$411.50 Bridal Look

Here are the things that went into my awesome prewedding photoshoot. All the little details really paid off.

First, I bought this dress off of ebay for $200 (with $25 shipping). I looked for a dress that was my size (bust, waist, hip, and even height) so I wouldn't have to tailor it.

It is made of tulle and very ginormous.

I knew I wanted something really big and poofy because Phil would never let me wear anything that big on our wedding day. He said that he wanted to be able to hold me close to him and not at arm's length! The girl I bought the dress from said she had originally bought it for $2,000! It was preserved in a box and even came with her veil and crinoline (which I dyed purple).

I also bought this white wedding shrug/stole a few months ago. I forgot which ebay seller and how much it was, but I'm pretty sure it was around $25. It's so pretty, and I will definitely use this many times over!

The mannequin pictured was bought from ebay seller talk2sean for $84 with free shipping.

I love it and it will look nice for pictures on the day of the wedding. Measurements of the mannequin were Bust 34", Waist 24", Hip 34". It didn't fit my ebay dress that I wore for the shoot, but it fit my white looking QiPao dress (below) and my actual wedding dress (which I also got on ebay).

The white QiPao looking dress was another ebay steal that I bought for $25 with $12.43 in shipping. I had wanted to wear it for our photoshoot, but we didn't have enough time. Maybe I'll wear it for the rehearsal dinner? Too bad we aren't having a tea ceremony. I would have totally worn it for that. Anybody interested in buying it after September? Can you believe that this is a Jessica McClintock dress?

This dress fit me perfectly and does not have to be altered at all! I am so lucky. Actually, my method is to look for only my size so that I don't have to pay for alterations.

Here is a flower I bought from Forever21. It's so cute and was cheap at $8!

I bought a simple birdcage veil from Etsy seller PishPoshes for $23 with $5.50 shipping. I had originally wanted to wear it with the QiPao for the photoshoot, but we didn't have time for a dress change so I just wore it with my big poofy dress.

Another veil I bought was a simple, long cathedral one from Target, on clearance for $10! I didn't mind trashing it (but it's still pretty clean). I had a $10 gift card so I actually didn't pay a thing for it, score! I'll probably wear it again for some more outside pictures after the wedding.

Finally, the last thing I bought in preparation was the Tobi steamer for $80 from Costco.

I was wanting to buy a steamer forever because I suck at ironing. The only steamer I had heard really good things about was the Jiffy, but it was pricey at close to $200. The only reason I bought the Tobi was because it was at Costco and I figured, if it sucks, then I can always return it. Well, I love it and it was a good buy. It steamed my wedding dress and Phil's suit nicely. Now, I kinda want the Jiffy travel steamer ($69 plus shipping).

The jewelry I wore came from two places: The San Jose Flea Market and a cheap jewlery store I found in Dallas, TX. My shoes came from DSW, which were on clearance. I forgot how much they were because my mom bought them for me, but they were most likely less than $50. I will write these up in my next post.

So, for a budget beautiful bridal look, it can be done!
Dress: $225
Crinoline dye: $5 (I think? I forget)
Shrug: $25
Veil: $10 (or free with my gift card)
Birdcage Veil: $28.50
Flower clip: $8
Shoes: guestimating $50
Jewelry: guestimating $20
Makeup/Hair: $40 done by friend
Total cost: $411.50!

I did not include the QiPao or Mannequin since it was not used in the photoshoot. Nor did I include the steamer because I will use it FOREVER.

I can't wait to show you pictures! We'll all just have to wait on my dear photographer to give us some sneak peaks =)

How much did your bridal look cost?

PreWedding/Bridal Photoshoot

I am so excited to finally be able to share our prewedding/bridal photoshoot with our awesome wedding photographer Junshien. I seriously *heart* his work. He never disappoints me.

We started off in this old barn looking thing in Merced, CA.

Then we headed over to highway 140 where all the almond trees were... yes, that is the way to Yosemite.

My flowers came from the florist at Raley's supermarket!

I bought that pinwheel at Dollar Tree on a whim.

My $10 Target veil and Forever 21 Flower Clip!

This is one of our favorite pictures!

Those are all the pictures we have for now. I asked him to pick out a few pictures for us to use for our invites. We made MOO cards with these pictures and had one side printed with our wedding website info with login and password.

Did anyone else take Pre-wedding or Bridal Pictures?

Rural Photoshoot Backdrops

We did a rural photoshoot a while back since I, well, live in the country. Here are some areas I've scouted for the photoshoot.

These are some sort of train frames off the freeway. Don't they look awesome?

Unfortunately, they moved the trains the day before our photoshoot. How very unlucky for me as they were sitting there for the past 4 months.

This looks like an abandoned barn of some sort. I pass it everyday on my way to work.

Here are some orchards. I think they are almond trees.

Huge empty fields.

Abandoned, sorta creepy looking house.

You can see glimpses of the photo shoot in our Save The Date video.

Has anyone else done a country photoshoot? Or seen a really cool one? I love seeing inspirations!

Our Save The Date Video!

I can finally show our Save The Date to you guys since we sent it out to everyone. Fiance and I decided to do something fun. We made a video for our Save The Date. It was fun... and free! And plus, we got to showcase our goofiness.

Jeanny And Phil from GreyKind on Vimeo.

Here are the details for you nosy people.

Engagement photographers: Memoire Studio
Engagement videographer: Jhermaine
Engagement site: Theater District in San Jose, CA
Prewedding photographer: Junshien
Prewedding videographer: Nate
Prewedding site: Merced, CA
Other videographer: My Dad
Other site: Fiance's apartment
Santa Cruz videographer: The Fiance
Video editing: My incredible Fiance
Song: 1, 2, 3, 4 by Plain White T's

Hope you enjoyed it!

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.