women who do it all!

my co-worker, ms.ng is seriously, a wonder woman! she works full time, studies part time (3 nights per week), goes to the gym 5x per week, eats nothing but salads (fine- she's a vegetarian) and still manages to plan her wedding! oh my goodness she's amazing! i was having a bit of an arghhhhh moment and i think of her... how does she do it?

the thought of my master's paper and the proposed outline that's due in january makes me feel sick... in fact, i haven't even looked at my development paper based on a foreigner's experience in the slums from shantaram by gregory david roberts which is due on the 20th. yay. fun coming my way.... not.

wedding/symbolic tattoo!

i'm thinking of getting a tattoo of my wedding date (yes, i know that not all relationships last!) or a symbol/phrase that would be representative of our relationship, but if things went sour, i could at least try to convince myself that it represents something else! however, hkgroom doesn't really think much of tattoos and my parents will probably kill me!

if i get a tat of my wedding date, it would be X.XI.X on my wrist for oct 11, (20)10.... i googled roman numeral tattoos and eva longeria popped up!

another idea i have is the phrase 'i am my beloved's and my beloved is mine' in Hebrew, from the song of solomon. i love it and think it is so beautiful! maybe i could have it on my side starting just under the breast and going down... it's quite a well hidden place and so no one would have to know!

just a thought... actually doing it is another thing....

more dress browsing

mummy and i are going dress browsing!!! we've arranged a 'date'- october 10th, i.e. 12 months and 1 day to my wedding day! very exciting! i wish my MOH could be here though.... ohwell, i will send her lots of photos from my phone =)

my first dress store!

waiting for hkgroom in the middle of tst (granville rd.), i decided that i'm going to be brave and walk into a dress store all by myself! first thought is, wow, everyone is sooooo nice to me. as soon as i sat down, the woman asked me how i found the place as they only just moved from hung hom. i told her they had evening gowns in the shop windows, so i went upstairs to have a look. she went on about how it was 'fate' that brought me up. blahblahblah. as they were still getting sorted, they only had pictures of dresses on their laptops to show me. i don't know if it was a good or bad thing that i wasn't too interested as it was the first shop i'd been in! also, it was very local, with the lady claiming that all their dresses are from taiwan (materials from europe). 15 minutes later, hkgroom calls and we meet.

fast forward after dinner and hkgroom wants to get a haircut. he goes to his regular and i notice that right above his hairdressers is another bridal store! yay! so i went upstairs and had a look. this lady, was very nice and immediately asked if i wanted to look at the dresses, or have a look at the pictures first. i said pictures, so i could sit down and see the whole dress in front of me. i found a gorgeous white strapless lace mermaid dress with a small train (similar to right).

it was made of very light material too! perfect for hk outdoors. i asked the price and she said $3xxx =) yes, $3xxx to buy and she said only a few hundred more for alterations to make it more 'custom'. i'm thinking of getting some sleeves a la jenna bush...

bubbles???

bubbles bubbles bubbles- a preschool teacher's best friend. bubbles make any crying child stop and it works every time.

relevance to this post? well, as we're thinking of having our ceremony at the same place as our reception, it would be a little silly to have our guests throw flower petals at us as we walk down the aisle. too much mess that has to be cleaned up for dinner. so i was thinking... maybe have our guests blow bubbles at us! wouldn't that make really cute photos??? and the bubbles could make really nice wedding favours too- the label could have all of our wedding information and with hkgroom's contacts, i'm sure he can get those little bubble bottles with sticks pretty cheap. and a large bottle of bubble liquid from toys r us would totally do the trick!

yay me! i feel like i'm totally on a roll =)

cakes vs cupcakes

image from babycakes

a mum brought in a ton of cupcakes today to share with the kids and staff to celebrate her son's birthday, a perk to being a preschool teacher =)

this sparked a thought about cakes vs cupcakes....

hkgroom and i have always joked about having cheese cakes as our wedding cakes... and not just one, but three. the first, chocolate marble cheesecake from the delicatessen at the holiday inn golden mile, the second, blueberry cheesecake from ali oli, and the third, mars bar cheesecake from cru. mmmmmmmmmmm, those have always been our favourite desserts. this however, has not stopped me from browsing for cakes.

we're totally not into any five tier cakes or anything like that, the more unconventional, the better! traditional wedding cakes (at all the weddings that i've been to) are all sponge cake + cream... blah. completely not us. we like rich cakes (hence the cheesecake choices that are thick and not japanese).

anyhow, looking online for some interesting places that do cakes:

cakealicious- they do a range of different types of cakes, not just wedding cakes, but super cute cupcakes too! wedding cakes start at $300 per lb, and special cupcakes are $30 per cupcake with a minimum order of 12. the great thing about cakealicious is that they do delivery (at the charge)- charge or not, the last thing anyone needs is a ruined cake en route to the location!

cova- very yummy cakes, and some gorgeous (very grand) looking designs. you can even get a 'dummy' cake here for photos! fresh cakes range from 9" to 27" per tier with a choice of butter cream, dark fruit or sacher. of course, you can also get a specially designed cake.

alioli- a lovely little bakery/cafe in sai kung that does a killer blueberry cheesecake and scottish baps =) hkgroom insists every time we are in the area that we buy 12 baps to make sandwiches for the week. lovely lovely lovely!

babycakes- yummy cupcakes currently located in ap lei chau (recently closed down in causeway bay's delay no mall). they have 12 original flavours and are nut and transfat free =)

more inspiration board fun

green on the green

ahhhh nothing like googling wedding colour schemes and ideas... here is a green inspiration board. maybe green + brown? hmmmm would having the wedding on a golf course plus our green colour be too 'green'?

inspiration boards

my first inspiration board using mosaic maker! i've chosen tiffany blue + chocolate brown. my maid of honor really likes this combo. need to ask hkgroom to see what he thinks. will post other inspiration boards as i make them. i'm thinking brown + pale green for my next one... and brown + champagne for the one after that... hmmmm i wonder if brown + champagne will be too formal...

we asked shek o what colour their linens are so we can take that into consideration when coming up with our colour schemes. they said something about white, red, and blue but not sure if that means its a white, red, and blue pattern, or those are the colours we can choose from. hopefully it will be white, so we can choose pretty much any colour scheme.

first task for both sets of parents

task #1 for both sets of parents... to come up with a list of people who must be invited and their full contact details.

i'm hoping to get working on some save-the-date cards.

at the moment, i'm really loving an idea i found on marthastewartweddings.com for some diy cards. its basically a black & white or sepia photograph (i'm thinking of shek o club), our names at the top, the date, venue and 'invitations to follow' or something like that. and to make it super cute, i'm hoping to add a magnet on the back, so people can stick it up on their fridge forever! cute memento for those who don't come too.

hmmm, or should i make it a postcard (save on envelope and magnet money)... will see.

rings rings rings

first off, i love my engagement ring. it is stunning and it is very me. i'll admit though, i still enjoy looking at real people's rings... one of my favourite sites to browse through is ringenvy. its a great procrastination tool and gives you such fab ideas for how i can design my wedding band to match my engagement ring.

its also got a section of celebrity engagement rings... let me just say WOW to katie holmes' (see right). it is a 5 carat, oval in platinum and rose gold with a split shank pave setting. inspired by her ring, i'm considering getting two micro pave rose gold rings to 'sandwich' my engagement ring which is in white gold... will see what hkgroom thinks.

'registering' the marriage

wow, who knew that registering a marriage is so much work! just on the hk immigration website now which deals with marriage registration. apparently, 'a notice of intended marriage' is needed to given either at the registry, or through the civil celebrant.

OMG! an english speaking civil celebrant can cost up to $5000! this is the dude (not a priest, but a lawyer) who says 'i now pronounce you husband and wife'. goodness, a bit pricey isn't it? no wonder lots of couples just get their papers signed at city hall! a marriage at the registrar is only $715 during normal office hours and $1935 outside normal office hours (i.e. sat or sun)... mental note to must ask family if we know any civil celebrants who can officiate our ceremony!

for a list of civil celebrants in hk, click here.

and here for a list of licensed places of worship to have a wedding.

amazing website... but in chinese

if anyone can read chinese and is planning their wedding, ESDlife is the perfect place to go. serious. shame i can't read that much chinese. instead, i've been looking at all their pictures.

here is the ESDlife page in english (practical stuff but boring)

and here is the ESDlife page in chinese, very very comprehensive. it has everything from gowns to banquet halls to slimming centres!

no wedding planner for me

after sleeping on the whole wedding planner/no wedding planner debate, i've decided to go with no wedding planner for now. i do have 13 months to plan... and i reckon that with the wedding planner fee that i save, i can get myself a nicer dress =)

goooooooo me!

wedding planners?

to wedding planning or no wedding planner, that is the question...

i've been thinking a lot of the to-be-wedding today and am feeling a little anxious over all the little details! photographers, cakes, flowers, centre pieces, music, budget, colour schemes, invitations, wedding bands, honeymoon, food, ceremony, guest transportation (to and from shek o), seating arrangements, and it goes on and on and on.

here are some wedding planners that i've googled:

marriage maestros- they describe themselves as 'a luxury wedding planning company' which will probably be waaayyyy beyond our budget. some stunning photos in their gallery though!

pink wedding- unsure of their professionalism, as they have plenty of grammatical errors on their website and their '8 questions to figure out if you need a wedding planner' part seems a little pushy.

bliss creations- they specialise in destination weddings. their website says that hong kong is on their destination list, but i wonder if it would be better for someone who lives in hk to find a company that does more work in hk.

mister and missus- a company that seems professional yet down to earth. in fact, so down to earth that they donate 2% of their fees to unicef hk. brownie points there!

should i just hire a wedding planner who would take care of 50% of the above? or because it is a once in a lifetime thing, i should just embrace the craziness and do it myself. hkgroom has expressed that he will take the backseat (except for food, honeymoon, wedding bands, and the cake) as long as i'm not 'silly' with the expenses. bagh- i'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing! of course i'd like hkgroom to enjoy wedding planning as it is important to me that the day is special to him too. i guess he's just a typical male and it really isn't 'his thing'.

she said yes!

my maid of honor said yes!

woahooooo!

bridal parrrty

the bridal party- how many people should be in one and who should one choose?

i was recently at a friend's wedding who had a five person bridal party (not including bride and groom). she had one maid of honor, and a bridesmaid. the groom on the other hand, had one best man, and two groomsmen. i had always thought that aesthetically, numbers look nicer even, so the same number of bridesmaids as groomsmen. so i decided from that day on, that i'd wanted an even number of attendants.

bridalguide.com suggests 12 bridesmaids is the maximum. goodness, 12 bridesmaids?!? how difficult would that be trying to dress shop with 12 bridesmaids, a maid of honor and a mother...

as hkgroom and i are hoping to dress our bridal party (as a thank you to them), naturally we're thinking of having a tiny bridal party. simply a maid of honor and a best man. who we would ask was surprisingly easy as we both asked our closest friends. me, a girlfriend since high school and him, a friend he has known since he was born. fingers crossed they'll say yes!

family planning

so my mum bought me my first wedding magazine today! however, it was all in chinese and so i can only get the gist of the articles. anyhow, there are lots of pretty pictures and it gives me a sense of weddings in hk and the names of bridal stores around. there was an article about going to the family planning clinic to get each partner 'tested'... how romantic!

goodness, just googled the family planning association in hk. their pre-marital packages cost $550-$750 and then extra for other things such as STD screening ($250-$550), anaemia profile ($600), cervical swab ($100-$250) and more. For a full list of services, go to the family planning association.

better safe then sorry, huh!

weddingbee

i am addicted.

www.weddingbee.com

lots of information in the form of discussion boards. dresses, shoes, rings, invitations, bridesmaids, ceremony, EVERYTHING.

auspicious dates?

according to hkmother-in-law, october 11, 2010 is a 'very very lucky day' for hkgroom and i.

hkmother-in-law is really into her fung shui stuff and so took both mine and hkgroom's details and calculated that oct 11, 2010 is actually the best day to marry in the month of october.

excellent!

it's perfect...

so i just realised that i have yet to post pictures up of my gorgeous new ring =) here it is!!!!

goodness, it is just perfect. i can't stop looking at it! it's an oval solitaire with a micro pave band totally at about 1.2 carats... sooooooo beautiful! hkgroom did such a good job choosing it. i knew i wanted either an oval, emerald, princess or cushion and because my fingers are so thin, the micro pave band looks perfectly dainty.

happy happy happy =)

and the winner is... Shek O Country Club!

so we knew from the beginning the sort of environment we wanted.

it had to be:
-private
-not a hotel
-not a chinese banquet hall
-not too expensive
-by the water (ideal)
-120-150 guests
-october 10, 2010 (10.10.10) <-- october because of the lack of rain and humidity in hk, cheap airfares

i really really really didn't want to have our ceremony/reception at a hotel because i didn't want our 'wedding portrait' to be displayed in the foyer of some hotel, with hotel guests peering into such an intimate and private moment of our lives.

with hkgroom's family being members of the HK Golf Club, we originally thought we'd have it there. hkgroom was such a sweetheart that he even booked the venue for us for october 8th 2010 (they didn't allow us to do it on the weekends, as it is a member's club and so during the busy times, must be kept open for members). so six out of the seven criteria....

talking about it with hkgroom some more, we thought about having it at Shek O Country Club (hkgroom's uncle is a member). however, doing it there would require pulling some strings and we weren't sure if it would be okay. perhaps we'd be able to do it on 10.10.10... we needed to ask QUICK before someone else booked that date. so we did, but again, can't do it on a weekend (see above... same reason). hmmm again, six out of seven criteria....

other places we looked into that would meet some (but not all) of our requirements included:

*The Peak Lookout- toooooooo expensive for us ($189,000 + 10% for 120 guests)

*Helena May- no water but was very reasonable ($300-400 per head dinner)!

*The Pawn- no water and didn't end up looking into price per head for a dinner reception, but a fantastic venue!

*The Bounty- lots and lots of water but not sure if the grandparents would be able to handle it!

*The Peninsula helicopter wedding- only $68,000 but only two witnesses and 28 people cocktail reception

so after much deliberation, we decided that we couldn't let the opportunity to have our wedding (ceremony + reception) at the Shek O Country Club go by. as one of the most exclusive clubs in hk, we are super lucky to know someone who is a member there. therefore, sucking it up, we set our date as october 11, 2010. even though we can't get 10.10.10, we are extremely fortunate to be able to celebrate our special day at such an amazing location =)

thank you hkgroom's uncle for making this happen!!!!

engaged!

i'm engaged! after 5 years and 3 months of being together, hkgroom and i are now engaged! yay!

our engagement story:

September 5th, 2009

i have to admit, because i was impatient, i had seen the gorgeous sparkler a week and a half before and even tried it on =P. good thing i did too as it was two times too big! so it took another 10 days for the ring to be resized. as soon as it was ready, we went to pick it up. wheeeee!

anyhow, hkgroom and i had planned an 'engagement dinner' at Osteria Ristorante Italiano. we had been before a few months back and were very impressed with the service, atmosphere, great food and in particular how they got the pasta perfect (al dente)... very very tasty! needless to say, we were once again impressed and the night started off wonderfully.

after dinner we went back to hkgroom's parent's house to drop some stuff off and found out that hkmother-in-law had got a new puppy! gorgeous little black toy poodle! very playful and cute. *sigh* can't wait to get a puppy of our own!

dinner, puppy, then up to Fei Ngor Shan aka Kowloon Peak (飛鵝山) for the proposal! hkgroom and i used to head up there during the early years of our relationship as it is truly stunning up there (see pic). i'd say even more beautiful than The Peak as you can see the lights from Kowloon side. anyhow, we found a nice, quiet place and hkgroom pulled the ring out of his pocket and said the magic words! bawling my eyes out, of course i said yes! it was perfect!

woahooo!!! i'm in love with my man and my beauuutiful sparkler!