Weddingbee bios

Being somewhat of a tomboy (even now) and losing my mother at the age of 12 (with no stepmother in the picture), the wedding dress shopping portion of the planning did not appeal to me at all. I hate trying on clothes, and will often buy an article of clothing without trying it on, only to hate it when I try it on at home. I don't like trying on dresses because I usually hate the way I look in "dressy" clothing. I just didn't know how I was going to handle trying on dress after dress after dress without a mother's opinion, even though I've gone without it for the last 17 years.

To my surprise, my first attempt wasn't so bad. It was a Tuesday night, and I started with David's Bridal, only because it was cheap, casual, and they have a ton of styles. I dragged my local BFF with me, and we had a blast with an awesome consultant! I found a couple of dresses I liked and left the store thinking, "That wasn't so bad, and worst case, I wouldn't mind getting married in one of those dresses I tried on."

Later that week, my local BFF and I were hanging out again, and stumbled into Maya Palace, where she had purchased her wedding dress. I was given a few catalogs and I pointed out what I liked and didn't like. Soon, I had 6 or 7 dresses waiting to be tried on.

I fell in love with dress #1. I didn't want to take it off! (I have never felt that way about a dress before!) But I reluctantly did, and tried on the rest. We came back to dress #1, and I had people crying left and right -- including me! It was flowy, lightweight, flattering, and even in my budget! It's the Maggie Sottero RD1044, in her Destinations collection. I didn't like the one-shoulder look, but those flowers are just held on by little plastic snaps! So it comes off very easily. I ordered it two days ago, and I couldn't be more excited!!

I can't wait to see the look on FI's face when he sees me in it for the first time. And I'm soooo glad to have the dress hunt over with, and so painlessly!

My beautiful Novo e-ring and matching band, and his double-milgrain flat band on our wedding day. =)

One of our wedding colors was orange, so the girls' flowers were done in orange! My Matron of honor got an orange bouquet of roses, my bridesmaid got an orange bouquet of gerber daisies, and I got an orange mixed bouquet of roses, gerber daisies, and calla lilies. I loved how it turned out!

(photo by Chris Richards)

Flowers by Swenson & Silacci in Monterey, California.

What I wanted: Non-floral centerpieces, that also doubled as a favor display.

I folded 1000 paper cranes as a nod to my Japanese heritage, and used them for ceremony decorations. I took the paper crane idea a little further because I love the symbolism of them. So I decided that the favors for our guests would be paper cranes folded on beautiful washi origami paper and a little glass jar to keep them. But for the centerpieces, I wanted the pretty origami to do double-duty.

I purchased manzanita branches from save-on-crafts.com, vases at Ikea, and then used sand to make it all look nice. (DH weighted the branches with plaster of paris, which is recommended for shorter vases like ours.) Then the favor cranes hung from them.

It was great because the centerpieces weren't too obstructive, so that guests across the table from each other could still see and talk to each other! We ended up hanging table numbers from them, as well. For more DIY info, click here.

I don't have a picture of just the centerpieces at the reception. =(

After these origami cranes doubled as part of the centerpiece decorations, the guests were instructed to select a crane and place it in one of the jars in front of them to take it home with them. I included the meaning and symbolism of the paper crane, and conveyed that my groom and I wished them happiness, health, and longevity, as well. Here is a picture of the favor that one of our guests took, along with his escort card (DIYed with similar origami to pull the theme together):

I bought the jars at Michael's with a "20% off entire purchase" coupon, which ended up making it cheaper than save-on-crafts.com, only because there is no shipping.

I used Paper Source to purchase the #10 size backings in the color Bluebell. Then I created a Word file with two columns and wrote up what I wanted to say in our programs and took it to Kinko's to get printed and trimmed. I assembled them using a 1/8" hole punch, double sided tape, and a thin orange ribbon. DIY instructions and more information can be found here.

My parents are from Japan, and I've always loved origami. So I folded the senbazuru (1000 Paper Cranes) for our wedding in our wedding colors, light blue and orange! We used them to decorate our gazebo for our ceremony, and the result was exactly what I had envisioned!!

(photo by our awesome photographer Chris Richards)

Instead of copying and posting my recaps in multiple places, I'm just putting it up on my blog! So please head on over if you'd like to see how things turned out!

http://tooterfish.blogspot.com

Photos by the amazing Chris Richards!