It's inevitable that Mr. Eggplant and I will disagree during the course of our marriage. Though arguments are unavoidable, it's important to have a plan for resolving conflicts. Since we're both rational people who appreciate objective advice, we decided that there's only one fitting way to solve a conflict: mass consensus! And what easier way to solicit opinions than Yahoo Answers? We'll pose our debate and wait for the replies!

Mr. Eggplant was half joking when he suggested Yahoo Answers as a plan to resolve our differences, but I actually think that his idea will help diffuse potentially heated situations:

1. We'll need to cooperate in order to come up with wording we both agree with before we pose our question online. This will remove us from the "you're my enemy" state of mind that happens with arguments.
2. Even if we disagree with the answers that others post, reading opinions from anonymous third party participants will help us to see "the other side" of the issue.
3. Reading and discussing responses together will lighten up the tension of a disagreement.

On a serious note, arguments are a reality of marriage and it is important to have a plan for diffusing them. How have you and your significant other worked together to resolve conflicts?

Fun fact: Five out of the six women in my wedding party have been bridesmaids multiple times, while my wedding is the very first wedding party that I'll have been a part of!

When I first asked my MOH to join me in my bridal party, I told her, "My goal is to choose a bridesmaid dress that you'll wear more than once."

She replied, "Oh, forget it. We'll never wear the dresses again. Just choose what you want!"

She was right. I mean, seriously. What occasion other than a wedding would ever call for a strapless pink dress with a long satin ribbon tie? Even if with a denim jacket thrown over it, the dress would still scream "bridesmaid!"

Once I got over the need to find a versatile dress, I chose a few styles I liked and sent photos over to the girls. They unanimously agreed on this simple number by Watters & Watters:

My plan was to order the gown in light pink organza without the painted flowers. However, when I asked around for prices, I found that this simple dress was quoted at nearly $200, and that's without alterations! The price was too steep for my taste, especially since I wanted to purchase my bridesmaids' dresses and I had six women in my wedding party.

Well, resourceful Mamma Eggplant found a tiny shop that'll custom make bridesmaid dresses for a very reasonable price, all alterations included. All I had to do was choose my fabric from their vast selection of colors, provide a picture of the dress style I wanted, and inform my friends of their deadline to get measured. Easy as pie!

The shop is called My Wedding Day Studio and there are two locations, one in San Francisco and one in San Mateo. I have to warn you, the shop is very... um.... (how shall I word this?)... "Chinese," if you know what I mean. Take a look at their website and you'll understand. Also, if you can speak Cantonese, I think they will be willing to bargain with you a bit. The manager quoted me $140 per dress back in March, and when I went to order the dresses in July, their prices had increased to $160. Mamma Eggplant was able to negotiate the price back down to $140 per dress, alterations included.

My Wedding Day Studio sends the measurements to their contacts in Hong Kong and China where the dresses are made. When the gowns return, they do the alterations in house. My bridesmaids' dresses came back a few weeks ago (they only took one month to make and ship back!) and I tried one of them on:

I was extremely tired and cranky on the morning that I visited the shop, so please ignore my dazed and confused look, black flip flops, and bra hanging out on the floor.

So, the dresses are not exactly cutting edge fashion. The shop isn't exactly know for stellar customer service either. But they definitely get the job done, and for $140 including alterations, I'm pretty pleased with the results. I chose a thin pink satin underlay with a lighter pink organza overlay on top. The seamstresses also sewed built-in bra cups inside all of the dresses and boning when needed. Some of the girls are still going in for fittings, so once all is done, I'll let you know how everything turns out.

Since my friends will probably never wear the dresses again, I wanted to at least give them some shoes that they could enjoy more than once. No matching light pink shoes! Instead, I purchased these lovely heels from Ann Taylor for only $39.44. I just hope they match because they were final sale...

For the bay area brides out there looking for decently priced bridesmaid dresses with no fuss service, below is the contact information:

My Day Wedding Studio

2460 S. El Camino
San Mateo, CA 94403
650.578.9276

5418 Geary Blvd.
San Francisco, CA 94121
415.876.5418

(I've visited both locations and I noticed that the shop on Geary quoted me higher prices and was less customer service friendly than the San Mateo location.)

I confess: I wish I was getting married next year.

Well, that's not entirely true. I mainly wish I had more time to plan the wedding. So, I guess you could say, I wish I got engaged earlier.

Mr. Eggplant proposed mid January, 2007. By the time we kicked our wedding planning butts into gear, we were a mere eight months away from our big day. In the "real world," eight months is a-plenty. But in "wedding world" eight months flies by... like, yesterday!

I can't help but be jealous of the bees on this site with engagements of at least a year and a half. When I first told my friends and family that our wedding date was this year, I received many shocked stares in response. As the first in my circle to get married, I never would've suspected nine months was a short engagement. Apparently it is! And seven months into planning, I can now see why.

For the past three months, I've been wishing, "If I only had three more months!" There are sooooo many things that I want to do for our wedding, but simply don't have time. For example, if I had more time, I'd save up money to rent a photo booth. I would've been more selective about finding the perfect dress. I mean, I LOVE my dress. I just wish I had a chance to visit more salons before making my final decision. Perhaps a trip to LA or NY would've satisfied my gown curiosity. If we got engaged earlier, maybe my dream venue wouldn't have been booked. And I could've rented a petting zoo for the children. Ok, so no petting zoo. But I do wish that I had more time to spend in premarital counseling and on DIY projects.

I think the stress of planning finally getting to me. In the past week, two of my co-workers resigned, and unfortunately all their workload falls on my shoulders (!!!). Not to mention, the little exclamation marks on my Knot checklist are scolding me. Last I heard, there's still only 24 hours in a day!

With all that's been going on recently, it has been harder to remember that our wedding day is about my marriage with Mr. Eggplant, and not how many crafts I can cram into one event or how much fun our guests have. Back in January, when we first became engaged, Mr. Eggplant did not see a reason to wait a year and a half to get married. He had a family member whose health was failing and it was important for us to have this person at our wedding, so we decided to get married within the year. Also, Mr. Eggplant simply wanted to start our lives together earlier. How could I argue with that?

Somewhere along the lines (or between the crafts), I have forgotten that our wedding day is not the end, but merely the beginning of a far greater adventure.

Anyone else feel this way at the two month mark? How have you gotten past this bump?

Technology is awesome. Living in the heart of Silicon Valley, our friends and family can really appreciate a convenient option of doing things via the internet, including responding online for a wedding. Yesterday I blogged about our invitations, and today I'm following up with an entry about our online RSVP system.

As mentioned previously, each invited party was given a unique pass code which was written on the RSVP card in their invitation. The card also directed guests to our wed-site. 

When guests arrived at the URL for our RSVP page, they were greeted with a welcome message and brief instructions.

Once guests entered their pass code and selected "submit," their party's information populated in the fields, along with a personalized message. I had fun creating unique welcome messages for everyone. Each guest's name also populated in the name fields. For the "plus one" folks, I inputted the guest name as "Guest (please complete name)" so that a party member could fill in the blanks themselves.

It's not shown, but for the OOT guests, a field populated requesting their arrival date and hotel name.

If guests neglected to fill out the RSVP form completely, Brother Eggplant coded error messages.

Once the "submit" button was selected, guests were presented with a "thank you" confirmation message along with the details of their selection. They were also informed that an email would be sent to us notifying us of their response.

A different confirmation message was populated for guests that declined our invitation.

A screenshot of our email account. We've already received several responses and we only sent the invites out on Friday! I think the web option is really convenient for folks.

Here is a screenshot of the confirmation email that Brother Eggplant coded. We can also access the data in spreadsheet form via an admin login page.

And that's our RSVP system in a nutshell!

I'd have to say that things became a little complicated when we started combining RSVPs for both our Saturday and Sunday events online (we're hosting two events: a Saturday wedding and reception plus a Sunday Chinese banquet). The guest list for each event is different with some crossover guests, so Brother Eggplant had to figure out how to code the system to accommodate all scenarios.

Some have inquired about what we're doing for our older guests who are less familiar with computers. Since we're close to our family members and there are only a handful of older guests, my parents or Mr. Eggplant's parents can easily call them up to retrieve their responses.

I know a web option is not for everyone and there is definitely something charming about receiving the traditional mailed RSVP cards. But for those who are on a short timeline or want to give guests a convenient option, we've received tons of positive feedback on our online system. Also we've received the "decline" responses to our wedding more quickly, which allows us to invite other guests without making them feel like they were on the "B" list.

Did anyone else opt for a web RSVP option? How did it work out?

Yesterday, I started receiving some of the RSVPs for our wedding, so I think it's safe to assume that most people have received their invitations in the mail. Sooo... here is the invitation post!

Mr. Eggplant and I are by no means graphic designers, however we wanted to create our own invitations because we really wanted a cohesive look-and-feel with all the elements in our wedding. Our wed-site plays an integral part of the event, including hosting an elaborate online RSVP system that Brother Eggplant coded for me (more on that later). Mr. Eggplant works in marketing, so his one requirement was that all the pieces flow together seamlessly.

Originally, I started with a color palette of pink, mint green, and ivory. But brown kept showing it's head as a base color, so we ended up with the colors below:

The circles were printed on my inkjet and cut from 80lb cover stock using my handy dandy Fiskar's circle punch. I ordered a huge roll of 7/8 inch wide grosgrain ribbon from JKM Ribbon to close the invitation. JKM has affordable ribbon in bulk amounts, however if you order from them, give yourself three weeks since they only ship orders once a week.

When our guests opened the pocketfold invitation, they saw a main invite card plus three tiered cards. All the floral graphics and fonts were identical to the ones used on our wed-site and were purchased from istockphoto.com.

Our tiered cards tucked neatly in the pocket. Everything was printed on 80lb cover stock..

Card #1: Main Invitation. The card was matted on metallic pink cardstock from Paper and More. I bought one pack and had them cut it to size.

Card #1: Directions. I created this map using Adobe Illustrator. It was the first time I used that program, and I have to say... it's powerful tool, but not very intuitive for a first time user!

The little church, parking, and fork/knife icons were downloaded from Microsoft Clip Art.

Card #2: Reception. The reception card was simple and detailed the location and start of our dinner reception.

Card #3: RSVP. Everyone received a unique invitation code that we created specifically for each party. For one couple, we used their dog's name. For another recently wed couple, their invitation code was their wedding date. We also used words from shared experiences or inside jokes. I liked the fact that all the passwords could be personalized to each party so that they knew we stopped to think of them individually.

Envelopes. Our envelopes were soft white linen envelopes from Paper and More and I fed them one... by... one... through my trusty HP printer to print the return addresses.

Addresses. By the time 150 envelopes had made their way through the printer, I did not have it in me to feed them again for the "to" addresses. Instead, I bought clear labels from Staples and created a mail merge on MS Word using our floral graphic.

I had most of our guests' addresses on an excel worksheet pulled off of the wufoo form that we emailed in our save-the-dates. It was quite helpful to have solicited all the info during the beginning of our planning and I totally recommend wufoo as an easy way to gather information from people. You can create all types of forms, even a simple online RSVP form, should you decide to opt for web option.

The fruits of our labor!! I'm SO glad these are out of our hands now.

In closing, everything was done in Adobe Illustrator and InDesign because I wanted all the graphic elements to be in vector to ensure print quality. Out of all the graphic and layout programs, InDesign is my new best friend and I am using it to create EVERYTHING from our programs to our menu cards and favor tags. It is so intuitive and simple to use as a layout program. Plus, there are tools to create crop marks and such, which I used to prepare our file for printing. However, my friend who works in print told me that Photoshop files would work fine if they are at least 300dpi. To adhere all the pieces together, I simply used double-sided tape because it was the most affordable and easy to use adhesive available.

There were many, many hours of labor and love involved, and lots of mistakes made in the process. But it was also loads of fun and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Thanks for reading!

(Cost and resource breakdown to come.)

This, my friends, is called "the banana game." And it's what happens when you have a crazy-fun bridesmaid who knows how kick it up a notch at a bridal shower.

On Saturday afternoon, my lovely ladies hosted an intimate cocktail soiree complete with almond crusted chicken sandwiches, mimosas, and lovely banana games. I had a smokin' good time and am still overwhelmed with the love and support from the women surrounding me.


What a beautiful spread. Egg and jalepeno sandwiches, bacon wrapped water chestnuts, coconut shrimp... YUM YUM.


It's never too early for mimosas.



My bridal shower keepsake. The girls assigned one page to each guest and the sheets were filled with warm sentiments and wishes.



Keeping with the cocktail theme, my cousin made these darling mini martini shaker favors.



Said banana-game bridesmaid baked a super moist birthday-slash-shower cake. Mmmm.... So yummy that I fell off the South Beach wagon this weekend.



I received some lovely and much needed gifts for our currently empty home.



And also some cute 'n sexy gifts for... hmmm. Is this for me or Mr. Eggplant?  (I LOVE this short little nightie from Betsey Johnson. Do you think I can pull it off with a pair of dressy jeans?)



Yes, I am shorter than ALL my bridesmaids.

And again... after several cocktails.

Thank you for your love and support, ladies!  I am incredibly blessed to have you in my life and I love you guys!

But it's the most fabulous hole punch ever.

I'm talking about the Fiskars Large Round and Round. I bought this punch online at Joann.com to create our invitations and favor tags. It's quite handy because the punch is flipped so that the paper comes out face up and you can actually see what you're cutting, unlike most punches where the paper falls out of the bottom.

Below are the circles that I created with Adobe InDesign to close our pocketfold invitations. The circles and punch are approximately two inches in diameter. All I had to do was line the punch up with my design like so:

And out popped a bunch of cute little 2 inch circles! They look like pogs in the picture.

When I purchased the Round 'n Round, I found a discount code for 50% off any regularly priced item and Joanne's website. The final price was $7 plus tax and shipping (which was expensive, so about $15). Right now the punches are on sale for $9.44 so the discount code doesn't apply, unfortunately. They also have tag and heart shaped punches available too!

Too bad it's $20.50!!

I've received a few inquiries about the makeup artist for my e-session so I thought I'd write a review for all the SF bay area brides out there. After all, it's hard to find a good makeup artist without having to pay for a pricey trial!

Disclaimer: Please excuse the crappy pictures... I was totally running late for the shoot so I was trying to document the results in the car while rushing to meet the photographers! Yeah, not so safe. But for the sake of WB readers, I will go to great lengths. 

My makeup application was scheduled with Nikki at Shu Uemura (pronounced shoo oo-ah-mur-a) in the Fillmore district of SF. What a gorgeous store! Great lighting, clean and spacious... I felt comfortable and pampered. Nikki asked me what I wanted done. Although I gave him a very vague answer, ("Um, smoky eyes, something natural looking, not too Hollywood?"), I think he did a fantastic job. Here are the results!

Nikki started from scratch with my makeup. He cleansed and toned my skin with some really awesome depsea products. Then he carefully applied a few layers of eye shadow and cleansed the area under my eyes again so that he could apply the foundation on a clean surface. Everything was topped off with pale pink blush and a dusting of darker colored powder foundation around the edges of my face, which served as a substitute for bronzer. Throughout the appointment, Nikki explained in detail what he was doing and the products he was using. The session was scheduled for 45 minutes, but he took his time and spent over an hour with me. He also told me that at our next appointment, he'd teach me to apply everything myself!

Another picture. Sorry for the bad angle and up-my-nose view.... it was taken while stopped at a red light.

Here is a close up of the "smoky eyes" and false lashes... I wish my lashes looked like that everyday!!

I was so much in a rush that I didn't have a chance to examine my makeup carefully. Had I the time, I probably would've requested my eyebrows be lightened up a smidge since I typically do not apply much color to my brows. But I think Nikki did a fabulous job and I'm planning to schedule another appointment with him on the day of the Chinese banquet celebration that our family is hosting.

So now that I've shown you the results, let's get down to pricing.

Shu Uemura will do a makeup application with a minimum of $50 in product purchase. If you want to have false lashes applied, the product purchase is a minimum of $70 to include the lashes and adhesive. My artist, Nikki, also does on-location weddings and often has brides do a trial with him at the store before booking. I think this is a GREAT deal because if you don't like the trial, at least you won't feel like you're losing out since you get $50-$70 in awesome products!

Yay! The salon called... my gown is IN!!
Boo. I'm so swamped at work that I can't make an appointment to try it on until next week.
Yay! Our DIY invitations are nearly out the door (blog entry coming soon!)
Boo. Momma Eggplant and I got into a heated discussion about the guest list last night.
Yay! I lost 3 lbs!
Boo. It all came off from the wrong areas, if you know what I mean.
Yay! My bridal shower is this Saturday!
Boo. My birthday is coming up... I'm getting OLD.
Yay! I'll be married in just a few months!
Boo. There's sooo much left to do and not enough hours in the day.

And for one last Yay!...

I forgot to post this picture yesterday from our e-session with Apertura. It's one of my favorites from the teaser set. Erwin shot this one underneath an escalator, of all places. Here it is below, complete with another one of Mr. Eggplant's amusing commentaries:


"Little Pecks" or "Feelin' the Cannons"

No, this picture was not taken in some obscure nook that only a highly trained photographer's eye can spot.  The location of this shot is quite simple--beneath an escalator, tucked away behind two plastic bushes, and nestled between two structural beams that run alongside its chains.  Who wouldn't be able to find this?!  Actually, we would've never thought to take a picture underneath an escalator.  Imagine the grime, the dust, and the random pieces of chewed gum.  Luckily, Mayor Newsom put our taxpayer dollars to good use and has the bottom of escalators cleaned like toilets in a Four Seasons.