pictures!

after a long wait (not really, we were just antsy), we finally got our pictures this past week! it's all hard copy photos as my photographer shot purely in film. we also got a gigantor box of all of our negatives as well as the dvd of all of the pictures. there are 3 large albums with pictures that she selected and put together as well as one shoebox of all of the other pictures. dang, there were so many that we only got through about 2 inches of the shoebox pictures before we decided to take a break from them.

the most beautiful pictures were the most emotional moment of the day for me. and it actually wasn't even about henry and i. when i came down the steps of the bedroom suite in the hotel, my dad waited at the bottom and i remember that all i kept asking was is he ready? he better be dressed already. as i came down the steps, he held out his hand and told me, "aww, you're beautiful chay!" and that's when i just lost it... started tearing, had to dab dab dab. and he gave me a great hug. i wish that the videographer had been there, but i'm sooo glad that the photographer captured that wonderful moment. i think i'm going to take 4 of those shots and put it together in a large frame for father's day... i actually thank one of the weddingbees for that idea.

i brought the pictures to work today and it was so much more fun looking at them with other people! when i first looked at them, i was so critical and just dwelled on what items were missed or confirmed that there were mistakes here and there with setup and it just put the pictures in a pessimistic light. looking at them today with fresh eyes and through people who are enjoying them are really helping me appreciate the pictures and also all of the wonderful things from that day. all i've heard from people are how much fun they had and how much they truly enjoyed it all, so i really have to focus more on that and look back on the day with the joy that it was truly full of. :)

the last night

i was showering and my mom popped her head into the bathroom asking me what my plans are for the day. told her we were going to flower mart, then drop things off at turnip rose and finish packing up the gifts for the wedding entourage. then she goes, "it's your last night here. i'm sad." and she made a frowny face. "awwwwwww! ma!!!" i said. she started crying, so of course, i started crying! "awwwwwww," and i told her, "it's not my last night here! it's okay!" awwwww, sad!!!! "that's why i was waiting for you to come home last night, but you got home so late" [from music practice]. awwww!

mannnnn, this is why i didn't want to get ready at the house. it'd be filled with all the crying and stuff. we'll just save that for sunday night, before we leave for the airport. but at the same time, these are the moments that tell me that this wedding is mine, not just for a client. tomorrow, i'll be mrs. pang. and tomorrow, we'll be partying like it's 1999! whoohoo!

weather is clear!

oh heck yea! it's gonna be a beautiful day!


"delightful" it says! what a wonderful thing for a bride to read 8 days from her wedding. and the sun will set at 6:04pm, just perfectly in time for our surprise! i do hope everyone gets to cocktail hour on time.

i'm getting so excited now! 2 weeks ago, i was really pretty stressed, but now, as tasks get completed (picked up the bridal gown, it fits perfectly now!), i'm getting more and more excited! and it totally helps when i hear how people are excited for us too. i received an email from a client of mine who just expressed such sincere excitement for my wedding. and she can't wait for me to work on hers too! and then last friday, my dept at work threw me a surprise bridal shower! it was so super sweet of them and their thoughtfulness was so unexpected and appreciated! they got us the coolest gifts and i was totally floored at how many things they were able to purchase for the group gift! i felt so blessed and loved!

and yesterday, we finally booked our hotels in italy and we're so excited to stay 2 nights at these small seaside towns of cinque terre. we'll also be going to rome for 3 nights for our big splurge! thank goodness for points eh?

how can i not be excited?!

form versus function

i'm all about the cutesy little tokens during weddings. and believe me, i do take them home, so all of the time and effort spent folding, gluing, ribboning is totally not wasted on me as a guest. but as much as i love the cutesiness of things, i really also appreciate the function. and while some items are purely for novelty, i love it when brides find a cute new way to present things that have a specific function.

at first i thought my programs would follow the same intricate, time-consuming japanese binding/sewing that my invitation booklet had. and i definitely wanted the nice "tears of joy" tissues, cuz god knows, i cry at all of the weddings i've been to. but i also knew, first and foremost, that my programs were going to be functional. my primary purpose for them was not just to have something cute, but i wanted it to serve as a very detailed guide to encourage community involvement and response and even singing. being that half of my guests are chinese and non-catholic... heck, more than half of my wedding party are chinese and non-catholic, i felt that this was important and necessary. our family and friends are important to us and we definitely wanted not just witnesses to our ceremony who watched by the sidelines as we said our vows, but actual community involvement with responses to those vows. so i do hope that people use the programs to follow along and respond appropriately. it's not something that you skim really quickly because it's just an outline and then it just sits on the pew to be forgotten. and i hope it provides some comfort or direction for those who don't know when to sit, stand or kneel.

because the content of my programs are quite detailed and quite abundant, i wanted to make them extra large, so i chose legal sized paper folded in half. henry even liked the idea of making them exactly square, but then, we'd lose an inch, plus it would require more cutting. i really liked the fact that i didn't have to cut any further and we could use the standard legal size and i was really against losing another inch of space. so, function definitely trumped form on that idea.

like i said, i thought i was going to do the japanese binding/sewing thing... but we actually ran out of ribbon and i wasn't about to lose more time and money on this project, so we're stapling it. yes, oh yes, i know you can't believe it, but yes, we're stapling it. but not to fret, i didn't get the ugly standard aluminum staples. for the cute, yet still functional factor, my staples are red! so that was a compromise. and honestly, i love the clean look of the whole program. it's a neat booklet, no fru fru ribbon or bow. and it lays nice and flat.

as for the tissue pockets, i've decided to keep them separate from the program piece. i had planned on the martha stewart little pockets glued to one of the inner covers. but it was so bulky and interruptive and i just wasn't satisfied with any idea of it attached inside the program. thinking about it was honestly stressing me out, so we're keeping it simple (stupid) and just keeping them separate from the program. if people wish to take one, they're free to do so.

sometimes, being in the wedding business totally makes you nuts with all of the ideas for projects and DIY (Do-It-Yourself) items. what have you chosen to do or not do? or what areas of your wedding did you choose the more functional route rather than the cutesy form?

and we have have nightmare #2

this time, the setting was at a huge mansion. and of course, there's hustle and bustle everywhere. i don't remember much else about it, but i do vividly recall the same stressed out feeling as in nightmare #1. this time, what i forgot were my shoes.

henry's had a nightmare this past weekend too. jeez.

so, note to self:
~ don't forget your veil and shoes. for that matter, don't forget your dress(es). and jewelry.
~ make sure the choir director knows the line up of the songs and who's gonna sing what.
~ have explicit, written directions and guidelines with diagrams if possible, so that the coordinators know what to do.
~ trust everyone to do their jobs and relax!

nightmare

oh i had the worst dream last night! everything i love about my wedding totally went wrong! i was late to the church and i forgot my veil! the songs were sung, but not during the parts that jei and i had discussed. and then henry left to start partying without me while i had to stay at the church and clean up with my mom! that's when i got really mad and told my mom to call him and get his butt back over at the church. strangely enough, he came back with anna, chris & iya and some of their friends! it's strange because first of all, they're more my friends than his and 2nd, in reality, they're not able to make it to our wedding. soooo weird! and then my photographer came and i started to vent to her, except after she left, i realized that she's not even our photographer! she just looks like our photographer. and then my chest tightened up at the thought of how much we're paying our photographer only to have her source out the job to some look-alike!!! and that's when i woke up, thinking thank god it was only a dream! but aughh, it seemed so real! i swear i was trying to hold in my anger and frustration as all of those moments occurred in the dream. but in the end, i felt like my chest imploded. yea, not exploded, but caved in and collapsed inside!

*breathe, dorothy, breathe*

may i have the rings...

hehe, wow, 2 posts in a row! well, i finally uploaded my camera, so i do have more items for you to feast your eyes upon!

last weekend, our rings were ready! i really wanted our wedding bands to match, rather than have my band match my engagement ring. it took us a few weeks to decide on a design that we liked, but multiple mall stores and many websites later, we finally found something from novell. henry and i weren't really too fond of the basic plain designs. my e-ring is more antique-looking and although we didn't need the bands to match that, we wanted to remain within the same sort of style. so here, i present to you our wedding bands:

we purchased them at black starr frost


and here's their nice store in South Coast Plaza:

being that it's south coast plaza (in the ritzy wing, i might add), i expected the people to be a lil snooty, but they really weren't actually. the lady who helped us (forgot her name) was knowledgeable and helpful. and the staff were all friendly without being fake.

so here's my ring in detail:


and his ring in detail:


we both love the fact that his ring looks like my ring enclosed within the outer bands. it's like my ring is being *hugged*!

here's my e-ring together with the band:


see, it doesn't really match, but it kinda goes together in a coordinated sort of way.

i won't be wearing it together though. i'll wear the band on my left and the e-ring on my right. i wore it this way all day long on saturday. we were both really excited and didn't want to take them off. henry kept saying how weird it felt and how he has to get used to it. but he didn't say it in a complaining tone at all, more like a super-excited-little-kid-got-a-new-toy tone! by the end of the day, we figured we better take them off, so we can save the moment for when it's time. and when i took off the band and put my e-ring back on my left, my right finger felt so empty!

and one last picture of the very happy couple:

it's moving too fast

we're less than a month away from the wedding. gosh, where has the time gone? wasn't it only a lil while ago when i just got this little rock on my finger? i knew the engagement would fly by, but i didn't think it would happen this fast. being a wedding planner, a lot of my own wedding plans have been more like the other wedding work that i've done. so when my best friend asked me this weekend, "are you enjoying your engagement?" i had to kinda think about it first. i mean, i love the details and working on it and putting my vision together. but most of it has seemed like scrambling and hurrying to get things checked off the list, panicked because we're late according to the timeline that all the wedding magazines and websites have set. it's been difficult to stop and smell the roses sometimes.

then there'll be those few moments, like when i first received my veil and got to play with it after the hair and makeup trials... or when we picked up our gorgeous rings and didn't want to take them off so we wore them for the whole day... these were the times when it actually felt like it's our wedding. and those times when he's holding me close to just calm my stresses away and then i remember, this is why we're doing this. to have this peace all the time for always. and i let out a deep breath and finally relish our engagement.

mama's wedding dress updated

so you want to see a preview? (henry, look away now.)
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before:

during:

after:




the new neckline:
do you like the new shape? it's totally different! and i quite love the new neckline! but she definitely has to adjust the seams where the skirt flares out. i can't quite figure out what's wrong with it, but it looks a little odd. do you think it needs to flare out more? how would i accomplish that? crinoline underneath? or do you think it needs to bunch up less or more?