Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Fay & David: Chinese Inspired Modern Chic Wedding

We've just been dying to show off this wedding! Photographer Laura Bruen from the New York Tri-State Area did an amazing job at capturing all of the lovely small details of this Asian inspired modern chic wedding! You can just tell that the bride and groom took such pride in planning this cross-cultural mix. Every element of the wedding has their personal touch! Fay, the bride, even shares her account of the day and all the special meanings behind everything. Reading her story will make you feel like one of the lucky guests at this wedding!

Asian Inspired Chinese Wedding
Asian Inspired Chinese Wedding
Asian Inspired Chinese Wedding
Asian Inspired Chinese Wedding
Asian Inspired Chinese Wedding
Asian Inspired Chinese Wedding
Asian Inspired Chinese Wedding

From the Bride, Fay:

Being Chinese, it was very important to me and my family that we incorporated Chinese wedding traditions with David’s Catholic and American traditions.

First, my inspiration for our wedding was from an old Qaui Po (Chinese silk dress) that belonged to my Aunt. My Aunt was 2nd place in the Miss Chinatown pageant in the 80’s and it was one of the dresses she wore for the competition. It was a long pink dress, with red cherry blossoms embroidered throughout the silk fabric and Mandarin collared. I’ve been keeping this dress in my closet since I was 13 years old, hoping one day I would have something just as beautiful for my special day.

So with this inspiration, I decided to design my bridesmaids dress incorporating the cherry blossom fabric of the Quai Po with a modern American style. The bridesmaid dresses were custom made, as well as my 3rd wedding dress by a Vietnamese tailor, Phung’s Tailor, located on 4th Street in Philadelphia. The bridesmaid dresses were strapless, in red silk with embroidered gold cherry blossoms and a row of 5 gold frog buttons lining the back of the dress and above each slit. The bridesmaid’s bouquets had a range of off white roses, peonies and hydrangeas wrapped with the same fabric as their dresses, topped off with a Hello Kitty pin.

I chose the color red because it is a lucky color in Chinese tradition and it’s also David’s favorite color, so that was easy!

In Chinese tradition, the bride and wedding party usually changes throughout the day, up to 5 different dresses for the bride. I chose to change 3 times, a dress for each portion of the wedding. The wedding ceremony, Chinese tea ceremony and the reception.

The ceremony was officiated by Richard Binder from Journeys of the Heart and was beautiful next to the water fountain of Twenty 21. There was a gorgeous path of wheat grass cordoning the aisle topped with the same fiery red mokara orchids in my bouquet, David’s boutonnière and the outdoor cocktail table centerpieces. My bouquet was hand tied of tone-on-tone red flowers that highlighted the orchids as well as velvety red Black Magic roses and burgundy red peonies all wrapped with the fabric of my third dress and finalized with a Hello Kitty pin. Twenty 21 was the perfect place for it captured nature with its’ whimsical greenery intertwined with the city life David and I both love.

The Chinese tea ceremony took place where the wedding ceremony was, but this time I changed into a long sequined Qaui Po with a dragon (symbolizing the groom) and phoenix (symbolizing the bride). This dress was also an old dress of my aunts. The tea ceremony is a Chinese tradition where the couple gives a cup tea to their elders. In return, the elders give a Lai See (lucky red envelope) usually filled with money or jewelry. This exchange is an acceptance of the newly married couple into the family. David’s family participated in the tea ceremony as well to show the joining of both families and culture.

For the reception, I changed into my final dress. A custom made white silk Quai Po with gold phoenix and chrysanthemums embroidered throughout the dress. This dress was light weight and allowed me to dance all night! Not only were we and the guests dancing, but so were the goldfish in the centerpieces. We had a mixture of submerged white cymbidium and dendrobium orchids in tall glass cylinders and peonies floating above goldfishes in glass cylinder bowls both polished with earthy river rocks that ran off as a runner over the gold overlay tablecloths. Thanks to Bailey Hale at Moda Botanica for his creativity and expertise in making all the flowers so elegant.

Our wedding cake was so delicious and included my inspiration as well. It was a four layer red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and sporadic white cherry blossoms throughout by Termini’s Bakery. The cake was topped off with a red Swarovski crystallized cake topper of the Chinese symbol, Double Happiness. In addition to the cake for dessert, we had a candy bar with five choices of your favorite sweets. Guests took home the wedding cake and candy in pint sized Chinese take out containers that had personalized stickers of the Double Happiness symbol along with our names and date. The candy bar was surrounded by glass bud vases of bamboo stalks guest took home as their favors. These too had our personalized sticker on them.

The finale of our wedding was the tossing of the bouquet and garter off David’s motorcycle with a “Just Married” sign and a string of beer cans in front of Twenty 21. We thanked all our guests and drove off on the motorcycle into the night down Market Street towards City Hall. It was the best night ever and thanks to Laura Bruen for capturing ever blessed moment on camera, David and I can look back on our wedding day and remember all the wonderful memories.

Venue: Twenty 21 – Philadelphia, PA
Photographer: Laura Bruen
Florist: Bailey Hale at Moda Botanica
DJ: Chris Dinardo at Steve & Company Productions
Wedding Cake: Termini’s Bakery

37 comments:

  1. This wedding is so cool! I love her hairpiece and the bridesmaids dress are so smoking hot! The motorcycle getaway rocks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much for blogging about our wedding! Fay and David

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was personally at this wedding, and it was beautiful from beginning to end! Denise

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fay and David did such an amazing job. It was an honor to photograph their wedding! Beautiful people inside and out.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks Fay & David for sharing this. It looked like such an amazing event!

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is beyond gorgeous! I love the idea of using the red chinese fabric to make the bridesmaids dresses and trimming on the flower girl dresses. so easy and probably cheap!

    ReplyDelete
  7. OMG - HELLO KITTY BOUQUETS!!! BEST IDEA EVER!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Τhe book is laid out іn several steps designed to purify the body and then stɑrt feeding thе body with fooɗs proven to aid in fat loss.

    The first reason is that it will show you steps on the Ƅest wаүs to
    stay awаy from stгess and not binge on food. You sҺould concentrate on eating just
    natural and organic produce to minimize the quantity of chemicals yoս may іngeѕt.


    Have ɑ look at my web blog :: venus factor free (http://venusfactorpdf.blogspot.com)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hello would you mind letting me know which webhost you're using?

    I've loaded your blog in 3 completely different internet browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot quicker then most.
    Can you suggest a good internet hosting provider at a reasonable price?
    Thanks a lot, I appreciate it!

    Stop by my web page :: hair styling tools - http://www.vision-board.de -

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hello to every one, since I am genuinely eager of
    reading this weblog's post to be updated on a regular basis.
    It consists of fastidious stuff.

    Also visit my web page: After Effects Template Free

    ReplyDelete
  11. Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point.
    You clearly know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just posting videos
    to your weblog when you could be giving us something enlightening to read?



    My site - dog trainers in nj

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thoսgh pгobably it is simply an enjoyable secret
    tߋ waste materials ɑn hoour or so. Of coսrse, ass outlined
    Ƅy researchers, medical professionals аs well as
    psychiatrists but it's secure pertaining tߋ longеr-phrase employ.
    Any document P աill probaЬly bee worth үߋur fіve factors.


    My blog post Scrabble Free Download

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with Search Engine
    Optimization? I'm trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I'm not seeing very good success.
    If you know of any please share. Appreciate it!

    My homepage; wealthy trader review

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thanks a bunch for sharing this with all folks you really recognize what
    you are talking about! Bookmarked. Please also talk over with my website
    =). We can have a link alternate arrangement between us

    Also visit my web blog ... soldiers inc hack

    ReplyDelete
  15. You should fіnd an еxercise routing that keeps you interеsted.

    Although you cɑn ɑctually exercise on yοuг own, it is better for you to enroll with a neighborhood workout
    center. If you have a gym membershіp, you'll find
    plеnty of personal trainers there to wоrκ with.



    My blog post :: old school new body workout

    ReplyDelete
  16. I don't understand this article... You should check http://www.redsn0w.us/ for more details

    ReplyDelete
  17. Sweet blog! I found it while browsing on Yahoo News.
    Do you have any tips on how to get listed in Yahoo News?
    I've been trying for a while but I never seem to get there!
    Thanks

    Here is my web page ... technology news

    ReplyDelete
  18. Woah! I'm really loving the template/theme of this website.

    It's simple, yet effective. A lot of times it's very hard to get that "perfect balance"
    between superb usability and appearance. I must say you've done a excellent job with this.
    Additionally, the blog loads very quick for me on Firefox.
    Excellent Blog!

    Check out my site - cheap web hosting free domain transfer

    ReplyDelete
  19. I seriously love your website.. Very nice colors & theme.
    Did you create this site yourself? Please reply back as
    I'm wanting to create my very own blog and would love to
    learn where you got this from or exactly what the theme is called.
    Many thanks!

    Also visit my blog post; hotele kielce

    ReplyDelete
  20. Some of the models that are $400 today, just might be discounted tomorrow, so you really need
    to check out the online deals quite frequently. It is therefore important that if you buy a feeder,
    because we failed, let us also think the purchase of a battery, if
    we see that it has trouble loading. This era is the era of
    science and technology and in this era computers are an
    indispensable part of development.

    My site high performance laptop

    ReplyDelete
  21. Its like you read my mind! You seem to know a lot about this, like
    you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you can do with a
    few pics to drive the message home a bit, but instead of that,
    this is wonderful blog. An excellent read. I will certainly be back.


    Feel free to surf to my page: Discover More Here

    ReplyDelete
  22. Of course, what a fantastic website and revealing posts, I definitely will bookmark
    your site.Have an awsome day!

    Look into my page: keywordadv352.livejournal.com

    ReplyDelete
  23. I would like too thanks a lot for all the efforts you have put into penning this site.

    I'm hoping to check oout exactly thhe same high-gradeweb sites by
    you sometime soon as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has motivated me too get my personal site now ;)

    Here is my site: hacks Download

    ReplyDelete
  24. Pretty sеction of content. I ʝust stսmbled upon your website
    and in accession capital too assert that I acquire actually
    еnjoyed account your blog pߋsts. Any way I will be subscribing to yoսr feeds and even I achieνement yoս access consistently quickly.


    Feel free tto visit my page Legitimate online jobs real online jobs no fees no scams

    ReplyDelete
  25. The win was tainted though, as Barnett would later test positive for anabolic steroids.

    ufc 174 streaming While using scheme group so that you can hype
    forthcoming pay-per-view credit rating game is really 1 location that'll
    be uninterrupted moving forward. Muay Thai is trained to improve
    the striking aspect of the clinch.

    ReplyDelete
  26. My relatives all the time say that I am killing my time here at
    net, but I know I am getting knowledge everyday
    by reading thes nice articles.

    Stop by my weblog - site ()

    ReplyDelete
  27. Magnificent beat ! I wish to apprentice whilst you amend your web site, how
    could i subscribe for a weblog site? The account aided me a acceptable deal.
    I were a little bit acquainted of this your broadcast provided bright
    transparent idea

    Here is my webpage csi hidden crimes hack

    ReplyDelete
  28. Hello thеre, ӏ foind yoir blog Ьy the use of Google while looking for a
    гelated matter, үߋur web site сame up, іt looks good.
    I hаve bookmarked іt in my google bookmarks.
    ңello there, juѕt bеcame aware of your blog thгough Google,
    аnd locatesd that іt is tгuly informative.
    I'm gonna watch оut for brussels. I wіll
    appreciate shoսld yоu continue this іn future.
    A lot օf other folks ѡill lіkely be benefited oսt of
    yoսr writing. Cheers!

    Feel free tߋ visit my site crack

    ReplyDelete
  29. Spend less money the fօllowing juѕt bү wondering a
    great upward-аnd-arriving cooking гather than a previօusly proven chef іn օrder tօ smoke.

    Mashable suggests youu tаke your own buckskin-certain Recognized Scrabble Gamers Thesaurus ѡith you tοwards tɦe
    game titles. Ԍenerally speaking, aany tool iis
    tгuly current simply fօllowing loօking at thе acual veracity οf
    thіs brand-neԝ words and phrases.

    ʟooҟ at my blog; The Wandering Star

    ReplyDelete
  30. The other dye contains a permanent negative
    charge, as the result of its molecular makeup. Waste water treatment is
    one of the most profitable option to preserve
    our precious storage water supply. Rust, viola and break open can be a cause of sewer backup.



    Here is my web page; silverstoregames.com ()

    ReplyDelete
  31. Hi there! I understand this is kind of off-topic however I needed to ask.
    Does running a well-established blog such as yours take a massive amount work?
    I'm completely new to running a blog however I do
    write in my journal on a daily basis. I'd like to start a
    blog so I can share my experience and thoughts online.
    Please let me know if you have any ideas or tips for new aspiring bloggers.

    Thankyou!

    Feel free to visit my web blog; beach body workout for women

    ReplyDelete
  32. Great post. I used to be checking constantly this weblog and I'm impressed!

    Very useful info particularly the last part :) I maintain such information much.
    I used to be seeking this certain info for a very lengthy time.
    Thanks and good luck.

    my website ... Antlers For sale

    ReplyDelete
  33. It's genuinely very complicated in this active life to listen news on TV,
    thus I only use the web for that purpose, and get the hottest information.

    My homepage ... web page

    ReplyDelete
  34. Do you have a spam issue on this site; I also am a blogger, and I was curious about your
    situation; many of us have developed some nice practices and we are
    looking to trade techniques with others, why
    not shoot me an e-mail if interested.

    Feel free to visit my web blog; Oxygen colon cleanse

    ReplyDelete
  35. Hi! I could have sworn I've been to this website
    before but after browsing through some of the post I realized it's new to me.
    Anyways, I'm definitely delighted I found it and I'll be book-marking and checking back frequently!



    Have a look at my blog post water fasting weight loss

    ReplyDelete
  36. Hi there! Someone in my Facebook group shared this website with us so I
    came to check it out. I'm definitely loving the information. I'm book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers!

    Excellent blog and terrific design and style.

    My blog post online casino usa

    ReplyDelete
  37. Additionally, there are vouchers, for instance $10 off on battery exchange, 20-60% off on tires and plenty of other slash-offs on automobile needs.
    You just simply choose from a wide range of their offered discounts and print them personally.
    The curved glasstop softens the entire look of the clock without detracting a fraction of its appearance.


    Here is my web-site :: firestone coupons

    ReplyDelete