wedding registry

double happiness

so far, we've got a couple of 'where are you registered' questions, particularly from out of towners. so after talking to future hkFIL, we decided to find a place to register. my first thought was lane crawford as i knew they did gift registry there.

so today, hkgroom and i went to lane crawford (a department store i normally love) in tst and we were extremely unimpressed with their service. three of their staff tried to help us and they really had no idea what they were doing (like asking if we had vip membership- i asked if this meant that we couldn't register if we weren't, and them admitting that they were unfamiliar with the gift registry process, and not knowing where the forms were on their computer system). when it comes down it it, it was poor service. so yeah, i got talking to the person and it turns out that they don't do online tracking of gifts or an option to purchase gifts online!!!! seriously!!! lane crawford, what day in age do you live in?!?!

so that was not an option for us, again, out of towners will find hunting down a lane crawford difficult and doing things online is just soooo much easier.

so then i remembered double happiness from when i was googling wedding stuff. they have loads of partner merchants (including indigo, pantry magic, bed & bath, miele, ovo, zwilling knives, royal doulton, kenwood) and even merchants for expectant mothers such as bumps to babes and mothercare. so we can download an 'order form' and take it to one of their partner merchants, and make orders, which then get put through to double happiness, which then make it available for guests to purchase.

so far, the site has been awesome as registering with them is free and they even offer the option for guests to pay 'partially' for the gift (if over $2000hkd or something like that) and cash option (with something like a 12.5% service fee)... they do online tracking of gifts and free delivery to hk island and some parts of kowloon. they will also deliver on a date that is good for you (we chose a date in november, leaving enough time for after the honeymoon).

they've given us our own link that i can add to our wedding website or they have an option of providing our guests' emails and so they can email guests with our registry info. they also have an online rsvp system! also, the prices of products are in line with the official shop itself, so guests will not get ripped off.

gosh, i'm totally raving about this site. tis awesome!

i can't wait to check out some of their partner merchants to get some kitchen and bedding stuff! hurray! soooooooo exciting!

first dance

i reckon this is the bit that hkgroom is most dreading... the first dance. in his words, "we'll only be up there for 10 seconds before our parents and everyone else comes up". yeah right! more like a minute or two! i want some good photos of us first before everyone else come up. hehe

anyhow, as i think i've mentioned before, i will be walking down the aisle to isreal kamakawiwo'ole's 'over the rainbow'

(more like just the intro to the song- first 30 secs- yes, i've timed it). and then we'll be using the song again for our first dance to tie it all together! yay!!! and i want to get my friend justin to perform it! yay! super duper excited =)

seriously my most favourite song of all time (ever since kermit the frog's rendition)- check it out below =)

dress fitting #1

yay! finally! a chance to get my dress fitted! i spotted her ages and ages ago- like back in december/january. had to bring hkdaddy to have a look. and he approves! yay! it will take around 2 months to get made (tailor made). very very exciting though- i love it! gosh the sample is uber small. like super super small... whats up with super small brides?! will post pics later...

dream dress

ok, so was walking around soho waiting for hkgroom before dinner... and i found my dream dress- its a romona keveza part of her legends line... but with a price tag of $27000, its simply a no-f-ing-way. yay for hk being tailor heaven! =)

done done done! goodbye MEd!

today is a good day- i finally handed in my masters project! after 2 years of hard work and at 5.15pm i put it in the little 'inbox' =) yay yay yay!

i was getting really tired of my masters. soooooooooooooo over it. 80k for a piece of paper, seriously. was it worth it, in terms of the quality of that degree? nope. i think i learned more at my work place than doing this 2 year part time course. the instructors weren't that great with absolutely zero experience of hk and the education systems in hk. urgh. what i learned was absolutely rubbish. i want my $80000 back, but i guess i'm glad i got it over and done with at a young age, otherwise i'll probably never get around to it.

his ring

another thing to cross off! we have ordered hkgroom's ring. 14k white gold with black gold edges. size 8.5. should be ready in a week. will post a picture when we pick it up. yay! now its time to think... to engrave or not to engrave... that is the question...

and they're done!!!

yay! they are done and ready to post/hand deliver! yay! my hands are seriously going to cramp any minute. will post pic- i'm so proud! hurray!

done till we get some rsvps and so we can do round two!

most of them done...

cindy + husband.... i need names damnit! so like most couples, we are inviting people we 'need' to invite simply out of courtesy. hkgroom is not close to his chinese family, and so literally have not seen these people in like, two years. but still, we need to invite them. so when it comes to invitation writing, i have no idea how to address them!

i've got a wedding spreadsheet with everyone's information on to help me, but its really not much help if important things like names are still missing! hkgroom doesn't even know the surname! if i had a surname, i could at least work with mr. and mrs. chan, or lee, or whatever!

urgh!!!!!!

back to handwriting

after a whole day of investigating wrap around labels... i decided that it is probably even more work... so ended up just handwriting it all. bagh. wrote one to hkgroom's co-worker who was over playing xbox with hkgroom one evening and he commented on my 'beautiful' handwriting! muahahaha that was really nice. i literally am running out of ink with that particular pen from practicing on lined paper, and then tracing it onto the envelope. i'm such a geek... will keep posted on how long it will take!

shoes shoes shoes

'surprise' by dyos

so i haven't really looked into shoes... i've been to the christian louboutain and jimmy choo shops in central to have a look at their 'wedding shoes'. gorgeous but also like $6000HKD per pair.

saw an ad on facebook- dyos (design your own shoes) and i love these white satin platform sling back peeptoes with a round bow called 'surprise' (they also come in turquoise). soooooo pretty! hopefully they won't cost an arm and leg...

invites are here!

wow its been ages since my last post... craziness- actually, life has been crazy. super busy at work and trying to get my paper done and my macbook decided to die on my (hard disk problems). had to go down to the po (sham shui po) and get an emergency hard disk replacement. lost everything =( no joke. sucky. thank god i saved my paper on my usb and only lost the 'recent file' with 800 words or so.

anyhow, invites are here! hurray! spent last night trying to handwrite the envelopes, as tradition calls for. did 4 and turns out they look butt ugly- i even made the effort and bought brown pens!!!!

now i think i'm going to do wrap around labels a la martha stewart (again!).

a damask envelope

i'm considering this damask one or the martha stewart original one with maybe a simple brown border?

our photos!!!

yay!!!! we finally got our engagement photos! after of just over a month of waiting (some issues with the post), we got our lovely photos! our photographer was such a doll and even printed some out for us and put them in a gorgeous white album. beautiful! got home after work and extra tutoring and immediately put them up on a server that my family uses to share pictures, and on facebook. hehehe good ol' facebook.

and we're back...

we got back on sunday night and so went straight back to work on the monday. urgh... super super tired. hence the lack of updates.

went out today for some yummy nha trang (vietnamese on wellington st.) and then frozen yoghurt (berrygood on graham st) and then to our lovely jewellers to pick out a ring for hkgroom! i think he found something today! hurray! didn't order it yet though as the lady who normally deals with us wasn't here today, so someone else entertained us for a while and promised to put aside that particular ring for us. very nice of them. i think we'll spend the next few days looking at men's rings online to see if there's something else we/he likes. also gotta think of phrases so we can engrave it onto our rings!

very exciting!

thailand

yay! will be leaving for our bi/tri-annual trip down to thailand in about 10 hours. can't wait! will have some work to do for my masters project, but i think i'll also try to put together a wedding scrapbook! hehehe- i've never done scrapbooking before so this will definitely be something new! so i did some googling again and found this again, on marthastewartweddings and i love it!

i think this can be my fun little project when hkgroom is out playing golf!

golf buggy

so i've decided that i'll likely arrive to the aisle by a golf buggy (unless we can afford a helicopter) =) and hkgroom and i and our photographer, will likely take the buggy again to take photos around the course and drive over to the nearby beach (literally the beach meets the course at one end) for our wedding pictures. anyhow, i wanted to get the buggy decorated with streamers and old cans on the back (more for photos than anything else!) but it'll be super cute. so i tried to google that image, but nothing really came up!!! all the 'decorated wedding golf buggy' images were not what i was really looking for- i had a set image in my mind.

so then i went back to the great martha stewart- the inspiration for our lovely save the dates, hehehehe and found this:

which i want hanging on the back of the buggy. i showed our 'art director' at work who has offered to help/do it for me! she makes the most amazing art projects at work for the kiddies and loves doing artsy things. anyhow, she has even suggested using clay (kinda like playdough that dries) which would make it amazing. must get dimensions of golf buggy to her....

still no photos yet.... =(

hmmm still waiting on the photos... and i'm holding off giving her a ring... i don't want to sound desperate! hahaha how lame am i?

maybe i'll wait till end of the week and use going off to thailand for 10 days as an excuse for her to hurry up! oh yea- we're going to thailand!!!! thailand is like, our second home. we go there two to three times a year. last year, we went twice to three different places- bangkok, phuket and hua hin. this year, we hope to go twice again... but we'll see how the finances are closer to the wedding.

we're heading to hua hin with the hkin-laws as they have a house down there. hua hin is about 2.5hrs drive from bangkok and its known as 'where the king has his summer palace'. hua hin is a huge golfing area of thailand, which is why the in-laws have a house there. anyhow, as i don't play golf, i'll be taking it easy, working on my final masters paper, getting plenty of massages and manicures, and of course, eating lots and lots of yummy thai food! can't wait to get on our little moped to do some exploring this time! all the times we've been down there, we've gone to the same places. maybe do some outlet shopping. hehe yay! can't wait!

accessorize

whenever i go travelling, i'm always on the look out for stores (boutiques or chains) which sell awesome stuff, and then think of who i can get from that country to send stuff to me. i've always had a thing for claire's, which sells accessories and that's even where my sister got her ears pierced at the age of two! i guess i've got a soft spot for claire's because it was the place to go when i was young to get everything from earrings to hair ties to house slippers. anyhow, i am super excited to announce that accessorize is now open in hong kong! festival walk to be exact! yay! this one even has clothing for sale (though not cheap- $400 for a tube dress). they've even got hairpieces that are wedding appropriate for about $500. very exciting!

waiting sucks...

la di da... waiting for our photos... she said this weekend, but we haven't heard from her yet! i can't wait!

invitations- finally!

these ones are like the traditional chinese calendars!!!

i love the bow- gorgeous

this is similar to our invite... but we're not doing the pretty envelope thing as people just throw it out! and ours are bilingual- chinese on the back

after ages of procrastinating and trying to get things right, we have finally gone to the printers and submitted our design! i get to see a sample on monday the 29th! yay! i can't wait! they're simple, and elegant, and totally personalised as we have our own monogram. we also got rsvp card things too which we didn't expect to do, but it makes sense. we decided to go with a company called good day and its lucky that i can speak cantonese otherwise we wouldn't be able to communicate! anyhow, they were fantastic and we got 20% off the invite price (minus embossing fee, chinese on the back, and rsvp cards). the invites come with lai see packets, envelopes and stickers to seal the envelopes. the total price came to just over $1500 for 130 invites. i guess that's pretty good- actually, they got some real super elaborate invites but totally not our style!

monograms

so for the longest time, we were looking into monograms and i googled diy monograms which doing monograms using word or powerpoint. i told hkmoh who freaked out- she's a designer. hahahahaha basically, using word to 'design' is the biggest no-no in the design industry. so she offered to do monograms for us. yay!

i sent her this link and she came up with something similar to r36 and r18 for us. love her!!!

photos at the end of the week??

so quick?! hurray! i can't wait!

'music! makes the people, come together!'

justin performing at a sam hui concert

heard great news tonight! my good friend justin lim has agreed to perform at our wedding! super exciting! he's really really good! he tours with his 'sifu' (master), hk pop legend sam hui (許冠傑). justin knows every elvis song there is off by heart and we're sooo lucky that he's agreed to perform. justin has done concerts with sam hui at the MGM in vegas and did one in macau at the venetian just two weeks ago. check him out at http://www.alivenotdead.com/JustLim

thank you justin!!!

qi pao

my tea ceremony qi pao

i bought a qi pao! woahoo! what a weekend- first our engagement photos and now a qi pao for our tea ceremony. yay! it has pearl buttons running down the side and going across- super pretty and was only $700 down from $1500. what a steal! might have to get it taken in a little though by a tailor... but will see closer to the date. i love it!

fab engagement photos

orange gerbera daisies

it was soooooooooo much fun! we met our photographer early, at 8am at lai king station to drive over to sai kung. at first, i had thought we were going to long ke wan- but it turns out she was totally talking about a different beach! she was actually talking about sai wan (even better because hkgroom and i know it very well)

so we drive into sai kung and then take a cab into the country park and go to 'sai wan pavillion' (sai wan ting) and then did a 20 minute hike to the beach where we set up and took photos.

the weather was not great- very misty with a bit of wind, and not really warm. i was a little bit bummed to begin with but i think it added a vintage-y feel to the pictures! so yay for the 'sea mist' (i.e. pollution!?)

i brought 4 outfits (jeans and black top and flip flops, a dressier grey dress with cute heels, a pastel green casual dress, and an arsenal top- a special photo for hkgroom)

hkgroom brought 3 outfits (jeans and black top and flip flops, a button down white/brown striped shirt with brown trousers and brown shoes, and matching arsenal top)

we took over a hundred photos- lots of candid shots and a couple of posed. i also bought some gorgeous flowers (pic above) in orange from a florist in lan kwai fong (chok kee flower shop) the night before as we wore neutral colours to really pop in the photos. love love love them!

the whole experience was really fun and was extra great for us because we didn't have to pay for it. getting dolled up and getting super high quality photos from a 'professional' of just the two of us... really really fun! will post photos as soon as we get them- can't wait!!!

7 months to go!

exactly 7 more months to go before i'm a mrs!!!!!

engagement photos

i can't remember if i posted about this... but i found someone to take free engagement photos for us! hurray! she's starting up her own business and is in need to building up her portfolio. anyhow, we're scheduled for this weekend at dai long wan in sai kung (our absolutely favourite place in hong kong). fingers crossed for the good weather!

intercontinental 'luxury' wedding fair

amazing wedding fair! sure beats the one at hk expo centre the other week! this one serves free canapes and moet champagne! yum! there were a couple of wedding planning services available- we now think we might need someone to act as our day coordinator to make sure everything goes according to plan. the last thing we need is myself or hkgroom or any of the guests stressed out about something!

they were also offering something called the HK$1 million dollar wedding at the intercontinental... get this, you need to spend HK$1 million dollars on just food and bev. serious! if you can do this, you can get the following perks for 'free':

• Two air tickets to New York City with two nights’ accommodation at the InterContinental Barclay Hotel.
• Private appointments for bridal consultations at the Vera Wang Flagship Boutique and Harry Winston Boutique in New York City.
• His & Her platinum wedding bands by Harry Winston
• One night’s bridal / honeymoon accommodation in InterContinental Hong Kong’s stunning Terrace suite
• One pair of elegant Baccarat champagne flutes
• A luxury facial for the bride by “La Mer” (normally available by invitation only)

i wonder what the food is like for 1 million dollars... caviar everything? some people obviously have waaaaayyy to much money.

meet the in-laws was a success!

woahoo! it was a success! hkdaddy brought his a-game and was totally lovely- super smiley, was making loads of conversation and laughing at jokes. hkmummy was busy talking to hkgroom's mum and they were happy. hkgroom's granny was a superstar too! she didn't get too drunk (this 81 year old can seriously drink!) and didn't say anything silly. hkgroom's dad was lovely as always. yay! it all went very well!

thank goodness!

bye bye sephora

so... sephora has just announced that they will be closing march 31st 2010... so sad! i was going to get lots of wedding make up stuff from there just before the wedding! ohwell... that just means i'll need to go on a mini-sephora shopping spree between now and the end of the month! woahoo!!! new makeup!!!

in-laws meet in-laws

omg. the inlaws will be meeting the inlaws on march 6th 2010, 6.30pm for roast goose at chan kee in sham tseng.

our parents have never met before. seriously. never.

after over 5 and a half years together, our parents will finally meet. we've never really thought of this as weird, as we've never really seen the need for them to meet. but now, with all the wedding plans coming up, we thought it was only fair for hkmummy and hkdaddy to meet their future in-laws so they could visit shek o golf club and to try the food we will be having.

omg omg omg hkgroom and i have every intention of having lots to drink...

message cookie cutters

how totally cute would these be for cookies as part of our candy buffet? these message-in-a-cookie cutters are from williams-sonoma are fab because you can customize them yourself by sliding in words or letters to make your own messages. they come in rectangle, heart or star shapes. love love love!

wedding dash 2

every once in a while, i like to play computer games. i play silly ones like diner dash, zuma, bejeweled, super collapse and those kinds of games. i was on yahoo looking for new games and found wedding dash 2! sweeeeet... going to try it right now on our home pc (i'm a mac girl)... really wish yahoo games would make their games mac friendly.

valentine's wedding expo part 2

yay! we went! it was really fun (though hkgroom would disagree). we managed to find someone to do our wedding invitations. we were going to go with progressive press in wellington street, central, but we've never been able to go there as every time we pass by (on a weekend) they're closed! every single time! ridiculous.

i originally thought about doing some diy ones to save money and to really embrace the whole experience. but as i really need to be focusing on school stuff (papers, assignments and final dissertation) and work, we've decided it's probably best to just get someone to print them for us.

so we had a look at two different vendors who printed invitations and sifted through lots and lots of samples. we settled on this one company who did super simple ones for a good price. because we chose to go with them today, we got 20% off our final price (yay!!!) i'll post some pictures later of some of the invitations we saw, and the ones we'll probably go with.

included in our price, we get invitations, envelopes with a design, sticker seals for the envelopes, and lai see packets. i'm going to see if i can get them to do rsvp cards too. yay yay yay! super excited! gotta send our designs and stuff to the people soon though! they said it takes a month to print! we want to get our invites out in april to give our overseas guests plenty of time to plan.

we also found a super good civil celebrant deal! only $2850 for lawyer and the documentations. also includes a feather pen for the signing, and a ring pillow! hahaha will need to go on their website though and interview some of them to ensure that they can speak good english. i think that's our priority- level of english fluency... will see...

valentine's wedding expo

a valentine's wedding expo is going on right now in hong kong... its running from feb 19-21. to be honest, there are a number of wedding expos every year. this one however, is located at the hk convention and exhibition centre, so i'm assuming it will be big, with loads of vendors. hopefully there will be discounts and freebies! i'm hoping hkgroom will be up for it!

wedding scent

didn't really think about this till i was cleaning the house... but a wedding 'scent' for the big day! seriously. a smell that you and your husband will associate with your wedding day as he leans in for the first kiss. lucky for me, i was given a giant bottle of marc jacob's lola for christmas by hkgroom's auntie. extra lucky for me, it smells devine! (i checked it out when i was at sephora- yay!) i've got my wedding scent! i wonder what hkgroom will smell like on our big day...

candy buffet jars

hkgroom and i walked into franc franc to today to kill time before our princess and the frog movie time (very sweet and totally disney!) and i think we found the type of candy buffet jars we're looking for! how awesome are these?!? pretty pricey though (over $1000 hkd per jar) so we're definitely on the hunt for cheaper. at least hkgroom and i are on the same page!

happy valentine's day and year of the tiger!

happy valentine's day and happy chinese new year! hkgroom and i have mutually agreed not to get gifts this valentine's day to save up for the big day. instead, we'll have a lovely home cooked meal... we're thinking pork chops, pasta and gravy with some veg and a nice bottle of sparkly. yum yum yum.

fun fact: apparently the first day of the chinese new year is an auspicious day, but not for weddings. so there will likely be fewer weddings today than any other valentine's day!

gorgeous promise ring

just found the cutest thing ever! check out this knot promise ring from white fly. j'adore!

urgh!

need to vent. so mutual friends of hkgroom and i got engaged over christmas and we now find out that they're going to have their wedding 'sometime in september'. the friend chose september because of family reasons and when i asked why they don't just do it the year after, she simply said 'i don't want a long engagement'- ok fair enough, but there's nothing i can say to that!

the exact date hasn't been announced yet (although i do believe they have picked their venue and they've probably put down a deposit). i don't know if this is truly fair, but i'm a little upset that they're having their wedding right before ours even though we announced when ours would be and sent out our save the dates ages and ages ago. i feel a little like our thunder has been stolen! obviously, if their wedding is in early september, it would make me feel better as there is more time in between ours. but if the wedding is a week before ours or something similar, i think i may throw a fit!

i can't believe i actually told them some of our wedding details wayy wayy wayy back before they got engaged! now i'm super worried that they'll steal our ideas, and because their wedding will be before ours, people will think we stole their ideas! i seriously seriously hope i'm just over-thinking things and that this wouldn't happen at all...

more rings rings rings

i absolutely adore my own ring! love, love, love it! however, i recently saw a parent at the school wearing a 1.5carat split shank halo diamond ring... gorgeous! i couldn't help but steal glances whenever i could.

during my moments of procrastination and looking at ring porn on weddingbee or ringenvy , i'm very glad hkgroom chose an oval for me. speaking to hkmummy the other day, she basically frowned upon pear shaped diamonds as they look like tear drops. i'm not sure if it is a chinese thing, or if it is the general connotations of the pear, but i can't help but think, thank gosh hkmummy approves of my oval!

other styles i ogle over are the cushion and princess... i think i mentioned this before, but the princess is susceptible to chipping due to its corners. definitely not cool!

wedding first peek!!!

awww i was hoping for a bigger pic! isn't this cute??? david's bridal has it all! this is sooooooo much fun. i'm going to do more!

average engagement ring size

according to this article, the average engagement ring size is about 0.38 carats. but in cities like new york and boston, it goes up to 1.6 carats!!! california averages at 1 carat and southern states averaging between 0.25-0.4 carats.

compare this with beyonce's 18 carat, $5millionUSD ring!!!! what a diva!

yum. i love ring porn.

and now we're broke... again...

just paid the deposit on our photographer!!! yay!!!

now we're looking forward to our next pay cheques!

its called a 'ring wrap'

guess i learn something new everyday!

my wedding set!!!

i'm soooooooooooo happy to get my rings- i've been wearing them the past 3 hours. i'm allowing myself to wear it till i see hkmummy so she can put it in her safe. they're super duper pretty! the first pic shows the set, and the second pic is how its put together, its basically like wearing 3 rings, sandwiched together. but the top and bottom rings are made into one and my engagement ring slides in the middle. yay bling bling!!!

brown suit?

i've always been a bit unsure about brown suits... sorta weird, but found this on online which looks okay! or i'm thinking of a tan coloured suit with a brown tie to keep with the 'simple' bit of our wedding. we want guests to feel relaxed and i reckon the groom really sets the scene with what colours he wears... hkgroom is thinking of maybe not wearing a tie. hmmm.....

theme and latest inspiration board

so we got our colours sorted ages ago... but didn't have a formalised theme. we do now! we're going with 'simple elegance' with our chocolate brown/ivory wedding colours.

yay! love it

polaroids for guestbook????

woahooo!!! the polaroid is back!!! just found out today. super cool and excited.

i've been thinking of getting polaroids of guests and sticking them in a scrapbook instantly so people can write comments next to it...

it’s called the POGO series and there are two products… one is the digital camera + printer in one, and the other is a mobile printer (just prints out photos). it is a 5 megapixel camera, which isn't great, but it's okay i guess. only downside to this is that the pictures are quite small 2×3inches… good thing is that it is printed on sticky paper, so you can just peel off the back and stick the pics anywhere.

Logon sells it but apparently the digi cam + printer is sold out but will come back mid Jan.
the digi cam+printer is about $1500HKD
the film comes in 30 per pack for $80HKD

happy birthday to me + rings for him

had a very lovely birthday today. woke up late, did a bit of work, and then headed out for high tea at the peninsula. yummy classic high tea with scones, devonshire clotted cream and jam, pastries, finger sandwiches, unlimited tea... all together with a string quartet. fantastic!

then also checked out bvlgari for potential rings for hkgroom... found this baby! it fit really nice, was super comfy (apparently) and made me a little sad that i wouldn't be getting one if hkgroom was going to get one... maybe i'll get one anyway.... teeheehee. they do a gorgeous one with diamonds in the middle bit =)

didn't get it though, want to still keep our options open and try on other styles/colours/materials. hkgroom is being really good about it all and is trying on different rings (even though he pulls a face about walking into jewellery stores!) gosh this one is nice!!!

we found him!!!

we have just our photographer! he used to work as a war photographer as part of a british army and he's shot photos of prince william! how awesome is that??? he takes fantastic photos and has experience at shek o golf club, so he knows where to go for great shots. sweet! another thing off the list... needless to say, i'm stoked! =)

happy new year!

happy new year! woahoooo! i can finally say i'm getting married this year!

meeting another potential photographer tomorrow, and then going to high tea at the peninsula as my birthday present from hkgroom. very exciting!