To Video or Not

Do we video our wedding ceremony and/or reception? Our biggest issue with video is how we hate the way we look on video. It's because we think it strange to watch ourselves or others back on video in our so-called natural habitats and thus making it very unlikely we'll ever watch it more than once and the one time we watch would be out of curiosity. The bottom line is that we do not want nor need video of ourselves, we prefer photographs.

Stepping away from what we want but what may be nice for others, especially those who are important to us and cannot attend the ceremony in Hawaii or the reception in New Jersey. Those who cannot attend our Hawaiian ceremony would be our dads, my grandparents, a lot of cousins, etc. More will be able to attend the reception but there are still key family members that will be missing. So what should we do? Do we hire someone to just take raw footage (because we can edit it ourselves, our way) or should we enlist family, who may already be planning to video, to help us out or just skip the video all together?

Don't you just love the wedding dilemmas that keep popping up?

More Car Drama

I thought I'd get up early and make my way to the auto shop to have my flat tire from yesterday fixed and I'd be on my way. I was so wrong. It turns out that the tire has more damage than I originally thought. Anyone who knows about flats usually knows that if there's sidewall damage it's all over, well that's what I have. The upside to all of this is that I bought Road Hazard Protection when I bought the tires and thus they'll hook me up with a new tire but not today. I had to order the tire and now have to wait to get it and then have it installed another day. I wonder how long this tire debacle will drag out??? I give it a week at the most, less, if I am lucky.

i CAN change a tire

I've only had two cars in the 7 years that I've been driving and two flats, until today. My very first flat tire was something I didn't even notice. Mom noticed it and even changed it for me because, for some reason, I was incapable. My second flat took place at college (Rutgers) driving on Livingston campus and it was actual a double whammy because I took out both tires on the driver's side. I didn't change them either. I called my super hero brother, Frankie, who came to my rescue and all I had to do was pay for the new tires.

Today was another story. On my way to pick up our friend 2.0 and get late lunch/early dinner I ran over a softball sized rock on a main road (everyone was dodging them and well I didn't dodge so well). At first I thought, "I'm okay" then seconds later the dreaded phllt, phllt, phllt sound of rubber slapping the road. So I pulled over and changed my tire successfully. *patting myself on the back* I am damn proud of this achievement because I did it in heels, a white shirt and was missing the metal turning thing for the jack (this missing item is the used car dealer's fault and the fact that this was Zippy's first flat).

So tomorrow will be another day. I will have to get the flat fixed (thankfully it's on the treads and not on the sidewall) and I have to find one of those metal things for the jack. A slightly sucky thing is that the tires were brand spanking new just in April of this year and one's already got a boo boo. Wish me luck tomorrow.

My mom always said "Aim High"

I think I am aiming pretty high when it's for the status of a trophy wife, what do you think? Ha ha, I'm totally kidding. I think this shirt is truly hilarious. I got this from Rannie, my brother's very lovely and wonderful girlfriend for Christmas. Today may be the right day to wear it around the town. :)

Wikipedia's definition of trophy wife :

Trophy wife is a highly pejorative term, usually applied to a physically attractive younger woman married to a man who has observed a high level of success, be it physical, financial, or otherwise. Usually, the Trophy Wife is not the first wife of the man who has a high level of success and has little to do with the achievement of that success. The term is often used to imply that the man's intent is to exhibit his wealth and success, the social phenomenon known as conspicuous consumption. The term "gold digger" is used to describe a woman who intentionally seeks this arrangement.

The marriage of former Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith to oil magnate J. Howard Marshall is an extreme example as at the time of their marriage, he was 89 years old and she was 26.

The Craftiest Gift of All

I am going post a little about the gifts I got for Christmas because I think they are way cool and partly because nothing much is happening during this vacation for me to post about.

So the first gift will be a craft item that I got from Nick's sister and maybe his mom too, it's been a blur ...May I present to you the JustRite Monogram Stamper! It looks great doesn't it? I can make all kinds of monogram stamps with the large and the small letters then add some pizzaz with 4 border designs! How freakin' cool is that? Unfortunately I haven't yet used it to really know how amazing it is, but stay tuned for a slew of monogrammed stuff. I may get a little wild and heat emboss some of the projects.

Sometimes Vacations are Bad

Reason #1 for vacations are bad ... I haven't posted since December 17th! How bad is that?

Reason #2 all I've mostly baked/cooked, shopped and wrapped during my vacation and it's certainly taken a toll on me.

I am so thrilled that Christmas is finally past us because I am beat, really beat from it. On top of being beat from all the Christmas festivities I came down with a stomach virus late (11pm) on Christmas. Luckily I had made it through the entire day without incident but when Nick and I got back to his father's house it was all over for me. I am finally feeling more like myself today and will make a trip to the mall to make an exchange for Nick.

Next is New Year's ... which shouldn't be as hectic as Christmas but the theme this year is "What are your plans?" We have plenty of friends and family without specific plans and apparently we'll all be making plans at the last minute. I am rooting for staying at home.

Jenny Was a Busy Girl

Where do I start?

Friday after work we went to Houlihan's with our friends, Mark and Lauren. Then Lauren and I did the 'chick movie' by going to see Will Smith's The Pursuit of Happyness which turned out to be a very good movie. The story (based on a true story) was heart warming (very chick movie) but even better was the acting. The performances by Will Smith, his son Jaden and Thandie Newton were just amazing and had me crying a bit. Lame I know, but damn it was good acting.

On Saturday I took on the annual and huge task of making our Christmas cards. I decided a couple years back that I should do this because I drop a ton of money on craft supplies and what better way to use the supplies than to make cards. I made about 30 cards this year and even had to supplement with some store bought cards. Here's a sampling of some of my designs ...

Then in the evening (were still on Saturday) I started 5 kinds of Christmas cookies; only called Christmas cookies because Nick's fantastic mother makes them each year at Christmas. 4 of the 5 were her recipes: K-bars, Mexican Wedding Cookies, Pecan Sandies and Chocolate Thumbprints. The 5th cookie was a peanut butter cookie with the fork imprints, it was from a bagged mix. After mixing all the cookies and completing only the K-bars and peanut butter cookies I attempted to bake the Mexican wedding cookies Saturday night because the recipe did not call for chilling the dough. Well those babies did not come out well at all. They were all raw in the middle and just ick. So Nick tried to fix them by putting them back in the oven and testing as the time went on. They ended up being hard as a rock and we vowed to try again on Sunday.

Today, Sunday I gave Nick's mom a call and thought maybe we screwed up the recipe but the recipe was right and somehow I followed it and still effed up. What the hell?! After some discussions, with both Nick and his mother we figured it might be out ghetto ass oven in our rented apartment. Anyhow, I got more butter to remake the Mexican Wedding Cookies, again, as well as a oven thermometer. In summary, take two of the Mexican Wedding Cookies were a success. We think it was a combination of the light butter we bought yesterday (I noticed today, the package explicitly says "not recommended for baking or frying") and the stupid oven of ours. Damn baking all to hell, this is too hard and I have no idea how Nick's mother does it each year. Here's some Chocolate Thumbprints filled with raspberry preserves to taunt you ...

Happy Birthday Frankie!

A shout out to my brother, Frankie - Happy 24th Birthday! I hope it was fabulous.

I ♥ Snowflakes

I know I ♥ a lot of things but there are lots of things to ♥ and today snowflakes are one of them. I found this article on how to make 3-D Paper Snowflake and just had to try it (at work no less). Thankfully I have reams of white paper available to me for work and some personal uses, like this really cool looking snowflake.

The project says to use squared paper and when I was chopping off the excess edge from my 8 1/2 by 11 paper I realized that it be one HUGE snowflake with a wingspan of 17 inches! So I decided to cut 2 - 8 1/2 by 8 1/2 squares into quarters and use the 6 for my snowflake.


I think the snowflake turned out pretty cool, it certainly looks cool in the picture (from my trusty camera phone). It's a bit more bright-copy-paper-white in person and lacking the cool shadows that shows up. All-in-all, I think this was a successful and pretty quick project.

Heat Embossing Rocks

How cool does this look? This is the magical craft of heat embossing! The top and bottom double happiness symbols were stamped with a Versamark Watermark Stamp Pad then covered in Gold Tinsel embossing powder and finally heated with my spankin' new Marvy Uchida embossing heat tool. The bottom one was made to show Nick the coolness of the process. He thinks this has to be the coolest craft thing I have.

The 'technique' for the center double happiness was a bit different because I used a colored stamp pad (Stampin Up Craft in More Mustard) and the left half was sprinkled with clear embossing powder and the right side with the same gold powder. So if you use a colored ink and the clear powder the result will be the colored ink image embossed. If you use a colored powder it really doesn't matter what color ink you use.

I didn't have time to try other colors or stamps but that will be a huge project this weekend because I am going to use this on my holiday cards. How exciting!

Based on the success of this heat embossing I am seriously considering doing some DIY invitations. I think it would be lovely if all the wedding stationary matched but I have to first price out my options and see if it is even worth it to DIY or way cheaper to go to Chinatown and order invites. What do you think? Wish me luck, I'll have a better idea after the holidays.

Christmas is all around us …

… well at least on our hall table. *drum roll* And now I present to you, our Christmas tree! It stands a magnificent 2.5 feet tall and smells of Christmas goodness.

Yes my darlings that is indeed a Dunkin Donuts ornament. I love DD coffee.

Last night Nick and his mother (Mama J) stopped at the grocery store, for what else but groceries, and thought to check out the small trees there. Mama J felt $20 was too much and just knew a tree could be found at a reasonable price. Lucky for us, Nick remembered that there was a local garden/landscape shop and we had ourselves an adorable tree for $10! Talk about bargain.

After dinner we decorated the adorable (Charlie Brown-esque tree) and at one point almost had the tree topple over due to a misplaced ornament. All in all the tree decorating was a success and the cutest part of the tree is the base. It’s a sawed off piece of a log that I must say lends a great deal of character to the tree itself.

Only 12 more days until Christmas, go and get your shopping done. For those of you that celebrate Hanukkah, you’ve got 2 days! Hustle!

T'was 14 Nights Before Christmas ...

... and I had my very first wedding nightmare/dream! Up until now I kept hearing about brides-to-be having these dreams but I couldn't muster not a one. My future sister-in-law even had a wedding dream for me but last night I finally had one of my very own.

This is all I remember ... my parents call me or we meet up someplace. I asked my dad if he set the date with the venue and he says, "Yeah, July 4th." I feel the panic and say, "No, July 1st." He repeats July 4th and then I tell him that the date won't work because of his business. Dad thinks about it for a second and just responds with an "oh". Some where in the dream I end up calling my mom and telling her that dad messed up.

It was a very short dream and not so terrible because it was early enough, I am assuming this, to fix the date. There was no kicking, no screaming, no crying - not a wedding nightmare but definitely a wedding dream.

Wedding Checklist: Kauai Wedding

Weddings are full of lists: guest lists, vendor lists, list of bridesmaids, list groomsmen ... but most importantly the TO DO list.

This is my (rough) TO DO list for our wedding plans on Kauai:

• Set a date - May 24, 2007 done
• Pick a wedding planner - done
• Pick & reserve a dinner venue - The Beach House done
• Choose dinner menu - March 2007
• Choose flowers
• Choose officiant
• File marriage license
• Choose musician
• Choose ceremony venue - when we get there ... scary I know
• Airplane Goodie Bags
• Welcome Bags - started
• Fiance's wedding outfit
• Wedding dress - done
• Wedding shoes - done
• Wedding jewelry
• Veil
• Wedding party attire

I think those are the major items ... I can't seem to think of anything else. Wait til I show you the Chinese banquet list or heck my Hawaii packing list!

Wedding Photography

Aside from the memories I think wedding photography is very important in conveying the emotion and helping to 'replay' the events back in your memory. When I asked my wedding planner, Manulele, for photographers she gave me 3 recommendations. Based on our preference for digital photography we narrowed it to 2 photographers: Sara Wall and Maile Weddings.

The photojournalistic syle of photography makes me swoon. I love photojournalism because of the way it tells a story and how it can make you feel just looking at a picture. Think National Geographic and Time magazine, especially those sad children in third world countries that scream, "adopt me!" After looking at the photography on both sites I am head-over-heels in love with Sara Wall's talent. She is a bit more because of her talent but I think well worth it as the photos (and memories) will be the only tangible memories we will have. Maile Weddings has nice pictures but, to me, it seems that something is missing. I don't feel the same emotions with Maile's pictures that I do Sara's. What do you think?

Now for the teensy little problem. Sara's basic package is exactly what we're looking for (# of photos, hours of coverage, price, etc.) but the problem is that the particular package is "recommended" for couples only. There are more expensive packages that are "recommended" for larger parties; the package that's recommended for the number of guests we're having is priced at $3,000 and well it's a bit too rich for my blood. I am hoping that Sara won't have a problem with us choosing the lowest package, it does fit our needs the best and we only want the ceremony photographed and I'd like to be photographed getting ready (just love the getting-ready pictures).

I know I should tell my planner to book Sara because that's what I want but I hesitate because it's a HUGE commitment and of course there's moola to think about. Give me some more time and I'll committ... I promise.

Welcome Home 2.0!

I just wanted to mark this day as our friend, Erik's, welcome back home day. Erik has been in hospitals for the past month due to a sudden medical occurrence and has made great progress in his recovery, so much so, that he is finally being released and can sleep in his own bed. Welcome Home Erik! We wish you the best for your continued recovery.

Auspicious Shmauspicious

I'm pretty sure (95%) we have a date set for the Chinese banquet, Sunday July 1st, 2007. I say 95% because my dad is handling the detail of booking the venue and I won't know it's taken care of until I hear back from him. But when I called the venue a week ago 7/1/07 was indeed available.

Why 7/1 you ask? Well that would take a lifetime to explain but basically my parents are huge believers in feng shui and luck of the like and auspicious dates is one of them. Since Nick and I are getting married on 5/24 in Kauai we wanted the banquet to take place after we return but not too far after. Between the two families (mine and Nick's) Sunday ended up being the best day of the week. Nick and I figured it was no big deal and we'd pick among 6/10, 6/17 or 6/24. Big deal it was, because not one of those Sundays was considered auspicious. Then my parents went so far as to ask us to get married on the 24th but date our marriage certificate for a different, auspicious date. NO WAY I said. So after some consideration we decided it wasn't worth the drama if their minds are set on it and it's just a party right?

I ♥ these Boots!

Admit it ... they're pretty fabulous! They are Anne Klein "Storme" Tall Boot from Macys.

I have been in the market for brand spankin' new black boots for a couple of years now. I had a pretty decent pair but wore them so much I totally destroyed them. I am much more careful now with my favorites and have even gotten to the point of taking them to a cobbler each year to have new heels put on and if needed, the soles repaired/patched.

My calves are the problem. They are too darn small for 95% of the boots out there. I am a petite girl (5'2") all around and apparently have skinnier than average calves so whenever I try on a pair of boots I can hide stuff in the room that's left. I am hoping that these Anne Klein boots will fit my feet and my calves but there's no way to know until I actually go to Macys. Right now I am scared to the go the mall because ... well it's December and Christmas is only 19 days away and the malls near me are INSANE at this time of year.

I guess I'll have to suck it up at some point if I really like these boots ... wish me luck.

Wedding Hair

Like other wedding visions, I had a particular preference and to my surprise so did Nick. First it was the veil, I didn't want a veil and he does - we're getting a veil. Now it's my hair, I'd always thought I would wear it down and have it in loose curls or something similarly romantic. Nick thinks my hair should be up. I have to agree on the updo or rather a low updo because it'll look fantastic with my dress.

I came across Hair Comes the Bride a site with tons of hair ideas. There are photos of celebrities, brides, bridesmaids - all excellent inspiration. I've already found a handful of hairdos that fit my vision.

More Double Happiness

Lookie what I found, via WeddingBee ...

Double happiness candles! Aren't' they just great?! They are available at Unica Home in two sizes, small ($25) and large ($37). I thought they'd be cute for the Chinese banquet but the price is a lot too steep for me (especially since we'll have up to 20 tables). Unica Home has other double happiness goods: magnets, coasters and even oven mitts!

On a side note, but Chinese banquet related, Brenda forwarded this site to me: MyBigFatChineseWedding and I have to admit that it's quite a read and I can totally relate now and probably more so after my banquet.

Save The Dates

I've decided to get started on save-the-dates for the Chinese banquet. We haven't chosen a date just yet but I have already designed the STDs in my head. I think we'll have the date set before Christmas and since I have about 2 weeks off at the end of the year I will be up to my ears in wedding DIY (do-it-yourself).

The other day I ordered a double happiness rubber stamp from Paper Source. It was $6.50, not including shipping. Take a look at the two versions of the STD I have in mind ...

I'm not going have two versions but these are the two color possibilities. The left one will be rich red cardstock with the double happiness heat embossed in gold (not golden yellow) metallic color. I am not sure how I'll print the information just yet but most likely I'll go to an office supply store to have that printing done so it's even and not at the mercy of my inkjet printer. The right, yellow, version will be a golden yellow cardstock with the double happiness heat embossed in a rich red. I do not know if I should include hotel information with the STD, if so should it be on the STD itself or a seperate insert? If not included, it'll be sent out with the invitations.

What do you think?

Wedding Flowers

Unlike most girls I am not a big fan of flowers or more generally, plants. I don't take care of them very well, probably because they don't tell me when they are thirsty or in need of sun (you should see the poor bamboo plant in my office).

Anyhow, I am having a really difficult time deciding what kind of flowers I'd like for my wedding bouquet. Since we're getting married in Hawaii I don't think traditional flowers, like red roses (although in my favorite color), will work. As beautiful as they'd be I think they'd clash with the tropical surroundings and seem almost cliche. My second idea was a bouquet of plumeria but I think it might be too white/creamish.

I thought this bouquet was very pretty and definitely says tropical, but is it too tropical? I wonder how big it actually is?

This next bouquet also channels tropical but toned down tropical.

So right now those two are my favorites, partly because I can't seem to find anything else that I am in love with. I'd rather not carry a bouquet but I'd then be empty handed and do not have any other alternative to carry/hold as I walk down the aisle. Any ideas?