We're Married

I haven't posted as much as I wanted to during the wedding prep.  I was working an insane number of hours while trying to get my projects done.  I also helped throw a baby shower just over a month before the wedding.

No professional photos yet but below are some photos from our guests and photo booth.

Invites are mailed

It's been a long time since I updated. I've been working 15 hour days and trying to design my invitations. If I had to do it all over again, I probably would have used a boxed it. They are pretty cute these days.

It first started with a free template I found on the Wedding Chicks website. The template had a yellow dahlia graphic and I wanted to edit the graphic to match my colors. I googled how to extract the graphic out of the PDF template and then I used Photoshop to edit the colors. I don't actually know how to use Photoshop.

After I edited the colors and did the layout for the invites, I found out that Photoshop is not the program to use for designing an invitation because it rasterizes (?) graphics. I needed to use either Illustrator or InDesign. After talking to a few people in our Communications department, I decided that I needed to "learn" the programs. Many of my coworkers offered to help me and said they would even put it together for me because they didn't want me to run out and buy the programs.

I knew that my invites would be too time consuming to ask my coworkers to do so I ran out and bought a 6 month old iMac from a graphic designer and he left Adobe CS5 installed on the computer. I had to "learn" how to use the programs in a weekend.

I edited the graphic in Illustrator and then used InDesign to do the layout and typography. This led to learning about vectors, paths, glyphs...I then had to get everything printed. At first I was planning on sending them to smartpress.com but my copier/printer rep offered to print them for me. I went out to Xpedx and bought paper. Somehow I ended up with a new color laser printer and printing them myself. I considered cutting them myself but I got smart and took them to get cut at OfficeMax.

These invitations took forever to do but they are finally done. I'll add more details later. I'm really tired of invitations right now.

Bridesmaid Dresses

The girls wanted to wear long black dupioni silk bridesmaid dresses. These are not the exact style that each girl ended up buying but they all have a similar look. I put this together a while back when I had six bridesmaids. Now I'm down to four. All the girls picked their favorite dress from the current Alfred Sung line.

Imagine the girls carrying red peonies. Gorgeous!

My Other Dress

My other dress came in yesterday. I had it custom made in Thailand. Originally I wanted something that was Lanna style. I think it's the style closest to my family's background. I think the dresses that are now worn in Sipsongpanna, China has too much of a Chinese influence.

The three below are Tai Lue dresses in China. I think they are pretty bright and garish.

I really wanted Lanna style because this was the style of the land before my ancestors moved up into China and settled. I believe the Burmese also conquered the northern part of Thailand so some of the influence moved into Burma.

I looked for northern Thailand, southern Chinese, and Burmese style dresses but it was really difficult to find. I talked to my mom and she said anything is fine. So I just ordered a Thai dress that was one piece. The problem with a lot of these outfits are that the skirts are separate and I've always found it difficult to wear.

The lace of the dress is very nice. It's embroidered with beads so it's heavier than I thought.

The there was a fourth...

I think I have reached my wedding dress maximum capacity. Even Kim Kardashian only wore three dresses.

Here's my latest dress:

However, I did manage to sell the Watters & Watters Lasara. It's a beautiful dress but just wasn't beautiful on me =(

The Dress...Maybe

The Watters Lasara has been sold and now I'm down to the Watters WTOO Sorella and a new Jim Hjelm dress.

Here's the dress in ivory.

I don't know how this chick got in in blue but she wore this style to the Oscars.

I have it in ivory.

Underthings

I thought about just getting cups sewn into my dress(es) in order to avoid having to wear a constricting bra. I like to be able to breathe. I tried spanx once and I thought I was going to die. But the thought of having the dress slip down terrified me.

Then I remembered the longline type bra my consultant handed me while trying on dresses at Priscilla of Boston. It was soft, had smooth lines, and it wasn't constricting. I called my consultant to see if I could purchase one. They had them in stock so I stopped by after work to pick one up. It's the Le Mystere Seduction Bridal Bustier. It's pretty darn nice.

What's up with the petticoat thing. Do I need one?

Room Blocks

This was probably the most difficult thing I've had to do so far. We are getting married off the strip so the hotel options near the venue were slim. Our options were, JW Marriott, La Quinta, and the Suncoast Casino Resort.

I initially contacted the JW Marriott. I was able to get a decent rate of $150 per night but I didn't like their attrition clause. I would be responsible for any unbooked rooms.

So it was between La Quinta and Suncoast. La Quinta was closest so I contacted them. I was able to get a rate of about $80 per night at La Quinta.

I then wanted to give my guests some on strip options. Because the options on the strip were countless, I had a difficult time picking the hotels. I know my guests have their preferences so even guessing at how many rooms needed within each block was a challenge. I could block 100 rooms for my guests but I know not all of my guests will end up staying at the hotel I select. I went ahead and selected my favorite Vegas hotel as the main room block. It is also the hotel that we will likely be staying at. I then wanted to add an inexpensive option for my guests. I went on hotelplanner.com and bid it out. I went with an inexpensive on-strip hotel -- Stratosphere. I think I have three good options.

New Veil

I bought a new veil. I had the fingertip satin edged veil but I really like the look of long veils. But I took the advice of the girls. Sell the first one first before getting a second.

I didn't buy a completely cathedral length or even chapel length. I bought a floor length and at 75" inches, is still more than a foot longer than me and when placed on the head, just under the partial updo, it's even longer. I think it's a really good length for me. Considering we're getting married on the terrace of the country club, overlooking the golf course, anything longer would probably be inappropriate. If I was getting married at St. Paul's Cathedral, then maybe I could get away with a veil half the length of Princess Diana.

This veil comes on a metal comb. I noticed it stayed in my hair better than the plastic comb.

And it comes with it's very own garment bag.

Sara Gabriel veils and headpieces are so gorgeous but many of her pieces are a little too statement for me and I'm not that daring. That's why I chose the very plain (and boring) cut edge veil.

Wedding Ceremony Script

When I started wedding planning, the wedding ceremony really didn't matter much to me. I just wanted it to be short and sweet so I told our officiant we were fine with whatever. He sent over two samples from another Vegas officiant's website.

After going to two weddings this past month, I decided that there were certain elements I really wanted to include. I also wanted a ceremony leaning on more of the traditional side. This weekend I started putting the script together. I think I'm pretty close. There are a few sections that I need to reword a bit but I'm pretty happy with what I have so far.

Wedding Coordinator

Do I need one? The more I get into this whole wedding planning, the more "panicky" I become. I know I can do a lot of it myself because I've done it quite a bit at other weddings but I'm just not sure if I can do everything the day of while I'm busy with other things brides should be doing.

I now have a pretty good idea of what I want to do with centerpieces and have purchased (or will purchase) most of the supplies but the assembling part is really leaving me wanting a day of coordinator.

While I know that many of my girl friends will help (and they're all pretty good at this stuff), they are all also my bridesmaids and I'm afraid they will be busy doing other bridesmaids-y things such as taking pictures and looking pretty. And a part of me want my girls to enjoy themselves instead of having to sit around trimming my flowers.

invitation samples

I'm knee deep in wedding invitation samples. Some invites I paid for and others were free. I have more coming. I started organizing them in the Hello Kitty expanding file and ran out of slots so I ended buying individual expanding file folders.

When I started wedding planning, I was set on ordering my pocketfold invites from Cards and Packets. I wanted the Vertico pockets in the shimmery lagoon color. I wanted the actual invites to be either floral, paisley, or chandelier and I wanted the inserts to be "step" or "layered." It was difficult for me to design it because I don't know how to use Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign. I got someone to give me her high resolution paisley pattern and I attempted designing in Word on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper. I tried printing it and then cutting it. Ugh...the printing just didn't look professional and the cutting was a pain.

I then thought about ordering pre-printed invites in the correct size and gluing it to the pocketfold. The cost of purchasing professionally printed invites plus the pocketfolds was really high and still looked too DIY. I see a lot of DIY invites and well they look unprofessional and I really wanted professional-looking invites.

I've also been looking at weddingbee.com quite a bit to see some of the DIY invites. Pocketfolds are really popular. We received three pocketfold invites in the last few months. I can understand why people love them. Everything is in a neat package. I then started looking at other types of invites.

I fell in love with a lotus design and I ended up using it for my save the dates. I'm not sure if I will use the design for the invites but it's an option. If I do, I will probably mail the invite and all the inserts in a box.

I kept on looking and found these all in one invitations. I ordered a sample and people didn't like them. I think the reason they didn't like them was because of the font used. I would of course change the fonts. It's a tri-fold invitation with a perforated response card. People don't like the hand but I don't mind it.

I then ordered some letterpressed and Crane invitation samples. I think invitations printed on Crane paper or letterpressed are just classically beautiful. I actually ended up liking the letterpress paper that American Wedding used more than the popular Crane lettra paper that many letterpressers use. But letterpress, no matter where you order them from, are very pricey.

I think a very nice but less expensive type of printing option is thermography. It gives you the raised letters of more expensive engraving printing. I was able to find a few printers with reasonable thermography prices.

I really do like all sorts of styles of invites. I think it's a matter of me picking a style and sticking with it. I love the more modern styles but I also love the classics. I want something different but at the same time, I also want to be traditional.

I also ordered layered booklet invitations that I really like but I think I'll use that layout for my programs. I really like how they bound them using rivets. I visited Hobby Lobby after work one day and I think riveting will likely be my next project to tackle.

Save the Date Cards

The Save the Date postcards arrived yesterday. I'm in love with the printing company. It all started with me looking at various printing companies when I thought about designing my own invitations. I then ordered invitation samples from them and fell in love with a design.

As of now, I'm still undecided about the invitations so I held off on ordering the Save the Dates because I felt they had to match. I've come to terms with this -- my invites may or may not match my Save the Dates. Did I just say that?

I initially wanted Save the Date magnets and then I started messing with the online designing feature of the postcards. I loved the fact that I could put important information on the backside of the postcard. With a magnet, most people will open the envelope and toss the envelope. I wanted people to have our mailing address handy just in case. The postcard has our phone numbers, my email address, our wedding website address, and a little message to our guests encouraging them to visit our wedding website. I still like the idea of the magnet then I looked at our refrigerator and wondered why I had no magnets on the front. Our refrigerator is not magnetic on the front side so all of our holiday cards are stuck on the side.

I addressed most of them today. I had to visit three post offices in order to buy postcard stamps. At the second post office, the worker suggested I buy a bunch of .20 and .01 stamps. I reminded her the current postcard rate is .29 and adhering 10 stamps onto a postcard may be problematic.

I realize that they are going out a little earlier than usual but our wedding is semi-destination and all guests will have to travel. Las Vegas is not very difficult for many of our guests to get to but we wanted to make sure people had a heads up -- even though, we've been talking about it to our family and friends so they're aware.

Colors

It's been really difficult for me to make up my mind about almost every element of this wedding. When I cannot make up my mind, I end up going with all the options. The wedding colors are also causing me grief. At one point, I wanted a wedding of many colors.

I originally wanted to red and aqua or aqua and yellow.

I then ordered invitation samples. One of the samples was purple. Anyone who knows me, know how much I love purple. I then decided to add purple to the color palette. By adding purple, I think I'm opening up more flower options for myself.

THE Venue

We have a venue.

We flew out to Las Vegas earlier this week to visit several wedding venues. It was ten venues in three days. Boy was it tiring but well worth it.

The first venue we visited was Emerald at Queensridge. I really liked this location and it was my favorite of the day. I loved the courtyard area and the best feature was this awesome bridal dressing room suite.

The Bridal Suite Features:

• Six fully functional make-up stations with running water and electrical.
• A salon style step-up mirror.
• Two private bathrooms with additional facility for make-up.
• A walk-in closet that can be locked throughout the reception to store
  purses and other valuables.
• A private balcony.
• Comfortable furniture for relaxation prior to the ceremony.
• TV and surround sound CD stereo system.
• Complimentary Champagne for the ladies prior to the ceremony.
• Refrigerator stocked with complimentary soda and waters.
• An elevator provides easy access to The Brides Suite on the second floor.

The groom's room was not as sweet but it was still very nice.

The Groom's Dressing Room features:

• A 47 inch Plasma TV.
• PS3 with the latest games.
• A private bathroom.
• Comfortable furniture for relaxation prior to the ceremony.
• CD stereo system.
• A round of Complimentary beverages prior to the ceremony.
• Refrigerator stocked with complimentary soda and waters.

We did look at a few strip hotel locations. I wanted something not so large or busy. I saw four brides at the Bellagio on a Tuesday. I don't want to fight with five other brides to take pictures in the Bellagio gardens. We really liked the Westin. Jerami was really impressed by their customer service. The rooms were typical hotel ballrooms. Then they showed us the pool area. They would close down the pool area for us. I considered having a reception at the pool area.

Jerami fell in love with the second golf course we visited. I think he was ready to book with them right then and there but I wanted to wait until we visited our next venue. This is Angel Park Golf Club. It's a public golf course. The ceremony area is really gorgeous with a waterfall in the background.

Then we visited THE venue. Actually we were pretty torn between Angel Park Golf Club and Canyon Gate Country Club. In the end, we were leaning slightly towards Canyon Gate.

Here's the entrance:

Here's the beautiful balcony area. We can have a choice of the modern arch thing with choice of color (we would keep the red) or a huppa.

And here's the clubhouse. Lighting packages are offered but I think I like it just the way it is.

Canyon Gate just changed from the chiviari chairs to chameleon chairs -- the new chiviari.



I believe they had this color combo but I can be wrong:


Here's another style. I don't think these were the style at the venue.

Headpieces & Accesories

My dream was to wear a mantilla veil on my wedding day but unfortunately, none of the dresses I picked out worked with one. I ended up buying this veil from someone on Craigslist. She bought two veils on Hautelook.com during their sale featuring items from Bridal & Company. It is a two-tiered fingertip veil with satin edging.

I still thought about the mantilla veil and thought maybe I could wear a modified mantilla with the lace edging. How tough can it be to make a veil? I decided against it because I have very limited sewing skills.

I want something else besides a veil in my hair. I want something sparkly. I thought about doing crystal hair picks, crystal comb, headband or flower. I think a tiara will look silly with my dresses.

I love the romantic, fashion-foward accessories from the Vera Wang White line. (I love the black horsehair sash. Some people find it a bit out there but I love the look.)

This comb is very pretty.

I then came across this ribbon headband and bought it. (The Limited $59.90 -- online only.)

I also bought this bracelet. (The Limited $49.90 -- online only.)

My dream earrings are below. But at $200, I couldn't swallow the price. They are from Jardin and sold at perfectdetails.com. I searched for a similar pair but I couldn't find anything. I was at JCPenney so I wandered over to their jewelry section. I found a pair by Vieste Rosa that I really like. They are not as beautiful as the Harry Winston inspired beauties below but at $20, I decided to go ahead and buy them. If I find something else, I can still wear them somewhere. I can't find a picture of the earrings and not in the mood to take pictures right now.

Below are other items I love from Haute Bride. The first is a headband. It's on sale one the Aisle New York website but it's still $185. It retails for $372.

This bracelet is gorgeous but it's sold out on the Aisle website.

This barrette is also sold out.