We're back from honeymoon

So we went to Alaska Cruise for Honeymoon. Very relaxing I can say. And now I understand why cruises r for old people...or maybe lazy people like Mark and I. We went on the Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas. I did some homework comparing different cruise lines and prices, etc. And we got a good deal with my effort of checking prices from different sites and recording and comparing them daily. I really did enjoy the balcony stateroom. And we were lucky enough to see Orca/killer whales and humpback whales. Dinner were great! Took a day or two to get used to the idea of order as much food as we want at anywhere, anytime without paying, hahaha...

2 Week Update

The wedding day went by like a blur. There were a lot of things going on, but overall things went pretty smoothly. I only cried once :P

We went to Vegas for 3 days after the wedding. Not exactly a honeymoon.. just going with families. The most fun thing is that I finally learned to play craps.

So the 2 weeks after wedding basically just consisted of moving and packing stuff for Japan. Then we are going to cruise on 28th for a week. Then.... it's going to Japan on July 12th. Still need to figure the wedding dinner in Taiwan though...

Almost 2 weeks after the big day

After packing and sending all our stuff to Japan this Tue, there's nothing much left to do (Well, there is...tidying up my room and stuff). Delta is too cold for me...and I wasn't able to have a good nite sleep since I moved in. I'm a light sleeper and i need my own pillow. To make thing worse...Mark snores.

Blogging at Medford

3rd day of our road trip back to Vancouver.
Spent 2 days in San Fran meeting up with frds. I'm pretty exhausted from waking up early in the morning and spending all the hrs in the car...

Anyways...

I found out a lot of our frds got married in the past few months...
and I have a question after looking at ppl's pic.
is it normal to wear black...or white at someone's wedding??
Coz i know it's a big no no in Western culture...

Hmm...

Quick post in LA

It's super hot in LA, especially at Mark's apartment. We went to San Diego for 3 days visiting my friend Mika and of course went to San Diego Zoo and Sea World.
We'r moving out in 2 days and Mark is busy packing and everything. I'm too tired to help out (I'm very bad at packing and throwing things out). I'll probably help cleaning the appartment.

Gonna go pick up our wedding favor now~

Leaving Comments (Blessings)

Sorry guys, I didn't know that I've set the comment function limited to registered user only. I've fixed that, and everyone can leave comments without a google account. So for those lazy asses out there, you guys have no more excuses to NOT leave comments now, hahahahaha

**Leaving to LA in less than 24 hrs**

Happy News of the Day

I think this is one of the happier moment I have during the planning of this wedding. I got this message early in the morning from Jimbo saying that he'll be in Vancouver for my wedding.
Wow, it's such a GREAT news!!! You can't possibly imagine how happy I am right now. In case you don't know Jimbo, he's like my elder brother. AND Jimbo and Mark knew each other since high school. So for him taking days off work and fly all the way from Shanghai to Vancouver, it's PRICELESS.

YAY~ I'm so Happy~

Sigh

I've picked up my wedding gown yesterday. And just when I was about to sleep, I found out that 1 of the 2 veils I ordered came in wrong. They'r suppose to be in different length...So now I need to call them and hopefully they have it in stock. I hate going back and forth becoz of this stupid little things which they shouldn't have messed up in the first place.

Finally done

I don't mean the wedding planning... I meant my classes.
There's about 30 days left. Need to start thinking about the logistics for the wedding day...

someone to greet the guest
someone to escort
someone to MC
someone to take care of the music/slide show
someone to take pictures...

what else am I forgetting?

9 Days till LA

YAY~I'm gonna run away to LA on 10th

I've already had my 1st fitting of my wedding gown on Tue the 8th. I actually got a phone call from Lisa's Bridal a week before telling me that the gown has been shipped by ground instead of express. But they guaranteed the shipment will arrive on Mon the 7th.

I'm glad that it worked out fine and I'm really satisfied with their service. Coz u can tell that they really want to help and put every effort to minimize the stress of customers.

My first fitting went very well. There's basically nothing to alter except the length of the dress. But even with minor alteration, they charged close to $200. But I guess that the average price?!

You know what? Customer need to bring their shoes with their fitting, so that they can alter the dress length according to your heel height. So when I bought my gown, they have this perfect color matching shoes. But they'r gone~~~So I bought another pair from them (even the color is off). But then Mark said I should check online since there'r a lot of bridal shoes with good price on the internet. So I called the bridal shop and see if i can get a refund. The receptionist told me that everything's Final Sale (they do that even without telling people...I can understand those gowns aren't returnable...but...). So I explained to her what happened and told her that I didn't even take the shoes with me (becoz there's the final fitting next week). So she said in that case, it's reasonable and thinks that the other person in charge can probably work something out. So she transfered my call to that lady and she's willing to refund without any fuss. She's more worried about the gown's length since I'm getting another shoes. But I told her to keep the length and I'll get the same heel height shoes.

I hope I'm not gonna gain any weight during my stay in LA...or else all my gowns won't fit @-@
Ok...i should watch what I eat...even I've never done that before...
OR...maybe I'll even gain more when I'm too conscious about it...

Wedding Gown

My wedding gown should be ready this Friday or next Monday. But all their alteration session have been fully booked and the earliest date I can get to try out my gown will the 29th April. They said it's gonna take 2 weeks to have it done...which means I won't be able to have my gown before leaving for LA @_@

By the way, we've been sending out evites for the ceremony in the morning and banquet at night. And seems to me that most of the people haven't even read the evite yet. And there's a huge no. of people read it and didin't reply. To make our lives easier, please reply so that we don't have to start calling or messaging everyone...

52 days and counting down

Things are slowly coming together. One last major thing is to plan the logistics for the wedding and recruit people to fill in the roles. We will need a driver, MCs, photographer, coordinator. Best man and bridesmaid also need to help out a bit. Starting putting thing together on a excel now...

This is Depressing

Only 2 people left us comments, hahahaha...

Slacking Off

I'll be leaving for LA on May 10 and won't be back till late May. I still don't feel the urge of getting everything done. I'm the last-minute type of person and have this believe in "船到橋頭自然直". Muahahaha

*should u guys be worrying? nah....*

The artistic side of me

Have been thinking about what to do for our wedding slide show. I have the entire flow mapped out in my mind... spent some time to collect baby pictures, found a good song to match our theme, and started a 1-minute draft. It took me about 2 weeks, and I showed it to Vicky. She came back 1 day later with a much much better draft.. with photo editing and rolling background and all the whistles and bells...


I guess it's a good thing I am studying business and not arts

Emotional Prison?!

Well, that sounds pretty serious, eh?

It's the time of the year when the carnival comes to Landsdowe Mall. We've been going there every year since 2002. Nope, not for the games, nor the snacks. But for tarot card/palm reading.

So how does that relate to our wedding u ask?
Let's say I have nothing better to ask, so I sort of thinking about what will I do and how's thing going be with Mark when I shuffle the cards.
I'm glad that I was specific about the question this time...coz last time her reading was vague becoz of my overly general question. Hahaha, I've learnt my lesson. =)

I'm not gonna type the whole reading here, not in our wedding blog. But I'm willing to share this "Emotional Prison" idea from my reading.
I was pretty surprised to have been told that I'm in this Emotional Prison when I think of myself being quite calm these days. I couldn't agree on that idea and then the tarot card reader explained a bit more about this states...she said it could be me not wanting to hurt others feeling or some elderly figures (my dad, etc) telling me what to do.
In that case, yes.

I've always wanted to please everyone. And with that thought, I'm always torned between what others and myself want.

Like planning this wedding. Even though it was a simple one, there's still some basic traditional chinese custom to follow.

Mark and I don't want to serve alcohol at our banquet. Firstly, becoz I don't like alcohol. Secondly, our families/most friends don't drink. Thirdly, I don't want our guest to DUI. But then my aunt said quite firmly about "There has to be alcohol at banquet with this chinese saying...喜酒， has to have 酒 for celebration".
I'm just not strong enough to stand my ground even though it's my wedding.

This is only a tip of the iceberg.

I was gonna donate to BCSPCA in lieu of favor. It's meaningful to me and I think it's better than guest bringing home somethings that's gonna sit around the house with no functional use. But once again, my idea got rejected beoz of not actually giving favor to guest. I was sad to acknowledge that tradition is more important than having a good heart and doing a good deed. Somehow, they don't understand that.
I still want to make a donation to BCSPCA, at the same time I'll have to give out FAVOR too.

I'm frustrated. Why do I have to be THAT considerate? I should be a Bridezilla~

Mark keeps telling me..."we can't please everyone" and "we'r the ones who make the final decision".

Easy to say, Hard to do.

I guess I'll be in my emotional prison for awhile.

75 Days left

Totally not getting enough sleep...Not becoz of the stress from planning the wedding, but hanging out with Mark till way past my usual bed time which is 12am. I need my 8 hr of sleep in order to get my brain to function.

Back to our planning~

We went to have dinner at Shiang Garden where our banquet will be held. The food was actually not bad and their decor is pretty classy. So after dinner, we (+my mom, Mark's mom) went to the 1st floor and checked out our banquet hall. To tell you the truth, it's over my expectation. Well, first of all, the hall is way bigger than I thought (it can hold up to 16 tables...and we only needed 10, so think of all the extra space). And with only 10 tables, we can totally use the dance floor (So now we need to practise our first dance...@-@). Oh, and maybe we should do the bouquet throwing at the hall rather than at the chapel. There's a little platform where our wedding cake will be placed and guest can have a better look at us doing the cake cutting. Projector, DVD player and all the equipment are ready to use...and if people are bored, we can do Karaoke too, hahahaha....

In progress

I'm pretty glad that things have been going well as planned so far. I have to admit that I've been slacking off since January =P. But we did get a few things done the past 4 days.

*Mark has rented his Tux and we'll just have to pick that up the day b4.
*I've called the bridal boutique and confirm the status of my dress which they said it should be ready in mid-April.
*We've checked the price of the wedding cake and will order that once we have our design figured.
*I've taken care of the marriage license and need to try not to lose it XD
*Gonna meet up with the Reverend tonite and talk about the things we need to do on our wedding ceremony.
*Will meet with florist tomorrow afternoon to confirm the no. of bouquet and the styles.

Hmm...I really do need to order the invitation...
and I need to get a new hairstylist and makeup artist....

Tiny Update

Our wedding rehearsal will be on the day before wedding (June 6). I think my dad will be the most nervous one since he needs to walk me down the aisle, hahaha. Let's cross our fingers for a sunny, beautiful day, and me not tripping over by the dress...oh, and Mark not fainting under the pressure (watched too much America's Funniest Home Video).

I haven't got much done after meeting the photographer during Xmas. But I sure do need to get the invitation done ASAP. To do that..I need to confirm the dinner time with the restaurant.

Gonna check out some bakery shop for wedding cake in March. I wonder how many guest will actually eat the cake

Wedding Favor will be order when I'm in States

Right now we'r thinking if we should get a limo or just rent a car and get a friend to drive it.

I guess I'm too relaxed now, hahahha

Status Check

So far most stuff seems to be on track.
One thing that we haven't really decided is the transportation for that day.
Limo will probably cost more than $1000 for that day.... need to probably decide by Mid March...

One reason why stuff seems to be on track is probably because we both have agreed to a solution before going to our parents. That would save a lot of hassle and going back and forth. We need to respect their opinion but ultimately it's our wedding.

Traditions

Being traditional on wedding is good when everyone (I mean everyone on both sides of the family) has the same cultural background. And by saying cultural background, I mean that in a very specific way. Coz even different villages in China have different customs and traditions.

I'm pretty glad that we don't have a lot to follow, becoz things will get really complicated if we need to combine both Hong Kong and Taiwan wedding traditions. Even without following those tradition strictly, I felt stressed when my aunt kept popping up some new "rules" every time we talked. But when I asked them what we HAVE to do, they always say "nothing much" which totally pisses me off.

So, Mark's side of the family is totally open to anything. Oh, and my mom too. But my aunt and dad tends to follow the basic Cantonese wedding traditions. I think the biggest problem we've faced so far was the "gift money".

In Taiwan, there's different version of what needs to be done. It depends on how specific people want to follow. Basically, the groom's side is expected to send "gift money" to the bride's side. And in return, the bride's side will either return the "gift money" or give jewelery for their daughter to keep and bring it over with her to groom's side. And the bride's side needs to buy new suits, belt and shoes,etc for the groom. (it really depends on what part of Taiwan people live in).

But in Hong Kong, the "gift money" is for the bride's family to keep. In some case when the groom's side is rich, they'll give the bride's family a new apartment or house (or the bride's side will ask for it). U know, as chinese people always say...."when it's about money, it hurts every one's feeling"

And there's different customs even for the Banquet. Let me try to explain that briefly...

In HK, the groom's side pay for the banquet. And the bride's side can request the number of table they want. Then all the "red pocket/gift money" from guest (both sides) will be given to bride's side.

In Taiwan, the main banquet is for groom's side only. Whoever pay for the wedding get the "red pocket/gift money" which usually is more than enough to cover the banquet.

I was talking to one of my friend who will be getting married in Sept. The bride is originally from HK and the groom is originally from Taiwan. They have to take into consideration the religion side of the wedding too. The groom's side is Buddhism and having a wedding in a chapel will be out of the question (even the non-religious one). And they follow a much detailed tradition then our families do. Like not allowing to wear bridal gown the 2nd time and having a very traditional invitation, etc. I do respect all the traditions that have to be followed or performed. But i'll probably go crazy if i need to do a very traditional one. Beoz i'm pretty much a person who want to be in control of her own life.

Buy buy buy

Well... instead of renting everything (dress and gown), I turned out buying my wedding dress which comes to around $2000cdn (with 2 veils and taxes) Thank god we were under our budget . In addition to that, my mom went to GuangZhou and bought me 2 evening gown and 1 Kua (Cantonese traditional wedding wear). So I think that left me one less thing to worry about. Hopefully they'r gonna look nice and fits me well (my mom tends to think I'm slimmer than perceived, she was suprised to know how much i weight....hahahaha. But i overheard her talking to my aunt that i need to go on diet @-@). Well, I should. But more like toning up then eating less. XD

Wedding Reception

Wedding Reception

June 7, 2008 - TBA

SHAING GARDEN SEAFOOD RESTAURANT

Unit 2200 - 4540 No.3 Road
Richmond, BC. V6X 4E4


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Wedding Ceremony

Wedding Ceremony

June 7, 2008 - 10:00am

THE CHAPEL AT MINORU PARK

6540 Gilbert Street
Richmond BC

Parking for the Chapel is in public park lot which requires paid ticket.

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1st Post from Vicky

I've been thinking about getting a blog for our wedding for a long time. And finally I feel like starting one now - 5 months before the big day. I believe no wedding preparation runs smoothy without any problems and frustrations. That's why our blog will not only contain our happy moments but also our sad and frustrated moments as a couple.