Back from Hiatus - Wedding Updates Galore!

Last night, Cathy sent me a facebook message reminding me that I actually have a blog, and one that I used to be quite good at updating. I'm not sure why I haven't written in 3 months, especially since there have been many "developments" so I thought I would take a minute to jot down my thoughts before I spend a Sunday afternoon working on my thesis (side note: which I have been quite focused on in the past few weeks finally).

On finally picking a colour and bridesmaids dresses:
In January, I committed three full days to deciding what colour the girls would wear. My first trip was to Bridal and Beyond with Andrea and Maygan and was it ever overwhelming! I quickly learned that different designers define the same colour differently, and that it also varies by fabric. For example, a "royal blue" on tafetta in the Alfred Angelo collection is different when it is on chiffon. And it is different than a "royal blue" in Dessy, Jim Hjelm, etc. As an engineer, this is particularly frustrating: why can't all designers just follow the standard RGB characterization of colours? *sigh* So after learning this lesson, my second trip was with my cousin's wife, Ann on a cold winter day. Ann, 7 months preggors at that time, helped me go through 5-6 colour swatches across different designers and I finally decided that "Sailor" blue from the Dessy collection was the way to go! However, I was still uneasy because I was making a decision on a 2cm by 2cm piece of fabric since the stores that we had visited that day did not have a full dress sample. Which leads us to a third day of driving around the city with my mom to locate a full dress in Sailor. Long story short, we found the dress after 3 stores. Thank God for everyone's patience! What would I do without this support?

With the designer and colour now chosen, the girls have started to pick their dresses. I really believe in them showcasing their individuality (as I appreciated this when Andrea got married and I was her bridesmaid), so I'm encouraging them to pick their own styles. I don't think I'll post their choices - to leave them as a surprise but here's a photo of a dress that I had posted about earlier, in Sailor. The boys will have no choice: I'll order their ties in the same colour and they'll just have to be happy with it hehe

A Dessy bridesmaid dress in Sailor (from here)

On a theme:
Jeff and I have recruited a childhood friend of mine, Catherine Quach to make our invitations. She has her own business which is doing extremely well (visit her website here). Since she is expecting a baby girl in May, I met with her 2 weeks ago to start designing our invitations. The theme is inspired by a city skyline (see picture below, upper right and bottom left corners) as it will match with the Art Deco-ness of Arcadian and pays homage (barely/slightly) to our engineering background.

A city skyline invitation (from here)

We will also match this to our wedding cake with a similar design to this:

Mmmm cake! (from here)

We're going to borrow the idea of using bridges as a pattern, but that's all I'm going to say because I'd like to keep the rest a secret!

On DJs:
I have interviewed about 10 DJs (on the phone and in person) since January and we have still yet to pick a DJ. We have learned that LED uplights are a cool effect to have at Arcadian court (see picture below) so we are now trying to find a good package that incorporates great music and lightning. I feel that we've narrowed it down to 3 companies and when Jeff comes home in April, he'll be in charge of pulling the trigger. A question for everyone: does looks matter for a DJ?

LED uplights accentuate the pillars and can change colour to set the mood

On the Mother-of-the-Bride dress:
Last week, my Mom got her evening dress and it is absolutely gorgeous! It is a one-shoulder, cocktail-length dress in pink and violet with lots of ruching. I'm not sure she'll let me post a picture, but the search was well worth it even though it took almost as much effort as finding my dress hehe

On the Cheongsam:
Before Christmas, I went to visit my cousins Hang and Virginia in Markham and they suggested that I wear Hang's cheongsam (from her wedding over 10 years ago) which is quite traditional and beautiful though VERY red with lots of gold sequences handsewn to make a pheonix and dragon. It was a lovely gesture and I took them up on the offer - my aunt will have to bring in the waist a tiny bit and remove the shoulder pads (yes, shoulder pads haha). The dress will be my "something borrowed".

Now time to get back to work! There are so many other non-related things I'd like to write about - namely, my two trips to San Jose this year, thesis progress, knee recovery, seeing Dave Chapelle on Valentine's Day (yes, *second* best surprise from Jeff ever), etc., but that will have to wait. Maybe I will treat myself to more blogging when I finish writing a section on "Profitability, Industry and Life Cycle Analysis".

-angexx

Cheongsam

I've been meaning to write about this. Last month, my mom and I made a spontaneous visit to Alice Ko, a cheongsam designer. For those not in the know, a cheongsam is a Chinese traditional dress that is typically worn by a bride. It is usually made from a bright red brocade; however, at the time, I was debating on whether to get a dark red cherry blossom pattern or a gold plum blosson pattern (see below - not identical to what Alice had but this is all I could find on the Internet).

Gold brocade

Dark red brocade (flash of camera perhaps makes it less dark)

Everyone (parents, Jeff, Chris, Karen and Andrea) agreed that gold was best, even though it isn't traditional. But this was until today... this afternoon, our family drove up to visit my cousins Hang and Virginia who offered to lend me Hang's cheongsam which is made of bright red silk with gold sequins and beads sewn in the shape of both a dragon and a phoenix. No one would mistaken me for a bride for sure because it's very red and very traditional. It would also save me $400+... it does look great on, almost fitting me perfectly (I have to take it in a bit) which my aunt will do. I'm not sure if I can make the decision alone, so I'll have to wait until Jeff comes home to model it for him! I'll take a picture too, and will post it later to get some input!

-ange xx

Labour Day Weekend

I have been so excited to write about this past labour day weekend but in the past two days after Jeff left (that's right! Jeff was home! Yay!), I was determined to finish making 11 second year engineering economic quizzes in preparation of the school year starting today and my absence after surgery in 2 weeks. Admittedly, there might be a slight correlation between my mood and the difficulty of the quiz before (happy = easy) and after (sad = hard) Jeff's visit.

Anyway, we had just the nice relaxing weekend that I needed. After being apart for 2 months since Hawaii, all I really wanted to do was be in his presence and enjoy it!

On Friday, we met with Reverend Ralph at Knox College who gave us some ideas for our ceremony. The chapel, which is located on U of T campus, is classic and beautiful, and even romantic to me considering we met at school almost 8 years ago!

Knox College Chapel (from here)

Knox College walkway to chapel (from here)

That night, we went to the movies and watched "Inglourious Basterds". A bit gory but one of the best flicks we've watched in a while!

On Saturday, we ran some errands and took it easy - enjoying dim sum and Mom's amazing dinner (picture to come!). Actually, she made LOTS of great food for Jeff over the weekend because she, too, was excited that he was home. In fact, we just finished all the leftovers yesterday!

On Sunday, Jeff's mom and Paul came down for lunch and we hit our regular spot: the Baton Rouge at the Eaton Centre. We were all craving the baby back ribs! After lunch, we sneaked a peek of the Arcadian Court and I began to dream about what it will look like in a little more than a year. The stamp of approval from Jeff came from him saying "I like the palm trees - very Californian" as you can see in the background of picture below.

Arcadian Court (from here)

On Sunday evening, we had a BBQ with Jeff's friends who live in Corsa Italia. After that, he went to Labour of Love while I stayed back to nurse my knee. Side note: last week was the first that I no longer used my crutches!

On Monday, we slept in before going on a lunch date and walk around the city. The weather was perfect all weekend (albeit humid) but it was a luxury we haven't gotten in Toronto all summer. We picked up Wii Resort, as I mentioned in a previous post, so we spent the evening laughing a lot while trying to set records and unlock mini-games.

Then came Tuesday morning, and the inevitable drive to Pearson. However, this time, I maintained a bit more strength knowing that we will see each other again in 4 weeks for Thanksgiving.

Anyway, that's the story of our lovely and comfortable weekend - just like old times! Now I have to get ready to go to the hospital for my pre-op blood test and on Tuesday, I will see Dr. Theo who will give me clearance for surgery... or at least he should since I've been working so hard on my physio!

-ange xx

Say Yes to the Dress!

As Andrea has said, my mom and I are wedding dress shopping MACHINES. Almost everyday in the past two weeks, we have visited at least one bridal store in the afternoon - a nice break from working in the morning and working in the evenings (side note: these days, I'm making hard quizzes for 2nd year economics and coming up with benchmarks for thesis which I'll blog about tomorrow).

Rewind to May when I tried on my first dress in a small shop called Jolie on St. Clair. The first dress I put on ever, I just absolutely fell in love with. But at that point, I was obviously not ready to commit. Plus, a girl will only be engaged once in her life so she might as well try as many dresses as possible. So, since then, I scanned through A LOT of magazines but didn't start going to stores again until about 2 weeks ago. Crutches in hand, I was determined to find my dress before surgery because the order takes up to 8 months!

After going from shop to shop, I got more confused because (without sounding vain) every style and fabric looked great on me: lace, tulle, mermaid, poofy, etc. But, for some reason, I always thought back to my first dress. Then yesterday, while at another store, I tried on this first dress again and knew it was the one! I wanted to be faithful to Jolie, so my mom and I drove back to St. Clair and today, we bought the dress, for over $550 less than the retail price. Amazing! I'm in full support of helping the local community ;-)

Anyway, I'm THRILLED and though I cannot post the dress on my blog (because I want to keep it a secret from Jeff), I thought that I could share some of the dresses that I did like when I tried them on.

By Jai Bridal: a very elegant silk dress with flowers
that looks almost identical to the dress below.

By Ines Di Santo: I didn't try this one on but just wanted to share
that Jai is probably $5000 cheaper.

By Sophia Tolli: A real princess dress with tulle and lots of beads

Anyway, I'm happy (and proud) that my dress is much more fabulous than what I've shown here! Now onto the next item: photographer!

-ange xx

Congratulations to Victor and Adriane!

Last night, I attended Victor and Adriane's beautiful wedding! Victor and I have known each other since I started graduate school in September 2005, and we served as co-presidents of the chemical engineering graduate student association over the 2006-7 academic year. We always joked around about being "political spouses" but I couldn't have been more thrilled for him when I first found out that he met a lovely girl named Adriane, who I got to know better while playing softball with her last summer.

Anyway, the ceremony was held at the Newman Centre on the UofT campus and was followed by a dinner reception at One King West. The mass was lovely, the venue was very classy and the whole event was extremely organized. In fact, it gave me many ideas for my and Jeff's wedding. For instance, the couple's first dance was even choreographed which makes me think that we should either a) take lessons or b) have a slideshow on simultaneously as to divert the audience's attention away from us while we sway back and forth =)

The happily married couple serve great as my crutches

Unfortunately, I had to leave a bit early (shorly after the dinner and speeches) as Prof. Paradi kindly offered me a ride home. I was, however, pretty tired from standing a lot during mass, and it was my first full evening out since my injury so the timing worked out just right (aside: my flexion is now 105 degs).

And finally, some more great news: Mrs. Paradi graciously and generously offered to make our wedding cake! Cake decorating is a serious hobby of hers and I couldn't feel more honoured! Isn't that amazing? =)

-ange xx

Possible Colour Palettes

After being away from Toronto for 6 weeks out of the last 8, I've found that I have a lot of catching up to do. The conference in Philly went well. I got lots of encouragement from Professors but I have to admit I'm overwhelmed by how much I have to do. But before I get back to my PhD research, I had to finish some outstanding work that the Boss gave me, which included editing my Master's paper and preparing a presentation for another conference at McMaster next Tuesday. Needless to say, I have had to be productive over the last two days - so focused that I finished both tasks! I'm now rewarding myself with this blog break!

Now for fun stuff: I've also been excited about thoughts of our wedding - date still TBD. In addition to looking at venues, I've been trying to decide on a colour palette - the most important factor is that the girls look good. Here are some of my ideas. You, too, can play with the colour selections and dress designs on the Dessy website. If any combinations tickle your fancy, please let me know. Personally, I'm drawn to blue because it's my favourite colour but it's a difficult one to match. I also really like the dark red.

Amethyst with venetian gold sash

Venetian gold with claret sash

Claret with venetian gold sash

Midnight with periwinkle sash

More on venues later!

-ange xx