Our 'day after session' with the incredible Ann Hamilton.  We took these around San Francisco and had the most amazing time-- even though it was freezing! 

::BRIDAL PORTRAITS::

::BRIDAL PARTY::

::GETTING READY::

::DETAILS::

My bouquet

The bridesmaids' DIY bouquet

                                                        ;                  

{{CEREMONY}}

                                                        ;                         

Photos by: Vida Mia Photography

::DETAILS::

::LION DANCERS::

                                                         &nb sp;                                                                                                      ;                     

::CAKE CUTTING::

::BOUQUET & GARTER TOSS::

Love this photo of my nephew taking a photo of me on his toy camera.

::FIRST DANCE::

::KIDS ON THE DANCE FLOOR!::

::PORTRAITS::

Photos with the families

::GETTING READY::

::DETAILS::

::CEREMONY::

::CHINESE TEA CEREMONY::

Photos by: Vida Mia Photography

All the work, stress, and tears, paid finally paid off.  We finally tied the knot on Oct 3, 2009! Although the day didn't go as planned, with the worst of the worst occuring, we still managed to have a fabulous time!

We had a traditional Cambodian wedding ceremony on Friday at my sister's home.  The next day, we had the Chinese tea ceremony in the morning and the American wedding ceremony followed by the Chinese banquet.

We held our American wedding ceremony at the Westin St Francis in SF.  The view of the city was just gorgeous!  We ended up staying up until 2am making all the centerpieces and bridesmaids' bouquets.  My poor bridesmaids worked their butts off!  Hubby and my MOH were in charge of making the pomander balls.  And those came out really good. We had quite the DIY experience. 

I didn’t realize how high I was holding the bouquet as I walked down the aisle until I saw the photos. Opps!  I don't even remember hearing the music to walk in to.  I was just concentrating on not tripping over myself.  My clumsy self had tripped one too many times in that darn dress! 

Since we were so occupied with taking photos at the wedding ceremony, I only got to enjoy one crab cake and beef skewer.  Very tasty but sadly that was my only lunch for the day!

Photo with his family                                                   One with the girls

After taking all our glamour shots, we headed to the reception at Canton Seafood in SF.  We planned to be there early, but arrived just in time! I got my hair and makeup retouched so by the time I was done, more than half the guests were already sitting in their seats.  At the beginning of the wedding reception, I wore my red Cambodian dress and the bridesmaids wore matching red Cambodian dresses.  The night started with the lion dancers performance, and my two nephews were freaked out by them.  I guess lion dancers were not suitable for all ages. =D

                                              &n bsp;                        

Some shots of the reception decor.  Our friends helped decorate and they did a wonderful job considering we didn't even give them instructions!  My poor MOH was running around trying to set up the restaurant. 

After the soup dish, I changed into the Chinese dress that my friend made for me.  But I could barely walk in it since it was super tight! I ended up changing into a different Chinese dress.  I only wore that for about 15 minutes, and then I changed into a gold Cambodian dress to toast everyone.  This was definitely a fashion show moment for me!

I finally changed into my white wedding dress for the evening.  We did our cake cutting, and I ended up enjoying the red velvet sheet cake more than our actual cake!  It didn’t take much work to get the girls on the dance floor when “Single ladies” came on for the bouquet toss.  I've never seen so many girls going after the bouquet! The boys were also just as pumped for the garter toss!  We danced to our song “Lucky” by Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat and did the typical swaying with some dips for fun.  They made us play one game where hubby was supposed to guess which hand were mines while blindfolded. He thought my MOH was me!  haha. 

Although the day started off rocky, at the end of the night, I was just so happy that we were finally married.

                                                         ;                                  

Our first dance

Photos with the parents:

his                                        &nb sp;                                     mines

Here are photos of our traditional Cambodian ceremony the Friday before.  Our Cambodian wedding ceremony began at 9am and ended at 4pm!  The musicians were leading as the guests brought the trays of food and wine inside the house.  Check out the groomsman and groom’s MC hammer pants!  The long black socks were required! =D  Poor guys!

                                                               &nb sp;                

I changed into my second outfit of the day to do the ring exchange.  At this point, our feet starting falling asleep since we were sitting for so long. 

This was the third outfit for the "hair cutting" portion of the  ceremony.  This is when we prayed to our ancestors and the adults gave us words of wisdom of an everlasting marriage by splashing us with the blessed water. 

The gold outfit was my favorite of the day, because it felt so extravagant!  Notice the very blinged out headpiece?! At this part of the ceremony, the adults tied the red ribbons on our wrists to bless our marriage. 

This was the most awkward part of the wedding. We are supposed to feed each other fruits while everyone watched.  It ended up being pretty hilarious. We were sharing a grape in that last pic!

I have to admit we are definitely not a match made in heaven.  We are probably polar opposites of each other.  What I like, he hates and vise versa.  I guess that's what makes our relationship interesting.

When we're out on a sunny day, he wants to be under the sun, and I want to be under the shade. So we look like two weirdos, holding hands a mile away from one another. 

I like to dance and he likes to stand by the bar...and just drink...So you can imagine how odd that looks.  He's standing with a drink and me trying to dance with him.  So I look like a crazy drunk trying to get his attention. =p

If we were characters on "Friends" I would be Phoebe and he would be Ross.  I come with crazy ideas and he's the more logical one.  I have a bit of humor in me, so his serious nature doesn't really gets my jokes.  So when he does crack a joke, I will be pretty much rolling on the floor laughing. 

I have no sense of directions so I pretty much get lost everywhere, and he's a walking GPS navigation. 

What can I say?..He's the cheese to my nachos, the olive to my martini, and the cherry to my sundae.  He just seems to make everything better.

I met Ben on my first day of work in college. He still remembers what I wore the first day of work.  Kind of stalkerish, if you ask me.  =p  He apparently had a crush on me, but I had no clue, and plus I wasn’t too interested in him.  After much hesitation, I decided to hang out with him.  He took me out to sushi, and I've never eaten raw fish before, so it was awkward watching him chomp on the fishes that probably still had a pulse.  So I decided, why don't I just join in and eat the pulsating fishes.  YUMMO! That day marked the beginning of my love for sushi, and our blossoming romance!

Surprise, surprise, he won my heart!  Exactly five years from when we started dating, he asked me to marry him.

The proposal:

After our anniversary dinner, to celebrate our five years together, we took a stroll around the shopping area.  We came across Davidson & Licht, and he said if the store is open, we can get engaged.  WOOHOO....But bummer, the store was closed...So we headed home.  After I put the leftovers away, I ran upstairs to the bedroom.  It was odd because the door was closed, and we never close the doors.  I turned on the lights, and my surprise, there were rose petals all around.  I see a jewelry box on the bed.  So I run to the bed and grabbed the box to sneak a peak.  The FI shows up and takes the box from me. =p  Then he says a bunch of sweet things which I really don't remember and asks me to marry him.  I don't actually recall saying yes...just "I would love to become MRS.W!".

Here are some pics from our FREE second engagement session.  We took these at downtown Walnut Creek.

Photos by: Deb Wat photography

Our photographers were great.  But Ben and I were very awkward subjects!  We took these at the UC Davis arboretum.

Photos by: Vida Mia Photography

The Ceremony

The FI wanted to get married outdoors.  But I convinced him other wise.  What if it rains? What if everyone gets cold?  What if it’s too hot and I’m sweating like a pig? I squint when I’m outside so you’re not going to see my eyes in the pictures.  It took a bit of convincing, but the FI finally agreed to have an indoor ceremony. 

Most the places we considered for our ceremony were unavailable or way beyond our budget.   We knew we wanted to get married in San Francisco.  We started looking at hotels, and fell in love with the Westin St. Francis.  The Alexandra Ballroom was breathless, and I loved the view of the city through the surrounding windows.

After doing some photography blog stalking, I came across our ceremony site.  I've been looking forever...trying to find a photo of the site set up in a theatre setting. Yay!

The Banquet

Traditionalists at heart, we decided to have Chinese banquet.  Plus we knew a Chinese banquet is what our families would enjoy most.   I have to admit, having a western reception would look spectacular. A Chinese restaurant isn’t the most elegant reception choice.  But I sure do LOVE chinese food! 

My theme: simple and elegant.  Our colors will be champagne and ivory.

Centerpiece inspiration:

I want to keep the tables simple with low centerpieces with peach and creme accents.

The Bouquets

My bouquet will have Vandalia roses, peach roses, light peach cymbidium orchids, with accents of stephanotis.

My bridesmaids will have Vandalia and peach roses. 

The Cake

My inspirations:

The first online wedding gown search led me to the Romona Keveza. There was definitely some sticker shock!  I’m a practical girl, and I have to admit, I love shopping, and I want to look my best on my wedding day. I went to 10 different bridal salons, and probably tried on over 80 dresses overall.  I fell in love with a lace dress, so no surprise there, it was beyond my budget.  One last store, I told my MOH.  I swear my MOH was ready to pull out her hair. Then I found the dress: Mikaella Bridal.  No lace, no bling; just silk.  PERFECT.

My Dream: 

Can you tell I like ruching?

My Reality:

Don’t be fooled by this picture.  The picture does not give this dress justice.  The dress is so beautiful on.  I can't wait til my dress come in in July! 

No alternations for me!  Apparently everything fits perfectly, so I just need a bustle. I really wanted Kohler44's bustle, but there wasn't enough length on my train to achieve the look.  My seamstress was able to create a double french bustle on my train. 

 UPDATE 8/29/09

Just got my dress back, and I sure do love the bustle. 

So far I got two wonderful surprises in the mail!  The accessories are all coming together!

My bling bracelet

My oh so stunning Regina B hair comb from starg8zer

I found these at Nine West during my lunch break.  I didn't even start looking for bridal shoes, but came across these beauties.  I thought they would be just perfect for the wedding. One unexpected trip to Nine West, and I came out with my bridal shoes.  Things should always be this easy!

Lucky enough, my MOH and bridesmaids all have similar styles, so I knew I didn’t have to drag them all shopping for their dresses.  Shopping at BCBG, my MOH and I found the perfect dress.  A beautiful champagne dress!  The problem: the black lace lining the top.  Black is not my color my sister reminds me.  HMMM, it’s my wedding so what if black isn’t my color!  

A few days before the wedding, we decided to tackle our last DIY projects.  We had help from Ben's wonderful aunt with these projects, since we were without a sewing machine!  I worked on the cardbox while hubby worked on the ring bearer pillow.  We didn't even end up using the ring bearer pillow! The pipe and drapes were a nightmare!

I couldn't give intructions on how I made the cardbox even if I tried.  It took many trials and errors, and I was ready to throw the darn box in garbage.  I used extra fabric from the back drop to wrap the box.  I found some random lace to line the box.  Lastly I used my ribbon sash to tie the bow and added a brooch for some bling factor! Here it is:

For the ring bearer pillow we used the same fabric and used some extra ribbon and lace to line the pillow.

For our pipe and drapes, we bought rolls of fabric and had his aunt hem and sew the pockets for us. Ben made the pipes and we hung the drapes on at the restaurant.  Ben even made the double happiness sign!

The Hair Inspirations:

Makeup inspirations:

Hair/Makeup on the day of:                          Makeup the day before:

Hair and Makeup for 'day after session'

To integrate both cultures, we will be having a total of three wedding ceremonies.  The day before our “western” ceremony, we will have a Cambodian ceremony for my culture.  The traditional Cambodian ceremony lasts 3 days, but most families have condensed the ceremony to 2 days.  We condensed the Cambodian ceremony to 1 day. 

We decided to have the Cambodian ceremony the day before our actual wedding, so we would have time for the Chinese Tea ceremony (FI's culture), “western” ceremony, and banquet. 

I will wear something similar to this for the Chinese Tea ceremony.  The FMIL is letting me use hers. It will be deja vu for the guests because the FI's sister-in-law also wore the same one. =p

For Cambodian weddings there are a lot of outfit changes so I will be wearing dresses similar to this.  Hmm I did try one of the dresses on, and it looks a lil like I'm wearing a cape.  Move over superman! =/

We also found this adorable flower girl dress for my niece. She will be matching me with her champagne sash.  Let's hope we can convince her to walk down the aisle.

With these invitations sealed and sent out, we can finally eat on the dining table like normal people.  We have spent the last few months eating our meals on the coffee table, right smack in front of the TV (plus for FI, might I add). We initially did not want to DIY our invitations but we had too many different inserts for the different groups of people.  I guess an evite would have been easier. =P  Horray to sending these suckers out and a nice clean dining table to enjoy our five star meals (two stars if I'm making the meal!)

Since we really wanted a romantic vibe, we had a harpist play at our wedding ceremony.

For the ceremony:

Guest seating:  "Love story", "Somewhere in time","Moon river" ,"A time for us" from Romeo and Juliet, "Fairytale" by Enya,  "Portuguese Love Theme" from Love Actually

We picked up our marriage license at SF City Hall and we are officially one step closer to tying the knot!  There, we signed our life away...to one another.  =D

I'm not a fan of the traditional guest book and wanted something fun to show our guests.  So I decided to make a photo guest book through Blurb.  Hubby had no intention of working on this and said that it would be my "project".  I included some pro pics of our engagement session, but had our own photos from over the years to tell our story.