The Eggplants' big project of the weekend: Table numbers!

Over the course of Saturday and Sunday Mr. Eggplant, Papa Eggplant, and I finished the photos for our table numbers! Originally, I wanted to do something meaningful, like naming our tables after restaurants and writing a short paragraph on our favorite menu items. However, I soon realized that we're having upwards of twenty tables at our first reception and thirty-plus tables at our Chinese banquet reception the day following. I do not have it in me to research thirty-plus restaurants and recall what I liked eating at all of them.

Soooo, I thought it would be neat to at least have some fun with the numbering of the tables. I purchased a piece of blank white foam board from Michael's for $1.50 and the Eggplants trekked around San Francisco on Saturday with my handy dandy point-and-shoot camera. We took many of the pictures in remote locations (e.g. the area where Mr. Eggplant's condo is being built) and we didn't have a photographer with us. We often had to set the camera up on Mr. Eggplant's spoiler and use the auto timer. Despite not having a shooter, we were able to capture some decent pictures.

On Sunday, the Eggplants plus my pappa took a trip to the city where we'll be hosting the wedding. Pappa just purchased a new camera so he was excited to have some subjects to practice on and we were happy to pose. It's MUCH easier to do this project with a third person to help, let me tell ya.

After we gathered all the shots from the weekend, I did some editing on Photoshop by cropping the picture, removing all the color saturation, and lastly adding bright pink numbers with the type tool. I also used the free transform tool to rotate and skew the text so that it looked a bit more proportional to the angle of our foam board in each photo.

My plan is to upload the pictures onto a photo service account like Kodak since they sell 5x7 prints for $0.99 a pop. Then I'll either place them in painted pink picture frames or table number stands. What do you think?

And lastly, here are a few more of the fruits of our labor.

Yesterday, I had my hair trial and eight hours later, I washed it out. I wish I had somewhere to go last night! Shampooing away the stylist's lovely work was like tossing like $85 down the shower drain. Oh well.

During my makeup trial, Nam referred me to Jen and Emy at Umbrella Salon in San Jose. Yesterday I took a trip to the south bay for my very first hair trial. Right after I settled into the salon chair, Jen said to me, "Oh good! You came in with dirty hair!"  Apparently, the curl will hold a lot better if I don't wash my hair on the day of the wedding. And I was embarassed that I didn't have time to wash my hair before my appointment! I guess it was a good thing.

I gave Jen these pics as hair inspiration:

After two hours, an entire bottle of hairspray, and a mound of bobby pins, here is Jen's creation:

I love the way she made my hair fold over itself so naturally.

She carefully hid every single one of the bobby pins she used. And boy, there were a LOT.

Jen told me I have tons of hair! And that it would look even better if I purchased extensions to lengthen the back. They don't sell them at Umbrella Salon, but there is a small shop nearby that sells wigs and extensions called Yong's Fashion Wigs. Jen also told me not to get synthetic hair because it can't be curled and will melt if heated with a curling iron.

I think she did a fabulous job! What do you think?

Alexandra Bridal in SF (where I purchased my dress) is having an accessories event through tomorrow (July 14th). I have an appointment today so maybe I'll find a few hairclips for the back of my hair and a headband for the front. 

Wish me luck!

I've never really used the "friends" feature on Xanga before. What's the difference between that and the subscriptions feature?

At a 7/7/07 wedding that I attended, I was privileged to be a reader at the bride and groom's ceremony which got me thinking about my own ceremony readings. Readings are an easy way to personalize the most important part of the entire day. One of my close friends will be reading a passage from the bible of her choosing and I want to add one non-scriptural reading to the ceremony also. While browsing the internet, I found a passage from the children’s book, The Velveteen Rabbit (by Margery Williams):

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but Really loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get all loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

I love it! It’s so fitting of Mr. Eggplant and me and The Velveteen Rabbit is a book I read over and over as a child. I’m seriously considering having this incorporated into our wedding somehow.

What readings are you using (or did you use) at your ceremony to personalize the event?

Happy 4th everyone! I'm off to Vancouver for a wedding!

My soon-to-be-wed friend told me that his guest count shrank about 20% because he picked a such popular wedding date. He also mentioned that the tux shop he's renting from is servicing 25 other weddings on Saturday. Craziness!

July 7th is going to be the new Valentines day.

Yup, you heard right, the Eggplants actually took care of something on their list before the little red exclamation marks on the Knot Checklist appeared. The guys got fitted for their tuxes on Saturday! An associate at the store told us that they were actually getting fitted too early and measurements should take place closer to the wedding date to accomodate weight loss/gain. Oh well. One of the groomsmen was visiting from San Diego so Mr. Eggplant wanted to take care of fittings earlier than later.

Honestly, tuxes all look pretty much the same to me, so they were definitely something I was not going to be bridezilla about. We went to Men's Wearhouse to take advantage of the "free groom's tux" and "free vest & tie rental" coupons.

The Men's Wearhouse has a decent amount of color options available. All the guys are getting black tuxes, but I wanted the groomsmen to wear one color of vest and Mr. Eggplant to stand out a bit with another color.

First option: Groomsmen wear light pink and Mr. Eggplant wears fuchsia since the bridesmaid dresses will be light pink with a fuchsia sash.. But I didn't think the fuschia vest looked that great, especially against Mr. Eggplant's light skin tone.

 
I finally decided that the Groomsmen will wear light pink and Mr. Eggplant will wear a white vest and tie with silver striping. Spiffy!

Seriously, the guys did not care one bit how I dressed them. They would've worn Superman underoos outside of their tux pants had I requested. I'm glad they were good sports and didn't complain at all, even when I brought out the tacky bright pink.

How are you dressing your men?

We officially booked our engagement session for August!

I realize that I haven't yet blogged about my wedding photographers, although this is the one aspect of the wedding that I'm most excited about. Mr. Eggplant and I both I love and appreciate the art of photography. I'm always amazed when photographers can capture shots that come alive through such a still medium and I never tire of studying a well composed picture. For both of us, photography was one area we were willing to splurge.

A few weeks after our engagement date, Mr. Eggplant and I were all set to go with photographer Jennifer Skog... until Mr. Eggplant realized that he forgot to let her know that we changed our wedding date! Of course, Jennifer was already booked for our new wedding date. I was quite sad, because I really loved her work, she was within our budget, and totally sweet as well.

Enter Jennifer Kloss, our new wedding photographer! Although we happened upon her randomly, it turned out that she would be photographing or former photographer's upcoming wedding (Jennifer Skog)! I was ecstatic because I knew that if another photographer trusted Jennifer Kloss' services for her own wedding, she was obviously a great artist.

Just as Mr. Eggplant was just about to sign the contract, I received a sad email from Jennifer #2. One of her family members had decided to get married on our wedding date. Because her schedule was super packed as a photographer, our weekend was the only date that she was not yet booked for an event. Jennifer #2 wanted to make her schedule as open as possible for her family so she had to forgo our wedding. I totally understood, but I was still bummed for many weeks.

Until.... the third time was a charm! I have the signed contract to prove it. We hired Ray and Erwin from Apertura Photography to document our wedding and I couldn't be more pleased. I first discovered the duo after they photographed another friend's wedding last year and I was blown away by their talent. Apertura was also recommended to us by several other photographers that were unavailable on our wedding date (a email from another extremely talented photographer read: "Have you seen Aperturaphoto.com? They are a two-man team based in SoCal and are amazing photographers. I would have them shoot my wedding any day of the week.").

Since Apertura is from southern California, I exceeded our original photography budget because I did not figure on paying for travel and lodging. Mr. Eggplant has been trying to cut wedding costs in other areas, but we're both thrilled to trust them with our wedding! We were originally going to make a trip to LA to take our engagement portraits at Disneyland (our favorite place), but by chance Apertura will be visiting northern California in August for another wedding. We'll be taking portraits in SF, which is perfect because that's where we got engaged.

Below are some of my favorite engagement shots from Apertura's blog: 

(Our friends' engagement shoot - taken at Ikea!) 

I love how much personality is captured in their pictures!

No, not the romantic kind.

I'm talking about the hook-ups that save money and time. Througout planning, Mr. Eggplant and I have been utilizaing the entire talent pool of our family and friends. Two of our musically inclined friends are singing and playing piano for the ceremony, another designer friend has built our website, and yet another film school friend is helping us create something akin to a wedding music video for our reception. We are thanking them with thoughtful gifts and a generous gift card to stores of their liking.

Brother Eggplant has also contributed to his big sister's wedding. I'm fairly proficient with computers, but my little brother truly takes the cake when it comes to tech stuff. He's a programmer by profession and full of tons of useful, nerdy knowledge. I'm so proud to be a big sis of such a bright yet humble brother.

Yesterday, I asked Brother Eggplant if it's possible to code an online RSVP system for our wedding guests. Most of our guests sit in front of a computer all day, everyday so it's more convenient for people to RSVP via the internet rather than taking a trip to the post office. Ever since online bill pay, I can't even remember the last time I visited a mailbox. Well, one day after I asked Brother Eggplant about the online system, he sends me a mock-up of our RSVP page! That boy is quick.

Inside of our snail mailed invitations, the RSVP card will say something to the effect of:

The pleasure of your reply is requested by September __th
We have reserved __ seats for you
Please RSVP through our website at
http://www.[the eggplants' website].com/rsvp
Your invitation code is __________

Our RSVP system will be password protected and everyone will receive a different RSVP code in their invitation. Once they visit the RSVP section of our page, they will see a field, asking for their invite code:

On the next page, the invite code will cause their names populate in the Guest Name field. Here, they can let us know if they will be coming and what they want to eat. If they are out-of-town guests, their invite code will populate a field asking them where they are staying and when they are arriving (so I know where to send the OOT packages, should I decide to make some).

After they complete the form and select Submit, their names will be entered into a MySQL database, which we can then gather information from.

This is just an initial, rough mock-up so it needs some tweaking, but you get the idea.

An online RSVP system is definitely not traditional and less formal, but I really like the convenience. Plus, our website was a labor of love, so now we'll actually get some utility out of it. We're also saving $50 on stamps. The site includes a link to our registry, should guests decide to take a peek. I had no plans to include registry information in our mailed invitation cards (I agree with the etiquette police on this one), but I also didn't want to answer 200 inquiries about where we're registered. Sending guests to our website was a good alternative.

Are any of you forgoing the traditional for tech-savvy options? What have been your family (or friend) hook-ups?

In recent weeks, I've received two sweet emails from wedding service providers that I've written about on the Bee. Both emails were from vendors thanking me for a positive review. One vendor (my makeup artist, Nam Vo) mentioned that she received many inquiries for her services after I posted my pictures. These vendors had never heard of the Weddingbee, so I'm happy that they are now exposed to the wonderfulness of our little forum!

This also brings up the interesting topic of vendor referrals. As a bride-to-be exploring the unfamiliar world of wedding planning, I often feel like I'm Alice in Wonderland. Every aspect is foreign and requires tons of research. Where do I order candy for my candy buffet? How do I get things printed? What's the proper wording for invitations? What is a reasonable price for everything? Referrals from other brides and my own wedding vendors have priceless through this process. Most of my vendors have been discovered through recommendations:

• Reception Hotel - Family friend hosted a wedding here
• Photographer - Photographed a friend's wedding
• Cake - Neighborhood bakery
• Lighting - Referred by the reception hotel
• Music - Not sure, Mr. Eggplant found them first but they were also recommended by the hotel
• Flowers - Google search and mybayareawedding.com [this is the only vendor that we did not find through a referral]
• Officiant - Our pastor
• Printing Company - Referred by Mr. Eggplant's coworker
• Makeup - I loved the artist's work from another wedding
• Hair - Haven't had my trial yet, but referred by makeup artist

I've often felt that brides have a disadvantage in a world of service providers charging sky-high prices and providing poor customer service. I'm begining to realize that we actually do have power in our voice. A bad review can draw business away from a vendor and also tarnish a reputation while good words can create more business. We actually have a big responsibility here in our forum!

Personally, I've found that word of mouth is the best and often most honest advertisement. My friends have given me golden referrals. Our reception venue has surprisingly recommended excellent vendors also. A few were out of our budget, but many were affordable and a blessing to work with. Now, as a champion for other brides, I feel extra responsible for writing completely candid reviews for the vendors that I talk about about on the bee. 

How did you find your wedding vendors? Word of mouth? Google searches? Paid advertisements? Have you given a vendor recommendation to someone else?

I designed our invitations this weekend! I must say, I'm pretty darn proud of the semi-finished product. I'm a complete novice when it comes to Adobe Illustrator (never touched the program before wedding planning), so you can imagine how ecstatic I was when they came out looking pretty professional! You'll have to wait until I get the invitations printed for a peek.

Also, my sample order from Cards and Pockets came in on Saturday:

I ordered every shade of pink, green, ivory, and brown under the sun.

I narrowed the selection down to combination of three of these colors, with the dark chocolate as our pocketfolds, a pink matting sheet, and cream paper for the invitation and inserts. But the cream paper will come directly from the printing company. Green will be used for the closure of the pockets.

Through referrals, Mr. Eggplant found a printing company located conveniently near us: Fong Brothers Printing in Brisbane. They came highly recommended by a coworker who also designed her own wedding invitations and had them printed. Apparently, Fong Brothers is the largest printing company in northern California, but I hadn't heard of them until now, probably because I've never had to run a print job before. Through this design process, I've discovered that printing is a whole new and very complicated world! I guess I always thought that a printer receives a file and hits a print button and voila! Printed goodness. But nooo, there is a TON to learn if for a print-impaired bride that is designing and printing her own invitations.

I don't know anything when it comes to printing, so please bear with me if I'm butchering the terms. I'll try to reiterate what Mr. Eggplant was explaining to me about the process. He attempted to educate me on digital printing, but all I really got from his explanation was that it involves a very, very expensive and advanced laser printer that uses magnetism or electric charges to attract ink, and this differs from an inkjet which prints by transferring lots of small ink dots onto paper. Our other option is offset printing which involves images that are put on plates which are dampened first by water, then ink. The ink adheres to the image area, the water to the non-image area. Then the image is transferred to a rubber blanket, and from the rubber blanket to paper (explanation and picture from howstuffworks.com).

Fong Brothers provides both digital and offset printing services. We've decided to go with the digital four-color process for our job, which is different than Mrs. Plumeria's spot ink process. From my limited understanding, offset printing is higher quality and more expensive, however since we're mainly printing text and a few simple graphics and we're not using metallic or flourescent inks (which can only be provided through offset), the quality will not be compromised anything noticeable to the naked eye.

Anyway, more details to come as I embark on this adventure. I'll be happy to share everything I learn as a novice that's running a print job for the very first time. For now, here's a helpful article that I referred to while preparing print ready files.