almost down the aisle part III

It was a long day.
Thankfully it was easy to change from the Chinese wedding outfit to my wedding dress. A quick zip here and there. Voila! Done!

Hunny Bunny had a issues with my veil. He kept yanking it off (accidentally, I hope!) throughout the day. At least my hair was still intact.
I let the girls do whatever they wanted with their hair, especially since I pulled a bridezilla and asked that they all have similar makeup. Aren't they pretty?

(My niece is the one with the headband - she was a junior bridesmaid.)

My gifts to the girls were dangly pearl earrings. Since I knew I would wear my pearl necklace, I thought it would be a nice tie-in to have them wearing something similar.

I also wanted to give them something they could wear both during the wedding and also in their every day life. I didn't want to get them pearl studs because sometimes that can look matronly and boring. The dangly earrings were much more fun, and young, and definitely more me.

The guys all wore their own suits. We didn't want to have rented tuxedos and we also didn't want to burden them with having to a new matching suit. They all had black suits in their closet so we just had them wear what they felt comfortable in.

Hunny Bunny wore a grey tie to go with our yellow-grey color scheme. The guys wore black.
HB's nephew was our ring bearer and he took his job very seriously. He had that silly grin plastered on his face the entire ceremony. His little brother is just as adorable.

Loves!

We had been taking pictures around the W hotel lobby and bar. It had been raining all morning. Hello? November in Seattle? Of course it was raining!

But we lucked out. There was mini break between storms and we decided to risk it and head to the Seattle Public Library for a few shots.Several people in our wedding party had never been to the library and were in complete awe.

If you're ever in town, you must visit the library. It's absolutely amazing. The long escalator ride was perfectly matched with our colors.
Then we needed to rush back to the W before it started raining again. (Word on the street was that it was pretty miserable for the rest of the day!)

Glad there weren't any puddles to ruin my grey Pradas!
Just a few minutes before the ceremony and one of my friends brought up a bottle of muscato to hopefully quell my down-the-aisle jitters.

Cheers!

almost down the aisle part II

Traditionally, the tea ceremony would take place at the bride's family's house. But because of time constraints and because my mom's kinda lazy, we opted to have the Chinese tea ceremony at the W Hotel, where our main ceremony and reception would take place.

My Gramma was absolutely thrilled that we were having a tea ceremony. She had that silly smile on her face all day long! (I pretty much had that smile on my face too!) It made me so happy to be able to make my Gramma so happy too. She's my favorite person.

My Grampa came from Hong Kong for the wedding. (He's my mom's dad; my Gramma's my dad's mom.) He cracks me up because the older he gets, the more childlike he becomes. All he's concerned about is where his next meal is!

During the tea ceremony, Hunny Bunny and I offered tea to our elders. My godmother (not the crazy fur lady - that's my crazy fur lady aunt!) led the entire ceremony, offering words of good fortune, success and health to those who accepted our offerings of tea.

In return, Hunny Bunny and I received gifts and red envelopes with lucky money.

On a side note, Gramma's got some great stems, don't you think? One of my (many, many) aunties kept trying to get her to adjust the slit of her dress because she was showing too much skin. Ha!

My mommy and daddy were beaming when it was their turn. My brother joked that instead of accepting the tea from HB, my dad would throw it in his face!

D'oh.

Luckily, dad was in a good mood.

Here are some of the gifts we received during the ceremony. The 24K gold ring was from my grandfather - I don't think he actually knew what he gave me. I have a feeling someone else picked it out and just told him to hand it to me. He was mainly concerned about the roast pork that everyone else was nibbling on!



The diamond tennis bracelet was from my parents. I couldn't believe how HUGE the diamonds were! Daddy said it was over five carats. Holy moly! The 24K gold dragon/phoenix bangles (there's a matching one on my other wrist) are also from my parents. They're traditional wedding bangles and are extremely delicate - not for every day wear. They're meant to be passed down from generation to generation.

My dad present HB with a limited-edition Omega Snoopy watch! It's super duper cute! Daddy's a bit of a watch collector and had this watch for several years. I think HB liked it.

My eldest auntie gave me a 24K gold bracelet (on my other wrist, sorry!) that my great-grandfather had given to her when she got married. I was so touched that she would give something so meaningful to me. I barely remember my great-grandfather. In my mind, he was a well-dressed man who always had candy in his pocket for me!

And finally! It's time for the snacks! My dad is serving up some wedding cookies or, as we youngsters like to call, "the pink hockey pucks."

Just another hour until the main ceremony... eep!

almost down the aisle part I

Hunny Bunny is Vietnamese and I'm Chinese. That meant that we would have to somehow accommodate both traditions during our wedding day.

We started our hectic (and rainy!) morning (after hair and makeup for me and the bridesmaids) at HB's place for the Vietnamese ceremony.

We had to light incense and bow to his ancestors and provide offerings of fruit. His uncle took charge and led us through the whole process. Unfortunately, I had no idea what he was saying since he only spoke Vietnamese.

I just did what any other sensible girl would do on her wedding day - follow the groom's lead!

Then HB's mom and dad spoke and sadly, I still had no idea what was going on. I just smiled and nodded. Finally, his mom turned to me and spoke in English.

She welcomed me into the family and said that while HB is an only child, she had enough love to share with both of us and that she loved me like a daughter. *sniff* And then she presented with me with a gorgeous diamond necklace that she had made especially for me!

(I realized after the wedding that she even had our initials engraved on the clasp! How sweet and thoughtful is that!?)

This was all followed by more smiling and nodding on my part. HB's relatives greeted us and gave us gifts of money and cards and wishes of love and success and happiness.

And children. Lots and lots of children.

ACK.