first, hope... now, change...

So this is not as fluffy of a wedding prep post as my other ones... cuz I've just been thinking about all the big changes that are going to be happening in my life as of next summer... moving in with Kitani, getting married to Kitani, starting a totally new job, having to come home at a reasonable hour, teaching classes I have never taught, setting up a home, setting up a lab, going on a honeymoon, managing tight finances, giving up my awesome UCLA gym membership... and it's just a little overwhelming.

The wedding seems like a piece of cake relative to all of this. But I realize that all of this change is also spurred on by great hope. And although I love Kitani and feel safe in his arms and all that mushiness, what I really love is that he is always praying for me and he understands better than anyone else how much God loves me.

Now to supplement that mushiness with some wedding planning-ish stuff, here are some photos of some cute couples...

White Box Weddings




Jasmine Star Photography Blog

Amelia Lyon Photography Blog

This has been one mushy blog post. Perhaps because it is our two-year anniversary celebration today (Indian food in a restaurant all to ourselves -- 4 waiters serving us! and a jaunt to Borders... one of our favorite hangout spots... haha). Here's to the past two years and hope-driven change in the future!

Goin' to the chapel and we're...

gonna get maaaaarried... (the Shirelles)

One of my favorite oldies songs has always been the classic Shirelles song. I've never been a huge music connoisseur nor a lovey-dovey sentimental romantic, but I've always liked this song!





Something about the simple harmonies makes it so singable! Anyway, now that I'm actually planning on going to a chapel and getting married, I now have to think about how to decorate it. In accord with our patriotic theme, I'm thinking of using ribbon like this:

And tie it around the pews like this:

This is what our actual wedding church (Dongboo Korean Presbyterian Church) looks like:


(front)


(back)


I wonder where I might be able to incorporate patriotic bunting...



If I had a tent wedding, I would want it to look something like this:

A tinge of jealousy...

Location, location, location... KitanJi had a bunch of constraints on location (big enough, Korean-food catering allowed, central location, ceremony+reception, cheap!) so we settled for the one place that fit our needs on all those dimensions. However, I think if I had any choice for location, I would have loved to have a patriotic wedding at A PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY!!!

Or another option that is appealing to me is at a modern museum...

But getting married at a nice clean church in Ktown is fine with me!

Web Presence!

Dude! The KitanJi save-the-dates have been featured on 2 websites already! HAHA!

http://www.make-your-own-invitations.com/patriotic-save-the-date.html

http://bklynbride.blogspot.com/2008/11/ji-yuns-save-dates.html

Thank you Shepard Fairey!

I need to take this time to say "THANK YOU!" to Shepard Fairey -- the graphic designer who brought us the Barack Obama "HOPE" portrait:

As an homage to our 4th of July-patriotic theme, here are the KitanJi spoofs that we're going to use as our "save-the-dates":






Of course there are a bajillion spoofs out there (although I haven't seen any wedding related spoofs...) so here are some of the ones I like the best. They're collected on the Capn Wacky and Rene Wanner's poster page (click on the pictures to go to original creator's site):


Bob Hope; Soup Nazi


Bill Clinton; Pope Benedict 16


Kim Jong-il (HAHAHAHA); Vladimir Putin


Anthony Bourdain; Obama "the intellectual"


Yoda; Paris Hilton


Jesus Christ

Accessories... for boyz...

So in regards to this whole patriotic theme, I admit I have a tendency to go a little nuts. So one thing that KitanJi wants to do is scrap boutonnieres and just have RED-WHITE-&-BLUE buttons! Dave's will say something like, "YES, I DO!" and maybe his groomsmen's buttons will say... "YES HE CAN!" or "YES HE DOES" or "WE SUPPORT DAVE" or maybe just a big button with our faces on them...

(studio306.com/weblog)

And in lieu of a traditional vest&tie look, I thought maybe they can have some patriotic action going on in the tie area as well! My dress is cream and my bridesmaid dresses (found by iliketatertots - the interweb bridesmaid) are dark red/maroon/bing cherry/burgandy/deoxygenated blood colored:

($31.99 on sale at http://www.target.com/ -- although they seem to be regular priced now!)

So I'm now looking for some navy blue/dark red tie options... Maybe we should go U.S.A.-all-the-way (from http://www.ties.com):





(I sorta like the red one on the left, http://www.tieguys.com)

I almost want to make the guys wear the crazy statue of liberty or eagle ties (pictured below) as revenge for all the ugly bridesmaid dresses out there... guys should have a chance to be humiliated in support of their friend's wedding. HAHA, isn't the eagle one freaky??? I have a half a mind to make the groomsmen wear these...



Or perhaps we should go more international (one of the tenets of our wedding doctrine is to incorporate Korea/Japan/USA into our wedding):



I'm actually sort of partial to this navy blue international tie above! It's subtle enough where it won't overwhelm everyone, but the people in the bridal party will know how secretly funny and thematic it is!


The other option is to go with a nice preppy navy/cherry striped tie... Do you think it'll work with a plain black suit?


If DK vetoes everything (he has the ultimate power of veto in our wedding plans -- he's the executive branch of our relationship), then maybe we'll go with plain navy or plain crimson groomsmen stuff and then get them funky shoes...


(www.amelialyon.net/weddings/3.html)


The boys are back in town (echo: boys are back in town)!!!

People are so creative!

I've always wanted to use these envelopes with the little clear window... I love the whole "TELEGRAM" stamp idea too. 'Vonderful.


(www.elizabethannedesigns.com/blog)


And these "Chewing the Cud" people are just plain brilliant...






(www.chewingthecudweddings.com)


And finally, my friend (who knows my passion for gelato creation) sent me this link...


(store.papercupdesign.com/wu5.html)


Too bad we're not really having ice cream at our wedding! We might -- but we're still working it out...

The Joy of Paper

There are few things I have control over in life. But somehow, paper makes me feel safe.


(www.leighmillerphotography.com/blog/page/4)


...and although my friend Joyce-the-graphic-designer is super-duper against labels on a wedding invite -- I am lazy. I really really want to print out addresses rather than writing them all out... So I'm trying to figure out some cute ways to have little laser-printed labels. Hooray for technology.

(jinsoojung.blogspot.com)
Pray tell, what is the point of having cute labels if one is simply going to handwrite on it anyway?


I love this patriotic theme. So many funny things we could do with the invites and programs! But really -- what Martha-Stewart-freak-of-nature sends out a greeting card on voting day? Wow, truly patriotic.

(parcelpost.wordpress.com)


What a great idea... They had their wedding at a zoo! Hence the wonderful magical animal themes...



(http://www.flickr.com/photos/momopeche)


I want to do something like stamp "[OFFICIAL INVITATION ENCLOSED]" on the outside of our red invitation envelopes... to give it that extra governmental feeling! I wonder if staples has something like that...