Invitation

We are in a major transition at the moment, extremely busy packing up our belongings in Edinburgh. I got a job offer in Hong Kong which requires me to start on July 12. This Saturday will be my last day in Edinburgh. I need to return to Vancouver to grab a few more things before I make it to HK. BMM will go to Vancouver too because we need to take our pre-wedding photos. I have very few days of paid vacation, so I need to save them for our wedding next year. In case you wonder if we will be living separately in two places…the answer is NO…fortunately BMM's professors allow him to continue his PhD study without physically being in Edinburgh. The good news is BMM will join me in HK by September.

This post is about invitation…I know this sounds crazy since we still have a year before our wedding, but our wedding invitations have already been made. Like most couples, originally we were thinking we would order from some company, so we only need to pick a design, come up with the wording, press the pay button and put a check mark on the list of completed tasks. After searching online for a few days, nothing seemed to satisfy us. Like I said before, we would like to be more involved in our wedding arrangements, so we came to the conclusion to make our own invitations.

The first step was to look at the techniques and tools available for DIY invitation cards, most importantly manageable ways for amateurs to handle a card project. We visited several art & craft shops in Edinburgh to gather ideas and recommendations. After looking at several card making machines and tools, we agreed upon using an embossing technique on a square gate folded card design.

We went to Paper Mill Direct to purchase a box of light grey card stock, a pack of linen paper, a corner rubber stamp, four colors of embossing powder, two pigment ink pads, a butterfly punch, a border punch, a sheet of foam pads, a bag of flower sequins and one hundred envelopes. Then I went on ebay to buy a glue gun, a heat gun, a card scoring board and tool kit, and two rolls of ribbons. Lastly, we got a paper trimmer and some double sided tape.

We began to make prototypes and practice embossing at home. The embossing process was difficult to master, it took us at least a dozen tries to come up with the first satisfactory product. First, you have to dab the pigment ink pad onto the rubber stamp and press it firmly on the paper. Then cover the wet ink with embossing powder completely. Slide the excess powder off the card by holding it upward and clear the excess near the edges with a small brush. Lastly, hover the heat gun an inch away from the paper until the powder appears to be melted to create a raised effect. The steps are certainly easy to follow, but when you are actually doing the embossing it is not as easy as you think. To make matters worse, at the end of each session we were surrounded by powder and glitter everywhere.

By the time we got better at the embossing technique, we went to Paperchase to purchase three big sheets of high quality paper (one in purple and two in white fabric material) and two boxes of metal brads to begin making the card shells. The three big sheets of paper were trimmed into small pieces of rectangular shapes to paste onto the front gated panels. Some shells have both panels decorated with the nice paper, others only have one panel. There's no particular reason, we wanted to mix it up a bit so that the manufacturing process would be more interesting. The shells with only one panel covered usually have two butterflies on the other panel and two flowers inside the card. Whereas the shells with both panels covered will have only two butterflies inside. When the white fabric paper was used, the corners were secured by the metal brads. Each time I could only work with a certain number of shells with the fabric paper because my right thumb and index fingers needed to rest from pushing the brads through the thick card stock.


The wording of the invite was printed on a light purple background, surrounded by a bright red border. The upper left corner has an embossed image either in blue, green, holographic or red tinsel. Each card tied with a purple organza ribbon on the outside to keep the panels closed. Remember the list of items we purchased for this DIY invitation project? Just so you know we did use every single item we mentioned here, however not everything was fully depleted. BMM registered a domain (http://winnie.ritterman.info/) for our guests to RSVP and to provide them with further information about the wedding. We want to be environmental friendly and cut down the use of paper wherever possible.

Due to respect to my elders, I created two Chinese invitations especially for my grandmothers. Everyone else in my family is English literate so there's no need to mass produce invitations in dual languages.

We shall begin sending out our invites about three months before the wedding. All of BMM's family members and guests need to make travel arrangements to Vancouver; the majority of my friends will have to make a special trip to Vancouver for the occasion as well, so we think three months ahead is appropriate in our situation.

Wedding Bands

We ordered our wedding bands at the end of January from Lime Blue (the same store where BMM bought me the engagement ring). Both of us wish to have matching bands and we came up with a design that would be suitable for both genders.

BMM insisted the wedding bands to be made of platinum for its long lasting and durable characteristics. I wanted a small square diamond on each band to give them a little more pizazz. We chose a double band design for extra definition, with a matte finish on the inner band. This means a thinner matte finish band is placed on top of a thicker band. Our wedding bands were hand made; BMM's band is 6mm wide and mine is 4mm wide.

My band was taken back to Lime Blue three times due to unsatisfactory workmanship. I know I'm picky and overly attentive to detail but I thought I have every right to be fastidious on this most important piece of jewelry in my life. The problem was the edge of the matte inner band was rough, especially in the front close to the square diamond. When I ran my thumb over the surface of the band, there was a slight cutting sensation. The worse part was I could clearly identify the uneven finish just by looking at it.

As I was told by Lime Blue that the female band was quite thin, so it was hard to make the edge completely smooth. After two attempts to repair it I saw no improvement and pretty much had lost my patience at that point, so I told the store manager I would only give them one last chance. The store manager said since the previous repairs at the workshop didn't work she would send the band to the company's personal jeweler for the last attempt. She would offer us a refund if this final repair effort fails. Fortunately by the end of April, the band came back with a nice, smooth edge…so glad it was finally over.

Reception Decoration & Flowers

Since there are only 2hrs between the ceremony and the reception, we expect all decoration and set up to be completed before the ceremony at 3:00pm.

For the reception, Jack & Jill Weddings (JJ) will be responsible for the head table, guest book table, cake table and the ceiling décor. The dining area is surrounded by lots of windows with plenty of natural lighting. Behind the head table is a series of windows, so we do not want to order a backdrop to block the view and the light. For the head table, we like the idea of using dark purple swag and a string of lights to embellish the front of the table where it faces the guests. The two large floral arrangements in the ceremony will relocate to the reception on the two ends of the head table. Perhaps will order a long and low floral arrangement to place in the middle of the head table. There is a ceiling lattice work in the middle of the main dining area. Both of us love the idea of fabric draping on the ceiling to accentuate the lattice work above. We haven't thought about the design for the guest book and cake table. The details will be communicated with JJ a couple months before the wedding.





I dislike the concept of paying someone else to do every single thing for the wedding. This is such an important day in my life and I wish to be more involved in the process, especially to be able to make something for my own wedding. After discussing with BMM, we have decided to be fully in charge to decorate the guest tables. Creating centerpieces will be our most significant contribution. Our initial thought is to make submerged flower centerpieces, with floating candles or placing waterproof LED lights in the bottom of the vases. I have done my research on suitable flowers to use underwater and a handful of choices are my favorite, including tulip, orchid, hydrangea, calla lily and rose. In order to establish a more appealing setting, we are considering to add a second design of centerpieces, small flower arrangements in cube vases. Ideally half of the guest tables with submerged flower centerpieces and the other half with small flower arrangements. We will add flower petals and candles surrounding the centerpieces to enhance a romantic ambiance.







The wedding theme color is purple, so we will purchase violet shade table overlays or linens for the guest tables. If the overlays/linens do not have printed patterns, yellow runners will be added to brighten up the tables. Chairs will be wrapped in solid white covers with purple satin/organza sashes. I am looking for other ways to tie the sashes, aside from the conventional style of tying a bow.



The traditional display of table numbers will not be used at our wedding. We have decided to assign our tables with city names, places that we have traveled to together. BMM suggested a while ago to use a map as the seating chart, but I thought this is difficult to accomplish since many cities we have been to cluster in Europe. I'm not sure how to fit the guest names on the map without looking too messy. Nevertheless this idea is very creative, so perhaps we will take a closer look later. For the individual name tags, I am thinking of printing the names on lotus shape papers. Attach a cocktail straw at the back of each lotus and place it in a wine glass. I have a Cuttlebug (die cutting) machine at home, so I can buy a variety of die templates to make all sorts of crafty designs.

The lotus die template is sold by Spellbinders.



The chart below shows the responsibilities of each party:

	Reception
	JJ	Florist	BLMM
Head Table Décor	√
Guestbook Table Décor	√
Cake Table Décor	√
Ceiling Décor	√
Guest Table Centerpieces			√
Flower Petals & Candles			√
Table Overlays & Runners			√
Chair Covers & Sashes			√
Long & Low Arrangement		√

Ceremony Decoration & Flowers

For the sake of convenience, our ceremony will be held at the same location as our reception, at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club. We plan to begin the ceremony at 3:00pm and the reception at 6:00pm. The 2hrs in between are intended for photo shoot with family, friends and the bridal party.

The Club allows set up at the venue starting at 10:00am. An afternoon ceremony is preferred so that we can actually help to do some set up. We have heard from many married couples that there will be no time for us to do anything the day of, except be focused on our part of the day's festivities. However, being a control freak I really can't imagine not taking part in the decoration set up. I will get so upset when I arrive at the venue and see something turns out not the way I wanted at the last minute. So I'm hoping that I can spend a couple hours at the Club to decorate before the ceremony starts.

We have confirmed to hire Jack & Jill Weddings (JJ) to cover the decoration work partially for our ceremony and reception. Why partially…for two reasons: 1) JJ refuses to take on ceremony chair rental and 2) we like to make our own centerpieces and get our own linens, chair covers and sashes for the reception.

The Club does not provide any outdoor chairs for the ceremony; this is EXTREMELY EXASPERATING. This element alone will cost us CAD$400-500 just to rent 100 chairs being used for no more than 45 minutes. I really hate to deal with an extra vendor and rental company generally has a very wide delivery window, which makes it unpredictable when exactly the chairs will arrive.

The look we want to create for our ceremony is quite simple. Guests will be seated facing the ocean view on the outdoor ceremony ground. A wedding arch at the front with two big flower arrangements placed on pillars, creating a small triangular shape. An aisle runner down the center of the ground, with flower petals along the two long edges. Fabric draping from the chairs following the two sides of the aisle runner. Round pew markers hanging down the chairs on every other row on both sides. We need to check with the Club if we can sprinkle flower petals on the ground. We were told by florists that many venues do not allow flower petals on the ground because they stain carpet if they get stuck on shoes and taken inside.





The chart below shows the responsibilities of each party:

	Ceremony
	JJ	Florist	BLMM
Chairs			√
Arch	√
Fabric Draping	√
Aisle Runner			√
Pew Markers			√
Flower Petals			√
Flower Arrangements		√
Bridal Bouquet		√
Bridesmaids Bouquets		√
Boutonnieres & Corsages			√

Travel Diary - Chapter 3: Berlin

St. Valentine's Day behind the iron curtain.

Well February was approaching, and that can only mean one thing, the day we celebrate a Roman priest that was brutally martyred at the hands of Emperor Claudius II. Yes none other than Valentine's Day, what does this murder of a priest have to do with love? I have no idea, but we need some day to celebrate our sweethearts, right...so why not? Anyway it had been almost a month since the M's had been away on a trip and a whole two months since they had been out of the UK, this could not stand so they decided to take a trip on this most special day to the most romantic city in Europe, Paris… NO… the home of the Third Reich, the Gestapo, and Checkpoint Charlie.. none other than Berlin. All joking aside, Berlin despite it some times sorted history is a charming city with a lot to see and do, and some very friendly residents.

LMM the undisputed master of Ryanair by this point, was looking over the deals to be had and came across a ticket to Berlin for the weekend of the 14th. The deal, £70pp, was actually quite expensive for a ticket to Berlin (considering it was with Ryanair). But for a special occasion, their fist Valentine's Day together and it just did not seem right to spend it siting in the small dorm in Edinburgh, so they decided to go for it and booked the tickets. This would also mark the start of their travels outside of the UK with no checked bags :P Fresh off their trip to London, LMM bought a nice, hiking style backpack that would 1) fit in the Ryanair carry on restriction and 2) be just big enough that they could bring a few days supplies without needing a checked bag.

Our Journey in Berlin

The trip out was uneventful; the flight is short from Edinburgh to Berlin. Upon arriving they were greeted with typical German efficiency, there was a quick s-bahn link from the airport to the center city, then just a few more stops on the u-bahn to their hotel. The hotel was after the last few trips they had been on quite pleasant. It was clean, and fairly cozy.

Infected by the spirit of German industriousness, they wasted no time and set out on the city, hitting many of the important sights: the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall (or a section of it that remains), The Reichstag, Humboldt University, and just enjoyed soaking in the culture and atmosphere of this city. They sampled some of the local food currywurst on the streets, and Berlin style pork knuckle.

The Brandenburg Gate



Berlin Wall



The Reichstag - the dome is the large glass dome at the very top of the building. The main hall of the parliament below can also be seen from the cupola, and natural light from above radiates down to the parliament floor.



By the 14th, they had seen most of the sights they wanted to see in the city, realizing they had access to a s-bhan ticket that let them take an excursion to Potsdam and look at the charming Sanssouci Park gardens. This allowed for a very scenic and relaxing stroll through the gardens and palace that was once occupied by Frederick the Great. As luck would have it started to snow this day too, not the biting blizzards that were oh so familiar to BMM, but a nice dusting of clean white snow to accentuate the already pristine grounds. They returned to Berlin that evening, had a nice dinner (of sushi, what else could you have when in Berlin :P ), took in one more stroll in the Berlin snow, and went back to relax with some German TV with a bottle of red wine.

Checkpoint Charlie



Sanssouci Park



Berlin Style Pork Knuckle



The next day it was time to go home, so they packed up their stuff and headed out to the airport, the trip back again was nondescript other than the German Ryanair staff being much more pushy making LMM prove that the backpack was under 10kg and would fit in their tiny little box for the second time. But nonetheless they got back with no problem, so they could plan their next adventure.

Decoration & Florist

The BLM took a break off to wonderful Malta at the end of April, so that the blog has not been updated in the past couple of weeks.

So…what should we talk about this week? Let's talk about decoration! We searched all over the lower mainland area in Vancouver for a decorator to handle the arrangement for both our ceremony and reception. Ideally a "one stop" shop service is preferred, due to the fact that we don't live in Vancouver. It makes more sense to hire someone to handle the details and to minimize the number of vendors we have to deal with individually.

While we visited Vancouver in February, we consulted 6 shops that are able to deal with both the floral and venue decoration arrangements.

1) Fannie's Florist Ltd. - #105-8460 Alexandra Road, Richmond, BC
Fannie is the owner of the shop and the only person who can really give you a quote on your needs. You should make an appointment to speak with her directly at the shop before you walk in. Fannie told us she takes at most two bookings on the same day for event decoration and she will personally be at the venue to direct her staff to make sure everything is perfect. Since the Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club does not provide any chairs for the ceremony, we are expected to hire our own. Fannie even agrees to arrange the ceremony chairs set up/return/delivery on our behalf. Another advantage that Fannie offers is a demo prior to the event, price included in her quote. Fannie's Florist is truly a one stop shop for wedding arrangements. The total cost is quite reasonable and she requires a CAD$500 deposit only (many require half of the total as deposit). Fannie's flower arrangements are overall decent, but when it comes to venue decoration…we are not entirely pleased with her designs. The style is just slightly outdated (有D "leung"). Even without knowing the ethnicity of Fannie, I can tell immediately that she's a Chinese designer from an older generation by her previous work.

2) Something New
We met Something New at the Bridal Wagon, hosted at the River Rock Casino in March 2010. First of all, I would like to mention that this event was NOT worth going because there were so few vendors available (just one vendor in each category). I'm not sure if all Bridal Wagon functions are like that or it's just the one I went to was so small.

Something New has no real office, it's run by two women in Port Coquitlam at a home office. We met with both representatives, Kimberly and Amanda, at the initial consultation to share our ideas and provided with a quote via email a week later. Compare to Fannie's Florist, Something New is slightly more expensive by CAD$700 given the same items required (also including the chair rentals). Something New's demo at the Bridal Wagon was gorgeous and classy. Also, the two reps were nice and easy to work with even though we requested revision on our quote several times. They even allow us to split the fee in three installments (rather than 50% deposit upfront). We were so close to signing the contract with Something New until we realized aside from the demo at the Bridal Wagon we haven't seen any other photos from their previous work as a full decorator for a wedding. Something New was originally a florist only until not long ago the store expanded to provide decorating service as well. When we requested photos from their previous events, Kimberly and Amanda were unable to provide. They gave us references to contact, but coincidentally either the reference only hired them as florist or no longer retain records of the event (this reference said she is divorced so didn't keep anything). The flower arrangements made by Something New were beautiful but we felt uncomfortable to go ahead without any idea of how well they handle a complete wedding.

3) Bridal Beginnings
This is another home office in Coquitlam. The owner, Larissa, is a stay at home mom. We were taken upstairs to her living room where a bunch of vases were displayed randomly on top of her television. Then were shown with her collection of chair covers and sashes (FULL of stains) displayed in her dinning room. People who know me well must be aware that I'm a clean freak. I was seated reluctantly at the dining table with several vases trying to imagine which vase to use as centerpiece without blocking the line of sight. We told Larissa our theme color is purple…thereafter her suggestions only comprised of shades of purple or of complimenting color of purple (e.g. pink). She kept emphasizing the quote will follow within the week. We received an email from Larissa the week after saying that she was sick and would give us the quote in the next few days. Guess what happened??? She disappeared in thin air and never got back to us.

4) Florist on the Fifth - 8031 No. 5 Road, Richmond, BC
Florist on the Fifth is our favorite pick for flower arrangements. In terms of cost, this shop is probably the most expensive among the ones we have spoken to (will not handle chair rental).

5) Kam Ngai Orchid - #1415-4380 No. 3 Road, Richmond, BC
We feel indifferent about the flower arrangements here, overall not pretty but not ugly. The shop also refused to handle chair rental.

6) Flower by Jean at Southland - 3008 W. 41st Avenue, Vancouver, BC
BMM said he didn't like the flowers; I can't remember whether I like them or not. I want to say two things about this store: 1) we were very annoyed by the sales repeatedly reminding us that they made the flower arrangements for Clinton's visit years ago; 2) the boss was on holiday at the time we visited the store and the sales was unable to provide any information whatsoever.

Since we came back to the UK, we wrote to another 4 decorators: 7) Lisa Gregory Special Events and 8) Cultured & Co. Wedding, both have VERY expensive quotes; 9) Imagine that Events, reasonable quote but the photo gallery was only satisfactory; 10) Jack & Jill Weddings, a tad expensive on rental, set up and service fees, compare to the others we talked to, excluding 7) and 8) but we love what we saw on the website. So we have submitted a retainer to Jack & Jill Weddings to hire their service on our wedding day. I will get into details as to what we require from Jack & Jill Weddings on the next post.

I'm planning to write about the ceremony and the reception decoration on two separate posts. To be continued...

Bridal Bouquet

Blue and white colors in Chinese culture are typically associated with death. Due to the fact that white is the major color in western wedding and many Chinese nowadays have western ceremonies, white is really unavoidable. The key is how to use blue and white colors strategically. For example, I can't place these two colors side by side alone and certain shades of blue are forbidden. To avoid upsetting any elder Chinese family members, my parents have told me not to use blue as our wedding theme color. However, blue has always been my favorite color so I told my parents my bottom-line is to include some blue flowers in our wedding. I made it very clear that I won't make further compromise as long as blue and white are not the only colors in the bouquet or any floral arrangements.

Hydrangea is my favorite flower, followed by calla lily, tulip, lisianthus, anemone and rose (except red and white roses). The two flowers to avoid in wedding (for Chinese) are chrysanthemum and gladioly, typically used to honor the dead.

I have determined to use blue hydrangea in my bouquet, probably along with calla lily and some other flowers. The florist told me hydrangea is a "thirsty" flower, it requires water consistently to keep its beauty. Anyhow, I don't think this is a big issue, as long as I keep the bouquet in a vase at all times except when I'm walking down the aisle.

The three bridal bouquets below look absolutely gorgeous, but I must make some alterations if they are mine, either add more colors or take the white flowers out. It seems blue hydrangea is commonly placed with white flowers. I think blue and white look lovely together, it's unfortunate that I can't use this combination.

white tulips, light and dark blue hydrangea, white mini callas,
white stock, blue delphinium and blue triteleia

blue hydrangea and stephanotis

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blue hydrangea, white rose and calla lilies

Other pretty bouquet arrangements of blue hydrangea with roses.

I like hand tied style bouquet the most, ideally wrapped with ribbon with some pins or crystals. The two designs below look very elegant and stylish.

We haven't chosen our florist yet, so the details and designs of our floral arrangements are yet to be determined.

Wedding Cake

We are torn between two ideas for our wedding cake: the traditional 3-tier cake and a 6-8" cake for cutting along with a bunch of mini cakes to serve. Aesthetically the traditional style seems nicer for photo shoot and the design can be more elaborate. In a traditional Chinese perspective, the wedding cake should be in round shape because it represents "completeness" (圓滿). Both of us like a square shape wedding cake better, but my father seems to prefer a round shape. If we are choosing the traditional style, we plan to order a wedding cake with a mixture of round and square tiers. This way we can satisfy everyone's wish with something more interesting. We might choose a round - square - square or round - square - round configuration for our cake.

The mini cake can't be too fancy unless you are willing to spend a fortune on it, but this is definitely a practical choice because most guests by the end would skip the dessert. We would hate to see our cake go to waste, by having mini cakes guests may choose to take their pieces away or we can easily pack the leftovers to give to someone else.


Actually many couples opt to serve cupcakes instead of a traditional cake, but this is something we are still unsure of. I know cupcake is getting increasingly popular, it can look quite trendy and cute…but up to this point we still haven't seen any design to our satisfaction.


So far we have spoken to 8 cake shops and still awaiting for a bunch of replies from additional shops. While we were in Vancouver, we visited Anna's Cake House, La Patisserie, Goldilocks and King's Bakery. Communication with other cake shops are all done through email after we came back to the UK.

Anna's Cake House - 606 E Broadway, Vancouver, BC
Anna offers free cake tasting and we were given four flavors to try: Napoleon (has a wafer layer), Tiramisu, strawberry mousse and a fresh fruit cake. Our favorite is Napoleon, the runner up is the fruit cake. I never like Tiramisu and not a huge fan of mousse cake of any type. In terms of cost and taste, we don't have much to complain about Anna, but the designs are tad too ordinary and old fashion. Most Chinese bakeries don't use fondant or royal icing, that's why they are unable to create the grand sophisticated designs. Taste wise, the cakes are less sweet compare to western bakeries.

The mini cakes from Anna look just like the petits fours you buy from the shop (同普通西餅冇乜分別)…ok maybe slightly prettier than the ones in the fridge. Anyway, Anna's mini cakes are not quite what we have in mind.

La Patisserie - #2-6360 No. 3 Road, Richmond, BC
The designs from La Patisserie, also a bakery owned by Chinese, are more appealing than Anna. We bought a few slices of cake to taste: chestnut, green tea and mango. According to the owner, fresh mango cake is the best seller. Actually we have no intention of having any of these flavors as our wedding cake due to uncertainty of their popularity at the wedding. The cost of a wedding cake is higher than Anna, but still reasonable…taste is better too. However, without fondant and royal icing, the designs are still a bit off from what we want. We would not consider to order mini cakes here for the same reason as Anna's.

Goldilocks - 1606 W Broadway, Vancouver, BC
Goldilocks, a Filipino bakery, capable of remarkable wedding cake designs. In terms of technique and presentation of the cake, this bakery can certainly deliver what we want. However, the taste of the cupcakes we bought as samples weren't very good.

The cupcakes tasted very dry but we think it's not fair to reject the shop completely until we try some sort of cake. A cake should be less dry since there are layers of buttercream in between. In terms of cost, Goldilocks is comparable to the above two bakeries. This shop doesn't do any mini cakes, except cupcakes only.

King's Bakery - #135-4200 No. 3 Road, Richmond, BC
We were on a rush the day we stopped by King's Bakery, so we only asked a few questions, no time to buy anything to try. From what I heard, this is one of the best Chinese bakeries in town. People I know who tried King's petits fours and cakes all said they love them. I was also told that King's can do a lot of designs outside of the conventional stream. I saw a vibrant looking hamburger sitting inside the fridge waiting for pick up when we were there. Back to wedding cake, the boss told me he makes fake wedding cake only with a slab cake to serve. We have nothing against fake cake, but currently not considering to have it as part of our wedding. In view of the cost factor, King is quite expensive. It will cost us just as much as the above shops for a fake and slab cake.

Inquires through Email

Chocolate Lover Cakes - #1-3891 Chatham Street, Richmond, BC
My cousin, Michelle, told me Chocolate Lover Cakes is a super famous bakery in town. Basically the owner can make whatever you want. I wrote an email to the owner and she gave me a quote of CAD$1000 for a 3-tier wedding cake and $20/pc for the mini cake. The price is really too far out from what we have budget for.

The pug and the sushi platter are examples of this talented cake chef.

Valley Bakery - 4058 E Hastings Street, Burnaby, BC
Our potential decorator, Kimberly, recommended Valley Bakery. She ordered from here petits fours, raspberry flavor covered in liquid fondant with drizzle chocolate, on her wedding two years ago.

For a 3-tier wedding cake, Valley Bakery is substantially more expensive than the first three shops we talked to. From the website photos, the cakes look no better than the others. The quote on the mini cake is the least expensive among the ones we have been in touch with so far. We want to try something from Valley Bakery the next time we visit Vancouver to decide if this can be one of our potential vendors.

The other two vendors we wrote to are really not worth mentioning. They seem ridiculously expensive for what they are capable of producing.

Travel Diary - Chapter 2: London

After getting back from their last trip to Italy, the M's were far from satisfied by their little adventure, it really only made them even more hungry to travel. In January 2009, National Express the now bankrupt British train system was having a promotion for tickets to London from Edinburgh for just £10pp return. They had both been to London before; BMM a long time ago as a young boy and LMM more than 10 years ago. But they decided that it would still be fun just to get out of Edinburgh for a little bit. Now there is where things get interesting. They said to themselves...hey this is such a cheap ticket, lets see how cheap we can make this whole trip. One of LMM's friends had just visited and regaled them with her tales backpacking around Europe.

Our Journey in London

Before we start, let me give BMM's definition of "roughing it", no room services. London is an expensive place to stay in general, if you want to stay some place affordable you will be way out in the edge of the city and have to spend 30 to 60 min on the subway to get into the center. When LMM and BMM was telling one of their kitchen buddies about this deal they found, he mentioned that some of his friends had stayed at a place called the Piccadilly Backpackers Hostel, right in the center of the city for only £20pp per night. So still filled with optimism about the hostel experience, they decided to give it a try. So they packed their backpacks, and booked 2 beds in a 6 person co-ed room.

The train ride down was uneventful, it is about a four hour trip, through fairly scenic British country side. The stretch from Edinburgh to Newcastle is actually quite pretty, they took the opportunity to catch up on some sleep and the ride went by fairly quickly. They arrived just afternoon at Kings Cross train station. After disembarking they quickly made their way to the subway and got off at the Piccadilly station, to go check into their room...or more correctly to check in for their beds.

The location really was as good as they hoped for, it was right in the center of the city and within walking distance from all the major sights. But what greeted them at the hostel was another story. They went to check in and given vague directions to their room. As they hauled their overstuffed backpacks up five flight of stairs to find the room filled with bunk beds. The room was dirty and in poor repair, but honestly not that bad given the price. So they locked up their bags in the small locker provided and went out for the day.

Our Room in Piccadilly Backpackers Hostel



They went to all the normal touristy sights one typically sees in London, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Tower Bridge, the London Eye, Westminster Abby, Big Ben, etc. While not too exotic to them since they had both been there before, it was nice to see the sights again and enjoy some time in a bigger city. In the evening they had a nice dinner in a small Korean restaurant near the British Museum and did a little shopping on Oxford Street, and then returned to the hostel. Any excitement they had about living frugally in a hostel died that night. First was the bathroom, there is one set of bathrooms per floor, so they went off to get a shower and ready for bed. BMM was greeted by a small mountain of half emptied beer cans in the bathroom and sinks that looked like the last time they had been cleaned was some time during Queen Victoria's reign. They showered and get dressed for bed as quick as they could to minimize the amount of time they needed to be subjected to that bathroom. It was a long day so they hoped to a good night sleep in order to recharge for another day of sightseeing. Well the hostel had other ideas, it was loud, they were woken up several times throughout the night by people deciding that the hallway was indeed the best place to sing at the top of their lungs.

Buckingham Palace



Tower Bridge



Big Ben



The London Eye



After getting a little bit of sleep they headed out for the second day in London. This day they would first go to the British Museum and then an evening trip to Chinatown. The Museum was really amazing, LMM in general is not that much of a museum person, but even she enjoyed seeing it. It is really awe inspiring to see 3000 years of human civilization laid out under one roof. It is also perhaps the most grand tribute, to the last gleam of glory the British Empire can hold onto. In particular LMM thought it was interesting to see the contents of the Forbidden City from Beijing. BMM, being a bit of a linguistics geek really enjoyed seeing the actual Rosetta Stone. After spending most of the day in the museum, they strolled down to Chinatown. They discovered what is perhaps the best deal in all of London, "Little Little Wu". This small restaurant has some tastily meals and for £3.95 for any item on the menu. After walking around a bit longer enjoying the atmosphere, they went back to the room for the last night in London.

Artifacts from the Forbidden City



Rosetta Stone



Parthanon Facade



Egyptian Mummies



They got up early on the last day since they decided to head back to Chinatown and pick up some items from the market that are hard to come by in Edinburgh before catching their return train. The trip back was also pretty mundane. They arrived back at Waverly Station in Edinburgh with a bag full of tastily goodies from the Chinese market and a lot of fun memories from this little trip down south. But most of all they looked forward to a nice QUIET night sleep. To plan about their next trip, a Valentine's Day retreat behind the iron curtain.

Vancouver Wedding Arrangements - Part 3

Pre-Wedding Photography

The uncertainty of the Hong Kong visit in December made us realize it's probably better off to do our pre-wedding photography in Vancouver. I heard from friends and family that the three most well known pre-wedding photographers in the Chinese community are HN Wedding, Bello Wedding World and Charlie's Photo.

HN Wedding

I was attracted by HN Wedding at first by its window display. The wedding dress on display was very unique; the design is so different than the western designer gowns. The sales consultant told us that most of the dresses were designed in Taiwan. For years I have heard countless people praising Taiwan for its beautiful wedding dresses and pre-wedding photography. Many couples fly all the way there to buy the dress and take their photos. Finally I get to see what the hype is all about! We were taken to the showroom on the second floor with a huge victorian style couch placed in the middle. Dresses hung against two walls, most wrapped individually in a mesh clothing bag. The sales presented three wedding gowns to us, as soon as she took them out of the bags…without saying out loud, the first thing came to my mind was SUNGLASSES. Why?!?! Coz the number of bling bling placed on each dress was uncountable! On top of that, the trains on these dresses looked a mile long. I couldn't resist and asked to try one out. Wow, the feeling was like I'm getting married to royalty. Due to the grandeur nature of the dress, I was already on 4-inch heels with a train reaching as far as half the room size. Aside from feeling like a princess, I felt like a spokesperson for Swarovski, as if the entire store of crystals covered me completely. Forgive my little jest. The dresses are outstanding and impressive in appearance, but TOO MUCH for my taste. It just doesn't seem appropriate for an outdoor ceremony and unfit for the venue.

Sorry to have wasted your time reading about wedding dress again, but I thought the encounter was worth mentioning. Now back to HN Wedding's photography. From the sample photos, we could see that the photographer is highly skilled and absolutely fantastic at capturing the beauty of the environment. The color correction technique is amazing as well. But we saw his strengths as his weaknesses at the same time when it comes to pre-wedding photography. In many occasions, the background steals the thunder from the main subjects. The post shoot editing makes the photos look somewhat unnatural.







Charlie's Photos

Without physically visiting Charlie's Photos, we already filtered it out. Due to limited time in Vancouver, we looked at the website and knew at once this is not the style we want. The sample photos mostly look like the ones you take from the Japanese sticker/card machines. Many images are overly composited. The overall look of the photos appear cliché.







Bello Wedding World

We stopped by Bello Wedding World initially to look at wedding dresses only. Then later found out that the shop also sells pre-wedding and wedding day photography, videography, hair and make-up services. Don't even bother to visit Bello's website for sample photos, there are very few posted and they aren't that nice. The samples we saw at the shop look more natural compare to the above two, in terms of color correction, composition, bridal hair and make-up styling.

There are three pre-wedding photography packages from Bello: Emerald, Ruby and Diamond, ranging from CAD$2388-3388 (before tax). If you pay another $600 on top of any package, that will cover the wedding dress, tux, evening dress, veil and accessory rentals, as well as the hair and make-up styling on the wedding day.

We chose the Emerald package, which includes shooting up to 10 hours in the studio and two outdoor locations. We can choose 35 images at the end of the shoot.

Emerald includes the following:
1 - 11" x 16" graphic design album
1 - 16" x 20" wall size frame
1 - CD with 35 poses
1 - 30" guest registry
2 - wedding gowns
2 - evening gowns
2 - tuxedos
1 - make-up
4 - hairstyling
1 - 6" x 9" parent's album
100 - thank you cards

Since we placed an order with Bello to purchase my wedding dress and evening dresses, the shop has agreed to upgrade our wall size frame to 20" x 24", along with an additional parent's album. The sales consultant also included some small items free of rental charge on our wedding day. We also pay extra to have my hair and make-up done at Bello the day of our wedding.