My Wedding - A Look Back...

FOR PAST, SOON-TO-BE, & FUTURE BRIDES.
All photos were taken by our friend and photographer, Tracey Heppner.
To view more photos, read her blog post here!
Read our engagement story here!



 Our wedding ceremony & reception venue - UBC Boathouse in Richmond, BC

Herro! I'm still here in the Philippines but finally have some down time to put together a post. I wanted to reflect on my wedding planning process and the wedding itself so that a) I have something to look back on in the future and b) hopefully it will help those who are currently planning their wedding and those who will be getting married in the future.

DON'T PROCRASTINATE - If you're like me, you like to leave things to the last minute because you know you'll get the job done anyway no matter what but if you're planning a wedding (especially a wedding on a budget), you'll need time to carefully plan for things like DIY projects.

YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT - Though it's your wedding, there are many others to think about and consider when it comes to wedding details, mainly.... PARENTS! They will likely want to invite so-and-so who invited them to their son's wedding as well as your cousin's second cousin's brother. Their taste is also likely different from your taste so you may have to come to a compromise... you may have to let your orange polka dot chair covers go.



  All of us including bridesmaids and groomsmen stopped in the middle of the aisle and posed for a photo, this was my pose. :P

STAY TRUE TO YOURSELF - This is so important! You don't want to look back at your wedding and think "that wasn't me at all" Even with the above point in mind, make sure the wedding is still YOU. It made me smile every time someone came up to me and said "this wedding is totally you guys" It's challenging trying to keep parents and other requests in mind while staying true to yourself but in the end it is worth it!





 details that were "us" one: my silver glitter TOMS shoes that matched our theme colors of gray & aquatwo: as most of you know, i have a clothing line called herro hachi - of course, it had to be incorporated into the wedding somehow. "herro?" pins were on all boutonnieres, my bouquet, and my bridesmaids' dresses. three & four: two of our favorite things - japanese snacks and bubbletea! a bowl of pocky sticks were at each table and bubbletea was served during "cocktail" hourfive: instead of photo booths, we had flip books vancouver at our reception! you get 6 seconds of video time and it comes out in a book :)

CHOOSE YOUR BATTLES, especially on your wedding day! Know that not everything will go according to plan. Things will go wrong - at my brothers wedding reception, the audio didn't work, at my friends reception, her cake started melting and leaning sideways, at my wedding reception, it took 30 minutes for us to get our slideshow working. It's okay!

WORK AS A TEAM - I have to say that planning a wedding is really a test of your relationship with your partner. Many times my husband (still feels weird saying that) and I disagreed on many details during the wedding planning process. We also disagreed on what was worth spending money on and what wasn't worth it. Communication & Compromise is important! (Patience & Perseverance too :P)



 Our wedding reception entrance to "Thunderstruck" by ACDC

TAKE A MOMENT TO BREATHE - It gets stressful... really stressful. I had plans to lose weight for my wedding day but in the end, I didn't have time or energy to include a work out routine but i lost weight because of stress. Stay healthy and take time for yourself. Outings with your bridesmaids and close girlfriends are great for venting, laughing, crying, and just enjoying each others company. :)



 Instead of a cake, we had home made cupcakes made by our very good friend. She even made a bride and groom cupcake for the very top of the cupcake tower!

ACCEPT HELP - If you're like me, you like having control over most details because you want things done a certain way. During the wedding planning process, especially during the last few weeks before the wedding - you will need help! My matron of honor (my sis in law) was great because all I had to do was tell her what needed to get done and how I wanted it done and she took care of delegating and instructing others. She was also great at answering questions because trust me, days before the wedding, people will be asking you 13402983 questions and many of them are the same questions you've answered tons of times already. Make sure your bridesmaids are always in the loop so they can take the Q&A off your shoulders.

HIRE A WEDDING CO-ORDINATOR - If I were to do it all over again, i would definitely hire a coordinator to help from the beginning to the end of the wedding planning. If it's in your budget, go for it! It'll make your life easier and you'll actually have time and energy to enjoy the process. If hiring a wedding co-ordinator isn't in your budget, make sure you at least have one for the day of your wedding. Nothing worse than someone coming up to you at the head table and complaining that you've sat them at the same table as someone they don't like. ;)

So... ready to get married? :P

tweet, tweet // i design clothing: www.herrohachi.com // book of faces // tumblr

Wedding Venue Preview

Hi, remember me? :P Sorry for the mini-absense. With just over a month left before the big day, i'm starting to run around like a headless chicken (has anyone actually seen what that looks like? Hmmm... maybe i'll YouTube it after this) I visited our venue one last time last Friday to hash out final details with the in-house co-ordinator and I thought i'd "bring you guys along" to get a sneak peek of the venue. Excuse the loud wind in the background!

What do you think? ^___^

tweet, tweet // i design clothing: www.herrohachi.com // book of faces // tumblr

Countdown to the Big Day

Planning Progress:
Even though i'm accomplishing things every day, it still feels like my to-do list is growing instead of shrinking. My fear is that i'm forgetting something big... kinda like when you're packing for a vacation and you forget something important like underwear (or your passports).

• Bought vases for centrepieces through craigslist. Normally retailing for about $2-$3/pc, i got them for 50 cents each! 
• Found the silver glitter wedding shoes i've been looking for. They are similar to this Christian Louboutin pair that I originally wanted except it costed $50 instead of $3,695. 
• Applied for our marriage license. I'm not sure I understand why it costs $100 to later declare that we are officially married. -_-
• Best part of all... POCKY is going to be incorporated in our wedding. Ohhhhh yeaaaaahhhhh.

Feelings: 

• I've come to terms with the fact that though it is our wedding, we won't get everything we want because we have to accommodate requests from certain family members. 
• Planning can definitely get stressful. We've been tempted several times to just drop the planning, head to city hall and get it done and over with! 
• I tried on my wedding dress today. It's heavy and I wasn't really sure whether I was to "enter" from the top or the bottom... I went from the bottom and it was very awkward trying to search for the top opening through all that material!

46 days left!
for my new readers...
you can read our engagement story here!

tweet, tweet // i design clothing: www.herrohachi.com // book of faces // tumblr

Help Me Brainstorm: Love Songs!

As my wedding day approaches in just a little over 2 months, my fiance and I have been thinking of songs to be sang and played during the ceremony and reception. We both love old slow jams from the 90's and new songs as well. We'll be having mixtures of songs from Jason Mraz (to give that summer wedding feel :P), Side A (a Filipino Band), Corrine Bailey Rae, and more.
Here's where I need your help - Many of us grew up with the same love songs and i don't want to miss any good ones! We'll have music during the ceremony, reception, couple slideshow, and dance (for the slow songs) so we'll need lots of songs! :D
What are your favourite love songs??? It can be slow jams or fun/happy tunes (like that of Jason Mraz)

By the way, for those of you who were wondering which child I was in the kindergarten picture in my last post ("Kindergarten Kym", read here), i circled me for you! click here. :)



tweet, tweet // i design clothing: www.herrohachi.com // book of faces // tumblr

Boring Wedding Stuff

I've been mentioning my upcoming wedding for a while now but i've never actually shared many details at all. You're probably wondering "is she really engaged?" yes... yes, i am. :P I didn't share any details because I didn't have many details to share, haha! (procrastination at it's finest)

We wanted a really non-traditional wedding that is unique and represents who we are. We went with a japanese inspired wedding with theme colors of gray & aqua (as you can see from the invitations i designed, pictured below). There are lots of exciting details incorporated in the wedding but i will keep that a surprise until after the wedding. :D

7 4 D A Y S L E F T ! 

Do you have any ideas for japanese touches we can add to our wedding?

tweet, tweet // i design clothing: www.herrohachi.com // book of faces // tumblr

Wedding Nightmares

photo from www.keithpanel.com

Last Friday, I was able to cross one thing off my wedding to-do list: book venue! The picture above is where we will be having both our ceremony and our reception. The ceremony will be held right on the dock and the reception will be held upstairs in a large hall with floor to ceiling windows which will give us nice views of the water, mountains, and of course - the sunset! 

I must be in denial about how overwhelming all this planning is b/c i had my first wedding nightmare last night. I dreamt that I did such a horrible job planning my wedding that I ended up with weeds as my wedding bouquet!!! I had uninvited guests who showed up and they were all wearing matching bedazzled neon green disco outfits. Worst of all, I saw my groom for the first time and he didn't look amused. hahaha!

Did you have any nightmares this weekend?