Our wedding DIY

After a full year, finally .... (Actually I did this post a long time ago, somehow I FORGOT to publish. I cannot believe it stayed in the draft for a little over a year. :P) Anyway, I want to dedicate this post just to talk about the things we (Evan and I) made for our wedding. For those who know me, I am a graphic designer and I like art and craft and making stuff, and hubby is a packaging designer, so what happened when two art people having a wedding together? They got to make a lot of stuff together and save a lot of money (or spend more because they want everything to be perfect? :/)

Our first try was those cute little hangers that has "Bride", "Mrs. Yang" or bridesmaid's name on it. It was actually pretty easy, after we got all the materials from Michael's, I finished the whole project within 2 hours. It's easy! If anyone are interested, feel free to let me know, so I might have a tutorial in the future.

Bridal Hanger

The next project will be our wedding invitation. We (especially I) want it to be unique, cute and lovely, I do not want to use those template invitation that everyone has. Since we bought our house in 2013, and getting married will be like starting a home/family together. I have this idea of building a new home from scratch. Well, making this pop up house is not hard; however, making 120 copies is really driving us crazy, LITERALLY crazy. We have to print, cut, fold, glue... every single task took us so much time. I kinda think it's a crazy idea to do a pop up wedding invitation, I have no idea how we could do it. :/ 

Very first prototype I made just to show Hub my idea (left); the actual invitation (Chin version) (right)

This is the project solely done by Evan. I was too overwhelming with work and wedding planning at that time, so hubby got to finish this himself. This is a very cute cake topper. Our cake was a strawberry short cake from Phoenix Bakery in downtown LA.  We shopped around for nearly two months, everything in town is either taste bad, or overly pricy. Most places we went to only offer normal wedding cake which has no icing or fondant or any kind of decoration. :( If we want something special, we will have to pay a fortune. Since Hub really like Phoenix's short cake (That's the first bakery we went to, and their cake was amazing and we got quite a few compliments on the cake, a few bride-to-be even asked us for their info.) We talked to Phoenix, and they will only provide simple cake design, so we decided to make a cake topper to make this simple wedding cake pops. Hub made two dolls out of paper and wood, standing under an arch. OMG!! This is just super cute!! With the cake and the fresh flowers. This  is just the best wedding cake ever!!! 

Hub will take order to custom made wedding cake topper, if you want to order your cake topper with us. :) We can custom made one that suit you. email me, I am his manager! :P

Happy 1st year anniversary, happy Easter!

(Oh, by the way, as you see, my blog is alive again. :) stay tuned for more.)

Wedding gown Shopping

After founding the best venue for our wedding, the next big thing to do is finding the best wedding gown.

In Hong Kong, most people rent their wedding gown (something borrow?), and it makes sense to me, what am I going to do with big wedding gown after the wedding? I can not wear it to my company Christmas party, can I? After visiting the gown shop on Las tunas, I just give up the idea of renting one. They do not have much option and it's expensive.

Somehow I found this little shop online - SimplyBridal.

I never buy clothes online because I believe I have to try it before buying any clothing. I believe all the clothes will look good on stick thin model but not on me. Good thing is, SimplyBridal has a showroom in downtown LA that will carry most of their wedding gowns sample and I immediately pick up the phone.

To be very honest, there was a moment I almost gave up on SimplyBridal. I tried to call their hotline many times for appointment BUT no one picking up the phone, or there was one time a girl picked up and told me they are fully-booked, and I will have to call back in 2 months to check if there's any opening. (For a moment I thought they are not legit / or they are those crappy internet selling company that offer crappy product/job.) Anyway, I called many times (I'm persist) and finally made an appointment.

I went there with hub. SimplyBridal showroom was amazing, it is located at a service apartment overlooking the whole downtown LA. The view was breathe-taking. The apartment has a modern and contemporary look, and it was very open, they had big windows that allows sunlight to go into. The whole feeling just gave me a perfect mood for trying out gowns. (at least better than DB)

Feel very modern and contemporary.

Wedding gowns..

Big size window overlooking downtown Los Angeles

After flipping though many bridal magazines, I had a few gowns in my mind. I focus on trying all their A-line or ball gown type dresses. To me, sheath or mermaid or empire just does not say "wedding" to me :/ I also had my eyes on all the sweetheart neckline gowns, it just flatter my big boobs more than the flat one.

A Maggie Sottero Wedding gown from David Bridal (1k+) (left) ; Simply Bridal (right) 

Simply Bridal wedding gowns; Skye gown (left) and xx gown (right)

I like the way they only serve one customer per appointment, so their staff can better help me to find the best dress possible. The showroom manager was very helpful and friendly. I tried on more than 10 dresses and she was still very patient and professional. (unlike the staff from DB, she got very impatient when I was trying my 4th gowns.) She even suggested me to buy one size smaller than my usual size, so the dress will fit me better. (I might be wrong, but I think they only carry sample sizes at their showroom.)

After trying many dresses, I finally decided on my gown. (YAY) Placing order was easy, and I was told they will ship out the dress in about 2 months, however, I got mine 2 weeks earlier, so this was nice!

The "Simply Bridal" package

Overall, the dress was well made. It was stuffed inside a plastic vacuumed bag. So, when I took the dress out, it was all winkled. The length was a bit too long but it was understandable, I took it to the tailor and get it altered to my length, steamed and pressed to perfection. I was really happy with the gown, I got many compliment at my wedding! =) Glad I got it from Simple Bridal.

We are married!

How am I going to start blogging about my wedding? I guess before I told you anything, I need to confess. E and I were married before we had started planning. From the moment we decided to spend the rest of our life together, to actually signing the legal documents, it only took us about a week. I got a friend (who is one of my bridesmaid in my grand wedding), she can help with all the legal process! The only thing we need is pick a day and place, and we did it at Peet's Coffee in Pasadena, California (my mom was like WHAT? a COFFEE HOUSE!?) Yes, because this is a very special place for us, this is where we first met and fall in love... So everything was a done deal before all the wedding planning madness began. At one point during my wedding planning, I was thinking actually it was a great (the BEST) idea. WHY? Because no matter how crazy, annoyed, paranoid I am, we can't back down, we can't just run away and pretend nothing happened. We have to learn to deal with each other. I guess this is how marriage works. HA!

Signing legal papers 

vows

I now pronounced you man and wife, you may kiss the groom.

Just like every brides did, I browsed thu all the bridal magazines, websites. Every single one of them said we have to find THE VENUE first, it determined the tone of the actual wedding. Alrighty! The first place I visited was the Marriott in Cerritos, California. It was surrounded by many tall business buildings, there's nothing gardeny nor romantic. For those who knew me, I was born in a very romantic day, so i love everything romantic, dreamy, soft and/or pink. I immediately knew this is not the place for me. I mean I can still make it work, but then I will have to spend lot of money on decorations (which I am not planning to.) (BUT the good thing about this place is: the price is lovely, and the catering manager there is very friendly and talkative, which is always a plus! She even recommended a MC/DJ which I hired eventually.) E and I visited many others venues before settling at the InterContinental Los Angeles Century City by Beverly Hills.

The hotel is located in Avenue of the Stars (星光大道) in Century City, California. Minute away from Beverly Hills. Fox studio is next to the hotel. Location is perfect!

When we first arrived at the hotel, I immediately felt in love with their garden. The size of the garden is not big, but very cosy and has a romantic feeling. I always dream about a garden wedding, and this is just perfect for me. I can definitely see myself walking down here. Everything looked amazing in this hotel, HaHa... Elizabeth (catering manager) showed us one special feature of this hotel. On the day of wedding, bride and groom can take pictures at the helicopter rooftop (turned out it was a disaster, but it's another story, I will get to it later...) It overlooks the whole downtown Los Angeles and the very famous IM Pei building (I forgot the name.). The view was stunning, we loved it so much. We cancelled all other appointments and put down our deposit right away. =)

Beautiful helicopter rooftop (this picture was taken half year before our grand wedding)

So one task down, million more to go....

A little updates

Just downloaded this new blogger app from App Store. I guess I have no excuses not to update more often, unless no one want to know about my life anymore =( [Anyway, I'm currently using my iPhone, this app made blogging so easy, HA..]

So, a little sneak peek, I am going to talk about my wedding. OH yeah, I am officially Mrs. Yang now (actually it's been almost a month)! a girl from my work place kept asking me how I feel about this new life... so I am going to talk about it in my next blog post. Also, honeymoon... Also, baby-making... Also... many more... so stay tuned! =)

I DO

GOOD NEWS!!! YEAH!!!

好久沒回來哦，大家還記得美姬嗎？
一回來就有好消息要宣佈，姬要嫁人了....... ＊拍拍手＊
(其實好多人都知道了.... )



倒數七個月...... *只有七個月，緊張緊張緊張*