Asian Inspiration

(Picture heavy post - I'm warning you now) I promise there's a good reason for my intermittent posting: I'm in Indonesia. My job gave me 3 days' notice ot pack it up and head out for a work trip, so after more than 36 hours of travel, I'm finally here and catching up on my jetlag. For the record, 36 hours of travel sucks. It sucks balls, actually. So while I was waiting for 5 hours in the Singapore airport, I stumbled upon a Singapore wedding magazine. Did I buy it? Hell yes! What kind of question is that?

Things I learned from said magazine: They have some really cool, bold fashion styles. There's a few types of ceremonies, some of which may or may not include themes. (Can you say AWESOME?) Singapore weddings tend to be much more colorful than ours. I'm sure I'll post evenutally on these, but today's post is dedicated to the wedding dresses.

The textures and designs of the dresses really caught my eye. I could never pull most of them off, but there's some cool inspiration. I decided to look up some of the bridal salons that caught my eye to explore online. Textures abound! For real. Look at these:


(Silhouette)



(Le Grand Wedding)

(Le Grand)

Here are some that I thought to be particularly pretty:


(Le Grand)



(Silhouette)

(Silhouette)

(Le Grand)

(Silhouette)

(Le Grand Wedding)

And of course, some that were too much for me. I think the top of this one one looks angry, like a venus fly trap:

(Silhouette)

I've already picked out my dress (thanks, hive!), but if I could design one - I would definitely have tried to incorporate some of these for inspiration (not anger-top dress though). Oh, how I wanted to leave the airport and just try some on for fun!

Did you have any dress design inspiration?

Officially Difficult (or: Difficulty with the Officiant)

One of the compromises I've made for the wedding is not pushing the whole 'having a friend officiate' thing. Mr. Tango and his family just don't understand it, especially given that we had the legal wedding/paperwork done for immigration issues, so the religious part is what's left. I understand that logic, don't get me wrong. I believe strongly in my faith and believe in the sacredness of marriage.

But I did have the perfect person in mind. Our mutual friend, who's known us since we met, who's bilingual and serious but oh-so-happy all the time. Even when I'm a crazy (maybe drunk) dancing mess, she is calm and collected. See?

(Me: Crazy. Friend C: Beautiful)

But alas, we'll have to involve her some other way. One condition of this compromise was that Mr. Tango would have to take the lead on finding the priest. He had to be willing to let us personalize the ceremony, conduct it on the beach, and be somewhat bilingual. Those are actually VERY difficult things to find, evidently.

We've been speaking with one Padre (father) for about 3 months now. He seems a little bit crazy, but is bilingual, available on our date, and has some good recommendations. But we can't seem to pin it down! He wanted us to pay for his hotel, since it's about 1.5 hours from the city. This seemed a bit weird to me, but we were okay with it - until he asked to be put up at our wedding venue - the most expensive hotel that nobody in our party will be staying at. Ummmm, sorry - not going to happen. We're too broke. We're figuring out if there'as an alternative (e.g. staying at the cheap hotel), but we don't want him in a bad mood for the wedding if he doesn't like the accomodations. And we're 5.5 months out, so we need to firm this up, soon!

Is it common for the priest to be so aggressive in bargaining and such? I didn't expect it! Argh (yes, I do like pirate noises) - I just want someone to marry us!

How did you find your priest? Was it hard to nail everything down?

Proposal, Part 2: The Outtakes

In my post gushing over how romantic the proposal was, I may have left out a few behind-the-scene details. Just for fun, I thought I'd add them in.

Snippet #1. I got home after work and found out that none of our camping gear had been packed, despite the fact that Mr. Tango got home about an hour before. I chastized him pretty strongly for making me do all the work and slacking like none other. He took it like a man.

Fun Fact: He didn't pack because he was calling my mom and dad to ask for their blessing. Yup, I'm the jackass. He had met my family plenty before (having gone on 2 family vacations - see below) and knew my dad would appreciate this. He did, however, know to ask for my dad's blessing; not his permission.

(Family Vacation on Ocracoke Island)

(Mr. Tango and my little sister, and joint MOH)

Snippet #2: My mom thought he was taking me to Iceland to propose. She was very confused, but went with it.

Fun Fact: Mr. Tango's English was not-too-hot at this point in time. He said he was taking me to a special island. Island is written with a silent 'S'. He did not know it was silent. :) Side note - my mom is horrible at keeping secrets and almost gave it away to my little sister, who probably would have posted something on Facebook.

Snippet #3: The proposal was a Plan C spur-of-the-moment invention, not Plan A.

Fun Fact: Mr. Tango planned the proposal quite differently. We were going to go on a daytrip to a particular island with only one palm tree in the middle and no people. We waited for hours for the boat to take us there, and found out it left without us. Awesome. He then planned to propose the next night as sunset, but lots of overcast clouds ruined that one. So he improvised with the whole coconut thing the next night. I think that was the best possible way and am quite pleased Plans A and B fell through.

(Waiting for the boat - a.k.a Plan A)

So there you have it: lots of craziness behind the scenes for a wonderful moment. It kinda makes me that much less worried about wedding stuff. If everything was so perfect (to someone who wasn't aware of the outtakes), I'm sure it will be the same for our wedding guests - right?

Have you had any crazy things that have made your wedding (and planning) memorable?

A lovely bunch of coconuts. And a ring.

2.5 months into this and I haven't told you about how Mr. T proposed? Poor form! Okay, imagine the most beautiful place on earth for a proposal. It probably looks something like this, right?

Maybe you want it a little more deserted; an island, and more palm trees. Fine, so something like this:

So here's how it went down. Mr. Tango and I were planning a camping trip to the San Blas islands over Easter break. San Blas is an archipelago of 365 islands which are largely undeveloped, and run by the indigenous Kuna people (see below).

We went shopping for some camping gear, and set out for the islands.

Three days later, we were cooking dinner on our mini grill, and Mr. T lit candles around our campsite so we could see. Because the wind was strong, he put them inside empty coconut shells we had eaten/drank from earlier. Ummm, can you say ah-ma-zing? There was one that the wind kept blowing out so he asked me to try to light it. I tried to put the candle in the coconut and instead found a box. Not gonna lie, I froze.

Really froze. I just stared at him, not saying anything. My jaw was wide open. We had talked about marriage plenty and there was never any doubt we would be together, but HOLY CRAP - a proposal already? Wowzers!

He got down on one knee and for the life of me I have no idea what he said. I'm sure it was beautiful and eloquent, but I was too ecstatic to think. The 'yes' on my part was a given. It was the most beautiful proposal to the most amazing man, and we were able to enjoy our time alone on a gorgeous island for 2 more days!

I mean, I did tell Mr. T that he had damn well better have a creative proposal or I'd make him do it again, but he more than exceeded expectations! And there it is - I was, and am, a very happily engaged girl woman.

(All pictures are from the Tango collection, taken on the stunning Needle Island in San Blas)

Was your proposal a surprise? How did he pop the question?

Bah Bah Black Sheep

Yes, you may be tired of my incessant song lyrics. No, I will not be stopping anytime soon. (Quick random fact about me - I actually had a few gigs as a wedding singer, and was in an a'capella group. My mind thinks in song.)

(Source)

Back the point - I am definitely the black sheep of the family. I am the only one to have graduated from college (and grad school), the only one to speak another language, and the only one to travel internationally. It's often really hard to get my family as excited as I am about certain things, and I'll write more about that later (cough, mom, cough). For now though, I want to talk about how I'm using the 'black sheep' thing in a sneaky way to everyone's advantage.

When Mr. T and I discussed wedding venues, we originally thought we'd have one in the U.S. and one in Panama. We even went to check out some venues in New England, some of which were beeeautiful.

(Riverside Farm, Our favorite VT venue)

 If we had a lot more money, our wedding might have panned out that way. In the end though, we decided on just Panama.

Part of the reason was that the venue was perfect, in our price range, and we knew everyone would have a blast. Part of it was because plane tickets to Panama ($250 round trip - for real, man. Check that shit out!) were cheaper than plane tickets to VT; and hotels would be cheaper, too. Part of it was because it would be less work to plan one wedding than two.

But the biggest reason for choosing Panama is that it will force my family and friends to broaden their perspectives, go outside the US, and experience something new and uber-cool. It will force our cultures and guests to mingle with one another.

(Source and explanation of the Arras ceremony tradition)

We'll serve sopa borracha and incorporate the Arras ceremony. There will be merengue and salsa music, as well as classic rock, hip hop, and 80s jams. And, of course, lots of our individual personalities and customization coming through.

I love the Latina culture and am so pumped to have my family and friends experience something I'm so passionate about. Our wedding is the oh-so-perfect excuse!

Does your wedding have a dual purpose? How did you pick your wedding location?

Doh! (Or... What I Can't Do)

Like many of you, my wedding location is not near where I live. While there are many benefits to this (ummm, gorgeous beach in February with low prices, anyone?), it also means I can't do everything I want to do. For instance, I can't make these favors:

(Source and how-to instructions - Absolutely awesome DIY project, BTW)

Or make/hang these:

(Source)

Or these:

(Source)

Or even these, like Mrs. Poodle and Miss Seashell:

(Source and Instructions)

While I'm at it - I also can't really cook (my specialty, FYI), incorporate bark/trees/herbs for table seatings, and all those other dreamy ideas. LAME.  I know, I really should stop whining. It's a blessing in disguise to be unable to add more DIY projects, right?

Are there projects you had to cut from your DIY list? For you destination and semi-destination brides - what did you do yourself?

It's my (kinda) favorite

Getting real with you: my engagement ring is not what I would have picked out. There, I said it. (whew!) It's kinda like that awesome person you try to hook your friends up with. You know, the "He's a great guy" sort of thing. Or "she's got such an incredible inner beauty". Not Mr. Handsome, but wonderful none-the less. That's my ring. And in the wedding world, admitting that somehow seems dirty.

Mr. Tango searched for a ring without me knowing. I had no idea a proposal was coming, as we had only been together about 10 months or so. There was never a doubt we'd get married, but I figured we'd move to the U.S. before doing so. I was wrong, and absolutely adore the fact that the proposal was a total suprise.

(My ring, from a distance)

The proposal was incredible and the ring is beautiful (see above for proof). I love it and wouldn't change it for the world. I know how much effort he put into finding the 'perfect' ring for me, and appreciate more than I can say what this ring represents. I would never dream of replacing it. That said, it is somehow freeing to just admit (to myself) that aethetically, it's not the style I would have picked out on my own. It has nothing to do with size or money - it's just not exactly my style.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. It might even be for the better. I mean, have you seen my lack of a fashion sense? More importantly, it symbolizes that Mr. Tango is with me all the time. Marriage is about us, and I think that's what this ring represents.

Did you help pick out your ring? Am I the only one that feels dirty for admitting it's not my personal style?