Menu and Bar List

Continuing on with my minimalistic designs, here are the menus that will be placed on each plate and two bar list frames that will be placed by the bar.

Partially DIY Guestbook

When I was on bestdestinationwedding.com, I came upon a forum whose topic was guestbooks. Some people were planning on bringing a Fuji Instax Mini 25 camera (a Polaroid-type instant camera) and having people insert their pictures into a guestbook. I thought that was a great idea and immediately started looking for guestbooks that could accomodate these mini pictures.

I didn't see many options. There was one company called Adesso that made guestbooks with clear plastic pockets that fit the photos, but I was iffy on buying their guestbooks because their covers were so plain looking. But I kept their guestbooks in mind as a last resort. Then I went on Etsy and found a vendor who sold custom-made guestbooks, and specifically those for the Fuji photos. They were beautiful and for a time there we were emailing back and forth. After a while though, it became too involved (I had to choose from a bunch of fabric for the cover but I couldn't find one I liked that much) and I gave up on the whole custom-made thing.

I forgot about the guestbook for a while and then realized about a week ago that I was running out of time. So I decided I'd just use the last resort guestbook which was sold by the Adesso company. Wouldn't you know it, they went out of business.

Fortunately, while I was walking around the Paper Presentation store down in the city, I saw some nice fabric-covered guestbooks made by Rag & Bone Bindery. So when I went to pick up my wedding dress in Manhattan last week, I picked up one of their albums that could also be used as a guestbook. I then used the guestbooks from that vendor on Etsy as my model and custom-made the guestbook myself.

I used extra ribbon and decorated the front cover.

Then I stuck on black photo corners into the book so people could just insert their pictures. Here's an example of a picture that we took during our friend Bo and Keith's wedding that I inserted into my guestbook.

When we attended their wedidng in Montreal at the end of April, I saw that they also had a Fuji Instax Mini, but the older version. They had roll on glue next to their guestbook and had guests just paste their pictures into their guestbook. We took two pictures because we didn't like the first one and we just kept the picture we didn't like. Good thing too, because I was able to use the photo to shape the black photo corners.

I also made a sign with a little poem that (hopefully) will encourage people to use the camera and sign the guestbook.

Here's the first page inside:

I think it came out pretty well!!

Hair flower

Etsy is a really cool online store if you want to find funky items, vintage-looking items, handmade items etc. Halfway through my engagement I would spend hours and hours on this site looking for items for the wedding. I found this website through my go-to source bestdestinationwedding.com. And through bestdestinationwedding, I came upon a vendor Mikiye on Etsy who sells her own handmade silk hair flower creations. I bought one two days ago and it arrived today! What great service. Plus it came in a plastic container with a pink bow and personalized thank you note. The flower looks beautiful with Duchess satin petals and Swarovski crystal and rhinestone center.

My DIY Program

The title of this blog should really be: My Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Wedding. I didn't have unlimited financial resources to have things made for me. Invitations, tags, welcome letters, OOT bags, survival kits, pre-travel brochures - I made them all myself. I couldn't afford the really nice designs that I saw online or at the stores. And the ones that I could afford were mediocre at best. So I decided to just make things myself using simple but elegant designs that reflected our tastes.

A great resource for ideas was bestdestinationwedding.com. I could definitely not have done what I've done without this website. A great many ladies on the site did a lot of their own stuff themselves and posted templates. I got a lot of ideas from there and sometimes mixed and matched what people had to make things my own.

An example is my program. After weeks of hemming and hawing, and figuring out how I wanted it to look, I decided upon the minimalistic style. I saw a program that someone posted on bestdestinationwedding that I liked and saw other program samples online. I mixed and matched and made something so simple but I really like it.

I forgot to take a picture but I also added a Pablo Neruda poem in the back which I really love. Pablo Neruda is a Chilean poet and has great love poems. I used his poem Love Sonnet XVII:

I do not love you as if you were a salt rose, or topaz
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
So I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

- Pablo Neruda

Love Sonnet XVII

Welcome Letters

When Gregg and I visited his younger brother Kevin in Washington, D.C. (technically, really Alexandria, VA) in March, I was very excited to see an actual Paper Source store.

I was drooling over all the great stuff they had. I couldn't stay too long because I didn't want to bore Gregg and Kevin. But I did get to buy some paper for my welcome letters that I will place inside the OOT bags. Printing them didn't take too long. The twine I used to wrap around it was very difficult to tie, though, so this was yet another time-consuming project.

Maracas!

I also received my maracas last month. I was debating on having favors for the wedding. I already knew I wanted to have maracas for people to shake when they wanted us to kiss. I figured I'd just use the maracas themselves as favors. It also took FOREVER to print out these tags, remove each one from its sheet via their perforations (this was the hardest part because the perforations weren't very perforated at all), and then attaching the tags to each maraca.

Fortunately, my mom, Rich and I all had facials at my apartment last week. So mom helped me out and I finally finished it all that same day.

My OOT Bag and Survival Kit

I have been so busy doing wedding things that I haven't had too much time to update this blog and write about what I've actually been doing.

I received my OOT bags more than a month ago and it took forever, but I finally printed the tags that go with it, removed each (barely) perforated tag from its sheet, and then attached each one to a bag with a ribbon.

I've also printed out and cut to size the tops of my survival kits. Now all I have to do when I get to Isla Mujeres is fill up each biohazard ziploc bag that I got from work with items and then staple the top label to look like this:

Pashminas are on a roll!

I'm finally in the process of rolling up my pashminas and tying them up. As I mentioned in the last post, I spent an inordinate amount of time deciding on the tags to put on them. I bought a 2" circular puncher but originally thought it was too small. So then I was either going to buy a larger circular puncher or buy 2 1/2" circular flat cards and glue the 2" circle with the saying onto it. But I didn't want to go downtown to buy all this stuff and I didn't want to wait until it arrived in the mail if I ordered online. So I sucked it up and fiddled around with the design of the tag and just used the circular puncher I already had. Looks good enough to me.

I bought butter yellow and light gray pashminas from a wholesaler downtown at a great price. Here's a close-up of the saying on the pashmina:

I've only done about 12. 36 left to go! It's taking FOREVER!!!!

Less than 2 months!

Thank God. I can't wait until this is over. It really is pretty stressful. And most of the time it's the little things that I can't help but stress about. Take today for example: I just spent 3 hours trying to figure out what font I should use for my place cards. 3 HOURS. Googling place card images for ideas. Checking out fonts on dafont.com. Downloading fonts and trying them out using our guests' names. Printing out mock place cards. I now have a headache. But I think I've also finally chosen a font which is the font that we used for our names in our invitation.

Other little things that are taking up TOO much of my time:

1. Trying to figure out how to do my tags for the pashminas. They're going to be rolled up and secured with a ribbon and tag like this:

So I spent about an hour trying to figure out how I was going to design the tag, poring over people's Planning Threads on the bestdestinationwedding.com website (which is my new best friend/worst enemy) to see if I get inspired by other people's ideas. I think I'm going to end up with the simplest design, but whatevs. I bet people won't even look twice at the tag.

2. Wondering whether to have a menu or not. And if choosing to have a menu, what that design will be like.

3. Trying to figure out the program design.

4. Trying to mentally divide all the things I have to bring to Mexico amongst several people and wondering who will bring what and if it'll be too heavy and printing out receipts just in case they get searched by customs.

5. Getting people's itineraries. While I really do want to know when people are arriving and where they are staying, this is also a devious little method I'm using to find out who has or hasn't booked yet. I know people have RSVP'd "yes" but it's not final for me until they have their tickets! With the bridal entourage being the exception, of course. So far, I've encountered at least 2 couples who have retracted their "Yes" status by using this method. It works!

Other things to think about:

1. First dance choreography

2. Buy the veil and shoes

3. Get the maracas

4. Groomsmen and fathers gifts

5. Dresses for shower, welcome cocktails, rehearsal dinner

And many many more!! AAAAGGHHHH!!!

My Precious

Gregg and I had our rings made through the same jewelers that made my engagement ring. Since my wedding ring has to have a curve due to the engagement ring's low setting, I had to leave my engagement ring with the jeweler. I didn't know how much I'd miss that ring. My left hand felt like something was missing.

We finally got our rings today. Ah it felt nice to have my engagement ring back on my hand. And the wedding rings were pretty nice too.

I'm happy with our rings. I wasn't so sure how they'd turn out. But I think they look great.

Nightmare #3

This isn't a dream. I am officially over the guest limit. I'm just hoping those who haven't RSVP'd yet say no!

The butterflies in my stomach are back with a vengeance.

Nightmare #2

Last night I dreamt it was 5:00pm on the day of my wedding (wedding to start at 630pm) and my photographer, my wedding coordinator, my florist and my hair and makeup stylists were nowhere to be found. People were putting together flowers as makeshift centerpieces. Someone was trying to do my makeup and doing a horrible job.

Then around 6pm they all started arriving. The bridesmaids were starting to walk down the aisle and only half of my hair was done. Just as it was my turn to walk, my hair and makeup were finished.

Moral of the story: things are not going to be perfect but it'll all be ok in the end. I was panicking in my dream though.

I just want to get this all over with.

Luggage Space

So I have a corner in my bedroom that is filled with boxes filled with wedding stuff. This wedding corner is getting wider and taller with each passing day. I look at it and there's an uneasy rumbling in my stomach because I have no idea how I'm going to bring all this stuff to Mexico.

With Jetblue, a person is allowed 1 checked in luggage with a charge of $35 for each additional bag. I'm thinking of bringing two checked in luggage for me and one for Gregg. I'm going to ask my mom, brother, and dad for space in each of their checked in luggage. Hopefully, I'll be able to put stuff in Jen and Eunhye's bag too.

Jen and Eunhye, here's the stuff I'd love if you could have space for in your checked in luggage. Come on, you don't really need space for anything else coz you're going to pretty much be wearing bikinis the whole time right? Right?

So you got your actual OOT bag, first aid kits, playing cards, antibacterial gel, water guns, rolled pashminas (that pink one is just an example - I didn't buy it yet), handkerchiefs (but they'll be rolled), chapsticks, tissues. It'll be 6 of each items.

I'll have a receipt for everything that you can place in the luggage for customs just in case. In any case, if you say it's for a wedding and NOT for resale and if everything is below $300 they're ok with it.

This is how it would look in a small rollaway luggage. I used some random scarves and some of Gregg's t-shirts to serve as the rolled pashminas since I don't have them yet. In all it would take about 1/3 of the small luggage.

I tried to weigh it and it came out to about 6.8 lbs WITHOUT the pashminas. The max lbs is 50lbs for checked in luggage.

I still have a lot of things to bring like the raffia fans, some other gifts etc. But they shouldn't weigh too much. It's not so much that I don't have space in my own luggage, it's the WEIGHT that I'm worried about and I figured that spreading them between different people would definitely help.

Bags

Will probably get this instead:

Bestest Bridesmaids Ever

I have to say, as bridesmaids go, the ones I have are pretty awesome. Not only did Jennifer and Eunhye wait more than 40 minutes in the freezing cold during a snowstorm just to come to my house and painstakingly glue and ribbon my invitations, Angel (who is almost 2,ooo miles away and has a newborn baby and some chickens, to boot) is doing her bit as the maid of honor and doing an awesome job of it!

Here's a preview of the invitations that Angel created for my bridal shower and bachelorette party. They look AWESOME. And I'm not just saying that because there's a big picture of me at the top of it. They are soooo cute! I've been looking at it so often and trying to read every little part.

I now realize how much I sucked at being a bridesmaid/MOH. I don't know how I got so lucky, but thank you so much Angel, Jen and Eunhye for being my MOH/bridesmaids. I can't wait to see the invitations for myself and I'm so excited for the party!! Woohoo!!!

My Stash

At last they came in! My OOT bags are almost complete!

It's my stash of drugs! Individually packed Imodium A-D were too expensive so I bought the blister packs and just made little envelopes to place the caplets in. Everything was pretty cheap through medco.com.

The first aid kits also came in. Only a dollar each from the same store.

This is what the finished product will look like:

Here's the little envelope for the Imodium A-D caplets (still in their blister packs, of course.)

What I really need are the bags that everything is going to go into. I've been looking in whatever dollar stores I can find and nothing. I want something that looks like this:

The bag above was apparently bought at a dollar store. I have yet to find a bag like that or similar. Gotta keep looking.

Nightmare

Everything that could go wrong for my wedding and reception did. This was my nightmare last night. In my dream, the reception happened the day before the wedding. I was wearing a pretty yellow satin gown. There were so many guests that there were tables set up in the lobby of the hotel to accommodate them. Then some of the musicians were fired (by whom, I don't know) so we had to use our iPods for music. I guess in my dream I hired some performers who put on a show where they kept forgetting their lines or words to a song. It was so awkward that it was painful to watch.

The next day was the wedding. I was wearing my nice wedding gown and it happened to be in a church. I went in through the side door of the church, not the middle, and I don't think I had anyone walk me down the aisle. In the middle of the ceremony, I asked if we could start the whole thing from the beginning because I wanted Dad to walk me down.

So we started it all over again. This time I went through the main doors. My dad had some sort of bloody wound on the left side of his face. When we got to the altar, I could see Rich sitting on the floor of the church and texting on his Blackberry.

And then I woke up.

Couch Potatoes

When we first moved into our apartment, we had so few furniture and the apartment was such a nice large size that we had that minimalistic l look without even trying.

We only had one sofa facing the TV. As a result, when people came over, everyone just sat on the sofa facing the TV. It wasn't really conducive to entertaining.

But thanks to Gregg's older brother John, we have a "new" sectional couch. We recruited Rich to help us pick up the couch from Queens. Then we bought a new gray cover from Ikea and voila! A brand new couch!

We didn't mean for it to happen, but our sofas and rugs now match the colors of our wedding!