Shut Up and Take My Money! Un Jour De Moins Headpiece

Welcome to another installment of Shut Up and Take My Money!  Be sure to catch up and read the very first post.  Ready to take a look at this beaut?  I guarantee it's a breath-taker.  Take a look after the jump!

Quest for the Dress - Part III: Ta Da!

Here it is, dear readers!  My white wedding dress!!  It does look a little plain, but I think fits me really well and I plan to amp it up with accessories and my veil.  Take a look after the jump!

Engagement Recap: Part I - The Proposal and a Party

If there was a post Mr. Journey would not like, I think this one is it.  Why?  Because I will tell you, dear readers, the story of our engagement.  It's not the stuff movies are made of but for me, the most important part is the person I'm marrying and I wouldn't have anyone but him.

I said before we moved through our relationship pretty quickly.  I thought we would date for a month or so, then officially become boyfriend-girlfriend.  Probably date for a couple of years, then move in together, and then he'd pop the question - all in all, maybe a 3-4 relationship?  Wellllll, it went more like, officially became bf-gf after about a month, we said "I love you" around the three month mark, then he 'accidentally' asked me to marry him around late April 2011 (4 months in).  We were in bed one morning and he looked down at me and asked, "You want to get married?"

...er, I swear it was a lot sweeter and romantic than how I described it.  Anyway, we decided to keep it to ourselves until we put a ring on it.

Hear the rest after the jump!

Quest for the Dress -Part II: Hong Kong Insanity

{Personal Photo: Flower Market, Hong Kong March 2012}

Although not as cheap as Mainland China, I'm much more familiar with the Hong Kong landscape.  I was excited to arrive for a bevy of reasons - mostly eating, shopping, and wedding dress hunting!  If you've never been to Hong Kong, be prepared for a whirlwind adventure!

Shut Up and Take My Money! Annasul Y 2012 Qi Pao Wedding Dress

Due to my love of all things lovely and my crippling inability to purchase any of them, I give to you a new segment called: Shut Up and Take My Money!!!

For those of you that don't get the reference, it's from the brilliant show, Futurama:

Without further ado, here's the first installment!

Quest for the Dress - Part I: Inspiration

Time for the nitty-gritty, wedding bridal posts!  What would a bride be without her dress?  I have to confess, I'm no good at decisions when faced with unlimited choices.  Even now, though I'm very happy with my dress, I keep thinking, "We-e-ll, maybe this dress would be better..."

Again, I've never given much thoughts to weddings so initially I had no idea what I wanted.  Scratch that: I knew what I DIDN'T want.  I didn't want:

• Strapless: I know there are a lot of corsets and zippers and girdles in place to ensure that it wouldn't fall, but I didn't feel like checking every few minutes and hoisting it up all the time
• Bright white: Maybe an ivory or blush or light gray, but not a blindingly white shade, please
• Cupcake: I wanted an easy, flowy shape - no giant ball gown, sexy mermaid, big poofy number with an enormous train.  I'm 5 feet tall on a good day, so I don't want to be engulfed in dress

{source: Zara Bridal} Very pretty, but not for me

At the time I was seriously looking for a dress, I thought we would have an outside ceremony in Sacramento, so I wanted a dress that didn't look too ostentatious and out of place.  Something that was light, casual, and floated in the wind.  Oh, did I mention I wanted it under $1,000 dollars?

Keep reading to see more of my thought process (and pretty dresses!)

Greetings and Salutations

I suppose a little background on good ol' Miss and Mister Journey are in order, right?  I'm afraid our love story isn't very exciting but it's going strong!  I think the most interesting thing about us (at least in my perspective) is how quickly we snowballed into this, considering I've never aspired to get married and I tend to over-think things.

After the jump, behold our faces!!

Oh, The Foolishness of Youth!

Greetings, true believers!  Life has a way of getting in the way of blogging, but weddings are robust beasts and not even the foibles of life will get in their way!  Planning and scheming and hair-pulling and hand clappings have been afoot these many months, which I will happily update you with here.

But can I be allowed one moment of melodramatic lamenting?  I re-read my past posts and my expectations... - what naivety!  What lofty goals!!  Have the venue locked down by March?  Lose the weight before indulgent Hong Kong and school finals?  Oh, but if I could turn back time and shake my silly self!  Thankfully, some things have been crossed off the checklist so let's start with the positives first, shall we?

Venue Search Part I

I can quickly see how this can search can be the bane of a bride's existence.  It's really very exhausting work.  Other than the groom, this seems to be one of the most important facets of a wedding.  Without it, you can't choose a date, a season, size of the wedding party, decorations, budget, anything!  You have to find a place, visit/contact the place, and see if it meets all your criteria.  It's also a little more difficult for me as I'm in Southern California at the moment (finishing up an MBA and a Master's degree - hopefully graduating in May!), and I'd like to have Sacramento be one of the locations.  Thankfully I have family that can go check it out for me, but it's really not the same as being there.

See my first foray after the jump!

Scholarly Attributes

I have attacked this wedding in the manner most familiar to me: Make it into a nerdy, scholarly research project!  I will research and research, with OCD precision!