Three Month Wedding Anniversary

We have been married for 3 months!

In the picture above, I photoshopped the grass into green oblivion (it was yellowy prior to that).

Our wonderful bridal party...consisting of sibs, cozes, and close friends. 

(Psst, one of the aforementioned sibs just got engaged!)

My dear Ba.

Photo credits: Paul Meyer Photography (1,2) and cousin Ben (3)

Wedding Photo Favorites: Photoshop Craze

I learned some new Photoshop techniques today... (cue for Mike to hurriedly flee the premises)

Photo credits: Paul Meyer Photography (all but #2) and my uncle (2)

In #1, you can see my aforementioned uncle with the video camera!

If I could show the originals then my Photoshopping efforts would be more apparent...

idea for the next post, perhaps?

Wedding Photo Favorites: Two of Us

Two of us riding nowhere

Spending someone's hard-earned pay.

Two of us Sunday driving

Not arriving, on our way back home.

We're on our way home

We're on our way home

We're going home. 

Just the two of us, complete with Beatles lyrics!

Photo credits: My uncle (1), my cousin Ben (2), Paul Meyer Photography (3)

To see more wedding photos, click on the Wedding Photo tab above!

Wedding Photo Favorites: On the Farm

Another installment of some favorite wedding photos, this time all taken on the farm.

Click on the Wedding Photo tab (above) to see the others!

The farm pictured is Eichner's Farm
Photo credits: Paul Meyer Photography 

Out of Stamps and Out of My Mind (Thinking About Wedding Food)

I sure gave the US Postal Service some work to do last week: 

And in other news, a straggler wedding DIY item:

Maybe it's all for the best that we can't read the menu very clearly.  I weep at the thought of the food that I did not get to eat at our wedding.  Let me clarify, I did manage to sample every single course, but at suboptimal temperatures, and at the expense of socializing/tearing up the dance floor.  For instance, I missed the flaming desserts while they were ablaze, but did manage to swallow whole like 2 balls of icecream and warm Banana Foster substance.  Similarly, while no one was watching, I poured some cake down my throat, taking care to briefly taste all cake components as they hit my tongue valleculae on their way down (chocolate cake, vanilla cake, delicious buttercream).

Hmm, now I am reminiscing fondly about the wedding soup, hmmm.  My cousin/matron of honor made me eat a bread roll as I visited her table. But THEN, here's the best part: when Mike and I returned home from our honeymoon, we had 3 packed meals still sitting in the fridge representing the 3 entrees we had chosen. Though I selected the filet mignon on my wedding day and only ate a few bites of it, a week after the wedding, I enjoyed parmesan chicken AND crab-stuffed flounder in the comfort of my kitchen.  So why am I weeping and kvetching at all? 

Here's why--I missed the premium bar upgrade I fought so hard for! I only managed to sip a little of my toasting champagne and some zinfandel while waiting in the bridal suite. Waaah, I wish I had a single drink composed of all the premium liquors: a cornucopia of upgraded divine alcoholism. 

I wish I had 4 bride stomachs.  But other than that, our wedding was pretty much a dream come true :)

Wedding Details, Details

The next time I have to apply for medical school or residency, I demand that all of my letters of recommendation recognize extol my wedding planning prowess.  I would also like some acknowledgement of my recent advances in non-dairy baking, but that is a topic for another post :)

When I started wedding planning in 2010, I had a vision...

The vision continued here and in other wedding-related posts.  As you know, I then started to dive into what Mike will eternally refer to as "making invitations," which is actually an umbrella term encompassing all of my wedding DIY projects that he was forced to participate in. 

Then the wedding happened, and without the help of my dear family, none of the following would have existed.

Above are some details of attire, including my beautiful lace gown that was made in Vietnam by our favorite tailor, Mr. Song Oanh. I also wore a traditional Vietnamese gown which was also lace and featured an embroidered phoenix, which symbolizes the bride (the dragon symbolizes the groom and the two are traditionally pictured together in Vietnamese wedding garments and decor).

My hairpiece was custom made to my specifications by my crafty sister-in-law Talia, who recently acquired a new glue gun.

Even my mom was compliant with the wedding color scheme (lavender and dark red).  The groomsmen and bridesmaids are perfectly coordinating, as per my vision (above).  The bridesmaids wore lavender Ann Taylor dresses with shoes and jewelry of their choice.  The groomsmen wore grey suits and heathered lavender Express cotton ties. 

My little cousins tossed flower petals down the aisle in little burgundy bubble dresses that my mom found at Burlington.  Two days before the wedding, I encountered the rose hair pieces for them while wandering around the Strip District (Pittsburgh) with Mike. 

I had never seen so many flowers in my parents' basement.  They were from Costco, which is kind of an amazing place.  We made all of the bouquets, boutonnieres and table centerpieces (as per our prior flower adventures). 

My bouquet was made by a florist, who managed to procure deliciously dark red calla lilies and plump red roses.  I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful bouquet. 

My all-buttercream cake! As you saw above, I had two cakes.  The piano cake was non-dairy so that Mike could have cake as well. 

Photo credits: Paul Meyer Photography and my Uncle Tam

Flower credits: my mom, aunts, uncles, cousins, MOH and Blumengarten Florists

Wedding Aftermath

Wow, getting married is exhausting!  Perhaps you don't believe that I got married (in spite of all the wedding invitations that I lovingly blogged about earlier this year).

HERE'S PROOF:

In true Bridezilla fashion I again made a photobook and took photos of it.

These are from our little Vietnamese ceremony photoshoot, photos courtesy of my Uncle and Cousin.

Some getting ready shots, cousins and sisters-in-law.

Our farm photoshoot! Don't the groomsmen look handsome? They were stealthily treading around all the chicken poop. 

Scenes from the reception. Note our adorable little Kosher piano groom's cake.

There are my parents looking all patriarchal/matriarchal standing on their lawn.

This farm photoshoot was no joke, they brought out the antique tractor for us!

In the greenhouse, and our "You may kiss the bride" moment.

Our dear friends, bridesmaids, groomsmen.

Credits

Photography: Paul Meyer Photography, my uncle Tam, my cousin-in-law Ben

Photobook: Adoramapix

Indeed, getting married was amazing, now onto being married...

Wedding Invitation Suite, Part Dos

My guests loved the invitations! Or perhaps they were polite. That said, the encouragement gave me that extra push to start a few more projects: programs, thank you notes, take over the world.

Bridal shower thank you cards

This is our program.  I am still feeling kind of self-conscious about it because I think it needs a bow or a rhinestone or something. Rhinestones have rescued a few of my failed projects. I wish I could be a sheet of rhinestones.  As you can see, I drew a picture of Mike and me.  I then scanned it into the computer where I had the free reign to alter its color and add some more frills to my dress on photoshop.  In the end, I think I could have added the frills by hand with the same amount of effort. But at least no ink was wasted!  I (somewhat brilliantly) figured out a way to print the drawing onto my purple paper (which is starting to become kind of annoying as it just won't run out) with my printer. But then I had to wait a full 24 hours for them to dry.  Then I decided I wanted to illustrate the rest of the bridal party.  While this was amusing for like 2 days, I am starting to think that I'm a little weird...

My little stamps and beloved carver.

Here is a little preview of the thank you cards. I decided to make them all different.
I love Sigmund the Pigmund and Platelet the Penguin wearing bowties. Maybe you can't tell but I put *~*RHINESTONES *~* on their bowties. 

And to think , it all started out with my humble linoleum "printing shop" in our little apartment in Pittsburgh....

Hope you enjoyed that sampling of my wedding-related art projects.

Wedding Invitation Suite, Part Uno

I wanted to do a post on my invitations for a long time.  I held onto them for over 2 years (insane much, anyone?), making little adjustments/improvements every few weeks, lovingly putting them in different orders (alphabetical, family ranking, how much I liked the person), laying them out on my couch, bed, and floor, then storing them in their basket. These were the last few days that the invitations spent in my clutches:

Right: Patrick the Ostrich approvingly gazes upon the invitations.
They are laying on bed to dry (and be photographed) after I calligraphed the addresses.
Left: As you can see they are in their box, ready to be hand stamped and then released into the wanton custody of the mailmen and women who folded them and ran them through some machine that squished them. Grumble.

Early phase, back when we still lived in Pittsburgh.  I was toying with the idea of making belly bands out of scraps.

I arrived at the final design of my invitation after perusing literally hundreds of other invitations online and carefully examining the wedding invitations I had received from my friends.


Ingredients:
-Pocket fold made out of cardstock (Aspire Petallics 98 lb cover, www.thepapermillstore.com)
*The purple color I used for my invitations are currently not available, so you will be linked to pink instead*
-Announcement (printer paper, yes very classy)
-Information card on a different cardstock (Via Felt 80 lb cover, www.thepapermillstore.com)
-Map card on same cardstock as Info card
-RSVP card on same cardstock as Info and Map cards
-Large outer envelope (Aspire Petallics 80 lb text, www.thepapermillstore.com)
-Small return envelope for RSVPs (same as outer envelope)

Since I purchased the paper in bulk, I still have a LOT of paper left for random other projects but I am running out of ideas fast. I purchased a carton of 750 sheets of 6" x 33" shiny purple paper since it was the smallest unit available and it was only $20 something back then.  I probably used 50 sheets for the envelopes and now....the world is my paper oyster.

Left top:  all the different components laid out
Left bottom: the international invitations get placed into a different outer outer envelope for extra protection across the border
Right top: assembled invitation suite and outer envelope
Right bottom: closed invitation

On the next episode, I will discuss more about the design and erasers as stamps and other salient topics.  Stay tuned!