Latest on wedding planning.

I spent about a week in L.A. to get wedding planning done. My poor dad seemed to have missed the memo that my visit was for wedding planning so he was grumpy all week. I only got to have lunch with him once. =/

Cake
It was really stressful because I never got around to scheduling tastings before my flight, so when I called bakeries after arriving in L.A. I found that most of them wanted appointments made at least 3 days to a week or two in advance. I was really frustrated, but Mrs.Crumly saved me by getting an appointment with a bakery that a friend of hers used. This bakery ended up being the one I chose to go with.
Creative Cakes by Rockwell in Orange, CA. Their cake was absolutely delicious. They were reluctant about our filled cupcake idea, but the baker actually tried it and it worked out perfectly! I'd post a picture but I don't know how to get a picture off my phone onto the computer. It was the baker that sold us because she was so willing to try out our idea. The other thing that sold us was that they were priced so much better than the other bakeries we went to.
With that settled, we need to get the cake stand built (which Mr.Crumly is going to work on with a friend) and find a cake topper.

Photo/Video
After lots of talking with my mom, she gave up on trying to drag me around Long Beach and we went straight to L.A. Color in Pasadena. I love that they are familiar with both Chinese and American weddings, which isn't something I could confidently say of anyone I would have met in Long Beach. They are pricey.... not the most expensive I found, but pricey. However, we were able to put together a great package with them.
We saw some of the videos they had, and my mom saw how he put together a video of audience reactions to the slideshow pictures. So now she wants to do a slideshow. Mrs.Crumly freaked out a little bit when I asked her to pull pictures of Yubo. =P

Flowers
Unfortunately, the flowers that my mom bought from the silk market weren't quite as I pictured. There was some strange miscommunication. She thought I wanted something like white, off-white, and pink. I wanted pink cherry blossoms, white Stephanotis, and red Chinese peonies. My mom got some Stephanotis that were perfect, but we weren't able to find more. The cherry blossoms had more than 5 petals, unlike the Japanese ones I wanted. And the Chinese peonies she had a few of were white. She got some other peonies (different species) that were this weird dark pink and were too full and bulby.
She didn't want to pressure her best friend about the flowers because she just got remarried, so I suggested to just take on the flowers with our friend Edith up here in WA.

Wedding Gown
Met with Sylvia, Mrs.Crumly's coworker and friend. She's excited about working on my gown, but told me it would have to be three separate pieces (a top and two skirts), which I didn't really want but I suppose that will look best. For now I think all I can do is hope it actually turns out the way I have it pictured in my head.

Bridesmaids Dresses
One of the biggest frustrations. We managed to find this elusive Jordan 543 dress from a lady named Cecile in Glendale that was willing to order the sample for us to try on. I personally don't care for this lady, but she was cheaper than online options. So as of now, we have the dresses ordered and they should arrive at the store in 6 weeks (+ 1 week to get from L.A. to New York and Washington).

Church
I got to finally meet with our wedding coordinator. She's super nice and friendly, so I look forward to working with her. We got the big things mostly settled, and just need to figure out more of the details, especially sound stuff. Determined that the rehearsal would be on the Thursday before around 6p, so we're thinking about doing dim sum that morning instead of a rehearsal dinner.

Hair and Makeup
LOTS of miscommunication. My sister's friend is really nice, but I didn't get to see her work. She recently called me with a sort of quote, which is waaaaay outside our budget. So we may use Akemi's friend, but I'm thinking of just doing my own hair and makeup.

Music
Got to talk with Mr.A about the music for the day. We seem green; I just need to send him a lyrics sheet with notes on how Yubo and I want to sing our vow song. We also need to pick music for walking down the aisle, and whatever else. I trust him though, so I'm not very concerned about this.
Then I still need to contact my cousin about DJing at the reception. Need to get his number from my other cousin. @.@;;


So that's about where we are now. Still lots to do, so I'm taking a break from work the rest of this month. Also focusing more on healthy living............ sort of. =P And there we are.