#HELLADEEPINLOVE Wedding Gift (2025)

September 21, 2025

#HELLADEEPINLOVE Wedding Gift (2025)

Hugging the Bride-to-be at her engagement party (Photo by Matt Mills)

My dear friends, who I've known for 13-14 years, got married this past weekend. We met separately in Camberville in the early 2010s and later migrated to the Bay Area. When they got engaged, I knew I wanted to create something to celebrate their union.

When I asked H about metaphors that symbolized their relationship, she brought up the legend of a school of coi fish swimming up a waterfall, and the one that was able to jump over the waterfall would transform into a dragon! It signified perseverance and hard work leading to a rewarding life!

Some images that came to mind were a coi/dragon hybrid, a waterfall, and lotus flowers. Since I'm not a very skilled drawer, I asked for help from ChatGPT, and it replied with this image:

Inspo

I liked what I got back. Then I asked H if she could crystallize the vibe they were going for at the wedding. The words were:

Fun, colorful, and over-the-top

And my mind went WILD.

Now all bets were off. I was going to dream BIG, and I was going to GO FOR IT!:

Fiber optic cables with LED lights, all the lotus flowers, and beads braided in the color of coi fish to transform into a dragon head!!!

Prototype: Beaded Lotus hair wrap

The lotus wrapped around my hair was made into a bun.

Taught myself how to kumihimo braid with beads

No idea as to how the dragon head would turn up, but I was gonna try my very best

It was getting very much out of hand. But I was having so much fun!

One day H said that we need to pare it down (makes sense!). So I asked what she had in mind. And she mentioned the nail polish flowers I had posted on my Instagram feed a while back.

Here's the tutorial I used, in case you want to try it yourself:

H had shown me her kimono, and showed me the style of hair accessory she was going for:

The Wedding Kimono

Kanzashi Hair Pin (Found while googling)

H shared that she had so many nail polish colors that reflect the primary colors in the kimono. And one night she brought all of them over, and I continued to make more flowers.