Coco and I grew up experimenting with make-up together, we probably invested a lot of our high school days shopping for make-up, attending
classes, and trying out different looks at home. Joe was someone who I had just heard of less than a year ago! To be truthful, when I first heard about Coco and Joe's engagement I was a bit surprised, as it felt like it had just been a couple of months ago that Coco told me she was in a relationship and then she sends me an email to announce her engagement. Not only that, but two other girlfriends and I who are all very close with Coco were feeling a little annoyed, as Joe seemed to be keeping Coco all to himself now and they rarely got to meet up with Coco (without Joe nearby). However, I'm glad to say that after meeting Joe in person, I warmed up to him quickly as he's just a humourous and charming guy. I'm glad Coco has someone in her life who's there to make everyday happy and full of laughter.
Coco and Joe actually did a lot of work on their own to plan their wedding, they were very hands on which I think is great! They made their own bouquets and corsages/boutonnieres, they also had their own ideas about what they wanted done. What I helped them with was to really keep them on track, as they were so full of ideas (actually it was Joe who was full of ideas! surprise, the groom was very much involved), so I just needed to make sure thing were coordinated and thought out as well as make sure that all the different elements worked together.I was also asked to decorate the church for the ceremony, which is actually a difficult task, because churches usually don't need nor do they allow much decoration. Sometimes keeping things simple is more difficult.
The idea for the church decoration and other decoration elements came at the worst time, for me, it happened late at night as I was ready to fall asleep, and then that kept me awake for 3 hours as there were ideas that just kept popping up in my head and I just HAD to write them down. There was no sleeping for me until I had all the ideas down on paper. - This I found to be a re-occurrence for all weddings (the same thing happened for the October wedding too). Although I am thankful for these ideas that came to me, it just showed me that I need to slow down a bit more my life. I used to do all my thinking when I took a shower or was running, but I guess that won't work either cuz in those situations I won't have pen and paper to write on. However, I believe that getting enough sleep allows me to function better... so usually when I can't sleep I get more annoyed which prevents me from sleeping even more.... aiiiii.... hehehe... what can I do, can't have it all perfect, right?
This wedding also allowed me to see that silk flowers can also be beautiful - I used to be strongly against using silk flowers as I thought they looked too fake, but with this couple they wanted only silk flowers because of the heat in HK, fresh flowers tend to fade quickly. However, I only picked flowers that I thought looked like fresh flowers, see for yourself...
I went flower shopping so often and stored them in my room, it was quite a sight to wake up to, with the sun streaming in and all these pretty blooms!
Here's the mood board that I made for this wedding, it really helped me to put my thoughts together and kept me on track. Although not all ideas were used, nor were all ideas on the mood board, but it's a great thing to look at to let me mind go and wander and get inspiration from.
Here's my "work table" at home to make the small arrangements for the pews.
1. Bride and bridesmaids get ready
2. Groom and groomsmen arrive to pick-up bride
3. Challenges/games groomsmen and groom must pass to get the hand of the bride
4. Tea ceremony at bride's home
5. Tea ceremony at groom's home
6. Return to bride's home (a Chinese tradition - mostly optional now)
7. Relatives and bridal party goes to lunch
8. Wedding ceremony at church
9. Reception banquet at restaurant or hotel
Come wedding day, there was the Chinese traditional 'Pick-up from Bride's home'. Chinese weddings in combination with church ceremonies are exhausting days! The bride and groom usually begin it with lots of different ceremonies days before/leading up to the wedding day. The morning of, the bride wakes up at like 5:30 or 6:00 am to have her make-up done, and the bridesmaids arrive to help get ready games that they challenge the groom and groomsmen with when they come to take the Bride.
The games were not too difficult, plus I think the groom and groomsmen had loads of fun, and sweated buckets!
We prepared some yoga poses that they had to imitate with a partner, gave them some funny accessories to wear, had them sing a couple of songs... easy!
During the tea ceremony at the bride's home - only the bride's relative, the elders that are served tea give the couple gold jewelery and red pockets. No photos though, sorry, maybe when I get some photos from the couple I'll post them.
When the bride and groom went to the groom's home for tea ceremony, I went to church to check on the decoration that I had done the night before (did it in 2 hours!) and finish up decorating the reception table and other things.
I didn't want to decorate the pews with organza swag, which you see so often at weddings, so I decided to do hanging fabric instead. I really liked how it turned out, but also I learned a lot of things, like using such light chiffon, I actually need a lore more fabric, and also I need to sew things better and also make sure they are double layered. You might not be able to see, but the fabric was so sheer and not enough fabric available to scrunch it up closer, so you can actually see through, and it doesn't really look that nice in reality. So if there was another later, or I had like three times the fabric for each section, then it wouldn't be so sheer. But it's a lesson learned and one that I will not repeat again (hopefully...)
For the reception banquet, the couple hired a decoration company to do a lot of the manual labour, I was there to give suggestions and make sure that things were done right - I even provided them with a floorplan of EXACTLY where to place things, but it was like they didn't even bother to consult the floorplan. This ticks me off, because then I end up having to chase them down to move things. But I am glad that I such a picky person, because it would have been awful if I didn't notice such seemingly insignificant details - they are important to the couple and me.
I also did a very simple design for the marble staircase that the bride and groom enter the banquet from. Must thank my previous employer, Susanna Szeto and Flower Accents, for teaching me things! We used to do these kinds of arrangements for centerpieces, but I thought that on the stairs it would look really nice too. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of when the candles were lit, but it looks even better!
We also did a message table where guests can write wishes and messages, then they can hang their message on some branches by the staircase. Again, don't have any close sh
ots of this, but one of the cards actually asked guests for name suggestions for their future children!The bride and groom were very sweet, they prepared surprises for each other, the bride sang a song for the groom - she forgot some lines, but I think her husband got the message... and the groom prepared a painting of a sunset that they enjoyed together on one of their trips (the painting was done by a friend). And what I really like about this couple is that they thought of their parents as well, and prepared award cups (the ones that you see at sport games and alike) for their parents. They had a mini award ceremony during the banquet!
This banquet ended around 10:15pm, this is SUPER EARLY by Hong Kong standards, and the reason I think it was like this was because the schedule I had prepared looked really packed with all their surprises and award presentation, the restaurant staff just kept putting dishes out. Another thing was, I don't know if the couple were very nervous but they rushed through a lot of their performances and the award presentation. So a kind suggestion to other couples thinking of doing something at their wedding, take your time, it's your day, don't rush through it. Think before the big day about your speech or what you want to say, explain things to your guests. I was sitting at the banquet table that night and a lot of the times I was like, that's it, so fast, I don't understand what they just did.... so remember to Enjoy the day, relish in the love and warm wishes from all your family, friends and guests.
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