I’ve started thinking about transportation lately…and because I want us to be able to arrive and leave in style, I quickly called up British Motor Coach here in Seattle to try to score one of their fun cars…luckily, they still had availability of cars despite 7-7-07 being “the busiest day we’ve ever had in the history of this business” [gulp!].  Before the ceremony, after our “first look”, we’ll ride around in this cool, old-school London taxi cab to take photos in:

After the reception is over, we’ll be whisked off away to our honeymoon suite in this stylish black and silver Rolls Royce:

I still need to work out details for a shuttle for guests staying in downtown to ride into Newcastle…but that’ll have to wait after I get a better sense as to how many of y’all will need a shuttle!

Otherwise, been keeping busy with various wedding things.  This last weekend, I went and met with the florist to show pictures of flowers I really liked now that I have a better sense of it as well as going over all the details so I could understand the costs and take out as many unnecessary things as possible.  Monday, had dinner with Janel (day of coordinator to the rescue!) to catch up, summarize the florist meeting, and just chat about all the remaining things that are left to do.  She’s going to be SUCH a savior.

We’ve also been working on invitations with this great husband/wife team from Brown Sugar Designs.  We had a really really great design that we loved at first but the pocketfold was a chocolate brown which I’ve been told by my parents is a bad color that I should avoid to use on the invitations [sigh].  Hopefully, I can still accent with it.  So we’re back to the drawing board in terms of colors but hopefully we’ll finalize that soon…we’re meeting with them again this weekend.  So far, we’re doing a basic pocketfold invitation with various inserts.  We’ll probably end up using the same color as the bridesmaid dresses as the main pocketfold.

This weekend, we are also going to meet with the cake lady to figure out flavors and design…and afterwards, time-bearing, we’ll drop by Macy’s to start a registry as they’re having a special wedding registry event.

Oh! I should also mention that planning is underway for the bachelorette weekend and bridal shower—thanks to Jigna and Sri who are leading the way to plan them.  Yay!

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I’ve been insanely picky about makeup.  So much that I’ve had THREE trials with THREE different people….but I think I’ve finally found the one I’m going to hire.  My journey of the trials…

Trial #1: Honestly, this wasn’t bad.  I loved the way she did my eyes; however, I hated how she applied the false eyelashes—and I’m obsessed with having false eyelashes since I’ve got stick straight lashes.  She applied them in a way that made my eyes more closed up.  Also, the concealer she used was too light and looked terrible.

Trial #2: Again, this wasn’t too bad–this makeup was a bit lighter and fresher.  But again, the application of the false eyelashes wasn’t great.  At least this one had me curl my own lashes–but that didn’t hold at all.  Also, I really didn’t like the way my eyebrows came out.  It looked like crayon.

Trial #3: I found someone who specializes in applying individual false lashes and thought ‘what the heck’.  I LOVED the makeup.  Not only are the eyelashes just amazing but the makeup was just what I wanted—a hint of smokeyness.  She was also obsessed with getting my own lashes curled and had me curl them a few times (which is what it takes to keep them curled).  I’m very happy with this trial (and did I mention this was the only trial that was FREE?) and plan on booking her!

#1	#2	#3

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Helllloooo from Hong Kong!  We’ve been here for 1.5 weeks and have done so much.  Aside from seeing tourist sites, meeting tons of relatives that likely can’t make the wedding and eating a bunch of food, we’ve done a lot of wedding related things.  First up: within the first 24 hours of being here, Matt got fitted for his wedding tux at a tailor.  He ended up getting a color combination (ivory tie & waistcoat) that he wasn’t planning on originally getting…but upon seeing it on a mannequin, he fell in love with it.  We went in for another fitting last week and should be picking up the final piece later this afternoon.

As for me, I’ve been on a hunt for a nice cheongsam to wear for the wedding.  Man, it’s been tough–see, I’m a big girl by Hong Kong standards and most pre-made dresses in the stores don’t fit me…if I’m lucky, they have a XL in stock.  All said and done, my mom and I have hunted down two tailors to make cheongsams for me at a pretty affordable price…so I’ll have at least 2 to choose from.  Both are red, long and depict the dragon/phoenix on the fabric (in Chinese culture, the dragon and phoenix represent the man and woman and are typical in weddings).  In Shenzhen yesterday, I even found a cute, short cheongsam that’s black and with a dragon on it that looks great on me…I may change into that for the tea ceremony.

Lastly, the other major wedding thing we did was taking our Pre-Wedding Photos at the Mona Lisa Bridal Salon.  As I mentioned in the previous post, this is super popular to do here and there are tons of photography studios that do this.  It’s quite the laborious process now that I’ve done it.  On the 31st, my mom and I went to the studio to pick out dresses: this took THREE hours.  My total outfits included 2 wedding dresses and an evening dress..and of course I had to try on about 15 dresses before selecting the final 3.  On the 2nd, Matt and I showed up for our 1pm appointment.  I was immediately whisked off for hair and makeup–man, they made me look different.  They really caked on the makeup!  The most hilarious thing they did was put a small sliver of tape at the crease of my eyelids to make them a bit bigger. Ha!  According to the makeup artist, this is quite the popular trend in Hong Kong in lieu of getting surgery.  Next, with hair, they curled it up and they added strands of leaves and flowers.  Yes, real leaves and flowers.  It sounds crazy but didn’t look half bad when done.  All in all–3 outfits, 2 tuxes and SIX hours later, Matt and I were done with the photos.  Yes, that whole thing took all afternoon.  It was amazing how many different rooms and setups they had: outdoor bridge, a wedding rickshaw, a blue door, a piano, a chandelier, wall of balloons, a bed, a floor full of teddy bears.  Pretty hilarious and over the top cheese.  We check out these photos later today.  Will they make an appearance at the actual wedding like at most typical Chinese weddings? (the typical Chinese wedding will display a huge canvas portrait from their pre-wedding photos at the reception entrance) Ha Ha.  Highly unlikely.  I may incorporate a few into the guestbook…we’ll see….

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