the groomsmen

September 17th, 2010

For the groomsmen we knew from the start we wanted them to wear suits, not tuxes and definitely not black. Since we already had the girls’ dresses chosen earlier in the year, it was easier to search for a guys suit to complement it. Their outfits were also pretty detailed; almost as much as the bridesmaids. These guys were all very responsive and open to ideas/suggestions which made it an easy task to coordinate things. I personally think they were so attentive b/c they’re scared I’d whip ’em into shape if they didn’t answer emails. Hahaha j/k!! I’d have to say it was just as fun shopping for them as it was for the girls. Check things out below and see how awesome they looked in their various outfits and accessories.

What was worn all day:

J. Alexander suits from 3 Day Suit Broker in Fountain Valley
Calvin Klein purple cuff links
Silk purple pocket squares from Macy’s
Sean John dress shirts
For a steal we found Calvin Klein vests that were such a close match to the suit color. They were on clearance at the Macy’s in Mission Viejo and were only $20 each. We weren’t even actively looking and we just landed on them! They didn’t have ’em all in their sizes so we had to get ’em tailored a bit but it all worked out great. Such luck and fate.

Goofing off at 3 Day Suit Broker.

For your enjoyment, a short video from the suit tryouts.

The guy’s cufflinks. Rob’s is different.

Main outfit for the tea and wedding ceremonies consisted of:

Calvin Klein Body slim ties in satin purple.
Kenneth Cole brown dress shoes.
Banana Republic brown argyle socks.

You have to agree, these guys are lookin’ sharp!

As a personal touch the guys decided to add bling to their ties since the bridesmaids had bling initials on their bouquets.

Being a little silly.

Banana Republic argyle socks worn by Rob and the groomsmen. The groomsmen had matching brown Kenneth Cole shoes.

As a secondary outfit the guys switched things up a bit at the reception:

Corduroy bow ties from Urban Outfitters at $5 each!
Flask socks also from Urban Outfitters.
A gift from us: Converse Jack Purcell John Varvatos Oxford Low Profile Leather in noce/milk

In this image you can see a little better how the cufflinks are purple.
The vest had a bit of texture while the suit was completely flat but the colors matched up very well.

The groomsmen in their 2nd outfits.

Yup, these bowties were only $5 from Urban!
The Sean John shirts had a checkered pattern to it.

Check out those flask socks! One of you guys have to enlighten me about what is so funny.

Quang, Elvis, and Tony having a little bit of fun.

My partner in crime, Duy and my cousin, Quang.

My bro-in-law, Elvis and my talented friend, Tony.

David in both his outfits.

I was very happy with how their outfits turned out. They all looked so handsome and complemented the bridesmaids very well.

Photos courtesy of Kim Le Photography.

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the centerpiece

September 14th, 2010

Once Robert and I decided on a bird theme for our wedding we somehow landed on the idea of having birdcages for our centerpieces. How fitting and unique would that be?? So I Googled ‘birdcage centerpiece’ to get some ideas and there were already some great pieces that have been used at weddings before. Since it seemed possible we now excitedly searched for the perfect birdcage to match our theme along with the florist who could work with such a unique idea to make a piece fitting for our wedding.

Save on Crafts has a ton of different birdcages but we thought this brass one would go perfectly with our outdoor venue. It’s sold as a pair in the 13″ and 19″ sizes; even more fitting since we want our centerpieces to alternate in size anyway.

Now that we’ve found the perfect birdcage, the search was on for the florist who could transform this plain brass birdcage into something that matched our theme colors and into something we will LOVE.

Florist #1 created the piece pictured below. It has manzanita branches coming out from it with ‘summery’ colored flowers. We weren’t in love with the colors since we wanted fall colored flowers eventhough our wedding was during the summer and the branches made it almost impossible for our guests to transport home. It just looked a bit too wild for our theme.

KC Florals Designs created the beautiful piece below. I can remember back to that day in late November last year when we stepped into her shop and NEVER in our wildest dreams could we ever imagine anything like this!! It was jaw dropping amazing. We were so blown away by her creativity with the berries, varied colors and flowers, the use of curly willow to keep the birdcage top opened, how she stuck with our theme colors plus made it completely portable. It was much more than we ever wanted.

Check out all the detailed photos to follow.

So over the next week I had this beautiful birdcage centerpiece mostly hidden in my closet b/c I had so many guests over. It was just so gorgeous that we decided to keep it as one of our surprise elements and didn’t even reveal it to our wedding party! Slowly and sadly though I watched the flowers wilt and die and was completely devastated of the thought of our guests tossing the entire birdcage aside when all the flowers had wilted.

The awful, wedding faux pas idea crept into my head: “what if we used silk (fake) flowers instead so that our guests keep the birdcage centerpieces forever?” It was so hard to say out loud b/c I’d cringe just thinking it. I mean could I really go against the social norm and really use silk flowers at my wedding!?!? I mean isn’t that one of the tackiest things to do at a wedding?

Well, I proceeded to have this conversation with my dear mother. She is a HUGE fan of silk flowers; its a jungle galore at her house of silk flowers, believe me! She’s always eyeing them at Michaels. Even as big a fan as she is, she was also doubting its acceptance at weddings. She DOES attend a dozen or more weddings a year so she MUST know what’s best (other than the fact that she’s mom and mom’s always know best).

We decided to give it a shot anyway. We had KC Floral Designs create one using silk flowers and it didn’t turn out that bad at all! Didn’t even look fake. Bad news was she was going to charge us more b/c silk flowers are much more expensive than fresh (real) flowers. Good news was she changed her mind on the pricing. If she used silk flowers she can work on them weeks or even months ahead of the wedding at any time she wanted without having to worry about producing 40 centerpieces over night if they were fresh flowers. With the exchange in flexibility of time it was a done deal–we hired KC Floral Designs for the job!

Now without further adieu…check out how they turned out at our wedding.

About 14 of the birdcages lined the aisle at the church ceremony.

Some unique shots and angles to follow from Anha Nguyen Photography who was a guest at our wedding and my make-up artist.

These 2 larger floral arrangements flanked the altar at the ceremony and the cake at the reception. After the wedding each went to our mothers to decorate in their homes. The hanging chandelier was made of fresh flowers!

I know the silk floral arrangements don’t have the same pop and fresh feeling that real flowers do, but at least our guests can keep these forever in remembrance of our wedding day. It’s also been fun seeing the pieces in our friends’ and families’ homes.

Photos from the wedding day are courtesy of Kim Le Photography.

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chair signs

September 12th, 2010

From the get go I knew I wanted chair signs for me and Robert. What I decided a month out were signs for my bridesmaids and groomsmen. I wanted them to feel extra special that day since they are special people in our lives. A few weeks before the wedding Rob and I worked on their chair signs together. We kept it a secret as a little surprise for them when they arrive at their seats. Check it out below.

Gold cardstock and off white paper purchased from Paper Source. Robert designed each sign in Illustrator and printed them out.

Crystals were applied on either side of their titles.

Detailing of the purple crystal.

Detailing of the orange crystal.

Punched holes on the top corners and roped chocolate brown silk ribbon to tie onto the chairs.

This is how they turned out looking at the reception.

Gwen Huyen lookin’ awesome in her chair and bouquet in hand.

Jen and Tony at the end of the night posing with their chair signs and silhouette cut out from Carl Johnson.

The signs we made for our chairs were a bit different. We purchased heart shaped vines from Save on Crafts online store. Our 6″ tall wood block initials were purchased from Michael’s and crackle painted to give them a vintage look. Here’s the finished product.

I think they came out pretty awesome. Trying to find a spot in our home to hang ’em up now. [big props to tdang for initiating the crackle paint process]

I also wanted to make signs for the flowergirls and parents but ran out of paper and time to do so. A sure sign that tells us we can do more if we start earlier and not procrastinate. I think this was a very cheap and easy way of making people in your life feel special. It’s also a great detail and nice touch to the wedding.

Some of the photos above are courtesy of Kim Le Photography.

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custom vinyl stickers

September 9th, 2010

Major props to our groomsman, Tony, for doing more than an awesome job on this very difficult project we proposed him to do. I only asked him after asking around for pricing on how much custom vinyl stickers would cost to have done on our dancefloor and believe me they’re pretty pricey! Tony owns a semi pro vinyl cutting machine he uses on the side as a hobby. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we could pull off designing custom vinyl stickers in our wedding theme on our very own. With Robert’s design and guidance and Tony’s detailed intricate vinyl cutting skills we were able to come up with 3 different sets to use at the wedding.

Tony and I are on my kitchen floor applying the first sticker to the aisle runner. This one is the smallest of the 3 made in both gold and chocolate brown. It’s about 3 feet wide and was one of the easier ones to apply.

The 2nd sticker took the longest to put together and appeared on our 1st and main dancefloor. This one’s humongous, folks! At 7.5 feet wide it was literally larger than life. The stickers were cut in layers of gold and brown separately. Tony did a lot of the leg work the week leading up to the wedding applying the layers on first so that all he had to do was slap it on the dancefloor that day.

Here’s David assisting Tony with the application.

Tony hard at work.

Look at how well it turned out!

Shot of our first dance. You have to agree those stickers made us look even more awesome on the dancefloor!

Tony proudly posing with his masterpiece.

The 3rd sticker was used for our last dance floor. These were about 3 feet tall and were also much easier to cut, apply, and remove.

Please join me in a standing ovation to Tony and his hard work that paid off so well. Having them made our wedding that much more fabulous. From day 1 he took the challenge head on and with full confidence that it can and will be done and voila–it came out so much more than we ever could imagine. You’ve given us a very special memory of our wedding day. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, Tony!

A funny story tied to this was that Rob and Tony spent about 4 hours from 12:30am to 4:30am after the wedding removing the stickers off the white, main dance floor. It’s a bit funny cuz leading up to the wedding Tony was actually afraid the stickers wouldn’t stay put and in the end, it stayed on all too well. Instead of after partying with the rest of us, Tony and my husband spent 4 grueling hours on their hands and knees in the cold peeling away the stickers. We were afraid the rental company would charge us an arm and a leg for removal/clean-up services. We didn’t want to risk it so the 2 boys ended up having achy breaky fingers and nails. Thanks for that too, Tony!

Some of the photos above are courtesy of Kim Le Photography.

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in love with my bridesmaids!

September 8th, 2010

I love how my bridesmaids outfits, accessories, make-up, hair-do, bouquets all turned out. Everything for them came together PERFECTLY. I never thought anything could be so detailed before in my life. I think they are the most detailed thing about the wedding. Take a look below at all things bridesmaids. Only photos can tell the story completely.

They wore matching Nina heels. I also got the same pair to wear with my ao dai’s and first dance.