Archive for June 2014

Home Archive for June 2014

I hope you aren't getting bored with these wedding posts...because more is on the way, haha! Today I'm going to cover some of the details from our reception.

The reception has always been and always will be my favorite part of a wedding (any wedding). It's when you get to wine & dine with friends and let loose {amirite?!}. I'll get to the fun photos in a later post, but today it's all about the details. The reception is where most of my DIY items were finally revealed to family and friends. It took a lot of time & effort, but every single DIY project was SO worth it, in my opinion!

Guestbook poster: ordered on etsy
"Please Sign" & welcome board: calligraphy by my bestie/maid of honor

DIY: Find Your Seat banner, escort tags & pinwheel magnets {handcrafted by yours, truly}

DIY: our initials wrapped in yarn {handcrafted by the Mr. & Mrs.}

DIY: Pomdelions made with yarn & yarn wrapped jars {handcrafted by yours, truly}

Boba Fett art ("Come to the dark side, we have cookies"): purchased on etsy

Cookie Bar sign: calligraphy by my bestie/maid of honor

My biggest advice to future brides and/or grooms if you plan to go the DIY route is to come up with a realistic plan, budget, and timeline, and stick with it! A little bit of OCD will come out from the DIY bride, and it's totally fine! Use it in your favor. In the beginning stages of our wedding planning, I jotted down all of the ideas that I wanted to incorporate into our wedding -- color scheme, props, overall feeling, etc. Next I asked my then-fiance for his input, and once I got the "Sure, sounds nice" comment, I made a to-do list with all of the various DIY projects that I wanted to make, along with the required materials and rough budget per project, and a general deadline to make them. If I realized that I didn't have the skills, materials, or the time to create something, I moved on to the next project or decided to ask for professional help. Etsy is full of creative folks that will more than likely be happy to customize their art for you {I love Etsy}! For example, we had our guestbook poster customized via an etsy seller.We wanted to incorporate a few Star Wars related items into our wedding since it fell on May 4th ("May the fourth be with you!"), so we depended on wonderful illustrators for such items. My maid of honor aka bestie is also very talented so I asked for her help with the calligraphy of some signs too. Oh, and cookies! I couldn't imagine stressing out over baking hundreds of cookies the night before our wedding so we had the help from a professional bakery :)

Photo credit: Jennifer Fujikawa Photography (http://jenfujphotography.com)

Continued from We Do: The Ceremony, part 1 and part 2.

A marriage makes two fractional lives a whole;It gives two purposeless lives a work and doubles the strength of each to perform it;It gives two questioning natures a reason for living; and something to live for.It will give a new gladness to the sunshine;A new fragrance to the flowers;A new beauty to the earth;And a new mystery to life.

- Mark Twain

I've always preferred weddings that incorporate at least one surprise for the guests. Our surprise for the guests was the horse carriage ride {the venue is so awesome that they provide this for the bride & groom!}. While the rest of the bridal party walked down the aisle, my parents and I sat in the carriage at the top of the venue. Originally, my mom did not want to walk me down the aisle {she had never heard of both the mom & dad walking the bride down the aisle}, but I had to keep reminding her she is just as important as my father, and that it would mean the world to me if they both walked me down the aisle. It took a lot of convincing, but I think she was happy of the end result. I know I was!

Our ceremony was short and sweet, maybe around 15 minutes. My maid of honor told me later that it was the shortest ceremony she ever witnessed to this date {lol}. I know for a lot of brides and grooms, the ceremony is probably the most important aspect of the wedding, and it is typically much longer. For us, we knew we wanted a concise and straight-to-the-point ceremony without us having to stand at the stage for an extended time. Plus, we couldn't wait to be announced as the new Mr. & Mrs.!

Photo credit: Jennifer Fujikawa Photography (http://jenfujphotography.com)

You can read about We Do: The Ceremony, part 1 here.

I think we really hit the jackpot when we found our venue. Not only is it gorgeous, but they are dog-friendly and super flexible. They are really open to any ideas that the bride and groom may have. I loved that we were able to bring whatever decorations we wanted to make the space our own for that day.

Hence, I became a DIY bride. I spent months handcrafting items and had a lot of fun making them! They were all pretty simple projects; just time consuming. I'm so happy that each of the items complemented the venue! You can see some of the items I made for the ceremony in this post.

DIY: pinwheel aisle decorations

DIY: Louie's ring bearer bowtie and collar

DIY: the flower girls' hair accessories and baskets, my nephew's boutonniere, and the "here comes your girl" banner.

So I'm not sure why my nephew ended up throwing the flower petals and his sister ended up wanting to hold the "here comes your girl" banner...haha, it was supposed to be the opposite roles but I guess it worked out either way.

To be continued...

Photo credit: Jennifer Fujikawa Photography (http://jenfujphotography.com)

What was your favorite moment about your wedding? I have so many that it's hard to pick just one, but the first look was very memorable and special for me. Danny and I are attached at the hip when we're together, but we didn't get to spend much alone time the night before or on the morning of the wedding {I was with my bridesmaids & Louie, and he was with his groomsmen}. Although it was only really a day apart from each other, it felt like I hadn't seen him in days! As I walked across in my wedding dress to meet my groom, I was already grinning from ear to ear. He had his eyes shut and covered with my bouquet.

"At last my love has come along...You smiled, you smiled. Oh and then the spell was cast. And here we are in heaven, for you are mine...at last."

-Etta James, At Last

Photo credit: Jennifer Fujikawa Photography (http://jenfujphotography.com)

I have a tip for future brides and bridesmaids: Do NOT underestimate how much time you will need to get ready on the big day! & practice delegating, if you can.

On the morning of our wedding, I woke up at 6 am and walked around downtown Palm Springs with Louie, our beagle. It was already bright outside, but the temperature was comfortable, about 75 degrees {the previous afternoon was a scorching 108 degrees). The streets were bare -- a stark difference from the night before when people were drunk and rowdy, and the streets were jam packed with loud laughter and blaring dance music. It was a peaceful morning, and I'm glad I got to spend some quality time with Louie before all the rush.

Around 7 am, the girls and I walked a few blocks to a cozy French cafe and leisurely ate breakfast {fresh crepes & quiche! yum}. Louie came with us, of course. I fed her a few strawberries for being so well behaved.

About an hour later, we headed back to the hotel and I called the bell boy to take my dress, veil, platters of cookies, and other miscellaneous items to load in my car. This is the point where we sped up our pace; my girls got ready on their own and my wonderful hair & makeup artist came around 8:45 am and worked her magic on me!

We finished around 11:30 am and I drove as my maid-of-honor held Louie in her arms {my car was jam packed so my other two bridesmaids drove separately}. Luckily for me, it was Sunday so there wasn't much traffic, but it still took us close to 45 minutes to get to the venue. Oops, I told my parents and my three other friends who offered to help as my decorating team to arrive to the venue by 12 pm! I was 15 minutes late.

Once we got to the venue, I quickly touched base with the event coordinator and this is where it was a bit stressful for me. It was my fault, in all candor. I was the only one that knew where and how to place all of the decorations that I DIY-ed, so everyone came to me all at once. Everyone was trying to help me but because I am not very good at delegating under stress, it made me feel a bit overwhelmed. Oh, not to mention, at this point I didn't even realize that the table arrangement was different from what I requested during our wedding questionnaire meeting a month ago, which caused a brief confusion for some of our guests -- oh well! To my dismay, I was rushing so much that I forgot to put sunscreen on my body & as a result, I still have a tank top tan to this day. By about 1:15 pm, my photographer urged me to leave the rest to the event coordinator and to start getting dressed {lol}!

Once I started getting dressed, I felt calm again. I think it helped that I was surrounded by my bridesmaids who have been there for me since day one. I've been fortunate to have such great friends; we go all the way back to middle school!

Around 1:45 pm, the groom & the groomsmen arrived, along with my parents-in-law. Our photographer captured our "first look" moments, group shots, etc., and before I knew it, it was already 2:30 pm -- time to line up for the ceremony {our ceremony was at 3 pm}!

Seriously, I thought waking up at 6 am for a ceremony starting at 3 pm would be PLENTY of time, but I could've used another hour to get ready! :)

Photo credit: Jennifer Fujikawa Photography (http://jenfujphotography.com)

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