I [heart] sales.

This weekend, Flax (a totally hip art and design store in San Francisco) hosted a warehouse sale for overstocked,  discontinued, and sample merchandise. Mr. Eggplant and I stopped by on Saturday morning for a visit to find some materials for invitation making.

We entered the warehouse entrance and were greeted by tons of goodies on sale. They had everything from paper mache boxes to premade bridal shower invitations. There were so many goodies that I forgot to take pictures of them. Oops!

Envelopes were sold for pennies a piece.

Flax was also selling colorful textured paper in huge 34x44 inch sheets for only $1 per sheet. To give you an idea, a sheet that large would produce sixteen 8.5x11 pieces of paper (super cheap invitations!). Flax had tons of gorgeous paper, but none in our colors.

Rolls of ribbon were $2 a roll for 11 yards. Not bad.

For all the bay area/SF brides out there,  Flax is a great store to purchase art supplies, gifts, and all kinds of neat stuff for your wedding, including:

Totally cute Kolo mini paper albums for $3.75/piece, great for making personalized favors or thoughtful bridesmaid gifts.

Gift wrap in all imaginable patterns, including pink Parisian.

Adorable stamps to match, $27.95 for six.

And vintage post cards, $14.95 for 18 cards.

On their website, they also have some fun animated instructionals on techniques like gold leaf decorating. As if I needed any more fuel to feed my craft addition!

I checked Mr. Eggplant's blog recently and scrolled through one of his recent entries. He had me laughing out loud. I know I'm biased, but the boy is just just so... darn... cute. I just had to share his adorable perspective on women:

I can't wait to be Mrs. Eggplant. Centerpieces and invites aside, I cannot wait to marry this man. He has got to be the best
gift I've ever received.

"Father told me that if I ever met a lady in a dress like yours, I must look her straight in the eyes."
Charles, Prince of Wales

(I thought that quote was cute. )

Mr. Eggplant promised that he wouldn't look and I trust him, so I can to write a post about "the dress"!

For those of you embarking on your dress search, I only have a few words from my own experience. First, start off at an inexpensive bridal shop before working your way up to any posh salons that you're planning to visit. By trying on inexpensive dresses first, you might find a dress that you love before tempting yourself with a purchase that will break the bank. Also, you'll have a nice base for comparison if you decide to visit more expensive shops. What is the difference between a $500 or $5000 dress? Perhaps swarovski crystals and imported satin from France isn't worth an extra $4500 to you. Secondly, try everything on. Go back to the same store more than once if you have to. Wedding dresses look completely different in a magazine, on a rack and on a real (non-model) body. My dress was not one that I would have picked out for myself. In fact, had my bridal assistant not suggested my gown as a potential, I would've brushed right past it on the racks.

So without further ado, I present you my wedding dress:

I apologize for the crappy picture quality. I didn't get any good shots because my camera flash was off. I promise you, the dress looks so much better in person than it does above. And despite what the picture may suggest, I'm not model height . I'm really about a foot shorter, but I'm standing on a stool to get a better feel of what the dress would look like if it fit correctly.

When I first began the hunt for my wedding dress, I had three requirements: 1) It had to be fit-to-flare, 2) Made of chantilly lace (definitely no satin), and 3) Absolutely could not have any embellishments and especially no rhinestones or crystals. Well, I ended up purchasing a satin fit-to-flare dress with tons of rhinestone and crystals. After I tried on my first satin gown, I was sold. The soft, silky fabric made me feel like royalty! And as great as they looked in magazines, lacey gowns made me feel short and frumpy. My take-away from dress shopping? Don't brush it off if I haven't tried it at least once.

The gown I finally picked was designed by Ines di Santo and I purchased it from Alexandra Bridal by Union Square, SF. Leah over at the shop was such fun to work with. In fact, she knew that I was going to buy this dress when I walked through the salon doors. Leah specifically picked it out and saved it for me to try on as the very last gown. Now that's what I call a woman made for her profession! The dress definitely was not one that I would've chosen off the rack and it doesn't look flattering in the pictures above, but it's truly a beautiful gown. The material is soft satin from Italy with a slight sheen to it that causes the ivory color to look more like a shade of diamond white. Underneath the bustline, sparkling crystals accent the rouching. There is a row of delicate satin buttons down the back of the dress which is hidden in the picture by the tacky dress claws. The skirt is adorned with several trailing brooches which makes the dress a shoo-in for a french bustle. I love the fit-to-flare shape. The bodice hugs my frame tightly until the gown reaches my thighs where it flares out. Once I stepped into this gown, I knew it was a match made in satin.

After I fell in love with the gown, I was terrified to look at the price tag. BUT on the day the day I bought my dress I totally lucked out. There was an Ines di Santo trunk show that weekend! I received 10% off the gown and since Veronica di Santo (daughter of Ines) was visiting the store as a representative, I was able to order a custom-fit gown rather than purchasing a size 2 or 4 and having it tailored down to me. Veronica was there to advise me on all my questions (e.g. possible dress customizations). She even took my measurements personally and reassured me that my gown pattern will be made completely from scratch, proportional to my body. Cool beans! It's really hard for a short girl like me to find a dress that fits, especially since most standard gowns are designed to fit really tall women.

But there was yet another bonus awaiting me: In addition to 10% off, Leah offered me a $350 credit towards store merchandise. Why? Well, my visit to the store happened to fall on the last day of February and the sales associates were close to making their monthly sales goal. My dress purchase would put them right at their mark. The $350 credit was an incentive for me to make my purchase on the day I tried on the sample rather than waiting until the weekend trunk show. How could I say no? One swipe of plastic and the dress was mine! I used the credit to order a cathedral length veil by Jennifer Leigh. Score!

Here's a runway shot of the dress:

It'll be ready mid-August and I can't wait!

Animals love one an otter too! Watch until the end, it's totally worth it. Then send the link to your significant otter.

Wedding planning has been slowing down significantly for me. It's not that I don't have things to do; my Knot checklist is about a million items long. I've just been a bit overwhelmed with all the pending details and don't know where to start. Instead of creating a plan of attack, I'm sticking my head in the sand and avoiding everything.

Snap out of it, Miss Eggplant! Denial is not a river in Egypt! 

I did work on one thing this weekend--our reception guestbook.

I first discovered the Guestbook Store while attending my cousin's wedding last fall. At their reception, I was handed colored markers and a page that they had purchased from the Guestbook Store. The pages were completed during dinner and collected at the end of the event after guests had filled them out with with fond memories and wedding wishes. I loved the experience, however the Guestbook Store requires customers to purchase a storage album per every 60 guestbook pages. With a guestlist of close to 200, our total ran close to $200 worth of materials, which was definitely not in our budget.

Also, since I'm sure Mr. Eggplant and I will be too busy to take pictures of our guests, I really liked the idea of having a Polaroid guestbook. I'd love to have at least a picture or two of each person that joins us at our wedding.

Well, that's where Adobe InDesign came in handy. Taking the Guestbook Store's basic idea, I used our wedding logo and fonts and created a nifty little guestbook page. I'll be be printing the pages on 80 lb cardstock and later organizing them into an simple three-ring binder that I'll adorn with fabric and ribbon:

The front page has questions like: "Did we miss out on anything today (e.g. what happened at your dinner table)?" and "Your Predictions: Date of first child?" I'm also attaching sticky photo corners to the sheet so that guests can just peel off the backing and adhere their Polaroid to the page.

Mr. Eggplant has a quirky sense of humor. On the back, he created a section titled: "Your Advice for a Happy Marriage" where he included silly situations like: "Mr Eggplant comes home tired after a stressful day at work. Mrs. Eggplant has spent an hour preparing a gourmet dinner. Who should do the dishes?" It'll be fun to read our guests' responses.

And here are a few pictures of the pages from the Guestbook Store. They're a great option if you want to save time instead of going the DIY route:

Mr. Eggplant has three cases worth of Polaroid film left over from his old job that we want to use at our reception, but the film has passed the expiration date. Does anyone know how long expired Polaroid film lasts past it's date and what the difference in quality is?

Has anyone else done a Polaroid guestbook or seen one at another wedding? How did it turn out?

My dress swatches finally came in!

The white postcard is a swatch sent to me by Alexandra Bridal Salon in San Francisco where I purchased my gown (I'll share more about my dress shopping experience in a later post). Although the lighting is awful and you can't tell in the picture, the satin fabric is off-white in color with a sheen that's almost metallic.

Attached to the yellow paper are two swatches from my cheongsam purchased at Dragon Seed Bridal in Chinatown, SF. This small and busy shop designs Chinese-style dresses for many of the ladies who participate in Miss Chinatown pageants in northern California. I ordered my dress to resemble the cheongsam that my mom wore at her wedding:

I tried to stuff myself into her dress, but unfortunately it was a bit too small. Mama Eggplant weighed 100 lbs when she got married!   The dress buttoned all the way up, but one slight move and I would've blinded someone with a spray of exploding sequins. Nope, not gonna work. So I ordered my own cheongsam and it looks almost exactly like my mother's in the picture above. My dress will be white satin like my mom's with added pink piping along the edges. It'll be decorated with a design of pink peonies rather than the phoenix on my mom's dress.

I haven't known many brides that were able to walk down the aisle in their mother's (or other family member's) wedding attire, perhaps because of style changes, fabric deterioration, or size differences. My friend that married recently wore her sister's wedding dress, which I thought was both meaningful and thrifty. I've always wanted to incorporate my parents' wedding into my own, but wearing Mama Eggplant's wedding dress wasn't an option because she gave it
away. Her cheongsam didn't quite fit me, so I did the next best thing
and had one made that will look just like hers.

Ann Taylor is having an online sale! Some of the dresses in their "Celebrations" line are already discounted $50. Add an additional 15-20% off, and you've got some quailty gowns at affordable prices. Grab your gals together and order your BM dresses.  (The discount isn't applicable for their bridal gowns, unfortunately.)

Originally $178, but only $102.40 after $50 discount and 20% off

Two lovely dress options for $110.40 after discounts.

I might pick this dress up for our engagement shoot.

Ann Taylor's sale prices are temptingly affordable but they've run out of pink BM dresses in the sizes that I need. Since my wedding colors are ivory, pink, and green, I'm thinking of changing the BM dresses from pink to green. I want to pay for the ladies' dresses and this is an price that's almost too good to pass up.

Ack. Pink or green? What would you do?

Hi Weddingbee readers! I’m absolutely bee-lighted and honored to be part of the hive! Out of all the adorable veggies available, I picked Miss Eggplant because purple is one of my favorite colors and my head is kind of shaped line an eggplant . As a veritable veggie-bee, I vow to voice every visionary idea I have with you all! 

It would only be proper to introduce myself and Mr. Eggplant before I start blogging away, so I’ll piggyback on Miss Lemon’s entry about similarities and differences:

Similarities:

1. Mr Eggplant and I have similar scholastic interests: Both of us consume anything related to the studies of sociology and psychology and we love writing in our spare time. Mr. Eggplant is a great writer while I only try, but we're both internet junkies with who love to blog. Blame it on being a product of Gen X & Y.

2. We have the same taste in music. Our first group date involved an intimate concert watching one of our favorite singer-songwriters who is practically unknown. It was a big coincidence that we both owned her album.

3. We both adore romantic comedies. Mr. Eggplant is a true romantic and he will be the first to admit that his favorite movies include Fever Pitch and Jerry Maguire. I don't have to drag him to watch chick flicks because he suggests them himself.

Differences:

1. Mr. Eggplant is an avid fan of pop culture while I haven't the slightest clue about Hollywood. If you want the latest scoop on Paris Hilton's arrest, ask Mr. Eggplant. I couldn't name any of the popular shows on TV to save my life. I will, however, confess that I watch American Idol religiously.

2. I'm a total introvert while Mr. Eggplant defines the meaning of "extrovert." Mr. Eggplant thrives when he's surrounded by large groups of people. He'd love to spend an afternoon BBQ-ing with 40 friends followed by an evening Pictionary marathon. My ideal Saturday night would be an intimate dinner party at home with Mr. Eggplant and a friend or two. I don't know how I'm going to survive being in the spotlight on wedding day!

3. Our money philosphies are completely opposite! Mr. Eggplant is much more responsible with his money while I am definitely more impulsive which has led to some rather heated "discussions" during wedding planning. (Mr. Eggplant: "Do we really need to spend $8.50/person for chiavari chairs?", Miss Eggplant: "But we're getting a $2/chair discount!"). To my defense, I'm also great at finding deals, like a BCBG dress for $40 and all my candy buffet containers for about $6 a piece!

Well, that was a mouthful for my first Weddingbee post. I look forward to blogging with you!

Who loves a good deal? Last weekend I took a trip to Marshalls, Ross, and TJ Maxx on a hunt for cheap wedding goodies. I must say, these stores just might surprise you with some really great deals!

Here's a totally cute corner shelf, perfect for a candy display. $59.99 at Ross

$10.99 for a shabby chic program holder that can be used as a mail sorter after the wedding is over

TJ Maxx had these paper lanterns for $10.99

This box would be perfect as a card collector for a fall-themed wedding! Only $10.99.

Try this wooden & rope trunk for a beach wedding card box. $12.99 at Ross

I'm heading back to Ross to purchase this Asian-inspired box for my Chinese banquet reception. I'm sure I'll find many uses for it long after the wedding is finished.

Marshalls had these picture frames for $6.99 that would serve as cute table number holders.

A slew of candles.

Crystal candle holders for $3 a piece at Ross.

Also at Ross, glass containers galore! They ranged in price from $4 for simple vases to $24 for crystal bowls. I took many frequent trips to Ross while building my stash of candy buffet jars.

Happy shopping!

It's been crazy at work. We just moved into a brand spankin' new building and I've been busy unpacking and getting settled. The stress of managing a life and work and wedding planning has been building up--I have to admit that I've been a bit crabby lately.

To fix my grumpy mood, I just need to look at my adorable baby cousin who just recently learned to waddle around on his own. He's also going to be our ring bearer.  Hopefully he'll be able to walk in a straight line come fall.

Meet Jaspre. (pronounced "Jasper")