fortune cookies

True story: On the second day I moved to Ithaca, a friend of my great aunt (my late great uncle used to teach at Cornell) took my parents and me to this Chinese buffet for lunch and I got a fortune cookie.  The fortune said something to the affect of "You have gained wisdom today and you are also less anxious."  So I was like cool... this is true... I'm beginning to feel okay being here and having walked through campus and gettin' a feel for where things are helped make me less anxious.  And then I turn it over and it was one of those "learn a Chinese phrase" things and it said, "nan peng you."  (Which means "boyfriend" in Mandarin.)  I laughed and thought, "GOD HAS SPOKEN.  This is why I'm at Cornell."  :oP


Following that one... I got ones that said, "has money," "he," etc.  So it became this joke that fortune cookies would reveal my love life to me.  :-P  I guess it kinda worked out in the favor of the fortune cookies.  At least the relevant ones.  haha.


Since it was sort of an inside joke... I thought if we were going to have escort cards, to have these!

Aren't they PRETTY?!  (Source)

 Make a circle.  Fold the circle.  Done!  Pretty spankin' easy, yeah?  (Source)

We could use whatever paper we wanted.  It could match our color scheme.  The little paper ends sticking out would have the guests' name and table number.  Easy peasy.  And while pretty paper is not cheap, it wasn't going to be an expensive project!

However I put it on the back burner and... it stayed there since I decided escort cards were time consuming and they weren't going to get a piece of my time-pie!  Also -- since it is just paper, even pretty paper, it's not something people would take with them or value/treasure really.  Unless... you like pretty paper or like to collect stuff with your name on it.  So I took the less exciting route and printed out an alphabetical list with people's names and table numbers  :]

Maybe someday if I ever help someone plan a wedding and they're looking for escort card ideas, I'll bust this one out.  :]

                                

something like you

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I love you most (Source)

     

a frenchie follow up

So yeah.  Frenched the my toes.  It was okay.  I don't love it at all and if I wanted a french manicure/pedicure I'd DEFINITELY get it done professionally cause it looks pretty crappy.  haha.  Granted it was only my first application!  The kit is neat in that it comes with enough guides to do it about 3.5 times (both hands and feet)?  (Ok maybe just 3 times with some extras.)

With the strips on.  Excuse the ugly toes.  It was just the application and not a pedicure, so... 

With the white tips.

A too bright picture (I was sitting next to a window) of the finished product.  Yeah.  Any ugliness you see is probably user error.  :-P  My round-toes fear showed, since I think it looks better on flat-topped nails?  Like it looked better on the other not-big-toes cause it was more of a line?  o_O  And I didn't do a very good job of making the sheer color very even...  Maybe I'll do better next time.  :oT

I'll probably give the hands a try sometime this week.  The guide strips are curved, rather than straight across.

Check out this cool gazebo thing.  I wish we had something like that.  I'm still trying to figure out in my head what we're gonna do about the table that we'll probably need at the ceremony to put the unity sand stuff.  We picked the prettiest part of the lawn to hold the ceremony so the backdrop should be okay, but the table!  Hrm.  (Source)

And isn't this drapery amazing?  Yeeeeah.  {drool}  (Source)

                  

So sometime before this past Sunday, I started to realize that the clock was ticking and the 3-month window for me to slowly leisurely do all my wedding projects has dwindled down to 30-something days.  SO!  I wrote in my planner to FINISH THE TABLE NUMBERS.  Finish.  Not to do one or two.  FINISH them.  Currently we have 14 tables, and I wanted just to round it off to 15 incase we last minute needed to add a table or something.  I made tables 1-3 as the prototypes to ask Tim and my cousin (and bridesmaid), my consultant for most things, what they thought of them.  Once they were given a nod of approval of being acceptable to be seen in public, I made tables 4-11.  So really, I only had to do 12-15.  But tail ends of projects are easy to put off cause you think there are only four more.  But before you know it, it's like 6 hours until your wedding...

Anyway.  They are done.  :]  They were a tedious mess but I managed and I hope they are as cute and whimsical as I think they are.  :-P  Do they look homemade?  Because they were.  Each. and. every. one. of. them.  This is because I do not own the lovely shape-cutter machine known as a Cuttlebug!  So I knock-off-exacto-knifed each number.  Which I then matted to have a white edge, and applied to the back of the card.  Just incase you came from the other direction of the room and needed to know which table was yours.  ;]

And this is the song of the week.... "Art of Love" by Guy Sebastian featuring Jordan Sparks.  :]

                                         

metal leaves!

So pretty... but so expensive...  o_O  (Source)

So.  Yesterday there was a post by Miss Seashell on Weddingbee about this pillow she bought on Esty.  And then I scrolled through the comments and someone mentioned you could buy those filigree leaves under the Supplies section of Esty.  So I decided to go browse.  Because.  I liked these leaves too!  AND.  Then.  I found a whole bunch.  Some people who will sell it to you... 5 for $6 (including shipping) and then I found someone who was selling for 10 for $4.75 (total).  FTW!

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What am I gonna do with them?  Not... sure... yet...  And I bought them in silver since I was thinking about making some jewelry-like thank you gifts... butttt.... I don't think I have time to get into the jewelry making business (buying the supplies, though I think my mom has some...)  I really liked the gold ones... but I thought I could get more use out of silver.  Oh wells.  Maybe they can be pricey gift tags, or bookmarks or something else really cool.  I'll let you know what I decide to do with them.  ;]

Isn't it terrible when you find something super cool/cute that you decide to buy without knowing what to do with it?

Such warm weather today!  :-D  This just looks like an egg yolk  :oP  (Source)

                           

bargain finds

So a couple weeks ago, I was browsing through Ross and found this sage table runner.  For $1.99!

My mom was like, "Seriously, it'd cost more than $2 for me to buy the fabric and make that!"

Since then, I've scored another sage one and a brown one.  Which is not orange and not in our color scheme, but it's brown.  Plain ole brown.  We can put it on the coffee/tea table or something.  :-P  These are greeeeat because white table cloth is kinda boring.  :]  So a hint of color here and there is always an excellent thing.

And today I found bookies for the kiddies!

Baby animals for our ring bearer, and Friendly Fairy for our flowergirl!

I think Baby Animals may still be a bit advanced for our little dude, especially since it's not exactly slobber-proof.  :-P  And Friendly Fairy... lets just say doesn't have the best storyline in its 6-cardboard pages, but the art is pretty.  :]  I've been keeping an eye out for a soft plush toy for our baby ring bearer, but most toys for babies make noises and I don't know if I'm all up for.... "Do you Timothy *squeak squeak* take Alvina *rattle rattle*...."  :oP

OH.  And I remember why I stopped shredding a month ago.  I did try to exercise outside a little more... but I now remember, my foot hurt!  And I remember because... I woke up this morning and my foot hurt, a lot!  :(

What did you buy on your most recent purchase?

                                                                           

two years old for table two!

A couple days ago, Miss Jellyfish had a list of DIY projects she needed to complete. And her #5 item... brilliant much? You use baby pictures that correlate with the table number!

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And since we don't have that many tables, we would still look "cute" (and not awkward/weird/puberty-ing)... for most of them! :-P I still wanna make 'em somewhat classy looking... so I will have to ponder how to execute this project if I decide to go for it. Otherwise I already have some supplies to make table numbers. Which seems easier. haha. :-P

And a big-ish thing I just checked off my list is, booking out wedding night hotel! :] I used Name-Your-Own-Price on Priceline a few times last week. And everytime my offer wasn't accepted. But then yesterday, right before going out for a run, I halfheartedly decided to give it a try, and our offer got accepted!

I think everything else on my to-do list... we could live without not having, if it comes down to that. Programs? Menus? Flowergirl basket? We don't really need them! There was a post on Weddingbee about flowergirl wands! And I was intrigued by them. It seemed easier for our almost-two-year-old flower girl to hold a pretty stick with ribbons while walking (running?) down the aisle than for her to not freak out over all the people staring at her and throwing petals from a basket. :)


Want to win 50 free custom thank you cards from Digital Room? Head on over to Miss Mojito's blog "With This Ring, I Thee Blog" to enter to win!
                                                       

share interesting finds day :]

Faux milkglasses!  (Source)

Yesterday, Ruffled Blog posted a DIY project on how to make faux milkglass.  I didn't know what they were until like two months ago (white vases?  ohhh yeah, how pretty)  I have heard that they can sometimes be hard to find.  It's one of those things people collect, and find at Salvation Armys.  I was preeetty impressed with how spray painting some clear glass vases could turn out looking like that!  So if you don't have the time to go hunt for them or they're too expensive, go to Ruffled Blog's post!

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I also stumbled on this cool bookcase!  It was an exhibit in London last year by Ron Arad : New Work.  You can check it out here.

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I can't decide how I want to do the programs.  Hamburger style.  Hot dog style.  Triangle style.  Trapezoid style.  I have dreams of elaborate, fancy, oh-so-pretty programs, but I know that most people probably won't even keep them.  Which would lead to big sadface!  I wonder if the nicer the program, will the likelihood of people keeping it go up?  Someone go write me an equation!
                                                      

mock up centerpiece

Cost: $0

Yep yep, all the supplies were free, free, and free.  Vase (x4) and really nice silk hydrangeas (huge bag) from  friend C (plus some other goodies), and threw in some supplies I had at home.  This is only a mock up but that'd work as a centerpiece yeah?  The oooonly snag is... blue is not one of our colors!  But, I'm on the brink of willing to let that slide.  More colors!!!

Friend C also informed me that there's a Dollar Tree in El Camino!  Check out these beauties for a DOLLA each:

Yeah. Nonsense. Forget Ross. :-P  (Source)

     

This dispells my percepion that NorCal doesn't have dollar stores (besides Daiso being the closest thing), and I'll definitely have to stop by here sometime.  Wanna come?

     

FTW

Lets see... so they look more brown than orange here... but they do have a touch of orange in real life.  I figured it'd be easier to get people to help take home centerpieces (vases) that are pretty, a manageable size to carry (unlike hurricane vases!), and are self-decorative when all is said and done.  This may also mean I won't have to think about what colorful things to put IN the vase, but rather let the vases speak for themselves.  Besides, visual variety is good, right?

                                  

Oh yeah... did I mention they were only $2.50 (and the one on the right was only $2) a piece?  I've also got 4 short, cyclindrical vases waiting for me for free.  FTW!  That'll bring my centerpiece vase count to... 11, and I'm well on my way to securing 15 vases for less than $30.  Which means more money to buy YOU better desserts.  ;)  All in favor, say "wigglypigglybooyah!"

          

As of lately...

Here's a random successes (and purchases) progress report!

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Yesterday, I randomly picked up this signature frame at Target. I just happened to be walking by the end-of-the-aisle clearance sections and saw this signature frame for $14! I searched online and most are more expensive... so I think (or will just tell myself) I got a great deal. Esp one that doesn't require me to do any work like buying the mat and frame separately. (And it will probably come out costing the same). Having mulled over some other options, I had already predicted we would go this route for the "guestbook" despite some other really cool ideas. So... sweet. Another thing off the list. :]

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Two days ago, I also bought our inter-island tickets! Since we're honeymooning in Kauai for 7 days then jetting over to Honolulu for 3, we have to buy inter-island plane tickets! At ~$65/person (including taxes/fees, and we only need them one way since we're flying back to SF out of Honolulu), it is only our first purchase towards our honeymoon! (Thank you Jason and Daddy!)

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I've also picked up two hurricane vases for centerpieces. I'm beginning to think the ones I picked up from Ikea may be a bit too tiny. BUT. I will probably just use them anyway and make them work. More volume on top somehow maybe. I will probably need to start making mock ups soon, so I can figure out what supplies I need. Oh! So I got them from Ross, of course haha; one was $5 (glass) and the other was slightly bigger at $6 (thick plastic, looks like glass?) When I went to Target I saw the same $6 thick plastic one for $13! Hah!

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My copy of the 30 Day Shred just arrived.  Like an hour ago.  (Looove Amazon Prime)  ;)  Bought it on the recommendation of Beck (not to mention the 4.5 stars by 1,594 reviewers on Amazon was impressive as well).  My brother told me to join a gym, and as I've mentioned before I love the gym actually, but it is definitely a pricey investment.  Worth it if you go all the time, not so much if your work out mood sometimes fluctuates with the weather.  *ahem*  So.  I decided that maybe this would be a good option to explore -- sticking a DVD in and working out at home.  I can do that.  And, it was only $8.99 on Amazon.

Soooo the only big things not done that should be done by now are...
- Bridesmaid dresses (*cringes. Will explain in later post)
- Deciding on the guys' suits
- Figuring out where to print invitations // how to assemble them
- Finding out whether the Condons have decided if they want me to do a hotel room block

Is it June yet? Forget the wedding, I wanna go to Hawaii with my Tiiiiim. :-P I'm sooooo excited.
 

the princess and the frog

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Two weeks ago, I went to see The Princess and the Frog with friendsies. It was cute and I definitely appreciated the "old-skoo" 2D form of cartoons in classic Disney fashion. I mention this movie because in one scene, there is the prettiest decor idea! I cannot find a screenshot/picture of it anywhere online, but it looked a little like these two things combined:

These bottles... (Source)

I made this in Photoshop.  Imagine the bottles not as... tall.

Hanging like this in trees, but more of them with pretty sunlight shining through them!  (Source)

I hope they'll release the screenshot sometime in the future.  But if you go see the movie, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about when you see the scene!  After the movie, Wendy was like, "Did you see those hanging bottles?  So pretty!"  haha see, not just me.  ;)  Here are some other pretty Princess and the Frog scenes I came across:

I thought this was very Cinderella/wedding-esque.  So warm and dreamy!  (Source)

Like a groom waiting for his bride, with all the guests watching!  (Source)

Here is a mini picture-spiration! I really like that green one in the first picture and if I can find then, we can definitely work them into the wedding! (Though that yellow and blue one are quite lovely as well! If they do orange glass, we're good to go!)

(Source: 1, 2, 3)

What inspirations have you found from movies, books, walking on the street, etc?  Were they things you could use in your wedding?

     

concrete jungle

Compiled inspirations.

Cityscape cake: how cool is that?!  This city girl likies.  (Source)

Maybe we can have a design to represent the both of us like this Threadless tee!

City for me, trees for the Oregon boy.  :)  (Source)

Another candle/light idea I found!  Again, thank you Martha. 

"Rubber stamp, white ink, and glass candleholders -- frosted glass holds ink best."  Sounds simple enough yeah?  Not as easy as printing on vellum paper and wrapping it around, but close enough!  It would be so easy to personalize these!  (Source)

Coming up next!  Dessert bar.  Centerpieces.  (The basic idea of them was one of the first wedding ideas conceived!)  Bout inspiration.  (Oh... maybe it's time to try again.  I bought some leaves!).  I can't WAIT for our rings to arrive on Tuesday, along with Tim, so we can try them on togeher.  :-D  (Is it Tues yeeeeet???)  I think you really don't realize all the small, simple tasks that that easy to take for granted when you live in the same city!  I was thinking of getting him to get measured for a suit but... I don't know if I want to waste precious time with him being within breathing distance doing that.  Or having to fight pre or post Christmas crowds!  Though I don't know if suit shops are actually Christmas crowd magnets.  Though parking at the mall (it was soooo crowded on Satuarday!) will still be a pain.  I guess we'll see.

Exhausted.  Long, long day.  Must go to bed now.  Happy Sunday!
     

chuggachuggachuggachugga toot toot!

Another fantastic centerpiece idea from Steven Curtis Chapman's assistant Grace's blog! (The other idea was the butterflies.)

If we were having a December wedding, I'd totally use these as our centerpieces! Charlie Brown trees! How simple (aka mostly easy and cheap to make) and cute is that. :) (Source)

Sooooo. More progress has been made! We sort of decided on the invitation design! I made all the drafts and sometimes I feel like I don't love the one we chose, but then I did make it, so it's like... ok. hahah. I will have to whip up some RSVP/info/map/accessory cards to go with the invitations, and then get some price quotes on printing, which is the next big hill cause that sounds like an annoying task. You'll have to wait until I send them out to see them though!

My dad will also be gifting us with air travel (no, not freebie tickets,* but NOT stand by! Yay! haha) and select accommodations becauseeeeee after chillaxing in Kauai... we might be hanging out in Hawaii a little longer. ;) More details on that when it all actually is booked, cause I'd hate to give incorrect information. :-P But hallelujah! God is so gracious. It wasn't too big of a deal, but it is a relief to not stare at my Excel sheet wondering where we could gonna squeeze money out for the honeymoon.

It's super early but I'm already trying to work through the ceremony program, so I can figure out how many songs I need so I can pick songs, because my brother's been buggin' me for the set list!  Already.  I suppose I could pick songs now and figure out the program later but... stuff's gotta match, right? :) There have been a few wedding songs I've collected over the years (aka have heard and decided I must have that at my wedding!), but... most if not all have words to them! And I'm looking more for 90% instrumental and maybe one song that Alvin might sing.  So I guess we will see.


* All my life I've had to combat the assumption that I can fly everywhere for free! We don't. Or it's "free" with a price of... possibly not getting on. And the assumption that a geography major must know where every country is and is good with maps. :oP  Silly assumptions!


Find any seasonal inspiration you wish you could use in your wedding?
    

the dress!

Here's an updated picture on my bouquet progress!

Left: Front view; Right: Back view -- that darker pink one was the style I had trouble with. But that was my third try and it's progressively gotten a lot better. :)  And you can't really see it but I wrapped some pretty ribbon around my glass bottle.

oo O ------------------------------------- O oo

And now... finally gettin' around to posting about the dress. The dress! Except. So. I don't know how or if it's even possible to "zip" up posts on Blogger here and Tim comes around once in a blue moon and I don't want him to see it! So.  There won't be any pictures and you will just have to click on the links.

So long story short, I went to David's Bridal with my cousin back in August. I went in armed with a few catalog numbers of dresses I liked. But of course, they all seemed to look better in the catalog/online/on the models.  :(  I had a REALLY enthusiastic wedding consultant lady, and she brought one I didn't expect to like... but it was my favorite from all the dresses I tried on! The V9409 from David's Bridal. (If you are NOT Tim Condon, please click on the link to view.)  I wasn't so sure about strapless cause I'd like to be worry free that day, but I did not know they make strapless wedding dresses all sturdy like with little risk of slippage. :)

It's simply looking but it's A-line and it's got a lace up back and this asymmetrical split of chiffon down the left side that you can't really see in the picture. There are also some nice not-too-obvious (I think the word I'm looking for is discreet.  haha)  flowers on the bust area.

Now. It is $500. A decent, if not even modest price, in the world of wedding dresses that can go into the thousands and beyond. But. I am not made of thousands. Or even hundreds. My dress budget was ~$300. So it wasn't terribly out of budget if I REALLY wanted it. And Tim, sweet Tim, said... "We're getitng married once, if you really like it, get it. We'll make the money work." *Awww*  haha. But. Since there were so many other expenses, I didn't want to justify the $500 on a dress I'd wear for 8 hours.

So I thought. And browsed online. And thought some more.  There was that big boo-hoo time when I missed a bid on Ebay for the original dress, new for $250. I continued to stalk Ebay and OnceWed and PreOwnedWeddingDress, and even Craigslist. Then I gave up for awhile. But before I gave up, when I searched everyday... on Ebay, this custom dress from China listing, based on/inspired by my orginal V9409 dress would pop up.

Now. China and bad customer service and possibly getting screwed over are risks with ordering from a far away country that might not care if your dress doesn't fit or if they use bad materials. I've done a lot of reading of reviews! Some good, some bad. But then... after I gave up for awhile and got a rest from thinking about it -- I decided that the $160 was worth the risk! Yes, $160 compared to $500 for "basically" the same dress. Same style anyway. (David Bridal dresses are from China anyway. They might have slightly better quality control and you have a brick and mortar store to complain to. But really. They're from the same place.)

So. Here. (TIM, DO NOT CLICK) Here is what my dress is supposed to look like, at least. :-P It is slightly different from the orginal V9409 -- which I'm totally fine with and it doesn't have a train. I did do custom measurements, but it's a-line and has a lace up back, so it should be easily adjustable if they didn't get the exact measurements right. And since it was ONLY $160, I can spend a few dollars getting alterations here (locally) if need be.

They say it takes a month to make and a week to ship, soooo end of December ish?  Maybe a little later if they're busy around Christmas or something.  I'll report back when I get it. :)  It's like a surprise. hehe.

I'll talk about plan C dress in the future if this dress doesn't work out and I decide that I still don't want to buy the orginal one. :-P


Would you have taken the risk for $160? Do you think Chinese custom dresses are risky business?  How important was your dress in consideration of your budget?