Producing the Invites

I couldn't believe people have actually seen Indonesian invites! Yay for beautiful hard-cover invites!

Since we have not sent out all the invites yet... I'll show you a sneak peak. After Leslie finished our invitation design, I sent them to Maple Cards, our invitation producer in Indonesia... via email. With the help of my mom in Indonesia to visualize the actual invitation (to make sure it wasn't fugly) and massive emails among the three of us... we came up with some graphic design for the cover. Everything was based off of Leslie's work.

The purple envelope will hold our hard-covered invitations. Isn't it so pretty? *tear*

This was the first prototype of the cover he sent me. Which looked just unbalanced to me. He meant to put the "A Wedding...Boardwalk" in the exact same place as the envelope, but it looked just wrong.

So, I asked him to make it a little more centered. Hmm.... still not right. Am I missing something?

Then, he added graphics to the sides. I'm not sure if it was his idea, my mom's, or based off of my friend's invite (she had scroll graphics with hearts instead of hibiscus flowers); but it was beautiful and I loved it!

I still thought it was missing something so I asked him if he can add "A Wedding...Boardwalk" to the scroll/flower graphics.

He did this one where it was placed closer to the top.

For some odd reason, my mom thought it would look best all the way to the left and higher up.
I quickly vetoed this idea.

I then suggested moving "A Wedding... Boardwalk" to line up with my name. I was finally starting to like it!

But then I reviewed the original designs and what-wait a minute! What happened to the hibiscus flower behind "A Wedding... Boardwalk"? So I asked him to put it back in.

And this was our final agreement. 1) Scroll-y flower graphics on the side; 2) "A Wedding...Boardwalk" with the Hibiscus flower behind it and 3) lined up with my name.

Just deciding this design probably took us 2 weeks. I lost count of the days. We were 14 hours apart, people! One email response takes a whole day since the other side of the world is sleeping when we write our email.

How long did it take you to design your invitations?

FYI: These invites may look expensive, but they were actually very affordable =P Yay for having Indonesian connections.

Invitation Inspirations

Most of the weddings I've been to are from the Indonesian people I know from church. And let me tell you, these people have some of the fanciest invitations. Ever. Could you blame me for wanting pretty invitations to rival?

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I won't post any of my friends' invitations for privacy's sake, but I will tell you they all look similar to these beautiful hard-covered invites:

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Check out these from Vinas Invitation:

This guy created the design for his sister and had it made in Indonesia to save $$$.

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I absolutely adore this beach invitation.

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Luckily for me, my mom decided to go to Indonesia in Feb 2009 and stay there for a couple months, which gave me enough time to put in an order for some custom made invites. We went with Maple Card, who were amazing to work with. They are producing them as I write!

What is the fanciest Wedding Invitation that you've seen? Have you kept them?

Monograms Galore

I found Leslie of Slieberry Designs on the weddingbee boards. I sent her an email, hoping not to sound too desperate, and asked if she could help design our invites. Luckily, she said yes! She did an absolutely beautiful job and was so awesome to work with. She made all the changes I asked her to make, no questions ask. She took our suggestions and gave us beautiful productions. Before I show you our invites, here are the monograms she created for me. She made 3 different ones! How awesome is she?

If anyone is interested in her work, you can email her at slieberry@gmail.com or send me a message and I can introduce you to her.

Project Purple Crinnies

After dyeing my crinoline blue in the bathtub, I had advised everyone to do it in their washer. So this last time, I went to my apartment's laundry room to do just that. Unfortunately, the public washer sucks because the hot water was cold. And my crinoline was so huge that it didn't even properly soak the whole thing. I ended up dying my crinoline in the bathtub, AGAIN.

Like before, I soaked my crinoline in the hot bathtub water for about 5 minutes. Then I added Purple Rit dye, this time in the liquid form (last time was Evening Blue in the powder).

Here is my crinoline soaking in the dye after 5 minutes!

I let it soak in there for about 40 minutes. I would scrunch, turn half the crinoline around, and let it soak every 10 minutes or so. This helped ensure that every single part got dye for a good amount of time. Here it is after 40 minutes.

Then I rinsed it in a tub of cold water 3 times, letting it sit for 10 minutes each time.

I hung it up to dry in my bathtub overnight. Look how pretty it is today!

And BAM! Nice and dark purple, just how I wanted it.

I can't wait to wear it! I'm not sure what I would do with these crinnies after the wedding. Anyone interested in buying them?

Note: The only reason I can think of to dye your crinoline in the bathtub instead of the washer (besides being desperate, like I was) is to ensure the color outcome. For example, if I had wanted a very light purple, I think 10 minutes of dye soaking would have been enough. To make sure the color was nice and dark, I added 10 minutes to the recommended 30 minutes. Also note that again, I did not add detergent or salt.

Does anyone else have any crinoline dyeing tips?

Crinoline Blues

I am such a bridal whore. Since I started to plan my wedding, I have begun to slowly collect crinolines. And now I'm up to three. What am I going to do with all these? Well, dye them of course! I finally got off my lazy butt to do a DIY project I should have done a long time ago.

I had gone to my apartment's laundry room after work, only to find out that I must use a card for the machines. Since the office was closed already, I had to turn back home. I was frustrated and wanted to do something. I decided to just do it in my bathtub.

So I filled the bathtub with super hot water, with the knob turned all the way to the right (or left for the rest of you peoples, my shower is backwards).

Then I threw in the crinoline and let it soak for about 5 minutes.

I had boiled some hot water earlier and had poured it into 2 empty water bottles (caution: it is HOT! don't burn your fingers doing this. I placed mine on the sink and poured it carefully into the bottles).

Then, I added to each bottle, a RIT powder in the color Evening Blue.

I shook the bottle a little bit for mixing and poured into different areas of the bathtub (NOT directly onto the fabric!).

With rubber gloves on, I began to swirl the crinny around to help mix the water. I made sure most of it was underwater.

Here was my technique. 1) I would scrunch, swirl, and swish with my rubbered hands for 3 minutes and then let it sit for 3 minutes. 2) Then I would rotate or turn the crinny around 1/4 so that different parts of the crinny would spend time being under water. 3) Then I would repeat 1 and 2 for the next 40 minutes. My knees hurt and my back hurt from doing this. I don't know if I recommend this technique to anyone unless you are desperate. My advice: use the washing machine! Also note that I didn't use any salt or detergent because I was lazy. Good thing it turned out okay!

After 40 minutes, I let all the water drain. Then I added cold water and swished, swirled, and soaked the crinny for another 5-10 minutes. I repeated this process.

Finally, I hung it up to dry overnight. And today, it is so beautiful!

I cannot wait to wear this under my wedding gown!

Here it is next to a pure white crinoline.

My next project is to dye it purple... this time, in the washing machine.

Now... to clean this bathtub. Gah! I realized I didn't have any bleach =( I also realized I didn't have a scrubbing brush. So, I jumped in there, armed with an old toothbrush and shampoo. Nope, didn't work. And I got a battle scar from trying to stand up with the bathtub faucet right on my back... OUCH. Dejected, I ended up just filling the bathtub with hot water and pouring in a whole bunch of dial soap. I let it sit overnight like that. It was a little bit better, but I still must go out and buy some bleach. Blah.

Today's Lesson: Ladies, use the washing machine to dye your crinnies, NOT your bathtub. Unless you are truly desperate, have bleach, and a scrubber. In that case, it is totally worth it. Just don't hit the bathtub faucet with your back.

Did anyone else dye their crinoline?

The Coolest Ringbearer

... would be yourself, of course!

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Peonies and Polaroids came up with the unique idea of being each other's ring bearers. Below, she explained the idea behind it:
"On the other wrist I will be wearing The Boy's wedding ring. Weird, I know but we like the idea of each looking after the other's ring until the ceremony (I've never understood how or why on earth the best man came to be in possession of the wedding rings. It just doesn't make sense. Or why they were entrusted to a four year old, or a dog for that matter.) As there aren't any pockets on my dress (oh how I wish there were) trying it around my wrist seemed like the best idea. I will get someone to tie it on just before the ceremony so there isn't time for the knot to come undone and for me to lose it, then when we get to the rings bit The Boy will help me to untie it and hey presto, we have the ring."
How awesome is this idea? I don't know if we will incorporate this or not into our wedding, but I wouldn't object to it. Except that I would be completely paranoid about having the ring drop somewhere and getting lost. Especially if they were separated and two different people were looking after their safety. The chances of one getting lost seems to exponentially rise.

Has anyone else done this? I would love to see pictures.

Who (or what) was your Ring Bearer?

The Ideal Way To Sit

Why is my guestlist so huuuuuge? This makes seating charts a pain in the butt. If I had it my way, I would have made a seating chart like the Flirty Bride. Instead of a Head Table or a Sweetheart Table, they took 7 minutes to eat at each table with their guests. They just carried their plates as they table-hopped. Those pink spots on the seating chart below are the 2 empty seats that were saved for them. How cool is that? Of course, this would only work with small weddings... unless you had 6 hours to kill.

I'm not that big into sitting at a Sweetheart Table. I'd rather be surrounded by my family and friends. Sundance and I would have plenty of time to be alone later on after the wedding. I'm not that big into sitting at Head Tables either. It just seems weird to me to be sitting at a rectangular table with just one person on each side of me while you stare at the rest of the people in your wedding. To me, the ideal place to sit would be at a round table with Sundance and our Wedding Party (who happens to be our immediate family) and/or our parents.

Here's a picture of our Venue layout that I took during a Bridal Expo:

Everything you see, is OURS! The lobby will hold our guest book and a secret surprise. Our ceremony will be held in the Bay View and our Reception will be held in the Ballroom. The Bay View Lounge is where our bar will be.

I made a seating chart from Wedding Wire that didn't make a lot of sense because I didn't even remember the layout of the room. I should've waited until I went to meet the event coordinator at my venue and had her go over everything. Making a seating chart for 250-300 people is painful. The event coordinator was surprised that I wanted to do arranged seating, especially with a Buffet Meal. She suggested we just reserve tables for family and bridal parties. What do you think I should do?

How did you arrange your seating chart? Any advice for someone with a ginormous guestlist?

Starfishes and Bouts

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Since our wedding is beach-themed, I have been looking around for Starfish inspirations. I stumbled upon Starfish boutonnieres! Do I see a DIY project in the near future? Well, yes, yes I do. Here are my inspirations:

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I may even do a Starfish Garter for fun.

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Anyone else have some cool Starfish or Beach inspirations?