Susan & Ken’s Wedding Day

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We started out the day with a hearty curry lunch at CoCo Ichiban Curry House. You choose the amount of rice (200g, 300g, 400g, 500g) then the toppings which include things like fried oyster, pork or chicken cutlet, beef, tofu, etc then either spicy or non.

Fun drinks: Calipico and Melon Soda

We ordered a tiny corn salad, their sesame cream dressing was delicious, much better than their soy dressing (more like Italian)

I actually ended up ordering udon curry with chicken cutlet. The cutlet was nicely fried, maybe a bit too much breading, but the chicken really tender. I couldn’t finish the udon, it was too much.

Ron ordered the shabu shabu beef with spinach over rice. The beef was so tender and it made it quite refreshing with the spinach. I’m not usually a fan of homemade Japanese curry but this really hit the spot.

We went to the hotel to bring the bridal party some food and begin to help setup. I ended up in the room with the bride and bridesmaids to get dressed and the guys stormed into the hotel room three times to try to retrieve their bride. It was a bit rough so a few of the girls got bruised up. It makes for interesting memories and hopefully a crazy good video.

I was asked to help with the reception table and also helped to set up table and menu cards. I helped to make these for their reception, handbags and suitcases for the escort cards.

The kids were little kids dressed in their wedding colors.

Close up of suitcase (missing the small gold tag with the table name on it)

Close up of handbag (also missing the small gold tag with the table name)

The menu text designed by Virginia, assembled by myself and Susan. The tag with the guest name attached with a mini clothespin. The orchid provided by the hotel. The cookie box wrapping by One Girl Cookies in NY, hand carried by a few of the guests from NY. Susan and I made the thank you tag that was tied on.

I had a lot of fun designing these things with Susan but it was also a lot of work. I used my Cuttlebug to cut out the handbag and suitcase shapes with die cuts from multiple companies and used hand punches for the flowers and airplanes.

Their setup for the wedding

Cute pink parasols for the guests (not necessarily these guys….)

The beautiful bride and her dad

The groom and bridal party

Making it official with their marriage license, look at that beautiful peony bouquet

Hot pink ladies

Their signature drink, champagne with grapefruit and pomegranate

Blue Crab Cake Appetizer on greens and garlic aioli drizzle, fresh and yummy.

Prime Rib (perfectly cooked) with stuffed red bliss potatoes, broccoli florets, and baby carrots

Kahala Fruit Cocktail in Earl Grey and Vanilla infused syrup with Lilikoi Sorbert served in a sugar rimmed glass

A delightful plate of chocolates

Guava wedding cake with passion fruit cream (the cream was so delicious, surprisingly light)

Last surprise dessert of strawberry cotton candy

The bouquet toss, caught by the sister of the bride

The groom having too much fun removing the garter. A little kid ended up diving on the floor for it.

Ron and I with the bride.

Their photographers did a great job with showcasing some of the wedding day photos.

This little kid couldn’t keep his eyes open and fell asleep halfway into the reception.

Lots of hard work went into this day and it turned out wonderfully. Congratulations to Susan & Ken, wishing you a happy life together!

Wedding Rehearsal Day

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Had a busy day starting off with a hearty breakfast at McDonald’s. Yes, McDonald’s! They have a combination breakfast with spam, Portuguese sausage, eggs, and rice. Yum yum.

Even the pigeons like it, as they search for food inside the restaurant floor.

The bride, Susan, invited me along to their pampering session at Nail Salon KoKo. We had manicures and pedicures with some sparkling wine and snacks.

Cheers to the bride!

Elizabeth & Alice

Sisters: Sally & Susan

Virginia having a manicure

Our foot bath with a huge slice of orange

Relaxing in the pedicure area

Afterwards, we headed over to the Kahala Hotel & Resort for the rehearsal and afternoon tea.

The groom Ken wearing his “Game Over” t-shirt (given to him by his bride for Valentine’s Day…)

Beautiful orchids line the staircase to the event rooms downstairs

The bride with her ladies in waiting

The secluded beach right behind the hotel

Rehearsing walking up the aisle with dad

Beautiful blue sky

Rare picture of Ron & I

With the bride’s sister Justine (and our former Singapore flat mate)

Afternoon tea after the rehearsal

Yummy plates of tea snacks, savory and sweet, included salmon, goat cheese sandwiches, bacon quiche, passion fruit tarts, pound cake, scones, and more.

The hotel’s cool chandelier

The amazing dolphins at the resort, yes, you can literally swim with the dolphins

The hideous pink Hello Kitty/Mickey Mouse house nearby

Afterwards, we headed back to our side of the island and went shopping at Target. As you know, I love Target, and this was no exception considering there were Hawaiian things there.

We got some snacks and drinks. Green tea with Muscat Grape.

Wasabi chips (actually made in WA) and Sweet Maui Onion chips (so yummy).

Guava Macadamia Nut Cookies.

We ended up having dinner at Loco Moco Drive Inn. If I’d seen the reviews, we probably would not have eaten there but neither of us got sick but the food was edible but not very good.

I was excited to eat the saimin since I love noodles. It was a bit oily and noodles a bit mushy. It’s weird too, even though we were eating in, everything was served as though it was for take-away.

Ron ordered the special: pork stuffed with breading topped with mushrooms served with mac salad and rice. The pork was quite dry, almost jerky like. I love mac salad.

It was good to get to bed early as tomorrow is the big day!

Arrival at Marriott’s Ko Olina Beach Club

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http://www.marriott.com/h…ina-beach-club/

I have been looking forward to getting away from SF, although I love my home, it’s good to venture out once in a while for a vacation with warm weather and sunny skies. Hopefully there’s time to work on my tan, I feel like I’m getting more pale each day.

It was quite a whirlwind to get to the airport as I still had to pack up after leaving work to catch our flight at 7pm. We arrived in Hawaii around 9:30pm so couldn’t really do much except pick up our car and check-in to our resort. We stayed at the Marriott Ko Olina Beach Club which is on the west side of Oahu. It’s a one-bedroom, one-bath place with a full kitchen.

The dining/living room area:

A seating area overlooking the pool:

The bedroom:

The bath with vanity:

The shower and toilet:

The full kitchen:

The hidden washer & dryer in the kitchen:

It was very spacious for just the two of us. Since the wedding we were attending was on the East side of the island, closer to Waikiki, our friends decided to stay closer to the wedding. Oh well, next time hopefully we’ll get more full use of the place. There are lovely pools and opens up to a lagoon in the back.

We started out our stay in this room but asked to be moved because we were on the 3rd floor overlooking the trash compactors. We moved to the 9th floor on the main building, Kona, where we had a view of the actual ocean and better guest parking.

Zanze’s Cheesecake

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http://www.yelp.com/biz/z…e-san-francisco

Ron picked up a cheesecake from Zanze’s for us to try since he happened to be in area. He heard that they sell the best cheesecake in San Francisco and is very unique.

It’s boxed up with a bit of fishing line to portion out the cake (top left corner).

He ordered the plain but apparently they also have flavored cheesecakes, blueberry will be my next pick.

The cake was very light and airy, a very light graham cracker dusting on top. I ate two small slices and I was stuffed, it’s deceiving how filling it is.

Zanze’s Cheesecake
2405 Ocean Avenue
San Francisco

Kara’s Cupcakes

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http://www.karascupcakes.com/

I was in the Marina with some friends for The Warehouse Sale, I was able to find some good deals on dresses for $20 each. You really have to be in the mood to dig around and find your size and also the accept some flaws on the dresses like stains or threads. But overall, it was a good shopping day.

Since we were in the area, we stopped by Kara’s Cupcakes since I’ve heard such rave reviews but have never had one myself. They all ended up sounding so yummy that I got five of them.

From top left to right: passion fruit, strawberry cream, meyer lemon
From bottom left to right: banana caramel, peanut butter milk chocolate ganache

I liked them, the filled ones are better. But there really is a lot of frosting on the cupcake, I wanted a bit more cake to go with the frosting. I still ended up eating all the frosting since I didn’t want it to go to waste, for $3.25 each, the frosting is like $1.