The Chinese Banquet: Details

[For my first two banquet posts, click here and here.]

Our mothers took care of all the details and planning, which was nice because then I didn't have to make double the decisions for both parties. (Then again, as evidence from my last post, sometimes there are more sensitive issues that need to be addressed.) They picked out the restaurant, the centerpieces, made the favors, brought the alcohol, etc. etc.

I just showed up. *little dance*
The great part was having people ask me questions and telling them "I have no clue. Have you met my mother?"

[My mother-in-law's custom cheongsam made of pink lace]

[My mom's vintage cheongsam from the 1960s]

[Mini bamboo steamer favors with hard candy inside. Bamboo steamers from H2 Cards, custom tags from Mau Studio. Instead of tying each ribbon around the steamer, my mom and sister used a hot glue gun to place the ribbon and tag.]

[The sign-in table. The peacock is made from Hong Kong money and was brought by my parents' friends. The huge engagement photo was taken by the fabulous Jessamyn and printed at Kinko's.]

[A close-up of the awesome paper/money peacock.]

[This was brought from Hong Kong because my Mom couldn't find any vendors in the Bay Area that could supply us with a pink sheet. It is typically red, but pink looks pretty nice, no?]

[Our cake had three layers. The bottom layer was neapolitan: chocolate, vanilla, and raspberry filling. The middle layer was the boy's favorite, mocha and chocolate. The top layer was mine, banana and chocolate. Cake is from The Village Cake Shoppe.]

[This was just too cheesy not to share. There were monitors at the restaurant that showed random love scenes with the lyrics to whichever karaoke song was playing at the time. I don't remember any English songs being sung though, so I don't know why Up Where We Belong is on the screen.
It's stuck in your head now, isn't it? ...where the eagles cry...on a mountain high...]

[The centerpieces were made of pink gerbera daisies. We re-used the vases from my sister's wedding last year. Wow, has it really been a year??]

Up next, the end of the night: our cake cutting!