the wedding story- part II (girls getting ready)

Girls getting ready

my very very talented hair and make up artists

they make me beautiful....
meanwhile, my mom and sister getting ready- it was chaotic

my bridesmaid helped me get into my dress... they told me: ok... 1... 2... suck in! and i did.... i felt like i can't bend over for the rest of the day.... but it was all worth it. :)))

grace put my in lovely hair pins
making sure it's in place
and my sister put my necklace on

ha-ha.. so this is really not a very sexy picture. I've seen many brides put on a garter and they look super sexy and attractive in pictures. After all it is a very sexy thing.... me? I looked like i was putting on a boxing gloves ready for a boxing match.... tsk tsk tsk... i really wish i could be more feminine in this picture... if i would have known that somebody is taking picture of me, i would have acted all lady-like.

Next Up: The Guys getting ready.

all pictures credit: sir harrison photography

the wedding story - part I (the details)

I promised to post some pictures of the wedding. Seriously the wedding day is all a blur to me. I will try to remember as much detail as I can.

Wedding details:









all pictures credit: sir harrison photography

so it's my birthday

so it's my birthday today. I am excited... it's a very pretty date. Everyone wants to get married today, the Chinese love this date. Anyway, I am excited because I am going away for the weekend with John. Apparently it's a surprise gift, so i won't know where we are going until we are actually leaving later today. I told john that he can never give me any surprises because he tends to tell me everything, if not tell, he will elude to it. So i always know what he is going to do before he can actually give me any surprise. There's a Chinese saying that goes something like this... whenever he moves his tail, i know what he is thinking. haha .... i think i got the msg across. anyway, so i told him that. he got defensive so this time, he is very adamant of not telling me where we are going. at least i know what we are doing... we are going away for the weekend. i being the very nosy person of course would not let him keep this surprise away from me. so i kept bugging him for the last couple days to find out where exactly we are going. i've tried so many ways to get it out from him but to no luck! i've been trying to trick him by saying that i now where we are going so he would say something, still no luck. I guess he is very determined to prove me wrong and that he can give me a surprise. :)

So far, the clues i've gathered are:

1) it's going to be 83 degrees during the day and 68 at night

2) it's about 1-2 hours away from our house

Last night, i was trying to guess where we are going.

me: i know where we are going... we are going to ventura beach

john: maybe... maybe not (keeping a straight face)

few minutes later:

me: oh oh i know where! we are going to huntington beach!

john: maybe... maybe not

me: awww... come one... give me some clues, is it somewhere we've been before?

john: probably

me: babe... you gotta tell me something so i know what to pack

(so that's how i got my 1st clue)

and then later:

me: how far is it? what time do we have to leave?

(so that's how i got my second clue)

me: do i need to pack my bathing suits?

john: yes, bring a couple

this doesn't do me any good because most hotels has pool.

me: are there shopping malls nearby?

john: yes

(doesn't do me any good either, almost everywhere has malls)

me: wait a minute... did you spend a lot on the hotel? did you get deals on the hotel off the internet? don't waste so much money! (ok, this is me... so me, i want to spend, i don't want to spend, i want it, i don't want it)

john: but i am spending it on you though (true.)

me: ok whatever you do, don't get me flowers on my birthday. put the money towards a nice dinner.

john: ok.

so it went on and on all night with me trying to guess where... still not a single clue (other than those listed above) that i got from him. i still remember at one point we were in bed, lights out, i was lying in his arm, my eyes wide open and he was fast asleep... i punished him by:

me: babe... you think we are going to ... (i forgot what i said, haha)

john: (groggy) maybe, maybe not (voice slowly fades away)

me: okok (patted on his chest) go back to sleep, good night

john: good n.....

so that's it. now i am sitting at home waiting for him to come home, so i will find out where we are going. i will definitely let you guys know when i come back! i betcha it's one of those places i guessed! ;)

on a side note, last night my parents in law came over for dinner. no picture of food... or else i can show u the garlic and herb steaks that i made, which i just learned through the cooking channel. instead of the orzo salad, we made corn, mashed potatoes and dinner rolls to go with the steaks. i didn't want to bring my camera out and start taking pictures of the food in front of them. the last thing i want is for them to think that their son married a psycho woman... which in some ways, i could be.

there's my ice cream cake. you can sort of see the desserts (cinnamon sugar fruit biscuit) that i made. i should say half made. The other half was from the refrigerated tube buttermilk. super easy recipe that i found from the recipe magazine.

so silly in this picture...

a rare opportunity

So since my parents decided to leave earlier than the scheduled date, i won't be able to celebrate my mom's birthday (7/31), dad's birthday (8/06) and my birthday (08/08) respectively. We took them to a lobster dinner (the night before they flew out) at Newport Tan Cang to celebrate their birthdays... sorta.

we ordered steamed fish

and the house special lobster (ooo... i love this!)

the almost gone fish, tofu seafood soup

my mom sipping the chinese tea

jocelyn took a picture for us outside the restaurant.

of course, again... the food is not up to par to their expectations.

When they were here, most nights they will be chatting with their friends:

this is funny. i like how my dad makes FULL use of his web cam chat. when he needed to convey a written msg, he wrote on a piece of paper and held it up to the camera, so his friend can read what his msg instead of typing it on the computer. anyway, i am amazed that they know how to use the computer. few years ago i was surprised when my sister said they each own a cell phone and texting each other. my parents are tech-savvy :-)

my mom checking out the bbq grill. yes, we don't have a balcony/ patio. so we have to wheel our bbq grill out the garage each time we need to use it. it seems funny but when everyone in the neighborhood does it, it's not so odd.


that's what in the grill (my parents love grilled corn)

hanging out at the garage waiting for the corn to be ready

the kitchen was conquered by them the whole time they were here

i took a picture of my dad trying to thread the needle, my mom couldn't get it so she turned to my dad for help. it took him awhile to get it, john offered to help, but he refused.

sigh... how often you can see this? them hanging out at our house. gosh... i miss them
good bye!!! (at LAX)

ATTENTION CHEESECAKE LOVERS!

Cheesecake factory was offering $1.50 for all their selection of cheesecakes yesterday. Limit 1 slice per customer and only good for dine-in only. Yesterday also happened to be National Cheesecake Day! No idea such day existed but whatever. I sent out an email to some of my co-workers yesterday about this exciting news. Unfortunately there is none in this area and the closest cheesecake factory would be in Sherman Oaks. It really doesn't make sense to drive all the way down there for $1.50 cheesecake with the gas prices being so expensive now. So none of them were interested.

I was really excited about it and made plans with our friends to have dinner there. We all drove down there in one car (which the drive wasn't that bad, it took us 1/2 to get there... yay for no traffic!) and met with John at the restaurant since it makes more sense for him to go there directly after work. Nonetheless, the restaurant was packed. I guess everybody heard about the deal. We waited for about an hour to get seated. Well, the wait wasn't that bad since there are 7 of us. Time flew by quickly when you were talking nonsense with your friends. DSW Shoe Warehouse is around the corner, which the girls went shopping while waiting. So really, the wait wasn't that bad when you have friends around.

John and I shared a salad and a meal to leave room for our cheesecake. Smart move! I always order the same Fresh Banana Cream Cheesecake, but this time i decided to take the risk a little and got a White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle instead. mmm... yummy. John got Caramel Pecan Turtle. I am not a big fan of caramel, so i wasn't too crazy about his. Everyone ordered different flavors and was loving it.

here's my yummy white chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake. i forgot to take a picture of it after half way through digging that thing. No camera anywhere, so i used my crappy camera phone. hence... the picture quality is so poor

We weren't able to finish all of our cheesecake, took the rest home in this cute bag.

It does sound stupid now driving down there for the $1.50 cheesecake but I enjoyed the dinner very much. And oh, I still have 1/2 a slice leftover sitting in the fridge :)

On a random note, here's a picture for your pleasure

also taken from a camera phone. shane came over for dinner one night. after dinner we called up Tim to hang out at our community pool. this is what happened when 3 guys get together and soaked in the spa. the spa produces so much foam that night, hate to think what those foam contains. ewww...

our sin city trip

After the wedding, we took our family to vegas. We stayed at the Monte Carlo because we got some internet special deal. The weather was horrible. It was so hot... unbearable. We tried to stay indoors at all times. We didn't do anything exhausting... the most exhausting activity, I would say walking!!! We walked so much from the north strip to the south strip. I think my sister enjoyed this trip the most. She went shopping like crazy and bought her dream bag that she has always wanted. me? stood and looked with envy *hint hint* hehehe. My dad's favorite thing about vegas would be watching people gambling. He can stand there for hours just watching people gambling. -_-

Me? My favorite activity in vegas is still watching the spectacular water fountain show infront of Bellagio. I can stand there all night watching it over and over again. It's absolutely breathtaking...

big jackpot - this big jackpot cost $5 for each hit

m&m's store..... pretty pretty pretty.... me and the m&m's of course! haha

look at all these colors!the monkey is my favorite!

i rubbed this huge gigantic err...lion? for luck haha...

a group pic taken by the server. this restaurant is located next to the pool at the hotel where we were staying at.
mom & dad at the Bellagio Botanical Garden
the also newly weds at the Pyramid Hotel. My brother in law was basically carrying the bag the entire trip.we walked and walked and walked after the sun goes down
and during the day, we stayed indoor lazying around in the room with ac cranking hard full blast.

None of us really gamble. Yes I know... Vegas.... no gamble? Who am i kidding right? John and I stopped by the roulette table and threw $5 on # 6 and $10 on #28 just for the heck of it hoping that our wedding date would bring us some luck just like last year. Little did we expect, #6 hit. John and I looked at each other disbelief. We couldn't believe our luck! We high fiv-ing each other took the winning bet and left. Hell no we are sticking around and play more, we know what will happen next! So we walked away proud and happy. The pay out is 1 to 36, not too much for our $5 bet, but it's the satisfaction! The exact same thing happened last year when we went to Laughlin after our civil ceremony. We bet on #5 and #25 and #25 hit! deja vu.....