Ceremony Details

If I would think that you would enjoy it, I would do a single post completely dedicated to my tissue pomander balls, but I don't know how many of you would appreciate that. Instead, here is a picture-heavy post on the details of our wedding ceremony.

Here is the entire set-up for the ceremony. (Taken by Linda Ko)

I found these paper lanterns at Target, 2 for $2.50 (Taken by Linda Ko)

Remember how I saved almost $300 by making our own bouquets? Here are the final results. The girls had their initials sewed on so that they could identify their own bouquets.

My bouquet had a little silver locket engraved with the letter "M" that Brandon gave me. Inside was a picture of my grandfather. Two charms house the pictures of Brandon's grandpa and his stepfather, Albert.

We had programs and bubbles for our guests to grab, but over half of them were left untouched. At least it made a pretty picture!

Brandon helped me make these programs. Total cost was about $15. $13 for the stupid stapler that we had to buy and $2 for the paper. Pomander balls! The hours and hours spent on these beauties were absolutely worth it in the end. They really made such a difference

Thanks to Tiff S. for fluffing them the night before the wedding!

Instead of purchasing a separate arch, we took two of our centerpieces and placed them on tall brown boxes at zero cost!
Ah, so gorgeous.

Pictures by Hannah Suh unless otherwise noted.

DIY Bouquets

My hopes of having a peony bouquet died when I received my fake flowers in the mail from Afloral.com. The entire shipment was a disappointment and I had to start all over again.

Everything was too sparse and unacceptable for a bridal bouquet. They actually look better in the pictures than in person. It would have worked fine if I ordered another bouquet of peonies, but they ran out. What are the chances, right?

My sister and I hunted for better fake flowers at Michael's and found white hydrangea stems ($4.60 each after coupon) that were a good size for the bridesmaids. They needed a little bit of color so we grabbed a few light purple flowers ($1.09 each bunch).

I got the glass vases from Dollar Tree, by the way.

For my bouquet, we used two stems to make it fuller and added red accents.

The bottom of the stems were first padded with napkins to make the handles thicker and easier to hold. They were then wrapped tediously with brown satin ribbon. I also sewed on the monogram charms that I shared with you before.

Cost of bouquets if I had purchased them from the florist: $330

Cost of flowers from Afloral.com (which I'm going to return): $50.30

Comparison of Afloral vs. Michael's flowers

Final cost of flowers from Michael's: $32.95
Amount saved: $297.05

Change of Plans

According to costofweddings.com, "On average, couples that live in Hacienda Heights spend between $21,265 and $35,422 for their wedding." Crazy, right?

This is slightly embarrassing to admit, but Brandon and I set our budget before thoroughly looking at our finances. I do not recommend this to future brides as it will just cost you a lot of grief later on. Some unexpected costs also came up so we had to make some changes.

Remember my post about passed hor dourves and open bar during cocktail hour? Well, we had to scratch all of that, which saves us about $1,000. A cash bar is still going to be available for guests if they choose to drink and we are serving plenty of food during the reception. We will be placing bottles of wine/champagne along with sparkling apple cider on each table to drink with dinner.

After the ceremony, guests will be directed to the hallway to mingle, drop off any gifts and sign wish cards while we take family portraits and recompose ourselves.

Without any food or free drinks, I feared that our guests would get bored waiting for the reception to begin so I made a crossword puzzle to keep them busy.

It tooks hours due to formatting problems, but I am proud of my results. The clues included things like "A lovable Labrador with sensitive legs" and "The number of years the couple have been happily in love."

We also made cuts with our florist. Our original invoice for flowers was about $1800, but we trimmed it down to about $900 by only asking Flower Allie to do our centerpieces.

I am going to make all of the bouquets and my dream of having peonies will be possible if I use fake flowers. Weddingbee blogger Miss Labrador made her own by purchasing her flowers through Afloral.com.

With fake flowers, I will be able to make them far in advance instead of the morning of the wedding. Another advantage is being able to keep them forever.

A fake peony bouquet is $17.99 plus shipping. A real one is $90. Score!

I will post about my results when I order and put them together.

I Dream of Peonies

Despite their funny name (Brandon likes to call them "Pee-On-Me"s), peonies are the rock stars of the floral family when it comes to weddings. They're so full and luscious and I find myself holding my breath when I see bouquets made out of them.

Here's the catch: They are also incredibly expensive. Isn't it just like me to fall for expensive flowers? Luckily, my florist has promised me that she wants brides to have their dream bouquet and therefore she will not charge me extra for adding peonies.

Now, it is my pleasure to present to you some floral porn:

Source
Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

To save some money, the bridesmaid bouquets will be working double time and will also be used to decorate our sweetheart table. Since I want the girls to be able to identify their own bouquets and take them home, I purchased monogram charms to attach to each handle.

My own bouquet will be accessorized by the silver locket that Brandon gave me back when we were first dating. Inside will be pictures of our grandpas who have passed away.

Pieces of the Puzzle

Brandon and I have been running around these past few weeks putting together our wedding. Each week we have had at least one appointment to meet with someone in hopes of hiring them for our wedding.

I must admit that we are really lacking in the "shopping around" department. Perhaps we are just very lazy, but I like to think that we are great at doing research because we have been booking almost the first people that we see in each category.

We booked the first and last place that we saw, The Nixon Library, because we fell in love immediately.

We hired Allison from Flower Allie the day after meeting with her. I found her through a photographer's blog entry dedicated to a wedding at the Nixon Library during the winter time. The couple also had a dark red color scheme, and upon viewing their centerpieces I knew that that was what I wanted. Allison worked with us on our budget and told us what we could cut out (like the beautiful arch to the left that costs $400) or do ourselves in order to save money. In the end, Allison only went over our initial budget by $45.

Jason's Catering is most likely going to be our caterers for the evening, and we've only had one tasting. The food was absolutely delicious. Everything we put into our mouths tasted incredible, and we just know that people wil rave about the food at the reception. Their pricing per person was incredibly reasonable as our guests will all be treated to a three course dinner complete with passed hor dourves, a tasty salad, and a scrumptious stuffed roasted chicken entree complete with sides. They are also throwing in a free candy buffet along with chocolate truffles and strawberries for dessert. Last, but definitely not least, an open wine and beer bar for the first hour for only $6 per guest.

What can I say? We know what we like and we know what we want.

What's done: venue, florist, caterer, final invitation mock up (a post on that after they're sent out in October), wedding dress, photographer, cake topper, wedding cupcakes

What's in the works: entertainment, officiant, bridesmaid dresses, bridal party gifts, engagement shoot with Daniel Yu, rehearsal dinner, wedding website

What's left: hotels, honeymoon, hair and makeup, gifts for parents, day-of-wedding coordinator, all the little details, guest book, photo booth (if Groomzilla agrees to it)