Trang, Steve & Baby-Liu

Darwin plays with his little tikes basketball set

2010-01-02T13:16:00.000-08:00

Darwin's first taste of LU Petit Beurre cookies

2009-12-29T12:39:00.000-08:00

Random Pictures

2009-12-19T20:38:00.001-08:00

Darwin Singing at Dinner Table

2009-12-19T20:23:00.000-08:00

Here is Darwin being bored at the dinner table after dinner.

Darwin looking for mama

2009-09-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

Today Darwin walked from the family room to the master bedroom looking for his mama. He screams in delight as he walks to his destination.

Update

2009-09-17T22:45:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone.

Sorry for the not so many updates in the last few months. We have our hands full with Darwin walking. We can't believe that he is 11 months old. He now is EVERYWHERE. Just watching him makes us tire. Will try to update more often.

Here are videos that we took the last month or so. Enjoy!

Darwin taking steps

Oreo attacking Darwin

Darwin Stands

2009-08-07T12:37:00.001-07:00

Darwin Videos

2009-06-19T23:51:00.001-07:00

We have been lazy about posting items to the blog. Lately, we have been posting most of our updates spontaneously on facebook.

Darwin eats pumpkin

2009-04-06T10:52:00.000-07:00

Darwin eating sweet potatoes and being tickled

2009-04-04T22:09:00.001-07:00

Here are two videos, one of Darwin being tickled and one of him eagerly eating sweet potatoes.

Darwin bouncing in his jumperoo

2009-03-03T13:27:00.000-08:00

Updated Darwin Photos

2009-01-23T16:46:00.000-08:00

We have added some pictures to Darwin's online album. Click the image below to be re-directed to Darwin's Album.

You can also quickly access the album by using the link in the upper right hand navigation pane of our blog.

Darwin James Liu

Darwin's' First Plane Trip

2008-12-05T12:56:00.000-08:00

Darwin took his first plane trip this week to visit Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Vincent in San Jose. He was the best baby on the plane. He slept through the whole time. :-)

It was an ordeal to go through security. Everything had to go through security including his stroller and car seat. It was hard to even carry baby most of the time. Darwin's milk was taken away because it was more than 3 oz. Traveling with baby is HARD. :-) Next time I will consolidate everything to make it easier.

Darwin had to get use to the weather in San Jose. It's been below 50 degrees most of the time. The first night he cried a lot. Now that he is used to the people and weather, we are heading home. Darwin got to spend time with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Vincent. He also got a visit from Aunty Rosy who absolutely adores him. He will surely be missed.

Darwin's First Mail!

2008-11-03T17:57:00.000-08:00

Darwin got his first official piece of mail today! It was funny to see a letter addressed to a newborn. I had thought that perhaps the government would have addressed it to either the mom or dad.

Darwin James Liu Photo Album

2008-10-24T00:51:00.001-07:00

We have created a new photo album for Darwin. Check back often for updates, as we upload new photos every couple of days.

Darwin James Liu

Thanks for visiting

2008-10-16T02:38:00.001-07:00

Trang and I would like to thank all the friends and family that have come to visit Darwin. For those of you that have not visited yet, we'd like to offer you a preview of what to expect. We expect each visitor to change at least one diaper. Since Darwin eats every 2 hours, there is always a diaper that needs to be changed. I've seen as many as 3 diapers in a 30 minute span.

This was a poopy diaper only. Sometimes you get lucky and get to change a diaper that is both poopy and pissy. In this particular instance, once Darwin was changed and swaddled he immediately wet his diaper and had to be changed again.

Once Darwin is all changed, we like to swaddle him up securely in a blanket. This emulates the tight conditions of the womb and really comforts and puts Darwin to ease. He typically falls right to sleep.

Darwin likes it tight!

Darwin's Homecoming

2008-10-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

Darwin, Trang and I came home from the hospital today. We were all happy to get back home and settle into a comfortable and familiar environment.

The dogs, Genji and Nori, were super-excited and curious.

Trang enjoys her ride out to the front lobby

Darwin also enjoys the ride

Lisa and Momma Nguyen sit with the super-exicted dogs, Genji and Nori

Darwin gets burped

Darwin zoned out after his feeding

Birth of Darwin James Liu Photo Album

2008-10-13T01:21:00.000-07:00

Birth of Darwin James Liu

Darwin James Liu Video

2008-10-12T13:01:00.000-07:00

Darwin James Liu

2008-10-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

Darwin James Liu
DOB 10/12/2008 @ 8:25am
19 3/4 inches, 6lbs 8.9 oz
9.9 Apgar score

More details to come

Labor Update I

2008-10-11T10:24:00.000-07:00

Trang with our Obstetrician, Dr. Melissa Grier

Dr. Grier just came by and measured Trang. Trang is currently 3cm dilated, a little over 50% effaced, and at -1 station. Dr. Grier also broke Trang's amniotic sac and the fluid was clear. Trang is holding in there and still does not want her epidural.

Dr. Grier also said that once Trang gets to about 4cm dilated, labor should really speed up and we will see about a 1cm dilation per hour. She expects Trang to start pushing before the sun goes down and we should have Baby-Liu by the end of the day.

We will keep you posted!!

Baby-Liu on the way....Trang in the hospital

2008-10-10T21:01:00.000-07:00

Trang was having contractions all night long. We gave the doctor a call this morning and were told to go to the hospital. After being assessed in Triage, Trang has been admitted for birthing. It looks like we will have to induce labor due factors such as the low amniotic fluid, mature placenta, and possibility that Trang's amniotic sac has started leaking.

The birthing room at Huntington Memorial is rather nice. I also like the fact that there is wireless guest access, so that Trang and I can share our experience.

We will keep you posted on Momma's and Baby-Liu's progress.

Baby-Liu Due Soon

2008-10-10T01:20:00.000-07:00

Trang and I went to our obstetrician today. The doctor is concerned about the oligohydramnios (low amniotic fluid) condition. She said the measurements are borderline and that it would be risky to go past 38 weeks. We are currently at 37 weeks, so Trang will be undergoing labor induction as early as Sunday evening. Since the baby is already full-term, there should be no problems with inducing a little early.

Based on fetal ultrasound measurements, the baby is currently estimated at 6lbs 5 ounces in weight. The head is measuring large as usual, with the biparietal diameter at 97 percentile and the head circumference at 89 percentile. If the baby got any larger, Trang might not be able to delivery naturally.

Trang and I are somewhat relieved about the induction. She has really gotten large these last couple of weeks and it is getting very uncomfortable for her. I can't imagine Trang holding on until 40 weeks.

We will keep you posted.

Portrait Sitting

2008-10-08T19:23:00.001-07:00

Trang and I went for a portrait sitting today. Here is mommy and daddy. Baby-Liu will be 37 weeks old this Saturday!! We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and will keep you posted.

Baby-Liu at 34 1/2 weeks

2008-09-26T01:50:00.001-07:00

Here are scans of today's sonograms hot off the presses!! Trang had some more external monitoring to check on the health of Baby-Liu. Dr. Grier said the baby looks good, with good heartrate and heart rate accelerations. Trang also had her amniotic fluid measured again, and it was in the 10cm range this time, which is better than before. However, Dr. Grier said that the fluid still looks a bit low from the sonograms even though he measurements came out better this time.

Trang is also starting to have painful contractions throughout the day, which get stronger at night. Both Trang and I are hoping that Baby-Liu will stay in the womb until he is full-term at 37 weeks.

In the following series of sonogram scans, Baby-Liu's face is on the right side. The last scan is the clearest sonogram and you can just make out his left eye, nose and lips. Trang and my sister both swear that the baby looks like me. I'll withhold judgment until delivery.

Baby-Liu's Party

2008-09-26T01:41:00.000-07:00

Thanks for coming out to Baby-Liu's party. Trang, Baby-Liu, and I had a great time with family and friends. The park was busy that day, but luckily we were able to find a shady area with some picnic tables. Trang and I weren't able to get pictures with everyone, but here is a sample.

Baby-Liu at 33 1/2 weeks

2008-09-26T01:22:00.001-07:00

Here are some delayed scans of sonograms from last week. Trang and I got busy with preparations for the baby shower, so we didn't get around to posting these yet. Both scans are of Baby-Liu's head. You can clearly make out the arch of the nose.

Baby-Liu is now at an estimated 5lbs 2oz weight. His head circumference is in the 91 percentile whereas his abdominal circumference is in the 47 percentile. I think it is becoming obvious that Baby-Liu will have a BIG HEAD, just like daddy.

Baby-Liu at 32 1/2 weeks

2008-09-11T23:25:00.000-07:00

We had our office visit today. We need to start going weekly now. Our doctor put Trang on external monitoring since her amniotic fluid was on the low range and the doctor wanted to see if Baby-Liu was stressed/distressed. Thankfully the heartbeat was normal. However, in the process of monitoring, the doctor noticed that Trang was having contractions at regular intervals, which could be an indicator of pre-term labor. Trang was given a fetal fibronectin test to determine if she will be going into labor within the next 10 days or so. We should know the results tomorrow.

This didn't really surprise us too much. We always felt that there was a good chance that Baby-Liu would come pre-term, as the female family members on Trang's side have a tendency to deliver preterm around 7 1/2 to 8 months. Both Trang and her giant 6'2" tall baby-brother were in the 4 1/2 pound range when delivered in the 7th month of pregnancy.

Also, the doctor confirmed Trang's worst fear!! Baby-Liu has a head size that is larger than average for his fetal age (head size corresponding to 34 weeks). However, the abdominal size is normal. Again, Trang wasn't too surprised as she thought Baby-Liu was going to have a big head like his daddy.

You can just make out half of Baby-Liu's face on the right side

Sonograms at 30 weeks

2008-09-11T23:20:00.000-07:00

Got lazy and didn't put these up last month. Enjoy!!

You can see Baby-Liu's face here

Another Shot of Baby-Liu's Face

You can see the side of Baby-Liu's head. Look at the little ear!

Baby Liu's Shower

2008-08-29T23:34:00.001-07:00

The evite for Baby Liu's shower is up at the following link.

http://www.evite.com/app/publicUrl/UMYJGPTELNGKMNARQWLX/babyliu

Please come on out. All family and friends are welcome!!

Pre-Natal Water Aerobics Part II

2008-08-24T00:54:00.001-07:00

Pre-Natal Water Aerobics

2008-08-01T20:34:00.001-07:00

Trang took her first pre-natal water aerobics class today! Even though she is unable to swim and deathly afraid of the water, Trang donned her bathing suit and braved the H2O.

Baby Liu at 22 1/2 weeks

2008-07-01T13:03:00.001-07:00

Here are some more fetal ultrasounds. The first picture shows baby-liu's face and the second picture shows his nose and lips (you have to use your imagination).

Trang says the baby looks like me. I reserve judgement...because I think she's saying that I have a baby face.

Belly Update

2008-06-24T22:41:00.000-07:00

I think Trang looks beautiful with her big belly. What do you think?

Wedding Photos

2008-06-18T05:08:00.000-07:00

We have a new location for our wedding photos that does not require a log-in to view. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/trangandsteve

Wedding Slide Show

2008-06-18T03:05:00.000-07:00

Here is a copy of our wedding slide show. Enjoy!

Credit goes to my groomsman and long-time friend, Nathan La, for the excellent work.

Baby Liu is Kickin' and Wedding Album

2008-06-18T02:38:00.000-07:00

We are in our 20th week of pregnancy and Trang recently started feeling Baby-Liu moving around and kicking. First she felt the "bubbles" and shortly thereafter, she felt the kicks.

Also, Trang and I finally got around to contacting our photographer and picking out the photos for our wedding album. Here are the spreads that we decided on.

10 fingers and 10 toes!

2008-06-02T19:22:00.001-07:00

Trang and I went for a visit to our obstetrician today. Today, they performed anatomical scans and everything seems normal so far. The fetus has two hands with five fingers each and two feet with five toes each.

Also, the fetus was moving around a lot, which was a relief to Trang because she hasn't been able to feel the fetus move around yet. However, it has been 18.5 weeks and the doctor said that Trang should be beginning to feel the fetus move around now.

Here are some scans from the sonograms today.

This is a profile shot of the fetus. You can see the head on the left side with the nose and lips at the top. You can also make out the fetus' heart and spinal chord. Momma's placenta is above the dark space above the fetus.

It's hard to make out the features in this scan. The head is on the right side. you can just make out the eye sockets and the ridge of the nose.

Here is another profile of the fetus.

Here is another scan confirming the sex of the fetus. The arrow is pointing to it's ding ding.

Feed the belly!

2008-05-20T17:56:00.001-07:00

It's a boy!!

2008-05-07T18:57:00.001-07:00

Trang and I found out today that we are having a baby boy! Here are two sonograms of the underside of the fetus. You can see the frank and beans (looks kinda triangular).

Here are 2 profile of the fetus. HC means head circumference. AC means abdominal circumference. FL means femur length.

The following is a 3D ultrasound of the fetus. You can just make out his face, arms, legs, etc. Trang and I are planning to have the full 3D ultrasound done at a later date with video, pictures, etc.

Look at that belly!

2008-04-15T00:09:00.001-07:00

Fetus at 10 weeks!

2008-04-09T11:41:00.000-07:00

We visited our Obstetrician for the 2nd time today and had an ultrasound done.

Our fetus is at 10 weeks, and it has a fetal heart rate of 171bpm and a crown rump length of 3.56cm! You can see it's big head, spine, arms and legs at this point. Actually, it was moving around quite a bit and we I got excited when it was bouncing around and arching it's back.

Surprise! Baby on the way!!

2008-03-12T18:43:00.001-07:00

Trang and I discovered she was pregnant upon returning from our honeymoon. Looks like we have ourselves a honeymoon baby :-)

I was surprised that we did an ultrasound on our first visit today to the obstetrician. The baby is about six weeks along now and the expected due date is November 1, 2008. We also got to hear the fetus' heartbeat and see it's tiny heart beating. Kinda trippy for me..

Europe #2

2008-03-10T11:54:00.001-07:00

Okay, I got lazy. Trang and I got back last Sunday the 2nd, but I didn't feel like updating this blog. So I'll make this short and simple, and try to finish this out quickly.

Day 6: This was our one and only full day in Venice. Trang and I thought the best way to make use of this day was to get mad at each other..resulting in us getting separated...Trang getting lost...crying...flagging down two girls, and asking them to take her back to the water taxi landing where she was able to get back to hotel and call me. We made up and made the best of our remaining time by visiting St. Mark's Cathedral and the Dogi Palace. We also did some souvenier shopping and picked up a mask and a couple of murano glass items.

Day 7: We traveled by EuroStar train from Venice to Florence today. We spent the rest of the day walking around the city and eating gelato!! We stayed at the Hotel Plaza Luchesshi. It was a okay hotel, but after our stay at the Molino Stucky, it kinda seemed a little shabby and dated.

Days 8-9: We had two full days in Florence. By now, both Trang and I were both really tired. We had planned to see a whole bunch of museums and sites, but ended up only visiting the Uffizi gallery. Though it's supposed to be "the" museum of Italian art, I really preferred the Lourve much more. Besides, at the Lourve, they don't yell at you (and give you the stinkeye) for photographing the artwork. Apparently, the Italians are really sensitive about people photographing the artwork. I think it's because they want to sell more postcards, etc. We spent the rest of our time wandering the streets eating gelato and partaking in the Italian tradition of "siesta". Trang also picked up a nice bag at Prada. Oh yeah, on our final day...Trang and I took a 1/2 day sidetrip to Pisa, where we visited the leaning tower. Trang was too chickenshit to climb the tower, so we just walked around it and acted like tourists.

Day 10: Again, we traveled by EuroStar train from Florence to Rome. This time, we tried 1st class, which is just 50% more than 2nd class. It was a bit more roomy and we got beverage service. When we got into Rome, we took the metro from the train station to the Spagna metro stop, just around the corner from the foot of the Spanish Steps. Our hotel, the Intercontinental De La Ville Roma is just atop the Spanish Steps..which meant I had to lug our luggage up all the steps! Later, we discovered that there's an elevator at the metro that takes you to the top of the steps.

Days 11-14: We spent a lot more time in our room the final few days when compared to our hectic schedule in Paris the first few days. Part of the reason was because Trang re-injured her knee and had difficulty taking stairs and just walking around. However, we still hit all the major attractions in Rome. We visited the Vatican City and saw wandered the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, and the Vatican Tombs. I appreciated that the Vatican allows you to photograph the artwork in their museum. Trang and I also visited the Trevi fountain multiple times, the Pantheon, the Colloseum, Circus Maximus, and the Palatine Hill. We also visited the Borghese Gallery, which was breathtaking!! We spent a lot more time siesta-ing in our room.

Day 15: This was our final day in Europe. We took the Leonardo Express train to the Fiumicino Airport. At the airport, where Trang partook in additonal duty-free shopping. She ended up scoring two wallets at the Prada store at the airport. Shopping at the airport was nice because you don't have to hassle with the tax-refund thing and also the Prada store at the airport had some newer items when compared to the main Florence and Rome stores.

Update from Europe #1

2008-02-25T08:32:00.000-08:00

Trang and I are in Florence right now. Since it is siesta time, we are in our hotel room resting up before dinner. Here are a few highlights from our trip so far.

Day 0 - American Airlines flight from Chicago to Paris delayed 3 hours due to hydraulic failure, had to return to the gate after taxi-ing to the runway. It's nice that they took care of that before we took off, even though the hydraulics are triple redundant.

Day 1 - Arrived in Paris around noon. Breezed through customs and then took the subway/metro to our hotel with another passenger that we befriended who was also staying at the same hotel, Marriott Rive Gauche. The room was smallish, compared to the US, but was clean, comfortable and newly remodeled. The metro stop was right across the street from the hotel, so we ended up using the metro on a regular basis. We took the subway to the Eiffel tower and went up to the 2nd level where we spent some time before descending. We then took a stroll down the Champs-Elysees before ending up at the Arc de Triomphe. We then had a very leisurely 3 course dinner. It seems that the meals here in Paris and Italy are very leisurely and drawn out, almost too much so.

Day 2 - We started off by visiting the Cathedral of Notre Dame, before walking over to the Lourve. As suggested by the great Rick Steve's Paris guidebook, Trang and I picked up the 4 day Paris museum pass for around 50 euros, which you can buy at the tobacco shop. Sure it's costly, but it covers most of the major museums and it has a line pass feature, which saved us many many hours. After spending a few hours in the Lourve, we walked the Tulieries Garden and then visited the Orangerie museum, the great showcase of Impressionist artists. We then headed back over to the Champ-Elysees and ascended the Arc de Triomphe. Since the Pompidou museum of modern art was still open til 9pm, we headed over there and spent a hour or so laughing at the art.

Day 3 - We headed off to the Palace of Versailles via the metro. Entrance was also covered by the pass, and we cut the HUGE entrance line. We ended up only spending a 1/2 day here as we were too tired to walk the garden. We ended up going back to the Louis Vuitton store on the Champ Elysees where Trangy bought 2 nice bags.

Day 4 - We started off at the Rodin Museum before heading over to Napoleon's tomb. We took a break and had a Croquette Madame, yummy! We then went to visit the Orsay museum before heading back to Lourve for a couple more hours, as it was open til 9pm on this day.

Day 5 - We traveled to Venice via Easyjet from Charles De Gaul airport to Marco Polo airport. Upon arriving, we transferred to our hotel via the alilaguna water bus service. We stayed at the Hilton Molino Stucky, very very nice hotel! After checking in, we took the hotel's shuttle boat over to St. Mark's square and strolled around the canals.

to be continued.....

Wedding Photos

2008-02-12T16:27:00.000-08:00

Wedding photos are available for viewing now. See the information below. Enjoy!

Steve and Trang's Wedding
by Trinity Photography

Trinity Photography invites you to view the images for this event.

Link to the event
www.pictage.com/431757

Some pictures from the reception

2008-01-31T17:40:00.000-08:00

My friend Hatim was kind enough to share some pictures with me from the wedding. These are the first pictures I've gotten. Here are a few choice selections. Enjoy!

Bachelorette Party!

2008-01-29T16:54:00.001-08:00

The night before the wedding, the girls headed out for belly dancing lessons, some grub in hollywood and then fun at Hollywood Men for some down and nasty bumping and grinding. Enjoy the pics!

Bachelor Camping Trip

2008-01-29T16:46:00.000-08:00

So me and some of the guys went camping during the weekend of January 12, 2008. We camped at the Black Rock campsite in Joshua Tree National Park. The guys and I and fun grilling and eating prodigious amounts of meat, camping, and cuddling each other around the warmth of the campfire. Here are some pictures...enjoy!

Trang's Bridal Shower

2007-12-20T23:40:00.000-08:00

I just had my bridal shower over the past weekend at Chado Tea House in Old Town Pasadena. It was lots of fun. My girlfriends came out and celebrated with me. Lisa (my future sister in-law) and Mama-Liu (my future mother-in-law) threw a great bridal shower. The best part was that I got presents...:-)! Just kidding. It was great spending time with everyone. I got a chance to catch up with some friends that I've not seen for awhile. I also got to meet some great people from Steve's side of the family.

We had fun playing bridal shower games such as Guess what the gifts are Bingo, Q&A about bride and groom, and my favorite was teams making a veil that I would like to wear on my wedding day. It was fun just watching everyone being creative and having a good time.

Here are some photos. Enjoy!

Studio Portraits II

2007-12-20T17:28:00.001-08:00

I just got back from Lucy's Bridal with the final proofs of our wedding albums. The photos came out better than I expected. I spent a good deal of time with Henry over at Lucy's discussing the albums, enlargements, etc. I also got a tour of their back room and got to check out their digital darkroom and the equipment that they use to print out the enlargements. Henry really seems to know his stuff and I'm glad I went with Lucy's.

Trang and I ended up getting two large 12x18 albums since we didn't do a very good job of culling the photos. Actually, it was Trang that was reluctant to cull the photos. We started off with 141 photos and ended up using 80 photos in 30 spreads in 2 albums. I think we could have gotten by with 40-50 photos in 15 spreads in 1 album. But at the end of the day, I wanted to make my bride happy. Lucy's was nice enough to give us the layout files on a dvd-r. I've resized them and posted them here for web friendliness.

Album A

Album B

Studio Portraits

2007-12-06T19:52:00.000-08:00

Trang and I just got back from a long day of studio portraits. We are exhausted, but it was lots of fun!

Yes, we are aware that most couples need to get their studio portraits done at least 3 months before the wedding, not 1 1/2 months like Trang and I. However, we didn't decide to get married until recently and we like to procrastinate.

Trang needed to get her teeth whitened. Luckily our dentist, Dr. John Law, did a fabulous job and was very accommodating when we told him that we needed to get our portraits done ASAP.

The studio we picked, Lucy's Bridal, seems to have their act together and will be able to get us our enlargements in time for display at the wedding. We looked at most of the wedding studios on Las Tunas Boulevard in Temple City. Most of them are priced similarly and offer the same packages. However, the other studios initially show you "model books" that aren't even of real clients. Lucy's seems to do a lot of portraits for many real couples and their experience, selection of dresses, and photography setups was what sold us. I have a lot more to say about the wedding studios on Las Tunas, so if you need the lowdown, just send me an email.

Anyways, here are a few snapshots I took with my camera phone.

The emperor robe felt like a second skin...this is what I was born to wear!

Things To Do

2007-11-28T02:25:00.000-08:00

For the event day, there are a variety of places close-by to visit before the ceremony and during the brief period of time between the end of the ceremony and the start of the reception.

The Santa Anita Church is conveniently located close to the Westfield Santa Anita Mall, the world famous Santa Anita Racetrack, and the Los Angeles Arboretum.

Click on map for larger view

A. Santa Anita Church B. Westfield Mall C. Santa Anita Racetrack D. LA Arboretum

For those visiting from out of town and making your visit a mini-vacation, there are boundless activities in the Los Angeles area. Some examples are:

Theme parks: Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Universal Studios, Six Flags Magic Mountain
Beaches: Huntington Beach (aka Surf City USA), Venice Beach (canals and Muscle Beach), Santa Monica (Pier and Promenade)
Sightseeing: Hollywood, Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, Melrose Avenue, Rancho La Brea
Museums: Getty Center, Museum of Tolerance, California Science Center, Huntington Library, LACMA, MOCA, Norton Simon Museum, Petersen Automotive Museum
Ethnic Neighborhoods: Boyle Heights (aka East LA), Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Tokyo, Thai Town, Little Saigon, Little Ethiopia, Fontucky :-)

Ceremony and Reception Information

2007-11-28T02:16:00.000-08:00

Ceremony

Cermony starts at 3:00PM. Please arrive early to sign-in.

The Santa Anita Church
226 West Colorado Boulevard
Arcadia, CA

Custom directions using Google maps or Yahoo! maps

Reception

Reception starts at 5:30PM. Hors d'oeuvres and refreshments will be served.

Mission 261
261 South Mission Street
San Gabriel, CA

Custom directions using Google maps or Yahoo! maps

Gift Registry

2007-11-28T02:11:00.000-08:00

Any gifts would be appreciated, though Trang and I would be happy just having our close friends and family attend our little celebration.

We have created a housewares gift registry at Bloomingdale's in case you need any ideas. The registry can be accessed in-store or online.

Appropriate Attire Guidelines

2007-11-28T01:54:00.000-08:00

Trang and I have decided to forgo formal wedding attire and go with a semi-formal look for both the ceremony and reception. We feel that semi-formal would be a good balance between elegance and comfort for our guests.

For men, this would typically mean a nice dark suit, dress shirt and tie. Men's Wearhouse has good examples of semi-formal looks on their website.

For women, this would typically mean a short dress, cocktail dress or suit.

Both the ceremony and wedding will be indoors. However, due to the time of the year it would probably be a good idea to bring along a coat or wrap.

Invitations are going out!

2007-11-27T23:59:00.000-08:00

The invitations have been finalized and they are being sent out over the next few days. I just picked up the 2-ounce "Wedding Hearts" stamps at the post office for the outside envelope. It's a design specifically made for mailing out wedding invitations.

The invitations will enclosed in an outer envelope of clear cellophane. the inner envelope will be a pocketfold enclosure with the main ceremony text on the primary pane. Included in the pocket will be a combination Reception and Additional Information card and an RSVP postcard.

For the RSVP postcard, we decided to do photo stamps. We thought it would add a nice personal touch and looks much better than the USPS's panther postcard stamp.

Trang and I at the Huntington Gardens standing infront of a stand of bamboo.

I know some people like to keep the complete invitation sets for their scrapbooks, etc. Please feel free to keep the RSVP postcard if you wish and instead RSVP via phone, email, fax, singing telegram, etc.

Floral

2007-11-20T05:57:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, Trang and I visited Flower Mart to reserve our date and put down a deposit for our floral. Flower Mart is a popular choice in this area as a wedding florist and they've had experience with our ceremony and reception venues. We actually ordered all our flowers for the date, but we'll definitely need to visit again to make some minor changes and to revise our flower colors. We spent a little more than our original budget, but we also added more floral arrangements than we had originally planned for.

Wedding Invitations

2007-11-08T21:46:00.000-08:00

Draft of our ceremony announcement

We just received our wedding invitations this week, so we will probably be printing them out and sending them off over the next two weeks.

We decided to print our own invitations after looking at all our options. Printing them ourselves would also save on time and budget, which is good because our wedding is less than 3 months away and we have already doubled our wedding budget. Having the invitations printed for us by an invitation shop would have doubled the price of the invitations, and we already spent about $4 per invitation just for the materials. I have access to both a color inkjet and color laser printer. So far, the color and saturation of the print on inkjet looks better. I'm leaning toward using the inkjet for the red text and using the laser for the black text. However, the heat from the laser printer fusing process curls the heavy cardstock.

We decided to go with the Envelopments line of invitations and ordered through TextStyleDesigns.com. There was a small snafu with the order (one of the custom sized cards were cut too short) but the order has been corrected and they have sent out a replacement set of cards.

The quality of the cardstock and the range of options for sizes, colors, and designs are great. Trang and I chose to design ours using a 5x7 pocketfold in the color jupiter (metallic red) and using layers of cardstock in champagnium (metallic champagne), jupiter, and ecru linen (textured ecru).

Videographer Poll

2007-11-01T17:49:00.001-07:00

Trang and I are on the fence regarding a videographer. I feel the photography is many times more important. Our photographer, James suggested buying a camcorder and having a family member or friend shoot the raw footage. I think we should be able to get enough footage for me to slice together a highlight reel. I can get a nice HD camcorder (or two) for the price of a videographer. What do you think? Cast your vote in our poll.

Wedding Photog

2007-11-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

Trang and I have decided to go with Trinity Photography as our wedding photographers. The owner and primary photographer, James Francel, will be our photographer. He also has a blog here.

We decided to go with James because we liked his style of photography and he seems to be technically adept. James mentioned that he's been doing wedding photography for seven years and that he personally does about 50-60 weddings per year.

My research on him and his company only brought up positive comments. I actually found him on pictage.com, where he had 100% positive feedback over a large number of verified weddings.

His prices are also reasonable, which is great because Trang and I are also going for studio photography to get posed shots in traditional Chinese and Vietnamese wedding costumes, emperor and empress costume, etc.

I am a little pickier than Trang in regards to our wedding photography and the photog that we pick. Photography is a hobby of mine and I get annoyed if I see technical errors such as incorrect exposure, unintentional softness, or sloppy composition.

Ceremony and Reception Venues

2007-11-01T16:52:00.000-07:00

Trang and I have already confirmed our wedding date and picked our ceremony and reception venues. We wanted to keep everything close-by and local so we picked locations that were not too far spread apart.

Initially I wanted to avoid a church wedding, since I'm not religious, but in the end it seemed most practical for the time of year and area we wanted to stay in. Also, Trang felt her family would be happy with a church wedding.

Our ceremony will take place on January 27, 2008 at The Santa Anita Church in Arcadia. The church seems to be a popular place for weddings as it has some beautiful architectural details as can be seen in the following pictures.

Our reception will be held at Mission 261 in San Gabriel. We wanted a chinese wedding banquet for our reception and we felt Mission 261 was a good balance between food quality and elegance.

The Proposal

2007-10-31T23:03:00.000-07:00

On August 26, 2007 Steve proposed to Trang at The Huntington on a bench near the fountain on the North Vista Lawn.

The engagement ring has a 1.27 carat round brilliant super-ideal 'A-Cut-Above' diamond mounted in a platinum fishtail pave setting with an approximate 0.53 ctw diamond melee.

I decided on a branded super-ideal as I feel a diamond is all about light performance and should have the maximum amount of sparkle and fire. Trang has received many compliments, some from strangers, regarding the ring's sparkle and fire which is especially noticeable in dimly-lit environments.

Trang says...

We've been dating for about a year and I wasn't expecting anything...well...we talked about it before but I wasn't expecting him to propose to me yet.

So we decided to have a nice dinner to celebrate our anniversary. On the day that we had our anniversay dinner at Roy's, he had told me a story about his friend who dated his wife for 11 years and how his wife was sad when they had nice dinners when he didn't propose. Therefore, I didn't expect anything. We were supposed to go to a bar after but I didn't feel like going to a loud place, so we went home.

On the way home, he mentioned something about the Huntington Library the next day since I haven't been there and we live so close. He had also hinted that he wanted to find a secluded place to have "sexy time." I was a little hesitant.

The next day we walked around the gardens for a couple of hours and we decided to take a break where there is beautiful Italian fountain with lovely lily pads. According to the guide, this was featured in the movie, "The Wedding Planner." We sat around for a really long time and I was getting impatient because I wanted to see the rest and go home.

Again, he had hinted to me that we should find some place to have "sexy time." So we waited until there were a couple of kids and adults and he asked me "Do you know what I want?"

I literally rolled my eyes and said."Sexy time?"

He replied with, "No, baby. I want you to be my wife."

I was thinking he is pulling my leg and wanted to play a joke on me.

But then he pulled out the ring and asked me "Will you be my wife?"

I paused for a second and said yes. He put the ring on my finger and then we kissed.

Needless to say, I tried to avoid looking at my ring too much throughout the rest of our walk. But inside I was extremely excited and happy!

Steve says...

It was about a year since we first started dating and I felt the time was right. However to avoid making it obvious and to throw Trang off, I planned to take Trang out for an anniversary date the night before proposing.

I took Trang to Roy's for our anniversary dinner. Afterwards, I had planned on taking her to the BonaVista lounge at the Bonaventure, but Trang was tired and wanted to return home.

On the drive home as we passed signs for The Huntington (we live within walking distance of the gardens), I mentioned that we should go for a walk in the gardens the next day since the weather was nice and Trang had never visited. I suggested that maybe we could find a secluded place and get some "sexytime".

The next day while we were walking through the gardens, I mentioned the "sexytime" idea a few times. After making the rounds through the various gardens, I led Trang to the North Vista

Initially, the area was crowded as it was a sunday. The crowds subsided after a while and Trang and I made our way to a limestone bench next to the fountain that had opened up. Eventually, there were only two women and a couple of small children playing on the lawn.

Without Trang noticing, I retrieved the ring from my pocket, concealing in my downturned right hand. I then took both her hands into mine and looked into her eye while mischieviously asking her "Do you know what I want?"

Taking the bait that I had been setting up all day, Trang rolled her eyes and said "sexytime?"

I replied, "No baby, I want you to be my wife" as i upturned my hand and showed her the ring.

Trang gasped and said yes immediately. I slipped the ring onto her finger and we kissed.

FAQ: Did you get on your knee during the proposal?

No I did not. Besides being passé, I felt that getting on my knee would have ruined the rhythm that I was going for. lawn. The site has been used in various movies, most often as a wedding location. The lawn is 75x600 feet and is lined by limestone statues along it's length and there is an italian fountain at one end.

It was love at first sight....

2007-10-31T22:55:00.000-07:00

...or maybe not. Depends on who you ask.

Trang says...

I was a summer intern at Deloitte and I met Steve at the intern opening dinner. At first I thought he was kind of full of himself. He was making fun of me because I couldn't remember how to say "rabbit eat carrots" in Mandarin.

Needless to say, I ended the conversation and walked away thinking, "I will never interact with this man again."

In the end, I was wrong. He won me over with his charming smile and hairless squirrel (that's another story).

Steve says...

We met while working together at Deloitte. I was working there full-time as a consultant and Trang was there as a summer intern. I had signed up to be an intern buddy so I was invited to the opening intern event. That is where I met Trang.

There were actually 2 girls who were interns that summer working in our group. The other girl (I forget her name) already had a bf and Trang said she didn't. Later I found out that wasn't entirely true, but that's a separate story in itself.

New Site/Blog

2007-10-31T21:59:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

We are moving over our wedding site to this blog format. This should enable us to more easily and more frequently make changes and updates.

We will be moving over our content over the next few days.