Website

Check out my wedding website!!!!! www.minhandcheryl.com

Proposal

My fiance and I take pictures every year because we like to see how we've grown together over the years, so here are some taken by my friend (an aspiring photographer) from 2009:

Almost at the end of the photoshoot, my fiance surprised me a ring in front of my friends and family at a nearby restaurant at the beach!

Colors

Pink, gold, and white

Our Signature Logo

Instead of a traditional monogram, we created a logo with our actual signatures!  Isn't that neat?!  It will be on our website, invitations, inside our ballroom, etc.

Engagement Photos

These were taken from the San Diego fair!

My Ring!

I present to you.....my beautiful and custom ring!!! My fiance did good! He knew I love hearts and gold!

Save the Date

We made a postcard, and this is the front cover:

On the back, we took a quote from Dr. Seuss that said:

Reception

Ceremony

Invitations

Our invitations have to be both in Vietnamese and English. We didn't like how some people traditionally put English on one side of the page and Vietnamese on the other side because to me, that seems a bit impersonal and a wasted side of a page for those who don't know how to read Vietnamese or English.

So I came up of a clever way to display the two languages: the invitation will be printed double-sided and depending on your first language, it will be stuffed in a vertical envelope with their first language facing up!  Here was my inspiration:

Wedding Party Retreat

My fiance and I wanted to do something fun and different for our wedding party.  Since we got engaged, we've been secretive of who was going to be in our wedding party because for 6 months, we were planning a surprise weekend retreat at an estate in the Temecula wine country for our chosen bridesmaids and groomsmen.  We sent an evite out to our wedding party and their significant others and we noted that there was going to be an important announcement.  For months, everyone had been trying to figure out what the announcement was about.  Some even thought we were pregnant!  

I made candy bouquets for my
bridesmaids the week of the Retreat

Anyways, when the weekend came, we started off dining at one of the wineries and then pre-partied back at the house on Friday.  Let me tell you, I love the house that we stayed at!  We chose a huge house that had practically everything - swimming pool, billiard, board games, etc; this was our requirement because we wanted to purposely stay in on Saturday so everyone could get to know everyone on a personal level.  We started Saturday off with lunch filled with our favorite foods.  I wrote a little description about each of the food we made, like the sliders were my fiance's signature burgers and the Krober Riesling 2007 wine from Germany was my choice of wine.  

After lunch, my fiance and I came up with a game called "Autograph Bingo".  During the six months of planning, we were gathering interesting, funny, fun, and random facts about each person.  The object of the game was to grab everyone's autograph but they could only ask one question to the other person and the other person could only answer "yes" or "no" instead of just asking them for the answer.  We had facts that would throw them off like "I donated my hair to cancer" and "I won a lap dance contest in Cancun" and those facts belonged to my fiances groomsmen!  The game turned out to be a really big hit and led to many followup conversations!

Finally, we announced to our friends that they were in our wedding party and everyone was fine and dandy.  For dinner, we had an Italian theme (which is also where we are going for our honeymoon) and I told them that we were making dinner together with pizza as our main course!  It was soooooooo fun watching everyone make their own pizza!  We also had garlic bread, Italian soup, and plenty of wine to go with it!

This weekend was definitely an unforgettable weekend.  My fiance and I felt like this was a big accomplishment for us because they all became really close friends.  In fact, when the weekend was over, everyone befriended each other on Facebook and continued talking!  How awesome is that?!

Here are some pictures of the weekend:

Hair

Other hair inspiration I might be interested in:

Flowers

My bouquet

I imagine my bouquet to be wrapped in white lace with pearls and gold chains hanging out:

and in these colors...

 Bridesmaid bouquet

Reception flowers

This is for my pews....

Dress

When I started dress shopping, I had a different vision of the dress than from what I actually bought.  I envisioned my dress to be more mermaid, lacy, and more overlays like Cinderella.  I probably visited 8-10 stores from San Diego to Orange County and tried on 10+ different dresses at each store.  I was getting discouraged that I couldn't find one by now and I thought I had to wait another season for the new dresses to come out.  There was one store left that I needed to go to in San Diego and this was also the store where I finally found my dress!

My first impression of the dress was pure speechlessness.  I didn't cry, I had no expression, I just didn't say anything at all.  I didn't even know whether I liked it or not.  I sat on my decision for another 2-3 weeks.  There was another dress that I had in mind and I was almost in the process of purchasing that dress.  However, one morning, I was looking through videos of other dresses I tried on and when I got to looking at this dress, I got speechless again.  This time though, I knew I was speechless because the dress had taken my breath away.   I knew at that moment that it was the one.  My expression turned to bliss on my second visit and then I got teary on my first fitting.  :)

Introducing my Lazaro dress in style LZ3855.....

I am making additional changes to the dress, such as making the neckline into a deeper sweetheart instead of a slight sweetheart and I also purchased matching beadings to have them go off my shoulders.  I don't know exactly how that part can be done, but I will finalize the details with the seamstress once I go back and get fitted.

I got a beautiful matching cathedral veil that is also from Lazaro!!!  My friends are in love with it because they say it completes the dress!  I'll post more pictures soon!

Traditional Vietnamese dress

Bridesmaid dress

We are getting their dress custom made in this similar style:

Here are the changes that I will be making to their dresses:

• They will be in a gold color instead of ivory as shown in the picture
• The shoulders and back are made of lace and everything else is silk charumeuse
• The back will be lowered even more, up to their waist
• The Maid of Honor will have beadings and fancier lace

Groomsmen

Our groomsmen will be wearing pink and gray tux in the morning (see below) and gold and gray tux in the evening (not pictured):

Our guys will be wearing this identical tux from Friars Tux!

Flower girl dress

Her accessories:

Ring Boy

I love his pillow!

Our Best Man will be carrying our real rings inside a mini ring bag!

Transportation

Shoes

Love my Christian Louboutin Fetilo Lace peeptoe shoes!

Since I am expecting to run around from point A to B, I know for sure I won't be able to run with my 5 1/2" heels all day!  So I am also thinking of getting sandals!  What do you think?

Update: Not getting these anymore....they didn't look right on my feet...

12/23/2010 - 

I think I found the perfect traveling shoes!

Rings

Engagement Ring

Wedding Ring

I really love this Tiffany Novo ring in rose gold!

Rehearsal dinner

I want to make luminary lights that say our names on the tables, like this picture:

Makeup

Ceremony

Flowers on my pews:

Reception

Venue

This is the overall look that I want to achieve:

Our layout will look like this, with our head table facing the white dance floor and stage:

We will also put candles on stage:

Head table linen:

Centerpiece

I will have high and low centerpieces with crystals and pearls hanging out:

I'm adding feathers to the side like this:

I was thinking of doing this for my parents table....

Gift box

My inspiration...

Place cards

I'm adding wax seal in 3 different colors to indicate the food choices:

This swan will be placed on my placecard table:

Table Number

Guestbook

I got a ostrich feather pen for my guestbook!  I am very pleased with this purchase on ebay!

Cake

My cake will be on stage and on this linen but in white color:

I'm making flags to display the flavors...

Gifts

Fiance's gifts

Bridesmaid gifts

Personalized hangers!

Miscellaneous

I wasn't planning on ever creating custom postage stamps, but thanks to PW, I got them at a great price!

I want to add more sparkles to my toes!

Check out my wedding website!

http://www.minhandcheryl.com

I added flowers to her dress!

Excuse the needle pins and wrinkles on my dress!  My seamstress is still making changes to it and I haven't steampressed it yet!

My reception and first dance dress:

(on the model)

(on me)

More updates coming soon!

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I'm so honored to be featured in the Bride & Bloom magazine!!!  It's my most favorite magazine ever!!!!!!