Double the Fun?

Question: What can go from calm to crazy in less than sixty seconds?

Answer: A Penga who just had her toilet bowl of planning flushed unceremoniously down the drain.

It started with a rubber kickball. At the feet of some random kid, it flew up to the ceiling of a certain gymnasium, cracking a tile.

And now our second reception venue is no longer free. And that being the last of several triggers, our at-home party has morphed from a fifty-person, laid-back, picture-perusing, pizza-eating, pinata-poking afternoon of fun - into a two-hundred-fifty person, full-on traditional Chinese wedding banquet.

Whoa. How did that happen? Your guess is as good as mine.

All I know is that now, as Penga-Mom happily puts it, I "get to have TWO weddings!"

Yes. Two weddings. With another set of wedding invitations. With another round of guests I don't really know. With another set of decorations to consider. With another needed budget.

I'm still balking over the idea, honestly. Mostly about the budget part. Although Sak and I can probably afford it, we did not plan this out beforehand. But I can see what's happening.

War of the weddings.

You see, choosing to have a destination wedding (even if it's only a half-destination!) is inevitably going to upset someone that cannot come. That's just how it is. I don't know how many times I've heard the grumpy words - "why can't you just have your wedding here". And as frustrating as it is to hear displeasure at one's well-thought plans, I understand. It upsets me just as much that those guests can't be there. So this at-home party - it has to be big and grand so that no one feels like they missed out on the whole Hawaii-thing. It has to be just as important, because the people that couldn't be there are just as important.

Is this perhaps flawed reasoning? Of course. Am I upset that my family members care more about this banquet than they do of my actual wedding? Of course. Is there no way in heck I want to worry about DIY decorations and response cards right after coming back from our honeymoon? Of course. Is Sak completely livid at the idea of not being able to revert to our former, less-stressful lifestyle upon our return? Of course.

But Sak and I talked it out, and we came to the agreement that we can, and should, do this - if for no one else than for my grandmother, who has supported us through this entire planning process. She even gifted us our sewing machine, which has become an integral, iconic, and well-cherished member of our daily lives. It pains me that she cannot come to Hawaii - so if a big, family reunion is what she'd prefer, then by all means, she will have it.

I guess this just serves as a reminder that I need to keep my mind open, and my plans (somewhat) flexible. You never know when an errant inflatable ball will smack you upside the head and send you back to square one. That people are actually looking forward to partying with us upon our return is cause for my sincere gratitude, in any case. And luckily, the banquet idea is slowly starting to grow on me. I love Chinese food. Mmm.

So now I just need to find a San Jose Chinese banquet restaurant for 250 or more, sometime in the month of October. Any ideas?

Have you had any of our wedding plans turned completely on end? How did you react?

Two Across, One Down

Even though I can only really do Monday, Tuesday and sometimes Wednesday puzzles, the New York Times crossword has always been a favorite of mine. I especially like to work them with my mother, who is a crossword genius, and sometimes Sak and my Dad if the clue has something to do with car parts or the military.

Is it trying to tell me something? Moi? Never.

Now, since there are a ton of free online crossword generators out there, why not make my own for the wedding? It'll keep people occupied if they get bored, and we can give out a prize for whoever is first to complete it. Sak agreed with my idea, but decided it wouldn't be fair unless we also included his puzzle of choice: sudoku. So, one crossword puzzle and super-expert level sudoku puzzle, please.

For crossword clues - honestly, my first list was so obscure even Sak didn't know the answers. I sent him a list of my "clues" in an email, and he shot back his answers. A small sample, Sak's guesses in blue italic:

-Greek lamb burritos I am offended that you called it a burrito :P
-Sak's first valentine present to Penga ...Oh man...Sorry I don't remember (don't get mad T_T)
-Diglett ...Dig? (what the crap)
-Hand Penga uses to write with Writing hand...lol
-sith lightsaber color Red...are they always red?

He then sent back his own clues, which I tried to answer in turn (in red italic).
-Lenny ____ Euler. but people might say Kravitz, the singer.
-Badger (4x) Oh, it's a snake?
-Mushroom kingdom foot-soldier Goomba
-"Whole Check" Whole Foods
-outdoor/sporting goods store in Manteca You're getting ridiculous now lol

I think sometimes we have a problem with obscurity. Through a long series of back-and-forths, we found a good mix of Penga/Sak related clues and "potpourri" clues which have no real tie other than being things that interest us. Though just in case we are still too random, maybe the prize should be for whoever finishes the most by the end of the night.

Using a generator found here, we constructed the crossword. Then I found a Sak-worthy sudoku from here and added it as well. Here's the preliminary page layout to stick in our programs:

Any other puzzle fans? Are you team crossword or team sudoku?

Brunch on the Beach

A good friend of ours, Sak's college roomie, recently asked us whether we'd like to go island hopping before the wedding in search of some volcanoes. And as fun as a good lava-hunt is, I don't think it'd be wise to run off in the few days beforehand.

(source image)

But it did get me thinking, how are we going to spend some time with guests who arrive before the wedding?

I'm sure we will do some hanging out locally around Oahu in the days before, but we thought it would also be nice to get everyone together in one group. Our first thought was to invite all the out of town folk to the rehearsal dinner, but we ended up thinking it would be less hassle and confusion if we kept that time for people involved in the actual running-of-the-wedding.

We could invite everyone to our bachelor/bachelorette parties, but we're still not even sure if that's going to happen. Sak's still not too keen on me playing tourist and hula-ing around with random Hawaiian men.

But then I had a thought, while reminiscing about all the delicious Hawaiian food I had enjoyed at our last visit. And thus, the brunch-on-the-beach idea was hatched. Late morning the day before the wedding, we plan to meet all our guests (local, out-of-town, whoever wants to show up) somewhere along Waikiki beach for an informal picnic meet & greet.

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For food, we'd go with what started my idea in the first place. Some Zippy's bento, of course!

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Portuguese sausage, spam and eggs! Mmmmm.

We'll also bring some tropical fruit to cut some of that grease!

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And we can't forget the Kona coffee!

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Pastries, fruit juice, what else can we add?

Hopefully this will be a good time for us to really relax with our guests, and to thank them all for coming all the way to Hawaii! I know Sak and I are definitely looking forward to it, that spam and eggs has our name written all over it!

Are your planning on any pre-wedding parties? What's your favorite tropical fruit?

Go, Go Garter!

A long time ago in a Hyatt far, far away... I went to a bridal show. In and for the County of Monterey, actually. I don't really recall why I went, as I'm not getting married in Monterey, but I think it had something to do with the "free gift" they were handing out to attendees. I have a serious penchant for free things, it seems.

Well, luckily for me, the free gift was a garter!

Score, much? And I do highly recommend the Monterey bridal show for any central coast brides. They hold it twice a year, and the cake and food samples were delicious.

Anyway, let's make this freebie a little more Penga-esque, shall we?

First I ripped off all the fluffy on the top. I don't really know what those pearl-stick things are supposed to be anyway.


Next, I sewed some red and black ribbon around the whole thing.


Then I glued on some loopy-bows over the ribbon ends.


And the fun part, a little strawberry applique!

At first I was going to use an anime charm. But then I realized that we'd be tossing this garter, and my charm would be given away to some random guy. And being an utterly selfish, hoarding-collector-type, I couldn't allow that to happen. The strawberry will have to do!


The re-designed garter!

The lace is cheap with fraying ends, but I can't really argue with free. And I don't think the guys will care much anyway. So overall, not bad for twenty minutes of time.

If you are wearing one, are you adding any personal touches to your garter?

Nom Nom Noodle

Seeing as I can count the number of things that I won't eat on one hand, I gave the reception food-choosing responsibility to the pickier-eater in the household: Sak. All I asked was that he make sure to include my beloved whole roast piggy, which he lovingly did.

Well, everyone's got a favorite food, right? Well, Sak's happens to be noodles. No joke, we probably eat some kind of pasta-esque dish at least three nights out of each week. Spaghetti, pho, yakisoba, ramen, pancit, chow mein/fun, ravioli - you name it, we eat it. Someone once tried to convince us that the waxy starches in noodles build up in your stomach and slowly kill you, but I'm not buying it. Pasta for life!

(source) Hello, summer noodle lover.

So I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised to see this:


Apparently he's signed us up for a noodle bar!

Well, if it makes him happy, I'm happy. And I'm also happy he didn't circle the super-expensive personal sushi chef. A noodle bar is much more affordable.

Thus, compliments of Sak, we will be having a pre-dinner noodle bar with:

Somen, a wheat flour noodle.

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Zaru Soba, a buckwheat flour noodle (and one of my favorites!).

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and udon, a thick wheat flour noodle.

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I believe these will all be served cold (perfect for the hot summer!), with a variety of dipping sauces and garnishes. I'm not exactly sure, since I've never seen a noodle bar before (nor have I had cold udon before), but I'm sure Sak's got it covered. And if you've never had cold Japanese noodles before, you really have to give them a try - they are so refreshing and delicious!

Overall, I think it'll be a fun alternative to traditional appetizers or pupus, and Sak seems pretty excited about it. Although I don't think he realizes that we won't really be there during the appetizer time (pictures, yeah?). I imagine he'd get pretty upset if he doesn't get to try out his noodle bar, so we'll have to delegate someone to save him a sampler plate.

The only downside I can see to this plan is that noodles are very, very filling. I hope guests leave some room, because Sak's dinner-picks are pretty drool-inducing as well!

Are you doing appetizers? What's your favorite noodle dish?

Charmed

So a while back I talked about my little twist on the bouquet toss.

Well, I have no idea how many ladies (single or married, anything goes) will want to participate. And I won't know until the emcee decides to call them up to the dance floor. Now, this rather fortunate uncertainty gives me the opportunity to buy a bunch of charms. If I have too many, guess who gets to keep them?

Yeeeep. I like this plan.

Let's see what we've got...

Plumeria flowers...

Wedding rings...

Cameras, for all the family photographers in the crowd...

And airplanes, both because it's a semi-destination wedding, and because they are just oh-so-very cute!

All the charms came from here.

I then waited until Michael's had their 60% ribbon sale, where I bought a bunch of different patterns in red, white and black.

Using hot glue and some little bits of wire, I attached each charm to a three-foot long piece of ribbon.

I'll hold as many ribbons to my bouquet as there are participants, and hide them under my hands. Only one ribbon will actually be tied to the flowers, so whoever picks and pulls that "lucky charm" will win! Win what? Why, my ridiculously expensive bouquet of course, which is no joke!

So what should the lucky charm be?

Manvites: Re-Imagined

You thought we were done, right? Think again.

I sent out 100 finished pocket fold manvites - only to realize that the guest list wasn't exactly finished. Yep, there were to be about twenty more additions, to be specific. These things happen.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any extra pocket folds ready-to-go. And Sak was too busy working on the dress to be bothered with more time-consuming pockets. And we were also fresh out of white glue sticks for seal making.

Well, why not modify the design a bit? It will help both as a way of handling my lack of materials and also my lack of motivation. Fresh ideas are always a good cure for laziness.

I started by introducing some red linen paper, to make the package a little more colorful than last time. Since there was a lack of pockets for the inserts, I decided to try making a little folder instead. I punched holes at the top to keep the inserts inside.


I finished off the folder with a swirly embossed edge, and placed the inserts inside.


After mounting the main invitation card onto a plain rectangle of black linen paper, I tied it together with the insert folder and a stamped RSVP envelope.


I think the little ribbon feels a lot more feminine and cute than the wax seal did, which is ironic since most of these extra invites are going to men.

Anyone else have an ever-expanding guest list? How did you handle the second wave of necessary invitations?

Back on the Upbeat

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their encouragement and help! It helped more than I can say, and I hope that's the last time I'll have to write something so miserable. It's comforting to know that you've faced similar heartaches, and that you all are still alive and well in spite of it.

Anyway, since my meltdown, I had a big-long-talk with my mom, and I finally reached a compromise on the hotel show-down. We booked rooms at the hotel I had blocked before, on the terms that we can cancel and be refunded at anytime (in case mom really does find something better :P ). I had wanted to buy at the cheaper rate, but since it was a "lock-in" deal, mom was pushing back. Although it's not the best deal this way, at least we have a hotel now - so problem solved!

Regarding my guest-list sadness, there's really nothing to be done, but we did get our first RSVP back in the mail today from one of Sak's second-uncles. Is that the term? Dad's cousin? I don't know. So three people are coming at least! haha. I was a little bummed that they didn't fill out the mad-lib, but oh well, maybe it was too silly after all.

The florist emailed back finally, and she said she'd fix the floppy flowers. I'm crossing my fingers for round two!

As for my planning-woes, I'm going to start working on a timeline to find out where I stand first, and then try and figure out what kind of help I will need. Sak's aunt hinted that some of his other "second-aunts" would be willing to help set-up during the ceremony, since some of them don't normally attend ceremonies anyway. I'm not sure about this still, as it sounds odd to me, but we'll see. My brother is also planning on doing a summer mission trip to the University of Hawaii to set up some Campus Crusade thing. My mom is going to facebook (that's right, she's hip like that) some of the other girls that are going and see if they will do some of my dirty work in return for some free food, entertainment and time with my in-demand brother. HA. I still have a lot of reservations about these plans due to my trust-issues, but I guess I'll just have to let that go. Or hope that there's no earlier bookings at my venue. If there isn't, I can oversee all the set-up myself and not have any of these issues. :)

But maybe this is a lesson in disguise - telling me that I can't control everything, and that I just need to calm down and have faith in others. Easier said than done, but we'll see.

In any case, it feels REALLY good to resolve some of my issues, and move on. Back to regular posting for me, and hopefully it will stay that way!

Now time to wake up Sak from his all-afternoon nap, so we can start working on the second half of my dress! :)

Realizing You Can't Handle It

Warning - Whiny post ahead:

Because I'm trapped in some strange maze of utter confusion, I'm going to ask you wedcon-fellows for aid since I have no where else to turn. Or at least I'm going to write it all out and maybe make some sense out of my own thoughts.

A ton of family and vendor crap has been falling apart recently, and coupled with my dress scare the other day, I just haven't felt right in the head since. To summarize a little -

-zilch family members from my dad's side are coming. ZERO. On mom's side - only 3 cousins. To say each rejection feels like a stab in the heart is an understatement. I know I've already written about all that, but you can see the state of glum my mind has been subjected to.

-the florist sent over a picture of our mock up centerpiece. It looks horrible. I'm not going to post the picture since it is embarrassing, and I wouldn't want their business to look bad if they can still fix the problems. But seriously? It looks like they just dumped a pile of Ti leaves and anthuriums in bowl and called it a day. No structure, no arranging, no ferns like I had emphasized. I didn't know how to respond, but I hope it didn't turn out as rude as the thoughts in my head were sounding. But maybe it did, because I haven't heard back from them in several days.

-our second reception venue is kaput. Apparently some kid broke one of the tiles in the gym ceiling and now the church won't let us use their facilities for free anymore. And it's not nice enough for me to want to pay the exorbitant fee, so I'm starting over from scratch. Know any free/insanely cheap places to host an indoor lunch at in nor/central california?

-I finally found a hotel, but my family is waffling over whether it's the "right choice". A few of my amazingly-awesome friends that are actually coming have asked about where we're staying, so this is really holding everyone up. Considering they've waffled over everything so far, I'm half-inclined to just start doing things without asking their opinion first.

-Sak has done zero honeymoon research. He honestly thinks we're just going to go to Japan and find some hostels to stay at. There is no plan whatsoever. So I think I may have to take the reigns from him, because there is no way I'm going to be lost in a foreign country with no place to stay. Also, rail passes cost $700 a person. I totally hadn't budgeted for that. $1400!

There's more, but to sum it up, I feel very alone right now in all this decision making, and it's frustrating when everyone is telling you your decisions might not be right yet offer no helpful solutions. Frankly, I'm tired of the "oh, we'll wait and it'll happen" approach. Like the answer is just going to pop up and some magical fairy will solve all the issues. Because it's not. Someone has to make it happen, and that person has been me.

Hardly any of my vendors are proactive with me. Each takes multiple emails and phone calls to get anything done. Two of them won't even sign contracts. I want to call them all lazy and unprofessional, because by my standard, they are. But the business culture in Hawaii is just a lot more laid-back than it is here, and I can't relate to it.

My mother can never finish her "research" to make any decisions. Sak's mother hasn't said 2 words this entire engagement, other than to ask Sak what color her dress should be. I have no sisters (old enough) for help. I have no female friends for help. My male friends could care less. Sak's dad and aunt have been somewhat helpful, but they run the risk of replacing my ideas of how things should go with their own. (Light show dance, case in point.)

There's zero time between ceremony and reception, so whoever decorates will have to miss the ceremony. I still have no idea who is going to do this, which has been a constant thorn in my side for some time now.

I just feel very weighed down right now, like I'm drowning. It's caused several arguments between Sak and I lately. We are good at handling projects as a team, but dealing with people is really not our strong point. I know the proper solution would be to hire a DOC. I've been debating the issue since the beginning. But I have serious trust issues with people who know zero about us - our personalities, our vision. I know you meet with the DOC to discuss those things, but we are very inarticulate people in real life/on the phone. I'd probably let them push me around. Not to mention the thought of paying over $1k for a day's worth of service boggles my mind. And the thought of working with another slow-responding, laid-back Hawaiian vendor makes me nauseous.

I don't know. I think I need peace of mind more than anything. A wingman would be nice - someone anal retentive about details, someone not afraid to speak up, someone punctual, someone focused. Someone to assure me that everything will come out in the end, not by magic but by hard work and good decisions. Someone to take my ideas with enthusiasm and not raised eyebrows (bingo? whhaat?).

*sigh* My dream coordinator. She sounds a lot like many of you out there. Can I buy you a plane ticket to Hawaii? I don't even think that I'm kidding about that either.

Anyway, thanks for bearing with me through my stress-spasm. There's just so many variables left, and so few days left to solve them. :(

Proper Packaging

Problem: What do I use to put our Out-of-Town goodies in?

Parameters:
- Needs to be big enough for a couple of water bottles, paper, snacks, etc.
- Needs to be able to flatten for easy transportation to Hawaii.

We could do boxes:

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This would probably be easiest, but they are somewhat single-purpose. A bag, at least could be easily re-used.

How about pretty Hawaiian tote bags:

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I'm a big-bag-fanatic, but we are already giving our guests chair-cover-bags - would this be bag-overkill?

Maybe a meshy beach bag, instead:

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This is a little different from the favor bag, right?

Or maybe a fancy looking parcel wrap, tied up with strings:

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It's bound to be someone's favorite thing. Right? Though I don't know how I'd wrap something like a water bottle. That would probably have to sit to the side.

Or maybe we should just go with a towel rolled up with stuff:

(source)

Yeah, I know what you're thinking - diaper cake. We can call this the beach-cake, no babies involved!

Any other ideas? I plan to take the packaging materials over to Hawaii with me, then fill it up with local goodies before the wedding - hopefully before all my guests show up!

If you made out-of-town favors, what did you put your guest's goodies in?

Unleashing the Bridal Beast

It's official. I've blown my first bridal-gasket. I erupted with earth-shattering, high-pitched screams and wails. Veins, pumped full of blood, stood out at my temples. My fists curled into tightly-clenched weapons of pure rage. Sak cowered in the background, creating a low undercurrent of pleas to calm the catastrophic living-room storm.

Can you guess what happened?

Italian soda. RED Italian soda. Bright red, read it -RED artificial coloring.

ON MY WEDDING DRESS.

Hell hath no fury like a woman with a stained wedding gown. I barked orders at Sak as he ran around the house like a chicken with his head cut off, yet somehow we got to the sink and the Woolite in time.

The better part of Sak's evening, spent scrubbing his soda out of my dress. Luckily, I think it came out, though you can still see faint pink stains on the underside of the gown. After it dries I'll be able to see if there's any lasting damage. I certainly hope not, because blowing one fuse was bad enough.

Chalk this up to another risk for DIY dress-making - fiance hazards. I think someone's getting a sippy cup soon.

Did your dress endure any battle stains, either pre or post wedding?

Manvites: Enveloped

Even though our main invitation card was a YUDU-fail, I still wanted to use the device for something. So I picked a bigger font, and Sak went to town squee-geeing our address to the response card envelope.

Then, once he finished, he went back and added a mon to the side. He first tried to do both the mon and the symbol at the same time, but they just weren't coming out at the same consistency. Either the mon would be over-saturated, or the words would be too light.

Luckily, YUDUing paper seems to be a faster process than fabric, since it only needs one swipe to transfer the image. It didn't take too long to do both the words and the image separately.

Pleased with how the response envelopes turned out, we decided to screen-print the main envelope as well. This time with just the mon design. The return address is computer-printed to the back envelope flap.


One tip Sak has for paper printing - use a magazine or cardboard or something to lift the paper closer to the YUDU screen. Since the YUDU is primarily designed for fabric printing, there's a little bit of a gap to account for fabric thickness. Paper, obviously, isn't as thick, so you might like to give it some padding for a more accurate transfer.

Next, we cut out some envelope liners from cheap red wrapping paper, and double-stick-taped them in. One note about white envelopes - I originally wanted to use the trick of half-sized liners to conserve paper, but with a white envelope, it was see-through! So the liners had to be full sized.


Penga-Mom did all the calligraphy on the front with a chisel-tip calligraphy pen, and we used both the 2010 Chinese New Year stamp and wedding band stamp for postage. Though we used $0.88 per envelope, we technically only needed $0.81 according to the postal worker.

It pains me to white-out parts of the envelope, since Penga-Mom did such an awesome job writing them!

I'm not really sure which part of Sak's manvite is my favorite. I'm thinking either the wax seal, or the shiny outer envelope with fancy calligraphy. But in any case, that's it! Time to send these manvites out! I hope they come back with many "yes" cards!


Final Cost Breakdown:

From Pocketfold building:

Black linen card stock: $42.26 for 250 sheets, or $22.65 for 134 sheets used.
white linen card stock: $32.79 for 250 sheets, or $3.28 for 25 sheets used.
double happiness stamp: $3.50
embossing gel: ~$4.00
embossing powder: ~$2.00
spray glue: ~$10.00
red washi paper: $3.00
Subtotal: $48.43

From Inserts:
White Linen Card Stock: $32.79 for 250 sheets, or $10.49 for 80 sheets used (Extra 20 account for spelling error)
White 4 Bar Envelopes: $13.94 for 250, or $8.36 for 150 used (Extra 50 account for YUDU errors)
RSVP Postage: $45.00 for 100 stamps ($1 for shipping and handling)
Subtotal: $63.85

From Wax Seals:
Wax Seal: $14.90 (with shipping)
Glue Sticks: ~$4
Ribbon: ~$18 for six spools
Subtotal: $36.90

From Outer Envelope:
White A-6 Envelopes: $43.40 for 250, or $21.70 for 125 used (Extra 25 account for YUDU errors)
Invite Postage: $88.00 for 200 stamps
Subtotal: $109.70

Grand Total: $258.88, or $2.58 per invitation. Not too shabby!

What was your favorite aspect of your invitation suite?

Tangling with the Tunes Track Two

{Note - this is more of a remix of my first music post, so please excuse some of the redundancy!}

Music. First, I had planned on going the iPod route. Why would I need more, when we were not going to be dancing anyway? Ambient background noise was more than sufficient.

Until the friendor was introduced. Saka-Dad did some sneaky dealing with a pal of his, and suddenly we found ourselves signed up for a sound system, projector and optional light show. Seriously. Light show.

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Well, honestly I did a little balking, and had a few not-so-pleasant flashbacks to senior prom. Some people loved their senior prom, but me? Missy Elliot, strobe lights and one awkward teenager on the dance floor did not mix.

But I appreciate Sak's family wanting to help. And I still hold the reigns to this party, right? We can make it what we want, and heck no, we don’t have to listen to techno.*

Only one problem. Sak and I, well – we don’t really have a wedding-appropriate music identity. Alt-rock, J-Pop and 80’s music are not the most cohesive mix. I could try to make it work, you know, a little Cake with your M-Flo and Queen? But I think it would be easier to just pick some guest-friendly middle ground.

Hawaiian Music. Cliché? Maybe, but we can avoid Don Ho and keep it a little more modern.


However, I not really familiar with modern Hawaiian music. Can you even dance to Hawaiian music? Island clubbing? And since when were we including dancing? Is that going to cut into our bingo time?

Sak assures me that you can dance to many modern Hawaiian songs, and that you can also dance and play bingo at the same time. I believe him (at least on the first part), but it still makes me queasy knowing I’m going in blind. The idea of not knowing any of the songs played at our reception also makes me feel a little weird. I think I need to do some serious research so I’ll have at least a couple good, memorable songs to recommend. We’ve also asked the DJ for some sample play list ideas.

In addition, they are sending us their promo DVD, so I can check out the light show before I throw it off the table completely. Seriously, no prom resemblance allowed, but who knows - I've been wrong plenty of times before, maybe it can be cool?

Do you know what’s going to be played at your wedding? Down to every last song, or do you have faith in your musician/DJ? And can you play bingo and dance at the same time?

*We don't actually hate techno, in fact, Sak is a big fan!

The Shooter's Hit List

One of the things our photographer requested was that we put together a list of must-have shots. I mean, ideally, I want to give her as much artistic freedom as possible, but I understand. Heaven forbid grand-poobah-what's-her-name miss out on her five minutes of paparazzi fame.

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"Whaaat?! Leave ME out of a picture? How dare you!"

Just kidding. But let's compile a list anyway, shall we? I'll start with the checklist on Real Simple's website, since it's fairly comprehensive. I'll cross off the one's I won't be needing.

-"Full-length shot of the bride in her gown, looking at herself in a mirror" - Ehh, not really necessary, but it could be fun if i'm making a weird face.

-"Close-up of groom’s expression while waiting for the bride" - Seeing as Sak is pretty expressionless, this might be a useless shot.

-"Newlyweds’ vehicle" - The parent's rental van? (And yes, we're renting a van.) Umm. Again, not necessary, but not a completely uninteresting picture.

After scrubbing the standard list, it's now time to add in my own:

-Silly bride and groom and both serious families.

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-Bride carrying groom. (Because I can!)


-Bridal party jumping (we tend to do a lot of that...)

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-Parents jumping. (Hey, if they'll wear super-bright aloha shirts, why not?)

(Penga-Mom and Dad practicing their flattering poses!)

-Groomsmen and their cufflinks.

-Bridesmaid holding train while making a face. (This one will come naturally, I'm sure. We're good at making faces.)


-Guest enjoying the chair-cover-bag-favor. (I don't care if it's a fake enjoyment, I didn't spend so much time on them for nothing!)

-The food, and guests with their mouths full. (Because everyone wants to remember how they gorged themselves at the poke buffet!)

-The Penga&Sak Signature Leg-Lift.



Am I missing anything interesting or strange? I'm a sucker for shots with "personality". And since personality is something that bubbles up rather than comes out posed, I think this list is more of a guideline than a necessity. I'll just really emphasize that I'd like creative shots - whatever creative might look like. And as long as we get a few standard family pictures in, I think the traditional family members would be satisfied.

Are you making a must-have list for your photographer? What's the most interesting shot you are requesting?