The Last Week before Wedding

Our blog has been quiet for an entire week. What have we done in this critical time - the last week before wedding? Very busy. Stay up late every night doing wedding stuff. But glad that still able to spend some quality time with friends n' family.

Our first family guests arrived from Hong Kong last week. They are Hadi's big uncle n' big auntie. We call them "DoPapa" & "DoMama". Haven't seen them for half a year since the two families first met in Macau last November.




We had very nice time with DoPapa n' DoMama over the memorial day weekend. We made Shanghainese wonton together. That was the first time just the four of us ate together. A memorable dinner...




My coworkers had a bachelorette lunch for me at my favorite Aroma cafe in North Hollywood last Wednesday (May 28). My boss De gave me a big gift box of spa kit. Fragrance smells so good.

Lunch was nice too. We mainly talked about my other boss Concetta's wedding. Cause she just married on the Memorial Day weekend - May 24th! Tried to hear what a wedding gonna be like.







We didn't expect would be able to meet our friends as we're so packed before leaving LA. But we did find some time to play wii game n' have dinner together. Yvonne n' Michael were so nice to get to-go food for us to our house cause we were too busy to go out. They even went to several places so we had various Asian cuisines tonite including Thai, Indian n' dessert from Japanese bakery!










Oooo, the next time we see them will be our wedding day!

Noel Made My Dress!

Save the best for last. All of our wedding vendors have been talked about in our previous blogs. This last one is a special one. All others are local. Noel is the only one from Hong Kong. Not sure if vendor is the right term for her though. But she's part of our wedding - a significant part. She made my wedding dress - the most important dress in a girl's life.

(Oooo, I like her also because her shop uses my favorite color!)


No one told me about Noel before. I didn't read any Hong Kong wedding magazines when I was researching my dress. I just saw an image from the web the other day showing a boutique with very special interior decorations n' a very small business sign far in the corner of the image. That's how I knew about her name.












The first time I met Noel, I felt something very special about her. She's just different. Very nice person speaks in a soft tone. She is the one put on my first wedding dress in my life. That moment I really felt her like a big sister to me.

Noel is definitely a designer. She has her own unique style. Her simple outfit on the day we first met - white shirt with jeans gave me a very good n' comfortable first impression. Making me like her even more.

This pict is my favorite! Unfortunately I just have it low rez!




I was always happy going to her shop. Her employees there are very fun n' helpful providing warm services . I enjoyed being there a lot. It's sad there's no reason to go there after wedding... But I'll drop by n' visit!




Noel gave me a wedding gift the last time I went to her shop for final fitting. (That was a surprise!) She also included the feather pen that I liked so much n' had asked her before to buy one for me. Instead she gave it to me as part of the gift. There was a card as well but I haven't read it yet. Will save it before or on my wedding day. Those are the words from her - I'll save the most valuable for last...








Being a designer myself, I feel very happy n' excited for her to have her own design business. I think she’s doing a great job. Best wises to her success. I also hope she won't stress herself too much cause I heard her being sick most of the time I went to her shop. Take good care laaaaa...




I feel so blessed to have Noel made my wedding dress. My mom, Hadi n’ his mom had all been with me to Noel’s shop. The whole process of my dress making was downright amazing. I’m so thankful I had such a happy experience.










(Mr Koo, don't look so stressed. Thanks for your patience. I'll be right with you...)

Why the 8th?!

Why our wedding date is June 8? A Sunday?

Sorry guests! We didn't mean to give you a hard time. I know the following day is a working day. Some of you have to fly back home right after dinner or even in n' out San Francisco airport the same day.... it's absolutely not because a Sunday wedding is cheaper (some places do give a discount for Sunday). We don't want hassles to our guests for a lower cost. Our savings probably won't even cover all your flight tickets...

Ok ok, before u get mad, please - let us explain. I'll give you 2 main reasons here :)

1. My uncles n' aunts go to a business show in Las Vegas in June every year. I want them to be able to attend my wedding cause I don't really have any family here. So that's the best time to catch them in the U.S. One of my uncles married on June 7 . It's also because he wanted to take this advantage so more family can participate.

2. We like the number "8". Not because it sounds "wealthy" in Chinese. But my birthday is on the 8th. Our Anniversary day on the 18th.... We were considering June 7 which is a Saturday this year. And Saturday is always good for events cause people can still be able to relax the day after. But 6.7 doesn't sound good in Chinese. Sorry, we sometimes are kind of superstitious. We don't want our wedding anniversary to be "6.7" (try to say it in Cantonese).

Alright, that's how June 8, 2008 becomes the most important date in our lives. Are the 2 reasons strong enough to calm you down now? Um.......

We REALLY REALLY appreciate you all take your valuable time n' travel all the way to our wedding. Especially those from overseas n' out of town. Some of you have to leave early to the airport in the evening. We can't really have a long crazy night. I'm upset about that too :(

But then I tell myself to think of it as a kids' party. Kids can't go to bed too late. Their parties have to finish early even though they don't wanna say good bye to their little friends. You are our little friends help creating a blissful memory for us. So just come to this kids' party - A BIG party for two BIG kids...

Arlene - our Florist!

We have very good experience with all of our vendors so far (That's why we picked them)! Cross my fingers. Hopefully things will keep going smoothly. The experience with our floral designer Arlene Boyle was very nice too.

Searching florists was the most difficult among all vendors. Reason is most of them are charging too high which doesn't make sense to us. Fortunately our wedding planner Lani helped us find Arlene who was very reasonable. At least she is not taking advantage of the poor flowers that can't even get a penny in their lives!




We understand that florists charge labor more than the flowers themselves. We totally agree they deserve it cause they really have to go get flowers in very early morning. And taking care of these fragile things aren't easy too. It's a hard job. But can't be too ridiculous. Especially knowing how cheap flowers can be after going to a wholesale market....

We were considering to do flowers ourselves for the wedding. But after really thinking about it, we decided to have a professional take care for us cause we don't want to put too much work to our family. They should be relaxing like us n' enjoy the coming of the day.

So here comes Arlene. Her white hair makes you think she's old but actually not. She's like a mom or aunt doing flowers for us. But she's a STYLISH mom/aunt. Cause we got a chance to visit her home. Her place told us her chic taste that not only apply to her flowers.





Arlene doesn't have a store but a working studio in South San Francisco. Kind of like a warehouse. We met her there once but we needed to meet her again. It was the second time we went to her house.

Her home is near the Japan town in San Francisco. A typical San Francisco house - a historic Victorian style building. The interior had been remodeled recently so looking very new n' neat. The interior design is very simple, natural n' contemporary. She walked us her entire house even showed her bedroom but asked us to excuse her mess. We spent almost 2 hours there!




Isn't polite to post the pictures of her nice house here without asking her permission (even though I took lots). But I'll post one of her backyard. A HUGE cherry blossom tree. How beautiful it is. Totally what I n' my mom dream of..... Arlene, u know how lucky u r? U r always around beautiful flowers!

Kay Bakes our Wedding Cake!

Yum Yum! I can finally talk about our wedding cake stylist - Kay Dillon!

I'm crazy about cakes. No doubt that wedding cake is VERY important to me. I'm sorry to say but wedding cake comes first even before my dress or ring..... To me, wedding cake is a piece of art. Bakers are real artists. I respect them cause they create artworks that I can EAT!

Our wedding planner Lani helped us find n' make appointments for cake tasting. We put lots of time researching together. We tried 5 bakeries in total. Only one of them was totally NOT qualified to us. The other four were good n' was difficult to choose. I'm very picky- I see into many things before paying so much for a cake. I care about personality too. Is the vendor easy to work with? Does he care more about money or really would help create a nice wedding..... even better if he has passion in his job....



Wedding cakes usually either look good or taste good. These two qualities are hard to coexist. We're greedy hoping to have both. We finally decided on Kay cause we believe she is capable of doing both to create the wedding cake of our dream.

Hadi n' I are too bossy about all the design for our wedding. Our cake is no exception. We gave Kay our design n' discussed with her over n' over about applying the design to real ingredients n' making to a real cake. I'm very much looking forward to how it will come out...




Kay's kitchen is located not at a bakery but a restaurant on Van Ness Blvd in San Francisco. Our first meeting with Kay was very close to Chinese New Year. Hadi's parents were visiting so we took them with us. We always want parents to participate in our wedding planning to share the moments n' see the progress. It's fun to go cake tasting with them. Hadi's mom especially likes Kay's hazelnut cake. So we gave a checkmark next to her on the list.




We changed our mind of the cake flavor after signing the contract. Kay did us a little cake to take home for 2^nd tasting but we weren’t crazy about it. So the final taste gonna be a little surprise cause we've never tried it. Hopefully will be good. The day you enjoy our cake, taste it carefully cause we put lots time n’ effort in it. Really hope will turn out nicely.



I'm sorry Kay, we didn't take a good picture with you. We paid too much attention on your cakes that day!

Our 18th

A weekend break wasn't a rest to me. I was busy busy busy up in the bay area. Didn't update my blog for 3 days proves how crazy my time was up there....

Well, it's the 18th! Every 18th of the month is our little anniversary. Cause our little story started on the 18th sometime somewhere years ago..... Wow, same date next month.... something will be different....

Wanna share a picture here on this special date to us.....

He will Marry us

Jim! How can we not write about you. You are the man who will marry us on the day!

Mr Jim Burklo was the pastor at Sausalito Presbyterian Church when we booked the place. But he is no longer there any more. Yet he will still be performing our wedding.

Hadi n' I are not committed to any particular religion . Neither of us are baptized. But I grew up in a Catholic school where bible was taught. This learning environment made me like going to churches or praying to God whenever I want someone to talk to. Hadi n' I both love visiting churches. To us, getting married in a church is sacred yet very comfortable.



Sorry, pictures are blurry.....


Most churches don't do wedding for non religious people. It's hard to find one that welcomes anyone n' at the same time we like it. Choices are limited. We first planned to marry in Los Angeles. So we began researching in the LA area. BTW, there's a church we both like a lot (we almost marry there!) - Wayfarers Chapel down in Rancho Palos Verdes along the coast. We call it "Glass Church". With a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean. The chapel itself is built by large glasses designed by Lloyd Wright . It's very green, taking lots sunlight....anyway, highly recommend checking it out.




So....after going around the circle, we finally found our church in Sausalito. I'm sure fate brought us to Jim. We only met him twice. But we really enjoyed meeting with him. Feel like we've known him awhile cause it's comfortable talking to him. He's very friendly n' inspirational. We didn't only talk about ourselves but chatted about life n' future too. He just guides you to think....appreciate that.




Wow, Jim now knows lots of our secrets cause we needed to tell him all our love story so he can do us a personalized wedding. He knows all of our important incidents in our 10 years relationship: how we met, what we'd been through...blah blah blah.....

Jim, we have every blessing to you. You play a very significant role not only on that one day, but in our live. We love to have you marry us!

Our Chef - Michael!

Michael! Our chef who will feed us on the day. He is referred by our wedding planner, Lani cause she hired him for her wedding too.




We actually had our tasting back in December last year. It was very close to Xmas when everyone was busy for the holidays. Michael cooked us some samples at Lani’s home. The samples weren’t sample size at all but full dishes that included 1 soup, 1 appetizer n’ 3 main courses. Hadi n’ I didn’t expect to go home with full stomach cause it was just a trial!




Michael isn't only a caterer but also a coordinator. He takes care all of our rental like linens, napkins, tablewares..... Through him, we picked n' rented forks, spoons, dishes, glasses...... each item on the dinner table are thoughtfully selected. Just hope our guests will have a nice meal. Most things have to be rented cause we just happened to like a venue where nothing is provided except a nice empty place with some chairs n' tables.



Catering is the biggest expense for wedding. That means....most of our savings go to Michael!



OOooo, Michael is driving my dream car! Heheee...... But I really think caterers got lots responsibilities n' lots to do before n' on the event day. They should be driving a nice car :) Michael! Hope you'll create a memorable day for us!

Our Photographer - Ingrid!

In the next upcoming posts, I wanna blog 'bout our wedding vendors cause they are all important people to our wedding. They are all carefully selected from many candidates out in the market . Every one of them plays an important n' unique role helping us create a memorable day.


Ingrid! You closed your eyes. But the picture is cute!

First comes our photographer Ingrid. Indeed, she's the first vendor we found. Cause Hadi n' I both think photograph is VERY important as it's the only thing left after the day. So we picked our photographer soon after we engaged to make sure we found our favorite person to tell our story in picture.


We like Ingrid's work. She is very sweet cause she laughs a lot! Her words in her emails are always fun to read. We'll have fun taking pictures by her!

Oooo Ingrid just gave birth to her first baby Eli in January. It's a cute little boy! She just had her first Happy Mother's Day! Congrats!

Bache-lor-&-ette GetKoogether Party!

Never work so hard on our blog. It was updated almost everyday last week. I'll keep working on it. Please visit often!

Too much to share last week. Haven't got a chance to finish writing our party. Let's continue...


Crazy Bachelor Party continued from Saturday (May 3) to Sunday night (May 4). We planned a SURPRISED dinner to WOW Hadi. We brought him to Asia SF - a restaurant in San Francisco downtown served by transvestites!





The food was average. It was the woMEN n' the entertainment we were going for. There were shows going on all night occasionally while we enjoyed our food. The transgender servers were also the performers the night. They danced on the countertops in sexy outfits. Compare to the trannies in Thailand, the ones here are of course not as hot n' pretty. But good enough to have this kind of entertainment in SF.





One nice thing is, they got information about your party in advance and incorperated it into the show. They announced your names n' your special occasion on stage. They even gave you a personalized menu with the name of your event. It really customized your experience.




There is a dance floor downstairs but we didn't go cause we were all very tired n' couldn't wait to home Zzzzzzz.






We had a blast! Just feel like guys gotta do something naughty for a bachelor party!