The Making Of: Our Invitations

One of the DIY projects that ended up taking a very long time was our wedding invitations. At first, I was excited to see so many new and beautiful designs available on the internet. But when having a wedding for less than fifty people, and only needing about twenty invitations, it was not reasonable to order invitations that would end up costing over $5 per invite. I think that ordering invitations is better for larger weddings, where you would order like a hundred or more, because then the cost per invite goes down drastically.

SO, we decided to create our own! Sounds easy, right? Seisuke is a graphic designer and I like drawing, so what a perfect combination for making invitations! But it ended up taking a long time because there were just so many ideas to choose from and different paper/printing options that it was really hard to choose! Well, we ended up coming up with something that was our style but also affordable to make.

First I found a design that I liked on an invitation website and I was almost going to just order them and be done with it, but after realizing that we could totally do it ourselves, I sent the design to Seisuke and had him find me all the fonts to match. I love chevron so this seemed perfect; but instead of gold foil printing, we opted for a pink ombre pattern.

Paper Source Wedding Invitation

Our design

I wanted to include some kind of illustration like I found on these Rifle Paper Co. invitations, but this kind of work is all done on Photoshop or Illustrator and I do not have the skills or time to “draw” a graphic design….so we created something that represented “us.”

rifle paper co custom invitations

beautifully illustrated invitations by rifle paper co

Initial drawings

I originally wanted to include Japanese symbolism in the design

I played around with different motifs and thought about making Seisuke's last name into a monogram-type emblem

Some other initial drawings

Our end drawing

Choosing the right "skin" color was fun and challenging

The two "skin" colors I had did not seem to match, so I ended up shopping for new Copics in Namba

Testing out dozens of "skin" color Copic markers....

 We made a 3-D puzzle, similar to other products Seisuke makes and sells, using a drawing that I drew on paper, scanned, and Seisuke touched up on Illustrator. We love how they turned out and hope people will have fun with the DIY craft project included.

They don't sell 5x7" paper in Japan, so I bought large card stock and we cut out the invitations ourselves (when we made these invitations, it was still very cold in Japan...hence the floral blanket)

Printing 5x7" card stock on a home printer also turned out to be a challenge!

After you cut out the pieces, you can make a 3-D Save the Date!

I think I got a good resemblance, don't you think?

House Update #2: Off the wall

We have been stripping the walls this past month and are ready to order wallpaper! I picked up some Marimekko wallpaper for the kitchen that I CANNOT WAIT to put on our nice, clean walls! That will have to come last, though, since we are going to start with the hallways before we work our way to the important walls! Here are a few pics of our progress!

Upstairs halls are stripped

Seisuke took down all the curtain rods so I could tear off the wallpaper

Our bare walls

After removing the light fixtures, we found the original wall paper color.....

The stripped living room

Living room and dining room in the back

Sometimes picking up the wall paper pieces was a task in itself!

This glass was broken when his mom tried to move a couch...Seisuke asked me if this could be a DIY project, too.....

The brown color is the original wall paper and the white color is the unfinished wall color underneath

Sometimes I had to wear shades to avoid dust and pieces of wall falling into my eyes when peeling off the ceiling paper

Seisuke scrubbed this for me about four or five times and now it's finally white

Remember this lovely before pic?

Kitchen in progress....

Wedding Speed-Planning

Since I live in Japan and we decided to get married in San Jose, California, wedding planning has been a bit of a challenge. First of all, let me say that I cannot believe how many of our family members and friends have generously offered to help and the things they would do for us is really amazing. It has made wedding planning so much easier and getting different ideas and advice has been really helpful. There are certain things that, as a bride, you still want to do yourself or you want to figure out for yourself before assigning it to someone to do for you. And the weddings, decorations, invitations, even the dresses, are all different here in Japan. So as much as we tried to do by ourselves in Japan, it definitely helped to visit California at the end of April/beginning of May to do some wedding “errands”. It was a very productive trip and made the wedding feel more real, but it turned out to be pretty tiring! Without all the help I received that week I don’t think I could’ve finished everything! I am so grateful for everyone’s help and enthusiasm about our wedding—it really means a lot to us!

Anyway, here is a look at what planning a wedding in only ten days looks like (for the records)!

Day one: Arrive at SFO, eat lunch, head to Haute Bride for my dress fitting. OMG so expensive—alterations ended up being more than half of what the dress cost! That's what you get if your bust, waist, and hips are not the same size! :/ Head to Valley Fair to get Seisuke’s wedding band (our guy was not there so we had to go back a different day), check out bridesmaids dresses at Jessica McClintok, Macys, Nordstroms (but no luck).

Day two: More bridesmaids dress shopping—found the winner at David’s Bridal! But there was trouble getting the sizes and colors for everyone so I definitely recommend ordering the dresses more than three months in advance. Then went to Michaels and the flea market to look for fake flowers—no luck at the flea market but I was curious to see what’s out there. Drove Brianna back to her dorm at USF, ate dinner, dropped Taylor off at her house, went to Grandma’s.

Day three: Visit Sunnyvale Community Center and Kona Kai for site visits with Dad. Visit Nisa who is helping me with the ceremony and reception & talk to Dirk, who is officiating our wedding, about the speeches and vows. Visit my friend, Marina, and her family.

Day four: Jazzercise in the morning, shopping at Hobby Lobby & Target in Morgan Hill in the afternoon and starting work on craft projects. Let me tell you, Hobby Lobby takes like half a day. I don’t know if it’s because it was a weekday or if it’s always like that but it was so clean and organized but you just had to check every aisle. It is definitely a crafter’s paradise!!!!

Day five: Craft projects in the morning, meet with DJ to discuss music and timeline, head to rehearsal dinner restaurant for a tasting and to decide the menu. Head to Costco with Dad to check out food platters and desserts. Pick out envelopes at Paper Source and visit my friends in Palo Alto and teach them how to make okonomiyaki for dinner. :) Label and prep the invitations to be sent out!

Day six: Jazzercise, meeting with florist, ring shopping, make up trial in the morning, tasting in the afternoon (all while still in Jazzercise clothes), babysitting in the evening (including Boy Scout BBQ at the park—omg all-boy parties are wild! I forgot how much energy boys have!!!!).

Day seven: Babysitting, pedicure, Target in the morning, more babysitting with slime making in the afternoon, research other florists, head to neighbor’s house for ceremony music rehearsal. The music sounds sooooooooo good! The rehearsal was a good way to figure out the timing and simplify the songs for the ceremony. I’m so impressed by our musicians and cannot wait to hear them again! ;)

Day eight: Oh my god, by then I was pooped! Like it all hit me at once that I needed sleep and rest because I was waking up early every day and just kept going and going until midnight. Little things started to feel overwhelming, like the craft projects not turning out right, not being able to decide what kind of flowers to use and not being able to envision what the bouquets would look like with the different flower choices, feeling sunburned and my body just started to shut down….so I took a break until the cake tasting at 2pm and then went back home to take another nap before heading over to Z’s bday party. I’m bummed I was late to it, but glad I got to see one of my favorite families again before I left.

Day nine: Why am I still here?? I thought! I was ready to go back to Japan!!!! Order veil, shop at Michael’s again (and picked up some really cute frames), buy fabric at JoAnn’s for the ring bearer pillows and then head back to Grandma’s for more crafts. Ate dinner with Mom and Grandma and Mom started helping me paint stuff.

Day ten: Dad took me to CVS bc I broke out into a rash/sunburn, picked up Seisuke’s ring, power-shopping at Trader Joes. Ate lunch at Grandma’s, packed my bags, pick up dress/second fitting, visit ANOTHER florist, ate dinner at Grandma’s with Mom, went home, packed some more, went to bed.

Day eleven: Back to Japan!

I felt a huge sense of relief after I left and like a lot was accomplished. I was also comforted knowing so many people were willing to help, so again, THANK YOU! We are so grateful and appreciate everything! I am glad I am only getting married once, because planning a wedding is a lot of work—especially from abroad, on a budget, and without a wedding planner! And one more thing, there is this amazing craze called Pinterest and tons of wedding blogs out there that give all kinds of great DIY inspiration that will make you want to go out and buy a bunch of stuff and try to replicate it yourself or make you think, "$100?! I could totally make that myself!" but then there gets to be a point where you will HATE Pinterest and looking at wedding stuff because it is just so gosh darn impossible to doooo!! So I am happy to say that I have retired from Pinterest-planning and will just stick with the inspiration I have collected so far and leave some things to the professionals (although I first thought I could save money doing it myself) because there is just not enough time and it is not easy doing things from abroad. I hope everything will turn out okay but if not, hey! I still get to get married that day so I think that's more than enough to make me happy! :)

Here are a couple pictures from my ten-day wedding planning trip!

Cake tasting at Margaret's French Bakery

Facepainting with flower girl and ring bearer--I felt like I had face paint on, too, after the make up trial!

Menu tasting at Boulder Ridge

Tasting at Boulder Ridge

Make up trial after shot: a little too Lady Gaga, don't you think???

Fake flowers at Hobby Lobby--not the color I was going for though

Hobby Lobby--stimulation overload

Dress shopping with my youngest bridesmaid ;)

Cherry Blossoms and House Update #1

Gardens at Ryoanji Temple

Last week I had the pleasure of showing one of my favorite families around Kansai! We spent two days touring Kyoto and one day visiting Nara and Osaka. What a great time to go sightseeing with all the beautiful cherry blossoms everywhere! On the first day we went to Kinkakuji, aka the Golden Pavillion, and walked to Ryoanji temple, which is famous for its zen rock garden. I thought it was going to just a boring spread of gravel but it was gorgeous!!!! There is a huge garden surrounding the temple with tons of different types of trees and flowers. It was so peaceful since we visited right before it closed and all the crowds were gone. I actually loved it more than Kinkakuji! I would love to visit again in the fall to see all the beautiful autumn leaves. After that we went to Arashiyama and walked around the bamboo forest before having dinner and heading home.

Dr. Seuss trees at Ryoanji Temple

Zen Rock Garden at Ryoanji Temple

The next day Seisuke came with me and we toured the Imperial Palace. We were lucky to enter the private grounds which are only open to the public on certain days. It was nice to see, however, I would not recommend this place on a hot day with lots of people because it is very spread out and the gravel everywhere makes it feel very hot. After that we headed over to Tetsugaku no michi, aka Philosopher’s Path. This is one of my favorite spots in Kyoto—a beautiful path along a river near Kyoto University and Ginkakuji lined with cherry blossom trees. We bought food at a grocery store nearby and had a picnic right on the river. The best part was when the cherry blossoms would fall down on us like snowflakes! It was magical! After our big lunch of sushi, okonomiyaki, yakitori, tofu, and pineapple, we headed over to Kiyomizu-dera. This temple and Kinkakuji (which are located on opposite ends of Kyoto) are probably the most famous places to visit in Kyoto. Kiyomizu is located up in the mountains and you hike up a hill lined with souvenir shops and soft serve ice cream vendors tempting you with their different seasonal flavors (we opted for Cherry Blossom and Green Tea swirl). Parts of the temple were under construction, so it’s not the best time to visit, but you can’t beat the view! Up in the mountains overlooking hundreds of trees of different colors and a view of Kyoto city in the distance. It is worth visiting! On the way back, we stopped in Gion/downtown Kyoto area and I told my friends to go to the department store basement and pick up some delicious take out! The food floor in all department stores in Japan are a great place to visit to try a variety of different Japanese foods and they often give out samples so it is also a great place to go if you just need a snack!

Enjoying the views from Kiyomizu temple

The last day of their visit we met up at Nara station and walked around Nara park. I knew this would be a huge hit with the kids because Nara is filled with hundreds of deer roaming around and you can buy sembei crackers to feed them. It is such a peculiar sight to see these wild deer roaming around the park and yet they seem so comfortable around humans. We walked through the park to Todaiji Temple. This temple is famous for the giant Buddha and the architecture is amazing. It was the perfect place to visit because the kids enjoyed the deer and the parents were impressed by the temple. After that we had another bento-type lunch in the station and then took a train to Osaka Castle. Since it was rainy that day, there weren’t any picnickers out and it made for a mellow walk through the castle grounds and a leisurely visit inside the castle. It was a lot to cover in one day, but the kids were troopers and were able to walk A LOT (basically all day) without any complaining or whining! The three days flew by and I am sad that we couldn’t spend more time together but I hope they will come visit us again soon!

The next day Seisuke was supposed to participate in a local festival so I went with his parents and their friends to watch him. He dressed up in an authentic samurai costume with a few other people and walked around the town with local families. There were different vendors selling food, produce, and crafts so we picked up some stuff to take home. The only problem was the weather that day was horrible! It was cold, stormy, and being outside was almost unbearable. The festival wore all of us out so everyone took a nap after lunch. Then, in the afternoon, Seisuke and I started working on our house!

We painted some swatches using paint made for painting over wall paper. We plan on painting some of the bedrooms instead of redoing the wall paper since it will be cheaper and faster. The only problem is the wall paper is kind of a dark beige so I hope the color will not show through.

After that we started cleaning the greasy kitchen. There is still a lot to do, but we’ll try to make more time to work on cleaning the rooms this month so we can start stripping the walls. I cannot wait to reveal the wall paper we picked out! I am very excited about it!!! We have a long way to go but hopefully the end result will be what we envision. :)