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. 

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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.

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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?

Taking a Moment

Today, while I was surrounded by scraps of fabric, thread and beads galore, I got an IM from Mr. Lace.  Now, he's not really the romantic type, but I am, so that's always been a struggle for us...for me to not expect picture perfection like in chick flicks and for him to find opportunities to offer romantic gestures that are completely out of his comfort zone.  So, amidst my frustration and stress in finishing up the hair flowers for my BM's and to move onto the next project, his IM made me stop and take a moment.


I poured hours into our wedding website and although he liked it, he never said much about it.  But his IM today said, "I just wanted to let you know that the wedding website is really great. You did such a good job on it. You made a good choice for the music and every time I come back and reread the stories, all these moments come to life again."


Sigh. So, while I was sitting in the middle of a huge fabric mess, I was reminded why I am going through all this trouble.  

Did you have any moments that reminded you of why you're wedding planning?

Worry Wart

I know that I get stressed too easily.  But, sometimes, it's embarrassing how much I think and worry about wedding related stuff. My current worry?

RSVP's.  We sent out a really early first round because our venue/caterer is on the pricey side so we need to stick as closely to 225 as we possibly can. An extra table of 10 people is $1,600.  We sent out 247 invitations. Our first RSVP deadline is March 28, 2010. Of the 247, 113 have said yes and 21 have said no.  That puts us at 226, which makes me very happy.

However, we also can't go under 225 since that's our guaranteed minimum. So if we receive 113 more yes RSVP's, we're cool. If we don't, we get to go into our second round of invites.  However, what if these 113 people don't respond on time? I'd like to give our second round of invites ample time to respond as well.

So, I know, I'm thinking too far ahead because I have been getting more RSVP's in the past few days as we approach the deadline, but do I ask people? Do I write them a personal e-mail asking if they're coming? Do I send out a mass e-mail to remind people to RSVP? I don't want to be rude, but I need to know!

What would you do? Have you had any RSVP worries?

I was determined to get some wedding DIY's done this weekend so I whipped out my votives that I purchased from the Salvation Army.

I punched along the top of a piece of vellum and wrapped it around.

Boo. The vellum was too low and didn't give enough of that warm, glowy effect I was hoping for. So, I moved the vellum up.

Yes, that's it! BUT, when I tried this with a piece of vellum that reached all the way to the bottom of the votive, it didn't work. The vellum didn't meet evenly on the backside, but overlapped upward! My votives aren't straight cylinders. They are ever so slightly smaller on the bottom, but enough that wrapping a wider sheet of vellum around would make it plainly clear that this DIY was a bust.

Maybe some people wouldn't care and most of my guests probably wouldn't notice either, but I do. I shouldn't. But I do. :(

I was going for something like this which I can do on the bigger glass containers I have.

So, I was off to figure something...anything out. I decided to wrap the entire votive with vellum. I first cut out a curved piece of vellum that would nicely fit around the votive. I stamped it just because it looked so darn plain.

Then I wrapped it and lit it up.

Warm, glowy effect - check.  But, I don't like it. it doesn't have the same feel as my doily edged votive.  So, at the end of that evening, I had nothing done and no solution to my DIY fail.

I decided I could suck it up and just cover the votives completely like pictured above, do that and add something to it, have the vellum only go halfway up the votive, or some awesome novel idea that I haven't yet conjured up.

How would you solve this problem? Have you had any roadblocks in your wedding projects?

Yes. No. Maybe So.

I was an indecisive person to begin with and then, I began planning my wedding.  I am hit in the face with wedding-related decisions everyday and I'm finding that every decision I make takes a lot longer than I want it to.  It takes so much research, analyzing and thinking before I can make finally make up my mind about something. You don't believe me??!  Please, walk with me...

1. Clipboards. Yes. Clipboards.  I wanted to get my two friends, who will be my day of coordinators, clipboards to hold all the important papers for the day such as contracts, checks, schedules, contact lists, etc.  But in order for me to finally pull the trigger, I visited Staples, Target, Office Depot, Office Max and searched online.  I finally pulled the trigger on a clipboard case from Office Depot.  That decision took me a few weeks when it probably should've taken me 5 minutes.

2. Bridesmaid dresses. I probably bought five different dresses that I showed one or more bridesmaids to see what they thought.  I settled on a dress, FINALLY, drove high and low to collect the dresses. After passing out the dresses and having all my bridesmaids try them on, I found another one that I liked the best. So, I recollected the dresses and returned them all before going to buy the next BM dress. 

3.. Sash. Remember that post? Well, for that one, the hive helped me make that decision because I ended going with the option that most people liked which I was leaning toward anyway since it was a bit less cluttered looking. Thanks guys. Can I hire you as my executive decision maker? No? You're busy planning a wedding too? Darn. 

So, I guess I'll need one of these then - the Original Decision Maker.

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When unsure about ANYTHING, give it a flick and listen to whatever the necklace says.

Have you had a hard time making wedding-related decisions?

Ninety-seven days and counting...

This week, we hit 100 days until the wedding. Currently, the count is at 97.  When people ask how planning is going, I smile and say, "It's going great!"  To people I know better, I say, "There's still a lot to do," but still with a fake smile plastered to my face.

But in reality, I feel like this:

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For real...with my head about 10 times larger than my body, ready to explode! I am super stressed out even though I'm sure 3 months is plenty of time to finish everything. It's just so much!

I've had a headache everyday this week because of wedding planning.  This will pass. I made a plan this weekend for what I am going to do everyday for the next few weeks. Mr. Lace and I have a couple of days off and we'll be hard and work getting that difficult stuff planned.

I'm having anxiety dreams too. For example, in one dream, the flowers showed up in boxes and I was in the reception hall in my wedding dress, arranging flowers.  In the second dream, we ran out of time for a rehearsal so I was barking instructions to everyone as I was standing up at the altar.

Breathe, Miss Lace, breathe. It will all get finished. Whatever doesn't get finished, doesn't get finished. 

I went to work out and I felt a lot better afterwards. Well, minus feeling sore, tired and sweaty. I felt better emotionally. :)  The three cookies I ate afterwards also helped me feel better.

Are you experiencing stress or anxiety dreams about your wedding? What do you do to destress?

Bridesmaid Lovin'

Everyone struggles with what to get for their bridesmaids. I couldn't decide if I wanted to just get them one big thing or put together a little "basket" for the day of.  I found a happy compromise and just finished their gifts.  Here's what they're getting.

Oh yes, Lace bridesmaids, please stop reading here.  Come back tomorrow.

Are you gone yet?

Here we go, hive, now that the bridesmaids are gone.

I started out with a day of survival kit.

It includes:

• a Starbucks gift card since they have to get up so early that morning
• tissue to clean up after themselves
• a Shout wipe in case of any spillage
• a pack of gum so their mouths feel fresh.  By the way, my friend and day of coordinator, Priscilla introduced me to this Trident gum. It's green apple and golden pineapple and like a party in your mouth!

It also includes:

• a sewing kit in case anything comes apart (I've heard of a groomsman whose pants split during photos and had to find a tailor to fix it because there was no sewing kit!)
• a tube of Kiehl's lip balm #1 in Pear in case their lips are chapped (one of my favorite brands)
• a pack of Q-tips to wipe away any stray makeup
• a pack of blotting sheets to ward off midday shine
• a pack of bobby pins to keep everything in place

I wrapped it up in a cello bag (20 for $2 at Target) and made a little topper to close the bag up neatly.

The survival kit, flip flops and Anthropologie necklace are going in a monogrammed bag from Land's End.

I've been toying with the idea of a pashminas or a cardigan to wear in our wedding photos, but it will depend on if I have time to shop for them.  So for now, this is it. 

What are you getting your bridesmaids?

How to Tie a Perfect Bow

When I discovered Martha Stewart during my high school years, I was addicted to her show and would watch it as often as I could.  My favorite segment? Good things.  She'd teach you one really cool trick to a problem that you never new was a problem. In addition to learning how to fold a fitted sheet (what? You're saying folding it in half and rolling it up isn't right?), I learned how to tie a perfect bow.  I remember, after that episode, sitting there practicing and practicing until I figured out how to tie a perfect bow. I can't remember if my bow is the same as Martha's, but it works so here's what to do.

First, tie a knot. I go left over right. I like to try to keep the ribbon flat.

Make a loop with the ribbon end that is lower, in this case, it's the right side. You'll notice from here on out, I use my ring finger to hold the knot down and tight.

Now, take the ribbon end that is higher, in this case, the left, and put it over the loop you made. 

Put the left ribbon end around the right loop and pull it through. Notice that all the ribbon lays as flat as possible.

Last, but not least, pull tight. You'll have your loops on top and the end on the bottom!  I used grosgrain here, but if you use a softer ribbon, the middle of the bow tends to look nicer than a firmer ribbon.

Oh and don't forget to trim the ends to slant. I usually cut my ribbon at a slant hoping that it'll just come out right, but as you can see, that didn't happen here. 

Have any "good things" you learned along the way? 

I Heart My Bridesmaids

My bridesmaid has been awesome and supportive, but I think it's because I haven't asked them to tie a thousand bows or cut a million sheets of paper and fold...yet.  Oh, just you wait girls!

However, with boxes of jewelry from J.Crew, my almost finished sash and dress in hand, I was at a complete loss with my total look for the day. Which bracelet? Which pair of earrings? What direction should the sash go?  I had been staring at everything so long that I didn't feel like I could make a good decision anymore. I needed help...desperately!

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I decided to ask MOH Lace (you may have seen her around as a commenter named Best Friend Lace) and BM Lace-dini (her dad's a magician) over to my place to give me a hand. I decided early on that if I asked anyone to help me with wedding stuff, I would make sure they were fed. So, we began with this:

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Don't judge me. It's about 100 days to the wedding and I have NO qualms having me animal style cheeseburger.  I would've had my own fries if MOH Lace hadn't been watching out and asked to share.

After stuffing our faces, I slipped into my dress and put on the sash to see how it looked and if I needed to change things around.  If you've been following me, I said I wouldn't reveal my dress, but I changed my mind. :) What do you think?!

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Is that sauce on my face? :) Anyway, they adjusted the sash to the right, then to the left, then to the middle and then flipped it upside down. I'm holding it because we didn't want to wrinkle the satin just yet.

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Here's a close up of the sash. The fabrics ended up coming together pretty well.

We were also trying to choose between the necklace, bracelet and earrings which you probably can't see here. However, I did decide on a bracelet and earrings. I'm back on the search for a gold colored necklace that isn't too heavy or chunky looking. So, the night ended and I knew what I needed to return, what I needed to purchase and what I was ready to put away until the big day!

I haven't tried on my dress for several months and my dress feels a little tighter than when I first purchased it so I guess I should cut out the cheeseburgers and the dessert we decided to eat afterwards. :) Okay, I promise to eat healthier starting...NOW!

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Did your fabulous bridesmaids help you make decisions that you were having a hard time with?

Dressing the Mister Part 1

Looming on my to-do list was picking out tuxes for Mr. Lace and the groomsmen.  It seemed easy enough. I knew it wouldn't be as hard as picking out a wedding dress or bridesmaid dresses and both of those were completed awhile ago. So, how hard could this really be? I pestered Mr. Lace and we finally set aside some time one weekend to visit Men's Wearhouse and Friar Tux.

Around 5:30 p.m. one sunny afternoon, we headed out to Friar Tux. On the way there, we decided to call and make sure it was okay that we dropped in. Easy peasy, right? Yup, they were closed already.  We called Men's Wearhouse and luckily they were open until 9 p.m.

We walked into Men's Wearhouse and found a lot of commotion. A family of men were there buying suits and trying things on and they were super loud. No bother though. Someone quickly welcomed us and asked what we were looking for. When we mentioned that we were looking for tux rentals, he brought us back to a desk with a catalog and explained how the tux rentals worked. They'd be ready for pick up two days beforehand. They'd fix anything for us within that two days if something didn't fit correctly.  There was a fee for drycleaning and damages that'd be added onto your package. He let us look through the catalog in peace. After eliminating the white tuxes, zoot suits, pinstriped tuxes, one and three-button tuxes and any tuxedo that wasn't black, we had two choices.  I guess, I was right, the decision wasn't going to be terribly difficult if we only had two choices.  We looked at the laminated catalog page and positioned and repositioned it to try to ward off the glare of the overhead lights so we could get a good look at it.  We asked the salesperson who was helping us if we could see these since it was difficult to see off the catalog. Nope. They didn't have any of the tuxes in the store so you had to pick off the catalog. Now, I'm no salesperson, but doesn't it seem right that your customers should be able to at LEAST look at the tuxes before they commit? What if it looked completely different on?! Well, we got his card and left wondering if we'd have to just choose one of the two black two-button tuxes off those huge laminated pages.

We decided to visit Friar Tux the following weekend just to see what else was out there. Now, first off, I'm a bit put off by the name.  Why is it called Friar Tux? (Father Serra? That's a 4th grade teacher thing). Anyway, we knew tons of people who rented from them and were very happy.  So we went on our way. When we arrived, I saw this:

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...and was put off by the sign. We walked in anyway. We weren't initially greeted by anyone until we sat down with the catalog and started looking through it. Ten minutes passed before we approached and someone asked if we needed help. We told them we were looking for tuxes, yada, yada, yada and she told us to look through the catalog to see what we liked. 

Well, we didn't know much and they had huge laminated pictures with glare too.  On top of that, there were things like Super 100's, back vent, notched, winged...and we had no clue what all of it meant.  For the next twenty minutes, we looked through swatches and plastic cards and wrote down the styles that we liked. No one else approached us, no one offered to help and there weren't very many tuxedos on display so we left. It just made NO sense to me. We'd visited two shops. The first one had no displays for you to look at and the second one had no one to help or explain anything to you. I was super frustrated. Really, this is how tux rentals went? It was harder than I thought!

My smart Mr. Lace said, "maybe we should visit the Friar Tux in Costa Mesa. It's right by the OCPAC and it's in a nicer area." I was pretty sure they'd have the same stuff, but at this point, we had no other options so we made out way south to Costa Mesa.  First off, Friar Tux in Costa Mesa is located in South Coast Plaza. You'll need to check that out if you have never shopped in the OC before.

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Back to the story. So we walked into this Friar Tux:

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I already had a much better feeling walking in. We were greeted immediately by a salesperson who asked if he could be of service. We told him the schpiel.  He began by taking us on a tour of the showroom and pointing out the differences between tuxedos and basically what we'd have to make decisions on. He explained what Super 120's, vented, winged and all that jazz was. Plus, they had every tuxedo in the catalog on display so if you saw it in the catalog, you could walk up to the display and look and feel it. Oh! I knew there had to be something better out there!

In addition to that, as we were looking through the catalog, he asked if we'd be interested in registering. It was a no-obligation registration of our wedding party, but along with it, he could order three full tuxedos with vests, shirts, ties and shoes for Mr. Lace to try on so he could see how he LOOKED in them. Oh, I KNEW you existed! So, we quickly registered and Mr. Lace found three styles he liked.  The salesperson, as he listened to us debate over the colors of the vests and ties, offered to order us all of the options we were looking at so we could mix and match them.  He said he could have them in by the next business day if we'd like so Mr. Lace could try them on.  Yes, please sign us up for that!

So, we're going to go in a couple days and I'll post photos of that soon.

Here's what I learned about tuxedos:

1. Lapel:  

Width: Slimmer (modern) or wider (traditional)

Style: Plain, notched or winged lapel

Fabric: Nothing fancy, satin-y or framed

2. Fabric: There were three types of fabric for tuxedos at Friar Tux. The standard wool blend, then the Super 100's and then the Super 120's.  The higher the Super number, the lighter and more breathable the fabric and the higher the price.

3. Pants: Stripe or no stripe

4. Shirt: Winged or standard collar

5. Ties/Vests: You can mix and match any tie or vest so even though they're laid out in groups in the catalog, you CAN get a green vest and a black tie or an orange vest and pink tie or whatever your heart desires.

6. Shoes: The rental package will give you five options for shoes. An upgrade to a better looking shoe will cost you $10.  Just go look at the options. I think the $10 might be worth it.

7. Cost: Out of the packages we saw, the tux packages ranged from $130- $150 + tax. The damage waiver is included in the cost of the rental.

Good luck! Did you have any luck with tuxedo rentals or are you going a different route?

So You Think You're Smarter Than Your Fiance?

The Salvation Army has been doing me right lately. I stopped in and found 72 votives for 15 bucks! That's about 20 cents per votive. My wallet is happy since we were looking at almost a dollar apiece.

However, a few of these babies had used candles in them and I went back to a previous post about cleaning out votives and tried out all the suggested solutions. I tried, unsuccessfully to pop them out. I got a couple of smaller ones out by digging a knife into it and turning the blade, but it only worked for a few. I microwaved one for a few seconds, but that turned into a goopy mess. While I returned to my try-to-pop-it-out-with-a-knife method, Mr. Lace
came up with his own solution.

"Put them in the freezer," he said. "Huh?" I replied? In my mind, I thought it wouldn't work. I was pretty sure I could do it with a little more elbow grease. But, I reluctantly listened though since he's an engineer and his job is to solve problem AND my methods had been unsuccessful thus far..

After a few minutes, I went back into the freezer and pulled out my now, very cold, votives. They looked no different. However, when I stuck my knife into the candle and turned the blade, they popped right out.

"Woah! You were right!" I said to Mr. Lace (words that, I am sure, are music to his ears). Mr. Lace explained that the cold would make the candle condense and pull away from the glass, therefore making it easier to pop out. DUH. I was always pretty good at science, I don't know why I didn't think of it. I didn't document the process because, well, I didn't think this would turn into a tip for you all, but here are votives, shiny and new ...well, sort of.

Did your fiance figure something out that you couldn't find a solution to?

Then I Will Do it Myself Part 3

Have you been super close to finishing a wedding project and itching to cross that item off your to-do list? That's me, so I need your help girls. Awhile back, I blogged about how I was going to make my own sash here and here.  I have been working on it here and there and wanted to give the hive an update and get some feedback.

I quickly fell in love with the black sash (the dress ain't bad either!).

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If any of you have been following me, you know black has been a bit taboo, but I'm moving forward with this because I want it. :)

This is what I've come up with so far. I'm not set on them yet although I'd really like to finish it and check it off my to-do list!

Option A

Option B

I know it's difficult to tell without seeing my dress, but it's a strapless number.  Just based on the two photos which one do you like better? Thank you hive!