Inspiration

I've talked about dates, venues, plane tickets, dresses, but I have yet to discuss the look and feel of the wedding. Originally I was thinking maybe tropical colors, since we are getting married in Hawaii and all. Like lime green and teal. Or maybe something more "funky" like red and light blue.

But since we're getting married at a Japanese temple that is red, it made sense to make red our main color (Mr. Mek wasn't feelin' the red and blue). I had a hard time deciding what color to use to accent with red. I've thought of red and black (too formal for us), red and gray, red and fuchsia. Everyday I change my mind, but I think I'm leaning towards the red and fuchsia. My inspiration board:

Source: I unfortunately don't remember where I retrieved all the images, some were from wedding bee, the knot, paper-source, and style me pretty.

So let me explain my inspiration board. I want classy and a lil' vintage (ie. the peep toe shoes), with Japanese/Asian flair (think cherry blossoms, peonies, obi sashes, paper lanterns, etc.). I do want some originality/funk though too. Maybe paper flower bouquets instead of the usual flower bouquets. We'll play more on that idea later.

How difficult was it for you to decide your wedding "look"? Did you change your mind a million times like I did?

Ebay finds me a wedding dress!

I got my wedding dress!!! The Jenny Yoo, Kayla dress is all mine! And even better, it only cost me $320 from Ebay! The dress is originally $750.

I did have some Ebay "drama" though. About once a week or so, I check Ebay, just in case someone happens to post the Jenny Yoo dress. Last week, low and behold, there it was. MY Jenny Yoo dress. Ivory, in my size, listed for $300 + $20 shipping. It was meant to be. The seller claimed she had bought the dress off Ebay herself and it didn't fit her, so she was re-listing it. I contacted her to make sure it was an ivory dress and not cream. Cream has a very yellow tint and knowing my luck, I'd buy this supposed ivory dress and get a cream dress. She emails me back to confirm that it was definitely ivory. So I bid on it. Two days later the seller takes the auction off of Ebay. You could not even imagine my disappointment. The seller sends me an email, apologizing for taking the auction off Ebay, but that she had tried the dress on again and the zipper was a lil' dysfunctional. She didn't feel right selling the dress if it was "damaged". Funny thing is, I had talked to another bride before who also had a Jenny Yoo dress and she told me the same thing; that the zipper stuck a lot. I think it's a manufacturer thing, so I email her back to tell her that I would still love to buy it, as is for $300, if she's willing to part with it. And that was that. Four days later, the dress is sitting in front of my door. And it is PERFECT! Correct color, right size....the zipper does stick, but that can easily be replaced. Especially since I just saved myself $450! Gotta love Ebay!!

I'm CooCoo for Gocco!

Source: www.northwoodstudios.tripod.com

For those who already understand the phenomenon called "Gocco", can you believe I bought this sucker months, yes months, ago and only used it for the first time last night?! Well, with supplies being hard to get and costly, I was waiting for a good, first project. My Save the Dates (aka STD's).

With the wedding being in Hawaii and all, we thought it would be good to send out STD's to close family and friends that we hope will join us on our trip. I needed to send out something informational for our guests to make their travel arraignments a lil' more easier.

My inspiration: Knottie AmyinSydney's Passport STD

Don't worry I am making a note that passports aren't needed to travel to Hawaii if you are already states bound. LoL...you know someone would ask though!

The guts (all the informational pages) are just about ready to be printed. I have a friend who's doing an illustration for me to put in them, then I can print and put them together. Last night, I got a head start and gocco'd the cover. For my first gocco project I think it went pretty well. I used linen cardstock paper for the cover. Which made the print not as crisp as it would have been if the paper had not been linen. Check it out!

My first official gocco project and wedding DIY!

Graduation and Money Leis

Source: BYU Hawaii

My "baby" brother graduated from high school last week! He is 8 years my junior. Yes, Eight! I was sort-of a second mom to him, only more laid back and cooler! hehe.

When I graduated from high school, my mom made me a beautiful flower lei. Leis are often given at graduation (see image above) in Hawaii. It was nice that my mom shared that tradition with me even though we were living in good ol' Central PA. As my brother got ready to graduate himself, I wanted to share that tradition with him, but I didn't think he would really appreciate a flower lei. So, I made him a money lei.

I think I did pretty good for my first attemp. There's $50 smackeroo's in that thing! And of course, photos of the post-high school student, pre-college student...

How studly is he!!

Yes, we are 100% blood related. It's funny how genetics works out!

My Familia!

I am super proud of him and the man that he is becoming. I know that he will do great things in the future. Congrats brother Mek!

Planes, Dates and missing my baby.

Well Lots has happened since I last blogged.
1. Our wedding date has been confirmed. March 05, 2009.
2. I booked our plane tickets to Hawaii!
3. Mr Mek will be away for 3 months. He's been gone for 24hrs and I miss him immensely already!

I also contacted my dream photographer about shooting our wedding and I might be getting my wedding dress for $400 less than the store price. More about that in a later post.

Mr. Mek has business to take care of and though he will be busy and away for 3 months it also confirmed that we are able to have our ceremony on our projected date. Which I'm real excited about. So yesterday I was checking flight costs on the internet (which I tend to do every other day), just to see what the prices are at. With gas and oil costs being out the kazoo, I was worried about plane tickets from the east coast to Hawaii being outrageous. I flew to Hawaii in 2005 by myself and paid $605 (after taxes!). In 2006, Mr. Mek and I went to Hawaii for a friend's wedding and I believe we paid $645 each (about $1300 for both of us). Yesterday American Airlines had tickets round trip to Hawaii for $770 (after taxes). They were by far the cheapest. Most flights I saw were $900+ and I know they're only going to go up from there. I was a lil' hesitant to book right now because our trip is 10 months away and because of so many airlines claiming bankruptcy. That would be my luck...to book our tickets then have to rebook and pay extra hundreds of dollars because the airline we book with is bankrupt. Well, I did it. I bought the tickets. $1542 for both of us to fly to Hawaii. So whether we get married or not, we're going to Hawaii.

Wedding Par-tay...or lack there of...

Before Mr. Mek and I got engaged and were just having the "wedding talk", we discussed who we would have stand with us at the alter for support; aka the wedding par-tay. Deciding to have the wedding in Hawaii actually made things a lil' easier for us. Mr. Mek only has a handful of close friends to begin with (like 4), so he had maybe one or two people that immediately stood out to him. But even then the decision wasn't easy to make. For me it was a lil' more difficult. See, I don't have one clique of friends that I hang out with. More like a friend here, a friend there, a few friends who sometimes interact with each other, but all in all close friends in their own way. I don't have a best friend....in PA. I have a few great friends.

Now, to back track a little...I grew up as a military brat, so I moved every 3-4 years growing up. It's really hard to keep in touch with friends and real easy to lose touch with friends. That being said, two of the oldest friends I have are my bestests I met in Hawaii; both of whom I meet at the ripe age of 12-ish. Having a wedding in Hawaii meant not having to chose from my PA friends who to be my bridesmaids but instead letting my PA peeps enjoy their Hawaii vacation (not having to worry them about my wedding poop) and "burdening" my bestests who live or have lived in Hawaii already instead. Or at least, that's how it was going to be.

Mr. Mek's bestest got engaged a couple months after us. Exciting! Now they are in the wedding process also and last time I talked to Mr. Meks bestest's fiancee (did you get all that?!) they were thinking of planning a summer 2009 wedding in Florida. Meaning that they probably will be on a budget themselves and might not make it to our Hawaii shindig. No worries..although I do hope to make it to Florida for their wedding!!

So now we don't know if any of Mr. Mek's close friends will be able to make the trip (or afford to go) to Hawaii. And although I know my bestest's will be able to make it to Hawaii (one lives in Hawaii and the other has family in Hawaii so it's usually no big deal for her to come visit), I couldn't imagine having my 2 girls stand up and support me and Mr. Mek have no one standing with him. So....we nixed the wedding party.

This is actually saving us in many ways.
1. Two less bouquets to buy (if I decide to go the flower bouquet route)
2. In Hawaii, the bride traditionally buys the bridesmaid dresses, shoes, accessories, etc. So that's a few hundred there that I would be saving.
3. Less people usually equals less drama.

Now...question to all of you. I love my girls. And although they won't be wearing the ugly dress and standing next to me at the alter they will still be my honorary bridesmaids helping me get ready and all. So what can I do for them to let them know I appreciate them? Is there a way I can still honor them on my wedding day?

Dress Shopping...Blah!

Let me start by saying I hate clothes shopping. I hate trying on clothes and I'm one of those people that can't buy any article of clothing without trying it on. I'm short, unporportionate, and have no arse.

So I begin shopping for a wedding dress. A task I was dreading. I did the whole internet search and was in awe of these dresses (*sorry for the small images, I'm still new at this whole blogging thing)...

Next task was to find which local stores carry them so I may try them on. I find out that Saeyoung Vu Couture was no longer in business. Of course her dresses were my favorite. That's usually my luck. Onward, I went to 2 dress shops in Philly; one supposedly carried the Jenny Yoo line. Only to get there and find out not only do they only have maybe 20 dresses in the whole store (which were yellowed and the lace had holes in it), but they carried the Jenny Yoo catalog. Yea, no dresses to try on. So I moved onto the 2nd bridal store in Philly and loved these on me:

While they were very form flattering on me, I felt that they were a lil' too dressy for my casual Hawaii wedding, so the search continued.

Last month I headed up to New York City with Mr. Mek in tow. I found my dress. No, I didn't have that "it" moment, but it's not too too much more than what I wanted to spend, it was flattering, appropriate for the wedding we're having, lightweight, and Mr. Mek approved. Yep, you heard me right. Mr. Mek saw me in the dress. And while I know most of you are shaking your heads in disapproval, I'm pleading my case.
1. Mr. Mek is a "typical" guy, who in 11mths from now won't remember what that dress looked like or how it looked on me.
2. On said wedding day, I will look totally different with dress on, hair did, makeup done, shoes and accessories.
3. We're nontraditional folk. Why start now?

So here it is...here's the dress I've decided on ::cue music::

Jenny Yoo "Kayla"

I apologize for not showing photos of moi in the dress..could you believe that this photographer totally didn't think of taking photos at the dress shop?!

On a totally different note, watch out for this girl at the 2008 Summer Olympics...She's my cousin! Jamie Beyerle