this and that

Hunny Bunny has given me free reign when it comes to registering for gifts. He concluded that I'll "be the one using all of that crap" and so he, in turn, does not give a crap what I buy. If only that were the case for all walks of life.

Anyagirlcandreamcantshe, I've decided that I will only register for dining/kitchen items because I like to buy bedroom and bathroom items for myself - not to mention the fact that I'm anticipating that most of our families will be giving us cash.

*ca-ching!

I figured that if I only register for a small(er) amount of gifts, then the likelihood of us receiving a whole bunch of mismatched items will be a lot less!

HB did however make one small request. He wanted me to register for this disgusting beach towel! Thank goodness he was just joking. I wouldn't have allowed it anyway. Yes. I am bridezilla.

Oneof my bridesmaids and I are making a day of it. Having breakfast, then pedicures, then off tell people what to buy me.

I mean us.

my first wedding gift

My over-excited gramma was bursting to give me my wedding gift. I think she wanted to make sure I didn't feel neglected because she had already given my cousin her wedding gift! But my cousin is getting married next month!



How much do you adore these Whopper-sized south sea pearls? The colors range from ivory to light gold and the shape of each pearl is unique - not perfectly round, but perfect for me! They're extremely heavy around my neck. I guess so I'll always know they're there!

I want to wear them with everything. But more importantly, I plan to wear them with my wedding dress. *sigh*

Hunny Bunny wants to know where his pearl necklace is.

great balls of yellow

I really know nothing about flowers other than they're pretty and sometimes they make me sneeze. I certainly didn't know how much they cost!

The first florist that I met was probably the tackiest florist ever. Her entire portfolio was so 80s and featured gladiolus in everything! I have nothing against gladiolus but all I could think about was the movie Coming to America when I saw her arrangements!

I couldn't get out of there fast enough. She kept telling me that she could do whatever I wanted but her portfolio was so out of date and style that I really didn't feel like I could trust her.

Then one of my bridesmaids and I visited a florist who had the most wonderful samples. Everything looked so elegant and tasteful and just plain gorgeous. She had so many wonderful ideas and suggested so many types of flowers. She seemed to know exactly what I wanted:

a hand-tied bouquet with ribbon wrapped stems featuring pale to deep yellow flowers such as ranunculus, dianthus, freesia, full-headed roses and cymbidium orchids with burgandy throats

Perfect. I love it. *ahem* That is until she sent me the estimate.

$420 for rose petals for the tables???

I was a little discouraged until I got recommendations from two friends who went to Details...Florist for their weddings. I told the florist exactly what I wanted, praying that she could do it for less.

I was so impressed that she understood my limited budget. She had several suggestions on how to cut costs.. But even her base costs were far more affordable than the other gal I met with. In fact she was more than 50% less - for more flowers!

$30 for all the rose petals.

She explained that a lot of the petals would come from mine and the bridesmaids bouquets so they were mine anyway. She also suggested that it would be nice (and more affordable) to have the groomsmen and other honored guests wear ranunculus boutonnieres and have HB be the only one wearing a cymbidium orchid. It would tie into the orchids in my bouquet. What a great idea!

And while I was going through her portfolio, I realized that she also did the flowers for one of my good friend's sister's wedding! With three happy customers, I was more than sold.

Flowers? Check.

i do

We picked our guy - Rev. Ray Van Winkle. Hunny Bunny and I aren't religious but Rev. Ray does non-denominational ceremonies. And he also married our good friends a few years ago and came highly recommended.

He seemed nice and very professional.

Our only criterion was that he didn't try to be funny. I mean, if something funny actually happens, of course he can adlib but HB and I went to a wedding a couple years ago and the officiant kept cracking lame jokes that no one understood. Yikes.

I have to admit that I felt a little queasy when we were sitting there looking over some sample vows. Ok. Maybe a little more the queasy. I wanted to yack. I have yet to revisit the book of vows that he emailed to us for fear of getting freaked out again. I think I'm more freaked out than HB!

We're getting married in exactly 5 months!!!

say cheese

I've been so busy the last couple weeks trying to finalize as many vendors as possible. We finally chose a photographer. His name is Young Lee and while he doesn't normally do wedding photographer, he's doing it for us!

The whole process was so frustrating. I met several wedding photographer but none of them felt like the right match. There was one photographer who had beautiful photography but when we went to meet him, I just didn't really like him. He seemed just a tad condescending and a bit snobby about his work. His fees were also pretty steep given what was included in his package, which was basically nothing... 6 hours of photography time ($300+ for each additional hour - we would need him pretty much all day because of the tea ceremony) and a DVD. To get everything I wanted, it would end up well over $5000.

Anyway, Hunny Bunny is a graphic designer so he took it upon himself to ask around the office and came up with Young Lee, who had done work with the company. HB decided to send him an email and see if he'd be interested. To my relief and excitement, he was!

And he was extremely accommodating and affordable. He's providing us with a full day of wedding photography plus a half day of engagement photos and all the photos on DVD for half of what the other photographer was going to charge.

Yay for another thing checked off the list! Now I need to figure out what I'm going to wear for the engagement photos and where we're going to have them done! Because our wedding is in November, most of our photos will need to be done indoors so I really want to have photos outside. I just don't know where!

There's always the typical Alki Beach with the Seattle skyline as the back drop but that seems so cliche. HB suggested a golf course since he's been so obsessed lately, but I'm kinda iffy about that. As fun as that sounds, I don't want to disturb the other golfers who are actually there to play!

I kinda like Volunteer Park too. My parents used to take my brother and me there a lot when we were kids and there's also a lovely view of the Seattle skyline.

If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear suggestions from you!