Happy New Year everyone!

I'm grateful for my incredibly eventful 2009, and now it's time to enjoy 2010 =D

image courtesy of Hallmark - gotta love Hoops & Yoyo!

Dressy doggie collars!

By now, most of you know I have doggie-fever, and I am always the first one to "awwww" at a puppy walking down the aisle at a wedding. Now we can make everyone "awwww" with these dressy dog collars!

at only about $20 a pop, these add a cute touch to your bridal party!
sold at Pecan Pie Puppies

Wedding Dress Re-Invention

I was totally wowed when I saw a post over on With This Ring... about a bride who wanted to incorporate her mother's gown into her own wedding. It is so incredibly sweet and sentimental, I felt I had to share it with y'all.

Meet Therese, who is seen here wearing her mother's original bridal dress. She hired seamstress Janet Brunton to completely remake the dress and update it with a modern feel.

Here's the structure of the new dress:

I am amazed at how beautiful the dress turned out! It's almost like watching an episode of Project Runway and seeing a piece of art made into another masterpiece. Now for some pictures from Therese's real wedding!

Look how gorgeous that dress flows! I bet it looks wonderful when she spins on the dance floor too!

real wedding pictures by {j a c} Photography via With This Ring...

please note that a custom re-invented wedding dress does not always cost less than a designer gown. Sometimes re-creation takes more work, so please make sure you ask your seamstress about pricing!

Monica & Simon - Part II

For our reception, we had decided to celebrate with a Chinese banquet because of two reasons - 1) it celebrates our culture and heritage and 2) it was the most economical choice!

Our reception turned out to be what people still say was "the most awesome wedding they've ever been to," and if you see the pictures below - you can see that there was much eating, drinking and most of all...dancing! I guess that's what happens when you marry a DJ =)

We kept things economical by ordering a yummy cake from our favorite chinatown bakery and created all of our own paper goods - including the menus, escort cards, programs, invitations, etc.

Because we wanted to be able to document who was at our wedding, we made sure to stop by every single table to chat and also take a group photo. To see the rest of the group photos, please see the full collection of our pictures!

Instead of hiring a videographer, we bought a videocam and had our good friends tape the entire reception. The recording might be a bit bumpy, but it'll also have some personal narration=) we haven't had a chance to watch the whole thing yet, but we're looking forward to hearing all of our guests' messages!

From what I recall, I think every single guest got on the dance floor at some point! I think it almost turned into a club atmosphere =p

music perfected by my hubby & The Remixologists
venue - Golden Unicorn Restaurant
cake - TaiPan Bakery
pictures via PhatWeddingPhotography

For the full collection of pictures, please click here

Monica and Simon - Part I

I'm super excited to share my very own wedding pictures with all of you! In particular, I just want to say a big thank you to our friends and family, who made this day possible. Enjoy =)

the sweetest thing that happened that day: Simon wrote me a note before the day even got started just to tell me how excited he was! I now carry that note with me everyday =)

We had been encouraged by our family to see each other before the wedding, so that we could have a moment alone to pray and chat before all the excitement began. I think you can tell that I was just as excited as Simon.

Everything seemed ready! My dress was perfect, Simon's Nikes were tied, the flowers were ready, and all of our helpers were set in their positions...the only thing left to do was to walk down that aisle.

officially husband and wife! All smiles and no tears =)

Our bridal party was so supportive of us. They are truly the best friends we could possibly have =)

Thank you again to all the guests who came to support and encourage us in this next step of our lives!

pictures via PhatWeddingPhotography
hair/makeup by Winnie Chan - 646-823-6955
dress - Mori Lee via RKBridal
bridesmaid dress - WToo via RKBridal
shoes - Cole Haan

Stay tuned for Part II!

Real Wedding Preview: Monica and Simon

To celebrate Christmas with all of our friends & family, I've decided to share my very own wedding pictures!

pictures via PhatWeddingPhotography

HotChocSpoon!

I just saw this over on GreenWeddingShoes! Introducing...HotChocSpoons! These would make amazingly cute wedding favors and will most definitely make your guests smile.

yummmmm!!!

DIY Centerpieces - Glamour with Painted Vases

Here's another DIY idea to glamour up your dinner table! Kathleen of Twig & Thistle created this easy project to make your centerpieces look professional with a potential for high color impact.

Just take empty bottles and vases of all sizes and shapes, spray paint several light coats of paint, let the pieces dry, fill with flowers, and VOILA!

for full instructions, head over to Style Me Pretty

wouldn't these be really pretty in a light shade of greens and pinks? Now you don't have to pick flowers to go with your color coordination, maybe just pick some simple white flowers to go in some vases with some va-va-voom!

FYI: some nice winter white flowers - white amaryllis, French anemones, Victoria white ranunculus, supergreen parrot tulips, and white peonies

DIY - create your own mustaches!

There's a fun DIY post over on The Inspired Bride. For those of you who are thinking about having a photobooth at your wedding or even just some fun new year's eve party - think about creating some props to  make the posing more fun!

These mustaches are super easy to make - click here for the template and buy the lollipop sticks at Wilton.

find complete instructions via The Inspired Bride

DIY Fabric Poms from Once Wed

I saw these really pretty fabric pompoms created by Dolci Odille via Once Wed today. I haven't attempted to DIY them myself...yet, but I think they could make really stylish pomanders to be hung above tables or for a little flowergirl to carry down the aisle.

The instructions seem so simple, I almost feel like I have to give this a try!

For full instructions, head over to Once Wed

Free Holiday postcards

Maddy at The Inspired Bride has created these super cute postcards that are free to download. She sent a different one to each one of her blogger friends, and if you go to their sites you can "collect" the postcard download. I've gone on a mission to track them down!

download the mittens

gift box design

cute scarves

gingerbread men

Happy Holidays everyone! =)

New trend - Succulents as flowers!

This new trend is pretty ingenious, if I must say. Using succulents in centerpieces and bouquets is a stylish, unique way that is easily DIY-able. They're easy to grow and extremely easy to replant, as I learned from Jessica, the clever bride spotlighted today on Southern Weddings. Her and her now-husband, Curt, collected and harvested succulents over the course of 6 months. They ended up with enough "arrangements" to cover their reception venue. Jessica even had her bouquet made of all succulents so that she could replant them after the wedding & keep them forever! How brilliant!

yup, that's right. she used kale in the bridesmaid bouquets!

images via Sarah K Chen
bouquets by Jesi Hack Weddings

More NYC bridal gown sample sales! (starting Dec 12)

Two more fabulous sample sales coming up this weekend!

Bergdorf Goodman Bridal Gown Sample Sale - Up to75% off bridal gown samples from the most exclusive design houses including Angel Sanchez, Carolina Herrera, Oscar de la Renta, Amsale, Christos, and Vera Wang
Dec 14-20 (call to make an appointment! 212.872.8957 ) 754 5th Avenue


Carolina Hererra Sample Sale - Up to 85% off retail prices at Soiffer Haskin - Dec 12-14 -317 West 33rd St.

Oscar De La Renta dress via Brides.com

Sweet and Understated Flowers

There is something so beautiful about sweet & understated bouquets and centerpieces that just don't look like they're "trying to hard."

By selecting flowers like delphinium, larkspur, gerbera daisies, spray roses, billy balls, mums and dahlias, the result can look almost like a fresh bouquet of wildflowers. As an extra touch, old-fashioned jam jars and milk vases make the centerpieces look organic.

The following pictures are from Mrs. Cowboy Boot's wedding via Weddingbee. Her wedding was budgeted ever-so-carefully, and she did a beautiful job!

images courtesy of Tec Petaja
flowers by Plum Sage

NYC Bridal sample sales - designer dresses at up to 70% off!

Sample sale alert! Normally I would never advocate buying a Vera Wang or Monique Lhuillier gown b/c of the HIGH price points, but there are some sample sales going on this week!

Saks bridal gown sale - gowns from Vera, Monique, Reem Acra, Amsale, etc. are on sale for up to 70% off! 12/2-12/6 (Wed - Sunday) at 611 Fifth Avenue (9th floor)

Vera Wang sample sale - only happens once a year! gown will be 25-75% off and shoes will be on sale as well. Saturday, 12/12, only from 9am-5pm at the New Yorker Hotel - 481 8th Ave at 34th street. This sale is usually really packed and busy...there's usually a line down the block at 7am. Check out From "I will" to "I do" for some tips on how to make the most of this sale!

Pronovias sample sale - one day only sale where gowns will be up to 75% off. Sunday, 12/6 at the New York flagship store - 14 East 52nd Street. Make sure you call to make an appointment here - no walk-ins!

Facebook pronouncement of husband and wife!

This made me laugh! It's not official until it's on facebook =)

$10,000 wedding interview!

There's an exclusive interview with the bride of a $10,000 wedding over at Temple of Groom! Go check it out - she's one of my inspirations for throwing sensibly priced weddings =)

How sensible is she? I've been religiously reading her anonymous blog for more than a year...learning from her creative ways of keeping her wedding under a very low budget (yup, $10,000). I loved everything that she did! Her smartest moneysaver? Hosting her lunch wedding at a Lawry's restaurant (where you KNOW the food is good!) for only $45-50 a head.

She also made these paper flower centerpieces & escort cards to add a touch of romance with the practical knowledge that these flowers won't die!

images courtesy of max wanger