Finishing Touches

Church Decorations

Can we just do bunches of baby breathes tied to the chair like this?  

It would be for 16 chairs (8 on each side)

Need: 16 small bouquets & 8 candles 

Sweetheart Table

Sweetheart Table with Candles

Cake & Bubbly

Needs: 

A few candle holders

Candles

A few flowers 

Bridal Party Florals

Boutonnieres

Total Needed: 1 Bridal Bouquet5 Bridesmaids 1 Arrangement for Virgin Mary

Reception Centerpieces

Low Centerpieces = 13 centerpieces like this

These are the different size cups we have.  We have 39 of them (so three per table)

We'd like to fill the cups with one or two big faced flowers or a bunch of tall flowers or even just baby breaths. Similar to the photo below but without the floating candles. 

Tall Centerpieces: 12 centerpieces

Just an inspiration

Total Needed:

13 Short Arrangements

12 Tall Arrangements

Entrance & Altar Flowers

Entrance of the Woman's Club

Entrance Runner

Iridescent Blue & Purple 

St. Francis Assisi Altar

We can reuse the lower flowers for the sweetheart table or for the dessert tables?

Tall Centerpiece 

For Both Church Altar & Entrance

With Peach/Light Pink Chrysanthemums or Dahlias

Dark purple, Blue, and Green Accent Flowers

Willow Vines & Textured Green Fillers

Dessert Table

An all white arrangement for the gold & white dessert table

Total Needed:

1 Central Arrangement (Used at Church Altar & Reception Entrance)

2 Lower Arrangements (Used at Church & Sweetheart table)

1 Dessert Table Arrangement (Used at Church Entrance &  Dessert Table, or just use the two lower arrangements for the dessert table instead)

[Voila] ありがとう！

started working on our favor bags for our homemade goodies.  

i cut these a bit smaller to fit our goodies, which will include some yummy cookies & sweets.

Les Filles

{Voila} Washi Tape Inspirations

Project #2: Guest Books/Table Numbers

One of my earliest inspirations was a Guest Book/Table Number that I found online at Martha Stewarts which just fit so nicely with our warm and whimsical theme.  Allowing guests to be seated first before signing the guestbook is nicer than being rushed through the front door.

Japanese washi tape is essentially decorative masking tape.  Taro tells me that "washi" means paper and the tapes feel light and paper-like, really easy to use.  Look at all the awesome projects that can be created with this stuff.

We purchased these rolls (6m each) for 1050 yen.  These tapes can be purchased in the US at this store.

One of my favorite stores in Tokyo is called Muji - they sell everything from stationary to household items and international food products.  It prides itself on providing low prices and no brands.
Taro's explanation: Mu = nothing and Ji = brand. 

We purchased these 5-pack, kraft paper notebooks for our guestbook/table numbers at Muji for only 189 yen.  That's about 37 yen per notebook.

Inside of each book will include (1) the dinner menu, (2) the evening's agenda, (3) spaces for photos and sign-ins, and (4) an envelope for marriage advice.  The remaining washi tape will go to decorate our gift bags with this stamp that looks similar to our invitation design.

{Voila} Origami Inspirations

Taro found a specialty origami center in Tokyo where they have a plethora of beautiful papers in different sizes, colors, textures, and more.  We're making origami cranes for our name holders but the cheap paper (Koma' brand) has a blue that is just not working with our color palettes.  

Taro found a rich navy blue paper at the store in a large size and they offered to cut the stock for us. Each sheet created about 11 smaller size papers.  The store's workers really enjoyed hearing about our pan-pacific romance and took the time to make sure we found exactly what we needed.  

We visited the top floor which had the paint color workshop for the origami paper.   The beautiful designs you see on certain papers are painted directly on by the gentleman.  These papers were much more expensive than what we could afford, but so beautiful to look at. 

Some brushes are made from sheep hair (softest, most cover), some are horse hair (a bit stiffer, made for more controlled painting), some are striped in different shapes and sizes to create different patterns on the paper.

Here, he's painting one side of the paper with the vat of glittering gold paint.  The yellow base makes the gold a warmer tone.  If he wanted to dye the paper thoroughly, he dunks the entire paper in the big silver vat to the left.  The origami dragons are created with multiple interlinking origami pieces.  The finished pieces are brushed with gold.

A finished crane: 

Once completed, the cranes will be the nameholders at the table for each guests.  Taro's mom has graciously offered to fold all 250 pieces for us -- we're quite grateful since it takes us so much longer.  Once she's done, I might add a bit of gold like the inspiration dragons above.

For Yen

Ginger Cafe

So.... we booked our caterer finally! It is a Chinese restaurant with a Southeast Asian flavor twist to it. My mother had her wedding at the brother's more traditional Chinese restaurant, so there's a little modern twist to our caterer, but same family of food.