The Adventures of Tin-Tin

My Blurb Photobook

It's been a little over a year since we got married. My how time flies. Since my recent unemployment, I have made several goals for myself to optimize this time. One of those goals is to order a wedding album. Unfortunately, being unemployed doesn't lend itself well to funding one since I've heard they range from several hundred dollars to over one thousand. For now, a Blurb photobook will do. Here is what the cover looks like:

At about $27.95 for a softcover premium paper landscape book that is 10 x 8 inches, Blurb is an amazing bargain. I purchased a softcover version as well as an image wrap version and I plan on purchasing more as gifts for my grandparents and relatives in the Philippines who helped me with my wedding. It only took me about 8 hours to make an 80-page photobook. I was dreading the process of learning how to use their software, but BookSmart was actually really easy to use.

 

I don't know why I was putting it off for so long. I'm so giddy. I can't wait for it to arrive!

Pink and Gold Inspiration Board

I have officially reunited with pink and gold. I really do hope I do not change my mind. I already bought my wedding shoes in gold. Grrr to me if I get indecisive.

I finally picked out my wedding colors!!! :::i think:::

I have been very indecisive with the issue of choosing wedding colors. It was incredibly annoying for everyone around me--including myself! But I finally did it! Today J and I went to Papyrus in Burlingame and found a box of soaps that conveyed everything I wanted:

Tropical because of the bright vibrant pink and elegant because of the espresso colored box which had a nice linen texture. Wonderful! I bought the box of overpriced soap just so I could stare at it and envision My Perfect Day.

When I first started planning this wedding a few months ago, I thought I was absolutely set on the colors. I fell in love with pink and gold--inspired by the Winter 2007 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings Perfect Palatte article.

I liked how elegant and different it looked. Also, Martha suggested having different shades on pink tied together with gold accents. I really liked this idea, but it didn't seem very practical for wedding planning purposes since it made choosing invitations very difficult. How could I incorporate light pink without it looking like a baby shower? It was impossible--at least for me. Add the fact that I have had my heart set on letterpress and you have a recipe for "ummm. I changed my mind."

Then I went to Paper Source and I found their color palatte page which I quickly snapped up. I really liked strawberry--a cheery red which a touch of pink. I also liked cream because that would be the color of my dress. I thought it would be perfect but everytime I saw cream invitations with strawberry envelopes it looked cheap and did not give me "the feeling" I was looking for.

I needed an anchor color--Espresso!  Hurrah! It is masculine, but works well with the bright pink and white (or cream).

After reading this article on Style Me Pretty about wedding colors, I am pretty sure I've got something I can work with here. The plus side is espresso looks great with all these colors. And the white will be a nice contrast. YAY.

Picture courtesy of StyleMePretty.com

A litte pre-wedding diet humor...

Courtesy of Miss Peppermint at WeddingBee.com

Destination Wedding-Why Do We Bother?

Lots of people ask me why. I was tooling around on WeddingBee.com and found this interesting post on what people really think of destination weddings. I'm experiencing some backlash from certain kuripots as well as some "once in a lifetime" excitement from friends and family who are really looking forward to our Big Day.

My reasons for wanting a destination wedding seemed to coincide with another destination bride-to-be so I decided to blog about my own reasons.

1. We wanted to keep the wedding small, and this is easy to do with a destination wedding.

2. My parents and my brother and I have never been to Hawaii and it would be fun to be there together with our closest friends and family. And honestly as the years go by and as we are all getting older and living our own lives, family vacations are going to be rare.

3. My parents would never go on vacation if I didn't force them to.

4. Even with travel expenses, it would cheaper to have the wedding in Hawaii with 60 or so guests rather than If we had the wedding in the Bay Area where the guest list could soar to 200.

5. Our friends and family are scattered throughout California and the east coast. If they're gonna travel to be at our wedding, might as well make it to a fabulous destination!

6. My grandma has never been to Hawaii and she said she would like to go before she cannot walk anymore.

7. Everytime I researched wedding venues in the Bay Area, vendor pricing and my actual budget (in light of my massive student loan debt load), I'd have a panic attack. I seriously considered eloping--many many times (something I knew I would regret later).

8. I found an awesome wedding planner who can help me stay within my budget and still have a great wedding.

9. I'd rather have a small special and memorable wedding than a big boring expensive one where everyone is in a rush to go home afterwards.

10. We aren't getting married to make other people happy, but we do want to share our happiness in celebrating the Big Day with our closest family and friends in a very special place.

And to quote meduzagirl's eloquent words: "To the poster who says that destination weddings are a pain in the ass for guests, I say: 'just don't come!'  We have a lot of friends and family who can't make it, and we are okay with that."

Image from blog.Webshots.com

Destination Wedding-Hawaii!

So J and I finally set a date (I think). We're still waiting to hear back from our wedding planner, but we have a certain date in July confirmed with a certain hotel in Honolulu. Now we're just waiting to hear from a certain church to get our wedding date really set (seems like it's still in the gelling process). Next week I get to meet with a local priest at a church I have never attended. The priests at my regular parish never returned my phone calls or emails so I am trying with a different church. Hmph.

Anyway, I am determined not to turn into a bridezilla. Here are some pics of our reception venue. I look at them to cheer me up. Eyes on the prize...

In preparation for the wedding, I decided to take two of my bridesmaids (my sister and my cousin) to David's Bridal in Milpitas last Sunday after a completely useless Bridal Extravaganza at the Marriot in Santa Clara. The whole day was a disaster. We didn't know you had to set up appointments at David's Bridal since I had walked in there the week before on a not-so-busy day and was told to "just look around and maybe try something on."

The  bridesmaids (being good little attendants) eagerly took wedding dresses off the rack (Gasp!) so they could show me all the goodies they found. Like a frenzy from a bad bridezilla free-for-all, they were running from aisle to aisle snatching up semi-acceptable dresses. Each had two or three gowns in tow. Sadly they were stopped by the Wedding Dress Police and immediately scolded. They tried to convince me to leave. But I kept pushing it. And when we set up an appointment, they told us the wait wouldn't be long. Oh but it was! 45 minutes later, we left. I am almost positive I am having my dress made by my aunt, but I wanted to at least try some dresses on to see what kind of dresses looked best on me.

Slightly defeated, we went to the tiny Jessica McClintock store at the mall. It seemed like every dress didn't fit on us and even if it did, it wasn't very flattering. I can see why David's Bridal is so militant about wedding dresses because a lot of the dresses at Jessica McClintock were stained or ripped. The best thing that came out of Sunday was a general confirmed conviction to diet and lose 20-30 lbs before the wedding.

So as of Tuesday, I'm back on the South Beach Diet. I'm trying to get in shape for the Big Day with a diet that has been the most successful for me so far. No bread, rice, flour, etc...at least for a few weeks while I'm in Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet. It's actually pretty easy since I spend most of the day at work and the pain of falling behind even more with my caseload overshadows any hunger pains. We'll see what happens when the weekend rolls around though...