We're getting married on May 23, 2009 in Wayfarer Chapel, CA, and will have a lunch reception at the Belamar hotel at Manhattan beach.

I am a very laid back type of girl and I never thought about my wedding much until probaby just a few days ago lol!  I'm a CPA doing corporate tax planning, and my fiance is a software engineer.  We both live in the Silicon Valley (near san jose, CA).

The wedding being in Southern Cal and me being not the most romantic person, I have to say the whole planning experience has been more or less a nightmare.  I just made my 2nd trip down to LA after we were engaged 5 months ago to wrap up all the loose ends: reception menu, seeing the chapel for the first time, floralist, make-up artist and hair stylist. 

I'm no stranger to forums.  I am a video game addict and have been living on a few gaming forums for more than a year. I was thrilled when I saw this and I'm sure I'll meet lots of helpful and experienced brides and bride-to-be's to help me out!

Update March 30, 2009:

Wow I can't believe I thought the planning process was a nightmare!  Only had I found this website sooner.  Ever since I started here, I'm loving everything about weddings more and more.  I wish I could push the date back so I could redo everything.  sigh...

Photographer: Amy Theilig

The entire album here: http://www.amyt.printroom.com/chiu

Rehearsal - me walking in w/ dad

Ceremony

Reception

(^^forgot to move that ugly screen for the slideshow ugh...)

Below: you can kinda see my chinese dress in this one:

Tea Ceremony after the reception 

The traditional gold banglers look funny with the white dress. But i think it's pretty cool.

My pwetty BMs!

My etsy shop is officially open!  My seller name is also yelppuppy there.  The funny thing is I'm more excited about my shop banner than anything else!

I wanted to sell them early this year, but at that time I never heard of etsy.  With all the wedding stuff going on I was forced to put my needles down.  Now that the wedding is over, and learned the popularity of etsy thanks to PW girls here, I can finally present my work to the public!

Now I'm just patiently waiting for my customers.  Please wish me luck! <3

Last set of engagement photos with our hired wedding photographer, Amy Theilig. These were shot 2 days before the wedding at Manhattan Beach Pier, CA.  More from that batch can be found here.

http://gallery.me.com/rshay001#100171

Bridal Bouquet:  I'm looking for green/white flowers with may be lavender as an accent color.  I see a lot of great pictures in magazines but less so online. 

This one is RIGHT ON!  Everything I dreamed of is included nothing else is. Thank you Mrsmillertobe

This one is more romantic than the first one.  Might be cute w/ my new dress. I love espresso beans though!

-I like the pops of purple in this one for BM'S Bouquet:

-oooh I love the texture of this one, especially the berries and the long moss-like thing (whatever it's called :P).  Too many leaves here though.

-too many whites, but i LOVE the cala lilly!

Flowers I like:

Hydrangeas

Calla Lily

Anemones

peony

Stephanotis

Amaranthus

Coffee beans

What's this?

random idea:

I came across this picture on flickr.  Battery lights are added to the bouquet.  How about that?

Flower Girl:

My flower girl is 10-yrs old, so I'd like a more mature look for her.  I'm thinking about one long stem of a large flower (don't know what kind yet lol) or something like this:

Inspirations:

A- I like the top part. Her bangs are parted to the side but most of her hair on top are pulled back in a very casual style. I wonder if I have enough hair to do that.

E- I like how their curls are not too tight; i really like the girl w/ the blue shirt: her curls look very natural

G-from HolyMolyMatrimony's bio (If i have my hair down then I like her style)

H - The first BM's hair is nice too.

The veil can be inserted there

I LOVE her hair!!! I think that's exactly what I want to do.  Hair down with some teased and secured.  Then the veil can go there.

I like the inner corners

Others

http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd122/schsieh/hair/

Decided on my BM dress.  It looks 10x better in person!  It's the exact shade of green that i've been dreaming about with great material and a flattering cut!

http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/2980336/0~2376776~2374327~6005464~6005511~6005548?mediumthumbnail=Y&origin=category&searchtype=&pbo=6005548&P=1

DIY Wedding Program

I was going to do a really fancy, multi-layers of colors, textures and ribbons of an accordion program, but after 3 days and visiting all the local craft and paper store, I finally failed because I cannot find a printer that can print on a 16" long paper.  At that point (less than 2 weeks away from the wedding)I was so frustrated I didn't even feel like going to Kinko's.

This one page little guy still took me 4-5 late nights in the office.  But at least there's no cut and paste!  My proudest part about this is I drew the map!

^^You can see from this pic, but behind the numerical date it's the chinese date spelled in chinese in light green.

^^again you can barely see it, but at the lower right corner you can see me and my fiance's names in chinese in green.  That baby took me forever too! Because I couldn't find a good chinese font so a friend's friend in Asia typed our names on word and sent me back the file in PDF!  Thank you, stranger!

prep shots:

zip it up!

How do boys get ready

mom-daughter prep shot

Ready, set, go! (call me crazy, but I LOVE the darkness and anxiety of these shots)

"Oh really, there was a photographer there?" shot

Doesn't have to be like this, but a creative angle shot of the rings:

(I'm obviously not going to buy these cups, but had to save this pic :P)

All about the veil

Whew!

Great photography + good wedding + interesting idea + drunk guests=