Bridal Look Event – Hosted by Amara Wedding
First of all I want to thank all of you that came to the wedding cake seminar last weekend. It was great meeting some of you in person and I hope it helped you with your wedding cake decisions. It was also my pleasure to work with Amara Wedding and Chef Marco from the Pastry Training Centre of Vancouver.
Amara Wedding had approached me to organize two other events that they will be hosting in the coming months. The next event will be the Bridal Imaging Demonstration Event. If you and your bridesmaid/maid of honor are looking to find the perfect look for your wedding day then you must come to this event. Joyce Wong, bridal makeup & hair styling specialize from Amara Wedding, will be revealing all the tips, tricks and trade secrets you would need to know about bridal imaging.
Here’s the event details:
Bridal Imaging Demonstration Event – Hosted By Amara Wedding
Tickets Available: 10
Cost: Free
Location: Amara Wedding
Date: Sunday, April 17, 2011
Time: 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Registration: Click here to get your free ticket to the event
With the wedding season just around the corner, have you thought of what you want to look like on your wedding day? Would a cute and elegant bridal look suit you? Or would you rather go with a bold bridal look that’s uniquely yours? Whether you have a bridal makeup and hair design in mind, or are still searching for the perfect look for your big day, our bridal imaging demonstration event will definitely help you prepare for your wedding day.
Joyce Wong, Amara Wedding’s makeup and hair specialist, will be going over all the details and trade secrets you would need to know about bridal imaging. Topics she will cover include:
- Skincare – facial routine and tips on how to keep your skin in excellent condition leading up to the wedding day
- Bridal Makeup Styles & Trends – the classics and latest trends for bridal looks
- Hairstyles & Accessories – see how hair accessories can help complete the bridal look and view some of the hottest hair accessories for this wedding season
During the event, Joyce will also complete two different bridal look demonstrations, and answer any questions you have on bridal make up and hair styling. Curious about the different types of faux eye lashes? Want to know how to keep your skin clear before your wedding day? Wondering when you should tweeze your brows before the big day? Then joinJoyce and Amara Wedding on Sunday, April 17 from 1:00pm to 3:00pm and have all your beauty and hair questions answered!
Feeling The Heat: 3-Months Left
Time is winding down and we’re 3 months away from getting married! In the past month, I’ve been trying to finalize most of my decisions, hoping that I won’t need to do too much in the last few weeks before the wedding. Here’s a list of what I’ve covered so far:
- Picked out Tux for the boys and dads - We went with The Tux Store as we are very impressed with their customer service and knowledge. Won from the store had given us many tips for dressing up the important boys in the party. After trying on the regular tie and bow tie, we decided to go with the bow ties for a more formal look for the wedding party and regular ties in different colours for the dads.
- Picked out wedding flowers – I’m not super picky about wedding flowers but I do want them to look nice. My main concern is that there has to be some depth and texture my bouquet. We’ve decided to use gerberas for the toss bouquet as well as the topper for our wedding cake. I’m thinking of a hot, fuchsia pink colour. I also like dahlias so will probably use that for the other bouquets and use orchids to accent mine. Since we just purchased our condo, we’ve decided to save cost where ever we can so I gave up on my center pieces. I’m a little disappointed but I’ll see if I can come up with a nice way of displaying the favor boxes and use them as a decor for the tables.
- Picked out my wedding gown and evening gowns at HN Wedding – spent about 2.5 hours last Saturday picking out gowns for the wedding. It was a lot of fun to try on the different gowns. I prefer simple evening gowns and decided on a red one. Al and my friend picked out a silvery-blue one as my second gown. This one is not really my style but they said it looked nice and since I probably won’t wear something like this for the rest of my life, I decided to go with it. As for the wedding gown…well you’d just have to wait till the wedding day to find out!
- Finished the paper coiling decoration – Previously I crafted our initials with paper and put them in a frame to use as a decor for the reception table. The trial papers I used were pinks and yellow. This time I redid the initials and the double happiness logo in red and I think it looked much better. What do you think? It matches better with our wedding colours too. (see picture above)
- Ordered cake cards and Chinese Wedding Pastries for the Betrothal - We are doing quite a few of the traditional stuff and this is one of the major ones that had given us headaches for the past months. We’ve finally decided on the date and gotten all the necessary items for both family for the exchange. On Al’s side, his mom prepared all the dried seafood items, tea, nuts and pastries. On my side, we have to prepare some pastries, the bedding, and a wallet for Al. The betrothal is taking place next weekend which means after next weekend we can finally distribute our invites!
- Completing the invitations – with the betrothal coming up, I’ll need to complete all the invitations by next Friday. We’ve already sent our invitations to HK for our out of town relatives and I have set up all the card covers for the remaining ones. However, there’s a slight change to the wording on the insert page. Al’s mom didn’t like the fact that we didn’t put the parents names on the invitation. So it’s most likely that I’ll have to reprint and re-cut all the inserts (which will take about 4 hours). Hopefully I can finish them all by next week. Might have to stay up late a few nights.
What’s on the horizon? This week we’ll be getting the keys to our condo so housing stuff kicks in, such as cleaning, preparing the place for furniture deliver and moving. We’re also meeting our officiant this weekend for a planning meeting. I’m a little worried about this because he had sent me a list of verses that he can use for each section of the ceremony and they looked very long. We wanted a super short wedding and since we’re not religious, we don’t need prayers/readings. We’re also entertaining the idea of using funny vows.
After the invitations are distributed, I’ll have to work on the ceremony program, draft the run down for the wedding day as well as start brainstorming about seating plans. Lots to do but I’m really excited about our wedding and our new home.
Wedding Cake Seminar – March 19, 2011
After months of finding suitable vendors, I’m happy to announce that the Wedding Cake Seminar, hosted by Amara Wedding, is finally coming next month! This seminar will give you the opportunity to meet Chef Marco Ropke, owner of the Pastry Training Centre of Vancouver. He will answer all your wedding cake and edible wedding favors questions, and provide a demonstration on wedding cake decorations. Plus you will get to sample some of Chef Marco’s delicious creations.
Want to know why wedding cakes cost so much? What options are there when it comes to cake design and flavors? Is there a way to fit your dream wedding cake into your budget? Are there easy edible wedding favors you can make for your guests at home? If you want to find answers to these questions and more, then register for the Wedding Cake Seminar now!
To ensure seminar attendees get the best experience, we have decided to keep the seminar size to 12 seats only. Be sure to register early so you don’t miss it!
Date: Saturday, March 19, 2011
Time: [Session 1] 10:00am to 12:00noon & [Session 2] 12:30pm to 2:30pm
Location: Pastry Training Centre of Vancouver, 818 Renfrew Street, Vancouver
Cost: Free
Who should attend: Brides and/or Grooms
Hosted by: Amara Wedding and Pastry Training Centre of Vancouver
Registration: Click here to order your ticket(s)
Update (March 10, 2011): A 2nd session has been added.
Wedding Cake – Yan Bakery
It’s been a while since my last update. House hunting had taken more of my time than I had thought. We’ve been checking out condos almost every weekend and had finally found one that we both like. After a week long of waiting for the bank to let us know if our mortgage is approved, Al and I are now official home owners! (Actually not quite official until we get the key to the apartment in March.)
I’ve side tracked from wedding planning to interior design as we dream up ideas of how we’d like to furnish and decorate our new home. However I did managed to complete some of my wedding “to-dos” such as picking my cake vendor, deciding on a cake design as well as creating a gift registry (will be mainly used for open house and bridal shower).
After checking out some Asian bakeries, we’ve decided to go with Yan Bakery on Hastings Street. They are your typical neighbourhood Chinese bakery but their cakes are actually pretty good. We also found out that one of our friend who got married also used them for his wedding cake (and got great reviews from his guests). I found it helpful that Helen understand that with a Chinese banquet, guests are usually too full to eat a big slice of cake at the end. Plus we didn’t want to order too much cake as we know there are also other desserts on the menu. Finally what Al and I liked the most about Yan Bakery’s cakes is that their cream icing cakes look just as smooth as fondant. We were both very surprised by this. Helen also told us that their fresh cream cake can also last up to 5 hours in room temperature. Although cream-finish cakes are cheaper than fondant-finish, we decided to go with fondant as it has a shine to the finish.
We ordered a 3-tier cake with fondant and buttercream filling. I browsed through all the wedding cakes on The Knot to get inspirations and picked this cake design (see below) but with pink fondant and brown icing scalloped edges and polka dots. I’m going to talk to our florist, Kathleen, to see how much it’d cost to add a small bunch of flowers on the top tier to dress it up.
With cake out of the way the last vendor we need to find is for tux rental. I’ll probably give Moore’s a call to book an appointment for the coming weekend. I’m also planning to go down to HN Wedding to pick out my wedding and evening gowns after Chinese New Year. Al won’t be going with me this time since I wanted to surprise him with what I’ll be wearing. Even thought a lot is happening all at the same time, I’m very excited that our new life together is inching closer and closer!
J & A Wedding Logo With Paper Quilling – Demo
This past weekend I’ve finally taken some time to give paper quilling a try. I’ve documented my process here so expect this post to be long and with lots of pictures! Here’s the finished “demo” product:
[The frame and easel are about $3 from Ikea. Do you think I should paint the frame?]
Since I’m not sure how the finish product will turn out, I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on it. So I made a lot of “substitutions” for the equipments. For example, instead of a slotted tool for quilling, I used a big needle and slot the paper through where the thread would go (found this at Daiso for $2). I borrowed my friend’s paper cutter to cut up my own paper strips with a pack of solid colour papers from Daiso ($2). For the background, I used a cardboard left behind from some packaging ($0). So in total I spent less than $10 to create this project which I thought is pretty reasonable.
[My tools. Everything except the scissors and cutter are from Daiso so they are all $2 each. I find having tweezers is a must and I use a toothpick to apply the glue.]
To start, I printed our logo on a piece of paper and trimmed the cardboard to fit the frame (5″ x 7″). Then I lined up the logo onto the cardboard and trace around it by poking holes along the edges of the logo with a big needle.
[The little pin holes act as a guild for me to trace the logo out with a pencil. I couldn't think of another way to transfer the logo on to the cardboard so this was my way of making it work.]
Once the logo is on the cardboard, I cut strips out of the colour paper. They didn’t have red so I went with the closest thing I could find which was pink. I ended up cutting more strips than I need. Each strip is about 1cm wide.
To glue the strips onto the cardboard, I first bend the paper to fit the shape. I saw on one tutorial that they had use one strip of paper to create the entire letter. However, since my project is on a much smaller scale, I find it hard to create it using one single strip. Instead, I divided the letter into smaller parts which was much easier to work with.
[I had trouble making the curve for the letter "J", but the hardest part was making the word "double happiness". It took about 1 hour as I tried to figure out how to divide the strokes and how to glue the paper ends together so it won't look like the word is in bits and pieces.]
To glue the paper strips down, the best way is to apply glue directly onto the edge of the paper. I also applied glue to the ends of the paper strips where they would connect and use the tweezers to hold the ends to keep it in place while it tries. There were times where I’d apply the glue onto the cardboard and put the paper strip on top of it. The glue turns transparent when it dries so the finished product didn’t look messy.
After outlining the logo with paper, I added decorations to make it look nicer. Here’s the hard part since it requires quite a bit of thinking. As you can tell I sort of just threw some swirls in there and the swirl on the “A” didn’t quite fit and turned out weird. I also added 2 different hearts quilling designs. I plan on creating the swirls on the computer first next time so I can see what the finish product will look like and it’ll provide a better guideline on where everything will go.
Here’re more pictures of this project. I’m going to look for proper card stock and colour paper to remake this project since I’m planning to keep it as a home decoration once we’re done with the wedding!
