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.

The Wedding is Nigh

In all of the hype, I have complete forgotten to post my outfits! I had prepared the following photos long ago when the wedding was but a mere date in the calendar.  It was still boot weather!

1. This was clearly a weekend moment spent in my Urban Outfitters bunny sweatshirt, Target sweater, F21 jeans, and Nine West boots. Hey, it was cold.
2. I love animal prints! Sweater-J Crew (old), top-F21, Se7en jeans
3. This is a largely no-name outfit. It was comfy. I think I will wear that dress again soon.

Ok, I'll be honest, I really liked this outfit and couldn't decide which was my favorite photo of it so I included them all.
Most notably, I remembered to accessorize! Next round of smoothies on me!
PS, that white J Crew belt is so versatile, methinks.
Top- gift from my style-aware dad , Skirt-tailored in Vietnam, Shoes-Steve Madden, Necklace-J Crew, bracelet-F21, earrings-thrifted

Next time I resurface I may be a married woman. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Hypothyroid Outfits

Did I lament about my lack of thyroid hormone lately? I almost fell asleep in the middle of the sentence. Luckily I have not fallen asleep while driving, which is my greatest fear.  I am sadly up to 2 cups of coffee a day to stay awake.  Alas, caffeine interferes with the absorption of levothyroxine. But look, I have successfully awoken at least 8 times in the past few weeks in order to wear the following outfits as well as take photos of them!

1. Sweater: gift from Mom, Turtleneck: JCrew, Skirt: JCrew, Shoes: from Vietnam
2. Sweater and top: gift from Aunt, Belt: JCrew, Pants: JCrew Pixie Pant, Shoes: Banana Republic
3. Sweater: same as #1, Shirt: JCrew, Pants: JCrew Minnie pants in Parsley, Shoes: Calvin Klein
WOW I am heavily representing JCrew in this assortment of outfits!

Here, I demonstrate the addition of a scarf that I bought from a street vendor while visiting Pittsburgh!
Other than that, I am wearing my beloved dress from Vietnam as a jumper.
I am holding Nutrigrain bars.
My boots are Nine West and belt is from JCrew. They have matching studs. 

1. Shirt: from Vietnam, Sweater: gift from Grandma, Pants: H&M, Shoes: from Vietnam, Coat: Anne Klein. I accessorized here!
2. T-shirt: Zara, Jeans: Ann Taylor Loft, Shoes: Sears, Bag: Marco Tagliaferri
3. Dress: H&M, Shoes: Urban Outfitters

This is an oooooold shirt from Gabe's. I am experimenting with a new photo locale in my apartment.
Jeans: Forever 21, Shoes: gift from dear friend Sansrita, Necklace: gift from dear friend Jen

Did you see the artwork in the corner of the above outfit picture? That was by the hand of yours truly. Oil pastel over a linoleum block print.

I noticed that I have a label called "shopping spree" for my posts and feel amiss that I have not composed a post worthy of that label lately. This, of course, is directly related to the lack of shopping spree in my life.  I have been too hypothyroid to shop.

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!

Talbots, Cardiology Outfits, Amish Country

AHA! I've got your attention with the random combination of the above subjects.  Maybe you wonder how I will tie them all together, well, the answer is that I won't. In fact, I'd like to add some more topics to the mix: calligraphy, pink Marco Tagliaferri bag, lavender nails

While I was on inpatient cardiology teaching service, I managed to get dressed 5 times.  Please note my sock bun in the last picture.  My hair is super unwieldy and all of my sock buns unravel within ~an hour :(

1. Top: tailored in Vietnam, Skirt: Anthro, Belt: J Crew, Shoes: Sears
2. Top: Talbots (<3), Cardi: AE, Pants: H&M
3. Top: tailored in Vietnam, Pants: F21, Belt: J Crew, Shoes: Talbots (!)
4. Tshirt: Charlotte Russe, Skirt: Anthro
5. Top: H&M, Skirt: Anthro, Shoes: Sears

I sort of recently discovered how awesome Talbots is (over the last few months).  I also recently acquired new calligraphy markers and calligraphed while on an empty stomach until I became quite dizzy (over the last few hours).

Onto the Talbots...

The featured Talbots items are 1. Blue jacket and 2. Purple Espadrilles
Some favorite returning guest stars are: Pink Marco Tagliaferri bag, Seven7 jeans, Anthropologie trench coat skirt

Behold! I painted my nails purple and wished to 'casually' showcase them with everyday objects.
Clockwise from upper left: Marco Tagliaferri bag, keys with duck keychain, Groom quiz book c/o Danielle, Loathesome Pager

Mike and I went to Amish Country last week and stayed at a great Bed and Breakfast.  While there, we saw many animals, ate a freshly made farm breakfast each morning, learned about the Amish culture and other tidbits about life.

These are some images that evoke "Amish Country" for some.
I never did get a chance to ride on a buggy.  Truth is, they were noisy, slow, and the pooping of the horses was too frequent for my liking.
My hair is in a sock bun (for the moment)!

Chillin' and maxin' out.

Quite self explanatory: I pose by a tractor while Mike interacts with the animal residents of our B&B.
Outfit: Talbots jacket, H&M dress, J Crew pixie pants, Zigi shoes, purse from Amish leather shop (wahoo!)

This is legitimately cool: Mooney Warther train carvings of (right) ebony and ivory and (left) wood + ebony/ivory accents.  This museum, though located in a humble setting, was breathtaking!  Warther used no glue! He is indeed, the master carver. 

On the grounds outside of the Warther Museum.

And that is all, folks.  Coming up next....

- completed wedding invitation suite (2 years in the making?!?!)
- favor boxes