July 15, 2011

invites update + videography!

Dear impatient/curious/worried loved ones,

The invites are coming. I PROMISE! We had hoped to get them out this past week but zpao had a crazy work week and I was feeling under the weather but I assure you...they are being assembled as I type! As I type? How is that possible, you ask? Invite elves. We hired some. They're extremely efficient.

Totally kidding. The truth is, I put zpao to work. I'm actually camped out in a Starbucks near Sacramento waiting for a wedding to wrap up so I can load up our vintage rentals and take them back to San Francisco. Here's to hoping zpao makes lots of progress while I'm gone! (zpao - if you're reading this GET BACK TO WORK! no really, peeps are waiting...)

In other news, we hired a videographer! We'd been toying with the idea for a while and finally decided that not having video from our wedding would lead to lots of post-wedding regret. Photos are great but I want to be able to watch and hear our ceremony, toasts, etc. over and over again. I'm really excited to be working with Seaglass Cinema. You can see some of their work here and here. We think they're pretty rad!

Ok, my eyes are closing. I think it might be time for a nap in the back of the Uhaul van. Yes, I know, my life is super glamorous ;)

xo,
zar

July 5, 2011

progress + our one year engagement anniversary

This past Sunday zpao and I celebrated one whole year of being engaged. Exciting, huh?! A whole year of being engaged - that must mean the wedding is all planned, right? Ha. I wish.

We didn't do anything fancy to celebrate but the day was awesome and super productive. We slept in (which so rarely happens these days), had brunch at our favorite spot, did some wedding invite + paper shopping at Paper Source (most awesome store ever!), hung out in the park, went shopping for wine for the wedding, ate pizza, watched way too many episodes of Arrested Development (can someone please explain to me why that show got cancelled?!?!), oh, and then I stayed up until 5:30am totally redesigning our wedding invitation for the millionth time.


But you know what? Progress has been made! The invite is finished and ready to be sent to the printers (HALLELUJAH!) and the crafty-DIY part of the invite is well underway (hint: it involves a lot of hand-made confetti which takes hours upon hours to make. These ideas always sound fabulous prior to actually starting the project!) For those of you who haven't heard about the invite design woes that led to me hanging out with my good friend Adobe Illustrator at 5:30am here's the scoop: We were originally working with a graphic designer on some custom invites but the graphic designer turned out to be extremely unprofessional (no responses to e-mails for weeks at a time - yeah, no bueno) so we decided to part ways with miss unprofessional about two weeks ago. Since then, I've been spending a lot of time brainstorming and designing to come up with our own custom invite. After many drafts and revisions we finally came up with something we are head over heels in love with and just in the nick of time because we need to get these babies in the mail ASAP. So now it's on to the DIY portion of the invite. Here's a sneak peek:




All I can say is - YAY! It's going to be awesome and of course I will post pictures when they are finished and mailed!

Additional progress made this weekend?

1. three out of the five wines  we will be serving at the wedding have been chosen (a. I hope you all like pinot noir, cab and sauvignon blanc and b. our fridge/kitchen is jam packed with open and unopened bottles of wine - pretty sure we look like alcoholics)

2. my wedding shoes are purchased. (remember those cute kate spade shoes I posted a while back with the gold bow? YES!)
3. a lot of the wedding paper has been designed or is well on it's way to being completed (invite, details card, ceremony program, escort cards, etc.)
4. table linens/napkins picked out

With only 75 days left until the wedding we need more productive weekends like this....errrr....every weekend ;)

xo,
zar

May 13, 2011

asking for help

HELLLLLOOOOOO!

Long time no write, eh? Well I'm back with a very short and sweet update on all things zarzpao wedding!


Remember how I said we weren't going to ask for help and that were going to pull off this DIY-filled wedding all by ourselves. Well, I caved. We have enlisted the help of some uber-talented friends of mine - Enjoy Events Co. and holy moly, I couldn't be happier! The ladies of Enjoy Events Co, Megan & Emily, are beyond talented and are going to help us take all of our crazy ideas and turn them into one cohesive design plan. In addition to helping with the overall design they will be helping to create some hand-made and DIY elements leading up to the big day. AND, they will be there to help on the day of which means me, zpao, and our families won't have to be stressed out. Have I mentioned how amazing Megan & Emily are? And can we talk about their website? It's the most fab thing I have ever seen. Check it out for yourself: http://www.enjoyeventsco.com/

So do I feel bad that I swore up and down that I could do this all by myself and now I'm singing a different tune? By golly, no! In fact, I feel better than ever. If there's anything I've learned from working in the wedding industry (even if it's only been 4 short months...) it's hiring amazing vendors is money well spent. I need help with all of these hand-crafted pieces that I'm planning. And my brain is swimming in so many wedding industry thoughts all day that sometimes it's hard to take a step back from my clients' weddings and upcoming photo shoots and look at my own wedding. In short, I need a fresh pair of eyes (or in this case two pairs!)

Ok, enough blabbing (so much for short & sweet, right?), let's get in to some pictures!!! Here are some pictures from styled shoots that Enjoy Events Co. has designed/coordinated.  The first shoot is pretty near and dear to me because they used some of my One True Love Vintage Rentals pieces! It was also featured on Ruffled blog, which was beyond exciting to see my pieces on a blog that I love so much!

photos courtesy of edyta photography

photos courtesy of edyta photography
 And this next shoot...pretty rad, no?





photos above courtesy of jennifer eileen photography via enjoy events co.

To see more from the shoot above (because I know you want to!) check out Jennifer Eileen's post: http://jennifereileen.com/blog/golden-farm-wedding/

Ok, so there's a brief recap on the wedding! I have lots more to share so hopefully I'll get a chance to update you on even more happenings this weekend! With only 4 months to go (ZOMGHOWISTHATEVENPOSSIBLE!?!) planning/prepping is really starting to pick up!

xo,
zar

March 6, 2011

wedding website - donezo!

Finally! FINALLY! F-I-N-A-L-L-Y! Our wedding website is done. Honestly, I don't know what took so long. We had all of the content done, and most of the design work done it was just a matter of sitting down and actually making it work (ok, zpao did the "making it work part"...not me!). Oh, then there was that little thing called One True Love Vintage Rentals. Yeah, that kinda got in the way :P

So yes, the website is done and ready for viewing! Personally, I wanted there to be more design-y elements on it (which we might be adding) but I realized the most important thing was getting the information out there so that people could start booking hotels and flights. Sometimes you have to let go of the idea that things will be perfect and just as you imagined and just go with it, right? Case in point #1: our wedding website. Case in point #2: the wedding party/immediate family accommodation fiasco...which will be my next post!

So for those of you who haven't seen it yet, here's a sneak peak of our website! On the homepage we rotate through a bunch of zarzpao pictures some of them from way back when. Like this one which is from our one year anniversary dinner in 2006. Aren't we cute? It's funny to think that this was before zpao knew he'd be stuck with me forever ;)


xo,
zar

February 25, 2011

honeymooning

It's cold and rainy here in San Francisco (did you hear it might snow here on Saturday!? Yes, indeedy!) so what am I doing to keep myself warm and cozy? Daydreaming about our honeymoon. Mmmmm, I can almost feel the warm, ocean breeze on my face. Hello, Santorini...






That's right, we're heading to Greece! We'll start off in Athens, then travel to a few of the Greek Isles (Santorini and Crete for sure), and finally we'll be hopping over to Istanbul. It's going to be the perfect mixture of relaxation and adventure and I CANNOT WAIT!!!!

Agh! Just look at these beaches! Incredible. 



Any honeymoon suggestions? We're looking for places to stay and things to do in Greece and Instanbul, so let us know if there's anything that we must see/do!

xo,
zar

February 15, 2011

let's all stop for a minute...

and drool over this styled shoot. shall we?







photos courtesy of 100 layer cake

These pics were featured recently in Southern Wedding Magazine (which is my new go-to source for inspiration. They've got fun, rustic, vintage, laid back charm down to a science) and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. Isn't this shoot beyond romantic? The styling, the colors, the decor. Seriously drooling.

I'm also really drawn to her bouquet. In fact, I'm sending it to our florist to give her an idea of what I'm looking for (woo, more planning progress!) I love the peach garden roses, the berries and those little brown ball thing-a-ma-bobs. Does anyone know what those are called?

xo,
zar

February 13, 2011

we have a florist!

Yay for checking something off of the scary long list of things left to do! We have a florist!

Meet Studio Choo and all of their loveliness:











photos above courtesy of studio choo

photo courtesy of style me pretty

Aren't they super talented? We're pretty psyched that they're doing our flowers. Now we just have to find inspiration photos to send them so that they can give us a price quote. I guess that means it's time to figure out exactly what we want. Eeek. 

xoxo,
zar

wedding planner?

As I'm sure most of you have guessed by the lack of blog posts in the last three weeks, I've been insanely busy. Please don't laugh when I say this (because believe me I feel silly even thinking it) but starting a business is way more work/stress than I expected! I knew it was going to be hard, but I didn't expect to be working 16+ hour days for 6 weeks straight without a day off. And the crazy thing is that most of the time, zpao is right there with me. He's my right hand man. Did I mention he's pretty much the smartest/most patient/giving/wonderful person ever? Because he is. I wouldn't have pictures, a website, or half of my inventory without him. Oh and then there's my sanity. I'm pretty sure he's to thank for that as well.

So if we're both working 16+ hour days, who is planning this wedding of ours? Well, no one at the moment. We have literally accomplished nothing (unless you consider ruling out some vendors accomplishing something) in terms of wedding planning since before Christmas. Zpao keeps saying, "don't worry, everything will get figured out" but all I can think is "By whom? Who exactly is figuring this stuff out?! Because I sure as heck don't have the time...and neither do you!"

With only seven months to go before the big day we've got to start making some major decisions like choosing:

  • an officiant
  • a florist
  • a DJ
  • a string trio 
  • honeymoon details
  • weekend event locations (friday night welcome drinks/sunday brunch)
  • invitations
  • groom's attire
  • wedding party attire
  • desserts
  • alcohol
  • and a bunch other small but super important details like event insurance, a get-away car, a marriage license

 With all of this left to do and wedding season right around the corner (which hopefully means lots and lots of business for me but even less time for wedding planning!) I'm thinking a wedding coordinator/designer might be necessary. I wanted to do this all on my own, but I'm starting to see that that might be impossible. The good news is, I have made some great connections within the wedding industry so finding a phenomenal wedding planner shouldn't be difficult. There's just the budget side of things. I really don't want to spend our honeymoon money on a coordinator! So as of right now, we're going to continue trying to plan this on our own (I have a meeting with a florist today!) but if another month or two goes by and nothing gets accomplished we might have to call in a professional. The last thing I want is for it to be August and we have nothing finalized!

What do you guys think? Is considering a wedding coordinator and designer a good idea or is a waste of money?

xo,
zar

January 21, 2011

fabulous floral friday

Yes. Yes. Yes. Nouveau Romantics, you can do no wrong...


There's something so rustic and beautiful about greens, soft pinks, deep reds and pops of mustard yellow. Absolutely stunning.

xoxo,
zar

January 17, 2011

my business = launched!

Happy Monday morning everyone! I've got some very exciting news to share and it just couldn't wait until a reasonable hour (in my opinion, blogging before 8am = an unreasonable hour, wouldn't you agree?!) I'm thrilled to announce that after a month of working night and day (literally) to get my new vintage rental business up and running, we're finally launching! Can you believe it? Today is the day!

Say hello to One True Love Vintage Rentals!

What do you guys think of the website? That was all zpao (with a little feedback from me of course!) As zpao continuously reminds me, this is just the first version of the website. We've got lots more up our sleeves :) Sometime in the near future (after my wonderful fiance takes a short break from this seemingly never-ending project) we will be creating a comprehensive inventory page which will organize each item according to category (tables, chairs, small accessories, etc) and make it super easy to find the exact piece that you're looking for. There will also be a portfolio page showcasing my pieces being used at weddings and events and styling projects that I've done.

Zpao has been amazing through all of this. He has photographed most of my pieces, created my whole website from scratch and more important served as my sounding board. We may have bickered a little along the way (and sworn never to work with each other on business related stuff again...haha) but honestly, the whole experience just made me feel so lucky to be marrying such a talented, hardworking person.

And now the real work begins: finding clients, getting my name out there, and hopefully making this into a career! If you would help me spread the word to Bay Area brides, event planners, and photographers I would be eternally grateful :)

xoxo,
zar

January 16, 2011

latest antique store finds

Oh my goodness. Did I just hit the jackpot in terms of incredibly awesome antiques/vintage items. This past Thursday zpao and I had a meeting with our lovely wedding coordinator Marky Carr, at Radonich Ranch (more on this later) and then headed down to Capitola to take a look at the house we are renting for our families (more on this later too! Aghh so much to share!) On our way to Capitola, we came across this adorable little town called Soquel. Little did we know, Soquel is antique heaven. Literally, everywhere you look there is an antique store. Naturally I started shrieking in the car. How had I not known that such a marvelous place existed?! Long story short, we never made it to Capitola to look at that house. Instead, we spent the day marveling at some amazing antique/vintage furniture and decor and of course we didn't leave empty handed!

(Please excuse the not-so-great quality of some of these pics. I was so excited to share my newest finds with everyone that I snapped these at night in our apartment despite the terrible lighting)


 Say hello to my gorgeous Royal typewriter (which is in perfect working condition!):



And my vintage camera/books:




A first-aid kit tin from the early 1900's:




And finally, a picnic basket (which will be perfect for our engagement photo shoot out in Golden Gate Park!):



Yay! More vintage accesories means more fabulous things to include in our wedding AND more fabulous things to add to my vintage rental company's collection. Definitely a win-win :)

xoxo,
zar

weddings shoes part II

Ooh ohh! I found another fabulous pair of sparkly flats! These lovelies are from Vera Wang...



In case you're wondering, I'm planning to wear flats on our wedding day because a) I am not a heels kinda girl (they hurt [yes, I am a wimp] and I'm all ready super tall so they make me feel like a giant) and b) because I'm only a wee bit shorter than zpao (2/3 of an inch to be exact).

It's definitely going to be a challenge to find flats that are fabulous enough to wear on my wedding day but I think the two options I've found thus far are a good starting point. Feel free to send me links to any wedding-worthy flats that you come across!

xoxo,
zar

January 15, 2011

wedding shoes for the mrs.

I just came across these Kate Spades and have decided that I am in love....




Ballet flats with a peep toe and a bit of sparkle = perfection! Now I just have to wait for them to go on sale.

xoxo, 
zar

January 14, 2011

fabulous floral friday

I know, I know. Its been a while since I've posted a fabulous floral friday (or anything for that matter). I have a good excuse for being a blogging slacker, I swear! In fact, I have two good excuses...
  1. Working/trying to get my company off the ground/contacting wedding vendors has been taking over my life. I eat, sleep, and dream work/wedding stuff. In fact, my life has become one big work/wedding continuum. There's the purely work side of my life, then my new company...which mixes work/weddings, and finally the wedding planning itself. I guess food and trashy reality T.V. have a place in there somewhere but for the most part it's work/weddings all. the. time.
  2. Because of all of the things listed in #1 my days (weeks even) have been blending together. Mid December - mid January is one big blur to me (wait, it's mid January?! Can someone please explain to me how it's MID-JANUARY?) Clearly I have a hard enough time figuring out what week it is let alone the day, hence me missing a Friday.  Or two. Or three.

I hope these to-die-for floral arrangements from the uber-talented ladies of Bash, Please will make up for my lack of recent floral posts! Did I mention these arrangements were to-die-for? And that flower box that says "enjoy"? Probably my favorite flower container ever. 








These arrangements have inspired me to add some drama to our centerpiece flowers. The current plan? Add a pop of dark red/purple (think berries/small grapes) to peach/light pink flowers. And guess what? Zpao loves the idea. Yay!
 
xoxo,
zar

January 9, 2011

diy project #2

Well, it's been a while since I finished DIY project #1 so I figured it was time to get cracking on DIY project #2! We only have 8 months until the big day and I'm fairly certain that these projects aren't going to make themselves (and let's be real...zpao isn't going to make them either). 

This project might end in disaster, but I am going to attempt (key word here!) to make these cuties...

photo courtesy of milk tea on etsy


photo courtesy of milk tea on etsy


photo courtesy of together forever on etsy

Custom-made cake toppers! Too cute, right? 

I found the ones above on Etsy, an awesome source for all things artsy and handmade, for about $150 but I'm hoping to make my own and save some mullah. The real question is: will I actually be able to make one of these? Also, considering the cost of materials plus the time and potential frustration that will go into making these is it even worth making them instead of buying them? Honestly, I'm not sure. But that's the risk you take with DIY projects! I think I'm a pretty crafty gal so I feel fairly confident that I can pull these off. And if I fail miserably? Well that's what Etsy is for! Oh, and I'll be sure to share pictures of my disastrous attempt at DIY stardom with all of you ;)

Keep your eyes pealed for photos documenting my progress!

xoxo, 
zar