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A Wedding Mini-Recap

Sep 3 by Anita 40 Comments

Ringsprogram

 Hi All,

It’s Labor Day weekend and I’m in Kansas City having a second wedding reception with Husband’s relatives and close friends. Apparently I’ve brought California weather with me – sunny, dry, and beautiful. (Ironic, since it’s been absolutely freezing cold in SF this summer).

I’m working on a writeup of a visit to Michael Recchiuti’s chocolate factory, but meanwhile, I hope you might enjoy a short recap of my wedding in May. I know it’s indulgent, but many people have been asking for vendor information, so I thought I’d compile it in one post while also showing off our photographer’s truly excellent work. I’ve also tried to provide a mini-recap of that magical day for all of you to enjoy for this Labor Day weekend. (For those of you interested in dessert only, skip to the end for dessert info:) )

All photos in this post are by Ricky Wong of W Photography. I can’t highly recommend him enough.  Although the ways by which you can blow your wedding budget are innumerable, I believe finding the right photographer is an investment worth every last penny. How could I not – I photograph my food on a daily basis! If I hadn’t been preoccupied with getting married that day, I would have certainly had a lot more photography-related questions for Ricky – as it was, I could only marvel at his amazing efficiency and on-the-spot creativity in creating some truly memorable shots. Just take a look below.

Weddingshoes

Shoes: Badgley Mischka

As a certified shoe fanatic, I couldn’t envision boring white wedding shoes I wouldn’t ever wear again. Pink, flowery and sexy – much more my style. Someone called them my Carrie Bradshaw shoes!

Bridesmaids

Wedding dress: Rosa Clara

Six wedding dress stores later and I finally found the dress of my dreams. Ivory silk chiffon, cathedral length train that I had cut down since I was getting married in a park instead of church. I’d never heard of Rosa Clara, a Spanish designer, but she has some beautiful gowns in her collection. Oh, and I got my dress at a sample sale – thank goodness for sample sales!

Bridesmaid dresses: Alfred Angelo

Hairmakeup

Hair and makeup: Aimee Lam, Beauty Up Close.

The sweetest lady you will ever meet. Aimee is wholly responsible for how I looked that day – no makeup melting or hair collapsing!

Groomsuit

Groom’s suit: Ted Baker

I love him because he wore a pink tie for me. And looks damn good in a suit.

Weddingbouquets

Bridebouquet

Flowers: Huckleberry Karen Designs

I absolutely _loved_ my flowers. And I’m not much of a flower person. I bascially showed Karen some photos of bouquets I liked, told her I wanted pale pink, and she came up with magic. See Karen’s post for a detailed breakdown of the bouquets and the ceremony flowers.

Sfview

 
Mandarinoriental

Hotel: Mandarin Oriental San Francisco

A beautiful view of the city from the bridal suite.

BrideCAS

Outside the California Academy of Sciences (right next to the garden where we got married) before the ceremony. This is likely the best I’ll ever look in my life. What you don’t see is the lovely freezing San Francisco bay winds blowing through the park. I am actually trying really hard not to shiver uncontrollably in this shot. Fortunately, it was much warmer in the garden!!

ShakespeareGGP

Ceremony: Shakespeare Garden, Golden Gate Park.

Gardenbackview

We were in serious danger of getting rained out. Fortunately the day turned out absolutely beautiful: sunny, bright, and clear. Because the garden was enclosed, we were also protected from the winds. Yay good wedding karma!

Thekiss

The kiss.

Newlymarried

Newly married!
Gardenbench

Postweddingpark

Romance

 Post ceremony glamour shots. Sorry, I’m not trying to be vain, just showing off our photographer’s talent:)

Banquetentrance

Reception: Grand Palace Seafood Restaurant

Making our entrance.
Banquetmenu

A good old fashioned 10 course Chinese wedding banquet – remember to save room for dessert!

Although it looks like a huge amount of food (and it was), a Chinese banquet was by far the best value for our dinner dollar – the cost per head was still quite a bit lower than any other Western-style catered dinner at a hotel we found. My parents and several of their friends, all Hong Kong expats, declared the quality of the food excellent, so I was happy.

Wedding programs and stationery: Pink Lily Press

Pink Lily did a great job with our invites, programs, menus, and other stationery. I just loved that font she used for our names!

Chinesedress

Chinese dress: custom made in Hong Kong

A traditional Chinese cheongsam or qipao. I had it modeled after a gorgeous wedding qipao from Shanghai Tang that was uh, way out of my budget. Here we are making the rounds of all the tables and doing a celebratory toast at each one. A good idea is to only take sips from your glass so you don’t end up as drunk bride by the end.

Weddingcake

Wedding cake: Shannie Cakes

Since I was not bold or crazy enough to make my own wedding cake, I turned to Shannie, a dear friend and master wedding cake maker. Everyone said it was the tastiest wedding cake they had ever had.

Desserttable

Dessert table: Petit fours by Gerhard Michler

I knew I had to have a dessert table at my wedding. Gerhard Michler obliged with a stunning selection of petit fours. These were also our wedding favors – we handed our boxes and guests could take the pastries home. Apparently there was a quite a rush on the dessert table – no one turns down free dessert!

Macarons

Macarons: Paulette Macarons

The macarons were so popular the photographer barely managed to get a picture of them!! People went nuts over them!

Eveningdress

Evening dress: Notte by Marchesa 

Red is the traditional color for Chinese weddings, so I had to have at least one red dress. It’s also traditional for brides to have several outfit changes, so this was the dress I wore in the “goodbye line” to say thank you and good night to departing guests.

 
It was a beautiful wedding and I had a great time. Thanks for sharing in my special day!

Filed Under: Personal

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{SF} A Soy and Chocolate Pairing with Michael Recchiuti »

Comments

  1. 1

    sara says

    Sep 3 at 10:33 pm

    Gorgeous wedding! Congratulations!! 🙂

    Reply
  2. 2

    arundati says

    Sep 3 at 11:07 pm

    congratulations to you both. wishing you a lifetime of love and togetherness…. the pictures are fabulous!

    Reply
  3. 3

    parisbreakfast says

    Sep 4 at 6:24 am

    WOW WOW WOW
    Simply gorgeous Anita!
    BRAVO!
    though I do think you could go off to Paris and do it again…the macarons would be easy
    LOOVE yr bouquet too and ALL the dresses
    Quelle spendour
    xxcarolg

    Reply
  4. 4

    Caitlin says

    Sep 4 at 6:53 am

    Wow, what an amazing set of pictures! And as a shoe fanatic, I totally approve of those – they’re awesome and not bridal-boring 🙂

    Reply
  5. 5

    snooky doodle says

    Sep 4 at 7:18 am

    wow what a spectacular wedding. Just my dream wedding. You look spectacular 🙂 Nice shots 🙂

    Reply
  6. 6

    DessertForTwo says

    Sep 4 at 8:43 am

    Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful!

    Thanks for sharing! 🙂

    Reply
  7. 7

    Romy says

    Sep 4 at 8:56 am

    Wow, Anita! What beautiful photos and what a gorgeous wedding. Thank you so much for sharing with us! 🙂

    Reply
  8. 8

    Jo says

    Sep 4 at 10:09 am

    Thank you for sharing your special day with us! Everything was absolutely gorgeous! Wishing you many wonderful years and memories together!

    Reply
  9. 9

    Maria says

    Sep 4 at 3:09 pm

    You are gorgeous and that is an understatement! What a beautiful couple. I am so happy for you! Thank you for sharing your special day. I am loving the desserts too:) I can’t wait to see you at Blogher Food!

    Reply
  10. 10

    alice says

    Sep 4 at 3:29 pm

    Congrats Anita and Mike!

    Reply
  11. 11

    Monica says

    Sep 4 at 5:38 pm

    Congratulations, it looked like an amazing wedding 🙂

    Reply
  12. 12

    sudhakar says

    Sep 5 at 1:18 am

    Congratulations. It looked beautiful.
    Mark Twain was right about SF summers then.
    What flavour was the cake?

    Reply
  13. 13

    Joy says

    Sep 5 at 6:29 pm

    What a beautiful wedding, Anita. Congratulations!

    Reply
  14. 14

    Pei Lin says

    Sep 5 at 6:37 pm

    How blissful you two look! Awwww! And I thought I have thrown the idea of holding a wedding reception out of my mind…. Now I have to second-think it…. Congratulations again!

    Reply
  15. 15

    [email protected] says

    Sep 6 at 2:58 am

    Oh my God how beautiful you are…:) Perfect couple, perfect wedding. I wish you all the best in your life!

    Reply
  16. 16

    Tasha says

    Sep 6 at 10:12 am

    BEAUTIFUL Pictures, you have talent. I love the Petit fours!

    Reply
  17. 17

    Kaitlin says

    Sep 6 at 10:31 am

    You two are so adorable!

    Thanks for all the photos and the recap 🙂

    Reply
  18. 18

    Jean Y. says

    Sep 6 at 10:37 am

    Hii Anda!

    there’s been a little time I’ve been looking to your blog. N I have to say: the photos are really nice!
    everything is so perfect.
    To celebrate this my first comment, CONGRATULATIONS!
    Wish u’ll be happy for all the rest of your lifes!

    and a lot of desserts in the meals! hahah 🙂
    kisses, jean

    Reply
  19. 19

    almond says

    Sep 6 at 2:18 pm

    best of luck, you look stunning and incredible happy!

    Reply
  20. 20

    Dessert Darling says

    Sep 6 at 8:14 pm

    Absolutely GORGEOUS!!! I love the soft pink and your ruffled shoes {:-)
    What a cute couple you two make!!!

    Reply
  21. 21

    Allison says

    Sep 6 at 10:45 pm

    Thanks for sharing your beautiful pictures! I never tire of looking at wedding pictures, especially of ones as amazing as yours.

    Reply
  22. 22

    Heather says

    Sep 7 at 11:00 am

    Truly Beautiful!

    Reply
  23. 23

    Claudia says

    Sep 7 at 3:45 pm

    Beautiful photos Anita, you two look great together and the party was perfect. Congratulations again!

    C.

    Reply
  24. 24

    Avanika says

    Sep 8 at 2:02 am

    Gorgeous wedding, Anita. That is one handsome man. And I LOVE the shoes 😀

    Reply
  25. 25

    Anna says

    Sep 8 at 1:48 pm

    Aw congratulations! your dress is lovely. and so are those macarons!

    Reply
  26. 26

    macati says

    Sep 8 at 2:47 pm

    so many beautiful pictures… adorable ceremony…
    and of course I wish ALL the best in the world for you…

    Reply
  27. 27

    Christina says

    Sep 8 at 2:52 pm

    Everything turned out beautifully! Congrats. 🙂

    Reply
  28. 28

    Jenny says

    Sep 8 at 4:24 pm

    Everything looks wonderfully magical. You have cleverly fused the traditional Chinese wedding with a modern Western touch. Truly beautiful. Thanks so much for sharing and again, congratulations!

    Reply
  29. 29

    Aimei says

    Sep 9 at 9:27 pm

    I love your wedding shoes! If I had seen that I would have got it… 🙂

    Reply
  30. 30

    Tawny @The Year of The Cookie says

    Sep 11 at 9:24 pm

    Congratulations! Your wedding was soo beautiful! I live in the bay area, too and recognized some of your locations! Oh, and your blog is amazing 🙂

    Reply
  31. 31

    Ana says

    Sep 14 at 3:45 am

    So lovey photos. You two look beautiful…:) Congratulations!!! And lots of love, love, love…:)

    Reply
  32. 32

    Lexi says

    Sep 15 at 7:32 pm

    Congratulations. Your wedding was gorgeous. You are so pretty, I love your dress. I love the colours you chose. Everything looks beautiful

    Reply
  33. 33

    Janice says

    Sep 20 at 1:25 pm

    Congratulations Anita! I am a fellow Tante Marie’s grad and have admired your blog from afar for quite a while. Your shoes looked good enough to eat! Hope newlywed-hood is treating you well.

    Reply
  34. 34

    candelarion says

    Sep 28 at 4:53 am

    Truly beautiful. Everything looks wonderfully magical. Congratulations! The girl is very pretty 🙂 I really love the Petit fours!

    Reply
  35. 35

    Audrey Wong says

    Sep 29 at 2:08 pm

    Beautiful wedding! I especially love your custom made qipao. Can you share where you got it in Hong Kong?

    Reply
  36. 36

    Vermont Wedding says

    Nov 18 at 7:47 pm

    Perfect couple! And that cake is pretty sweet.

    Reply
  37. 37

    JenV. says

    Jan 31 at 3:49 pm

    Love your blog. Beautiful photos! My fiance and I are getting married in the Shakespeare Garden in July. We’re planning the wedding long distance from Chicago. I’d love any hints you could offer! Did you bring the podiums that the vases of flowers were placed on? Anything else I should know? I’d love any help you can offer!!

    Reply
  38. 38

    Sue Mattson says

    Feb 24 at 12:52 am

    Congrats on your successful wedding, and I hope that you’ll be having a long-lasting bond. By the way, I can’t get my eyes off those scrumptious looking desserts you had there, with strawberries and all, and it reminds me of the wedding reception of my bestfriend in Bay Area, in which they served bite-sized cheesecakes (which I love the most) as one of the dessert. Other than that, the party location are is awesome, which is their spacious backyard with tables, chairs on rentals, and catering under the huge tent.

    Reply
  39. 39

    articlescool says

    Feb 24 at 11:43 pm

    Truly Beautiful!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. {Sweet San Francisco}: Chantal Guillon SOMA - Dessert First says:
    Jul 15 at 7:26 pm

    […] showstopping macaron displays for special events (including my own wedding – I still remember my dessert table […]

    Reply

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Anita Chu, also known as pastrygirl, is a baker, writer, and photographer with a passion for pastry. She trained at Tante Marie's Cooking School and is the author of Field Guide to Cookies, Field Guide to Candy, and Lollipop Love. Anita lives in San Francisco with her husband, daughter, and dog Max. More about pastrygirl

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