Places I’d like to be right about now….

Sick…………

So i am home sick with some nasty respiratory something or another.  So i’m spending my day looking at wedding stuff…hahaha.  My most valuable resourses have be www.liweddings.com  which is similar to theknot.com but exclusively for long island weddings…their forums have been soooooooo great.  Brides basically post information on ALL their vendors and ideas…including pictures, opinions, prices, etc.  That’s basically how I found my reception hall, photographer and makeup person.   Other really helpful sources have been my sister, other xanga brides, the Leu sisters and my planning buddy, Yach. 

Btw,  it’s totally possible for two friends to have wedding dates REALLY close to each other and not have any of that bridezilla, jealousy crap that you hear about all the time.  I can’t believe all these girls who cut off their friendships because they feel like their friend stole their ideas…blah blah blah sob story.  What? like you’re the only one to have ever worn that dress?  Or to have those flowers?  It’s so retarded.  Anyway, having a planning buddy is great since we forward each other any great deals or ideas that we find!!!

I’m mailing in my contract and deposit for Angelica Glass today. SOOOOOOOOOOO excited.  I know i say that every time i mention her name, but I’m so excited to have her as my photographer!!!  SOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!

My hair and makeup trial will be towards the end of March! yay!  Any hair ideas?  My hair is sort of long now…I think it’s VERY long…but it’s not really hahah.  About 3 inches past my shoulders…

*EDIT* Hmmmm…the more input i’m getting from DIY centerpieces, the more I’m leaning towards candles.  I refuse to use a florist.  They’re SOOOOOOOOO overpriced…I researched prices for calla lilies and I get basically do two vases for about $20.  I got quoted anywhere from $80-100 dollars fro the same two vases of callas.  yikes. 

Do it….er….someone else?

I started out such a gung ho DIY (do it yourself for those of you who aren’t up with your bridal accronyms….e.g. all my male readers) bride.  I was going to do my own invites, programs, flowers, makeup, music….EVERYTHING.  I was just going to start early and finish everything way in advance except for the flowers and makeup.  It sounded like a good plan…..in theory.   But slowly, slowly, I started turning items over to the pro’s….I’m not sure if it’s a result of a shot of reality, or just plain laziness.

The invites will be printed from an online sourse….I will be doing some final bindings of pieces. The thought of spending hours cutting paper just made my fingers curl up in defiance….ok fine, my fingers didn’t really curl up, but i just really really really didn’t want to do it.  The next to get cut from the list was music….although the theory of an ipod wedding was good, given that we have an afternoon wedding, we would have never been able to get the equipment set up in time.  Most recently, it looks like makeup is now getting x’ed off the DIY list, since I found someone who could do hair and makeup at my house for a reasonable price.  I may have to get up at 6AM, but hey, that’s no different from what I do now for work.

So far, flowers and programs have survived the cuts.  I think doing my own flowers is such a HUGE cost difference that I may stick to that.  I am probably not going to do the orchids despite how beautiful they are.  I forgot one little details…orchids love warm weather….I will not be having my wedding during warm weather season.  I don’t want to risk ruining the flowers by transporting them here and there in the cold.  And even if I leave them at my house in queens, my thermostat at home is set at the typical asian 50-55 degrees, which is out of the orchid comfort zone. 

So i may use the calla lilies after all….but a lower version, not those really tall ones.  I also saw pictures of some all candle centerpieces that I thought looked pretty nice (I’m a HUGE candle lover).  So those are in the running too….I think the 3rd one with the votives and TONS of rose petals is soooo cute.  If I end up with the candle centerpiece, I may have to do some convincing with the mom….she is paranoid about candles…she thinks it will burn everything down.  I’m not allowed to burn candles at home in queens…and if i received a candle as a gift, she’ll tell me, “it’s only for decoration….not to light”.

Anyone have good ideas for simple centerpieces that I could pull off the morning of?!!

WE GOT ANGELICA GLASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, not officially yet….her computer crashed, so she’s waiting for her new one to come in before she can send us a contract.  But so far, she’s available and she’s all ours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am SOOOO excited….this is even better than finding the dress.  We’re going to let her have complete freedom…no must take shots (with the exception of a few family portraits…but even then, she can arrange us however she wants)….she seems to work best when she just does her thing.

And i was offered to get makeup lessons from this really good (and very pricey) makeup artist who is friends with a certain relative of mine.  She’s basically giving me 1/2 off of her normal lesson rate.  So i may just do my own makeup…because i’m not a very trusting person…hahahaha…i’m so worried that i won’t like my makeup the day of if it’s done by someone else!!!  At least hair doesn’t matter as much…if it’s all in the back, just don’t shoot pics of me from the back….it’s hard to cover up the face!

First Real Snow…

Torn Loyalties

YAY Bears!!! YAY Colts!!!  I had the Bears as my defense and Peyton Manning as my QB on my fantasy football team…so i owe them some loyalty since they  scored me quite a few number of points.  Now, i’m torn and i don’t know who to root for

But I’m glad that I won’t be hearing anymore Pats talk at work anymore…it was really starting to drive me crazy….every day, the analyzing of Pats’ history…blah blah blah….

RK Bridal and The One

So I went to RK bridal yesterday to try on dresses….and i must say that place is a madhouse.  No pushing and shoving or anything…but just a LOT of people.  Basically, you get there and have to sign up to try on up to 5 dresses…There are only 4-5 dressing rooms (each room having its own conultant) for brides-to-be and when i got there (two hours after openning), my name ended up on the bottom of page 2.  They were up on the girls from the top of page 1.  But after you sign up, then you go and choose your 5 dresses….then you wait a LOOONG time until your name is called. 

The dressing rooms are all on one back wall…and the three paneled mirrors are outside of each dressing room.  So after you put on your dress and the consultant pins it to you, you come outside and look in the big mirror.  And EVERYONE (and everyone they brought) is waiting right there for their names to be called.  So basically, you’re trying on your dress in front of a large crowd hahahaha.  Then you can hear the crowd murmuring about whether or not you look good in your dress.

So anyway, i start looking for my dresses…and within 5 minutes I’m already overwhelmed…All the dresses started looking the same.  And i have to say it’s sooooooo hard to tell from online what they look like in person.  There were sooo many online that looked really good…but in person, you’re like oh….eek.  But on the other hand, there were a lot that looked MUCH better in person.  And  ALL the dresses are in their plastic protector, so it’s like static city.  I’m shocking my mom….my mom is shocking me….i’m shocking myself…i’m shocking nearby people.  So i just focused on this one designer that i liked….they make really good quality silk gowns and a decent price…and their style is very me (the designer is asian too!!! not that it matters…but I like a little asian connection hahaha!)  

So I picked my 5…1/2 picked by me, 1/2 picked by mom.  And FINALLY i go to try them on…and 1 of the 5 was THE ONE!!! yay!  Not posting a pic….hahahha….you’ll just have to wait.  But it looks NOTHING like picture i posted a while back of what i wanted.  It was actually one of mom’s pics….and i didn’t want to try it on originally because it would take up one of my 5 spots.  But when i stepped out in it, i could hear the crowd murmuring how nice I looked in it.  And people passing by would tell me to get it hahahaha.  But the fabric is AMAZING…I couldn’t stop touching it….it was soooo soft.  I even made mom step forward and touch it. puahahaha.  I didn’t order it from there….i found it online for MUCH cheaper…and RK Bridal has a policy that if you can find one online for cheaper, you can fax in an order through RK Bridal with the online price and they’ll beat the price for 5%….so I shall do that.  The funny part is that I’ve looked through this designer’s webiste MANY MANY times….and I never once clicked on this dress….

Oh, and mom found a dress too….it’s quite sexy i must say. hhahaha.  i didn’t think she would go for it, but it looked really good on her.  At the end she was debating between an all covered up one and the sexy one. But her consultant and I were like, mom, you’re still super skinny (she’s not much bigger than me)…not a lot of women your age can wear this and look good….just wear this.  So she said okay….hahaha.

All in all, I loved the RK Bridal experience….low mantainance….no snobbery….exactly what I wanted.

Early Alzheimer’s

So, today i called my banquet manager to let her know i was dropping by Sunday. The owner of the reception hall went and bought all the 2008 brides wedding planners. YAY…i love free stuff…So i want to go and get mine. ANyhow, she was on the other line, so i left her a message telling her that i’d drop by. Except when it came to the part where i was supposed to leave my phone number….I COULD NOT REMEMBER IT. AT ALL. not the area code…not any portion of it. I was like, “ummmm…….hold on a sec…..um….617…no……732…..no……uh…………………i can’t remember my phone number….hold on……ummmmmmmm………….ok, well, you have my number somewhere ,so please give me a call back”. Yeah…this was all on the message….i felt like an idiot. And it’s not like i remembered it as soon as i hung up. i STILL could not remember it. I had to IM a certain sister of mine and ask her what my number was.

So either i just had a mini-stroke, or I am aging FAST.

T minus 2 days until I meet Angelica, my please please please i really hope for photographer…….this is by far the most exciting part of wedding planning. I’m going to go saturday to look at dresses with my mom and i’m like…eh…dresses….who cares. Everytime i say Angelica’s name, i have to say it in a high pitched squeal while pumping my fists in the air. okay…i really hope she never reads this because she will think i’m a totally psychotic nut. But i LOOOOOVE her work….

Okay quick question…..why do a lot of asian brides wear wedding dresses in their engagement pics? It seems like we are the only population who does that….everyone else does jeans and a sweater. I totally have nothing against that, but i just wonder how that started. I must say that since there is NO way i will be taking a ton of nice outdoor pics during my wedding (unless it turns out to be 70 degrees like january 5 of this year….), i probably will be doing the wedding dress thing during engagements pics too. I’ll probably buy some cheap $50 dress off ebay so i can lay down in a park or in water and get it totally dirty. I could do it after the wedding in my real dress…but i don’t know if i’d have the heart to do that to my real dress.

stupid freakin boston.  I hate Boston during bad weather….no one ever does what they’re supposed to during snow etc.  It’s not snowing here ,but it’s sleeting and the wet cement is freezing over…so everything is ice.  Except you can’t really tell the difference between wet cement and icy cement in the dimly lit streets.  So if you own a business where people are constantly entering and exiting your premisis….wouldn’t you think, oh…i should put down some salt so that no one falls while exiting my business.

NOPE…..when i entered the laundromat down the street today, i went in on the right side…and i guess it wasn’t icy there.  I exited on the left side….and apparently the entire thing is ice…and it’s a downhill slope as soon as you step out the door.  So i step out and my feet slide out from under me and i end up  falling down so hard that i felt it in my head even though my head didn’t hit anything.  And i must’ve been leaning slightly to the left, so i hit every bone that faced the ground….and now i have these huge bruised welts on my wrist, elbow and hip bone…they’re really swollen and everything.  I was only wearing thin cotton pants and a sweatshirt since it was just down the street…so it wasn’t like i had padding from a coat or anything…it was just bone on concrete.  I was SOOOO pissed.  And of course the owner wasn’t there…..as usual….they’re never there….i don’t know how they don’t get robbed.