ZARZPAO: est. October 31, 2004

October 31, 2004: zpao and I meet at Carnegie Mellon's Sleeping Bag Weekend. I am a high school senior and he is the super cool older (freshman) college guy. We eat at the Underground, take a stroll down to Oakland, and end up watching Ferngully in Scobell House. We're with a big group the whole time, but I only have eyes for zpao.

Fast forward 6 years...

October 31, 2010: zpao and I live in one of the most amazing cities in the world and are planning our wedding. Sometimes we get on each others nerves...

zar: "ZPAO! keep your nasty shoes off of my purse!"

zpao: "ZAR, CALM DOWN. It's just a bag. Maybe you shouldn't lay it down in the shoe area in the first place"

...but for the most part we spend our days laughing, inventing killer dance moves (which, despite zpao's insistence, will NOT be featured at the wedding) and planning all sorts of awesome adventures. Had someone told me that this is what life would be like 6 years down the road I probably would have started crying (tears of joy, of course) and thought "I'm the luckiest girl in the world". (And let's be real, I probably would have wanted a sneak peak of my engagement ring too!)

Happy six-years-of-knowing-you-anniversary, zpao. You da best. 

xoxo, 

zar

mmm...pie pops

I'm not a huge fan of cake (unless we're talking red velvet cake from the Bubble Room on Captiva Island, Florida...in which case, yum x 1,000,000) nor am I a big fan of cupcakes (it's basically cake, right?) I am however, a bit obsessed with pie. Cherry pie to be exact. Bring me a cherry pie and I will love you forever. Come to think of it, zpao bought me a cherry pie once. Coincidence?

So what do pies and our wedding have to do with each other? Well, allow me to share what is quite possibly the CUTEST thing ever: pie pops (translation: a miniature pie...on a stick!)

Genius? Adorable? The perfect idea for a wedding favor? Yes, yes and YES!

Zpao and I have decided to give these to guests as wedding favors! We'll be making them home-made (apple and cherry flavored) and then wrapping them up individually and tying them with some sort of ribbon or twine. It's definitely going to be a lot of work but I'm super excited.

Interested in making your own? Take a look at this website for detailed instructions (and mouthwatering pictures!):  http://luxirare.com/float/

the save-the-dates have arrived!

YAY! They're here! The first tangible sign of our wedding!

Yesterday while I was at work I received a voice mail from Hello!Lucky, the design company that we worked with to create our save-the-dates, saying that our order was ready for pick-up.

FINALLY! The moment I had been waiting for for weeks!

Me, being the ridiculously excited/impatient bride-to-be that I am, decided it was necessary to attempt to go 4 VERY long blocks to and from Hello!Lucky on my short 15 minute afternoon break. To be honest, this plan was flawed from the beginning. I knew darn well it would take well over 15 minutes to get there and back but I just couldn't resist. The save-the-dates were calling my name and there was no way I was going to let them sit there for another day (or another hour for that matter).

I got about a half block before realizing there was just no way I was going to be back in time. At this point, the logical thing to do would have been to accept defeat and turn back. I was only a half block away from the office after all. Instead, I decided to run. That's right, run (with my two herniated discs + dressy work outfit no less). When I finally arrived at Hello!Lucky I was sweating, winded and had about 8 minutes to get back to work. I said thank you to my Hello!Lucky bff, Stewey (who looked very surprised to see me after leaving me a voice mail just 10 minutes earlier), made sure the save-the-dates were in fact our save-the-dates, and then ran back outside to catch a cab. Unfortunately for me the cabs were switching from their a.m. drivers to their p.m. drivers so they refused to take me anywhere. With only a few minutes left in my break and no friendly cabbies in sight, I was left with only one option. Running. Again. 

Long story short, I made it back to work with only seconds to spare with my lovely save-the-dates in hand. I was dripping with sweat and was all red and splotchy, but it didn't matter...operation run-around-like-a-lunatic-to-pick-up-save-the-dates-and-return-to-work-on time was a success and I felt quite accomplished as a result. Also, I'm pretty sure I burned off at least half of that delicious chocolate chip cookie I ate at lunch. WIN. 

xoxo, 

zar

p.s. I promise to post part II of adventures in dress shopping soon!

p.p.s. GO GIANTS!

adventures in dress shopping (part I)

Starting a wedding blog once the wedding planning process is already in full swing can be difficult. On one hand, there are so many fun details that I want to share with you all (cake tables, striped straws, skeleton key escort cards, etc). On the other hand, I feel like many of you don't know the stories behind some of the really important decisions that have been made already (the photographer, the dress, wedding weekend events, etc). So, I am going to try to catch everyone up to speed on the big ticket items starting with the dress (which I am OBSESSED with by the way!) but don't be surprised if I'm back to sharing random pictures from a wedding I stumbled across later today! Clearly focus is not my strong point...wait, what was I saying? Ha, I kid, I kid.

So...the dress. It all started before a ring was even purchased (which, FYI, was in April. Yes, that's right, April. Zpao is a sneakster. I had no idea.) I, like many other women, was obsessed with Say Yes To The Dress and watched the marathons on TLC like it was my job. This led to a few things: 

1. I became increasingly annoyed that zpao and I weren't engaged yet (it had been 5+ years people!) 
2. I started to get an idea of what I liked and what I didn't like in terms of silhouettes, fabric, and detailing

Before even stepping foot in a bridal salon I knew that I really liked....

Strapless sweetheart necklines:

a-line silhouettes:

mermaid silhouettes: 

ruching (the gathering of the fabric) and some sort of beaded belt or sash: 

Before actually trying dresses on, I did some research (ok, A LOT of research) and these were some of my favorites:

 

I realized pretty quickly that I was drawn to dresses that were romantic yet modern and elegant but not stuffy. I liked dresses that had a bit of bling (i.e. a sparkly belt) but wasn't a fan of excessive beading or lace. Also, ball gowns were most definitely out. A casual, rustic outdoor wedding + a poofy princess ball gown just didn't seem like a great combination (not to mention I'm not a poofy princess dress kinda girl...) 

 

With my top picks in mind, I headed to my first bridal salon to try on my very first wedding dress! (eeep!!!!) So which dress did I end up choosing? Psh, I'm not going to give it away that easily. You'll have to check back for Adventures in Dress Shopping (Part II)!

xoxo, 

zar

latest eye candy

Every once in a while, a wedding comes along that makes me so happy/giddy/excited to be planning a DIY project filled wedding and this wedding that was featured on greenweddingshoes.com recently is definitely one of those. It's chalk full of charming details, fun colors, and so much personality! It's not exactly how I would want my wedding to look (a few too many bright colors) but that's what's so great about weddings: just because it's not quite your cup-of-tea doesn't mean it isn't still absolutely beautiful and inspirational!

Here are a few of my favorites pics but you should definitely check out the entire post on Green Wedding Shoes!

I'm especially loving the buttons, the cake topper, and all of the printed material! Buttons & a custom cake topper, like the ones shown above, are actually on my DIY to-do-list so I will definitely be using these pics for inspiration :)

xoxo,
zar

save-the-dates!

Greetings awesome blog readers! 

After adjusting to life as a working girl, getting my butt kicked by my personal trainer a few times and celebrating my last birthday as an unmarried woman (!!!!) I'm back with all of the juicy details regarding our save-the-dates!

For those of you who have never heard of save-the-dates before, here's a brief description via the goddess of weddings (+ all things DIY) herself....Martha Stewart:

"Save-the-dates inform would-be guests of when and where the wedding will be. Though not required, they are helpful, particularly if many guests will have to travel to the wedding, if it will take place during a busy holiday weekend, or if accommodations nearby are scarce. Send save-the-date cards four to six months before the wedding, or even earlier if extensive travel plans must be arranged."

Soooo basically they're just pre-invites and when you really think about that, it's a pretty weird concept. I mean, why can't I just send out the actual invite early enough to allow people to make travel arrangements? Why should I invest time and money sending something that contains minimal information and then says "invitation to follow"? In the end, I decided Martha Stewart and 8 million other wedding magazines & wedding blogs couldn't be wrong and there must be a perfectly legitimate reason for sending save-the-dates instead of super early wedding invites. Also, as you all know, I like pretty things so convincing myself it was necessary to send save-the-dates took about 2.3 seconds once I started looking at all of the amazing options out there!

After much deliberation, zpao and I opted to go with a semi-custom design with the help of Hello!Lucky, a letterpress print shop/design studio in San Francisco. Ready-to-print designs weren't quite doing it for us while custom designs were out of our price range (turns out we have expensive taste in design...who knew?!) so the semi-customized option worked great for us. We were able to choose from previous custom designs and tailor it to look just the way we wanted. Yeah, Hello!Lucky is pretty cool like that (I'd highly recommend working with them...check out their website, they do the cutest/most creative greeting cards! http://www.hellolucky.com/)


Sooooo what does the final product look like? Well, I can't give away all of the details because we want it to be a surprise but I can tell you a few things:


1) it contains pictures of us (courtesy of my bridesmaid T!)
2) it features some of our wedding colors
3) we used this fabulous font that I fell in love with and just had to have: LiebeErika

While we wait for the save-the-dates to be printed we'll be adding to our ever-expanding address spreadsheet (this is zpao's job :P) and creating some snazzy wrap-around address labels to go on the envelopes (they were $2/address label with Hello!Lucky so we decided to get crafty and make our own!) 


If all goes well (read: we actually get our act together in terms of addresses/labels) the save-the-dates should be sent out by the end of next week! Keep an eye on those mailboxes!


In the meantime, here are some save-the-dates that are pretty spiffy...

[photos courtesy of birdandbanner.com]

[photos courtesy of ruffledblog.com]

[photo courtesy of wedzu.com]

[photo courtesy of hellolucky.com]

[photo courtesy of birdandbanner.com]

[photo courtesy of hellolucky.com]

xoxo, 
zar

mini-update

Sorry for the lack of new blog posts (I feel a little guilty not writing regularly now that some of you have bookmarked my blog or added it to your RSS feed!) Life is super busy over here in the zarzpao-wedding-planning-capital-of-the-world but here's a mini-update to keep you (somewhat) entertained/informed while I search for the time to write a real update (with tons of glorious pictures of course)

1.  I started a big-girl job (woo hoo!) but it involves working 8 hour days (lame) & is cutting into my wedding-blog reading/general-obsessing-over-wedding-details time (double lame)
2. I joined a gym (strategically located right next to my office building so I can't pass it without feeling guilty. genius!) AND got a personal trainer. There's nothing more motivating than upcoming dress fittings!
3. Zpao and I went to our friends' wedding this past weekend in Napa and it was absolutely b-e-a-utiful. I'll write a post on this soon because you have to see pictures of the dress, venue, ect! 
4. Our "Save the Dates" are almost ready to be printed. We did a semi-custom design so it's a little more complicated than just choosing something and ordering it. We've done a few edits and are really happy with the way it looks now. Next step: get them printed. Next step after that: address massive amounts of envelopes (Yippy!). Look for a "Save the Date" related post soon!
5. We're working hard to get our wedding website up and running and hopefully it will be done veryyyy soon! Paul is doing all of the coding, I'm doing most of the writing and the design has been a joint effort. We're a pretty good team :)

Ok, that's all for now! More to come soon I promise!

 

xoxo,

zar

P.S. Isn't this adorable? Le sigh.

color scheming

One of the most shocking parts of wedding planning process thus far has been the fact that zpao has opinions about the wedding, and LOTS of them.

While zpao was gone on his business trip/family vacay post-engagement I spent the majority of my time (read: every waking moment) planning my dream wedding. Of course I thought about zpao while planning (I try to imagine what his face will look like when I walk down the aisle and all I have to say is there better be tears of joy!) but I didn't consider the fact that he would disapprove of some of my ideas. I figured wedding planning just wouldn't be his thing and he'd leave it all up to me. Needless to say, I was completely shocked when he told me he didn't like the color scheme I had envisioned. I may or may not have cried (ok, I definitely did) and said something overly dramatic about how it would totally ruin my wedding day if my flower bouquet and decor was in a different color than I had imagined (Ha, yeah...I'm a joy to be around sometimes)

You see, I've always envisioned a really muted, romantic color palette: dove grey, dusty rose, peach, cream, taupe, and very light pinks with some earthy tones thrown in the mix, like brown and green. Like this:

Gorgeous, right?! Well, zpao isn't such a huge fan. He much prefers brighter, richer colors like kelly green, royal blue, bright yellow, purple...anything really, as long is it isn't soft and muted. He also thinks that our venue really needs the pop of color to bring it alive and I guess he does have a point. There are so many natural, earthy tones there already that brighter flowers and decor can really make a big impact.

The current plan is to keep the ceremony flowers (bridal bouquet + bridemaids' bouquets + boutonnieres + wherever else there are flowers) muted and romantic like I had envisioned. For the reception, we'll take those colors up a notch by adding brighter pinks and peaches to the flowers, like this:

[photo courtesy of smallstump.blogspot.com]

The reception decor will feature pops of color in other ways too like bright antique jars and cans as centerpieces and bunting flags hanging overhead:

[photo courtesy of weddingbee.com]

[photo courtesy of ruffledblog.com]

We're definitely on the right track but the color scheme is still a work in progress which evolves a little more everyday. At this point the challenge is trying to figure out how to keep the colors that I love and have always envisioned while still including the pop of color that zpao wants. I guess in the end compromising isn't so bad because it is our wedding (i.e. 60% mine and 40% his. Now that's compromise people!)

xoxo,
zar

eye candy

These weddings are positively drool-worthy.

[photo courtesy of 100layercake.com/blog]

[photo courtesy of stylemepretty.com]

[photo courtesy of oncewed.com]

[photo courtesy of stylemepretty.com]

[photo courtesy of marthastewartweddings.com]

[photo courtey of with--this--ring.blogspot.com]

[photo courtesy of ruffledblog.com]

[photos courtesy of greenweddingshoes.com]

[photo courtesy of stylemepretty.com]

[photo courtesy of weddingchicks.com]

a bride's worst nightmare

Wedding planning is invading my dreams! 

No really. I have a wedding related nightmare at least once  a week and sometimes more often if we are in the midst of making a big decision. Forgetting to book a photographer, orange (my LEAST favorite color) bridesmaids dresses, people arguing over who is going to walk me down the aisle, not having my vows memorized...you name it, I've had a nightmare about it. But the king of all wedding nightmares? RAIN. Our ceremony and dinner are both taking place outdoors so rain is just not an option. (Do you hear that mother nature? NOT. AN. OPTION.) 

With that being said, if it's going to rain on my wedding day I just hope I can look as stunning as this bride was. Doesn't she pull off the less-than-ideal-rainy-weather flawlessly? The rain mixed with the fall leaves, black umbrellas and boots is beyond gorgeous. I never thought I could be so obsessed with a rain-filled wedding! 

[photos courtesy of oncewed.com]

rehearsal dinner accessories: check!

Is it too soon to be picking out accessories for the rehearsal dinner?

[photos courtesy of emersonmade.com]

venue hunting (part II): radonich ranch

Here it is. Radonich Ranch! Our amazing venue!

[photo courtesy of travis hoehne photography]

[photo courtesy of lindsay cahill photography]

[photos courtesy of meldodymakes.wordpress.com]

[photos courtesy of meldodymakes.wordpress.com]

Isn't it beyond gorgeous?! 

We really wanted a venue that was rustic, romantic and casual but still beautiful and I think we got just that. Believe it or not, that's a hard combination to come by! The problem we ran into while looking at other venues was they were either too fancy (zpao put it best: "I don't want to have to think about what fork to use on my wedding day") or too rustic (think working farms with goats, cows, chickens and all the stinky smells that go along with them). This is the perfect combination and it's in a gorgeous off the beaten path location in the Santa Cruz mountains. Zpao and I really couldn't be happier :)

For anyone looking for more pictures check out this previous Radonich Ranch wedding photographed by the uber talented Lili Durkin (our photographer)! 

xoxo, 

zar