So I have the mother of all nightmare wedding stories. One day, I received a call from my officiant saying that someone had posed as me, creating a similar email address, and tried to CANCEL THE WEDDING! Who the crazy does that?! Apparently, this person had located my vendor information off my bio and contacted most of my vendors (via phone and email) to cancel the wedding. I don’t have any enemies and I had recently had a really bad interaction with Kristie, another florist, so a lot of evidence points to her.

I had found Kristie off of craigslist. She had just relocated to LA and was looking to do one wedding for free in order to build her up her clientele base. So I “hired” her and we met up to discuss flowers and sign the contract. After I met with her, I basically raved about her and she received several contacts from me. Soon after that, she emailed saying that she felt that she could not do my wedding since she already had her day job as a software engineer (and my wedding was quite large). This was after our first conversation where I insisted that I hire another vendor do all the centerpieces in order to alleviate her from the workload. After a few frustrated emails, that was that, leaving me to find someone else at the last minute- and all the “good” people were booked. I wrote about this situation on several wedding message boards, which I’m sure she saw. It looks like she may have retaliated by trying to stop the wedding? What a wacko! I wasn’t that upset though, I think I mostly felt kind of sorry for her. Geez, who does that kind of stuff?!

I had hired the famous and loved Claudine of Bridal Perfections to alter my gown. One day I received a call from her saying that she moved up north and that she had passed my dress onto her friend (even though she had promised me that she would finish the dress before the move). It turns out that Claudine hadn’t touched my dress and by the time it got to Lillian, but I still trusted Lillian’s work, judging from Claudine’s high praises. To make a long story short, I had to go to at least six fittings and she still couldn’t get the zipper right (you can see a picture of my MOH literally sewing the back of my dress shut before the ceremony). In addition, she had dogs and cats all over her house, and one day, there was dog feces everywhere and on another day, cat vomit everywhere. When I had approached her about the second incident (thinking it was dog feces), she just said, "It wasn't dog feces, it was cata vomit." OKAY! In retrospect, I wish I had just taken the dress elsewhere, even if it meant I would have lost the money and even though it was just weeks before the wedding. She was also the sweetest lady in the world so I didn’t have the guts to tell her.

One of my friends had hired Sierra and was really happy with her so I didn’t give it much thought, especially since Sierra was much cheaper than most florists. I think Sierra infused too much of her own vision into the design. I even sent her a lot of pictures, basically saying “just do this”, but the final product was totally different. She recently relocated to Tacoma, Washington and actually flew down for the wedding. I was really grateful for that and she was a total sweetie, but I was really displeased with the flowers. She made me a sample centerpiece a few days before the wedding and it was in a Styrofoam container- she thought it looked “rustic” and matched the site. No. So at the last minute, I had to add glass vases, something I had assumed was included in the price. I could drone on and on about this but I’ll just stop here.

We embossed our return address on our invitation envelopes. Gorgeous!

Definitely the most affordable place to get any kind of envelope you want. They also mail you free samples.

We used a 50% off coupon and ordered the “deluxe” book. My husband actually designed it and did a great job! The quality is really great (but not great enough for a wedding album, in my opinion).

My husband and I both love autumn and kind of spontaneously decided to visit New York and used engagement pictures to justify our trip out there. Getting multiple locations is more complicated in New York so we just hired Leah for Central Park pictures. But then I posted a “looking for photography student” ad in New York’s Craigslist and Cynthia, who was starting her business, responded, and shot us awesome pictures on the Brooklyn Bridge. They’re both great!

I actually had Korean food during my cocktail hour in order to appease the Korean guests. I had dduk (ricecakes), fried shrimp, little veggie wrap things, potstickers, mini chicken things, a fancy fruit platter, and some other items. My mom did extensive research to find the best appetizers that would not be too crazy Korean and visually appealing. My caterer allowed outside food since it was “ethnic”. I saved a lot of money doing this, considering that SAG charges 2 bucks per potsticker!! I also purchased all the alcohol at Costco. This saved SOOOO much money!

I actually had Korean food during my cocktail hour in order to appease the Korean guests. I had dduk (ricecakes), fried shrimp, little veggie wrap things, potstickers, mini chicken things, a fancy fruit platter, and some other items. My mom did extensive research to find the best appetizers that would not be too crazy Korean and visually appealing. My caterer allowed outside food since it was “ethnic”. I saved a lot of money doing this, considering that SAG charges 2 bucks per potsticker!! I also purchased all the alcohol at Costco. This saved SOOOO much money!

I did my research and walmart has the absolute cheapest votives- a 24 pack for only $4.99. The wick is right under the rim of the glass, which meets most fire hazard standards.