dissonance

Embarrassingly fun

Hehe!

Introducing the bridal party

It's been a few weeks since the bridal party has come on board so I thought it's well past time to introduce them to you!

Cheryl, Maid of Honor

Yup, Craig's sister!  I am delighted to have her be part of this wedding.  She's got a good head on her shoulders (helpful for keeping me sane) and I trust her judgement.  She's also very close to her brother and as my future sister in law (wow!) I can't think of a better way to welcome her into my family.

Angie, Bridesmaid

Angie and I were "bessies" in high school. We'd been through quite a lot starting from the very first day of high school!  Songgirl years, immature boyfriends (or rather in my case immature boys who missed out on being boyfriends, hah!), and snarfing on double bacon cheeseburgers.  I am pretty sure we made a time capsule like over ten years ago. We need to find that and open it!  Angie's quite the fashionista, which should come in handy during outfit planning!

Angelina, Bridesmaid

Angelina represents my college years.  She was always my partner in crime when hitting up the club scene. I remember the night went to PB Bar & Grill and we didn't even get our IDs checked because they knew us by face and we just looked at each other and said, "We gotta go somewhere else."  So then we ended up haunting Red C lounge for ages.  Through Angelina I have met and dissed more guys than with anyone else.  Her independent attitude is a great inspiration to me.  Ahhhh good times.  Angelina's also very crafty with a great eye for color and detail.

Kris, Bridesmaid

Kris comes from post-college, working years. I originally met her via another friend because we both liked to knit.  From that common bond I think we've formed a great friendship.  She's not only super knitting woman, but seriously, super all around as I noted recently.  She has already gone through the whole wedding planning experience (that's her sweet husband, Brad, with her in the pic) so it's been great to have her as part of Team Im. :P

So there you have it, the VIP ladies of the wedding!

Wedding DIY: Kusudama pomander

Like many brides before me (and many who will come after) I would like to put a lot of personal touches to the wedding to make it unique.  One way to do this is through the power of DIY craft!

Here is my first Kusudama flower pomander prototype:

Now that I see it in a picture, I think it looks quite nice!  Why is it only a prototype?

Haha!

Now, just that took me freaking 4 hours!  So let's say a full one will take 8 hours.  I don't think the size of the paper will make much difference on the time it takes since it's all the same folding and glueing.  But I totally love how it looks!  Trouble is, I don't know what to do with it!

Options:
1) I originally thought of making 4 huge ones, and 2 even huger ones, sticking them on on dowels and then sticking them in pots to decorate the ceremony area.  Ok, just thinking about the maths, that's about 48 hours.
2) Then I thought I could make like a whole bunch about the size as the one above to put on first chair in each row of the aisle.  But that's 8 hours times each row time two (each side of the aisle) and that's a friggin lot.  Plus it depends on the kind of chairs we get.
3) Or make a bunch of half ones so that they lay flat on a table and decorate the reception tables with them.  Pretty cheap decoration I suppose and it would be only 4 hours per table.

Any other ideas?

Just Say No to candied almonds

I went to my first wedding fair this weekend. It was really dinky, held in the conference rooms of a hotel down the street, but Craig was happy it was dinky as he felt it was good "starter fair".  Most of the vendors were not too impressed that we didn't know when the wedding was.  They were further unimpressed that the wedding was going to be in Scotland, thus making most of their services unusable. ("What do you mean you can't drive the Bentley up there?")

To be honest, I was pretty underwhelmed and unimpressed as well. I think I have been totally spoiled by the internet and Etsy. I mean, just as an example, the invitation vendor had these MASSIVE binders with invitation samples that were 1) mostly cream cardstock with 2) pearl calligraphy script. 

Not that there's anything wrong with that.  But when I've been exposed to gorgeous offerings at Modern Girl Invitations and Wedding Paper Divas like this and this, (not to mention Etsy with prettiness like this and this) I wonder if they realize what they're up against.

But then again, the fair was really small. Maybe I will be happier with the choices when we go to a Serious Wedding Fair held in a massive stadium where we wander aimlessly for 5 hours until we crumble into a little heap under a (diamond) white flag of surrender.

Potential palettes 1, 2, 3

Lately I've been obsessed with playing around with color palettes for the wedding.  Shall I share a few with you?

Apple green gives a fresh, quirky feel while the black and white keeps it elegant.

Duck egg blue (or Tiffany blue) paired with yellow seems soft, feminine, and light.

If the wedding is late in the summer, I like the idea of using bold colors usually reserved for fall, but kept casual.

What do you think?

I have a few more combinations I'm in love with that I want to make some more of these.  It's so fun to do I'm not sure how I'll ever decide which one to settle on!

Answer: totally cool

The first major Wedding Decision has been made:

We are having the wedding in Scotland!

This wasn't an easy choice, but a lot of factors tipped it in its favor:

- It would be easier and cheaper to organize a Scotland wedding than a California wedding while living in England.

- We will probably get to have the wedding next year in Scotland as opposed to 2011 in California.

- Craig's grandmothers are rather restricted in their travel and we really want them to be able to attend.  I don't have anymore living grandparents so that generation has to be represented by his side of the family.

The decision was was made a lot easier by knowing that most of friends were happy to attend in either country, so we didn't have to think too hard on that aspect.  I'm so grateful for such awesome friends!

At first I was really rooting for a California wedding. You know, San Diego, awesome weather, lovely views, already know the area... but now that we have decided, I'm super stoked about a wedding in Scotland. I mean seriously, how cool will that be?! 

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More pics from the snowstorm earlier this week:

That's the entrance to our "wee" house.

This was actually taken on a small "green" in our neighborhood!  So I got to pull out my snowboard after all.  Unfortunately it worked much better as a sled which a lot of people had fun with.

Best Saturday ever

It's totally official now.

The ring arrived this morning and oh-em-gee I totally love it.

It is exactly what we were looking for. The total carat, the color and clarity of the stones, and the setting in particular.  Blue Nile calls it a 'trellis' setting and I love how it sweeps around and it's a nice contrast to the straight lines of the princess cut diamonds.

 

I had briefly contemplated a tapered band, one that gets thinner as it reaches the stones, but I think I made the right choice in getting the straight band. The "monica" side of me loves how it's the same width as the side stones.

Picking out a ring together was the perfect choice for us.  It was fun!  AND I got him to propose to me again this morning, with the ring, bended knee and all, in our pjs.  Ok I lied, I made him propose to me twice this morning.  It's a nice way to start a Saturday.

Come on, Saturday!

We bought the ring! We bought the ring!

And that's as close as you're gonna see the ring today because I had to give it up for resizing.  I took a close up with my phone camera but I got the following two comments when I showed people the picture:

• Oh, did you get a gold ring?
• Oh, are those stones... green?

Yeah... so I'm gonna wait until I can get pics from a proper camera. The ring comes back special delivery on Saturday so I hope you can wait!

In the meantime, I saw a friendly face in london this weekend: