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Weddingbee Blog
Since the first knot we tied was in Japan during the cherry blossom festival, we’re incorporating some elements of that day into our celebration. I have to admit, my first vision was way overboard. While Mr. Donut and I enjoyed our time in Japan and think we have a really cool story to tell the grandkids, the way the planning was going really wasn’t very reflective of who we are as individuals or as a couple. We are keeping a few elements, though, one of them being 1,001 origami cranes.
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I knew pretty much from the beginning that shopping for a dress was gonna be tricky for me. After all, a bride needs that person or that group of people who will tell her, straight up, that that dress she loves so much in the magazine “just looks, well, horrible on you.” I wasn’t going to have that. All of my people were on another continent. I’d send my mom and my sister pictures of dresses I liked and in return I would receive a noncommittal “It’s pretty, but I’d have to see it on you.” Good point. I needed to get up close and personal with these dresses. I needed to try them on. But try googling Monique Lhuillier and you’ll discover that she isn’t sold here in Singapore.
Melissa Sweet? Nope.
Amsale? Christos? Lazaro? Oscar? Nada.
What about Vera? Someone’s got to be selling Vera. OK, there is one shop here that sells Vera and Reem Arca, and I think one more that sells Jim Hjelm. Other than that, Singapore doesn’t have a single shop that sells any of the designers found on The Knot. Tricky was becoming trickier. What was a bride in Singapore to do?
Look what arrived today, all the way from the U.S. of A.!
This time last year I knew two things. First, that we were moving to Singapore. Second, we were getting married. Our first concern was the when and the where. Once that had been determined, it was time to get down to business and start on the details. Of course, like any giddy, brand new bride-to-be the first detail that came to mind was The Dress. Since we were still in Mongolia with nary a bridal salon in sight, I turned to the ever trusty Internet to do some virtual dress shopping.
My first stop was The Knot. I think every bride knows what an invaluable tool The Knot is and I am no exception. I pored over countless dresses, popping over to designers’ websites if I really liked their work, then hitting google for more eye candy if I really, really liked a specific style. This lead to the discovery of sites such as Preowned Wedding Dresses (.com), Your Dream Dress, and Scarlett’s Closet. These sites carry preowned or sample dresses and they provide one very important piece of information I can’t seem to find anywhere else - they list the original price for each gown. If, after all the research, I still wanted to “try it on”, I’d save it in a special file simply titled “The Bride”. Here are just a few of my favorites:
from Scarlett’s Closet
{Christos gown}
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.”
In true Southern style, Mama and Papa Donut are hosting our wedding and reception. Out of a sense of fairness, they offered me the same deal they offered my Sister Donut when she got married in 2001. They would pay X amount of money and then we would be responsible for anything over that amount. OK, cool. I know how lucky I am to have parents who are willing and able to help foot the wedding bill. So with parental blessings and a number in mind, we began planning our day.
One of the very first things Mr. Donut and I worked on together was our guest list. We have a certain kind of day in mind. We want to treat our guests to a really special weekend with lots of good food and drink, and plenty of things to see and do. Given that we have a pretty set budget, this means that the smaller the party, the more the trimmings, which is great, since we want to spend our day with a few people who are truly special to us, not a bunch of people neither of us know. So, we set some rules for ourselves:
Wow! That was a crazy Christmas! My sincerest apologies for the long absence. I truly thought that I would be able to blog more while on our trip home. I now know it was crazy wishful thinking. Between all the adventures Mr. Donut’s family in North Carolina had planned for us, my adorable but energetic little nephews in Mississippi, running around frantically trying to meet with people for the wedding, visiting with family and friends, AND enduring a bout of stomach flu, there was surprisingly very little free time. So, after all this activity I am happy to report that Mr. Donut and I are back in Singapore safe and sound.
And with news. Let me give you a hint:
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Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Everywhere, that’s where! Mr. Donut and I began our annual Holiday Tour home a week and a half ago and it’s been nonstop ever since. First we went to London where he had interviews (keep your fingers crossed). I must say, it takes an insanely long time to get from Singapore to London. What with the flying through like a gabillion time zones (OK, it’s only 8), the 6 hour layover in Doha, time spent in airports and on “The Tube”, we figured it was something around 28 hours from house to hotel. Without a shower. Or any real amount of sleep. Yum. Needless to say we were exhausted and crashed like a ton of bricks shortly after arriving.
Oh, but London was so completely worth it! It was cold and Christmasy and we had to bundle up wherever we went - quite the change from hot and sticky Singapore. For the most part the weather was lovely. We had just one day of rain, so I was able to explore the city. I think that the best way to learn a new city is just to get lost in it, so I like to have a map and plenty of time to find my way around. Together Mr. Donut and I toured The Tower of London, went to an evensong service at St Paul’s Cathedral, and strolled passed Buckingham Palace. Believe it or not, we even had some pretty good food! Sadly the one thing that I was not really able to do was blog. And I had such visions of me and my trusty iBook in a cafe, hard at work JK Rowling style! Oh, well, maybe next time…
Mr. Donut and I are having 4 little ones take an active part in our ceremony. Hopefully anyway - you never can tell with little kids. Between us, we have 3 nephews who we adore. The oldest, my nephew and godson, will be our ring bearer. The other two will be honorary ushers. One will escort my grandmother down the aisle to her seat. The other, who is Mr. Donut’s nephew, will usher his grandma. They will all be wearing this flax linen short and vest set from Luli/Frankie Boys…
I don’t know what it is, but butterflies have a thing for me. Once, in Houston, Mr. Donut and I went to the Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Museum of Natural History. It’s a “…living exhibit that showcases hundreds of live butterflies in a naturalistic rainforest setting.” While sitting on a bench, a beautiful blue butterfly landed on my foot and, since you aren’t suppose to touch them, I let him rest there for a few minutes before trying to shake him off. He wouldn’t budge. No amount of shaking could encourage him to fly away. Finally after about 10 minutes I very lightly touched his feet and off he went.
Then, on a trip to the Summer Palace in Beijing last summer, one landed on my face - right between my eyes, long enough to take a picture before flying away.
Once we had our where and when, it was time to get down to the aesthetics and where better to begin than color? We want to be able to tie our first and second wedding days together as much as possible. Now, I cannot tell a lie. I love pink. The Boy jokes that it doesn’t matter what it is, if it’s pink, I am drawn to it like a moth to a flame. And it’s true. I am not afraid to embrace the pink, so of course I love the fact that cherry blossom pink is a color that links the two events perfectly. I’m not, however, a Shelby “my colors are blush and bashful” bride. My philosophy is too much of a good thing is simply too much. So we chose celadon green as our main color, with pale pink and white as accent colors.
Here is my inspiration picture.
{from knottie TheSteph03}
I love our color palate. I don’t care how many times I see this color combo, I always think it’s wonderfully fresh and romantic and perfect.
How did you choose your wedding colors?
Instead of bird seed or flower petals or sparklers, how amazing would this be for an evening send off of the bride and groom…?
Sky lanterns are an Asian tradition. They are made from rice or mulberry paper and bamboo, and work like hot air balloons that rise and float back down to the ground. Some believe that, as they rise, they take away your troubles and bring good luck. Others think of them as a symbol of family security. Guests can write their wishes for the couple and the lanterns will “carry them to Heaven”.
Even though we’re married, we have yet to exchange rings and say “I do”. We’re saving that for the oh so charmingly Southern celebration we’re planning for family and friends next May. Since we’re asking most of our guests to travel to be with us on our special day, our location had to meet certain criteria. It had to be an amazing destination, but a place they might not go without some sort of excuse. It had to be a place where some of the things they’d want to see could be included in our venues. It had to have things to do outside of our wedding, but not so many things that they would feel overwhelmed. The location had to reflect our love of Southern hospitality and tradition in an intimate and romantic setting. And it had to have good BBQ, per The Boy’s request.
{Natchez, Mississippi}
The Boy and I are lucky enough to do a lot of traveling. In the past year we’ve been to Shanghai, Japan, Bali, and Beijing, and we’re always asked if we’re on our honeymoon. Well, we like to think that we’re living the honeymoon and we plan to keep it that way. So, we’ve decided not to go on an actual official honeymoon after our May celebration, opting instead to spend that time with family before moving to probably somewhere in Europe.
From time to time we do stumble on places we would like to go and we bookmark them on a special Travel Wish List. One of the places on that list is Turkey. The Boy spent time in Turkey as a child, and his great great grandfather spent a long time there as a missionary, so it would be a kind of family pilgrimage. Plus I am a huge history, well, nerd, so I would love to see Istanbul. But what we’re both really drawn to is Cappadocia.
Millions of years ago volcanoes created this amazing landscape, and since biblical times the people who settled there have carved their homes and communities from the volcanic rock.
It’s 80 degrees out here and everything is green and I’m nostalgic for fall. It got me daydreaming about a rustic fall wedding…
The Venue: An old barn
{from brides.com}
When we made the decision to be together it was with the unspoken understanding that we were committing to forever. So when he asked what kind of engagement ring I wanted, I knew. Something simple and elegant and timeless and traditional - words that I like to think describe me. I also wanted something vintage, ’cause they just don’t make things like they used to, and I wanted to be sure that my diamond was conflict free. On a trip to Beijing we stopped by Tiffany’s to do a little browsing, while back home in Mongolia I was busy scouring the internet (there are no fine jewelry stores in Ulaanbaatar) for The Ring.
{This is what my ring looks like, only mine is prettier. 
}
As fate would have it, I found it at Lang’s Antiques in San Francisco. I say fate because we had actually already planned to stop very briefly in San Francisco to visit friends on our way back to Mongolia last Christmas. We made a quick trip down to Sutter Street where I tried it on without even looking at anything else. It was so perfect but there was a small problem - it had to be sized down. John, the super sweet salesman, assured us that he could put a rush on it so that we could have it by 9 the next morning, just in time to catch our 11 am flight.
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