What happens when you have to travel to Boston every week

Not only have I been a blogging slacker, but I've been a wedding slacker too!  I guess that's why I haven't had any posts in a while.  When did it suddenly become 2 weeks before the wedding?  Aaaahhhhh! 

The Vietnamese ceremony

I'm still a bit hazy on the Vietnamese ceremony that we're having the morning of the wedding. I know that B's family comes to my parent's place to basically ask to take me away. :) They come bearing gifts and then we pray to our ancestors. My family presents me with jewelry (fun!). There's also eating involved and within an hour or so it'll all be done.

And I'll be wearing this (ignore the cheesy smile):


















We had the dress (called 'ao dai' in Vietnamese) and pants made with some silk that my mom had. It's not finished in the photo -- in fact, there are probably about 200 pins holding it together here. But the dressmaker is incredible and has managed to accentuate my good parts and hide my bad parts while still making it relatively comfortable to wear.

I'm borrowing the overcoat from a family friend. Personally I don't want to wear the overcoat at all. And that head dress (called 'khan dong') is not my favorite, but it's traditional and pulls the whole outfit together. In any case, the head piece is too big for my head, so we'll have to figure out how to keep it in place without messing up my hair. I also need to come up with a hairstyle that will work for both this outfit as well as my western one.

While planning 2 ceremonies has been a pain, I like the idea of incorporating my heritage into the day's festivities.

Please, Mr Postman

Drumroll, please...

The biggest ever DIY project we (I) have ever undertaken is now in the US Postal Service's hands.  The invites are out! 

Lessons learned:

• Start as early as possible - it takes way longer than you ever anticipate
• Get addresses and contacts as soon as you start wedding planning.  It's amazing how long it takes people to respond.
• Definitely travel for work so that your significant other gets stuck doing all the cutting and gluing and assembly.  :)
• Don't forget to number the RSVP cards.  If a guest sends back the RSVP card and forgets to put their names, I'll be all set.
• If you have others helping you (i.e. elderly parents), diligent QC is a must!  We had so many invites that were upside down or backward.

In the end, it was a fun project and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.  Now I wait on pins and needles for responses to start flowing in!!!

Photo Collage

I found the photo collage feature on Picasa today and was playing around with a couple of different formats. I'm thinking about using these at each of the tables. The escort cards would be the aforementioned Mini-MOO cards (LOVE THESE!) with a photo on one side and the table number on the other side. So for each table there would be about 5 different photos corresponding to a particular country. Vote please:

Option 1: photo pile















Option 2: separated photos

Moooo

Okay I am kind of in love with MOO cards.  You can customize them anyway you like, up to 100 individual photos!  So I want to make escort cards from these and either do something like this:

That would be side 1.  The other side I would put the guest's name and table number.

You could also customize it with a photo.  So instead of the above, you could just have a picture.  Fun fun fun fun!!!  And they're so cheap too!

Drumroll please...the dress is in!

Whoa, I was not ready for that email.  On my original receipt the expected delivery date was at the end of October and here we are at the end of July.  But who cares?  My dress is here!!!

I went to pick it up and schedule an alterations appointment.  Got the dress home (luckily B is in Hawaii for the week, so no spoilers for him) and had to try it on.  With the aforementioned sky-high heels, the dress is the perfect length.  In fact, if the dress was a micron shorter, or the shoes a bit taller (impossible, by the way), then I would be in big trouble.  YAY!

So all I'll have to do in September is have it taken in a bit at the top (or get a boob job - haha) and sort out a bustle.  Easy peasy!

Dress your feet

Before I even started wedding planning, I knew I wanted to have fabulous shoes.  My prediction was that I would end up spending the same amount on the shoes as I would the dress and as it turns out, I'm not too far off! 

I have been coveting these shoes since I saw them in my very first bridal magazine when all this hullaballoo planning started.  A couple of weeks ago I finally pulled the trigger and bought these beauties:

Yes, they are SKY HIGH but surprisingly comfortable.  I love them!  Let's see if I'm still saying that after the wedding.  :)

Kudos to http://www.piperlime.com/ for having great descriptions, reviews, no shipping fees, and an easy return policy.  It made my purchase worry-free!