Floral Forum II

Entering into another conversation about florists and flowers with my mother, she wisely asked what my vision was, knowing full-well I don't know two things about flowers. That's why I called her. After all, she used to work at a nursery.

On the topic of centerpieces -

Me: "Something short and sprawly and lush! Lots of green, with red flowers interspersed!"

Mom:"Are we still after that tropical feel?"

Me: "Yes, but not beach tropical. More like, rain forest tropical. Prehistoric. FERNS! Oh, let's have some ferns!"

Mom: "What kind of ferns? There's many kinds. What kind do they have in Hawaii?"

Me: "Oh, I don't know, we'll just go to home depot once we're there and find out. And then afterwards we cans eat them!"

(Click images for sources, as always)

Consider the conversation effectively over.

In any case, I think I really do want some ferns.

A big leafy fern (there's only a million bajillion different species!) in a short pot
(A Maidenhair fern..so cute and delicate!)

(The E.T. Fern...so prehistoric!)

(The Lemon Button Fern...Also pretty cute!)


Maybe a few fiddle-head ferns thrown in



Then interspersed with some red flowers

(Some adorable baby red wax ginger)

Simple and effective? It's hard to say without putting something together first. And I still don't want to make my own, but maybe this is something easy (and cheap?) for a florist to do?

Oh, and the best part about using potted plants - The Hawaii guests can take the ferns home afterwards, and eat them with their cats! (No joke - you CAN eat ferns.)

(I wonder what they taste like?)

Are you using a floral centerpiece? What kind of flowers/plants are you using?

Cordially Invited Part 2

Alright, time for the nuts and bolts, trials and errors, and grand scheming of these invitation things.

Since they don't have the black linen card stock in anything bigger than an 8.5 x 11", we are stuck making a squattier pocket fold. I think the general consensus is to use at least a 17" long piece, but oh well.

This means the pocket will have to be glued on as a separate piece of paper.

First, cut the black card stock down to size.


Second, take the strip of washi paper and glue it down the side of the card stock.


Third, Cut out the pocket


Fourth, stamp the pocket with some sort of signature stamp. In this case, I think we'll use the double happiness.


We put some clear embossing gel on the stamp, since it seemed to work better than normal stamp pad ink.


Stamp it down! Then pour the fairy dust on top! (aka embossing powder)


Shake the extra back into the container, and get rid of any stray particles.


Heat it up til it becomes raised and shiny!


Workin' that camera macro setting!


Fifth, glue the pocket onto the base with glue strips. For the test I only used repositionable tape though, since I wasn't sure if I liked the design. I think I will change the sizing on the pocket, and have it flush with the base edges for the final product. Or maybe have some flaps of some sort.


Sixth, Take the main invite body and glue it down in the middle. All done!


We'll work on the inserts and outsides later. Does it need more pizazz? After learning how awesome embossing was, I was half-inclined to stamp all over the paper. Sak put his foot down on that though. Just gotta KISS (keep it simple, stupid!), I guess.

The Bird is the Word

Originally, Sak and I hadn't planned on fulfilling the tradition of folding a thousand paper cranes. We didn't think we'd have to time, or want to take the effort.

Yet inevitably, I found myself with four 300-sheet packs of square origami paper.

We folded during our favorite tv shows and during our train rides home, mostly. And we're finally all finished. 1,001 in total.

Here's a video we made to commemorate the feat:

1,001 Cranes from penga on Vimeo.

I'm not sure what we'll be doing with these babies just yet. At first I wanted to make a big 70's style beaded curtain with them, but I'm not sure if we'll have enough to cover the double-doorway at the reception hall. I could always use them as garland, I guess.

And yes, in my great lack of foresight, I realize that the paper colors are completely random and clashy. Oh well?

Anyone else folding the good-luck cranes?

Cordially Invited Part 1

My brain is like wedding soup. Ideas tend to float around quicker than I can pick them up and shovel them into my mouth. But here and there I manage to pick out one of the larger pieces. We can start with one of the more well-formed potato chunks.

The invitation.

Sak and I were milling around San Francisco again this morning, on our quest for $350 dollars worth of black canvas. We'll be ready for that giant carrot later on, though. Across the ways we eyed a dangerous word: paper.

Kelly Paper Store, to be exact. Now, we had seen the mecca that is Paper Source earlier, and filtered through the paltry offerings at the local Office Depot's and Max's, but this - this was what we were looking for all along. A warehouse.

We eagerly threw in a few bucks to feed the outrageous SF parking meter (only to find the free lot across the street...), and walked into the store. The clerk greeted us, and asked if we needed help.

"THIS IS OUR FIRST TIME HERE." I boldy stated. He smiled, and motioned that we should take a look around. Paper everywhere! We went through each aisle, and under each ream of paper was an open stack of samples. You could buy the ream, or just a few sheets, your choice. They even had an invitation center where you could custom order pre-made sets, or cuts of your own choosing.

I drooled around the store greedily, and Sak followed, happily eyeing the reasonable prices.

We came out with a 250-sheet ream of 80 lb., 8.5x11"-sized black linen cardstock.

On the way out the door, I noted to Sak, "We will be back."

"For all our paper needs." He agreed, sounding much like a commercial.

Of course, we then went home to experiment.

Here's the "schematic":


And here's our mockup:
(Names have been smudged out to hide the anonymous.) Now, I'll get into the details in another post, but I'm proud to present the papery breakdown (not including inserts):

1 1/3 sheets of black linen = 21 cents
1/2 sheet of white linen = 10 cents
1"x11" strip of leftover washi paper = ~10 cents

So far our invite comes to a total of 41 cents! Yay! I wonder how much more envelopes, stamps and inserts will cost?

Reception Intro

For a myriad of reasons, there won't be a whole lot of dancing at our reception. But neither do I want guests to just eat and leave. We'll have to provide some alternative entertainment.

And just for the record - there are endless things you can do at weddings besides dancing. Endless.

For starters, we'll be showing a skit. (I think, if all goes well..)

A skit, you ask? Like at summer camp? Yeah, something like that. I want to open up the night with a little shock-therapy for those that don't know us that well. Sort of a statement saying, "This is who we really are. Yes, we are that weird".

Okay, so it's kind of hard to explain with just words. Here's some visual examples I found on Youtube instead:



I think something like this would be a hilarious way to start the reception off on the right foot. I should also give credit to my amazing and newly married friend whom I shamelessly stole the idea from once again. She did a skit "Dancing with the Stars" style, with her parents and inlaws and sisters. It was super cute and very entertaining.

Though I think mine is leaning less on the cute side and more on the funny (or at least ridiculous) side.

Like any good would-be director, I started writing a script.

Now I've never made a movie before, so I think this will be quite interesting. I'll want to have the script finalized by Thanksgiving so I can start filming my family members in between bites of Honey Baked Ham and pumpkin pie.

Want to see a teaser? Here's the rough draft for scene 1:


Sak is sleeping in bed. He wakes up to the sound of ominous music. Obi-wan appears; Sak is startled.

Obi-wan: Luke…Luke… You are to go to the Dagobah system…
Sak: That’s not my name. My name is Sak.

Obi-wan blinks, confused for a minute.

Obi-wan: Oh, I knew that.
Sak: How’d you get in my room?
Obi-wan: (waves his hand around) Nevermind that! I’m here to give you a mission.

Sak waits expectantly.

Obi-wan: You are to find the Holy Matrimony! It is your destiny!

Sak jumps out of bed and stands in a battle-ready stance.

Sak: You’re still kind of creepy, but I feel compelled to say OKAY!

Sak looks down at himself.

Sak: But um, I think I should change out of my pajamas first.

Obi-wan taps Sak with a lightsaber, and in the next frame Sak is wearing “adventurer clothes”. Sak looks down at himself again.

Sak: Wow, awesome!
Obi-wan: May the force be with you!

Obi-wan disappears magically.


(I think at the end of the film, Sak and I can do our first dance to the ending credits..maybe.)

Anyone else incorporating pre-recorded video into their wedding?

A Lesson in Saying "Cheese"

My mother is a sports photographer for the local high school district. And while she's great at capturing those quick action shots, and even those senior portraits, she'll need a little help to transition to couple pictures.

So for her birthday last weekend, I gave her some self-serving presents:

Wedding photography books!

Now, she won't be our official wedding photographer, but she is going to shoot us some engagement pics during out Christmas scouting trip to Hawaii. The books are pretty interesting, actually. The book on the left is simplified, but highlights all the important aspects like lighting, composition, candids, perspective, etc. The book on the right is much more technical, and gets into the nitty gritty camera settings and photoshop techniques.

See, I even tried making her a bookmark!

I hope she finds them useful. I told her she can leave the high school business and become a wedding photographer someday. My dad met me with an empathetic "NO", not wanting to add to her already huge work load!

Using friends or family to help take your pictures? How are you (subtly) letting them know what you want?

Moving after Marriage

Even though Sak and I share a townhouse together, we have separate rooms.

(Avatars created with this)

After the wedding, Sak will move into my room, since it's slightly bigger than his. (Because I'm slightly bigger than him, I need the extra space, yeah?)

This will be a big change for us, I think. I'm excited, but I'm also a little bit scared. Is that the right word? I don't know, but I do know that I'm not looking forward to having to share my closet. It's already packed as it is!

Me: You can leave your clothes and stuff in your room, right? It's just a few feet away.
Sak: No. I get half your closet. That's the rule.
Me: What rule is that?!

He grinned, and reminded me of my own longstanding rule that he's never, ever to enter my walk-in closet. (I have these crazy fears of bad guys jumping out and attacking me in it, so it's a safety precaution.) Apparently having me share my closet is "revenge" for my irrational behavior, and it's one of the rare things he's actually excited about. Other than, you know, the obvious. *blush*

But it's not all bad. In exchange for giving up "my" space and learning to share a bed, Sak promised me full use of his old room.

You know what I'm thinking, right?

Conversion to a craft room/workshop! Finally a home for all my toys, old and new. A place where we can build future creations without interrupting daily life. In a few words: a contained mess.

So when I start feeling apprehensive about gaining a forever-roommate, all I need to think about is a beautiful new craft room to put my mind at ease.

Is your living situation changing at all after the wedding? Do you welcome the change with open arms, or with slight reservations?