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.