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.

Vancouver Wedding Arrangements - Part 2

After the decision had been made on the venue location, we moved onto wedding dress shopping. I went to shops all over New Westminster, Surrey, Richmond and Vancouver to hunt for my dream gown. I spent a total of 4 days to find THE ONE.

Searching for My Dream Dress

I went to MJM Wedding Services in Surrey on my first stop. Myrna, the owner of the business, built a small separate cabin next to her residence to run the shop. Her off the rack selection for immediate purchase is huge, so it took us a while to find the right sizes and styles. I made an effort to visit her shop all the way in Surrey (about a 45min drive from where I live) only because she offers big discount on her off the rack dresses. I tried about 8-10 gowns with only two I really liked. Myrna was super nice and helpful. I told her it's important to me that my mom thinks the dress is pretty on me. She allowed BMM to take photos of me in the dresses so that I could show my mom. Myrna didn't want me to feel pressured and insisted to schedule a second appointment with me to bring my mom along. The prices of the two gowns were amazing, both much lower than I expected.

As I was struggling to decide which dress I should buy from MJM, to make matters worse, my future mother-in-law bought me a wedding magazine. As soon as I looked at the designer gowns, I couldn't restrain myself from craving for a nicer dress. After reading several magazines, I realized my favorite brand is Simone Carvalli. The designs from Simone Carvalli are very elegant and absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, this brand has no distribution in Northwest US or anywhere in BC. Please don't get the impression that MJM doesn't carry designer dresses, it wasn't the intention of my visit so I didn't look beyond the ordinary styles. At last, I canceled my appointment with Myrna and went to the bridal wear district located at New Westminster.

Design by Simone Carvalli

I was introduced to two other brands, Ella Rosa and Maggie Sottero at my second stop, Bliss Bridal. Both brands fit my body perfectly in many styles without any major issues, except they all require hemming. The designs from Maggie Sottero are generally more mature, whereas Ella Rosa seems less fancy with a younger vibe.

Design by Ella Rosa

To keep the long story short, I won't mention other shop visits in the New Westminster or Richmond area. Bello Wedding World, located in Vancouver, was the last shop I visited. We narrowed down to three favorites from this shop. Aside from selling wedding and evening gowns, Bello also offers pre-wedding and wedding day photography, bridal hair and makeup, as well as Chinese wedding dress rental. We spent hours at Bello to discuss a complete package deal including all of the above, except wedding day photography since we have already made arrangement for this. We went to Bello three times and twice at Bliss before we made the final decision.

In order to have better leverage to bargain with Bello for a complete package deal, I placed an order of my wedding gown there. Also, I found an evening dress I like from the store, so end up purchasing two dresses altogether, that's a story for another time. I don't want to disclose the details and the exact style of my wedding dress until after the wedding. The wedding gown takes 5-6 months to complete and the evening dress will arrive in about 3 months. I will talk about the details of the package on the next post in Part 3.

Design by Maggie Sottero

Vancouver Wedding Arrangements - Part 1

We went back to Vancouver for 3 weeks to make arrangements for our wedding. Our schedule was hectic, appointment after appointment, in addition to family commitment and gathering. Not even a day went by that we had enough of sleep while we were in Vancouver. I'm really sorry for not updating the blog sooner. For my friends who live in Vancouver, please don't get upset that I didn't announce my return. Wedding planning kept us really busy, so I decided not to mention to anyone of our visit.

Let me tell you what we have done in Vancouver. The first week we were there, BMM's parents came to visit and met my parents for the first time. We spent time watching the Winter Olympics together and walked around downtown Vancouver to enjoy the ambiance. Every night we dined together and shared our day time adventures around the table. BMM's parents also met with my grandmother and some of my relatives for a king crab dinner. I bet they had never been surrounded by so many Chinese at once. By the end of the week, they were probably Chinese out since most of the meals were in Chinese cuisine =P Both of our parents are happy that our two families will soon become one big family.

Aside from spending time with the family, we were busy visiting vendors for cake, wedding gown, tux rental, venue, flower, decoration, DJ, hair and makeup. Basically we compressed a year of wedding planning into 3 weeks.

Venue Selection

Before we went back to Vancouver, we were already in contact with Brock House and several hotels in downtown. Brock House was originally our first pick, but after the visit we no longer like this venue. The number of oil tankers are an eyesore. The dining area indoor is very small; so that hiring a tent becomes necessary. Some of the terms are very unreasonable, as a result it is very difficult to estimate the cost of the banquet. Hotels have always been a back up plan only, since we prefer to have our ceremony outdoor at the same place where we host our banquet. So we decided to expand our venue search and scheduled to look at Hart House, Mayfair Lakes Golf & Country Club, Marine Drive Golf Club and Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club. It was a tough decision to pick among the three golf clubs, especially each club has its distinctive feature.

Mayfair has an extremely beautiful site for ceremony, as if it's on a small island. The event coordinator is super nice and sweet. We can tell immediately she is someone easy to work with. The downside of this venue is the dining hall; it has little to distinguish itself. So if the worst happens and we are to be married on a rainy day, then all the charm of this venue is lost.



Marine Drive has a really nice view overlooking the golf course from the dining hall. The entrance has a very classy look. However, we can't go on the greens for photos due to the tee is directly outside of the clubhouse. Also, the ceremony takes place on a narrow patio, which can only accommodate 60 seated guests.



Shaughnessy is located close to UBC, with a nice ocean view from the ceremony grounds. The dinning hall is full of windows with plenty of natural lighting. The only minor downside is the dining hall has no view of the golf course.





After a week of venue hunting, we have finally paid our deposit at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club. The date of our wedding is now set on June 11, 2011. Our ceremony will take place here in the afternoon, followed by the reception and dinner.