On June 26, 2009, Devan and his wife, Karen, hosted our rehearsal party. It was a relaxed day – great BBQ and our bridal party with their significant others. We ate, caught up with each other, handed out some well-deserved Thank-yous, and then the girls headed east where they were pampered the night before the wedding.
Browse through the pictures in our gallery.
Everyone hanging out.
Donny and his men
Me and my ladies
The whole gang plus little Joe
Ed trying on his ao dai
I never pictured my dream wedding. To be honest, I think the whole Asian parents saying, "NO DATING!" sunk in and I never even thought about it. When we got engaged, I was already working on my master’s degree and so inspiration came from googling pictures and sites like brides.com or theknot.com.
The long engagement allowed me to collect MANY ideas and develop many myself. The basic theme is "Asian-fusion VIP Club" (if that makes ANY sense to you). We definitely wanted to keep culture involved in the design. Our heritage is important and I love the elegance of modern, Asian elements. It has to be fresh, funky, and elegant. I know it seems like a clash, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE mixing traditional with modern. I think mixing styles are very appealing and bring life to both extremes. You can easily mix clean lines with an oddball organic vase to make things more visually interesting. I figure, I love my interior design this way, I will have the wedding this way. Donny is more into "all modern", but we both agreed to keep it sleek and clean. That’s the beauty of Asian elements. They’re usually very clean and simple if you think "Zen". To incorporate the traditional, I am designing a vector of the dragon and phoenix tail with heart shapes at the end.
By the way, he had a big hand in planning all of this too. We brainstormed a lot to come up with elements that made us both happy!
This is just explaining the vision of decorating the spaces. The ceremony decor was left up to the parents since it is traditional in reds and golds and in their homes. Here goes…
I made design boards in Excel (surprise, surprise). I googled for most of the images. This is what I used to have VISUAL conversations with Donny since describing even basic colors threw him into confusion! We have two areas to design: the lounge and the reception banquet room. These are the boards, click to enlarge!
I pretty much referred to this board for inspiration when I met with the vendors and made decisions. It helped us align on what we wanted first so that when we did come to something that needed a decision, we knew what fit into the overall design.
09.29.81 | He was born!
08.29.84 | Lucky for him… She was born!
09.01.05 | They met at Monte’s
09.08.05 | They went on their first date at Bistro Bella Vita
01.04.06 | They "officially" became a couple
04.01.06 | He first told her that he loved her. Note that it WAS April Fools’ Day and he was not kidding!
08.07.06 | She graduated with her bachelors
08.25.07 | He proposed and she said YES!
09.09.07 | They went house shopping
09.10.07 | Their offer on the house was accepted!
05.25.08 | Semi-traditional family engagement celebration
07.19.08 | Bridal Party Barbeque: A meet and greet for the BP and their significant others.
12.15.08 | She graduated with her masters and the wedding planning took off!
05.02.09 | Anti-Shower Shower & The Vegas T-Party
05.16.09 | Co-Ed Stock-the-bar Party
05.22.09 | Vegas Bachelor & Bachelorette Parties
06.27.09 | They’re FINALLY MARRIED!
06.29.09 | They leave for their honeymoon
Three times is a charm.
01.23.09 fitting 1
04.25.09 fitting 2
06.06.09 fitting 3
The Dress Plan
We got engaged in August 2007 with the wedding set to be in June 2009. I did not want to choose a dress right away because I knew I’d look at the newer seasons and want something else. So I browsed wedding dresses in magazines and online for MONTHS. I fell in love with a Soterro dress and could not look back after I found it. I don’t care what anyone says, I love pickups and all things girly. I went to a bridal salon on the east side of the state so that my mom would be able to be present with me at all fittings.
During Memorial Day Weekend 2008, we planned our family engagement party and I scheduled time for my mom, sister, and me to hit up some boutiques. The first boutique carried Maggie, but did not have my style on hand so I tried on several dresses that were similar. The first one I tried on was the same shape and neckline–I was in LOVE. I tried on several more dresses to be certain and I took the chance and ordered the dress right there. It is style JSM1042 in diamond white.
I teased the girls and photoshopped myself into an image of the dress:
I had a little fun changing the backgrounds.
For one of the dresses that I will be changing into, I chose a Priscilla of Boston, Melissa Sweet dress called Mari.
I LOVE the mini-bustle in the back. It looks like a short wedding dress, well, it is! This dress did need alterations, because I failed to order the right size. Boo. I don’t have pictures wearing it – it is currently being altered at the shop!
Anyway, I am excited to slip into something a little more fun and flirty for the dance portion of the reception. It will be worn with the DIY hair comb and the shoes from Aldo (both pictured below).
The dress arrived towards the end of the year and I went to try it on for the first time on 1.23.09.
The BEST part? NO ALTERATIONS NECESSARY! WOOOOHOOOOOOOO! Because I am a shorty, they ordered a petite and it was perfect with shoes. The only thing they have to do now is get the bustle together. I have another fitting on 04.25.09 to try it on with my dyed crinoline and undergarments.
On April 25, I traveled back home for the bustle mock-up. Mom, Lexi, Karen, and Donny’s mom all came with me. This time, I had my dyed crinoline with me and we had a very QUICK hair and makeup trial before going. I also did not have my shoes in time so I just grabbed a pair of heels that were the same height as the shoes I ordered. Here I am in the little dressing room with my hair done and in my underwear, lol.
It takes her, the professional, five full minutes to get the corset together. Ignore the grabbing my chest thing… she told me to do that to hold up the dress.
And here is a peek at the purple crinoline underneath the dress! (wrong shoes).
Next time, the girls will tie up the finished bustle and I’ll have my real shoes and jewelry to wear.
Now, it was time for the girls to learn how to bustle up the dress.
Lexi also finalized my hair and makeup. I LOVE IT. I cannot wait to rock it out at the wedding. She did such a great job. Karen, Lexi, and mom came with me for the last fitting and the bustle was perfect.
I will wear the DIY birdcage veil with this dress.
It’s not quite on the forecast yet, but next Saturday looks promising. *Knock on wood.*
…and I am flipping out.
LOTS TO DO!
Browse through the pictures in our gallery.
On May 16, 2009, our wonderful maid of honor, Karen, and bridesmaid, Megan, hosted a fabulous co-ed stock-the-bar shower for us in Grand Rapids. The girls went all out for the 34 guests, providing delicious drinks, skewered meat, and hors d’oeurves and desserts that were to-die-for! We can’t express enough how wonderful the ladies were and how much fun we had with all of these great people. Everyone came with a little something to "Stock our bar Man Cave." Here are a few of ours. The rest can be viewed on Shutterfly using the bride’s maiden name in lowercase as the password.
First, the invitations (note that ours was addressed to the Dorky Duo):
The girls created a beautiful display of food. Warming up in the background were some beef and chicken skewers and crab cakes.
After some eating and mingling, they start setting up for a game. Megan pulled out the mousetraps…
Karen then explained that we were going to do heats of "Don’t get your weiner caught in the mouse trap." As she explained the the guests that the point of the game was to try to set off the mouse trap with the hot dog without using hands, the guests reacted in shock!
…but they all got into it! Even the boys who tried to hide had some fun. Ryan, one of our ushers, actually won the final round of who could set it off the fastest.
Then, the girls had everyone draw a wedding cake topper in one minute. There were three categories to be won: Most vulgar, Best representation of the couple, and most artistic. And go!
The last game was the Newlywed Game where the girls read questions to the guests. Guys had to guess what I was going to answer and the girls had to guess what Donny was going to answer. In the end, our friend Jas won for the guys and Angie won for the girls. Winners of all the games took home either a wine opener, bottle opener, or mini bottle of liquor!
Here we are with some of our guests.
Some of the groomsmen were able to make it into town!
And thanks to these two ladies for putting on the show. It was a great shower and people can’t stop complimenting on how much fun they had! Great job, girls!
We are truly blessed with great people in our lives!
My most recent obsession has been shoes. I have scoured the internet, stalked the stores, and debated over so many different styles and colors.
Finally. I am done. My tradtional dress is red and gold so these are the shoes!
Browse through the pictures in our gallery.
I hate the idea of opening gifts in front of a bunch of cooing ladies. You’re going to get the gifts you registered for, is it necessary to have a spectacle and act surprised? Our opinion, anyway. To each her own!
It’s also not customary in a Viet/Chinese wedding so I didn’t really know about what happens at them until my friend got married after college.
My girls hosted an Anti-shower bridal shower on May 2, 2009. The girls were invited to come over for a cocktail slumber party; no gifts. Girls going to Vegas made t-shirts for our little fling!
This is the invitation that they sent out:
It was a lot of fun. There were MANY delicious snacks. We played this Monopoly-like wedding board game where some of them enjoyed roasting me upon landing on certain spaces. Several t-shirts were started and then we enjoyed cheesy, wedding-related movies like Bride Wars and 27 dresses until we fell asleep around 3AM.
Unfortunately, I had broken my camera in March and the replacement one did not make it to me yet, so I did not get many pictures. Some of the girls were able to, but it’s up to them to upload them to Shutterfly. I was only able to snag these:
Thanks ladies for humoring a little old school fun!
We have an AMAZING photographer booked for the wonderful event. One of the really cool things that he does is set up a red backdrop for "photobooth" type pictures… except these are taken by the highly recommended, commericial and fashion photographer, Mitch Ranger.
Our friends, Jen and Rob, were married last year and he shot their event. Here is an example of what the backdrop photos look like, so please BE INVOLVED in our wedding and put your best goofy face forward!
We're just two dorks who wanted to show gratitude for the love and support of our friends by throwing them (and us) a big party. Somewhere in the middle of all this, we got married, bringing Chinese / Vietnamese tea ceremony traditions to a modern, American event.
Elements of zen, DIY (do-it-yourself), art, and design were used to bring our story to life. Hope you enjoy my (Thao) OCD documentation.
