Deconstructed Piñata

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Last month, Rebecca and I designed the window at Bespoke Salon for First Friday in the Crossroads. After seeing this post on The Small Object, I was determined to make and use those tissue paper pom poms asap. They are just too adorable. Since the window went up during the first week of May, I based the window design on the vibrant colors of Cinco de Mayo. Originally, I wanted an actual piñata in the window, but after some thought, decided to simplify it and ended up with a deconstructed piñata instead. Read more about our process and cost breakdowns after the jump.

Back on Monday

Wow, I took a whole month off the blog and didn't even realize it! For the first two weeks, I just got really busy and just couldn't pull it together. The next entire week was because of a blogger meltdown....so not. my. fault. :) Then, I decided I was going to switch over to Wordpress. That might still be happening but not until I grasp basic coding. I was at a total loss and completely frustrated that there wasn't just a do-over button somewhere. I do have tons to share so I'll be back to regular programming starting on Monday along with a blog overhaul. My sincerest apologies to my friends and readers who are now pretty sick of seeing that butterfly top. Thanks for checking in!

Sequin Butterfly

I picked up this gorgeous 100% silk butterfly-sequined top at a garage sale near my house this weekend.....for only TWO DOLLARS. It was made in India, has a rayon lining and a couple of loose threads but it is seriously amazing. 

Our Very Un-Royal Wedding

Watching the Royal Wedding this morning, Kate licking her lips nervously, William with the slightest smile on his face looking like he was trying not to laugh, it reminded me of my own wedding day. Even though we only got married in the dining room with our friends standing and sitting where they could find a spot and not filmed live for the entire world to see, I was still a nervous wreck. My shoulders shook as I laughed through the entire ceremony. I am just thankful it was short.

As the Asian in the relationship, you would be pretty safe in assuming that I was the most recent immigrant in this relationship, but you'd be wrong. When George I and got married, he wasn't fresh off the boat by any means, but I was definitely more American. He was on a student visa from Ireland, I had just gotten my citizenship. We had two choices: extend his student visa or get married. So what the hell, we got married....ten days after meeting with our immigration lawyer and talking to George's friend Brian who is a pastor.

The wedding album below is what we had to put together to show immigration that our marriage was real. Otherwise, I don't think we'd have one. So thank you, Mira, for making us take the time to compile this moment in our lives.

At the time I loved to make books. This one was already made, but I did cover it with hand made paper. It's not a very big album and half the pictures inside are of our friends and family.

The keys to our hearts. Very cheesy now that I look back on it, but I loved them when I put this together.

 

This was the invitation to our first wedding.

I got everything from Paper Source and made them by hand.

George wrote the poem for our invitation: 

From two different worlds

Brought together by love and held by a promise

To love one another forever and always.

We invited about 50 people and had plans to get married in our backyard.

Tiki torches were placed in a circle so we could be surrounded by family

and friends. But it rained and we got married in our dining room instead.

Brian looking a little exasperated by our non-serious wedding day antics.

I wore white slacks from J. Crew and a lace camisole with no bra. George wore

J. Crew khakis and a blue linen shirt that neither of us bothered to iron.

Rosalie put my hair up halfway and stuck some babies' breath in.

We were definitely low key, I had no interest in wearing a white gown.

Our cake table consisted of an Andre's cake, Luanne's cake server and knife,

a bowl of mints, George's graduation sash with his country colors, a vase of roses,

and for some reason a He-Man figurine.

Both George and I had just graduated from college so our budget was nil.

This photo makes me laugh. We were so tacky and happy with so little.

Thanks to good advice from my bestie Rossana, I invited my parents.....

but only three days before the wedding. We had plans to keep it a secret from our folks.

Thus my parents came to my house on a Sunday in their casual best while George's parents

were kept in the dark. They found out later and were, understandably, a bit peeved with us.

The rain did let up finally and the girls braved the sodden ground to catch the bouquet.

I remember feeling fat on my wedding day. And now I only wish I was that "fat."

This is a terribly long post already, but earlier when I mentioned our first wedding,

it meant that we ultimately had a second wedding. Our. Real. Wedding.

The one we actually told our families about.

I designed my own wedding invitations but this time I got them printed....even the envelopes.

They did not match the red of the invites, but we were still on a budget. Now I have a ton of

red envelopes that have our address but say the Trieu Family.

I designed a trifold invite, printed on glossy stock in two colors, red and black. It was all very modern and clean. My family hated, hated, hated the invites even though I used red, a lucky color in Chinese tradition. But it was a very non-traditional card at the time and trust me, there's no pleasing my family.

The response card was a tear-off postcard.

For our second wedding, we had a traditional tea ceremony and then a seven-course wedding banquet. Since a lot of our guests were from out of town and unfamiliar with our wedding customs, there was a separate invite for the tea ceremony along with a description of what that all entailed.

I planned both weddings in an extremely short amount of time (one day for each). For me, getting married wasn't about all the finery much to my family's dismay. Plus I hated all the attention. I made lightning quick decisions about my dress, the cake and what restaurant to go use. I'll always treasure the memories and be happy in knowing that even on a non-existent budget, we still had our big day and we paid for it all by ourselves.

Ahem.....It's Our Turn

After one month of starting The Employee Lounge, Tina and I are finally getting our own moment in the spotlight and we're looooving it. Ha! We had no idea our service industry blog would be so well-received, but thanks to Kansas Citians who love their food and the restaurant world, we just got our first piece of press. Follow this link to read all about us in the Pitch's Fat City blog! They, of course, did not credit Tina, but fyi, she set up the shot and took this picture for our article.

Peak Performance

I stopped volunteering last year because I was so burned out. Between my office job and freelance work, my schedule was already full. Still, I took on yet another non-profit fundraiser because I love to coordinate special events so much. When I started volunteering a few years ago, I got a lot of my girlfriends involved. With every meeting and every event, we grew closer and now, we all actually help each other out quite often. Which is the case with Peak Performance for Children.

Thanks to my good friend Della, I'm now helping her coordinate this event. In addition to leading all the committees, I usually end up on or am the only member of the design team. This is my logo for this year's event. I'll share other collateral pieces as they're developed. Event details coming soon too!

Wedding Shower Invitation

Some wedding shower invitations I designed last week.

UPDATE: Since Chris is harassing me for more information about my invites, here are some additional details. After trolling the blogosphere for inspiration, I was finally inspired by an oval. Yes indeed, the oval is where this all begins. Sometimes Often, I get creatively blocked and just looking at other people's work help jog my brain into action.

THE CLIENT

Kat, my friend and neighbor. She is hosting a wedding shower for Christine and Garrett and asked for something bluegrass theme. I went for the warm, casual, country feel of bluegrass music rather than anything musically related.

COLORS

Originally this piece was going to be black ink printed on color paper, but Kat didn't sound too enthused so I chose colors to match their Save-the-Date cards (PMS 173 and Black PMS 5)  and printed on cream stock. These were just color copies.

FONTS 

Cowboy Rhumbahut, Poplar Black, Viva la Rivoluzione, Yella Belly

PAPER

80# cover, Sundance Warm White by Neenah Paper Co.

Most of my friends are on a budget, thus they ask me to design things, and I help them save even more money by making some budget decisions. As a designer, I would love to get everything printed and matchy, but as someone who is always watching their dollars, I make certain adjustments.

++ Printed envelopes? Never. Yeah, it makes the whole package look great, but people spend seconds looking at envelope before it's torn open and thrown away. If you want to make it look special, use a stamp. Or choose a color envelope. 

++ Print versus Copy. Copiers are fast, easy and inexpensive for small jobs. With a nice paper, you get  instant quality for less money. I would love to be able to letterpress every single job I get, but the reality is that the money isn't always there.

++ Paper. Spend the money on paper, it makes everything feel better.

++ Do it yourself, but think of how much time you're saving and how big the job is. Sometimes, it's better to just pay someone.