i moved! come join me...

because i'm me, i told the boy about my little wedding blog even though i told myself i wasn't going to. at least not yet. for some reason i just can't keep a secret from him.

at first he laughed and joked about me keeping it secret and then offered to import it over to my home blog so i took him up on it. isn't he wonderful?

anywho, come join me at my new address: love.talda.com

Say aloha to the bridal luau

A couple years ago I had the pleasure of planning and co-hosting my best friend’s bridal shower. And boy did I stretch my creative muscle for that. At the time, Jacki and Ed were planning on going to Hawaii for their honeymoon so I thought a luau-themed shower would be perfect.

I started with the stationary. I printed them at home from Design-her-gals [I had signed up for their at-home service about a month before for my Christmas cards]. I went through several revisions of the invitation but finally settled on the wording with help from my dear friend Google, who introduced me to Aloha Friends. They had quite the handy cheat sheet of Hawaiian phrases.

I also included a business card with the registry information along with a few 3x5 index cards for the recipe box we were going to present her with at the luau.



Jacki’s sister and MOH, Becky, found all of the decorations at a trip to the Wishing Well in Sacramento. She found all of the serving platters and other fun decorations to put around the house as well as the leis, which she and the other bridesmaid Nicole made cute nametags so everyone would know who everyone else was.



For decoration, I made several tissue paper pomanders in two sizes to hang around the house and deck. I was quite pleased with myself because I felt like I had thwarted Martha Stewart who was selling her pomander kit for $20 to make 7 pomanders when I made 16 [one large and one small in each color] for only $7! There’s no reason to buy the kit; especially not when the tutorial is already posted online!



I made them a week in advance and fluffed them out once I got to the house. I do like the smaller ones a lot more than the larger ones. Oh, and a tip for anyone else attempting these, it’s easier to cut the ends if you do them in sections. It’s quite the obvious thing but it took me till about my fourth one to figure that out. And another tip, tissue paper is delicate.

The traditional Hawaiian lunch plate inspired our menu. Becky brought fruit and vegetables for the snacking and her dad made the macaroni salad to pair with my mom’s steamed vegetables [a delicious mix of sweet peas, broccoli, cauliflower, and bell peppers], rice, Korean-style BBQ chicken and, of course, Spam musubi. My friends made fun of me for lugging over a rice cooker but hey; it’s the best way to keep the rice warm!



But the star of the food table was the cake. It was made and decorated by Jacki’s mom, and quite possibly was one of my favorite things about the luau. It looked awesome and was insanely huge. So much so that it actually fell over after half the cake was gone! She used gummi sharks, those gummi peach rings for lifesavers, a huge jawbreaker for a beach ball, and the sand is a mixture of raw and brown sugars. Did I mention she decorates cakes for a living?



Next post: games, prizes and favors.

a pretty decent proposal

before i left for the christmas break i was doing my best to convince a friend of mine that i wasn’t getting engaged. i distracted her by postulating that if anything should happen, it would only be us looking at engagement rings [i was right!]. she seemed shocked at first because she thought i’d be ruining the surprise of my ring.

to be honest, i don’t care much. the ring is a wonderful gift and symbol of our intent and commitment to each other and there was the fact that i still wouldn’t know what the ring would ultimately look like; but for me, what i really want to be surprised by is the proposal.

i don’t have any kind of dream proposal; the bf can design that any way he sees fit whether by a big grand gesture or a small subtle one, either way is fine. i’ve always looked forward to what would be said before finally dropping to a knee and proposing [okay, so i did have a bit of a dream proposal…the knee thing. i’m sure the bf can humor me]. i can only imagine what’s going to be said: will he be nervous? will something go wrong? will he rush through his words? forget to say something? i’m sure he’ll take the time to be ultra romantic and sentimental. will he tear up? will i cry?! will i be upset at something completely random and unrelated? will i suspect it’s happening before it happens? will i believe it’s happening? will i grin like a maniacal cat the entire time?

and what about afterwards? will we keep looking at each other with wonder and disbelief and pure happiness? will we be able to stop kissing? will we giggle at each other? will we make the stupid silly jokes that we do now? are we going to be two complete dorks about it [in a word: yes]? will i ruin the moment and say something along the lines of, “haha, you’re really stuck with me now. sucker!”

knowing me? that’s a huge possibility. hey, i’ve done it before. in front of company no less.

the only stipulation i’ve made about the proposal was that it didn’t happen in public. personally, i’m not big on the proposals with other people around, even my own family and friends. i love them but i’d rather save the celebration for later. this is a moment that i want for just the two of us. and that says something because i love being the center of attention. i do think it’s so nice when people get engaged with family and friends present but it’s just not for me. i don’t want to share that moment with anyone but the bf. what i really want to do is just sit back and enjoy that moment with him and i don’t feel like i’d be able to fully do that if other people surrounding me. i don’t want to risk being taken out of the moment too soon because you really only have that moment to relish. you can’t make up for it later. and if i do end up crying, which i suspect might happen, i definitely don’t want to have people present for that spectacle.

but in it all, the proposal afterglow is such a fragile, fleeting moment that i want to cherish it for as long as possible. the ring? yes, i’ll look at that lovingly and that’ll be the tangible memory of that moment, but it’s the story of the proposal that i’ll be sharing with everyone.

after all, i helped picked out my promise ring. was it any less special because i knew he was buying it for me [he actually pushed me away so he could make the purchase]? no, not in the slightest because while i don’t quite remember what he said when he finally gave it to me, i know that i couldn’t stop grinning and my heart melted.

into a puddle in the middle of the mall.

the search for my precious

i spent the christmas holiday with the boy and while i was out there we did a little shopping: engagement ring shopping!

going in, i was convinced that i wanted a three-stone ring, preferably a round center stone with pear side stones. that was always the style that caught my attention whenever i would glance over engagement rings. in fact, my promise ring he gave me is kind of similar to that as well.

[source: michael c. fina]

to some purists [like the boy and a couple of my friends] it seemed weird that i wanted to tag along on the trip. sure we’d be looking at rings but it wasn’t like i’d be picking mine out. the final decision is still very much the boy’s and i’ll be surprised with whatever he chooses for me. to be honest, the proposal means much more to me than the ring. besides, i needed to be formally sized, as my beloved promise ring had become a bit of a parlor trick [i can now remove it from my finger using the thumb and pinky on the same hand its on!] and this would also be a good way to see which styles work best on my hand.

we went to the somerset collection in troy to browse through the surprisingly paltry offerings of jewelry stores. seriously, there were only three! one of which was tiffany [we did not shop there]. which was fine with me to tell you the truth. you’re spending more on the name then the actual ring! but considering how pretentious it is to call a mall a “collection,” [dude, it’s a mall. let’s call it what it is] i would have figured there would have been more jewelry stores there. cheese and crackers; there are two sides to that mall!

anywho, our first stop was to bailey, banks & biddle where we obviously were not a priority. at all. seriously, we were in there for about five minutes before an associate even acknowledged us, only to point out where the engagement rings were before disappearing to help another customer. we stood there for a moment debating whether or not we should leave but ended up going ahead and browse through the rings. after what seemed like an awkwardly long time to be staring at jewelry through the cases, another friendlier associate finally helped us. she took the time to chat and answer whatever questions we had and was quick to pull out every ring i requested.

a quick aside, i will say that even though the second associate was much nicer and helpful, she wouldn’t have been enough to get us to make a purchase at the store had we been in the market to actually buy a ring. i just can’t get behind poor customer service like that. i don’t understand why that happens in major stores like that. i get better service at my local target! and i’m only spending a fraction of the price!

rogers and holland was our second and last stop. they were right downstairs from bad, badder & baddest and let me tell you the difference in attitudes. we walked in and were immediately greeted by an associate that not only showed us where the engagement rings were but also pulled out chairs so we could sit down! and we have a winner!

it turned out that letting me tag along was a great idea. that three-stone ring i had been eyeing? tried one on and it didn’t wow me at all. in fact, i felt very underwhelmed. so i asked to try on one of the antique settings, which had been a secret dark horse, and just like that, we had a new ring style. i just love the way it looks. from far away it looks very simple but when you see it up close, it’s so wonderfully intricate in detail and i love that. we were both very surprised by my change in mind but i could tell he liked the antique settings better too.

[source: tiffany]

we were also able to see how the diamond’s carat size would look in relation to my hand and considering that i’m not the most delicate person in the world, i’ll need something with a relatively low profile as i go banging through life. the last thing i want to do is have a ring i don’t feel comfortable wearing at all. that would just be a waste of money and time.

i will say that it was pretty exciting though to sit there and admire rings on my hand. i spent a lot of time doing that, my hand in my lap, my hand on his lap, my hand in the air, etc. you would have thought i was a contortionist. plus, have you seen those things? they’re sparkly and big and so much more substantial than my promise ring. i mean my dear promise ring looked particularly dinky after modeling the behemoths for a few minutes. we did find one we both liked, one that the boy probably would have bought on the spot had i not reminded him that it wasn’t time yet [he made me promise him that i’d make sure he didn’t walk out of there with a ring]. the whole experience was a bit surreal. looking at rings made it a bit more real in my head.

so now we’re on the clock in terms of engagement and marriage. it’s a bit surreal in the sense that this thing i’ve wanted for so long is finally starting to happen. it’s like my bluff is finally being called. but i’m still excited and looking forward to that day. it’s now only a matter of time.

i hear the best place to start is at the beginning...

first, a confession because confession, i hear, is good for the soul:
hello my name is talda and i am not yet engaged.

okay, so my name's not really talda but i really am not engaged yet. so why do i have a wedding planning blog? the same reason why i have the binder: i am pretty weirdly obsessed with planning and researching…oh just about everything under the sun. give me an idea, the internet, and an hour and i’ll have a pretty good list going for you. with sub-bullets. i plan/research just about everything that’s going on, from birthday parties to new apartments that i haven’t moved into yet to vacations with the boy that haven’t even had a chance to happen, as if they were happening tomorrow. it’s what i do. sometimes i think i’m more excited about the research than anything else.

to the uninitiated, planning a wedding on your own seems like a daunting task but it is actually made easier with the proper research and lead time. it started innocently enough when i started to help my best friend plan her wedding two years ago but anyone who’s planning a wedding knows that all it takes is one exposure to a bridal magazine and next thing you know you’re emailing potential venues to price them out even though your ring finger is empty.

see, that planning-itis is no joke.

thankfully i have a very supportive and understanding boyfriend who puts up with my antics. he’s fully aware of the binder though is waiting until we are officially engaged before venturing a look but he has already voiced some opinions on what he would like and has vetoed other ideas of mine.

and i've secretly and lovingly nicknamed our wedding, “the weddening.” i’m sure he wouldn’t mind. right?

want to know what i’m doing when i’m not thinking of the millionth and one craft idea i totally want to do for the weddening? check me out at my personal blog where i’m probably talking about some other craft idea i saw somewhere that i totally want to do.

only with less tulle.