Steph's Wedding

Mr. and Mrs. Chung

The day started out early at 4am with hair and make up. Everyone gathered at my uncle's house in preparation for the Chinese tea ceremony and the door games.

Before the groom is allowed to come into the house, close friends and family of the bride play door games where the groom and his groomsmen have to pay to get through the door. Generally the tradition is because the girls do not want their friend to be given away easily so the harder the games, the better. Here, my dad and uncle look on as I conduct one of the games. The boys were extremely good sports.

Success!

Reception began and ended with tons of dancing. The dance floor was always packed.

Group cousins photo sans the bride and the groom!

My cute niece

Seriously hilarious photo. This girl on my cousin's other side was really gunning for the bouquet.

Another big family photo sans bride and groom. Our family had so much fun. We sang, danced, drank lots and took tons of photos. We are freaking awesome.

Finally caught a photo with the bride.

What a fabulous wedding. Seriously one of the best I have ever been to.

Montreal Summer

At the height of Montreal summer, Mass and I took out first stroll around the city stopping at usual tourist attractions i.e. Old town and eating at overpriced restaurants. He did, however, find the best Casa del Habano where you can still smoke indoors. I'll let him get into the finer details on his blog (when and if he ever posts again, heh).

Think I've mentioned previously that Mass is a self proclaimed caffeine addict / expert. Tim Hortons receives his seal of approval (he promises it's not only to satisfy my Canadian heritage *rolls eyes*).

After our little tour, we headed to my Uncle's house for a big family BBQ on the eve of my cousin's wedding. I literally become a little kid when I'm with my family and argue endlessly over word semantics in Scattergories (which is the best game, ever). Mass was a bit scared. The entire day required a semi-breathable outfit as it was reaching 30's in the city. Wore an Artizia tank, some palazzo pants from mom that are probably older than I am, Kenneth Jay Lane earrings, Tom Ford sunnies and Giuseppe Zanotti flats.

Off to enjoy the English summer which finally decided to make an appearance yesterday and hopefully for the rest of this week!

Steph's Bridal Shower

My cousin, Steph, was a terribly good sport with everything we put her through over the weekend. From wearing bustiers to stuffing marshmallows, she was the most willing bride I've ever seen!

Steph and my sister, wearing Zara shoes that I have in blue! She was a trooper and wore them out to a club for their first outing. I barely could walk after 1/2 an hour in mine. They're definitely not the most comfortable but for £29.99, completely worth the value.

Homemade spread (including the cake pops!) by the MOHs. I'm not a baker, but I sure was impressed.

#wannabeDiva wearing Erdem dress (tailored) and Tom Ford sunnies

Steph's bachelorette

Surprisingly, a lot of fun at a burlesque class in Montreal. More to come from Montreal tomorrow.

Congratulations, Emily

As mentioned in an earlier post...my baby sister graduated University! We're so proud of her :*). Wore a vintage Celine dress for the occasion.

For those who graduated this year...I know you're all probably a bit scared but you are more than prepared to take on everything life has to offer. I remember when I received my first rejection to an articling position I interviewed for back in 2010, my dad said to me: I know you're disappointed, but at your age, a little set back is not a bad thing. Some disappointments are actually good for us, it may open up other avenues that lead us somewhere better. Just be strong, and accept what life has given you so far and move forward. If all is not working out, there is always a place called home that you can count on and feel welcome.

Congratulations, Graduates of 2012.

Bridal Shower & Father's Day

It was my gf's bridal shower a few weekends back and her mom held it at Oliver & Bonacini at Bayview Village. They recently did a renovation so they have this perfect sized room for events. It was such a treat to see Denise and her mom together hosting a shower for her mom's friends and family. Above is a photo of Denise and the bridesmaids. I'm so excited for Denise's wedding in August!

That same night was father's day so we took my dad to Lee's Garden in Chinatown, a restaurant my dad has been going to since he was a teenager, living down the street and going to high school at Harbord. It's crazy how the same waiter still recognises my dad! The queue is pretty ridiculous for a chinese restaurant but still really tasty; I recommend a visit if you're in the Toronto area!

My sister and I. I was wearing a Pucci dress all day. Perfect breathable dress for a hot day and air conditioning!

iPhone Snapped

I'm in Toronto! Got here last week and it has been a whirlwind of events ever since. I'm here to attend several bridal events (for my beautiful cousin and gf) and a wedding. It has been ridiculously hot the last couple days with temps hitting 43 degrees with humidity! Welcome change to London.

It was my baby sister's convocation a couple days ago and we all couldn't be more proud. I will post clearer pics from my camera a bit later but in the interim, here are a couple pics snapped from my iPhone. I wore a vintage Celine dress. Almost everything I buy, I alter. I'm quite particular about the fit of things, so I prefer to buy a size bigger and then adjust it accordingly. This dress was a 38 (I usually wear 36) but I tucked it in on the sides and the top and it now fits like a glove. Classic tailoring of Celine will never go wrong. I love this dress for the details, like the boning down the corset and the pink underlay beneath the grey.

We had a classy graduation lunch to celebrate. Dress paired with Kurt Geiger pumps, Tom Ford sunnies and Chanel purse. My sister was wearing my Balenciaga dress and some Anne Klein bow pumps. Please join me in congratulating my beautiful sister in her milestone accomplishment.

Wedding Venues...and more

Amongst the beautiful trees, which I swear graze the clouds, was the third venue we looked at. Driving up to this venue wasn't anything less than extraordinary. Ferragamo's villa was just up the road (which we accidentally drove into while trying to find the place).


And finally, the last venue we saw. Mass needed a little convincing, but I was certain as I walked in that this was it.

But what we really went to Italy for was for this beautiful baby boy...





Please join me in welcoming my new (and first!) nephew, Michele Marinelli.

Betsey Johnson dress (super old), COS shirt (last year), Kurt Geiger pumps (my most overused and most valued pair!), Hat from Italy

I will be away for the next week on Easter hols, so will see you upon my return!

Christmas recap

My sis took a couple photos for me on Christmas day. Our mom and dad didn't seem to want to eat lunch with us (mom was napping and dad was busy playing was his new ipad) so we trekked off to Starbucks - somewhere we seem to go every year. Then we pick up all the friends we've invited to come along for our big family dinner (I swear every year we bring more and more friends...I say the more the merrier).

We eat, talk, open presents (tradition goes youngest to oldest, one present at a time), and at the end we engage in a long battle of wrapping paper fights. Don't know how this one began, but I do believe it gets more painful every time (perhaps due the increasing scale of Muscles United - see photo above). I wouldn't trade our family traditions for anything.

Wilfred coat, COS sweater, Current Elliot jeans, Theysken's Theory boots, Hermes belt, Johnston's scarf

Holidays 2011

I took a huge hiatus from blogging over the holiday season to actually enjoy my time at home and spend time with important people in my life. It was the first time seeing my close friends and family since I got engaged so it was a thrilling time.

I have tons of photos accumulated over the past couple weeks and most of them are of me and the people in my life, rather than strict outfit posts. But, as we discussed previously, this blogosphere of mine has turned into more of a diary of the things I love rather than a documentation of my closet. So for those who are interested, here we go.

Above photos were taken on Christmas eve at my Aunt J's house. It is almost an exact science how we spend our Christmases together. Every 24th is spent there and the 25th is spent in rotation amongst the rest of the relatives. I'd like to say that we have a lot of traditions and though we don't spend a great deal of time together during the year (me especially being in London) we fully make up for it during the holidays.

When I'm around my family I become a bit of a nerd / loser. My jokes are super lame and cheesy and much like my father, I get loud and very sarcastic. They're all used to it by now.

I made my younger cousin flex in a pose with me above because I truly believe he has the biggest asian guy muscles. I even coined a team name for us, 'Muscles United'. Do you see why I'm the team representative? :)

birthday

Celebrated my birthday very very early a few weeks ago in Toronto with my closest friends/family around me, though it definitely was just an excuse to see everyone in one place I loved it :)

I think what makes your birthday (today, weeee!) special is not the day you born but the other 364 days of the year that you get to show the people you love (and they to you) that you're truly there for them. Now that I am officially in my late 20's, I have lived the greater part of this decade in another country, away from the people I grew up with. I have been home numerous times over the past 4.5 years and never once did an entire entourage not pick me up from the airport, drop me off and wait until the slight glimpse of me was gone before descending into the parking lot.

For those times, and many more, I am thankful for this day and the rest of the 365 days of the year.

Happy birthday to all those born on 9/11 :)

Mom

I loved what my mom was wearing when we went out for dim sum! She definitely has her own style. She has about 30 leather jackets at least and many of them are one-offs from Danier (her absolute favourite brand). She still dresses up for the plane, something I am hugely advocating to bring back!

Burberry trench, See by Chloe sweater, COS pants, Prada bag

Profile

If you've seen my facebook you will have seen this as my profile pic, so nothing new here. My parents went gaga over this photo (with only minimal criticism about our shiny foreheads).

Taken on my very early birthday celebration with my Toronto friends aka some of my favourite people in the world. That's my sister. Some people say we look alike, do you agree? She's 6 years younger than me and is sometimes mistaken for the older one. Grrr!

Helmut Lang shirt, J Crew skirt, gifted earrings

Oops, sorry didn't realise the photo is so big!

thanksgiving

I'm a huge family person. I would never be able to trade Christmas in another country other than with my entire family. This used to be the same for Thanksgiving until I moved to London almost 5 years ago now. However this year was different. My cousin Katie came to visit and we 'cooked' our own Thanksgiving dinner. It was not pretty. Aside from the melted meat thermometer and the delay of almost 2 hours, it was decent, at best. haha. To top it off, we were constantly receiving texts and pictures from the dinner that was happening back at home. Apparently they had lobster tails AND a new Maserati was added to the family. Nah, not jealous at all.

In the end, I'm still so happy to have been able to see my cousin for a couple days. Above are the photos we took at afternoon tea at Browns and dinner at Salt Yard.

See by Chloe sweater, earrings from Sardinia

the last of the randoms

That's the end of it. Until next time...