CAN'T wait! still have lots to do..
dress update to come soon!!
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
the angry bride
yup, uber angry bride coming through.
my little early bird failure had me going and i "booked" a restaurant that both will and i and our parents were happy with in april. why "booked", you ask?
first some back story. I always asks what happens if someone else wants the date and all restaurants i spoke to will hold your date, until someone inquires about the same date. if that does happen they will contact you and ask that you give them an a deposit to secure your booking or if no one else wants the date they usually ask you to put down a deposit 6 months prior to the date. this happened to me when i was looking at kirin starlight. i was second on the list and the manager told me that the couple before me had until so and so date to decide and if they don't put down the deposit i would get the date. all is fair. first couple gets priority, if they don't want it.. it's free for me and if i didn't want it the 3rd couple (yes, there was a 3rd couple) could have it. unfortunately for me the first couple did put a deposit so that restaurant was out of the running.
THAT did not happen with the restaurant we ended up choosing and "booking" with. now i won't mention this restaurant by name since i've heard of bloggers getting threaten with legal action if what they write reflects negatively on the restaurant (no free speech i guess?). but i will say for all vancouverites that this restaurant is located where the old flamingo restaurant was and near glad tidings church.
will and i had yet to put a deposit down and were told that they would contact us. i went in yesterday to put in a deposit maybe a month and bit after i booked the date with them since i figured we really did decide to go with this restaurant and just to get it done. the manager took my deposit and all was well. today i get a call from the same manager saying that he was sorry and had to return my deposit because the restaurant took another person's deposit for the same date. my inner bridezilla took over and needless to say, i was not happy and that guy got an earful. that manager told me that another manager will give me a call in the afternoon. no call. i had to call them and went in to talk to them. prior to all this i had received NO call to get in a deposit earlier. the manager and owners reasoning for not calling was... " if i called you and you weren't home and when you do call us back and maybe you tell us that you don't need the restaurant anymore, and those other people left then i've lost business". OKAY. the moment i heard that i just wanted to flip the table and leave (my inner gangster bride.) then they tried to convince me to change my date and they will cut me a deal since they were wrong, but i told them that's not happening since i've already booked some big ticket items. they offered to print my invitations among other things but honestly, i was done. i was so disappointed that wasn't called to put in my deposit. but what's done is done and i'll find a better restaurant. never going back there. ever.
in fact i've already looked in to some.. my second question after asking if my date is free, was "will you contact me if someone else asks about the date". their answer... YES.
lesson learned: chinese restaurants are sometimes really shady about their practice. beware.
my little early bird failure had me going and i "booked" a restaurant that both will and i and our parents were happy with in april. why "booked", you ask?
first some back story. I always asks what happens if someone else wants the date and all restaurants i spoke to will hold your date, until someone inquires about the same date. if that does happen they will contact you and ask that you give them an a deposit to secure your booking or if no one else wants the date they usually ask you to put down a deposit 6 months prior to the date. this happened to me when i was looking at kirin starlight. i was second on the list and the manager told me that the couple before me had until so and so date to decide and if they don't put down the deposit i would get the date. all is fair. first couple gets priority, if they don't want it.. it's free for me and if i didn't want it the 3rd couple (yes, there was a 3rd couple) could have it. unfortunately for me the first couple did put a deposit so that restaurant was out of the running.
THAT did not happen with the restaurant we ended up choosing and "booking" with. now i won't mention this restaurant by name since i've heard of bloggers getting threaten with legal action if what they write reflects negatively on the restaurant (no free speech i guess?). but i will say for all vancouverites that this restaurant is located where the old flamingo restaurant was and near glad tidings church.
will and i had yet to put a deposit down and were told that they would contact us. i went in yesterday to put in a deposit maybe a month and bit after i booked the date with them since i figured we really did decide to go with this restaurant and just to get it done. the manager took my deposit and all was well. today i get a call from the same manager saying that he was sorry and had to return my deposit because the restaurant took another person's deposit for the same date. my inner bridezilla took over and needless to say, i was not happy and that guy got an earful. that manager told me that another manager will give me a call in the afternoon. no call. i had to call them and went in to talk to them. prior to all this i had received NO call to get in a deposit earlier. the manager and owners reasoning for not calling was... " if i called you and you weren't home and when you do call us back and maybe you tell us that you don't need the restaurant anymore, and those other people left then i've lost business". OKAY. the moment i heard that i just wanted to flip the table and leave (my inner gangster bride.) then they tried to convince me to change my date and they will cut me a deal since they were wrong, but i told them that's not happening since i've already booked some big ticket items. they offered to print my invitations among other things but honestly, i was done. i was so disappointed that wasn't called to put in my deposit. but what's done is done and i'll find a better restaurant. never going back there. ever.
in fact i've already looked in to some.. my second question after asking if my date is free, was "will you contact me if someone else asks about the date". their answer... YES.
lesson learned: chinese restaurants are sometimes really shady about their practice. beware.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
wind and rain: our sydney engagement pictures!
as i mentioned before we flew our wonderful and uber talented photographer- jeanie of stu-di-o - down to sydney to take our engagement/ life photos! it was so worth it! jeanie was in town for about 4 days. so we spent one day scouting out locations to shoot and tried to pick places that showed off iconic sydney locations. believe it or not, we were all a little worried that it would rain- it's not always sunny in sydney!
on the day of, we decided to meet up around 5ish to get the best light. i'm helpless with my makeup so i decided to have a professional help me with it. thank goodness i did! not only was jenny a super awesome makeup artist, we totally hit it off and i made my first real aussie friend =)!
we first went to luna park/ milsons point in north sydney and got some wonderful shots under the bridge. Just as we were finishing up there... it started POURING rain. we kept our fingers crossed that it would stop by the time we got to our next location...
the sydney opera house! you really can't get more sydney than that! thank goodness it had stopped raining but in came the wind! there were so many pictures of my hair whipping will in the face! haha awesome.
our last location was townhall. i absolutely love that building! i heart the old victorian feel :) it was one of the train stops that will and i used most often when going to the CBD and chinatown. we got some great pictures just as the light was fading.
after a long day, we went to glebe to get some yummy mexican food. the name of the restaurant totally escapes me but it had great nachos that rivals foundation!
we had so much fun just hanging out with jeanie and i think it really showed in the pictures!! you be the judge, some of our pictures can be found on jeanie's blog!!
jeanie taking pictures of me and the crazy wind whipping hair
on the day of, we decided to meet up around 5ish to get the best light. i'm helpless with my makeup so i decided to have a professional help me with it. thank goodness i did! not only was jenny a super awesome makeup artist, we totally hit it off and i made my first real aussie friend =)!
we first went to luna park/ milsons point in north sydney and got some wonderful shots under the bridge. Just as we were finishing up there... it started POURING rain. we kept our fingers crossed that it would stop by the time we got to our next location...
the sydney opera house! you really can't get more sydney than that! thank goodness it had stopped raining but in came the wind! there were so many pictures of my hair whipping will in the face! haha awesome.
our last location was townhall. i absolutely love that building! i heart the old victorian feel :) it was one of the train stops that will and i used most often when going to the CBD and chinatown. we got some great pictures just as the light was fading.
after a long day, we went to glebe to get some yummy mexican food. the name of the restaurant totally escapes me but it had great nachos that rivals foundation!
we had so much fun just hanging out with jeanie and i think it really showed in the pictures!! you be the judge, some of our pictures can be found on jeanie's blog!!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
early bird failure... =/
sorry i've been so neglectful of my blog. after getting back from 2 AWESOME months in australia (btw, everyone should go once) i just didn't feel very blog-y. lots of wedding things have happened in the last two months but for now, my early bird failure....
alright, it's not that bad but i have to kick myself for it. the whole point of having a long engagement (*ahem* not by choice *ahem*) is to make the most of it and be able to book all the vendors i like, plan everything ahead of time, etc! will and i agreed that we would have a wedding with 200 guests, which is small by asian wedding standards. i was super confident that we would be able to do it and nothing was going to stop me! when will was back in vancouver, we had went for dimsum at a restaurant in richmond. the restaurant held 20-24 tables, very modern looking, clean, and the food was decent. put down our name for our date. DONE. we even planned that if we went over our 200 we had room for an extra 3 tables.
Last week, we started really planning out our guestlists to see how many people we wanted to invite, how many our parents would want to invite and the final number..... 263!! i'm POSITIVE that i can't cut anyone. so our original restaurant isn't going to work. i started calling other restaurants that we originally ruled out for being too large. one was already booked on my date but luckily, one is booked on every saturday of june except for mine. bad part is i can't put my name down without a deposit so i'm meeting with the manager on saturday. i thought i had a restaurant done in december with 1.5 years to go. now everyone is starting to book! oh the stress!
looks like my wedding of 200 people has ballooned up to a wedding of potentially 300. i mean if we're at 263 already lets just go all the way to 300!
lesson learned in all this: do a rough guest list!!!!!
fun fact: sun sui wah on main street- min. amount spent to close the restaurant to the public- $35,000
min. amount at other restaurants- $13,000-16,000
sun sui wah holds 40 tables x $700 dollar menu= $28,000. still short $7000.......
alright, it's not that bad but i have to kick myself for it. the whole point of having a long engagement (*ahem* not by choice *ahem*) is to make the most of it and be able to book all the vendors i like, plan everything ahead of time, etc! will and i agreed that we would have a wedding with 200 guests, which is small by asian wedding standards. i was super confident that we would be able to do it and nothing was going to stop me! when will was back in vancouver, we had went for dimsum at a restaurant in richmond. the restaurant held 20-24 tables, very modern looking, clean, and the food was decent. put down our name for our date. DONE. we even planned that if we went over our 200 we had room for an extra 3 tables.
Last week, we started really planning out our guestlists to see how many people we wanted to invite, how many our parents would want to invite and the final number..... 263!! i'm POSITIVE that i can't cut anyone. so our original restaurant isn't going to work. i started calling other restaurants that we originally ruled out for being too large. one was already booked on my date but luckily, one is booked on every saturday of june except for mine. bad part is i can't put my name down without a deposit so i'm meeting with the manager on saturday. i thought i had a restaurant done in december with 1.5 years to go. now everyone is starting to book! oh the stress!
looks like my wedding of 200 people has ballooned up to a wedding of potentially 300. i mean if we're at 263 already lets just go all the way to 300!
lesson learned in all this: do a rough guest list!!!!!
fun fact: sun sui wah on main street- min. amount spent to close the restaurant to the public- $35,000
min. amount at other restaurants- $13,000-16,000
sun sui wah holds 40 tables x $700 dollar menu= $28,000. still short $7000.......
Saturday, January 08, 2011
Greetings from Sydney!
i'm spending two months here in sydney and so far enjoying every minute of it! not going to write a long post. there's so much we've done already but here's a snippet! definitely more pictures to come
sydney NYE fireworks. it was only 12 minutes... enough said!
Emperor puffs- way better than beard papas- the line up for these are pretty long. waffle-like crunchy outside, yummy hot custard in the middle.
Shark from the shark tank at the syndey aquarium
lazy koalas at the sydney wildlife world
macquarie lighthouse- pretty good picture eh? iphone's camera quality is surprisingly good
Cave formations at jenolan caves
will and me at watson's bay
In other exciting news, jeanie- our great photographer, will be here in sydney taking our engagement pictures on tuesday! we're all going to go around sydney tomorrow and find some potential shooting locations. uber excited! fingers crossed that the weather holds up- surprisingly, it's not always sunny here in sydney!
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