結婚披露宴

This year, I have only been invited to one wedding which was in Los Angeles. :-( Even though attending wedding can be expensive, especially when it's out of town with travel and hotel expenses extra, I think I love attending wedding much more now than when I was younger. Somehow the ceremony touches me more and being a part of a grand dressy party with well-planned invitation leading to the big day, fancy menu & cake, decor and seeing how the couple came up with fun nifty ideas with the flora arrangements and table-settings just make it all the more enjoyable! Like most brides, I was very particular with what I wanted for my wedding (party size, gown design, flora color and arrangement, menu, banquet style and location, drinks ...) but unlike the majority of them, I only splurged on what matters and planned it in less than 2 months. :-) My wedding was a completely enjoyable and stress-free event for us and I somehow missed that whole planning experience. Whenever I see those Bridal Magazines in book stores, I still would pick some up and scan through them from time to time but the fact that it's no longer relevant to me is a bit depressing.

Can someone please involve me in planning a wedding - please? I would love to go checking out banquet locations, do the cake and menu tasting, floral arrangement planning, diamond ring and gown selection, photographer, music, favor selection ..., etc. But knowing that I won't have any say on what I think would be best will probably make the whole experience very different, not to mention frustrating. I like simple, long-lasting style that make sense. I don't like big puffy, lacey gown. I only want to see people buying quality diamond ring rather than going for the biggest size and comprimsing on color, clarity and cut. I don't like anything gold - solid, trimmed or plated. I personally don't like pink. I preferred Western elegant banquet over Chinese-style noisy game-playing banquet, though the food for Chinese banquet could be very good! I like small, cozy, intimate party over 100+ invite-all social party. I don't like seeing those 1-liter plastic bottles of soda at each banquet table. I like pretty wedding cake but I don't like cake decorated with real flowers or anything plastic on it. (These days, they use props to add additional layers to the cake that's not edible!! Pretty ridiculous!!) Everything else, I guess I am open to any ideas.

Above is a picture of my wedding cake. :-) When my mother-in-law saw the pears on the cake, she was so worried that someone, either us or the cake server, will cut the pear(s). That would be very bad as splitting a pear sounds like "Separation" in Chinese. Anyway, each layer was a different flavor. The top was New-York style soft cheese cake, middle was yellow cake with fruits, bottom was dark chocolate with raspberry fillings. It was delicious! The top is still in my freezer as we speak and No, I don't think we have any plans to eat it ever... What a waste, I know.