Every Weekend Should Be a 3 Day Weekend

I'm finally getting around to finishing this post!  Our internet was intermittent from last Thurs until Wednesday.  Totally sucked!  The worst of it was Mon and Tues.  We basically had to rely on our phones because it was that bad.

I had such a fulfilling long weekend.  It made me wish that every weekend was 3 days! One day for family/friends, another for errands/chores, and a day for leisure/rest.  Unfortunately most regular weekends consist of me trying to cram as many activities/commitments/obligations as possible into 2 days worth of time.  There just aren't enough hours in the day!  On this particular weekend we were able to sleep in (well my version of sleeping in is waking up at 8am haha) and just be lazy in the mornings.  It was fantastic.

Highlights (there are many!) of how we spent our long weekend: (note this post is all over the place)

Thanks to Amazon's promotion, we managed to watch a couple of movies!  And you know what else is awesome about Amazon?  So our internet connection was REALLY bad on Monday and our movie kept getting interrupted.  Totally not Amazon's fault.  Today I get this email:

Hello,

We noticed that you experienced poor video playback while watching the following rental(s) on Amazon Video On Demand:

 Limitless

We're sorry for the inconvenience and have issued you a refund for the following amount(s):

 $3.99

While Amazon Video On Demand transactions are typically not refundable, we are happy to make an exception in this case. This refund should be processed within the next 2 to 3 business days and will appear on your next billing statement for the same credit card used to purchase this item.

Thank you Amazon for your amazing customer service!  That's what we're such loyal customers.  :)  

We were eh about Limitless.  I like Bradley Cooper but the movie wasn't anything special.  On the other hand, we both really liked Something Borrowed.  Our tastes totally don't align with the general public, because this movie got terrible reviews.  But whatever...I loved the book and I'm a sucker for many rom coms. 

Went to a wedding of an old college buddy. She was such a beautiful bride!  I think my favorite part of any wedding is always the slideshow.  I'm a sucker for baby photos and I love seeing how both the bride and groom have grown over the years.  Another favorite of mine is dancing the night away to some great tunes, although no matter how many times I've done the Cupid Shuffle I always forget how it goes!

My old college roommate N (she is in the above pic- was a BM at the wedding) and her husband came over one night and we grabbed takeaway from this pretty neat joint called "The Standing Room."  It's inside a liquor store and you definitely wouldn't know there was delicious food in the vicinity if you happen to just be driving by.  Lucky for us, Jerry's friend clued us in, we tried it out earlier this summer, and I have been raving about it since to anyone who would listen.  Warning- if you get the Chance Burger the spiciness is going to kick your butt.  Jerry actually only ate half of his burger cus it hurt so bad.  No worries...he ate a large order of fries so that was enough to keep him full.

The 4 of us also played a couple of fun games- Loaded Questions and Gumpsch.  N and I learned Gumpsch while in Boston in 2006, and we love it!  Such hilarity.  Loaded Questions is also a fun board game, I highly recommend buying it the next time it's on sale at Target or Amazon!

On the food front pretty much all of Labor Day was spent prepping and cooking.  Jerry made ~150 wontons for freezing, and since we had left over filling I made some eggrolls, a large batch of granola (yes, I gave it another shot after throwing away batch #1), and we prepped our second 5.75 lb bag of green beans.  Yes, a second bag weighing 5.75 pounds!  Funny story about that, which starts with the first bag of green beans...

So I recently discovered this market called LAX- C.  Best way to describe it is Asian Costco run by Thai folks.  This place is huge, a mix of grimy and fresh (like many ethnic markets are), and not to mention we saw lots of restaurants do their shopping here.  I mean...who else needs that much soy sauce?

So two weekends ago, we bought this amazing case of huge mangos and a bag of green beans that was also around ~6 lbs (think Costco portions) from LAX C.  I have a propensity to immediately seize upon a good thing when I see one, so I was already plotting my next visit.  We devoured the mangos within a week, cooked half the beans for our lunches for the week, and had frozen the other half of the batch.  We returned again, only 7 days later because I wanted to stock up some more amazing produce.  So we bought 3 cases of mangoes (that's 21 of those suckers!) and another monster bag of green beans.  My plan for the mangos is to cut them up and freeze them for smoothies.  I almost wanted to grab the broccoli as well...it was so cheap...but Jerry talked me out of it.  Something about lack of room in our fridge.  :(  Seriously, I can't wait until our forever house so we can get a second fridge/freezer.  The possibilities of a second freezer are endless!  Someday I will have to write a post about the awesomeness of freezing.  In the meantime...you can read about my friend L's blog about this subject!

We also visited McCall's Meat and Fish two weekends in a row.  Yes...this place was so awesome that we were willing to drive north, north, and more north twice within a week!  We have purchased their burger meat (super juicy), kurobuta pork chops (kurobuta is basically the Kobe of pork), and a couple of house blend gourmet sausages.  Their flat iron is especially amazing.  You don't even have to season it with much except for S&P, it's that flavorful.  The perfect pairing for the last 10 weekday lunches in a row have pretty much been flat iron and wok-fried green beans.  (We make all our work lunches for the week over the wknd.)  At this point you're probably sick of me talking about green beans, but it was really that tasty.

Okay enough about green beans.  We were also able to get in a 10+ mile bike ride along the Strand and finally flew my kite!  More on that later.  :)  I really need to take more advantage of living so close to the beach.

Oops, one more thing about food.  We decided to head out to Griffith Park for a little picnic with goods curated from Ink Sack and Mozza2Go.  So we finally made it out to Ink Sack, Michael Voltaggio's "fast food" joint.  The menu is pretty limited and sort of reasonably priced.  The sandwiches start at $4, but if you're pretty hungry you gotta order at least 2.  I don't know how often the menu will rotate, if at all, but we especially liked the fried cold chicken sammie.  The Jose Andres was just okay...and we were not huge fans of the spicy tuna.  The Mexican chocolate chip cookie was yummy!

No pictures of Mozza2Go...or actually of any of the food we ate because at this point it was 2pm and I was STARVING!  You can read about the concept of Mozza2Go (Batali's place) in more detail on the internet, but basically it's a bunch of yummy Italian fare, but to-go.  We got an order of meatballs (OVERPRICED- skip!!), chicken liver pate bruschetta style (I loved it...Jerry not so much), and a butterscotch budino (a pudding dessert).  It was a nice spread and I was able to try a couple of places on my LA food list.

Ooh and before I forget...take a look at what N gifted me for my bday:

Super cute!  Can't wait to use them.  Earlier this summer I had gifted her a 3 month subscription to Birchbox for her bday.  So in addition to fun birthday surprises, we also happen to exchange "just because gifts" without knowing the other person was going to reciprocate.  At the wedding the day prior, she had overheard me say "I want a picnic basket!" because the wedding favors were chocolates in cute little baskets.  And lo and behold, the next day when we hang out, in addition to my bday present, I also got a picnic basket just because!  And my "just because" gift to her was a bunch of really cute stuff from Daiso that I had bought a while back and hadn't gotten around to giving them to her.

So that was my really awesome weekend.  I wish I could relive again!  This post felt all over the place...but that's how it was...in a great way!

J&J Wedding: First Official Sneak Peek

We ate, sipped, and were married!

I'm really happy with the images we received and am excited to sort and organize through them all.  This one immediately jumped out to me and begged to be blogged about. 

FYI, we were SO thirsty but held it just long enough for a photo op. :)

Wedding Blog Purge

I'm making good on my intent to clean up my google reader.  Finally decided to tackle my wedding subscriptions.

Bye bye:
100 Layer Cake 
Bridal Bar Blog
Brooklyn Bride
Engageology
I Love Letterpress
In The Now
Inspire the Bride 
Junebug Weddings
Ruffled
Southern Weddings
The Unbride
Weddingbee
Wedding Chicks

Will keep:
DIY Bride
Green Wedding Shoes
IDiY
The Party Dress
Elizabeth Anne Designs
I like the above blogs because the DIY crafts can be tailored for non-wedding purposes!

Now I need new blogs to replace these!  I <3 google reader. :)

Countdowns & Check Offs

It feels like this whole year has been one huge countdown and check off list.  Both of those things have come with senses of accomplishments and many moments of "oh crap how I am ever going to get to K if I haven't done A, B, and C and do I even have time for X, Y, and Z??"

But with a work-week left to go (I measure my time in 5 and 2 day increments!) I feel like I'm finally in a good place both productively and mentally.

Productivity-wise, there's only a few things to be check off the list, and they're mostly things that we can't do until their proper time.  It seems silly to wash our beverage dispensers too early cus dust will probably make their way back in anyway.  I'm excited to do flowers (though it's an ambitious and daunting task), but that's not until Thursday.  But the programs, favors, seating chart, table numbers/menu, games, gift bags, slideshow, guestbook, kiddie activities, bathroom basket, and all my other zillion DIY tasks are between 80-100ish percent done and just need to be executed.  And the photobooth programming is finally done!  We would have never been able to do it w/o my cousin.  I'm so grateful he gave us so much of his time, software programming can seriously be a pain in the butt.  I'm also thankful for my BMs.  They have lent me so much from their knowledge, wedding items, advice, a sympathetic ear, to their time, etc, etc.  This wedding is a joint effort and though it's our day, we share it with everyone else as well. 

I also can't say enough about how much of a great team that Jerry and I have made in this process.  We have grown stronger together in this year because we have had to make some very important decisions both logistically and fiscally.  Jerry doesn't take me on romantical dates every week, or buys me "just because gifts", or tells me that he loves me on public forums (I don't think that's anyone's business anyway, and who really cares about someone else's love?).  I can honestly say that instead, he has pitched 50% equally in planning and executing our wedding, and let's be frank, that's 45% more than what most grooms do.  Most grooms just show up.  And they get delegated to planning the honeymoon.  Not him.  And I would rather that he help me with planning weddings, changing diapers, and holding me when I'm old and arthritic because I think those things are the most romantic gestures of all.  Every couple is different, and this is how we operate.  And I'm glad he's on my team because I honestly can't imagine a more fitting and caring partner and "teammate."  Oh and I guess he's my roomie for life! 

Mentally- I've lost my shit a few times, but overall I've kept my cool when things don't go my way and have definitely savored moments when things do go my way :)  This whole process has brought me many headaches and frustrations, and sometimes I forget that this day is about me and Jerry celebrating our love, and having our families merge together.  It's easy to lose track of the big picture when you're bogged down with details.  I haven't taken enough time to reflect and I'm a teeny bit sad because this coming week is going to fly by so quickly!  I have to work half of this week so maybe if I find myself drifting off in meetings I'll do my reflecting then. :P  I also wrote my vows 2 weeks ago and they were easily one of the most effortless tasks I had to do so far.  While most of the wedding planning has been for our guests' enjoyment and entertainment, I wrote my vows directly for Jerry and I am SO very excited to say them!

Countdown wise- thanks to the knot.com and projectwedding.com, I've been alerted that it's one year, 6 months, a few months, 100 days, 99 days, a couple of months, a MONTH?!, a few weeks, a couple weeks, OMG 10 DAYS, yikes it's single digits now!, a week, and now a work-week left to go.

Someone pinch me now :)

What I Learned, Part 1

It's been a year since this.

Booking our venue pretty much kicked off our planning.

During this year:

I learned what was important and mattered.

I learned what wasn't important, and still put effort into it. 

I learned that it's not how much you spend...it's how you spend it.

I learned that you can't cook Peking Duck with Steamed Buns outdoors.

I learned that it's very hard to narrow down to 75 of your favorite pics of all time from a hard drive containing 48 GB aka 23000 images.

I learned that most of the pictures I have from college are inappropriate and compromising, or sized under 25KB, none of which are useful for a big screen slideshow in front of my nearest and dearest.

I learned that the internet is a curse AND a blessing.

I learned that not all printers print what is on the page...sigh.

I'm still learning.

18 days to go!! Yikes!

Divide and Conquer

I vaguely remember the days when we planned this shindig together.  You know, while holding hands and spoon feeding each other and crap?  (Kidding.)  Now that we're getting closer and closer to September (yikes!) we're doing some of the tasks separately.  Divide and conquer.  That's our motto.

I went to the flower district myself b/c Jerry can't tell the difference between ranunculus and a dahlia.  No matter how many times I've shared something via google reader that says "AREN'T THESE DAHLIAS SO PRETTY?!"  Luckily, bridesmaid S shares the same joy in flowers that I do. :)

Jerry went to get his tux rental by himself.  I will admit right now that I know nothing about menswear and had already rendered myself useless.  I never, ever look at the groom when I go to weddings, so I never notice if they are wearing a suit or a tux.  And did you know there's like 50 million kinds of white shirts out there, ranging from Brad Pitt a la Meet Joe Black to Jon Gosselin...a la douche?  And don't get me started on cuff links.  No clue.  Well, let me tell you, after this wedding I will be looking at what the grooms and his crew wear much more closely now!

I like the creative licenses we take on our respective wedding projects.  Jerry designed and built the photobooth by himself, and I'm in charge of anything that goes through a printer.  We can make executive decisions on things and then report back to each other on our progress.   Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed some of the tasks we've done together (venue walkthrough with our photogs, getting our marriage license).  However, there are times when we're doing something together where it ends up being a big fat waste of time.  Makes me wish I could get those 4 hours of my life back when I went white shirt hunting with Jerry, and I bet he wants those 4 hours back when I dragged him to go cake tasting.  We could have easily split up to do each task but we didn't.  Cus even people who keep multiple calendars make scheduling boo-boos! :P  

We've had some rough patches while planning, but we're all works in progress, aren't we? :)

Licensed to Wed

Not all courthouses are built alike.  Ours was not fancy or traditional looking.  (I think the San Francisco courthouse is so nice looking!)  But it was less than 10 minutes away from our house. Score. 

We look happy here, but we're really breathing a sigh of relief.

Side bar: It's a major pain in the butt to plan a wedding when you start a new job b/c you have like zero PTO hours.  The only reason I worked half day that day was because I worked a 14 hour day the week prior.  And certain wedding tasks you can only do M-F between 9-5...which is basically working hours. 

Anyways, Jerry's meeting ran 1.5 hours late, and so when he came home we basically shoved lunch down our throats and jammed it out of home.  Got there, and found parking, but turned out that it was metered only.  And we had zero quarters.  I ran inside the building to find a place that would give me change.  Got directed around the building to get change.  I get $5 worth of quarters, and when I come back, Jer reparked to a spot adjacent to us that had an hours worth of quarters already.  Yay, I guess.  Except I got all sweaty from running around.  We get inside.  Turns out there's metal detectors.  Jerry has to go back to the car to put away his belt and swiss army knife.  We both finally make it up to the 6th floor or something like that.  We stand in the line that says birth/death/marriage certificates.  Except on Fridays, you stand in a different line for marriage licenses.  Ugh.  So we re-stand in a different line.  By now we're both grumpy and we just want to get our paperwork done and go home.

And then, I finally start to notice my surroundings.  And I see couples around us actually waiting to get married.  Right then and there.  A lady in black with purple flowers with her soon to be husband greeting friends and family.  A not-sure-what-kind-of-Asian-she-is pretty girl with a European-looking guy in mismatched pinstriped separates who are both alone, not a single witness in sight.  A younger girl in an actual wedding dress!  And I start to get misty-eyed.  And I stopped being grumpy.   Nothing like warm fuzzy feelings to get out of a funk!  Finally, it was our turn and the process was very quick and smooth.

Yay.  Another thing off our list. 

We posted a pic on Facebook and people are congratulating us...except we're not married yet!  They should call it a marriage permit...like a learner's driving permit haha. 

Macaron Thank Yous

My bridal shower and bachelorette party (yet to be blogged about) were so fantastic that I wanted to do something a bit extra so I decided to give my ladies a couple of treats along with a thank you note!

I bought 2 dozen macarons from Paulette Macarons.  

I recommend ordering online b/c they run out of certain flavors as the day goes on.  I wasn't able to pick up my order until 45 min to closing, so thank goodness I pre-ordered!  I made the Thank You cards from an template I found online.  Since I was sending them to 11 girls..I had 2 left over for myself.  Score!

I ended up purchasing vanilla as the universal flavor for each girl, and then a fun flavor to round out the pair.  Believe me, it was HARD to not eat them all myself!

I wrapped each pair in wax paper and then sealed it with painter's tape.  

I added some foil for more padding and noted flavors on a post-it.

I was able to hand deliver to 5 of the ladies, but I had to mail the other 6.  I used padded envelopes from Staples and thankfully they remained relatively intact!

Everything took a bit of elbow grease to figure out, but it was well worth the effort.  It's a small, but tasty, extension of my thanks. :)

What Happened to Summer?

The weather has been really weird this week in LA and it's somewhat matching my mood.

There's drizzles in the morning (I even had to use windshield wipers!).  Since I work indoors all day I can't tell what it's like during the day but from my window it's been looking pretty dreary.  When I come home it's just plain chilly since the South Bay is about 5 degrees cooler than the rest of LA.  Poor Seattle.  I can't imagine how the folks cope and I can't even begin to commiserate with said residents!

I've been really lethargic this week.   It's not due to poor sleep or lack of nourishing meals, as I've had a steady supply of both.  I'm not sick or catching anything either.  I just feel like all the energy has been sucked out of me!  Anyone else feel this way?  I know I'm not alone!

Anyways, one more day of work, and then a weekend of fun starts, courtesy of my bridal party.  I'm declaring my bridal shower/bach party to be my official start of summer, weather be damned!

99 Days

I can't believe we're at double digits now!  The next few months are going to fly by quicker than I realize.

We've been hard at work with various wedding projects.   I'm excited to unveil them all!

First up- our invites.  Stay tuned! :)

Wedding Wall

Last month I hit a wall when it came to all things wedding related.  I just didn't care about any details or decisions.  I would glaze over wedding blog posts in my reader. I just stopped being excited and wanted to fast forward through the next handful of months (raise your hand if it ever crossed your mind that there are times when the honeymoon seems more tempting than the wedding).  It was like I had no creative bone in my body.  I felt a bit silly and guilty being in this funk, but it was a much needed break.  But...wall no more! 

Recently I've started inching back into the thick of things and now I'm more excited than ever.  In the last wk or so I've found the cutest cocktail napkins, the perfect water dispenser, and the most affordable letterpress company to name a few.  We also decided on our "videographer."  (More on that later!)  It feels good to be back and excited again to say the least.  I hope to knock off the majority of my purchases and DIY projects in the next couple months so I don't stress out too much come September.  

In other news we're headed to Big Bear Lake pretty soon to go camping with our friends.  Should be a great weekend of Jerry fishing and me stuffing my face with Funyuns, nutella, and bacon.  In no particular order.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

From JPN to JPJ

There are a lot of decisions to be made about the big W (wedding) but sometimes one forgets that there are matters regarding the big M (marriage) to be dealt with too.  Because W decisions are made for that one day while M decisions should last a lifetime...

Such as: "Toilet seat up or down?"

Just kidding.  A more serious decision I'm talking about is the name change.  Questions come to mind:

Should only one person change their name?
Should both people hyphenate?
Should only one person hyphenate?
Should both people take on a whole new name?
Why should anyone change their name?
Etc, etc.

This is not an easy decision by many brides.  Or grooms if you want to be PC.  There are those who are really proud of their last name and the heritage that stems from it.  Some brides/grooms keep their surname b/c of professional reasons.  And some just don't like the sound of their first name combined with their proposed new last name.  The reasons run the gamut and are all very real and valid!

But for every reason there is to not take on a new last name, there's another reason to do it.  Here's mine:

1.  I'm tired of people mispronouncing my last name or asking me for the nth time how do I pronounce it.  Been going on all on my life, and I don't see the trend changing either.  Jer's last name is so easy to pronounce!
2.  I'm not particularly attached to my last name.  In fact, my last name was supposed to be Ly/Lee/Le or something like that, except my dad took his mom's last name so if you were to get all technical with lineage I've been carrying around the "incorrect" last name all my life.
3. I want us and our future kids to have the same last name as a family.
4. I don't like how it looks hyphenated.
5. This is vain, but my first name sounds good with Jer's last name! :P

So, it was a relatively easy decision on my part.  No real moral or personal struggles.  It's what you make of it- it made sense for me on my end.  Good thing, b/c I already have enough on my plate! 

PS.  Thank goodness his last name isn't a jumble of letters like that volcano in Iceland.

PPS.  If it was...I think I would still change it.  Reason #3 outweighs all the other reasons for me personally!

The Bridal Bar

Jerry willingly came along I dragged Jerry to this cute little place called The Bridal Bar last month.  

I don't know remember how I found out about Bridal Bar- maybe through one of the many, many wedding blogs that I subscribe to?  Anyways, you can read more about it here. 

I came by this place last summer when I had just gotten engaged, along with my friend who is now engaged and getting married a week after us!  They gave us a stack of magazines and wedding venue guides, but couldn't help me much as I hadn't set a date or booked a venue yet.  But I really liked the idea of having all these resources in such a cute set up!  They stock up samples of works by vendors such as photographers (I love browsing through albums, so pretty!) and stationery designers.  Supposedly they have cake tastings, but not on either the days I was there, boo!  Anyways, I couldn't wait to come back after we had nailed down more details.  I wanted Jerry to see real-life invitations and examples of programs- it's one thing to browse through galleries and slide shows- it's another thing to hold the actual product in your hand and to see the ink colors up close, to feel the weight of the paper, and also to witness how darn cute envelope liners are!

My friend's sister used fan programs, my FSIL sent me a tutorial on these, and Jerry likes them as well!  I think we might just jump on the fan program bandwagon!

Yes he was so thrilled to be there.  Look at all those pretty albums behind on the wall!  This place is a wealth of inspiration- I highly recommend a trip to The Bridal Bar. :)

The Bridal Bar
624 Doheny Dr.
West Hollwyood, CA 90069
(310) 858-0119

www.thebridalbar.com

One "Kite" Wonder

It sure didn't fly like one, but it sorta looked like one!  I'm talking about the kite that we made especially for our engagement pictures.  While browsing through engagement pictures previously taken at Griffith Park, I came across this blog post and as soon as I saw this last picture I knew that I wanted a kite.  Yeah, I saw the picture on Friday, we made it on Saturday, and we posed with it on Sunday.  Because I'm last minute like that.

And here's how we did it.  Note, I would not recommend that you fly this particular kite for reals.  Good for vanity purposes only.

We used craft balsa wood from Michaels.  Though it's very light, it's also really brittle.  Which is why during our session, it broke apart about 2 shots in.  For the subsequent retakes, I was gripping it together with my hands.  Since we were so far away and were silhouetted anyway, it didn't really matter.  I don't even think we brought wood glue with us.  We decided, whatever happens, happens, and whatever shots our photog took, those were the shots we were gonna get. 

Saw some notches in the middle.

So that they fit like this.  We used two sticks equal in size and adjusted it to give it a diamond shape.  But the sky's the limit- size it according to whatever you want!

 A closer look.

Then use heavy string or twine to wrap over and over the notched area so that it will stay in place.

Use glue to reinforce (we used wood glue here)

Saw notches at the end...

So that you can put the string/twine all around to form a diamond shape.

Again add wood glue to keep it strung more securely.  As you can see, we didn't even bother to peel off the price tag/upc. 

Choose your fabric, lay down your "template" and then cut around it.  I left about 1.5-2 inches extra all around for the "hem".

Okay, if I was ever going to seriously fly this thing, I probably would have sewn it.  But tape well worked in a pinch as a "hem".

The other side. Looks like a tailless and spring-time girly manta ray.

Jer also fashioned this cardboard makeshift thing to hold the string.  Not pictured here, but I also cut strips of the fabric and made kite "tails."

Yes, it rained the night before our session.  The bit of wind leftover over from the storm gave it brief flight!

We made 2 of these kites just in case one broke during the session.  And sure enough, one of them broke that night!  I forgot how it broke, so it was good that we made two.  We glued the broken one back together, but we ended up not bothering to bring it the next day.

All that work for one shot!  But I love that shot so it was worth it.  Talk about dedicating time/resources for a last minute craft that lasted less than a day...

Oh wait.  That's what a wedding is.  But let me be cheesy and say that those memories last a lifetime! :)

Song Search

Jerry and I have tasked ourselves with creating the master song list for the big day- it includes music for the pre-ceremony, ceremony, cocktail hour, grand entrance, reception, as well as for the dancing afterwards.  We opted to not do song requests because I would feel bad not choosing to play something that someone requested simply because it wasn't my kind of music.  And I'm a believer that if I'm going to ask for opinions/requests, I should follow through with it!  So since I can't hold myself to that promise, I decided that I'd rather do the research (with the help of BM JT) myself. 

Through some preliminary research (i.e. sitting through many, many weddings) we decided we wanted a good mix of oldies but goodies along with a sprinkling of the more recent radio offerings.  Every time we hear a song on the radio or on a TV show that we like, it goes into our shared g-doc file so that we can keep track.  I also have been browsing play lists such as these from DJ NYC.  (Again, seriously how did ppl plan weddings before the days of the internets?!)  And I always gather inspiration from real-wedding playlists.

But I recently found an unlikely source for finding songs that don't get radio love anymore, or that I might have glazed over while looking at list after list- at the good 'ol karaoke!  Karaoke conjures up a variety of memories for me- from the drunk-or-not relative singing some cheesy Chinese song in a living room or at a family wedding, to the fun college memories of burning off Korean BBQ by singing at the top of our lungs. (I'm a really bad "singer" too, not a pretty sight- or sound.)  Last wknd we headed to the now named Max Karaoke (we still refer to it as Yuu Yuu from our college days) to create some more memories.  While leafing through the books, I came across some artists and songs that I hadn't heard in ages!  For example- Savage Garden.  I don't remember the last time I heard any of their songs on the radio.  Same with Ice Ice Baby (yes that's Jerry's song!).  There were some more, but you get the idea.  All in all, great evening of mixing business with pleasure- that's my kind of wedding planning!

How did you come across your potential play list?  Any other unlikely sources of inspiration?

Say Cheese! Errr...Say Who?

Last night's episode of How I Met Your Mother (Say Cheese S5, E18) personally echoes a current non-situation we have with our wedding guest list.  I say non b/c to me it's not anything negotiable, but it's still a situation because it did happen to us, and I'd like to discuss it. 

In this particular HIMYM episode Lily gets frustrated with Ted because he keeps bringing so-called uninvited guests (she used a meaner word!) to the group's get-togethers.  These guests are girls that he goes on just one date with, or ends up breaking up with them soon after.  They ruin the group photo, and more importantly, they don't jive with the group's dynamic, according to Lily's POV.  To Ted, it's no big deal.  He likes to introduce girls that might be "the one" to his gang because it's important to him that they be involved in his quest to meet the future mother of his children.

 Image via CBS.com, Barney's Blog

Okay, back to real life.  So currently we have budgeted for 18 tables, or roughly 180ish people.  I say roughly because with some maneuvering I may be able to squeeze 11 people at some tables, therefore adding a bit of a cushion in case we end up with an odd number of guests who RSVP.  Our caterer charges by the table, not per person, so there's some wiggle room.  Even so, wiggle room does not = invite every single person and their mom/random date/yoga instructor/etc.  Our original guest list included around 300 people, and we had to pare it down very much so.  Note- about half of our guest list is family, so that leaves us with 100 friends left to invite.  We went through every friend and decided if they should be able to bring a guest or not.  Though we're not sending invitations for a while, the list below helped to guide us in determining the tricky question of  to +1 or to not +1.  Note- these are my personal feelings on the matter and not generic recommendations, so please respect my POV as I would yours!

1.  If out of town friends are married/in a long term relationship and will know very few people there, they can bring their partner/sig other.
2. If local friends are married/in a long term relationship/and we've never met their partner/sig other but they will know some people there, I probably won't allow them a +1, and hope that they won't get offended or resent me.  A bit harsh, but we had to cut down a third of our guest list somehow.  However, this is a case-by-case basis.  A friend of mine already graciously said she wouldn't bring her bf if our guest list was really tight to begin with.  She'll know over a dozen people there, so I don't feel as bad.  As for most other friends, we've hung out with their sig others/partners on multiple occasions, so we planned on inviting them anyway.  I'm trying my hardest, and I really hope it works out. 
3. Friend-Couples who are traveling from out of town can bring their children since I know it's hard to find a babysitter for the whole weekend.
4. Friend-Couples who live in the area, I probably won't allow them to bring kids since it shouldn't be a big deal to find a babysitter for the night.  Especially if I don't know their kids.  We are pretty kid-friendly folks (in fact, nearly 25% of our family consists of kids and tweens!), but again I had to draw the line somewhere.  Luckily, this affects very few of our guests. 
5. Single-Friends whether they are local or out of town- no dates.  Sorry guys, I'm with Lily on this one.  Luckily, all the single people we plan to invite have quite a few friends in common with our other invitees, so we'll do our best to make sure that they sit with people that they know!

Recently, we had to add a new one:
6. No +1 for younger family members. 

I didn't even consider about how some of our family members might want to bring a date!  I'd make an exception for a relative who has been with a partner for many years and who has brought that person to previous family gatherings.  But I think it's perfectly reasonable to let a younger relative (who's only started to date) know that we have other people we'd like to invite who take precedent over their date.  However, it's another matter to let PARENT of said younger relative know about our sentiments on this issue.  Enter the situation:

Recently a family member asked one of our parents if his son could bring a date.  Notice that the family member went to our parents and not us.  Let me be frank- our parents have no control over our guest list.  I find it sort of amusing that he would approach them and not us.  I give him props for being unaware and yet sneaky at the same time, haha.  But get this- the uninvited date is not some long time girlfriend who's been part of the family gatherings.  It's not even a specific person.  The father is not sure which girl his son would bring so he just wants to make sure that there's a seat for whoever that date might be (right now 2 girls are in the running, apparently).  In fact, I don't even think our younger relative even cares!  He's in his late teens.  It's a wedding full of hot ladies (yes, my gfs, attached or not, are hot!)-why does he need a date??

Fortunately, Jerry and I don't have to deal with it personally.  Our parents are taking care of that.  Their dialogue can go back and forth, but one thing is certain- when they get the invite it's going to clearly state how many people the invitation is for.  The things I've learned on the internet to deter uninvited guests...hence, the non part of this situation.  I definitely didn't want to draw any drama from it, but rather I wanted to treat the situation objectively and reasonably.  To me, it's very black and white- there's no gray area in our seating chart!  Some things are negotiable.  Wrangling an uninvited +1 behind our backs is not! :P

Would I have wanted everyone to be able to bring their kids and +1s?  Sure.  But we set a limit for a reason and I intend to plan this wedding with some integrity towards our budget!

And let's hope that's the end of that! :)

E*Pics Part 2

Here's part 2. Enjoy! I'm so happy with how these turned out :)

I brought along a Scrabble set as a prop potential, and our awesome photographer found the perfect rustic picnic table for this layout!

There's a lot of fake kissing, and this one is one of my favorites!

I knew that I wanted to include some reading material as props- reading is one of our favorite pastimes.  Friends who grew up with me know that I'm obsessed with Nancy Drew books, so I had to incorporate that somehow!

The blanket we're lying on has been in my family for a few decades- it was made in Vietnam.  The other side consists of colorful squares quilted together, but it was too busy for the shots, so we flipped it over. 

We were thinking about doing this shot on the bare grass, but I didn't want to get grass stains on myself!  But if I ever do a trash the dress session, I'd want this shot again!  I love it how it's composed!

Hmm I can't decide if I like this color version or the above BW better!

We love board games, especially Scrabble, so I'm glad I remembered to pull this out of the game shelf right before we left!  I got the idea of "I Do" and "I Do Too" from their shirts.  If you haven't voted yet, please take some time to vote- there's about a week left!  Such a touching story...

I love this shot even more b/c we're out of focus.   So many possibilities!

I was trying to get Jerry to laugh.  It worked!

Again, I love the composition of this shot.

Yes, I jumped on the balloon bandwagon! 

I almost wish that fence wasn't in the way...but I guess it makes the shot more interesting.  Either way it was fun to have the balloon!

Then we headed over to the Observatory- my first visit since 5th grade!

We didn't even go inside haha, there was already so much potential outdoors!

We made the kite the night before.  And it broke while we took these shots.  But it was SO worth it, b/c I love how this turned out!! 

Another one of our hobbies is photography.  Jerry came up with this idea to have our photog take pictures of him taking pictures of me.  I really like the post processing on this photo- this is what separates the amateurs (us) from the pros (him). 

I'm a huge fan of feet pictures- we take them every so often when we're at a new place.  I think I want to incorporate them into the wedding somehow, I have a couple of ideas floating in my head.

I wanted to wait until it was darker so the sign would light up!  The blurred part of us was intentional- I'm a big fan of "action" shots.

Did I mention how much I love bokeh!!  Once the sun set we were able to get these lovely shots!

I don't even remember taking this shot!  This was one of the last of the session so that's probably why- it was getting cold and windy, and we were hungry!

I've got lots to share about our experience, so hopefully I'll get time to write some more soon.  Thanks for reading!