Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Traditions

So, ever wonder why we have "best man" in the wedding party? Well, here's one explanation from Jenn Thompson, author of The Bizarre Origins of 8 Wedding Traditions:

"Talk about your runaway brides—the original duty of a “Best Man” was to serve as armed backup for the groom in case he had to resort to kidnapping his intended bride away from disapproving parents. The “best” part of that title refers to his skill with a sword, should the need arise. (You wouldn’t want to take the “just okay” member of your weapon-wielding posse with you to steal yourself a wife, would you?) The best man stands guard next to the groom right up through the exchange of vows (and later, outside the newlyweds’ bedroom door), just in case anyone should attack or if a non-acquiescent bride should try to make a run for it."

*lol* :D

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

DJ

All set!

Yayy....

Shoes

I adore looking at these cute, colorful, blingy shoes from real wedding pictures, but my sister & my mom hates it. What do you think? Well, I probably won't do it just because I choose the more traditional kind of wedding... but if I were to have a different theme.... i just might choose something like this as my "something blue":


from: KD Photos

Friday, January 23, 2009

Beautiful Rainy Day in OC

Today, the weather seem to mirror my mood... or is it the other way around? Well, I'm sad because Mr. B is still in the hospital, but today is Friday, so to lighten up my mood, I am going to dedicate today's post for pretty flowers... who can be sad when looking at such pretty things? :)


(from http://junebugweddings.com/)

And here's a picture of my new favorite flowers: dahlia. I am actually looking for a particular picture of a bouquet that I saw on the Ceremony Magazine (dec 08) that consists of white dahlias and orchids... I can't seem to find it anywhere... a little help, anyone? Maybe I will see if I can still buy that magazine at Barnes or something...


(from http://www.theknot.com/)

Have a wonderful weekend, y'all!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

DIY # 2: Pom Pom Flowers


Who can resist these lovely arrangements of beauts by Martha Stewart? I think I'm gonna do the small pompom flowers for the napkins, just because. :)

I've tried making a couple of these cuties, and I must say it was pretty successful (after the 3rd try) hehe... Now, if only I can find the place to buy the tissue paper at wholesale price and with the exact color that I had in mind... it'll be sweeeetttt!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Sweet Hanging Favors

So my BM / wedding organizer had this ingenious idea of hanging the favors on the chair to make the chairs more inviting, and also to save cost on the chair covers. So... I browsed around and found this lovely piece from (who else?) Martha Stewart:

There's even a DIY guide to do it:
"First find the lid's center (use a ruler to lightly mark two diagonal lines from corner to corner on the underside of the lid; the point where the two lines cross is the center), and make a hole with an awl. Repeat for box bottom. Cut a 22-inch length of ribbon; fold in half, forming a loop. Starting at box bottom, thread loop through holes. Knot at bottom; trim ends. Cut a tag out of card stock and write a celebratory message. Punch a hole in one corner, and thread onto ribbon loop. Fill with sweets."

Perfect :)

Engagement Pictures

I finally decided to go on my E-Session at Downtown LA :) There are so many good spots there to do cool engagement pictures... I'm quite excited about it! Thankfully, my friend Martha is going to be tagging along the whole time to make things more fun and, if needed, to help me with my make up. She's a darling friend and an aspiring make up artist, so it'll be so much fun hanging out with her for make up trial on Friday, and having her around on the E-Session itself... uuuu.. can't wait!

ps: This is one possible place I want to take pictures at for the e-session:

This will go so well with our vintage broadway theme :) Look at how it looked like in the 20s:
So cool.. so vintage, so broadway :)

Monday, January 19, 2009

Wedding Vows

Mr. B has been sick for a little over a week now. He's got fever and diarrhea etc. It turns out to be stomach flu... :( the poor thing was stuck in bed the whole week! tsk tsk tsk... This actually brings a new perspective on the term "in sickness and in health..." I remembered a sermon by a priest two weeks ago about this newlywed couple. Two weeks into their marriage, the husband got into an accident, and became paralyzed from the waist down. She stuck by him for years and years because they made the vow to be together in all kinds of weather. Wow... I cannot imagine me in that situation. Just having to take care of Mr. B for one weeks was already pretty hard, because I want him to get better, but seeing him so sick makes me sad too! Plus, it sucks that there is nothing I can do to make it better since he can only eat and drink things that are clear (clear soup, gatorade and stuff).

So, back to the topic... Wedding Vows. I was watching Sex and the City movie last night, and their vow was trully touching.. I'm not gonna spoil the ending for you but lets just say this, in the end, LOVE conquers everything.

By the way, I'm totally doing my vows the traditional way :) that's how I always imagined it to be.

"I, ______, take you, ______, to be my wife/husband. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life."
"I, ______, take you, ______, for my lawful wife/husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, until death do us part."

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Friday, January 16, 2009

DIY Projects

As I read my daily dose of wedding blogs, I always get inspired to do my own DIY projects. Actually, I think it should be DIT (do it together! hehe) projects. One project in particular that I'm going to do is my own guestbook and frame my own engagement pictures. I'm actually inspired to do these 2 projects because as I was reviewing my photographer's price list against my contract, the numbers does not make sense... why does it cost so much to frame an 11x14 engagement picture print on a 20x24 frame?

And so.. Mr. B and I went to Michaels to look at the frames that they have... and guess what? They are having a 50% off all styles of frame. Voila! It's decided there and then to just get the engagement pictures touched up ourselves (hello, photoshop!) and frame it nicely with one of those frames that are on sale. I read online that Bay Photo is a great source to do some color correction etc, and get good prints too.

In Indonesia, most of the people I know have their engagement pictures printed on canvas like this:
Cool, huh? You can order it online. That is if there is no copyright from the photographer, of course.

Anyway, same thing for the guestbook. I think I might take some of the pictures from the engagement shoot, and put them together into a book with plenty of space for guests to sign their name in. I will also order this online :)

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Signature Cocktail

I think most people know how expensive having a full bar can be at a wedding. But then again... the alcohol does help get the party started, doesn't it? Well, on my wedding I think I will have a soft bar, which is just several kinds of wine, domestic beer, soda, and water. I think it'll be good enough since none of my friends are really heavy drinker. Well, except for my Polish coworker :)

Anyways, I am thinking about adding 1 or 2 signature drinks to make it more "us". My choice of signature cocktail is "Martimony" It'll be a chocolate essence rum plus vodka among other things, and it'll be a clear color with a cherry in a martini glass. In case you still don't get it, Martimony is short of Martini and Matrimony :)
The second drink we're thinking of getting would be a tequila sunrise since it really matches with our vintage broadway / pink and gold wedding theme:

Can you help me name this drink?

The best wedding toast ever



Best Wedding Toast Ever!!!! (Amy's Song) - video powered by Metacafe

To Do List

Done:
Venue for reception
Venue for ceremony
Priest
Dress
BM Dresses
Groom's tux
GM Tuxes

Almost done:
DJ
Caterer
Invitation
Guest List
Videographer
Limo
Photo booth (maybe)

To Do Immediately after "almost done" is done:
Flowers
Ceremony musicians
Wedding rings
Cake

To Do
Wedding Rehearsal venue etc
Everything Else

What else am I missing?

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Etsy

Did I tell you I love Etsy? Well, I do! Why? For the love of all things handmade and vintage, of course :)


awww... :)

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Welcome 2009

Wow, I cannot believe the 2008 holiday season is already over. Farewell 2008, welcome 2009! This year, so many of my friends are getting married. It's going to be a truly blessed year I think. Or maybe I am already at that age where many of my friends who are in a relationship for a while feel ready to take the relationship further... Who knows?

Anyway, sorry I've been away from this blog for so long! I spent the majority part of the holiday (3 weeks!) in Indonesia, visiting my parents and also obeying the engagement customs in my Chinese/Indonesian culture. Even though my fiance already proposed to me on my birthday last July, our custom is to have the guy's parents and family visit the girl's parents to officially ask the permission to wed from the girl's family. A representative of the guy's family will say, "Ms. B's Dad, we have come today to officially and formally request the honor of Ms. B's hand in marriage to our son.... ". Then my dad, or a representative, would say make his speech of how the daughter is very prescious, and therefore he expects the suitor to really love, honor, and take care of the daughter forever. Aww... :) I have to say that I got teary-eyed at this point as my dad's speech was very touching and personal...

Anyway, the guy's family usually come bearing jewelry for the girl, and the guy's mom will put on the necklace on the girl once the family has given their permission for the couple to get married. From that point onwards, the girl (me) shall call the guy's parents "mom" and "dad", and vice verca for the guy. It's now official that we are engaged according to our culture.

The second part of this engagement is usually done a few weeks before the wedding, but since we will be having our wedding here in LA, we decided to do the traditions altogether to keep things simple. This second part is called "Sanjit". This is when the guy's family come to the girl's home bearing numerous gifts. The gifts are put on trays or boxes, and the number of trays are usually an even number (good number) like 8, 10, or 12. The gifts consist of clothes, perfume, jelwelry, cosmetics, watch, bags, shoes, and also food. My sister said that this tradition is usually asked by the girl's family to make sure that the guy's family will be able to provide the basic needs of the girl once they get married. Nowadays, this custom is mainly used to show off your wealth and to indulge in expensive gifts :) Anyway, the girl's family also need to provide gifts for the guy too.. same kind of things like shoes, aftershave, dress-shirt, tie, jacket, food etc etc. The newly joined family will also both provide sweets and cookies to give to their neighbor and distant families to officially "announce" the engagement after the sanjit ceremony is done.

I don't know about you guys, but I LOVE traditions... it's not that I'm superstitious, but I just love knowing the reasoning behind these traditions, and I think it's important to keep these traditions alive.

For those of you wondering, here are some pictures of my engagement :)