And so it unfolds...

With 10 days to go ... I feel like my world is falling apart

2010-09-21T22:06:00.006-04:00

Sigh. Breathe in. Breathe out.

WARNING: Major ranting session :(

1. With 11 days to go, our final numbers are 226 yes (+10 kids); 108 no. This is after stalking people down via facebook, email, phone, etc. Final numbers are due by Friday to the hotel. Lately people have been contacting me changing their RSVPs... sigh. which of course changes table assignments and changes cupcake labels... ahhhhhhh!

2. My eyes--> after my amazing bridal shower and fun/ memorable bachelorette party, i must have drank too much or threw up too much because I now have a sub-conjunctival hemorrhage (which in normal ppl's terms means that blood vessels popped or something in my eyes...) aka my eyes look like this: (please don't be grossed out)

3. I JUST ran out of ink on my printer... while printing programs. I got to 250 one sided copies. mmmm i need to make 700 double sided copies. I asked Kinkos how much would it be considering I'm supplying my own paper... they said $500. FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS?! freakin crazy. I'll just go out and buy more refillable ink. sigh.

4. I realized today, that I need to go out and cut down about 72-96 branches (4 per table on 24 tables). As I started freaking out, I realized that if I ordered artificial ones it would cost about $150 to have them shipped to me. Luckily, my awesome MOH said she would spend her Thursday night helping me cut branches. whew

After I freaked out on Mr. Mercy due to work frustrations and all of the above... he graciously, sweetly, and understandingly asked me how he can help and what he can do to take a load off my shoulders. (i love him. sigh) SO, Mr. Mercy shall do the slideshow and I shall worry about it no more. As there are more tasks I can't/ don't want to handle, it is nice to know that when I'm ready to relinquish control... he'll be there to help me through it and love my crazy self all the same. Cannot wait to be married to him!

OMG 16 more days?!

2010-09-16T10:45:00.000-04:00

RSVP Summary:

224 Guests have accepted
105 Guests have declined

3 Guests have not replied

General Update:

1) Rehearsal Dinner-- originally we were going to have it at my brother's house with food catered by our favorite kabob place. ummm with 45-50 people we realized this was totally unrealistic. So instead we're having at Red, Hot, & Blue which is this awesome BBQ place in between the hotel & the church (like literally in the middle. haha) The manager there was incredibly helpful and accommodating with our budget and creating a fixed menu for our guests to choose from. I <3>

2) Photos for centerpieces: had a helluva time printing out all of the photos onto 4x6s and cutting them in half. Then punching holes in them and tying ribbon on them so that they can hang from the branches. Hours of labor completed during the Michigan vs. Notre Dame game (how sweet was that victory?!?! hehe) About half of them are vertical and the other half are horizontal.

3) Bi-fold programs instead of tri-fold programs: (Front, back, inside) Honestly we did this because it will be SO much easier to fold.

4) Pew Bows: DONE!!!! This is what it will hopefully look like in the church:

5) Photobooth Services: After having trouble with our printer, we decided that instead of dealing with the headache, we'd hire Mick Lerlop to do our photobooth. He did photobooth services for someone we know (photo below)... nice huh? He charges $280 for 3 hrs and provides prints for all of our guests. When we bought our own background, lighting, photo paper, etc. it cost close to $50... We were able to return all of those things we had bought. whew!

6) Poms-- Remember how we won the giveaway for the party poms? Here they are nicely packaged!! SO great and excited!!!

7) Double-checking vendors, hotel, church, etc. -- we drove to Herndon on Tuesday to meet with our hotel coordinator, Jay Bhalla. He is EXCELLENT! His level of customer service and flexibility has been such a huge blessing to us! Because he is so accommodating, we highly recommend the Crowne Plaza Dulles Airport (i promise we're not receiving any benefits for saying this haha). Anyhow, the church is going through construction but we'll have the ceremony hall look kind of like this (minus the step ladder and the music stand haha). but yes those ficus trees + 2 candleabras with ivy & flower decor.

8) Upcoming Events: I'm so excited!!! My bridal shower & bachelorette party are coming up this weekend. I cannot wait to just party with my girls and have some fun! Mr. Mercy gave me some stern rules however:

No bumping & grinding: there should be a 6 inch rule between me and whatever guy. and that means 6 inches from the outer most part of my front (aka from the boobs) not 6 inches from my stomach. I believe it also applies from my backside as well... considering my ass is flat... i guess it'll be 6 inch from my back haha.
No Kissing: that means lips, cheeks, or hands. He says cheek kissing is okay if a) we were in Europe and that was the custom there or b) we're in a black church during greeting time. hahaha.
No Strippers: obviously... but that also includes any form of strip poker or anything else. we tried to cover all bases for the purposes of obtaining full disclosure of expectations.
No "close" photos with any other guys... originally he said no photos with any guys at all... but I stated that that was quite ridiculous for the spirit of documenting my bachelorette so he simply added the condition that they cannot be "close" pictures... (note the ambiguous definition of "close").

hahah he cracks me up :)

9) First Dance: Our friend mixed our songs together for the first dance and sent it to us yesterday! I'm SO excited for it... gotta put on my dancing shoes-- just gotta sway side to side...

TO DO:

Make guide for all people helping out with the wedding: with contact info of every person, schedule, pictures of how to set-up each space, etc.
Get branches for the centerpieces
Do table seating + print out respective labels for cupcake boxes
Print & fold programs
Make slideshow: only for the 1st reception because we decided not to go through all that hassle for the 2nd reception. I'm going to try to use smilebox for this because that program seems so easy to use! Besides, it comes with music already included!
Buy remaining gifts for entourage
Mr. Mercy needs to create the dinner playlist, the dancing playlist, and the song for the father/daughter and mother/son dance.
Make flower bouquets & other floral arrangements: Flowers will arrive on 9/28/10
Buy surprise for guests from Shoppers: (on 10/1/10 & store at hotel)

1 month to go...

2010-09-01T05:16:00.016-04:00

RSVPS: (Including our 2nd tier guests!)

216 Guests have accepted

82 Guests have declined

25 Guests have not replied

I cannot believe this wedding is ONE MONTH away!

Here's my top 10 update:

1) Korean Invites:

We sent out 400 invites to basically Momma Justice's friends (sigh) and 30 to pastors/ elders at Mr. Mercy's church. I believe that Momma Mercy sent out another 20 invites... that means that there's a total of 450 invites being sent out.

Now mind you that people will be bringing their families... so let's be conservative and estimate that each family has 1 child that they will bring+ 1 spouse: 1,350 people...

But probably only about 60% will show up because its wedding season, we're sending the invites a month earlier, blah blah blah= 810 people.

Mind you that the reception hall can only hold 400 people. So I have NO idea what she's going to do about the other 400 people. craziness.

Side note: I put the time as 4:30 so that the Koreans who are notorious for being late, will actually be on time. Momma Justice was more than a little displeased and made me print out additional labels correcting the time to 5pm. sigh.

2) Bustle pick-up on 9/7:

It will look like this! $70 for a 3 point French bustle ain't bad right???

I had to cut off a lot of the photo so that Mr. Mercy still doesn't know what even the back of the dress looks like :) hehe

3) Hair:

So I had a bit of a disastrous hair appointment... not because the hairstyle was bad, but because the lady was siding with my mom over me... ridiculous Korean mentality-- the bride is not always right. ANYHOW, she did a good job on the hair and will be coming to the hotel to do my hair, Momma Mercy's hair, Momma Justice's hair, and my sister in laws (both current and potential) haha. Such a huge relief that we won't have to drive to Annandale to get our hair done. Pictures of it:

4) We got our Marriage license!!!:

In Virginia you can get your marriage license 60 days prior to your wedding so Mr. Mercy and I headed there and got our license!! It was super fast and cost us $30 for the license.

5) Money Boxes:

So Momma Justice had gotten us this fine china that came in a hot pink box. I took those 2 boxes and made money boxes- one for the grooms side, one for the brides side-->

6) Honeymoon Registry

We finished our Honeymoon Registry with Honeyfund!!! SO EXCITING! honestly I cannot wait to go on this honeymoon with my husband... I love Europe and I love my friends in Germany. More than that, I can't wait to share in all of those experiences with Mr. Mercy.

I'm hoping that the whole thing can be covered by our friends, my family, and his family... but if not, we've set aside some finances. :P

7) Hanboks: (Korean Traditional Costume)

The hanboks arrived!!

Momma Justice's Hanbok. The top in the photo looks a bit orangeish, but in reality it is this deep rose... so pretty! (Can't show you Momma Mercy's but its the same just the top part is a darker green--> absolutely gorgeous.)

Then there's my hanbok: the one on the left is my personal hanbok. Mr. Mercy will wear a vest in that green paisley pattern + pants in a color that matches the bow +an inside shirt thats like a light pink. His looks great, mine is kinda... bright. The one on the right is the top cover that the brides wear for the paebaek ceremony. We borrowed it from my mom's friend.

8) Rehearsal Dinner & Day of Food:

So for the rehearsal dinner, I have to put in the order for food from Moby Dick's House of Kabob probably 2 days in advance.

We need to buy drinks (sodas), alcohol (without Momma Justice knowing), and plateware/flatware. We'll also probably want to order some sort of dessert/cake/ whatever for that evening.

For the day of, we want our bridal party and helpers to be eating some delicious Jimmy Johns sandwiches!!!

15 pc Party Platter Subs = $24.95
30pc Party Platter Subs = $49.95
6 foot jumbo size party sub= $121.28

There's about 50 people I think we would need to feed (35-40 helpers) + misc random unexpected people... meaning that we would need to order probably 4 of the 30 pc party platter subs??? equivalent to $200. sigh. not bad?

9) Diet/ Exercise:

Speaking of food... with 1 month to go, my dress fits me perfectly... but the question is do I go ahead and work out? I think so. I want to tone up my arms. In terms of diet, I intend to do nothing drastic... Also, started on the advanced white toothpaste-- cant do the strips because it makes my teeth extra sensitive!

10) Resource Guide for Bridal Party:

When I met with the wedding coordinator of the church, she had suggested that there be some sort of info sheet to everyone involved in the party. I decided to take it a few steps further and make a resource guide (complete with a table of contents) haha. When I told Mr. Mercy, he sighed and laughed at me a bit... but I really think it will be helpful! I'm excited to work on it this holiday weekend and hope to have it done in the next few days.

TO DOS:

Make pew decor-- still need to make those stupid pew bows!
Solidify Photobooth details
Print photos for the centerpieces
Get branches for the centerpieces
Make the resource guide book
Set-up table seating & print out cupcake labels
Print & fold programs-- waiting on the bible passage from the officiant.
Send evite for rehearsal dinner
Set up the jimmy johns day of food
Double check cake topper making, centerpiece small poms making, and projector from mom.

Rhyming: Dinner, Winner, Flight, Fright!

2010-08-23T05:22:00.003-04:00

So I feel like there's SO MUCH to update on!!!:

1) Our Family Dinner--

They say, "Ask and ye shall receive"... seriously thanks Sids!!!!! The trays were SO useful and perfect for hosting our family. We used the serving bowls to serve our food in! This is how it all turned out: Cucumber Tomato Salad; Herb Crusted Pork Tenderloin; Old Bay Seasoned Creamed Corn; and Mr. Mercy's Mushroom Risotto!

I'm just seriously super relieved that it all turned out okay and our families were happy to be around each other :).

2) A Giveaway Winner--

SO a few days ago we found out that I was the winner of a giveaway featuring 10 party poms! If any of you remember, I was pretty horrible at making those Martha Stewart Poms, but since I won the giveaway, I can put these up above the guest table for some welcoming ambiance when our guests walk in!!!!! There's this perfect set that has: lt. pink(2), dk. pink(2), raspberry(2), khaki(2), tan(2). So it really will incorporate our wedding colors into the front walk-in visual effect!

3) A Honeymoon Flight--
We booked it! We booked our honeymoon flight flying open jaw into Naples, Italy and flying out of Hamburg, Germany! It will be 14 days (Sunday night to Saturday night) of awesome well-deserved relaxation and fun. I'm also taking off 2 days before the wedding and two days after the wedding just for my own sanity haha. A few related considerations:

Cruises in Europe: So we had a friend who did a cruise in Europe for their honeymoon and highly recommended it. The pictures looked phenomenal and they looked incredibly relaxed. HOWEVER, when I did the financial calculations, going on the cruise instead of doing everything ourselves cost $500 more! As we are broke, we will not be adopting the cruise option. But for those with some cash money, it really seems like a great route!
Honeymoon Registries: there are TONS of honeymoon registries out there, but we've decided to go with Honeyfund because its free for us to use and free for our guests to use. The other companies charge the guests 8% or 3% or the couple 7%, etc. Some of the other alternatives we decided not to go with are (Traveler's joy, Honeymoon wishes, The Big Day, etc.) We'll hopefully have that up and running soon...

4) A mild fright...

A few days ago I realized that the wedding is 40 days away. FORTY. Like the amount of time that Noah spent in that ark at "sea". Like the fasting of Jesus in the desert. yes. That FORTY!! (okay so maybe I'm being a bit dramatic), but still! My lovely bridesmaids keep on asking me if there's something they can help me with (cause I haven't really asked for any help) and really, there's nothing to help with! haha. The invites are all assembled and have gone out (without any cumbersome bows), the programs will have no bows on them, everything is set or can be handled by me and Mr. Mercy! Here's the RSVP stats:

184 Guests ACCEPTED

48 Guests DECLINED**

69 Guests HAVE NOT REPLIED

**So if the number of declines increases to 65 I think Mr. Mercy and I will invite 19 more people from our church, workplace, and those who requested +1... sigh **

alterations, DIY photobooth, and other general madness...

2010-08-11T07:00:00.012-04:00

RSVP SUMMARY:

155 Guests have accepted

38 Guests have declined

108 Guests have not replied

First great news: Dress details!

Momma Justice finished all of the alterations!!!! She shortened the hem of the dress, fixed the straps, and fixed the front of the dress (to be less revealing). Woohoo! Now I just need to take it to a seamstress in order to add the bustle. I think a french bustle would be good... but we'll see. I'm hoping it will cost $25-30 rather than the $300 in alterations the lady wanted to charge me originally

Second of all, DIY PHOTOBOOTH:

I got the file from David Cline and the result is this:

I love it! I just need the thing to print twice now. It was super easy to use and manipulate as there are all of these prompts for the user and you know exactly what to do! I just need it to print out 2x and I'll be good to go!

Paper for the banner: Bought. Need to just create it. What should be the message... suggestions anyone???

On 8/17 both the Mercy family & the Justice family will get together and me & Mr. Mercy will make them dinner. Yikes!!!!! We're thinking:

mushroom risotto, rosemary and garlic baked chicken, roasted veggies, creamed corn, and wine?

What we really need is those serving trays on our C&B registry so that we can serve on our ottoman (we don't have a coffee table)... hmm should we just buy it ourselves?

Photos Galore

2010-08-09T09:44:00.002-04:00

RSVP SUMMARY:

154 Guests have accepted

37 Guests have declined

110 Guests have not replied

As many of you know, the church we selected for our ceremony venue is undergoing construction at the time of our wedding. There wasn't much on the property in terms of a photo opportunity, but now there really isn't anything. So, I've been frantically looking around for a place where we can take some wedding day photos... (note: the outside of the hotel is not that fantastic either!)

[[DRUMROLL]] WE FOUND IT! Lake Fairfax Park is about 12-17 minutes away from the hotel and looks like this:

The idea is that for the first look... we'll have Mr. Mercy at the end of the pier & me coming down the stairs to see him... :)

I'm just super thrilled we found it finally!

Now onto the cause of my headaches: DIY Photobooth

Our photographer is charging $800 for the photobooth option (w/ professional lighting, printing, etc.), another photographer charges $250 for the photobooth option using a laptop, and a professional photobooth costs about $1000+. SO we wanted to have a DIY photobooth...

First of all, my close friends from college threw me a mini-bridal shower at the end of May and gave me a scrapbook as a present! This is the future purpose of that scrapbook:

Now in terms of the backdrop, I explained that we had purchased 2 black curtains + 2 clothing racks in order to make our backdrop. I want to hang a banner across it like this:

It requires a few items:

Macbook (w/ david cline's awesome automator script: we donated $10)
Printer w/ photo paper (and hopefully enough ink...)
Table for the printer & for the printer--> the one for the laptop needs to be elevated to eye level. The one for the printer can be at whatever level there is. But the table needs to be thin in order to provide enough space. sigh.
Background (and in our case the banner)
Lighting (probably a floor lamp will do)
Box of props

Hopefully the end image will look SOMEWHAT similar to this:

The biggest issue currently seems to be that I want the photos to print out 2x on precut 2x6s. This will save tremendous amounts of money. But it requires me to fiddle with the automator script to get it to do that. we'll do a test run once I get the code and I'll let you know.

Last be not least: MyPublisher Photo books!

We got the MyPublisher photo book and it really looks amazing!!! I'm pleased with its quality over the quality of Shutterfly and I would highly recommend it!!! We will perhaps order our parents albums through here. We still need to check out Picaboo & Mpix wedding albums, & we paid $35 for a $115 groupon deal at Photobook America for our wedding album!

TO DOs:

Honeymoon-- seriously.
Order engagement photo for display
Work on making the pew bows
Print table numbers
Select & Print photos for centerpieces...

Photobooks & Accessories!

2010-08-05T03:36:00.004-04:00

RSVP update:

145 Guests have accepted

30 Guests have declined

126 Guests have not replied

So Mypublisher is having this promo where you can get $20 off each order!

I decided to get a book of our proposal and engagement photos just to test out the quality.

In terms of the software they use, I thought it was easy to maneuver, but wished there was more flexibility and options in terms of layout.

We ordered one hardcover (with 21 pages) and 2 paperbacks with 21 pages for each of our parents. Will post a review once it arrives!

Accessories:

I decided there was no way I could just show a picture of the wedding day accessories and ask for advice... so I decided to put on the whole ensemble (well minus the dress!), especially since I just got that highly coveted necklace as a birthday gift~!!!!!!:

versus

Miscellaneous:

Found out that candelabras are indeed provided by our ceremony venue-- whew!
Started pre-marital counseling-- excited for the next 9 weeks!
Honeymoon--> ugh still need to do this. sigh. dark cloud looming currently!
DIY Photobooth-- still working out the logistics on this one... but companies charge $250 for the laptop DIY photobooth setup... All we need is to have it set up to print 2 copies for us or to split a 4x6 in half every time (perhaps a paper cutter)? Sigh. This requires a separate blog post so look forward to it!

Done!

2010-08-02T04:29:00.000-04:00

First of all... online RSVP update (before invites go out!):

134 Guests have accepted

28 Guests have declined

139 Guests have not replied

Mr. Mercy cut all of the invites and RSVP cards:

And I JUST finished printing out and applying all of the labels unto our envelopes.

113 to be mailed, the rest of the 300 to be hand-delivered

with invitations!

Also, we got our FIRST wedding gift! So excited! Thanks Tina!

I think the solution to the cupcake box dilemma is clear labels:

OH! and the fabric swatches for the korean hanboks came in:

beautiful no??? gotta get Papa Mercy a sage tie now... sigh.

Lastly, my hair accessory as a pin was not working so well... so i attached it onto a thin headband (i found at Target for like $6) and now it looks like this:

AHHHHH 2 months until the wedding and still so much to do! sigh !!! (ex. just found out our ceremony venue may not provide candelabras & a unity candle... oops haha)

uh oh: glitch.

2010-07-26T07:59:00.003-04:00

so yesterday I tried putting the labels on the cupcake boxes that would have a guest's name and table number-- uh it looks horrendous:

What to do? I'm thinking about having my friends with nice handwriting simply write the names directly onto the box in a nice pen... perhaps with calligraphy?

OR I could buy small heart label stickers and put the information on that and stick it on the corner.

Suggestions?

PS. Still in need of 12 addresses *sigh*. Then all of the invitations will be sent out this week!!!!!

Ink Disaster!!!

2010-07-19T06:09:00.002-04:00

So last week I decided it was time I printed all of the invitation stuff out.

I was shocked by how fast the ink ran out! :(

If you remember, we spent $59.77 on ink (a 4 pack which included color ink & 1 mega black ink). The colored ink cost $41.99. Because of the color theme of our invites (brown & pink), the magenta & yellow were out in the middle of the RSVPS! As we trudged into Staples to purchase some more, I couldn't bring myself to pay another $41.99 for another set of colored ink. Instead we purchased this which cost $20:

its refillable ink! unfortunately the process is not as easy as it seems... and I got magenta ink all over my hands... hope it goes away by the engagement session today ( 7/19! )

110 pages of English invites + 55 online RSVP pages

88 pages aka 176 invites that are MISTAKES: purple & pink

I forgot to monitor the magenta & yellow ink levels closely enough-- so when my printer ran out of them, my printer decided to print using the cyan and voila-- purple & pink invites. It is SUCH a waste to throw these out... and the Korean folks really do not care about the colors of the invites... so I'm thinking we'll just use them?

165 pages aka 330 invites that are CORRECT

I'm hoping that will be enough for Momma Justice & Momma Mercy.

still need to print out the labels for the envelopes & the labels for the favor boxes.

Then later I'll print out the programs and we'll be DONE!

On a side note...

Seeing how quickly the ink runs out... well I guess its after a lot of printing... makes me nervous about how we're going to print for the photobooth. I think we are going to use a mac and we are going to make a donation to David Cline to get the code to command the mac to print out photostrips...

PS. Current RSVP stats:

RSVP SUMMARY

132 Guests have accepted

19 Guests have declined

149 Guests have not replied

Our new Home!!!!

2010-07-16T08:01:00.005-04:00

The bedroom furniture was delivered and here's what it looks like: (the first one is in the store, the 2nd one is in our new home)

Again, this is the electronic rendition of the layout of the apartment via the deliciousness of the Sweet Home 3d program:

This is what it looks like with all of Mr. Mercy's stuff moved in...

The issue is that with the desk and the bookcase on the right, it leaves a very intimate (aka tight) space for the dining room. And remember, that's not our actual dining room set (it may have to be though cause space is too tight!)

The thing I'm happiest about is the wardrobe turned into an entertainment center :D

Or does it look weird? I basically stacked all of Mr. Mercy's DVDs, CDs, Playstation games, Wii games, and board games into the cubby holes on the wardrobe. In the first bottom drawer I put the Wii accessories like controllers. On the top shelf I intend to put the Comcast box and whatever else. In the body, Mr. Mercy decided to put in plastic storage drawers. Good? Bad? Brilliant? Fail?

Last but not least, we wanted to paint our bathroom walls & add some kitchen shelving...

The paint we got for free from my brother & sister in law (thanks again!) which is this flesh colored light peach? the issue is that the landlord wants us to split the professional painting cost 50-50. I think we'll need to ask for a price estimate before we agree to such-- otherwise we'll have white walls in our bathroom (no biggie)
Kitchen shelving... there's already some shelving in the apartment, but we need at least one or two shelves more. I think we'll only be able to fit one very long one. I want it to match the existing shelves ( I think I can find it at IKEA) so that I don't need to remove it and take it with me when we move out).

Ideas? Suggestions? Comments?

Engagement Session & 1st Dress Fitting

2010-07-12T10:45:00.003-04:00

So our engagement session is scheduled for TOMORROW 7.13.10 at 5pm and I'm excited!

Here are our outfits:

For our Casual Look--> Michigan Jerseys & khaki shorts... or jeans.

For our Formal Look--> (overall look, blazer, tie) then my dress.

Where are we taking these photos you ask??

Playground
My old apartment
This public fountain area with rowhomes as a backdrop
This area called Fells Point in Baltimore that has a bunch of unique shops & a great nightscape of the Inner Harbor.

Also, my dress came in!!! So we'll be having my first dress fitting.

now they tell you to bring all of the jewelry, shoes, undergarments, etc. that you're going to wear on your wedding day for the fitting so that we know how it all goes together...

So I did a quick summary of my wedding day accessories... what do you think? too much?

As for necklaces, I'm really debating between:

versus

Again the neckline of my dress is a deep v-neck and the beading detail looks like this:

opinions on the necklace anyone??

UPDATE: Engagement session moved b/c of the high probability of rain. It's on for next Monday 7/19!!!!

Overdue Updates

2010-07-08T11:34:00.001-04:00

It is about 3 months until our wedding... unbelievable!

First of all: RSVP stats

117 Guests have accepted

11 Guests have declined

172 Guests have not replied

This means that 43% of our guests (128 out of 300) have electronically RSVP'd before we've even sent out the invitations! woohoo!

I know a friend who did pure electronic RSVPs although he did send out paper invitations-- I'm seriously contemplating that idea... it would save a LOT of postage (for 300 guests... the remaining 400 for the Korean Ministry would have to have paper RSVPs because they don't DO electronic RSVPs)

Second of all: pew decor

I'm really seriously contemplating crapping pew deor all together... again this is what the ceremony venue looks like for a typical wedding...

the more I think about it who remembers what decorates the pews at weddings??? isn't it more of a nuisance? will it clutter the ceremony site unnecessarily? andddd it would save money and time.

If we do it i think it will be pew bows and they'll look like this. This is the tutorial i found and here's another one.

Here's the one I created:

Third of all: Unwanted guests help???

help help help! Still need advice!

I'm leaning towards a simple announcement explaining that those who received an English invitation should proceed to the 2nd reception and those who didn't should join the reception in the fellowship hall.

Tactful right? Get's the job done right?

Sorry to have been MIA...

2010-07-06T07:51:00.003-04:00

Hey folks,

Sorry to have been MIA...

Our pastor and dear friend passed away this weekend and things have been a mess of emotions.

He always wanted a pseudonym on this blog, so I've decide to call him "Crazy Pills"

I know that at least, we want to honor him with a moment of silence at the wedding...

I know that in that moment I will definitely cry...

He always said his goal was to make Momma Kim cry (since she hardly ever cries).

I guess he'll have to settle for my tears.

A substantial post updating on wedding stuff to follow. Just wanted to explain my absence.

Hold the Phone...

2010-06-21T09:03:00.000-04:00

Hey followers...

I'll be gone from June 21st to June 30th... sooooo I won't be blogging :(

I know I've been quite flaky lately, but I promise when I get back I will blog regularly (& work out regularly!!!!)

A brief update:

1) Registries--> currently we have started TWO registries. I think what we will do however, is go through them again and take out things that we can buy at a cheaper price for decent quality at IKEA. Thereby leaving the important items that we really want! After that, we'll release it to the general public. A message to those who will be wedded anytime soon... our first registry took 4.5 HOURS! crazy! The store person walked around the ENTIRE store with us for the entire time. At the 2nd place, we took 1.5 hours because we got the layout and then went off on our own with our cool laser gun thing. Managing the registries online has been super fun and convenient though...

ooo and when we get back we have to start our honeymoon registry...

2) Rehearsal Dinner--> I still think we're leaning towards Moby Dick's chicken, beef, or lamb platter which comes with rice AND salad and naan and meat! This will be hosted at my brother and sister in law's house hopefully if we can fit all 50 people?

3) Unwanted Guests--> on the 19th I attended a wedding where I ran into some old childhood friends.... by childhood I mean between age 5 to 2nd grade aka age 7. When they saw me they stated "Oh I didn't know you were engaged! I heard it's in October. Well I guess we'll see you in October!" uhhhh PROBLEM they are NOT invited.

Now these folks had not been invited to my brother's wedding but STILL CAME. Not only did they come, one of them brought a date. That's 4 unaccounted people. My brother's wedding had placecards with table numbers for each guest. These 4? Had no placecards obviously. BUT THEY STILL STAYED. soooooooo I really don't want them at our 2nd reception. The very idea that they would presumptuous to assume that they were invited to the 2nd reception when they have to placecards is mind-boggling and annoying.

So I'm thinking about ways that are still tactful and yet efficient to inform these folks that they can attend the first reception, but are not invited to the 2nd reception:

Make an announcement to those that attend the ceremony and the individuals that received invitations in English and family members should proceed to the 2nd reception and other guests should remain at the church to enjoy the reception prepared in the fellowship hall.
Include an extra piece of paper in some of the Korean invitations informing them that if their child is above the age of 18, they would receive a separate invitation inviting them to the 2nd reception. Otherwise, we welcome their presence at the first reception at church.
When they arrive to the 2nd reception, have someone (ex. a day of coordinator) inform them that if they do not have a cupcake box with their name and table number, they should return to the church (which is down the street) and enjoy the reception prepared at the church...

argh. either way... the situation is infuriating. Opinions? What is the best option???

Looking forward to your responses when I get back! Take care for now!

pew cones= bane of my existence.

2010-06-15T01:56:00.008-04:00

So I decided to go with pew cones thinking that they would be easier to do:

I was inspired to switch from cardstock to paper lace doilies from this photo

Then I tried to do it on my own

Yikes... I thought it looked not so great.

SO then I reverted back to my original cone idea and added our stamper monogram:

mmmm still hesitant. Mr. Mercy recommends plain cones with a bow upper-midway on the cone that is brown with pink stitching. My "better than Martha Stewart" (BMS) friend says it will look too busy... AH! I DONT KNOWWWWW

So then my BMS suggests just making pew bows out of tulle and some satin ribbon either brown or pink:

She suggests the "Nordstrom Knot" in order to achieve a full look.

Now "Save-On-Crafts" gives a very good step-by-step instruction guide on how to make bows:

http://www.save-on-crafts.com/bow.html

ORRRRR I can crap the DIY and just purchase it from Dollar Tree for 2 for $1--> I would need 20 of them so total cost will be $10 with nooooooo hassle & noooooo stress.

Final Decision= I really don't know... we'll see???

Invitation Injunction!

2010-06-11T11:46:00.000-04:00

Originally I had purchased these bad boys as our envelopes for the invitations:

however, when I pulled them out and worked with them, I discovered sadly that they were a bit too thin so they looked pretty... ghetto? hahaha I mean the monogram stamp from PSA Essentials definitely helped up the class a bit, but it was still a bit ... shoddy.

SO, through www.bigfatcake.com, Auschick informed me that Bluedotpapershop is closing down and as a result was offering 30% off! I immediately perused through their envelopes and found that they had "hot fudge" envelopes that were 5 1/4 by 7 1/4. I worked on the invitation design and shrunk it to fit within that envelope size. Then I had to purchase 2" circular labels/ seals in order to stamp our monogram (design is 1.63") onto the seal to affix it to the envelope (since now they are brown). The end result? looks like this:

Now I added the border to the RSVP postcards because otherwise it didn't really match with the invite and the hotel cards... Then I added the scroll design to the back of the RSVP cards to make the whole look cohesive...

YAY! so fabulous!!!!

We decided that for the Korean congregation invitations, we'll use the Sam's Club ones because the 1st generation Korean folks don't really care about invitations or envelopes or whatever.

Here's what the finished Korean invites look like:

BUT for our friends, we ordered the brown envelopes and the labels to affix on them.

Cost for the change?

Envelopes: 50 envelopes in Hot Fudge A7 cost $14.99 a piece. But the 30% off discounted $22.49 so the total with shipping= $62.45 for 250 envelopes.
Labels/ Seals: 240 2" white circular labels cost $9.75 put shipping so that total was $12.25 for 240 labels.
Now we'll be returning 3 boxes of the Sam's Club envelopes which = $26.64
So $74.70- $26.64= $48.06 additional spent on invitations.

Follow up Post: PEW DECOR continued... sigh

2010-06-09T01:32:00.005-04:00

So someone asked me whether the poms looked "that bad"... here's my end result.

Granted every time i make poms they look like some dog chewed it up and spit it out... but dude... either way its not pretty.

Then someone asked me what it would look like simply as wreaths (no monogram in the middle)

Then someone asked me what if there was a monogram in the middle?

And lastly, a creative alternative I thought of myself:

Votes please?

PS. On a good note, I bought the Williams & Sonoma Message-in-A-Cookie cutters that I'd been eyeing since I got engaged :)

On a bad note, Mr. Mercy's ring is slightly too small. Sigh. So we'll be re-ordering it a size up.

Pew Decor-- Forget the Poms! Its WREATHS!

2010-06-08T10:20:00.004-04:00

Soooo yesterday one of my BM came over to consider what giant poms as pew decor would look like... ummm yeah.. not so hot. The reason is we did 4 pieces of tissue paper rather than 8... and it looked sparse... and weird... and yeah no.

But as I was searching for the proper directions, she messed around and made tissue paper roses... We then developed the brilliant idea of tissue paper rose wreaths:

Please ignore the disastrous colors-- we were exploring a bit.

I think it would look great in the pink tissue paper...

we'd of course print the monogram to fit in the center without showing the cut edges/ background.

The base of the wreath-- a dixie dessert paper plate. crazy no?!

Each one requires 12 flowers x 20 pews (we'll do every other pew down the center aisle only) = 240 FLOWERS Better get cracking now...

Opinions???

Overall look will be something like this-- but not as much (kind of overwhelming) and not so many ribbons...

Ps... Guest count is up to 298... Mr. Mercy forgot to look on Facebook for friends he may have overlooked... result= 8 more people. Yikes.

Flowers & Gifts COMPLETE!

2010-06-04T09:32:00.005-04:00

So happy that things are getting done!~!!

FLOWERS

First of all, we ordered the flowers on 6/3-- 200 stems of Alstromeria aka Peruvian lilies. (180 pink & 20 white!)

We looked at a few companies: www.theflowerexchange.com, www.fiftyflowers.com, www.growersbox.com, www.wholeblossoms.com, and www.rosesource.com

For FiftyFlowers, there were some really bad reviews out there on Projectwedding.com that made me cringe and shy away from it. What bothered me more than the reviews, were the company's responses on the website-- it seemed callous and uncaring.

For RoseSource... same deal except there reviews were even worse-- almost scathing!

The best were growersbox & wholeblossoms. The problem with growersbox was that they sold the alstromeria in assorted packs so I didn't even know what the pink would look like.

WholeBlossoms however showed the pictures above and let me select my specific quantities over the phone. on top of that, the representative I spoke with on the phone was super knowledgeable about the flower and very VERY helpful! best part-- total cost= $160 for 200 stems!!!!

BRIDAL PARTY GIFTS

We also purchased all 6 goomsmen gifts yesterday... which means we are pretty much done buying gifts for everyone who is helping out with some aspect of this wedding! we're still contemplating a few small misc. gifts and the gift for my brother/ sister-in-law who are hosting the rehearsal dinner... but so happy that the major gifts are DONE and we stayed within budget!

RSVP stats: decided to do this every time i post...
40 YES
3 NO
247 unknown

Positively Pleasing Progress!

2010-06-02T01:20:00.005-04:00

So relieved.

The Save-The-Dates have been sent. All 290 of them.

Currently we have 94 people on our "tier 2" list...

Ideal number is to not exceed 270...

I think it's definitely possible!

Now, I started working on the skewers/ floral tape aspect of my throw bouquet so I decided to include some updated photos. Apologies in advance for the poor color vibrancy (or lack thereof)... it was REALLY bad lighting & I used my blackberry camera.

Last but not least, my friend introduced the idea of using poms as pewdecor. She had seen it at a wedding recently... piqued my interest for sure. It's basically the tissue paper flowers on a much larger scale + ribbon:

Upcoming TO DOs (for this week):

Finishing obtaining everything for the groomsmen/ bridesmaids gifts.
Order flowers--> 200 stems... I'm hoping they'll price match.
Reserve the sound system (aka the mixer & cable)

Throw Bouquet :P

2010-05-30T01:32:00.003-04:00

So while I was at my Better-Than-Martha-Stewart friend's house I decided to delve into her craft box and make these origami flowers (some say lilies, some say tulips, some say irises... I don't know). Anyhow, I followed video instructions from here: www.instructables.com/id/Make-an-origami-Tulip/

I made 20 flowers from different patterned paper & various shades of blue...

I thought about it and realized that this can be my throw bouquet!!!

Here's the end result after about 2 hours of work:

What I need to do is to use the wooden skewers to make the stem and then wrap floral tape around it. I'll most likely glue gun the flower to the skewer just to be 100% sure that flying ends of the skewers won't poke some poor guy's eyes out at the wedding hahah.

But all in all, I'm ecstatic about it!

I'm looking forward to using it for some pre-wedding photos

and then to have it given to some lucky gal out there amongst the 700

yay! :)

Invitation inquisition...

2010-05-26T14:23:00.000-04:00

Soooo I decided to maybe change the invite design! I have 2 different designs in mind... votes? opinions? decisions? :P

VERSUS

Now the 2nd option matches much better with our program design... here's a reminder:

so folks, chime in... comment away so I know what to do!

Decisions need to made soon so that I can send out those invites and deal with the carnage that will surely ensue... sigh.

Oh also... we thoguht about increasing the max number of guests (for the 2nd reception) to 300 and negotiated the price down to a lower rate with the hotel... with a guarantee of a minimum of 250. BUT Mr. Mercy and I have thought about it, and the price difference is negligble... we're going to keep it at 250 and hope no more people come than that. Ideal number-- about 250-270.

Wedding band PURCHASED! & Music SET!

2010-05-22T09:11:00.004-04:00

Sorry for the long hiatus...

I was on vacation and then had mountains of work...

Also, we had out of town guests come in to party it up with us-- sort of a mini Michigan alumni reunion!

In between all this, I purchased Mr. Mercy's wedding band!!!!! :)

I ended up googling for the best prices and best value... its gorgeous no? yay!

Also, we made the final decisions about the music:

Prelude and entrance of everyone else-- just acoustic praise music. Kind of like when people are in prayer and the piano is playing in the background.
Bride's Entrance: The Prayer...Andrea Bocelli + Heather Headley version is very good. Instead of having the guy part in Italian, I'm hoping the guy part can be sung in korean... I know Mama Justice and all of the other Korean-speaking guests would really appreciate that.
Praise Time: I have a list of songs I'm thinking of...
Special Song (during unity candle lighting & greeting parents): Till I See You... I just love love LOVE the message of this song.
Recessional song/ Exit song: higher and higher... I actually like the ACM Gospel Choir version and want it to just be played over the speakers...

Mock-up Centerpieces: FINAL DECISION!

2010-05-12T09:52:00.005-04:00

So my fabulous bridesmaid gave me the precious tissue paper flowers she'd made thus far so I could see if I wanted groups of flowers or just single blossoms...

Option 1: Groups of flowers (modeled after cherry blossoms)

Option 2: Single blossoms

Mr. Mercy and I both agree... FINAL DECISION= OPTION 2 (Single Blossoms!!!).

The end result will look something like this (minus the overcrowded multiple stems):

sigh of relief...

Welcome to our future HOME!!!

2010-05-10T09:30:00.006-04:00

We went with... [[drumroll]].... OPTION 1!!!! wahooo!

it was a much better deal after we saw it in person.

Bathroom, Kitchen, living room towards kitchen & bathroom

3 shots of the living room...

Bedroom: the green curtain thing is a closet. Also, in the last photo, we'd take off the doorknob to the non-functional closet and put Mr. Mercy's wardrobe closet there...

Then I used a program called "Sweet Home 3D" to create layouts of the apartment with all of our possible furniture:

I feel like the above layout is better than below (which has the sofas not against the wall):

Last but not least, I have a few items of IKEA furniture which do not match any of the other furniture... I'm thinking about using designed contact paper in order to create a funky vintage pattern on these pieces and make them point pieces... we'll see?

So happy :)

A Day with Mr. Mercy...

2010-05-05T23:15:00.000-04:00

SAVE THE DATES
I think I've got it!
We will send the save the dates to our out of state friends meaning all of the Michigan folks that are invited and all of the international people that are invited.
We'll ask them to RSVP as soon as possible, so that we'll know how many local people we can invite.
Last count showed 283 people invited (not including family) to the 2nd reception that can only hold 250 people max...

HOUSING
sooooo we've been approved for both places. I'll see both places this weekend and then we'll make a decision. Eek! so close to finding our home for this fall! Related to this is the fact that Mr. Mercy and I went to Best Buy and I saw this washer /dryer and straight up lusted after it. I feel like I'm turning into a old woman (aka ahjoomah in koreaan).

But seriously... come on... isn't she a beauty? So sexy in the tango red...

HAIR

Oh Mr. Mercy & I went to Barnes & Noble today and as I flipped through many a wedding magazine, I saw these hairstyles: love love love!!! (now the hard part is how to wear a veil with such.... hmmmmmmm)

CAKE STAND

Also Mr. Mercy and I went to Marshalls and saw this beauty.... oh i want it so bad!!!

Isn't it adorable!!!?!?!? I would buy ribbon to match our wedding colors... but it was ONLY $12.99!!! now we have the crystal cake stand from Momma Justice (which Mr. Mercy promptly reminded me of...) but this one is so gosh darn cute!!! ... sigh. I have to think about this.

TO DOS

Send save the dates
Decide about rehearsal dinner
Decide on all music & inform musicians: processional song/ recessional song
Decide about photobooth mechanics
Order the mixer and cable.
Order Mr. Mercy's wedding ring
Order flowers
Think about honeymoon/ gift registries...
Decide on hairstyle...

Soon to come... centerpiece mock-ups? gotta coordinate a time with my bridesmaid to do the clusters...

House to call Home?

2010-05-03T11:04:00.007-04:00

So fate would have it that now we went from 0 housing (after looking at about 50 places) to 2 possible housing opportunities... sigh.

OPTION A:

$900/ month
Free washer/ dryer on 1st floor
Located 2 minutes walking to the college students
nice new appliances
On the 2nd floor.
Street Parking
3 floor/ unit apartment
Move in date of mid-June-- we'd get a storage unit for Mr. Mercy's stuff for about 2 weeks. The pain is that we'd be moving his stuff 2x. The benefit is that the storage unit only costs about $50/ month.

OPTION B:

$915/ month
Coin-operated washer/dryer on 1st floor
Located 5-8 minutes walking to the college students
Street parking
On the 2nd floor in the back of the building.
Nice new appliances-- apartment renovated about 2 years ago?
Multi-unit building-- about 7-8 different units with different folks.
Move-in date of maybe end of May? or End of July-- perfect if its end of May.

So we've put in an application to one... and a call to another... so we'll know by the end of this week where Mr. Mercy will move into... (what a relief for sanity's sake...)

Back from the Dead!

2010-05-01T16:50:00.001-04:00

WARNING--> LONG POST!

HELLLLO EVERYONE! i'm back :) with quite a few updates!

1. Special Roles for Older Brothers-- So i have 2 older brothers and I've decided that 1 (the oldest) will walk my mom down the aisle and the other with do the bible reading in English and his wife will do the bible reading in Korean. cute no? yay!

2. Frequent flyer miles + honeymoon-- So my oldest brother has a few miles on US Airways that if he doesn't transfer, he'll lose. I'm thinking that perhaps we can have friends who travel a lot donate their miles for US Airways so that we can get at least 1 free ticket to Europe! Which brings me back to the point of the honeymoon, I think we want to go to Western Europe to 5-6 different countries (Greece, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, France, and Spain). The question is WHEN.

Option 1-- End of October/ Beginning of November. We would wait about 2-3 weeks and then go which is the off-peak season of Europe. If we go to Greece first, then we'd be fine in terms of weather! Positive: We get to go right away and don't spend money on another mini-trip; Negative: We need to pay for the plane tickets up front which is very pricey.
Option 2-- Go on a 4-5 day cruise leaving locally and in May of 2011 we go have our official honeymoon. Positive: We get to save up money for the honeymoon to buy the tickets and such; Negative: We are paying for 2 honeymoons essentially. Though we hope to get a cheaper deal/ free deal because of our credit card rewards points for the cruise.

Here's a little eye candy of my previous Western Europe travels...

3. Losing Weight-- I need to get back on this! I have found that strangely enough, my regular blogging is linked to my working out. Aka when I stopped blogging as regularly, I stopped working out. Essentially I dropped out from the gym in April... so sad. Therefore MAY will be my return: the prodigal bride goes back to Blogging and Working out (almost) EVERY other DAY!!!! hahaha I thought I'd be realistic :)

Ps. Side note-->so many gobluebrides-- 2006 (CA), 2009 (Boston), and much more (posting on TheNest and such...)

Let's Look Into the Crystal Ball... of our guest list...

2010-04-20T12:21:00.004-04:00

So Mr. Mercy and I have finished the website & the Save the Dates...

But it has hit me... that we have invited 280... and our 2nd reception venue can only hold 250... Of the 250 we need to subtract about another 15 for our extended family members who we haven't thought of... so that reduces our personal guests down to 235.

That means of our 280 guests, we need 45 to decline.

That is a 83% yes rate...

According to various websites like WeddingBee and ,65%-85% of the guests will accept.

Others recommend doing a "by-person" percentage of acceptance then totaling all of the percentages to find the overall percentage-- oh my... way too much work.

Yet others recommend calculating local guests separate from out-of-town guests... that out-of-town guests have a 65% attendance rate while local guests have a 85% acceptance rate.

But then the fear creeps up... what if Mr. Mercy and I are faced with nearly everyone coming... that we have 270-275 people in attendance... which means literally we will be 40 (25+15) people over-- 40x26= $1040 we just don't have...

sigh... so maybe we shouldn't send the save the dates until about 3 months (early-mid July) before and send the actual invites 1.5 months (early- mid August) in advance???

What do you think??

Oh! a sneak preview at the Save the Dates!

The pink scroll design matches the invites & the programs... the photostrip matches our "photo" theme! So pleased!

Music madness...

2010-04-19T00:22:00.006-04:00

Soooo I've been going through a lot of decision changes...

Not just with the centerpieces, but with the MUSIC:

The special song is now: "Till I See You" by Hillsongs United

You see, the original special song we had, I picked. I picked it because the lyrics really touched me. But since it's our wedding, we should have a song that we both know and love. This song really seems to be a proclamation of the life we want to live post marriage... so without further ado, here are the lyrics-->

"The greatest love that anyone could ever know
That overcame the cross and grave to find my soul
And 'til I see You face to face and grace amazing takes me home
I'll trust in You
With all I am I'll live to see Your kingdom come
And in my heart I pray You'd let Your will be done
And 'til I see You face to face and grace amazing takes me home
I'll trust in You
I will live to love You
I will live to bring You praise
I will live a child in awe of You
You are the voice that calls the universe to be
You are the whisper in my heart that speaks to me
And 'til I see You face to face and grace amazing takes me home
I'll trust in you
You alone are God of all
You alone are worthy Lord
And with all I am my soul will bless Your name "

The recessional song is up for grabs. Either "Higher and Higher" by Jackie Wilson OR "On our Side" by Chris Tomlin. You see, the 2nd song basically states that regardless of what we face we know we'll be okay as long as we're aligned with God's will... its kind of what really believe in. Also, it has biblical roots-- 2 Kings 6:8-23 when Elisha's servants thought they were outnumbered by the King of Aram... and Romans 8:31... okay enough preaching, we'll see

For the processional song, Mr. Mercy called Dave Barnes "that guy... matthew barnes??" in this very nonchalant and indifferent tone= we are not doing a Dave Barnes song... I refuse to walk down the aisle to a song my fiance doesn't care about :(.

So here are the three I'm thinking of:

1) His Eye is on the Sparrow-- we'd have to modify 1st verse. But i loveeeee Lauryn Hill and the general message of this song.

2) What I've Been Looking For from High School Musical-- Mr. Mercy and I decided when we first started dating that this really described us :)

3) Like a Star by Corinne Bailey Rae-- this is sweet... a bit corny though haha

A pix of my girl, Lauryn Hill, in the Sister Act movie when she sings...

sigh one my favorite moments!

Save the Dates, House Hunt, E-Session...

2010-04-16T05:03:00.000-04:00

As one can freely note, the creative titles are out the door at 5am on Thursday (when I started this post)... haha please pardon the lack of creativity.

Save the Dates-->

First of all, these will be done electronically... there will be no actual save the dates sent out-- because for us its a waste of postage. Mr. Mercy and I need to get this done so that our out of town folks can 1) RSVP and 2) book their flights and hotels early... I am hoping for/ crossing my fingers for this weekend. This is what I hope we can do:

Now there's one of 2 ways to do this: (I opt for option 1: its free! and the Asian in me can't resist!)

we use our macs and take these 4 photos through photobooth holding up a white piece of paper in every photo-- we'd add the text electronically to every frame.
we actually go to a photobooth, pay money, and hold up a white piece of paper in every photo to add the text electronically after we scan it.

we'll see... weekend activity i hope

House Hunt-->

Speaking of weekends, that brings me to my next point. Mr. Mercy and I have been house hunting/ viewing since the beginning of April. We found this ideal place... applied... and lost out to other applicants :( POOP. I think at one point in time, I scared off a realtor with my excel spreadsheet of now 35-40 places... But i have made a commitment to Mr. Mercy that we will stop searching at the end of April latest...

But this points out a very interesting difference between us... For him, he would stop apartment searching the first decent apartment he saw and liked. For me, I want to see all of the apartments on the list, think about it, and pick the best one considering the cost and the amenities.

We walked around today and found our back up plan: under the overpass... its cozy no? Look... they already set up a chair for us...

E-session-->

So I think we'll do our Engagement photo session in May... but the question is where? We want it at my old apartment when Mr. Mercy told me he liked me and where he ended up proposing. I want the playground in there... I am wondering if we should do traditional city scenery (night skyline) or fancy artsy fartsy photos... maybe our photographer will have some ideas?

I also need to find the place for photos on our wedding day-- i think our venue may be going through construction the time of our wedding. sigh.

Centerpieces-->

OKay so I lied... I didn't include this topic in the title because currently the acronym is SHE... but if I add the C for centerpieces... it becomes SHEC... mmm no. anyhow, back to the real substance instead of my OCD ramblings...

I realized on an inspirational walk with Mr. Mercy that I wanted it to kind of look like cherry blossom trees in full bloom: ... maybe bunches of pink tissue paper flowers?

Centerpiece mock ups with real flowers!

2010-04-11T01:28:00.007-04:00

So I went out and bought the real flowers... and this is what it looks like:

#1: Alstromeria--> This is convenient because we are already using the alstromeria for everything else... the greenery is nice.. but does it make it too busy?

#2: some white filler flower-->... they didn't have wax flowers so its the best I could do. This looked crazy... it looked like a huge fro in the vase... not cool. I tried putting less and it just looked like a sparse fro. all around not good. (glad I tried the mockup!)

#3: Tulips--> I actually like the three tulips better than the 5 tulips... it is kinda simplistic and I think that's pretty. But tulips are a pain in the rear to get during the fall I think in terms of their durability. I don't know... opinions?

#4 other options--> Maybe dhalias??? (30 stems for $130), Hydrangeas??? (20 stems for $72...) and we could double it up for some altar decor... i don't know...

Btw, I bought some gift cards too-- I love that Giant sells gift cards... what a brilliant concept! And there's no tax on it either!

Also, I tried on my dress again and I LOVE IT! every time I see it or try it on, I'm reassured constantly that it is the perfect dress for me! And worth the money... sigh love it!

Oh some fun humor to lighten to the mood of confusion: Jamaal White does a mockumentary of wedding planning-- hilarious.

http://www.roadtothealtar.com/

updates & lingering doubts...

2010-04-10T10:29:00.004-04:00

Hello my long lost loves!!!

It feels like FOREVER since I've blogged... strange no?

So I got the thank you postcards a few days ago-- fabulous as the sample ones I got from vistaprint.com. I highly HIGHLY recommend them.

I also bought tons of gifts for the wedding party-- bridesmaids gifts, officiant's gift, set-up crew gift, gift table/greeters gifts, ushers gift, praise team gifts, etc. The only these left are 1) ring boy gifts, 2) the groomsmen gifts, and 3) the rehearsal dinner host/hostess gift.

Wedding website is: DONE!!!!!!!!!

Now I gotta finish up the "Save-the-Dates"

Last but not least, I'm still fiddling with the idea of the centerpieces...

I found that this girl did a similar centerpiece for her sister's wedding!

Oh and I went back to the original site where I got the tissue paper idea, and it linked to Zakka Life's site and she posted pictures of her centerpieces:

But i'm wondering if I should cut the tissue paper flowers & do wax flowers instead (cost another $200)... Since I can't find a picture of anyone who did it... I'll have to buy a bunch and try another mock up... perhaps I'll do that today?

After of course, I go and get my dress measurements so it can be ordered and arrive in time for dress fitting/ alterations!!! One of my bridesmaids is coming with and I cannot wait for her to see the dress!!! AHHH! exciting!

New Approach to April...

2010-04-05T23:19:00.001-04:00

So up until now, I've pretty much updated every single day... or backlogged my entries to appear to have updated every single day. However, as April begins, I shall blog only 3x a week...

I know that you faithful 6 bloggers will miss me, haha but as a lot of the wedding details are set, I will have less of a need to blog.

That being said, a few updates:

1. Photobook--> We got the free photobook from shutterfly... it was good? I mean I think it'll be great for our parents and we can do an 8x8 with like 40 pgs of pictures mixing both engagement and wedding for them.

2. Hair-->

First Stop: E-Jung Total Wedding in Annandale-- Price Quote was $100 for bride's, $70 for each mom. Our friends had used this place for their hair and makeup and loved it. Uh when we went the owner must not have seen us as a huge money making opportunity because she was completely rude and unaccommodating. She acted so nonchalant as to whether we would use her service or not. Uh NO.
2nd Stop: LeDuet Total Wedding in Annandale-- Price Quote was $100 for bride's, $50 for each mom. welll the issue was that we really looked at the photos online and I wasn't impressed by the styles they had done for anyone posted online... and if that's supposed to be their best work. mmm no.
The rest of the total wedding shops were eh and bleh at best. Price Quotes were $150~300 for bride's, $100~120 for each mom. So no "total wedding" korean FOBified wedding for us.
Instead, we went to "Today's Hair Salon" in Annandale where Mama Justice knows a stylist by the name of Ms. Choi. We showed up with no appointment, just to see whether she could even do it. She was totally awesome. She cracked us up with jokes and talked about her experience doing bridal hair/ wedding hair. And because she knew Mama Justice, she gave us a HUGE discount: *drumroll*... $120 for my hair, my mom's hair, and Mama Mercy's hair!!! wow wow wow! YAY!!!! so we booked her!

3. Paebaek--> Annandale links right up to Paebaek:

E-Jung and/or LeDuet will do the whole thing for $450 for fake food, $650 for real food, $450 for just real food and no other elements (like the table, the ducks, the screen, the tea set, etc.)
Other places charge $500-750 for fake and real food.
Rose Something near KMart charges $400 for just the real food.
So... we might just do the food on our own too. After all, it makes no sense to pay $400 for some food items (dates, chestnuts, dried meats aka beef jerky, sweets, and gingko nuts)... we'd probably save about $300?

The UGLY truth comes out...

2010-04-04T19:44:00.002-04:00

So the housing search has made the truth come out-- I have a deep insecurity.

As we were looking at a place, I realized I kept questioning what other people would think if we were to live in such and such place. Mr. Mercy wisely pointed out, why should it matter what others think? He and I are certain we're making the right choice at the right time.

But I feel like I need to prove to people that this decision to get married at this time... is right. That Mr. Mercy and I weren't rushing things (considering we dated for 2 yrs, have known each other for 8 yrs, and are both out of school/ employed) by getting married in 2010. It's like this constant fear that if something goes wrong, someone will say "Ha! I knew it! They were stupid to get married this year... they should have waited another year..."

I think what it links back up to is, I've never once been questioned about my choices.... no one has ever said, "oh.. I think she's making a mistake." So this is a new place for me... and a challenging one at that.

which then leads me to the topic of "Pre Marital Counseling."

We are too poor to go to an independent therapist who does pre-marital counseling. So we need to go to a church that offers it for us. Now the church at which we're having our ceremony does have pre-marital counseling on Sundays.... But Mr. Mercy and I cannot drive an hour and 15 min each way for class. Therefore I'm hoping videochat can be arranged? Who knows?

Bouquet & Garter Toss...

2010-04-03T22:07:00.002-04:00

So Mr. Mercy and I had decided not to do the traditional bouquet and garter toss.

You see, it would be VERY awkward to have Mr. Mercy going up my dress to find the garter in front of everyone.

And I've heard many girls complain that they feel put on the spot about being single when the bouquet toss occurs.

Therefore, we're thinking of doing what one of my friends did. (image from her wedding)

Step 1: She gathered all of the single men and threw the bouquet to them.

Step 2: She gathered all of the single women in a circle around the man.

Step 3: She blindfolded the man and spun him around 3 times.

Step 4: The man, still blindfolded, walked towards a girl and pointed/ gave the bouquet to her.

VOILA. the end.

6 months!!! but doubts...

2010-04-02T13:14:00.000-04:00

Today marks 6 months until the big day! yay!

Today is also the day where I started having doubts about the centerpieces...

they are far from typical. Will they look weird? Will they look too bare?

Should I just fill them with flowers like pink roses? Should I crap the whole idea and start again? Sigh.

VERSUS

I also worry about whether Momma Justice is right-- that without the HUGE korean flower displays, the front altar of the church will look too bare... a few photos for your input:

So the blue banners pictures above are standard and will be there for the wedding regardless of anything. The 4 ficus trees I wanted to keep there and string white christmas lights on them.

This is what the church looks like in wedding mode:

(note the huge korean flower displays on each side)

This is my inspiration for the candelabras... with the ivy & bunches of flowers:

So this is the closest thing I could diagram:

This incorporates 4 ficus trees, the candelabras (but ours will have ivy + bunches) + tulle (no ivy) along the pews (I want pink ribbon to tie off the tulle I think).

I think it looks okay... what do you think?

Wedding bands :)

2010-04-01T12:11:00.000-04:00

So my oh so awesome fiance bought my engagement ring and wedding band as a set:

(1st picture is it on my hand taken by my blackberry & the 2nd picture is one that my fiance took with his uber fancy camera)

Therefore, we just needed to order his wedding band. He wanted this style:

It's a 5mm Milgrain wedding band... simple yet elegant to match the milgrain on my band :)

Anyhow, once place was offering it for $318 (super cheap right??). BUT we are enrolled in their rewards program because Mr. Mercy bought my engagement ring from them... so minus $50 from the price= $268. Then I started thinking... duh! this company does PRICE MATCHING... so I searched on google for the exact same description band... and voila! I found it for as low as $260. I quickly wrote an e-mail to the company and they responded within about 15 minutes via e-mail-- THEY AGREED TO PRICE MATCH! so it will be $260- $50 (rewards program) =$210!!!! ($100 saved!)

yay! note: this is NOT an April Fool's joke!

Posting Progress!!!

2010-03-31T15:38:00.006-04:00

our OFFICIANT said YES!!!!!! yay!!

He joked around that he was going to preach to me about grace-- that it was God's grace that I found a saint like Mr. Mercy... and preach to Mr. Mercy about perseverance-- that he's going to need a lot of it to get through marriage with me! :( sad. Perhaps I should reconsider eh? hahah no I know he's just joking!!

Photobooks:

We ordered our free photobook!!! David's Bridal teamed up with Shutterfly to offer a free 20 pg photobook... so we made one of our dating period.

We'll use the Picaboo and MyPublisher ones for our wedding album to give to the parents and an engagement photo album for us. YAy! love free stuff!!!

Wedding Website:

All of the bios to be written by me are DONE!

Mr. Mercy and I selected 6 photos to include our website... we'll save the other ones for the centerpieces.

Now we're just waiting on some photos to include for the proposal part and

Mr. Mercy to finish up his bios (3-4) of them. A little eye candy for you:

Last but not least, housing progress... we have found 27 different places in perfect locations for us... let the scheduling madness begin!

Officiants & Pre-Marital Counseling

2010-03-30T09:49:00.003-04:00

Hey all,

Sorry... no creative titles at this time...

Tomorrow, we'll be asking our pastor/friend to serve as the officiant for the sermon portion of the wedding. I informed Mama Justice that we would be asking him tomorrow, and she sighed, relented, and stated that we would be responsible for whatever associated costs :)

Super excited to ask him!!!! and hope he's understanding about our budget constraints :\

As for pre-marital counseling... the issue is that Mr. Mercy goes to a different church from me. And neither of us currently attend the church where we will get married. Our officiant is not ordained yet and therefore cannot do the pre-marital counseling. So the question then is WHERE do we do the pre-marital counseling and with WHO?!?! sigh

Special roles for Family?

2010-03-29T18:13:00.003-04:00

So on Saturday we had a family dinner with the Justice family... and I realized that I had not given my brothers special roles in our wedding.

Brother Mercy is covered because he'll be a groomsmen...

but the Justice Brothers aren't included in any significant way.

Ideas?

Ushers?-- I don't really like the idea that my brothers would be ushers... I want them to play a more significant role.
Walking Mama Justice down the aisle-- yes that would be cool... my sister in law and brother did that for her momma. But I'd still want them to do something additional no?
Bible Reader-- I had originally asked my sister in law, but I think she might be out of town on the weekend of the wedding (still praying that doesn't happen)...
Duet?-- haha my brothers used to play violin and cello... but the mental picture of them picking up their instruments and attempting to play again is horrifying...

Sigh. Dunno. PLEASE POST IDEAS???

And of course an awkward family photo that cracks me up... more awkward family photos can be found at: http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

Sound and Stickers Update

2010-03-28T18:14:00.005-04:00

This will be a short post cause... its Sunday :P

Stickers & Cupcake Boxes

So I started working on sticking all of the Uprinting labels onto our cupcake boxes... lo and behold they sent us 62 extra ones! cool... (especially because we ordered 300 boxes so we'd have 50 extra boxes).

The only recommendation I have is that you should NEVER try to work on something when you're really tired... for 20 boxes I accidentally stuck the sticker on the inside panel of the box instead of the outside :( I had a rough time trying to take off all of them and restick them on the outside panel... sigh.

Sound system--> YAY!

- Momma Justice has pulled through and guaranteed us that she could get us a projector to borrow for the slideshow at no fee.

- For the mixer we contacted a company called Gaithersburg Party Rental and they are charging $20 for the weekend (sad because last year it was $15)... altogether not bad considering that the hotel was going to charge me $100!

- The mixer requires a certain cable in order to hook the ipod into the mixer... my sound guy has informed me that he owns such a cable so I don't need to shell out another $20 for cables we wont use again!

To Do this week?

- continue looking for housing

- finish website: I swear by this weekend!

- send out electronic save the dates (by 4/2): 6 months prior to the wedding is good no? I want our out of town guests to get the best deal regarding flights

- figure out photobooth logistics

- settle on songs for the ceremony

Hurricane Vases w/ ribbon & samples

2010-03-27T23:11:00.000-04:00

So tonight I got the tall cylinder vases from my sister-in-law (thanks tons hun!) and decided it was time to make semi-mock centerpieces.

I got the tall vases, glue gunned ribbon on each of them, added river rocks, added water, added fake flowers on the bottom (it'll be real ones for the actual centerpiece), and added a floating tealight (it will be the larger floating white rose candles). Below are the final photos!

My only problem is that the vase seems... bare towards the top? So I wonder whether it would be better to put one of the monogram sticker labels (Uprinting sent me 62 MORE sticker labels than they needed to??) on the ribbon. This is kind of what it would look like:

What do you think???

Hazardous Housing Hunting

2010-03-26T18:15:00.002-04:00

Although this is not directly related to our wedding planning, it is related to Mr. Mercy and my future life together post October 2010. Therefore I feel justified about blogging about it here haha... thanks for reading?

So in the previous post I listed our what we were looking for in our housing search... when we searched on Craigslist we found a few places that hit our requirements right on the dot! I then wrote those people a lovely message telling them a bit about us and asked some pertinent questions. Let me tell you... there are quite a few scammers out there now.

Here's the standard response I got from 3 different people:

"I really need someone who is going to take care of the place. Because I'm presently out of country for a Christian mission with my family in West Africa and its exciting here. I'm going to make a solid arrangement on how the keys will be send to you for viewing of the property because we have the keys and the document here with us we are trying to look for an agent that we can give this keys and document before we left but could not see and we are as well as don't want our property to be used any how in our absent that is why we took it along with us here. It was due to my transfer that makes us to leave the property and also want to give it out for rent to a lovely and caring family only, so if you know you cannot give the property the neatness it deserves please don't contact me.But if you promise to always take good care of property,get back to me on how you could take care of our property or perhaps experience you have in renting home."

Here's my question... why is everyone on "missions" with their families in West Africa?!?! and Why did everyone leave their houses without finding rentors??? and Why do they think I'm a fool who will believe this stuff... sigh. It's sad and frustrating because those places they listed (complete with pictures + rental application) are gorgeous!!!!

The worst one I got was this one though from a "Pastor Michael Aquino"...

When I googled his name... the search results showed that he was the head of the church of satan! yikes! ummm I think we'll pass.

Giveaway Winners!!!

2010-03-25T09:29:00.004-04:00

So we found out yesterday that we were giveaway winners!!!!

Bridal Gown Blog sponsored a March giveaway and we won!!!!

Here's what we won:

Meeting with BigFatCake tonight! how exciting!!

Papyrus rant & gift madness, & italian ice....

2010-03-24T23:01:00.002-04:00

So I got a call from Papyrus to my office today.

When I called them back, they stated that they had my stamper ready. Confused.

I stated that I already got my stamper in the mail.

She then said that sometimes the company double prints things and accidentally sends one to the customer at home and one to the store. when this happens, Papyrus doesn't get charged twice, so she was willing to give a 2nd stamper to me for free.

I was super excited! If we have 2 stampers, this will speed up the process for our invites (which might be 650 (depending on how many are couples and how many accept in the first round)...

I get there are NOTHING. The woman apologizes profusely and states there must be a mix-up and I got the wrong info in that Papyrus had a stamper ready for someone else and that person already picked it up.

ugh. now on one hand, it could be argued that I didn't really need the stamper nor was I entitled to 2 for the price of one. But I was mislead to have false expectations of such... only to have it unfulfilled. Anyhow, that's my Papyrus rant. [[the cartoon below is by this person... awesome]]

After this letdown, Mr. Mercy and I went to have some italian ice. Now most people are familiar with Rita's, but the best italian ice and custard has got to be Carmen's. now they have these things called "Carmen's Carts" which have italian ice or gelatis (italian ice with custard) to serve to party guests numbering between 20-2000 guests. My 250 guests and the 2nd reception should be a breeze for them! BUT a) they have a $200 minimum + $4 PER PERSON charge AND b) the company is in Rockville, MD while the reception venue is out in Herndon, VA... about a 45 minute drive (with no traffic). sigh. not going to happen. nice thought though huh?

no :(

Lastly, we've been running around town trying to find gifts for our wedding entourage. I would love to post about it in detail, but I can't because 90% of these readers are a part of our wedding entourage haha. One of these days I'll post about it... let's just say it has been madness shopping for about 35 people with eclectic tastes haha. oh well... i hope our wedding entourage enjoys whatever we pick :)

Cupcakes & Children

2010-03-23T18:35:00.000-04:00

So Mr. Mercy and I decided our children's policy:

All children under the age of 7 can attend the wedding. That means most of the 18 couples can attend with their children (only one has children who are older than that).

Supporting reasons-->

We really do want be sensitive to those who have newborns or infants
The hotel manager said the per person charge only applies for kids above 7
Most parents won't bring their kids because they would need to pay flight costs for kids above the age of 2 (or something like that) which is outweighed by the cost of finding a babysitter.
We won't need our baker to bake additional cupcakes or anything like that.

The last bullet point was discovered by garnering some opinions from some mommies!

You see, Mr. Mercy is the more sensitive type who says that parents generally wouldn't mind sharing their cupcakes with their kids. I on the other hand, am much more selfish (and judgmental) and say that if I was a parent, I'd want a cupcake to myself and probably think that the bride and groom were cheapskates for not getting cupcakes for my kids.

When we asked the parents, they stated that generally they wouldn't let their kids eat a whole cupcake anyways (too much sugar) so they'd probably let them take a bite of theirs or their husbands and then eat the rest themselves. Not a problem at all :)

YAY!!

Mama Justice's Centerpieces for the 1st Reception

2010-03-22T10:31:00.002-04:00

Hello all,

Today I'll be blogging about Mama Justice's centerpieces for the 1st reception.

She got the idea from my brother and sister-in-law's wedding (Nov. '09)...

At that wedding, my sister-in-law (SIL)'s father assembled these mini bouquets with pink and white carnations and other fillers for each table.

The bowl looks like this:

And an idea of the bowl with flowers is like this:

So yes, we've been running around to Dollar Tree & Walmart in order to purchase the vases for $1 a piece... we need 50 haha. (We've bought 10 and Mama Justice has about 8...)

We also ran to Michael's and got some pink ribbon to tie around the neck of the vase. Yes it shall look quite pretty :)

FOLLOW-UP--> apparently some crazy florist told Mama Justice that when the green floral foam shows, it is not good. Therefore Mama Justice wants to not stick the floral foam in OR switch ideas. Here was my suggestion:

Unfortunately Mama Justice didn't like the idea of metal pails... even though they were cheap: ($8 for a dozen at the Oriental Trading Company-- side rant: hate the name.)

sigh we'll see what she ends up choosing...

Organizing Officiant Options

2010-03-21T10:16:00.004-04:00

sigh.

I thought it appropriate to deal with our Officiant mess today because its a Sunday... aka church aka sermon aka officiant? no?

Mama and Papa Justice want a Korean-speaking officiant because so many of their guests will be attending. Therefore they want the senior pastor of their church... who has known me since I was in 4th grade and actually confirmed me when I was a senior in high school.

Mr. Mercy and I want to have a pastor named PK serve as the officiant for the sermon portion. In other words, during the time that the officiant gives the sermon, PK would come up and give that portion. Both Mr. Mercy and I are close with PK and he has been there from the very beginning of our relationship. He was the one who encouraged me to give Mr. Mercy a chance, to confront my parents so that we could get engaged, and has rebuked me (a little too often) to be a better partner to Mr. Mercy (a pro and a con haha j/p).

We thought about our college pastor... but 1) he knows us very well as individuals, but not as a couple... and 2)Mr. Mercy has heard his marriage sermon about 4-5x with various modifications. Besides, we would need to pay for his flight to the area... and honestly, we just can't afford that.

Mr. Mercy's church's senior pastor will be giving the benediction.

in other words, there might be 3 pastors participating in this ceremony! eek.

That also means more officiant fees--> Mama Mercy will pay the fee for the Mr. Mercy's senior pastor. Mama Justice will pay the fee for their senior pastor (we'll contribute $100 or so). And although we can't really afford a fee for our pastor, we'd probably give a gift he'd like. That's a lot of fees/ $ :(

This is a depiction of how I feel:

Pleasantly Productive Purchases

2010-03-20T14:24:00.000-04:00

Today a Walmart run produced:

Brown ribbon-- at $0.27 a yard! I purchased 10 yards so that we'd have more than enough to hang our 4 photos on each of our 27 centerpieces!
Engagement frame-- I bought the 16x20 frame with the signature mat that mats an 8x10 photo. So truly, Mr. Mercy has won this battle. haha kudos.

I also purchased more gifts for the wedding party! Since so many of the readers are part of the wedding party, I cannot disclose what I bought, but let's just say I'm SUPER excited! I have bought 3 things thus far for each of the bridesmaids, the gift table folks, and the day of coordinators (12 people total). The only ladies not accounted for are the 2 that are helping set-up, the 2 additional ladies on worship team, and the make-up artist.

Last but not least, some eye-candy... the free stickers from the Uprinting giveaway came in today and here's what they look like affixed to the cupcake boxes:

Mock up centerpieces!!!

2010-03-19T16:59:00.002-04:00

So yesterday one of my bridesmaids came over and after yanking off a few branches, we made mock-ups of the centerpieces!!!

ATTEMPT #1: table number clipped and photos clipped onto the branches with no flowers.

My mom's compliant? looks too drab... she feels like wedding centerpieces should be brighter. We reminded her that there would be no stick figure portraits but actual photos which will make the centerpieces look more vibrant.

ATTEMPT #2: table number in vases, photos clipped through ribbon, flowers added

ATTEMPT #3: table number in vase, ribbons to hold the photos, incorporate pink flowers, andddd add more branches (makes it look fuller)

NOTE: the photos will be double sided. The table number will be visible from both sides.
Since my flowers looked like someone had chewed up tissue paper and spit it out, my bridesmaid has graciously undertaken the task of making 135 light pink tissue paper flowers!
I like the ribbon, so the photos will be hole punched and brown ribbon will clothespin to the branches.

My bridesmaid sent me a sample of the tissue paper flowers she's making: hehe! makes me squeal with delight!

Overall-- I LOVE IT!!

...Brown paper packages tied up with string... these are a few of my favorite things...

2010-03-18T08:03:00.001-04:00

More things have arrived!

The clothespins came... and they are truly mini. haha BUT i think it works because since they are so small, they don't distract nor overpower the viewer from the photos. Saves me some time from stamping them haha.

Also, the stamper came!!! I was a bit concerned about whether I made the right decision to purchase this stamper for $40... even though Mr. Mercy agreed and supported this... but once I got it, I knew it was definitely correct!!!

I went and bought the floating candles from Michael's for the tall centerpieces... they are pretty roses... or gardenias. Whatever. Either way, they were cheaper than the large disc shaped ones so I went with it.

Lastly, Mr. Mercy and I were trying to decide on sizes for a signature frame. Mr. Mercy states that the signature mat should be a 16x20 matted for an 8x10 photo of us. To me, 8x10 is like a regular family photo, our engagement photo should be enlarged to a 11x14 in a 16x20 frame. Mr. Mercy states that in that case, no one will know that they need to sign it and a lot of people won't. I argued that that is what signs are for, and our 250 friends (aka non-parental friends) will have many opportunities to sign like through the photo booth keepsake book and our customized photobook. To settle this, I spoke with the custom framing guy at Michael's.... and he sided with....

...

MR MERCY :( haha. He stated that the focal point was the signatures and that an enlarged photo of our engagement photos can be done at another time. He stated that there will be guests who sign everything they can sign... so the larger mat is definitely needed. poops. so yes... Mr. Mercy= 1, Ms. Justice=0

Not a bee... but a cake??

2010-03-17T22:00:00.001-04:00

WeddingBee has a collection of regular bloggers that blog about their wedding. Sounds great right? YES except for the fact that their bloggers have to go through a rigorous (and ridiculous) application process: (straight from their website)

1) You must have less than 8 months to your wedding date. Please note that we have a committee that reviews all applications, so it may take longer than a month for you to receive a response. We may also follow your blog for a couple of weeks to gauge posting frequency.
2) You must have wedding related posts on your blog, not just a personal blog or a wedding website, unless you use your wedding website to blog on. It’s easy to set a blog up for free on sites such as xanga, blogger, or livejournal, but you can use any service or program you like.
3) Please read our blogging guidelines to find out what what we’re looking for in a bee before you apply. Once you’ve set up your blog - or if you already have one - write on it exactly as if you were writing for weddingbee for at least 2 weeks/15 entries. This way you can get a feel for blogging for an audience, we can get a feel for your aesthetic and writing style/voice, and we can both see if it’s a good fit.
4) After you’ve blogged regularly for 2 weeks or have at least 15 entries, complete the following application and email it to: wannabee at weddingbee.com.
While we would love to accept everyone who applies, unfortunately we receive many applications and have very few slots. Please note that only about 5% of applicants (or 2-3 bees/month) eventually become bees, but either way you will receive a response. If we don’t accept your application, you’re welcome to reapply after 4 weeks.

So I didn't apply because I thought the application process was too exclusive and rather ridiculous... it's wedding blogging *rolls eyes*. Instead, however, I got an e-mail from www.bigfatcake.com and they invited to blog for them!!!! Very exciting :) I checked out the website and I like them... perhaps?

Boxes of this! Boxes of that!

2010-03-16T23:41:00.009-04:00

Today the cupcake boxes arrived and they are simply marvelous!!! Soon the stickers from Uprinting will arrive and I can stick them on the boxes. (super excited for the overall look!-- I'll share once they're completed).

We also got the envelopes too... they are a bit plain and a bit thin... but I don't care-- it's an envelope. If people want to judge me based on the quality of the envelope... I don't know what to say to their stupidity.

Also, the information cards from the hotel came... and they are personalized with our last names and colors are pink and brown (brown writing with pink borders)-- yay!

Soon the printing of the invites, programs, RSVP cards, and labels will begin so that we can have those invites ready to send by August.

Until then, I'll continue slaving away at the wedding website and save the dates :)

House Hunting Haze

2010-03-15T23:34:00.000-04:00

Now that most of the stuff is ordered, I've been filling my time (albeit only a few hours a day) by house hunting... Mr. Mercy and I have decided that it is best if we rent an apartment, row home, condo, or town home. We have a few requirements:

Rent must NOT exceed $800/ month
The place must be a 1 bedroom or more because Mr. Mercy will be hosting a lot of meetings at our place.
Due to the fact that we expect a lot of foot traffic, having at least 1.5 bathrooms would be ideal (very difficult to find in the area we're looking)
Washer/ dryer is a MUST. I refuse to lug our laundry to a laundromat or use coin-operated machines in an apartment building... seems ridiculous
It should be close to the highway so I can get to work more easily (without having to drive through 1/2 the city) and close to the highway to Mr. Mercy's work so that he can get to work easily (within about 15-20 minutes).
Parking must be included-- whether it is street parking or something else. I refuse to pay $100+ for each car every month.

And then there are some preferences such as hardwood floors, spacious living room area, kitchen with semi-new appliances so I can cook and bake to my heart's desire... sigh. Making this decision soon is pretty important because then we can figure out what things we'd need to put on our registry and what can be left off.

deadline?

6/1/10

Processional Pieces...

2010-03-14T01:49:00.000-05:00

So there are 3 songs I'm considering:

Tell Him by Lauryn Hill-- the original version is THIS but there's a remake done that I love b/c of the simplicity of the guitar HERE (cover done by Keilana). Mr. Mercy doesn't like this because he thinks there's too much of a beat. For me, I LOVE Lauryn Hill. She's hands-down my favorite artist, but I wonder if the song would be a bit weird.
I Have and Always Will by Dave Barnes-- the original version is HERE but I really hate his voice in this song... I would like to parse it down to guitar and have one of our friends sing it... but it would need to be someone already in the wedding party so that we don't have to invite yet another person to the rehearsal dinner! haha.
On a Night Like This by Dave Barnes-- the original version is THIS and I love it. I would literally just play this version for the processional. The melody of the piece makes my heart flutter haha. The one thing about this song was that line "your silhouette is like Judas' kiss," but I like this explanation: "judas kiss" = betrayal = "to show or exhibit; reveal; disclose" - he hid away his love or doesnt want to fall in love, but seeing her sillouette in the moonlight -he cant hide his true love from her.

Side note: Mr. Mercy, thanks for being wonderful. This past week you've been super supportive and helped me with a lot of wedding stuff and other emotional things... thanks... can't wait till 10/2/10...

Here Comes the Bride Banner = complete!

2010-03-13T10:19:00.006-05:00

Originally I had some crazy ideas about making my own banner... but stencils and iron on letters were too expensive and the likelihood that I would mess it up was too high. I even was crazy enough to entertain the idea of cross-stitching my own banner... yeahhh no.

SO my bridesmaid convinced me to dish out the extra $10 and go with the Party City reversible banner which one side says "Here Comes the Bride" and on the other side says "Just Married". Cost of the banner itself= $20. Cost of the ribbon= $4. End product= amazing :) Before I leave this topic, I must say i ADORE my glue gun... best purchase I ever made!

Oh! we also bought the cardstock, bought the labels, bought the photo paper, and ordered the envelopes. :) so the assembly line shall begin... soon.

Last but not least, we bought confetti poppers for when we leave the reception hall at the end of the night!!! I figure we'll pop them outside of the hotel building so that the staff at the Crowne Plaza needs to do less clean up work. We wanted sparklers originally, but the poppers were $10 for 72 poppers... we bought 3 packs for $30.

Things left to do/buy/decide?

1) that never-ending wedding website... and the save-the- dates

2) organize & order our free photobook through David's bridal

3) buy a frame for our engagement photo for guests to sign

4) buy 10 floating candles for the tall centerpieces

5) buy the decorative edible pearls for the cupcakes

Ring Boy Outfits DECIDED!

2010-03-12T10:53:00.006-05:00

it is unique to us.

and we LOVE it.

We're going to have the boys in Michigan football jerseys + khakis= yay!

We know it doesn't match the rest of the wedding (in color, formality, etc.) but both of us went to Michigan and have a lot of Michigan pride so it really is... US. We also want the kids to be comfortable in what they're wearing and the fathers of both kids went to Michigan so they will wear it again.

It would be even cuter if the jersey numbers were 10 and 02... for our wedding date :D hahaha

OH! i was looking through my old posts and apparently I never uploaded the picture of my ring boy idea-- truthfully i jacked it from somewhere... but I can't remember where! sorry!

SIDE ISSUE (somewhat related)... Children Policy:

We were originally thinking of having NO kids except for the kids that are in the wedding party and their siblings (aka 3 children).
But, then we started to wonder if certain out-of-town parents will come if they cannot bring their kids. We counted... and there are about 18 couples with kids (1-3 kids per family).
We talked to our hotel manager and he stated that the per person charge would only apply on children age 7+. But we have to remember the cake/ cupcake costs too!
We want to be sensitive to those who have newborns/ infants...
But I hate it when kids cry in weddings (kills the mood) and run around unsupervised (oh the legal ramifications if they get hurt!).
So we're in a quandary-- here are some possible solutions: 1) only newborns and infants may attend. 2) only out-of-town guests may bring their children. 3) no children allowed. 4) all children allowed.

sigh. we'll see.

Photo Booth Practicalities

2010-03-11T09:37:00.000-05:00

So Mr. Mercy is by no means like this groom or this groom... nor do we want to dish out $500 for the materials to build our own photobooth when we're only going to use once.

But we also didn't want to just hang a sheet and call it a day like these folks.

So our solution??? We bought 2 garment racks at Walmart for $10 each... and then bought some black window draping ($16 for 2 panels) and we're going to hang it on the garment racks. The reason why we bought black was because that will make our funky props (and we have a lot of them) really stand out and pop... which is what we wanted. We could drape some white Christmas lights if we need to... but ideally it would look something like this:

It is still undecided as to whether we will use a remote + camera OR if we'll use a macbook... we'lllllll see. But below is a diagram of what the set up will generally look like... i think.

Ps. ALTAR DECOR:

we found ivy that looks much better at Walmart... for $5!! and we only needed 2! And it wasn't the chain kind... so I like it a lot more.

The ivy on the candelabras + the ficus trees (from the church) with white christmas lights will provide all the altar decor we need. We like it simple and green. :P

Feel so accomplished :D

Shopping as if Money Grows on Trees...

2010-03-10T01:32:00.000-05:00

So I have bought so many things in the past few days it makes my head spin:

1. Centerpieces: I bought and assembled a sample one for your viewing! They are 7 1/2 Jardin vases ($1 a piece) with 32 oz. of river rocks ($1 a piece) and a pink ribbon around the mouth of the vase. Underneath is our table square!

2. Centerpieces 2: Other than the Jardin vases, the tall cylinder vases my sister in law gave to me will be used for a) guest table, b) mingling hour table, c) sweetheart table. We're thinking 5 total?

3. Ivy: I ended up buying the ivy... but I'm not sure whether I like it entirely... perhaps the candelabras just need to be decorated with tulle?? sigh.

4. Mini Clothespins: I found these pink mini clothespins online! So I just went with it... especially since it was cheap and I could order in mass quantity. Total spent? $15 for 250 of them.

5. Photobooth props: orange & yellow wig, flower pinwheel, gag glasses with mustache, pink umbrella, mardi gras beads, cash, sombreros (3), pom poms, tiara, pirate sword, 4 leis, black & white feather boa, construction hat, and wild west pistol/ badge. All bought for like $25!

6. Stamper from Papyrus: ordered the Dashwood one. In the center it has our name and then the outside ring has a bible reference. Total cost (with discount and shipping) is $40.

7. 4x4x4 Cupcake boxes: ordered 300 of them and total cost was $90. This correlates perfectly with the 3x3 250 stickers I ordered for free through the giveaway!!

Also, introducing my new best friend:

8 hours and 7 mini glue sticks later, I had completed...1) the flower pins for the bridesmaid sashes AND 2) my hair piece AND all of the ribbon on the vases...

Things left to purchase?

- invitations/ paper & labels

- frame for engagement photo (Mr. Mercy is actually quite picky about this...)

- ring bearer banner

- pearls for the cupcakes

- the photos for the centerpieces

Things left to decide:

- how the photobooth will be set up so as to minimize the ghettoness and make it "ghetto fab"

- what to do about the candelabras and the ivy decor

- order the free photobooks

- officially decide the ring boy outfits and where to get the components.

Possible Photobooth Props at $0 Price??

2010-03-09T07:18:00.003-05:00

So I came up with a list of props I'd like to have for the photobooth:

Sombreros
feather boa
leis
tiara
frame
sword
mustache on a stick
Afro wig
cowboy hat
pistols
bright umbrella/ parasol
Chalkboard?
boxing gloves
fake huge glasses
something Michigan-- UM Sports finger?

#1 is taken care of since i have 3 from a housewarming my old roommates and I did. I hope 2-11 can be resolved either through what friends have and/or what I can find at the dollar store. *crosses fingers*. If that is the case... I'll have purchased the props for $15 or less!

Disclaimer-- these pictures are pictures of people I don't know... I just pulled them off the internet:

Michael's Madness! (and other updates)

2010-03-08T01:21:00.006-05:00

So another trip to Michael's brought on another set of purchases:

Alligator clips for the sashes: This is the overall look... except the color is a bit faded since it was taken with my camera phone.
Guestbooks (2)-- used another 40% off coupon so the total cost for 2 guestbooks is $16.
Table Squares-- to spice up our plain white tablecloths, my brilliant day of coordinator had the idea of using 12x12 squares of scrapbook paper to add a splash of color without the expenses of table runners!

So my photographer (who is an engineer) had the awesome idea of buying floral foam to place in the vases and then surround the floral foam with river rocks. You see, this saves the amount of river rocks I need to purchase, and makes the branches more secure because they are placed in floral foam. I'm hoping when I hit up the dollar store, it'll be a financially joyous (haha) occasion. If this idea works out, then that will be the filler we use...

I am still working on this wedding website... soon I swear soon... it will be done.

There were a few other discussion we had and changes to make:

Pictures for the centerpieces-- originally they were going to be a 3x5 but according to DC (day of coordinator) and PE (photographer engineer haha) that size is too big. SO we'll be putting 2 photos on each 3x5 and cutting them in half. This allows us to save money and the photos will be small enough so as to not block people's view.
Music for the processional-- my BM states that At Last is a bit strange to walk down the aisle to, my DC says its over done, and Mr. Mercy says he feels like anything other than the traditional wedding march is awkward ... which leaves me at what do I do? (note: in the grand scheme of things... I really don't care haha... but while its on my mind... who knows.) So I like this "On a Night Like This" by Dave Barnes... but one line says "silhouette is like Judas kiss"... which requires a philosophical interpretation-- is it that when the person is walking away/ too far to be with... it seems like that last kiss of betrayal? Or is it talking about the whole person??? [[sigh]] Or should I just be a good fiancee and use the traditional wedding march and make Mr. Mercy happy?

Last but not least... monogram to order from Papyrus:

We want to make the middle name our full names instead (cause they are relatively short) and then make the outside ring a bible verse reference-- Deuteronomy 6:5?

vs.

Cake Topper Trouble!

2010-03-07T08:07:00.004-05:00

Hello all!

So today my day-of-coordinator saw this idea I had taken a picture of out of a bridal magazine and said she could make it a reality for our wedding! I had originally thought it would be the perfect cake topper for Mr. Mercy and me.

Also, I found out that the cake topper train with the "I Choo Choo Chooooose You" was from teh Simpsons... yeah I don't really want our guests thinking about the Simpsons during our wedding... I want them to think about how corny the line is and how of course I would do something so corny.

Result? My day-of coordinator will be making them in the next 30 days because after that, I can't return the name trains...! If they turn out well, then we'll use them with much happiness, if not, then we still have the name trains as a back up plan!

Sorry for the short entry-- very tired!

Bountiful Bargains!

2010-03-06T09:06:00.002-05:00

So today we got a lot done!

We purchased the cake toppers for $10! and luckily Michaels was having a sale on acrylic paint ($0.20 each!) so we bought brown paint and pink paint. We found little wooden heart decals for $0.25 each!!! Therefore total price of the cake toppers? $11.00 :)

Then, we also bought the aisle runner because we got a 40% off coupon at michaels! It was originally priced at $20.00 but with the 40% off we only paid $12.00!! Aisle Runner bargains rock especially since they're only going to be used once.

We also designed a monogram through mspaint for mac in the style of Brian and Lauren (look at previous post) so that's ready to go too!

To Buy List for Michaels: Alligator clips for all the sashes, guestbooks (2), fake ivy (3) for candelabra, mini clothespins, props for photobooth, frame for our signing photo (engagement one)...

To Buy List for Dollar Store: vases for the centerpieces, river rocks for the centerpieces, props for photobooth...

To Buy in General: personalized stamper from Papyrus...

'mo money 'mo problems...

Hotels, Cake toppers, Sashes, and more!

2010-03-05T10:17:00.002-05:00

A lot has been accomplished:

HOTELS-- they are giving a complimentary bridal/groom suite the night of our wedding. There will also be 2 extra rooms the night before our wedding for some of the groomsmen and some of the bridesmaids.
CAKE TOPPER-- I think I've found the solution!!! I went into a toy store and look what I saw: Isn't it adorable?? I choo choo chooooooose YOU! (hahaha). So we'll paint these brown and add a pink heart in the middle of the D and the L. :)

SASHES for Bmaids--> G Street Fabrics was having a 25% off ribbon sale when I walked in... how awesome is that??? After toiling with great customer service... below are the colors I chose: Dusty Rose & Petal Peach... I think one of them will work, and the other we'll use for centerpieces... total cost for the sashes then? roughly $6. :D therefore total cost of bridesmaids' outfits?= $20.

Still to go this weekend? Wedding website and save the dates... yay!

New Approach to Ring Boys!

2010-03-04T05:28:00.005-05:00

I've got it!!!!

I couldn't find that freaking argyle sweater vest anywhere! so I decided instead to do this:

Isn't it adorable??? With of course some modifications:

We'd have floor length khakis

Pink dress shirts

Brown suspenders

Brown bow ties

Khaki newspaper boy caps ($6.50 at Children's Place!!)

oh and of course they would be 2 lil' asian boys instead haha.

Best part? I think if the boys already have khakis and pink dress shirts, the entire look will cost only $20-$25. (whereas a little tuxedo from Men's Wearhouse would be about $50). Shoutout to my bridesmaid who helped me at the crack of dawn look all this stuff up. :P

Mr. Mercy came over yesterday and he worked on the wedding website-- so proud of him :) He posted up photos of all of his groomsmen, so we still have a few details to go, but in general we're doing pretty well! He will also formally ask all of his people by the end of this weekend.

Then we can send out save the dates electronically with our website information on there :D So much that could hypothetically be accomplished.

Also, a pat on the back for me for finishing up that packet for Mama Mercy (with a carbon copy for Mama Justice). Let's hope she doesn't laugh at my Korean and instead simply feels included.

Wedding Websites & Photobooths vs. Photobooks

2010-03-03T11:56:00.007-05:00

So I've been toiling away on our wedding website...

At first I started at TheKnot but realized that the lack of flexibility was pissing me off...

SO I switched to Project Wedding and it is turning out splendidly! Still need to add information on: (it'll seem like a lot, but I PROMISE I got a lot done!)

Our story
Wedding party
Local Attractions
Registry
RSVP
Our Photos

On to other issues: Photobooks vs. Photobooths

Both David's Bridal and this company called MyPublisher have offered me a free photobook! This means that we could fill it with photos from our dating (because we haven't taken the engagement photos yet) and have people write messages to us in the blank spaces during the cocktail/ mingling hour.
Now remember that we also already have the signing photo (an enlarged engagement photo) that will be presented in the foyer of our ceremony
Wouldn't both of these render our photobooth essentially useless? Considering that people take a copy of their strip and place it a scrapbook and leave us messages. Therefore perhaps we should just scrap the photobooth idea? (kills me because I love people taking wacky photos of themselves)! sigh... we'll have to see. **on a note, I learned that the cheap way to get photo booth props is through the dollar store**

Sigh and yes... the (never-ending) list of to-dos/ decisions to make haha:

Electronic save the dates for out-of-town guests-- yes yes... need to send this out. Perhaps through a smilebox?
Finish the wedding website
Send out info the crucial parties like the 2 of day coordinators and the sound person.
Contact the hotel for the complimentary wedding suite the night of the wedding.
Embosser/ stamp for the invites-- 20% discount at Papyrus in March... and it is now March. I think we're going to buy it and use the stickers we won from the giveaway for the cupcake boxes!
Photobooth vs. Photobooks-- gotta make a decision by the end of March (when the discounts run out from the above mentioned stores)
Bridesmaid sashes-- Just need to get my butt down to the fabric store in order to find a dusty pink ribbon sash to match the flower!
Ring Boy outfits-- I, for the life of me, cannot find the argyle pink and brown sweater vests I am looking for. Perhaps it is time to change plans??
Wedding cake topper--Maybe it is time to go with Mr. Mercy's Scrabble pieces suggestion???
Rehearsal dinner-- I think we really are gearing towards kabobs... and hopefully we'll have someone pick it up so as to avoid the 20% service and delivery charge.
Music for the reception-- Our fabulous friend who has graciously agreed to monitor the sound of the evening has stated that all I need to do is give him a list of the equipment for the iPOD (mixer, screen, projector) and he will take care of the rest. I could just hug him to pieces!
Music for the ceremony-- My friend has mentioned that having a solo violinist play is a bit awkward. So I'm thinking of letting my ever so musically inclined friends just play whatever their heart desires and title it "M___'s ramblings" in the program haha.
Honeymoon & Gift registries-- still monitoring the prices and seeing if we can afford it. One of my bridesmaids had the brilliant suggestion of people donating miles... hmmmmmmm
Wedding party gifts-- found some great ideas! and made some progress (at least for the bridesmaids

Sad News...

2010-03-02T08:29:00.002-05:00

Mr. Mercy's best friend cannot make it to the wedding nor stand in the wedding. His wife is pregnant and expecting to deliver their first child on the week of our wedding.
Poor Mr. Mercy :(

That is all for now. We shall have a day of silence in honor of this...

i heart SAN FRANCISCOOOOOOOOO

2010-03-01T07:58:00.002-05:00

First of all, Mr. Mercy and I were the winners of Sarah M's giveaway for the 250 stickers!!!!!! So I'm thinking Mr. Mercy and I will design our own monograms and just have 250 stickers to either put on the cupcake boxes OR on the invitations to our friends. So exciting! First time I've won anything!

I personally like the "Brian & Lauren" one and the "Rebekah & Ahmed" one... I hope Mr. Mercy agrees!

Now, the reason why I heart San Fran... my close friend and old roommate sent me these from there!!! She was at Whole Foods and saw these and had to buy them cause of my blog! I found it hilarious and it was the best pick-me-up after a long day of work! Thanks!!!

Side Rant--> At church on Sunday, I was completely overwhelmed and bombarded by the swarm of girls talking to my ring. and i mean... talking TO my ring. I developed a 2 second respond to the "sooo how did he pop the question!?"... I'll give the extended version to my close friends. Not only that, I'm a person all about efficiency... so it just doesnt make any sense to me that I would repeat the same long story over and over again... in a span of like 2 minutes. I can't wait until next Sunday when all the excitement has died down and I can proceed as normal! haha.

Totally fibbed :(

2010-02-28T07:47:00.001-05:00

So I TOTALLY fibbed when I said I was going to update with how much progress we made...
here it is:
- Reduced our guest list down to 284 from 333 (so we're assuming about 240 will come to the second reception) + our parent's 400 for the first reception!

- Fix up and complete the wedding website-- FAIL. Didn't do :(

- Send out electronic save-the-dates for out-of-towners-- Didn't do yet...

- contact the hotel about getting a complimentary room for the wedding night (they gave us two complimentary rooms for the night before for our groomsmen and bridesmaids, but I wanted one more for the night of the wedding for Mr. Mercy & I)-- contacted, but no response yet. sigh. Will have to call her again!

So yes-- still much to do! I've also been working on that packet for Mama Mercy-- So tiring! My Korean skills are not amazing, but... at least I'm trying? I think 4th graders in Korea can write better than I can... perhaps she'll appreciate the efforts.

Mama Justice. Warms my heart :) She's going to fund Mama Mercy's hanbok. Apparently according to custom, the bride's mom pays for the groom's mom's hanbok. This came about because I was going to ask my mom if Mama Mercy could borrow my mom's hanbok (the groom's mother's hanbok is always blue) since Mama Mercy didn't have one and probably wouldn't need to wear one ever again. But Mama Justice insists that every Korean woman needs a hanbok.

Sorry I couldn't blog in time... one of my bridesmaids was here from out of town and we played taboo until our sides hurt from laughing. :) twas a great night.

Goals and Explanations...

2010-02-27T12:00:00.007-05:00

Goals for today:

- Reduce the guest list

- Fix up and complete the wedding website

- Send out electronic save-the-dates for out-of-towners.

[[Pause]] many of you may be wondering why I seem to be so... diligent?... about completing tasks when the wedding is in October (aka 8 months away)... my reason is this:

Mr. Mercy will be moving to our new apartment in early June (because his lease is up)
We need to plan for a honeymoon and need an accurate financial outlook as to what we can afford.
We need to know what to put on our registry (dependent upon the above bullet point).

Therefore, I figure get all of the wedding planning out of the way before end of May. That includes everything that can be done in advance without perishing-- invitations, tissue paper flowers, vases for centerpieces, cupcake boxes, purchasing guestbooks/ aisle runners, etc.

The perishables like flowers, branches, etc. will obviously have to be done at a later time (ordered at the end of August?) and that's fine. But I think this will ease our stress levels...

I'll update later today with how much progress I make on the 2 goals for today... haha

Ps. I just found through my perusing that "I Do" Budget Weddings posted on Target bridesmaids dresses! I feel affirmed! yay!

Check it off!!!

2010-02-26T11:31:00.001-05:00

As it is fair to note, my use of alliterations for titles has faded tremendously... sorry!

I bought the flowers for the bridesmaids sashes-- they are a dusty pink from Forever21. We'll have to detach the black headband that's on it right now... and then glue gun on a hair clip to attach to the ribbon sashes. We already need to do that for my hair piece from Aldo, so it should be good to do in bulk!

The overall look will be something like this: (kudos to my Maid of Honor who found this picture!) and on a side note... this is the exact reason why I avoided strapless for my BMs!

Last night I managed to send out Smilebox formal requests to everyone currently involved in our wedding party (bridesmaids, make-up artist, gift table, etc.). Mr. Mercy will hopefully do his part by the end of this week. I love love LOVE smilebox-- it was so easy to use and I could customize it with photos... which is a big part of Mr. Mercy and my wedding.

As for Ring boy outfits... I haven't had any luck finding argyle vests for little boys that are brown with pink pattern... so I'm thinking a cute alternative might be this (plaid cargo pants + a pink polo): included both for comparison

vs.

Rehearsal dinner-- we're thinking about making a rule that only those that are engaged or married can bring their significant others to the rehearsal dinner. This will make it so that we have 5 extra people on top of the wedding party of about 35... I hope nobody's feelings get hurt?

Last but oh so not the least... centerpieces. I'm debating whether it's more economical to shell out the extra 1.50 per vase for vases that are not clear (aka do not require a filler) vs. purchasing the ones from the dollar store and filling them with something fabulous like coffee beans. On top of that, if I fill it with coffee beans, how much do I need? The cheapest price I've found is $70 for 15 lbs. yikes.

vs.

Those are my thoughts for the day...

Unfocused Update-- too many things to tackle!

2010-02-25T08:02:00.007-05:00

So I've been taking care of a few things:

Reserving a block of hotel rooms-- I've reserved hotel rooms for our guests from Thursday until Sunday. The normal rate is $129... but I negotiated a discount to $79... that's pretty awesome considering that per room there'll be about 4 people (aka $20 a night!)
Reworking my budget-- I've finally gotten around to uploading all of my data into an excel spreadsheet with categories like: estimated cost, actual cost, amount paid, amount to pay, etc. It has been pretty helpful and I'll be sending a copy to the Mercy parents & the Justice parents.
Stopping by Office Depot to decide on Cardstock weight-- 90 lb or 110lb... solution= aka 110 lb is what we're going to need... and sold really cheap at Sam's Club-- cheaper than Office Depot and shipping included!!!!
Formal Requests to Friends-- Today after work I'll be making phone calls or e-cards to those who I'll be asking to help in the wedding... I really want to make it personal and express to them my gratitude. (Mr. Mercy will be making his own calls)
Ordered the Groom's & Groomsmen Tuxedos-- got around to Men's Wearhouse and sat down with Mr. Mercy to order the colors for the men: Chocolate brown :D
Rehearsal dinner foods-- thought of another idea about using Moby Dick's House of Kabobs. They have a catering menu, they are local to the rehearsal dinner location (therefore we can have someone pick it up), and it includes rice so maybe the Koreans won't mind?? Besides, it is one of our FAVORITE foods.
Entering Sweepstakes/ Giveaways-- I'm really focused on entering sweepstakes/ giveaways for our honeymoon... the fact of the matter is that as it stands right now, we can't afford to do what we want for our honeymoon (Europe).

Now we are considering honeymoon registries like www.honeyfund.com or www. thebigday.com, www.travelersjoy.com, or www.wishpot.com looking at flying open-jaw (arrive in one city and depart from another), and committed to flying off season like late October/ early November... but it is still obviously expensive.
We're thinking of alternatives like cruises that depart from our cities.

Things I want to get done in the next week:

Bridesmaid sashes/flower pins (Bridesmaid with flower for proportions sake...) Contacted Icing to try to get a hold of these pins!
Decision about Embossers/ stamps--> I just entered a sticker giveaway for 250 stickers... at TravisandSarah2010. If I win... i probably won't need to purchase the stamper.... another savings. [Crosses fingers...]
Reducing the guest list
Sending out electronic save-the-dates for out of town guests.
Ring boys' outfits: ... how adorable! I don't want them in suits... but I'm hoping these boys already have khakis and can just buy the vest and pink dress shirts!

Mama Mercy...

2010-02-24T23:20:00.003-05:00

I thought about this recently--Mama Mercy must feel a bit overwhelmed knowing that already much has been planned AND a bit left out because I planned so much of it already. I felt really terrible so I told Mr. Mercy... and after an extensive talk with him...

his suggestion is: call my mom. (eek... a bit awkward)

My solution? Send her a packet filled with pictures. The pictures will have all the juicy details like my dress, the flowers, hair, dress, bridesmaid dresses, ceremony site, reception site, etc.

I would of course ask for her input ... but I think more than that, this way she won't be shocked when she walks in on wedding day... haha.

It has been difficult because of several things:

The Mercy parents do not live locally... they live about 4 hours away
We started planning for this wedding in December when we booked our reception venue... but didn't get officially engaged until February... so there's been 2-3 months of planning without her :(
It's a bit awkward-- how much does she want to know? Does she want swatches of the groomsmen's vests and ties? Does she want to know our budget breakdown? Does she want to know what a candy buffet looks like?

But I'm hoping that when I send the packet of information with pictures... and descriptions in Korean, she'll feel included and aware of what is going on. After all, it is her son that is getting married... input anyone?

Things left to Consider...

2010-02-23T07:05:00.010-05:00

Much of the major things have been taken care of now, but there are a few things left to think about and decide on (listed in semi-order of importance/ urgency):

Formal requests to friends to help out with certain aspects of the wedding
Reserve a block of rooms for our out-of-town guests at a discounted rate at the Crowne Plaza-- I think we'll have about 100 out of town guests. Normal rate apparently is $125 for the room.
Wedding cake topper! What if LEGO doesn't pull through? Mr. Mercy suggests scrabble pieces... cause we are avid scrabble lovers!
Electronic save the dates for out-of-town guests-- requires us to finalize the guest list... difficult to do with Mr. Mercy haha
Embosser/ stamp for the invites-- 20% discount at Papyrus in March
Bridesmaid sashes & flower pins-- the last accessory for my bridesmaids
Rehearsal dinner-- type of food, logistics, etc.
Music for the reception-- equipment for the iPOD (mixer, screen, projector) and hiring a music group for the first dance song.
Honeymoon-- cruise? Europe? Southeast Asia?
Gift Registries-- This is linked with the above as we may just do a honeymoon registry...
Hair styling for Mama Justice, Mama Mercy, and myself
Wedding party gifts-- ties for ushers, gifts for groomsmen, shawls for bridesmaids, etc.
Photobooth-- again, the mac book idea seems the most practical and feasible

And then there are a few things that I just need to order or do or put into ink:

Flowers/ overall decor items
Groomsmen tuxedos
Invitations-- must send out by mid-end of August
Programs & other paper
Dress measurements-- probably in April
Engagement photo session-- probably in May?

Ancient Annoyances or Treasured Traditions?

2010-02-22T22:01:00.003-05:00

So in the Korean traditional wedding process, there are lots of little traditions that the previous generations followed. Considering our parents met tonight for the first time (it went well!!!!), I think it appropriate that Mr. Mercy and I share the three biggest Korean wedding traditions:

함 /ha-m/, a package full of traditional wedding presents to the bride's family from the groom's, in the big box wrapped in red silk. First item in 함 /ha-m/: 사주 /sa ju/, a document containing the groom's birth date and hour in lunar calendar. All this arrived the day before, usually done several days before the wedding. 한복 /han bok/, Korean traditional dress. This color combination, i.e. yellow-green top, red skirt and dark red-purple ribbon, is the color for new brides. 오곡 /o kok/, "five grains", in five colorful embroidered tiny pouches. 5 different kinds of grain seeds inside. A practice carried over from our agricultural root, when good-quality seeds were cherished. Last but not the least: sets of bridal jewelry.

We will not be doing this most likely. The sets of bridal jewelry and the new hanbok would be excessive and unnecessary.

예단 /ye dan/ is a set of assorted gift sent from the bride's family to the groom's, in return for 함 /ha-m/ which was received days earlier. It usually contains gift items for the groom and his parents. Here are sets of necktie pins and cuffslinks for the groom. Boxes and boxes of presents, all part of 예단 /ye dan/. Many contain Korean traditional dresses for the groom's family, among other things.

Since we didn't do Hahm... I'm assuming we won't do Ye Dan. We did talk about the fact that we would like to coordinate the hanboks for the mothers though... It can be really pricey so I believe we'll probably get the measurements and then send it to Korea to get. Traditionally the groom's mother's skirt is blue whereas the bride's mother's skirt is pink. As weird as it is, I'm wondering whether Mama Justice can loan her blue hanbok (the one she wore for my brother's wedding) to Mama Mercy so as to save the Mercy parents some money... especially if we aren't doing Ye Dan (aka not giving it as a gift to the Mercy parents). We decided tonight that the dads will just wear regular black suits (no need to rent a tuxedo. We'll get them matching ties though... or something).

폐백 /phye baek/ is a Korean traditional style wedding ritual, which is meant to be an introduction of the new couple into their families. Here the bride and the groom change into their Korean traditional wedding costumes. Again, blue is the color for the groom, and red is the color of the bride. In 폐백 /phye back/ room. A group of elders sit on one end, and the bride and the groom salute them with a Korean style kneeling bow. They also apparently serve them tea. The elders in turn reply with congratulatory remarks, words of blessings, and envelopes full of money. And what about those chestnuts and dried plums? The elders throw these fruits/nuts onto bride's skirt so she'd catch them with her open skirt, a gesture of wishing the couple fertility. Then the groom piggy backs the bride and carries her around the table (as a symbol of his strength). And apparently the groom carries his mother-in-law to thank her for raising her daughter so well. Lastly, the groom carries his own mother to thank her. Then the two families, the bride's and the groom's, now sit on opposite sides of the room and introduce each other.

So after tonight's discussion... we will be doing the paebaek. Now it costs about $500 to rent all the stuff needed if you're using "fake food". If you're using real food, it costs about $700! We have many of the elements needed: the table setting, the tea set, the background screen, and the seat cushions. We also are borrowing the outer hanbok from my mom's friend. So I'm hoping we can spend as little as $200 for the paebaek (for the wooden ducks & the food)... which would be a great financial relief. I'm also hoping that Mr. Mercy doesn't drop me while piggy backing me around the room! haha. We'll be doing the paebaek the day before, prior to the rehearsal dinner or after the rehearsal dinner so as to not deal with it on the wedding day. Most of our relatives will be arriving at least the day before so it should be fine do it the day before.

Sources:

http://www.mybridestory.com/paebaek/

http://www.raescreations.com/wedding/0626/index.html

http://www.raescreations.com/wedding/0622/index.html

http://www.raescreations.com/wedding/0628/index.html

It's OFFICIAL!

2010-02-21T22:12:00.006-05:00

WE ARE OFFICIALLY ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I'm sure this requires a lot of information for those who do not know Mr. Mercy & myself personally. I shall tell you a dramatic tale of great trials, turmoil, and triumph.

Mr. Mercy and I started dating in October of 2008. When we started dating... I had put the relationship on facebook and apparently all of the kids from my church told their parents so adults started pestering Mama Justice about when I was going to get married. She promptly made me remove the relationship status from facebook and repeatedly denied (making others feel awkward) that I was dating. Papa Justice referred to Mr. Mercy as my husband candidate and told him that there was an extensive evaluation period to see if he would be worthy to be my husband. Fast-forward a year and 2 months of constant discussion with the Justice parents... and finally in December Mr. Mercy asked my parents for permission to have my hand in marriage. After many discussions, and ridiculous requirements, Mama Justice gave her blessing and we proceeded with booking the venue (which offered us a significant discount if we booked before the end of 2009). In January we confronted Papa Justice and after much back and forth, he finally gave us his blessing. We ordered the engagement ring a few days later and was waiting for it to arrive. Meanwhile, we booked the photographer because there was a significant discount offered if we booked before 1/31/10. Before being officially engaged, I was dress-shopping and wedding planning... perhaps because of my type A personality and because Mr. Mercy and I knew the ring/ proposal was a mere formality. Then there was a major snowstorm which delayed our engagement plans... which in turn made me a little loopy and anxious. My hope and expectation was waning...

but then he popped the question on 2/21... and now... we are officialllllly engaged :)

i look back and am astonished... a year ago Mama Justice was trying to convince me not to go to Michigan to see him and forcing me to take my relationship status out of the sight of the public. Now? She makes Mr. Mercy his favorite foods, asks about him, tells EVERYONE in church that we're getting married, and sticks up for him when I pick on him. Papa Justice put Mr. Mercy through a rigorous and extensive "evaluation period"... but after he gave his consent, he's been calling Mr. Mercy his son-in-law. Truly... God is the God of miracles...