I'm BACK!

Just wanted to say I'm back after a fabulous vacation in Southern China. I miss my wedding planning and am SO happy to jump right back in. I will do a vacation recap after I upload all the pictures. But right now, I have tons of emails to sort through. So for now, here's a photo from the picturesque old town of Lijiang.

The after wedding blues...

Another wedding has gone and it was simply amazing. Besides the couple being the nicest people I ever had the pleasure to work with (they asked how my meal was during the reception...crazy kids), the bride already wrote a sweet email thanking me!

I love planning and can't imagine life without planning something. Be it vacation, weddings, birthday parties, showers, get together...planning is my one happiness in life. It gives me something to look forward to. I'm very happy and grateful to be doing what I'm doing. I saw this article on Washington Post and oh how I can relate. After the wedding, I always miss the emails the bride and I share or the meetings we had where we laughed and joked. I'm often wondering with the bride where the year's gone. =) Good thing I have a trip to distract me from this 'after wedding blues.'

Thank you Sarah and SirvTee for allowing me to be apart of your special day. You two are the sweetest people. I know your lives together will be filled with love and happiness...and most importantly laughter!

A quick hello!

No time to write since I'm off to a rehearsal but I just had to share. I got an email from Elizabeth sharing her engagement pictures. There were soooo many beautiful pictures, but of course, especially since Elizabeth and Brian are such a gorgeous couple! Here are a few of my favorites from their talented photographer Brian Crane Photography.

Too gorgeous for words...

These pieces by Tejani are just too beautiful for words. Each jewelry is so delicate and and detailed...perfect for a bride on her big day. The jeweler is based in NYC but the pieces can also be purchase online.

Balloon send off...

I'm sure many of you have seen the usual sparkler send off at the end of the wedding. But have you seen a balloon send off? From the looks of this picture...it's amazing! I can almost feel the excitement and electricity in the air. It makes me want to have an outdoor afternoon wedding just so we can have the same experience.

Saturday Dress Shopping & Birthday Dinner

It's official! My dear friend is getting marry next year. Mr. Friday (his nickname since their date night is always Friday) proposed. The poor guy just had back surgery and really wanted to make the moment special as I'm sure it was. I'm excited to be helping my friend since weddings are what I do best. =)

I think most brides would agree, trying on dresses is one of the most fun aspect of wedding planning. You make appointments at luxury salons, the sales consultant help dress you, and you coming out looking like a million bucks! Our first stop Saturday, Monique L'huillier.

I waited for my friend to change as I enjoyed the fresh flowers and chamomile tea with spices.


This was her favorite from the store..Camelot (same dress Kevin Costner's wife wore).


Initially we were going to Barney's New York, but they canceled since they are currently renovating the bridal salon. So instead we stopped in at Renee Strauss without an appointment. The staff was extremely friendly but we didn't really see anything we liked.

Last stop was Saks Fifth Avenue. She fell in love with this gown ~ simple yet elegant.


After a day of dress shopping, we had a drink at W Hotel before dinner. The hotel is a little small for her 250 people wedding but we enjoyed sitting outside by the pool.


We had dinner at the Little Door Restaurant. Dinner was to celebrate an early birthday for the same friend since I will be leaving for China and she will be heading to Hong Kong.

We started with a bottle of Pinot Noir and the Assorted Mediterranean Appetizers.

I had the Grilled Filet Mignon with Green Peppercorn and Bone Marrow Sauce.

Lemon Roasted Organic Chicken Breast with Baby Artichokes, Garlic and Oregano

Grilled Rib Eye Steak with Sel, Herbs, and Cracked Black Pepper

Duo of Duck with Pomegranate and Candied Walnuts

Someone had the Pistachio Crusted New Zealand Snapper with Couscous (I didn't get a bite or a picture). Use your imagination. =P

We ended the dinner with some champagne and the birthday cake from The Little Next Door ~ Raspberry vanilla cake.

And here is the happy couple. Lucky Mr. Friday. Now hurry up and chose a date!

Let them eat cake!

I know the title is the name of a popular bakery in Southern California but it just seems so appropriate for this post. Actually, these cakes are too beautiful to be eaten! =)











All cakes from Cakework in San Francisco.

On Dal 2: It's all about the crab‏

On Friday night, I was able to convince some of my friends to check out this restaurant with me. It's located in Crenshaw, not the safest location, but after reading the glowing report from LA times and had other friends that actually patroned the restaurant; I was really looking forward to dinner.

This is their famous crab hot pot. We ordered the largest pot with 5 crab shells, thin bean sprout, bell cap mushrooms, and other stuff. Hehehe...I only eat, I don't cook. Due to friends weaker than myself, the pot was only 'small' spice. It was amazing even at mild, the pot was pretty spicy.


The service was impeccable. They had a wait staff cut the crabs so the tender meat is easily accessible. As you can see, they also divied up the crab shells. And yes, there was a scoop of rice in the shell with the broth.


We also ordered the pasta to try. The server brought a small round dough which she stretch and pulled until it's thin then teared them into small pieces to be cooked in the broth. I actually took a picture of the end result but my bowl was kind of 'not very clean' so I'll leave it to your imagination. The pasta was chewy but not as good as I hoped.


For the men in our party, we ordered the braised beef since seafood wasn't enough. This dish was mostly tomato based (where our crab pot was more the Korean hot paste) and a little sweet.


The last dish was the fried rice. The owner's son cooked it right in front of us. He used some soup from the braised beef pot, rice and his own special seasoning. It was delicious. We also ordered a large seafood pancake that we all ate before I had a chance to take a picture.


All in all, the food wasn't out of the ordinary. The small dishes the restaurant provided was better than most Korean restaurants ~ grilled fish, raw crab legs, small sausages, dried sweet seaweed. The crab hot pot was good but not extraordinary. The braised beef was sweet ~I don't usually like sweet ~ and included chewy rice cakes that I'm sure I ate a ton of. We all agree the seafood pancake and the fried rice was good, but not something we never had before. So will I go back, probably not. But it is worth a try!

Daylight Saving ~ Don't forget to change your clock!

On Sunday, Nov 3, clocks fall back from 1:59 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. One extra hour for everyone ~ WOOHOO!!

China...here we come!

I am so excited ~ a real vacation! It's for sure because we BOUGHT the tickets! I know, I know...not like I haven't taken one recently. WELL, it has been a while. I went to visit my sister and her twins Jan 2007. So it's been almost ONE year. And visiting to me isn't really vacation. Last real vacation was to Europe (Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Munich) June 2006. I was hoping for Spain this year but it'll have to wait...we'll probably go next Sept for MIL's 60th birthday.

Anyways, on to gush about my vacation. We are heading to southern China, Yunnan province. Hubs family are from there and to hear him talk, that is his 'motherland' and proud of it. I mean seriously, every person we meet from China, he will ask: 'What province are you from. I'm from Yunnan.' AS IF...the dude's never even been there! I'm glad he's proud and I'm happy we're finally visiting. It's been a long time coming.

We will be flying in through Hong Kong and landing in Kunming. Kunming is the capital city of Yunnan province. It has a long history and was the ancient gateway of the famed silk rode. Today Kunming is the heartbeat of Yunnan province, enjoying a reputation as one of Chinas’ most picturesque cites as well as being the most popular tourist destination in southwestern China. Like other major cities in China, Kunming combines an ancient and proud tradition with the dynamism of being a modern metropolis. ~tripadvisor

The weather I heard is much like here. I guess the exact location across the globe will be about northern Mexico. There are about 25 ethnic minorities in Kunming, and the city is celebrated as 'City of Eternal Spring.' It's well known for it's diverse cultures and breath-taking natural scenery (hubs' afraid it's going to be like Yosemite). I'm hoping we get to see the major attractions like the Shilin (Stone Forest), Xishan (West Hill), Grand Park, Black Dragon Pool and much more! Kunming is also famous for it's bit part in history. China's lifeline to the outside world ~ Burma Road ~ had one of its terminals at Kunming.

Lugu Lake

Shilin (Stone Forest) is a maze of grey limestone towers. A walkway let you wander around the rock formations. Nearby villages are inhabited by the Sani tribes people who sell handcraft and act as tour guides. The location of Shilin has once been covered by the ocean. When the ocean pulled back erosion has been shaping the stones to the impressive “forest” it is now.

Tour guides dress in traditional Sani outfits at Shilin

I'm expecting to see lots of different ethnicity, clothing, traditions...

This is the canal that runs through the city

Huating Temple in the West Hills area

We'll be in China for about 10 days and before heading back to US, we will stop in Taiwan for 5 days. Depending on if I'm still angry at my sister, I'll go visit her. Arghhh...I can sure hold a grudge. BUT...I won't let that damper my spirits. I'm going on VACATION!

Sarah & SirvTee Engagement Pictures (part 2)

More amazing pictures from Sarah & SirvTee! These pictures are from their 'casual' engagement shoot. There is one of Sarah in her second hanbok and I just LOVE the color. She look amazing (thanks the the uber talented Joyce Luck). After all these practice on their photo shoots ~ Sarah and SirvTee are going to be SPECTACULAR on their wedding day! All photos by Studio One.

The colors in this photo is just amazing. I love how vibrant Sarah hanbok is against the soft pink background.


The color added in this b&w photo is totally cool. I've seen where photogs add color just to the lips or flowers, etc and it always look a little cheesy to me. But this...this is GOOD.


Cloudy gray days make for great photos...look how the blue pop!


One of my favorite photo of the sweet couple.


It's a little over a week left before their BIG day. I am super excited for Sarah & SirvTee!

HAPPY HOLLOWEEN!

I wish I was a kid again. I remember first time going trick-o-treating....I was like 'WOW, free candy!' My parents dressed my sister and I up as clowns; identical even though she was 3 feet taller than me. And of course, when we were going house to house, people thought she was too old to be trick-o-treating. They thought sis was in college when in fact she was only 9!! We didn't do many years of trick-o-treating before we moved on to giving out the 'treats.' We have a weird household, instead of candy, my dad is always giving out tee-shirts, posters, star war collectable coins, and oh yeah...that one year he was giving out small earphone radio thing-a-majig. We had kids coming back THREE times!

And now, I just want to borrow someone's kid to take my dogs out in costume. Oh how we evolve. =)

Mom's BIG 6-0 Birthday!

Mom's big 60th birthday was last weekend. Initially...I was full of ideas: we were taking a trip to Napa, then we were going on a 4 day cruise down to Mexico, 3 nights in Vegas, etc, etc. In the end, it was a day in Temecula. I was a little disappointed (okay, 'little' is an understatement). I guess it took me a whole week to 'get over' the disappointment to actually blog about it. Geesh, if it was last weekend, you wouldn't hear the end of it. In the end, I realize what was important was that my mom was happy and we were able to celebrate with love ones. And that my sister who wasn't able to join us and fouled my plans...it's her lost not ours (okay, maybe I'm not completely over it yet).

My aunts and uncles from San Jose flew down to celebrate with us. We had a fun dinner at Yamashiro (one of Mom's favorite because of the view, not the food). Since it was extremely dark at the restaurant, I didn't take any pictures. My little cousin B also joined us for the festivities. After dinner, we head to Old Town Pasadena for the infamous Pinkberry. My parents and my aunts/uncles never tried it before. They were amazed at the long line especially since the night was cold. Here we are waiting in line.


After the little frozen yogurt adventure,we head home for cake cutting and present openings. The cake was dark forest with a layer of Chinese pudding ~ it's from a Chinese bakery by hubs' work. Besides the 'American' sounding flavor, the cake itself was the typical yummy, light Chinese style cake.


Here's hubs and I with Mom & Dad (yes, I'm wearing pajamas, it was a long day). Look at the pile of gifts! My aunts informed Mom all the gifts were just random junk from their house packaged nicely. It's mainly just for the purpose of ripping open presents. They were JOKING of course. =D


Dad broke open one of his precious liquor collection. The sketch on the bottle is created by the master of art deco, world famous designer Erté. Initially there was 7 bottles in the set. Another bottle called "Inedit" has been launched in 1995 as a tribute to Erte's life and work (he died in 1990). Only 4,000 units have been produced. The design on the bottle is the first one that Erte created for the Vigne bottle, but censored at that time on the American market because the girl on the draw was half nude.

Erté created the luscious shape of the decanter, and then conceived visuals to represent the seven stages of the courvoisier cognac-making process. Each one of the decanters is filled with an exceptionally rare blend of the best cognacs -- some dating back to 1892 -- the year of Erte's birth. The third design in the series, "Distillation" inspired Erte to portray the coaxing of the precious spirit which is distilled from the wine, which reminded him of the genie appearing from Aladdin's lamp. ~ Courvoisier

Dad has been collecting since the bottles were first released. A few years back he opened bottle #8 when we had a family reunion (the earlier bottles are higher in value since people started drinking them before the artist passed away). This time for Mom's birthday, he opened bottle # 7 "la Part des Anges." Prices vary drastically...I seen it for $500 on ebay to $1500 at retail.

Here's my cousin B tempting the dog with persimmons.

The poor thing didn't realize B was instructed not to give him any. A dog can dream though.



Next morning we headed to the Temecula wineries. I didn't know what to expect. Temecula had much smaller scale wineries than Napa or Sonoma and the wines aren't as good. But the positive is Temecula is only an hour drive. We started at the Hart Winery. It was fairly small (literally a small shack on a hill) but they are building another bigger structure in the back. The owners are very friendly and it was a great start to the day.




Next up, Thornton Winery. It's a nice enough place but my only complaint was that I called ahead of time to see if I could bring my doggies, which they said I could. But look at the white sign to the right.



So the kids and I were out front in the lawn enjoying ourselves while the gang had lunch inside. I of course entertained myself playing on my iPhone ~ poor neglected kids.


Grandma came out after lunch to play with them. This is why I LOVE my mom. She really cares and always play with them and give them treats. My mom truly functions in the capacity of the grandma that spoils the grand kids rotten!


Then I called them for their afternoon treat and look how they come running.



Water, pupperoni, and chicken jerky.


Off to the other side, I saw the lawn was set up for a wedding. I was able to see the florist setting up before we left. The winery closes at 5pm and I'm assuming open to weddings after that. I can vouch for the food though. Mom bought me out a hamburger with grilled mushroom and it was delicious! I had my own little picnic under the trees.


All in all, Temecula was nice. It's not comparable to the Napa or Sonoma but it's our own little piece of wine country.


On our way home we went through the sand storm again. This time hubs had his camera ready. Initially we thought it was only in the morning but on our way home, it was just as bad. It's only for a short two miles before you reach I-10 on the 15 freeway. You can see from the side of the picture how hard the wind was blowing. All the trees were tilted dangerously to the side. It felt like we were underwater and the trees were the seaweed floating with the current!


Sometimes it was so bad you could barely see the car in front of you. All the cars came to a standstill. I can only compare the experience to driving through thick fogs.



And this is why there's high wind advisory.