Archive for March, 2009

Miss us?

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

We sure miss you! Sadly, we’ve been snowed under - having just returned from a four-day trip to Tokyo and our baby store ‘VA Select’ opening this Thursday - it has been super crazy hence why we’ve not had the time to update the blog.. SO SORRY!

Anyhoooo, this is just a quick note to say we are alive and well and that this blog will be updated shortly with more wedding planning, our Tokyo feasts and snaps of the new store. Till then, we will leave you with a dish from one of the best Japanese meals we’ve ever had… oishiiiiiii..

best ever

Flowers by garlands

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

flowers

Flowers are serious business, at least that is the case when you speak to a florist. But that’s fine by us because we are totally clueless when it comes to flowers, in fact, not just flowers, we are hopeless with all types of plants, even the indestructible cactus dwindle under our care.

Anyhow, garlands is a florist located at St Margarets, Surry Hills (right below the Object gallery and next to Lumiere cafe, our Sunday brunch hang). On the day of our appointment, Tamara met us with friendly smiles (despite us running extremely late), which made me like her instantly - tolerance is a virtue! And it was such a simple and pleasant meeting; I showed her my dress and Tamara gave us ideas.

Two things I took away from our floral session are that first, peony roses are only available for around 6 weeks in the entire year (roughly end-September to October) so we have our fingers and toes crossed that the weather stays ‘normal’ so that we can have peony roses for our wedding. Second, there are more factors that need to be considered than the actual flowers; it’s also about whether the bride should have an extended or short bouquet depending on the wedding gown (Tamara suggested petite for me) and whether to have tall vases or low troughs for centre pieces.

We chose garlands because of Tamara’s friendly, attentive and personalised service. Sometimes we think a lot of suppliers can do just as good a job as the other but we think it’s more important to have someone who understands what we are looking for than a professional result without any ‘heart’.

garlands
bourke street (st margarets), surry hills

zoom zoom zoom

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

No, we are not getting Mazdas (and you will probably only get that if you live (or have lived) in Australia.. ;p) Anyways, cars. What can I say about cars? To be honest, given my level of interest in cars, probably nothing at all, but alas, a wedding needs cars to transport all the important people so I guess, it’s a must.

My colleagues actually offered a really good suggestion early on. Instead of spending thousands on vintage cars, which look fantastic and very romantic (but without air cons and travel at 30km an hour…) why not hire a few BMWs or Merc convertibles and have a bit of a play. We even thought about having one for each couple (ie one per bridesmaid and groomsmen) but alas, two of the groomsmen are from overseas and to be fair, who would want to be responsible for returning cars after a night of ‘drinking’. Ah yes, we understand, we do!

Irene & I at Joyce's wedding in front of a beautiful vintage car

Irene & I at Joyce's wedding in front of a beautiful vintage car

So having had no interest in cars to begin with and our first idea blown out the water, I simply had no motivation to look into cars… so, please don’t expect too much from our cars, it’s ultra boring and well, put it this way, when we booked it, there was only one thing on our minds - practicality! There you have it, practical is the word I would use to describe our wedding car. Alalala lalalaa.. hoohoo wor… …. yeah, it’s that kind of a day.

x

Mitsui Taipei

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

Let’s stray from wedding talk for a minute and focus on one of our other loves in life, food.

As well as showcasing what Taipei has to offer, there is also another good reason for highlighting this particular restaurant as it’s where we had our engagement celebration in February with the wider Hsu family and also the venue we always get taken to whenever we are in town.

mitsui

Mitsui is a personalised type of kaiseki Japanese restaurant as the dishes you get are the very best dishes they create on the day based on the food imported from Japan earlier in the day/the night before. This doesn’t mean you only get set meals or everyone in the restaurant gets the same food, but rather, they recommend based on what you like, eg if you want tempura, what’s available on the day, or if you want sashimi, what the freshest fishes are and so forth. The menu and the service is customised to suit your preference.

We recommend those thinking of paying Mitsui a visit the lunch menu for NT$1,000 (approximately AUD$45) per person, which gives you around 5 dishes + dessert. Dinner is double the cost.

Highly recommended for those attending our Taipei reception.

There are several Mitsui but we recommend the original Mitsu on Nong-an Street:
Original Mitsui/三井日本料理餐廳: No.30, Nong-an St., 1F, Taipei
Phone: (02) 2594 3394 (booking essential)

St Peter’s Church

Monday, March 16th, 2009

We decided to have our wedding ceremony at St Peter’s Church, just over the bridge at North Sydney.

The church is not unfamiliar to us as we’ve attended two of our good friends’ ceremonies there; one of which I was the maid of honour.

Church's grounds - Lucy & Kevin's wedding @ St Peter's 2004

Church's grounds - Lucy & Kevin's wedding @ St Peter's 2004

 

Shot inside the church - Geeyoun & Jae's wedding 2006

Shot inside the church - Geeyoun & Jae's wedding 2006

The Minister is the very pleasant Rev. Dr. Paul Logan (who we will meet again on Saturday to go through the paperwork). The St Peter’s Presbyterian Church traces its origins to 1844 - it celebrates its 165th birthday in June this year! As you will see when  you attend our ceremony, the workmanship of the era is highlighted by the beauty of the stained glass windows, the carved cedar pulpit, and the choir gallery. An organist will also play the grand pipe organ (which dates back to 1885) for the ceremony. Notably, the church and other buildings of the parish are classified by the National Trust of Australia and the Heritage Council as buildings of great significance.

St Peter’s Church, cnr Blues Point Rd and Blue St, North Sydney
3.30pm Friday 2 October 2009

Only if…

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

I just want to know why this doesn’t come in ivory?!??! Because if it does, it would be the perfect match for my wedding gown. Do you think I can spray paint it? Ha!

Prada leather rose peep toe pumps

Prada leather rose peep toe pumps

The girls

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

Oooops…for three months, I’ve neglected to introduce our bridal party, how horrible of me… better late than never I guess ;p So here goes…

Matron of honour: Lucy
I consider Lucy to be my best-est friend! We’ve known each other since year nine and our first encounter was working on a play together in English class. We have since travelled many times together and we love shopping together, even though we are miles apart most of the recent past, we still end up buying some of the ’same’ things! Some may call it coincidental, but I know it’s because we are so similar. But that’s all trivial because most importantly, I know she will always be there for me and likewise, I will always be there for her (and her two kids, my godson/god daughter!) 

Gorgeous Lucy

Gorgeous Lucy

Maid and matron: Fontein and Emily
I love these two girls in different ways, let me start with the maid, Fontein. What can I say except that we are both stubborn bulls and share a love for everything beautiful, particularly food! Her passion for travel took us all over France and now that passion has taken her to London and I miss her dearly. She’s my facial buddy, my day spa buddy and my food buddy.

Fontein and I in Tokyo

Fontein and I in Tokyo

Emily is one of my oldest-est friends. I think we met on a train trip early on in year seven. Somehow we got talking and have been friends since - though I don’t think we’ve ever shared a single class together!! Ever!! Not in high school nor at university. In some ways, I think that highlights the strength of our friendship. She is the rock I can always count on for advice (especially when I need to hear that girls are always right and boys are never right ;p) - and too right she is for saying so!

Emily and I @80s kok party LOL!

Emily and I @80s kok party LOL!

I am so honoured to have these girls as my greatest friends and I can’t wait to share our biggest day with them.
Girls - I love you all x

I will get Ben to blog about his boys soon!! ^^

What recession?

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

A friend who recently got engaged (congrats Sam!) echoed my thoughts last night when she said she had thought the current economic crisis would mean wedding venues, gown salons, cakes and what not would be discounting to attract customers….. but alas.. how wrong we are (cringes***).

I have recently started to scout for evening gowns for the Taipei reception (apparently wearing the wedding gown twice is bad luck so I need some evening gowns!) and the waiting lists on some $1,500-2,000 gowns are incredibly long!

The below gown by Collette Dinnigan is one I’ve been eyeing and upon calling the store, I found out that first, it’s not even in yet and second,  it costs $1,750. Plus, there are only a handful of them in the CD and DJs stores combined - talk about small production runs and finally, I am the 80th person on the waiting list (Yes, eight-zero, 80!) Anyway, I’ve since given up on the dress, though I think it’s absolutely stunning!

Collette Dinnigan gown

Collette Dinnigan gown

Fortunately or unfortunately, this phenomenon is not limited to Australia as one of my favourite online shopping sites, netaporter.com, which boasts some of the most expensive but beautiful apparels online, has some of the most beautiful and pricey dresses already SOLD OUT (like the Eun Jeong gown below)! Hmmm… is there really a recession?

Eun Jeong silk full-length gown

Eun Jeong silk full-length gown

Then, it occurred to me that US retailers would be trying the hardest to attract customers given their dismal retail sales figures in recent months, so I started browsing some US-based online retailers and (giggles…) no surprise, even the new season dresses are discounted and in bluefly.com’s  case, by a whopping 40%! (Be warned that postage charges ain’t cheap! Also, be careful not to go over AU$1,000 or be prepared to pay an extra 17.5% in custom duty and 10% GST).

With wider choices and ‘cheaper’ options online, I think I will be spending many more nights online searching for the perfect evening gown.

bluefly.com (of the Project Runway fame)
netaporter.com (simply the best-est online store - apart from via alley of course ;p)
collettedinnigan.com.au (beautiful Australian/NZ designer)

Taipei reception (+ special package from HK)

Friday, March 6th, 2009

We just want to say Asian wedding packages offered by hotels ROCK! After preparing everything separately in Sydney, it was such a relief to know that in Taipei, the hotel takes care of it all. Yay! Anyhow, let me backtrack for a minute.

When we were in Taipei in February, we decided that given some close family and friends won’t be able to attend our Sydney wedding celebrations, that we would hold a wedding reception in Taipei as well. So we took some advice from a wise aunt and checked out several hotels in Taipei. After visiting quite a few, we fell in love with the Metro Suite at the Shangri-La. The Metro Suite is warm, cosy and has a small lounge area which makes the room a lot more personal so it’s not just a four-wall reception hall. However, at the same time, hotels like the Regent, which is also very lovely, were offering super special deals and based on price alone, we deliberated. But, if you know us well, you’d know that even though we deliberate, we always end up going with our gut instinct so Shangri-La it is!

One of Shangri-La's wedding reception halls.. ours won't be this big!

One of Shangri-La's wedding reception halls.. ours won't be this big!

Alicia, our relationship manager at the Shangri-La is uber friendly and it was difficult to go past her smiles and her warm recommendations and in some ways, she was another reason why we went with the Shangri-La. This whole booking experience also tested Jane’s Chinese typing (or rather, google translate) skills as she had to communicate with Alicia via email to finalise the contracts and what not.

And the wedding package (aka heaven) includes:
- Staircase decoration (from lobby to venue)
- Centrepieces for guest and reception tables
- Swan ice sculpture (yes, very Asian!)
- Five layer decorative cake (also very Asian)
- 2 x decorative flower towers (sorry, this isn’t a very good description of what they are.. ha!)
- Menu and name cards
- Guest book
- Mic, stand and projector
- Guest thank-you candies
- An executive room for us and complimentary brekkie the following morning
- And Jane’s favourite – a personal secretary on the day of the event

Shangri-La's presidential suite (anyone want to contribute to our upgrade?) LOL!

Shangri-La's presidential suite (anyone want to contribute to our upgrade?) LOL!

We hope to dive into the roof-top pool during our stay

We hope to dive into the roof-top pool during our stay

SPECIAL TAIPEI TRAVEL DEAL FROM HK
(Courtesy of Joyce)

We think our friend Joyce must be the #1 travel bargain-hunter (and finder). She is so good at finding awesome deals for any Asian destination, whether it be flights, hotels, vouchers…. Basically if you seek it, she will find it - as simple as ABC!

And the reason for bringing this up, apart from praising her incredible googling abilities, is that she found on Cathay Holidays a great deal to Taipei (from HK) that includes return flights and two nights accommodation at the Shangri-La Far Eastern Hotel. Unfortunately this package expires at the end of April but Joyce reckons (and we are sure she’s right) that there should be similar deals in November, so make sure you keep an eye out for it.

Otherwise, as part of the wedding package that Shangri-La offered, there is a 40% discount off rooms (we assume off the rack rate, but will confirm), for family and friends so we will keep you posted on that front too, in case you won’t be travelling from HK.

Our little bridal party

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

These little boy and girls will surely be the cutest out of our entire our bridal party (sorry big boys and girls ;p).. we can’t wait to see them all dressed up like little prince and princesses!

Let me first introduce the little page boy, also my gorgeous godson, Ethan Ho!
adorable

He will be joined by three beautiful flower girls:

Rosemary Tse
happy rosie

Kayla Ta
happy birthday darling x

and Naomi Wu
food?

Lucky Ethan!!