Wedding Retrospective

It's been just over 2 months since the BIG DAY and I can't quite believe it's over. Actually, what I most acutely feel is this craving to re-enter that entire day so I can savour everything again: seeing Bill as I walk down the aisle and starting to cry, saying my vows while crying, hugging family and friends, toasting Bill's parents, and more crying. There was lots of crying. Ok, lots of crying by me.

Since I think it would be fun, I thought I would conduct a retrospective on the wedding! Here we go.

1. WHAT WORKED

• PRIORITIZING: Prioritizing what was important to us. Priority #1 was food. Priority #2 was photography. Priority #3 was a beautiful location for the reception and ceremony. This helped us figure out where we would spend our budget, too.
• TASK MANAGEMENT: Using trello.com to manage all our tasks helped keep us focused and organized. Attaching all the contracts (photographer, venues, catering) to trello centralized all that documentation which came in handy tons of times. I also attached images/jpgs of ideas that I wanted to implement.

• REDUCED SCOPE: After spending most of my free time on all the wedding blogs I could find, I had a sense of where people were spending tons of time on and where I could CUT SCOPE. 
• Most of the printed assets: invitations, ceremony program, dinner menu. Instead, we created a website for our invitation and printed 1 copy of the dinner menu which was displayed on the Reception Welcome Table. Our ceremony was super simple and since it was 20 mins total including the walking part, I figured people didn't need a piece of paper telling them what was going to happen.
• One witness each. None of this 10 bridesmaids and 10 groomsmen business for us. That wouldn't fit the intimate nature of our wedding.
• The Best Women were instructed to wear a dress that they looked hot in. Having two very different looking ladies wearing the same dress didn't seem like a good idea. I thought they looked great and very comfortable having chosen their own dresses.
• You can spend a ton of money on decorating a space. We felt that the best decor is the natural beauty of Vancouver so we chose the Creekside Community Centre because of their awesome view of False Creek. The only decorating I did was to project the Wim Wenders film, Wings of Desire, onto a wall. This black and white film about love provided my type of ambiance.

• COST REDUCTION: Bill and I went to value village probably 2-3 times a week picking up items for the reception. This took its toll and I got burnt out. However, savings were had!
• Centrepiece arrangements for the 7 reception tables. Instead, I purchased wooden salad bowls from value village and potted up succulents and mint. I'm sure I saved at least $50 per table doing this.
• Purchasing table cloths from value village for $3-9 dollars each instead of spending $20 each at the party rental place.
• Purchasing large serving platters from value village for $4-9 dollars each instead of spending $17 each at the party rental place.
• The only flowers that were ordered were small bouquets for myself and the 2 Best Women. No boutonnieres or corsages to hand out and get promptly mashed with all the hugging.
• I didn't include time/cost for the photographer to capture the 'bride getting ready' moments which meant that he could stay until the first dance and get lots of picture of the reception instead. I liked the idea of less pictures of me.

• CUSTOM TAILORED SUIT: We went to Harry Rosen in Pacific Centre and tried their gorgeous Armani $2000 suit along with the $500 Prada shoes. Bill looked hot. And they offer alterations for life! When we told my dad, he insisted that we chat with his (trained in Hong Kong) tailor connection in Richmond. I felt if we went with this tailor that ability was not the issue. The issue would be fabric selection. We went and Bill found a fabric that worked for him (and me, haha). Total price was $750 + taxes and wow was it worth it. Bill looked amazing on our wedding day and now he has a great suit to wear for formal functions.

• INVOLVING FAMILY AND FRIENDS: Having family do everything from picking up the beer to returning the sound system meant everything to us. During the reception, I made sure to thank each person and mention how they contributed to our special day.

• MEANINGFUL DECISIONS: It was important to both of us to incorporate the memory of Bill's parents into our wedding. We did this in a couple of ways. On each reception table, we used Bill's mom's teacup collection (that she acquired at her own bridal shower) as tea light holders. Then we used one of Bill's dad's maps of Surrey as the background for our table seating map.

• THE LAST MINUTE BAND BOOKING: So we knew this band would be awesome but we didn't budget for it. Even though we knew we could afford it, I couldn't get past my budget ceiling. With only 1 month before the wedding, we finally contacted Vancouver's only Balkan Brass Band to ensure that our wedding would be even more memorable.

• LETTING GO OF THE SMALL STUFF: Once we booked the caterer, venues, officiant, and photographer we knew we would get married and people would be fed. Everything else was extra, really. This mantra helped me reduce my stress levels immensely.

2. WHAT DIDN'T WORK

• Being INDECISIVE about my dress. I thought I had decided on one dress (option #1) that was being augmented by Bill's niece who went to fashion school. But then I found a beautiful, long veil 6 days before the wedding and I couldn't let it go and that meant going back to dress option #2 (actually, it was #3 - long story) since the veil wouldn't work with option #1. ANYWAYS, I thought I would ask both Best Women and sister-in-law (who was doing our hair and makeup) to help me decide before the ceremony. As in, 2 hours before the ceremony. I know! I know! Then, because the veil was wrinkled, I went down to the women's clothing store where I bought option #2 (Oak & Fort in Gastown, below our apartment) to ask if they could steam the veil out. I'm so lucky they said yes. PHEW!
• NOT ENOUGH TIME for my makeup and hair. Bill's sister-in-law is a seasoned pro in the styling business so she did my hair and makeup in about 15mins. I DO NOT RECOMMEND letting the bride go last in the hair and makeup scheduling. I didn't even look at myself in the mirror before we left since we were 20 mins late for the ceremony already. Yikes!

3. WHAT COULD BE DONE DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME

• Yes, well. I plan on there NOT being a next time. I've found the one I want to be with for the rest of my life and I'm so very glad he's agreed to be my husband.

this bridezilla is organized

It's all about the wedding these days. and what system am I using to organize the wedding, you might be asking? I'm SO GLAD you asked!

About 2 months ago, I started looking at what the big wedding websites offered for free (i.e. martha stewart, the knot) and they were useful in terms of understanding the overall scope of coordinating a wedding. I did like how if you inputed your wedding date, you would see how far behind you are in making key decision like: selecting the photographer, selecting the demon child as ring bearer, etc. However, for actual task management, not so much.

I ended up looking at 3 task management applications instead.

I tried: asana.com, trello.com and do.com

asana.com
- One of the founders was one of the original developers for facebook and I quite liked the interface although the whole headers and subtasks interface felt more complex than it needed to be. All the task headings and tasks are on one long continuous page. It felt overwhelming.
- I was actually in the process of creating all my tasks on asana.com when Bill put me onto trello.com

trello.com
- I loved the interface right away. It was simple with a great drag and drop feel. So I abandoned asana.com and started inputting all the tasks. It was so much fun to do!
- I think the nomenclature needs a tweak (e.g. what looks like boards are actually lists and boards are actually projects) but overall, it's pretty powerful. I created 4 lists: Communication, Ceremony, Reception, Done. Each list is comprised of cards. The functionality of the cards are amazing! You can create multiple checklists. You can upload files. You can upload images that then show up in the activity feed for that card. AMAZING.
- I love creating checklists that I then get to CHECK OFF! Oh the satisfaction.
- Trello has an iphone app that I downloaded and the same slick interface was well implemented here.

do.com
- After playing with trello for a week, a co-worker recommended I try do.com since I had forced the developers to look at my wedding trello the week before as I gushed about it's usability.
- This one has promise but since 99% of the tasks are for Bill and I to complete, this app wasn't the exact fit for my needs
- BTW, you MUST WATCH THE PRODUCT VIDEO - a director who worships at the altar of Wes Anderson appears to have created this.


It's 2 months later and I still love trello. All the vendor information is there whenever I need to find it. I've even uploaded photos (via the iphone app) of table cloths and platters when I pick them up from Value Village.

The only thing trello can't help me with is my wedding dress indecision, unfortunately. And that story, dear friends, is for another day.

Annual Lunar New Year open house

A week ago today, Bill and I welcomed 50 friends and family into our abode in Gastown.

About 125 dumplings and 24 cups of congee were consumed. And a 1 year old was introduced to congee for the first time and loved it. It was a pretty good day.

Party photos are up on flickr

2011 in review

it was an eventful year. not that you would know by the dearth of posts on this blog.

so here's the shortlist

• passed the Project Management Professional exam
• started a new job
• travelled to San Francisco
• mourned the unexpected passing of Bill's dad
• accepted Bill's proposal to get hitched
• volunteered with the Vancouver Asian Film Festival as the web content administrator and programmer
• started an asian female filmmaker working group
• spent 5 restful days in Ucluelet
• filmed and edited 4 theatre performances

2011 has been a year of unbelievable sadness and satisfying achievement. i owe so much to my family and friends for supporting me each step of the way.

.....

in a year where i had two employers, i managed to create a year end montage for both companies. see below.

VIFF 2011

giddy up! the Vancouver International Film Festival is upon us and planning must commence!!

i just spent a lazy sunday afternoon going through VIFF's hefty catalog of their 2011 screenings.

this year's process for me looked like this:
STEP 1: read every single film description, mark those I want to watch. Also assign a numerical value to help me rank how much I want to view them. 1 = must watch, 2 = should watch, 3 = if time permits, watch
STEP 2: enter all films and their screening times into spreadsheet
STEP 3: fret, prioritize and cull

here's how it panned out for me this year
step 1/2 = 52 films
step 3 = 23 films

the list of the 23 films I'm hoping to watch:

1. Alps 
2. Andrew Bird: Fever Year 
3. Big Blue Lake 
4. Black Bread 
5. Buddha Mountain 
6. Elena 
7. Fatigue 
8. First Position 
9. Goodbye 
10. I Wish 
11. Las acacias 
12. Martha Marcy May Marlene 
13. My Little Princess 
14. Nana 
15. Nuit #1 
16. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia 
17. Planet Yoga 
18. Pure 
19. Somewhere Between 
20. The Loneliest Planet 
21. The Mirror Never Lies 
22. The Sword Identity 
23. The Turin Horse 

If you have time to watch 5 films, I highly recommend the following:

1. Elena which is by the same director who made the Russian drama, The Return. I consider The Return a perfect film.
2. Alps which is by the same director who made Dogtooth.
3. Goodbye which is by the same director who made The White Meadows
4. My Little Princess which stars Isabelle Huppert
5. The Loneliest Planet which is by the same director who made Day Night, Day Night and stars Gael García Bernal

I found the list of VIFF films this year really strong; I would even say, the strongest in the past 4 years. I told Bill that he won't be seeing much of me until Oct 15th.

If anyone wants recommendations, just ask me. And if you'd like to come along with me on these screenings, let me know!

PS - Everything Louder Than Everything Else had its Vancouver premier screening tonight as part of the OLIO Festival. The screening at the SFU Woodwards Theatre was just lovely with lots of family and friends coming out. What a fantastic day today was for me. Thank you, universe.

life has been pretty action packed lately

march - april: studying for the Project Management Certification exam

may: passing of the Project Management Certification exam. woohoo! + my mom's arrival for an 8 week visit + 2 spot prawn feasts

june: bill starting his new job in the ecommerce team of a large company known for its hardware and software + 24 hrs in Seattle to eat at the amazing Spinasse restaurant in celebration of said new job + watching a ton of films for VAFF

july: my last month with OpenRoad + more VAFF volunteering + 3 days in San Francisco (see flickr set)

with august comes exciting (and scary, if I'm honest) new adventures at my new job at Tyze which requires an actual commute! the excitement for the new is being tempered by the sadness of leaving a bunch of fantastic people at OpenRoad. i will never forget them, especially now that i have a google+ circle for them!

here are some of my favourite pictures from the past 5 months that didn't make it into flickr.


- st patrick's day celebration courtesy of @seafoam



- sarah letting me convince her to put on this hat and strike a cute pose



- june birthday celebration at OpenRoad



- @selmaz post laser operation



- spot prawn boil at Refuel




- spot prawn feast at Ken's Kitchen



- dimsum for Bill's going away lunch



- freshly made angel hair pasta w pork ragu at Spinasse. my lord it was good.



- bill at Save On Meats



- @CarolienD and @selmaz at The Diamond



- a fresh bite of delish from Bob Likes Thai



- bill at The Precidio in SFO

a jaunt to Seattle and Portland

Bill and I left work early last Thursday and spent an evening in Seattle then 2 nights in Portland. We had some delicious meals, had tasty drinks and bought a bag full of books.

HIGHLIGHT #1:

Thursday night dinner at Spinasse restaurant: Based on compelling urgings from friends Brian and Cheryl, we went to Spinasse and wow are we glad we listened to them. Our server was very knowledgeable about their list of wines and friendly without it being weird but the food, THE FOOD! OMG! OMG! OMG!

Between the 3 of us we ended up trying many dishes but the standouts for me were:
#1 poached egg 'under glass' with fonduta and local black truffles
#2 lamb ragu tagliatelle
#3 2008 Moscato d'Asti - "La Selvatica" Romano Dogliati

Once the poached egg was placed into my mouth, a flavour explosion happened that rendered me unable to say anything else but: OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

I guarantee foodgasm if you try this dish which explains why I forgot to take a picture of it. I highly recommend Spinasse.


Spinasse: lamb ragu tagliatelle

HIGHLIGHT #2

Friday night dinner at Little Bird (their website seems to be down)

Little Bird is a french restaurant run by the same folks who also run Le Pigeon (website is also down) which Bill and I have eaten at the past 2 years and love.

We started with the escargot which was buttery and delicate and lip smacking good! For our entrees, Bill had Coq Au Vin and I had the lamb shank. It was really good but, I hate to say it, I've had better lamb shank. The lamb was almost fall off the bone but not quite although it had good flavour. The Coq Au Vin was perfection! Not too acidic at all. I still highly recommend Little Bird.

I also owe a lot to our server who gave us a great recommendation for a brunch place the next morning: Broder!


HIGHLIGHT #3

The server from Little Bird positioned Broder as Scandinavian via Wisconsin. Actually, I don't remember which state it was but the server really sold me on a smoked trout based breakfast.

I had the smoked trout hash with 2 eggs on top. They cooked the 2 eggs in a small square cast iron pan. How cute! Bill had fried eggs on apple fritters with a side of sausage. It was really delicious. And I loved how the cream that came with the coffee was actually hot.


Broder: fried eggs on apple fritters with a sign of sausage



HIGHLIGHT #4

Powell's book store is a big draw for us. We buy a lot of books. Ok, Bill buys a lot of books. The picture below makes me smile because it so aptly captures the spirit of Powell's.


Powell's


More good stuff

Poco Wine Bar in Seattle: we had pre-dinner drinks with a colleague and his wife who live in Tacoma. The bar's wine list had a strong focus on wines from the northwest along with a tapas menu. Our server was fantastic and the atmosphere was cosy.

Portland's food carts are legendary. Immediately upon checking into the Ace Hotel we made straight for the food carts which are only a block away from said hotel. I had curry chicken drumstick on egg noodles and lots of sauce. Bill had korean bbq tacos. Both were delicious but the korean bbq tacos were clearly the winner.

I love how the Seattle Ace Hotel offers complimentary waffles as part of the stay. Wish I had taken a picture. You make the waffles yourself within a common room/small eating area that also provide guests with tea, coffee, juice, toast and cereal. But it's the make your own waffles opportunity that you don't want to miss.

Teardrop Cocktail Lounge has some great bartenders. They make their own bitters and will make custom drinks for you. Unfortunately, the crowd that seems to come to this place seems to be a tad douchey and the music really sucks. But if you are lucky enough to snag a seat at their massive bar, you will be well taken care of.

Coava is a cafe in Portland that is housed in this massive warehouse and shares space with a custom bamboo manufacturer. It was a big space but there were, it felt like, almost a car length between the 5 gorgeous raw wood but solitary tables. The coffee was good, according to Bill.


Coava - coffee