I made table number cards with places that we've both visited together!  I was going to make animated zoetropes for each table... but that was going to take way too much time. 

The Wedding Dress

(There will probably be a few posts about this topic :) The wedding dress is probably the only thing that the bride and groom don't discuss in wedding planning.  I went with my two bridesmaids to quite a few places and took lots of photos- I'm so glad they allow us to take photos.  I'm one of those who wasn't sure what kind of style I wanted and didn't have a dress in mind that I've been dreaming about since I was four.  However, sharing them online, and having the photos in my camera and on my iPhone does lend itself to precarious situations if my fiance takes an unsuspecting glance.  So, granted the following comic didn't exactly happen this way, it was always a concern!

Changing your name

I think the majority of my friends who have gotten married have kept their last names or combined it with their husband's name.  A few who changed them wished they hadn't. (I do live in CA so maybe things are more liberal out here.)  I'm going to keep my last name, since it preserves some of my ethnicity and a host of other reasons like I have a company in my name, I'm an illustrator...  It's interesting for those who have a different ethnicity as their spouse.  I have a friend who had an ethnic first and last name, so changing her last name to her spouse's was no big deal, whereas my Asian doctor friend who didn't want to surprise her patients, kept her last name.  I have friends who picked a totally new last name too!  I love the various options.

The Guest List

I think sometimes it's easier to get married when you're younger because you just know fewer people... and so your guest list is sort of cut out for you.  When you reach your thirties, you have to really cull the list and it's hard!  What about so-and-so that invited you years ago, but you've lost touch with.  Just how many of your parents' friends are allowed?  What about your boss?  Anyway, we made up a rule sheet that helped us a bit, but it was difficult.  We're also thinking about having a secondary list, but that is a whole other issue!

Auspicious Dates

I'm an American Born Chinese and I don't really believe in superstitious things.  In the Chinese culture, sometimes people go by the lunar calendar and believe that certain days are good and bad for certain events.  Well, we had some dates in mind for the wedding and I thought I'd run them by my parents- little did I know that the date we had in mind was a really inauspicious day.  Too bad there was no clause in the calendar that picking an auspicious day would mean no rain!

Wedding on the mind

I've been much more aware of "wedding potentials," things that I could use or inspire me for the wedding.  i.e. I notice a certain ambiance at a restaurant and I take note that maybe we'd want that kind of uplighting for our reception.  As Eli and I were having brunch at Stacks recently, the way they placed the whipped cream and the strawberries... well, it really did resemble below!

Bridal Magazines

My friend gave me a stack of her wedding magazines when I got engaged and I was hesitant to look at them since it would mean that planning would have to commence. Out of sight out of mind was the mentality I had for the first month!  However, it's hard to avoid a big stack of wedding magazines and I decided to take a peek... which turned into peeking for hours!  It's amazing how they manage to fill 260+ pages with wedding material.

Wedding To-Do list

So, I did my part in perusing the net to start to think about planning.  Whooosh!  There are so many sites, advice sites, planning tips, etc. that it is all quite a bit inundating.  I wound up asking a few girlfriends for their spreadsheets and then we made our own to-do lists from a combination of lists. It is still ever changing!

So when's the date?

So immediately after telling people that we're engaged, the next question that 99% of people ask is "So do you have a date?" Now, I've been on the other side too, it's a logical question.  But for a couple that just got engaged, it's slightly stressful as specifics are the last thing I'd like to think of at the moment! I think we were in the mindset of "lifetime" so a specific date was really not top of mind.  I gave ourselves a nice month off to decide anything.