My Perfect Wedding ~ Chinese-Western fusion!!

[Sotiny]

My wedding was in November 2008; the weather was beautiful. As I was from Hong Kong and Hubby was from Indonesia, we had a Chinese/Western fusion wedding.

In the Western weddings, there is “something new, something old, something borrowed, something blue”; in Chinese wedding, there is “something new, more things new, something gold, something red”. Note to Asian bride (or brides that are marrying Asian guys): the colour combination of blue and white means death in Chinese. So, unless both sides of parents are ok with that, you better not to have blue as your theme colour. Also in Asian weddings, ONLY the bride should be wearing red on the wedding day (so, if you are a guest or a bridesmaid of a wedding, try not to wear red unless you are asked to)


Most people heard of the tea ceremony, but there is also a “Pig ceremony” (which represents the “virginity” of the bride). We did both of the tea ceremony and pig ceremony. And instead of heading to the venue separately, in Chinese wedding, the groom and his men has to pick up the bride from her home. For “Hong Kong” wedding in specific, the bridesmaids would set up some games to “test” the groom’s party. For a really funny + extreme example, please see http://tw.youtube.com/watch?owner_id...&v=VAqcOOHvGiE


Our day started off with the mobile make-up and hair artists coming over to the “bride’s place” to get me ready. With the help of my incredible vendors and some not-so-impressive vendors, I had a perfect wedding (because I have a group of reliable friends who went the extra miles to ensure our special day went according to plan). Here is my vendor review:


Ceremony/Reception: SFU Diamond Alumni Centre
http://www.sfu.ca/dac/
I cannot say enough wonderful things about this venue and staffs. Since both hubby and myself are alumni from SFU, we got great discount booking this place (this venue is available for the pubic for special event as well). Vivian and Mitch made the perfect team as the event coordinators at the Diamond Alumni Centre. Vivian custom made the buffet menu for us (with less salad, more entrée and we added seafood platters) and we’ve been hearing only good things about our meals from our guests. Mitch was fast thinking and flexible who made our wedding date flow very very smoothly. The view is just breathtaking. We had a very cozy wedding with almost 200 guests at the ceremony + stand-up reception and 140 guests at the sit-down reception. The Diamond Alumni Centre allowed us to bring “outside food” besides the wedding cake; we brought in some Indonesian cake to share with our guest during the stand-up reception. For the wedding cake, we were not charged any cutting fee or anything (many venue will have a charge between $0.5 to $2.00 per guest charge when it comes to wedding cake, we were told that that charge is for covering the “wears-and-tares” of the utensils, plates and the use of napkins); but for this venue as long as we didn’t require the staffs at the Diamond Alumni Centre to help us with the cake, they didn’t charge us additional (but they provided the plates, napkins and utensils) 10/10

n853215037_5126487_2536.jpg

n853215037_5126496_1999.jpg

1.jpg

2.jpg


Dress: Sophia Tolli from Maria's Bridal & Gift Gallery (but they are closed now)
http://www.sophiatolli.com/
I had a great experience at Maria’s Bridal; I wish Rosa from the store can read this post. Unlike some other bridal stores that I visited in MetroTown, Rosa was not pushy and she offered me lots of professional advice. As the store was closing, I had a great discount on this dress; tagged as $1250 and got it for $699 (tax included) and I got the Fur Stole for $57. I really like Sophia's design; she was the Head Designer at Maggie Sottero for 10 years. I really like her "unparalleled craftsmanship". I always thought that I would have an A-line wedding dress; but this dropped-waist design really gives me more curves. The colour of my dress is Ivory tulle with Blush/pink underlay; with the two tone of colour my pictures are just beautiful. My dress is simply romantic and soft. Note to ALL Brides: veils are not cheap… they are around $100 to $200… My mom made mine :P Also… dry cleaning + boxing your beautiful wedding dress is expensive… $300+ (for the ones that I asked… I am still looking for a place to have my dress clean) 10/10

3.jpg


4.jpg


5.jpg



Chinese Dress: Ochi in ChinaTown
http://www.yelp.ca/biz/ochi-vancouver
I had a “heart-attacked” experience at Ochi; the woman that I deal with during my first visit was Wendy, she was very professional and very patient, but then she was out of town when the big “heart-attack-moment” happened; they made the dress in a wrong design. My dress is really one of a kind… so non-traditional (in a sense that it doesn’t look like the traditional Chinese wedding dress; you know those dragon and phoenix or the “turtle-neck” design). Wendy was really good about the measuring and all that; but there was miscommunication somewhere when she ordered the dress for me (after all… they made the dress in China and shipped it here). But Ochi deal with their mistake very professionally, they have the “correct” dress made and shipped within 3 days. It was not easy to find this dress, I went to many stores in Richmond, they usually have the “dragon and phoenix” ones for rental (but trust me… they all looked so old and beaten-up and the rental price is not cheap); this is why I decides that I would purchase my Chinese dress. I checked out so many “Chinese outfit” store, some store carries very weird design; I was so glad that I ran into this dress. 7/10


6.jpg


7.jpg



Brides’ maid Dresses and my other dresses: Adxxa ~ the store right across from Shoppers Drug Mart in Metrotown
I had a very disappointing experience at Adxxa and would NOT recommend this store at all. The store manager lied to me 3 times during my entire experience. I brought a total of 6 dresses from this store and $0 discount I received (usually stores would give 10% discount if you purchase 4+ dresses); 3 bridesmaid dresses, 2 evening dresses for myself + the flower girl dress. I got no discount, but very bad experience.

#1, when I was purchasing the 3 bridesmaid dresses, only 1 of each size was available (S, M, and L) but both the store manager and myself knew that I needed 1 small and 2 mediums, so she promised me that if they have a medium in their next shipment, I can just do an exchange and if by any chance that they do not have a medium, I can have the dress (in size L) altered at $25. So, I purchased the dresses since I was at 5 months away from the wedding (I guess I had enough time to wait for their shipment).

#2, I visited the store again and noticed that they have a medium in their store, so I brought the size-L dress in for an exchange; but the store manager (same lady that I deal with) refused to do the exchange for me unless she sells her “New-large” and she would let me exchange when she ran out of size large of that dress. (I was getting pissed at this point already)… I kept on visiting the store; they ended up selling the “New-medium” and never sell the large… errrrrrrrrrrrrrr… (Note to self… the smaller sizes always go faster) but I was still hopeful that another new shipment would come… but it never did.

#3, when we were just 1 month away, I visit the store again and requested an alteration; the same store manager charged me $40 for the alternation because they had to take off the ribbon in the middle the put it back on after the alteration (when she told me that it would cost $25 when I purchased the dress). Anyways, she pinned the dress and I went with it; but when we picked up the dress (just 2 weeks away from the wedding), the alternation was so awfully done, there were bubbles along the new stitches and it was just ugly. The store manager called the seamstress over and the seamstress pinned the dress again and do it all over. (and from this point on, I made it clear that I would not talk to that store manager again) Luckily, the seamstress was professional and got the dress fixed. Trust me… it was stressful; luckily my bridesmaids were there with me to ensure it worked out and kept me calm.

Overall… my experience with Adora was awful and unpleasant. 1/10 (the 1 point is for the seamstress)




8.jpg



10.jpg



shoes: this little store in Parker Place Mall in Richmond
http://www.parkerplace.com/en/fashion.htm
I wish I remember which store I got both of my shoes from, but all I remember was that I got them from the same store in Parker Place Mall in Richmond. Long before our wedding I knew that I wanted to have closed-toe shoes (since it will be cold in November)... but seriously they were very hard to find. As we were entering fall/winter... all of the shoes stores that I went to was selling boots or super high heels (for Christmas parties) Knowing that I would be on my feet 90% of time on the wedding day, I wanted to have something comfortable. I was giving up... and randomly went into this little store in Parker Place. Both shoes were 1 and 1/2 inch high and super comfortable. A total of $300 for 2 pairs of shoes that looked very different from anything that I saw in Metrotown (during that time of the year) was worth it. Note to brides: Keep an open mind when it comes to shopping for your special day, try visiting stores that you would never go… you might be surprised. 10/10



11.jpg



Photographer: Chris and Lynn
http://www.chrispluslynn.com/
We found our photographers on http://wedding-photographers-directo...ographers.aspx we spent so much time looking over the different portfolios of different photographers; and we finally chose with Chris and Lynn. Chris and Lynn is an Emmy awarded-winning-husband-and-wife team. They are great storytellers; they are great photojournalists that captured every moment at our entire wedding and putting our album together just like a story book (we just got to view the album before Christmas and cannot post any of those photos yet). When we met with Lynn for the first time, their “fly-on-the-wall” and “Ninja photography” really stood out for us. Their passion in wedding and photography is just amazing; Chris is cool and Lynn is bubbly… they are so easy to work with, so creative and so thoughtful. Their work are just artsy and WONDERFUL. Our engagement images “WOW” everyone at the wedding; and people keeps on telling us how much we look like movie stars in those images… heheheheh… see their blog at www.chrispluslynn.com for more images as they should be getting into posting our session soon. True that they are not the cheapest photographers in the lower mainland, but they are worth every penny. 10/10



12.jpg


13.jpg



Chair cover and back drop: Trinklets Creations
http://www.trinkletscreations.com/
We were dealing with Andrea the entire process; met with her once and everything else was via e-mail. She decorated our guest sign-in table with the fabric (decoration on the table was done by a friend), created an entrance with the back-drop and of course provided us with the chair-covers with matching sashes. We had purple and champaign as our theme colour; Andrea matched the colour that we had for our centre piece (we made our own centre pieces) and provided more than enough chair-covers, the chair covers made the venue look so elegant.

BUT there was this one thing… after the wedding, we were told that she showed up with her crew late for BOTH set-up and take-down (the price that we paid was including both set-up and take-down). Our deco team (our team of friend) was helping them putting on the chair covers and took down ALL of the chair covers (and waited for them to pick up)... as I said, our friends really went the extra miles to make sure we had our dream wedding. Andrea created the images that I wanted and would not be able to deliver on time if our friends were not there to help. 7/10



n853215037_5127805_1258.jpg


n853215037_5132981_9962.jpg


Decorations: Ikea + Diaso
http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/ and http://daisocanada.com/richmond.html
To create the romantic atmosphere, we purchased a total of 8 boxes of flower-chain lights from Ikea… (white and purple) and hung them along the windows. (And now, we are using 2 chains in our love nest as deco under the cabinets of our bar)
We created our centre piece; I am so glad that my hubby went through everything from the design to the test-run and the purchase with me. We had a group of trust-worthy friends who put ALL of the decoration together to create this super dreamy and romantic wedding for us. The mirror came in a pack of 4 (the “square” mirror with 2-wavy-sides) and we purchased a total of 5 packs; $20 each pack (we are now using most of these mirrors in our love nest). We got a total of 20 round candles http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/70129740 and some 4” block candles (3 colours in a pack with 4 of each colour) around $6 each and we got 6 tubes. Purchased the 18 packs of dried flowers from Diaso (where everything is $2) and borrowed glass rocks from another married couple (here is my something “borrowed” :P) And we got the fabric from Fabricland on sale for $2.99/metre. So the deco of each table, worked out to be around $12. And we can re-use most of these items.

This is really cool… we found some LCD candles from Costco and we got a pack of 28 of them for the entrance (since the automatic door kept on opening and closing, our deco team will not need to keep on “re-lighting” the candles) 10/10 (for the great deals that we got and for the “Deco team”)


n853215037_5134633_7677.jpg


14.jpg


Tux: Moores
http://www.mooresformalwear.com/moor...ndex_flash.jsp
We used one of “rent 4 and get 1 free” promotions (so we got the groom’s + best man’s + 2 other groom’s men’s + ring bear’s tux), there was a huge selection to choose from and the guys all looked great. However, I heard from the guys that the quality wasn't that great and the best man and one of the grooms men’s ties were too tight; they got a mark by the end of the day (as someone was trying to strangle them). 7/10



15.jpg

[Sotiny]

Invitations: Gartner Studios invitation kit from Michaels
https://store.gartnerstudios.com/productdetail/1/19/28/purplehandmadepaperweddinginvitationkit50ct5499.ph tm
We got a total of 4 boxes of this invitation kit from Michaels when they were having the coupon for 40% off (1 regular priced item; well, I had couple of people help us get the item to the check out… :P So, just 1 trip… we got 40% off on all 4 of the boxes). We got some purple ribbons and didn’t use the white ones that came with it; it worked out to be less than a $1 for each invitation. We personalized all of the invitation with our guests’ name printed on them and specified how many seats were reserved in their names. We stamped all of the envelopes with the clear flourishes stamps (with champaign-colour ink) to match the floral invitation (there are dried-purple flower on the paper). Our guests all really like the “Human-touch” on the invitations.

Not only that… the kits came with 50 of the “response cards” with envelopes, but we requested our guests to either call or e-mail us to RSVP (to save on postage). We are using the “response cards” as part of our “Thank you card” now; we got some extra vellum paper (as the overlay) and then put a wedding photo right under it and wrote our “Thank you” on the response card; a total of 3 layers and holding together by a mini pin (using a mini hole-punch). To make this nicer, we stamped the envelopes with the same flourishes stamps. 10/10 (for the great price from Michaels and the great time that I shared with hubby putting the “invitation” and “thank you card” together.)


n853215037_3473007_1399.jpg

n853215037_3473008_6665.jpg


Flower: friend
Our friend used to be a florist and she stepped forward and gave us hand on all of the fresh flower for our wedding. 10/10



16.jpg


17.jpg


Pig for pig ceremony: from a store in ChinaTown (PM me for information if you are interested)
The pig was delivered on time and it was the right size that fed everyone. They sent someone over to cut up the pig after we took couple of pictures. 10/10 (not going to post any photo here of the pig… but PM me if you would like to see)

Hair: Visions Hairdesign ~ Paula Vicente (Genesis Day Spa) found her on facebook) http://www.genesisdayspa.ca/
Rose is always something special for me and hubby… and what is the chance that I found Paula on Facebook when she has an up-do done in a rose as her profile picture. I made up my mind that I will have her to do my hair no matter how much she charge even before I met with her. Paula is just wonderful; she was on time (mobile at my home) and really efficient. She has everything on her; even the extensions cord. I really liked her rose-up-do, but then I would like to have 2 looks; to help me save money, she created an up-do with 5 roses for the tea ceremony in the morning and showed my bridesmaids how to change my hair piece for my white wedding dress. Then later on in the day, made a trip to the venue to help me transform into a half-up-do by adding on hair extensions + the veil for the fullness at the ceremony. She is just wonderful!!!!! Highly recommend!!!!!!!!!! And she did my mom’s hair, too!!!! (I found Paula after I found my make-up artist, but eventually Paula does make-up as well) 10/10



n1015879172_207454_7656.jpg


n1015879172_207456_9497.jpg


n1015879172_207457_398.jpg


Makeup: Edmond Lee

Edmond is one of the a few air-brush make-up artists that do mobile make-up for weddings. He is really awesome; very funny and very professional and efficient. He stayed with me the whole day for a very reasonable price (as a package deal; he did the make-up for our engagement session as a trial + all of the eyelashes (a total of 3 pairs) and he did the make-up for my MOH + mom on the wedding day + touch up on my groom for both of the engagement session and wedding). To begin with, I wasn’t sure about having a guy doing my make-up for one of the most special days in my life, but he is really GOOD!! He knew exactly when I want to have him around for touch-up and he’s right there. Whenever I need to change into a different outfit (I changed into 4 different dresses in the entire day), he would beat me going to the change room and getting all set for the touch-up. After this air-brush make-up experience, I would not agree with those who told me that the “natural-look” of regular make-up is similar to air-brush make-up. Air-brush make-up is really worth it, it is so natural and so even. I cannot say enough good things about that; I went back to Edmond for make-up for my Christmas parties. 10/10



18.jpg


19.jpg


Nails: Yvonne at Professionail - Brentwood Mall
I don't usually get my nails done... but since my wedding is one of a life time thing... so I did. Yvonne at Professionail at Brentwood mall was very creative. She put sparkles "in" the acrylic and it just looked so nice and she put germs on my index and ring fingers so that I shine really to my finger tips. 10/10


20.jpg


Wedding favours: Children’s hospital
http://bcchf.ca/main/?Weddingrecognitionseries
As of our favours to our guests, we made a donation to the Children’s hospital. We were thinking that we might spend $3-$4 on wedding favours per guest; BUT Vancouver is such an expensive city to live in and $3-$4 really cannot get any nice/useful gift for our guests. However, a total of $600 - $800 can mean something for the BC Children’s Hospital. Besides, Children’s sent us back some plate cards (with specific wording that we want) in returns that we used at each table. Not only that… we got our tax receipt… 10/10


21.jpg


Limo: Star Limousine Service
http://www.starlimousine.com/
We rented a Stretched Limo for our wedding party and everyone enjoyed the ride. The driver was on-time and professional (we had 2 other cars following us around for the whole day) and the driver let us “decorate” the limo.. hehehehe… 10/10



n853215037_5126849_2089.jpg


n853215037_5126546_5961.jpg


Day-Of Wedding Co-ordinator – a friend… who is starting a business in wedding planning
This friend of mine is awesome! I am a very “Hands-on” bride, she helped me lay out the itinerary of the wedding in a very realistic way and help organize with the many different people who helped on our wedding day. She took over the itinerary and made all of the last decision for me, so that, I had a stress-free and question-free wedding day. She made extra copies of my speeches and vow (she even made copies of the speech of my MOH… so when my MOH couldn’t find her… the wedding co-ordinator saved the day). I will post her information once her business is officially started. J 10/10

Cake + Videographer = friends

Honeymoon: Tonifo, B.C.
http://www.wickinn.com/
OMG… I have to include our honeymoon here in the vendor review; we had a wonderful trip. As hubby just started a new job, we couldn’t take a very long vacation… so we went to Tofino… something close-by and yet something remote (a total of 5 hours travel including the ferry ride). We stayed at the Wickaninnish Inn for 6 days and 5 nights; it was just amazing. The ocean was right by our room; we watched the sunset from our bed, looked at the ocean when we were soaking in the tub and listened to the wave before we sleep. Since it was the storm season, the wave actually was very nice. The walk along the beach (which is just 30 seconds away) was just breath-taking.

It was so relaxing in the little town of Tonifo (after a “stressful” wedding… we could really use the peace). Couple of restaurants that you might want to visit when you are there; Downtown Tonifo is so small that you will have no problem finding these places Breakers Café, Schonner/Upstair, Raincoast Restaurant and, of course, The Pointe Restaurant at the Wickaninnish Inn. Note: there is only 1 little shop for grocery and 1 little pharmacy (a small size Shopper Drug Mart). There is no McDonald or Starbuck.

Our whole trip was PERFECT!



22.jpg


23.jpg


For more information about the dry-cleaning of my dress... please see the following:
http://www.bridethings.com/forum/Wed...-my-dress.html

[danashih]

wow, I can't wait to see your professional wedding photos... where can I find them? They are not posted on the Chris+Lynn blog.

[Sotiny]

hehehe... I am looking forward to appear on their website, too... but our photos should show up on their blog soon. Maybe because we are still in the process of viewing our images online, so my guess is, they will post our session after our online gallery expires to protect our privacy.

wow, I can't wait to see your professional wedding photos... where can I find them? They are not posted on the Chris+Lynn blog.

[Sotiny]

Hey Brides...
Just a note regarding my make-up artist ~ Edmond Lee, due to busy schedule, I am not posting his contact information here... please pm me if you are interested

[danashih]

Another forum (weddingbells) also has a long thread on the horrible service and experence at Adxxa and Selxxxive from many people. They are owned by the same owner.
Maybe you can add this link to that thread (in the west coast category)?

[berrylion]

Thanks Sontiny, where is the big red door (your avatar image)? It's a very special background!

I guess Star Limo is pretty standard for wedding wedding isn't it? lol I guess I should contact them to reserve my vehicle!

Does Edmond do hair as well?

sontiny looks like to have spent a lot on your wedding, congrats it looks wonderful! How about your flower? Did you have any recommendation?

Speaking of Michaels, I've found some decent DIY invitation kit there, looks good but not sure if I'm going to have time to assemble them.

jbwonders: I'm in love with hee creations's works too!

[Sotiny]

Hello berrylion,

The "Big red door" was not a door at all... it is a wall at SFU... outdoor right by the stairs, by the pond... C+L really got the eyes for very special backgroud. It was very interesting when C+L lead us to this back alley on Hastings Street for our wedding party photos... the photos turned out great and very edgy. (hopefully they will upload our session on their blog soon...)

Star Limo was great; better call early

Edmond is allergic to hair spray; he would do simple change to your hair (like changing the hair piece for you), but he will not be able to do an up-do from scratch.

Trust me... lt looks like we spent a lot... but we did not. I work as a purchaser at work and I used my skill when it comes to planning our wedding :P We didn't spend alot on flower; a friend of ours purchased the flower from a wholesaler (in Vancouver) and put them together for us. If you know someone who can put together the flower for you; you can save alot of money even with flowers from Costco.

As of the invitation kits from Michaels, it was a lot of work putting them together. We set aside 2 weekends and get them all done. Or this can be a project for your bridesmaids

Good luck with your planning!

Thanks Sontiny, where is the big red door (your avatar image)? It's a very special background!

I guess Star Limo is pretty standard for wedding wedding isn't it? lol I guess I should contact them to reserve my vehicle!

Does Edmond do hair as well?

sontiny looks like to have spent a lot on your wedding, congrats it looks wonderful! How about your flower? Did you have any recommendation?

Speaking of Michaels, I've found some decent DIY invitation kit there, looks good but not sure if I'm going to have time to assemble them.

jbwonders: I'm in love with hee creations's works too!

[Sotiny]

When you are reviewing the portfolios of different photographers: I came across this list...

http://wedding-photographers-directory.com/british-columbia-photographers.aspx

No matter which "list" or just website you visit; make sure you see multiple-photos of the same wedding. Or just before you hire a photographer make sure you meet with them in person and request to see at least 1 wedding album that he/she did for the clients. There is no point to view the "BEST" shot of 20 different weddings. Seeing the "getting ready", "first look", "ceremony", "portraits", and the "Party" is the most important if you are hiring a photojournalist.

Also, when going over the work of the photographer of your interest you might want to keep your "culture" in mind. For myself, I really like the moment when the father-of-the-bride gives the bride away (especially when the groom hugs the father)... I really wanted such a shot at our wedding... but for being Chinese... "hugging" is not really in our culture to begin with... so "my-most-wanted-shot" wasn't captured because it didn't happen. If you want the photographers to capture the "moment" and the "emotion", you have to have that happen to begin with.

So, the tip is when you are choosing your photographer look for the skills and style that you always wanted and "review" yourselves (you and your hubby/wife-to-be) to see if you can produce such an image/moment for the photographer to catch. Because the photographers can only capture what actually happened.

[honey915]

Hi,

Thanks for all the info! It was so helpful!

Do you have any photos of your chair covers? Did you take all your photos with Chris and Lynn between the ceremony and dinner? Or did you arrange to do some more the next day or anything? When did you have your tea ceremony?

Thanks!

[Sotiny]

Good to hear that you find my posting helpful.

I don't have any photos of the chair covers in particular as they were just very basic. They are almost the same with every vendor. However, we went with http://www.trinkletscreations.com/ just because they've done our venue before and Andrea was experienced with the setting of the venue. I would not highly recommend Trinklet just because they didn't show up on time for both setting up and taking down. It might be hard, if you do not have lots of friends who are willing to be at your venue early and stay late to help out (as your venue might charge you extra for over time)

With Chair covers, as long as you find the right colour that you want, they are fairly basic. But it is super important for the vendor to show up on time (you really do not want to delay the ceremony before the chairs are not ready... you know what I mean)

As of Chris and Lynn, we purchased the package that came with coverage of 10 hours on the wedding day. The package also came with an engagement session where we went out with Chris and Lynn 1 month before the wedding and we spent an afternoon just having fun and they took 300+ photos to put together our guest book and couple of big prints for display on the wedding day. We had so much fun even on the date that we had our engagement session done.

Honey915, are you an asian bride that is planning to do everything on the 1 day? I had my friend who helped me to keep everything on time on our day. If you want, I can provide you with her information.

We started our day with hair and make-up coming to the bride's place at 6:30am. The photographers started with the picking up of the bride (at the bride's place) at 9am and Chris and Lynn stayed with us for the whole day till 7pm. After the picking up of the bride, we had tea ceremony at the bride's place with bride's family. We were done at the bride's place at 10:30am and we head to the groom's place to do the tea ceremony with groom's parents + family. Then, we had the pig ceremony back at the bride's place at 11:30pm (the pig arrived at noon).

Meanwhile, our deco team (a group of friends) arrived at SFU at 1:00pm and started with deco.

Then after lunch, we had our photo session with the wedding party (this is where you see the bridal party in front of the yellow wall and the guys on the stairs.) Around 1:30pm, we arrived at SFU, when I changed into the wedding dress and Chris and Lynn created the "Fist look moment" for us (the first photo in my dress session was taken when I was waiting for my groom at the staircase at SFU). After THAT moment, we went around SFU and took lots of photos (like the one of my avatar) and we have a lot more at different setting. At 3:00pm, we went back to the venue to fresh up and that's when I had my hair style changed and all that. Lynn was there with me capturing the moment that I had with my mom and my gals, when Chris was at the venue taking photos of the detail/deco.

At 3:30pm, everything was ready for the ceremony and that's when it started. Ceremony lasted for ~1 hour and then we had the stand-up reception with all of the guests. After couple of speeches, it was around 5:00pm; and we took off with families from both side for family photos. Chris and Lynn are so experienced with family photos and we were done in 15 mins with families and family friends from both side of the families. Then off we went for the night shots (the dancing shots and alot more).

We made it back at the venue at 6:30pm for the sit-down reception and Chris and Lynn finished off the night after I changed into another evening outfit. The wedding lasted till ~9:00pm... we had a great time.

It seems a l~o~n~g day as we got a lot of things done... but it was not rush or anything as the 2 of us didn't have our watches at all... and we were just going with the flow and everything was just so perfect. Timing is very important when you want to have a PACKED day flow smoothly.

Hope it helps!

Hi,

Thanks for all the info! It was so helpful!

Do you have any photos of your chair covers? Did you take all your photos with Chris and Lynn between the ceremony and dinner? Or did you arrange to do some more the next day or anything? When did you have your tea ceremony?

Thanks!

[hutterz]

Your wedding indeed looks perfect! My fiance and I are also SFU alumini; we will also take some pictures there.

Can you tell me more about where your friend bought the flowers? My mom is a florist in our home country, but she finds that flowers are hard to get here (not much selection at florist shops and generally cannot buy flowers by the stems). Thanks!

[Sotiny]

Hello hutterz,
I really like the big selection of different settings at SFU... you can take photos with the mountain (north side of AQ... take a short walk to the communication/education side... tried to go to the roof... the mountain view is SUPER nice... I wish our photographers will post our photos on their blog soon), besides, you can get some edgy setting in West Mall.
With regards to the flower, my friends has connection with this flower distributor in East Vancouver, but she had to purchase by dozen as well. I don't know anywhere in Vancouver would sell flower by the stems. What flower are you looking for in specific?

Your wedding indeed looks perfect! My fiance and I are also SFU alumini; we will also take some pictures there.

Can you tell me more about where your friend bought the flowers? My mom is a florist in our home country, but she finds that flowers are hard to get here (not much selection at florist shops and generally cannot buy flowers by the stems). Thanks!