I heard the news from my aunt in Hong Kong that my cousin, Katie, got engaged in Thailand during her and Shaughn’s vacation. I only met Shaughn once but I absolutely adored him and approved that he is a great match for my baby cousin. After I heard the great news, I contacted my uncle to congratulate him for becoming a father in law soon! After the news sunk in, my uncle said he would like to organize a small dinner reception for the family members that cannot make it to the wedding reception held in Hinton, Alberta.
During the initial planning stages, my uncle kept saying that he would like a small dinner with the closest family members. I told him that the first thing we should do is to write down a list of invitees. He was shocked by the number of family members we have! (He must have forgotten about some along way!) The next thing that we did was to book a venue. He wanted a traditional Chinese ten course dinner reception. We went with Regency Palace Restaurant because it had a private room for 50 guests. One thing that my uncle stressed throughout we he wanted a good atmosphere. He wanted everyone to have fun and not just come, eat, and leave.
In the end my cousin and I decorated the event with chair covers, chair sashes, custom table linens, floral centerpieces, and a backdrop for pictures. We hired a close photographer friend of mine to do pictures of the tea ceremony and pictures with the bride and groom. The time we had to decorate and organize everything before the guests arrived was tight. As such, I didn’t take a single picture of the venue! (I have no idea how I could have forgotten to take pictures or ask the photographer to do so.)
None the less, a blog post is not complete without some pictures. Here are some pictures of Katie and Shaughn at their Hinton afternoon reception. The pictures were taken by Paper Tiger Media. Congrats again Katie and welcome to our family, Shaughn!
