my second dress , the qipao

as a chinese american bride, i'm confronted with the whole two and maybe three dress bride scenario, as it is customary for the bride to have multiple wardrobe changes throughout the reception...i'm not 100% sure why we do this, but my money is on the whole flaunting what wealth you have thing... in some traditions, the amount of gold jewelery will be announced and displayed as well (i'll get into this other animal another day)...but what does this mean for me? we'll as the self proclaimed fashionable one, i'm totally embracing this multiple dress thing... first thing first, the traditional chinese bridal attire, the qipao or in my broken cantonese the "kay po"...exhibit A if you will...

(image via chinabridal.com)

mandarin collar, fitted column bodice, slits on both sides and frog button at the throat and along one side of the bust...she's a beauty ladies...since the dress is normally ultra fitted, my mom and i have decided to go with the custom made route, so we headed to madam designs on mott street to check out the oldest qipao maker in chinatown...classically speaking the red dress will have a dragon and phoenix motif going on...usually one of each mythical animal claiming the front of the dress like the photo above.. very intricate not to mention a whole lotta man hours to make that sucker...but honestly it wasn't very ME exactly so i decided to go with something a bit more subtle...

the dragon and phoenixes are woven within the fabric to get this shadowy effect throughout which i LOVE...C thought it would sharper if the motifs were done in silver or gold thread, but tough noogies hun, i love this one too much to compromise...i don't have a photo of my in this guy because well, lets face it, i'm not a size 0 and couldn't really fit into the store samples to get a good idea of what it would look like on me.. so i'm totally buying this dress sight unseen, and totally at the mercy of my own imagination...gold piping, red fabric with gold and red froggie buttons...yea, it's gonna be smashing!....or so i hope... how much did she cost me? a whopping $400 bucks...not too bad considering the whole thing is custom made, hand detailed and 100% silk and will fit me like a glove!

while we are on subject... momma tse decided to try on a kay po too as she was considering on having one made for her... yes chinese mothers often times change wardrobes too...we're all a slave to fashion what can i say? even if its hundreds of years old fashion. ha!

look its mom in a very sexy lacy number...it honest to god looked great on her... (please ignore her white socks and heels embarassment, it's a one off i promise...) not surprisingly mom was sold, and picked out a very nice lacy kay po style mandarin collar with a key hole in the front... in this fabric
mom's gonna look fabulous!

what sorts of cultural traditions will you be embracing on your big day?

Sexy Bridesmaids

after chris and i decided that the gifts to our bridal attendants would be their day of attire...i gave up on the dream of having each girl pick their own style, as this would've been too complicated especially since they live all over the place...with that in mind, i knew i had to find a dress that was flattering to all. if you read my previous dress posts, you will know that the original dress i had in mind was GOD AWFUL and the color was even GOD AWFUL-ER, so we set out with a new dress and color in mind, the bari jay 505 dress in sapphire...bridesmaid M tried it on in color moss and it looked SMASHING! so no doubt in my head that the sapphire would look even AWESOMER!
check it out...

sexy aint she? - side view

front view

back view

my goal was to find something flattering and sassy and preferably in a mermaid shape... i think i accomplished that, what do you think? i can't wait till Nov!!

even better was, i was able to negotiate the dress down to something within my budget even though the price tag was above it, go to here comes the bridesmaid and tell em i sent you, eva has been a doll to work with thus far...although i think the price on the website might be even better if you don't need to work with anyone :)

How many types of pocketfolds are there?!??!!?

now that the favor situation has been settled, i find myself hemming and hawing over the invitations...and i keep coming back to the same thing, a pocketfold invitation. after much research, in order to create or get the fabulous paper confection i have in my head, it will either cost me a whole lotta money that i will no way in the world be able to afford, or i DIY it...i'm a self proclaimed DIY dummy, but in the name of wedding stationary perfection, i will brave these waters again (i mean i did manage the engagment invitations unscathed, the wedding invites might not be so bad)

but what many may or may not realize is that, there are a lot of different kinds of pocketfolds out there...so which one do i want to go with?

lets look at the options first shall we?

the ever popular gate fold:

usually i think of these babies when i think of pocketfolds, a flap will overlap the folder thus totally enclosing the whole invitation in, sealed off with a bellyband/ribbon, LOVE IT

then we have the single fold, which is what i like to think of as the slightly less elaborate step sibling to the gate fold:
honestly i kinda like this one, it's not as "formal" as the gate fold and should be easier to assemble and manipulate for the DIY-ers, plainly put it is a folder that folds closed with one fold...

next is the bloom fold:

this is pretty self explanatory, four flaps come closed together (think closing off a cardboard box by folding the flaps into each other) to form what should look like a bloom (to me it looks more like a pinwheel actually...), this is kinda what i would like to think of as the creative cousin to the traditional gate fold...artsy fun and probably more complicated than i'd like to ponder for someone of my DIY dumminess can handle.

and lastly i'd like to show you the jacket:

(source for all pocketfold images: mygatsby.com)

very simply, an open top envelope that will hold all that your invitation is...the more i think of this, the more i like it...to me this would probably be an easier DIY project than attempting any of the three i've mentioned above...but like many brides that covet pocketfold invitations, i'm still slightly more partial to the gate fold or the single fold...

i have a pretty good idea which one i will go with, but stay tuned to find out where this invitation odyssey will take me...in the meanwhile, which pocketfold do YOU covet?

The Great Favor Debate

Long before C and I got engaged we would always jokingly discuss our "future" wedding details every time we would be a guest at someone else's wedding and the one thing that always came up was the favor situation. I've always thought the more practical the better, therefore food favors always appealed to me...C liked them too especially the weddings we go to that had chocolate truffle favors because of course he's a chocoholic...

As we now plan our own wedding C very eagerly appointed himself favor duty and the one idea he keeps coming back to is a ::drum roll:: .... SPORK, yes you read that correctly, he wants to give away sporks as the wedding favor. At first thought he was joking and he was just making jest of the situation and in my own opinion very nicely suggested he go back to the food favor idea, namely chocolate truffles, but as the weeks go by, and he keeps coming back to it and thats when i started thinking, "dear god he's serious!"... so serious that today he even presented a petition to me when i vetoed him last night...take a gander please:

(he's real serious about this...)

this obviously means a lot to C, SO much that he went through the trouble to justify and prove that he's got a good idea, after some thought (i mean it's his wedding too right?) a spork does sorta suit us in a weird way...it's nerdy which is totally C, and its the melding of two objects creating one harmonious object, which is in many ways just like a real marriage, a marriage between a spoon and fork makes a spork! right? the idea's growing on me

so what do i do now? look for a favor place that will let me order oh lets say 250 stainless steel sporks...after a quick google search this is what i have:

(bamboo spork from cooking.com)

(stainless steel spork from ebay)

as a favor i think the ebay one is probably the best bet...as of now that is the front runner until i can find a better one...please stay tuned for the hunt of the perfect SPORK!!!

Epic Romance inspired by Slumdog

so i finally got around to seeing slumdog millionaire this past friday (yea yea i'm behind, i know, so sue me), and liked it a lot, but that was expected of since it's gotten such great reviews and even won a little award named "oscar". what did surprise me was after the film, C turns to me and says " i wished we had a love story like that" ..this is kind of how the exchange went:

C: i wished we had a love story like that
Me: what do you mean? do you want to be broke? and chase me across a country without knowing my full name?
C: yea!
Me: ok babe, let me go get myself kidnapped...

not that i'm trying to make light of the content of the movie, it just surprised me that C would have a thought like that, of how he wished WE had an epic romance...

i read enough romance stories and am firmly in the " i love a knight in shining armor" resuces "damsel in distress" thing, but it did get me to think...just because my "romance story" doesn't have all the high speed chases and the rescuing thing, does it make it any less epic? i'd like to think not...it's just not epic to others probably, but in the terms of my little world...it is just as awesome a love story as everyone elses...we've weathered death, happiness, distance, anger, hate, frustration, sadness and most of all profound love and respect...we've come a long way and grew a lot together to be where we are today, and i can't be happier i'm marrying him.

so ladies out there, remember why you love your man, and that your love story is just as epic as romeo and juliet, or dare i say edward and bella, period :)

Crate and Barrel

Crate and Barrel's wedding registry event went really well! (it was also my first ever foray into registering). the store was open only to those who were participating for the event so it felt very, how shall we say "exclusive"? we were greeted at the door by two employees who told us to proceed to check our coats and to help ourselves to some breakfast:

fruits, muffins and cake

mimosa!

then we were handed registry guns and proceeded to zap things! awesome!!

Chris scanning our cupcake set

what was also really informative/helpful about this event is that there are demos stationed around the store to help you decide what you should register for, this was extremely helpful with our knives selection:

here's the knife demo guy demonstrating the shun knife (what we ended up registering for) and explained that this knife was designed with right handed users in mind, so it is particularly comfortable... i couldn't agree more! they are also hand forged steel(durability) and aluminum (lightness)

here is chris testing out the wusthof knife, which is weighted(steel) and balanced also a really good knife (i think this what most people register for?) but they were a bit heavy for me when i tested them so we went with the other :)

the good thing about both these knives are that the WHOLE knife is in tact, so that it eliminates the handle coming loose factor which is dangerous for knives and they are built to last (alton brown from food network also said this, i'm a fan!), only needing to be sharpened twice for the rest of our lives (or so we've been told)...and if they don't happen to last that long, the manufacturers will replace them for us free of charge...both sets have been around for many many years, hundreds in fact, so they're time tested...

we spent the next hour or so visiting other demonstration sites and scanning other objects for which we will furnish our married home with. We finish up and return our registry gun, print out our list and head back to coat check for our things. Upon leaving though, we were also handed a gift at the coat check:

heart shaped candy(?) dish, how cute! we're told that the gift actually changes from week to week

after the wedding we'll be given a coupon to purchase the balance of our unpurchased registry at 10% off

all in all this was a very positive experience for us, albeit tiring! we give crate and barrel a thumbs up for throwing this event for engaged couples, it's really helpful and informative, so if you have a crate and barrel near you, i'd highly recommend you to pop in on one of their registry events.