Scan Away!

So Paul and I were finally able to fit in a moment to get at least a large chunk of our registry done. We've been meaning to do it for a while, but our schedules have been quite unpredictable with all the extra things we've had to do for work and life. One night, we just went to Bed Bath & Beyond and got it over with. At first, we weren't really sure how to start. Luckily we talked to someone who was actually the store manager, and he got us registered with scanners and everything. He just recently got married and new everything about the store; so he personally took us around to explain a few things and help us with the whole process. It was a much more enjoyable experience than when we tried to do our registry at JCPenny. There were a few things that he told us that stuck in my mind. He said that there are some things that people just love to buy for other people such as pillows and towels. The explanation for pillows is that they think every night before you sleep, you will think of them as you lay your head on that wonderful pillow they bought you. That made me laugh, but he did have a good point. I think I should revise my gift giving method from now on. So he walked us around the store asking us questions and pointed us to a few things that would be good to add to the registry. It was really nice to have him around because the whole process was really fast and really enjoyable. We learned about the difference between German knives and Japanese knives and why people choose certain things. We ended up choosing the Japanese knives (they are sharper than the German, even though they need to be sharpened more often) because of the handle. They fit really nicely in my hand (since I'll pretty much be doing all the cooking), and our guide told us that these knives won't give you blisters because of the way the handle is made. That was a really great selling point to me. He didn't really show us the most expensive things or made us choose a certain brand. He gave us views that he gathered from his personal experiences and product information which let us decide for ourselves what we wanted. I was kind of dreading this part of the process because shopping for me takes a really long time. I don't really know anything about a lot of these products, and I'd hate to waste anyone's money. I think Paul and I can agree that we chose a good range of things to put in the registry. There are things that we each really love and hope that people will get for us, but it doesn't really matter. It's not really our priority...we know it's already a little financial burden to come to Hawaii especially for our far away guests. Just having them there is special for us. So I am glad to get that bulk of the registry done. We did want to do some additional "house" stuff from Lowes that would be good to have like power tools. Paul's been a little interested in doing some handy work such as rebuilding a foosball table and maybe later on a pool table...I'm kind of hoping he'll learn to make some shelves so that I can finally put together my pantry. =P One step at a time I guess.

The Bridesmaids' Dress Search is Over!

Okay, so I can officially say that the hunt for the bridemaids' dresses is officially over. We did shop at a few stores earlier, but the dress we picked out was a little expensive for our budget. It was a very elegant burgundy Jim Helm dress with a low back. It would be about $250.00/each not including any alterations, etc. I thought that might be a little tough on the bridesmaids since they are already paying for the trip to come to the wedding; so we tried other alternatives. I contacted a friend of mine to see what it would cost to make the dress from scratch, and the quote was $300.00/dress. So at this point I was a little discouraged. I did surf around the internet, and I did find a few things that I did like. It's kind of a hit or miss when I can't physically touch the material or see what it looks like on one of my girls. In the end, I decided not to go that route. Then, with the local Cali gals, we scheduled a Sunday trip to Fashion Alley in downtown LA which actually turned out to be a really great excursion. We went into a lot of stores and found a dress right away. It is as elegant as the Jim Helm dress if not more because there was also beading on the dress, and it came with a scarf that had some beading on it as well. Kathy and Charissa looked really great in the sample dress. I am extremely excited about finally checking this off my list. We did quite a lot of dress hunting, but it was definitely worth it. I can't wait for you all to see what it looks like.

Custom Made - A Personal Touch

So this week, I got jury duty. I've found that it is incredibly hard to do any wedding planning at the same time, but I was able to check a few things off the list. I talked to Mahalia (eM) the other day for about 2 hours. We had a lot to catch up on, but we talked about some of the wedding details. One of which was the guest book. What I imagined was a customized photo book filled with photos and designs where there would be topics that the guest could also add in addition to their name such as: advice, favorite memories, favorite movies, etc. eM was nice enough to undertake this creative venture. I think it is extremely ambitious, but if anyone was going to do it, eM would be the best. She always makes creative Christmas cards, and even though she's farther away she can still have a little personal involvement with some of the wedding planning and preparations. I can't wait to see how it will turn out.

Some other handmade plans for a personalized wedding are:
1) crochet garter
2) Unity Candle (complements of Paul's mom)
3) invitations & Programs
4) favors
5) Table runners (my mom's going to sew)
6) We're going to attempt to make a veil. I think it would be fun.
7) Flowergirl basket
8) Card Box
9) I want to glass etch our champagne glasses with our names, date, and floral motif.

I know it's a long list, but I think having a personal touch in the wedding is important to me. I will always have a backup and buy the usual stuff if I need to, but I would love to at least make an effort especially since there are so many talented and great people who I can call to help. Plus, Paul's mom has a really cool scrapbooking machine called a Cricut, and it would really be helpful with a few of our projects. I'm really excited about it all.

Getting in Shape: The Curling Way

So today I am a little banged and bruised from a very physically intense weekend. My girl's curling team traveled to Seattle, WA for playdowns. We played against the Washington girl's team that also qualified for the National competition. It was quite exciting. Friday, we arrived and got to visit some friends for dinner. I kind of got one of my team mates to come with me and she ended up being dragged into karaoke. I think, we definitely sang out hearts out no matter how many words we couldn't sing. Afterward, we picked up the rest of the teammates from the airport. Seattle by the way, is incredibly cold, especially for me even though it was actually warming up for the moment. I was still trying to get over a cold, and I was taking a whole variety of drugs to get me at least functional for the games. So the next day, we played a game at 9 am and 1 pm. We came back later on for practice at around 7/8. We were pretty sore after that day, and we had another game on Sunday at 8:30. I didn't think we were going to make it, but the Bond Girls overcame. It was a full 10 end game which lasted for about 3 hours of constant walking, sweeping, and throwing. My arms, abs, and legs hurt. Going down stairs is quite challenging. I know that I need to work on getting my upper body and lower body strength up as well as my endurance. I have about a month to really get in shape and train for the Nationals, and I think that by that time I'll be on my way to having some nice looking arms, legs, stomach, and butt...a few months before the wedding. That is, if I can stay away from all the oily and fried stuff.

Floral Designs

So I found a bracelet with half of a protea design on it. I kind of bogarted the design or the parts that I could see and made up the parts that were missing. I think that this complete protea floral motif turned out pretty well. Here it is:



We're going to incorporate this design on the cake and maybe some other things...Not sure what we're going to do yet, but at least we have something to work with. I also want to incorporate the Maile leaf since it is on my ring and it symbolizes so much as well as add a touch of Asian/Filipino with some Bamboo since we have the tinikling...I guess there's a variety of things we can do. I came across this information on the internet:

* Three (3) stalks of Lucky Bamboo:
Bring Fu (Happiness), Lu (Wealth) and Soh (Longevity).

Towers - Better, Promotions, More of the Good Things of Life, Climbing

* Five (5) stalks of Lucky Bamboo:
Represent the 5 different parts of life from which wealth spurs from.

* Six (6) stalks of Lucky Bamboo:
Also sounds like "Luck" in Chinese, bringing prosperity and favorable conditions.

* Seven (7) stalks of Lucky Bamboo:
Good health.

* Eight (8) stalks of Lucky Bamboo:
In the Chinese spoken language sounds like "Fah" which means to grow, thrive.

* Ten (10) stalks of Lucky Bamboo:
Complete and perfect.

* Twenty-one (21) stalks of Lucky Bamboo:
To offer very powerful all purpose blessing.

* Lucky Log
The lucky log keeps sprouting new leaves, which means "strong life". In Taiwan,this is the popular gift item between businesses. The giver of this gift wishes the receipient a strong life with a prosperous business that never stops growing.

On top all of that I have to make parts of it shine or twinkle for it wouldn't be Hollywood without some sort of bling. Maybe add some silvery embellishments or some fake crystals...

Mid-January Progress Report

So I haven't finalized the bridesmaid dresses as of yet, but I did get contact information to talk to a few dressmakers. We confirmed with about 99% of our vendors. We are making headway with the cake. I am extremely excited talking to Kathy from Aloha Cakery about the design. I'll write another blog about that later. I am having one of my cousins, Elaine, try to research some Filipino folk dancers so that we can have a tinikling performance, a Filipino bamboo dance. Here's a website that you can go on to find out more about it: Tinikling

I talked to Paul about it and it's incredibly hard to describe. Basically,2 people hit 2 long bamboo sticks parallelwise together while dancers dangerously dance in between and around them. I thought that this was so cool the first time I saw it when I was little, and I always thought that I would have someone do tinikling at my party. Especially, since it is part of the Filipino culture, and Paul's family and my friends most likely have never seen that before. I am not sure how much it will cost or even if we can find someone to do it. I am going to cross my fingers that Elaine will be able figure this out and make it happen.

Right now, I am in the middle of scanning my photos. There's a lot of great memories, but some memories, I couldn't find photos for. I am hoping that some Cousin or Auntie will produce a copy of a photograph of something I haven't seen in years. I also found photos of people I love and grew up with who are no longer with us, and I couldn't help but miss them. So a lot of planning and finalizing is underway. I really have to get cracking with my floral ideas...That will be the goal for next week.

Mamma Mia!

I finally got to watch "Mamma Mia," and I hate to say it, but I really enjoyed it. There were cheesy moments of course, but the music was fun, and the characters were funny. Not all of the singing was great, but at least a lot of the visuals of the movie were beautiful. It is definitely hard to make Greece ugly. I honestly didn't know what the movie was going to be about. I only knew it was a musical with ABBA songs. But I'm watching these people prepare for a wedding, and the Mom's name just happens to be Donna. I was just shocked and amused because Meryl Streep is so kookie. So I thought this was a sign. This was going to be it. I will find our wedding song here. I watched the entire film with that in mind. I even replayed some of the musical selections over again after I was done, and to my chagrin, I couldn't find it. Some of the songs were fun and great like "Dancing Queen," "Lay All Your Love On Me," and "Take a Chance On Me." But it didn't really represent Paul and me which in my mind is important. No matter, I had fun watching this film, and I was inspired! So the search goes on! Come on song come to me!