Our Wedding Day Finale

Yes...the inevitable truth WORK is looming around the corner, so I must finish my wedding posts otherwise I would never get around to it...probably until my wedding anniversary!

The Banquet...

Our banquet in the evening was held at Kirin restaurant downtown. Originally, we had booked the Kirin in New Westminster because it was newer with fancier decor as well as more spacious. However, because of Chinese date superstitions triggered down from some elders in P's family, we've had to change our date and only their downtown location was able to accommodate to our change. Nonetheless, the food and location were still excellent albeit a lack of service and room for walking and playing games comfortably.

I had given myself the thrifty challenge of making all the tissue paper bouquets as centre pieces for the banquet. Thankfully, I received some help from my MOH and her boyfriend, so the process was much more pleasant. I'm sure it would've looked a lot better with real bouquets but for a mere fraction of the cost, I think my tissue paper bouquets were just fine.

We prepared some wedding favours for our guests. Each person either got a cute groom keychain or a bride keychain together with 2 of our engagement photo cards. They were very cute and the gold bags matched our overall colour scheme very well. Some guests even took our cards as if they were collectible items and tried to gather all of our 6 different poses from the reception table. If you were one of them and didn't manage to get all of them but still want to...just let me know...I have extras.=)

It took a bit longer than expected for me to redo makeup and hair from the nearby studio, drive back, get changed, and finish some more tea serving as well as photos with guests before the official start of the banquet. As a result, I felt a bit frantic and stressed initially...especially when we almost had a wardrobe issue! (Some of you will know...it has to do with my brown velvet bow for this ivory dress.) Consequently, we didn't have time to take much photos while I had this dress on with so much action needing to happen.

A slideshow I put together started off our evening banquet followed by P and my speech. I would say they ran smoothly aside from the wedding march music coming in way too late and the microphones having a life (or lack of...) of their own.

Shortly after, I changed into the red dress. I personally like this dress the best although many of my friends and relatives voted for the blue one to come later. Plus, this was the only dress that matched with all the gold jewelery that many relatives gave me as part of the Chinese tradition for weddings...so I had to almost wear all of them as my respect for their gifts! I really missed eating all the great food because P and I were always busy socializing or taking pictures with guests. If not, we were then speaking, kissing, or playing games. Above is a picture of us playing the popular shoe game...we were very surprised by the level of difficulty of the questions by our young volunteers.

Towards the latter part of the night was the bouquet throwing highlight. Using my firm teacher voice, I was able to get a great turn out of single ladies for catching! However, many of my Asian friends and relatives were way too reserved and didn't even want to try catching! Initially, we had "fixed" the result and said that we would let my MOH A. catch it (the one in purple/maroon) but really...I couldn't even control where I threw with the bouquet being so heavy and there being so many of them. Nonetheless, it did end up in my MOH's hands but she pushed it away into P's cousin K! Hence, the both of them ended up taking the aftershot with me.

My MOH and P's best man also gave 2 wonderful speeches during the banquet and then we drew a close to our memorable day as we thanked everyone for coming with smiles and hugs.

Our Wedding Day Part II

The Ceremony...

Our wedding ceremony was at Minoru Chapel in Richmond. The minor problem we had that day was the fact that some of us were in kind of a rush to get to Richmond from Burnaby after the tea ceremony with the groom's family and relatives. We had 40 mins. to accomplish this task; however, only some of us made it on time because others took the Willingdon route and Willingdon was under construction part way. Knowing this, P. and I tried to stall time and actually waited in the car for them for an extra 10 mins but only some made it during this time.



I'm sure it was disappointing for some since they missed the first 5 minutes or so when the entire ceremony was less than 20. Unfortunately for us, one of our groomsmen S. who was also our videoman was also late and missed recording my dad and me walking down the aisle. Nonetheless, he was very apologetic and it really wasn't a big deal for us because I know we'll probably watch it a few times and then hardly ever touch it again. Plus, we've got nearly second to second shots. Otherwise, everything was perfect--even the weather was nice & cool for pictures!

I must admit that the entire ceremony was very fast and I could barely remember what I said for the vows but it was very calm and pleasant. The most embarrassing part was P's knuckles grew when he was nervous and I had a difficult time pushing the wedding band through! But I was successful at the end.

For $15 we were able to purchase some bubble blowing devices for our guests to use as we walked out of the chapel at the end. Some may feel this is a bit pricey for a one time 10 seconds use but we thought it really added to the happy atmosphere and was well worth the price. Our younger relatives had extra fun with them...

After all the relatives and friends had taken their photos with us and gone for lunch, our photographer was very hardworking and keen to suggest that we take a few newly wed shots in the inviting vine area nearby. My 10 seconds of beauty shots in the vine/bush below turned into a swollen sacrifice because I was bitten 3 times on my left arm and back and all 3 bites swelled in redness all night during our banquet. I felt as if I was poisoned because my left arm was numb all day.

Our Wedding Day Part I

I know if I don't get around to writing about P. and my wedding, I will soon forget some of the details, so here is my attempt at starting:

Picking up the bride & Tea ceremony...

If you've ever been married you probably remember the not sleeping enough and having to wake up early routine but I must say I did manage to get 6hrs of sleep the night before, so it's really not too bad. According to P., he only had 3 hrs of sleep the night before.



Anyway, my make-up artist/hair stylist as well as our photographer arrived promptly at home...what a relief! The make up and hair took tremendously long...what was estimated to be 2 hrs took 2.5. In fact, I didn't get dressed and ready until after the groom and party had arrived AND they were 35 minutes late already! I know they weren't late on purpose but the car decoration was having a fit as the car moved. It was a miracle that we somehow arrived at the chapel on time later with our tight games and tea ceremony schedule.

I didn't get to watch the games until afterwards on video but I heard lots of laughter and complaints. These were good indications that my sisters did a great job preparing the picking up mini mahjong in ice, jello sock eating, and singing games. Many thanks to them...and of course thanks to my MOH A. for hinting at the "fixed amount" of the red pocket to speed up the whole process...haha.

The tea ceremonies at both my home and our new home went smoothly and speedily...considering we were on a tight schedule, we faired pretty well managing to squeeze in many photo opportunities, receiving lots of lai see and jewelery. Well, and receiving lots of new dents and scratches at our new home with so many people around...but let's save that story for another time.

So off to get officially married we shall!

Afternoon Tea @ Adonia

My friend H. was wonderful for taking me to a delightful surprise this afternoon as a treat. We visited a small tea house called Adonia in Kerrisdale. For $23/person, we received 3-tiered treats of various pastries, finger sandwiches, and baked goods. Not to mention we also had some pudding-like dessert as well as biscotti, scones, and shrimp cocktail to pair along with our tea of choice.

Needless to say, I'm not having dinner tonight because I'm so stuffed. We couldn't even finish everything and started eating only the toppings and leaving the breads and pastries or just taking tiny bites to try everything. It was a very quiet and peaceful tea house where we were able to chat, relax, and have a good time for 3 whole hours! Service was also good and I would recommend it to others. The fine china was all kept in great condition and the decor was delicate and fitting for a tea house.

If I had all the money and time in the world, I would probably frequent this place! I also think it's a good alternative to Secret Garden; I think Secret Garden tea house charges more too.

Pictures to come soon...my laptop does not like recognizing my memory card adapter.