village.

Day 3 - Walked around La Rambla and Gothic Quarter. Half-day bus tour of Gaudi’s famous buildings and Guell Park. Picasso Museum.

Day 4 - Fly to Malaga. Drive to our hotel in Marbella.

Day 5 - Drive to Mijas.

Day 6 - Drive to Sevilla.

Day 7 - Drive to Granada.

****

This is our hotel just north of the Plaza Catalunya near the Gothic Quarter.

The view of Barcelona from our window.

The Cathedral in the Gothic Quarter.

See the rainbow in the fountain?

The view of Barcelona from Montjuic - the main area for the ‘92 Olympics.

The Spanish Village. Has replicas of common types of buildings/architecture found throughout Spain. Also the number one field trip destination.

Plaza Catalunya - pigeons galore.

Pic of this man’s painting and the building he was painting.

View of Plaza Catalunya from a restaurant on the top floor of the El Corte Ingles mall.

My food was delicioso. Black rice with lobster and prawns.

Dinner later that night at El Denorio. Very yummy. Coffee means tiny cups of espresso in Europe. No grandes here. Though they do have Starbucks of course.

The buildings on the corners of streets in Barcelona are all shaped like this.

The famous street “La Rambla.” Street names are posted on buildings instead of on street corners. Mickey says hello to me.

There are tons of street performers on La Rambla. This witch was soooo scary. After I took a picture and didn’t leave any money, he/she gave me the most evil glare and pointed at the money jar.

There’s a bird market on the second block of La Rambla but you can find all kinds of animals from hamsters to fish to turtles to lizards on this street. Here a pigeon steals food from the caged parrots.

Mercat de la Boqueria - the famous and colorful market.

A Korean store!

Pictures of the animals above the meat.

Walking around the Gothic Quarter.

Look Karen… a Kendo supply store!

A sculpture by Roy Lichtenstein (the first pic).

A statue of Christopher Columbus pointing towards his hometown of Malaga.

Resting for a refreshing beer on a warm day.

More street performers and 3 card monty.

These angels were so freaky. Mr. Bee gave them some money and the one on the right said to me in a super high-pitched, “Here is a star for all your wishes to come true.”

Gaudi’s buildings Battlo House and La Pedrera.

Guell Park. Gaudi designed this entire Park. He lived in the pink house below. The little black things are big ants…. not real ones.

These houses look like something out of Hansel and Gretel.

This is a turnabout for horses with carriages to make a u-turn.

This is Gaudi’s masterpiece - La Sagrada Familia (the Sacred Family). He died in 1926 while designing this building. The building still isn’t finished though Barcelona hopes to complete it by the 100th anniversary of Gaudi’s death.

Gaudi was extremely religious and the building is covered in religious monuments.

On the plane landing in Malaga.

The view of the Mediterranean sea from our hotel.

We rented a car and drove to Marbella - a seaside resort town where we were staying. If you’re not hanging out on the beach though, there isn’t that much to do here.

A boat turned into a barbecue pit. I love the smell of campfire.

Tons of stray cats in Spain. But they’re much friendlier than the ones we have here. These are 2 different cats.

Hotel pool. There were even fireworks on the beach the first night we arrived!

The drive to Sevilla from Marbella is about 50 miles through a mountain. It was soooo foggy that we had to turn back because the roads are super curvy, we couldn’t see, and Europeans don’t know the meaning of speed limit. I think the speed limits posted are merely “suggestions.”

So instead we went to Mijas - a mountain village with typical whitewashed Moorish architecture.

The next day we headed through the mountains to Sevilla again. It has to be one of the most gorgeous drives I’ve ever been on. We even saw wild Andalucian sheep!

There were miles and miles of green meadows. It looked like the windows xp wallpaper.. I think it’s called Bliss?

Bridges of Seville.

The Cathedral. (There’s a major one in every city).

There are tons of orange trees in Seville… and all throughout Spain.

Driving to Granada the next day. It was another gorgeous drive along the coast. Here we pass by a dam and windmills.

The Alhambra in Granada. It was closed so we only got to see certain parts of it, but it was nice that there were so few people. It’s usually jam packed with tourists like us.

More stray cats.

Dogs even wander around. They’re not strays though. This husky drank out of the fountain and the jack russell looks like the dog from The Mask!

Toasting our last night in Spain. Food and drinks would have been cheap if only the dollar weren’t so weak.

If I could visit only one city in Spain, it would be Barcelona. It’s a city that’s thoroughly modern yet is still able to preserve it’s history and culture. My favorite parts of the trip were the Rambla, Gothic Quarter and Guell Park in Barcelona… the drive from Marbella to Seville… and the Alhambra in Granada.

The not so good….

• The dollar was so weak against the euro. Something like .65 euro to 1 dollar.
• Though we had some good meals, overall we didn’t like the food. Everything was soooo salty and they hardly eat any vegetables. It’s all meat and bread. We had some major constipation action going on.
• I’d read on chatboards about how friendly Spainards were - we didn’t find this to be the case for the most part. The hotel staff in Barcelona were first rate but they sucked ass in Marbella. A stewardess pushed me out of the way to make way for a wheelchair she was pushing. People shove, cut in line, and are generally impatient. You know when you exit a plane you let the people in front of you exit first? You have to push your way into the aisle in Spain.
• People really speed. Highways are 2 lanes and they use the left lane only for passing. When you’re not going fast enough, even if you’re only in the left lane for a couple of seconds to pass, they ride your ass and keep flicking their highbeams. One time a guy yelled, “Puto!” as he passed us. That wasn’t very nice. The signage is also extremely confusing. 4 names for the same freeway. By the time we left though, I felt pretty comfortable with all the roads. On the plus side, the roads are in great condition - not a pothole to be seen so they’re easy to drive on.

Still we had a wonderful time. Spain is very beautiful and very clean everywhere. Makes you realize how dirty New York is. You really do need a vacation after the stress of a wedding. Though there wasn’t that much to do in Marbella, it was perfect because it gave us a chance to relax. We’d done a lot in Barcelona and didn’t recover from the jetlag and postwedding stress until we had a nice 12 hour sleep our first night in Marbella. Spain is a beautiful country. I’d definitely go back… but I’m bringing kimchi with me next time.

Still organizing wedding pictures. It’s hard work man.

My dress is pretty filthy around the hem from all the dancing I did at the wedding. Today I called J. Scheer - a company that specializes in wedding gown cleaning and preservation. The quote? $395 to clean. $595-$695 for cleaning and preservation. I get a $100 discount because I bought my dress at the Bridal Atelier… so $495-$595 for cleaning and preservation. Wowsers. That’s the cost of another dress.

I’m still debating what to do with my dress. I bought it with the intention of selling it because I thought I could recoup at least 50% of the cost. My dress wasn’t available in stores until this spring because I bought it at a trunk show last fall. I thought there’d be a lot of interest in my dress since it’s from this season and it’s a pretty classic style. Anyway, I still love my dress. Parting with it… seems bittersweet. I want to wear it again! Should I keep it or sell it? Will my daughter actually wear it? Dilemmas.

I suppose my options are:

a) Sell it.

b) Save it for my daughter/niece/relative/friend.

c) Donate it to charity.

I have no idea what I’m going to do.

In retrospect there were many things that I would have done differently the wedding day. But you’re just so busy that you don’t have the time to think about or do them. These are the biggest regrets and the biggest hits from our wedding… maybe they’ll be helpful for you.

What I would have done differently…

1. I should have spent 10 minutes walking around and taking pictures of the little details like the menus, photo collage, tissue packets, drink menus etc. When I take pictures I’m always thinking about my blog in the back of my mind so I take pictures of everything. I want to tell a story and make the reader feel like they were there with me. I put so much work into each little detail and I wanted to document everything. This is my single biggest regret.

2. I should have saved the placecards (specifically mine and Mr. Bee’s) so I could scrapbook them. I didn’t save any menus either.

3. I should have gotten another hair and make-up trial. I understand now why people get up to 6 trials. My hair and make-up was ok at the trial - I didn’t love it. But I just figured that it would be ok on my wedding day. Boy was I wrong. You must LOVE your hair and make-up otherwise you won’t be happy the entire day. In fact, you’ll probably cry. On the plus side, since I started the day off with such a disaster, the subsequent things that went wrong didn’t faze me as much.

4. Don’t leave any preparations til the last day if you are having guests stay with you before the wedding. You should be able to relax the day before your wedding, which I wasn’t able to do because I hadn’t finished all my projects. Having guests stay with us turned out to be a mixed blessing though because I am so in love with my new niece and nephew and I got to know Mr. Bee’s sisters.

5. I should have designated a person to go around and take polaroids of the guests for our polaroid guestbook so I would have a shot of all our guests. Not everyone took a picture of themselves and my ringbearer took off with the camera for some of the night. The wish cards that were filled out and polaroids that were taken turned out great. We loved reading them after the wedding.

6. The number one problem I read about weddings in messageboards is with the car/limo being late. Our car was 40 minutes late. I would recommend telling the car company a pick-up time 30 minutes to one hour earlier than the actual time you need the car.

7. Because I was late, Mr. Bee and I didn’t get to spend some time alone together before going out to take pictures like we had planned.

Things that we did right…

1. Having a day of wedding coordinator. I would have paid double for the peace of mind they offered me. There were many crises but they handled all of them perfectly. They were the first ones to arrive and the last ones to leave - staying until the firefighters got my parents out of the elevator.

2. Have a wedding dress attendant when going around the city to take pictures. My friends yumbear and You_and_I_Both were a big help fixing my dress, holding my flowers, helping me get in and out of the car…. You got a lot of things going on - you need an assistant… or two.

3. Serving white wine and water to guests before the ceremony started. It loosened up the atmosphere and gave guests a chance to mingle.

4. I made a photo collage of most of our guests and displayed it on an easel at the entrance. It gave guests something to do before the ceremony started and they had great fun looking for their picture. I color copied my 35 mm pictures and printed my digital pics on my printer so I could crop them without destroying the originals.

5. Having a really short ceremony. My bridesmaids thanked me because it’s hard to stand up there. We were also having a paebaek ceremony so a short ceremony was nice.

6. The paebaek ceremony. The company I used did a fantastic job and everyone LOVED it.

7. Including a description of the paebaek ceremony in our programs.

8. Putting vaseline on my teeth so lipgloss wouldn’t stain my teeth. I’m not used to wearing lip gloss and it really gets on your teeth. This is an excellent trick.

9. The disposable cameras and poems. My ringbearer probably single handedly used at least 3 cameras but I saw guests using them and I think some great shots will come from them.

10. Everyone loved the newsletters because we gave them details about our wedding party, our honeymoon and a timeline of our entire relationship. We placed them on each chair before the guests entered the reception area.

11. The tissue packets for the guests’ “tears of joy.”

12. Working together to create the perfect seating chart and putting the placecards at each setting. This took a lot of thinking on our part, but a big part of the success of the wedding was seating the right people together. Having designated seating was so much better than having guests carry their placecards over to their table and letting them sit wherever they wanted.

13. Signature drinks. We put the drink recipes in frames on the bar and guests ordered them all night. I think we went through 12 bottles of Starr African Rum. Love Potion was so yummy.

14. The Polaroid wishing well was great but we should have had an attendant for it.

15. The bathroom baskets. People really used the stuff in them… specifically the tampons.

16. Going around to each table and thanking everyone for coming. We got to meet friends and family from each side that we hadn’t met before. Our wedding planner thought that it took up too much time at her wedding, but I’m really glad we did it.

17. Not having a head table. Made it easier to just be comfortable and mingle with all our friends and family.

18. Having a band and a dj. The band did a great job - people were on the dance floor all night. The dj for the last 2 hours really turned the dancing up a notch. My flowergirl danced for 3 hours straight without a single break. I don’t think there was a single person who didn’t dance. This is a miracle for an Asian wedding!!!

19. Staying at the Ritz Carlton. I’d never stayed at a 5 star hotel before, but the Ritz was only $230 a night and a couple of blocks from our apartment. I booked a city view room and they upgraded us to a harbor view room with the Statue of Liberty right out our window because it was our wedding night. The service was absolutely impeccable. A+. You deserve to be pampered a bit on your wedding night.

20. Our wedding was from 5:00 pm - 11:00 pm. It was the perfect length of time.

21. Leaving for our honeymoon 2 days after the wedding so we had time to rest, hang out with our family, and pack.

And we’re off to Spain today. See you next week!!!!

What is it like to get married? Bee’s wedding day….

Slept 5 hours. Woke up at 7:20 on wedding day. Got to salon by 8:30 for hair and make-up. Was done by 11:30. Everyone hated my hair and make-up. Went to hotel next to salon where maid of honor redid hair and make-up. Was supposed to arrive at wedding hotel by 11:45 to change into dress and meet photographer, Mr. Bee and my two assistants. Arrived at 12:50 and went to room to change. Took pictures behind the hotel with views of the Hudson River and the Statue of Liberty. Crossed the Brooklyn Bridge and took pictures at a park with spectacular views on Manhattan, Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge in the background. Back to the city to take pics in front of governor’s mansion.

Arrived at salon by 2:50 to pick up wedding party. They were late coming out. Arrived at Loft by 3:15. Caterers and florists were still setting up. Took family and wedding party pics until 4:15. Rehearsed until 4:35. Signed marriage license with our witnesses. Judge loved my photo collage and newsletters.

4:40 Early guests started arriving, ceremony musicians played. At about 4:45 I started having major butterflies in my stomach. I am very very nervous about walking down the aisle though I have been fine all day long. Guests signed guestbook scroll, looked at photo collage and enjoyed white wine and water. 5:20-ish Canon in D is played - wedding party walks out. I almost cry listening to Canon in D. Took deep breaths because I have a million butterflies…about to have heart attack. Walk out to Bridal March with my dad. Everyone is standing and facing me. Breathe…. walk….breathe…

Up at the altar they have Mr. Bee and me facing each other rather than having our backs to the audience. I don’t want to look in Mr. Bee’s eyes because it’s making me want to cry. I can feel tears welling up as we are saying our vows so I look to the side of his eyes. (I later find out all the groomsmen saw this) Luckily the ceremony is very short and we’re officially husband and wife!

5:40 - 11:00 Cocktail hour, paebaek, band starts playing, first course, first dance, dance set, main course, best man/maid of honor speeches, father/daughter mother/son dance, dance set, cake cutting, bouquet toss, dj plays.

Time has never flown by so fast in my life. I talked to several people today post wedding, and the consensus for their favorite part of the wedding seems to be the paebaek ceremony. I am so glad we decided to do the paebaek ceremony because I hadn’t planned on it at first. My mom and my aunt looked beautiful in their hanboks.

I can’t post pics because my camera is broken. But my cousin sent me the firefighter pics!! The firefighters were huge!!! This is me and my family after my parents finally got out of the elevator. Sorry the quality isn’t the greatest. Mr. Bee is the brownhead.

****

My flowergirl asked her mom why she was calling me two insects because my name is Aunt Bee (ant bee). LOL!!! Not only does she look adorable, she acts so adorable and says the cutest things!!! And she’s so sweet, smart, and not spoiled. Everyone at the wedding just wanted to eat her.

Some pics of her from last year.

Everyone tells you that the day goes by so fast and it really does. Sooooo many things went wrong but overall the day was wonderful and the good definitely outweighed the bad.

The bad stuff

1. I HATED my hair and make-up after getting it done at the salon. Can you imagine? It makes you want to cry and how can you look happy in the pictures when you hate the way you look? Thank goodness my maid of honor saved the day by redoing my make-up. She did a fantastic job and I got a million compliments from even the toughest critics.

2. But that made me an hour late to take city pictures so my friends Joyce and Yumi, and Mr. Bee and the photographer had to wait for me and we didn’t get to take as many pictures as we wanted.

3. Our car arrived 40 minutes late, but I was late so that didn’t matter… but still!!

4. The photographer realized she had her camera on the wrong setting after we finished our half hour of posed pictures with our family and wedding party. We had to retake all of them and because of time constraints we weren’t able to take all of them over again.

5. I HATED the cake. It wasn’t what I ordered - they made a hideous orangey ribbon out of fondant instead of the candy ribbon I requested. The funny thing is, this was the thing that made me the most mad. The other things that went wrong were out of my control, but the cake was something that should have gone right. I heard that the baker was given a black and white printout of the cake. That stilll doesn’t explain why the ribbon was orange because he knew red roses were going on the cake. My wedding planners put a white ribbon around the orangey ribbon and it looked a lot better. But I was still pretty peeved!

6. My ring bearer dropped and broke my digital camera and I’m leaving for Spain!

7. My parents got stuck in the elevator at the end of the night for an hour and a half and the fire department had to come rescue them.

The good stuff

1. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. I took pictures in my dress outside and I wasn’t cold at all.

2. Our driver was a very good driver and knew the roads very well. Our photographer said he was the best wedding driver she’d ever had. He made the most of the time we had to take pictures.

3. My flowergirl and ring bearer are just about 2 of the cutest kids in the entire world. Everyone at the wedding fell in love with them and they really got everyone dancing. My flowergirl danced for 3 hours straight without a single break.

4. Our venue was beautiful. I loved all the flowers.

5. Everyone danced and had the greatest time.

6. Everyone could tell how happy Mr. Bee and I were.

Perhaps I’ll have time to upload some pictures later.