The Chinese Banquet: The Cheongsam+Getting Pretty

[The collar of my dress for the Chinese Banquet. The gold heart is from my in-laws, the jade is from my grandmother. Photo by my sister.]

For an earlier post about my cheongsam, click here.

In comparison to wedding #1, getting ready for the Chinese Banquet was low-maintenence. My cheongsam was really the only (tangible) thing I had to worry about the day-of the banquet, that and getting hair and makeup done at Salon Paisley, which was a cake walk. I don't have any photos of getting ready at the salon, but I highly recommend them. It's a super cute space, and Ashley (the hair stylist) and Emmy (the makeup artist) did a great job. I'm guessing I fit the demographic, because I was also a sucker for the decor, and the music playlist sounded like my Kate Nash Pandora station. Girly artistic types unite!

The makeup actually only cost $25 if I brought my own foundation. I was running out of my MAC foundation anyway, so I picked up a new bottle and Emmy had all the colors ready when I got there. She put gold and purple on my lids, which I thought was really nice with my gold cheongsam.

[Salon Paisley]

While I was sitting in the chair getting pretty, my cousin brought me sushi (hooray!) so I wouldn't starve, and once I was completely transformed the boy picked me up to go get dressed at our hotel.

[The Citizen Hotel--I was a fan of the yellow striped walls.]

It took me five minutes to get ready and put my dress on. I sat around for an hour while the boy got ready, so I took the opportunity to basically check myself out.

[My shoes, and nails fresh from a pedicure. These shoes are awesome, I have already worn them several times for special occasions: Jillian Kitten Heels from J.Crew.]

[Hi there. Oh, this? Oh yeah it's just something I had lying around. I'm also hardly wearing any makeup, and this is how my hair normally looks when I get up in the morning. Ready to go take three hours of portraits and show your in-laws you're worthy of marrying their eldest son, the future doctor? I know I am!]

The boy had his suit on, my cheongsam and hair were in place, and our parking meter was about to run out. With hands held, we headed toward the car, ready to take on 230 of our relatives, a roast pig, and a karaoke machine. Aiyah.