Qi Pao Shopping In Vancouver
After a couple of trips to K.K. Boutique in Chinatown, I finally got my qi pao. Well I paid for it but it’s not ready yet. I’m getting it custom made and it should be here in a couple of months. There are so many new designs for qi pao now but I stuck with the traditional one. Here’s a picture of the fabric I picked:
The one of the left (red one) is the fabric I wanted. It has dragon and phoenix in gold threads with some other stuff (sorry forgot what they were) in light blue and purple. The owner said the fabric is called “five colour dragon and phoenix” (Wu Cai Long Fung, pardon my bad Mandarin translation).
I didn’t quite like the neckline so I had asked for the more traditional design (see picture on the right). Do you think I look like some sausage in those photos? I know the qi pao isn’t as fitting as they should be but for some reason I look like I have more meat.
Anyways, I also saw this other qi pao which I absolutely loved. Too bad I have no idea where or when I could wear it. It’s only $60! Maybe I should buy it and wear it around the house for kicks.
If you noticed, I purposely cropped my head off because my camera person (a.k.a Al) isn’t very good at taking pictures.
The custom made qi pao cost about $155. I think the cost depends on the design and the fabric. The store owner told me a lot of girls are ordering custom qi pao that has gold/silver threaded dragon & phoenix designs on the front. The ones that looks 3D-ish. Sorry I didn’t get a chance to take a photo of it. But that cost about $500! I figured I’m only wearing it once so I’m not going to spend that much.
Are you also wearing a qi pao for your wedding? And where in the clothing change order are you planning to wear it? I’ll most likely wear mine for the tea ceremony and then during the reception but not sure when yet. Either during the toasting or at the end of the night to see the guests off.
K.K. Boutique
154 E. Pender St.
Vancouver BC
Tel: 604-608-2778
Photo Shoot Location: Hycroft Mansion, Vancouver
Today I booked a time to go to HN Weddings to try on gowns for the photo shoot on July 12. I also told Vivian at HN Weddings that I’ve booked a photo shoot time at Hycroft Mansion. Al and I wanted to take photos with historic buildings as the background and I came across the mansion while researching online.
The Hycroft Mansion, which is the Vancouver University Women Club house, are opened from Monday to Thursday. The rental fee for a two hours is $250. It’s a bit pricey but the mansion is so beautiful. The house and the garden gives a very classy and romantic feel. I think I’ll skip the studio photos and just shoot inside Hycroft as the indoor photos.
Here are some pictures of Hycroft that I took when I went to tour the house in April. They recommend that you go and look at the house and garden renting it.
I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of the interior but you can see it in the Hycroft video on their website. I’ve also found some great photos of Hycroft on stitchpixie’s i do vancouver blog.
I’ve seen pictures of couples who held their wedding at Hycroft so I’ve inquired about the requirements. They told me that in order to have your wedding there, you need to be a member of the University Women’s Club for one year. The rental fee is approximately $4,500 which lets you have the house for 8 hours. I believe they also have a designate caterer.
Q: Unexpected Wedding Guests?
Last week I was able to catch up with Cory who’s having his wedding in August 2008. We touched based on traditions and the meaning of weddings. When I asked him what he found was the most difficult part, he said first it was having people to RSVP and second is he had some unexpected guests.
What happened was he had sent out invitations to guest’s list but some did not include (name + guest) on the invite. However, those people had RSVP themselves plus an extra guests. Cory said so far they have enough space to accommodate the extra people but when it fills up, it’d be a bit difficult and embarrassing to tell people that they can not bring an extra guest with them.
This is the first time I’ve heard about this and he told me that Eko, our highschool friend, had the same problem when he got married. Does anyone else experience something similar and how did you handle the situation?
