My Bridal Shower Invites – “Tiffany” Themed

Here’s a beautiful Evite website creation by one of my bridesmaids for my bridal shower invitation.  It’s seriously SO cute and I’m blessed to have such talented friends. I thought I’d blog it so that I can keep this in my memories for years to come. As for the shower theme, I had no idea what I wanted to do because I had no chance to even think about it…  it’s been so hectic till now. But upon searching forever and a day for my Korean wedding invitations online (post to follow. took soo long to finally find one that I liked), I found a cute Tiffany’s invitation card I absolutely fell in love with! I felt it was a bit overboard to send to Korean adults so I decided to get it for my bridal shower. So yes, my bridal shower theme became Tiffany’s because of a card I found, not the other way around.

We’re all grown up
but still giggling with glee
as we gather to honor
the sweet bride-to-be
Please join us in showering her
with love and best wishes
at Gordon Ramsey in West Hollywood

But perhaps rightfully so, because Tiffany’s greenish blue (mint) color is also one of my three main color palettes for my Korean wedding. When we first visited Ritz Carlton for the wedding venue consultation, they offered Tiffany colored chair sashes and ceiling drapes as one of the options that were too pretty to pass up. I’m happy with my choice because it totally fits a hotel wedding.

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Here are the invitations I thought were really cute. We had problems with the girl who’ve made them because she seemed unethical, but the product was really cute.

Secrets to Keep Your Diamonds Sparkling

Sorry for the dark image! I’m still learning how to use my 5D Mark III

It took less than two weeks for it to arrive in-store. My mother-in-law, my mom and I had our triple date today at South Coast Plaza and we stopped by Tiffany’s to pick up our rings. Because my fiance and I will be wearing them everyday for the rest of our lives, it’s important that we learn how to keep them at its best. I’ve researched around and here are few precautions you can take to keep your diamond/band sparkling [credits to GIA site]:

• Handle your diamond sparingly. Because diamonds are natural magnets for grease, they’re not easy to keep clean. Handling a diamond with your fingers provides enough oils from your skin (the type of “grease” that most affects diamonds) to alter the way your diamond looks.
• Clean your diamond regularly. A simple plan to keep your diamond jewelry always looking beautiful is to soak the diamond in an ammonia-based household cleaner (such as window cleaner) overnight, once or twice weekly. In the morning, remove the diamond from the cleaner and brush it with a soft, clean toothbrush (one that has not previously been used in any way, and that you reserve exclusively for cleaning your diamond) to remove any leftover dirt. Take extra care to brush the back of the diamond as this will be the area that has collected the most oil and dirt.
• Be aware that fragile settings and estate jewelry won’t take kindly to being scrubbed with a toothbrush, so use a soft touch. Then, just rinse the diamond with water and wipe with a soft, lint-free cloth.
• Don’t use harmful solutions. Chlorine (as in household bleach) or abrasives (such as household cleansers or toothpaste) should never be used when cleaning diamonds, especially those set in jewelry. These erode some of the metals often used in diamond settings, and may loosen prongs, or even dissolve the metal completely.
• Sometimes an ultrasonic cleaner is necessary to remove encrusted dirt on diamonds. By sending high frequency sound waves through a detergent solution, ultrasonic cleaners cause vibrating fluid to remove accumulated dirt and grime. However, they can also shake loose stones from their mounting, so this method shouldn’t be used on fragile settings (or estate jewelry), and is best undertaken by a professional jeweler.
• Regular cleaning will keep your diamond jewelry in gleaming condition and ready to sparkle on that special occasion.

Choosing our Wedding Bands @ Tiffany’s!

Last Saturday, we went to South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa during our break from Catholic Engagement Encounter to finalize our choices and to put in the order for our wedding bands at Tiffany & Co. Since my fiance is moving to Singapore first soon, we thought it’d be better to order it early so that all the engraving can be done by our wedding day. (we found out later it takes about two weeks) I always knew I wanted either the half circle or full circle of round brilliant diamonds in platinum (see blow), so it was easier to narrow down after few visits.  I first came in with my mom during our kitchenware shopping at bloomingdales and stopped by again with my fiance during our shopping for the engagement shoot to pick out his ring as well. After carefully trying out the rings and weighing the pros and cons of each, we finally confirmed our order + the engravings! Hopefully the information below will help some of you who are happily ring shopping!

My band: Shared-Setting Band Ring with a half circle of round brilliant diamonds in platinum.

Based on what I saw on the website, I actually wanted the full circle version of this ring… until I found out that full circle band cannot be resized or engraved. It was really important to me that we have our names or initials engraved on both of our rings (or else this ring would be like any other), so it was a pass. My mom also thought having diamonds inside your hands where you can’t really see was a waste of money and hard to upkeep. The half circle ring is nearly $3000 less than the full circle bands and I thought, hmm… do I want to spend $3000 more and not be able to engrave it with cute wordings? no thanks! it was an easy decision for us. 🙂

I’ve also tried the channel-set (enclosed diamonds) and the Tiffany jazz band (which is adorable by the way!), but I thought the shared-setting looked the most clean-cut and classy with my simple Tiffany setting diamond ring. The appeal of channel-set/Tiffany jazz bands are that the diamonds are enclosed, so that they’re less prone to scratches or breaks and most importantly, will not scratch your main diamond ring.

My fiance’s: Milgrain wedding band ring in platinum. 

He didn’t want it too plain like most guy’s rings, but also didn’t like the small diamond setting inside the band either. We liked that Milgrain was clean-cut yet edgy with stylish trims.

This is what we decided to engrave (pic below). Tiffany & Co gives you a sheet like this, which gives you a choice of font options and the wording.

His: ANGIE  ♥ DAVID 9.9.12 (with center bullet point)

Mine: D ♥ A 9.9.12 (because my ring’s smaller, it can’t fit as many characters)

I initially thought engraving came with the band pricing (?! my main diamond’s letters was free of charge.. but maybe it was bc of the huge price difference??), but they actually charge you extra. Here’s the breakdown:  $30 for the first three letters, then $6 for each additional letters. Heart is counted as one letter. Bullet points are not counted. There are two cursive fonts and two block fonts that we can choose from, which is the top row on the engraving sheet above.

We pondered the idea of getting creative with our engraving words, but we decided to stick with our names + our wedding date in case we might get bored of it later. It doesn’t mean they aren’t super cute though! Here are some phrases down below that I really really wanted to put, but kept myself from doing so. 🙂

Nicknames
Happily Ever After
Truly, Madly, Deeply
Never Another You
Never To Part
I Found Love & Love Was You
One Life, One Love
One Love, One Lifetime
Today, Tomorrow, Always
My Love, My Life, My Friend
You Are The Love Of My Heart
I pick you…
Love of my Life
I got carried away on 9.9.12
You’re The One!
You Have My Heart
Eternally Yours
Two Souls United
You’re My Jackpot!
The Beginning Of Forever
From This Day Forward
Mine, Mine, all Mine!!!
All My Love, All My Life

Here’s a photo of our ring on our fingers that we bought for each other. We love it. I can’t wait to start wearing it with my engagement ring!

Tiffany’s Birthday Gift from my Mother-in-law^^

My mother-in-law got me Tiffany’s heart necklace and earrings for my birthday along with thoughtful card and a cake! I was so touched. I always imagined my mother-in-law to be a sweet and classy woman, and she is exactly that.

Choosing the Venue: Korea (Part 3)

Our final venue of choice is Ritz Carlton 🙂

We pondered between Ritz and Shilla for a week or so, because we couldn’t let go of the thought of being wed @ Shilla’s beautiful traditional 영빈관 (Youngbingwan: Korean castle). But I really didn’t like that the main ceremony hall, separate from the reception area, was so small in size and would not have the heightened walkway + high ceiling that I looked for in hotel weddings. So Ritz Carlton it was, and here are the reasons why it made #1 on our list:

1. Main ballroom is not as big as Hyatt or Shilla’s Dynasty Ballroom, and fits maximum 350 people. FIY: if you have high number of guests, which is pretty common in Korea, the rest of the guests would sit OUTSIDE the ballroom as a “opera” type wedding where they get projections of your wedding.  I thought this was pretty rude for the guests because the area seems a bit secluded, so I’m curious as to why anyone holds it here when they have bigger guest count. It looks something like this: