As of late...

We are now approximately 9 months away from the big day and we are slowly, but surely checking things off of our seemingly never ending wedding checklist. So much has happened since the last time I blogged...

Courtesy of Lorelie Friedheim

Last weekend we spent a day with one of Mr. Honda's co-workers wives, Lorelie, who graciously offered to do our engagement pictures. First we spent some time at the beautiful Japanese Tea Garden and the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. Then we stopped over at Palace of Fine Arts. And we ended our day at the beautiful UC Berkley campus. We had so much fun and are so lucky to have our engagement pictures done by such a wonderful and talented photographer. Here's a little sneak peak she provided us. 

And earlier this week Mr. Honda booked our flights for the wedding. The fact that I'm marrying the love of my life and best friend in less than a year is really starting to sink in. I am so excited!

The great paper debate

In an attempt to save some money we have asked my mom to help us design our wedding invitations. Now if you know my mother...you know she does not lack in the creativity department, but she has also never undertaken a project quite like this.

We've gone back and forth for the past month or so. And my mom has sent us multiple samples to help us decide what design we want to go with for our invites. Luckily Mr. Honda has been extremely patient and helpful (read: very agreeable to what I want) when I ask him whether he prefers this pattern versus that pattern; the darker green paper versus the lighter green paper versus the light sparkly green paper; the pink belly band with the green emblem versus the pink belly band with the pink emblem; etc.

It seems like we've finally been able to settle on a design, now we just need to prepare ourselves for the daunting task ahead of assembling over 100 of these intricate, layered, invites. I think I speak for the both of us when I say that we're just *thrilled* At least it will give us a lot of quality time together :) 

Bridal party looove

All my lovely ladies have received their cards. So as promised here's a little peak into what was in those pretty little pink envelopes I posted last time (here).

On the front of the card said, "They say I need someone to hold my dress up when I have to pee". Inside the card I asked the girls to be my maid of honor/bridesmaid. On the left side of the card I created a pocket to hold several different inserts. The first insert was titled "I promise," in which I promised them I would keep my inner bridezilla in check and ensured they would not be forced to wear a horrid bridesmaid dress. The next insert, "Expectations," listed out the events that I expected them to attend. My maid of honor is from socal and my bridesmaids are from Hawaii so I wanted to make it clear that the only events they were required to attend were the rehearsal dinner and the wedding itself. On the "Attire" insert I addressed the topic of bridesmaid dresses, hair, makeup, etc. Lastly was a "Meet the bridal party" insert in which I provided them with contact information for each other. The girls in my bridal party have all been important in my life, but they don't know each other so I thought it would be nice for them to be able to get in touch and get to know each other.

A little love for my bridal party

If you know my mother, you know that she is CRAZY creative. In fact she has graciously offered to help design, print, and cut all our pieces for our wedding invitations in order to help us cut some costs in our already over the top wedding budget. I, on the other hand am not nearly as creatively gifted as my mother. So this past weekend with a little computer know-how from Mr. Honda I squeezed out what little creative juices I have to create a little something to send out to the girls in my bridal party.

The girls I chose to be in my bridal party mean the world to me and I just wanted them to have a little reminder of why I asked them to be in my bridal party. Also, the girls don't know each other yet, so I wanted to give them a little introduction to each other. Thanks to my cousin, Lehua, whose beautiful cards to her bridal party inspired me (here and here). I hope to send them out tomorrow. I'll be sure to post more pictures of what my cards look like after the girls get them...don't wanna spoil the surprise!

-Future Mrs. Honda

Happy -1 year anniversary!

Yesterday marked exactly 1 year until the Mr. Honda and I will officially tie the knot. Just the thought of it alone sets my heart a flutter.

-Future Mrs. Honda

A wedding filled weekend

So this weekend was all about weddings...weddings...weddings.

On Saturday Mr. Honda and I made our way to the beautiful home of a custom wedding invitation designer. We spent over an hour pouring over sample invitations and luxurious papers with absolutely delicious textures. She had so many beautiful invites. Not to mention that she was extremely helpful. Before we met with her I felt completely wishy-washy about what I envisioned for our wedding invites. But now the vision is crystal clear! Not to mention she's willing to give us a discount if we self-assemble our invitation suites. I am double and triple crossing my fingers that we'll be able to afford to work with her. But even if not I am so grateful for all the time she spent working with us and helping us refine our vision of our invitations. I would definitely recommend her services to any brides-to-be in the bay area.

This morning we headed over to Crate and Barrel in the city for a special wedding registry event. The entire store was closed for the event and we and several other engaged couples were provided with a scanner and wandered around the store scanning to our hearts desire. To make things even better they provided us with complementary mimosas, cappuccinos, and freshly made eggs, sausage, and waffles. And as we finished up and turned in our scanners they gave us a gift bag too.

We then headed over to Union Square to relax a bit before our next registry appointment at Macy's. While we were there we saw this most adorable Yoda heart there. Much to Mr. Honda's pleasure he has made me into quite the geek.

We then made our way over to Macy's where we began our registry in search of some fine china and other such luxurious items. But much to our surprise the everyday dish and glassware was much more reasonably priced than at Crate and Barrel. So it seems that we may have to rethink some of our registry choices in order to help our guests get more bang for their buck. But we have quite a while to refine our registry, so it'll be nice to take the time to pick out the things that really suit us.

All in all it was a very productive weekend for wedding planning. And Mr. Honda was surprisingly patient throughout it all. I really am a lucky girl.

-Future Mrs. Honda

Swimmingly...sorta

I'm excited to report that the wedding plans are coming along swimmingly. We booked our venue, photographer, and videographer.

Unfortunately we're still in search of a DJ/emcee and florist. The cost of DJs/emcees that we've looked at aren't too bad, but flowers...YIKES! I definitely did not expect flowers to cost so darn much. I am crossing my fingers that some family/friend connections can help us out in this department. 

-Future Mrs. Honda