wines.. make sure u buy ahead of time!!

So, I spent a lot of time in search for a good red wine..  i found one that was good and had the color that matched my purpley theme..  so, i thought to myself at first, i should just buy cases of it.. however, i didn't know how many cases since i didn't know how many rsvps..  and my fiance said there's no point in buying all the wines and where am i going to store it..  so, now that it's closer to the date and i have more of a number of rsvps..  i decided to go buy the wine.. omg?!?  my wine is hard to find!!!  i went to two costcos and within a few days, what was 88 bottles at one costco become 0.. and then the other costco can't locate the 160 bottles that they had.. so, what am i to do!??  i'm just hoping that i can contact the winery and get some cases from them directlty..  cross my fingers they still have that lot..

note to ALL: if you find a wine, especially a red wine, just buy however many cases you think you may need and then store it..  instead of scrambling last minute to figure out what to do when it disappears.. 

makeup & hair.. wowpretty!

 

So, a few weeks ago my cousin setup an appointment with his wife's makeup artist..  me hesitant with ALL things makeup since i have superdupertruper sensitive skin and really hate wearing makeup..  i tried a session before at the nordy's bobby brown counter, since i don't mind bobby brown makeup and felt their makeup was more natural looking.. that session at the bb makeup counter was a big disappointment, i looked like a clown with pink cheeks.. so, when i went to this other makeup apptmt i was not thinking much of it since i didn't want to spend much time nor money on something that wasn't important to me.. and my fiance's sister was very nice enough to offer to do my makeup for me.. 

however, after two hours of jira doing my makeup & hair, i was HUGELY surprised..  she made me feel really comfortable, she did this special airbrushing that made it look amazingly clean..  despite the fact that i was breathing some of this stuff in, i still really liked what she did..  she even made me have eyelashes!!!  everything looked really natural.. and i now am so happy that i'm getting my makeup and hair done.. i even booked her for my mom and some other friends..  so, if any of you can't find a makeup artist for your wedding or event, be sure to book JIRA from wowpretty..  she is absolutely amazing and works miracles!!

RSVPs..

So, when i send in my rsvps to other people's weddings, i always try to include a note..  so, me thinking i'm going to place "leave us a note" on the back side of the rsvps will give more room for people to write us a note.. and afterwards, i can make a little scrap book out of it.. sure enough, i get so many rsvps where people totally miss the "leave us a note" area and squeeze as much info. on the front as possible..  i even got one rsvp back where they wrote a nice note on a post-it and stuck it onto the rsvp..  *sigh*.. lesson learned, make sure i either include (flip over) on the front side in the future for any rsvps i send out.. or forget the leave us a note..  ;o

oh well, i guess at least i got some notes from people to read..  i luv the one with the superduper nice handwriting! and the best one was someone added a simple "happily" in between "will attend" which really made my day!  ;p

tuxes or suits?!

Wow, it's been a while since i've had a chance to even take a moment..  work has been pretty busy, so wedding stuff has been placed on hold for a bit..  chuongy and i finally got a chance to go check out some places for groom attire.. he would like to do this the very last minute, but i prefer to get whatever we need to do done.. so, after much nagging, he found time to go check out tuxes and suits for the wedding.. since we were babysitting ethan, it was perfect timing to bring him along to look at tuxes/suits for our cute ring bearer..  it was sooo funny trying to explain to him what we were doing and what a ring bearer was.. i just told lil ethan that he holds the rings that will bring uncle chuongy and auntie joyce together.. he took it seriously and it was soo cute.. so, off we went to men's wearhouse first.. to my huge surprise, they had nothing!!  literally 6 dark colored tux jackets to try on and 3 light colored ones on a manequinn display that's not even reachable.. in addition, their prices were more expensive.. to top it off, they bounced us from one sales rep to another sales rep and then to a consultant who was just pointed to us towards a short rack of suits that would be chuongy's size..  it was def. disappointing..  finally, chuongy mentioned a place on 4th ave., called selix.. after we dropped off the lil guy, chuongy and i went to selix.. to my huge surprise, this little store had a lot more selections for tux rentals to try on, a much more helpful sales rep and a better price package then men's warehouse..  with much luck, chuongy was able to pick out an off white tux set and shoes.. now all we need is for the bridesmaid dress to deliver and bring it in to color match with the tie and vest and we're completely set.. 

a dose of wedding humor..

So, i was searching through this site wpja.com for more photographers to interview and check out just to open my options before i make a complete decision.. and i found this one post: http://www.wedpix.com/articles/016/telling-a-wedding-story-through-humor.html

some cute funny pix or photos of wedding moments that are surprising and funny.. ok, maybe not that funny when you read the story about the bride where she had to have paramedics cut her ring off her finger during her wedding day.. to top that, there's a photo of it..

so, check out the page and maybe for those brides out there searching for photogs, feel free to search for one in your area..  ;p

taxes on photography?!

So, it never appeared to me that there would be taxes involved with wedding photography..  i just never thought of it.. until yesterday when i interviewed a photographer they listed the package price + tax..  weirdly, so far no other photographers have even mentioned it..  so, i googled "wedding photography tax" and found this: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_there_Sales_Tax_on_Wedding_Photography

of course, of all places california and the millions of things we get taxed on eventhough our gov. is broke..  we get taxed on wedding photography.. so, in a way i am glad that this photographer laid it all out and was definitely honest with me.. now i know to make sure to account for that in my wedding budget..  hopefully, i'll figure out soon who to go with for my wedding photographer.. so def. stay tuned for that..  ;p

change into reception dress?!?

So, i've been told by several people in my family that i should change into another dress for the reception dinner..  i'm still not sure if i really want to since afterall what's the point of buying a wedding dress for just an hour..  i really don't see a point to it, but i guess it may be a chinese tradition per one of my friends..

some of my friends and coworkers i talked to didn't change into another dress, they actually wore their wedding dress throughout.. afterall it is a wedding dress for the wedding day.. so, why bother.. it feels like it'll be just too much work.. and i want to enjoy every minute of celebrating with my friends, family and coworkers and not have to waste time running into a room to throw on another uncomfortable gown..  and possibly per my family touchup my makeup, etc..

i think i'll leave it to chance.. if i find a dress that i actually like for a reasonable price without making much effort, then i guess i can consider making a change of wardrobe somehow.. but if it's too much trouble.. then forget it.. i'll stick to what a bride should be wearing, a wedding dress..  afterall when am i ever going to wear that wedding dress again anyways, mine as well enjoy being in it every minute of that day..  ;p

unneeded stress and rude guests!?!

Well, recently i had this person in my life that i actually did care a lot about, despite the fact that she has been nothing but a B* to me all my life.. from her bossing me and my friends around when we were kids, to her smirky comments all the freggin time she sees me... or her annoying supposed "joke" email about why i should actually have my bachelorette in bali, not vegas just cz it's "boring" to her and there's no imagination behind it.. i'm sorry to say but the world doesn't evolve around u..

think, just think for a second..

i would've been happi if she could make it to my wedding after all she is part of my family.. but u know what, no worries..  i totally understand since work is def. more important.. honestly, if i had something important for work when it was her wedding i wouldn't fly back to hkg for it either.. but to make a smart a*hss comment about "why are u having ur wedding on a sunday, who the heck makes their wedding on a sunday,  i can't make it cz ur wedding falls on a sunday" instead of  "sorry i just can't make it"..  it's just plain out rude!

i'm sorry that i had to change my wedding day to a sunday since my fiance's mother thinks it's a better day and the chinese restaurant is only available on sunday..
i'm sorry that i don't have the luxury to take off from work and hop on the plane to bali to have my bachelorette.. just to drink with you..
i'm sorry that i'm not an alcoholic and would even think of flying halfway around the globe to get drunk w/ u.. and neglect all the important things here in life
i'm sorry i had planned my camping trip way before u came last and had to organize it and prep for it the night before the trip and couldn't come out and see u get drunk and waaaasted
i'm sorry that i don't have money coming out of my bleep to fly my friends halfway around the world to just have my bachelorette in bali..
i'm sorry that my friends and i are not "imaginative" enough to not have it in vegas..
i'm sorry i can't hire a full time live in nanny for my good friend who is organizing it so she can be away from her newborn baby to go to bali..
i'm sorry that i actually care about my friends and wouldn't make them go somewhere just cz my cousin wants me to have my bachelorette there..

u know what, NO I AM NOT and NEVER will be sorry for any of these things and that i see ur comments as rude and am quite honestly obnoxious and NOW glad ur not coming period! it is one less stress in my life..

i guess ur helpful and supportive mother balances out all that negative annoying energy from u!

Cakes anyone?

Thanks to my friend, M., i recalled she mentioned wholefoods for her wedding cake - reasonably priced and i guess decent tastes.. few others mentioned that place too! so, i looked them up on yelpers and there was a mention of looking for a baker named hiedi there.. so, i booked an apptmt with this lady named heidi from the SM wholefoods bakery.. she was super duper nice and migosh she busted out this plate of four humungous slices of cakes.. and i'm not the dessert queen.. my fiance is the total dessert queen and he was lucky that she boxed up what i couldn't eat for him.. i took a lil nibble at each flavor, and i actually liked the chocolate one.. she showed me her portfolio, which was like most other portfolios i've seen.. i told her i like simple and a hint of purple.. after all that, she totally shocked me with the price!! i thought she missed a zero! she quoted me like $135 for a 3 tier cake w/ flowers - 10inch, 8inch & 6inch.. migosh.. that's just insane.. + $50 delivery + $65 for a half sheet, which should feed about 100 people per her suggestion.. so, i'll def take that into account..

however, i'm still curious what the venue that i'm having my ceremony at will quote me.. esp. since he said that they can bake lil tiny cheesecakes w/ fruit on top for me to serve bite size for every person.. cost shouldn't exceed $1k!?! *gulp* hopefully it's not insane.. ;p

Rings?!?

Ok, so as much as i luv my mother for getting my solitaire ring made in hong kong.. i thought and told her that we were going to pick our wedding bands here in the states.. so we went to several places and someone at work suggested to check out shane co.. well, i never thought of going there eventhough i hear their commercial ALL the time on the radio.. so, we decided to check it out.. they have great customer service and to my surprise quite a bit of wedding bands.. they even had what my fiance wanted, titanium (which lots of places do not carry).. so, after about an hour and half of picking, i found a tini tiny band with tini tiny diamonds that fits my tini tiny fingers.. after about a week, they had all our special orders ready.. migosh their customer service is def. phenomenal.. they even guarantee if u lose a diamond for life and would clean ur rings for free every 6 mo... that's a great service every jeweler should have.. so, when i picked up the rings, i was so excited, i decided to share the "excitement" with my aunt e...

first thing she said when she opened up the box was "OMG? that's ur ring?! it's sooooooooooo tiny.. i can't even see it" or something to that extend..

well, my fingers are tiny, so i like tiny rings.. next thing u know, she decides to call my mother in hkg.. and told her my ring looks tini tiny.. my mom, was totally fine with it.. BUT she failed to mention untill this moment, that she already bought 2 other bands to go around the solitaire too.. and to top it off, she also told me yesterday that she had another band to go in between for days when i don't wear the solitaire and put it in the bank.. thinking she'll surprise me.. eventhough i told her we would go out and buy our wedding bands like 3 times and told her when i bought the band and how much they cost..

so, now thanks again to my family, (not that i'm not happi or grateful for it) but how is a girl going to wear 5 wedding rings on one tini tiny itty bitty finger (as seen above)?!?! since my mother can't return hers in hkg, and it's more value and cheaper then what i paid here, i just sadly went and returned my ring that i liked.. hey, i'm a simple girl, i'm happi with anything.. to my surprise they let me return it w/ no questions asked (even after i resized it).. now that is amazing customer serice!!!!

we still kept my fiance's ring since it's titanium.. which i'm surprised my mother didn't try to go out and just buy his too! which i may get a surprise the day before my wedding! just watch! with my family, you definitely get things done.. but u wonder, who's wedding is it now?!

funny thing is, my manager said to me, just watch after u get married, ur mom is going to come to u with a basket.. in it would be a baby.. "look i got u a baby"!!!! classic! just classic! ;p

NOW: gratitude challenge

I have taken on this gratitude challenge in the midst of all my wedding planning (in 5 months) and of course holiday campaigning for work.. most ppl may think i'm nuts?! some would think why would i bother and when would i find the time to even take on a challenge..

well, forget everything, i am committed to this and have dedicated a good portion of everyday for 21 days to take this on.. after all, all the stresses in life can never exceed all the great things in life that we are and should always be grateful for.. it may sound cliche, but it's just the straight truth.. many times we overlook the things we have and never say enough of how much appreciation we have for the people around us..

for me, i can say, it's a privilege to take on this challenge and be able to make reflections over just things in life, whether good or bad..

since, several brides have told me, they've gotten so worked up on all the little things of planing a wedding, that they don't seem to just take a deep breath and just enjoy it.. so, a little time of (r&b) reflection on life & blogging should balance out all the kraziness that's going on.. ;p