Making Progress

I finally feel like we are making some progress with planning for the Chinese Reception in July. Up until now the only things that have been done/decided upon are:

1. The date
2. The venue
3. 1 Chinese dress purchased (thanks Grandma & Grandpa)
4. Guest Book purchased

After discussing save-the-date magnets with Nick he really stepped up and put a design together last week. Although it wasn’t exactly what I had envisioned, we sat down together and modified his original design and came up with something fantastic. I’m thrilled with our final design and just love it when we can collaborate. This morning I uploaded our design to VistaPrint and for $34.33 I’ve got 100 magnets coming our way next week. I’ve heard and seen good things about VistaPrint (via WeddingBee) and feel pretty confident the magnets will be perfect.

I need to swing by an office supply store to pick up some envelopes and cardstock to mail out the magnets and provide some hotel/travel information to our guests. These babies will be out in the mail and in hands of our guests before St. Patty’s Day aka my dad’s birthday.

Save-the-Date magnets - $33.43

Stamps - $39.00

Stationary - $25.00

Getting something wedding related accomplished – PRICELESS

Wedding Jewelry

When I first decided on my wedding dress I thought I knew what I wanted in terms of jewelry and the goal was to prudent with my money. I found these necklaces at Forever 21 and bought them (average $5 each) in multiples in case I’d have to do some modifications. Months have passed since I got them and threw them in the “wedding stuff” bin and forgot about them. Thinking back I don’t think they are exactly what I am looking for in terms of wedding jewelry.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about jewelry to go with my wedding dress and I’m sure about earrings (most likely pearl studs) but I have no clue what to do about a necklace. I think my dress would lend itself nicely to a necklace (like in the Nicole Miller add for the dress – see old post) but I’m super picky and have one bitty requirement – the necklace has to be gold toned or have gold tones with other tones. Why gold? Well because I got shoes that are gold toned … does that make any sense at all? I am HUGE on being matchy matchy and it’s a good thing … to a fault.

I’ve found some possible candidates just perusing my very favorite fashion mag – InStyle.

What do you think? My favorites have to be the earrings that can do double duty – wedding day necklace and then earrings later but I’d have to get a gold chain to pull off the modification. I don’t want to spend a ton of money on jewelry but I think that I should get quality jewelry for my wedding especially when fake gold jewelry can sometimes look cheap.

2-3 Weeks

In a very quick trip yesterday, with many goals, we swung by a jeweler we had previously made an inquiry at and in a matter of 10 minutes ordered Nick's wedding band. For some reason I thought it would take longer to order the ring but when Nick knows what he wants, it's a done deal.


So in 2-3 weeks we'll have a call to pick up the ring and hope the comfort fit at a size 9 will be right. We're a little concerned about the fit because a wider band will fit a bit differently than a narrow band. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that the ring will be just perfect.

The ring's been ordered and now Nick has to find a white or slightly off-white linen shirt and new khakis for the wedding.

An itty bitty sneak peek...

Thankfully I had a 3-day weekend because I have no idea where the time went and that third day was key in getting things accomplished. Among other things I decided to work on a wedding project. The project seemed relatively harmless, even simple but I had to contribute a lot more elbow grease than originally thought.

Here is a peek at what I’ve been working on …

If you guessed canvas bags you are right on the money! I’ve been adding a special touch to the bags themselves and am hoping it’s a hit. I don’t want to give the surprise away so details about the bags will have to wait until after the wedding.

Chinese New Year Update

New Year's at my parent's house was again, a success. We had quite a few people - my parents, my two brothers, Rannie (my brother's gf), Nick's dad and sister (Maid of Honor Mandy), Nick and myself. As you can see from the picture the girls (Rannie, Mandy and I) were put to work making spring rolls, dumplings and shu mai). What were the boys doing? They were having a merry ol' time playing with the Wii.

It seemed like all my mom did was cook and cook and cook some more because the dishes just kept on coming - ten in total. We were all so full and then had to think about packing doggie bags to bring some goodies home.

Happy New Year!

Today my family celebrates, what is often referred to as, Chinese New Year. It is the year of the boar or the pig in the Lunar calendar.

The characters above say "Xing Nien Kwai Luh" or in English "Happy New Year." Today we'll be heading to my mom's house for a ton of delicious food and just good ol' quality family time. Traditionally the week prior to the New Year is spent cleaning every nook and cranny so that on New Year's Day there are no chores to do. We'll probably be playing loads of mah jong and the Wii.

Nick has been practicing his Chinese New Year's greeting (in Chinese of course) and will most certainly show me up in that department.

Wishing a happy, healthy and prosperous year to all.

Less than 100 ...

While sitting in my cube today and taking a moment to stare into space I realized (or more noticed on the calendar) that we’ve passed the 100 day countdown mark to our wedding! We are officially at 97 days until I am a MRS!

Aside from being married to my honey I am very excited about the following benefits of being married:

1. Combining our car insurance (we use the same insurer but can’t combine our policies until we’re married because we own our cars separately)
2. Being able to file a joint tax return (not sure if it’ll be a benefit to file jointly but it’s exciting, for my, to consolidate paperwork)
3. Changing my last name (even if it’s from one not-so-easy-to-pronounce name to another not-so-easy-to-pronounce name)
4. Getting to finally wear my wedding band (this girl loves jewelry!)

I know I am a bit practical and borish but that's just me. Anyway excuse while I hyperventilate because I have less than 100 days until the wedding!

Flowers Revisited

My favorite wedding site (WeddingBee) recently posted about silk bouquets by a Canadian company, Hibiscus. The reason I am considering a silk bouquet is for the simple fact that I can keep it afterwards. It made me sad (and I'm not a flower kinda gal) to think that my bouquet wouldn't have to be left in Hawaii because (1) it wouldn't survive long enough after our wedding and honeymoon to make it back to NJ and (2) the agricultural rules are pretty tight in Hawaii for flowers/fruit coming in and out of the islands.

I've emailed the nice people at Hibiscus and it seems that my bouquet is very doable but the silk cymbidium orchids are either a tad lighter or darker than the pic I referenced. These are the darker ones ...I'm not sure if I like the darker ones but the lighter ones won't be available until April - so what do I do? I've asked if I can buy a sample of each flower - 1 darker cymbidium and 1 burgundy calla to see what it looks like in person because it all depends on lighting.

Another minor issue causing me to lean towards silk is the sample bouquet that the Hawaiian florist gave my planner is apparently sub par. My planner, Manulele, is not to thrilled and is going to have them try again. Wish me luck either way.

February 14th

Happy Valentine's Day!

I know, I know I'm a little late and there's only 23 more minutes left.

The tutus are here! The tutus are here!

I ordered the tutus on February 1st and 8 calendar days later I got them! I cannot believe how quickly I got them and how ... AWESOME they are! When I opened the package I just about died (i know not a good idea) but that is just how great they looked. Wedding tutu had the tutu and leotard both wrapped in tissue and tied up with a organza ribbon. When I unwrapped the tissue I found the leotard folded oh-so-neatly-and-sweetly with another organza ribbon and then the absolutely gorgeous tutu! I can't even express how pleased I am with the craftsmanship.

When I was gushing over the tutus the skeptical-"You want tutus?!"-fiance thought they were cute too (or was he just being agreeable...).

Conveniently, I will be seeing my cousins on Sunday and will unveil the wonder that is their flower girl tutus - I hope they fit (more concerned about the leotard, it just looks so tiny) and of course I hope the girls just LOVE the tutus! I know I do!

This is tulle week at the Tocci house ... tulle veil, tulle tutus. I can safely say there's no more tulle to be had. Now scroll back up and stare at that adorable tutu ensemble!

It's here!

Friends and family, children of all ages, I present to you the wedding veil!My veil has arrived. It actually arrived Thursday night but I was so darn busy with stuff (with what? I can't even remember now) that I didn't get a chance to post. So here's my veil post, 24 hours late.

This is the 130 inch veil still in it's packaging. I did take it out and unfolded it as much as I could without having to lay it on the ground and then I just gave up. It's huge, but I also think it'll be perfect. The reality of our pending wedding is finally starting to set in. I have moments of "Wow, I'm getting freakin' married!"

Doing a dance...

I'm doing a little dance because I just got an email that my veil has shipped from Veil Shop! It will be here on Thursday!

Remember the post about the look I wanted for the veil? After much measuring with the help of Nick's mom, Joan, we decided on a 130" oval drop veil in champagne with a cut edge. I really don't know what to expect at all, except maybe a massive sheet (oval cut of course) of tulle. I may have to throw on the ol' wedding dress, shoes and the veil to see what just what I've gotten myself into with all this wedding stuff.

There's only 3 months, 2 weeks and 4 days until our wedding!

New Job

Yesterday was my first day at my really cool new job. It's not that much cooler than my previous job, it's actually the same job but at a bigger and more exciting company. Anyhow, the first day went well eventhough I was a tad late - I had no idea NYC got so congested at 9am!

Traffic drama aside, I survived day one and the below freezing temperatures. Just to give you a a sneak peek ... this is really close to the building I work in ...Radio City Music Hall! I also work near NBC Studios and Rockefeller Center. It's really cool to go to work and be at tourist at the same time. I am off to Day 2 of working-for-the-man.

I love being productive!

I've been off this past week because I am starting a new job on Monday. I had grand plans to get wedding stuff done and even though Chinatown was a bit of a bust (see previous post) I got other wedding stuff accomplished.

On Wednesday I headed down to South Jersey to visit my FMIL (future mother-in-law) and FSIL (future sister-in-law) ... because I love them (no stereotypes here) and I have TONS of fun with them. I ordered my veil, ordered the flower girl tutus and the rest of the welcome bags (for our Kauai wedding guests). I feel really accomplished and can see the finish line nearing!

Have a great weekend, more updates to come.