My Wedding Day

My wedding took place in May this year. As a bride-to-be I was checking for the weather starting 2 months in advance, especially we were going to get married under a big tree outside by Jericho Beach in Vancouver (Brock House). BUT Noooo...we were blessed with true Vancouver wedding where it was sunny everyday and it decided to pour down on my wedding day only. It was brilliantly sunshiny the day after, of course. Despite my worries, I think it added more colors to it and made it more romantic!

I had never had any fantasies of my wedding growing up. It sure was to be a special day but not to the extent that I wanted to spend all my fortune on one day and start my new life together with my husband broke and in debt. I obviously never realized how weddings can be even when you try to cut down on many things. After quoted wedding florists $4000 for what we thought to be simple presentation, we found Robin from Bootah Jardin Florist.  We ended up purchasing SO MUCH bulks of flowers that our living room was so full but only paid less than $500 after all. Robin was accommodating of my nervousness worrying what if I ruin all the flowers and they become all brown by the morning - and offered to meet with me in advance for a short diy session with samples of my flowers. Not to mention, Robin also spared her time the morning of delivery to show us how to make boutonnieres and brides bouquet! Yes it costs you a day of labor with your bridesmaids (and my husband who was responsible of 16 boutonnieres!), but I thought it was all part of the fun!

The only thing of my wedding that I was more stubborn about was my wedding photographer. Sneaking up on my friends' facebook photos, I had discovered Sharalee and been monitoring her blogs occasionally to gather wedding ideas. Choosing Sharalee was the one best idea out of all the things I chose for our once-in-a-lifetime-wedding. She spends time to get to know her clients and does her best to capture the moment and the romance in the air. It was never awkward to pose in front of her camera as she made it very comfortable and fun.

When my hand picked wedding photographer Sharalee asked me where I wanted to get my photos taken, I said Granville Island! Forgotten of that fact that I reside in Vancouver, my visions of my wedding day was always bright and sunny. Thankfully, Sharalee had gone over the sites the day before our wedding to pick out a spot for 'if it rains tomorrow' scenario. And bam, we ended up getting the most one of a kind parkade wedding photos near OCAD. My thoughtful husband thought of buying matching colored umbrellas in the morning, so that was useful!  

As there had been few shots of Korean traditional clothes, or Hanbok, my Mom, my Mom-in-law, my Grandma who flew from Korea at the age of 79, and my closest Auntie all wore these colorful Hanbok to my wedding. I own one outfit myself and I find them very graceful.

Then the rest of the day flew by filled with laughter and tears. I couldn't have done it without my friends and family who's supported me in this stubborn decision where I had to hand prepare every props.

Few highlights:

• Wedding Photographer: Sharalee Prang Photography
• DIY Flower vendor: Bootah Jardin
• We had a photobooth session after lunch reception with Vancouver Photobooth and Angela was such a sweetheart in creating a logo for us that matched our Save the Dates. Everybody had great fun and later I got to keep all the photos via Dropbox! 
• Our wedding favors: I made CD's with label made of our photos as wedding favors. The music inside was filled with all the tracks I played the whole day including wedding march song (Jimmy Fontana's Il Mondo, Arctic Monkeys' No. 1 Party Anthem, and a few tracks from Queen and Regina Spektor). 
• I knew we were going to Italy for our honeymoon, so I had purchased bunch of Italian post cards from online ahead of time. I had them laid on one table and asked our guests to write their address. We were planning on sending them out during our honeymoon but I'm pretty sure my lovely husband threw them out during our trip....I could not find them anywhere in our suitcases! - so uh, that did not work out. 
• Seating arrangements: I made name cards for all of my guests with the table numbers, and hung them on strings on the wall. My friends helped the guests find their names and took polaroid photos to replace the name cards. Things to do while the wedding party were out of sight taking wedding photos!! 

and etc, etc. 

Looking back, all the little details never mattered anyways. My clients had advised me before my wedding to take few moments with my new husband to enjoy and exchange smiles, and I think that part was the memorable moment of my wedding day. Happy Wedding planning everyone! :)