Wow

Nick found this picture online and it happens to have been taken at the Sheraton Kauai, where we are staying next May for our wedding. I have a feeling this is on the Western side of the resort as that's the part I know to have more grass and rocks. The Eastern side sits on Poipu Beach.

This picture makes me so happy to be getting married in Hawaii, I wish I was leaving tomorrow.

Ecofetti

This was too cool not to mention. I just found out about this on the fabulous weddingbee blog...

it's called ecofetti and is confetti that is enviromentally friendly because it is biodegradable. You can just leave it where it falls and let Mother Earth take care of the rest or just hose it down to make it disappear. You can get a free sample (sorta free but definitely discounted) by sending a S.A.S.E. to the company (with 2 -39 cents stamps) and they'll mail you some ecofetti to check out and play with.

I've been debating whether or not I want something tossed at me after I am married. Personally I think it's a very strange tradition and the choice of items to throw strange as well. The first, rice, I personally love rice (any carb) and think it's such a shame to throw it when I can cook it up and eat it. My other issue with rice is the fact that if it's thrown or tossed or somehow flies in your direction ... it hurts (keep in mind rice tapers to a kind of point on each end) and knowing me I'd end up with rice in my eye. The second, birdseed, not only could it hurt and end up in my eye but I have visions of birdseed being thrown and then flocks and flocks of birds descending up on the group and pecking out our eyes that are already full of birdseed. Now eye injuries and bird attacks aside, I think when the tossing is caught on film it looks so pretty... I know, I know, I don't make any sense. :)

I think I would be unscathed if we had ecofetti at our wedding. It doesn't look hard at all and in order to get it in my eye it may have to be thrown directly at my face ... what do you think? But just because I think it's cool but it doesn't mean a decision is made. A new problem arises ... the fiance HATES confetti. I know this because his sister (my MOH) used to send him cards with a little confetti surprise and it would get all over the place when he opened the card. It was funny to watch it float around after he removed the card from the envelope and then the cussing as he tried to clean up the little bits of confetti.

Ecofetti is awesome and now I must convince the Fiance that it's cool too.

Setting a date

I have to set 4 dates for wedding related events (1) my wedding (2) bridal shower (3) Chinese reception, and (4) tea party reception. We have the wedding date pretty much set (I'll know 100% in less than 2 weeks) and just yesterday the bridal shower date was set.

Lately I've been getting the feeling that the wedding has reached a standstill and nothing seemed to be getting done. Now that two dates have been pretty much set I feel much better about the progress of it all. Now I just have to sit down with my FMIL and my parents and get the ball rolling on the other two dates that have to be decided upon.

Wedding Planner

We've decided on a wedding planner for our ceremony in Hawaii. Her name is Bridget Manulele Clarke . Manulele was actually my second choice but only because I found her in the middle of my planner search and I had already been bombarding the 1st choice with many inquiries to see if she fit my requirements.

My first choice, who I'll refer to as TDW, was nice and very informative but was not good at getting back to me at all. I was reminded by TDW that Hawaii is very laid back and expect to wait for a response. Unfortunately that is not acceptable to me. I understand that the Hawaiian culture is very laid back but if you're running a business you still have to be a bit cut throat and observe business etiquette in order to succeed. Sadly, TDW never responded to my last email making a final inquiry about ceremony venues so we went with Manulele.

Back to Manulele, I have to give her the praise that is due. We haven't made any decisions at all (not even pay the deposit) but Manulele has been fantastic. We've bombarded her with so many questions and not only does she get back to you in less than 12 hours but she provides so much detail and other recommendations. I am blown away by the level of professionalism and caring Manulele has exhibited. So she gets our business (and money).

My Favorite Piece of Jewelry

Like any other girl I love anything that shines and sparkles.

Take a look at this baby ...

That my friends, is my oh-so-freakin-awesome engagement ring. My fiance and I designed it ourselves after searching high and low for the right ring. My biggest concern was that the main stone had to be set low because I am pretty accident prone and didn't want to worry a lot about knocking out the sparkle (I still worry everyday). Along the same lines of protecting the center stone we wanted a secure setting and this pretty 4-prong basket setting seemed indestructible. We figured if the setting was somehow compromised I'd probably lose my finger in the process (yes this disturbing visual allows me to sleep at night).

Initially I thought I'd be happy with just a solitaire but the fiance, Nick, insisted it needed some extra bling in the form of side stones. We saw all kinds of variations of side stones from pear shaped to hearts to pave but finally settled on 5 smaller prong set round stones on each side. (If you count up all the stones we get my favorite number 11!)

Enough about the ring itself ... Did you know that taking pictures of a diamond, in all of its sparkling glory, is difficult? I played around with my digicam and figured it out. My camera is a Canon PowerShot SD300 and to get the pictures above I used the folllowing settings ...

• Digital Macro (tulip with a "D")
• You can leave it on AWB (autobalance) or switch around to other settings (Day Light, Cloudy, etc.) to get the true coloring right.
• ISO Speed - I set it at the highest, 400.
• You can take the picture in color or use other settings like B&W or Sepia - prefer to do B&W/Sepia right on the camera rather than in Photoshop.
• Also NO flash - flash will cause your ring to catch more light and you'll end up with a blur if you use the settings I recommended flash shouldn't go off.

Groomsmen Gifts

More shopping! Can you tell I love shopping? It's certainly an addiction but thankfully the addiction is not a problem. Since I've been spending so much time thinking about gifts for my girls I thought I'd think about my Fiance' s groomsmen. Like me, he only has two in his party. I think the gifts should be ...

1. Manly
2. Cool
3. Useful

Here are my ideas (honey, are you paying attention?)...

Flask from Love Me , $35 - but do we want to encourage the drinky drinky?

Temperpedic Comfort Slippers, $65 - the bestman mentioned he thinks these are cool

R2-D2 , $120 - useless yes, but definitely cool

Some additional ideas that I came across...

Swiss Army Memory Tool from Red Envelope , $115 for 1 Gig
Heideluerg Beer Mugs from Bed Bath & Beyond, $9.99 for set of 4
Monogram Coasters from Bed Bath & Beyond, $19.99 for set of 4

I'm thinking we could get a couple items and combine them to make a gift basket-like thing. Part of the problem is that this is my sweetie's project and I really don't know what he has in mind or what the budget is for gifts.

Bridesmaids Gifts

Shopping is my forte and bargain hunting a hobby. So naturally I've been thinking about the perfect bridal party gifts. I only have 2 girls in my wedding party so the budget isn't super tight for their gifts.

A friend told me about this lovely Vera Wang Love Knot compact. It can be found at Bed Bath & Beyond for $50 (remember BBB has those 20% of coupons that can be used in-store). I was also thinking about a designer something ... Coach Bag, $138

Dooney & Bourke Lunch Bag, $30. I have one and absolutely love it!

Aside from the above I'd like to get each girl something that is unique to them so the entire gift isn't cookie cutter (just some of it). I'm going to have to do some investigating to get me some ideas.

I gotta stop freaking out ...

I freak out easily, especially when control of the situation is not in my hands but someone else's. In this case I'm talking about the travel agent. Since our wedding is in Hawaii and it was quite complicated to try and book our trip and those of others ourselves we decided to use a travel agent. We had gotten some recommendations from friends and my trusty travel book, Frommers, and in the end sided with Frommers and choose Liberty Travel.

Why LT you ask? I initially felt comfortable with them because they take ads out in newspapers all of the time, they are located everywhere (at least in NJ) and a popular travel guide recommended them. Our particular travel agent, Maria, has been very nice and pretty communicative since we started working with her over a month ago. As nice as Maria is I did encounter some issues (minor in my Fiance's opinion) but issues nonetheless. The issues were:

• Travel agents don't necessarily save you money in all situations
• We weren't told our hotel was actually a group of buildings and in order to be near the beach you needed to request a certain type of room (otherwise basic rooms are across the street)
• We weren't told our hotel charged a $25 daily resort fee
• We were told we'd save money if we paid everything up front, which is true, but if you do that you mess up "the package" or "group rate" which in the end still didn't make much sense to us
• LT didn't have a normal credit card machine, it was the "old school" rolling contraption that makes a card impression on carbon paper

I got over issues 1-5 but then last night I was going through my bills and noticed the charge for our airfare to and from Hawaii, it said:

1. EWR to PHX (Newark to Phoenix)
2. PHX to LIH (Phoenix to Lihue)
3. LIH to HNL (Lihue to Honolulu)
4. HNL to PHX (Honolulu to Phoenix)

Does that mean that we're not coming back to NJ and we'll be stuck in Phoenix after our wedding and honeymoon?! I wasn't surprised that there was another thing I had to call the travel agent about (I called about the 5 above). Last night I asked my wonderful Fiance to call because the travel agent somehow makes me dizzy with all the talk and then I freak out and need the Fiance to fix it anyway. So he called and supposedly our airline doesn't even fly from Lihue to Honolulu and according to her records we are returning on the path of HNL to PHX to EWR. and that it must've been an error of some sort.

If for whatever reasons you are considering LT or a travel agent in general, I highly recommend doing your research on the travel agency. The scariest part is finding out things after you've put down your deposit money and there's no turning back. Our issues are definitely minor and have warranted a, "Jenny don't freak out" from the Fiance. My other recommendations:

• Pay with a credit card because you can file a claim if something goes wrong (also some cards automaticially provide travel insurance)
• Research your trip (hotel, air) and come to the table with that information. The rates and stuff will be slightly different but you at least have an idea of the going rate if you were to book on your own.
• Take the booklets the travel agent gives you, they have a wealth of information that I couldn't or had a hard time finding online
• If you're unsure, call you travel agent, they are there to help you

Did you have any problems with a travel agent or booking through one? What happened? What did you do?

Invitations

I haven't mentioned yet but let me begin now. Since we're getting married faraway our mothers' want to have receptions for us stateside. My mother will be hosting a traditional Chinese reception in the NJ/NY area and his mother will be hosting a party in Virginia at her brother's B&B, Roselawn.

Right now I'm trying to find invitations that will go with the theme of the reception in Virginia, Mad Hatter's Tea Party (think Alice in Wonderland). I am looking for something pretty specific but have not found it yet and I'll know it when I see it. I tried searching with keywords (tea party, whimsical, fun, etc.) and haven't found anything. I did come across these pretty invitations at Polka Dot Design.


Would you choose one of the above for a Mad Hatter themed wedding reception? If so, which did you pick?

What the veil?!

Even before I got engaged I had a vision of myself in a wedding dress sans veil. Since I got engaged and told my Fiance my vision, I am now envisioning a veil. I still don't want a veil nor care very much for them but I am going with a veil because my Fiance wants to do the, as my younger brother puts it, "peek-a-boo kissy kissy thing". So I am now in search of a veil.

A little while back I posted about my wedding dress and if you noticed, the model does not have a veil and I honestly do not know if a veil will look good with the dress. What do you think?

In my head I see a veil that is really slim and kinda just hangs off my head in the back ... do you see it too? I also don't want to spend a lot of money on it. I found this company, Naugi on Weddingbee that has a Veil Assistant to help you make a customize veil. There are five steps:

1. Color - 3 choices (i am choosing between natural white and ivory, my dress is called antique white)
2. Edging - 8 choices (i think i'll go with a simple finished edge)
3. Layering - 3 choices (i'm going with 2 layers so the top can flip over and cover my face)
4. Width & Length - many combos (72 inches whide & fingertip for me)
5. Pricing - mine came out to $65

What's the problem you ask? I don't know what the veil will look like and if my idea to do 2 layers and just flip over the top will even work. What do you think?

BTW, here's a picture that's close to what I am thinking ... keep in mind this veil is 108" wide and I configured 72", I think that should make a difference.

What did you do? Any suggestions? Recommendations?

Out-of-Towners

Since we're having a destination wedding in Kauai everyone will be from out-of-town (really out-of-state) and I thought it would be nice to have welcome bags for all of our guests since they'll be flying a solid 11 hours and spending quite a bit of funds to be there for us.

So far this what I have in mind for each guest, all in one of the above canvas bags that can be found here ...

• 3 x 5 travel notebooks (bought from Old Navy for cheap, cheap, cheap!) - purchased
• some pretty writing tool to go with the notebook
• pack of travel tissues (6 pack for $1 from Five Below) - purchased
• sunblock
• lip balm with spf
• emergency items (tylenol, ibuprofen, bandaids, toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, etc.)
• anti-bacterial hand sanitizer
• snacks
• disposable camera - not sure if this is necessary given we're in the age of digital cameras
• brochures about Kauai and its activities/sites to see

I am thinking about getting these Hawaiian photo albums for everyone, but I worry about costs (to buy and ship to me) and then transporting it to Kauai with me. What do you think of the albums? Do you think I should get them? Should I get smaller, less bulky albums?

Has anyone else tried to bring things to a faraway destination? How'd you do it? Did it work out?

Any suggestions for other items to include or what not to include?

Presents, presents and more presents!

Everyone loves presents. I've been to my share of showers and I knew that my day would come and there'd be a pile of glorious presents to open and coo over. Well my day is coming and I can't wait. Now the problem ... registering for gifts. I pretty much know the things that I want (mainly kitchen/cooking stuff) so I can easily pick it out and stick it on a list, but then I stare at the list and it seems (1) there's not enough stuff - since there's a rule about having various price prints for people to choose from (2) I don't know what else I would want since I can't use stuff like bedding, wine glasses, picture frames, vases, etc. right away (3) I feel weird asking for gifts.

Awhile back I spoke to the Fiance about registering and he thinks it's silly to register but is going along with it. We discussed where to register and since he's an internet guy he chose Amazon.com so I went ahead and registered for a bunch of stuff. No problem there but then I started to notice that some stuff isn't necessarily being sold by Amazon or it was and now it's sold by a 3rd party through Amazon. So freakin' annoying!!! I love Amazon but it's a bit of a put off that they switch the seller around because I'm all for their Minimum $25 order and get free super saver shipping and I figured people would benefit from that. So now I'm sort of unhappy with Amazon so I started a registry at good ol' Bed Bath and Beyond well now my dilemma is that they don't necessarily have everything that I found at Amazon so I've got some stuff at Amazon and some at BBB.

WHEN WILL THE FRUSTRATION END?!

The bonus with BBB is that they have their oh-so-wonderful coupons. My Future Father-In-Law fondly refers to me as Coupon Jen or "CJ" for short. Anyhow, the coupons from BBB can be combine in one order (one coupon per item) and they take them expired as well. They also take coupons from competitors (Macy's, Linens and Things) but I'm not sure if they take those expired or they must be currently valid. So registering with BBB is an added bonus for the gift buyers. I am a huge proponent of getting a deal and it's really the thought that counts.

Another dilemma, should I register at a 3rd store? I really don't know what the benefit will be since BBB and Amazon should have everything covered. I really don't need a 3rd unless I want to register for some really fancy stuff like formal dinnerware, formal place settings, etc. but I think that stuff we're willing to get ourselves when we have the room for it. Anything we get that can't fit will make it's home in the attic or basement of my FFIL's house and that would be just a little sad.

Five Years!!!

This past weekend the Fiance and I went back to where we met 5 years ago. Going back was definitely not romantic but more nostalgic.

So rewind about 5 years back to Sunday October 7, 2001. The setting was Union High School gym the event was a martial arts tournament. Both the Fiance and I took the same style of martial art but went to different branches (him in Northern NJ and I in Central NJ). Each year our style holds a tournament and in 2001 the Fiance attended the tournament for the first time as a spectator where I competed in a couple of events.

Well the day dragged on and at some point in the late afternoon I was either getting warmed up or had finished competing in at least one event, I sat down and ended up speaking to several people (having conversations with total strangers is very easy at the martial arts events). I speak to so many people it's hard to remember later but at one point I was speaking with the future Fiance and then he told me he was leaving so I said, "see you next year" knowing that that's when I'd probably see him again, like many other people I meet.

Unbeknownst to me the future Fiance liked me and remembered a lot of details I spoke about (most importantly my name and where I was going to college). Stalker that he was/is he looked me up at my alma mater and emailed me ... unfortunately it wasn't me. He found a Jennifer but one with a different, but similar last name and emailed her. After a few days he didn't hear from me or the other Jennifer he figured something wasn't right, so he tried finding me again. This time he looked up the correct spelling of my last name on our martial art style's website and voila, the rest is history.

So Happy-Time-We-Met-Anniversary! Our dating anniversary is coming up (Nov 9) and so is our first date anniversary (Nov 4). We don't really celebrate any of them, maybe go out to dinner and a movie and mention that it's some sort of anniversary. :)

Getting into the Wedding Groove

I''ve got to be honest, it's been really hard to get into this whole wedding planning thing. I do not know why I am not really into it. I can't wait to be married to my guy but deep down I wish that all this planning and chaos could just be skipped over and I could wake up the day after and just be really happy. Is that too much to ask? Maybe all this planning and organizing is just too stressful.

I am patting myself on the back because I made my very first wedding related craft item!!! It was a quickie side craft because I was having crafter's block while making greeting cards. I was playing with my paper punches and found the palm tree punch (brand spankin' new with the wrap still on it). I have okay handwriting and my skills at lining up individual stamp letters is horrendous so I left the wording and printing to my handy computer and printer (i ♥ technology). I love the script font (blackladder) because it reminds of Pirates of the Caribbean and that reminds of a tropical island ... do you follow? The paper color looks much nicer in person but for a tropic save-the-date I think a brighter green or a bright blue would've been more appropriate. But like I siad this is just a quickie item and I'm not even sure if I am going to bother making more because anyone joining us in Hawaii knows that there'll be a wedding at some point. STDs (not the diseases but save-the-date) would definitely be perfect for the Chinese reception and the Tea Party.

Perfectionists Anonymous

My name is Jenny and I am a perfectionist.

When the Fiance and I were planning a local sit-down dinner wedding I was a crazy lady. I had problems with everything; venue decor, chairs, carpeting, guest list, entrees, cakes, sides, the dance floor ... you get the idea. And anything that made me crazy also made me cry.

Then the Fiance and I decided to go to Hawaii ... I can tell you that there's much less crying going on over the wedding. The problems I am encountering now are:

1. Number of guests coming to Kauai
2. What beach am I getting married on?
3. Where are we having dinner afterwards?
4. What the heck are we going to do on Kauai? (besides the wedding)
5. How much and what to pack?

Okay I digressed a little there but the first three are the most important and constantly on my mind. Let's talk about a combo issue, fiance and I have a date picked and all the restaurants and the two planners that I've contacted are available on our chosen date (it's my little secret) but since I don't know where we're having our ceremony (problem #2) I cannot commit to a restaurant or a planner. And I like to commit so I can move on to other things I need to figure out and devote my time to.

The other problem is #1, I have a head count for those who have confirmed with me (as opposed to the travel agent) that they are coming to Kauai with us. But (there's always a but), we have some family & friends who are making their own arrangements and at this point some still do not know if they can make it. So because I do not know for sure how many people there'll be I cannot choose a restaurant.

On to problem #3, my dinner first choice is Plantation Gardens. The problem with PG is that in their largest room they can only have a maximum of 22 and if I do people math with all my maybe guests, I just may go over 22. My second choice is the The Beach House and I've got a good cushion here because their smallest room has a maximum of 30. So why not just go with the Beach House? Because I really like PG and want to make sure I can or cannot fit my guests before I decide. To throw a wrench into everything, Manulele (a planner I'm in contact with) recommended the Tidepools Restaurant at the Hyatt ... and now I have to check it out online to make sure I want to include it in my considerations.

Now I am exhausted from thinking about all this ... I'll leave you with an awesome picture of a Kauai sunrise I found on Flickr.

I ♥ Shoes!

A few posts ago I mentioned that I got my wedding shoes and promised a picture. So here they are... aren't they just fabulous?! No wonder I ♥ shoes.

Logo

After we decided to go Kauai for our wedding we had to send out "invites" to family and friends. These "invites" were more a newsletter about our plans to go to Kauai (anyone was welcome to join us and use it as an excuse for a vacation) and in case they couldn't go there would be two (yes, count 'em) receptions stateside. After the "invite" was composed and went through several edits by myself and the Fiance we sent it out. A day or so after that I came across ideas for a wedding logo and boy was I mad I didn't have a logo for the "invite." So I decided I'd make one now and use it from now on for any Kauai wedding related stuff.

Here is what I whipped up ....
What do you think???