The Making....

Hair

I wanted my hair half-up-half-down with soft waves framing my face (see Jessica Simpson). During the hair trial with Dan Sanchez, we realized that my hair was a little too short. So Dan had me leave the hair products in my hair overnight—apparently the secret to great hair is dirty hair! The day of the wedding, we were able to achieve the look that I'd wanted even without hair extensions (which was the one essential thing that had totally slipped my mind).

The morning of the wedding, Dan took turns with the bridemaids and did something slightly different for each girl. He was even able to tame Tiffany's fro so that all the girls looked very sophisticated with their sleek updo's.

Makeup

Jessica Waite, my makeup artist, gave me a look that was vey natural (like the picture of Zhang Ziyi that I brought with me) but with a little more glow and radiance. I tried on fake eyelashes for the first time in my life, and my gosh, long lashes really make a difference! I didn't have a chance to have a makeup trial with Jessica but on the day of, I had nothing to worry about. She knew how to apply subtle Asian makeup without over-doing the eyes, and blended her own blush cream color for the cheeks, and topped it all off with just a coat of cherry lipgloss for the lips.

Bridesmaids Dress

Initially, Cyn and I picked a blue halter dress at David's Bridal. That was when a Hawaii wedding was still completely off the radar. Once Maui was set as the venue, we had to start all over and look for something more "tropical". Cyn must have tried on dozens of dresses in every variation of burgandy, orange, pink and peach. Finally we discovered this little boutique at 238 W 14th St called "Here Comes the Bridemaid" that had cute and reasonably priced selections, as well as a streamlined ordering process. We decided on an AfterSix tea length organdy dress in Coral and Starlight from Dessy. I think the colors turned out very fresh and vibrant in all the pictures and the girls looked very sweet. My sister Cindy helped complete the look by getting all the girls pearl necklaces and strappy silver shoes.

My wedding dress

I found my dream dress on the very first day at the very first salon we visited, RK Bridal at 318 W 39th Street. Cindy and I were there early on a weekday and were helped by a very attentive lady. My advice for dress shopping is that before you go to the salon, spend an evening with your girl friend, pore through bridal magazines, clip the pictures of dresses that you like, and take them with you to the dress salon. All I had to do at RK Bridal was hand the magazine clippings over to our attendant and she took care of the rest. I tried on so many gorgeous dresses at RK including a few that looked not so promising on the hanger but looked great when you actually put them on. Initially, I wanted cap-sleeves so that I wouldn't have to worry about "slippage", but finally, I just fell in love with this strapless dress with an embroidered bodice and a pinched skirt. By the way, just want to mention that not all dress shopping experiences are this easy breezy... we went to Kleinfeld later and it was a nightmare. The attendant threw us into a closet, scoffed at my request for cap-sleeves, and pretended that it was impossible to get a semi-decent dress without selling your arm.

Bridesmaids Gift

My wonderful friend Cray-san helped me to find these beautiful orchid pendants for bridesmaids gifts from a Union Square fair. They are from Hanami Real Flower Jewelry and each pendant is unique since it is made of a real orchid. They came in the peach gift boxes and I added the green ribbon myself.

Bouquet

The bouquet on the top left served as inspiration for my bouquet. I like the variations of pink and reds and the different textures. asked my florist Virgie to put together a bouquet of light pink cymbidium orchids, red roses and dahlias, with matching flowers for my hair. For the bridesmaids, I opted for paper parasols instead of bouquets.

I chose a pink cymbidium orchif for Ed, green cymbidium for groomsmen, red rose for dads and pink rose for moms.

Save the Date

I bought these vintage Pan Am travel poster greeting cards from islandartcards.com and used them as our Save the Date cards. I included a double-sided insert with a tentative calendar of events, Frequently Asked Questions, and pictures of Olowalu and the Villa.

 

Invitation

I bought the pink and brown striped belly-band from The Tinsel Trading Company at 47 W 38th Street, and the Chartreuse pocket folder, Chocolate card stock and "branch motif" hole puncher from paper-source.com. I printed the pink border on white 67 lb card stock (from Staples) to avoid the menial nightmare of having to stick the white card stock on pink backings. I included three double-sided inserts in the invitation: Festivities (Map on back), Directions (Directions map on back) and Activities (FAQ's on back). The Euro-Flap A7 envelopes in Tivoli Green are from envelopemall.com.

RSVP Postcard

The vintage postcards included with the invitations as RSVP cards are from islandartcards.com. I tried feeding the postcards into my printer but the printer coughed and sputtered so violently that I had to give up. Finally, it was just easier to print the content on regular paper and then paste them on the postcards.

Wedding Announcement

I made our wedding announcement card using Photoshop.

I'm really glad I decided to include the group photo of our guests!

Thank You Card

Our thank you cards, which I also created in Photoshop, were a hit with our friends and family! I got so many compliments and people thought the cartoon was so adorable, especially those who know our dog Chilly. I even received a thank you card for my thank you card!

 

OOT Guest Gift Bag

I bought these lauhala tote bags as out-of-town guest goodie bags from ailanakai.com.

I had them shipped directly to Maui, and had my brother and sisters fill them with macadamia nuts, chips, a bottle of water with personalized "Joyce and Edward" label, and our welcome letter, out of town guest newsletter, and wedding crossword challenge. The snacks are from Costco.

Welcome Letter

I drew all the maps except for the two topographical maps you see on the "Activities" sheet— these were scanned. People were very impressed by how organized I was when I whipped out these directions for the sunset sail and rafting trip!

OOT Guest Newsletter

The out-of-town guest newsletter was a just a fun tri-fold sheet that I threw into the goodie bag. It contains suggestions of top things to see and do in Maui, dining recommendations and the details of the wedding.

Wedding Crossword

I was so happy that four people successfully completed our wedding crossword! These Fabulous Four are our friends Christine, Catherine, Won (in collaboration with Rebecca Kim), and Byron. This means they sat down and figured out the answers to almost sixty "Joyce and Ed" trivia questions. We feel very loved.

Wedding Water Bottle

I bought blank ink-jet labels from labelsbythesheet.com, designed the label on Word, and printed them at home. In Maui, there was so much going on the afternoon before the welcome dinner that I almost gave up on using them.

Thankfully, my sister saw them, loved them, and rallied up the troops to stick them on the water bottles. I think this is one of those tiny details that do end up getting noticed!

Signage

If you're wondering how I got all these little things set up on the wedding day, what I did was I took pictures of all the wedding elements, and typed out instructions for where they should go, and handed this instruction sheet over to my wedding coordinator Lori Scott. The key is: you definitely need a day-of wedding coordinator!

Arch

This is our ceremony arch, a simple bamboo arch with white linen to go with the natural surroundings.

Programs

I bought these raffia fans online from Oriental Trading Company and the brown ribbon from The Store Across The Street at 64 W 38th Street.

Ed helped to paste the programs onto the fans.

Petal toss cones

I made the cones from card stock and filled them with silk rose petals. They were hung on the backs of the ceremony chairs along the aisle.

The card on the cones say: After "I do", please shower the newly weds with these petals as they walk together back up the aisle.

I'm really glad I did this because walking down the aisle with the petals being tossed at us was definitely one of the most memorable moments that day. Plus, they make for good pictures!

Sign-in Table

This is our sign-in table with whirlypop seating assignments, porcelain chopstick favors, a wishing tree, ribboned note cards for the wishing tree, sign-in book and gift box.

Our scripture reader Khee and my best friend from high school, Mingshu, teamed up as our welcoming committee at the sign-in table. Mingshu didn't know till a week before whether she could take time off work to attend the wedding, so it was such a wonderful surprise to have her. We hadn't seen each other in so many years and it really meant alot to me.

Whirlypop seating assignment

People keep asking me how I came up with the idea of using whirlypops for the seating assignments. It all goes back to spending too much time on theknot.com! I liked the festive colors of the candy stations that some Knotties have at their weddings, but didn't think I had enough of a sweet tooth to warrant setting up a candy station at my wedding. So, I thought why not use candy for the seating assignments! It would make a colorful whimsical display and serve a functional purpose. The only hassle was that I had to wait till a little over a week before the wedding to firm up all the guest names and numbers, attach the names onto the whirly pops, and then ship them to Maui. I bought the whirlypops from candywarehouse.com. All my shipping (including shipping of the program fans, the wedding favors etc.) were done through USPS Priority Mail.

Porcelain Chopsticks favor

My big sister Cindy and my mom worked really hard in Penang getting dresses tailored for me, buying me shoes and jewelry, and putting together these exquisite Chinese blue-and-white porcelain chopstick favors. The label on the chopsticks say "Joyce and Edward: the Perfect Pair"!

They brought maybe six dresses for me to try on, including a handful of gorgeous Chinese qipao's. After the cake-cutting, I changed into a red embroidered silk qipao. It's so nice to have a mom and sisters with great taste!

Wishing Tree

We had a "wishing tree" at the sign-in table so that people could write their wishes and advice on cards and hang them on the tree. We collected all the cards after the wedding and read them when we were back in New York.

Reception Dinner Table

Of all my do-it-yourself wedding projects, this one probably had the most subtle yet impactful overall effect—the coral colored table runners. It really added a dash of color and warmth to the reception and made all the difference.

Since renting color themed linens cost almost as much as buying a new set yourself, I went snooping around the fashion district in Manhattan and bought a large roll of poly-cotton fabric.

At first, I tried to find a tailor to cut and hem the table runners but the labor cost turned out to be exorbitant. So, I rolled up my sleeves, cut the cloth myself, and fixed the hems myself with the magic of Stitch Witchery iron-on fusible adhesives. So proud of me!

Mint-to-be Favor

The lauhala cube boxes and red hibiscus heads are from ailanakai.com, and the sage ribbon is from The Store Across The Street.

It took at least two all-day "Law and Order" tv marathons to finish these, especially since the hibiscus heads could only be attached to the lauhala weave by very carefully threading a rafia strand through a tiny hole in its stem. Because I had to ship them to Hawaii in advance, I couldn't fill them with chocolate covered mints or any soft mints that might melt.... so I just went for the regular peppermint starlight mints purchased from candywarehouse.com.

If I had to do it all over again, I would probably have skipped the laborious hand-threading and bought similar-looking favors from Auntie Nalani's Cookies. I opted to do it myself because I really liked the idea of having mints as favors and a little tag that says "Mint" To Be Together - Joyce and Ed. That's just so cute!

Seating Cards

These are the seating cards placed at each place setting. Unfortunately, it was so windy these elegant tent cards had to be laid flat under wine glasses!

I bought the Chartreuse tent cards from paper-source.com, printed the guest names on regular paper, and pasted them on.

Dinner Menu

I put baby pictures of me and Ed (with our bowl haircuts) on the dinner menu. I also had a vegetarian version of the menu (right pic). From what I heard the vegetarian main course, wild mushrooms in a puff pastry, was very tasty. I had a tough time choosing between a plated dinner and a buffet because I liked the elegance and structure of a plated dinner but also the fun liveliness of a buffet where people won't be stuck in their seats the whole time. Our caterer Ralph (From Soup To Nuts) came up with a nice balance by proposing a plated dinner with servers serving salad and main courses, while having a live grilling station chocolate fountain.

Cake

The biggest hit in terms of F&B was Ralph's exceptional wedding cake! All of our friends including quite a few gourmands and foodies were gaga over the wedding cake. It was moist and delectably dense in texture with a sweet buttercream frosting and a piquant lilikoi (passionfruit) filling. I must have gained 10 lbs in one week just eating that glorious cake!

Our friends who attended the wedding still reminisce about the cake time and time again.

Cocktail Menu

I used the Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue theme for our wedding cocktails.

Not sure whether this was actually used.... my only half-regrets for the wedding were a) I didn't try the chocolate fountain, b) I didn't try any of the cocktails(!), c) I didn't get to see our strolling magician perform at our cocktail hour. Ed and I were whisked off to take our glamor shots along the water so we missed out on alot of the cocktail hour.

Table Name

We used names of cities that were meaningful to us or that we had lived in.

These included Boston (Ed's birthplace), Kuala Lumpur (my birthplace), San Luis Obispo (Ed's hometown), Penang (my hometown), New Haven (we both went to Yale for undergrad here), New York (we met here), Chicago (Ed went to medical school here), Shanghai (I lived there for three years), San Francisco etc.

I printed the city names and a little blurb about its significance. On the other side, I included a black and white image of the city.

The heart-shaped table name holders are from theknot.com's wedding shop.

Sparkler

I bought these 8" 45-second Gold sparklers sparklers from skylighter.com. At the end of the wedding, after the Korean ceremony, we had guests light up as we made our exit.

Signage

Luminaries

The idea for these paper bag luminaries comes from Martha Steward weddings: glue a doily to the inside of a paper bag, and light a votive candle inside the paper bag. Instead of using doilies for the pattern ala Martha, I folded a piece of paper and cut out the various shapes. Ihad planned to illuminate the pool area during the welcome dinner but alas, we didn't end up using them because it was too windy.

Venue

We really scored with the Olowalu Plantation because it's the only private location in Maui that can accomodate parties of more than sixty people. Overall, I was very happy with the venue. What you see in the pictures is what you get — a nice patch of grass by the sea. You can't sign a contract with the venue till your wedding is six months out which is good or bad depending on how early you want to start planning. Also, some venues require that you use their coordinator, tables and linens, and caterer. The Olowalu came with no strings attached, which I like, but you definitely need to get a wedding coordinator to set everything up, from chairs to lighting to sound system.

My only real gripe is that there is now a new regulation prohibiting any "building" on parkland that prevented us from having a tent at the wedding site. This means that in the event of rain, you would have to move your party up onto the small patio of the plantation house. Supposedly, if you use long rectangle tables, you could almost fit seventy people on the patio but with no room for dancing. This option was unacceptable to me. So, I decided to pitch a tent further inland and reserve the option of moving the party over there if it pours.

Other venues that I considered were: in Maui, the White Orchid Beach House, Haiku Mill, the Seawatch Restaurant, the Four Seasons Wailea (click here for more Maui venues); in Kauai, the Princeville Resort; in Oahu, Lanikuhonua; in Lanai, the Four Seasons Manele Bay and the Lodge at Koele. I must say, if I were to go the hotel route, I would love to have a wedding at the gorgeous Four Seasons Wailea. I know the Grand Wailea next door is also a big wedding favorite, but to me, the Grand Wailea comes off very "theme park-y" whereas the Four Seasons is much more elegant. The Grand Wailea does have a lovely little chapel with exqusite stained glass windows for those who need to have a "church" ceremony.

Wedding Coordinator

Our coordinator was Lori Scott. Lori has a very sweet personality and really goes the extra mile to help you save money. You can probably find someone who can deliver the same product but never at Lori's prices! She also seems to know everyone in the wedding business on the island and knows how to get you what you want at minimum cost. Our fire dancer, for example, is her neighbor. And our guitarist/vocalist is her husband! She was absolutely essential during the rehearsal and on the wedding day, directing the flow of the ceremony and making sure all the pieces came together. One thing I should mention is that if you are used to detailed spreadsheets, email updates and checklists, don't expect Lori to satisfy your appetite for a paper-trail! With Lori, it's best to do it the old-fashioned way - by phone.

Catering

Ralph at Catering From Soup to Nuts (phone:808.357.9444) earns five stars. Ralph literally catered to my every whim! I couldn't decide between a served plated dinner and a buffet so Ralph came up with the perfect balance, with a plated salad and main course, and appetizers on a live grill. Our first choice baker doesn't do Sundays so I asked Ralph to take care of the cake, not knowing what to expect and Ralph totally delivered the best wedding cake I've ever tasted. It's probably one of the best cakes I've tasted period—a dense moist yellow cake with a rich buttercream frosting and piquant passionfruit filling. I highly recommend Ralph.

Beverages

Stacy from Bars Are Us (phone: 808.874.7083) provided the bar service and beverages. We paid Stacy a service fee for bartender and setup, and she used our credit card to purchase all the beverages. I like that Stacy gave us the option of purchasing the alcohol ourselves but ultimately, I asked her to do it for convenience's sake. Everything went very smoothly and there was plenty to go around. Unfortunately, since I didn't want to wind up with a face like a lobster I didn't taste any of the cocktails.

Music

We had a DJ (Jay at 808.276.6961) playing through the cocktail hour, part of the ceremony, and all through the dancing till the final exit. During the dinner, we had Jamie Lawrence play the guitar and sing. We got many compliments on Jamie's live performance and he also played the drums for the fire dance. The only musical letdown was our cellist for the ceremony. I was too oblivious to notice but everyone else was tickled (or appalled) by the off-tune performance.

Dance Instruction

Our dance instructors were John and Maria at Joria Productions (212.563.6781). I really loved how warm and unpretentious they were. No fear of being laughed at for having two left feet, or yelled at for messing up. Their philosophy was to help the bride and groom to enjoy themselves, and instead of teaching us a strictly choreographed routine that we would have had to memorize, they advocated teaching us to move together. As they explained to us in our free informational session, they teach the groom to lead and the bride to follow, and give us the universal skills so that we can dance to any music anywhere. I've seen some really fancy choreographed dances at other weddings, but I'm glad we did it the Joria way. Also, having both John and Maria there was definitely a zillion times better than if we only had one instructor. They demonstrated moves to us as a couple, and then we would switch so that Maria could show Ed something, or John could show me something. Another key point is that they were very experienced with wedding couples, gave alot of great practical advice, and even had me practice dancing with a mock "wedding gown skirt" to simulate the conditions of the actual day. Also, initially, I was a little wary of using our song "The Reason" because I didn't think a slow rock song was "suitable". John and Maria basically told us, you should pick a song that means something to you, and we're so glad we did! Lastly, there was one time when Ed was really tired from work, and he had to stop the lesson half-way because he just wasn't focusing. John and Maria were totally cool about it. They waived our fees for that lesson and suggested that we could stay on in the studio and just relax and practice on our own if we'd like. We did just that and ended up having a great time thanks to their generosity and graciousness.

Entertainment

Since the whole idea of having a wedding in Maui is to let our hair down a little, I thought it'd be fun to throw in some extra entertainment. I hired a magician, Joey Andrews (phone: 808.214.4552), to mingle and perform strolling magic during the cocktail hour. From what I could gather, although some guests didn't see him and others weren't sure who he was, those who saw some tricks got a kick out of it. My dad was quite impressed when Joey turned a dollar bill into a hundred dollar bill. Our fire dancer, hired through Lori Scott, was pretty good although Ed was musing that these fire dancers sure make alot of money from 10 minutes of performance! I do recommend forking out a little extra to have live drums instead of a taped recording because it makes the performance much more exciting and authentic.

I hired two dance instructors through Victoria Joyce to help change things up with a disco sessions and then a salsa session. At first, they started with a pretty long dance routine which kinda got me wondering whether they had misinterpreted my instructions and were going to put on a variety show for us the entire night. Thankfully, that was just the prelude to get us warmed up and we soon got everyone else on the dance floor. It was a little awkward in the beginning because the instructors didn't really take charge of the microphone to work the crowd and get everyone off their seats. Our friend who was emcee had to take over the scene and request that guests join us on the dance floor, and then I had to take over the microphone as well. But once we got people on the dance floor, it was alot of fun. The disco dancing eventually gave way to free-for-all dancing which was definitely fine by me. I'm very glad that the instructors did not get draconian and try to force the instruction on our free-wheeling guests. After a while, just when the dancing was beginning to dwindle, the dance instructors made a second entrance and started a salsa routine. This time, people hopped back on the dance floor pretty quickly and it was really fun to learn some salsa moves. I think that having the salsa session definitely helped people to get their second wind and kept things interesting on the dance floor.

Photography

My photographer was Rachel Robertson (phone: 808.352.1602) whom I originally found through Reve Photography. I didn't really have any discussion with Rachel about what kind of shots I wanted. Basically, Rachel showed up on the day of, and just started snapping. It was only after I got home to New York that I started thinking, I hope she took pictures of this, I hope she took pictures of that. It turned out that Rachel took many great pictures of Ed and me, especially pictures of us against the sunset. She also did a great job capturing the venue, the setting, the wedding details, and the family. I especially like many of her black and white shots. What was a little lacking was her footage of candids of our guests. She didn't go around to each table during dinner to take pictures of guests. This might have been because it was dark after sunset?... Also, she took many shots of our wedding party in traditional poses (i.e. we stood side by side in a row) but didn't try to facilitate some more "lively" poses. Looking back, I realize I should have sat down with Rachel and discussed what I wanted and maybe shared with her some pictures that I liked and some must-take shots. One thing I did appreciate was that Rachel provided me with the digital files and film for all the pictures and I get to do whatever I want with them.

Our videographer was Corey (phone: 808.357.8712). I haven't had a chance to look at the whole thing yet but my sister who is studying film editing said she was not very pleased with the footage.

Hair, Makeup and Flowers

My hairstylist was Dan Sanchez. Dan is very comfortable to be with, very experienced with wedding hair, and goes out of his way for you. One time, I was on the phone with Dan and I brought up, as an aside, that I didn't know whether there was enough parking for all our guests at our vacation rental. Dan immediately said, hey I'm going by that area, why don't I check it out for you and call you back. Within the hour, Dan was out scouting the property and reporting back to me! How great is he!! Also, he really listens. I'm sure everyone has heard of the nightmare of someone asking for "soft waves" and ending up with a head of orphan-annie ringlets! Well, I have only permed my hair once in my life (with disastrous results) and Dan totally understood what I was saying and knew what looked good and contemporary and what didn't work. He also knows Asian hair very well. I highly recommend Dan.

My make-up was done by Jessica Waite. I didn't get a chance to do a makeup trial with Jessica (and had to forfeit my deposit) but the makeup turned out very nicely as you can see in the pictures. She also did an excellent job on Cynthia and Sandhya.

My flowers were done by Virgie Haines through Lori Scott. I loved my bouquet and am quite sad that I forgot to take it with me. Since we didn't go nuts with flowers for this wedding, I didn't get to work with Virgie much. What she delivered though was beautiful.

Vacation Rental

We booked our vacation villa, the Garuda Villa, originally through Fabulous Homes which then became Luxury Retreats.The service was very professional and timely, from writing up the contract to providing concierge services such as arranging maid services and other extras. The villa was everything we had hoped it would be and the perfect setting for our wedding week. The only thing I didn't like was that there was a tractor sitting right by the gate of the villa the entire week. Apparantly, the owner was building another house on the tract of land off the gate. We didn't hear any construction work but the sight of the tractor right at the gate was a far cry from a red carpet entrance. Another thing worth mentioning is we received a deposit deduction notice for a damaged lounge chair after the wedding. Since the aforementioned chair was already damaged when we entered the property, I wrote a polite email to dispute the deduction and was very happy to receive a full refund of our deposit.