Our Wedding Day

It's finally here...the blog entry that you have all been waiting for!! Sorry it has taken us so long to write this. We did want to post it within a month of our wedding day. Enjoy!

Our wedding day was the BEST day of our lives. We were so fortunate to be surrounded by our family and friends. And we had so much fun. From the wedding ceremony to the reception, everything was just perfect! Here is a recap from both of us.

The Morning

Denise: I received my wake-up call at 5am. I quickly rolled out of bed and remember thinking "Man, I wish I had at least one more hour to sleep." But, not today. At around 5:30am, I started to wake up the other girls because I was expecting Charlene, the hairstylist to arrive a half hour later. Unfortunately, she was a bit late and I started to worry when I couldn't get a hold of her on her cell phone. Meanwhile, I had Joy, my friend and make-up artist, sleep over at the hotel the night before. She was able to start on my bridesmaids' make-up right on time. Once Charlene arrived (around 6:15am) , the morning became a bit of a blur. All of the girls took turns getting hair and make-up done while eating room service breakfast. I remember feeling a bit panicky because we were half-hour behind my schedule. But the girls' hair and make-up looked fantastic. We were just about ready to leave for the ceremony venue (around 10am) and I became a little bit more panicky when I overheard Joy talking to her husband on the phone. He was supposed to already be at the ceremony site setting up the keyboard. Instead, he was still on the highway! Anyway, I couldn't think about it at that time.

Colin: The morning was a blur for me... I woke up around my scheduled time (as it was very important that I not upset a certain someone today) , and made sure everyone was on schedule as well. Charles, one of the groomsmen, had slept over the night before and was also up bright and early as we still had to go wash his car (i.e: the bridal car). I was pretty nervous all morning and can't quite recall what I ate or much of the dialogue that morning. I do remember buttoning my vest all wrong. When Chen arrived, we all got dressed in our tuxes and after a few photos, we all hurried on our way, again as scheduled. It turns out that we didn't have to follow the schedule to a "T"; some well timed phone calls revealed that we would have to kill some time on the road to ensure that we would not arrive the same time as the bridal party and that I wouldn't see Denise until the ceremony. During the car ride up to Oakview Terrace, I had attempted to practice my vows, that I wrote myself, but I was a bit overcome with emotions so I stopped before Charles could see. I thought to myself that I could 'tough it out' at the altar.... boy, was I wrong!

Just Before The Wedding Ceremony

Denise: The girls and I arrived at Oakview Terrace just after 10am. I didn't know what was going on but I spoke briefly to Sandra, my Ceremony GM, who assured me that everything was perfectly fine. In the Bridal Room, I put on my dress and took some pre-ceremony photos with my parents and the bridesmaids. I was so excited; I couldn't wait to get married. The flower bouquets were waiting for us in the room and they were absolutely gorgeous - exactly what I had in mind.

Colin: Everything was perfect! Sandra, Steve, Valerie, Vincci, James... all the ceremony helpers did an amazing job. It was so good to see everyone there, especially, Niki, who was unsure if she could even make it because of another event. Our officiant, Frank, confirmed with me that I had my vows printed out for the big moment, and I did. For those who haven't known me for too long or haven't seen me play sports, I rarely wear my contact lenses. For my special occasion, I had them on, and as I found out later, the reason not too many people stopped to congratulate me at the entrance to the chapel was because they didn't even recognize me!! Well that's okay, I was pretty nervous that morning! Then the processional music started, and we started to line up for our grand entrance...

The Wedding Ceremony

Denise: The moment finally came. I remember leaving the main building to walk towards the outdoor chapel. It was the most perfect day to get married. The sun was shining. There was a slight breeze and I could hear my sister's beautiful music. I slowly walked towards the little bridge in the middle of the property and I could see inside the chapel. It was a full house! When the doors of the chapel first opened for my grand entrance, I was overjoyed to see all of our guests who came to witness our wedding ceremony. And then, I saw my handsome groom. For me, seeing Colin for the first time was definitely one of the highlights of the day. Contrary to the wedding rehearsal, the wedding ceremony was not a blur. I remember every moment of it. And it was perfect. It was not an overly formal ceremony but rather, it was light, romantic with lots of humour. I teared up, of course...but it seemed to hit Colin more. Everything was perfect...the readings, the music, the exchanging of our vows.

Colin: Well what can I say here... I always feel relaxed when big moments hit, and this didn't feel any different than any other pressure situation that I've been in. I managed a smile while making my way to the altar, and everything was going to plan. Frank was his usual self (I know this because of other weddings where he officiated that I have attended). I can do this! Well, the moment was upon me now, and Frank had asked me to say my vows. So out of my pocket came this piece of scrappy looking paper (about the only paper I could find for my printer the night before), and it was met with a burst of laughter. "Good", I thought to myself, thinking that I could clown my way through this. But as Frank held/hid my scrappy vows in his binder and I started to read the vows, I was completely overcome with emotions!! I tried to suck back the tears, but it seemed like I was fighting forever to regain my composure. The rest of the ceremony was pretty light-hearted and went off without a hitch.

Both: After the ceremony, we had a photo session with our guests and light refreshments were served. From our perspective, this was when things seemed a bit unorganized; guess that is the problem when you have such a large family. Also, our wedding photographer spent quite a bit of time trying to determine the best photo spot. He initially directed people back into the chapel but we did not like that at all...especially when Oakview Terrace had such beautiful gardens. Somehow, we managed to get through all of our group photos.

Wedding Photos at York University, Glendon Campus

Denise: The entire bridal party headed to Glendon Campus for our wedding photos. By this time, my feet were starting to pinch in my high heels. I think I would have had more fun if my feet weren't hurting as much. No major issues with photo-taking except that we all got bitten by a few mosquitoes. Joy and James (her husband) were great at keeping an eye on time for me. (They both understood how important it was to me that we adhered to my schedule..hee hee). We left on time and headed to DoubleTree International Plaza Hotel for the tea ceremony.

Colin: As we left Oakview Terrace, some of the bridal car decorations proved no match for 100km/h winds, and some of it blew off! Actually, it was quite funny and we had a good laugh about it; the decals on the windows were great! As we approached York University, Denise asked me to have the photo license handy... my heart dropped to the floor! I didn't have it with me! I had assumed incorrectly that in all previous conversations, she was referring to the license to Richmond Greens that we had (but were not going to use). What were we going to do when we got to the gates of the campus? How were we going to get our bridal party photos done?! I really screwed up this time!! Fortunately for me, we were met with an empty security gate and no grounds staff to check for licenses, and our bridal party photos went off without a hitch. As we were preparing to leave the Glendon Campus, a cheer squad out in the football field saw us walking and performed an impromptu cheer for us! Wish we had caught that on video!

The Tea Ceremony

Denise: The first thing I did when I arrived at DoubleTree was change into flat shoes and my Chinese red dress. The tea ceremony went very smoothly. Florence and Linda poured tea into the teacups. My sister, Valerie and Colin's sister, Julie served as our Tea Assistants and called out the names of relatives. I was impressed with our wedding photographer, who had already set-up and was ready to go when we had arrived. We finished the tea ceremony almost 20 minutes earlier than anticipated. So, Colin and I had an opportunity to mingle with relatives and take family photos before I changed back into my wedding dress.

Colin: I really appreciate Denise and her family for entertaining me with the Tea Ceremony. This wasn't a high priority for her, but I wanted this element of Chinese tradition on my wedding day. In the end, I had to broken knees from kneeling for about an hour, but it was all worth it.

Cocktail Hour

Denise: During the cocktail hour, we wanted to take photos with our guests as they arrived for dinner. (We had arranged to have a photo backdrop just for this purpose.) Things probably could have (should have?) gone more smoothly as I know we didn't get photos with all of our guests. (Sorry!) Some of my guests told me afterwards that they really enjoyed the cocktail hour because it gave them an opportunity to mingle before heading into the ballroom for dinner.

Colin: Everything was pretty amazing! The helpers really came through for us again! As Denise and I agreed, we wish that we were a little more organized with a receiving line and photos at the reception backdrop. Oh well, there's only a Take One on this set. After the fact we also realized that not all guests actually signed the guestbook. This was probably due to the large lobby that we had and that everyone was having such a good time socializing with each other. That's a good thing! If anyone wants to sign it after the fact, just let me know :)

The Wedding Reception

Denise: I had so much fun at our wedding reception! The decorations were more beautiful than I had envisioned. Our emcees, Reg and Vincci were funny and entertaining. Dinner started on-time and the food was excellent. I actually managed to eat my entire wedding dinner! The speeches were touching and heart-warming. Our DJ was awesome! What really made our reception was our kissing game. Instead of clinking glasses, we had hula hoops; Colin and I agreed to kiss as long as someone was hula-hooping. We chose this activity because we did not think many people would actually do it. Man, were we wrong! Some of the memorable hula-hoopers included little Cierra, who could hula hoop until pigs fly, Andre's little "adult-entertainment" show, and the Lee-Kwen cousins' hula hoop marathon. Throughout the evening, everyone kept asking me if my cheeks were hurting from smiling all day long. The answer was no as I was just soooo happy on my wedding day. Thanks to everyone who joined us on our special day.

Colin: As Denise said, our emcees were amazing! I got to play my two wedding games, Denise got to eat her dinner, I got to kiss my bride, my volleyball friends toasted me with some shots, and I managed to avoid my bright red Asian glow for the formal parts of the evening. I wish I had slightly more time to chat with everyone a bit more throughout the evening to catch up. I'm ecstatic that everyone stuck around to party right to the end!!! This is how we roll!! Special thanks again to Hsin-May and John for coordinating everything at the reception! Other than the 10 billion times John signed our guestbook, you guys did a stellar job!!!

Our Wedding Vendors

We are still working on our joint blog entry. However, due to pressure from E.J.L. to update our blog, we've decided to add an entry giving the "lowdown" on our wedding vendors.

Ceremony Venue: Oakview Terrace
Tea Ceremony and Reception Venue: DoubleTree International Plaza Hotel (Ten course Chinese banquet meal catered by Grand Chinese Cuisine Restaurant)
Photography site: York University's Glendon Campus
Bridal Dress: Mikaella (Style#1256)
Bridesmaids' Dress: JCrew ("Emily" dress in Spiced Wine)
Tuxedo Rentals: Moore's Formalwear (Alfred Sung)
Hair: Charlene Cordoba, The Mobile Stylist
Make-Up: Joy David-Tilberg, The Make-Up Junkie
Bridal Jewellery and Hair Accessories: Bittersweet Jewellery
Photographers: Images Toronto (Supplementary photography services provided by Wayne Szeto and Victor Lan)
Wedding Cake: Kathy Tang (Colin's cousin)
Flowers: Grower's Flower Market and Gifts
DJ: HelloDJ
Decorator: Prodeco Workshop
Audio-Visual Equipment: Presentations2go
Wedding Invitations, Guestbook and Favour Boxes: Kamdo

Chipped Frame!

I spent the last 2 days purchasing a frame and mounting supplies from DeSerres and had just finished mounting the photo last night, when I removed the protective corners and...



With a frantic call to DeSerres, they confirmed that I can exchange the frame after removing all the mounting hardware. Let's hope that's what happens in a few minutes when I visit the store.

Thanks for the Bachelor Party

Thanks to Kirk, Chen and Charles for putting together a bachelor party for me this weekend! I know the timing of things weren't the easiest, considering that I live in Ottawa, but it was a great success!

Thanks also to the friends who made it out, even if it was only for part of the day. It was good to catch up and not have think about any planning.

For everyone else that is curious about what I did for my bachelor party, below are some photos. Remember, if its not documented by photo, it didn't happen :)

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.

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 :)

Great Friends that We Have

As our special day draws near, Denise and I have started to create the itinerary for the wedding day events. While we can do the up front planning, we realize that we can't do anything but smile, pose for photos and be all cheerful. I must say that we're really thankful for the friends that we have. Generally speaking, Denise has always done an excellent job in keeping in touch with friends and its easy to see why they would be so willing to help out. On the other hand, I'm the type of person who is a bit more private, and afford the same privacy 'distance' to my friends too. My emails responses are typical one-liners without the fluff (i.e: "Hi, how are things going... blah blah blah").

Let me tell you how thankful I am for friends who accept me for this and are willing to help when asked. Special thanks to our friends Sandy, Hsin-May and Joy for being our first designated wedding helpers with the most difficult tasks. For all of my other friends, I might actually call on you for help very soon.... and I mean an actual phone call.

Measured for our Penguin Suits

On Saturday, My groomsmen, the fathers and I went to Moores to get measured for tuxedos. The style that we have chosen is a one button jacket, ivory vest/tie combo... no one will be paying much attention to me that day anyway.

Surprisingly, getting all measured up was much quicker and easier than I expected. The reason we went with Moores is because they are quite cost effective and pickup can be done at different locations per person (although, in the end, we will all be going to the same store). In the end, the 6 rentals will cost an average of approximately $130.

All in all, renting the tuxes were quite painless, except for a minor incident as we were about to part ways and go about our own business.

For the remainder of the afternoon, my groomsmen and I drove around looking at various limousine rentals; it was a very good thing we went to look first before committing to anything, as some of the vehicles were a bit suspect. Even, though one establishment offered me an extended SUV, including champagne, red carpet, tax, tip for $600, we've decided to pass.

Some photos of the vehicles that we will not be renting will be posted shortly.

Wedding Invitations are on their way!!!

Denise and I spent the weekend preparing the invitations. Well, the maps have been cropped, the labels have been printed, the envelopes have been stuffed and sealed!

The first round of invitations are now on their way! For some, the surprise will be in your mailbox, for others, they will be hand delivered.

Please R.S.V.P as indicated in the invitations to help us better plan our special day.

Thanks so much!

Custom Wedding Band

Some of you may know, I've been pondering getting a custom wedding band for quite a while. The reasons are as follows:

- Why does the bride-to-be get the diamond engagement ring and all I get is a ball and chain?
- Why does the bride-to-be get to have to get the diamond wedding band? A plain wedding band is still nice.... what do you mean I have no style?!
- Okay, if you can get the diamond wedding band, at least I want a small stone in my band.

Well, I've found the ring that I was trying to design... Here it is!!!

Hehe... All joking aside, I've been told that I am not representing myself enough in blog postings. Well, I haven't been coasting in our wedding preparations. Quite the contrary, I've been doing the behind the scenes work again. Upcoming changes include our RSVP page as wedding invitations are sent. Tomorrow, we'll be stuffing the envelops and licking the stamps (for those that will be hand delivered, it will be a proverbial stamp).

Will You Marry Me?

Forget Tiffany,
Forget Cartier,
Forget Birks,
this may be the custom rings that we were looking for:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10501732

Flowers and Photo Location Booked!!!

Another successful weekend in Toronto! Denise and I have booked our flowers and reserved Richmond Green as photos after our wedding ceremony. Thanks to all the help from her bridesmaids for getting price quotes for the flowers.

Today, we also started our search for wedding bands and have come up with some excellent ideas as to what we want. Already, we are planning to complete this task on our next planned trip back to Toronto on May 2-5.

Ottawa's Asian Renaissance

After spending our Saturday morning doing some household chores, we decided to resume some wedding planning activities. Today, our plan was to visit the Hershey Chocolate Shoppe and Visitor Centre in Smith Falls to find some sweet deals to fill our favour boxes with. I had thought that this trip was just to see what we might get for our wedding, but we ended up getting lots of goodies for our snack boxes.

Well, what does this have to do with the title? Well, on the way back from Smith Falls, we decided to take the 'scenic route' back to Ottawa (not recommended). We decided that the scenic route wasn't worth it, so I detoured off at Hunt Club. While stopped at a stoplight, Denise suddenly became very animated:

Denise: "Look! LOOk! LOOK!!!!"
Colin: "What?!....... Yay!!!!!
Colin: "High Five!" (inside joke from our night out at the Heart and Crown the night before)

So what made us sooo excited? Look for yourself... Denise couldn't resist snapping a few drive by pictures.

Am I dreaming?!


I HEART T&T!

This all follows closely to some previous dialogue I had with T&T:

From: Colin
To: T&T Supermarket

Is there a plan to open a store in Ottawa in the next five years?

And the Reply:

Dear Colin,
Thank you for your inquiry. In response to your question about having a new store in Ottawa - we do have this plan in our project. However, we apologize that we still cannot give you an exact date of when the store in Ottawa will be opened, or where. Our team of expert has been visiting the location, studying the market and initiating all paper works. Should you expect us to be part of your community within the next year or so.

We thank you for the continuing support and look forward to serving you next year.

Sincerely yours,
T&T Supermarket INC.
Customer Services Department
Eastern Region Office


It was at this time, I knew I could marry Denise and live in Ottawa.

Ramping up on the Wedding Planning

We're starting to get into serious planning mode now. We've printed 11'x17' calendars for the next few months leading up to our wedding and filled it with things to do.

Some highlights that are coming up:
- Engagement Photo Session
- First round of invitations!

August seems so far away, but then when we look at what still needs to be done... I just want to crawl under a rock.

Wedding Favours

Its been a while since I posted any updates, so here is a sneak peek at our wedding favor boxes. This Saturday, Denise and I will be visiting a secret location to find some goodies to stuff inside these boxes. We hope you'll enjoy them.

How Hard is it to buy a Vacuum Cleaner?

Denise and I just moved into a new 2 bedroom apartment yesterday and we were very happy with the turnout of friends who helped us move. Some of the highlights of the day was renting a 16ft cube van that drove like a bus (I even did the big sweeping motions on the horizontal steering wheel when I turned corners), semi-professional mover in Chris L, who turned up with proper outdoor gear to move and was super efficient with a dolly.

Of course, the first thing we needed to do after moving our stuff (mostly HER stuff), was to vacuum our carpeted floors. Denise's existing vacuum cleaner from her university days didn't have the correct bags and was in need of retirement anyway. Denise and I set out to buy a vacuum cleaner; we even had a particular model in mind, so we figured, "How hard can it be to buy a vacuum cleaner?"

Well, let me tell you, it can be quite the task! We were in search of the vacuum cleaner on our registry, the Dyson Stowaway. After spending the greater half of a day driving around to all the Bay stores in Ottawa, we were still empty handed!!! Every store was either out of stock, or had used (demoed) vacuums that we did not want. It wasn't until we left our last Bay store at the Rideau Centre, that our luck had changed. It wasn't because the Bay had it in stock. Actually, we had parked in a lot that had free parking with purchase validation at Sears. This was a good enough a reason for us to check out Sears, so off we went. Within 20 minutes, we had our new Dyson Stowaway, our parking validated, and to our suprise, a complimentary kit of accessories for our new vacuum. To top it all off, this vacuum is never on sale, so it wouldn't have made a difference on cost if we had bought it at the Bay (where we would have gotten a registry discount).

Now, welcoming our newest addition, Dyson:

Canada is my Home

For those who have not heard, I will be the one making the sacrifice and moving to Ottawa. My company has been very accomodating and is willing to experiment with telecommuting.

This all begins on February 18, 2008!!!

As the title suggests though, Canada is my home, and at least for the near future, I will be travelling quite a bit between Calgary, Toronto and Ottawa.

Invitations are Back, along with my Parents!

My parents have arrived home from their month long visit in Singapore and Hong Kong, just in time for Chinese New Year. What does this have to do with our wedding preperations? Well, they've helped process our invitations at Kamdo and have brought them back with them.

I can't wait to get home from Calgary to see them!

For those of you who haven't sent Denise or I your contact information (either through email, phone conversations, or online), please do so soon!!!

Hmmm what else is on the to-do list?

I'll be the King of the Castle

In anticipation of our life together, Denise and I decided in December that we would move her into a bigger rental apartment. This will also facilitate my ability to work from a home office for my current employer. We've spent some time recently looking at rentals, and now we're about to sign a new 1 year agreement. The building that we will be moving to is an older lowrise building, but with many similarities to another lowrise condo that we almost bought.

Well, I'm looking forward to living with Denise... UNDER MY RULES!!!