Wedding Recap: Cranes end their journey north

Our cranes head  more than 2000 miles north to Toronto, CA

Don't use masking tape if you're going to ship through the post office...we found out the hard way. (personal photo)

After nearly three months of folding and watching our flock of little white paper cranes grow to 1000 birdies strong, and another several months figuring out what to do with them, we packed them on their way for their final flight north to their new home in Toronto, Canada.

For awhile before our wedding, I had this crazy vision of folding 1,000 paper cranes. Cranes are symbols of great fortune across Asia and according to Japanese tradition, the couple who folds 1,000 paper cranes is granted a long and happy life together. Since my husband is half Chinese, and cranes are auspicious birds in Chinese folklore as well, I thought this would be a great project for our wedding. But with neither one of us knowing how to fold a crane, the thought of folding 1,000 of them was daunting. For a few weeks, I kept talking myself out of the idea, thinking folding 1,000 paper cranes on top of everything else we had to do was just crazy talk!

Then I heard about the Crane Chandelier Project by the Wedding Co. in Toronto, Canada. In celebration of turning 10 years old, the wedding planning support organization is collecting paper cranes from newlyweds around the world, which they plan to display in a massive chandelier at their 10-year bash in 2011. For each crane they receive, the Wedding Co. is committed to donating 50 cents to cancer research. Since we decided to make a donation in lieu of traditional wedding favors, we thought this would be a great cause to donate our efforts to.

Personal Photo

So we started with our first paper crane. With my laptop propped on the coffee table, we followed a youtube clip on how to make a paper crane. Slowly but surely, we began our huge task. As we began to get the hang of it, we made it a goal to fold 100 cranes a week. Each week, we put 100 cranes in plastic bags to keep track of our numbers.  It took many movie nights on the couch/crane folding to get to that goal. Finally, more than two months later and watching our upteenth rented movie, we folded our 1,000th paper crane! We almost couldn't believe that we had finished 1,000 little birds that we recounted our bags to make sure that we really did have 10 bags, each containing 100 paper cranes. Sure enough, they were all there!

Ironically, folding 1,000 paper cranes wasn't the hardest part. It was figuring out what we were going to do with them that really stumped us. We knew we wanted to display them at our wedding, to show our guests the fruits of our labor. But with limited set-up time at our reception venue, we had to think of a quick and easy way of hanging 1,000 paper cranes. After scouring the Web for ideas, I decided that we would make 10 chandeliers, each containing 100 cranes.

Making our DIY Paper Crane Chandeliers
Using jewelry beads, a needle, and some sturdy, translucent jewelry string (all purchased at Michaels), I followed this DIY crane-hanging tutorial to help me make my first chandelier. I started out by stringing 25 paper cranes on one strand, taking my needle (with string attached) through the top of each crane to the bottom until there were 25 cranes strung up on one strand. I made sure that I left a little slack on top, and attached a bead to the very top of the crane so they don't slide off. I attached another bead to the bottom crane as well so all 25 cranes stayed in one place. I made four strands each containing 25 cranes and tied them all together about five inches from the very top crane. Voila! I made my first chandelier!

Photo by the Wedding Co.

What I didn't account for was how time-consuming making one chandelier would be! We unwisely put off making our chandeliers until the week before the wedding (yikes!) With a bunch of other wedding-related stuff demanding our attention, there was no way we could add making 10 chandeliers to our list. So I enlisted the help of my MOH who thankfully helped us make half of the chandeliers. Seriously, give yourself at least a couple weeks if you want to  make chandeliers out of 1000 paper cranes!

When we finished, we handed our birds to our reception venue staff. All they needed to do by set up time was hang each chandelier to the overhead beams in the dining hall.

Photo by Don Le of  Bliss Imagery

Photo by Don Le of Bliss Imagery

 Photo by Regina Bunye

When I saw them all hanging at the reception for the first time, I was amazed at how gorgeous they all turned out! The cranes became the focal point of the room, adding something truly unique to the look and ambiance of our wedding. Each of our guests received a card at their table telling them about the cultural meaning of the cranes and our donation to the Wedding Co. We constantly heard compliments about the cranes from our guests -- how much they adored them and how many of them appreciated the donation we made for them. Even weeks after our wedding, we still hear the compliments!

Photo by Don Le of Bliss Imagery

Cards explaining the cultural significance of cranes and the donation to the Wedding Co. were placed at each seat. (Photo by Regina Bunye)

But alas, we had to say goodbye to our little friends. We packed them up in boxes and shipped them to Toronto. As a side note, if you plan to ship the cranes, you'll have to find a box large enough to hold them...and the bigger the box, the bigger the shipping cost is. Add in international and postage fees, shipping 1000 cranes can be pretty expensive (it cost us more than $100 to ship from LA). Also, make sure you know about packaging protocol...don't use masking tape (like in the above photo). You need clear packaging tape...yup, that was us pulling off the our original masking tape and repackaging five huge boxes at the post office!

Our boxes arrived beat up and weathered, but our cranes made it just fine to Canada!
Photo by the Wedding Co.

But really, it was all worth it in the end. One thousand paper cranes will bring in a nice donation going toward cancer research! Luckily, the cranes all arrived safely in their new home in Toronto. Catherine from the Wedding Co. blogged about our donation! They're moving closer to their goal of 10,000 cranes by January 2011 and need just over 1300  more to reach their goal!

A huge thanks goes to the Wedding Co. for putting on this awesome, worldwide effort! Over the months of planning we've come to see our cranes as symbolic of the time, effort, energy and patience we put into planning our wedding. It was a long, sometimes tedious, a little stressful, but overall fulfilling and fun journey. I'm happy to see our cranes' journey end someplace where they'll continue to hold a special meaning and purpose long after our wedding!

Do me a favor...the debate rages on

Source

Three years ago, I attended my FSIL's wedding and she and her husband donated to Doctors Without Borders instead of giving the traditional favors. I remember thinking that it was the coolest favor ever! Don't get me wrong, I can awe over the tasteful handmade soap or the delicious pieces of chocolate as a token of the couple's gratitude (take a look at my previous wedding porn posts about oh-so-cute favors), but I also appreciate knowing that the efforts and money that would have gone to all of that were put toward a worthy cause. So if you've been reading my blog, you'll know that we are not doing the traditional favors. We decided that there wasn't anything we wanted to give 100+ guests on our measely favor budget that didn't scream tacky, cheap or completely useless. So we decided to nix favors completely and spend our time and efforts in donating to cancer research and support and awareness programs (the 1000 cranes we spent three months and nearly a 100 hours making will be donated to the Wedding Co. who then will donate 50 cents per crane to a cancer research organization. Do the math and that's a pretty penny going toward a worthy cause!).

But apparently, there's an arguement within the wedding industry and the blogoshere on whether or not donations in lieu of the traditional favor is a good idea at all. For some, not sending guests home with homemade soap or chocolates and then telling them where their favor went instead is incredibly rude. The first arguement is that a donation going toward something else other than me, is not a gift to me. And telling me that you did it in my honor is baloney.  I get the logic, especially if I had no say on where the donation went. But on the contrary, I did see my FSIL and her husband's donation in lieu of a favor as a gift to me, because I truly felt much better with the knowlege of where the money went to instead. Let's face it, you're not always going to care for the favor -- the porcelain figurine or monogrammed shotglass is thoughtful, but I really don't have a place to put the figurine and um, I don't drink shots, much less hard liquor. With a donation, it felt good knowing that money that would have gone toward a gift with little functionality or short shelf life that I, too, had no say in, was spent on something with more lasting impact. I also knew that the favor came from the couple's heart and was meaningful to them (they're doctors). In a way, I feel like I did share in the donation because without us the guests, a favor wouldn't have been an issue. Without us there, the donation would not have been made. No, the favor does not affect me personally, it's not something I can hold, see or personally use. But I can see how the favor will do more good in the bigger picture and how it will affect more people than myself. The thought is rewarding in itself, and I'm happy the couple chose that favor for me.


The second argument is that not everyone will agree with the cause or charity organization, no matter how harmless and worthy it may seem (read further into the comments of the Manolo post and you'll see how some might even consider donating to cancer research offensive). True, someone's objection to a cause or charity might trigger a more sensitive response than a lousy picture frame would. If you are making a donation in lieu of a favor, it is important and wise to stick to a cause that would be less controversial. But, in my mind, I still can't see how giving a cupcake or candy is somehow better than a donation to what most would consider a worthy cause such as cancer research, relieving global hunger, natural disaster aid, etc. One commenter implied that it's better to give a cheap favor that will get tossed in a day or two to avoid ruffling the feathers of one or two guests (I read the few comments against donations to cancer research, and while I do feel for their reasoning, I did not feel it was enough to not consider donating to what I truly feel is a just cause).

Lastly, I don't think it's rude to let people know about the donation. Favors are usually far from my mind at a wedding, but I think it would nice to know about the donation and it would make me feel better knowing that something thoughtful was done on my behalf. So no, the statement "in lieu of favors, we have decided to donate to ___________ in your honor" would not offend me at all. On our cards for our guests, we did not explicitly state "in lieu of favors," but we did say that a donation was made in their honor. Perhaps if I felt I was entitled to something tangible or a something edible that I can call all mine, I would be annoyed by it. But as in any favor or gift, not everyone will appreciate the thought. From a guest perspective, I think a donation favor  is very rewarding, not just for me but potentially for many people. To me, that's one of biggest favors I can ask for!

Winner of the Tux and Tulle Giveaway and 1000 paper cranes!

Before I get to the winner of our Tux and Tulle giveaway, I am pleased to announce...we folded our 1000th paper crane this past weekend! Woohoo! It took us 10 weeks (100 cranes a week) to get to our goal! We're sooo exited! We will be hanging them at our reception venue and sending them to the Wedding Co., who will donate 50 cents per crane to cancer research after the wedding. The cranes they receive around the world will go into a massive chandelier that will be displayed at an art exhibit in Toronto. The effort and donation will take the place of our favors. We're going to make a card at each seat explaining the cultural meaning of cranes (the Chinese believe they're a symbol of longevity. Legend has it, a couple who folds a 1000 cranes is granted 1000 years good luck!), as well as Wedding Co.'s donation to cancer research. Now we're trying to figure out the best way to hang them -- chandeliers or string them up like streamers across the ceiling rafters?

Now onto our giveaway! We had a lot of great comments for the free neck tie from Tux and Tulle and the winner is...

Shanna! Congratulations! You have three days to respond to my email!

Many more awesome giveaways to come, so stay tuned! You still have time to enter Office of Minor Detail's New Zealand Wallet giveaway -- a great gift for your groomsmen!

Vendor Spotlight and GIVEAWAY: Morning's Mist Country Store (CLOSED)

Mango Papaya Soap

There are a few things I have a penchant for, and one of them is handmade soap. There's something about a great bar of handmade soap -- take a whiff, close your eyes and, mmmmm, heavenly! That's the feeling when I first tried bath products from our next Vendor Spotlight, Morning's Mist Country Store. Based out of Minnesota, Juanita from Morning's Mist sells handmade soaps, lotions, lip balm and dead sea bath salts made with all natural oils and butters, including olive oil, shea butter, kokum butter, apricot kernel & evening primrose oils, sweet almond oil and silk protein. She says she found the inspiration to create effective bath and skin products when she noticed her own skin looking dull and aged. Through research and trial and error, Juanita developed a product that can soften and soothe diverse skin types.

I tried the Mango Papaya soap and I'm still addicted to the scent. Think tropical and sweet, as if you're sitting in an exotic island garden of fruits and flowers! The accompanying body butter left my skin feeling smooth, soft and never greasy. Yes, even the future hubs noticed (boy, was he extra snuggly!). You'll see right away that these are products made with with unltimate care and the finest natural materials, unlike the store-bought, mass-produced items full of harsh chemicals.

Juanita can also personalize each order, as well as offer discounts for volume orders. What a great idea for homemade, natural wedding favors or bridal party gifts! Without further ado, introducing Juanita from Morning's Mist Country Store!

What got you started in creating handmade bath and body products?
I started having difficulty with my skin - too dry in some places, too oily in others. I bought handmade soap and realized it was helping my skin, but I still needed more, so I researched and through trial and error came up with the products I now manufacture.

Spiced Peach Body Butter

How long have you been making these products?
Over 10 years

Which from your line is your favorite scent/product and why?
I have to be very careful about scents, so the scents I use are all the ones that I love and my favorites change from day to day. I am currently trending to the Tangerine Spice that I have recently created. I have two products that I cannot live without and that is my soap and body butter.

Almond Soap

Tell me something unique about your products.
Mine is a castile soap that I have enhanced with Shea and Kokum butters for skin elasticity and moisturizing, as well as Apricot Kernel and Evening Primrose Oils for damaged and problem skin. The butters use the same exotic oils. The butter soaks into the skin almost immediately with no greasy feeling and you can still feel the goodness after washing your hands.

What advice can you give to brides who are planning a wedding on a shoestring budget?
Make your own items as much as possible. It gives your wedding your own personal feeling and your guests really notice it. Simple table top decorations are a hit when personalized with your touch. Use your picture or inspirational sayings on gifts to your bridal party and guests.

Links where we can find out more of your work:
http://www.morningsmist.com/

THE GIVEAWAY
Juanita has been gracious enough to give one lucky winner their pick of any one item on the Morning's Mist Country Store Web site (except for the gift boxes).

THE RULES:

1) Go to Morning's Mist Country Store and comment on which scent you're most interested in trying for one entry! This is mandatory! Contestants who do not do this will be disqualified. Remember to leave your email address or some way to contact you with each entry!

You can add more comments to increase your chance to win if you do the following (please leave a separate comment for each additional entry):

2) Become a new follower of this blog (1 entry)
3) Are currently a follower of my blog (2 entries or 2 separate comments!)
4) Become a facebook fan of “I Do” Budget Weddings (2 entries or 2 separate comments)
5) Blog about the contest and include a link to the giveaway. You must also include a link to Morning's Mist Country Store in your post (3 entries or 3 separate comments)
7) Buy anything from Morning's Mist Country Store (5 entries or 5 separate comments)
8) Follow “I Do” Budget Weddings on Twitter (1 entry)
9) Tweet on this giveaway and include a link to this giveaway in your tweet. (1 entry)
10) Subscribe to my blog emails (1 entry)
11) Grab my blog button located on the right sidebar and put it on your blog (2 entries)

The deadline to enter this contest is 11:59 p.m., Tuesday, April 12, 2010 (PST). A winner will be randomly chosen and announced the following day. Good luck! (This giveaway is now closed)

* Don't forget, your chance to win earrings from BellaLu and Me ends this Friday so don't miss out!

Woooah! We're halfway theeere!

I have a line of an overplayed Bon Jovi song in my head. Yes, we are "halfway there," as Mr. Bon Jovi sings on "Living on a Prayer." We have folded 500 paper cranes! 500 in five weeks! As you know, we're donating our cranes to the Wedding Co., who are putting 50 cents per crane they receive from an engaged/married couple toward cancer research. We're not having any favors, but we thought this would be a great replacement for our time and energy. It took plenty of hours, weekends spent watching movies with our pieces of paper and teamwork, but we're getting there! At this pace, we'll fold our goal of 1,000 paper cranes by May! Success is within our reach!

But once we'll have folded our 1000 paper cranes...what do we do with them? I envisioned our little birdies hanging from the ceiling at our reception, like a flock of white birds flying overhead...but with limited time and manpower, how do we hang them in a quick, efficient, yet impressive display?

I though about stringing them up in several large mobiles or chandeliers:

But...we've never done anything like this before. I don't even know what materials we would need or how to use them. We're not crafty people and this could be a massive DIY fail...any suggestions?

Asian flair

Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year everyone! Not only was Sunday Valentine's Day, we also rang in the Year of the Tiger! My fiance is half Chinese, and we spent the holiday weekend with his family, eating oranges and other sweets, as is the New Year tradition.

As you might know from reading my blog, I plan to incorporate some cultural details into our wedding, including some of my fiance's Chinese heritage and my own Filipino customs. So in honor of the year of the tiger, I put together some of my favorite Asian-inspired details. So many lovely possibilities...which ones should I choose?

I heart parasols! On a warm, summer day, these are lifesavers! And they're gorgeous hanging from the ceiling! (Left: Bride and Groom, Right: Source)

 (Left: Wedding Nouveau, Rice Paper Fan: Source, Palm Fan: Source )

On a hot day, your guests will love you for these fans!

Lucky Bamboo: Source,  Mini Bamboo Steamer: Wedding Things

(Left: Style Me Pretty, Right: Source)

20 down, 980 to go!

I was actually serious when I said we were going to attempt to fold 1000 paper cranes in 6 months. Never mind that I had never folded one in my life before. I can't even fold a paper plane without messing up. But I love the symbol of paper cranes. They're auspicious birds in a lot of Asian cultures, including China and Japan. Legend says if a couple folds 1000 paper cranes, they can look forward to lucky marriage.

Source

And when I heard you can actually donate your efforts toward cancer research, I knew this was a done deal. Instead of putting our time, money and effort into a DIY favor that no one will take home, we wanted to do something meaningful and hopefully make an impact. What better way than making a donation to a charity?

Cranes for a Cause

I've decided to take a little break from wedding planning. Looking back at my last few posts, I was starting to get a little tired of my rants about the craziness of wedding planning -- the search for THE dress, budget issues, ettiquette. True, wedding planning can be crazy, but to make sure it isn't all about the craziness, and to remain a little sane, I'm going to not touch wedding stuff for a few days. It is afterall, a new year. I have a lot to look forward to--yes, I'll be married to the love of my life, but I have a lot of goals and plans for the coming year that doesn't necessarily involve the wedding. It's good to step away from the wedding insanity and find some balance in your life.

So, let's start off the year right, and before I take a little break, I'll leave you on a positive note. Some of you have already heard about this project, but I thought it's worth spreading to those who haven't. The Wedding Co. in Toronto, Canada are organizing this feel-good project for a great cause. They're collecting paper cranes from engaged couples around the world, and for every crane they receive they'll donate 50 cents to cancer research.

From 100 Layer Cake

What are they going to do with these cranes? Their goal is to collect 10,000 cranes to create a really awesome global community art installation to present at an exhibit in Toronto. Fascinating, huh? Read more about this project at http://www.theweddingco.com/

The fiance and I would love to incorporate this into our wedding somehow, especially since we'd rather put our efforts for favors into something more giving and memorable such as a donation to a worthy cause. It's a nice way to incorporate a cultural aspect into our wedding as well (my fiance is part Chinese, and while origami is a Japanese tradition, cranes are also significant symbols in Chinese culture.) I have this ambitious dream to fold 1000 paper cranes as legend claims it symbolizes good luck, but that is another project for another day. Right now, I need a break!

Let Love Grow

Here's another great favor/place-card-in-one idea. When a co-worker told me about paper you can actually plant I had to take a look. Plantable paper is embedded with seeds so you can actually plant the paper and grow wildflowers! It's a unique and very eco-friendly way to treat your guests!

I found these place-cards online and yes, the creative wheels are turning again!

Images from Hotref

You can purchase place cards from sites such as Hotref  or Asian Ideas, from prices ranging from $8.39 per pack (sets of 12) to $16 each set. They include instructions and the very cute phrase "Please be Seeded." There are also sites that offer invitations and other stationery you might need on this very cool paper.

Or....

You can DIY it.  Check out sites that sell individual sheets of seed paper such as Botanical Paperworks or Plantable Papers.

And if you think you can rival Martha Stewart in the crafty department, you can even try making your own plantable paper. Wow, major DIY goddess!

Strawberries.

Need a super easy way, but unique way of presenting your table numbers or seating cards? If you like strawberries as I do, Style Me Pretty has a cool tutorial. You don't really need much. The strawberries do all the work!

Yummy favors!

I saw this on Ten Thousand Dollars Only and I flipped! Ok, not really, but I really love the idea. If your favor budget is as pitiful as mine and you totally forgot about printing costs for placecards as I did, this may be your sweet savior! Placecards and yummy bite-sized goodness in one--perfect! You can get a 48-ct of Ferrero chocolates for less than $20. Good news to my wallet and cute!

Image from http://www.theknot.com/

Favors, please! (Part II)

Here are more budget-friendly favor options! The Knot has some good deals on wedding favors on their online store this week.
Some of my faves:

Heart Wedding Bubble Tubes - Make your ceremony exit in a sea of bubbles!

$5.99/ pack of 48

Personalized Beverage Napkins - Add a little personalized touch to the bar!
$19.99/ per 100

Glass Photo Coaster Set - What makes this a great budget-friendly favor is that not every person is going to want a set, especially when they'll be several people in one household coming together. Personally, I don't think the fiance and I would want our photos on the coaster, but a meaningful inscription from the both of us would be really sweet.

$0.99/ per set of 2

Love Camera -$2.99 each - Place these on each table and let your guests capture all the shots your photographer missed!

Favors, please!

I love homemade soap. They're the kinds of crafts I always tell myself I will take up, but never get around to.  How cool would it be to give homemade soap as favors? I vow to make my own soap someday, but as ambitious I am, I don't think making 100+ soap bars as wedding favors is in the DIY Wedding list for now.

But here's a budget-friendly alternative. Cave Girl offers some really cute soap samples as wedding favors for $2.50 each (on orders of more than 100). This is still out of my budget, but $2.50 a favor is not bad. Hmmm...how much does it actually cost to make soap?