On Saturday, April 6th, Gilles and I celebrated 6 months of wedded bliss. I made a special dinner at home of seared ahi tuna with black sesame seeds on a small bed of mashed potatoes and a cucumber salad. Probably the most fancy dinner I ever cooked successfully. I realized I never did get to posting my wedding details here on Coquette. I pretty much got back into the swing of life and forgot all about it. Gilles and I got married at the Officer's Club at 1 Fort Mason in San Francisco on Oct 7, 2006 in front of 100 close friends and family members. Fort Mason was a former Army station that is now a park and the Officer's Club over looks Alcatraz and the Bay. The view was amazing and it was also Fleet Week complete with Blue Angels flying over and fireworks at night. Our wedding style and theme was Shanghai and Paris of the 1930's so the location and interiors all fit.
I was honored to be asked by Chronicle Books to write the forward Kelly Bare's The DIY Wedding: Celebrate Your Day Your Way (Out in late Nov according to Amazon). In it I talk about all the trials and tribulations I went through trying to plan our wedding. What I learned? Got with your gut and do it with your own style. There's too many old school rules that really don't need to apply anymore. Also, everyone will want a piece of your wallet and tell you that you HAVE to do this or THAT, don't believe them. In the end, it's your day and you should have to go in debt just to get married.
My wedding dress was by Monique Lhuillier and it was a halter style silk sheath that had tiny swarovski crystals under the bustline. I wanted to take a photo like my grandmother did. I got the dress at Glamour Closet (114 Columbus Ave, San Francisco) for only $1,500 as the dress costs in reality upwards of $3,500+. Glamour Close was a great place because they sold beautiful name brand dresses that were previously samples. Plus I loved the owner and the staff which were so honest and sweet, not fake or pushy like other bridal salons. I ended up also getting a long veil there too. My makeup was done by Tracey Yuen and she did a great job. I work MAC makeup and she really knows how to work the asian eyes. My three bridesmaids work navy silk dresses from JCrew.
My jewelry was custom made for me by my friend, jewelry designer Kris Nations who matched the swarovski crystals to make me earrings and a bracelet cuff.
My Chinese dress was custom made for me from Ling's (957 Jackson St., Oakland, CA 510-839-8232). I got to pick all the fabrics and piping for it. This was a gift from my mother so I'm not sure how much this all cost but it wasn't as expensive as my wedding dress.
Here's a list of all the great services I had, especially my wedding coordinator Michelle Martinez of Allure Consulting. (She did a blog post about our wedding here.) We did partial planning and she helped me keep a REALLY organized schedule. She also had some great contacts and we had special lighting up in the reception room of an Eiffel Tower projection on the wall. (Pictured above with the Eiffel Tower are my in-laws, Danielle and Jean-Marie.) Harriette Shakes, Ms.Glaze's mom, did all my print design work from Save the Dates to the wedding invites to banners at the wedding. We had so much fun working together on the concepts and the 30's/40's look merging both the French and Chinese cultures. She's amazing. Email me if you want her contact info. My invitations were so beautiful. My mom and her Ikebana flower group did all the flowers and bouquets for the wedding. Vasna Wilson is also an amazing photographer. She does a lot of work around they bay area and does freelance work with the SF Chronicle and my favorite photography crew Orange Photography. Finally, the food -- Ann Walker was our caterer and she worked an amazing mix of French and Chinese cuisine with fresh seasonal organic foods.
I think that's most of what I can remember now. What's extra special is that now our little pomeranian puppy Lulu has the same exact birthdate as our wedding day!
