orangemew

I received the professional photos online/via DVD from photographer Thomas Slack last week. There weren't as many photos as I was hoping- for instance he would have half a dozen when I was posing after getting ready and before meeting F, but only one shot of me hugging my dad after our first dance, and hardly any of the guests pouring water during the Thai Ceremony. Fortunately, I was able to add to the photos thanks to the pictures I got from guests. I put them together into a slideshow that I plan to burn on DVD and give to my parents to share with relatives in Thailand in December. The videographer will not be delivering until 4 months after the wedding, which means late December...

Pongched Laskey Wedding Summary from Pechluck Pongched on Vimeo.

This is a slideshow summary of our wedding celebration created from various digital photos provided by our professional vendors such as photographer Thomas Slack and photobooth by ShutterBox as well as shared by family and friends such as Judy, Woodie, and Dr. Kiriwat. Thank you for being there for the celebration of our big day and helping to capture these memories. It was hard cutting out so many pictures (despite the length of the video) because where were so many great photos of all those who are dear to us.



Our professional video DVD and an online highlights video from Dunamis Video will be delivered to us sometime in late December so this was created to share with our friends and family who were not able to be there that day- or maybe who were :).



Created using Windows MovieMaker for the first time!

Pictures from the Thai Temple when we made our offerings and had the water and the sai mongkon string blessed for our wedding. We performed this ceremony on Thursday in anticipation of the wedding on Saturday.

I wanted to extend a special thank you to my two sisters and M, my sister's fiance, for helping make this happen. L went out and searched out all the images, J put together a template for printing this on the place cards, and M wrote a program so that we could use a spreadsheet to read the guest names, table assignment, meal selection, and image and lay them all out for me on place cards, and F put together the table name/numbers cards. This all had to be done so I can print everything on my color printer in Portland before I head to Chicago on Tuesday.

I have been so focused on the paper DIY touches since I have a color printer here, and there isn't one that my family owns in Chicago. This is a bit mind-boggling to me that with all the electrical toys my parents has and my techie brother that this is true. It meant a bit of extra planning ahead, but since L, M, and J helped lay things out and I just had to review it and print, it wasn't too bad at all. The only hard part on my side was it involved a hunt for the size of the place cards and naturally, there was only one last box at the farther office supply store that F had to put on hold. But, I went after work and got it from behind the counter!

Anyway, here is the inspiration for our Table Names that the five of us have been working on.

Thank you Mrs. Hummingbird of Weddingbee for sharing this expansion from the traditional numbers and city/travel themes to this...


Yes, the geek/nerd that reflects us will be part of the wedding. Besides videogames, we also threw in lots of food (varying from restaurants to food dishes to Thai fruit) and character series (like Transformers, Mario, Pixar, and Disney) and a lot of random other favorites, so it is not as cohesive as the videogame theme inspiration created by this couple, but well... that's what F and I are like.

When I saw the hard work of M in pdf format of these (apparently he stayed up until 6am writing the program to automatically lay this out), it was the first time I actually started to feel excited instead of buried by tasks and drama. I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel of planning, and instead of just wanting to hurry up and get everything done and this whole thing over... I just wish the day could be etched in my mind in amazing detail forever and not a blur like some have told me it will become. I want to soak it in, this feeling that I saw when I saw what L and J and M did: the love that drove them to give me this humongous effort to put together this crazy idea I wanted and make it happen. Thanks, you're my heroes, and I appreciate it all.

Yeah, I won't think about how all that rush to get this done actually was more stress then it turns out necessary because I just found out my parents want to shift some table layout and don't want to finalize the placecards until after I'm in Chicago. After some negotation (it was argued that color printes are "useless", they agreed to purchase a color printer at least so I can finish them up there... but the hard foundational stuff is done. Yeah!

Tomorrow I fly out to Chicago... and this week is the final countdown to the big day.

Finally... if you thought this idea was a crazy amount of work, I also liked this one from knottie JanuaryBride which highlights Chicago... but not as much. What a great idea she had though for spotlighting a really great photo by incorporating it to placecards. Honestly though, the childlike is more us then the sophisticated photography artist. We're just not that hip.

I had posted previously about the tastings I had for the food... and now that I have just finished making the menus, I wanted to show you what deliciousness I have planned.

I don't have pictures of the real programs yet, as I sent them un-assembled and uncut to Chicago, and that's where they will be done. But, I do have a trial run that was done (so ignore the slight uneven-ness). Special shout-out to bridesmaid and sister J for doing this, and keeping me sane by being in Chicago to help deal with errands and drama as they arise.

The first page is made of the same Aquamarine metallic cardstock that I used for the enclosures, and re-uses the fonts and motifs from the invite panel. The rest of the layered pages include, on the Aquamarine metallic paper but now in text weight:

1. A Civil Ceremony page which lists the entire agenda for both ceremonies (most importantly noting the intermission between the Civil and Thai ceremony)
2. A Thai Ceremony page which explains what will happen and the symbolism behind the items and actions in the ceremony
3. The third Cocktail Hour page lets guests know the hours of cocktail and the hours of the reception, lists the bar menu, and the passed hors d'oeuvres, informs them of the photo guestbook and the photobooth inside the house/tent, and our thank yous. I figure this gives the guests something to look forward to during the intermission.

Finally, the last page uses the same Blue Opal opalescent paper that was also used for the enclosures. It was great that I after I recalculated all the paper products I wanted to make, I had the right amount of paper from my original order for the invitations to make all these.



Meanwhile, here are the menus that will be at each place setting. Somehow I stupidly printed only enough for 135, so I need 35 more of the menus: thankfully, that is only 10 sheets or so, and we can cut them on our own.

For the other sheets, I went to the Kinkos where for $1.49 a cut, they did the three cuts that would cut each 8.5x11" sheet into 3 menus (printed on Aquamarine text, the same paper the invitation panel was printed of) and three cuts to size the metallic navy blue matting (which echoes the same color of the pocketfold, though in text weight and not cardstock). After the cuts were made, I matted the menu using glue dots for some and double-sided table for others. The double-sided tape was much easier to work with as it was easier to apply to the paper, and also to move it if it wasn't straight or centered enough after I first put it down.



( the pictures of the food... just sample size though (pictures were taken at my tasting)! )

Don't they look fun? My videographer, Dunamis Works has a blog, and recently made this highlights clip from covering a 3 day wedding.

Actually, I have been to two Indian weddings, but they were both Muslim, so they didn't do any the things in the videos: much more conservative, including have the men and women separated for the reception meal.

I cant' wait to see how Wijaya covers my wedding next week!

Sonal & Rishin - SDE from Dunamis Works on Vimeo.

Here are some of my favorites from our engagement photo shoot with Evrim Icoz. The album I ended up getting was more than I had planned and budgeted for, as was purchasing the CD of photos, but the value is priceless.


( more photos ahead )

F somehow found this song, and that was it. His mother loves Barry Manilow, which I found out when F and I unwittingly were able to enjoy a Barry Manilow impersonator during our first New Year's Eve together: we had only planned to join an event of a Murder Mystery Train and Dinner. Turned out dinner included "Barry Manilow".

And, as F also pointed out, the song is only two minutes long.

Actually, the first thing he pointed out was the length, and then that his mom liked the singer. So the song length was the winning characteristic.

With the photobooth, we have the option of having plain simple photostrips for our guestbook and guests... or our names and dates. The options can be pretty cute...

Which do you like?

( example designs for the photo strip )

Or, with no logo, I guess we could manage 4 pictures to a strip instead. Hmm...

I had three choices for my father daughter dance that immediately came to mind. My dad was insistent on a very slow song, and that made me narrow my choice to the first. Sometimes my dad would sing just the main lyrics of this song (I don't even know if he knew the whole song), so it seemed perfect. The other two were chosen because the first for its obvious link between a father and daughter, and the second because it was sung by a well-meaning father and I was a Sound of Music fanatic when I was very young, including having home videos of me reenacting some of the songs. Really though, this was my first choice of the three.

After my parents trying to find the example tune and only finding a karaoke version and instrumental trumpet version of Love Me Tender(!) which they were trying to convince me on even though I insisted the original was already nice and slow for a whole week, I finally found this version on YouTube and sent it to them and they were fine with it. It was picked out the last day, during the evening, of the music list deadline for my DJ, naturally. I had sent them the first two videos, and they went with my first choice. I had given them a lot of advance warning in case they wanted to use a Thai song instead, but that never materialized. I still think it's a great song though, even though I was excited at having a Thai song for a bit.



( the choices that didn't make it )

I found the perfect present for F.

A blue shirt with this printed on it.



I plan to present this to him on the limo shuttle, and I just have to figure out how to get the "I'm On A Boat" song he loves so much playing in the limo... and some Santana Champagne.



What better gift for the guy who when he first discovered the video, played it every day at home... and apparently at work too. He's also talked about how it helped fuel him on the decision to plan a honeymoon on a cruise ship, and reenacting parts of it on the ship. I can only assume I will hear this song daily during our honeymoon.

( video under the cut )

My theme for the wedding is essentially the color blue- shades of blue, as I'm not that picky. F wanted a navy if it had to be blue, I picked a sky blue, and there's another blue we threw in which is opalescent that he and I both liked the paper sample :X

Early on as I was looking for ideas, I came across this picture on the Knot:



The actual candles and crystals hanging from the ceiling are a bit much, and the table is pretty crowded. But that cool loungey lighting from the blue lights... so cool. It seemed like such a modern, sophisticated way to carry that theme in an way that had a lot of impact during the reception.

Since it is now two weeks before the wedding, I was going to wait for this to be a surprise walking into the reception, but darnnit I can't hold it back anymore. Perhaps if I had realized all the extra cost that I was going to be paying for some unanticipated expenses (despite my trying to budget in everything I could think of... I did get many of them, but many items are turning out to have a higher price tag than I thought), I might not have splurged on this. But, I knew when else would I ever be able to put together this look? Even if I threw any type of party in the future, I would never have lighting needs like I would on my wedding day.

Amy, who I have otherwise gotten limited support from via email and despite my excuse of "well she'll be more active the month of the wedding" has mostly disappointed me- at least has come through on this. She asked via email negotiation for a discount from our DJ on the lighting packages they have... and we are getting 16 blue uplights to go around the room for the price of 12. This photo isn't the Narnia tent, but it should look something like this (but with not as many lights- those pictured here used a lot more lights around the room.



I can't wait for it to get dark on August 29!

( thoughts on Amy )

I emailed the Narnia Estate asking about high chairs or some small random question... and got an email back reminded me that the 15 day mark is coming up, and I would need to provide a head count. I did know that. What I didn't know that the table they use for the headcount is by table, and each table needs to state what number is beef, fish, or children's meal. What, children's meals, and there are choices? This was never mentioned to me before...

Which means I had 2 weeks to figure out the seating of all the guests in order to get their food preferences communicated. We just started on this at the end of the first week, so really there is 1 week to get this done.

This in itself wasn't too bad: F and I didn't really expect how hard it would be for my parents though. Thank you so much to L and especially baby J for enacting my recommendation to use post it notes with names for them to lay it out and move people around, and trying to discipline into seating people in tables of 8. The great thing about an 8-top table is how easy it is to have conversation. The bad thing is exactly that- it is more intimate, so people have to get along. Apparently, not everyone does for half the guest list. Social cliques and politics are creating groups that don't fit well in narrowing guests to seats of 4 couples per table apparently.



Since there is no real way for my parents to electronically communicate any of this to me, J has been a heroine, setting up a meeting with Narnia to get measurements of the room and tables and document this... all before she goes on a trip to New York on Thursday, leaving us just 1 day to close on this!

Also coming up at the end of this week: the online planner for the music list for the DJ! F and I are still trying to figure out our first dance. F does not want to take dance lessons, so several songs that really do symbolize us are beyond his dance capability and desire to only do dance via "a sway back and forth" like in middle school.

People keep asking me if I'm excited- but honestly, not yet. Maybe after this weekend, when this seating and music list is complete and everything else is either paying out money or planning to-dos when I am in Chicago on the 25th, I'll be more excited.

Did I mention that the bank finally replied at the end of last week that they accepted our offer on the house? Inspections are this week, and possible negotiations if applicable next week, since we only have 10 days to back out as buyers.

And at work I just found out that there is a customer research trip being planned. I found out last week... and they wanted my deliverable at the end of this week. Oof.

When it rains it pours. Yeah, next week can only be better than this week, right?

It turns out two VIP guests I invited can't make it. But, they sent me a photo of themselves and their best wishes and what looks like a pin... they sent them to the RSVP address of my parents' home so I haven't been able to admire their gift in person yet.



Still nothing from my other VIP guests... the Obamas.

I mailed them out last week so hopefully everyone has received them. Ever since I first saw them, I knew these would be my invitations. I've been waiting years to be able to order and use these. They were even a factor in selecting my rehearsal dinner invitation: I needed something with noodles! I can't get my scanner to cooperate, but here is the original proof they sent (they kindly let me go back and forth a few times with them, re-doing the proof 4 times and being so gracious and responsive about it, great service!)



Yay! Reception Dinner invites from Bumble Ink cards. Textured paper, clever phrases and graphics, eco-friendly (printed with soy based inks on heavy cover stock containing post consumer recycled content and come with 100% recycled envelopes) add a modern, cartoonish twist to the rehearsal dinner to make it a bit less formal even though it is being held at a boardroom at a golf club that has a country club feel (but is public- just in a newly developed suburb). To balance the casual playfulness of the cards, I printed the envelopes using a nice font called Segoe Script and Segoe Print, and then traced over it again with a felt tip pen to fake nice penmanship!

I love Bumble Ink's sense of humor and art style, and hope to have the excuse to use them again.

I finally was able to check off the gifts I purchased for the bridesmaids and ushers this week. The hardest was for the ladies, as there were lots of various options that I thought were wonderful but I didn't want too much of a random assortment of items either. Since they read this blog I'm not going to reveal what I got for them.

But, the ushers were easy! Since F's last name is Laskey, his work email address is "Flaskey" and sometimes people call him that (particularly helps to differentiate him sometime since J's guy is also named F). So it was a no-brainer what the ushers should receive as a token of appreciation for assisting in the flaskey wedding...



I got these for a really good price, even with the funnel (because I wouldn't want them to waste liquid that is missed during the pour filling it up), though I am not sure what kind of packaging it comes in. I am a terrible gift-wrapper, so I hope it comes in a box that I can just stick a bow on. It has already shipped to my parents' house, so I will ask my sisters who will be there for my dad's bday to check on them. The ushers are not needed at the rehearsal, but they are invited to the rehearsal dinner, though I'm not sure yet who will be coming since it is after all on a weekday night (Thursday). I just mailed the invitations the other day... next post, once I think everyone has received them, I'll share!

Here are some final pictures of what the cardbox that F built looks like now that it has the photos in it, which we just received from our engagement shoot photographer Evrim Icoz. We did the entire engagement photoshoot at Pittock Mansion. There was another group in Versailles-style makeup of white faces, red lipstick, fans, feathers and... lingerie getup, also doing their photoshoot. I'm sure all of us combined made for quite a scene for anyone else lounging up there that Thursday afternoon enjoying the view of Mt Hood.

Evrim was amazing at directing us and making us feel comfortable, it was really fun, at least for me. F even smiled for the camera, so extra kudos for that! Since I had stalked his blog for a while- I had considered him for our wedding photographer until it was determined the wedding would be in Chicago and I wanted someone who had some familiarity with good locations in Chicago downtown. Still, with having viewed many photos from his blog, I had a lot of trust that the photos Evrim crafted through his lens would turn out fabulous. I was not disappointed at all. Even though the price of the engagement was something I hadn't fully factored in, I didn't bat an eye because when I saw those photos (we went to his studio and he projected them on a big screen as we sat on a couch yaying and naying with a software tool he had). We had 144 or so to choose 30 from, and that was the largest engagement album! But seeing them, I knew they were priceless. This is the most pictures I've ever had of F and I, since F regularly hides from the camera.

We are waiting for the DVD and engagement album still, but I asked for the 8x10s to be sent earlier so I can see how they look in the cardbox ship the whole thing home. I want to see what my parents think, and also see if the cardbox survives the transit... I really hope it does. I think the photos we added really make the cardbox look sophisticated and artsy. My mom objects to how the box is all black, so I wonder if the addition of the photos will satisfy her that this doesn't look too dark and gloomy?



Because otherwise, this is what her friend gave her for us to use...
( the other cardbox option )

I have known for quite a while that I wanted a photo guestbook. Rather than just having a guestbook with signatures, I really wanted photos of the guest along with their autograph. First, I'm terrible with names, and seeing a scrawl of a signature isn't going to help my recognition. But, I am good with faces. Also, how wonderful would it be to look back at that album and see what everyone looked like that day, from their perspective? My wedding album won't be able to account for everyone who took the time and effort to make it that day- but the guestbook could.



However, what seemed like a simple concept turned complicated in the past month or so. The ushers, who were the people I had explained in general terms what I wanted, were the first to raise concerns. How would they be able to multi-task taking photos and printing and the guestbook? How would we avoid lines? It seemed like a lot of work for the ushers. Other issues like what if the papers blew away in the wind? Would they get lost because they were single pages and not all bound (a suggestion to decrease lines)? What about people demanding retakes because they didn't like the photo, or asking for their cameras to also take a copy?

Some of this seemed like overthinking until my mom finally put her foot down this week. Since guests will already be in line waiting to come up to participate in the Thai Water Blessing, I thought we could take a quick snapshot then while they were in line. At every other wedding for this ceremony people in line are just standing there people-watching or gossiping, everyone in their seat is just sitting in their rows, waiting for their turn to get in line, and music plays throughout as background. The memory card would be handed off to others to print and we can gather signatures for the photos in the guestbook during cocktail. My mom said she didn't want anything distracting from this- even if it was small talk time in real life.

She also gave me one additional fact: at other wedding where people had attempted a photo guestbook, she (and some others that she saw of her generation) had either taken the photo because it was nice and they wanted it, or if it was a bad photo they would take it and throw it away because they didn't want it as part of the book. I'd need a guestbook police to defend the damn thing. I couldn't possibly ask friends to face off against parents like that...

( Developing a solution )

If there was one piece of advice I would give to future brides about bridesmaids dresses, I would suggest: Nordstrom. I know a lot of brides are looking for a dress that are a bit more fashion-forward so if our bridesmaids can't wear the dress again because my favorite color probably isn't theirs, they can at least look like great fashionable entourage and not as if they caught in a time warp or something made out of a curtain fabric. Some brides turn to J.Crew for this, but I'm not a preppie style girl and the prices aren't all that different than bridesmaid dresses from bridesmaid designers: the only saving grace is sales and coupons, but that takes some extra stalking time to keep checking by the bride, and they only have so many dresses. No thanks.

I was looking for something soft and romantic, and after dropping Jim Hjelm for the more financially friendly BariJay, a few months later I discovered how much Nordstrom carries online. They often have deals that offer free shipping, and you can return and exchange at the store and even do price corrections: Nordstrom is so well known for its customer service. Their prices were also much more affordable- in line with the whole reason I picked BariJay in the first place. I found a dress I loved, but since I had already committed to bridesmaid dresses 2 months earlier (and they had been ordered), instead I bought the dress for myself as a possible rehearsal dinner or after-wedding brunch dress.

You can be smarter than I and just look at Nordstrom first! I wish I had!

Nordstrom has come through again and will be providing both my rehearsal dinner and after-wedding brunch dresses. Naturally, they are both in my favorite color: blue.

This was the BCBGMAXAZRIA Strapless Printed Silk Gown I purchased before and mentioned previously:


and then I was going to wait and see what my other dress would be and that would be the decision-maker between whether I would wear the dress above for rehearsal dinner or brunch.

Here's the second dress! ( the reveal of dress #2... )

We ended up picking the Bolingbrook Golf Club for our rehearsal dinner. We had two great options to pick from, either the BoardRoom which could fit up to 36 people (but 30 most comfortably with a long rectangle boardroom with 18 and two round tables of 6)...


( more pics of Boardroom )
Or one of the banquet rooms that fit 60 people and included a little walk-out patio area that overlooks the golf club grounds...

( more pics of Banquet room )

What made the final decision for me was the menu options each room would have. For the Boardroom, the location is not far from their bar and grill (The Nest Bar and Grill), so we could order directly off of that menu and have a wide range of choices to offer our rehearsal dinner guests. Or, we could choose from a set dinner menu (plated or buffet). The banquet room only offered the set dinner menu option. I wanted to be able to accommodate a range of tastes and I loved the idea of giving people more options for their dinner, and once I saw the seven page menu the grill offered, I knew that was the right choice. No other place would be able to offer me seven pages of items that I could choose from to put together my menu! Most menu option sets are limited to less than a dozen, and prepared in bulk quantity by thes staff. As mentioned in a previous post, other restaurants that might have given me that kind of menu did not offer a private room in addition to the open choice menu.

( Narrowing down the dinner menu )