Grace Lin Makeup

So as far as selling me on your work showing the before and after pictures work wonders!  Although with deliberate camera angles, lighting, and crazy before pictures, the difference between before and after becomes even more pronounced.

 

Oh, and looking back, I guess I forgot to blog about Auntie Amy's coworker's friend who does hair and makeup.  She kind of scared me at first because Auntie Amy said that the makeup was very Taiwanese which focuses on the eyes and pale skin...  I was imagining something ghostly with large eyes, but when I saw the pictures, they looked a lot better than they were made out to be!  :)  I also liked her because she has experience with Asian hair and makeup. 

 

I hadn't really been planning on doing too much with my makeup and the hair could be easy enough to curl and pin back if I was going to do a half up and half down look.  But then Auntie Amy and a conversation with my friend Jen got me thinking about this being really just one time, when else would I ever really go to someone for professional hair and makeup?  So that's why I'm more set on finding a makeup artist/hair stylist...

 

Although not at Grace Lin's prices...which would be $300 for me alone and $750 for me and three bridesmaids...not to mention the additional $1 per mile of additional travel outside of Arcadia!!! 

Low, side chignon

I've been looking at different hair styles.  Originally I thought I wanted to do a half up/half down style, but as I look at more styles, I'm feeling more partial to a low chignon.  But I haven't decided if I like the clean/smooth look or the messy/curly/wavy look better.

Serene Bridal Beauty

Been researching hair and make up artists.  Found this one on The Knot.com.  Feeling the philosophy and the styles in the galleries, so I emailed them.  Hopefully I'll feel their prices as well!... :-P

 

http://www.serenebridalbeauty.com/

Favor presentation

Still trying to decide how to wrap the favors...

A search for my shoes

After being talked down from the $98 shoes I found online, I found these for $10! I'm going to go with the silver and find a way to add a peacock feather or something. I was thinning the dark purple closed toe, but then Pris ee ee cautioned against the material transferring color to my dress. Pass :)

Becks models a feather hair clip and...head dress (?)

The crew

Hadn't posted pix of the invitation making gang, so here they are in ask their creating glory (well  actually they're all taking a well-deserved break in these pictures)

Not featured: envelope printing crew of Eddie and Mei, Marianne and Matt running for supplies

Lowe's pit stop

Saw these purple freesia and purple and white calla lilies when we stopped by Lowe's today.

I was absolutely FLOORED by this comment I read on theknot.com's website!

So I was checking out the etiquette for thank you notes for gifts received before the wedding and stumbled on this comment.  I was actually standing in line waiting to pick up a prescription from the pharmacy, and I was so taken aback I almost turned to the lady behind me in line to share this ridiculous comment! After reading this, I could barely believe she would even have any for friends to sure up to her wedding!

"I am FLOORED that so many people did not give or send gifts that attended our wedding. I would never DREAM of attending a wedding without either having had sent a gift already or bringing a gift with me!!! Although there were quite a few waiting for us when we got back from our honeymoon, we still have not received anything (not even a card) from about 1/2 our guests!! QUESTION: Is there a way to broach this subject with friends or family (which actually has hurt my feelings) that have not sent anything? I know I should take the higher road and still send a thank you card for attending but I feel that it's disrespectful to us as a couple to come and not even acknowledge how special of an event it was--and that we invited them to share it with us--with even the smallest token!!!!
by SandraHutchman on Nov 03, 2010"

Ridiculous!

Floral frenzies...

Did you even know there were so many different types of bouquets???

Lisa’s bridal bouquet featured purple lisianthus, lavender and purple calla lilies, blue and green hydrangeas, green spider mums, and hypericum berries. This may be one of my favorite bouquets ever! I’m normally not a huge fan of calla lilies, but the gorgeous purple and white variety shown here really makes the bouquet pop.

Lisa’s bridesmaids carried coordinating bouquets in shades of green and blue with touches of purple.  Flowers included hydrangea, pom flowers, spider mums, and sweet peas. I think these are such sweet and romantic bouquets, and they looked fantastic next to the maid’s purple dresses.  I love how these bouquets coordinate without being too “matchy-matchy.

From http://www.flowersbysnapdragon.com/index.php/blog/

Lavender Bouquet, Lisianthus and Orchid Bouquet,

Kinda feeling the purple calla lily...

Eddie doesn't like the blue from the first two bouquets, and thinks there's too much green in the last two.  I think the green is okay to balance out the other colors.  I'm not really sure what to do with the blues though...maybe just see if she can add teal ribbon to the bouquets some how?

I need to talk to the florist again...  I think I want the purple calla lily, lisianthus, orchid, peacock feathers, and then to ask the florist how to add the hydrangea or the freesia or whatever other flower she may think fits.  I also want to ask her if she's wrapping the bouquets with ribbon and if so what colors she is using etc.

I also wanted to see if she can incorporate peacock feathers into Eddie's boutonniere and the groomsmen boutonnieres.  I still am feeling the white orchid and the peacock feather behind it...

Love getting mail!

It's so fun to check the mail for RSVPs! 

Eddie's college friend Marc and his wife Jessica get the prize for the first RSVP mailed back (technically the first RSVPs returned were the Daniels and Chans the day of the invitation making). 

Runners up

Hehe. Someone needed some lotion... ;)

Rings and things

Doesn't it look like he's about to punch you?...

So we had a very productive day today.  We met with Father Joven at 10 to basically turn in the paperwork for the wedding.  The church will be $600, music etc will be extra, and I guess I'll take that up with Grace.

Then we went to the MoVal house to work in the front yard.

Then back to wedding things, we headed to the mall for more ring shopping.  Yesterday we went to Victoria Gardens: Ben Bridge, Zales, Helzberg, and Kay.  We found that he likes two tone rings, it didn't really matter the metal.  It was more about what was aesthetically appealing to him.  He liked the pin stripes in some rings.  He disliked thick bands, bands that were too plain, bands that were too shiny.  

Armed with some prices, we continued shopping today, and happened upon a Daniel's jewelry store.  There we found the ring in the picture above.  It was completely different in style and color from the rings we had been looking at before. We hadn't really seen any dark/black colored rings and the stripes on the rings had mostly been inlays, rather than grooves.  But it was a striking ring, and we did ended up ordering it.  (Though there was a moment at another jewelry store where the guy told us if we paid cash we could get a tungsten ring we were looking at for $100...which he tried to sell also by saying for that price we could come back and get another one anytime... which totally did NOT sell it for me, as I would prefer that if we're buying a wedding ring it's a forever thing!)  The sales lady who helped us was a nice Filipino lady who also threw in a pair of cubic zirconium heart studs, a $50 gift certificate redeemable at the same jewelry store, and a cranberry scented candle.

We finished off the shopping trip with a trip to Chik-fil-a with a buy one entree get one free.

All in all, a productive day. ;)

Chinese Peacock Feathers

My parents are probably going to protest vehemently, but I bought peacock feathers from Hong Kong...even though I am jeopardizing the fate of the US economy... :-P

I should be getting it in mid to late April.  Then the fun begins...

Mei's Dress Dilemma

Mei will always be my baby cousin.  Which makes me want to dress her up in something with cap sleeves and taffeta.  I know she's 16, but I don't want to scandalize her (and yes, I do realize there are MUCH more scandalizing things she sees every day in a public high school than a strapless dress, so maybe the word isn't so much scandalize as...ummm...tart her up?...)

In any case, we're going to get her dress today, and so I'm frantically searching for a dress with straps.

Here's one that I've found... It has some pleats in it, which I was thinking she would still have like the bridesmaids, but it's got straps and a fuller skirt.  

Or something maybe like this, but with straps:

Or this one, again with straps?

Or this one, which is very similar to the girls' dress...but again with straps for the ceremony.

Teal candles

Before I forget, I saw tealish 3x3 candles at Target for 3.99.  The fragrance/name was Paradise Flower...  I should look into how to order more than the 3 that I saw there...  I couldn't find them online either...

DIY Clutches: The Saga Continues

So I started a new post about the clutches because with all the details I've collected, I could go on indefinitely, and I also realized that as I rambled and added more tags to the previous post, I would eventually end up using every single label, making it difficult to find specific information later on.

Monday's trip to the Garment District with Alexis was productive.  I found clasps that I was looking for so that the clutches would be longer than taller instead of vice versa as my rough draft currently is.  Alexis explained how to create a pattern and how to use the pattern when I got down to the actual sewing.  She also explained how the lining would be put in (basically sewing another of the same purse and sewing the two together.

I went to Joanns and picked up the interfacing (which would make the material more substantial/stiffer) and a tealish blue for the lining.  I think I'll stick with the champagne/beige/gold color of the remnant that I originally picked up to do the rough draft.  I wanted the teal so the bags would have additional umph to them.  ;)

Alexis sent me an awesome link to a tutorial with directions (and more importantly PICTURES) on how to sew the clutch!  After reading them, I can't even imagine how I was going to try to wing it!!  

So now I pretty much have all the materials that I need to start assembling a real clutch...not the rough draft anymore.  Oh, I do need a sewing machine, but I'll get that from Mum tomorrow.

Now I just need to create my pattern, cut out the pieces, sew on the beads, and put it all together!!...

So here goes..

This and that...

So I played around with the Adobe Premiere Elements, the movie making software program... I'm def. not feeling this photomontage...  I think I'm going to say we need to go with Alex on this.  If I had more time...or maybe I'm just feeling all my creative juices SAPPED from these clutches and the jewelry that I'm thinking of for the girls' accessories. 

Some of the invites have been sent out.  We're waiting on those "We're registered..." cards.  I've sent the invites out to the relatives who will probably be giving us ang-pows anyway.  We're still waiting on a few addresses from Eddie's side of the family too...we had them at one point, but can't find the paper that had all the addresses written down...

I brought my dress down for Pris ee ee to take  a look at what beadwork we could do to disguise the um... suggestive flowers.  :)  We're going to add more beading to the neckline so as to detract from the high concentration of beading in two particular places.  But to do so, I need to find the correct beads...which I went to Joanns and did not find what I was looking for. :(  I might have to make a trip out to the Garment District again.  Which would be fine with me, as I now have some particular beads that I'm looking for to make a bracelet with peacock feathers.

Mum, Pris ee ee, Joy ee ee and I also went to a baking shop on Beach and La Habra to look for bags for the favors...  The concern was that the bags that I had already bought were too small to fit the sugar cookie AND the pineapple tart.  Also, I think Pris ee ee just wants to make it look prettier too.  :)  We decided on 1 lb Cello bags...though they still might not be quite the right size for the favors...I guess we just have to keep looking and trying it out. 

"Are all Filipinos happy and excited?"

Eddie asked as we left our meeting with Alex de Guzman of Beautiful Images
Productions.

Alex definitely is. He drove out from Murrieta to meet us at the
Starbucks in Highland, armed with his Apple laptop and all kinds of
videos. We watched clips from large and small weddings, engagement
photography sessions, and a photo montage.

He'll be shooting with one camera in high definition and will do a
photo montage or an engagement session for free. (Although, Eddie
told me later that he would prefer that I do the photo montage...which
means that I need to learn how to use one of those movie maker
programs). 4 DVDs, $8 for additional DVDs.

Videographer - check.

Beaded Peacock Feather Clutch

A practice purse