Go Lakers!!!!

Awww, yeeeahh! Our Lakers are the NBA champs! Just basking in the afterglow of victory!!! As you might know, our wedding colors are Lakers-inspired - purple and gold. But I thought the actual Laker shades were, well, not exactly what I had in mind for wedding colors, so we decided to go with a plum purple and a more subtle gold than yellow. But when I saw photos of this wedding at the Turnip Rose in Orange County, CA, I thought...wow, these colors might actually work! BTW, loving her shoes!!!!

Photo by Hoffman Photography

Wedding Inspiration: Alphonse Mucha

One of my favorite artists is Art Nouveau icon Alphonse Mucha. The Czech artist is renowned for his ethereal, sensual portraits of women. His paintings captured each woman's natural grace and beauty in their long cascading tresses and flowing frocks. In college, I would plaster his work all over my dormroom walls, admiring how each woman seemed free and confident; feminine yet bold.

And what great inspiration for a vintage wedding! Think warm colors of gold, purple and green. Think bohemian chic with long, natural hair and lots of flowers. Think empire waist gowns evoking turn of the century vintage chic!

Ahhh...*swoon*

Dressing the Wedding Party: Wear it again

I'm afraid David Tutera and all those wedding etiquette gurus will have a fit once they hear my stance on wedding party attire--I don't care. Really, I don't. Ok, maybe a little. We set a color and dress length for the bridesmaids, and basically told the groomsmen to wear whatever we chose at Men's Wearhouse (seriously, with the guys, just telling them what to wear would be much easier than making them choose). Other than that, everyone else can wear whatever they want. I don't care what color socks or cuff links the men wear, I don't care what jewelry the women pick (although I did suggest gold to match our colors). And get this, I even told them they can wear what they already have! Some will say I'll feel differently when I see the photos, but I can't imagine a slight deviation of color coordination or style ruining my day.

I'm not a big fan of matchy-matchy wedding parties. Don't get me wrong, it looks great and I admire them, but it never interested me to spend time worrying about coordinating down to minute details--jewelry, shoes, silhouette, hair. We have a few more members in our wedding party with 6 sponsors (a Filipino wedding custom where individuals assume responsibility to offer spiritual and emotional support for the couple). With 8 bridesmaids and groomsmen, the mothers and fathers, flower girls, ring bearer and sponsors, I would go crazy worrying about what every single person is wearing!

But here's a rundown. Our bridesmaids will wear their dresses of their choice (my only requirements were they had to be the same color and length). Here's what each of them chose.

 

Eden Bridals

Same color - Amethyst- but all different styles. Am I worried about that? I actually like how each dress really captures each bridesmaid's personality and I think they all look great. One bridesmaid is wearing a maternity dress she'll have hemmed into tea length. It's also a different fabric (none of the maternity gowns came in satin), but no, it's not the end of the world. Ignore what David Tutera says, no one will care or notice.

The groomsmen are wearing matching suits with plum-colored ties from Men's Wearhouse, similar to this:

But my father, the male sponsors and our ring bearer are wearing barongs, traditional Filipino formal wear made of jusi, or hand-embroidered pineapple fibers.

Source

Most of them already own their barongs (from previous weddings and formal occasions) so I didn't see the need for them to buy new attire. Barongs can be quite expensive in the states as the fabric is imported from the Philippines.Why not give them excuse to wear their barongs again? Besides, our ceremony will involve traditional Filipino components, so it seemed right to allow the Filipino men to wear their barongs if they wanted to. We told the female sponsors to wear whatever they want just as long at it's church appropriate for a warm, summer day. They could color coordinate with the wedding colors if they want to, but I'm not going to check on them.

We haven't picked the flower girl dresses yet, but I'm leaning toward something simple, like this except with a plum-purple sash:

Source 

When my mom asked me what she should wear to the wedding, I told her, "Whatever you want, Mom." She gave me that sideways, "No, really," look. I told her, "Seriously, whatever you think looks good. I trust your judgement." After a pause that said, "You're not much of a help," I said, "Why don't you wear your kimona?" Kimonas are traditional Filipino formal tops also made of jusi fabric. Like barongs, they're also pretty expensive in the states. They're hand-embroidered and the details are really quite lovely.
My mom was surprised that I was letting her wear her kimona again. She did wear it to my sister's wedding 7 years ago. I told her she can wear it only if she paired it with a different skirt (the skirt she wore to my sister's wedding was a bright lilac and would clash with our wedding colors--yes, the only part where I'm picky!)

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Jessica McClintock

So we found a long, plum-colored satin skirt at the Jessica McClintock outlet for a mere $16. (If there's one near you, check it out. You'll find discounts on evening wear -- including bridal gowns and bridesmaid dresses-- for 75% off!). MOB dress: check!

The mother of the groom is also wearing the dress she wore at her daughter's wedding, a champagne-colored gown with a matching jacket (my dress is white, so no worries about the MOG wearing a neutral color). The father of the groom will wear a tux he owns and wears to formal occasions. Seriously, I'm happier knowing members in my wedding party didn't have to spend an arm and a leg, or buy an entirely different outfit for one day. I'm glad that some can actually wear outfits they've worn once before again. Am I worried about clashes of Filipino traditional and western traditional? Am I worried about a mixture of styles? Or maybe that the MOB and MOG won't look like twins on our wedding day? No. Because in the end, they'll all wear something they like, feel comfortable in and truly reflects each of them. I think that would make a far more interesting photo than one cookie-cutter, matching fest.

Our bridesmaid bouquet

After our trip to the LA flower mart, I'm thinking our selection of bridemaid bouquets can be expanded beyond carnations. I still think they're cute and very budget-friendly, but I'm liking this bouquet:

Cute, unique and fits our color scheme of purple/plum/gold very well. I know that roses come in the cheap at the LA flower mart but don't know how much the orchids will cost me. I'll do another DIY trial with these flowers, so stay tuned!

Purple Wedding Shoes

Part of the wedding planning syndrome is that you're prone to giving in to certain trends you never would have thought of before... had you not become addicted to Style Me Pretty or Snippet and Ink. No, I've never desired mustaches on a stick, the time warp vintage wedding, or macaroons (I've never even had a macaroon in my life!),  But I do desire a pair of plum color, peep toe heels as such:

I know I'm a bride, and I must wear all white and all, but c'mon! You gotta have a little splash of color, even if no one will even notice it! So I'm on a look out for these plum colored hotties. I found these available kicks on the web,

like these very hot, but very expensive ruffled "Salsa" sandals from Nordstroms:

at $154, it's almost as much as my wedding gown! But it doesn't stop me from coveting!

Then there are these selections:

Nina Kora for $76 at Lori's Shoes

This came off of the British site, Footwear Studio, for 22 pounds (that's double the US dollar!)

Here's another nice, and very affordable pair also at Nordstrom's.

I shouldn't really spend too much on my shoes, but...my eyes keep wandering back to the "Salsa" pair. Now those are hot!

Wedding Colors: Not your property!

We are very happy to report that we have agreed on our wedding colors. It's actually two colors that reflect the both of us. As the fiance and I began talking about wedding colors purple instantly came up. It has been a favorite color of mine for ages (hello, The Color Purple fans out there!). Then I thought, why not purple and gold? We're both Laker fans, we both bleed the purple and gold! But then we shuddered at the thought. A room full of purple linens and flowers and gold bowties made us gag. Sure, Barney-purple mixed in with bright primary yellow looks hideous. But what about a deep aubergine or plum color accented with a champagne gold? That can look really hot!

My initial search for purple and gold wedding ideas initially discouraged me. How can you make these two colors look great without it being purple overkill? To offset the monotone purple look, we decided on shades of purple (with deep purple being the base). The accents of gold can come in the form of smaller flowers or ribbons. Subtlety is the word here. While I couldn't find the exact purple and gold palette I'm looking for, I found a few purple-inspired looks that can be easily interchanged with gold.

Days after we settled on the colors, an aqcuaintance of mine who is also planning a wedding casually asked me what my wedding colors would be. Of course I told her and the Laker backstory that came with it. I explained how we were going with shades of purple accented with gold. Little did I know that I had divulged too much. A mutual friend of ours is designing her invitation and what colors do I see on the invite? Purple and gold!

Yes, I was a bit tiffed, but my fiance was even more upset than me. It is a little fishy (I mean, if she was thinking of the same colors too, she could have said something, but she said she hadn't picked hers yet!) But I'm not going to worry about it. Purple and gold is not a combo we patented ourselves and quite a few brides have chosen that for themselves too. If someone else wants to use the same colors, so be it. While couples don't own wedding colors, or even other wedding ideas, the least couples can do is find ways to make those ideas their own.