To all the Houston readers,

I will be in Houston from December 29th to January 1st.  I know its just a couple of nights, but if there is enough interest, I wanted to have a Weddingbee meetup. 

Please let me know if anyone is interested in meeting up on Saturday night (December 30th).  If there are enough replies, we will decide on a time/location later.  If not…..then I guess I will use that time to go eat some pho! 

Sincerely,
Mrs. Butterfly

Has anything changed since we’ve been married?  Well, not really.  We have a new apartment, but other than that, our lives are pretty much the same.  But we did recently merge our bank accounts together and now I’m learning to cope with sharing accounts.  I can no longer go on a shopping spree without knowing that it affects someone else too. 

Although I must say, it is nice to have two paychecks.

So in terms of money, we are learning to compromise.  For example, Mr. Butterfly is a heavy debit card user.  He’d rather use the debit card than carry cash, which is fine.  However, when I’m keeping track of the money going in and out of our account, I find myself going crazy with the daily $2.05 Starbucks purchase.  Its TWO dollars!!!!  His reasoning is that he doesn’t want 95 cents in change, whereas I think its ridiculous to charge two dollars to a debit card.  So we have learned to compromise, and he now buys a Starbucks card in $50 increments. 

What happens when I want to buy something expensive?  See, I really (really really) wanted a Temper-pedic bed but my DH (dear husband) did not want to spend that much on a mattress.  But he really (really really) wanted a 42″ flat screen plasma TV, and I didn’t want to spend that much on a TV.  So we “compromised” by letting each other have the items, and promised to never bring it up as an unjustified cost in the future.

Other than that, things are going great for us.  I am so happy to be in our new apartment, which is huge (by Manhattan standards – over 900 square feet!)  I also can’t wait to go to Houston to visit my parents, because this will be the first time that he and I will be allowed to share a room!  At least, I think my parents will be OK with that.   

Happy holidays to everyone at Weddingbee!

I was thinking about my wedding the other day….who am I kidding.  I think about my wedding every day.    Why?  Because I can’t wait to get my pictures, and when I start thinking about all the beautiful shots, I start playing the wedding over and over in my mind.  Also, I went to Mrs. Snail’s wedding this past Sunday, so I’ve been surrounded by weddings.

Anyway, I was thinking about my wedding the other day, and tried to think of the things I would do differently if I could do it all over again.  I have definitely learned more about wedding planning and as stressful as it was, I had a lot of fun.  But there are things I would change.

1.  Favors – as much as I loved the idea of candles and matches, I think the favors could have come out a bit better.  I would have ordered several candles from different companies to see which one I liked best.  Also, I would have spent more time designing the images for each item.  I think I just ordered them way too early in the planning process, because I didn’t have a full vision of what my wedding would look like. 

2.  Out of Town Bags – I liked how these turned out, but I definitely could have made them more personal.  We didn’t provide any water bottles because in the end, we only had 4 bags to give out (2 of them being my parents who stayed in the hotel for only 1 night). 

3.  Hot Chocolate Bar - Hot chocolate was supposed to be poured for the guests as they were leaving, but I don’t think anyone saw them.  I kinda regret spending money on this, only because no one took advantage of it.  If I did it again, I would make it more prominent and I would have written about it on the menu.

4.  Save The Dates – I liked the way mine turned out, but I think I could have done more research.  The magnets were glued on to a piece of cardstock, but it could have been more creative and personal.  Plus, when you accidentally scratched the magnet, the picture scraped off and it left a big white mark. 

5.  DJ – I definitely should have shelled out more money for a better DJ.  Again, I attribute this to lack of research.  I would be on those message boards day and night for recommendations.  I think its very important to get recommendations of the vendors within your price range.  I personally spent 3 times more on flowers than I did on a DJ, and I’m sorely regretting that now.  I would have cut a few things out of my flowers and spent a few more hundred bucks on a better DJ instead. 

I think that’s it for now.  Now, what would I change if I had an unlimited budget?  Hmmmmm…….

With the months and months of planning, you just dont think that anything is going to go wrong on your wedding day.  Even though everyone tells you something will go wrong, you just can’t conceivably imagine what could go wrong.  I mean, I am pretty organized and I had a schedule of the entire day printed out for each person in the wedding party.  Seriously, what could go wrong?

As it turns out, several things can go wrong.  My wedding went pretty smoothly but there were definitely times when things did not go according to plan. 

1. The night before the wedding, we were all supposed to get our nails done, but because of the horrendous traffic we had to wait until after dinner.  Not many nail salons are open past 8pm.  We found one, but the manicurists were about to leave.  I panicked and said “but I’m getting married tomorrow!!!” before they did our nails.  I gave them a hefty tip.
2. I forgot to bring a button down shirt, so I had to borrow my bridesmaid’s pull over to get my hair done. 
3. The hair salon opened about 15 minutes late, and even then only one person showed up early.  Everyone else came in between 30 to 45 minutes after the shop opened.  Then we had to add 2 more people who wanted to get their hair done last minute. 
4. I forgot to bring my tiara and veil to the hair salon, so my bridesmaid had to take a cab back to the hotel and get it.
5. My mom and my cousin were supposed to show up to my hotel by 2pm to get their makeup done.  It was 2:30 and they were still not there because of they made a detour.  This is where I had a gigantic really minor temper tantrum.  I gave out schedules of who needed to be where at a certain time!!  How hard is that to follow? 
6. Even though I ordered lunch almost as soon as we got back, the restaurant barely brought up the food in time.  We were scheduled to leave at 2:00, but we didn’t end up leaving until 2:30.
7. This is why we had no time to take pictures in the West Village.  All of our outdoor pictures  with the bridal party was taken in Washington Square Park.  The pictures came out great anyway (from what I’ve seen) so this turned out OK.
8. I almost forgot to bring my husband’s wedding band to the ceremony.  I had to have my bridesmaid run up and get it (poor BM!!)
9. I forgot to bring the veil to the venue. 
10. The officiant was supposed to show up at 5:15, but he showed up at 5:40 due to heavy traffic.  Again, no one knew except me, so it turned out OK.

I think the rest of the night went fine, and if things went wrong after the ceremony, I didn’t know about it.  And even though all of these things went “wrong”, my wedding day was a complete success.  I loved the way everything turned out so I have no complaints. 

Ah!!  How could I forget about my paper and invitations vendor?

Invitations and Other Paper Items – Custom-Programs
Oh, how I loved my invitations.  Unfortunately, due to a small mistake, I will have no professional pictures of them.  Boooooohoooooo!  I will, however, have pictures of my escort cards, menus, table cards, and programs.

  
Here are some old examples of what I posted before.  I know I’ve said this like a thousand times, but when I get the professional pics, I will post up all of the details!  I absolutely loved every single piece of work they did for me and their customer service is amazing!  My favorite part is that they send you multiple versions of everything before getting approval to print.  And the designs are so much better than anything I could ever come up with.  I would highly recommend them for any invitations or other paper needs.

Final Rating:  A+

Ok – I know that I’ve given most of my vendors really good reviews, but honestly its because I had the best vendors!  I swear!!!

Here are the rest of the reviews!

Wedding Dress – Casablanca (MyrJan Bridal)
I absolutely loved my wedding dress.  The alterations were done by Fancy Cleaners (check the Tuesdays “Sales” blogs!).  Everything about the dress was perfect!  The veil was from MyrJan and the tailor altered it because I didn’t like the original length too much.  MyrJan bridal was good to deal with as a vendor.

Final Rating (MyrJan):  B+
Final Rating (Fancy Cleaners):  A

Bridesmaid Dresses – CocoMyles.com
I got sooooo many compliments on the bridesmaid dresses.  And people’s jaws literally dropped to the floor when they found out how little they cost!

You can’t see too much detail here.  When I get my professional photos, I’ll post them up, I promise!  Anyway, I cannot say enough good things about this place.  Their customer service was SUPERB.  By far, the best vendor I’ve dealt with for my wedding, and all my vendors were pretty good.  I paid about $150 to $160 for the regular dresses, and its a lot cheaper if you dont buy a shawl.  Its definitely worth checking out.

Final Rating:  A+

Tuxedos (not groom’s) – Dante Zeller Tuxedo
Their service was great.  I had everyone who rented a tux come to the store on Thursday before the wedding to try it on.  They keep great records which makes life so much easier.  We rented 11 tuxedos and each one of them fit great.  When I rented, they had a deal where you get 1 free rental for every 5, and you can distribute the savings across the 5 so that each tux comes out a bit cheaper.  The only thing was they mixed up two of my groomsmen, so they had to mix/match the pieces on the day of the wedding.  Otherwise, a much better choice (in my opinion) than Men’s Wearhouse.

Final Rating:  A-

Limo service – Crestwood Limo
My husband loves this company.  They were absolutely amazing.  They were on time, for one thing.  And it was a really smooth drive.  Plus, they do not charge you the ridiculous “wedding package” price.  It was $150 per hour, with a 3 hour minimum.  Not too shabby for a 16 person Escalade limo!!  We also rented two SUV’s for family and our transportation at the end of the night for about $70 to $75 per hour.  The 20% gratuities are not included in the pricing. 

Final Rating:  A

I can’t think of any more people to review.  If anyone wants me to review a specific portion of my wedding, please leave a comment!  I will also be giving away certain items in the near future, so keep reading!

Ok – I finally have some down time now.  Exams are over, my official honeymoon is almost over, and everything goes back to normal on Monday.  So between now and Monday, I thought I would write some more about my wedding.  So let’s talk vendors.

Overall, I was realllllly happy with all my vendors.  But here are the details anyway.

Photo/Video – 5 West Studios
I absolutely loved them!  5 people showed up in my hotel room on Saturday at 1:30pm.  Honestly, I could barely remember everyone being there.  I really wanted some pictures of my husband (husband!!!! ) seeing me in my wedding dress for the first time, and they made sure to capture that.  We then piled into a limo and drove to Washington Square for some outdoor pictures.  I had sent Spencer (photographer) a long list of all of the family combos, bridal party combos and other “must take” pics.  He brought the list and made sure everything was captured.  After seeing that teaser of some of the pics, I am absolutely thrilled with his work and I am soooo happy that I hired him!

Final Rating:  A+

Florist – Flowers of the World, Maria Nino
Her bubbling personality was exactly what I needed in a florist!  I gave her colors and styles that I sorta liked, and she came up with the rest.  Every time that I went in for a meeting, she had examples of what centerpieces or bouquets would look like.  This helped, since I wanted to know how the flowers would incorporate into my color scheme.  She dropped off all of the flowers that I needed herself at the hotel on the day of the wedding.  When I got to the venue, everything was done.  She had made extra boutenniers for the men because apparently boys always tend to ruin theirs before the ceremony.  For my petal cones, I bought several dozens of roses in colors that I wanted, and she and her staff picked off the petals for me the night before the wedding.  She stuffed the cones, then laid out extra petals at the program card table and other tables.  The lighting was fantastic!  I loved working with her and I would highly recommend her to anyone!

Final Rating:  A+

Tea Ceremony – Rose Handicraft
The lady who came to help us dress and bow was excellent.  My 3.5 heels got in the way of bowing, but I wasnt wearing any stockings.  So she took off her own stockings so that I wouldn’t be barefoot.  I thought they did a good job on the whole deal, however, the services were slightly different that what they were offering before.  See, both Mrs. Bee and my MOH used this company for their tea ceremonies.  I figured it would be the same.  I wanted my guests to be able to drink and talk, and watch the ceremony if they wanted to.  Part of the new services was an English speaking MC.  He basically told everyone to come and watch, then he talked everyone through the tea ceremony.  I didn’t particularly like the fact that he started off with “anyone know what a paebaek ceremony is? raise your hand”  That felt like he was lecturing, which I didn’t like.  In the end, I think everyone enjoyed it.  But I could have done with less talking. 

Final Rating:  A-/B+ (only because people enjoyed it)

DJ – Manhattan City Music
Let’s see – the tea ceremony was a few minutes delayed because he couldn’t figure something out on his system.  I gave him a Korean CD to play, then the tea ceremony gave him their music and he kept insisting that I had given him something first and didn’t want to play the tea music.  When the venue people told him that it was time for the bouquet toss, he announced, “and now its time for the bouquet toast?”  I had to gesture an actual toss for him to understand me.  He had to start our first dance song over a few seconds into the song….I don’t know why.  He played Bon Jovi wayyyy too early.  He played Eminem, and I specifically requested that he not play hip hop/rap music.  I’m also pretty sure he played a couple of songs more than once.  I had dealt with the owner of Manhattan City Music the entire time, but I think that was a mistake.  Obviously there was some lack of communication between the owner and the DJ.  However, he did not play any of the songs from our “do not play” list, people did end up dancing and having fun, and there were no blatant mistakes.  Plus, he was pleasant to work with.  I kinda with I had paid a little more money for a better DJ, but the other DJ I wanted never got back to me in time. 

Final Rating:  B-

Venue/Food – Twenty Four Fifth
Holy moly – these people seriously know what they are doing.  My MOH told me today that every time I asked her to do something, they were already doing it.  I could not have picked a better space for my wedding, and their service was superb.  The only thing was that I paid 500 bucks for the hot chocolate service at the end of the night, but I don’t think many people saw it.  It could have been more prominent.  Then again, everyone was apparently drunk which is why they didn’t see it.  Alexis, the woman I had been working with, was there almost the entire time.  She was amazing.  When I got nervous before walking down the aisle, she was the one looking into my face going “breathe, its ok, just breathe and smile.”  When my husband (husband!!!! ) and I wanted to rush off to make our rounds, she was the one who made us sit and eat our food.  When I got agitated because I didn’t want people to tip the bar, she was the one who reassured me that her staff knows not to take tips.  When I wasn’t satisfied, she let me put up signs that said “gratuities have been paid for…”  She and her staff scheduled the entire night, so I didn’t have to worry about things being on time.  I have been to weddings where the cake wasn’t cut until way past 11pm, so timing is everything.  The tipping scale at the end of the night was a bit steep compared to other venues, but I felt like I paid for a day of coordinator.  That is exactly what she and her staff were.  So the money was totally worth it!

Final Rating:  A

Officiant – Rev. Jim Covington
Man, am I glad I hired this guy!  Everyone has been telling me how much they loved him.  He spoke so sincerely and he was not boring at all!  Now, I have no idea what he said because the whole time he was talking, I was trying to figure out when we were supposed to say our vows.  I was getting a bit antsy because I just wanted to say our vows!!  But seriously, he was great.

Final Rating:  A

Stayed tuned for reviews on bridesmaid dresses, wedding dress, alterations, tuxedos, hair, makeup and limo services!  And by the way, this limo company was awesome!

Oh my – I cannot believe that I am back already from my honeymoon.  And I’m actually sitting in class as I write this. 

Anyway, our honeymoon was absolutely wonderful.  I spent a lot of time sleeping in, while my husband worked on his school papers and presentations. Yes, we were working while on our honeymoon.  Well, he was working – I procrastinated.

Our first three nights were spent at the Ritz Carlton in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Our first night, we discovered small tiny bugs all over our bed (after I took a nap in it!!!! EWWW!).  The hotel switched our rooms immediately at 2am.  The new room had a funny smell, but at least it didn’t have bugs!  We gambled a bit and ate a lot.  But mostly, I was recovering from the wedding and slept about 10 to 12 hours a day. 

Then we spent all day Thursday travelling to Anguilla.  Let me tell you, the grueling trip was definitely worth it.  I have many scenery pics from Anguilla because it was just so beautiful.  The food was a little better than average, but totally overpriced.  We got upgraded to a junior suite from a regular room because of our AmEx Platinum membership.  Our resort, Cap Juluca, is one of the world’s best resorts, and the Carribean’s #1 resort.  Celebrities like Kevin Bacon stay there frequently in the winter.  If you can afford the minimum of 600 a night, then I highly suggest you go stay there.  It was sooooooo beautiful!! 

Ok – I will write much more detailed reviews later, in addition to my vendor reviews.  I just wanted to say hi to all my readers!

Hello Weddingbee readers!

Yup, I am now a married woman.    The wedding itself was soooo wonderful.  I had one minor (really minor, I swear!!!) temper tantrum because people were running late and not sticking to the schedule/plan I gave them.  But otherwise, things went just fine. 

Some of my favorite moments.

• How I almost forgot to bring my husband’s wedding ring to the venue.
• My entire bridal party screaming “FREEEEEDOMMMMMMM!!!” in the middle of Washington Sq Park for some fun pictures – the men were watching Braveheart while they were getting dressed.
• All the men trying to hold me up for a picture, but failing miserably – apparently my dress was really heavy!
• All of us forgetting about bringing the veil to the venue.  I didn’t have the veil for pictures which was fine with me, but right before the rehearsal started, someone asked me “where is your veil?” and all of us just looked at each other like this:   Luckily Mrs. Bee was still at our hotel so she brought it with her. 
• The way my husband’s voice cracked a bit when he was reciting “I take you to be my wife”
• How our first dance went off very very well.  My MIL’s jaw was on the floor and all of my husband’s friends were sooo impressed.  Hell yeah!
• How one of my red sticker dots came off on my husband’s nose during the tea ceremony.
• My 7 year old cousin, Justin, dancing with all the girls, then getting in the middle of the dance floor, taking off his jacket, swinging it around and throwing to the ladies.  He was a rockstar!
• When we were rounding the tables, my brother’s table decided to SCREAM and cheer and bang on the tables when we got around.  Then of course, my parents’ table had to beat them in the screaming.  During our second round (to tell the young people about our after party), tables 1, 2, and 3 were all screaming trying to out-do one another in the loudness.  It was hilarious!

Some parts of the day ran late, because of traffic and stuff, but luckily there was enough buffer time throughout the day that we were OK.  We didn’t get to take pictures in the West Village unfortunately, but I think we got some great Times Square shots and we got great shots in Washington Square Park and Fifth Avenue.

My parents, my in-laws and everyone was very impressed with the wedding and everyone had a great time!!  I got the most compliments on my choice of minister, the bridesmaid dresses, our first dance, and our venue choice. 

A very very big thanks to my MOH, for putting up with me all day and not getting upset with me once.  A huge thanks to Mrs. Bee – she was so great that my parents’ friends wanted to hire her as a wedding coordinator for their daughters’ weddings!  And finally to the Best Man who was steady as a rock throughout the entire thing, even though he had a ton of responsibilities, like holding onto all the tip money.  And of course, thanks to my entire bridal party for being wonderful and amazing! 

So it seems like there may be some chance of rain on my wedding day.  I’ve been telling myself over and over that rain is good luck, that pictures in the rain look wonderful, a big bright umbrella will really liven up the pictures, etc.  But in my heart, I don’t want it to rain. 

Since we are staying at the W in Times Square, I thought it would be amazing to get at least a few shots of Times Square in my wedding dress.  Very New York pictures, don’t you think?  Then we were going to take some quaint pictures in the West Village.  However, with the possibility of rain, we had to think of alternate locations.

I really love the quintessential New York style, so if it rains, we are going to take pictures in Grand Central Station.  They do make for beautiful pictures, and I know my photographer has done it there before. 

But….I still dont want it to rain.

Would rain ruin your wedding day?

Yes
No