For my Japanese inspired brides:

I came across these beautiful Japanese hair pieces by etsy seller AtelierKanawa. Her work speaks for itself.

Or how about these for your flower girl? I think these are a super cute way to add culture to any wedding.


How are you incorporating culture (whether it's your culture or someone else's) in your wedding?

Steal of a dress...

If I didn't already have a dress I would soooo consider this one:

source

It's a steal at $360!

Color coordinating my non-bridal party

I lightly hit on our lack of a bridal party in a previous post.

I've been thinking and talking to my bestests who will be in attendance to our wedding and thought, well, just because they technically won't be my bridesmaids doesn't mean that I still don't want photos of them on my wedding day. As my best friends, they still plan on being there for me that morning and will be getting ready with me. The only thing that doesn't make them the traditional bridesmaid is they won't be walking down the aisle and they won't be wearing matching dresses. And in all reality, if I was having traditional bridesmaids, I really don't think I'd make them wear the matching dresses anyways. I really like the look of bridesmaids wearing the same colors, but different dresses; dresses that flatter them and are more their style.

source

That being said, would it be totally bridezilla of me to ask (key word is ask, not demand) my bestests to wear dresses of their choosing with a tad of red in it? This could be a red dress, a white dress with a red pattern, a red dress with pattern. I really don't care, just as long as there is some red in it. I was thinking that it would be nice to get photos of my bestests and I on my wedding day and us be some what color coordinated, rather than someone wearing green and the person next to them wearing maroon. I'm looking for something like this:

source

source

I ran the idea by 3 of my best friends and they all seem to be on board with the idea. Bestest A, went out and bought a dress the same day I told her about the idea. She found this dress at Forever 21 for less than $30!!
I'm hoping with the holidays right around the corner it will be easier to find red dresses/dresses with red in it. Got any leads for me?

What finger is it supposed to go on?

Mr. Mek and I had talked about our life together and marriage in the past, but I honestly never expected to receive a ring from Mr. Mek. I always thought we would just go and do it..no ring needed. Plus (no offence Mr. Mek!) Mr. Mek isn't exactly Mr. Romantic.


We had just bought a condo May 2007, so money was kinda tight. That Christmas we decided to put a $30 price cap on each other for Christmas gifts. Yes, $30! Thought it would be a good way to save money and get creative with trying to find a gift in that price range. Well..Mr. Mek went a lil' over his $30 limit by a few hundred dollars and got on down on his knee on Christmas. His mom helped him pick it out...although he had a hell of a time trying to explain to his mom that he was buying an engagement ring that wasn't a diamond. I had told him long, long ago that diamonds weren't really my thing. As pretty as they are, I like color.


There was a bit of confusion though on that fateful day. Picture this: Here I am opening a ring box to see a very pretty, blue sapphire ring. I pull it out of the box and before I could put on my finger (any finger), Mr Mek exclaims, "It's too big! It's too big!, in a very disappointed voice. This is my first notion that this might be an engagement ring. So here I am asking, "What finger is it supposed to go on?!" Only for him to finally realize he never asked me the notorious question and just points to my ring finger. That, my friends, is my proposal.

My bling.

Later that day we're chillin' at my 'rents house with most of my family and my aunt mentions that she really regrets not visiting us in Hawaii when we used to live there. She felt that she might never go there now because she didn't have a reason to visit the beautiful islands (who needs a reason?!). Without really thinking I say, "Maybe Mr. Mek and I will just have to get married there so you have a reason to go to Hawaii". Daddy Mek seemed real fond of this idea; He hadn't been back to the islands in 12 years. Later Mr. Mek and I talked about the possibility of Hawaii vs. good ol' Central Pa. Obviously we know what locale won. :o)

I leave you with photos...so you can put a face to the name.

*note: My $30 gift to Mr. Mek was a bottle of cologne.

How Mr. Mek and I became to be

I wish I had some romantic story to tell of Mr. Mek and I. I wish I could tell you that I knew he was the one right away and that it was love at first sight. It wasn't like that at all. First off, we met in a bar. And I'm pretty sure I was pretty tipsy. hehe.

It was Wednesday night (yea, call it my mid-week stress reliever) and my girlies and I headed to our usual Wednesday night locale at the local watering hole. I'm a happy drunk, so after throwin' back a few beers and some shots with the girls, I was being my friendly self and saying hi to random strangers at the bar. Mr. Mek crossed my path and I said, "hello".
Mr. Mek: What nationality are you?
Me: White & Filipino.
Mr. Mek: Me too!!
Me: No way! Here's my phone number.
Done.

I got the traditional 2 day call back and while I'd like to say the rest is history, it wasn't so easy. We "casually" dated for months and he would tell me he wanted to be "official", then take it back; he also took back the first two times he told me he loved me. LoL. Our first year was rocky. We dealt with insecurities, trust issues....we even broke up once for about 4 months. Then Mr. Mek got into some trouble. And I was there for him. For ALL of it. This gave him a whole new respect and appreciation for me. I forgave him for the past and after time we formed a new relationship, a more full-filling one. Two years after all the drama, our relationship now is stronger than ever.

Ever hear a song that brings you back to a specific time or reminds you of an event in your life? This song by Murs, Love and Appreciate, explains how our relationship went, in a nutshell.

What song explains your relationship?

"Aloha! Welcome to Hawaii" Bags

Or should I say boxes.

I've already talked about our Welcome BBQ, now I'm on to how to greet our guests with much aloha (love). Welcome bags! This has been done time and time again; Mrs. Lemon, Mrs. Hydrangea, Mrs. Onion, Mrs. Cream Puff, to name a few. If budget wasn't an issue I'd wow my guests with Lauhala Tote Bags to hold my welcome bag contents.

source

But budget is an issue, so instead I'll wow them with much affordable, ever so popular, gable boxes. Now before the wonderful world of weddingbee and the knot, I had never in my life ever heard of a gable box or knew what hell a gable was. I was lucky enough to buy a knotties left over gable boxes and paid about .76 a box (that includes shipping).

Now for my "wow". Jon, who also did an illustration for my STDs, made these ohhh sooo cute "cut out" cartoons of Mr. Mek and I.

I love being clipart! I threw this illustration over an old postcard I had scanned in (I lowered the opacity of the postcard) and ta da...

Well..there was some ribbon added for pizazz.

Close up of illustration. It's about 4x5 in size and I printed 4 on 8x10 label sheets.

This photo is for aesthetics, I used double sided tape to attach the ribbon to the box.

Future Posts:
OOT box contents

Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair...

~Susan Polis Shutz

I'm not a veil or tiara kind-of-a-gal. It's just not my cup of tea. I'm a hair flower kind-of-a-gal. And while I did ponder the thought of putting a real flower in my hair, I came across etsy seller, myrakim of Twigs and Honey. She does beautiful work! I contacted her right away (she's a very busy woman!), and 3 months later she custom made me this:

I love how it has red accents, pearls and some of the fabric used for the hair piece is the same type of fabric my dress is made out of. Love, love, love it!

Even the packaging was sweet!

Love the polka dotted tissue paperDirections on how to best secure the hair flower were included

This what the hair comb that is attached to the hair flower looks like

Here's my 2 minute trial. Don't mind my messy, knotty hair (it was up in a bun all day), or the toilet paper in the background. hehe.

Check out Myra's blog for more of her fabulous work: http://twigsandhoney.blogspot.com/