THE SEARCH GOES ON....

did some additional searching for some other potential photogs.... and found a few.

HOWEVER got dissed today by my other top choice.... he is truly good and truly booked!
cliff mautner- amazing pictures, and honestly just talking to him on the phone, sounds like an amazing guy. he was nice enough to give me referrals, and then say that if none of them worked out, to call him back and he would help me until i found one!

so here are the other one's i'm considering (if they have blogs, i'll list them instead since those seem to show more work)
susan stripling (this was the reco from cliff)
karen wise
christian oth studios (christian + shawn are too expensive for me, but the others are possibilities)

(extensive list here from wedding bee but based on various locations, budgets and styles)

if you have anyone else you'd like to throw in there, lemme know!
otherwise of those listed above- who do you like?


are you sick of looking at wedding photogs now too...?? :(

*SIGH*

i'll leave you with my color inspiration- compliments of esther, except the real thing (thanks!)

pain in the arse!

i never thought that booking the photographer
would be such a pain in the ( | )
(yup that's a butt)
i guess since this is the one thing that you absolutely don't want to compromise on and certainly want to splurge on to ensure great pictures (as everyone says, they're the only thing you'll keep to remember this one expensive, and special day).

so all that said- we have met with over 10 different photographers. everyone with their own style, their own sales pitch and their own "packages." some edit + some don't, some give you the negatives/files+ some don't, some give you 7 hours and others give you 9, some are worth what they charge- and most (quite honestly) probably aren't...

where does that leave me then......?

everyone we met with that i really liked is not available- except 1 whom i met with this past weekend (art of love). we met, her stuff was great (even in albums), and i had a good feeling! i especially liked that she actually edits ALL of the photos. THEN-i call her to follow-up and see if i can negotiate a package, and one of the major wedding planners that brings her a lot of business, ends up needing her now on may 2nd. of course she has to take that wedding and not burn the bridge with the planner....

so back to square 1

help
please...

- - -

fortunately everything else is coming along nicely...

thanks to everyone for voting on hair styles....i think i'm going to go with the 3rd style with a lower poooof-although my mom keeps trying to convince me that i should wear my hair down (EEEK!)

also my super awesome cousin sarah has agreed to be my day of coordinator. this is excellent for two reasons. 1) i won't go crazy now and i absolutely trust her 2) she runs her own catering + event planning business (Hanuri) in chicago so she is the perfect person for the job!
too bad the wedding's not in chi-town....it could have been amajing ;]

she also recommended Truly Smitten for the wedding invitations. i've been checking out her stuff and it's great! i bet she could come up with something super-fab with the color theme/style....so i really hope it works within the budget! also when i was blog-stalking her, turns out her own wedding colors were yellow + black! (the banner at the top of her blog was the design for her own wedding i think...)

bridal party....i know i am lagging on this like a gimp
this is going to be done in the next week of so. john and i were just trying to figure out # (4 or 5 or 6??) and also trying to decide how family would play into everything too.... we finally decided we're going to just go w/ 4 to keep it small and simple. but that also means there are a lot of friends/family we aren't going to get to ask :(


IN OTHER NEWS

john + i bought our first car together last week! it was so weird making such a big purchase, but definitely a good step towards realizing that we are actually a real (almost married) couple!
now if only i could get him to give me his credit card..... haha jk!

finally, CONGRATULATIONS to my favorite biotech Jaymin on getting engaged! if anyone has any cute pictures of farm/outdoor weddings, send links this way so i can pass along to her...

decisions decisions

soooo i finally met with all the photographers and had narrowed it down...

1) belathee

2) Anja

BUT- then my friend just referred me to this photographer this morning, who turned out to be....just.......amazing!

GH Kim

MOVING ON....

i know everyone is sick of the color and theme- i am too. so this is the last time i'm changing it and i'm sticking with it!!

......yellow + grey......
and vintagey look & feel to focus around the photobooth theme.
(some of you initially voted for this color scheme back in the beginning.....i shoulda just listened then!)

HAIR/MAKE-UP
did my hair/make-up trial this past weekend in queens with reiko utsugi. i had originally heard good things about sachiko yanase, but when she was booked she recommended reiko. turned out be great too! with make-up i realized there wasn't much to do....but for hair there were 3 styles we tried out. (some of the pics are hard to see because of the lighting and also bc i realized it's hard to notice details with all black hair! also didn't have front shots of some but you can use your imagination :D )

1) grecian updo






2) low side bun w/ bangs




3) poof and chignon




which hairstyle do you like....?


TIPPING?
so i've been thinking about this lately and was hoping some of the married people could offer help....do you have to tip your vendors on your wedding night (ie: photographers or florists, etc). we end up paying a lot for each vendor, but for some that are service based, i'm not sure if we're supposed to tip- and if so, how much is appropriate? (for example, at the reception hall, we are given a "recommended" amount to tip the "Captain" who runs all of the logistics for the wedding the night of...)


ok that's all the updates for now....

PS- i ended up getting the jcrew shoes with the side bow bc they were a little more fun and colorful, and i know i would probably never get to wear the pretty ivory ones again....

PPS- can anyone help me find cute yellow dresses for the BM's (that won't break the bank?)

6 months to go!

after a nice hibernation, i'm back and ready to start plannning! (sorta)

so some major decision planning ahead of me in the next 2 months (before i move to cali)... wanna help? :D here's where things are at, and also a few updates....

NEW DATE
i know i mentioned this already (but people have been saying they didn't know the date was changed)- wedding will now be on o5.o2.o9. see you there! (unless you're not invited...haha jk!)


DRESS
arrived!!
good news: turns out i did order it in ivory
bad news: jjom tight. i get serious back-ass (you know when the back folds into a butt-looking shape squeezed into the dress as you try to zip it up....)
it's cute. i think i'll keep it this way...


PHOTOGRAPHER
here are the folks i've met with (or will be meeting with in a few weeks)

1. Scott Lewis
2. Heather Waraksa
3. Jenny Ebert
4. Kenny Kim
5. Belathee
6. Cappy Hotchkiss
7. Anja Hitzenberger

Heather was my top choice, but was booked on my new date....and i'm meeting with #5-7 in the next few weeks. so far i'm hearing that Anja seems to have the "cleanest" or "sharpest" looking pictures, whereas the others are not as consistent with clarity, shakiness, focus, etc. unfortunately i never took photography in my pratto9 curriculum so any photographers out there with advice on these folks- it would be greatly appreciated! (and on pricing, unfortunately they're all pretty pricey, but around the same price range so that probably won't be the determining factor)

COLOR SCHEME
i think i'm going to move forward with the ivory/sage-olive scheme. it's seasonally appropriate, and well- i know everyone is doing that color combo these days but i think it'll be easy to do...


THEME?
well john has been getting really into golfing lately, so some wonderful friends had the great idea of incorporating a golf theme in little subtle ways- maybe something with the place cards and table numbers...still brainstorming on this so send ideas this way!

BOOKED:

• music
• videographer
• church

TO DO:

• florist
• BM dresses
  
• hair and makeup (trial in november- any ideas for hair??)
  
• invitations (maybe try to make these with my good 'ol pratt colleagues)
  
• book honeymoon (greece!)
  

ok what else am i forgetting to do....??


i leave you with two final things...

1) please vote for the shoes you like better:


(a) (b)



2) can someone help me make/find this birdcage-ish veil?

SAVE THE DATE......finally

finally finally finally.....the date is set!
mark your calendars everyone...

saturday o5.o2.o9

same reception hall, same church.
only problem now- i'll be 40 by the time i'm finally married!
jk- ok but really, the make-up person i want is already booked for that date, and even worse, the photographer i wanted is booked already too :(

so no sachiko yanase. no heather waraksa. booo

alright ladies- i'm going to temporarily revive wedding planning to at least book a photographer so PLEASE help me.....

and then i'll go back into hibernation :)

FIRE IN THE HOLE

....i need back-up!
(for anyone who understood that reference, you are a geek- along with me)

on a more serious note, a very critical change has happened that will force me to start wedding planning more quickly, furiously and seriously....[boooo]

there's a chance the wedding may be pushed up to october (but more realistically) november. can we pull this off girls? will the reception hall and church even be available? will the other factors fall into place?

fortunately i at least ordered the dress right before i left for korea. only problem is that they say it takes 6 months to deliver it.....(!!!!)

so what to do.....what to do.....?

break-up

so i have been slightly MIA....because i broke up with wedding planning.
it was too demanding, too abusive, and i always felt like i was being taken advantage of...hustled. (hahah jk-kinda)- but i have a feeling we'll be getting back together again soon.

and no it's not because of the hold-up in deciding colors....well maybe partly

alright- in the meantime, something easier to decide on: a photographer!

i met w/ heather waraksa last month and she was really sweet- very creative, very brooklyn! (like danah our famous artist chingoo)
right now, heather is my top choice, but only because i haven't yet had a chance to meet with scott lewis (or anyone else besides kenny...)

i also found a few new photographers who i think are pretty great- check 'em out and lemme know what ya'll think.

i'm hoping to book next month so comment away.....
whitebox: http://www.whiteboxweddings.com/
OLOL: http://www.ourlaboroflove.com/
henry chan: http://www.henryshoots.com/index.html
heather: http://heatherwaraksa.com/
scott: http://www.scottlewisweddings.com/main.php


(and all of the prices are fairly comparable)

thanks for the feedback guys! :]


off to the motherland next week!