hair inspiration

“Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being “in love” which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two.”

{ Captain Corelli’s Mandolin }

1 more day to go.

Today we firmed up the day’s programme and confirmed our song selection. While I’m doing my last minute packing, I’m still uninspired with my actual day hairdo and so instead of packing and thinking through the wedding vow, I’m searching for these:

lela rose from Become Gorgeous

from UK Now Magazine

hairstyles from Wedding Channel

 

my entry is on Ruffled front page today!

My D.I.Y. Ring Bearer for my wedding made it to Ruffled front page today!

This is the exact same Ring Bearer that I’m gonna use for my wedding. You know what’s gonna make it sweeter? Click here or the image above to go Ruffled Blog, click “Like” or leave a comment on the website. Your kind comments will not be counted as vote but they will catch the judges’ attention! So be generous!!! Thanks a bunch!

more d.i.y. engagement photos!

The ones in the previous post are what we included in our wedding invitation, here’s some others!

Here’s wishing that the haze will clear up with the rain and do have a fantastic weekend!

food tasting at toucan pub

These few days have been pretty crazy. First of all, we thought we had our table runners taken care of but as it turns out, the rental place where we went to couldn’t find the fabric colour that we wanted and so we went down to Chinatown to find the fabric and got a nice seamstress to sew them up for us. We should had gone to Arab Street to get the fabrics, they would had been purchased at a fraction of the price we paid, but like I said, crazy frenzy! bb has to be at Chinatown to get the traditional bridal gift for my family and we were looking for last-minute dress-maker and fabric as well for my bridesmaid so in the words of a particular bushy H., we paid for convenience, and a whole lot of table runners we would have no use for after the wedding. So if you’re at our wedding, see the table runners and like what you see, please, take them.

Following that, we went down to Toucan for food tasting. bb picked 7 items from our catered menu previously and we washed down everything with beer and Guinness.

These were fantastic! So naturally these here look half-eaten because most of us just couldn’t wait for after a photo was taken. Special mention goes to that mushroom sauce in the bottom right picture. Not that the actual food is not good, but that yummy sauce just goes with everything! Watch out for that on the actual day near the BBQ beef station and get a few extra scoops!

On a side note, my 2nd order of birdcage veil arrived yesterday.

She inserted this sweet note along with the order as well! Which made me feel a little better after my trip to meet the seamstress for my wedding dress… which is still not ready yet. To add a further blow, the 2nd pair of gloves I’d got doesn’t match the colour of the dress, which means I got 2 pair of beautiful unused gloves at home and none for the wedding!! I will be posting pictures of the gloves when I can in the hope that they will be able to find a home where they will truly belong. Till then!

P.S.: Thank you for all the encouraging comments on our engagement pictures! I’ll be posting more soon, so if you like them, click on the “Like” button on the post! XOXO

all shook up for our d.i.y. engagement shoot!

Hi lovelies!

Sorry it’s been a while since I posted. As The Date draws nearer, there seems to be a neverending surprise in store for us round every corner. Many brides ahead of me had advised, Enjoy the process. Well, I am trying to, amidst the tons of things that I can’t seem to delegate though I think I am a much happier person nowadays than probably a few months ago. Also, thanks to the help of a few good friends and bb, there are certain aspect of the wedding that I can say that, thankfully, I don’t have to spare any additional thought to.

And here, as promised, the pictures I included in my wedding invitation CDs.

Just because I absolutely love the Big Apple and how this V-J Day kiss captured by Alfred Eisenstaedt fitted our theme, we duplicated it!

One of the greatest challenge of this shoot was finding locations that look nostalgic and carry that old romanticism that probably our grandparents felt when they were dating. We didn’t have much time prior the shoot to go down to the locations for the pre-production planning. Everything was done and thought of on the spot, in fact one of the location, the one with the swing, was an impromptu stop. We drove by the place while looking for another, liked how the place felt and stopped for photos. My friend Rosie is a great help being our extra pair of hands and I love her so much for being so patient and helpful the entire time. It was a very hot and humid day – it was not easy being all that.

Anyways, drop in again, and you may find more photos from this d.i.y photo shoot!

one way to create wedding souvenirs

I can be an old-fashioned hag at times, I don’t warm up easily to new technology (well, actually, another way to put it would be, let other people be the guinea pigs. Let them try the spanking new gadgets first and if the gadgets don’t explode or turn users into zombies, I’ll consider integrating them into my lifestyle). I still like drawing notes onto cute notebooks and smell a well-read book. I think a typewriter is more convenient and sounds delightfully better than a computer and a printer. As thankful as I am to be born in this age and time, I may very well be misplaced in the wrong timeline.

So the decision to make my wedding invite into a CD is us trying to make use of our available resources to make it more meaningful and less harmful to Mother Earth. I had rambled on about that here.

I would had done more to make them more durable and nicer, but due to my limited skills and equipment, I had to think of different ways to get them done, presenting my wedding invites!

 

Instead of machine-sewing the rims of the CD cover together, I had simply glued the felts together using fabric glue.

The doilies were printed with a printer instead of a typewriter which would take much estimation and frustration (ink blots!) out of the whole process

Give the CD label printing software’s limited capabilities and this CD’s unconventional label size, designing the cover posed an unforeseen challenge, thus changing the original design I had in mind.

I attached a little electric guitar trinket to the stitched ribbon just to add a little Rock n’ Roll accent to the invites. The original appearance of the little electric guitars were too blahh-boring, so I added black glitters.

The CD contains our invitation (as shown below), some wonderful songs from the fifties and a picture folder with some of the pictures taken on our d.i.y. photoshoot.

Humble invitation inside the CD, designed by me

I hope we have created a nice keepsake for all our guests and demonstrated a way to keep a wedding green! Alternatively, there are always online wedding templates for you to create your own wedding web page. You can create a forum, add pictures, prepare your guest list and create a wedding registry ( again, something that I wanted to do for my wedding but it’s something that hasn’t caught on in Singapore yet). I have also used Facebook to create an event, just in case.

Next up, the wedding photos!

all shook up for our d.i.y. engagement shoot!

more d.i.y. engagement photos!

“hope” is the thing with feathers

“Hope” is the thing with feathers— That perches in the soul— And sings the tune without the words— And never stops—at all—

And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard— And sore must be the storm— That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm—

I’ve heard it in the chillest land— And on the strangest Sea— Yet, never, in Extremity, It asked a crumb—of Me.

{ Emily Dickinson }

I just ruined my first attempt in making my own birdcage veil by cutting the length of the 9 inch veil too short. 19 inch to be exact. Now I gotta buy another yard. Just hope that the next time I do it, it’s gonna be perfect because…

its 19 days away!

So I can’t afford another blunder like this since the luxury of time is now not something I can enjoy.

Meanwhile, I’m moving on to the fascinator.

 

#105 Ostrich feathers, pearl brooch with crystals, pearl strands from birdcageveils.com

from Stephanie Williams Photography

 

The Cream Puff from Batcakes@Etsy

 

from Junebug Weddings

 

from Junebug Weddings

I believe I more or less know what I want to achieve with my d.i.y. hair fascintor. Remember these posts?

hat tilt!

veil you be mine?

gioielli accessories

feathers and birdcages

ban.do for the bride

On a side note, isn’t this a terrific idea!

from What Junebug Loves

wedding decor: table runners

from NONPAREIL magazine issue 6

from Inspired Bride blog

from NONPAREIL magazine issue 6

from Martha Stewart Wedding

from Martha Stewart Wedding

from Inspired By This

In the ’50s, a lot of girls never saw beyond the wedding day.

{ Helen Reddy }

I’d never thought I would be looking at table runners. Look what the wedding has turned me into. Then again, they really enhance the theme of the occasion and add some splashes of colour ( and conversation pieces, I hope) to the tables.

P.S: To go to the source of the pictures, simply click on the picture to go to the websites.

are you a teddy boy or a rocker?

This is for all the guy friends out there who are actually thinking of NOT dressing up to the theme of my wedding. It’s actually not that hard to look pre-Mad Men. Here’s something for you!

Video >>> How to become a Greaser by Mark Holmes

I also found these pictures from NYC Fashion Stylist Mark Holmes’ website.

I got more! Check out these past posts on Mens’ fashion in the 50s!

hair the good o’ fashioned black-and-white way

classic perfection – a look at Canali Spring 2011 Collection

fab 50s men – Stefan went down to the tailor and what does he discover? Well, I just discovered that the polka dot bow tie is sold! Bummer!

Time to pick a side, boys! Are you a teddy boy or a rocker?

 

a hand bouquet of rolling good fun

The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground.

{ G K Chesterton }

If you remember a post some time back where I experimented making my own hand bouquet for my own d.i.y. photoshoot, here’s a hearty pat because I’m revealing it to you now!

(Well, of course if you have received our invitation, you would already have seen it.)

So first, it started with a  simple idea like this one.

Then, I started buying materials and made bunches of fabric flowers. Mixed and match a little bit, learnt how to tie a perfect bow and ta-da, here’s the result!

I’ll be having a real flower bouquet on the actual day, all the better to toss with! All the single ladies, put your hands up!