Wedding Invitation - Vancouver Edition

for our vancouver celebration i created another set of invitation the same way as i did with my hong kong invitation with a slight change in style. the hong kong invitation it's more classic and vintage while the vancouver invitation is more modern and chic.

Wedding Invitation

when i decided to DIY a lot of the elements of our wedding, i had thought i would go all out and make my own DIY letterpress wedding stationary. i even found this amazing post over at "the paper place" by Luke Pauw about how he created his amazing looking DIY letter pressed invitations. i really thought i would be doing just that, but reality is, do i have the time? no (i've got three jobs and still go to school part time!). do i have the money to buy all the equipment for the letter pressing? well it's not THAT expensive, but still ... no! plus, we are really only having a very small and intimate celebration with a handful of my closest friends and family, why waste so much money in such little things. after banding the idea of DIY letterpress, i thought of making a custom stamp instead. it's much cheaper and less time consuming, but still it seems so much of a hassle to design the stamp, send it to the stamp making company to have it made and ship to me then hand stamped each invite and mail it by post. so in the end, i decided i would still DIY my stationaries for our wedding, but I would do it digitally, which I thought I would never do in the beginning of the planning, and then send out my invitation via facebook and email instead of post.

it's at least a couple hundred bucks that we've saved but yet we've still got a DIY invitation. though it might not appear to be amazing to you but it sure did to me, for it was a lot of hard work to put together what we've created and it was a DIY project that Roy was highly involved as well (in the design decision making part of things of cause).

i looking around on wedding blogs for ideas and inspirations and i found "oh so beautiful paper", a blog that focus on wedding invitations and also a post from "a practical wedding" about how to print you own wedding invitation. through them i also found some online invitation design companies, such as "a printable press" and "thomas printers" that custom make wedding invitations and only send you the jpg. file of the invitation so that allows you to either print them out at your own cost or send out in digital forms. they still cost you some money of cause, but definitely not nearly as much as a set of custom made letterpress invitations. but i wasn't looking for any fancy over the top design, so spending $80 for a simple invite still seems a lot to me, and so what i did was found the design that like the most, follow the pattern and put together something simple myself on microsoft publisher. to make my invite a bit more custome made, i also downloaded different fonts from dafont.com and customised the colours so they match our wedding colour. and ... then ... tata ... here is our wedding invitation!!!!!!

Gift Registry

recently over at green wedding shoes, saw a post about setting up a gift registry in a bit of a not-so-traditional way - Deposit a Gift - a way to give cash towards something what the couple really want instead of something for their home that they don’t really need. i thought it was the perfect way for us as well and so i too went and set up a honeymoon registry for roy and i and should you want to contribute to our honeymoon as a gift for our wedding, follow this link http://gloriaandroywedding.mydagsite.com/ and give us the honeymoon that we have been dreaming of for a long time.

XOXO,

g&r

ps. deposit a gift is not only for wedding but also for many other events as well, such as house warming, baby shower, birthday, etc.

Ceremony Decor Inspiration

when roy and i first started planning our wedding, i took us really not time to figure out what our colors would be, but if you ask if we have a theme for our wedding ... um ... guess we really dont have a theme's theme other then the color scheme. other people who have a theme like "carnival", "whimsical", "romantic", "the 5o's" etc, it's easy to think of decorations because they can just decorate accordingly to their themes. but we only have a color scheme and not a theme that makes it really hard for me to decide what to do with decoration. then one day i decided (yeah, i just kinda decided on my own) that i like the idea of hanging garlands and using flags. it's easy enough for me to make and easy to transport. after that decision was made i had a clear mind of how i would like to decorate our wedding ceremony and found someone - Melissa + Chris (from green wedding shoes) - who had just the same thinking as i did! (well they still had a theme though but i guess their theme was hard to visualized at the ceremony coz they picked The Beatles to be their theme, so you can't quite tell what's their theme was just by looking at the picture). still have to talk to the venue and see if they would allow me to do somthing like Melissa and Chris, fingers crossed!

Pinterest

if you are always looking for inspirations but dont have the time to make your own inspiration board. or if you are always looking for ideas and want to have just one place to keep them organized then Pinterest is what you are looking for.

i found Pinterest while reading one of my favorite wedding blogs a few months ago and have since been extremely addicted to it. you can find my page here. if you would like to join and start pinning just go the the home page and ask for an invite!

Into The New Year

today is the last day of 2011, Happy New Year everyone!!!!!

looking back, 2011 have been so busy and i'm kinda glad it's over. 2011 was all about planning for me (i'm sure you all know why ... haha) and one thing i've learn through all of my planning is that, no matter how well you plan, things changes, and you compromise and make adjustments. after spending all this past year on the wedding planning, i am amazed by the people who choose to be an event planner. it's hard work and it's stressful. you have to be resourceful and organized if you were a planner. on one hand, i'm glad that i had lots of time for me to get organized, on the other, it has been hard for me to make quick decision because i thought i could have more time to think things through. after a year of planning my wedding, my advise to other brides is, if you are planning a small wedding with approx 50 guests, unless you are like me that want to have everything DIY, plan your wedding in a short amount of time say 6 to 9 months and make quick decisions. listen to your guts and don't over think every little details, because no matter how well you plan, there will always be some last minute changes you'll need to make. and though you don't need to have ten different back up plans, always make sure you at least have one or two back up so you won't freak out when things isn't going as you thought. better yet, hire a planner and have them do all the work for you, and if you do make sure you communicate well with them and let them know what you think.

The Final Bridesmaid Dress

a while back i wrote on a post saying that i've picked out a dress for my sister on my wedding day. i was really excited when it became available to purchase and i didn't waste any time to buy the dresses. i loved that dress so much that i even order one for myself. now, here's the thing about online shopping, you'll never know for sure if the product is up to your expectation and would never know if it fits or not. i've had some good and bad experiences before with online shopping, but so far, with my luck, 95% of the time when i shop online, things come out that way i hoped if not better. but this time ... oh boy ... i don't even know how to put it into words of how disappointed i was with the dress. it wasn't even anywhere near the image they had online! i just HAVE to return it and i did.

so what happens now with my sisters bridesmaid dresses? panicking not knowing what to do, i kept my eyes out for anything that i could possibly use as bridesmaid dresses. though my last experience with online shopping was not pleasent, i didn't give up on that and just had to try one more time when i found this dress from j crew and it is even in the same colour tone of our theme. i ordered it in no time and because it was very close to christmas, i got it with a great deal (25% off with free shipping and no tax). when the dress came, it still appeared a bit darker then the picture on the website but i'm happy with it, and my sisters too, are very happy with it. and now we are all going to look nice on my wedding ... yeah!!!

Save The Date! Vancouver Edition

since both roy and i have lived in Vancouver for almost a decade, we thought it'd be nice to have a little celebration in Vancouver after our wedding in Hong Kong to share the special moment of our life with our dear friends in Vancouver so please save the date for our celebration! and we will keep you posted about this event (invitation to follow).

image credit to Jamie Delaine Photography

Accessories

i am not a big accessory person, never have been. every thing that i had or am wearing usually stay where they were until something new, something more meaningful come and replace them. on my left wrist, i've got a conversation starting bracelet, for the past 8 years i never took it off. it is a meaningful bracelet with a touching quote, it reminds me of my family in Idaho. the ring on my right middle finger was a promise, a promise that lead to the rock on my left ring finger and the happily ever after of my future. Necklace and earrings are probably the two things that i changed the most but still the necklace i have on now have been there for almost 2 years.
so when it comes to accessorizing myself for my wedding, it was really hard; cause i want to wear something that not only look nice, but also unique and meaningful to me. at first i had my heart set on a seal from Pyrrha but every time i go to look at that seal, something just doesn’t feel right. then as I was browsing through wedding blogs one day, i found this amazing custom handmade jewelry designer: Lisa Lenoard Design and found the right piece for me and my sisters. and of cause, they were customized by me ^^

5 more to go!

this past couple of months have got to be the busiest months that have ever been in my entire life. in august I started a new job while took on extra shifts at my part time job to help coverage. september, school started again and yet i continued working in a total of 70 hours per week on top of school. now it's almost the end of october and here i am sitting in front of the computer at work trying to catch up with my wedding planning updates. i am so glad and blessed to have found this great part time job at which i get to do what ever i want when work is slow (like now) and still get paid! anyhow, i promise i will update more when i'm finally down with only one full time and one part time job and when it's break from school.

but now lets take a look at what kind of dress i've picked for my sisters for their bridesmaid dress - Crinkled Confection Dress from modcloth.com. i've been eyeing this dress since the summer and it was finally available for purchase on thanksgiving day. thank god for the email notification and i bought it right away, because just a couple of hours after my purchase, the sizes i needed were all gone and the next day they were all sold out.

before i decided to buy this dress, i weight out many option on bridesmaid dresses. at first i was determined to find dresses in the right shade of blue that matches my wedding color. proven that was impossible, i though i would let my sisters choose the dress style they like and then go buy the fabric and have someone custom made the dresses for me, but then that could cost me at least $300 per dress, so that's $600 at least, and so that's not going to happen either. Then after much research through the wedding blogs that i follow, i found the website modcloth.com and there i found lots of really nice dresses that are very affordable. so in the end, i found this simple and natural toned dress and used the money that i saved and got some jewelleries for myself and my sisters too. i'm will also handmade them each a blue flower, the same one i made for my own head piece but in a smaller scale, to accessorize the dress and to match the color theme of the wedding too! stay tune for the DIY post of this blue flower of mine ^^

Save The Date!

gosh! i couldnt quite believe that it's already mid September! this past summer was so much busier than i had anticipated and before i knew it, it's almost to it's end. lots had happened this summer - 3 of my good friends left Vancouver, i changed jobs, worked like crazy with the wedding planning & crafting, and worked even crazier with my two part time jobs ... phew ... glad it's almost over. so sorry for not keeping up with the blog for an entire month, but don't you worry, i am still working on the planning and had not gave up any tiny bit of my DIYs for my wedding. just can't believe it's only a bit over 6 month left till we are forever man & wife - make sure you save the MOST important date in the year for US! (invitation to follow)

image credited to Jamie Delaine Photography.

Great Advice

read a real wedding story over at Green Wedding Shoes and at the end of the post the blogger asked what advice the new bride would give to those who are planning right now and i must say, it is one of the best advices i've seen/heard so far as i'm planning my wedding, and here it is:

Have fun, and remember to savor every single moment of the entire process! A wedding is not just one day. It starts with the proposal and spans over every second of planning, every moment of indecision over a detail, every victory over a project, and every minute of incredible joy up until you both collapse together at the end of the wedding day, exhausted and blissfully married. Up until that final day, focus on the things you have control over and learn to accept the things you don’t. On the wedding day itself, just dismiss all those what-if’s and could-have’s. Something is bound to go astray if not just a little; don’t let it bother you because in the end the only thing that matters is marrying the person you love. So relax, go with the flow, and celebrate every second. It really will be the best day of your life."

From Green Wedding Shoes a handmade michigan wedding by BreeAnn and Nik

8 more to go

8 more months and we will be husband and wife. just realized today that i only had 8 more months and there are still soooooooooooooooo much to do for the wedding! well so far I've got: the venues, photographers, my dress, my shoes, roy's wedding band, all my flower centerpieces/favors for Vancouver, my head piece and one of the dessert tried out.

and things that still needed to be done are: save-the-date, invitations, guest books, my veil, roy's outfit, cake order, all of the decor, flowers for the ceremony and the hkg part of the wedding, the bridesmaids' dress and accessories, jewleries and my wedding band, music play list and most importantly - booking a celebrant.

so much to do and so little time ...

The Perfect Dress

having the perfect wedding dress is every girls dream and though i have never been dreaming for my wedding since 5 years old, since i got engaged it was hard not to start dreaming of the perfect dress. and i am telling you, finding the perfect dress was HARD! so much harder than i thought it would be and who knows i could be so indecisive?!? silhouette wise, i knew that i would take a ball gown if not, at least an A-line dress because what girl doesnt like poof. of cause the pouffier the better. but more pouf means more materials and in the end it means more $$$$$$$$. so after endless hours of searching for the perfect dress I managed to narrow down to less than a dozen gowns and here they are, some long, some short, some white, some colored. which one do you think i like the most and which one do you see me walking down the aisle in? how much do you think i spend on my wedding dress in the end? take a guess and we will see who'd got it right and let me know why do you think i would be in the dress you pick!
(p.s. the ones who already know and have seen me in my dress (yes folks, i've got my dress already!), please do give out the answer, coz you wouldnt want to ruin the surprise would you?)

Sweet Pea by Ivy and Aster $$ Beverly Wood By Dolly Couture $

LZ3063 by Lazaro $$$$$$ Fiesole by Melissa Sweet $$$

Candy by Monique Lhuillier $$$$$ Nazaret by Aire Barcelona $$$

8501 Justin Alexander $$ Where the boys are by Matthew Christopher $$$$

Amelie by Amsale $$$$ Galina Exclusive at David Bridal $

Carina by Amsale $$$$

Our Wedding Color - Tiffany Blue, Yellow & Orange

found this awesome inspiration board over at Enjoy Events Co a couple of days ago & its exactly the color of our wedding! Tiffany Blue, Yellow & Orange!(well, there was no orange in this board, but whatever!)

remember the day I ask roy what color he wanted for our wedding he was half asleep and vaguely answer "blue" which was also the color that first comes into my mind, so agreed or not, remember he made a decision or not, our main color IS going to be Tiffany blue.


image via Enjoy Events Co