The Wait to Escape

The airshow is in town this week. I work near the ocean downtown, on one of the top floors of a high-rise, so all I've been hearing is the rip-roaring sounds of the stunt plane jets.
It makes me want to leave. On a jet plane. Now.

Sak, my immediate family and I are all going to Oahu for a week, right after Christmas. Why? We all have different reasons.
For Sak, it's his chance to visit his family for the Holidays. He hasn't seen them since last Christmas, so he's really looking forward to it.
For my dad and two younger siblings, it's a vacation. Yep, that's it.
For my mother and I - it's business. It's scouting potential bakeries, visiting the venues for the first time in person, getting a hair and makeup trial, and researching hotel deals. I felt bad about making her work while the rest of the family is off playing on a beach or eating shaved ice, but I doubt she would really be happy unless she had a hand in the decision making process.
So just a few more months before I can escape this San Francisco chill and toast my toes on the island..I don't know how I'll hang in there!
For you destination folk - did you get to make a scouting trip before the wedding?

Unlicensed for Another Year

Our New Year's resolution for 2009 was to not waste a single weekend. We went to museums, volunteer events, zoos, concerts and street fairs to satisfy the requirement. It was wonderful, and we had a lot of fun on our mandatory dates.

And then we got engaged. Suddenly, there's no money for concerts, no time to use our zoo or museum memberships. Planning has come and it has come to stay. That business class at the community college we signed up for before? We're already 2 or 3 weeks behind in reading the material. Add to that nine hours of work, finding time to exercise, Bible study, and eat? The carefree life we enjoyed before will be put on hold for the next year. And the horrible thing is - I'm positively sure that I have a lighter load compared to most brides-to-be out there!

There is one thing I've shelved, however, that feels worse than all others.

The P.E.

(Click image for source)

After two years of career work and a pass on the F.E., California engineers can apply to take the Professional Engineer licensing exam. This would be similar exams lawyers or doctors take to get their professional certification. It's an 8 hour test with a 30% pass rate, held only twice a year.

Now, I'm lucky in the sense that my company does not require me to be a certified P.E. to work. But it's one of those career goals that I have, and would definitely open up more opportunities for advancement if I was licensed. I'm eligible to take the test now, either next Spring or Fall, but...I'm not going to take it.

This is a hard decision for me, since I'm effectively saying that one day of getting married is more important than being a licensed professional in my field of study. And the further things are delayed after college, the harder it becomes to remember everything! But honestly, I just don't think I can handle the studying on top of everything else that's going on.

So I'm going to wait until Spring 2011. By then I'll be married and bored again, so I'll have both the time to study, and the peace of mind to not be distracted by glittery wedding details (I hope!).

Are you shelving any dreams or goals in lieu of your wedding? Or for those that have already "been there, done that", was it the right thing to do?

Program Power! Part 1

A couple of months ago I attended a good friend's wedding. It was amazing! And I am now shamelessly stealing one of her awesome ideas.

During a reception slideshow of her and her new husband, she told the story of how they met through cute stick people and music. It didn't hurt that she had the best "this-is-how-we-met" story I've ever heard, either! (Previously they were just acquaintances at college, but one day they were both at the airport flying to Taiwan, and she had one too many travel-on bags, and he had one too few, so he offered to take one of hers!)

Needless to say, I was totally inspired! Our story isn't nearly as "awwwwweee~!"-inspiring, but it'll be fun anyway! I'm going to draw it out manga style:
First, I started with my pencil draft, which I scanned in and converted to blue so I could vector over it in photoshop.

The finished lineart! Now I just need to add text and tones...and about 3-4 more pages! (I won't ruin the story by posting the text now. )

Now, would it be unethical to "exaggerate" our story to make it more exciting? Like add some ninjas, a love triangle, and some cute cuddly mascot characters?

How are you telling the story of how you met your future spouse?

I need my princess leia, er, husband!

No joke, this is how I envision myself walking down the aisle:



*sigh* my dream! Saka says no way. But I mean, come on, Dad can even do the wookiee yell halfway down the aisle! :D

What kind of music should I use, if I can't use this? Instrumental Christian contemporary? Final Fantasy Instrumentals? There's just so many choices!

What are you doing for your "walk"? Are you keeping it simple or making a dramatic entrance?

Shiny Happy Shoeples

Now before we jump right into the shoe-fest, let's talk about the needs. You see, I'm about two inches taller than dear Sak, so I am not allowed to wear heels under any occasion. Well, except for the secret pair of cute one-inchers hidden under my desk at work...

And then, after loving the way the little red shoes looked on my save the date magnet, I decided I needed red shoes. Yes, needed.

(Sources L-R: Merona , Naturalizer , Volatile , Da Vaccino Clie , Dorothy Shoes? )

The shoes on the top left are the ones I'll probably get (if not for the wedding, at least for everyday!) They are only $20 at Target! Unfortunately, the red ones weren't at my local stores, so I'll have to try ordering them.

I'm thinking they'll look pretty nice with a good shoe clip on the front. (Click the image for the etsy seller!)


Something with pearls to match my necklace? I can probably make my own, though the above etsy examples are so neat as well! I'd have to search for shoe clip findings, which could be more hassle than it's worth. What do you think - buy, make or antique shop? At what point do you stop adding DIY projects? The end of my list is no where in sight!

More Mon Madness

Weddings involve a lot of paper. And for all that paper, I think it's nice to have a good theme running throughout. Some popular and beautiful choices include damask, flowers, trees/leaves and pretty swirls and loopies.

Although I haven't exactly nailed down what kind of design we'll have, in the ever-constant quest to avoid over-feminizing, I'm sure it'll involve lots of black lines. Maybe like our Corelle tableware...


Ahh simplicity, how I love thee..





Anyway, I also thought of continuing the tie-in to Sak's mon..since it will already be everywhere, courtesy of our favors. And since we're already celebrating his heritage that way, why not celebrate mine too?
Disregarding the doodley scrawlings on the bottom, I came up with three more mons, two of which are completely made up! Can you tell which ones? Two for Saka, Two for me, and the double happiness bonding us in the middle.

Saka gets the Hibiscus, state flower of Hawaii, since that's where he's from. He also gets his family mon, obviously.

Penga gets the poppies, state flower of California, since that's where she's from. She also gets the peony, state flower of Indiana, since that's where her paternal roots come from. I'll have to vector these in, of course, before I go splotting them around on everything. I'm thinking for sure they'll go on the escort/place cards. They'll probably also make appearances on programs and other papery goodness. Saka thinks it would be fun to put the mon most appropriate for the person on the place card. So all the Saka's would get the Saka family mon, all the Californians would get poppies, etc. Maybe, but there might not be an even balance! Let's integrate, not label!

What's your papery theme? How does it represent you and your FI?

Styling the Little Sis

Well, we've gone over what the groomsmen might like to wear; what about the bridesmaids? There will be only one, and her name is Danni. My ten year old sister decided right away that there was no way she'd be wearing a poofy froofy tutu dress. And I agree, I can't imagine her in one anyway. My first thought was to put her in a cute red pencil skirt and matching jacket. Like a mini business woman! But after massive amounts of googling, I have yet to find a business suit for 10 year olds, much less in a red color.

So together with my mom and I, we had her look through some websites for dresses that were "sexy" enough for her grown-up tastes. Here's a few inspiration slides from our search (as always, click to enlarge):

(Source:http://www.girlsdressline.com/red-flower-girl-dresses/)

(Sources L-R:http://www.cutieclothes.com/01red-2832.html, http://flowergirlprincess.com/product_info.php?products_id=710, http://flowergirlprincess.com/product_info.php?products_id=874)

I really liked the halter dress, but she nixed that off the list in a blink. We both like the red with black overlay, but mom thinks it's a bit too dramatic. Though Danni went to bed before we could show her the last dress, I have a feeling it's the one we'll go with: the red ballgown with the pickups and sweetheart neckline. It looks like my dress! Only shinier. It also has a faux-lace up back, just like mine (shown on the white dress example). What do you think? grown-up enough? Will she steal the show? These dresses are gorgeous! (And professionally made...:P)Being that she's the all-in-one attendant, I think she should take all the attention!

The next day after school she came home and looked at our ideas. Being that she is my little sister, she declared she would design her own dress, and proceeded to whip out a pencil and paper. I'm waiting for mom to scan and send me her design, but I've heard its pretty much a chimera of all the dresses we picked out above. I'm hesitant to tell her that we'll make her dress, unless of course mom or another family member wants to take on the project! Then I'll say, go for it! As it is, I'll probably have enough trouble making my own dress. And I wouldn't even begin to know how to size a ten year old. In a year, kids can grow a LOT.

Anyone else have picky younger-ones to dress? How are you handling it?