L.A. Times

A few months ago, my FMIL mentioned that she had found "the perfect" MOTG dress, but with a price tag of $3800, it was way outside her budget. I also vaguely remember her mentioning something about writing a letter to a "fashion expert" to ask for advice.

Yet, no one was more surprised than I was to see this letter featured in the L.A. Times Image Section:

Dear Ms. Magsaysay,
My beloved son is getting married in May, and my taste in dresses exceeds my bank account.

I have attached a photo of two dresses I really like. They are similar in many ways. The photo on the left has more than one dress -- I am interested in the one in the middle, which I have marked in the photo, but those dresses cost upward of $3,000.

As mother of the groom I am told not to wear white or off-white, and not to wear the color of the mother of the bride which is, I think, kind of a soft purple, maybe called mauve. The bridesmaids are wearing a pink, soft. I hate pink so that is out. I kind of want some shade of mauve. Too bad for the rules I guess. Since we are having a destination wedding (Costa Rica) and I am a teacher, the lower the better for cost...less than 300. Is there hope? My hope is for a dress with a vintage '20s look.

Click here to read more.

Slight Chance of Shower

Some of you may remember the Christmas blizzard of 2010, if you don't, it took place the day after Christmas and dumped two feet of snow on New York City! The thing was that my family (two sisters, one niece, one nephew and my mom!) had come to stay with me (and Mr.) for A WEEK in our tiny ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT. Now if you aren't Chinese you may not understand how you end up with your 3 adults and two children staying in your living room, but it if you are, you understand how impossibly hard it is to say no!

At first it didn't seem like the worst thing in the world. I LOVE my family plus there is SO much to do in NYC that I figured they wouldn't be around that much. Then the blizzard hit they night they arrived! If they had been on a flight just a few hours later, they would have never made it at all. So after a day of board games and wedding crafting we decided it was time to venture into the snow.

Day one looked like this:

{My mom, me, my sister, and my other sister holding my nephew}

{Mr. and Me}

We decided to go for brunch three and a half blocks away and it took almost 30 mins to get there! By the time we got back (and built snowmen in the street) everyone was EXHAUSTED.

The next day we tried again...this time we had a big day! We went to Bryant park to check out the ice skaters, then to the fabric district to get project supplies, then a little shopping in midtown, headed down to China town for lunch, and finished off with a little more shopping! It was a looooong cold day... yet for some reason my sisters kept talking about having a girls night out!

By the time we got home it was almost 4 and my sisters were super excited to go get drinks later that evening. I secretly knew I was not getting back out of my pajamas. As 6 o'clock rolled around my baby sister mentioned that one of her friends was in town and she would love to go see her. I happily gave her instructions and wished her well. Unfortunately that was not enough she wanted me to take her! I dug my heels in, I was NOT leaving my house! Soon my other sister was on my case as well. I was increasingly annoyed, after all they were staying in MY apartment and I had walked around freezing cold, slushy, crowded NY ALL DAY!!

Finally they got to Mr.! Before I knew it, he was trying to talk me into going out with my sisters... Traitor! I had finally decided that I would secretly walk my sisters to the subway and then get of the train behind them... horrible, I know BUT I was freezing and tired!

Luckily, they broke!

They told me that they were planning a surprise bridal shower for me and two of my bridesmaids had come in from out of state (in the blizzard!!), and were waiting for us downtown! I felt horrible! After a few forced hugs and lots of kisses, we all finally got dressed and headed down.

{My baby sister, Me, My other sister}

{Me, Bridesmaid L, MOH N, Awesome Friend S}

They even got us an ice cream cake! I love ice cream cake. We tried to do practice cake cutting pictures but the cake was frozen so they turned out like this...

My niece loved the ice cream cake even more...her shirt should say " I love ice cream cake & NOT sharing"

This is my family's reaction to my "wedding smile." I've been practicing a new smile (aka no bottom teeth) but my family seems to think its HILARIOUS! (notice that they all have the EXACT same laugh!)

{Mom holding nephew, My baby sister, Me, My middle sister}

I think the smile looks perfectly natural....well not "perfectly" natural but it's definitely getting there.

Well, thanks for the FABULOUS bridal shower ladies. It's the best surprise bridal shower I've EVER had. Sorry I was such a "zilla".

Has anyone else been a HUGE "zilla?" How'd you make it up to the people you raged on!?!?

200 days left...

Where did the time go?! There are now less than 7 months until my wedding... it seems like it was just yesterday that I was saying “I’m not worried, I have 14 months to plan…” Sigh.

That being said, things are going well but I think it’s time for me to order invitations. I will be moving to Amsterdam for the semester in January so I would really like to get my invitations assembled and addressed before I leave. Finals start the second week of December so I need to have all the pieces before December and then I can assemble after finals, between Christmas and January 8, when I leave.

In addition to my love for letterpress, I have fallen head over heels in love with boxed invitation suites. I first saw these boxed suites on Wedding Chicks and fell in love.

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But I was obviously worried about the DIY-ability of these suites, not to mention the mailing costs! Then I headed to the Bee and found Miss Perfumes gorgeous boxed invitations.

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Although Mrs. Perfume didn't DIY her invites she did assemble, wrap, and address (label) all the boxes, and from the look of things she had twice as many as I will need. But I was still really apprehensive. It just seemed like a lot of work, on top of being a full time law student, working part-time as a nanny of four kids, and a research associate at the Vale Center on Sustainable Investment, I have a take-home midterm due in two weeks, my MPRE (Multi-State Professional Responsibility Exam) this weekend!

But then I saw this on Green Wedding Shoes. Not only are the pieces amazing, but its a New Orleans wedding. Let's just say "I know what it means"...


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I try really hard to avoid this term because it is so overused on wedding blogs but these invites are SOO SWOON-able! I'm hooked. So this weekend my lovely bridesmaid LA, is coming back in town and we are gonna start throwing out ideas and making mock-ups! I am SOO excited.

Bridesmaid Dress update!

As I promised I would post an update on my bridesmaids' dresses! Here it is:



Yes I did unpack and put on one of the bridesmaids dresses and I love love love it. It's so soft and comfortable. I kind of wish I ordered on for myself.

HauteLook Dress No. 2

I used the rest of my HauteLook $40 credit to buy another white dress! I've basically decided that I want to wear white my entire bridal weekend so I figured this would be another great addition!



I may not actually keep them both... It'll really depend on how they fit. Now if only I could depend on UPS to get them to me... sigh*

StDs - Designed/Delivered Part III

I apologize for the delay in this post. Here are my DIY save the dates...TA-DA!


After my huge black pen fiasco I regained my self-confidence and decided to try again at handwriting all the addresses. I got a couple of white gel pens from Michael's which I think look a million times better.




I didn't have it in me to hand write all the return addresses so we just printed them on transparent labels and stuck them on the back. We also used a little piece of fancy fabric tape as a finishing touch.We were originally going to use seals but they ended up being a little big for the envelopes. Hopefully I'll be able to use the seals on the invitations.



Then I put them all in gallon ziplock bags to protect them from the elements until they were safely in the hands of the USPS.

eff U-P-S

I hate UPS! It turns out that I am on the 2-5 segment of the UPS route, which is actually perfect because I ONLY have class from 250 - 630 and work from 230-5. Argh! Even better, the UPS guy NEVER gets here between 2-230 its always like 2:37. Just late enough that I don't seem him on the street but close enough to 230 to drive me INSANE!

I've been waiting quite impatiently for my Piperlime order (Badgley Miscka Shoes) and my bridesmaids' dresses. I am not entirely sure why I wait when I know that I won't get them. So I finally decided to make the hike up to the Bronx to pick up the packages on my own.

Luckily I don't live that far from the Bronx but it still required a cross town bus into East Harlem, and a train ride up into the Bronx. Then I wondered aimless around until a kind gentleman said, "UPS? Down that way."



So after numerous angry emails, stern phone calls and one trip to the UPS Customer "Service" Center in the Bronx, I finally have my shoes and the bridesmaids' dress!




I am not entirely sure I love these shoes more than the other ones. I don't know, what do you think? I may have built them up to much in my mind. Plus I have never been a huge strappy shoe person, I love they way they look on other people but I think they make my ankles look huge, my feet look wide and my toes are all splayed out over the edge.



I have not opened the bridesmaids dresses because I wanted to ask permission first! Once I talk to them I'll be sure to post an update.

SHOOOOOOOOOOES!

(I really have no idea why the box looks like it was run over by a UPS truck!... knowing UPS, it probably was)

My Betsy Johnson wedding shoes are here! It's been a gross rainy day in NYC so these were a pleasant surprise. I actually think they are adorable. I think they may actually be my wedding shoes!

(I apologize in advance for the horrible pictures/lighting... taking pictures of your own feet is pretty difficult.)





The only problem is that they are really high and I don't want to be taller than D in all our wedding pictures. On the other hand, I will probably be barefoot for the ceremony since it is on the beach.

Hmmm...

D isn't home right now so I'll have to wait until he gets home to make the final determination!

Ticket prices

The following charts show the lowest round trip price by departure date from relevant cities in the U.S to San Jose, Costa Rica, based on actual customer searches on Priceline.com. Prices found between 7-21 days prior to departure with a trip length of 2-10 days.

* Good news: End of May is a relatively cheap time to travel to Costa Rica.
* Bad news: These numbers are fairly meaningless. D and I travelled to CR last Jan for $242 rt which is clearly not indicated on the chart because we bought the tickets a two months in advance.

Los Angeles, California to San Jose, Costa Rica

Dallas, Texas to San Jose California

New York City to San Jose, California

I just thought these charts would be helpful for my guests to see so they have an idea of what to expect price wise. If you are one of the many guests who are not coming from one of these cities you can just set up a travel alert on Priceline (or any other discount ticket website) and get the same information.

Here are some other great resources for finding cheap flights:
* Travel Ticker
* Fare Compare
* Booking Buddy
* Bookit

StDs - Designed/Delivered Part II

After designing the StDs, the next step was to line the envelopes. We went to Paper Presentation and picked up some high quality brown kraft paper envelopes and loads of scrapbook paper I clearly couldn't pick just one so I picked up everything that caught my eye. D picked the one with the pink elephants.

Then a traced an envelope onto some cardstock to make a template.

Once I had the basic size of the envelope it was easy to figure out the size and spacing I wanted for the liner.
Then I cut out the template and just traced it onto the paper. This is actually the back of the paper. D was in charge of the cutting and the stuffing. Then I did all the gluing.


Here's what they all looked like when they were done!
Super easy and the whole project envelopes and paper cost a little less than $50.

AMAZING deal for all my guest!!!

On Livingsocial today is the deal of the century...50% off jet luxury hotels. Why is this so exciting?!?! Because one of the luxury hotels is in Costa Rica where we are getting married. Buena Vista Villas is a gorgeous luxury resort in Manuel Antonio and for 50% off, a great deal! Even if you can't make it to Costa Rica for my wedding, it would make a great honeymoon or just a nice vacation.

Our wedding photographer

I've been feeling a little overwhelmed lately and one of my favorite things to do when I'm feeling down is looking at wedding pictures. I especially love to swoon over Julie Comfort's blog! I fell in love with Julie's photography long before I decided I wanted her to be our photographer. I fell in love with the way I felt when I looked at her pictures. They really made me want to be one of those brides... All her couples look so happy, and in love but not posed. The emotion in her pictures looks so natural and easy. Best of all, all the weddings seem to have a slightly different feel. They don't feel like the exact same shots with different couples in different settings. Her pictures really made me feel like that could be me, and that she would be a wonderful addition to my (our) big day!

So I decided to contact Julie. I was super nervous about getting in touch with her because I had such high expectations and I didn't know what I would do if it didn't work out. After a few days of email tag, I was finally able to talk to her on the phone, and it was great!

The moment she said "I'm really like a ninja," I knew we would be just fine. Here are some of my very favorites from her blog:










What do you think?

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