The Clueless Bride

Free table numbers!

Table #1!

When I put a bunch of our wedding decor for sale on Craigslist a few weeks ago (sadly, it was all snapped up pretty quickly), I was surprised when quite a bit of people asked if they could buy my table numbers.  I made them myself using Adobe InDesign, so I sent them the .pdf versions.

I figured there must be other brides looking for similar table numbers but don’t have the time to make their own. Since sharing is caring, here they are for the fine price of FREE!

I printed them on letter-size white cardstock, used a paper cutter for straight edges, then scored them in the middle for a nice, clean fold.

Click here to download a .zip file with numbers for up to 15 tables.

Enjoy!  And if you find they’ve been extremely helpful, any PayPal donations are appreciated (but not required!)!

DIY Lighting: The Results

Our lights in the daytime (along with a silly uncle)....

OK, so it’s been a few months since I’ve last posted (alright, three months!)…A reader named Alyssa left a comment about the outcome of our DIY lighting, which inspired me to write a new post.  Oh yes, and happy new year!

We really had no idea how our lights would turn out — We hadn’t actually tested them in action except for plugging in all the lights to make sure they worked.  On the day of the wedding, we decided we would accept whatever happened, and we’re pretty lucky that they looked as beautiful as we imagined in our minds!

The husband, groomsmen, my Dad & brothers and pretty much any able-bodied person around worked really hard in the late-September sun to install the lights.  They quickly realized that the bases were not nearly as wide in diameter as they should have been to support the pull of the hanging lights despite having sandbags to weigh them down — We should have gotten bases twice as wide, maybe 3 & 1/2 feet or more (I think our bases were around 1 & 1/2 – 2 feet wide). Luckily, all of our light poles were close to something sturdy, so they ended up securing the poles to whatever trees and roofs were around.  Here are the final results:

...And the final result! This is one of my favorite photos of when the night was barely beginning to wind down.

Our friends' seating area probably could have used more light...As we were packing up at the end of the night, we found an extra box of lights that were forgotten in the day-of craziness!

Shout-outs & just a few wedding photos

I’m finally starting to get back into the swing of things, and while I have yet to finish a reflection post on the whole experience, I thought I’d share a few photos taken by our friends & wedding photographers, Marcella Treybig and Brandi Welles (You can see Marcella’s photo post on her blog…I highly recommend checking it out as this is only a sampling of what’s on there!).

I’d also like to give a big shout-out and THANK YOU to our awesome day-of coordinator, Theresa Shlimanoff of Hustle & Bustle Events, along with her assistant, Kaci, and Theresa’s incredibly helpful father (whose name escapes me at the moment!).  They definitely live up to the “Hustle & Bustle” name and I’d recommend them in a heart beat for any couple who want a no-worries wedding day.  Our groomsmen loved the fact that Theresa’s dad brought them a pitcher of cold beer immediately after the ceremony!

Creme de la Crepe, our caterer, were absolutely magnifique! We received so many compliments from family and friends that their food was some of the best wedding food they’d ever eaten.  Their crepe stand was the hit of the night and there was a serious line happening to get dessert.

And let’s not forget our friendly bartender, Ruben, of Monterey Concessions…He definitely did not disappoint and all our guests were happily liquored up thanks to him!

These were a last-minute project!  We bought these wooden game pieces from Michael’s and I painted them two days before the wedding.

We were pretty relaxed as far as flowers went…I knew I wanted peonies, but it wasn’t going to be the end of the world if they weren’t available at the L.A. Flower Mart. Luckily, there were a few vendors that had them!

Tommy’s friend Shawn was kind enough to lend his musical skills!

Ok, I’ll admit it: I’m a sucker for jumping photos.

Check out more photos at Marcella’s blog!

In memory of Lola

Our great big Filipino family!

It’s been just over three weeks since I’ve magically turned into a married old lady, and I’d been meaning to write a post-wedding entry about what I learned from the experience of wedding planning, how the day went and the relief that our gettin’ hitched went off without a hitch.

I am sad that I am writing this one instead, but I am also celebrating the life of a wonderful, strong and loving woman that raised an amazing family. She helped make me the woman I am today, and because of that, I know she will always live on in me and my family.

My Lola (or “grandma” in Tagalog) passed away Friday, Sept. 24 at the age of 86 in her home surrounded by loved ones. Though I’m sad she is no longer with us, I’m happy that we had so many fun times and made countless of memories together.  I am extremely happy that she was able to be a part of our wedding, and that our friends and my husband’s family were able to meet the woman who started it all.

I was really concerned that she wasn’t feeling well or enjoying herself at the wedding; ever since she’d been hospitalized a couple months ago for a seizure and mild heart attack, she’d been eating less and less.  The day flew by and I barely got a chance to really sit down with her and make sure she was comfortable. The day was perfect and I never thought I’d have any regrets; however, I really wish I had stopped and taken the time to sit with her, even just for 10 minutes. But I know we can never predict the future, and it wouldn’t have been a genuine, meaningful moment if it was fueled by the thought that she’d be gone in less than two weeks.

After Lola passed away, my husband (still feels weird to say that!) told me he glanced over at her and caught her looking a bit sad — She was likely not feeling very well. But when she caught him looking at her, she smiled at him and blew him a kiss, he said.  If I had to describe her in a nutshell, that moment would be it. Although her health declined rapidly in the past year and a half, she never let it keep her down and remained the independent, loving (and sometimes stubborn) woman ’til the end. She always put her grandchildren before herself, and even as kids, we knew she loved us with with every bone in her body, even if he was angry at us.

Here’s a video of her talking about her childhood in the Philippines:

Lola talks about growing up, her childhood home from Danielle Directo on Vimeo.

Baccin’ it up

Is this what the weekend holds? William-Adolphe Bouguereau's "The Youth of Baccus"(1884)

This weekend my best ladies are taking me out to…Actually, I have absolutely no clue where I’m going for the weekend!  My only clues: Pack sweaters, swimsuits and hiking gear. Are they trying to throw me a curve ball with the hiking gear and sweaters?  Or perhaps we’re going to a winter wilderness-themed spa?

Apparently the fiance knows of their mysterious plans: “You’d better get to bed and get some sleep for tomorrow because…Yeah.” Then later today after coordinating a meet-up time and place with the Super-Awesome-Good-Samaritan-Dude who found my Droid phone, my fiance remarked, “Yeah, you’re gonna need  your phone.”

Hmmm…In any case, my friends know my tastes in fun, so I’m excited either way. I’m always up for a surprise trip, as long as it doesn’t involve a 3-day holiday weekend sleepover at Chippendale’s.

Eight days…

I totally meant to post this two days ago as it was the 10-day mark until the wedding. I can’t believe how quickly the hours, days and weeks flew by over the past nine months!

I had some photos to share of tissue paper pomanders (thanks, Martha!) that my mom and I made last week, but alas, I lost my phone three hours ago during a five(ish)-mile run at a park by Silverlake Reservoir with some friends.  Because the photos were on my now-lost phone, we’ll have to wait to see photos of them in action at the wedding instead.  In any case, I can attest that Ms. Stewart’s DIY directions are pretty easy to follow and our pink (never thought I’d ever have a pink wedding!) pomanders turned out wonderfully. We made half-size balls by using five 20″ x 20″ sheets instead, then cutting them in half to get ten 10″ x 20″ sheets.

Speaking of my mom being awesome with the paper ball-making, I’d like to turn the spotlight onto my Very Amazing & Awesome Mother (VAAM!).  See, she and my dad never had a wedding; they were rebels and just up and eloped when they could no longer tolerate the constant “When’s-The-Big-Day-Coming-Around” comments from family members.  My folks know what its like to have — to avoid using the word “overbearing” — perhaps very concerned parents/aunts/uncles/etc.  So in an effort to spare their spawn of the same annoyances, they’ve pretty much told us to abide by “the rule is there are no rules!” ethos (well…except when it came to whom of me and my four brothers were on dishwashing duty, or who was surpassing their 1 hour of allotted TV for the day…).

I credit my mom (and my Very Amazing & Awesome Father…VAAF!) for instilling in me the whole “It’s-OK-to-be-different” idea within me.  I could very well be a bridezilla right now, crying about why I don’t have a monogrammed aisle runner or that I can’t afford chiavari chairs, or that I can’t have peonies on every single table because that’s what happens in weddings.  But I’m not, and I have my ‘rents to thank for that.

I’m also incredibly lucky that my mom isn’t a Momzilla…Some might expect her to want to live vicariously live through my wedding planning and pick the perfect shade of purple or a specific whatcha-ma-callit for the who-knows-what.  She’s been very involved, encouraging and immensely helpful in every way without being a crazy Mother of the Bride, and everyone (or at least the 5 people reading this) should know how lucky I feel!

Beatiful DIY templates from WeddingChicks.com

Remember that mid-century-licious Mad Men graphic my friend/photographer Marcella made?  If you’re in love with it as much as I am, you can actually make it yourself at WeddingChicks.com!  Susan Schindler of Wedding Chicks left a comment letting me know that any MM-loving bride can make their own personalized save-the-date.  After checking out the rest of the site, I just about drooled all over my keyboard when I found their extensive library of customizable freebie wedding templates.

I really wish I’d stumbled upon it months ago because all of it is straight up our alley!  Their bicycle-themed invitation set would’ve been perfect for us, but I’m still proud that I designed our invites all by myself (and with the handy help of Adobe InDesign).  They’ve actually made it ridiculously easy with a fill-in form that emails your invite in .png format directly to you.

Bicycle invitation set, photo courtesy of WeddingChicks.com

Or what about these vintage-inspired custom monograms?  I’m putting these to use!

Vintage-inspired monograms, photo courtesy of WeddingChicks.com

We have 16 more days to go (and obviously I’m still terrible with my posting-everyday-til-the-wedding plan…), which is plenty enough time to work in some of these gorgeous templates.

22 days

As we’re winding down with 22 days left until THE day, I’m finding myself in a crunch to get a move on with all the little projects I decided to pick up over the last couple weeks: “Reserved” signs for the ceremony seating, manila tags for the moustache favors (see the previous post below), the ceremony aisle decor, table numbers and other small tasks I’m sure I’m forgetting.

In the midst of all this, I realized I need to remember one of our mottos we swore we’d stick to: Keep it simple and keep it fun!  Revisiting the $2,000 Wedding blog and reading their 8 goals really helped me get back on track. Now that we have less than a month left, I was inspired to create my own short list to keep me from using that whole “But it’s our wedding!” excuse to splurge on things we didn’t include in our budget.

• The devil may be in the details, but I’m sure as hell not going to act like a devil if the little, insignificant things don’t go as planned.
• Keeping it simple means less time worrying about the aforementioned little details and more time enjoying the company of our loved ones!
• Just because our guest list dropped from 170 to 150 does not give me full reign to decide now’s the time I want to splurge on flowers I didn’t care about in the first place.
• Avoid getting sucked into thinking, “But I NEED that!” just because last-minute wedding blog browsing is giving me the itches to do what everyone else is doing.
• All in all, the bottom line is that our wedding should reflect us as individuals and us as a couple.

Moustaches & Manila Tags

Even cats love moustaches!

My fiance is pretty much in love with the actor, Daniel Day-Lewis…He even convinced me to dress up alongside him as characters from “There Will Be Blood” (He dressed up as Daniel Plainview and I dressed up as the son, H.W.). Mr. Day-Lewis has a tendency to don a moustache in many of his roles, so I wasn’t surprised that my fiance thought it would be cool to have moustaches as fun conversation pieces for the tables.  We didn’t want to buy them online and pay up to $10/piece, so we went and bought our own felt and wooden dowels and got to makin’ them ourselves!  The whole project cost less than $15 for the black fabric and dowels.  I made a moustache “pattern” as a guide and cut the fabric (Fun fact: I won “Best Scissor-Cutter” in kindergarten…Maybe they ran out of awards?), while my fiance glued two moustache pieces together around the dowel.

We figured we might as well make them into wedding favors, and my friend Rhi totally inspired me when she included this manila tag in a letter:

Totally stealing this idea...

We’re going to handwrite a nice thank you message, our names and wedding date to each tag and attach them to the moustache dowels.  Looks like we’ll have something to keep us busy this weekend!

Here are some other really cute ideas (wish I thought of the save-the-date one beforehand!):

• Via orangesparrow on Flickr:  Have people write advice or messages on a tag and hang them onto something to display
• Via Colleen on freshvintage: Soak the tags in tea to give them a vintage feel
• Via 100 Layer Cake (one of my fave wedding inspiration blogs) : Make them into save-the-dates!
• Via Creature Comforts: Glue patterned fabric onto the tags and include sweet messages!

Some beautiful budgety inspiration

Even though the wedding is 31 days, I’m still finding design & decor inspiration!

What? A $5,000 wedding!? Awesome!

Via Snippet & Ink: Tessa & Adam’s $5,000 wedding proves you can throw an awesome party without throwing out some cash…They hired a hot dog stand to cater their 200 guests and the bride made adorable felt corsages and boutonnières.  Their friends and family helped, too; the bride wore a dress she designed herself and was sewn by her mother (who also made the flowergirls’ dresses), and the bride’s former roommate photographed their wedding.  Although I’m pretty sure we’re too late into the game to re-think our budget, it’s still amazing to see others pull off a gorgeous wedding for a fraction of what most people spend (however, we’re still waaaay below what other folks in our zip code spend on their Big Days!)

A wedding and art show in one!

Marissa, whom I bought my dress from, was awesome enough to think of me when she saw this post on the etsy blog of Devon & Golriza’s wedding. The couple made a beautiful paper chandelier and recorded songs together, which went onto CDs and given to guests as favors.

While we’re on the subject of budgets (when am I not???), here are some of my favorite wallet-minded wedding blogs:

• $2,000 Wedding: Yes, you read correctly and yes, it’s possible!  They planned their whole wedding in seven months for just under $2K. The couple devised a list of 8 ultimate goals to keep themselves in check during their planning process and had family and friends donate jewelry to be melded into one as their rings.
• $5,000 Wedding: This Canadian couple had 52 guests, opted for hors d’oeuvres instead of a sit-down dinner, had an open bar and planned it all in 2 & 1/2 months…Whoa!
• $10,000 Wedding: Though the bride has stopped blogging, it’s really fun to read how her wedding plans progressed.
• $12,000 Wedding: Great tips and ideas to help you plan a wedding for $12K!