jessie desu!

here is the continuation of the exciting saga of the bridal shower/bachelorette party weekend. 

how very exciting, eh? 

i have to say, the weather has been extremely gracious for the entire weekend.  surprisingly, the temperature climbed to a comfortable mid-70s and sunny to everyone's delight.  it's definitely not like central-ohio weather to be so warm in april, but there ya go.  someone loves me. (i hope the weather for the day-of will be good as well).

continuing on!

so begins a recap of the bachelorette party.  after the bridal shower was over, we had about an hour to clean up and get ready for the party. 

first, we decorated the mini-van that i had rented for the night:


here are me and my colleagues in front of the decorated van







LOL. 

we did get some honks that night, but mostly we got attention by cat-calling out the window.



here we all are, all ready to go. 

the girls wore all black, while i wore red.  the theme colors of the night was black and red.

but if you remember, i was supposed to have the feather boas to go along with our outfits?



yeah those boas.  they were sitting pretty in a box, ALL forgotten by all of us!!!  so sadly, they were left behind.  SO SAD.  but it is alright.  we were a pretty impressive bachelorette party that night.  was very hawt.


we made our way to Trattoria Roma, a very pretty little restaurant near downtown




we all had penis straws and merriment was had by all.

to our surprise, our waiter was kind enough to have a custom-made dessert, on the house! 

DELISH!!!!!

i had fun destroying that thing, with the help of the other girls.  it was so creamy, so smooth, so satisfying!


i also got a lot of fun and sexy gifts that night. for example:

woohoo!!! lingerie!

a very graphic and naughty kama sutra!


a voodoo doll husband!!!  (i held up the penis straw on there to see if it matches in size....it DOES!!!)

did i mention that i have an AWESOME group of girlfriends???


after dinner, we headed to a bar in the nationwide district, then on to a gay-friendly club (read: gay club) called axis.  THE best place to shake your ass for all it's worth. 

let me tell you about the virtues of going to a gay club:
1. interior is well-decorated
2. the staff is hawt
3. there are no gross men trying to grope you or try to grind against you rudely without invitation
4. the men don't SMELL.
5. bachelorette parties are WELCOME. even the other bachelorette parties there are filled with open-minded people and will be friendly with other bachelorette parties (unlike some other clubs that i have witnessed).  i met another bach party at this particular club, and they were SO nice.
6. gay men are friendly and are there to have fun, and are mostly very positive people.
7. gay men are FABULOUS.  we had the pleasure of witnessing a tranny show and it was the best thing i've seen in a while.

aaaaand here are the pictures to prove it!


soo gets freakay with emily's shoes


me and MOH yeh-eun!  i <3 this girl.


the group pic!


me and mizue are livin' it up.


another group pic, on the dance stage.


the girls with THE girl in the middle.  her makeup was FLAWLESS. 


yeh-eun and denise show some PDA


me and work buddies!!!  i get to see these girls everyday.  i'm so happy i have them around.


HAWT maids.  these girls are seriously FAB. 




ohhhhh scandalous!!!


the last picture of the night.  at this point, we had sore feet, and were pretty pooped.  but i dunno, it looks like we could have gone for another round. 

it was a great night.  afterwards, the maids and i went back to my house and ate some leftovers from the shower.  we chatted for a long time then finally crashed. 

...

the morning after.

i woke up uber early (7am!!!!!) and couldn't go back to bed.  knowing that some of the maids had to leave that morning, i got up and made breakfast (cinnamon & vanilla pancakes and scrambled eggs)!  outta scratch!!  man i'm proud of myself.  but ya know, getting all those gifts for the "cooking mama" theme of the shower, one would think i would be inspired to cook more.  so i was inspired, and wanted to make sure the girls were all there for what i've been wanting to give them.


TADA!!!  the bridesmaid gifts!!! 

wheee!!!   earlier a few months back, i asked all the girls to tell me which t&co. necklace they liked (ok, within a certain budget of course).  they each picked one, and i ordered them through the t&co. website.  the neat thing about the website is that they will send you a printed card with a personalized message on them.  the t&co. retail stores don't do that.  also, the shipping was free, so it was GREAT!  the products were received in perfect condition, fresh and perfect.


denise likes her tiffany!


yeh-eun and soo <3 tiffany


here's a close-up of yeh-eun's necklace.  i love it!


soo and mizue left that morning, and denise and yeh-eun helped me clean up further, as well as making me the rehearsal bouquet.  it was absolutely lovely! 


srsly, best rehearsal bouquet ever.


FH came back that morning as well, and showed me what he did that weekend while he was gone; he went out and bought the wedding band!  woohoo!


it's the etoile platinum band by tiffany & co.  i had wanted this ring ever since i saw it the first time, which must have been about 10 years ago.  it turns out that the engagement ring (which was not from tiffany's) sits PERFECTLY with the etoile band, so i was very lucky.  future hubby has GREAT taste!  he originally picked the platinum setting for the engagement ring as well.


on the finger together.  my hands are really dry!


i love them together!

...


so the weekend was a massive success, and things went smoothly for the most part.  at times, it was a little stressful, but everywhere i turned, i saw yeh-eun there waiting for me, asking me if she could help. 

i'm so thankful that i have such a stellar group of bridesmaids.  we are all different and have very distinct flavors, yet we work so efficiently and harmoniously together.  i'm very lucky to have them in my life and hope to be of help to them all in the future, as much as i've depended on them. 

so to you guys, yeh-eun, soo, mizue, denise,  i love you more than words can express.  i hope we stay around for each other for a long long time.  ya hear??

this is jessie, finally done.

coming up: DIY programs, rsvp's and moar!

jessie sz:

got MOAR stuff to share on the blog. 

there's way too much stuff going on for the next couple of months for me.  i'm not sure whether i'll be happy or bored after all this has blown over.  ed thinks i'll be bored, but man, i think it would be nice to have TIME to do stuff i've been skimping on.  like cleaning, working out, and shopping for myself.  gah!

anyway, here are some stuff that i've been working on for the past week.

wedding favors!

there are SO many different things i could use to give away as favors.  i always thought i wanted to stick to a food item, so candy was an easy choice for me.  since ed and i are both osu alumni, i thought it would be very appropriate to give chocolate buckeyes from anthony-thomas candies, a columbus native company.  i worked with them to get a quote, and they were pretty reasonable (2 buckeyes per person at about 50 cents).  so buckcyes are GO!

as for the boxes, denise and i planned this way back before i moved to the new house.  denise gave me a heads-up about a sale at michael's for the martha stewart favor box kits.  i made a beeline to my nearest michael's and SCORE!!!!!!  got enough favor boxes for 216 people. 

then, the designer-extraordinaire denise (i highly recommend ALL brides to have one of them around. you're welcome) designed stickers to put on the favor boxes!  AHHH!!  i love it, they are personal, cute and whimsical. 

so i spent the last week assembling the boxes, and trimming them with red ribbon and denise's stickers.

take a look.

favor box #1

favor box #2

favor box #3

all together now!


these suckers actually took a while to finish, because of the ribbon trim.  i had to use my trusty Tombow permanent adhesive tape, then to make sure the ribbon doesn't get displaced, i traced a line of glue to lay down under the ribbon, so they are now permanently stuck to the paper. 

i know, no one really gives a damn.  i knew going into the wedding planning that the invitations that i spent 3 months of hard work on, are going to be looked at for 3 seconds then tossed into a corner.  the place cards that i ruined my wrist over are going to be tossed into the trash, the favor boxes i pored over are going to be crushed after its contents are emptied, then tossed carelessly onto the streets.  i know that.  but even so, i don't really give a shit that no one gives a shit.  i'm not really trying to impress anyone here, except to make everything live up to my standards.  and in the end, i suppose that is all that matters.


Another thing out of the way: THE HONEYMOON.

even up to a couple of months ago, we weren't going to have one because we wanted to save up more money.  well, we realized that we CAN pencil it in.  we still picked a cheap destination.  the good news for us is that with the weak economy, we saw falling prices for vacations.  bonus! 

our destination for the honeymoon is riviera maya.  we'll be staying at the grand palladium riviera royal, a massive all-inclusive resort which has a good mix of water sports and relaxation.  here's their website.

we get to stay in these little huts on the water that are complete with little kayaks. how cool is that?

i'm REALLY excited about their beach, which apparently is home to sea turtles that come to nest.  also, the snorkeling in nearby Akumal, i hear, is FANTASTIC so i'm very happy about that.  not to mention the all-inclusive food and drinks, which will be much enjoyed by both myself and my to-be-hubs.  i am already sorely in need of a getaway and the honeymoon cannot come soon enough.

also, this resort apparently has such a stellar base of fans that they got together and made a website just for the grand palladium resorts.  click HERE if interested.

we'll be leaving the monday after the wedding, and come back the following monday.  for the sake of my sanity, i took the following day (tuesday) off, so i won't have to go back to work until wednesday. 

god i SO need this vacation right now.

...

now, for the little details that no one really cares about except me:

ceremony music:  apparently, there are some musicians at church who are excellent and renowned in korea for cello and piano.  so, i get to have a free celloist and a pianist.  yay.  it DOES pay to have parents who go to church!

guestbook:  i'm going to use blurb.com to make a personal photo guestbook full of pictures from our engagement session. 

the ring "pillow":  there are a LOT of pretty ring pillows on etsy.  seriously, there are a LOT of totally decadent and made with delicious silk and satin choices.  and best of all, they're handmade.  i wanted to get one of those yummy little pillows for our rings.  however, i kept hearing about these beautiful ceramic ring bowls.  you can put a custom text on there, and after the wedding, use it as a ring dish (ya know, cuz inevitably, ed's going to take off his ring and casually toss it somewhere and then claim that he lost it.  i can TOTALLY see it happening.  a LOT.).  this seems like a more long-term usable option.  cuz what am i gonna do with a pretty but small and useless pillow after the wedding?  i'd probably end up throwing it out in one of my yearly toss-out-all-the-useless-crap grand cleanings.  so a ringbowl, it is.  the text that i will have written on it:  "let us grow old together  -  we'll take care of each other  - 5.30.09"  cute, eh?

wedding cake:  it's going to be chocolate cake, with buttercream filling.  apparently, my cater isn't very creative with cakes so i don't really have very many choices.  ah well, it's ok, cuz people will appreciate the cream puff with fresh cream and fruit SO much more as the dessert.  nyahahaha.

here is what my cake is going to look like:



the ribbon will be dark brown, in lieu of black.


next on the to-do list:  get a wedding certificate and change names. 

jesshie says:

The bridal shower planning is getting more and more solid. 

The color theme for the bridal shower will be PINK and BROWN.  The theme, of course, is Cooking Mama!

In the past couple of weeks we've been working pretty hard to plan the shower/bach party, and I think we've been pretty successful.  Since we needed to make favors for our guests and prizes for the bridal shower games, I went on a craft shopping binge this weekend. 

Thankfully, Joann's had a coupon event going on, so I got a lot of stuff! 

Yeh-Eun had gotten some shower game prizes and I wanted to get some fillers for the favor bag that every guest will be leaving with.  Here are my findings:

Ruffled brown half-apron with an embroidered cupcake and a set of matching brown potholders.  These are SO cute!!!

2 ceramic ice cream bowls, milkshake-shaped hand towels, a rollcake-shaped hand towel set with a cherry on top, and a recipe card set (with cupcakes) with a pen.  The hand towel sets are ADORABLE!  They look delicious!

Some brown and pink ribbons for decoration, and small glass jars (2 inches tall, about 2 oz. each) to be filled with bath teas.  These are a perfect size!!!  And it was even sweeter that I got to use the coupons.

To be bought; bags to hold the favors for all the guests, like these:

I am planning to make chocolate-covered strawberries and put them in small boxes for the guests to take home as well, so I need to buy suitable favor boxes for them. 

Also, these are a GREAT idea for favors, and fit with the theme:

How cute are those??

For the bachelorette party, we are switching gears and switching the color scheme to RED and BLACK, my FAVORITE color combination. 

I was surprised to find that Joann's had a lot of stuff for bachelorette parties too.  I saw some "Bride" sashes and bach party veils, and party light rings (the kind that blinks like crazy) and some general fun stuff to use.  There are a lot of options!

I will order the RED feather boas for the girls!!!  It's going to be GREAT!

Now, I've been doing a lot of DIY for this wedding....probably too much.  Besides the invitations, the other big DIY items are the placecards, where I will put each guest's name so they can set them down at their seat. 

Well, from the beginning, I knew I wanted to use some origami flowers so I thought I could use them for the placecards.  What a pain, since I would have to make one for EACH guest, meaning I would have to make 175+ of these suckers. 

I need to say a BIG thank-you to Denise, who helped me out so much by folding some of these flowers. 

I bought some Japanese washi paper and some very pretty textured red fabric-like paper to fold the flowers.  Then today, I got some items to help me complete this project: 

1. Styrofoam board

2. Floral wires

3. Sheets of dried moss

4. 1/2" wide satin brown ribbon

5. Jewelry beads (I thought about getting Swarovski crystal beads for these.....but NOPE, too expensive!)

6. Exacto knife, hot glue gun, styrofoam adhesive

..et voila, here is my first prototype!

I still have some beautiful stardream cardstock left over from the remnants of the invitation suites, so I will use those as the actual placards.  I'm planning to get some label stickers and print out the guest names and stick them on the placards. 

This is all crazy, I know.  But I dreamed this up, so I gotta follow it through.  Watch me go absolutely batsh*t insane within the next month. 

<3

I'm well on my way to completing the bridal emsemble.

I've been searching for the perfect jewelry to go with my dress and the overall look of the wedding.  I thought about splurging (Hey, I'm allowed to dream too!) with a beautiful and simple strand of very high quality pearls a la Mikimoto.  Mikimoto does their pearls well.  My mom's 15+ year old strand of Mikimotos still retain their creamy and rosy lustre...you kinda get lost looking at the multi-layered depth and color.  It's so beautiful.  So I thought if I got one too, it would last me a looong time, and it would heighten the look of the dress.  BUT, since the cost of a good pearl strand costs about as much as a honeymoon, I think I should put that thought aside for now.  (Unless someone buys it for me.  :D)

So now I looked into bridal websites, to see if they can offer me more choices (albeit lesser quality, but I wasn't gonna complain if the price was right.)  I found some beautiful choices at Perfect Details.  I really LOVE the style of the popular and fabulous Haute Bride whose prices run pretty steep (300+ for a necklace last I checked!!!!). 

So I used my head and the advice of other resourceful to-be brides and turned to one my favorite shopping sites, etsy, the haven for independent artisans.  They have such a demand for wedding-related items, they even have a separate section for wedding stuff.  Etsy is full of very talented artisans many of whom have become so successful that they can actually make their living from selling on etsy.  For example, check out one of the sellers I heart, myrakim.  I searched and searched, hearted many items and many sellers.  After a few months of off-and-on search for the perfect jewelry, I found Lindy.  She is so awesome.  Check out my bracelet and necklace.  I received them yesterday, and they are even better than the pictures.  I was THRILLED when i unwrapped my package.  I love the fact that she uses vintage jewelry and turns them into something more beautiful and au courant.  The total cost for both those pieces: $114. 

On a related note, I also found my head accessory on etsy. Check it out here!   I haven't received it yet, but I can't wait. 

You know, if I got preggers now, I could probably have the baby come just in time.  Think of the possibilities!  Breaking water at the ceremony?  Delivery at the reception?  An emergency C-section with the cake knife?  We could have an umbilical cord toss instead of the garter toss!  Oh what fun we'd have!

Anyway, I digress.

Things are going much smoother now.  I thought about flowers and asked people on theknot.com and it seemed that I have a LOT of options.  I was originally thinking of going the DIY route .  I mean, making bouquets and centerpieces are fairly simple, from the videos I've seen.  Here's an example.  

I probably could gave gotten a very lovely assortment of beautiful roses for less than $600, and a few hours of my time. 

Here's where the problem comes in: putting in the time.  I'm lazy.  I'm sure I'll have a thousand other things to worry about, so making my own flowers is probably one thing I don't need to worry about. 

So knowing that there are other viable options that will accommodate my budget (around $1000), I looked around.  Lo and behold, I found this place.  Check out my personal quote for flowers here. 

Now, I know what you're thinking.  "Roses for Weddings?  Quite the original name, innit?"  with a smirk on your face.  At least, that's what I thought.  However, they've been impressive thus far.  Check out the pictures of the actual weddings they've done.  Impressive.  Moreover, they are CHEAP.  Yep.  I could have my roses, and peonies and anemones too.  Oh my!

Of course, roses being their specialty, they will be the main flower of the event.  But ya know, I don't really care.  I think with roses, you really can't go wrong.  Unless you buy the kind from Wal-Mart.  And trust me, I've seen those. 

An aside to muki:  I am really hoping that peonies will be available at that time.  I was in NYC a couple years back in mid-May, and the Botanical Garden in Bronx had a peony garden that were just FULL of beautiful, large, puffy peonies.  As big as your face!  It was crazy!  As for the lights inside the paper lantern flower holder things for the centerpieces, I have a fun way to solve that: LEDs!!!  Not only will they light up my beautiful lanterns without emitting much heat, they have a MYRIAD other uses.  Like, making a Nite-Brite board out of ANY surface.  It's CRAZY!

...

Other news:


ICYMI, you can check out the entire engagement session picture set HERE.


Coming soon: Pictures of The Dress!  With me in it!