Posts Tagged ‘Wedding’

A not so cool wedding venue due to swine flu…

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

The pandemic that has been the subject of every news for the past week is  narcissistic-couplenow nettling and really peeving in my nerves.  The continuous public announcement to never worry is giving the public an opposite reaction.  I never used nor heard the word “pandemic” in my entire existence but the usage of this word for the past week is too much that my system no longer want to swallow it. The health officials prefer to use such word instead of epidemic for the swine flu due to the wide geographic span that got affected which is US and Mexico.

The source of trepidation that force the public to wear a mask is Mexico.  The virus that comes from swine/pig but not by eating it instead through a  direct contact with the animal and the contaminated human  can be a carrier of the the virus to other humans.

Mexico is the favorite getaway of  Americans who want to have a beach themed wedding… second to Hawaii, in my opinion.  A story that featured in the news just nestled in my thoughts about the couple who canceled their wedding  in Mexico.  This is the  way of the media to show how serious is the case of swine flu although impertinent to others.  The couple is about to hold their vow in Mexico together with some friends and family.  Since the pandemic is  a big threat to every one’s health the couple decided to cancel their wedding in Mexico and decided to head off to Bahamas.  Well, i don’t care as to where they want to have it but what triggered me  to react is the couple’s  foolish decision.  The mother of the bride was interviewed  and she said that she wont be able to go to Bahamas because she can’t afford it and so are the rest of the friends who are supposed to attend the wedding in a couple of days.  It’s a common knowledge that there is a cancellation fee and some cases if you buy it online there is no cancellation nor refund policy.  The couple was adamant to go to Bahamas and get married without family & friends.

I agree… definitely!  cancel the Mexico wedding since it compromise your health but the wise option is to have the wedding locally to where they could celebrate it with friends and family.   The two swift off  to island for the beach wedding is like a case of “announced elopement”.  A wedding can only be as  memorable and as significant when shared with the people dear to us. It is  quite  narcissistic for the couple to disregard the financial aspect of the people they consider dear to them.  No matter how great nor grand is your wedding venue, if there are no friends nor relatives around… it will be a waste!   …  The very reason why there is such thing called “Honeymoon” is for the couple to have each other alone to where ever they want to… no friends, no relatives around.

Indeed, the swine flu pandemic caused a great strain to many although the economic scene is as pandemic as the latter so none of these phase should  lull us instead continue living and in opting to have a wiser decisions in life.

“Nuptial” & “Nuptials”… let’s clarify this!

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

nuptials-nuptial

This word is commonly seen in the wedding invitations most especially in the Asian region.  It hurts my eyes though  when a formal  and expensive invitation would commit a vital error.

Let’s  start with the word “Nuptial”… basically an adjective which refers to the marriage ceremony or something that pertains to marriage.  To recall our definition of adjective it simply means a descriptive word.

example:

“Each country practices different nuptial rites.”

“I was touched by the nuptial vow of Carms & Den.”

“I was assigned to light the nuptial candle.”

For the word “Nuptials” … this is considered as a noun which refers to an entity, state or concept.   Nuptials refers to the wedding itself.  So when you opt to use the word ‘wedding’ never follow it with the word  ‘nuptials’ otherwise you’re committing redundancy.  To easily absorb this just remember that ‘wedding’  is replaceable with the word “nuptials’.  This word is commonly seen in the invitations.

example :

“Lirio-Diaz’  Nuptials”

“Luzon-Partoza’s Nuptials”

I hope this confusion is settled… most especially to those brides who personalized their own invitations or for tags of your wedding favors.

Making Personalized Wedding Bouquet

Friday, March 20th, 2009

personalized-boquetHaving a bouquet of flowers with a dainty wedding dress of your choice can make every  bride a princess on that special day.  Fresh flowers is a must for me, a simple hand tied flowers in season and accentuated with ribbon and pearl head pins just makes a perfect wedding bouquet.  Before I decided to make my own wedding bouquet, I searched online for the store in San Francisco where I could buy the bouquet and end up very disappointed because of the price.  The wedding bouquet that caught my attention but not quite what my heart sings costs $145 plus delivery charge.  It doesn’t make sense for me.  I was planning also to give a small bunches of flowers to all the girls in my wedding so it will cost me so much if  I’m going to buy everything from the flower shop.  The most important thing in personalizing my bouquet is I get to choose the style & color that I  really love and get to customize the thickness of the bouquet that I could comfortably hold.

Cascading bouquet that would almost cover the front of the wedding dress just doesn’t impress me.  It turns a  bride into a goddess of Eden or a walking flower box.  Too much of anything is an eye sore for me… irregardless whether you can afford to buy the whole Huntington Botanical Garden.

So, the plan was to make my own bouquet.  What I did was I bought ahead the hair band,  pearl head pins and off-white silk ribbon at Michaels. I already have in mind the colors  of what my bouquet should look like.  I want to have the combination of white, light yellow and light green flowers.  I don’t have a specific kind of flower but I opted to have the ones in season for affordability and easy find.

A day before the wedding, my husband and I went to Safeway in San Francisco to buy bunch of flowers with the colors of my choice  for the wedding bouquets and small bunches of flowers for all the girls in my wedding.  We soaked the whole bunch in a bucket.  I believe I had white tulips, white calla lilies,  baby’s breath and light yellow flower which unfortunately I forgot the name already.  I woke up early to arrange the flowers.  Since the I had a 3:30pm wedding, I had enough time to do it myself.

How I made the wedding bouquet:

  1. Prepare scissors, pearl head pins, off-white ribbon (inch think), hair band
  2. Gather the flowers in your hand by arranging it neatly and pleasantly.  I decided to put  baby’s breath at the outer layer of the bouquet.
  3. Gather as much until you reach the desired thickness that you can comfortably hold.
  4. Use hair band to gather the flowers and this way you’re sure that the flowers will be in placed all through out the wedding.  Put the hair bands in three different places in the stem.
  5. Cut the stem in your desired length evenly.
  6. Cover the whole stem with  ribbon.  Put the pearl head pin each round in the ribbon or depending how much pins you like to put.  Each pin should be in line with the others.
  7. Put the pins sideways for your safety.
  8. Until you put your last pin, and there! your personalized bouquet!

For the small bunches of flowers, all I did was tie it with hair band and cover the band with ribbon.  I gave the bunches to my niece, daughter of my very good friend, my sister in law, fiance of my husband’s  best man and of course to my good friend since college who stand as my Maid of Honor.

Simplicity and personalization is the key.  Don’t throw away your money on something you can save by doing it yourself and bring out the hidden creativity in you.  Personalization is the signature that will always colorfully resonates on the day when everything is gray.

My Wedding Favors

Friday, March 13th, 2009

Nimesha Trinket - My Wedding Favor

“Bridezilla” is the reality TV show at WEtv channel that gives bride a bad name or … maybe not ?.  Wedding is always been a venue to shine,  a chance to be glamorous, live the fantasy that has been consuming you since 5th grade and for some who are filthy blessed want to “party like a rockstar” which equates to flaunt what you have.

Oh yes! attention and open mouth appreciation from others give bride a wedding-favornatural high.  The downside ?… well,  putting the whims and desires altogether in a period of time results pressure & tension thus creating a character of Bridezilla.  Loosing patience because expectation is not met,  playing blame game,  wanting more in the process and disappointments for not meeting your standard.  The bride is becoming an angry princess who feels so alone and thinking straight can no longer be absorbed.  The reality is people around you is so concern with your happiness and the goal of pleasing you is the name of the game.  Brides!… be reasonable!

This is the beauty of a simple and small wedding.  You get  to enjoy the process even in a short period of time.  Definitely!… throwing some tantrums and a bit of disagreement come in the package but not enough to create a monster out of you.  Yes!… I love my simple and intimate wedding.  What could be a better place than  the city of San Francisco.  The City Hall is grand as the palace.  Intricate architectural designs are beyond impressive inside and out.  The place, weather, professional photographer and the presence of family & friends perfected the wedding.  Well adding spice on my day was the humorous tragedy… ( our car got towed!, amazing ha!) still, my husband and I could say… “We left our hearts in San Francisco”

The part that I enjoyed the most while preparing for the big day aside from choosing the wedding dress was wrapping  my wedding favors.  I know that some brides never even had a chance to tie the ribbon of their wedding favors.  I have the trinket favor on hand prior to all other things we needed in the wedding since my husband and I own a favors store- Whims and Likes.  I want to make my wedding favors simple, creative and elegant without hurting the pocket.  Alright!… I’m cheap!… elegantly I may say ( i love Ross Dept Store, btw).  Since I am not spending on my trinket favors, I concentrated on looking for an affordable gift wrapper.  One time, my husband & I went to Ikea to buy something for the kitchen & I happen to pass a bin full of gift wrappers along the stairs going to the next level.  The color caught my eyes!… Perfect!… all the earth colors I love and I know I want for my wedding favors which has white, green and brown thick stripes.  Took one bunch for $3.99 bucks and off to the register.

I went to Michaels by myself… women can spend the whole day browsing so a girl needs to be alone… I need ribbons that will coordinate the wrapper of the favors.  I found a good quality ribbons in the sale section and got rolls of brown and soft green ribbons.  Then I started wrapping the favors and I so loved the outcome. I put silver sticker in floral design on two sides that acted like a seal for the finishing.  Personalized thank you tags that I created just made the  wedding favors ready for the day.

There is a pleasure in seeing the fruit of your labor.  Well, to each his own but I find pleasure in simple things and I do appreciate  seeing  others doing the same thing.

My wedding day ended at the reception in Bistro Boudin Restaurant.  We accomodated the Museum room and Yes! … the historical bits and pieces of San Francisco are featured in the room.  Nice ha! … The guests entertained themselves!.  I have no single complain on the place in which  the bay and  Alcatraz are on the view by the way.  We had an amazing buffet dinner and all the food were great!.  I have to say that the service was excellent ( no cutting fee for the wedding cake, what about that!).

My simple yet the best wedding for my standard.  The light gold weddingmy day gown, Indian veil (courtesy of my husband), pearl ensemble from my in-laws… made the bride very happy! and of course preparing   my wedding favors was the best “me time”  I had.