Sonia & Khiem

Another Weekend, Another Great Wedding!

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:26:00 -0400

K and I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Ottawa this past weekend to celebrate Tracy and Kevin’s wedding. The weather was very nice, cool but sunny, perfect for a breezy, tented ceremony on the grounds of the Brookstreet Hotel in Kanata. The evening continued with a very beautiful reception and dinner in one of the modern banquet halls at Brookstreet.

Here’s our yummy dessert - a pyramid of chocolate with a creme brulee centre and a crunchy Ferrero Rocher base. Congrats to Tracy and Kevin!

K and I stayed at the Westin right in the heart of Ottawa because he had a free weekend night stay lined up from all of his visits to MN this past year. We highly recommend it, especially if you can get the corner room ending in “26” - a huge bathroom, very spacious bedroom/sitting area and floor to ceiling windows with a view of the parliament. Yeah, we know, the parliament isn’t THAT exciting, but we felt special anyway.

…And speaking of special, we felt pretty special when my sis gave us a parting gift of lady fingers and almond-lemon tart to take home to Toronto. She’s just started her pastry chef adventure at Le Cordon Bleu, and is baking up a storm up there in the nation’s capital!

How to Be a Gracious B****

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:31:00 -0400

I’m not a huge fan of email forwards, but when I got this one today, I had to laugh - thanks OS for sending it to me!

Jennifer’s wedding day was fast approaching. Nothing could dampen her excitement — not even her parent’s nasty divorce. Her mother had found the PERFECT dress to wear and would be the best-dressed mother-of-the-bride ever!

A week later, Jennifer was horrified to learn that her father’s new young wife had bought the exact same dress as her mother! Jennifer asked her father’s new young wife to exchange it, but she refused. ‘Absolutely not, I look like a million bucks in this dress, and I’m wearing it,’ she replied.

Jennifer told her mother who graciously said, ‘Never mind sweetheart. I’ll get another dress. After all, it’s your special day.’

A few days later, they went shopping and did find another gorgeous dress. When they stopped for lunch, Jennifer asked her mother, ‘Aren’t you going to return the other dress? You really don’t have another occasion where you could wear it. Her mother just smiled and replied, ‘Of course I do, dear. I’m wearing it to the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding.’

NOW I ASK YOU - IS THERE A WOMAN OUT THERE, ANYWHERE, WHO WOULDN’T ENJOY THIS STORY?

~sd

Month 1: In Sickness and in Health

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:48:00 -0400

A Serbian friend told me that back in her home country, many people get sick after they wed, and all it means is that you have lived through the event fully. If that’s the case, I really did live through my wedding to the fullest!

…I didn’t mention this in my wedding recap, but the other side of the story was that I was under the weather a couple days before the big day. I was determined not be sick on the wedding day though, and was popping back Buckley’s pills, Halls and Vicks like no tomorrow. My throat was still killing me, and by the time our speech rolled around, my voice was going. The next morning, it was completely gone.

So now, I really do know that someone loves you when he can deal with your painful, hacking cough all night; when he doesn’t recoil at your endless snot and the nasty phlegm; when he can look you in the eye when you have pinkeye; and when he has the patience to try and decipher what you’re trying to say when you have no voice.

One month after we said our vows, it seems that the bug I caught has been incubating in K, and so, in sickness and in health, it’s now my turn to take care of him.

Another Switch-Up

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:34:00 -0400

Yes, I am suffering from wedding withdrawal (and a lot of procrastination), and have just changed the look of the site yet again. I mean, who knows if anyone still reads this blog? Anyway, it’s all in preparation for an update and refresh of our photos page.

~sd

Married Life: A FAQ About sdK

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:08:00 -0400

The top three questions we’ve been asked since getting married:

Where (and when) are you going on your honeymoon?
Do you feel different (now that you’re married)?
When’s the first baby coming?

And our answers are:

We went on a mini-honeymoon to Muskoka for a couple of days after the wedding. We enjoyed some true R&R, with K fishing off the dock of the boathouse B&B we were staying at (the same place we stayed at on our first anniversary together), and me catching up on some much needed sleep! As for our “real” honeymoon, we’ll be going in December so we can tack on those precious statutory holidays, and we think it’ll be fun for the two of us to experience New Year’s together outside of the country. As for where, well, we don’t know yet! K is supposed to surprise me with the location, but I can’t help but fill the void left by wedding planning searching for deals and beautiful locales online. K’s got a bundle of Aeroplan and Starwood hotel points gathered up from his hard-earned and often frustrating work travels, so we’d like to use them to their fullest. We think we might go to Greece but if we go in the winter we perhaps won’t be able to enjoy the Mediterranean coast to its greatest potential, so we’re at a crossroads right now. Unless K is keeping a huge secret and has already planned everything! Has he???

We’ve been living together for two years now, so we feel pretty much the same, except that we don’t have a big, huge, event to plan for anymore. It feels good to have “Project Wedding” behind us! We have a bit more time to just enjoy each other’s company, and to return to doing some of the things we like to do, or taking up new challenges. K has faithfully returned to writing in his tried and true blog of over seven years and is playing more tennis these days, and I’m trying to do some more volunteering while also turning my efforts towards my next “project”, preparing for my first half marathon in September.

Hmmm…we’ll have to get back to you on that! Of course I am reminded constantly by my parents that my clock is ticking, and that it has been ticking for many years now, and that, according to them, time is running out! And of course K still wants to be young enough to teach the kids to play sports! So…we’ll keep you posted ;)

And…before I go, I also just want to say another congratulations to our friends Rob and Anna, who are enjoying a well-deserved honeymoon in the South Pacific after their amazing wedding a week ago.

Table 15!

Both Rob and Anna looked smashing and the wedding itself was beautiful and tons of fun!

And here we are at the end of the night :)

~sd

Wedded Bliss

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 12:24:00 -0400

We did it! And it was amazing. We’re so glad that people said they liked the food and that they had lots of fun. We did too, and though the day was long, it was relatively stress-free. The day included:

My bridesmaids making Khiem prove his worth and love for me with some crazy games before the tea ceremony at my parents’ house - in which our groomsmen performed a convincing rendition of My Heart Will Go On while Khiem prooved that he will likely never win a hoola hoop contest
Our switcheroo into traditional Vietnamese garb (hats and all!) for the tea ceremony at K’s house
Pouring rain while doing our photo shoot with Dave & Charlotte at the Old Britannia Schoolhouse - super excited to see the outcome and really glad we were able to take pics inside!
A short and sweet ceremony that included some awesome reading by Stan and Dan
A rollicking Raptors team entry into the reception
Our crooked but very cute and stylish wedding cake
Some very well prepared speeches and another awesome slideshow a la Tom
Extremely good use of the open bar by our guests (how many Lemon Drops were ordered again? hehe)
The paparazzi that is our family and friends (we will never want for photos!)

Thanks to everyone who helped out with the wedding and made our day one to remember! We love you all!

The happy couple!

Today is also wedding #3 for Khiem - he’s flown out to Vancouver to celebrate with our friends Vi and Solomon, whose wedding day it is today! We wish you all the happiness and joy in the world!

~sd

Congratulations!

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:54:00 -0400

It’s almost t-3 days to the wedding! Craziness. Well, before we get to that, we’d like to say a big congratulations to Khiem’s sister, An and her new hubby Chris. An and Chris got married last Sunday on the grounds of the beautiful Royal Ambassador. Both bride and groom looked great, and with a lake, gardens and a nice day, who could ask for anything more? (Khiem of course wanted to go fishing but luckily I made him take the fishing rods out of the car before we left his parents’ place!) The evening continued with a wonderfully decorated hall, dinner, candy bar and a huge chocolate fountatin to boot. Congrats guys!

And now…to get ready for wedding #2 - ours! Almost everything is done - I feel like we say this everytime someone asks about it, but little things always seem to come up! The nervousness/excitement is building now, but we’re still keeping our sanity so hopefully it’ll last until the day of! I just had a nice relaxing evening with my bridesmaids, who organized a girls’ night in with dinner, facials and movies, so I’m feeling pretty relaxed now ;)

~sd

Matron of Honour

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:00:00 -0400

My little sister isn’t so fond of the word “Matron”. She’s married, but that word just makes her sound old. So what to do? I can’t call her “Maid” anymore, so I searched online for some more youthful alternatives:

Woman of Honour
Lady of Honour
Attendant of Honour
Chief Bridesmaid
The Supreme Being of Chickness
Mrs. Wingwoman

I thought “The Supreme Being of Chickness” (from the website The Offbeat Bride) or “Mrs. Wingwoman” were pretty interesting and would garner some friendly chuckles, but my sis opted for “Lady of Honour”, which is a good, safe choice too!

I’ve made the changes in the Bridal Party section, and updated a few more things there. Take a look!

~sd

It's the Final Countdown...

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:43:00 -0400

We’ve got just over two weeks to go and I just can’t get GOB’s theme song from Arrested Development out of my head:

What to do…

…other than continue to work towards finishing up our huge “Wedding To Do”!

(Did you know that the checklist on the knot has 184 items on it? We’re down to 37 items to do before the wedding, with about 10 post-wedding items - yeah, I know - we still have to do more after the wedding??? Can’t we relax already?)

Anyway, with all those to do’s to finish, I’m happy to say that Khiem and I are finally back together, as his very long stint in Minnesota is finally done and done. They’re still trying to reel him back somehow, but without any good incentives, why should he return?

And…we’re super excited to have our car of choice for the big day - it’s a silver Mini Cooper convertible from Autoshare! Wish we could get the red one, but it’s booked already. I’m still checking the site periodically to see if the person who booked it decides to cancel. There’s always a chance - cross your fingers for us!

Other items we’re working on right now are our seating plan, programs and menu cards. So far we’re pretty happy with our on-site manager for the day of the wedding, Harvey Tam from Rovey Catering (we just had an excellent tasting dinner last week). He’s super organized and we’re sure that with him and my brother-in-law, Garvey coordinating the day, we and all our guests will have a wonderful time.

Now we’ve just got to make sure we’re organized enough to get everything else done in time!

~sd

Why We Make a Good Couple

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:08:00 -0400

K said this to me today on gtalk (it’s his last week in MN - finally!):

I’m forgetful and you’re clumsy
we make a good couple
maybe one day I’ll forget that you’re clumsy
haha

~sd

Top Wedding Trend of the Day!

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:13:00 -0400

And here I was wondering how Khiem could possibly have so many friends…

“A Tokyo company called Office Agents has a booming business in renting people out for a couple hundred bucks a head as wedding guests. It’s a popular service among those who want to impress their spouses with the number of good-looking, amiable friends they have. You can even rent a fake boss or colleague if you’re unemployed but need to pretend to you aren’t to your spouse’s friends or family. Apparently, this service is doing even better during the recession because of this.”

Read the whole story at Tokyo Mango.

~sd

Engagement Pics with Dave & Charlotte!

Wed, 27 May 2009 23:40:00 -0400

Credit: Dave Biesse

Our wedding photographers Dave & Charlotte have posted pics from our engagement shoot a couple weeks ago - check them out here!

The Makeover

Thu, 14 May 2009 15:29:00 -0400

I hope you like the makeover - I wanted to unify the look of the regular blog site with the photo blog site as well as clean things up a bit, so I’ve switched over to another Tumblr theme by Michel Dacruz. I still like the photo template by Ben Delaney but it just didn’t work out for what I was trying to do.

In other news, we had a fun engagement shoot with Dave & Charlotte at High Park and Sunnyside Pavilion last week and are looking forward to sharing some more photos with you soon!

~sd

Some Assembly Required

Sun, 10 May 2009 14:03:00 -0400

The invitations have been printed (above image is a preview!) and we’re working on getting them out to everyone by the coming weekend. Lunar Caustic Press did a great job with the letterpress printing and thanks goes out to my sister on the beautiful design work. In an effort to be green, we printed the main invite on watercolour paper made of 100% cotton rag from Woolfitt’s and wrapped it in handmade Japanese paper from The Paper Place. We hope you like them!

~sd

Happy Mother's Day!

Sun, 10 May 2009 14:02:00 -0400

Happy Mother’s Day to our moms and Khiem’s grandmas! We love you and hope that you have a wonderful day.

~sdK

Cuba Photos!

Wed, 06 May 2009 00:06:00 -0400

I’ve posted some pics from the Cuba photo shoot. Aside from my very rudimentary modifications using iPhoto, we’ve not done any post-production on them yet…but I just couldn’t wait to show a sampling to you all :D

Again, thanks to team Linda-Stan-Joanna for all your help getting this together. We’re so lucky to have friends like you!

~sd

May Updates: Back to Reality

Mon, 04 May 2009 23:44:00 -0400

We’re back from a great trip with our friends in Cuba, so stay tuned for some pics! In preparation for some snapshot sharing - and instead of working through that great mound of laundry strewn all over the living room floor - I decided to set up a photo blog using a cool Tumblr theme by Ben Delaney. There are a few random old photos of K and I up already so click on over and check it out!

Also…I just wanted to say a big thank you to our friends Linda the Awesome Hair and Make-Up Artist, Stan the Excellent Photographer and Joanna the Stylish Creative Director for coming up with the idea of a Cuba engagement photo shoot. I’m super excited to see the pics! And it’s great because now we’ll have two sets of engagement photos, one from Cuba and one with our wedding photographers Dave & Charlotte, which we’ve scheduled for this Friday (crossing my fingers for good weather)!

Talk soon - we’re definitely back to wedding planning reality as we head into the final stretch towards the big day! In addition to the photo shoot this Friday, we’ve also got invites to pick up tomorrow, a dj to pay, K’s wedding band to fix, a dress to alter and a cake tasting lined up.

I’m tired just thinking about it…welllll…except for the cake part. Yum. I guess I’ll be starting that get-in-shape program next week instead of this one?

~sd

Suddenly Nostalgic

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:30:00 -0400

I checked my hotmail account today - something I don’t do very often - and suddenly felt the urge to look through some of the old emails K and I used to send to each other. This is in the days before gtalk, when msn messenger was blocked from our computers at work, and also when we used to send long, heartfelt and sometimes very silly messages to each other instead of one liners like “what are we having for dinner tonight?” or “can you remember to pay the bills?” Here are a few lines from our very early days of dating that made me smile - don’t worry, I’m posting the silly stuff, not the cheesy stuff:

Khiem’s somewhat random subject titles

I once caught a fish named Wanda

Wanda was the pseudonym K used in his old blog to talk about us.

40 chew Sonia

This is in reference to K’s observation that I chew each morsel of food at least 40 times before I swallow it, making me the slowest eater ever.

Khiem’s totally random subject titles

jumping jamaican beans! here is your morning paper!

struggling to keep my life from going non-linear

mundanity is insanity

Khiem trying to be sneaky

What is the official date of our being together? Can we possibly make it June 1st so it’ll be easy for me to remember?…hehe.

K is notorious for having a bad memory. He also used to joke around and say that he’d make sure to ask me to marry him on the 1st or last day of a month, and set our wedding date on the 1st or last day of the month too. I guess that didn’t work out too well for him!

Other quotes

sd: # times I eat in a day: Unknown. Besides, they’re mostly snacks! just snacks!!! :P

K: I wish there was a protest against cleaning up. I’d be all over that.

Questions

Khiem used to ask me endless questions over email. I guess he was trying to get to know me ;) One set of questions included the following (this was in 2003):

K’s questions and his own answers…

Dream vacation spot? —> Bahamas/Virgin Islands…/Hawaii/Vietnam

Honeymoon location? —> Hawaii…I have a fascination with the hula girls…

sd’s answers…

Dream vacation spot? Australia

Honeymoon location? Somewhere along the Mediterranean Sea, or an island in the South Pacific

~sd

T - 5 Weeks...to Cuba!

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 22:57:00 -0400

As the familiar sight of snow disappears (we hope!) for another year, K and I are counting down the days to our pre-wedding, last-days-of-being-single, all-inclusive trip to Cuba. It sounds kind of like a week-long Jack & Jill party but it’s really just an excuse to go away for some fun times with friends before we have to kick it into super-high wedding gear. Besides, we apparently still have our respective stag (K’s will be in Montreal I think) and stagette (staying in the TDot) to attend when we come back from our sunny vacation down south.

In the meantime, K’s still racking up those Aeroplan and Starwood points with five straight weeks of travel between Toronto and lovely Minnesota. I’m sure he’s going to be pretty happy when he finally gets on a plane for what is the 11th time in less than two months to head down to Varadero instead of the American midwest. No offense to the Americans - and of course Cuba is a touchy subject - but there’s really no comparison between a resort with beach, ocean and unlimited drinks!

~sd

March Updates

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 22:55:00 -0400

We’ve updated the Out of Towners page with information about hotel rates!

As for what’s going on in March…

The month isn’t over yet, but it’s been a busy one. First off, congrats to D&V on their wedding in beautiful California - only I got to go have an awesome TFW in LA without K but I hear that he had an action-packed TFW in Toronto as well!

March Madness also (of course!) includes K’s obsession over his NCAA pool - it’s not over yet but he’s sitting in second place just hoping that he can push ahead.

And of course, there were the birthdays this month, both mine and K’s. Although K was traveling during my bday, I was fortunate to have my celebrations last almost a week long with dinners, dim sum and bubble tea. And as for K, who can beat hanging out with buddies, eating pho, going bowling and singing Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On at karoake?

~sd