10% Chance of Showers

Sak and I had no plans of any pre-wedding parties. No engagement parties, showers or bachelor festivities - since we already felt bad enough asking people to fly to Hawaii.

So we were a bit surprised to see an e-vite to a co-ed wedding shower. I guess we'd be doing some of this after all!

However, when we looked at the invitation, we noticed it was sent to our entire church. The entire church that we hadn't invited to the wedding.

"WHATAREYOUDOINGNONONONONONOPLEASENO!" Said a very guilty Penga to her Bible study leader/party organizer.

Luckily, the party was moved to her house, and it was mainly just our study group that attended. Upon their request, I also invited my parents, who took some awesome photos that I can now blog about. Thanks parents!

For food, we had cute little sandwiches in all sorts of different flavors, brie and other delicious snacks.

Salmon, our favorite!

Peng-Sister was her loving self, as usual.

"L" is for "Love", right?

Anyway (and luckily), they kept the games tame and light on embarrassment! First they had a "how well do you know Sak and Penga" quiz. It was multiple choice, and some of the choices were pretty funny.


Next, we played a really hard game, where we had to guess the celebrity couples based on images of just their eyes.

Sak and I need to read more People magazine or something, because we got only 5 right out of a possible 20. At least we got Tom & Katie and Angelina & Brad, we're not total failures, right?

The last game was a guess-the-love-song and artist based on a small sample of the tune. We did pretty well, provided they were mostly 60's songs. Had they been 80's songs we would have won, for sure. And for each game, they awarded gift card prizes to the winners. The second place person would get a prize too, but it would be something silly, like toilet paper or soap!

When games finished, dessert was up next. Our hosts really splurged for us, because what came next was some Sibby's! The super-cute cupcakes where iced in our colors, even. I tried snicker doodle, lemon meringue, red velvet and chocolate flavors. Yum.


Sak and I practiced feeding each other. It wasn't a total success.

And lastly, there were gifts to be opened. Though we did not register, and they pestered us for days to see what we wanted, I'm honestly glad we didn't give in. They have much better taste than we do, and Sak and I are totally not picky about anything. Plus someone got us both a Star Wars book and a massage book. Because, you know - they don't make Star Wars massage books. Yet. That kind of creativity just doesn't come with a registry, I'm thinking.

My plate bow bouquet!

And lastly, one super-creative guest made cookie favors for everyone:

Hey, that image looks pretty familiar..

Anyone else humbled with a surprise shower? And is anyone else a no-registry couple?

Sak and Peng Attend a Wedding

This past Friday, Sak and I had the honor of attending the wedding of our college friends, S & J. Both electrical engineers and conventioneers themselves, I've always loved this couple, so getting to see them tie the knot was really quite exciting.
Plus, the wedding-atmosphere totally got us in the mood for our own nuptials, now only a month away! Eep!

I'm not going to try and explain everything that happened, because I'm not too knowledgeable on all the various customs and rituals, but I will share the details, since I know we fellow brides and grooms can appreciate the hard work and thought that goes into executing such an event. Plus, I really like the macro setting on my camera.

They had a little guestbook, in which someone painstakingly hand wrote each page of prompts, over and over again. And yes, even after all this blogging and commenting, I'm still terrible at writing heartfelt and meaningful messages on the spot. *sigh*

Shiny elephants! Which later doubled as escort card holders!

Sak does his duty at the card box.

Now, the ceremony was beautiful, right next to an indoor stream. Their wedding was at the Decathlon Club in Santa Clara, which worked out just perfectly for their wedding of ~150 people.

Since I haven't asked my friends how they feel about having their faces plastered to the web, I will stick to details only! But trust me when I say that they were a beautiful bride and groom.
Now, the ceremony was longer than your typical American "I do"-and-let's-get-out-of-here, but we were still super surprised when this guy walked by:Ice cream! During the ceremony! Sak was in awe, and promptly whispered to me, "Can we pleaaasee have some at our wedding too?" But, given the length of our typical-American-vows, it wouldn't be very practical.It was good - rose flavor with basil seeds. The ice cream was definitely the highlight of Sak's night.

While the family and bridal party took pictures, it was cocktail hour. We ran around taking pictures and eating the to-die-for appetizers.
How I love you, samosa!


The tablescapes were so fancy!

She had a wish tree, too. Another chance for my horribly un-inspiring scribbles.
And the cake! The cake was huge!

Now, my personal favorite part of the night was when the bride and groom arrived at the reception. They walked in to the Zelda theme, and I about died from the awesomeness. And then nearly flipped at some other guest who asked, "What is this, Star Wars music?" Pshhhaww.

The food was so awesome that I totally forgot to take a picture of it. My bad. And they served chai! Chai is amazing.

There were about 50 single ladies up during the bouquet toss, and I've never seen a better one. They were all excited and jumping at the chance to catch the pretty flowers. Like a smug-faced engaged lady, I just stood in the back and let them at it.Teeming with anticipation!

Energetic dancing followed all night, and it was a lot of fun. Though they had an open beer and wine bar the whole time, we didn't drink since we had some early morning plans that required a clear head. That didn't stop us from pretending to be on the tipsy-side with everyone else though.
Overall, it was a beautiful wedding, and I'm very happy for my friends, now honeymooning on a cruise in the Mexican Riviera. Even though I'm sure not everything went perfectly smooth for them (realistically, does it ever?), I couldn't tell. And that's really encouraging. Their happiness, love and joyful smiles really set the tone for the evening, and I'm pretty sure everyone had a great time.

Have you ever been inspired by someone's wedding?

C is for Sock

In the middle of my weekly ritual of purifying the clearance racks at Michael's of any bargain finds, I happened open some cute little letter patches. Impulsively, I snatched up as many red "C's" as I could find. Six, in all, for fifty cents each.


Eager to find something to put all the "C's" on, I thought I might get some socks. Heartened by the promise of a big bag of Sunchips, Sak drove me to Target to get some black socks. I picked up some for our brothers, as well.


Next, the simple task of ironing on the "C" patches! (All the guys happen to have names that start with "C", interestingly enough.)


Except...the adhesive didn't work at all! Either the patch-glue was too old, the socks were too odd of a material, or some combination of the two - but it just wasn't working.

I tried some fabric glue, and although it seemed to work, the patch would still rip off if given a big enough stretch. I gave up at this point, the guys could just have plain black socks, no problem. It really wasn't a project worth spending a ton of time on.

But the socks snuck off to my grandmother's when I wasn't looking, and she decided to take care of the problem in true-sewing-fashion. I can see her shaking her head at me. Between my veil mess and this, she must think I'm crazy. You know, if the costumes I bring to her every year for advice didn't do so already.


Now, I did try and sew these myself. I promise! But I couldn't fit the sock under the foot! She removed part of the base of the machine in order to get it to fit better, which was a really smart idea! I also couldn't hand-sew the C either, though I tried. The adhesive on the patch was really tough to push the needle through.


Anyway, she knocked them out in no time and they are all complete now, minus the leftover glue marks on some of them from my fail-attempt. I was pretty surprised when my mother brought the pictures and finished socks over!

I know it's just another little detail that no one will see, but I like that my grandmother was able to get involved, and I learned how to manipulate the machine in order to sew things onto socks! Plus, the guys will be able to tell their socks apart from other random black socks in the future! Or something. But yes, next time I'll stick to only ironing things onto cotton materials, and not crazy spandex dress socks.

What have you monogrammed so far? Or maybe - what haven't you monogrammed?

Attack of the Veil

So, a veil, eh?
Sak, for some reason, seems to find them more creepy than romantic.

Backing up a bit, I first laid out my grandmother's veil pattern and cut out some tulle. Tulle is ridiculously cheap, by the way.
I decided not to make the little cap that the pattern specified, and instead needed to come up with my own sort of head-attachment. Recently, I've really been captivated by headbands, so I thought I'd start there.

The first attempt was with wire and sewed on ribbon, and um. That just wasn't working at all.
The wire was pokey and not quite bent right, and the ribbon was floppy. Fail veil #1.

A few weeks later, I was visiting Penga-Sis and she dragged me into a Forever 21 for whatever her 11-year-old fashionista needs may be (I had actually never been in the store before). They had a ton of cute headbands there. It gave me one of those "Really? Why did I bother trying to make my own? What is wrong with me?" moments. So I bought some less-than-$5 headbands to try again.


I attached the veil onto the white double-band, and tried to cover the froofy-tulle ends with a strand of pearl beads.
Veil fail #2 - it looked pretty shoddy, and the beads kept slipping around.
You wouldn't like me when I'm angry, veil.

A few weeks after that (it takes me a while to recover from failure, apparently), I took the veil apart again for attempt number three. This time I just attached the tulle directly to the already-made pearl headband.
It works! Woooo!

Okay, so it's not exactly the straightest. I'm hoping that's just because I tried to put it on by myself, and not because it was sewed on crooked.

Despite the much-better-than-before outcome, Sak is still not a big fan of veils. Probably because I keep wearing it around the house while making creepy noises. However, we compromised - I'll only wear it during the ceremony, and not with the veil over my face. Hopefully that will prevent Sak's face from contorting in pure horror as I lurch down the aisle to steal his soul.

Are you wearing a veil? How does your SO feel about the froofy tulle?

Parasol Carousel

During one of many recent internet-shopping-splurges, I snagged a box of 12 plain parasols. The idea being that I would paint them, and then use them for props or shade throughout the wedding day. Even though our wedding will be indoors, we'll still be taking pictures outside, so I think they'll get some use.

A big fan of the "thank you" parasol, which can later be used for thank you cards, I decided an expression of gratitude would be a good place to start.

I printed out some letters, and after roughly cutting them out, I taped them to the backside of the opened parasol. Although, of course, shortly after starting the project, Penga-Mom asked - "Why didn't you write "mahalo" instead?"

Yeah, I'm pretty sure my mind just checked out completely. Oh well. Let's continue.
I traced each letter onto the front side of the parasol, using a dull-pointed pencil. I may have poked a hole in the thin paper anyway though, it's tough!


Now it's painting time! I used simple acrylic paint, and a way-too-cheap plastic paintbrush.

The bristles really did not want to behave, hence the splattery lines on the top of that "a".
With a little patience, I managed to go back and try to smooth the lines out. Penga-Bro's snake was getting curious by all the action.

And..Done!


It's fun, but I think next time I would not try and arc the letters around the parasol. I've looked at some pro-parasols, and it seems that the words are usually written straight across. Much less awkward that way. And I'd also invest in a higher-quality paint brush.

For kicks, I tried to free-hand some sakura flowers. It didn't come out so hot though, again mainly due to the fact that the paintbrush hated me.


There's a lot of parasols left - though I haven't figured out what else to paint on them. We gave some of the parasols away, too. A couple to a friend of mine, one to my sister - there's just no way I have time for all 12 of them.

Are you planning on utilizing the parasol for some decorative shade?