twigs and string.

Volcanic Ash = Sad Face

2010-04-23T08:59:00.000-07:00

I'll get this out of the way, it is really sad that there was a volcanic eruption and ash it bad for the lungs and not good for air travel. No one is happy that there is ash-air abound. I am sorry if you are stuck in ash-land. No, not Ashland, Oregon where the Shakespeare Festival is held(thanks, elementary school!), but ash-land. Note hyphen.

So back to being selfish.

Ash is stopping flights and that's making it hard to get certain flowers. Why do I know this? It's because I'm still going through post-wedding-depression and keep up with this stuff even after over 2 years of being married. Mr. GB forgives me, or rather, doesn't know I'm still doing this and would probably be horrified if he knew. Thankfully, he doesn't read my blog because he says I'm horribly cryptic and when I was traveling Europe with my landlord before we were dating, he read it and felt miserable. I'm glad I cut that off early. This is also why I can tell you really embarrassing stories about him. Because he doesn't know.

When I build my time machine, I'm going to go back in time and take this bouquet from Mrs. Cowboy Boot and then go further back in time to my wedding. It's a complicated plan, but it just might work...

So what do you do when your dream flowers are unavailable? You do what I did and just let it go. My favorite flowers are dahlias, peonies, and ranunculus. Basically, I like petals and I dislike seeing the... pollen parts. My floral terminology is WIN. I got married in October. Put those together and you have about as sad a face, but not quite, as you get with volcanic ash.

One thing I did, and sometimes this wasn't the best thing... but we won't get into that, is trust my vendors completely. When talking to my floral designer, and just sending her a couple of photos and really very little direction, I let her know that I was fully aware that my favorites were unavailable in October. I didn't push it, I figured that if she could magically make them appear, she would, so it was fine if she couldn't. I'd just check her off of my list of potential emergency magicians. Granted, I had the most awesome floral designer on the planet (not biased at all) but I generally feel that if you're hiring someone, you must love what they have done and you're not blindly picking people out of the phone book.

I'm still in awe of my bouquet and how in comparison, I look like crap. No really, that thing outshone me 100 times over.

The first time I saw my bouquet it was sitting in a plastic bucket, on the ground, outside the back door of the cottage. Talk about presentation. You know if you see your bouquet in such a flattering way and you still love it, it's perfect and going to be so much more awesome when it's not in a crappy bucket.

Moral of this story: don't worry if your flowers are not going to be available - whether that be due to poor timing (geez, you SHOULD have planned your wedding around seasonal blooms!!!) or flight-stopping-ash. Have a little faith, things will be ok. And really, you should be worrying about other things - like boob slippage and falling on your face at a roller skating rink one week before the wedding and being covered in bruises.

Why I'm a jerk-face

2010-04-15T10:04:00.000-07:00

I'm laying it all out on the table. I've changed my engagement ring setting TWICE. Yea, that's right. I'm an insensitive, unsentimental jerk-face. Not a jerk, a jerk-face.

I know there are people who have the perfect ring, their dream ring, or it is just the best ring ever because it's their engagement ring. But what do you do when you don't like your ring, or maybe you just want to change it?

honey, I know I said I wanted cartier... but this is not what I had in mind.

I'm one of those people. I'm like the ocean - ever moving/changing and if you wanna be on it, you gotta roll with it. If you don't, I will swallow you whole and no one will ever see you again until your bloated body floats somewhere downstream. Me, master of imagery. Am I attached to my ring? Well, technically, yes. It doesn't come off because I have giant, mannish knuckles from years of martial arts and cracking them while drawing. Sexy! Kidding aside, I do love my ring as it is now.

There are people out there that would be really pissed if you didn't love your ring, get offended, take it as an attack of their love for you that you didn't instantly melt when you got it. Mr. GB is not one of them. While he IS sensitive and romantic, unlike me, and gets googly eyed and lovey-dovey at weddings and nearly cried at our wedding (which I mocked him for), he still agrees with my ring changing policy.

Here is my theory on the ring and why I'm so willing to change it.

People change. I happen to change more often and more drastically than average, but we all change. When Mr. GB met me, I wore crazy clothing from the independent fashion scene in Toronto, 6" platform boots from Japan, had a bevy of backless shirts and neon pink hair. (Yea, he still called me bland.) At some point I had over 20 piercings on my body. And that was after I started to dress like a normal person. I now wear a lot of Anthropologie and cardigans and don't have any more metal on my face. My style has changed drastically over the time I've known Mr. GB and I'm certain it will continue to change. Since all Korean women eventually go down this path, I'll have permed hair and be wearing a lot of St. John outfits very soon.

The ring may be a symbol of our love, but love isn't static. It changes and grows with you. Unless our relationship is exactly the same for the next 30 years, there is no reason for me to be forced to wear the same thing that entire time. No matter how meaningful, it is still jewelry. If instead of rings you received clothing for engagement, and I got an awesome bejeweled, puffy painted, acid washed jean engagement jacket in the early 90s, would I still want to wear it now? Well, probably, but you get the point. I really want a bedazzler and one of those laser school portrait backgrounds for photographic fun. But that's me.

hell. yes. should have had this at the wedding.

Mr. GB and I will love each other no matter how we change, whether that means senile, permed, wearing house dresses and shoving people out of the way to get on the train first so I can get a seat, he's going to still love me. He promised. There are people who don't agree and think I'm terrible, but that's fine. But changing my ring doesn't mean I no longer love Mr. GB, it just means I'm picky and bratty and he's willing to deal with it... I mean, um, that we love each other no matter what we're wearing.

Let's rewind.

2010-04-14T09:31:00.001-07:00

Reading Wedding Bee always makes me really really friggin' guilty. Mostly because I know I'm still around and reading it and not saying anything. I'm going to attribute this to my life being so boring that only people who have absolutely nothing better to do would read it. I think between the choice of cleaning the litter box and reading about my day to day life, most people's cats would be very happy. You can use this as a threat if you want your SO to scoop poop "Don't MAKE me read her post aloud!".

ooo! treasure!!

I never shared my meeting Mr. GB story because it's boring. We went to college, I set him up with his last girl friend (we're all still friends), I moved to Japan, I came back, we got together. I didn't steal him, I didn't charm him, we just started hanging out when I moved back and it happened. In fact, I had never even considered the possibility of dating him - he was that ginger kid that would argue with me about Soul Calibur (grr!). He said I was 'out of his league' until he saw the kinds of people I dated and then figured I had no standards and to just go for it. Did I also mention that he thought I was BLAND? Yes, he used the word bland. All you guys out there who want to sweep a girl off her feet need to take a lesson from Mr. GB. He is obviously the pinnacle of romance.

And I never shared my proposal story because... well, he never proposed. *gasp* What?! Why!? Um... because as I've said I'm an anal control freak and I'd be damned if he picked a ring out for me that I had nothing to do with and I really really don't like surprises. And no, I would not have had enough tact to accept it as is and say that it was the thought and emotion behind the ring that counted. He knows better, so he had me make the decisions.

But how did we tell Mr. GB's family? We didn't, someone else did. The Fraud Prevention on his credit card called his father and said "hey, uh... we found this charge..." You see, the card he used was one he got in college that also had his parents' names on it. Uh... surprise?! Rather than being upset, his father was actually really happy... that he had such a great story to tell people about how he found out. We're just glad he didn't reverse the charge and opted to call Mr. GB first.

When my friends asked I told them "The best thing about this is I never have to date ever again." That's love! Well... at least it's honest. And isn't that the best thing about marriage? Finding the person you want to spend the rest of your life with is a completely secondary benefit to the fact that you will never have an awkward break up or that really uncomfortable first date ever again.

If I could go back in time, would I change things? Not at all. I'm not sure how many other people are as involved in the ring process, skipped a proposal, or if anyone's parents found out in a weird way, but it's very fitting for us seeing as we're both bizarre and nothing we do is conventional.
(Mr. GB claims that he was NOT weird until we started dating, that it was a necessary adaptation in order to survive.) Sure honey, you go on thinking that.

This is how we do it.

2009-10-12T21:30:00.000-07:00

So, it has been two years since Mr. GB and I said our ridiculous vows and got married. So how have things changed?

we look so sweet!

Well, Mr. GB still lives in constant fear of being kanchoed when going up stairs, so I can safely say our relationship is pretty much the same. We did move from our cute place in Lake Merritt to a larger, cuter place in the Castro... still on the top floor for optimal butt poking opportunities, of course! That's key in the home buying process!! I still put popsicle sticks in cups that he is actively using and leave banana peels on the floor when he's watching me because I know he's going to pick it up... so I'm still a brat and he's still tolerant.

Hm.. all in all, I'm getting a pretty sweet deal, so here's to two years of putting up with my insanity and to many many more!

This is my equivalent to a boudoir photo. Thanks, Lydia!

Ah, the sacrifices we make.

2009-07-22T13:16:00.001-07:00

After the wedding, I had my dress cleaned, put it neatly in a bag, and then threw it on the floor in the back of my closet, heaped into a little pile. I thought I might sell it one day, but Mr. GB is sentimental and doesn't want me to. I'm not attached to much, even cards that I give to Mr. GB I hand to him with the trash bag in hand so that after he reads it, I can toss it. I'm sweet, I know.

Well, when Mr. GB and I decided to move, my friend Lydia exclaimed that she would love to take photos in our soon to be empty flat because the light in the unit is amazing. It's true, the light is very nice, but I hate photos.... but I like Lydia more than I hate photos. Ah, the downside of having friends and people you like, you're willing to do things you dislike in order to make them happy or help them out. Reluctantly, I pulled out my neglected dress, prayed to the heavens that it would fit, and dragged my unwilling body in front of her camera to let her steal my soul.

Although I hate photos of myself, Lydia always manages to make me not look completely stupid, although mildly stupid cannot be helped, and it doesn't hurt that Frances is the cutest dog ever.

Lydia is based here in the bay (east bay!), loves taking photos of happy people (although surly people are also welcome) and is a super sweetheart. She makes me not look like crap and she's a pretty awesome singer for playing Rockband.
Lydia Chen Photography

Well, at least I got to wear my dress again for something! I even cleaned the toilet wearing it! And I got that warm tummy feeling when it still fit, going to treat myself to some Bi-Rite Ice Cream for that one!!

If you didn't sell your dress, if you didn't put it into permanent storage or to pass on to another family member, what did you do with your dress?

Going unnoticed

2009-07-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

The one thing we always kept in mind while planning our wedding was the feel. That was the most important thing for us - not how I looked, not the details of the ceremony, we didn't even have a rehearsal or plan a ceremony until about 10 minutes before we went out. We didn't want everything to look meticulously planned, we wanted it to feel like we threw it all together and it just was totally casual and relaxed. That means... all those details we put together, really didn't stand out. But that's what I wanted. I didn't want anyone to feel like our wedding was a museum of amazing little details, I wanted people to sit back and relax as if this was just a normal get together.

So these are how our details came together to create our mellow, laid back atmosphere. No one will ever know how I agonized over every single freakin' detail and searched high and low for the perfect _____ that seemed so easy when on the table.

Remember those pillows that I had my friend/slave sew for me? They went on the benches next to the parasols and the palmier cookies we had put together. They don't know that it took hours the night before for us to prepare these cookies.

Our simple unstemmed wine and water glasses, simple plates and twiggy utensils. I've said before, me and stems = spillage, but I also feel it's mildly comforting to anyone who spills. It's a little more secure, a little more casual to not have stemware. Tiny bowls for salt and pepper with equally tiny spoons... and mind you, that's pink salt. I'm just that crazy, I'm sure no one noticed, but it made a difference in my whacked out brain.

Those simple bird nests on the napkins? Those took people a long time, and a million bags of eggs because this nutty person refused to have ANY yellow eggs and wanted 90% white eggs only... Yes, I had bags and bags of yellow and colored eggs stashed just because I only wanted the white ones from the bags. Still think I'm reasonable? I need to be institutionalized. Thank god someone married me, I'm absolutely ridiculous.

my sister, cousin, and my friend who performed the ceremony all slaving away with the eggs early in the morning.

And who could forget the Ann Wood Birds that I gave my left kidney for? And the wire frame pedestals that I had Mr. GB call the manufacturer from the back of a magazine and beg them to sell to us. These were/are things I make him do regularly. We're remodeling our bathroom right now and I made him take back tiles and have new ones overnighted to us because the ones we originally received were matte glazed rather than unglazed. I swear no one else will know, in fact, he won't even be able to tell the difference. But to me, in my mad world, I'd stare at them knowing they weren't the right tiles for however long we lived there. Writing it out I am beginning to realize why my mother was relieved I found someone willing to put up with my crap.

wire pedestals of doom and a bird

more birds, but this time, with cake!

our menu with calligraphy by Bluebird Studios, can't recommend her enough! So sweet!

And last, but not least, my collection of cake stands, the macarons we hand wrapped the night before, the cake boxes for take-home cake and the kraft bags for taking all those home with you.

Did I get all my ridiculous details that no one but me noticed? I think so. Do you want your guests to see and feel the hard work and effort you put into your wedding, or are you content just knowing they're there?

At the very least, I know sticky fingered Korean woman noticed my details! Noticed them straight into her gigantor purse!

Games or Food?

2009-07-21T16:40:00.000-07:00

One year and some number of months ago, I got married to my ginger-kid and then didn't talk about it. So here I am, older, not wiser (I may have lost more marbles since there) and trying to piece together my day and share it with you.

I'll spare the details of the cocktail hour, as I was getting changed and apparently Mr. GB was making the rounds talking to everyone. I have no knowledge of what happened, just some photographic evidence of people being happy, eating, drinking, taking photos of themselves....

if you couldn't tell, these girls are who I lived with in Japan, and who actually stayed with us in the hotel the night before and the night of our wedding. That's how Rob and I roll, sleep over with friends on our wedding night!!

We all went down to the lawn to do the usual, toasts and meal. I, of course, walked around to talk to out guests. Mr. GB ate. He did not get up at all, but I don't know if anyone expected him to, he's definitely an eater.

me walking and being social, yes, I am reusing this photo because I'm faceless and shy that way

My sister, and only bridesmaid, talking about my obsession with corn niblets. I love them and their good, sweet, fake buttery goodness.

Mr. GB's brother, and only groomsman, talking about how Mr. GB was (he still is) a brat.

But what did we do with our free time between food and not-being-social? Play games of course!!! We did have some wi-fi action going on with DS around the table waiting for courses, and I finished Phantom Hourglass. I know, we're lame, we're geeks, and all our friends are too so we're proud of our pale, hermit-like internet obsessed selves. Real human interaction...nooooo!

Beyond playing games at the table, we took the unconventional route in some other ways. For instance, it happened to be the birthday of my best friend from elementary school, and mother of the flower girl and ring bearer. I'd be damned if I tried to push her out of the spotlight on her birthday just because I'm getting married, so we made a point to have everyone sing happy birthday to her. She even got cake before we even cut it. Now that I think about it, where the hell did that cake slice come from?

cakey goodness!

Another was our seating arrangement. Most people opt to either sit with family, their bridal party, or alone. Mr. GB and I decided to sit smack dab in the middle of one of the two really long tables surrounded by friends. Our families sat on opposite ends of the other table, mostly to shield my friends and Mr. GB's family from my boisterous nutty Korean family. While I love my family, Mr. GB and I wanted to sit with our friends and chat, play games, and let the families do whatever they wanted. In Mr. GB's family's case, that was socialize and enjoy being at a wedding. For my family, this was an excute to get together and par-tay! That and get souvenirs! I caught one old Korean woman, who I never actually met, stuffing as many bird nests as she could fit into her bag... so maybe they also were there to profit! I was warned about the sticky fingers of middle aged Korean women, but I didn't believe it until now! In a few years, I too will be able to steal from public places and events with no remorse, and I look forward to my perm and people just shaking their heads at the crazy Korean woman over there.

For now, I leave you with this photo of me from the front being happy and not making a stupid face for once in my life.

Please return your ovaries at the front desk

2009-07-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

Mr. GB and I are that couple. That couple that your kids love to see because our house is filled to the brim with candy and has all the coolest toys. We buy them whatever they want, spoil them rotten, and then send them home pouting and saying "but THEY let me do _____!! How come you're not as cool as they are!?" Mr. GB claims he's going to designate a wall in our house as the "art" wall, where he'll let the kids draw all over it and send them home with the supplies to make art at their own house. wrong wrong wrong!

However, we don't want children of our own. It comes as a shock to most our friends and family, and they've been hearing it for years, but still believe we'll change our mind. We have our reasons, usually we like to lightheartedly say "Can you imagine Mr. GB's HUGE nose on my tiny featured face? We can't have children knowing they'd have to go through life with a face like that!" Sometimes I say "because it hurts. a lot." But honestly, we have many real reasons for our decision, many of which are easily dismissed with "just wait, you'll come around."

As we've been married longer and more people around us are having kids, most of our friends don't bother, they figure it'll happen eventually. But strangers/people we're not as close to think there is actually something psychologically, emotionally wrong with me. I'm a soul-less monster and a disgrace as a woman for not wanting children. I should be handing in my vagina and resigning. They have even taken it as an attack on them that we don't want children, they get defensive and angry.

I'm still young, they say, and it's true. I'm not yet 30, but I've known for a long time that this is what I want. Mr. GB also agrees with me, he doesn't want children and he's happy being that guy with the cool stuff.

Other than flailing about and yelling "My uterus! My decision!" I'm at a loss as to what to say anymore. Mr. GB and I support and are genuinely excited for our friends who have kids or want them. But how do we get people to even just accept our decision, even if they don't agree or understand, but just trust that we know what is best for us?

I'm back! (physically, but not mentally)

2009-06-05T08:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a really long time since I've posted, but I swear I have something relevant to post about.

Something you may or may not know is that during the entire 18 months that we planned our wedding, (we planned for a hella* long time) Mr. GB was unemployed. I have mentioned that he did as much planning as I did, he was at every meeting, did every craft with me, and was actually the point of contact for all our vendors. Well, he had no freakin' excuse not to be there because he didn't have anywhere else to be! But seeing as our wedding was no longer able to rely on Mr. GB having any regular income, we blew our budget on buying our home (and decorating, because I can't stop myself) and our wedding.

That meant no honeymoon. Instead, we went on our mini-moon to Tokyo to visit friends, get a post-nuptial puppy**, and eat. Mainly eat. Eat things to make me gain the pounds that I'm supposed to gain over the next 40 years of marriage in about a week. No point in hiding what Mr. GB would have to lie next to for the rest of his life, I'll all about ruing the mystique early. Like peeing with the door open, I generally do that within a week of dating someone... usually when they're brushing their teeth and can't escape. I know, I'm so romantic.

People seemed to pity us and kept telling us they felt bad we weren't going on a honeymoon. They felt terrible asking where we were going, only to find out we weren't going anywhere. We got a lot of those "oh.... but... you'll have PLENTY of time later!" comments trying to throw out a ladder of sunshine from the deep ditch they felt they had fallen into.

Honestly, I can't imagine having done it any other way. Yes, I admit, the idea of being whisked off to some far off destination immediately after the wedding is enchanting, but... I was also very very tired and lazy. After over 1.5 years of marriage, a vacation was just what we needed. We've had a rough year of bad luck and terrible life events, and the excitement of wedding planning gone and the day to day work life set in, it was a really welcome vacation to just get away from it all. It was perfect timing.

the view from the winemaker's at ikies

We spent half the the time in London and Paris, where I shopped and went crazy seeing friends, and the other half was Mr. GB's trip, where we went to Santorini and did absolutely nothing. Except eat. Mr. GB has always dreamed of going to Greece, and his dreams mostly consisted of floating pieces of lamb, feta, and olives swirling around him.

pre-breakfast cat visit

I honestly believe the highlight of our trip was the friendly group of Oia animals that lived on the island. In the evenings, friendly dogs would just follow us around the street, and we had more than one breakfast with kitties begging for turkey. I happily obliged, as I missed my pets and.. well, I didn't need that much turkey. Our FAVORITE animal was dubbed "pooter cat". As the name suggests, pooter cat had some serious gas. He'd coming in and immediately fart. He also had a nerve disorder, so half his face drooped into a perma-scowl. It only enhanced his awesomeness. Maybe other couples would have thrown out stank cat, but his friendliness and relaxed nature (by which I mean relaxed in passing gas a LOT) made him a welcome addition to our vacation.

Well, we're back and ready to face both of us being in "crunch" at work, being mid-escrow on the purchase of our new home... and trying to either rent or sell our current place (still working on that). The stress we returned to seems a little more tolerable.

The moral of the story is, you don't need to take an immediate honeymoon. In fact, I feel like it really meant more to us now than it would have if we had gone right away. And also to have a truly amazing marriage and honeymoon, you should pee with the door open with a farting cat walking around your suite.

*just in case you forgot I was a NorCal bee.
**yes, we already own three puppies, but how can this not make up for a lack of honeymoon??

I'm a sheep.

2008-12-22T13:34:00.001-08:00

I was already planning on mentioning that Mr. GB and I had my ring engraved last spring, but since it seems that it's the new thing to do having read the ring photo tutorial, I will follow. I find that I lack colorful, beautiful things to put in the background of my ring like the other girls do, I went with the peonies and the cupcake container I had full of candy. The tutorial does help, though! Maybe I'll take more interesting ones in the future, if I ever get a better camera.

And the engraving, right, this photo is older but my ring has been so abused and dinged up that it looked awful. I guess I could photoshop a new one in the future, but for now, this is all I have!

One year... and a couple months, but who's counting?

2008-12-22T09:04:00.001-08:00

Our anniversary came and went, actually, we lived it twice as we were on a plane and flew back in time. A perfect anniversary, spent in airports, mid-air, and then jetlagged... we are truly a romantic couple, as I wore yoga pants and the ugliest, but most comfortable, most likely dirty shirt I could find for our 9 hour flight. I'm just that sexy, it shines through the stench. This was a precursor to the permanent state of comfy clothing and unshowered wife that he would come home to every day.

We still have a lot of wedding stuff just lying about the house, in drawers, under and in the credenza, in the garage... it's there to remind me of my perfect day, not at all because I'm disgustingly lazy. So lazy that we didn't actually get our one-year cake until last Saturday, it's only a little bit over two months late.

We opted not to save some of our cake since it would take up precious space that would normally go to freezer-burned chicken, fish sticks, and frozen pizza. That and my sister told me the heartwarming story where she had our mother save her cake topper and it was lovingly eaten by my father the next morning with some coffee. Thankfully, Nora offers to make couples a 1-year anniversary cake, which we gladly accepted. Of course it was lovely, particularly after we ate some tasty leftover lasagna that some friends had brought over. A fitting meal for our late anniversary, I think.

a very poor close up image

Just in case you have forgotten, not because of any fault of yours, but of my absence, (I hoped it would make you fonder of me when I returned for my triumphant 1 year look back) some refresher photos of our cake table.

pre-cut:

more detail to show off Nora's beautiful piping and buttercream masterpieces:

one more for good measure:

I cannot recommend her enough, not only was she the nicest and tastiest, but she also cost less than half the cost of all our other estimates including the delivery to our pretty-far venue. I'm constantly tempted to just call her and ask her to make us another wedding cake, just because I crave her frangipane on a regular basis. I mean, I don't wear stretchy pants every day not to fill them out with cake.

Nora del Chamberlin
(510) 526-8732

You don't have to admit it, but if you still don't remember who I am, here is a beautiful photo of me staring into the cake.

smooth like a dolphin

2008-08-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

There is no way to say this delicately, but it has to be said.
I wanted to have all my hair ripped off pre-wedding. Yes, all of it. I wanted to be smooth and aerodynamic, so that should I need to fly or swim faster than someone else, I would have an edge.

if challenged to a slip 'n slide contest, I'd totally rock you

I've mentioned this before, but I'm a pierced freak. I have holes in places that don't belong, and probably ones that you can't even imagine. I needed to find someone who was comfortable working... around... them. And someone who made me feel comfortable, because let's face it, you don't want anyone near your "bathing-suit-area" that has bad bedside manner. I just didn't need a horrified face looking at my robo-crotch reminding me of exactly all the things I probably should never have done.

This is how I found my hair-removing goddess. She spoke to me on the phone about being comfortable around piercings, that I could come in and we'd just work around them and then make a decision about how to deal with them in the future. She was so comforting and so gentle, and as it turns out I have a high tolerance for pain, that we just went for it on the first day!

It doesn't hurt that she's basically across the street from me. Even if you're not a special needs freak and you're just looking for someone to trust with a good brow wax... or perhaps the wedding is the excuse you needed to get your future husband's "fur vest" removed, Ellen Olson is your girl.

Don't look at me like that, I know you've thought about waxing the man! C'mon, even the uni-brow he's sporting? Maybe just that stray brow hair that you're dying to pluck out, but he's too light of a sleeper for you to do it without him noticing? Call it a "couples bonding" event.

Ellen Olson Esthetics
580 Grand Avenue
Suite 213
Oakland, CA 94610
510.268.9500

I vowed to share my candy, but I haven't.

2008-08-11T18:30:00.000-07:00

Despite the rain the day before, it actually turned out to be a gorgeous, cloudless day .. and we had to break out the parasols and fans for everyone!

Apparently, I look really sad/angry on my way to the aisle from the almond trees. I'm shy and generally dislike being looked at, so I'm sure that had something to do with it. I also went down really fast, I figured no one wanted to stare at me walking for 20 minutes, so I went down as fast as I could without falling. Thankfully, once I was almost to the end, I started laughing and smiling because of my friends and seeing Mr. GB, so we did end up with one non "dear god, this is horrible, grrrr" photo of me.

The vows went quickly, we had asked our friends to write vows for us, so neither Mr. GB nor I had read them before we said them. I ended up having to vow to share candy and leave closet space for Mr. GB. Mr. GB got off easy, he only had to love me and take care of the puppies. Sharing candy is like ripping my fingernails off, so I still don't share with him and I have no shame, no remorse.

Mr. GB's ring went on easily. Mine on the other hand, took me squatting down in an unfeminine way and ramming that thing on as hard as I could. I never said I was elegant or graceful.

We kept the ceremony to about 15 minutes. We were determined to keep the formalities at a minimum... besides, I was ready to eat some cake! Did I mention the cake was amazing??

I still don't intend to share my candy. Ever.

Agent Provocateur Sale!

2008-08-08T10:45:00.000-07:00

Yea, I know, I spend too much time looking at their website. But if you're looking for the perfect bridal set, just something for your honeymoon... or because you are narcissistic and want to look at yourself in the mirror in hot lingerie, check out Agent Provocateur's Online Sale!

Agent Provocateur

I really think they should be sending me kick-backs at this point.

Hi, my name is Mrs. GB and I'm an addict.

2008-08-07T10:41:00.001-07:00

I've been trying to ignore it, but it's impossible.
I knew this would happen.... I'm obsessed with wedding planning.

Admittedly, I was the one who adamantly did NOT want to have a wedding, being forced to have an intervention from Mr. GB and my mother about how I HAD to have one or I'd regret it... I knew why. Because if I let myself start looking, I'd never be able to let go. I can't stop myself from staring at wedding website, blogs, photographer links, beautiful designs and thinking how I could integrate that into a gorgeous wedding. Dreaming up DIY projects and thinking up themes that are different and interesting only to looking down at my left hand and thinking "dammit, I'm already married. $(#)!@#!!"

I do have a friend who is getting married next year and doesn't want to plan it, so I'm getting my planning fix vicariously through her... but after that? All my friends are married or not getting married in the near future. Where will I get my next fix? I need a wedding-dealer, I imagine some shady alley where a couple passes me an envelope of cash for me to call vendors and send them swatches.

It's been nearly 10 months since my wedding, I thought I'd be over it, discarding this obsession for a new one. I was wrong. I'm this close to divorcing Mr. GB so we can get re-engaged and I can plan another wedding. Although I imagine people wouldn't come to my second wedding, because it would be obvious I'm mentally unstable. I'm trying to keep that under wraps, you know.

What are other people doing to fulfill their obsession after their wedding?

Are these considered vendors?

2008-07-30T16:06:00.000-07:00

Before I try and sort through the things I decorated the wedding with, I thought I should write about Mr. GB's and my personal details. Actually, I'm using this as an excuse to not have to go through the list of things I detailed the event with. It's daunting and it makes me think about how insane I am, so I'll pretend like I'm being really responsible by writing this instead. It's something, right? Baby steps!

Dress: Monique Lhuillier - Bridal Galleria SF, CA.
The buying of the dress went beautifully, but as I wrote before, they had the demon alterations manager that prompted me to rip my dress from her cold-evil hands and take it elsewhere to get altered. It definitely was the most stressful, awful experience I had with a vendor. Mind you, this is ONLY the alteration manager, who I can only hope has been replaced because she insulted too many brides, the rest of the staff was wonderful and apologetic that my experience with her was so poor.

- look mom! it fits!-
Alterations: Anna's Alteration on Geary.... um, downtown sf.
She's the sweetest! She was recommended to me by Jin Wang, who although I didn't buy my dress from, was one of the most gracious and sweet people I met during my dress search. My dress fit, and when I brought it in it had to be sized down at least 3 inches all over. I recommend her to anyone who will not be going with their bridal salon for alterations.

Shoes: Sigerson Morrison - Nordstrom
They were cute, however, I took them off fairly quickly because they hurt like a mother. I ended up returning them because I had so many blisters and unhappy toes that I knew I'd never wear them. I normally don't return things I've already worn, but I've never experiences shoes that made me wish I had wooden feet so I couldn't feel anymore. Nordstrom has an awesome return policy, so if you come in with bloodied and battered feet, they take the shoes back.

Jewelry:
Necklace: Alex Monroe
Earrings: Nadri from Nordstrom
Bracelet: Emma Cassi

Hair and Makeup: Sarah Hyde Mill Valley, CA.
Sarah is wonderful, she's very friendly and she has a way of talking to you that makes you feel like you've known her for a very long time. It's very comforting when you're freaking out about how your reception tent is on fire or they are manuring the lawn 5 minutes before the ceremony (it's happened!). My hair came out perfectly, she had a friend of mine watch so she could do touch ups for me when needed, and I actually look good in photos for the first time in my life. Sure makes me wish I knew how to put on makeup, because then maybe I could always look good! But then again, looking like crap every day keeps the creepies away... or that's how I like to think about it.

Hairpins + Pin:
The one I wore was handmade from the now well known Kelly from Relish at Home in Berkeley. I think I went crazy with hairpins because all the people I worked with on designing them were some of the nicest, most talented people I've had the pleasure of working with! I had another pin, which I ended up wearing to my BIL's wedding. I'm constantly searching for new events to wear them to, so if any of you are hosting a cotillion, let me know. Me and my head will so be there.

My sister's pin was made by the awesome girls of oda style, who like I said before, were among the nicest people i had the pleasure of working with. I recommend them to anyone who is looking for an organic or just truly personalized item!

My pin was purchased at Jin Wang, and I think I've said enough about her, I love that store, I love her and I wish I had bought my dress there so I could have worked with her rather than the alteration beast-manager.

MOH Dress: J.Crew Online.
My sister bought her dress online, I just told her what color she should aim for and to buy whatever she wanted in terms of style. I think if you have a lot of bridesmaids that don't live together, J.Crew is a good option because they can do the shopping online and find their size and style themselves. At least, I liked it!

Mr. GB's Details:
Suit: Hugo Boss. Really good for short hobbits like Mr. GB! I've heard people say they thought I would be a lot taller than I am based on the photos I posted on WeddingBee, so I am here to say that it's not that I'm so tall that I'm nearly his height, it's that both of us are really really short.

Tie and Shirt: Ted Baker. Mr. GB has a sick, sick obsession with Ted Baker, so he was desperate to work it into his outfit. That or Paul Smith, but Ted Baker had more selection at the time, so it won by virtue of availability.

Cuff links: I actually bought him two pairs, this one and a Space Invaders set, but we felt with our board games, he should wear the Scrabble pair. They are R and L, which not only work for right and left, but those are the initials of his first and middle name, so double score!! Both sets are adorable, and I can't say enough about etsy except that my bank account, and probably Mr. GB, wishes it didn't exist.

His Shoes: Were from Camper. Anyone who knows Mr. GB knows his favorite thing to do is rant loudly about anything. After months of him complaining about having duck feet, really, they are wide and look like hobbit feet, I forced him to go to Camper and try on some of their wider shoes. He now spends a lot of time in there dreaming about the room between his toes and dreaming of new things to complain about.

Did I forget anything?

Sweet Boundless Boobies!

2008-07-25T16:32:00.000-07:00

A close friend of mine is getting married this Saturday, so I wanted to throw her a mini-bachelorette-party. It was an all day affair, but I won't go into the list of things we did that may not interest anyone, and if it does, you can always ask. That is, if I don't disappear off the face of the earth again...

My obsession with turning everyone I know, with boobs and without, onto Agent Provocateur led me to give them a call about having all the girls go and try on things, and pitch in for our friend's bridal set. I would have settled for a just letting them know they were going to be invaded, but what we got was so much better I had to share.

We arranged an after-hours private event, where we had personal attention from the super sweet, gorgeous staff, with macarons, pink champagne, rose vodka and chambord cocktails! Two hours of giggling tipsy while we all tried on mounds of lingerie, admired each other and whined about our jealousy of so-and-so's boobs, waist, or butt-to-thigh crease, we all left with at least one item, and a full set for our friend. I can't imagine a more fabulous way to end the evening to a long day of girliness.

This was their first private event in the San Francisco store, but everything went off beautifully and I recommend it to anyone who is planning a bachelorette event! Even if you're shy, you can hide yourself in a private dressing room, but I can't be held responsible if you come bursting out to show the world your goods because you look so amazing!

They even let me bring my little puppy, Frances, to the party... in fact, they requested her presence! You can't beat garters and puppies!

Agent Provocateur San Francisco
54 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
415.421.0229

I owe you

2008-07-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

a complete list of my vendors... but nothing makes me more nervous than actually writing a review. I have no problem with self-deprecation, but if I have to say anything negative, I get all red and flustered and just run. So I'll say the good, hint to anything that was... not so good, and hope that since my wedding was so long ago that all my vendors may have turned into dust and washed away. After the months I've been gone, I imagine you all thought I turned into dust... but no, I'm here with my vendor list!

I'm going to sort these in an order that may only make sense to me, so part one: The stuff that was so big, they came into my brain first.

Location: Bear Flag Farms - Winters, CA.
Gorgeous, but did I have to even say that? You know that from looking at the pictures. Tina, the owner, is very very gracious and friendly and I can't imagine having had my wedding anywhere else.

Caterer: Rising Sun Catering - So. San Francisco.
I loved the food, I loved Heather and her husband! We did have a server who was rude, hated our settings and decor, and backed into the building with the truck, but he was fired the next day, so although we had to put up with him, I'm glad they canned him shortly thereafter. At least that means if you go with them, that guy won't be there! That and she told us the cat-vegan story, so they win points.

-this photo wasn't posed, he just made us look like we are a sweet couple somehow-
Photography: Ian Martin Photography - Berkeley, CA.
I hate cameras with a passion. There are no photos of me from the age of being able to understand that my soul was being ripped out of my body and that I had the option of hiding from the lens up until the wedding. I begrudgingly take group photos when asked, but in general, I run. I wanted a photographer I'd never see, feel, or hear. That's what I got. He's super nice, laid back, and you'll never notice him even once. I still don't know how he got so many photos of me. And so few of me looking like cow poo.

Florals: Nancy Liu Chin Designs - San Francisco, CA.
Do I have to say anything? She's amazing, bubbly, run you over with happiness and ideas friendly. My bouquet was breathtaking, my wannabe chuppah kicked the asses of other wannabe chuppahs, I really can't say enough about her. Getting a crazed excited call two days before the wedding of "THEY HAVE PINK RANUNCULUS!!!!!!!!" from the flower mart should say it all. If you can, book Nancy.

Cakes: Nora del Chamberlin Custom Cakes - Berkeley, CA. (510) 526-8732
I still dream about her cakes. I still salivate thinking about that almond cake that was to die for and the buttercream that I actually started eating alone. Make a note, I HATE any kind of frosting, so the fact that I was actually stealing it for myself means this was the best cake I'd ever had. To be honest, I feel that most wedding cake is yucky, so taste (and not a meanie) was the most important thing to me. The no fondant + amazing decoration didn't hurt.

You'd think this would be first, because this was my most important "vendor". I apologize to her, because I have only this one photo of her, or at least, I think I do. I guess that's the sign of an amazing coordinator, I never hear the bad things that are happening and you never see her. Things just go smoothly and perfectly. Here she is explaining to my "officiant" where and how everything will happen the morning of the wedding. You see, the monsoon that hit the site made it so we didn't have a rehearsal, so she had to do all the set up that morning and brief everyone for the schedule at the same time. She was 60 places at once the day of, and all the months up to it, pulled off miracles that wouldn't have happened without her, trusted Mr. GB and I to actually do crafts like we said we would, and walked me through the process of my insane wedding vision. I basically attribute the fact that I didn't fall on my face, tripping on my dress thus ripping it off my body down the aisle to her being there and her aura of making miracles happen being upon us all. She's definitely more than our coordinator, Mr. GB look up to her as a friend and our savior.

I love you, Grace!
Grace Lee Events

ps. if you were wondering what a dashing, tall, official looking person performed the ceremony, I'm sad to say he's not available for weddings. He's my best friend from college who I asked to do this for me because.. well, he's dashing, tall, and official looking. You have to admit, he does look good in a suit and he fooled everyone.. until he sat down to eat with us.

You need to get out more.

2008-02-12T13:09:00.000-08:00

It's true, I do. I'm starting to look like golem and my skin is getting translucent from lack of exposure. I'm expecting to start de-evolving and crawl back into the water, and if I'm lucky, I'll turn into this.

i love these things

Until then, while I still have thumbs and fingers among other things that I will lose upon turning into an Axolotl, I will continue to do useless crafts that make my house a mess and end up with me picking up weird colorful nun-chuck poos from the dogs because they ate magenta thread... you know what I'm talking about. And if you don't, at least you know I pick up their poos like a good owner. I really don't recommend trying to do this on a large scale as it took me around two hours to do one. Granted, this is my first try, so if you're talented, I'm sure you can bust one of these puppies out in no time. Again, this is my first attempt and I'm willing to share with you something I'm sure in about 10 months I'm going to wish I never posted up on the internet for posterity. Be nice. I bled for you - the needle is no joke.

Ok, so I didn't have gray.. or yellow... so I had to make a baby penguin in shades of pink. Let's call that artistic and not a complete lack of foresight or willingness to get off my ass and buy the right colors. I have an excuse, I'm waiting for FedEx, and nothing twists my panties more than missing a package, so I'm not moving for anybody - especially a felt penguin.

Seriously though, it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be, and it's pretty amazing watching it come together. Who knew wool fibers were so rad? Did I use rad in two sentences? sorry. Buy wool roving, foam pad, scary needles and poke into shape. Easy!

There are a lot of cool things you can do - like.. making your cake toppers!

rainsend on etsy
Or making decorations since you can make fruits and shapes or whatever else you want... like starfishes. You can even make coasters and flat things with the right kind of felt. You can make coin purses and bags for your bridal party, or for yourself and brag about it to that bridal party while handing them a bag of stale cookies and laughing about the orange/seafoam two-tone tafetta dress you forced them to wear. You know, depending on your personality.

If you want to look at some neat stuff, just look up felt craft on etsy! There are some pretty good books about it too, mostly in Japanese, but they are step by step pictures in them. Good luck, and enjoy the bloody mess that will be your abused finger tips after trying this.

There has been a lot of discussion...

2008-02-11T13:42:00.000-08:00

about boobage. Now, I'm not overly endowed, but us itty-bitty girls need a way to keep them puppies in for some level of modesty. I'm sure it'd be less than wedding-appropriate to be nipping out all over the farm.

Having an open back dress, I didn't really have that many options, so I'm happy to say that the nu-bra worked well for me. I cannot vouch for girls that have nice big melons, but for the mosquito bite troop, this may work for you!

here it is working well:

I bought one to use at my dress trials, but they are definitely stickiest the first use, so I bought a new one for the day of. It worked well, didn't become less tacky - but I'm also famous for not sweating, so I'm not sure if that is something to be concerned about. I'd recommend buying one and running around and seeing if it can hold up to whatever crazy wedding antics you might get up to. Even if you don't plan on dancing, you should probably do something that makes you sweaty and then perform the best boobshake you can muster in your living room to see if one boob become unstuck and slaps your partner in the face in a less than bridal way. If it manages to come unstuck but slaps them in a very bride-like way, let me know - I want video proof of this classy sweaty boob slap.

here it is withstanding very animated story:

The unfortunate thing about my dress was that because it was a sheath with very little holding it to me, my nu-bra was a very active party member.

It came out to welcome people to a piece of cake!

and it also wanted to introduce us as married!

I have a million photos of it poking out, thank god I'm not modest or I would have very few photos of me at my own wedding. I want everyone that see my wedding photos to share in the joy that was my stick-on-boob-holder. I mean, it was an integral part of my whole wedding experience!

All that being said, it held on with no discomfort and never came unstuck. At more it left my boobs looking a little weird and wrinkly from the stickyness going on not quite evenly.. but that was just more sexiness for Mr. GB to look forward to. Or perhaps a peek into his future 50 years from now.

Branch Centerpieces

2008-01-01T13:16:00.000-08:00

A lot of people seem to want to know about the branches we used for our centerpieces, so here it is! We bought sandblasted manzanita from Nettleton Hollow and just laid the orchid blooms on the branches. That's it! No glue, no wiring, they were just placed around the branches. I won't say it was super fast since we had to do so many, but it was very very easy. Thanks to everyone who put them together for me, I was locked in the prep-room while it was put together.

This is how it looked on the table and on the guest book table:

A big change from when they came in this gigantic box... it was a puzzle to get them apart without breaking them to pieces!

Here are some photos of the table settings and the branches as they were on the tables. I really feel like they made the setting relaxed and natural, hopefully promoting a comfortable, low key feeling. We also wanted low decor, since we didn't want anything blocking conversation.

This wasn't our original idea for centerpieces, but I really feel like it contributed to the relaxed, casual feel of the whole wedding. And it wasn't hard - so if you want to DIY some really natural centerpieces, I think this is a really nice and unique option!

Starting from the beginning.

2007-12-14T08:01:00.000-08:00

At least, of my day.
There aren't very many photos of me getting ready, mostly because we shut the door to the room I was in. I'm not sure I'm missing out on any photos because of it, my dress doesn't really have an attractive shape to it when it's hung up - it looks like a lifeless drooping cloth.

On the other hand, the door was wide open when Mr. GB was getting ready (last minute, I might add) and there was a lot of confusion as to why his tie was so freakin' long.. or maybe he's just short. It's a pathetic sight when you have 5 people in a room all unable to tie a single tie.

I'll just tell you, Mr. GB cannot tie a tie to save his life. He didn't even try.

Here is where I tie it and realize the thing is just longer than long.

Then my friend, and the person who performed the ceremony, Gordon came along to try. As a side note, we chose him to perform our ceremony for three reasons: he's a close friend of mine from college, he is very tall and looks official, he cleans up real nice in a suit.

Midway through the process, he realized he can only tie it when it's around his own neck, which isn't as helpful as you would think. Our photographer, at this point, has decided he has way too many photos of this and left. The tie tying process was supposed to be a cute few minutes, but it ended up being a sad sight of several well dressed monkeys scratching their heads.

We eventually got it on there, somehow - possibly involving a parent and some glue, or a pair of scissors? I'm really actually glad we have photos of this rather than of me sitting in a chair having my hair done. The photos of us showing the world we're idiots it pretty much how I want to remember our day.

That and I'm officially calling this my "getting ready" photo.

Because you can't get married without part of a balanced breakfast and more really stupid facial expressions.

Floral Ignorance, Part 2.

2007-12-10T19:08:00.000-08:00

I already admitted I know nothing about flowers and I threw my hands up when our floral designer asked me what I wanted. I literally had no clue what I wanted her to decorate the flower girl's wagon or our chuppah with... I just nodded and looked worried. So when we decided to pick a floral designer, we went with someone who really knew what they were talking about and made us feel like we would get exactly what we wanted..... without even knowing what we wanted was called. She really understood that it wasn't about color or a type of flower, but really about accenting the mood that we wanted to set for our wedding.

Nancy Liu Chin will blow you away when you meet her, she is just such a bubbly, enthusiastic person that you can't help feel she's truly excited to be a part of your day! Both Mr. GB and I felt run over with floral excitement as she energetically tossed out ideas and sketches, ooing and aahing over the possibilities in her mind. We felt confident that we had chosen the perfect person to do our flowers. Someone who knew a whole lot more than we did and was confident just going with it because our open mouthed retardation was really of no help to her.

Our bouquets:

thanks for the second photo, tiff!

Mr. GB had two lapel pins actually, this one and one that she provided should the first wilt. It stood up well in the weather and the second one ended up rotted in the back of our fridge, only to be found brown and nasty behind some equally old parmesan shavings.

I asked Nancy to design 6 wrist corsages to recognize the girls who helped make everything come together.

Our ring pillow was a handmade nest filled with flowers, it was absolutely adorable! I wish I had some better photos of it, I took one when I got home, but it's a little janky. And of course, the adorable flower girl wagon - it turned out better than anticipated and the whole bottom was soft moss!!

The same flowers in the ring nest were used for pomanders to line the aisles. We reused these as cute flower decorations for the lounge area later!

Nancy also provided all the orchids we used to decorate our manzanita branches on the tables!

I think the thing that shocked me the most were the flowers she put together for our "chuppah". Not only was she extremely helpful on information on how to construct one, since she has experience and Mr. GB and I were completely lost as to where we should start, she told us how to attach the correct hooks for floral arrangements! We gave her absolutely no direction with this except that we wanted something that felt the same as the rest of the wedding, very natural. I didn't actually have a chance to see the "chuppah" until I walked down the aisle, so I think seeing this for the first time almost made my eyes water with happiness. How gorgeous is this?!

I think the thing that really felt like we weren't just client #183201 was when she called us from her cell phone at the flower mart to tell us what she had found ranunculus out of season, one of my favorites, and was going to rework the bouquet to work them in for me. She listed all the orchids currently available in front of her, waited for us to google image search what she was suggesting (because we're that pathetic) and bought it with us on the phone. Her phone even died and she called us back from a vendor's booth!

I can't say enough about Nancy and the work she did for us. I suppose this is a vendor review with a raving "OMG She's teh awesome!" rating!

Nancy Lui Chin Designs
Phone: 415.647.2012

It's not a chuppah... ok, so it kinda is.

2007-12-09T01:21:00.000-08:00

"He's not Jewish"
-takes one look at Mr. GB's photo- "No, he's Jewish, what's his last name?"
"xxxxberg"
"He's Jewish"
"everyone thinks he is, but he's not!"
-looks at the ceremony marker- "He's Jewish."

Despite all the things that would make Mr. GB very apparently Jewish, he is not. And while he doesn't mind people making the mistake, he thought it would only further convince people that he was a liar when they saw his ceremony marker... that looks kinda like a chuppah. It is 4 poles with fabric held between them, but it's just a nice marker for the ceremony! We wanted some natural that offered some covering, and this seemed like the perfect thing to just erect on the farm that didn't seem completely out of place. We wanted everything to be natural and low-key, and this was no exception.

Mr. GB did a LOT for the wedding, much more than I expected him to. Not only did he go to every vendor meeting with me, look at magazines with me, be the phone contact for all our vendors, drove me to appointments here and there and even went to paper source alone many times, AND do every single craft project with me... he also built our "chuppah" himself in our garage.

Yes, I ordered Mr. GB some birch poles, some lace (thank you to Jen for sewing the trim on), and told him to go the hardware store for some tools. He went out and bought everything he need, even traveling to a ton of stores looking for galzanized metal buckets since I was very specific about what I wanted them to be placed in, and spent a few days locked in the garage to make our poles stand straight!!

The morning of the wedding, he, his brother, his father and my BIL all went out and built it on the ceremony lawn. It was a bit windy, so they had to use some ribbon to make it a little more stable, but all in all, I think it went well! He is standing in the background speaking to our DOC in these photos, but I swear he was helping... or at least, so he says. Either way, liar or not, he gets credit for building it in the garage first.

Cover the buckets with some moss and we're done! Not shabby, eh?

I could give you a million reasons why I love Mr. GB, like how when we were on an international flight from japan he spilled a drink on himself within 1 hour of take off and just laughed at his luck... he got diaper rash, I told him he would. He still laughed, just with a slight twinge of discomfort. But the fact that he not only let me work towards my ideal of a wedding (knowing full well I'm an anal perfectionist) but took every step with me, never denied me a seven hour "talk" about my choice in ribbons, brainstormed ideas with me, and supported me being a bee despite the fact that he knew somehow the world would end up knowing about his case of diaper rash at the age of 23... it make him the most tolerant and wonderful person in the world. Anyone willing to put up with me and pretend he enjoys it is special, possibly short-bus special, but I'm taking what I can get.

To show him I care, I'm going to pack baby powder with me on any future long flights.

You picked a dress... right?

2007-12-09T00:56:00.000-08:00

I did! Yes, after all the horrible things we went through, from wishy-washy dress reconsiderations to an alteration manager that made me feel like poo, I did finally get a dress and have it altered! Which dress was it? The original dress, of course!

Mmm lace...

After the ceremony and some quick photos (thank god! I'm so camera shy, I'm glad they were over in a few minutes!) they rushed me off to get dressed for the Korean ceremony. I opted to put on a sash and bustle my dress for the remainder of the day so I could frolic if I felt so inclined. I didn't, but I did do a lot of squatting. Perhaps I'm just an avid squatter, but I felt that I was often very low to the ground.

Here I am trouncing around in my dress at the meal - as you can see, Mr. GB was too busy stuffing his face to walk with me. If anyone who was at the wedding wanted to know where he was, I just want you to know that Pork + Crackling > Our Guests to Mr. GB.

I look depressed or something in the second photo, but I swear it has nothing to do with my brother-in-law, he is just the unfortunate victim of me in a not-so-happy looking pose staring down at him as if he'd done something horribly wrong. He actually did help a lot, so have photographic evidence of this.

And since I can't get away without posting at least one portrait that we took, I had to share this one - which I really feel captures us and the general feeling of the event. This is the only one I'm posting! Any reader who wasn't clicking on this post would miss out on this photo without even knowing they were missing this once in a lifetime chance to see a photo of Mrs. GB not looking purposefully idiotic.

Although I finally have photos (and am out of excuses), I don't even know where to start in what to tell everyone about my day! If there is anything you are dying to see photos of or hear about, let me know and I'll get to them one by one. Otherwise you will be subject to my out of order, totally whacked out posts that have nothing to do with what anyone cares about. Next week's post will be "Ode to my toe jam that caused me much discomfort during the ceremony" if someone doesn't help put me on the path of useful topics. And I will even photoshop some images of me and some toe-jam if it comes to it.

PS. we both wore our glasses during the ceremony, so all you 4-eyed brides, show your lens appreciation and wear them proudly down the aisle!

Sibling Love!

2007-11-29T16:57:00.000-08:00

Originally, we hadn't planned on having a ring bearer or a flower girl, neither of us had any nieces or nephews, nor did we know any children... or do we? It completely slipped my mind that my best friend from elementary school had two adorable, well behaved, awesome kids! So one phone call later, we decided that her son would pull his sister up the aisle in a radio flyer!

We dropped off the radio flyer at my floral designer's studio a week before the wedding, and again, said "go for it!" with very little direction. She did a beautiful job with the garlands and the whole bottom was full of a wonderful natural green moss.

Actually, the above was from the trial run where he pulled with all his might, calling on the strength of the Hulk, and... failed. So after some thoughts, we decided it was probably best that my friend pull her daughter up the aisle after him.

Regardless, it was still absolutely adorable! I'm really happy they got to be a part of the wedding, I would have really missed out not to be able to have two of the cutest kids ever as my ring bearer and flower girl!

And it just so happened that it was also my friend's birthday. After helping so much and allowing me to have her children take part in the wedding, I didn't want to just ignore that it was her day too! I arranged for them to bring her dessert out with a candle and for everyone to sing happy birthday to her.

She thought I had forgotten, psh!

I was a fool...

2007-11-27T10:46:00.000-08:00

for logging onto the chat with all the other bees, now I feel horribly guilty that I'm not blogging regularly! That and everyone now knows that I'm not dead/sick/lost all my fingers to a horrible case of gangrene... that I'm fully capable of writing and just haven't. I just want you to know it's not you, it's me.

So where are my professional photos!? Um, well, behind me on our credenza, waiting, in a box and a book and not currently accessible on my computer. This is entirely due to our laziness on not picking up the cd with our photos. But I owe it to you, so here are some photos our friends and family look of me looking like an idiot... err, I mean, looking elegant in my korean hanbok.

If you're wondering why my outfit is not the same as before, my mother decided on the night before to change my hanbok, so that midnight trial run actually meant nothing. The Korean ceremony took place immediately after the first, I didn't have any time to say hello as my aunt and mother grabbed my arms violently and dragged me inside to change.

Look at that worried look on my face and Mr. GB's skewed mouth, he'd never learned to bow at this point, and we taught him about 10 seconds before.

Here is us, pre-bow. For those of you not familiar with the way we bow to our elders, women generally will stand, put the back of their hands against their forehead, and holding that position, slowly kneel and bow until the hands touch the ground in front of them. Men will just kneel slowly, place their hand on the mat in front of them, and then lower their body/head toward the mat.

Mr. GB bowed like a woman. Only the first time, because after the uproarious laughter from the Korean guests, he realized that they were not laughing WITH him.

Here is where I forced Mr. GB to giddy-up... I'm obviously enjoying my pony ride and would like him to carry me around more often, but I think this was a one-time deal at the request of my family. This is supposed to signify him carrying me through life from now on, but really, I think it's just to humiliate him. Not that I have a problem with that, but if that was the point, I could have thought of way better things to do to him under the guise of "korean tradition."

And because I feel that the only photos that truly representative of me are the ones where I'm making a horrible face or doing something ridiculous, I leave you with this photo... that no other sane person would ever put on the internet.

Post wedding silence.

2007-11-15T14:01:00.000-08:00

I have no excuses! I've been gone because I didn't have any pro photos to show you! But it has been a full month since the day of and we are... still working on those thank you cards, I swear.

Besides the daily "did we get photos yet?" question I ask Mr. GB, I have been focusing on decorating the house, as I did before the wedding (and promised myself I wouldn't do during the planning, but did anyway). And what better time wasting activity is there than painting a room! I've been meaning to paint a few of the rooms, but it's really daunting to get up on a ladder and get the ceiling, or to cover the floors... and as much as I love picture rails, masking them off on both side is pain in the ass. Alas, to get me to shut up about not having any wedding crafts to do, constantly whining about not having photos, and not having things to talk about on wedding bee.... Mr. GB agreed to break his back and paint the bedroom with me. He's so good that he let me pick the color without a peep about how bright it is.

before:

after:

I can't seem to ease myself back down from the hummingbird state of running to my calendar to see what appointments I have this week, or making up really dumb reasons to pull out my gocco or paper cutter... What did you do to ease yourself back from DIY/Planning/Overbooked schedule into a normal life? Is there wedding rehab? Am I allowed to go to my photographers house and start bawling uncontrollably, or that considered rude?

ps. I'm getting so stir-crazy I feel like lending out my services to my friends who are planning weddings, although I realize I had craft slaves to help me, and I don't think they'd appreciate being passed along like meat.

Cleaning Up.

2007-11-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

So, the day came and went, but somehow, a lot of our stuff... didn't. Spread between my parents' home, his parents' home, and our place is a ridiculous amount of items. Some of the items I can see myself keeping, we set aside the board games, about 6 seat cushions, and all the ann wood birds that were not given to our helpers. My sister suggests putting everything together and ebaying it as a pre-made wedding, ha!

But what do I do with 800 cello bags and 400 glassine bags? I can't feel good throwing them out - but are they worth putting on ebay? Does anyone have any really cute ideas for Christmas that involves 94819032190 mushroom birds and a lot of cello wrap? Something beyond using them to make the world's crappiest xmas gift (mushroom birds surrounded by cello and stuffed into a glassine bag!) or the trash?

I'm off to put the ann wood birds all around the house. any cute location recommendations that doesn't involve them falling/getting soiled/turning into spider-lairs? I need something to distract me for the long few weeks of waiting for more photos ahead!

I've been kissing high school boys.

2007-10-31T12:12:00.000-07:00

This is my excuse for being vacant, I'm going to claim that my laziness and complete lack of posting is due to Mono*. It's not because I'm in the post wedding lull. It's not at all a depression based on having very few photos of the event. It's because I'm too tired to do anything other than drag my slug-like body down the hall to pour myself a bowl of cocoa puff... just enough sugar for me to surf anthropologie online and dream of the day I will have the energy to go and buy more cardigans.

I had PTWS (just like Mr. Monkey's description) and forced poor Mr. GB to go into the garage and paint our placeholder dining room table's legs. I say placeholder because we do intend to get something nice. but until we can, I couldn't look at the plain legs and be satisifed... well, when had PTWS. Ask me now and I'll sniff dirty socks and think "oh.. not so bad... I can wear these if only I can avoid laundry one more day..."

What's that I see? Thank you cards. We're on top of this, I swear. I did a whole 5! During our 3 days of activity, I managed to gocco our thank you cards and buy a few more just in case some of the gocco ones looked like our dogs did them. They did, actually, we've forced them into slave labor as well.

You can see by how unorganized the living room is that we're starting to decay as humans. Note the paper source bag from the fillmore store since we're boycotting the berkeley one. The dreamcast, currently right side up, although it doesn't play unless it's upside down anymore... and the huge PILE of dog toys. People, please stop giving these to us, they don't need any more!!!!

I bought the two on the left from etsy! I adore etsy!
We leeched the labeling idea from the most recent MS weddings.
and my gocco cards, albeit amateur and less impressive than what the average toddler can do (again, I'm going to claim the dogs did it) is the pattern of our rug. Because I love our rug THAT MUCH.

I bet you were hoping for more photos of the wedding. Me too. Until then, I'm going to go back to pretending I'm dead and shaking my fist at xbox katamari. Why is this one so freakin' hard?!

*I don't have mono, nor have I been kissing high school boys. I've just been licking the rims of every used cup I see.

What?! No Stems?!

2007-10-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

That's right, no stems. We opted for simple water tumbler glasses and the reidel 'o' stemless glasses. Not only because I tend to feel like I'm about to pour whatever liquid happens to be in my stemmed glass all over myself or someone's white sofa/rug/maltese puppy, but because I wanted to go for a more relaxed feel at the table. That and with all the fist shaking after particularly vicious battles of tetris between courses, we felt that even trying to pretend we were sophisticated delicate wine drinkers would just be a thinly veiled sham, we admit it. We prefer juice.

Anyway, Mr. GB really really wanted twig flatware, so he got his wish. I think it tied the branch centerpieces + nest placecard holders together really well. Maybe even with the chivari chair bamboo-y-wood thing they have going on too. I could just be lying to myself that we actually thought about all this beforehand and I really AM that stylish and detailed. Yes!

Seeing as it was just over a week ago, I still don't have photos - but thankfully my cousin took some photos of the table settings for us! Thanks Ellen!

Less is more! Less is cheaper! ahem... less is more!

I think using the nests as placecard holders worked out fairly well. Some of them stood up better than others. Some of them came home with us, some people took theirs, and some of them went home with two korean women who raped the table of all things not tied down until their bags were full. Seriously, there was a stack of about 5 nests that could not be fit, so there they were left on the table, a tower of sad, discarded, unstealable nests.

Now the remaining 50 or so nests are in a box, lined up nicely so they don't get tangled, by the front door. Sadly ignored because I'm finishing Phantom Hourglass and Mr. GB is thoroughly engrossed in Puzzle Quest. Bejeweled with Skeletons, that game, and stealer of my husband's soul. I imagine we may get around to selling them, otherwise, burning them in a wedding bonfire that will coincide with some kind of nervous breakdown.

This is unrelated to the tablesetting choices, I had to post this photo because it's cute.

thanks for the picture, tiff & jason!

It's a secret.

2007-10-19T16:31:00.001-07:00

I wanted to wait until I had professional photos of all the flowers at the wedding.
But I can't resist, I had to post SOMETHING about them!

I had no ideal bouquet, no dream flowers, hell, I barely know the names of flowers. Carnations what? Isn't that condensed milk? When I went to meet with our floral designer, I was so confused, I didn't have a clue what was going on. I gave a list of flowers I know that I like, most of which are unavailable in October: Ranunculus, peonies, and dahlias. While dahlias do exist, they apparently aren't very resilient. :(

After nailing down every other decision, it came down to the bouquet - I found these two inspirations and emailed them over:

image from michelle rago ltd

image from inspiration queen rebecca thuss

I loved the colors, the soft whites into the soft muted pinks, mauve and warm purples. The addition of the uneven foliage, the difference in the kinds of blooms used and the way they were all put together helped to create that natural, freshly picked look.

She sent us information on what flowers she was using, but uh.... I have no imagination for how they would be put together. I was so overwhelmed, (who knows how to spell the scientific names of orchid families by heart so to look them up...??!?!) so I said "I just trust you." After a frantic phone call from the flower mart saying she found ranunculus and got them for me (whee!) I otherwise didn't know what was in it.

Sometimes, when you see someone's portfolio and know they are good and just don't have any clue what you want, it's good to step back and just put your faith in them. I did, and it was perfect.

image by floral designer... I'll give you her name later, silly!

to be continued when we have our professional photos...

It almost didn't happen...

2007-10-17T20:01:00.000-07:00

It's true. If you are in Northern California, the rain on Friday was pouring! We had to be begged to come out through tears and the possibility of rain cancellation, traffic, heavy rain... probably the most convincing part was listening to our coordinator roll around on the lawn to prove that if we had mats and blankets, the rain wouldn't soak through, so we COULD have our lawn games.

Well, that and Mr. GB bought me these to cheer me up:

After two hours of driving and frustration, we arrived as the rain was stopping. We unpacked, decompressed, then head to our hotel with four of our friends to begin the last minute cookie crafting. I love them, after several hours with some of my favorite people, we were rolling around on the ground in good spirits, knowing that even if it poured, at least we'd have been talking about the two momos (that's our loving nickname for our mormon friends) competition of bow tying cookies faster than the 4 of us combined!!!! After threats and growling, we had 400 cookies wrapped and ready to go!

So how did it end up? Well, we don't have our professional photos for another two months, but we have proof from a few snaps here and there.

with that... what do you want to hear about during that 2 months of waiting for my real photos? I don't want to dry up into a shriveled blogless prune for two months! Is there anything you'd like to hear about the planning that I didn't cover that you've been DYING to know about? Or details about the day? Or about my WILD adventure with two manicures in a day?!

or should I just stuff a sock in it?

Feathers and Quills?

2007-10-15T23:20:00.000-07:00

So I'm stepping back a little and showcasing some finished work that we had done for the wedding I didn't get a chance to write about before.

I know I got my ceremony pin from k.autumn from relish at home, but one is never enough, so I asked her to make me something completely new and different, nothing like she'd ever made before. Being awesome and sweet, she obliged and shortly after our meeting presented me with this.

A mix of vintage stones, laces, and dyed feathers, this one was by FAR Mr. GB's favorite pin. I was completely blown away by how wonderful this pin was. We had talked a bit and looked at sample pieces, but I really wasn't expecting something this pretty to come of it. I know, I go on and on, but really, it IS pretty darn special!

And next, our calligraphy for the wedding was finished! We had a piece missing and another misspelled, but they were overnight rushed to us, so it was all ok! I had never thought about it, but I guess calligraphers keep a few pieces just in case! Rebecca's calligraphy is so unique, it really worked well with the feel of the whole event.

you can almost make out the menu... almost!

I'm beat!

2007-10-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

The wedding is over!

Mr. GB said it felt so short, but I felt like it took forever to start, but we still didn't have time to set everything up perfectly. We were planning on setting up Friday, but it was pouring rain.

We had our complaints, but overall things went really well and we were glad to see after the music had stopped and vendors were packing up, a lot of our friends were still sitting on the lawn playing games and laughing. We wanted people to be able to go whenever they wanted, but were happy to see people staying because they wanted to relax on the grass and hang out.

Despite the hiccups, the feel of it was exactly what we wanted it to be!

I'm sitting in my messy ass living room with the pups drained, eating cake and trying to let it wash over me, but I'll be back, I promise~!

Odastyle Tempations.

2007-10-08T11:11:00.000-07:00

Remember how I had my dress anxiety, but in the midst of the horrors, we discovered Odastyle? We already knew they were sweet, super nice, amazingly talented girls... but how much? Well, they gave me something totally unexpected:

How totally amazing are these? They are the sweetest girls, and now these pins are just the most darling things ever! I'm really speechless and can't say enough about how gorgeous they are!! If you are looking for a custom made anything at all, they can do it! My rambling can't even come close to describing how great they are. Hell, if you're in the bay area and you want to see them, I'll meet you in a dark alley and let you look at them in person. That's how totally impressed I am and how convinced I am that you will be calling them begging to get something uniquely YOU made!

I'm so close to making Mr. GB go out and buy a glass display case so I can showcase all the ridiculously amazing works of art that I've received for my wedding. Screw the wedding, I'm just going to have an art show.

PS - does anyone have a nail salon they can recommend for amazing cuticles and possibly a tip? My nail broke in a horrible-owie-bleedy place and it won't grow to a normal length before the wedding, I'm sure, so any recommendations for somewhere to get that fixed and make my fingers look like they haven't been crafting for 18 months would be much appreciated! (both frou frou and hole-in-the wall recommendations welcome!)

We've got good news... and bad news....

2007-10-08T10:39:00.000-07:00

Which do you want first? Ok, we'll start with the good because it makes for pretty pictures, and we all know that pretty pictures is what makes you guys come back day after day. (That and the hope that Mr. GB will write that Japan guide for you, and he will, but probably after the wedding)

I'm feeling a little blah today, I took a nap on the couch promptly after waking up, and Mr. GB left with the dogs to take them to the butt-fluff trimmers. He walks in, totally lacking that nap-time quiet and boisterously flung open the living room french doors, gigantic package to match his equally gigantic grin. He tells me that the UPS man was joking with him this morning, about how there hasn't been a day when he has to drive up our street that he hasn't had a package for us.... we're sad that after the wedding all he'll be delivering is the occasional anthropologie package. By occasional, I mean weekly. We slowly cut the tape around the package and open it up to reveal... my dream wedding package.

Yes, that's 20 birds and a cake topper from Ann Wood! I love Mr. GB for managing to order these for me, after so long of writhing on the floor in desperate want of these birds, we have them! My photos really don't do them justice, so I'll post the images that Ann Wood sent to us herself. Even her own photos don't show how cute they are!

the whole group of them!

closeup of the topper

I know, how could anything go wrong after this? What is the bad news?

RAIN.

It looks like it may rain on or before the day of the wedding, which is just really really bad since we have no indoor options and the rain contingency would be ridiculously expensive! If it rains before, the grass will be sopping wet and lawn games and picnics would be right out. :(

Pray for good weather everyone!! Oh, and if you are mad scientist who has plans for world domination with a weather machine, I promise you my first born if you keep the rest of october sunny and bright!

Wedding Bag for Gamer Girls!

2007-10-05T22:55:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I bought a clutch already. But then I got hooked on Phantom Hourglass and neeeeed my DS with me. So I wanted to get something to hold it! I present you with the perfect portable gaming wedding clutch!

Hell Yes. Now I can bring my games with me in STYLE, hiding my shame in a satin bag from the few attendees that don't know I'm a hideous game freak, sitting in my own several day filth slashing on a screen in anguish over not being able to control my boomerang properly. If it weren't for the new GODLY Whole Foods around the corner, I'd be eating a lot of disgusting food on top of that. Seriously, the new Whole Foods in Oakland is freakin' amazing and in a really neat building. If you live in the area, go and gorge yourself on overpriced fruit (but it's SO neatly stacked!) and a lot of falsely healthy soups. "it comes from whole foods... that cheesecake HAS to be good for me!"

I admit the bag is plain on the front, but I don't have a ridiculous collection of stupid pins and random bits and pieces here for nothing. If I am feeling crafty, which we know I never am, I will probably floof it up. I do appreciate the stripey, vaguely nautical waspy fabric on the inside!

Gamer girls who know that you will bored at your own wedding and want to ignore your husbands blah blahing about whatever you're eating, bring your entertainment stylishly in your bag and still have room for your lip gloss! ...or an exploded slightly melty bag of skittles like I will undoubtedly have in mine!

ps. someone asked where I got that bird necklace from - it's 'Alex and Monroe' just fyi!

Relish your home.

2007-10-03T19:41:00.000-07:00

You've seen the photos, you saw it in martha stewart weddings and all the design blogs. K. Autumn's hair pins.

The only thing you don't know is that Kelly of K. Autumn is possibly one of the nicest people on the planet. I'm lucky enough to live close by her shop, Relish at Home, in Berkeley. I stopped in, wanting to pick up the latest j. mendicino vase, and I mentioned I was getting married and saw her pin. Within seconds I had a handful of feathers and pins in my hand and were talking about the process of getting one made. Since I'm local, I was able to hand pick my beads and rhinestones, feel the feathers, and, best of all, work with Kelly personally!

So here is her hard work:

the color is a little different, sorry!

It's a gorgeous raspberry color and absolutely stunning! I'm really excited to have been able to work with her on this!

If you live in the SF bay area, stop by Relish at Home, she just remodeled and it's cuter than ever! If you are even considering getting a pin, Kelly is amazing and you won't be able to resist getting one after you see one in person.

my hands hate me.

2007-10-03T19:02:00.000-07:00

I'm a slave driver. I'm forcing last minute crafts into my schedule of work and meetings like nobody's business... well, except yours, of course! Well, like all the rest of us and our envy of Mrs. Plumeria's awesome palmier idea, we wanted to offer something as a snack upon arrival! It's been tough to keep Mr. GB from eating the cookies!!! I think an electronic remote collar with zapping on his neck will work.

Cookie Belts!

yes, the bear are for our "special" friends... points if you are so geeky to know who he is!

We have been printing and cutting these leisurely while watching Daily Show or the Office, so it's been slow going on getting them ready. I think we'll keep the tradition of doing these at a slow pace while watching tv as to trick Mr. GB into doing more crafts while he's "resting". Not that I don't have a bunch of wood that I need him to cut for me this week.... don't ask.

Am I done crafting? I think so, but I forget. This is how busy we are, I don't even know how busy anymore!

You couldn't leave well enough alone...

2007-10-01T16:47:00.000-07:00

Nope, you had to go and throw more craft on your plate. Yes yes, we did. The past few days have been the busiest most appointment filled days of our lives. I still couldn't leave Mr. GB just standing there to play Halo 3 all day, I set him to work and, of course, did some myself.

Cake. So we wanted to make sure people could take their cake home if they were too stuffed to eat it there. 4"x4"x4" white boxes, a bunch of brown bags, a gocco set, and some food-grade waxed tissue later... and we have our to-go bags ready. Macarons will also be right on the table, so people can pick those up and shove them in the to-go bags as well.

This was a small craft project and didn't take much time at all. We've been leisurely cutting the tissue paper a little every night, so it's not back breaking. Just whenever we have a few minutes to sit down and do it we do a sheet. We also did the goccoing in two sessions, so it wasn't a long all nighter. (we have nearly 400 of those apple bags, anyone? anyone?)

But I couldn't stop there. We bought flip flops for girls who were not smart enough to check the website and heed our warnings of "NO HIGH HEELS!!!!!" and also made modesty blankets for girls who might want to sit on the lawn and not worry about people seeing up their skirts. A ha! A use for the zakka ribbon!

And last, for today at least, I made our guest"book" at 2am last night. We are opting for a guest BOX because although it will be harder to flip through, we wanted to have something that was easier for guests to work with when doing the polaroid scrapbooking guestbook pages. We figure, if we want to turn it into a book one day, it'll be possible.

This is yet another story of horror from my local paper source that was already high on my list of "places I will knock down when I rule the earth". They were really unhelpful and demeaning as always:
mean girl: "you aren't going to do a lot of book binding, are you?"
me: "no, I don't think so."
mean girl: "nooOOoooOoo of course not" and she sauntered off...

later she came back and someone else was ringing us up at the register, we asked if they had another box like the one we were buying in the back.
register girl: "nope! that's the only one!"
us: "ok, thanks." - long silence -
mean girl in bitch tone: "HENCE why there was only ONE in the front."

the girl who was ringing us up had eyes that widened in horror... and waited until the other girl walked away to apologize to us for her comment.

Mr. GB and I vow that after the wedding, we will never go to that paper source again. If it weren't for our need for random crafts and its close proximity to the house, we would have already burned it down in a fit of rage.

oh, so here are the photos of the photo-book we re-covered:

It was amazingly easy. we bought the book binding glue, a foam brush and a bone presser smoother thingy, and book binding paper. We glued the fabric onto the top of the box, smoothed it out and then cut two pieces of the book binding paper, one for the back of the box, and one for the inside of the top. Folded the fabric into the box, glued and smoothed, the slapper that big piece of binding paper on there and glued that sucker on. Looked pretty good! We then used the smaller piece to cover up the frayed end on the back of the box, it's almost the same color, so barely noticeable. All in all, if you want to recover anything, I think it was a really quick and easy process and personalized out box to match the rest of the wedding overnight (to dry, that is!)

ugh, I'm going to go draw drawings of that girl being mauled and regain my sanity now.

Games Games GAMES!

2007-10-01T16:12:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned before, Mr. GB and I decided to avoid dancing altogether and go with have a picnic style lounge area and games.

We're recommending to all our friends and family to bring their handheld games. Since Mr. GB worked in the industry and I, for some reason, only know dorks and even more game industry folk, we're expecting some serious wireless gaming. Bring your spare batteries people, we don't want any dying systems and a "well, I totally woulda won..." bullshit. Just bring it. Bring it HARD.

For our guests who aren't bringing their own gaming hardware because they suck... or are not game saavy and want to be turned onto the world of wireless gaming, the new fangled pong machines, or the glory that is loco roco.... we have extras. This is really just a symbol of what consumer whores we are, how easily suckered we are by the marketing term "limited edition" and how much pink is integrated into our lives.

Ok, fine, if they really are unable to get into the idea of beeps and boops and lights on a screen, then we are having other more analog options:
We've got croquet, lawn bowling, and badminton... and for board games we picked up Cranium, Scrabble, Apples to Apples, Set, Chess, Checkers, Uno, Scattergories, and you know, some cards. I plan on thoroughly destroying Mr. GB is Scrabble like I always do, further ruining his manly image in front of all his family and friends. I like to set a good tone for our future together by beating him in all games.

Are there any game essentials we're missing?

Lazy Cake Decorating

2007-09-28T17:14:00.000-07:00

Not our baker, she's not lazy at all. But we didn't want to subject her to making a billion sugar flowers for one of our cakes, so we bought some online for her to just paste onto the cake later. We love her, so we figured anything we could do to make her life easier we'd just go ahead and do it ourselves. You can get flowers from a few places, just individually or as cake kits. We bought ours from Gail Watson Cake but Wendy Kromer has a lot of other really cute options if you're looking!

-closeup-
They came in the mail in a not-so-secure feeling box wrapped in bubble wrap. Not individually, just kinda stuffed in there. So a bunch flew across the table when we first opened the box. They didn't break, though, so they're mildly durable, although certainly not Miss GB-level-clumsy proof, so we put them away quickly.

Note the Halo 3 box put in the photo oh-so cleverly as a hint that Mr. GB wants gamer tags so he can get his ass whooped. He's terrible at FPS.

ps - they smell better than they taste. I just ate one and it has a slightly yucky aftertaste.... like.. pee. Not that I drink pee, but you know, if I were to, this is the aftertaste I would imagine.

pps - Mr. GB likes them, so I am convinced he must like the taste of urine. If I find a suspicious empty glass in the bathroom, I'll let you know.

80's Neon Christmas Tree

2007-09-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

This is how I felt putting on this borrowed Korean Hanbok. My mother was very adamant about wanting to involve us in a Korean ceremony. She's trying to block a full hour for it, but honestly, our main ceremony is 20 minutes at the most and most of our guests don't speak a lick of Korean, including Mr. GB. But she's my mom and so I gave in and put on the outfit for a few minutes while she pinned it.

sorry for the blurry weird image, it was late at night and very dark... although I do let off my own florescent glow...

Mr. GB is being firm in not wanting to put on anything different for the ceremony, threatening to give my mom a live duck wrapped in ceremonial cloth if she tries anything funny. She just responds with a smack to his shoulder and a "Noooooo!" We're picking and choosing what we'd like to do. My sister had her husband carry her on his shoulders are bowing to receive blessings from family.

My parents want to throw chestnuts at me, having me catch them in my skirt - the chestnuts I catch is how fertile I am, so I've been told. Mr. GB says this is creepy and the imagery is too close to the whole sperm and egg, so he's vetoing it.

It's very difficult to get a straight answer out of my mother about what other ceremony options we have. Has anyone else had a Korean ceremony that was interesting and fun for non-koreans to watch?

And now, for something completely different

2007-09-27T08:13:00.000-07:00

I like Hello Kitty, I admit it. I have a few odd hello kitty paraphernalia that I collected over the years. You know, Hello Kitty douche set (i kid you not), Badtz Maru Condoms, Hello Kitty Maxipads... the usual. Mr. GB has no idea how much I used to bathe myself in Hello Kitty goods, buying as much as I could and drooling over the Hello Kitty Vespa... but those days are over. I still look at the Sanrio website from time to time though and found a Hello Kitty Wedding Line! I could start over with the wedding planning if we were only a few weeks away.... a Hello Kitty themed wedding!

(I'm not posting the Hello Kitty Wedding dress MONSTROSITY because it's just that, a pink horror with lace. And it's not Sanrio official!)

Hello Kitty Ring Pillow:

Hello Kitty Floral Arrangement:

Hello Kitty... Rings?

Beyond this, Sanrio will help you engrave mirrors, toasting glasses, and even make Senbei (crackers) with Kitty and Daniel burned into them as favors. Permanently mark your future husband as a total spineless sucker by forcing him to carry Hello Kitty dolls and wear a Hello Kitty tie... driving away in a Hello Kitty car.

This is my dream. Mr GB in all pink despite his skin being pink... turning him into a formless blob of pink that from afar looks naked. (it's frightening when he tries t wear pink.)

Lost in a sea of to-do lists.

2007-09-24T17:55:00.000-07:00

We're counting down the days and starting to panic. So many things to iron out and finalize and... start and finish. Oops, I put too many projects off and I have to start them this week!

One of those emergencies was quickly fixed by the nice people over at Paper Monkey Press. We realized on Friday that our table numbers were only one sided, not two sided as we had wanted! So they let us go to their studio, drop them off, and we picked them up yesterday! It was a really fast turn around and we've been nothing but thrill with the quality of the letterpressing. You don't need to be a designer to work with them, you just have to follow their guidelines as on their website and they can make your own designs a paper-pressed reality!

menu, drink label, place card, directions, invite, horizontal sign, two sided table number, git tag, rsvp envelope and two sided rsvps
This is the overview of everything we have received from their press! Only our save-the-dates were not done by them as we didn't really have much time for it.

Sorry I've been absent, it's a mad house over here and I.. uh... kinda injured my foot and have been whining and hobbling around the house. Mostly whining.

ps. the nuvaring did the trick and I pushed it a week later and have been drinking a ton of water and wishing I could run off that 1.5" I gained from using it... stupid broken-feeling foot!

Feeling Productive

2007-09-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

Between having a bridal brunch with my sister and some friends, walking out with a whole lot of anthropologie and a box of sweettarts that I have been eating non stop for the past 2 days, a wedding on Sunday, and beating Blue Dragon in the evenings... we've been pretending that we're not getting married and that we have nothing to do. So when we woke up this morning, we sadly went through our catering proposal to write up a list of questions so we were prepared for our Thursday call... tired and not at all interested in hearing about coffee bean options, I felt like a pile of uninspired, unmotivated goo.... until the doorbell rang.

Whenever I get a package in the mail that I forgot was coming, it makes me feel like I'm on top of things. So as I ran down the stairs (I was wearing pants for once) I got a few packages, and sadly, no rsvps. We're missing about 1/3 of them, some of which I have found out are NOT coming... not the people, they are coming, but they are refusing to rsvp on principle. They don't want to "conform to societal expectations." I have a big middle finger to those people who think it's above them to send a prepaid envelope with a check box back to me!!! See if I don't poop on your plate and say "oooo well, someone should have checked fish and sent back the rsvp! no rsvp/no meal choice = poo for lunch!"

Anyway, back to the package. I wanted a clutch for the wedding to fill with candy and my DS... um.. I mean makeup and essentials. Right... I don't wear makeup, so it will go entirely unused and fill up space, probably spilling on the inside of the bag by the end of the day. I can just imagine myself dusting off a powder covered skittle and eating it.

I ordered it online from Lily Wigglesworth Bags, which is worth ordering from just for the name "Wigglesworth". It was a whopping $40.20! Ok, so shipping from the UK isn't the cheapest thing, but it's still not a huge expense and it arrived in less than a week!

I feel like I'm on top of things now... just enough to ignore the rest of those emails and calls I should be making and go back to playing some yahoo games! Thank goodness for casual gaming distractions!

Ridiculous DIY Project #3.

2007-09-16T22:31:00.000-07:00

The first being our invites, which still cause Mr. Gummi Bear to sigh audibly whenever I mention it... the second being the pillows, which I have pawned off on slaves. (amazingly, they are all done!) and the last...

Our wedding favors. Oh yes, this will be the largest and worst project, mostly because it MUST be done on the day before. It's going to take at least 3 people, and thankfully, we have two girls we're bringing as slaves to help. We ordered 300 macarons, 100 of each flavor, from Miette Patiserrie, bought a lot of cello wrap, cut 600 pieces of 6" ribbon, and 3 large cookie jars.

I think it's cute! Ridiculous. Pointless. Extraneous. But Cute.
Does anyone have really small, talented fingers and nothing to do on a Friday? It's only 300 cookies... it's not so bad. Mr. Gummi Bear's fat hobbit fingers can't do it - so it's just the girls! Who need a rehearsal anyway!

My Little Friend, the BC.

2007-09-14T19:20:00.000-07:00

It's a sensitive subject - but this is something that all girls have to think about before their wedding. The BC.

BC stands for two things for me, both of which are pretty much destroyers of my happiness.

1) Bloody C*nt. (thanks to a friend, who calls it this and I thought it was fitting)
Ok, so graphic and disgusting, but if we're out and I'm feeling particularly crappy, I can turn to Mr. Gummi Bear and say I'm having "the BC" then I'm not telling the world "Hey everyone!!! I'm menstruating like crazy over here!!!!!"

I get mad pms bloating. for about a week before my friend visits me, I gain about 1.5 inches all over and feel just disgusting until after it's all over. I also get happy cramps that make me cry naked on the bathroom floor. Always naked, I don't know, it just happens - my stomach cramps and my clothes all disintegrate. On top of this, I'm irregular.

2) Birth Control.
I'm the kind of person who gets every possible symptom of any medication you take - if it says you may gain weight, within 24 hours I'm retaining 50 gallons of water and feeling like my pants are going to rip. Vomiting? Hell yea! Anything that CAN go wrong, will, so I can't take any birth control. It makes me emotional, nauseous, sickly, and makes me gain 15 lbs within the first month and then 5 lbs every month after. Imagine my dismay after 6 months of being on birth control and going up 2 pants sizes in college.

Now, since I'm irregular, I'm either going to be PMSing or on my period during my wedding. I thought "ok, I can handle this" at first, but I'm realizing that if I'm 1.5 inches larger in my dress than planned, it's just not going to fit. So I had to decide - hope and pray that all my years of experience and months of going through this were wrong and I'd have a wonderful happy awesome non sickening weight gaining period... or risk getting on BC for one week and push it off.

I chose the latter. So today, I popped in a nuvaring and will be waiting for one week to try and keep the BC at bay just long enough to push it until a week or two after the wedding.

Is there anything anyone can recommend for trying to keep my body normal during this week and maybe help me flush any extra chemicals after I take it out? What do other girls do? Is there anything other than drinking a pool's worth of water that might help me get rid of some of this water retention and super-bloat?

Honey, it's stuck! ... sucker.

2007-09-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

I've become one of THOSE girls. Yes, we went to pick up the wedding ring and I put it on my finger... then off to have photos taken for appraisal, then on again because we were going shopping and I didn't want to leave my ring in the car. Well, after ramming and pulling repeatedly, my knuckle was red and swollen, there was no hope of getting that little brat off my finger. Mr. GB, determined to keep me from wearing it before the wedding, conceded that my finger indeed looked like it was going to burst if I tried to remove it again and let me go about the rest of my day with it on.

But as expected, he has since forgotten I'm wearing it. So I'm just going to wear it and let him continue to think I took it off. He's not so much for the details, so he won't even notice unless someone outs me... and she will pay. (I assume it will be a she, but I swear to make whatever gender that crosses me pay equally.)

Early on we decided not to have matching rings - although we tried once or twice or find things that would match at least vaguely, we gave up. Instead, we opted to share a matching diamond. Just like Mr. GB's pink hidden diamond, I also have a small pink diamond among the standard whites. It's our little secret, just like his, right? No one will notice on their own, so unless you hive-goers are flappin' your lips, it's our secret pink bond.

Again, both were made by Eric Trabert Goldsmiths in San Francisco, someone who is worth seeing if you want really beautiful custom work.

oh, Mr. Gummi Bear, you're such a sucker. I'm wearing this ring until the morning of the ceremy, where I will take it off for about 15 minutes and then put it back on.

Last Month of FREEDOM!!

2007-09-13T09:00:00.001-07:00

It's down to the last month of singlehood - time to get in those last minute flings and wild sex parties in!!

Honestly, though, I'm feeling half completely relaxed and half completely insane. How is that possible? Well, nothing is technically going wrong at this point, there are a few things to smooth out, a few things that haven't arrived and vendors I haven't heard from... and most of my rsvps are still in the void. We think the USPS has eaten them, as we know a few people sent theirs and they have yet to arrive. But it's a kind of lull before the storm, I think. I can see feel the winds a-blowin' and the air is thick with the hurricane to come... or I could be misinterpreting my deep desire for a pair of bright wellies.

I know we're going to be busy, so I'm trying to soak up my few fake moments of calm. I mean, frankly, the only thing that is completely done and finalized is the venue and the cake - so I should be working my little butt off to get everything done before the end of this month so I can focus on the things that are inevitably going to break and need attention in October. By this I mean, I've spent all week avoiding doing anything wedding related other than making lists of thing to do and instead, have been sitting on my ass eating a whole lot of candy.

But don't worry, we have tons of to do lists! and that's a start, right? It probably doesn't help that we haven't even bothered to get our marriage license - but thanks to the last post by Miss Eggplant about how easy it is, I'm not worried. Online reservation here we come!

Back to eating candy, now - we'll call this week "Miss Gummi Bear's attempt at growing a sweet sweet booty for the wedding"

I want a flying squirrel...

2007-09-06T14:01:00.000-07:00

and a pony... with wings. Oh, and to wish for more wishes.

I've been told by pretty much every boyfriend + his family + all friends that it is a complete and utter waste of effort to try and shop for me. I spend my day looking at Japanese webstores and researching good alternating between english and japanese. My tastes are indescribable and usually involve vintage goods on ebay or something only sold in one store in some random country that you have to special order.

I guess being asian, we always got that great envelope with a generic card that I am sure my non-english speaking grandmother did not choose with some cash stuffed into it. Not to say she doesn't love me and that I don't appreciate the thought, but I think the wit and sarcasm on a hallmark card in a language she doesn't understand is probably not something she can grasp.

So what does this mean? Our registry is non existent. That doesn't matter for my family, who can be trusted to bring their cards with the moola. But for everyone else, the things I want are not available in the US, not in stores with registries, or are vintage items on ebay that will be gone in 2 days 5 hours and 16 minutes. It doesn't help that when we bought our house, we weren't about to sit around saying "hmm.. well, we have no towels, but the wedding is only 12 months away... these old dishrags will have to do until then!" I'd feel like a jerk-face by registering at BB&B just because they are the only place that allows cash returns for wedding registry items.

I did make a wishlist on anthropologie, but you can't make two separately for housewares and clothes.. so my registry is half cardigans (we all know anthropologie only sells cardigans and those wide leg pants.) and half furniture that I want to buy that isn't in any normal registry price range.

What are other picky shoppers and freaks doing? And something that people who have no idea how to use a computer can easily manage? I'm thinking of asking people to give us nothing. Better nothing than a box of well wrapped guilt, I say!

ps. Anthropolgie is having their upholstery sale, and this sofa has my name all over it.

I'm turning blue over here!

2007-09-06T12:22:00.000-07:00

Normally Mr. GB goes to get the mail when the post rings the bell because I have a tendency to only be half dressed at all times, but he was in the bathroom (haha, now the whole world knows you potty!) and so I threw a sweatshirt on and ran down the stairs. It was addressed to Mr. GB, and being the law abiding citizen and trusting girl that I am... I ripped that sucker open within seconds of it being placed in my hands. Before Mr. GB had come out, I was running into the living room with my treasures.

This is about the point where I was going "zomg zomg zomg!!!!1111one" in that internet message board way. With the Zs and 1s included.

After my depression in not being able to get the birds for my cake topper, I hadn't expected a single bird to come to my door. Now I have 3 special secret birds!

Mr. GB says not to hold my breath (yea, uh huh) because he doesn't want me to get disappointed, but there might be more in our future. More birds?! After a few 15 minutes of being shaken vigorously and beat up for secret keeping, I.... totally didn't calm down. Now I am going to hold my breath, and like a 6 year old in the back seat I'll be asking him every 30 minutes until the morning of "are they coming yet???" He can threaten to turn the car around, but I'm keeping the birds even if he's leavin'.

I am SO totally marrying you.

but it's not easter...

2007-09-06T10:01:00.000-07:00

We, like the now Mrs. Plum (congratulations!), also purchased those little nests from William Sonoma. They were having a sale, so we snatched them up and bought a poop-ton. Actually W-S tried to screw us and told us we could not have them for the sale price in a little formal letter they sent us in the mail. Mr. GB called in hurry and after being denied a bunch of times for the sale price at which we purchased the nests at, he was transferred to a supervisor and immediately given the correct price. While this was annoying, +1 for W-S customer service for giving us the advertised price with not too much nudging. I don't know why, but I've come to expect the worst possible service from anyone these days. I feel abused.

However, unlike my smarter fellow bee, I didn't think too much of what was going to go into the nests, so we're here with a lot of nests and nothing to go in them. I thought of maybe putting jordan almonds in them, but honestly, I hate jordan almonds. No offense to anyone who uses them, but I'm a militant anti-nut (despite being one myself) and think that covering a nut in what would otherwise be well used sugar is a sin. You'd see me at the wedding table with a plate of soggy nuts after chipping and sucking the coating off and spitting them back out. It's attractive, I know - but it's my wedding and if I want to suck the nuts and spit them out, you are still obligated to tell me I'm gorgeous and that I'm glowing. Even with that piece of almond skin stuck to my upper lip, dammit.

So save me - save me from having to endure looks of mild disgust while people stare at my wet-nut covered plate while they force out a fake compliment, vurping a little into their mouths. There is little chance that my clumsy ass won't inevitably drool some straight onto my dress, and in a dog like body-shake, all over Mr. GB and some guests. Is there any way to get cute egg chocolates without offering my first born to the Easter Bunny to make early deliveries?

No heavy bracelet for me!

2007-08-31T16:33:00.000-07:00

In my search for the right wedding jewelry (I still haven't thought about my ears in months, oh god) I at least found the perfect wrist adornment. I didn't want a heavy weight on me, or anything that might be too eye catching - I want people to still look at my face! Then again, we are asking people to bring their psp/ds, so it might be a sea of wifi-mario kart and puzzle quest.

This is what I bought:

Please ignore the not-removed tag that is safety pinned on. This thick bracelet cuffy thingy is made by Emma Cassi, a French designer living in London. It comes packaged in the cutest sheet music with a little note from her - and obviously, her work is beautiful. The cuff feels so light and delicate, like could easily rip it into pieces.... this is why my clumsy-ass has put it away safely so I don't accidentally break it before the wedding.

A bonus is that a lot of her items are on sale on her website right now. :D Lucky kids! I bought mine before the sale started, but I bought something for my sister/matron of honor/only bridesmaid to wear and be matchy-matchy with me. Christine, if you look at this, don't worry, I have other surprises for you - possibly involving flying squirrels and micro-diet (everyone's favorite japanese diet laxative!).

Now back to agonizing over what to put in my smelly-ear-holes. Yea, I know - no one told me stretching your lobes causes ear-funk. Smells like natto - that's my REAL wedding scent, fermented soy bean! yum!

Oh photoshop...

2007-08-30T18:01:00.001-07:00

how I wish I had illustrator instead of you. Actually, I do, somewhere, but I'm using photoshop for easy-peasy stuff like this.

Mr. GB and I are taking on the daunting task of wrapping our favors one by one. 300 macarons each individually wrapped with cello paper, tied on either ends with ribbons, and a sticker to keep them closed. I know, everyone has said this is total insanity to attempt the day before the wedding, but I think we'll survive. We have friends. We may NOT have friends after we force them into this for a full day of torture and calluses, but by then, the work will be done, so it's ok if they hate us! All for the sake of cuteness am I willing to give up many friendships!

We have cut ribbon into 6" strips, we have the cello wrap... uncut, but it will be! And now the stickers, this is the design I came up with:

Beyond being kinda cheesy and not particularly interesting, which is the best in terms of color?

And because I can, a little note about our macarons. I'm obsessed with Pierre Herme, alas, he doesn't exist here and although I was scheming to have them brought from Tokyo, we gave in and found some locally. Not to say they aren't good and adorable, and they are within the completely coincidental theme of organic goods.

Besides, how CUTE is this store?! This is their Hayes Valley location, and well worth checking out because it's ridiculously adorable.

Miette Cakes
Pâtisserie
Ferry Building Marketplace, Shop 10
San Francisco, CA 94111

Confiserie
449 Octavia Boulevard
San Francisco, CA 94102

Tasty!

Table Numbers? check!

2007-08-30T17:51:00.001-07:00

We've finished up the designs for the table numbers (yay!) and found ourselves some cute pedestals to put the numbers in. 12 verticals and 4 horizontal... just in case! I imagine we'll need them for something, and I'd rather be better prepared than scrambling to make something out of wire hanger and spray paint the night before.

Note the photo from our friend's wedding a month ago. Mr. GB has buck-teeth in this photo, and I look very annoyed. I wasn't, it was adorable, but like I said... photos = misery. The other piece of paper is just something that came with the frame.. funny story about that. Mr. GB's best friend's brother (woo!) found out through a friend that his wedding photos are now the cheesy images that come in frames for sale at neiman marcus. I guess the photographer decided it was worth selling without telling them. Watch out!

This leaves me wondering as I wander through our house, garage, and back stairwell completely full of boxes. What AM I going to do with 16 wire frames, 100 mushroom birds, parasols and sandalwood fans... and the other billion wedding things we have lying around? Mr. GB says to box and sell it on ebay as a ready-to-go wedding. HA!

On another note, we got our first rsvp back....
uh. what happened to it? it came this way, scotch tape and all, torn asunder.

Inspiration Explooooosion!

2007-08-27T11:42:00.000-07:00

I don't even need to say anything about Rebecca Thuss' Portfolio, it's just amazing. So many of these images have been in Martha Stewart (the seasonal wedding bible, as we call it at our house), but the nice, large collection of them all together so I can rethink my entire wedding all over again and cry about the missed ideas and opportunities is wonderful! for me, not so much for Mr. GB who is wishing the internet went done until the wedding so I'd stop mourning over what I wish we had time to do.

Here are some of my favorites!

I'm about two seconds away from buying a birdhouse and some geese just because the wedding above is so freakin' perfect. I mean, I could capture some of the geese by our house in Lake Merritt, but there is this smell...

Our final cake(s) decision. Almost.

2007-08-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

After the previous experiences of good baker, not so good cake... and good cake, not so good baker... we ended up find a good baker and a good cake. We were so relieved to find SOMEONE who was neither mean nor dry (hoho!) that we were almost not going to go to the next interview. Almost.

Thank god we did! The cake was amazing, and we haven't figured out exactly the deal, but it seems that she makes the cake in her own home and that she just likes to make wedding cakes. That's it. She enjoys making wedding cakes - and so they are not only AMAZING but there is that kind of homemade love in it. No bakery, no staff, just someone happy to make cakes for couples. :) We love her, and her home, and had our last meeting with her last week. The best part... she's $700 LESS than the lowest quote we received. So I'm getting two flavors of the best wedding cake we tried for 1/3 the price anyone else offered us!!! I'm tempted to get a whole lot more cake to gorge myself on after the wedding.. not that I haven't been eating ice cream cake every day for the past week. My arteries are crying right now. And possibly my thighs.

We decided to go a very casual route, as the entire wedding is pretty much laid back and relaxed, and not get a tiered cake. Instead, we're taking 6 cake stands, all different, and putting a single tier cake on each. All slightly different in design, all buttercream, and hopefully very natural looking. I love looking at those gorgeous awe inspiring cakes with skill and artistry and fondant madness, but honestly, I want my own wedding cake to make people DROOL.

The only last issue is that we wanted to get an Ann Wood Cake Topper - but she's stopped making them. :( I'll just look at this image and cry for a while, as I'd happily give a toe (probably the morton's toe) to have this cake topper.

Anyone have any recommendations for something similar?

but... Japan is NOT a vacation!

2007-08-24T09:13:00.000-07:00

Everyone wants to know where we're going on our honeymoon, but honestly, we haven't planned one! Mr. GB will be starting a new contract on a game in fall, we have the house and animals to take care of... and we can't think of anywhere we'd like to go in October or November! It gets cold, and Mr, GB and I are both bay area weather wimps. What do you MEAN it gets under 50 and over 80? What kind of madness is this!?

And I'm not sure why, but people keep suggesting or assuming it'll be Japan. I used to live there and I go regularly for work and visiting friends, I can't think of it as an exotic location to take a trip! I want to use my honeymoon as an excuse to go somewhere I haven't been and probably won't go again for a while, if ever... hopefully not because I got sick and hated it. I have a fragile stomach, I can just see myself locked in a toilet in some foreign land cursing the lack of nice toilet paper. But seriously, Japan, what's with the one-ply wax paper you use in the toilet?

Anyway, it was suggested to take a mini-moon to Japan and Korea, which I think is the perfect thing for us. We can see family and friends who couldn't make it and when Mr. GB is off this contract, we can take a spring tour in 2008 to somewhere more "vacation" for us. And really, I do miss Japan, it was just not a honeymoon location for me, so this is an excuse to go without wasting the title "honeymoon" on a trip there. :) After that, maybe we'll take a world tour or something, as Mr. GB hasn't been to any part of Europe and I need a good long stay in each country to satisfy my shopping and food consumption... and I always felt that Australia or New Zealand would be one of those countries I'd honeymoon in, but never visit otherwise.

Is anyone else postponing their honeymoon for a better time/weather/financial situation/anything?

Invitation Melt.. er.. Breakdown.

2007-08-22T14:41:00.000-07:00

The last bit of our invitations arrived today!

Our box tags with our guests' names written on them by Bluebird Studios. Rebecca is wonderful and really responsive, not to mention fast! I absolutely love the tags, and she was so sweet when I asked her to write some names more clearly for my non-native english speaking family. They're perfect! And so nice, she put a few with our names on it!

We tied the labels onto the boxes with our twine, separated the ones that were going out of town and stuffed them into boxes with some shredded excelsior for packing material. Turns out Mr. GB is allergic to it... heehee. I made him stuff them, not for that reason, but I still find it amusing with him sniffing and sneezing. I made these address labels the night before with photoshop and some copy and pasting into word, then we put the ones that are going out of town and slapped them onto the brown paper packaging. Note the cute tape on the sides, I couldn't just let them go normally, that would be too easy and much less hassle. We all know that I love a reason to complain!

And now they're all packaged up. The 26 that we're sending out and the rest stacked, ready to be hand delivered. In fact, we're driving to Sacramento with some birch poles, a lot of pillows and fabric, and a stack of these invitations tonight. I'm more than relieved to say we're done with these!

Oh, and we did end up going the vintage stamp route on the rsvps envelopes. Which made me wonder.. how does the usps know that your stamps are real? can they identify ALL stamps from all years? I hope my rsvps come back to me... :(

For someone who can't stand being crafty and diy, I do a whole lot of things I really don't like doing under the pressing desire to have things be very personalized...

ps. thank you to the sweet woman who helped us at the lake park post office. She was so nice when we walked in with our two bags of packages, they had an assembly line for putting postage and stickers and made sure they went out with today's truck!

Taiwanese Child Labor!

2007-08-20T10:46:00.000-07:00

Ok ok, she's not a child, but she is doing my hard work for me. After coming over and showing me how to sew, she promptly realized that if I were do this alone, I'd end up with myself sewn into a pillow and suffocated. So instead, my super awesome, helpful, crafty and pitying friend made 20 of the 105 pillows we needed, and took 5 home to do later.

Look how excited she is! We removed the handcuffs for a little while because they were slowing down productivity.... but I figure a ball and chain will work nicely for next time we have a craft day. I told her we might even feed her next time!

I'm helping! I'm pinning and cutting, see that mess in the kitchen? that's called helping. Me playing with my Nintendo DS for about an hour was also very helpful...

ohh... back flap so the pillows are removable. What clever design!

and we're finished!

I love my friends who are all far better at implementing my ideas than I am. I'm going to go drop some fabric off in Sacramento to finish up the rest of my pillows with my even-more-helpful grandmother. If I had programs, I'd write a nice long thank you to everyone who helped.... but instead, I'm hoping the small intimate nature of the wedding will make it easy for me to publicly thank everyone who helped.

So, what are you going to do with all these pillows after?
Re-furnish our orgy room, remember? gotta keep things fresh!

Morton's Foot!?

2007-08-14T16:14:00.000-07:00

Curse that morton and his damned feet... I mean 10% of people have it, but I have always cursed that toe. I wanted to wear these, so bad, so bad I might cut my toe off... cinderella's step sisters did it, and I'm about as evil as they are, so it's only fitting, right?

so cute on the photo online

more grotesque cinderella knobby sister on me

Note my daikon ashi... and that toe! Why is my toe so long?
[mr. gb: the picture doesn't look NEARLY as weird as it does in person!]

Instead, I'm going to hide that toe that makes me so self conscious. I have other reasons, like that Mr GB isn't that much taller than I am and the grass thing. Yea... the grass. So i bought these and I'm stickin' to it:

I bought the first pair online, and now, well, I regret it. Mostly because it reminded me that my feet are the kind that those with foot fetishes would run away from, but also because the return policy is not so great. My impulse purchases will guide me to hell, or at least a sad disapproving head shake from Mr. GB. Am I insane for not wanting to keep a pair of shoes just because of my freakishly long finger-like toe?

My friend said I have problems.

2007-08-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

He knows I'm crazy, but he really didn't expect me to use the full extent of that lack of reasonable thought towards the wedding... but when I asked him his opinion on box tops, he finally knew that I had lost it.

When Mr. GB and I had first discussed invitations, we didn't think too much about what was going to go on around it, or on it really. Once we booked Good On Paper to do our letterpressing designs, I thought "oh, this will be simple". Then I remember that I'm entirely unsatisfied with anything that is easy and live to make my life as difficult as possible. This is partially in an effort to coerce pity-back rubs out of Mr. GB, but also some kind of involuntary desire to make my brain twitch with agony.

This is how I came to want box invitations. I saw these two inspirations images online, and I had to have it.

from brides.com

by Jordan Ferney

And so Mr. GB and I went in search of candy and medication for me. We settled on some round watermelon sours that didn't look melty, some of these are going to Japan and Korea, so they're going to need to last. We cut acetate squares to put between the candy and the invitations themselves for the ones we're sending. Err... saving on postage by hand delivering to those who are local.

But I couldn't possibly be happy with plain box tops, could I? That little vein in my temple was beating and pulsing and I had to do yet another stupid DIY project despite the amount of cursing that would ensue.

We goccoed the box tops with two designs because I'm indecisive, tied them with that oh so adorable martha stewart craft baker's twine, and put on our tags. -close up-

I would have photos of all this happening, but a mosquito bit my ass, an unknown deviant bit my nose, I burned my forehead with a curling iron, and I have some weird allergic.. scratch thing on my eyebrow. I look like someone came and beat me with the ugly stick in the face, so I haven't left the house out of fear of a mob pitchforking me back to the tower a la Quasimodo. How I miss when humanity didn't think I was hideous.

Lisa must be a saint.

2007-08-13T18:00:00.000-07:00

Because the only person I know who can put up with my zooming in and nitpicking everything until it's dead and bleeding is Mr. GB... and yet she was there, responsive and adjusting to every insane little detail that we wanted to change, or just see changed, and then change back, and then decide to weep over for a day, and then wake up and think "oh, actually, that's perfect, I just had my 50 year old Korean woman brain in and thought it was fat".

I took these photos when I was unpacking the box, so forgive the adorable ribbon that Paper Monkey Press used to tie them together. They gave us a ridiculous amount of extras, so we're happy we have some to keep for ourselves and to, you know, feed to the puppies! We meant to do that.

the uncut gift tags and our double-sided rsvps.

Good on Paper also did our STDs, so you can see just how talented she is. The Gummibears give a firm YAY! to Lisa Wong Jackson and feel very lucky that she squeezed us into her already busy schedule. Both her and Paper Monkey Press are local to Oakland/Berkeley, so you may have a chance to meet her and her Boston Terrier, the softest pup ever. And not gassy, like ours... why has the spay suddenly made you so poopy? barftastic.

Our cheap table finds a purpose!

2007-08-08T12:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we got a good 5-6 packages. I love packages, it's like Christmas, only Santa is usually wearing a brown shirt and shorts. Sometimes he comes wearing a blue suit, and is surlier these days thanks to our normal mail carrier being MIA. How I miss her...

Of the several 30lbs boxes, of which weak Mr. GB could barely carry, we received one from Paper Monkey Press! Our invites!! They even sent us free 'Thank You' cards!

As we all know I'm insane, I forced Mr. GB into yet another adventure in DIY madness. It turned out that in order to cut our tags the way we wanted, they would be delayed and we'd still have to punch the eyelets ourselves. I figured we'd save time and money and do the cutting and punching ourselves. We became a two man work line, with me cutting and marking, and him punching and inserting eyelets. We grabbed the old Ikea table from the garage as a workspace and got to work.

I'm very exact, so I measured frequently to make sure I was cutting and marking the eyelet holes properly. They look white, but they're just flipped over. I refused to fall behind, so I worked until my right arm muscles were twitching with pain. That and we wanted to make the 7:20 showing of a movie in downtown SF and needed to bust ass.

Our cheap garage Ikea table is permanently scarred with the marks of hammered eyelets. But look how cute they are!! (they're in the right hand corner)

All in all, it took us about 2 hours to finish 95 tags. Mr. GB was ready to keep going excitedly swinging his minuscule hammer around like a child.

I'll have more photos later, when we get them back from the calligrapher. That and my muscles need to stop twitching, the wedding is causing severe nerve damage.... and probably invisible mental scarring as well. It's all fine though, Mr. GB is already resigned to the fact that eventually I will cut and perm my hair, lose my ability to speak English and babble nonsensically. This is what he envisions happens to all Korean women at a certain age.

He's a sweetheart.

Agent Provocateur Sale!! drooling for you and yours.

2007-08-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

I hadn't planned on buying any lingerie for the night of... or after... honestly, I plan on passing out and not waking up for several days. But Agent Provateur is having a sale, so for the sake of my own personal lust and the spending monster awakening in me, maybe Mr. GB will actually get treated. Or more likely he'll just catch me standing in the mirror, after which I'll promptly kick him out so I can continue to admire my lingerie in quiet solitude.

I'm absolutely in love with Agent Provocateur. They have a sweet pin-up vintage style where you can go for sweet, shy, but tempting coverage or just full on bondage style straps and pasties if you're into that. They have a few locations within the US, but if there isn't one near you... you can always browse their online store!

Items are 38%-65% off their sale selection. They also have a bridal line, which is still amazing, but not on sale. :(

And besides, where else can you get soft seamed baby pink fishnets and a sailor pin-up swimsuit? Heck, I might get a swimsuit so I can put my sailor hat to use!

Guilt Complex

2007-08-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

All this misery about bad bakers and the demon of alterations left me with a sour taste in my mouth about those kinds of vendors who prey on brides. I was feeling angry and disgusted with the bridal industry and felt a stomping tantrum coming on when I got a call yesterday from Jin Wang. She called to give me an update on my Thomas Knoell pin and I took the chance of asking her about a bridal gown alteration place she could recommend. Even though I didn't buy a gown from her, and at that point had not even bought the pin, she expressed sympathy for my current dilemma and immediately gave me the name of the woman she recommends to all her brides that come through her salon. Jin has been nothing short of sweet and awesome, so I booked an appointment and renewed my faith in bridal salons.

Vendors affect me so much it's ridiculous. I always get a little nervous when thinking about our venue or like my anxiety is melting like ice cream when I speak with our coordinator. I really appreciate the people who are working to bring my wedding vision together, even if I AM paying them. Last time we were in Tokyo, I brought back tons of magazines for my vendors, hard to find books, and Pierre Herme macarons. I just cannot thank them enough for what they're doing for me - probably because I'm also really too shy to say anything and just poke Mr. GB in the back. Seriously, I have a notepad where I write everything I want to discuss and make him study it in the car before we get out because I never have the courage to speak. Insane? Yes. But I'm slightly less insane than Mr. GB is patient!

Just to tell some of my vendors how lucky I feel to have them share my wedding with me, I bought them presents from Japan.

Am I crazy for doing this? Does anyone else feel like they owe their souls to the good people who are helping them put this all together or am I the only one who feels guilty for asking people to do something for me... even if it's their job?

Oh, and the ML gown has been removed from the clutches of horror woman. No matter what I decide to do, I didn't want to have it altered there, so no point in leaving it at the salon of evil!

The dress... again!? Last one, I swear!

2007-08-01T18:00:00.000-07:00

I swear I won't have another one of these. I had my side by side comparison of the two gowns I've been going back and forth on.

First, the Monique Lhuillier Scarlet. I'll say that the alterations manager was just as horrible and awful in person as on the phone and yelled at me several times, demanding I tell her if "I have a problem" with what they were doing... not asking, just snapping at me. She basically told me I was stupid for asking questions if I did, and I spent the next several hours SEETHING. I watched her immediately offend another girl when I was leaving, looking her up and down and with the look of disgust on her face "god... you look tan, what have you been doing? AND you're wearing ORANGE." Mind you, this was another bride. Mr. GB left and immediately at the door said "god, what a rude bitch." He's far more patient and friendly than I am, and he was disgusted with her.

Ignore my otherwise sour expression and lack of makeup, I was angry most of the day because of my experience with her.

-front view-
-side-

It's more form fitting, there definitely needs to be some serious alterations, but otherwise I think I look fine.

Then we hopped on over to Saks 5th Avenue, where I had a really nice time. Our representative there is very sweet, lets me do what I want and walk around and doesn't push me. She's just helpful and attentive, but not overbearing in any way. I had a wonderful experience with the service there. Anyway, this is the Claire Pettibone Laurel. The clip is holding several inches in and the dress is hanging a bit low, and the back straps would go almost straight down rather than a V shape.

-sour looking front photo-
-back straight-

I'll decide tomorrow or Friday, I promise. Really!

And another tidbit for you SF locals, I did stop by Jin Wang today to look at some Thomas Knoell Accessories. I met Jin herself up front and she was the sweetest. If I didn't already have so many dress problems, I would have made an appointment! She seems really helpful and if the service I got for looking at her accessories is any indication of how it would go for a full bridal appointment...

Besides, look how pretty and light the salon is!

Back to agonizing over my gown decision... wish me luck!

I'm just detail oriented! (anal)

2007-07-28T23:32:00.000-07:00

Mr. GB and I aren't spending a lot of time thinking about the huge aspects of the meal-related decoration. We're not fussing over flowers (I trust my floral designer 120%) and not making a big deal over linens or plates. It's all about the details for us. While I was completely happy with the idea of standard white this and standard that, I didn't want anything on the table that wasn't either completely blend-in-plain or part of my.. er.. vision. It occured to me I didn't want standard ugly salt and pepper shakers, and toyed with the idea of vintage ones, or most likely, none at all.

Then luckily, I found a picture of these little sake cups in a magazine, and since research and digging around for information is part of my job, I hunted down the location and found that the manufacturer/distributors of these cups was here in San Francisco at a place called Tampopo. A puppy dog face and a little tugging and we drove across the bay to pick up a bunch of these little cups as salt and pepper bowls. We figured two sets per table would be enough since we don't expect people really to be seasoning their food.

But I hate salt and pepper bowls that you use your fingers in. It's just icky to me - who knows where the finger has been! There are foul things on fingers and I don't want them in my communal salt bowl. On went the quest for spoons.

I searched high and low for them - originally trying to find mini wood ones, but nothing came up. We were settled on the fact we may have to buy mother-of-pearl caviar spoons when I happened upon these little silver spoons, entirely by chance. They are by FAR the smallest spoons we found and are adorable with their super round bowls and handcrafted imperfect shaping.

PERFECT.

It's in the details I say, and thank god Mr. GB is ok with my insanity. It was cheap if you consider it part of the visual feel, but not cheap if you are just talking about salt and pepper holders. Either way, I find it odd that this is worth it, but no real thoughts about the glasses and plates have ever concerned me. Now what to do with a bunch of bowls and tiny-ass spoons in 3 months...

Mum Pomanders

2007-07-25T19:42:00.000-07:00

I found this really easy pomander instruction on the d*s guestblog a while back, conveniently when I was preparing for my housewarming/engagement party.

I bought floral foam, mums, and pearl headed pins and set to work.

It isn't perfect, but it was easy and quick - so if you wanted to make some, I definitely recommend the above instructions! I'm sure with a bit of practice, they won't look nearly as... err.. oblong.

Dress Anxiety + Awesome Discovery

2007-07-25T10:38:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much for the support about my current dress, it has been causing more a ridiculous amount of stress since I tried it on last week. I was in tears this morning thinking about all the things I would have to alter in order to even slightly ease the stress about it. Unfortunately, the bridal salon REFUSED to book me an appointment before August when I requested in June, and even gave me a hard time about letting me have one in beginning of August. They were incredibly rude when I expressed I just wanted to TALK to someone about the changes I'd like done. They flat out told me I wasn't important to them because of my wedding date and that they will not talk to me at all about what they can and cannot do until August. No one will even look at it or pin it for me... the woman cut me off when I was asking her questions, to just keep repeating she can't talk to me.

Here is the problem:
The dress is 2-3 inches too large on me in all measurements and I'm only 5'4", so all the curves are several inches lower than mine. I appear to have midget legs, and although a friend helped me hold it up from the shoulders, because the sleeve openings are small and the general structure, it was impossible to get the waist in the right place. My shoulders are also far too small for the dress as is, so they will need to be slimmed down and pulled in... which caused the back of the neck to overlap by many inches.

In all, it's wholly unflattering on me the way I saw it last week. Thanks to the bridal salon for being entirely unhelpful, rude, and refusing to pin it, I have no idea how it will look if I alter it. They won't even tell me they can or cannot do things.

Semi related, but not completely - in my desperate search to find something that would be more comfortable during the reception, I did spend a lot of time looking for a second dress. From vintage shops online, to ebay, to any webstore and all bridesmaid gowns I could find, nothing really called to me. I did find this to share.

images from odastyle

Odastyle is a small fashion design group run by three local girls. I had the pleasure of meeting with them and discussing a possibility in ordering a reception gown custom made through them. Seeing the above gown and possibly having it made shorter and other changes made, is a serious consideration of mine. They use natural, organic, and found materials, vintage lace and the gowns are just amazingly detailed. Everything is handmade, so the possibilities in customization are endless. It doesn't hurt that they are the cute, sweet, and have the best dogs!

If you're considering a custom gown in San Francisco, they are worth meeting. Check out their collection, even if you just want an amazing gown or skirt for wear!

Sadly, I'm still going crazy. Mr. GB says watching me mope around the house in tears after coming home from the dress trial, he wants me to make the decision that will make me happiest, no matter what that means. Selling this one, rushing another, or taking it elsewhere to be altered by someone who isn't going to treat me like poo-poo, it's worth it so I feel beautiful and comfortable on my wedding day. He even let me buy a pint of cardamom ice cream from Ici.

If you're curious, this is the dress that I was considering otherwise.

While I sit eating ice cream and considering my options.... does anyone know a really good place to alter my wedding dress so I can avoid Miss Meany Head?

Unexpected Additions.

2007-07-23T14:43:00.000-07:00

I don't hate babies. I don't hate children. But I am incredibly uncomfortable and nervous around them, I don't really know what to do with them. Mr. Gummibear loves watching me when I'm forced to interact with children. My best friend from elementary school placing her 5 month old little girl on my lap... I just stared at her silently. Mr. GB says to interact, but I just freeze, afraid I'm going to break it. He's fine, he loves well behaved children - and particularly my friend's son and daughter.

He wanted to have children at the wedding, at least a ring bearer and flower girl, but we didn't know any children. A few month after the above awkward event, he asked me if we could ask her about having her two children as part of the ceremony. I told him that her son is a good age, but her daughter is only 1 as of this year, but they are both very very well behaved and really wonderful, so I imagine that if it were possible, they'd be perfect.

Determined, Mr. GB came up with the idea of having her daughter ride in a flower decorated radio flyer being pulled by her brother.

The idea is adorable! I ran it by my friend and she was really excited, and thought both her kids would have a lot of fun.

Less than three months to go and I'm trying to figure out the logistics of adding this and finding a dress and suit for her kids. I don't even know where to start - and a little girl at barely 1 is growing so quickly, I don't know how I'll find a dress that will still fit her by the time the wedding comes!

but it's too cute - I can't resist. I'm adding more than I need to my plate, but it's worth it!

Big decisions were never my thing.

2007-07-19T23:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't talked much about my dress, I'm guessing because I never was 100% sure I got the right one. It's coming back to haunt me, 5 months later.

Does anyone else feel like being pressured to find a dress months before your wedding date puts it on the urgent to-do list? I wish I had spent a whole lot more time prior to my engagement looking at gowns so I had more research under my belt... alas, I waited until months after my ring was on my finger to look at dresses.

Before I go on, I want to start by saying I do love it. I'm just not sure it's 100% me, and I'm worried about how I'll feel several hours into the reception.

This is it, the "drama in the back" Monique Lhuillier Scarlet.

It's an all outdoor, lounging, games, activity wedding, which had not yet been planned out when I ordered my gown (again, why do we have to do that so early?) so it hadn't been a huge concern of mine to find something really easy to move around in. Now I have this beautiful, elegant, but not exactly comfortable dress and I'm regretting it. Mr. GB is concerned that I'll look uncomfortable, or will spend a great deal of time adjusting it to try and make myself feel more secure.

We had considered getting a different one and trying to sell my current gown to recoup the losses, or getting a second reception gown - but I feel mildly defeated. I'm not sure whether it's worse for me to feel slightly uncomfortable at my wedding or just really really guilty if I do buy something else.

Today, he sat me down and told me to do what I wanted and we'd figure it out either way. That makes me feel more guilty. It'd been better had he said "no, stupid!"

so is it better to be guilty or to be uncomfortable? has anyone else felt like they regretted their purchase and what did you do?

Photos eat my soul

2007-07-18T21:36:00.000-07:00

You could call me unphotogenic, you could call me shy, or you could just say that I really freaking hate having my photo taken. I've hated cameras for most of my life, I attribute that to the ridiculously long awkward phase I had growing up. Sometime between 4th and 5th grade, I got ugly, and it didn't stop until after high school graduation. It was an unfortunate time for me, and thankfully, all evidence of my previous medusa-face years are locked away.

It didn't occur to me until a few months into the planning that I was going to have to have photos taken. It was nerve-wrecking. I didn't want to smile, or have photos of me looking wistful and in love. Honestly, the best photos of me are candid shots with my fingers in my nose or drooling. Mr. GB would mock me, laughing that there would soon be proof that I was alive. So when booking a photographer, I had very important criteria: to have as few posed photos as possible.

I'm paranoid of parents and family pressuring me to take a billion photos by a tree, trying to look my best in a fake smile. Taking the same photo over and over because they didn't know if it was a good shot or not. That is my worst nightmare. So when we met with who would be our future photographer and he said, "If you want, when anyone else comes up to me to tell me to take a photo, I will tell then 'I don't do that'"

YES. This is what I wanted, someone who would ignore other when they wanted more posed photos, who would play bad guy so I didn't have to look like the raging camera-hating monster that I am. A sweet sigh of relief. He is actually a photo journalist and does mostly candid photos, all with real film. GASP! film-film? like the olden days? Sounds good to me! It doesn't hurt that he's really easy to talk to, comfortable, and seemingly an all around relaxed guy.

We booked him, anyone who could make me feel comfortable with the idea of having my photo taken, and also promised not to listen to people forcing me to pose was a winner. Oh yes, and his photos are also beautiful, just in case you thought I booked a terrible photographer that was going to cut my head off in every photo... hm, maybe that would have been better.

Tubes of goodness.

2007-07-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

My boss in Japan is more excited about the wedding than anyone else, it's so cute. He has been sending me the fabric and linen tape to help with the wedding, making it easy for me to stick with the zakka theme. Now, I have two packages coming - the tracking says it left Osaka yesterday evening. I am the kind of person who sit and hits refresh on my tracking number waiting for it to show any sign of coming here. One box is full of ink and toothpaste... yes, I ordered 31 different random flavors of toothpaste from Japan because I'm a freak. A box of tubes, some edible, some poisonous.

The other is a gocco printer. I don't know how to use it, but I've read it's easy - so my graphic designer friend is coming over and we're going to break open that sucker and try it out. Riso Gocco is a compact machine that does a kind of printing close to silk screening. It's not the same, but it's the closest thing to it and the best way to describe it.

I need to make stickers for my cake to-go bags, so i figured this would be a cheap and homemade way to do it. I'm hoping homemade will make up for it being uneven and craptastic. You know, that quaint kind of messed up! I figure I'll put this drawing on the stickers, only because I want to get some mileage out of it!

Hopefully soon the printer will be here and there will be some fantastic photos of me cover in ink and crying.

Outsourcing my diy.

2007-07-18T08:02:00.000-07:00

I already admitted it. I'm entirely unable to do anything crafty unless it is at a 3rd grade level and doesn't involve any objects I could accidently poke my eye out with.

So when we decided not to have chairs with seats for the ceremony and go for long, low benches, I needed to decide whether or not I was up to the task of sewing cushions. I could, of course, rent them, but then I'd have plain fabric, and being insane, I wanted cutesty tootsy fabric. I have an army of seamstresses as friends, but they are either also planning weddings or just as insane as I am, so I'd feel bad asking them to help me with my lame project.

In the end, I called my broken mother. I call her broken as she's recovering from injuring her achille's tendon and has been milking it for all it's worth, hobbling and moaning with a smile on her face, knowing we'll be extra nice as long as she's "suffering". She injured it jump-roping at a church picnic, which by itself is funny, but my dad's response was "I guess you don't know how much you weigh!" I love my parents. My mother and my grandmother are both fully capable seamstresses, so I drove the long trek to their house and brought my materials. Neither of them are currently really working, and my grandmother who's usual duty it is to take care of my cousins, is taking a break from it and has free time.

Should I feel bad I'm using my family as slave labor?
nah, it's only 100 pillows and it's not like whiny-mcwhinerson has anything better to do. I'm joking... mostly, at least.

fabric from shinzi katoh, heather bailey freshcut, etsuko furuya, linen tape from shinzi katoh

Besides, look at all these cute fabrics I've amassed!! I have to use them somehow. The bird fabric on the left is what I'm using for the seat cushions.

Does anyone have ideas of easy things to do with this fabric? I'm thinking of lining the picnic baskets, and if we run out of things to decorate the tables with, making runners.

Wicker from somewhere other than Pier One.

2007-07-13T23:21:00.001-07:00

Mr. Gummibear and I really needed to get some shopping done, we're feeling a bit behind because until Ikea, we hadn't bought a single thing for the wedding. Just discussed it. So we made a list of places to had to hit up this week.

Our best and most productive shopping moment was at Daiso. It's a Japanese chain 100 yen store that opened in Daly City last year. Everything in the store is shipped from Japan, $1.50 unless otherwise marked, and for me, tearfully reminiscent. And the stuff that is otherwise marked is a lot rarer than you'd think. Since Zakka is part of our theme, this store was perfect. We found a lot of stuff I wasn't expecting to find in a store, or for so cheap.

ignore Mr. GB being a dutiful shopping car returner, he seems to always get into all my photos.

Mr. GB complains that the photos can't possibly grasp how great this store is, he says the photos make it look like piles and piles of just "stuff". What I say is, keeping in mind that they crammed this 15,500sqft building full of stuff, look at how ridiculously organized they manage to keep it. If anything, you can go to appreciate how organized and clean a place like this is. It's amazing though, and most of the stuff is either cute or useful! Did I mention it's organized?! Ok, so I have mild OCD and walking into H&M or Forever21 makes me seize up in color-arranged horror... so the appeal of having a cheap "junk" store really neat and tidy makes me so excited I could pee.

Other than a few sewing kits and cute knick knacks we bought for here and there, here is the haul:

4 picnic basket, 2 large wicker trays, 2 small ones, 2 bamboo boxes, 2 large baskets... $81. All the items are already pretty cute and mildly detailed, so we're going to decorate them minimally. It fits into the natural wabi-sabi feel, so I'm going to say that anything that doesn't get done in turning them more interesting was entire intentional.

If you're in the bay area (or washington, they have a few there too) definitely stop in to have a look. We weren't expecting to buy anything, but if you end up finding something, you'll get it a lot cheaper there than anywhere else!

Daiso
146 Seramonte Centre
Daly City, CA 94105

Manly-Man Ring! ... with pink accent.

2007-07-11T13:12:00.000-07:00

Here I was ready to type up a long post about all the wedding shopping we did yesterday and some amazing deals... but now it's just going to have to wait!

Today, at 7:30am, I got a phone call from Niwaka. Machiko, the super sweet woman who works there, never did get the hang of calling from NY to CA later than 6-8am PST. She apologized profusely, as she always does in that so sweet way that reminds me of when I lived in Japan, and verified that our order had shipped out the morning before and would be arriving today.

Well, it arrived! And like all things in Japan, it was packaged several times - in one fedex box... within another fedex box.. and then a lot of stuffing and finally this:

top:

angled:

Mr. GB fell in love with this ring, a slight twist on top, but neither the thickness of the band, nor the width change throughout the ring. Niwaka carries a lot of organic looking rings, but this was his favorite. Particularly in the matte/brushed (if you order it, the Japanese call it "hairline") finish.

Another reason he wanted it was he felt that he should he get a diamond too. -whine whine, pout pout- He certainly didn't want one on top, some masculine thing about wanting all metal visible. Niwaka offers the option of getting a tiny 0.02 carat diamond in pink, blue, or white set either inside or outside the ring. His secret pink diamond, just for him.

Did I mention they do free engraving?

inside pink diamond + engraving:

Yes, it says BEAN POD. I am the bean. He is the pod. I'm not sure why I'm the bean, but it has been my pet name for a few different boys I dated - and they all came up with it all their own, so I must be very "beany". Perhaps I'm gassy and they thought referring to me as "bean" rather than "fart-master" was cuter. Anyway, they were so sweet when I asked them to put one word on either side of the stone and it's perfect.

About Niwaka....
I read a lot of Japanese magazines, so we had discovered Niwaka through 25ans, a bridal one that I regularly buy. They have a location in NY, but I go to Japan 3-4 times a year, so on our latest spring "gotta fit in a visit before wedding planning takes over" trip to Tokyo, we stopped by their showroom in Aoyama. They were so sweet, allowing us to try on a few rings, discuss the proper Japanese word for "matte finish", and find out the Japanese size of Mr. GB's finger. By the time we left, I had all the information I needed in order to make my order. Machiko is the woman who runs the office in NY, and she is wonderful. If you want to order - just call her in NY and she'll be more than happy to help you. You will probably be prompted to do some of the ordering via phone and some through email because her spoken English is not perfect, but she really is the greatest!

They are currently relocating, so their store is closed. You can still call and make order since the rings are handmade in Kyoto, not NY, and then sent from Japan.

Niwaka USA, Inc.
212-941-5410

ps - this is his current engagement ring, he doesn't know what he's going to do with it after we're married.. any ideas?

Shy about the Shiny.

2007-07-09T17:25:00.000-07:00

Is anyone else REALLY shy about her engagement ring? I hide it all the time, tucking my hand into my sleeve, making a point to try and keep it out of sight. It makes me nervous, I think I'm paranoid - I feel like people are always looking at it, sizing me up, sizing Mr. Gummi Bear up. It might be that I've had girls point at it to pressure their boyfriends... and have actually been riding in a car with a girl berated her boyfriend about the difference in size. Mr. Gummi Bear and I sat nervously in the backseat for that drive. It makes me extremely uncomfortable.

So let this be known, I'm only posting about my ring because I love you all! If asked about it in person, I'd just start sweating and my eyes would slowly cross.

My original ring was cute, Mr. Gummi Bear had it custom made for me.... but in reality, it wasn't really made to have a wedding band next to it. We also felt the jeweler we worked with wasn't really willing to work with us, just did what he wanted, and it came out so heavy and unfeminine. In the end, we decided that the wedding band remaining a constant in my life is far more important that preserving the current setting of my engagement ring. The only requirements for this new ring was that we incorporated all the current stones and that another ring would be able to sit flush against it.

I wanted something completely different, something to fit my lifestyle. We bought a 1920's home with all the period details intact, then filled it with retro style and mid-century modern furniture. I wanted something that would refect my vintage obsession...

So we looked around, read some reviews, and settled down on a custom jeweler in San Francisco. (We went to one in Oakland, but the woman was SO snooty, we left disgusted) It was a nice meeting, I really liked the guy this time. We talked a lot about details, because... I'm obsessed with details. on the way home, in fact, I realized I forgot something, so when we got home I made a detailed diagram of angles on graph paper of what I forgot to tell him, scanned it, and had Mr. Gummi Bear email it to him with a few last questions. I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm nuts.

He does everything by hand, no wax molds, no nothing, just pure artistry... which means that my delicate milgrain will only cover .3mm of my diamond edge in the bezel set. To see if I could put a size 4 ring on, he sprayed my hand with windex... it worked. Immediately after said if I needed to get it on or off without windex, spit is slick enough. And you know how much we love it when vendors/artisans/professionals tell us crude or weird things!!

so. I've avoided it long enough. Here are the photos:

my jeweler took these photos for his portfolio, they look totally fake, but this is my actual ring:
-top view-
-angle view-

Satisfied?! I'm going to go crawl into my hole and pretend this never happened. I'll be red faced for days.

I'll be happy to post about Mr. Gummi Bears engagement and wedding rings when it arrives.. Wednesday! yay!

my hippie pillow room... or not.

2007-07-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

We went to IKEA today to buy 8 comforters and 32 large "euro" size pillows. You have no idea the kinds of looks you get walking out with two carts stuffed to the brim with pillows and comforters... we did tell people it was for the wedding, but we were tempted to say it's for the large orgy room we're putting in the house. No traumatizing scowling 65 year olds going in for their meatballs today, kids.

So what's this for? Our lounge!

That's right folks, the Gummi Bears don't dance, so no one else will. Well, you can, but we're not sure where and how you'll do it. That and you'll be mostly alone since we have only ~100 guests, most of which are my Korean family who don't dance and also never touch each other except to hit each other in that endearing Korean way. Wriggling your body in close proximity to another body? Out of the question.

We originally wanted this:

We then saw THIS:

-insert grabby hands and drooling here-
So, trip to ikea it was! We're using those blankets and pillows to set up a picnic style area on the grass lawn. We're also putting in picnic baskets, large umbrellas, basket for shoes and courtesy flip-flops. For entertainment, there is a craft area so you can make our scrapbook for us (please no construction paper penises) with polaroids, lawn games, card games, board games should you feel compelled to show off your scrabble prowess. We're also offering a huge assortment of snacks. A coffee/tea station with cookies, a refreshment bar with frescas, lemonade, horchata, bottled sodas, and a few types of fresh fruit popsicles because it's hot out there.

Best of all, we're offering the option to go home early since who really wants to waste an entire Saturday watching me prance around in a foofy dress?

But other than all the above, what else could we offer that would make the whole reception worth staying for? I know, you'd say "the couple" but seriously, that is like covering poop with frosting and telling people to just deal with the poop because I made it "with love". What have you wished there was to do at boring weddings you've been to?

PS. Mr. GB is desperately trying to find a way to have wifi for all of us internet addicted people... can you see me sitting in front of everyone, macbook open ignoring my reception? "Go away, my auction is TOTALLY ending soon!" We're telling everyone to at LEAST, bring your DS and PSP, we all want some multiplayer Mario Kart and Puzzle Quest.

Inappropriate Caterer = True Love.

2007-07-07T23:42:00.000-07:00

I do love our venue, but I must come clean, our first love was... the caterer. This was to be our first, out of two, catering tastings. Remember how I said I was all about clicking with my vendors? (more about the cake, later - I promise!) Well, this is no different. My catering tasting was love at first... bite? conversation? Whatever it was, both of us knew we wanted them.

I'll start this by saying that the food was simply amazing!!! They're 100% organic and use local produce, which I'm all about - but good. And they have the same idea about food as we do, food is meant to be eaten and enjoyed, not just looked at and appreciated. Not to say their presentation isn't good, it is! It's appetizing, beautiful and clean, but it's not "art". Instead, it looks like something you immediately want to smash your face into, foregoing stupid utensils that would slow you down.

However, It wasn't just the yummy food that won us over. Several courses into the meal, we were both happily eating our entrees, discussing the wedding and foods we love, how I happen to have a lot of vegan friends, and through that - my friend's vegan dog. I repeat, we were still eating at this point, when she decided to take a chance on us.

- THIS IS NOT FOR THE WEAK OF HEART -

She looked us up and down, and said "I shouldn't be telling you this...." but when continues to tell us a story about how a vegan couple she knew had raised a vegan cat. That cat had kittens, and having never had meat before... proceeded to eat the kittens immediately. Again, we were eating. We'd just met her. She wanted us to book her as our caterer.

We were sold. Anyone who would be daring enough to tell us that disgusting and unappetizing of a story to two potential clients was right in our book! She sized us up in that hour and a half as the kind of couple would appreciate that story. Not in the sick morbid enjoying the death of kittens kind of way, but the irony of a couple of vegans taking all that time to raise a cat vegan, only to have the carnivorous instincts take over. Then promply be forced to watch something far worse than just feeding your cat a can of iams.

I'm sure your opinion of me now has your eyebrows raised, between metal in odd places and dead kittens, but I promise it'll be all mostly clean from here!

"Body Modification" or "Issues of a Freak"

2007-07-05T09:26:00.000-07:00

I'm not tattooed all over my body and hanging myself from hooks, but I've got a little bit of color on my skin and a whole lot of mini holes. I've managed to keep the worst of it a secret from my family, mostly thanks to their own denial that they have a freakish daughter, and partially out of my paranoid that my EXTREMELY conservative family would flip out.

I'm now having a few problems with this side of my life in regards to the wedding:

1. I managed to hide my.. er.. body piercings from my mother when I was trying on gowns for the first time. There was a point where she peeked in and I had to scramble to cover them, but I think in combination with her denial, the complete lack of knowledge that you can pierce/tattoo parts like that, and the quickness of the coverage, they didn't register. So, now at the fittings and at the actual wedding, how will I cover it? I can't wear a bra because my gown is backless, in fact, I can't wear much of anything when I'm crawling into the dress... is it better to tell them now in warning, or forego that moment when my mother is helping me get into a dress and grab the dress and run into the bathroom to put it on?

2. I have gigantic ear holes from when I stretched out my lobes.

See that hole? MASSIVE. Do I ignore it and use the second hole? Order something custom made to fit? I certainly don't want to close it because it hurt a ridiculous amount to get it that large and I like them, but I'm lost as to what to do about them.

3. I don't want to completely ignore this side of my life for the wedding. Since the engagement, I have grown my hair out naturally and let the brown just be... but prior to then, I had neon pink hair for years. Is there any way to merge the alternative crazy Miss Gummi Bear with the vintage loving home maker totally normal looking Miss Gummi Bear? My friend, and stylist, says he wants to slice and dye my hair between the wedding and the ceremony. I'd do it if I thought it was possible, but I don't know anywhere you can get a portable sink for bleaching and dying!

Anyone else a freak like me and have more creative ways of dealing with these issues?

Introduction!

2007-06-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!
I'm really excited to be joining the sweet ranks of becoming a new candy-bee! It seems so fitting for me because I have a ridiculous sweet tooth and am notorious for having candy with me at all times!

We met in college, and he said at first look with my crazy pink hair and weird Japanese punk clothing that I was crazy, then spoke to me and decided I was "normal". He has since learned his first impression was right! I'm a Japanese importer, animator by degree, and he's a video game programmer - so we're both complete geeks. We spend a whole lot of time on our computers, going to Japan, decorating our home with vintage furniture and high tech toys... but mostly raising our two puppies, a papillon and a long coat chihuahua.

We're getting married on an organic farm an hour from our home. We really want to focus on wonderful local foods, the beautiful warm and natural setting, and the good company of close friends and family. I'm a sucker for all things vintage and envision my wedding as Seurat's "Saturday in the Park", although Mr. Gummi Bear scoffs at that image. I really want the whole event to feel relaxed and comfortable for everyone!

Despite being an artist, I'm all thumbs and am here representing the DIY-impaired! I'm really happy to be a part of the community and hope I can share a little bit of my strange style aand get feedback from the whole community! thanks!

bad cake, bad baker!

2007-06-21T18:08:00.000-07:00

Three cake tastings down, one to go.

I'd like to say they were all wonderful and everyone was fabulous, but it'd be a horrid lie. Our first tasting had a wonderful vendor, really a sweet woman and she was so accommodating! All of our questions were answered and our fears quelled. It was unfortunate that the cake wasn't impressive. Mr. Gummi Bear and I are both very easily swayed by how much we like the vendor as a person, so we felt bad that we weren't sold on her cake.

The next tasting, which we were very excited to go to, turned out to be the opposite experience. We sat, looked at books, ate cake and were impressed... only to wait an extra half hour to be greeted (or not really, she didn't say hello or introduce herself) by a woman with a calculator and a scowl. She was rude, unaccommodating, condescending, and was flat out making up numbers out of thin air. She claimed that what the first cake vendor said was possible, was impossible, and made sure to tell us that on a good day, without traffic, in a normal car, it would take over 2 hours to go to our venue. It takes 50 minutes with normal driving as it's on the way to my parents' home, so I've driven the distance numerous times. I let it go, I wasn't going to argue how ridiculous that time estimate was, she was just flat out mean to us. I politely tried to leave several times, only to be bashed about how I couldn't have what I want (so, I should give in and go with her - obviously). We left thinking we'd rather not have a cake than have one by her.

Which led us to our next vendor, who is located only 3 blocks from us. So we walked down the street, picked up two slices of pizza from the local bakery, and strolled in to chat. We were very disheartened and almost had decided not to get a cake at all, considering our last two meetings were not at all what we were looking for. But we were very surprised! She was sweet, funny, easy to talk to about her designs... and she also agreed with our first vendor, it IS possible to have a buttercream cake delivered to our venue! And then the tasting... GOOD! We got our estimate and left smiling, reconsidering our thoughts of foregoing a cake altogether.

We're very easily swayed by "clicking" with our vendors, so although we have another appointment this Saturday, we may have already found our baker!

How it began (the venue, how the ball rolled, stopped, and began again)

2007-06-19T16:10:00.000-07:00

I hadn't wanted a wedding, I know what kind of person I can be - detail oriented, focused, and easily frazzled. I saw the eventual downhill roll into insanity that would ensue if I agreed to plan an event. Rob wanted a wedding desperately, and so after agreeing that he would take a major roll in planning, we bought our first wedding magazine and started. This was in April 2006, and we immediately began making appointments to view venues that we'd be booking for Fall of 2007. We knew we wanted outdoors, natural beauty, to have our pick of caterers, and just to feel it was - the one.

We traveled all over wine country, the coast, within San Francisco city limits and just beyond, only to be broken down in not finding the right place. We stopped looking for months, got sidetracked with buying our home and it wasn't until this February that we looked at each other and thought, "oh yea, we're getting married..." and jumped back on the horse. We hadn't considered leaving the bay area, but we took a chance and drove an hour from our home to visit a small organic farm directly between our two home towns.

lavender field facing the cottage:

the lush almond trees where we will make our entrance:

It was beyond perfect! Exactly what we had been looking for. The open vendor list, so they said, a natural setting, an open canvas completely outdoors, and although it wasn't in the bay area, it was one hour from my parents and one hour from his. We'd found it, the one! They offer 10 weddings a year, 1 per weekend, and we wanted to be one of them at any cost. So began our negotiations...

Linen Tape

2007-05-14T21:03:00.000-07:00

I recently went on a shopping spree on the Shinja Katoh website and bought a whole lot of Linen Tape:

I figure I might think of something to do with it - it's adorable. My wedding invitation designer suggested using them on the escort cards - which is something I considered ...but we hadn't even thought of what we were going to use for escort cards.

1) bottles for bubble blowing liquid
2) some candy or cookies?
3) .. other?

I still have 5 months, so I think we'll figure it out... i think.

DIY project even I can tackle!

2007-05-03T18:48:00.000-07:00

So we went over to our invitation designer's home and picked up our STDs. It's so nice to be able to go over to her house and chat over these things, it makes it feel like we're really getting to know each other and less like a business transaction.

We got home and immediately we went to work buying a few supplies at paper source and blick: paper, envelope liner templates, exacto knife, self healing mat, and some double stick glue.. tape... thing. it's nifty. I found the people at our local paper source to be... really pretentious and unpleasant. They had a very bad attitude and made me feel like I was wasting their time for not being nearly as craft-knowledgable to them. I went to art school, so having people talk down to me about glue is really off-putting, so we got only what we needed at paper-source and went to blick for the rest.

Anyway, we sat down and go to work:

Dorky space invader paper for our game-industry pals, and two other kinds for friends and family... the brown for the less pink-appreciative. It was quick, painless, and really something nice that we did together.

Mr. Gummi Bear and I made two versions, since it was cheap to do - a family version and a friend version. This is the latter:

On a sadder note, while we were on vacation in Japan earlier this year, my pet rabbit that had been with me since high school passed away... traumatizing our neighbor who was watching him for us. He was very very old, so I'm not depressed - I'm just glad he lived as long as he did and looked as cute through the whole thing. In honor of our little boy, we wanted to have stamps of him made for the envelopes. This photo was taking a few months before he left us, and he still looked like a baby bunny.

Zazzle.com was having a sale, so we went with them. They have a smaller stamp size as well, which I like, since I didn't want to overwhelm the envelope with a gigantic picture of my rabbit. They were higher quality than I expected - thick and nice. We had talked about having our rabbit be a part of the wedding, but he didn't make it, so instead at least he's plastered on all the enveloped in a slightly morbid but cutely commemorative way!

Hair and Makeup.

2007-04-23T23:04:00.000-07:00

I had my first hair and makeup trial today - hair I'm relaxed about, didn't want anything super complex. makeup is harder, since i Never wear real face skin makeup stuff, seeing myself covered is weird. it was fairly light and didn't make me look even to the point of horrific porcelain doll face - it's still an adjustment.

She was nice, a bit scattered, but I like her - and I don't know anyone else who will travel and do only two people without a billion dollar minimum. anyone? anyone??

2007-04-20T22:36:00.000-07:00

save the dates? design officially approved and sent to the printer.
rubber stamp? approved and getting made.
calligrapher? check sent, totally excited.
custom hairpin? deposit sent, color swatch chosen.. set to be painted in August/July.

... application to Martha Stewart Weddings...? err.. my designer sent it to me super excited and told me to try for it... I don't think my wedding is high in the details, nor is it in the budget of a lot of those weddings.

oh, and my appointment to try on my possible second wedding gown, set.
i feel very accomplished.

things we haven't done anything about: cake. insurance. music. accessories for me, clothes for rob. purchasing decorations... or finalizing what they will be ;_;

finalizing catering menu... fun fun fun.

-----
we're working on the guest list. :( it's tough, with only 100 spots and most of them taken by my family, it's just a mess trying to decide who to invite. Rob's lucky, his list of friends is all on there because it's short... mine is HUGE and I know I can't get everyone. ;_;

and less than 100 seats total, yea, no one can bring a date unless we're friends with both sides of the couple or they're married. ;_; How do you go about making people feel like you wish you could invite them, but... your family is gigantic?

(it only got bigger now that more people in my family moved to CA or NY and they all want to use my wedding as an excuse to get together.. and more family from Korea and Canada will be attending my wedding than at my sister's, so my family's list is just ridiculous... and they're not even distant family. ;_; )

2007-04-15T22:55:00.000-07:00

boring wedding junk - shoe advice and whatnot needed.

Ok, R is short. I think we determined he's only 2 inches taller than me - and well, we're getting married on grass. So that means I have two reasons to go with flats/low wedge heels.

I don't have a white-white dress, it's ivory/latte slip, so it's a warm color... so shoes? I thought maybe I could go with one of my other colors. green, brown, raspberry, pink...

or just stick with warm whites with gold (i don't like gold, but it will match) accents:

a light silver-gold toned ballerina slipper:

cream cut-out patent slippers:

and here, I hate being weird and posting pictures of other people's weddings... but this one looks totally perfect. And I want the shoes, they would match my damned gown:

any help? In my fantasy world, price is no object, so if you see $5k shoes that would be perfect for my wedding, show them to me so I can at least weep.

----------
So I'm allowed to get the second dress. Here is my thought:
1) I can use the dress money to order the dress this week. (it's a rush order already, can't wait much longer...)
2) I can save the money and put it towards my wedding ring should the one I want be more than what R intends to put into it. (I haven't picked it because my setting isn't done and I want my final setting before trying on rings)
3) I don't know if I will need to put more money towards the ring, so I may end up with the right ring with just R's funds and not having ordered the dress and feeling stupid (but with extra money to go towards... who knows what, bed frame?)

r: if you end up not needing it for the wedding band, but didn't use it on a dress, why not but some other nice wedding jewelry, like that necklace you like?
s: but i thought you were going to get that FOR me.
*r looks at me like I'm crazy, probably right about that, and that he loves me for it*

It's officially 6 months until I'm permanently off the market. Get your bids in now~ the auction is closing!

Vendor Gifts.

2007-04-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

While we were in Japan we offered to pick up various things for vendors. Japan is notoriously stiff about sending internationally, but luckily, my company does just that.... so I bought tons of stuff.

I'm glad that I could help them out by getting them design books, gifts, and magazines - hopefully they find something in what they got that inspires them in their designs for us!

We're back from Japan.

2007-04-12T23:31:00.000-07:00

I want an orla kiely dress so bad it hurts. it may be cramps, but I'll just say it's my uteral lining crying out for external orla kiely coverage. I may settle for another dvf item. or an anthropologie trip... I can't find my wallet. hm. plot or fate?

I'm still looking for wedding shoes.
still contemplating a second dress. (r says I sell $1k clothes, I can get the second dress)
still looking for hair/makeup person.
still thinking about a cake and need to email the person who is making my invitations because I'm a mess.

RIP Buns.

2007-04-06T12:29:00.000-07:00

1997-2007.

he couldn't wait until we got home... bye buns.

Pomanders.

2007-03-26T14:28:00.000-07:00

So yea, the things at our house...

Debi and I made them from these:

Colorful cakes:

We had our invitation meeting, it was pleasant. I hope to get a draft of at least our Save The Dates while we're in Japan....

oh, and I apparently have to go to AP and Baby business meetings ;_; help me to pick what to wear.....

Oh Furniture...

2007-03-18T18:27:00.000-07:00

Will you ever stop tempting me? Oh Eames. Despite how much rob hates molded plastic, I cannot help but want you in my life.

And will you, perfect desk of mine, ever look less appealing? In addition to the Eames Eiffel chair, your colorful slots and walnut finish - how I long to put my computers on you and look like I'm working.

And what of you bed that is in all the photos for Amenity Bedding? You are not for sale, you are one of a kind made by the co-owner of the bedding company. Completely out of reach and yet you're the only bed I really want right now.

The only thing I love more than all these.... are these images of the Orla Kiely Flagship Store London. Two of my favorite things together - mid century furnishings... and orla kiely patterns

So many things I love.

But nothing quite as much as listening to Nat King Cole completely butcher Spanish. Who ever thought it would be wise to allow him to record albums in a language he cannot at all pronounce with any grace?

oh yea, and we have our catering meeting tomorrow to decide what we want to have available.... we chose our caterer based on the food, the communication, and the fact that they believe food should taste good and just sit down and eat, rather than bite sized tiny things with lots of random fusion that doesn't taste good and just sounds good. Oh yea, and they're local, all organic, and seasonal.

so far:

refresher bar with lemonade, two kinds of fresca, and horchata. Alcohol available to add? NO BAR!
Popsicle available at some point, probably during the play time after dinner.
Family style meals (both pork and fish on the table) with vegan options for our friends that don't eat meats. And steak for my grandfather.
Dessert other than cake available.
Food and drinks on arrival and available throughout.
Discuss the passed hors'doerves options, salads, pastas... cheese plate?

Anything else? rentals, but that's all for me and rob to sit around and mull over.. ;_;

Wedding Ideas

2007-03-16T21:52:00.000-07:00

They're all slowly coming together. I dragged R down to the living room floor and we wrote out a bunch of ideas and sent them to Grace. She gave us her input and I think things are coming together slowly...

we still need to write down more ideas and questions for the caterers. But that all will come out this coming week at our meeting!

Spring!

2007-03-14T20:55:00.000-07:00

Spring is coming, as proof by the ranunculus that I so love. They're like roses, except when they bloom fully they aren't hideous - they are layer upon layer of petals, little balls of petals. I also love dahlias and peonies... none of which are in season for my wedding.

Rob and I won this vintage teak table on ebay the other day, I'm really excited about it... worried it won't come before we leave Japan in which case we'll have to ask someone to stay and wait for it the day it is expected to arrive. Someone will be taking care of old-man-buns and lychee anyway, so it isn't that much more, right? Well, maybe it is.... our rug came today too, the other one was sent away because it had a pee like stain on it (uh, nasty!) As did my wedding glasses. Yea, wedding glasses.... with blue on them (that's right! something blue....)

So my wedding planning is coming together slowly. Our catering meeting got pushed back until the 20th and invitations until the 25th. So we'll be busy in the upcoming two weeks before going to Japan. We're actually starting to discuss the layout of the wedding and activities, so it's getting a little more hectic in the trying to work things out.

I need table runners - very very very long ones. If one of you seamstresses is willing to help out - I'll give you... wedding gown preservation, envelope stuffing, lolita wardrobe dry cleaning free... anything you want! I'm also going to be buying paper parasols for the wedding most likely, so if you want some, let me know. That means if you are having an outdoor wedding before or after, you can have/borrow/split the cost with me. ^_^

Colors and Themes

2007-03-13T11:55:00.000-07:00

Rob and I are not having a huge theme that is going to dominate the wedding, but we wanted some elements to tie the whole thing together.

Rob and I live a very vintage/retro lifestyle, filling our already period-styled home with vintage furniture and kitchenware. We wanted to extend that part of our lives into our wedding, the vintage dress without a veil, feather hairpins and casual atmosphere. We're looking at vintage birdcages to hold cards and nests on our tables as a cute holder for candy eggs.... I'm a candy fiend! Grass will be our main table element as the venue itself is absolutely gorgeous and lush with greenery, we don't feel the need to really take away from that with huge floral elements.

grass green, deep rich chocolate browns, with accent raspberry are our colors, birds and a casual day-at-the-park feel is how we'd like the whole event to play out.

This all ties into the fact that I desperately want those nests from Williams Sonoma. Badly.

Ebay Addiction

2007-03-13T00:31:00.000-07:00

Rob and I won a new coffee table on ebay the other day, we're glad to finally be getting rid of our ikea "placeholder" table that ended up staying with us for a full year. I'll post photos when it's finally here and settled in to its new home.