What's New - December 2014

The Wishahmon crew will be taking December 22 to January 4 off to spend time with friends and loved ones. From our families to yours, wishing everyone a safe and warm holiday! See you in 2015!

~Monica Hui
Owner, Lead Planner and Designer
If you like our weekly ramblings, LIKE us on our Wishahmon page too! More goes on there!

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My Big Fat Traditional Chinese Wedding (Part 2)

If you missed part one of Gail and Erik's wedding story, you can read it here. 

I decided on Chinese flavours for our wedding cake, taro and green tea. It was most important for me that the bakery understood my wedding vision. I know I needed the double happiness character but more importantly I had to look around for a bakery that was willing to do a 3D gold dragon and phoenix which would wrap around the entire cake. In a traditional Chinese wedding, the night of the wedding, the bridal room would lit dragon and phoenix candles to drive away evil spirits. This was a Chinese version of unity candle so I knew I wanted candles to go with my theme. Since it had a dragon and phoenix on the candle, we lit and placed them on the cake table as accents.

All of my wedding dresses were Chinese traditional red color wedding dresses. During the tea ceremony I had the “kwa.” I changed into a phoenix red long train mermaid dress during dim sum and cocktail hours. For the grand entrance I went into a very vibrant Chinese pattern modern mermaid tulle dress.

During the toasting I special ordered tea cups and changed into a beautiful red and laced gold “qi piao” and the final dress was a modern mermaid style red qi piao. To match my traditional red dresses I wanted traditional Chinese hair pieces that the Chinese empress would normally wear. I got a lot of gold pieces to accent the red colors and in shapes of butterflies, phoenixes and gold flowers. Because I had six dress changes, I wanted my bridesmaid to have a dress change too. I wanted to keep the same theme and did not want to go with a western style dress, so I ordered the tang style Chinese dresses for them to wear in both red and gold. And of course lets not forget shoes! I had four pairs of shoes all Chinese red styles and even a pair of red slippers with the characters “lao pao” and “lao gong”. Meaning wife and husband.

Erik he had the traditional Chinese long dress to match my “kwa” for the tea ceremoney and in the evening he changed into a Bruce Lee kung foo style outfit. Erik's outfit had red and gold dragons while his groomsman wore the black and gold dragons. They all had matching black dragon pants and black toms because I thought they looked like the “heu” in the olden Chinese kung fu styles.

Overall, I loved every moment of my wedding and felt like the details worked out immaculately. I felt that the décor really did bring my vision to life. I am looking forward to planning and having a 10 year anniversary wedding reception dinner now!

Watters Spring 2015 Bridal Collection

When I initially looked at the Watters Spring 2015 Bridal Collection, it words "ice princess" came to mind right away. I think it was the sparkle that triggered the "ice" and the silhouettes that triggered the "princess." It could also have been the cold weather we were experiencing in Calgary last week too. In any event, enjoy this collection and think spring collection instead of cold weathered winter. 

~Monica Hui
Owner, Lead Planner and Designer
If you like our weekly ramblings, LIKE us on our Wishahmon page too! More goes on there!

Circus Themed Wedding - Hotel Blackfoot

When I met Eva and Carter, they were very clear on what they wanted for their wedding - it had to be fun for their guests and they were paying for all the booze that night. I tried my best to explain to them the implications of letting their guests drink too much (boo, I know) and how much a host bar would typically cost them. But they insisted on a host bar. In keeping with their budget, we did the unthinkable - we cut out the wedding reception sit down dinner. This move allowed to Eva and Carter to have a fun wedding without the fussiness of a traditional sit down dinner. Traditional and fussy are two words I would not use to describe Eva and Carter.

As a graphic designer, it was important to Eva the wedding was visually stunning and reflected their circus themed wedding. A lot of red and white decor was brought into the venue space at Hotel Blackfoot. This included red and white backdrops, bunting, and table top accessories. Circus themed foods were also brought in like popcorn and cotton candy. Guests were also entertained with music, caricature artists, and a photo booth. The only thing that was missing where some circus animals. Oh wait, we had those too - at midnight some of the guests turned into them. Kidding.

~Monica Hui
Owner, Lead Planner and Designer
If you like our weekly ramblings, LIKE us on our Wishahmon page too! More goes on there!

My Big Fat Traditional Chinese Wedding (Part 1)

I met Gail over a decade ago and have always been fascinated by all the places she travels to...in one year. She is quite a world traveler. I've always wondered who she would find to be her other half, because this person would have to be able to (literally) keep up with her as she travels. Erik is the love of her life and below is their wedding story. 

~Monica Hui
Owner, Lead Planner and Designer
If you like our weekly ramblings, LIKE us on our Wishahmon page too! More goes on there!

Guest Blogger and Recent Bride: Gail Kwan

Coming from a Chinese heritage and having attended many weddings growing up, I always knew I wanted mine to be big, red and grand. I wanted to embrace my heritage. Most of the Chinese weddings I've seen always have the dragon and phoenix. For the Chinese, dragon symbolizes the emperor and phoenix symbolizes the empress. These two popular celestial animals are regarded as a perfect couple in Feng Shui. The dragon represents the Yang (or the male) and the phoenix represents the Yin (or the female). The dragon-phoenix symbol is created for the hope that the couple's love and passion will last till the end and they will stay together through thick and thin. Therefore it was imperative for my wedding to have these two symbol displayed in my wedding. 

Another thing I know I needed for my big fat Chinese wedding is the color red. Red is the color for Chinese weddings. This auspicious hue represents luck, happiness and joy - all the things that make for a great wedding and marriage!

Prior to the tea ceremony we had typical door ceremony games and a big roast pig for lunch. As I was telling my bridesmaid and my friends about my vision for the wedding everyone thought it was funny and laughed at the idea. I was persistent and refused to change my mind. After the tea ceremony we went around to take pictures, then we had a dim sum buffet and cocktail hour. After all the eating, we went on to our wedding reception. The only thing I felt was missing was a wedding carriage for the grand entrance. Erik refused to let me have it saying it was silly.

My mentality has always been to “go big or to go home.” Therefore, I wanted a big grand wedding that was different. I thought about my theme and watched endless Chinese olden days chapter movies and noticed all festivities and celebrations involves lanterns.  Lanterns are also thought to hold good luck as well. I ended up buying 60 lanterns to hang inside the Chinese Cultural Center which would also act as the table’s centerpieces, just floating above the center of the table. 

I wanted to have a soft ambient lighting, so we decided to hang lights inside of the lanterns to give it a soft glowing ambiance. Of course, for the grand entrance we wanted a red tunnel to lead into the room as if you were walking back into the olden days Chinese wedding. We had Chinese red patterned chair covers for all the reception chairs. To further symbolize our love, we had a Chinese love knot which we hung above the head table. As well, we had a four foot tall “double happiness” character in the center of the stage and our family names represented as well as the celestial dragon and phoenix.

I initially wanted to order Chinese happiness/wedding red bowls, red plates, tea cups and red chopsticks for all my 350 wedding guests. This was to avoid the white typical bowls and cups you normally get at restaurants but Erik put his foot down and said no. So we compromised and only had the special red Chinese wedding sets for the head table. For our party favors what else would be more fitting than Chinese chopsticks with the happiness character. 

Check out part two of Gail and Erik's wedding story! 

Oscar de la Renta Bridal Fall 2015

You must have been living under a rock or been totally absorbed in your own wedding planning, if you didn't know George Clooney got married back in October of 2014. His bride, Amal Alamuddin's wore a lace wedding gown designed by Oscar de la Renta. Surely to be a trend setter like Kate Middleton, check out the rest of Oscar de la Renta's Fall 2015 Bridal Collection. 

~Monica Hui

Owner, Lead Planner and Designer
If you like our weekly ramblings, LIKE us on our Wishahmon page too! More goes on there!

  Photo by Anni Libovitz via Vogue

How to Style Your Hair For a Wedding Veil

After your wedding gown, a veil is one of the most defining aspects of your bridal look. Historically a veil was worn to protect the bride from evil spirits; nowadays it is considered a traditional piece of accessory your mom wants you to wear. Veils have come a long way and comes in a variety of styles now. Because there are more options, it might make choosing a veil just as hard as choosing a wedding gown.

 Twigs & Honey via Etsy

When choosing a veil, consider how a veil will work with your dress, face shape, body shape, hairstyle and wedding location. Then consider the following tips: 

1) Think about how you want your hair to look before choosing the veil.
Think about whether you want your hair down, half up, or a full updo. Knowing this will greatly help in choosing a veil. After your hairstyle is set (get it, haha), you can then decide where you want your veil to sit on your head. It might be up at the top, middle of your head, or tucked underneath your updo. When you do a trial with your hairstylist for your wedding hair, you might want to bring your veil as well. He/she will be able to help you with the placement of your veil and ensures it stays in place.

 Johanna Johnson

2) Make sure it stays in place.
Perfect transition from the first point, your hairstylist should be able to help you with the placement of your veil and ensures it stays in place. Your hairstylist will have to consider the texture of your hair, weight of your hair, and your hair style/up do. They pretty much have the job of trying to solve a physics problem on your head.

Left- via Down the Aisle | Right- by/via Sibo Designs

3) Come up with a post-veil plan.
Most brides wear their veils only for the ceremony and remove it for pictures and the wedding reception. Have a plan on what you want your hair to look like after the veil is removed. You don't want a flat hairdo afterwards or worse a hairstyle that only looked wow because the veil was holding down every single frizz, static or flyaway. Bonus points if your hairstylist is able to suggest an easy way to transition your hair into another style quickly for the reception!

 Twigs & Honey via Etsy

~Monica Hui

Owner, Lead Planner and Designer
If you like our weekly ramblings, LIKE us on our Wishahmon page too! More goes on there!