THE Ring

Talking about the wedding band, I always always wanted a simple white gold wedding band, plain, simple, no diamond no nothing... But as usual the Mr prefers something more feminine for me, with a little bit of diamonds which shows the bling but is versatile for daily wears.

Thanks to my bad habits of buying any bridal magazine off the markets, I spotted one rose gold ring in one of the Chinese bridal magazine that at one points I thought it's a waste of my money.

I showed it to the Mr and surprisingly that he likes it as well. The rose gold is a little more pinkish then the traditional yellow gold and is more muted. (We are thankful that our parents did not step in and ask us to get a yellow gold wedding rings at any point.) I actually preferred the first ring without any diamond and it is more classic and simple as I want in the first place.

We are almost convinced to bring this picture to the shops and ask them to custom made this for us if we cannot find the similar rings around town. But one day when we casually walked into a goldsmith's, we saw this:-

Of course this is not the exact ring but a random image that I got from the net to represent the ring that we saw. It is almost a love at first sight and the price is within our budget as well. Trying to stop the spontaneous shopper in both of us, we decided not to get it on the spot.

When we referred back to the first rose gold ring, we are both thinking why not get the shop to custom made the ring for us, so mine will be the rose gold ring with diamonds, I wanted the diamonds to be half of the circle only (like the white gold ring); and the Mr will get the simple rose gold band which we initially wanted.

Hah... Perfect.

Bridesmaids' Gifts

You've seen my effort of making my Maid of Honour a "Will U Be..." card and I am thinking of something for my bridesmaids. (Yes I said I am a loner but I still a few friends and cousins...)

I bought a fresh water pearl ring together with the bracelet last time and I wanted to give something similar to the bridesmaids on my wedding day! Yep you read me right. For the wedding day as a thank you gift!

So....

It is actually inspired by a ring bearer bowl which I spotted at Etsy.com, I want it so much but the seller said she no longer ship to Malaysia.

The ring bearer bowl, so simple and yet speaks for itself. (image source)

Be Loving, Be Happy, Be True.... That's all I want the girls to be on my wedding day! It would be nice is all of them wear the same ring right? Another form of corsage?

Close-up of the peach-colour fresh water pearl ring. So sweeeeeet....

Now the problem is, I have to know the ring size of each and every one of my bridesmaids to order the ring. Not like I am going to ask them for their ring sizes, and I gotta say I ordered the ring above for myself and I got the wrong size!

My Maid of Honour

I am actually very much of a loner, I can go shopping alone, I can sit in Starbucks for hours alone, I can stay at home and not utter a single words for the whole day; hence, I do not have a lot of friends in my life. But this Maid of Honour of mine is an exception. We've known each other for almost 15 years. We may not meet so often, we may not have any sleepover together, we never travel together before but I can say she shares most of my emotions throughout my life. I still keep most (if not all) of the letters that she wrote to me in the uni days. : )

Though it is no doubt that she will be my Maid of Honour or Bridesmaid but I wish I can handmade something for her so my first DIY project (which I hope there's a lot more to come), the "Will You Be My Maid of Honour" card!

A sweet and simple dress, I cut out the dress, add the ribbon sash, and I know I had to add some sequins at the chest area but the lace hem is a spontaneous touch.

I thought it might be a little messy for me to glue the sequins and lace but I swear it feel like a cooling breeze! And I totally love the subtle, sweet and girly feel reflected here.

The inside of the card. I jotted down all the reasons I need this bff of mine to be my maid of honour. Look at the chandelier behind the layer of wordings!

The fresh water pearl bracelet that I include in the card as a gift. I bought this off an online blogshop. It is a pretty mild peach colour which is one of my theme colour. Look at the monogram, it feels so right, doesn't it?

I hope this card does reflect the classic vintage wedding theme. And most importantly, it meant so much to me to have this young lady beside me along the wedding planning journey and on the wedding day.

ps. The Mr was so impressed by the card and he said he wants something similar for his bestmen too! So let's see what can I come up with!

The Monogram

I fell in love with Wedding Monogram since day 1 I am in the world of wedding planning. It's such an simple and affordable approach to "brand" and "theme" the wedding. It can appears in the wedding invitations, the guest book, the reception backdrop, the menu, the thank you cards and all over the wedding. It's like your symbol!

To be honest, I've been drafting out the monogram since last year (yes, even before he officially proposed :p). I like how people incorporate the initial for the surename to the monogram also, apart from the couple's initials. Perhaps in the western culture, the wife will most likely change her surename to her husband's; by incorporating the husband's surename's initial symbolise the new begining of them as a family.

Though for me, I am not going to change my surename to his but coincidently we both share the same initial for our surenames. Hence, having a 3-letters monogram is stapled in my mind ever after.

#1

To suit to my theme of a vintage classic, I decided to go for a more antique, old english font. The more I look at it, the more I like it and feel like "me". Yeah but the Mr doesn't really like it and claimed that it is a little macho for a wedding.

#2

So the #2, without the initial "T". This, I suppose is more feminine, more wedding, and more typical, which I don't like. But the Mr likes it, as I predicted.

#3

This is the same monogram as #1 except the damask design, the so-called improved version after the Mr's comment. He always like some damask patterns. But I think it is a little to overpowering, don't you think so?

(I have used #1 in one of my wedding projects, and suprisingly the Mr said it looks nice when assembled with wordings and printed on paper. *big grins*)

ps. It is now officially 9 months away from our wedding day.

THE theme

As long as my venture as a wedding planner & decorator, I stressed to my customer the importance of a Wedding Theme. It helps enormously to guide both the couple and vendors to have a clearer direction towards the wedding and deliver a cohesive wedding image.

Way before my engagement, I've been pondering on my wedding theme. I do not want the very common Oriental theme, although to an extend I believe a "Shanghai's 30s" can be a very good wedding theme and the impact will be strong. Imagine, red fabrics, red round lantern, cheongsam, peonies prints... And, for sure, it will be a big hit among the elders (whereby 65% of our guests will be elders).

However, I always wanted a bespoke, understated yet romantic, whimsical, loving and warmth wedding. So one day when I was browsing the internet, it just suddenly hit me, the English Vintage!

Among the tons and tons of images I've collected over time, I pulled them together into the followings inspiration boards:

Lace details, eyelets, chandeliers, vintage typewritter, fluffy peonies, calligraphy... I am so head over heels with all these. It also more or less outlined my theme colour, dark brown, broze, champagne, ivory, and a slight touch of peach.

In order to devote my passion towards baking and love towards my cupcakes, I'd definietly want some cupcakes at my wedding (but who's gonna bake for me?). I especially love the middle picture on the top row, it's a printed traditional vows on a canvas. As we are not going to exchange vows during the dinner, I'd want something similar to honour the wedding vows.

Candles are able to create the heartwarming and magical atmosphere at any occasion, something which the Mr really like and stressed on. Everyone around me will know that I am a coffee addict and if I am allowed to do so, yeah... I like to have some coffee beans somewhere in the reception. Oh ya.. I adore adore adore the flower balls made of white daisy, maybe something for the flower girls to carry?

I do not have a extra clear image of how I am going to incorporate all the things I love into one single reception which lasted for 3 hours. But, let's see.

I hope that I'll stick to this wedding theme :p though I seen something that made my heart stopped for 3 seconds recently. The Marie Antoinette wedding....

The Dress v2

I can't keep my eyes off dresses these days, long, short, formal, casual, even though I had ordered my wedding gown already...

Apart from looking for an Evening gown which I'll wear during the reception, I am secretly looking for a casual dress which can be worn during my Engagement Potraits with Jenny Sun. I am thinking to change into something more casual apart from my wedding dress. At first, I was thinking on just throw on a pair of jeans and white blouse, but the Pisces in me is slowly taking over me that "what about a casual sundress?" :p

This is what I saw at bluefly.com and instantly fell in love with. I adore the love details on the collar of which will go perfectly with my wedding dress and also my wedding theme. I will opt for a cream or pale yellow instead of the black, scaring that black colour will be too heavy for the relax and loving atmosphere I wanted from the potraits.

These are another two dresses which can be considered as well. I love the eyelets details on the dress on the left. The dress on the right is a little too feminine and normal, i guess. What say u?

I am seriously in love with mustard yellow nowadays, so understated yet sunny; and for this particular dress, I like the ribbon at the back. I'd prefer a lighter colour tone though...

I haven't make up my mind, jeans or dress... One thing for sure, I am kind of looking forward to the photo shooting in end of July.