I looove original invitation ideas. Yesterday I came across these thoughtful 3-D invitation puzzels and blocks from http://www.egbaoriginals.com/ that would be great for hosting any gathering from bridal shower to baby party:
Apparently P-Diddy likes them as much as I do. 
It's officially a fact. Our friends are a bunch of techie nerds. A just got an email from our friend who designed and hosted our wed-site:
From: L <L@gmail.com>
Date: May 4, 2007 9:02 AM
Subject: [A & K’s wedding website].com
To: A <A@gmail.com>
Traffic on your site is starting to dwindle. You had all of two people visit yesterday, compared to about 36 on the first day.
Thought you'd like to know some quick statistics:
- 48% of your friends are running some version of Firefox, compared to 43% on some version of Internet Explorer. That's pretty good. Means your friends are more tech-savvy than the national average, which is expected.
- about 90% are on some flavor of Windows; 10% on a Mac. Only one visitor thus far is using Vista.
- No one is using a screen resolution less than 1024x768, which is great. Although the site does work in 800x600, it actually breaks quite spectacularly on resolutions less than that (say, 640x480). Glad no one is using that anymore.
- It looks like you have a friend in the UK!
- Other than a handful of people in places like Philadelphia, Vancouver, Seattle, somewhere in Colorado(?), and a few in Socal... the majority of the people who visit your site are in the Bay Area.
- People spend about 3 minutes, on average, reading the front page.
- More than half of the visitors actually click on the sidebar links to see if there's anything there. Of course, they see that there isn't. A lot of them give up somewhere halfway through and stop clicking.
- People from [A's company] visited the site about twice as often as people from [K's company]
Anyway, your job as a marketer is to eventually produce enough content to keep people coming on a regular basis, if that's indeed what you want to do.
I can image it now: Our guests are going to have pink and green pocket protectors to coordinate with our wedding colors.
Sometimes I wish I wasn’t so detail oriented. It has been my achilles heel througout wedding planning, but I can't stop! I simply love obsessing over the tiniest wedding details. For the past few days, I’ve been dreaming up creative ways to collect the cards and money envelopes that people will bring as gifts.
Of course there’s the traditional card box route:
(from theweddingoutlet.com)
And the birdcage idea, which I really love (plus no decorating needed):
(from ebay)
For those who want to model their wedding cakes, there's the hatbox route (fun and easy DIY project!):
(from ebay)
I’m thinking of going the photo box route. What do you think of something like this, but white and bigger (at least 8x10 pictures per side)?
I wonder if it would be as simple as assembling together four picture frames plus a base board and a cover. Hmmm, I have a friend’s bridal shower to attend this weekend, but I hear a new project calling my name. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Since Mr. Eggplant's occupation specifically involves email marketing, we decided to put his skills to work and send out the bulk of our "save the dates" as html emails. Most of our guests spend their time in front of a computer at work so it's convenient and interactive to receive emails. The email was actually more complicated than it looks. Mr Eggplant created code for it, linked it to a jpeg that's hosted on our friend's server, and sent the email via smtp. </ nerd talk >
Here are a few shots of what we sent out yesterday:
Gmail subscribers saw this. For viewers that opted not to display images, Mr. Eggplant coded the text to read: "PLEASE DISPLAY THIS IMAGE. Save the date for Mr. Eggplant and Miss Eggplant's wedding. October X, 2007. If you are reading this, it means you're not displaying images which imakes us sad. =( Please allow this image to be displayed so you can experience our full dorkiness. Thank you! And if you've read all of this, kudos to you, our detail oriented friend! - Mr. Eggplant and Miss Eggplant"
After the recipient selected to view images, our STD poster would appear (modeled after the "A Lot Like Love" movie poster because Mr. Eggplant is a movie buff). Details of our wedding were posted at the bottom of the email along with a link to our wedsite. We also ordered postcards on vistaprint.com to send snail mail STDs to our guests who don't spend as much time on the 'net.
The email provided a link to a teaser page for our wed-site that Mr. Eggplant's college friend helped to design for a small payment of a Nintendo Wii. 
. The page linked to wufoo, a website with online forms that we used to gather our friends' and families' addresses.
We also finished our "About Us!" site page. We'll be working on creating more content for our wed-site within the next months.
This is a screenshot of the form that Mr. Eggplant and I created on wufoo.com. We uploaded an image of our wed-site background and incorporated our wedding colors so that it had a cohesive feel. The form was used to gather address information, music requests, and other guest input. In one of the questions, we asked our friends: "What do you want to see at our wedding?" Reading their replies was quite a hoot. If our guests have their way, we'll be coreographing an interpretive dance piece.
Almost all of our email recipients have completed the wufoo form. I recommend wufoo.com if you want an easy way to collect information from your guests and a fun way for them to participate in your wedding. Plus, you get three free forms as a trial!
I am so exhausted.
I now know why people hire planners to coordinate their entire wedding. Planning takes so much time and energy! Well, that is, if you're a perfectionist like me that loves to research every single detail (down to the archival quality of the guestbook pens). Post engagement, new brides-to-be who are not already working in the industry have a steep learning curve to conquer. No doubt, this process has been a blast. I've enjoyed it so much that my long term goals now include eventually making a career change to something within the wedding industry. From the venue selection to the weight of the cardstock for our invitations, I've loved every moment of wedding planning. But right now it's a struggle to balance a stressful full-time job, social life, spiritual growth, family obligations, and my sorely needed personal time.
For all you brides-to-be and newly titled "Mrs," how have you coped with the stress of wedding planning? What are some time savers you can recommend (besides quitting blogging )? Any tips on how I can keep my sanity and still be involved with most of the planning?
My friends, I found the perfect party-friendly place to host a bachelorette shindig in SF, the city of earthquakes and liberals.
On Friday, I went to a birthday dinner at AsiaSF, a restaurant that serves Asian-inspired cuisine by "gender-illusionists" that also perform hourly as you enjoy your 10-course meal. It was my first time at a restaurant/bar like this before, and I must say, it was quite an experience! In between appetizers and drinks, the men ladies wearing slinky outfits, danced to fresh and funky music on a red bar top. During dinner the performers would mingle with the guests introducing themselves and taking pictures. Ahi burgers, tamarind chicken satays, and truffeled soba noodles were just some of the tasty treats we consumed. The bar also hosted a fun and extensive cocktail list.
For all of you who are thinking about getting away to the west coast for a bachelorette, AsiaSF will definitely give you an experience of a lifetime!
Mr. Eggplant and me with our... waitress.
One of the performers during her set. You'd never even know that she was a "gender illusionist"!
Boys will always be boys.
I told Mr. Eggplant that I was going to make a few bathroom baskets and fill them up with breath mints, lotion, and other goodies that our guests could use at our reception venue. He offered a counter-suggestion. He suggested ordering personalized toilet paper for the bathrooms with (get this) our picture printed on it. But that's not all. He wanted to add a caption that read, "Can't wipe the smile off our faces!"
(from http://www.printedtp.com/)
Yes, he really suggested this. 
I love the guy, but sometimes I swear he's from another planet.
Well, if you're more daring than me and don't mind the possibility of scaring your guests, Mr. Eggplant (with his potty humor), found a few websites that sell a ton of personalized toilet paper. They even have heart themed double ply to match any wedding motif:
http://www.justtoiletpaper.com/
http://www.comforthouse.com/toiletpaper.html
Hey, who knows. Monogrammed TP just might become the hottest new wedding trend.
Growing up, I never liked my name. My childhood is filled with memories of my little brother picking on me because my name rhymed so conveniently with words like "jelly," "belly," and worst of all, "smelly." I remember constantly thinking it was so unfair that my parents didn't give him a name that rhymed with any awful words that I could tease him with. My surname has always been a sore spot also. On the first day of school, teachers could never pronounce it correctly.. Half the time I couldn't pronounce it right either, thanks to my awful American-accented Cantonese.
A few weeks ago, Mr. Eggplant and I went to a marriage conference. When we checked in at the front table, I was handed a name tag that read "Kelly [insert Mr. Eggplant last name]." Mr. Eggplant had registered both of us for the conference on the same application form, so naturally the administrators thought we were already married. As I held that name tag in my hand, I felt a sudden pang of sadness about losing my last name. Lately I've been so busy that I've never really given much thought to the whole process of changing my name. I definitely don't want to have a hyphenated name so I'm set on changing my last name to Mr. Eggplant's, but it's still a little bittersweet to think about it. Now I've been asking myself a ton of questions: Does that mean I'll need to change my gmail or yahoo email address too? What about my email at work? Should I change my middle name to my maiden name?
I don't think it's really the name change that's affecting me. Mr. Eggplant's surname actually sounds much nicer with "Kelly" than my current last name. But it's hitting me (like a freight train) that I'm finally growing up and officially leaving my parents to build my own family with Mr. Eggplant. I'm so filled with joy, so grateful, and wistful all at the same time. The big name change is a symbolic transition of a new start with Mr. Eggplant, which is really what has me all teared up. Gosh, if I'm tearing as I write this, I'm going to be a wreck at the wedding!
Did any of you married folks have a hard time dealing with the name switch or do you engaged gals have apprehensions like me? Are you changing your last name to your husbands? If so, how do you deal with losing part of your identity?
Ahhhhh, crystal clear and sparkling once again. A man will never understand what this lump of carbon can do to a gal. Diamonds sure can make a girl smile, right ladies?
I never realized how grimey diamonds can get until I got mine cleaned yesterday. Mr. Eggplant and I took a visit to our jeweler to browse through wedding bands and while I was there, my ring was cleaned. When it came out, *whoa*, I swear I almost blinded Mr. Eggplant with one of the lasers that shot out of that thing. It was so sparkley! I fell in love with it all over again. It's funny how we women can be so entertained by shiny metal objects, isn't it?
With the ring at her dazzling best, I couldn't help but take a picture. Here she is in all her shiny splendor.
Surprisingly, Mr. Eggplant got my diamond off the internet. Yup, I know. I've read all the "buyer beware" articles warning propective fiances not to purchase diamonds online. But Mr. Eggplant had a wonderful experience with his online retailer. The stone was better quality than any he found in all the brick-and-mortar store around our area too. When he took the diamond to our jeweler to get it set, she told him there was no way she could have beat the price he paid with stones of the same quaility. Also, Mr. Eggplant didn't have to pay sales tax , which can be quite a hefty chunk of change. Here in SF, tax is 8.25%, which would calculate to be an additional $825 for a ring that costs $10K. Yikes! That's like the price of 8-10 guests at your wedding!
I didn't find a perfect wedding band yesterday. I think it's because the diamond on my ring is set very low in the gasket (the setting is modeled after the Tiffany knife edge) so no wedding band sits completely flush with the ring. I'd like to find a band that will create the least amount of gap possible and also have diamonds going around the band since my e-ring is very simple.
Do any of you have e-rings that cause a gap with your wedding band? What do you think of it? Should I even worry about it or will the e-ring be in a safe a year from now anyway?
As far as the saying goes, "opposites attract" rings true in my relationship with Mr. Eggplant. We have the same values, but comparing our personalities is like trying to find similarities between the north pole and Hawaii. We're just that different.
Mr. Eggplant loves pop culture. Movie buff does not begin to describe his passion for all things 16mm. He will unabashedly tell you that KellyClarkson is one of his all-time favorite music artists. At our wedding reception, he actually wants us to make our entrance to the beat of JT’s “My Love.”
I, on the other hand, am totally the opposite of Mr. Eggplant and completely un-pop. While Mr. Eggplant has every album that an AI contestant has ever produced, my music taste consists of a list of mysterious unknown singer-songwriters. Mr. Eggplant shops at Wal-Mart and I scour for vintage goods on eBay. He can recite the birthdays of Hollywood movie stars while I’ll reply, “Madonna who?” We’re about as different as night and day.
We do, however, share a similar passion: romantic comedies. When I first started dating Mr. Eggplant, I was surprised to find that he actually owned more romantic comedies on DVD than I did. “Hitched,” “Fever Pitch,” and “Jerry Maguire” are just a few of titles that we’ve watched religiously. So naturally, when we started dating, Mr. Eggplant would see a parallel of "us" in practically every movie we watched.
My favorite parallel of all time was his comparison of us to Ashton and Demi--not because he's a charismatic, playful, goofball and I'm a distant, composed, spiritualist (who will hopes to look just as great at 44)--but because Mr. Eggplant just happens to be a great deal younger than me. The age gap used to bother me, until he said one day, "We're so Hollywood! We're like Justin and Cameron... Ashton and Demi... Madonna and Guy... Gwenyth and Chris! Older women dating younger guys is so on-trend!"
That's right. I'm not a cradle robber anymore. We're just... that... cool.
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