Weddingbee Blog

I may have downplayed my borderline psychotic behavior during the hunt for the Amsale Bali. Allow me to share.

Gmail > Open Documents > Piglets Wedding Budget Spreadsheet *tap*tap*tap*. My restless fingers began typing away, reallocating funds to offset the pending purchase of the Amsale Bali. I was stoked. Saks was offering the dress at nearly 20% off. At the time, I convinced myself that this was a steal. We had until Saturday to make a decision (we, being Piglet and sista, since I’m incapable of making a decision on my own). Thursday passed… Friday… Saturday… (hmmm open spreadsheet)…

Sunday. No dress. Couldn’t do it. Damnit Pig! Weak sauce.
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Two weeks ago I had my first (and only) dress fitting. Sillyinphilly had recommended me to her seamstress in Lititz, and seriously girls, this woman is a godsend (and only gets work by word of mouth)! I literally was in and out of her hair in 15 minutes. The zipper on my dress kept sticking, to the point where I could not get out of my dress. Not at all. Karen, the seamstress, literally had to cut me out of my dress.

Unfortunately I don’t have any before photos of me and my dress. Imagine this model is me.

My dress on an itty bitty model, Jenny Yoo

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photography by Allebach Photography

Last week Miss Martini talked about tattoo cover ups. This is the opposite of a cover up. Mr. Sushi and I are actually fond of tattoos. He and I both had a couple tattoos… ’til this past October when I finally decided to take the plunge and get a massive piece of art done.

I’ve been pondering the idea of getting a back piece for about 5 years now. One day in October, while waiting for my dad to stop by, I was looking up tattoo artists on the internet, specifically ones who do Japanese art in my local area. I had gotten a free magazine rack off of Craigslist, and my dad had brought over his trusty truck to help me pick it up. We got to Carlisle, where the magazine rack was waiting for me… and what did we see? A tattoo shop with Japanese art all over the window. Coincidence? I think not. When I got home I emailed the guy who gave me the magazine rack and inquired about the tattoo shop. Apparently he lives above the shop and his landlord is the tattoo shop owner. AND there was an artist who works there that specializes in Japanese artwork. A week later I made an appointment and since then have had about 5 sessions.

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Early on, we decided to split the cost of our wedding down the middle. How my parents contributed would be handled between yours truly and Papa/Mama Piglet, and the same went for him and his parents. For the most part, we’re trying to cover the Hawaii wedding ourselves, which means controlling our spending these days. We love eating out, Piggy loves shopping, and we both love snowboarding! For the past four years, we’ve gone on an annual trip with our friends to resorts all over the country. Mr. P is a-w-e-s-o-m-e and often claims he is X-Games material. I’d hate to total the amount we’ve spent over the years, because it would likely be enough to pay for 10 Ben Chrismans. I have so many fond and not-so-fond memories from each trip, but we’ve decided to forgo our annual trip this year and save the Benjis for Hawaii.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane…

Lake Tahoe, 2005. I actually have no pictures from this trip because I came down with the flu the day before we left. What luck! I bucket this trip into the ‘not-so-fond’ memories. I slept in the master bedroom, humidifier on full blast, while everyone hit up the mountain. Tahoe was dumped on that year. So much so, that the road was blocked off on their way back from boarding, and also, with my food in hand. Mr. Pig got out of the car and trekked it back to our cabin to deliver my food as quickly as possible. How sweet is that?! It was the wrong order.
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We really wanted the engagement photos to capture us as a couple. We’re low-key and love the outdoors. Well, I’ve learned to love the outdoors. Mr. Piggy was born and raised in Baltimore (poor Ravens!), and will always consider it his home base. He planned out the entire day of our engagement shoot. While I would’ve loved to have seen myself in a fancy dress and Mr. Piggy in a nice suit, we decided to leave that for the wedding! We’re both the jeans and t-shirt types and we unintentionally have started to match our clothes more often than not. This is the outcome… we love our photos and feel that they truly capture our personalities! Here’s a quick visual recap of our day.

The day started off at Park School in Baltimore. Mr. Pig attended this school from kindergarten through high school and we loved the nature-type setting it provided.

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As I reviewed our handy checklist from The Knot, I’m sad to report we weren’t able to check off any of the items with the exception of photography! Well, sort of. We considered videography a ‘nice to have’, not a ‘must have’. It was never at the top of our priority list.

Reasons being: 1) we had already splurged on our photographer, 2) friends commented that their wedding DVD collects dust on their shelves, 3) I sound so nasal-y all the time (thank your lucky stars you only see me and not hear me through the screen), and 4) this one goes hand-in-hand with #1, but we just didn’t have room in our budget for a videographer.
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We’re patiently awaiting the arrival of our cardstock to start churning out the Save the Dates, but lord knows, we have tons more to do in the meantime. The ladies and gents in the bridal party were starting to ask when they should arrive in Hawaii, and because of this, another project was born. Our party is geographically dispersed, with some in NY, PA, Vancouver, VA, and CA. That said, we decided to pig-ee back off of other bee innovations (Mrs Lily, Mrs. Jelly Beans, Mrs. Eggplant) and created a newsletter.

I picked up two wedding magazines on our coffee table for inspiration: The Knot, and Pacific Weddings. After flipping through the first couple of pages, I decided to replicate the layout of The Knot’s Table of Contents. I’m super simple, so the layout remains the same throughout and only the images and text change.

The Cover: Wherever possible, we’re trying to include our engagement photos with Inhar since we love them that much. We had already introduced our bridal party via our wedding website, so the newsletter’s focus was logistical information, bridal party attire, and a brief snapshot of what the Pigsters have been up to since the holidays. Do you see the hibiscus? The barcode on the bottom right corner also includes the wedding date.

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Welcome to our wedding website! Having a Computer Science degree, I’ve always looked forward to this aspect of the wedding planning process. Once we decided that we would have a destination wedding in Hawaii, we wanted everyone to know as soon as possible. A lot of our friends were likely to use their airline miles and hotel points, and since airlines limit the number of seats available for point usage, we wanted to give them the heads up on the date, location, etc. My girlfriend highly recommended Wedding Window. There were so many goodies included in the $80/year price, that we didn’t mind paying. There were a ton of templates to choose from, and they were all customizable.

The Pigsters love snowboarding. Mr. Pig often claims he’s X Games material.

Some of my favorite features were:
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If I could afford it, I would sooooo rock this:

Etsy seller: englishdept

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We opted for a morning outside ceremony despite the gap it will create in between the ceremony and reception. One of the main reasons for this is my sensitivity to heat. That, coupled with the nervousness associated with being the center of attention, means I will be drenched and will probably look as if I’ve run a marathon.

Image source

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I am pretty much the last of my friends to have a child. It’s quite interesting actually, about 95% of my non-married friends have kids, but only about 30% of my married friends have kids. That being said, I’ve seen my friends with kids go through lots of drama. Drama with their baby’s daddy (whether they are still the boyfriend, or now the ex), drama with the court, drama with the now boyfriend, drama with the ex’s new girlfriend…

As their friend, sometimes they call me to vent or ask advice. And I have to admit that sometimes I have a hard time sympathizing with them, because technically in my relationship, I am the “other” woman. Now, before I confuse you, I did not know Mr. Sushi when he was dating his ex (we’ll call her “A”). I didn’t come into the picture until about 3 months after they had broken up. Mr. Sushi and A were young when they had Lil’ B. By the time I met Mr. Sushi, he was 22 and Lil’ B had just turned 1. I was the first (and only) girl he seriously dated after his relationship ended with A, so it was really hard for both of them to adjust to each other being back in the dating scene and coming to the realization that their relationship wasn’t going to work and that they weren’t going to be the “traditional” family.

A and I have a decent relationship. I wouldn’t call her my friend. I’ve never, ever hung out with her, but I wouldn’t be opposed to it.
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The Mr and I have been in LA for the past week - he’s here for work, and I’m here for vacation. Despite being on vacation, I have a tough time sleeping in, regardless of what time I hit the sack. It’s really frustrating because I can see the tired-ness on my face, particularly, under the eyes. Mr. Piglet swears by Korean saunas and convinced me to go this past weekend. I was more willing to go since I was in another state; therefore, the chance of me running into a familiar face was pretty darn low (the naked factor scares me).

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We went to Natura spa on Wilshire, which is located in the basement of a Korean mall. No frets if you don’t speak Korean.
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Our engagement photos were taken by Sissy Piglet’s good friend Inhar. Even with her as our photographer, we were still a bit camera shy in the beginning. It’s really weird to have your photos taken! Despite being advised to NOT wear matchy matchy outfits, Mr. P and I amused ourselves with couple’s tee shirts (I persuaded him a teensy bit). He wore his sneakers and I wore my Ugg(lies), as one of my BFFs refers to them, and we were good to go as far as outfits were concerned. We wanted a variety of pictures, so we also brought along some props.

Prop #1: Jorge aka George aka Georgia May aka GEORGE! (We’re always screaming because she’s quite rebellious.) We gave her a fresh cut, trimmed her ears - and voila - she stole the spotlight. As you can see from the picture below, she camera shy as well, hence, the pictures of her behind.

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I heard a rumor somewhere that you could save your already-burned Gocco screens in case you wanted to print the same design on a different day. Well, I put this rumor to the test and succeeded! Remember our return address I printed on our invitations? I just didn’t feel right tossing the screen in the trash when I was done, so instead, I wrapped the screen in Saran Wrap and stuck it in the freezer. I was too lazy to clean the screen, so I didn’t. I wrapped it up and stuck it in the freezer, ink and all.

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I hate running. I just can’t do it… after a mile and a half, my body hates me and wants to break down. Put me on an elliptical machine and I’ll go for hours. I’ll take an hour-long spinning class that will turn my legs to Jell-O, but run? Uh, no thanks.

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