- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee Blog
When I first got engaged, I couldn’t help but be like many other girls (including Mrs. Snow Pea 
) and stare at my ring for hours. I have never been a jewelry lover… heck I don’t even have my ears pierced! But something about the little shiny piece of rock on my finger made me love my ring.
I especially love my center stone, which is an oval. I love how well-cut ovals are difficult to find but that my stone sparkles like crazy with no discernible bowtie. I have also never met anyone else in real life who has an oval diamond ring and I love how it’s classic yet unique.
I knew that I could never upgrade my diamond because I’m a very sentimental person and I already love it so much! However, I knew that I would probably change my setting later down the road from 18k white gold to platinum for the durability. But when it came time to purchase our wedding rings, I realized that “later down the road” may come sooner than I thought…
This is the ring Mr Peony proposed with - an oval with pear sidestones:
As promised, here is second half of my DIY Illustrator Map Tutorial. You can view the original here, where we left off with this image:
Hello Weddingbee readers! I know it’s been a while and I admit that I’ve been a very bad blogger. 
I know, please feel free to chastise me. The truth of the matter is, I needed a break from all things wedding-related. Actually, scratch that. I needed a break from my life.
During the past month or so, I haven’t been too well, both mentally and physically. I started to have mini panic attacks spurred by cold feet (I’m so young! Am I ready to settle down? Is Mr Peony THE ONE? A marriage is FOREVER)…and for some reason I felt like the only bride ever who has had these feelings. Both Mr Peony and I were going bananas trying to close on our condo because our bank was being very flaky and uncooperative (luckily that worked out and we’re now homeowners!). Add to that a bunch of other personal matters and….well, you get the idea.
My life was going through some major changes and I was plain scared and freaking out about it. I constantly had migraine headaches, which I’ve never had before. Insomnia would plague me through the night and I would walk around like a zombie during the day. I would avoid the half-finished wedding invitations that vomited all over the basement of my parents’ house because I just didn’t want to deal with it.
Mrs Hibiscus had written a wonderful DIY map tutorial using Powerpoint. Her beautiful map gave me tons of ideas, but I ended up using Adobe Illustrator to draw my own map. Illustrator is a very powerful tool with loads of features, some of which are downright difficult to master, but a basic map can be pretty simple. So I’ve decided to write a step-by-step tutorial for the Weddingbee community.
Before I start, I want to let you know that I am creating this tutorial on Illustrator CS2 on Mac OS X. Therefore there may be small discrepancies if you’re following along on a different version of Illustrator or using Windows, but the basic idea should be the same.
Here is the map image that is included in our invitations:
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.”
I’ve been MIA for a good reason - working on my massive, tri-lingual invites! I promise I’ll write about them after they have been mailed. In the meantime, I wanted to share information on the component of the invite that required the most research: accommodations.
With the average rate of hotels at about $300/night, finding affordable accommodations for our guests in Manhattan is no easy task. Although our wedding and reception will be held in Westchester County (which is 20 minutes northwest of Manhattan), the majority of our out-of-town guests will be visiting for the duration of the weekend and so prefer to stay in Manhattan for all its attractions.
Of course, there are inexpensive options for your stay in Manhattan, such as the New York Youth Hostel located in the upper west side. At about $30 a night this is probably the most economical way to go, aside from crashing at a friend’s or relative’s. You do not have to be a youth to use it, but you do have to be a member of Hostelling International or the American Youth Hostel Association.
Ever since my parents graciously offered to help pay for our honeymoon, I had been talking with various travel agencies. In addition, I exchanged several emails with Weddingbee reader Alys who gave us so much great information and recommendations (thank you!).
Because I had been dreaming of this vacation for so long, I really wanted to visit at least three islands, which meant at least a week-long trip. With the weak dollar and rising fuel costs, it was a bit tough. A couple of travel agencies flat out told me that they couldn’t work with our budget and suggested other places. There were some that completely ignored the budget and presented us with itineraries that were $2,000 more 
. To be honest, I was really surprised that so many agencies would ignore our parameters regarding the budget, length of stay, hotels, etc….. how do they stay in business?
In the end, we decided to go with Homeric Tours who not only created a custom itinerary for just slightly under our budget, but also met each and every one of our requests.
Here’s my dream honeymoon!!!
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
This past couple of weeks have been filled with a lot of drama as our parents’ demands and stubbornness about the wedding have significantly increased. Dealing with traditional Asian parents while planning a wedding is not easy, especially when those parents come from different backgrounds.
I cried. I fought. I stressed. I lost sleep.
Then, the other night, I asked Mr Peony if I was being selfish. He replied, “No you’re not. You’ve already given up your dream wedding because of our parents.”
That last sentence struck me. I always thought of a wedding as more than just the joining of two people - it’s the joining of two families and as a result, a family affair. For this reason, I’ve tried so hard to accommodate both families’ wishes and requests. But after hearing the words spoken from Mr Peony’s mouth, I wondered: at what price?
Miss Chickadee’s post about veils reminded me that I had totally forgotten about mine… or rather, the lack of.
I’m very fortunate that one of my mother’s friends used to own a small bridal accessories boutique where she hand-made most of the items, including veils. She retired from the profession a few years back, but when she heard of my engagement she graciously offered to make a veil for me.
With the end of the year fast approaching I need to decide on a design and tell her. The only thing is, I have no idea what I want.
My dress looks like this (except in pure white):
I love letterpress. Thermography, with its raised effect, is also very beautiful. And who can forget engraving? Swoon!
However, with 250 invitations that need to be printed and the extra pieces from our Korean and Chinese translations, having the invitations professionally printed wasn’t a financially viable option. At this point, every penny counts. Gocco was tempting, but hand-pressing more than 1,500 individual sheets of paper seemed too daunting with a full-time job.
And so Mr Peony and I decided to use (gasp!) our inkjet printer for our invitations. Luckily, we have a high-quality printer (the Canon PIXMA Pro9000) from a project I had done earlier in the year.
Our photographer Danny Weiss is effing awesome! He just posted some teaser pics from last week’s engagement shoot on his blog…
I love the shadow play on these two:
There is one section of every magazine, website, blog, etc that I always skip: the “trends” section or the “what’s in or out” lists.
It’s not that I don’t want to know what’s chic and in style. And sometimes you can really draw inspiration from current trends. I also realize that these lists are not meant to dictate your lives.
I guess my problem with these lists lies in the fact that everyone is different with their own distinct personalities and styles. The wedding industry is always advocating the importance of personalizing your wedding…. so aren’t they in a sense contradicting themselves by publishing these do’s and don’ts? And what if your personal preference are the very things that are outdated or “out?” Does that make your wedding any less beautiful? Will your guests have less fun? Does it have any influence at all on you and your SO’s love and commitment to each other?
This past weekend I attended the wedding celebrations of Mr Peony’s cousin (congratulations, Laura and Wilson!). The MOH mentioned in her speech that Laura knew, just after her third date with Wilson, that they would be getting married one day.
I then turned to Mrs Poppy (my FSIL), who was sitting next to me, and asked if she and Mr Poppy knew right away as well. They did. 
My situation is vastly different. The very first time that I met Mr Peony, he tried to hit on me and I ran away. Fast forward 4 years and we started to become friends. We were friends for a while, then best friends, before he actually made his move. Even then, I’m sorry to say that I don’t think I was that attracted to him. I had been in a series of serious relationships where I had gotten my heart broken numerous times, so I wasn’t looking for anything serious at all - it was all for fun, something I had never done before.
Yesterday Mr Peony and I had our engagement photo session at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I got there a bit early and while waiting on the steps, I noticed a big commotion on the other side of the front stairway - it turns out that they were filming an episode of Gossip Girl. Whenever the director yelled “cut!” and the actors were able to take a break, a gaggle of giggling, screaming fans (mostly teenagers…. why weren’t they at school?) would rush over to take pictures with the stars. 
I think I’ll try to catch an episode to see what the big fuss is all about.
Based on the comments from my e-pic location post, I knew that there was a chance that we’d get kicked out. I had called twice (making sure I spoke with different people) beforehand to double-check their photography policy. Both people told me that we should be fine just as long as we don’t use flash. However, the second person said that it’s really up to the security guard(s) in charge of the galleries where we’d be shooting.
I had written earlier about my choice not to go on a honeymoon for several reasons:
Naturally, I was pretty bummed about this. However, I was adamant that Mr Peony and I start our lives together debt-free and I got over it. Mr Peony and I decided that we can have the romantic vacation of my dreams to the Greek Isles the year after our wedding.
Here is a scene from one of my favorite wedding movies, Father of the Bride. The family is in the middle of cutting down their guestlist…
Nina: All right, what about Harry Kirby? We haven’t seen him in ages.
George: I don’t know.
Annie: Didn’t Harry Kirby die last year?
George: Yes! Good! (upon seeing the look on everyone’s faces) Oh, uh…sorry.
I admit that I just had a George Banks moment. Our guestlist has ballooned from an already healthy 250 to a staggering 350. 
Mr Peony and were going down the list for the bazillionth time, trying to see if we can spare to cut out a few more people, when I came across a plus-one next to a friend (we’ll call her M)’s name.
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Mrs. Peony, New York Age and Occupation: 27, Marketing Coordinator Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, QA Engineer Engagement Date: June 28, 2007 Wedding Date: April 18, 2008 Venue: The Fountainhead Blogging Since: August 7, 2007 About Me: Both Mr. Peony and I are huge computer nerds, and our conversations usually consist of the latest gadgets, programming languages, and video games. At the same time, I can also be very girly with an obsession with handbags, makeup, and high heels. And art! I've studied studio art extensively, almost majored in art history, and freelance as a web and graphics designer. Mr. Peony and I are having a ball of a time planning a wedding for 250(!) guests, doing our best to infuse our personalities (geeky chic) with the wishes of our very traditional Asian parents.
| 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 |
