Glamour Girl

This past Sunday, I had my bridal hair and make-up trial. Overall, it was a good experience. I don't think I have ever felt more glamourous in my life. The results were amazing; definitely "red carpet" style. To maintain an element of a surprise for the wedding day, I will not be posting any photos from the trial. Sorry! You're going to have to wait until I walk down the aisle.

Once Colin and I had booked our wedding date, one of the first things I did was engage my make-up artist. Joy, a.k.a. the Make-Up Junkie, is a professional, free-lance make-up artist and also the wife of Colin's high school friend. It was really important for me to find a make-up artist that I could trust because I wanted to look good for our wedding photos. Plus, I am a make-up novice. If I did my own bridal make-up, my mascara would probably run and the foundation would smear all over my wedding gown. It would not be a pretty picture.

Joy also did the make-up job for our engagement photos. I liked what she did with my eyes. And I was impressed with how I still had colour on my lips even after all the kissing photos! Overall, it was a very natural look. For the bridal look, Joy and I agreed that we would do something bolder and more glamourous.

I had some difficulty finding a hair stylist. I had asked a few friends for positive referrals but had no luck. I called a few hair salons near the ceremony venue but none could provide me with reasonable prices. It was Joy who referred me to the Mobile Stylist, Charlene, for bridal hair services.

At the hair trial, I shared photos of bridal hair with Charlene to give her an idea of what I wanted. At the same time, I let her be creative since she is a professional. I really liked what she came up with - beyond anything I could have imagined for myself.

For any bride who will be hiring professional hair and make-up services, I highly recommend doing a trial. This way, you can ensure that you will get exactly what you ask for and there will be no glitches.

Personalized Wedding Vows

A while back, Colin and I had agreed that we would write our own wedding vows. Actually, it was Colin's idea but nonetheless, I liked it too. To me, personalized vows would be more meaningful rather than reciting the traditional vows that everyone uses. We had also agreed that our vows would be kept secret from each other until the wedding day.

Our wedding officiant, Frank wanted us to write our vows and send it to him as soon as possible. I had written my vows weeks ago and it took me only an hour or two. I decided to wait until Colin had written his vows so that we could both send them to the wedding officiant around the same time. Finally, on a recent Sunday, Colin sat down and wrote his vows. He told me that it was a bit of a struggle and that it took him about 7 hours before he was finally content with what he had written. In any case, I was happy he had gotten them done and we sent our respective vows to Frank in separate emails.

When Frank got back to us, he had accepted Colin's vows. However, he told me that mine was twice as long as Colin's and asked if I would be able to cut it?!? I didn't really want to. How could Colin say all he needed to say in three sentences? Anyway, I shortened mine today. I just hope that the condensed version captures the intent of my original one.

A Day with the Women in My Life

My bridal shower took place this past Saturday and it was so much fun! It was wonderful to see all of the fabulous women in my life including my grandmother, my aunties, my cousins, and my friends. The afternoon was a bit of a whirl as the house was jam-packed with people. I spent most of the afternoon trying to catch up with all of the guests. There was tons of food - although, all I had was two cups of water and cake (Perhaps, this is foreshadowing what my wedding day will be like???). There were also lots of prizes and games, including a quiz about me, "Guess that Love Song that Denise is trying to Hum", and Pin the Penis on the Hunk! I would like to thank everyone who came to celebrate this special time with me and for showering me with generous gifts. It meant so much to me that you were there. A special thanks to my mother for hosting the party and to my sister, Melissa for decorating the place.

After the shower ended, I got to spend the evening with my bridesmaids. It was supposed to be my "bachelorette party". But if you know me, than you know I am a bit conservative and quite shy to typical bachelorette party games. Instead, we had a lovely dinner at the Brant House (which I highly recommend - food was good and affordable). As it turned out, about five other bachelorette parties were taking place there too. So, I was even more relieved that we didn't do a typical bachelorette party. After a lovely dinner, two friends: Ami and Minora joined us for a pole dancing class. Again, if you know me, then you know I am always up for a good workout. The instructor was pretty good and I think we all picked up a few moves... ;)

Thanks to my bridesmaids: Linda, Kim, and Florence for organizing the entire day's events. I am eternally grateful to have supportive and dedicated friends to help me with wedding planning.

(I'm still sorting through photos and will post shortly).

A Wedding How -To for a Sugar Rush in the Morning

Try eating four six inch wedding cake samples!

My cousin, Kathy had agreed to make our wedding cake and we were delighted to sample some of her creations. Earlier we had suggested some preferred cake designed, as well as a flavor of choice (lemon) and arranged for a tasting.

Certainly neither Denise nor I had thought it would be anything more than a cupcake or two; after all, it was supposed to be cake tasting... How many variations could there be? As you can see, we aren't the wedding cake experts, and were very surprised with the sample selection that Kathy created. Can you guess which one was our favorite?

Conveniently, the unfinished cakes made their way to Denise's wedding shower later that evening.

Wanted: A Master or Mistress of Ceremony

Looking for one Master or Mistress of Ceremony who can serve as a co-host for our wedding reception. Must be comfortable with public speaking, have a good sense of humour, and be fluent in Cantonese.

My cousin, Reg graciously accepted to be one of our MCs for our wedding reception. But he can only provide English-speaking services. He told me that unless we were ok with him counting up to ten and saying the name of colours in Chinese, we might want to ask someone else to provide Chinese speaking services. LOL. :P

We have a couple of contenders for the job...Beware, we may come knocking at your door!

Walking Down Memory Lane

It is fairly common nowadays to show a photo slideshow at the wedding reception. And while some people may think that the slideshow idea is unoriginal, I cannot think of a better way to honour the family and friends who have helped shape us to become the two individuals we are today. Colin has been taking the lead in putting together our slideshow and I just spent the day combing through old photos of myself. Man, there was a period between high school and undergrad where I was quite geeky looking and fat. I debated whether to include these in the slideshow. In the end, I decided to include them. I figured, "What the heck? Our guests will have a good laugh."

Get Ready to Dance!

Recently, we met with our DJ to discuss our musical needs for the dinner reception. In addition to a friend's recommendation, I picked this DJ because she's not into playing the typical cheesy wedding music like YMCA. (Of course, if there is a special request for YMCA, then who are we to deny what the guests want?) We really want to throw a fun party for our guests and music is key to this success.

So far, we have asked the DJ to play a combination of vocal jazz and adult contemorary (e.g. Diana Krall, Michael Bublé) while dinner is served. For the dance that follows the dinner, our top preferences in music genre include Top 40 Dance, Retro 80s, Hip-Hop. I would also like the DJ to "sprinkle" a few sets of the Disco 70s and Reggae. The DJ had asked us for our "Must-Play" and "Do Not Play" list. Colin and I are not picky but we specified that absolutely NO Celine Dion be played at all. Let us know if there are any songs that you would like to dance to at our wedding and we'll be sure that it's played.

Colin and I still need to pick songs for the bridal party introductions, cake cutting ceremony, and more importantly, the first dance. Some friends have already offered suggestions that we are seriously considering. I hope to finalize these details before the end of the month.

Thanks for the "Stag"!

A couple of weeks ago, I had a random conversation with my friend Vincci like this:


Like many random conversations that I have, I expected nothing to happen, until another friend on the Evite messaged me about it! I was only added to the Evite much later into the planning.

Well that's all history now, and I would like to thank Vincci for being such a good friend and organizing a fun co-ed night out at the Bier Market. Denise and I both had tons of fun forgetting about wedding invitations, flowers, booking venues, talking to vendors and the rest of the boring stuff. Also, a special thanks to everyone for not talking about work related things.

Thanks again for the big smiles, the great conversation and dancing up a storm!

What a Score!

This past Friday, Denise and I strolled into our local grocer to pick up a few items and she happen to notice that one of the wines (the white wine) we planned to purchase for our wedding reception was on a summer sale at the in-store Wine Rack! A full $3 dollars off!!!

So off we went today, along with Chen, to the local Wine Rack in Mississauga to pick up 5 cases of this stuff. The kids working a the store were a bit surprised when I told them I wanted 5 cases... it was pretty much the whole display/stock. Also, they didn't bother asking for a Liquor license (which I have), so the transaction was pretty quick and painless.

Now we're waiting a bit longer to see if the red wine goes on sale :)

Priorities

Being such a planner, I am anxious to get a lot of wedding details worked out as soon as possible. Of course, I can't go ahead and make decisions without agreement from Colin. Recently, Colin and I had an "intense" discussion related to the planning of our wedding. Basically, he was tired of planning and needed a break. Whereas I felt like we are running out of time, especially since the wedding is less than two months away. The conversation went something like this:

Colin: We should have your friends over for dinner or something.
Denise: We don't have time to entertain friends. We need to talk about the wedding and get things done.
Colin: ...
Denise: I don't know about you but I'm all about the wedding right now.
Colin: Well, I'm all about the "Happy ever after"!
Denise: ...
Colin: BUSTED!
Denise: [Feels like an idiot.]

Our Engagement Portraits

A while back, we received our engagement portraits from our photographer. Here is a slideshow of some of my favourite shots. The photos were taken on May 28 in the Distillery District of Toronto. Enjoy!

Honeymoon is Booked!

We have finally booked our honeymoon. In the end, we opted to go to Hawaii the day after our wedding. We will be spending six days on the island of Maui and six days on Big Island. Hawaii ain't cheap but it should be a good time. After much research, I hope that we made the right choices in terms of accomodation. In general, I tried to base our choices on quality factors over cost. Oh well, even if the hotels don't meet expectations, I'm sure that Hawaii itself doesn't disappoint its visitors...right???

Meeting with our Wedding Officiant

On Sunday, Colin and I met with our Wedding Officiant to iron out some details of our ceremony. It was a fairly productive meeting. An interesting moment occurred while we were discussing vows. The Wedding Officiant presented us with a choice between traditional vows (i.e. "I, Denise, take you Colin to be my lawfully wedded husband...etc.") and a contemporary version (i.e. "I, Denise, take you Colin to be my partner in life...etc."). Can you guess who liked the traditional vows and who liked the contemporary vows?

There are a few things that Colin and I have to work out including the selection of readings and readers. Other than that, the ceremony details are pretty much taken care of. Our Wedding Officiant has several years of experience and we are sure that the ceremony will be carried out as planned.