August 8th, 2021 at Shannon Mews Park,
The New Mandarin, & our home

Photos by Emily Nicole Photos, Donna Huang, & WTF Hubby

Wedding hangover is real.

(And the culprit wasn’t that suspected gin sour you knocked back)

Here’s the what - somewhere between the start of your wedding day and your brain deciding the next morning that getting up was a dumb move, your wedding had a meeting with your wedding expectations.

No matter how chill your love party was, everything felt like it was on overdrive all day: your heart was bursting, your head was full, and your stomach was tested.

Slowly easing into the next day (or week!), with a houseful of good memories and an album of photos, just felt like the right thing to do.

Our wedding in a few words:
Cute, chill, and smol 🐱🐻

Number of guests: 
WTF Hubby & I love hosting parties, so we found it really hard to keep our numbers under 20! We were surprised how many friends wanted to come witness our ceremony.

Inspiration for the look and feel of the day: 
Is anyone else getting modern day fairytale in the city vibes?

The feel of the day was inspired by Rilakkuma! Rilakkuma literally translates to “relaxed bear”.

I purposely planned a day where no one had to wake up early, fuss over decor, or freak the eff out. Peace of mind and being present in all the moments we shared that day was my gift to my husband.

Wedding day walk-through:
WTF Hubby & I have recently discovered the best iced latte in Vancouver, so it felt natural for us to start our best day ever with the best iced latte ever!

Call it a not-so-subtle nod to our first date and the many other coffee dates we’ve been on throughout the city ♥

It rained that morning, but the clouds gave way to sunshine AND mild temperatures after my hair + makeup was done. #blessed

We had our tea ceremony at home, before heading over to Shannon Mews for our wedding ceremony.

This hidden gem was actually recommended by a student’s parent from school! Hubby and I went there to play Pokemon Go first, before we decided that this was our venue.

With restrictions loosening up, I was thrilled to have Chinese banquet food for our reception! The New Mandarin Seafood Restaurant is close to our home and we figured it would be easy for everyone to come back to our place for cocktails and cake cutting.

We were surprised our condo could hold that many people!

Splurges?
Definitely the food, cake, and cocktails!

What we saved on:
The most stunning save was my mermaid-style qipao that I bought for a ridiculous price online! There was so much love for this dress. My parents told me to bring it to The New Mandarin to wear it again!

Instead of decor and centrepieces, we opted for cute favor boxes for our friends + family.

I made the place cards, which my MIL thought we got professionally printed. Guess those years of playing around with calligraphy paid off!

The bouquet:
Hubs was still finding wire stems around our home for days…

I made the bouquets using cream, pink, and blue silk flowers from Ling’s Moment and tied them together with hand-dyed chiffon ribbon in blue & pink.

I love fresh flowers but the limited fridge space (sorry, cake trumps flowers) and potential for wilty flowers in the August heat were not things I wanted to worry about.

Favourite part of the wedding:
When our officiant, Jane Halton from Young, Hip and Married, asked us to take a deep breath, take it all in, and be present for the exchange of vows.

I was so in love with WTF Hubby’s vows (Memorized! Impressive!) that I asked him to say them to me again when our afterparty ended!

The cake:
WTF Hubby is the reason I have an Instagram dedicated to dessert @mimucrafts. On our third date, he took me out for beignets at Lucky’s Doughnuts, and we haven’t looked back since!

There’s an ongoing joke with our friends that I eat an exorbitant amount of gold on desserts, so it was only fitting to have gold foil on our wedding cake! There’s a subtle pearl stencil motif on the blue icing, and I got my dose of fresh flowers from Studio Full Bloom.

Did I wish there was leftover wedding cake to ease me into the next day? Yes!

But were there any?

No…

Vendors

Making it legal: Jane Halton (officiant) [ Young, Hip, & Married ]
Photography: [ Emily Nicole Photos ]
Wedding Dress: Bello Wedding World
Suits: The Tux Store
Hair & Makeup: Abby Hsieh [ Abby Hair & Makeup ]
Nails: Momoconails
Flowers: Blush + cream + dusty blue [ Ling’s Moment ]
Cocktails: VanDusen Sour Cocktail Kit [ The Bar Cart by Lavish Liquids ]
Cake: Custom [ Le Gateau Bakeshop ]