love it!

love this ring shot. merry christmas everyone!

honeymoon booked!

mr. zok and i will officially be going to turks and caicos for our honeymoon!



turks is located in the Caribbean, below Florida and the Bahamas.



look at that water!!! i cannot WAIT! especially considering how burnt out i feel right now! sitting beneath a fifty pound rock sounds better than going into work in the morning!

for sale!

one of my bridesmaids, grace, is selling candied apples for the holidays at a great price! Each apple is hand-dipped and coated with a variety of toppings:
Turtle
Walnut
Pecan
Cashews
Ghirardelli chocolate chips
Black and White
Heath Bars
Oreo
Candy Cane
Peanut Butter Chips
Holiday Swirl
or any other suggestions

price: $8
retail price: $10-19

She is also making gift baskets! Each gift basket includes 3 candied apples, and your choice of either:
Ghirardelli caramel brownies
Ghirardelli chocolate chip cookies
chocolate hazelnut biscotti
cranberry pistachio biscotti
customized frosted sugar cookie cut-outs
chocolate covered pretzels
strawberry heart cookies
and your choice of bottled beverage of either Acqua Panna, S.Pellegrino, or wine

gift baskets: $60.00
Retail Value is from $80.00-$120.00

Each item is individually wrapped and packaged inside the gift baskets

I am considering using her for my wedding favors! If she'll give me a discount. =)

Let me know if you're interested!

my diet

so unlike most brides-to-be, i have to go on a special diet to GAIN weight. from working and running around town and stressing out, i lose weight quite easily, to the point where i look emaciated. now i need to GAIN weight to look nice on my wedding day. =(

so one thing i am doing for the first time in my life is counting the calories i consume in a day. next, i'm trying to figure out a workout plan for myself to build muscle. hopefully this will work.

if you have any suggestions, please let me know!

GOAL: gain ten pounds by my wedding date, which is 111 days away!!!

cake!

so i haven't really found many wedding cakes that have wowed me in ALL OF MY RESEARCH! but today, while perusing through martha stewart's wedding magazine, i came across this cake, and i LOVE IT! i wouldnt' want it in pink, but the stenciling is just absolutely beautiful! the best part is that mr. zok thinks it's cool too. =)

words words words

wedding planning is in full gear, as essentially the wedding is only 3.5 months away! what a scary/exciting/overwhelming feeling!

elements of the wedding:
1. we have chosen a photographer! how exciting! we will be using jerry yoon of blogjerry.com. go check out his work!

2. after much deliberation/heartache/stress, i think i have found a bridesmaid dress that is not only cute but CHEAP! it's purple still, but is more functional than the original dress i picked out since the girls can most likely wear it again. it's from zara! yipee!!

3. registering is not that fun. it is stressful because i'm a perfectionist. bah!

4. i asked mr. zok if we could just have fruit tarts for our wedding cake, to which he replied with a face of disgust. he then continued to say "there would be so many berries on it"............

5. i think i've decided to hyphenate my middle and maiden name and then take on the hubby's name after all. here comes the name change! and the non-california license. =(

6. the save the date has been sent!

alright i'm too tired to write more.

boo

i got the blue shoes, except they weren't blue. they were black. so back they go!

i want to pin a bow on my toe...

I have been searching online for the perfect wedding shoe. I found the BEAUTIFUL shoe below on nordstrom.com, but it was too expensive and i wanted to figure out if I really wanted to wear 4" shoes, so I was waiting for them to go on sale to decide. they never went on sale, and now there are only sizes 5 and 10 left. so i am =(.



I was on zappos.com forEVER today, and I finally found another shoe that I liked, but of course in very jennie-nature, they were really expensive! and they were plain ivory, which i think is sort of boring. so i decided to go on ebay and weddingbee.com to find shoes that were being sold at cheaper rates since people cancel weddings or change their mind about shoes, like i might...

while on weddingbee.com, i found these lovely shoes that are half a size too big but so cheap! and brand new! they're being sold at half price! so i contacted the seller and am contemplating buying them and just putting insoles in. aren't the bows so cute?! and these babies are 3.5" tall, which means that my FMIL will not be happy (she wants me to wear flats).


but while on ebay, i found the pair of shoes that i liked from zappos except in navy blue! i liked them immediately but wondered if they went with my color palette, but they were being sold at 25% of the going rate! so i decided to bid on them just on a whim, and I WON JUST LIKE THAT! so now I have accidentally purchased these shoes! And I must return them in a week if i dont like them! But right now, i do like them... it's just a matter of what do i like better??

another wish...

i wish mr. zok and i had it in our budget to get a bangin' videographer. i also wish that there were bangin' videographers in the monterey area.

here is a great (long though: 11 min) wedding video i just saw off of theunbride.com. tells SUCH a great story of the day. a funky, fun, fabulous wedding indeed.

Justine and Gary

most recent obsession discovered five minutes ago

sorry for the lack of posts. needless to say, i've been busy. =)

so everyone knows that i want my wedding to be unique, just like i expect everything i do to be unique. maybe i am just a sucker for being special as a result of low self-esteem as a child. who knows. what i do know is that i LOVE THESE RING "PILLOWS"!!!!!







they are by EasterYu and are so fabulous and affordable! SWOON! she has just made me a customer. but which one do i buy?! the birch or the bird's nest?! i can't decide!!

do the polka!

if i didn't already have a veil, this would totally be an option!!!!!
[courtesy of polkadotbride]

yum

because i like purple and the outdoors...

seriously what a freaking cute wedding! i wanted to do an orange theme but feared the halloween resemblance that could occur combined with a black suit. oh wellll. =)

[picture courtesy of southern weddings]

ceremony sites

so in august, i went home and went venue hopping. i had every intention of having my ceremony and reception at one place, but it turned out that i couldn't find such a venue that i loved. well, it turns out i will be having my ceremony and reception at the same place for the sake of convenience since i have cut my wedding planning time down by four months, and i'm okay with it. but if i could have the perfect wedding, it would be different. =)

monterey is really beautiful, especially in august, so i was excited that i was going to have my wedding then. now it is in april, and i am still very excited, but i hope the weather holds!

carmel valley ranch:
carmel valley ranch was BEAUTIFUL. and ideally, i would have my ceremony here. you are greeted at a gate and then rolling hills that you drive up.

as you look out the window, you see these:

anyway, once you're there, this is where you are greeted by hotel staff.
here is the bigger of the two ballrooms:
here is the garden that i would want to get married in if i could but i cant:
and here is a different angle if anyone wants to get married under a nice tree:
then here is the smaller of the two ballrooms, which is also very nice. both ballrooms have expansive views of the hills in carmel, which are beautiful.




when it came down to it, i really loved it here. it was private, quiet, and beautiful. it could accomodate 150 in the small ballroom and 200 in the big one. what killed us was the distance from monterey (about 20 minutes) and the pricing for food. to do the ceremony there alone wouldn't be THAT bad, but considering my small budget it wasn't going to work. =( plus, my mom and i were going at it about having the ceremony/reception at separate places. and since i'm not paying, i can't argue as much as i'd like. but i have to keep reminding myself that i am not getting married for the wedding; i am getting married to be wed. and then it's not so bad. it will all be over in a jiffy anyway, right? =/

to be continued...

budgeting

budgeting has to be one of the most annoying parts of wedding planning. i think it's just because i'm not disciplined in my money habits. i am not necessarily bad with money; i just don't put in as much effort to be on top of it, i.e. balance my checkbook. but budgeting is key to a successful and recession-proof wedding!

so the two budget helpers i recommend are marthastewart.com and theknot.com. seems pretty i know, but they are pretty similar in their breakdowns of how much money should be rationed out per category for the wedding, and then they will calculate for you how much money you have left to spend everytime you make a purchase. it is great. it ALMOST makes budgeting a wedding fun...NOT.

on my way

hello all. my title for today is "on my way" because I guess I am more "on my way" than I realized. Or maybe I am just not as obsessive about this whole wedding thing now that school has started and I am just wanting to get married for the real meaning of it all than for the superficiality of it all. don't get me wrong, i still want a nice wedding and i will still toil over details, but maybe not as much now. since my wedding will be in april, i have to simplify, and i just can't be so annoying about this all.

anyway, i went home last weekend to surprise my family, and i had a pleasant surprise come my way! my mom found her veil for me, and i will be using it in my own wedding, which is so very exciting! the only thing was that her veil was pure white, whereas my dress has a tint of ivory in it, so we had to figure out how to change its color! so my mom and i had some fun dying the veil with tea, and TADA it worked! it is the perfect shade of ivory to match my dress. YAY!!! now I will be using my mom's veil in my wedding, and hopefully I will be able to give it to my daughter when she marries. =) PLUS, i have my "something old" and i get to save some money. YAYYYY!!! =)

more posts to come, hopefully sooner than this one came. i still need to post pictures of venues, potential bridesmaid dresses, and some other things. but in the meantime, i am watching my big fat greek wedding now. =)

april it is! =)

A OR A?

April or August is what those two A's stand for! And both of them are grade-A! HA!

Mr. Zok and I have been going back and forth about this now for about a week. It is so interesting, because on the way back from a friend's wedding this past weekend, I was thinking in my head that I didn't want to wait until August to get married. I don't want to be another wedding among the many so that people can become bitter about buying gifts and having their weekends monopolized. I don't want to be compared to last week's wedding or next week's wedding. I don't want a long engagement but figured I couldn't complain because scheduling just didn't work in our favor and so I submitted to the plan. August is nice because the weather is nice and people are less tense in summer months, plus I have time to plan over the summer. But is it worth it?

Then Mr. Zok miraculously mentioned getting married sooner! He said that he would be very stressed with the bar exam in July and isn't sure if he wants to plan a wedding during that time. Plus, two of his other closest friends are getting married in the summer, which makes him all the more busy. So we thought about what months before August we could get married. July-bar exam. June-DNA wedding. May-finals/graduation. April-? So April became the newest option! This means outdoor wedding may be hard, less time to plan, maybe postponing our honeymoon. Is it worth it?

Feedback please!

change of date?

mr. zok and i might change our wedding date to many months before our original plan! stay tuned for definite plans. =)

OMG what now?!

i just got an email from where i was hoping to have my wedding reception, and i am NOT thrilled!

"I sent you an email to update you on your request to have your wedding
ceremony and reception at our property. I mentioned you during our first
meeting that I will need to request for the space for your wedding and
reception on Saturday, August 8th, 2009. I have processed all the
documents and submitted to our Directors. Unfortunately, our Directors
cannot make any decision for the approval of your request due to another
large group that is now tentatively booked on the same day of your
event. This transpired between the first we met and the time you emailed
me with your desire of having your event here. I just checked with the
Sales Manager who is assisting the other group about the status of that
event and she told me that her client will need at least two weeks
before she can give their final decision whether they are moving forward
with their event or not.

If you would like to wait for another two weeks, I can certainly check
again. However, if you have another dates in minds, I will be happy to
check for availability for you. I apologize for the inconvenience."

:X

my apologies!!!

hi people! i'm so sorry i haven't updated this in so long! it's not that it isn't important to me i promise! it is actually frustrating that i don't have enough time to wedding plan at ALL, and thus don't have time to write on this fun blog here. since school has started, my wedding planning brain switch has turned off and my lesson planning brain switch has turned on, so i have barely had any time! i will hopefully be back on here soon! so sorry again for the hiatus!!!

a photographer i cannot have

i've been scoping out photographers lately, as it is one of my next endeavors in this wedding planning process. yesterday, i came across Tanja Lippert Photography, who absolutely BLEW me away! Of course I went ahead and asked for more information. Unfortunately, she is COMPLETELY out of my price range, so instead i will just covet via her blog.

Some images by the beloved:

hum drum

hi people. so i'm still working on where to have the wedding. =) but in the meantime, look at what the oh-so-fabulous amy liao made for me again!!!!


i canNOT get over the ones in the hanbok's! (korean custom outfits) THEY ARE AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

some heart vomit

so i guess i am a little bit stressed out. just a little bit.

for those of you that have never heard me rant and rave about my dear mother, you have been fortunate. i love my mom more than anyone in the whole world, but at the same time, she also makes me madder than does anyone else in the whole world! and so far in the wedding planning process, it has been difficult. my madre is super control-freakish, and her tendencies have made me kick, cry, grunt, sigh, squeel, etc. to the point where today is the last full day of my stay here and we fought this morning. this morning after our fight, i started thinking about the movie "how to lose a guy in 10 days." and my situation feels like when andie anderson is given the power to write about whatever she wants, except that her boss limits her to write about anything WITHIN THE MAGAZINE. mr. zok and my mom keep saying that it's my day, and the decisions are all mine to make, but then mommy dearest only gives me like two options to choose from making me feel like it's not really my decision at all. in the movie, andie anderson leaves the magazine because her principles mean more to her than her job. i can't exactly leave my mother, nor would i. this isn't something i can be that selfish about. it involves too many people.

anyway, after crying to mr. zok and ironically watching an episode of sabrina the teenage witch about the wedding planning process while eating lunch, i think i'm realizing that i'm losing focus in all of this. i want the day to be perfect and happy and sunny and wonderful, but in the end it will be all of those things (well...maybe not sunny) because it will be the beginning of my happily ever after. i'm marrying the guy i love, whom my parents and family love, with the financial support of my parents, which is much more than so many other people in the world. i have a lot to be thankful for.

so i guess it's time to suck it up. whatever happens happens. and in the end, i still get to marry my prince. =)

the shoe report

hi all. so, today is my last full day in california and my last venue visit is today! it has been stressful, to say the least, but if all goes well today i will have a venue set!!!

in the meantime, i thought i'd at least update about SOMETHING! and what better than SHOES?! hahaha. here are some shoes i'm considering with my dress. =)

all captions are below the shoe it goes with!
these babies are so freaking cute. i could eat them. yum!



these are also cute, but might be too dark with my dress?



yum-o!



THESE ARE SO FUN! you guys might think i'm nuts, but i think they are SOOOO FUN! but they don't match my dress at all! i think i might just buy them for myself. =) but mr. zok might yell at me cuz my shoe rack is overflowing right now! hahaha. and he hates snake skin. =)



these are similar to the ones above!



these are cute, but i don't think they will match the shade of purple i want for my bridesmaid dresses!



brown brown brown. whenever i think of brown, i think of last season project runway when heidi calls the crazy girl's brown dress a "sad little brown dress." the way she says it is so freaking funny!



SO CUTE!!!



these are cute, but not very wedding-y. i think i have an aversion to closed-toed dress-up shoes.

what are some good shoe websites? these are from zappo and piperlime. and i think nordstrom too!

stay tuned for venue hopping pictures!

i'm sorry!

hello people! i'm so sorry i have been so bad about updating this! i am currently in california spending time with family and trying to get my venue sorted out! i will make sure to put up pictures/news about all of that when the time comes!

i did want to post right now because i just watched THE CUTEST video on bridesmaids and wanted to share! enjoy!!!!

hilarious!

look at this wedding photobooth! they put a cardboard cutout of the couple for people to take pictures with! SO FUNNY!!

courtesy of john and joseph photography

o.m.g.

look at these cake topper! they're made from the wii "mii" characters! but they are so unnecessarily expensive! $250 for these babies!

pictures from Paul Pape Designs

mr. zok's gag gift

mr. zok finished his summer associate job yesterday, aka his ten-week long interview. needless to say, he is happy to be done! but as a goodbye gift, his firm bought him a wedding planning book. YAY FOR ME! =D

well, instead of studying, i am reading it, and it says, "don't fret! it may not seem like it, but the most difficult part of getting mraried has already been completed. you've found the perfect person. After that, everything is cake!"

i guess that is true. so i will try not to stress out about this whole thing. TRY is the key word ladies and gents.

these are my obsessions...

ever since i have begun wedding planning, i have been a silly goose and singing usher's "confessions" except putting in the word "obsessions" instead. and every time i do it, i chuckle a little to myself. i am such a dork.

anyway, i have recently become quite obsessed with these babies:


not the butterflies, but the lanterns! for whatever reason, i think they are so lovely. so i decided to go on a mad hunt for them and found the following:



i am a particular fan of the small one in the first picture, but i'm not sure if i want to shell out money to get these JUST for my wedding. what would i do with them afterward? i guess sell them?