A Hair-y Dilemma: SOLVED!

As I shared in my last post, I was going to see my lovely hair and makeup artist, Kelly Zhang.  As I reflected, I realized that my fear of going to do my bridal trial really stemmed from my fear that I wouldn't look my best on my wedding day.

Lately, I've been stressing over how I look. Am I alone in this? I've been noticing how my makeup pretty much falls off my face after an hour or so of wearing it, how imperfect my skin is, how my hair isn't long enough even though I've been growing it out since August... and my wedding day is supposed to be one of the biggest days of my life. I'm supposed to look magical.  Scratch that. I WANT to look magical.  But how could I with all these imperfections?! Does anyone have a magic wand handy?

Now, I know everyone one is secretly (or not-so-secretly) insecure about SOMETHING, but my insecurities were reaching an all time high.  So, armed with my photos and ideas, I went to see Kelly for her to work her magic.

I pulled up to her chic salon in Pasadena and this is what beheld my eyes:

 

(all personal photos)

The white, purple and black decor were SO chic.  Walking into her shop made me feel confident about her style and abilities.  She sat me down and offered me ice tea since she could tell I was really hot from rushing out from work to make it to our appointment on time.  I showed her my photos and began describing what I liked and didn't like and she totally understood.  Being a blogger and blog reader, she understood how styles have changed and are changing.  By the way, did I mention that she used to be a model and did makeup and hair for runway shows? Okay, I feel confident that she might be able to do something with little ole me.

It was so much fun chatting it up with her while she did my hair and makeup.  It's so nice when you can really connect with a vendor. Afterwards, she snapped photos for me. Ready girls?

So the top left is after a long day of work with the kids.  The second and third are my low updo/the oxymoron.

The first one is the side do. My hair is a little on the short side for this one right now, but will be ready in time for the big day. The second is a side shot of the low updo/the oxymoron with my fascinator.

Here's a sideshot of the low updo/the oxymoron without my fascinator. I actually really liked it without the fascinator since the hair was interesting enough.  Anyone interested in an extra fascinator?! :\

Kelly's got the magic!  My face looks clean and natural which was what I really wanted. I barely felt like I had anything on my face at all.  My hair turned out better than I thought!  She sent me to home to contemplate which hairdo I wanted for the wedding day.

When I got home, I took some more photos of myself.

Did you get along well with any of your vendors? And which 'do do you think I should do?

A Hair-y Dilemma

Hello ladies (and gents?).  Tomorrow is the big day...that's right. My hair and makeup trial.  Can I tell you? I'm completely petrified.  No, no, not of my fabulous hair and makeup artist Kelly Zhang.  She did my hair and makeup for my engagement photos and I loved it.  I literally went in with no pictures and no make up and told her I wanted my hair "down..or up..or what do you think will look good?"  She is a miracle worker.  I would be completely mortified to post my before and after from that session because I literally woke up and walked in.  But, petrified that I am not as good-looking as the picture perfect brides below!

When I contacted Kelly to schedule my trial, I was thinking I'd go in, tell her "I want it up" or "I want it down" and that would be the end of that.  But, she asked me to bring in some photos of hair and makeup that I liked and a picture of me in my dress so she could try to style my overall look.  So, I began looking.

Can I just say that there are a LOT of wedding hair photos out there?  So many that I would start looking and after about an hour, my eyes would glaze over and I'd have to turn off the computer.

So, after a LOT of looking here are my inspiration photos:

1. The low, side, wavy, ponytail-y thing
I like that this will partially cover the wide and vast expanse of skin from my strapless dress. I don't like the side ponytails that are tight, but rather loose and wavy.

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2. The Low Updo aka the Oxymoron

Now, if I did a low updo, I'd like the one of the bridesmaid in the photo above or these below. Loose, soft and relaxed.

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3. Riding the Fence with a Half-up do

I really had a hard time finding a half up style I loved.  I like the concept of the loose waves in both of these photos, but don't love the big bump. Maybe a mini bump?

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My appointment is today so I'll be posting my trials soon.  Wish me luck!

What are you planning on doin' with your hair?  Did your hair and makeup trial turn out well?

LGN Diet

One day, not too long ago, I was over at a friend's house for a birthday party.  It was a potluck and when my friends and I have potlucks, the food is always good.  Not those crappy potlucks where people bring lame dishes in hopes that someone else brings something good. Nope. At our parties, everyone brings good food.

Well, I was going for my third Porto's cheese roll when I said, "I probably shouldn't eat this. There's this white dress I need to make sure I can fit into in a couple months." 

A friend who is also getting married in June said, "Are you on the LGN diet too?"  

"Huh? What's that?" I said.

He laughed and walked away.  

I thought and I thought and couldn't figure it out so I asked one of our other friends if he knew what it was. 

He, too, laughed at me and said, "the Look Good Naked Diet."

"Ohhh. (pause) OHHHHH."  It took me a second.

So, I've never been really good at dieting.  I love iced caramel macchiatos from Starbucks, Popeye's fried chicken, Korean BBQ, American BBQ, cheese, chocolate cake, chocolate in general, brownies, coke, rice... you get the picture.  There have only been two times in my twenties where I lost a significant amount of weight.  

The first time was during winter quarter of my senior year of college.  I think my metabolism sped way up right before it was going to slow WAY DOWN so I lost a bunch of weight without really doing anything at all for a month or two. That was so awesome. 

The second time was a year ago when I found out I was prediabetic. My grandmother was diabetic and when I had a blood test done for a physical, my doctor said I was at risk of developing diabetes if I wasn't careful about my food intake and exercise. I wasn't really fazed by it at first until she said that I could lose my eyesight and limbs from severe diabetes. Well, that kicked me into high gear. I met with my best friend's mom who is a nutritionist and she told me all about the diabetic diet. In 3 months, I lost about 15 lbs. just by changing the way I eat. So here are the main ideas of the diabetic diet.

1. Limit the amount of carbohydrates you eat. This doesn't mean to NOT eat carbs, but to limit them to 6-9 servings a day.  A slice of toast is one serving.  A venti iced caramel macchiato is five servings.  

2. Change your carb intake to whole grain and oats.  It'll keep you full longer. Eat more of your carbs during the daytime where you're more likely to burn it off. Avoid eating a lot of carbs at night when all you do is sit there and watch Grey's Anatomy.

3. Indulge in a small amount of sweets ONCE in awhile. If you say you'll NEVER have any of your favorite chocolate cake or caramel macchiato, you're sure to break your diet. Have it in very small portions, very infrequently so that you don't hate life. 

4. Eat lots of vegetables.  Eat fruit too, but remember, fruit has sugar which is just like carbs.  This counts for juice too. Juice often has as much sugar as soda!

5. Eat 4-5 small meals during the day rather than 3 large meals.  This speeds up your metabolism since there's always something to digest and you don't overeat at each meal.

6. Yes, I have to say it. Exercise regularly. Although, at the time I had lost the weight, I was exercising about 2 times a week for an hour at a time.

And just to remind you, although I did this a year ago and lost 15 lbs., I haven't..er..uh..started yet. 

Do you have any other tips to add to the LGN Diet? 

DIY Flowers

Well, maybe not do it MYself, but have a family member do it HERself? 

So, early on, Mr. Lace and I visited a nearby florist that came recommended by a friend.  We brought photos of what we wanted and researched names of flowers we liked.  However, once we got a quote of what we were hoping to have, we literally had to scrape our jaws off the floor. We weren't ready to shell out over $2500 for flowers.  They're already stinking dead!! When the florist adjusted the centerpieces, bouquets and bouts for our budget, we didn't like what he'd proposed for us.

We walked out of the shop pretty distraught. What were we going to do? To pay for a compromise of what we wanted and what we could afford, we'd have to cut back somewhere else in our budget. We decided to sit on it for awhile and revisit after we'd researched a few more florists.  

Christmas rolled around and we hadn't really had a chance to begin Yelping florists.  Enter Mr. Lace's aunt and uncle.  They approached us at Mr. Lace's family get together and asked if they could do our wedding flowers.  Wait, there's more.  They wouldn't just arrange and transport them for us...they'd PAY for them as our wedding gift.  Um, where do I sign? 

We didn't even really have to talk about it. We heartily agreed, partially because of the cost, but partially because if there were family members who wanted to do something at our wedding, we wanted them to be involved in our big day.  So we agreed to come up with some designs and we'd meet with them in April to do a trial.

Well, time rolled on and April approached. Mr. Lace and I began researching flowers that we liked so we'd know what to look for at the Flower Mart.  Since we were going vintage, we needed mason jars and LOTS of them.  We found some designs that we liked put them all together in an Excel spreadsheet (Mr. Lace's specialty).  This past Saturday, we met up with Mr. Lace's aunt and uncle early in the morning at the downtown LA Flower Mart. Okay, well not that early, but 8 a.m on a Saturday?!

The Flower Mart was AWESOME.  I think it's worth visiting at least once just to see the variety that they have and if you like flowers, you'll like just walking around and looking.  You'll probably be tempted to make a purchase or two to spruce up your house.  Mr. Lace and I were prepared though. We showed them the pictures and they took us on a quick walk through of the Flower Mart, made some suggestions and let us go and purchase the flowers we wanted to use for the trial since they had to pick up flowers for their shop.  

We were looking for bells of Ireland, white china mums, jade roses, white ranunculas, white sweet pea, white peony, hypericum berries, lisianthus and green dendrobium orchid. We walked around comparing prices and all of a sudden, an hour had passed.  We decided we had to buckle down and make some purchases before our meter ran out!  Within 30 minutes, we found all the flowers we needed EXCEPT the ranunculas and peonies.  Mr. Lace said we needed to get going since we were supposed to meet his aunt and uncle at their shop in Hollywood, but I was determined to find them.  He took the flowers we had already purchased and headed back to the car while I decided to take one last look at the vendors right outside the Flower Mart.  I quickly scanned each store as I walked by and dodged florists pushing large carts full of flowers in search of my elusive ranunculas and peonies.  I spotted ranunculas across the street and carelessly jaywalked over to them.  Yes, they had ranunculas galore, but mainly in WHITE. The other shops had ranunculas in EVERY OTHER color, just not the one I needed.  I quickly purchased a bunch and set out to look for the peonies. My phone buzzed. It was Mr. Lace. He had started circling the block to come pick me up, but he saw me run across the street. He asked me to meet him at the corner. I felt defeated that I didn't find my peonies for the trial, but decided we'd have to ask Mr. Lace's aunt and uncle how we could guarantee finding our peonies.  Right when I was going to recross (okay...jaywalk) across the street, I spotted them.  There was one bunch left in a big white bucket. I quickly hailed an employee down to wrap them up for me. I didn't even ask how much and at that point, I didn't care.  However, I still gasped when he took my $20 in exchange for 4 peonies. :(

We headed over to the flower shop and after a short conversation, Mr. Lace's aunt got to work. All personal photos below.

Mr. Lace's aunt trimming the flowers and prepping them. Mr. Lace trying to look useful.

The small mason jar

The medium mason jar

The large mason jar

We're planning on having all 3 arrangements on each table. Pretty simple, but I love it.

Mr. Lace went to grab a quick lunch for us from the Thai place next door. Mmmm noodles. Once the bowl was set down in front of me, I was completely useless.

The BM bouquet

My bouquet. And yes, I do still wear a hair tie around my wrist everyday. Note to self: Take that off on wedding day.

We were so happy that Mr. Lace's aunt and uncle offered their services to us because they did such a nice job AND they are involved in our wedding day in a big way! 

Is a family member helping out in your wedding in some special way?

The Other Invites

After planning our rehearsal dinner at Lucille's, I took a short break from thinking about the rehearsal. I have this bad habit of thinking, "I can do this later."  However, with about two months left to go before the wedding, I don't really have too many "laters" left, yanno? 


With many more DIY projects still left to do, I considered a couple of low maintenance invitation options instead of making invitations. Due to budget constraints, printing invites was out of the question.


1. Evite: My friends and I use Evite ALL the time for parties or any kind of get together. It's convenient and keeps track of your RSVP's for you. I could probably do this with a few simple clicks and be done with it especially since my address book is already loaded up on Evite.


2. Paperless Post: This is the HQ* version of Evite. They have fine stationery invitations and they also allow you track your guest list. The first 25 invites are free when you sign up and after that there's a small cost for each invite.   


We have about 55 guests for the rehearsal dinner, but after counting the actual number of invitations we'd need to send, it was a mere 25!  That was much more do-able than I thought so I decided to whip something up that was super simple and easy to reproduce.  They're nothing fancy, but a little nicer than sending an invitation by e-mail.  All personal photos below.

The first card tells about the rehearsal. The second about dinner.  All RSVP's are going to be via e-mail. 

The concept here was like a book card envelope like you see in libraries. 


Voila! Nothing fancy, but my conscience rests a little easier knowing that people are getting an actual invitation in the mail for our rehearsal dinner. I'm sure it would've been fine to send an Evite or invite via Paperless Post (I've received a few myself that way), but this invite was simple, clean and really easy to do.  How are you sending rehearsal dinner invitations?


*HQ - high quality. In college, my friends and I would use it to refer to anything or anyone that was high maintenance or bourjeois.

Envelope Backlash Part II

Remember the whole black envelope fiasco? Well, this past weekend, Mr. Lace, Momma Lace, Poppa Lace and Brother Lace went up to Oakland to visit my grandparents. It was my grandma's 90th birthday and my relatives were throwing her a birthday bash.   I was a little nervous, but decided I should go no matter what my grandparents might say to me. After all, you don't turn 90 everyday!


So, we made the drive up north on Friday after work and stayed overnight in San Jose to do some shopping at Santana Row and Valley Fair on Saturday before heading up to the birthday dinner. 

(personal photo)

Not a great photo, but we were stuffed from the ten course dinner. Anyway, when I went in and greeted the many family members. I somewhat dreaded going up to my grandparents, but I ran out of hands to shake.  I was a little less nervous about approaching my grandmother since Momma Lace had talked to her since the whole envelope deal and she had seemed to get over the whole ordeal.  I approached her, wished her a happy birthday and told her I was so glad to see her.  She talked to me like nothing had happened. I felt so relieved. Then, I went on to talk to my grandfather. He's not much of a smiler anyway so the stern look on his face didn't surprise me. Then, I went to shake his hand and say hello and he said, " Joan, I loved your invitation! You did such a nice job! I will definitely be there."  WHAT? Did he say he loved the invitation? Are we talking about the same invitation here? It's like he erased the memory of receiving a black envelope from his mind and replaced it with a new one.  I quickly wrapped up the conversation and took a seat next to Mr. Lace. 

He looked at me and wondered why I had that funny expression on my face. I recounted the story to him and Mr. Lace ended up with the same expression on his face! 

I guess that turned out alright and I didn't get slapped across the face by my 97 year old grandfather like I thought. :)

Did you come across wedding plans that rubbed your family members the wrong way?

Brothers and Sisters

Mr. Lace has a sister who is four years older than him and I have a brother who is six years older. Our older siblings watched over and took care of us while growing up and even now, keep watchful eyes over us.  They're so important to us, yet they really aren't involved in the ceremony or reception in anyway. I considered have Brother Lace walk me down the aisle, but I didn't want to deny my parents that responsibility (although Momma Lace declined because she hates being stared at so she'll walk in with Brother Lace and stand for the giving of the bride).  

So, how are we going to involved Brother Lace and SIL Lace? We're not sure yet. We've considered these options.

1. Toasts: Early on in the game, Brother Lace asked if he could make a toast which totally made my cry. So he's doing this. SIL Lace is welcome to also, although I'm not sure that she'd want to.  

2. Some other kind of presentation during the reception. Maybe a Top 5 to-do list for Brother Lace to present to Mr. Lace and SIL Lace to present to me filled with funny stories from growing up.

3. Scripture reading during the ceremony: However, the verse we picked is pretty short so it wouldn't really make sense to divvy it up.  Plus, SIL Lace isn't really religious.

We're still brainstorming ideas and trying to come up with something that will involve them in some special way on that day. How are you involving your siblings in your wedding day? 

DIY Regret

Now that our rehearsal dinner is booked, I moved on to making some thank you cards for some of our helpers that aren't in the bridal party.

1. Officiant: Mr. Lace's pastor is officiating our wedding. He's such a warm and caring person and we're so glad to have him not only providing our premarital counseling, but also officiating our wedding. He's spent hours with us in premarital counseling, giving us advice, listening to our stories and just being there for us.

2. Music: Our friend Mike is an awesome musician. He's played in local coffeehouses and bars and he seriously ROCKS at Rock Band!  We've asked him to play some music for us at our wedding and we just KNOW he's going to be awesome.

3. Coordinators: Two of my awesome friends, Pris and Nancy are my day of coordinators.  I don't need to hire professionals because these two girls have coordinated dozens of weddings for friends and family and do an awesome job!  When we were considering who to do this for us, these two girls popped into my head. I feel good that this day will be in their hands.

4. Flowers: Mr. Lace's aunt and uncle run a modest flower shop specializing in flowers for the Thai culture and they volunteered their services for our wedding day as our wedding gift. What a gift huh?! This weekend, we plan on going with them to the Flower Mart to figure out flowers.  We're so grateful that they'll be helping us and gives our reception a personal touch.

So, to say thank you, I decided to make thank you cards for these special helpers.  This is one of the projects I absolutely knew I wanted to do.  There was no doubt in my mind that I'd make cards for my helpers. Then, why-oh-why, did I end up regretting this project?!

(personal photos)

I really did want to make cards myself as a thank you for all the time and effort are helpers are putting into the wedding, but here's why I would've reconsidered this DIY.

1. I wanted them to be a bit *more* than they turned out, but had to modify along the way because the project was taking too long.

2. This project took me a long time because I spent time buying paper first and then spending time making the cards. Because of that, I had to spend a little time here, a little time there before I finished the project. It just sat there on the table taunting me while I was trying to get the next materials or supplies I needed to complete the cards.

3. They didn't turn out much nicer than a lot of awesome thank you cards that are out there. I saw cute thank you cards at Paper Source, Target and even TJ Maxx! Everytime I saw cute thank you cards, I couldn't help but think of how much time I could've saved buying cards.

Oh well. They are handmade and I put a time and love into them so hopefully our appreciation will be conveyed to our awesome helpers.

Did you regret a DIY project after you completed it?

On Michael's and Men

I love Michael's. I really do.  But lately, I've gotten a little sick of it just because I've been going so often...mmm, like one to two times a week? Except for last Saturday when I went to six different Michael's. Don't ask.

(source)

Anyways, onto the topic at hand.  The first time I took Mr. Lace to Michael's to look for supplies we needed for the wedding, he was in awe at the items they sold there.  After that trip, he said, "so that's why you spend so much time there."  Once I sent him to Michael's to pick up some Zips.  I could envision exactly which aisle it was in, but had to describe it to him.  After guiding him to the adhesive aisle (in between the stamps and craft punches and the paints! No! You went to far.  It you see the vases, you've gone too far!) and describing the box, he successfully purchased the Zips I so desperately needed.
I actually felt really bad that he went for me, but I only got to see the conversation from my point of view...until today!

Today, I stopped by Michael's to pick up yet another craft item I needed for the wedding. As I was walking down the aisle (haha..not yet ladies!), I saw a man on his cell phone walking up and down the aisles and you could hear the exasperation in his voice.  A few minutes later, we wound up in the same aisle.  I eavesdropped as I was looking at beads.  He was looking at bags of beads with letters on them - you know, the type kids use to make bracelets with their names on them. This is the one-sided conversation that ensued:

Yes, I'm looking at them. There's a bunch.
...
They're like boxes.
...
Yes, like cubes. Isn't that the same thing?
...
Okay. Yes, they have letters on them.
...
Uhh...(looking carefully at the bag) I don't see numbers, but there are 500 beads in this bag. It's kind of hard to tell.
...
No, I think they're all capitals.
...
No, they don't have lowercase letters.
...
Yes, all capitals (sounding exasperated).
...
Okay, so should I just buy these (sounding like he wanted to leave)?
...
They're colored (sounding a bit upset).
...
Like pink, blue, green, yellow, orange. All the colors!
...
Okay, so I'm just going to buy these.
...
Like, 1/4" or something?
...
Yes, I have a coupon.
...
It's 50% off.
...
Okay.
...
Okay.
...
Bye.

I had to quickly leave after that because I was beginning to crack up. Poor guy.  I wonder if Mr. Lace felt the same way when I sent him to Michael's looking for a needle in a haystack!

Did you send your guy to do something that was new to him?

Thank You. Now Eat.

We're about 80 days out from our big day. We've been diligently working on our rehearsal dinner for three months.  Jiggawhat?! Yes, it's been a long journey and it's NOT my fault that it took that long.  We almost automatically knew where we wanted to have our rehearsal so about three months ago, I contacted them and our journey began...

1. Maggiano's Little Italy

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This was our first choice for so many reasons. First, I love it. I don't care if it's not authentic. I don't care that it's a chain. I love it.  They serve food family style, giving it a casual and warm flair to dinner.  They also have an all-you-can-eat menu for $25 per person.  You can order two appetizers (mushroom ravioli is a must), two salads, two pastas (rigatoni D), two meat dishes (chicken saltimbocca) and two desserts (profiteroles and warm apple crostada).  They'll keep filling up the bowls on whatever you finish. On top of that, it's literally across the street from our venue. We could take a nice stroll across the street to dinner and eliminate travel time between the rehearsal and dinner.

I quickly contacted their banquet department and got their menu.  I looked through it. Yup! There was my beloved all-you-can-eat menu for $37 per person. *choke* excuse me?! $37 per person? I called the banquet manager back and she said it's a higher cost because you get a private room.  Screw the private room. We'll sit out with the regular folk.  Unfortunately, she wouldn't be able to seat 50 of us out in the main dining room. So, we were stuck with $37 per person or nothing.

2. Leatherby's Cafe Rouge

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We quickly moved on.  Our venue has a restaurant in it owned by our caterer, Patina Group.  I asked our coordinator at Patina how much a rehearsal dinner would be at Leatherby's. She came back with a menu that was close to $50 per person. I mentioned that we had a pretty strict budget and gave her the numbers.  She came back with a lunch menu for dinner at $30 per person, plus tax, plus a 20% administrative charge.  That'd be $39 per person. Thanks, but no thanks. Too rich for my blood. I'd rather do Maggiano's if we were going to spend that much money. And...aren't we spending like a million dollars on you guys for catering? You couldn't cut us a little slack?!

3. Lucille's

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We expanded our 2 block radius search and began looking for restaurants in all the surrounding cities. Ahh, there she is. In all her glory. Why didn't we think of it before? One of our favorite restaurants!  Lucille's.  It's also a chain, but it's got some darn good hot links and delish barbecue.  The sauces are great too. I hate mustard usually, but I love this Memphis BBQ Sauce they have there that has a mustardy taste to it.  We LOVE to eat and we especially love BBQ (we don't discriminate. We eat BBQ from all around the world. Though, I hate to say Korean might be our next favorite).  We reluctantly dragged ourselves to Lucille's and had a dreadful dinner or hot links, beef ribs, baby back pork ribs, beans, corn, fries and mac'n'cheese.  We toweled the BBQ sauce off our faces before approaching the manager to ask about having our rehearsal dinner here.  She heartily agreed to our plan and said we could have the patio for the rehearsal as it would comfortably fit 50 hungry wedding helpers and family members.  *AHHHHHH* (that was choirs of angels singing as the heavens opened up)

In the end, we're really glad that we found a place we love at a price we love. In addition to that, it'll be casual, fun, loud and delicious.  So, the rehearsal dinner is booked and I'm going to have baby back ribs smothered in Memphis BBQ sauce the night before my wedding.  If I don't fit into my dress, at least it would have been worth it! Hmm, maybe I should DIY some bibs for the wedding party?

Where are you having your rehearsal dinner? Is it a new place or an old favorite?

My Precious...

Our beloved rings are here.  Mr. Lace and I wanted relatively simple rings and began ring shopping pretty early on.  After looking at designs (and prices), we were having a hard time finding a ring that Mr. Lace liked.  He has a cousin overseas who makes jewelry and we asked for some advice about rings and what the actual cost of the rings should be if we had them made at a jeweler.  Well, after shooting a few e-mails and photos back and forth, he told us the cost to make these rings should be a lot less than what jewelers and retail shops were asking.  The difference was about $500 and that's a lot of moolah when you're knee-deep in wedding planning. $500 bucks is a candy buffet or half of a photobooth rental or really fabulous shoes. :)

Luckily, Mr. Lace's cousin offered to make them for us and ship them over to the states.  We sent the money right away.  We waited and waited and waited. The rings were finished within a month.  His cousin sent us photos of the finished rings.  This was four months ago. He didn't have time to send them because he was flying in and out of the country for jewelry shows.  But, finally, one day, we got an e-mail with a tracking number.  They were on their way.  I wasn't sure how long it'd take rings to ship from Asia. A few weeks maybe? I sat and waited and waited and waited. Spring break rolled around and Mr. Lace and I went on a couple of trips with friends and family and then, we got a call.  The rings had arrived!  *Insert record scratch here* But they required a signature nor would we want to postman to leave them on Mr. Lace's front step to be stolen away.  So there was nothing to be done since we were several hundred miles away at a Dodger game in Arizona, we still had another day in Phoenix and three more days in Las Vegas.

The buffets distracted me until we got back to L.A.  The first thing on the list to do was to pick up the package from the post office.  I was so excited I forgot to ask Mr. Lace to take a picture of me being excited.

We ripped the box open and here are our babies! We tried our rings on right away, but we had to take them off lest we start becoming evil (Lord of the Rings? Anyone?!)  All photos courtesy of Cousin Lace.

My Precious

His Precious

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Before he was a wimp in Troy, he was Legolas and he helped destroy the Precious!

Where did you buy your wedding rings? How did you do/how did you feel when you got them?

Bandwagons and Jumping onto Them

I really wanted the wedding to be a little different than what people expected, but when it came down to it. I couldn't help but jump onto a couple of wedding bandwagons. I didn't even waver back and forth, deciding whether or not I should jump onto the wagon or not. I chased it down and made it stop for me so I could get on. Oh well.

1. Candy Bar
Mr. Lace and I really love candy. We decided early on that our favor had to be useful (actually useful, not something people could use, but still would never use) or edible. We went with edible since we love eating.

As much as I'd love to do something beautifully matched like this:

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But, there are a lot of candies I'd rather share with my guests that Mr. Lace and I love like Snickers, Red Vines, Hershey's Kisses, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Almond Joy, Sour Patch Kids, Sour apples, Gummi Bears, peanut M&M's, Gummy Peach Rings, Rolo...okay, so you can tell that our candy bar won't match. Oh well. At least it'll be tasty!

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2. Photobooth
We've attended several weddings that have had photobooths and we still have fun every single time being goofy and taking a photo.  Maybe they're played out, but we still think they're a blast.  What happens to be better is that a couple we know have a photobooth.  It doesn't get better than that!  We're using Snappy Joe Photography.  We attended a friend's wedding that used Snappy Joe and they had a fun touch screen that you used to start taking your photos. Look at how much fun these people are having!

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Are you jumping on any wedding bandwagons?

To Dance or Not to Dance

Mr. Lace and I are huge fans of "So You Think You Can Dance."  Many of them are so talented and able to dance so many different styles. Sometimes, I'd watch and think to myself, "I'm not even sure which muscles to move to do that."

I must live vicariously through them because I am NOT a dancer. I've got rhythm. I can hear a beat. But I have no spatial kinesthetic intelligence.  I just don't. I can do a couple of basic dance moves and do goofy moves, but let's just be real here. I suck at dancing.

In addition to that, Mr. Lace is not the kind of guy who likes everyone looking at him.  He doesn't like to be in the spotlight (I realize this will be a bit of an issue come the wedding day). 

So, when we were working through our schedule and got to "first dance," we quickly skipped it and said we'd come back to it later.

I don't want to make a fool of myself.  Mr. Lace doesn't want hundreds of pairs of eyes staring at him. A more traditional first dance would be a little less pressure. We joked about doing a choreographed dance, but we don't know. Or we could skip it and pretend like nothing happened.

A traditional dance makes for some sweet photos.

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A fun choreographed dance gives laughter all around.  An added bonus: your future children will totally be embarrassed.  Knowing me, I'd trip on my dress and fall flat on my face. 

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"Huh? What first dance?"

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What kind of first dance are you having? Are you opting out of a first dance?

To Look or Not to Look

Sorry for the brief hiatus, but I had spring break so Mr. Lace and I took a mini-vacay to Phoenix and Las Vegas with his sister. We are back and wedding planning was supposed to be in full swing as soon as we returned. 

Well, we returned and I turned on my computer and Mr. Lace fell asleep in the middle of going over the day of schedule. I would get mad except that he spent the past 8 days driving around all over the place so I will give him his nap while I blog!

Anyway, as I was going over the schedule, there so many decisions to be made.  Between "hair and makeup with Kelly" and "say goodbye to guests,"  there are a few things that need to be happening.  

Decision #1: The First Look

When I first explained the idea of the first look to Mr. Lace, there was complete silence.

Me: So, I have our first look at 1:30 p.m.

Mr. Lace: Okay.

Me: Do you know what that means?

Mr. Lace: No. Do I need to do something?

Me: Well, we will meet up before we take photos with the bridal party so we can see each other for the first time on our wedding day.

Mr. Lace: So, I'll go pick you up?

Me: No, we'll meet at the hotel and have Hanssie take photos of us seeing each other for the first time.

Mr. Lace: Oh. (silence)  So wait, Hanssie is going to take photos of us looking at each other? Isn't that weird? Do we need to do that?

Me:  Well, would you rather see each other for the first time with Hanssie or in front of Hanssie and all the bridesmaids and groomsmen? 

Mr. Lace: (calculating the pairs of eyes that will be on him)...Uh, okay, we should probably do that with just Hanssie.

It wasn't much of a question for me because I would love to have a private moment together (well as private as it'll get that day since we did pay our photographer to follow us the whole day) before we see other people.  And how could I resist after looking at this:

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Are you taking a first look or not? How did you decide?