Paper Anniversary: Chocolate dipped amaretti cookies

In the weekend, C and I celebrated our paper wedding anniversary so I really wanted to start this post with some inspiring quote or fun fact about how awesome paper is.  But alas, all the quotes out there seem to be about the fragility and tearablity of paper.  Even the myth that it is impossible to fold a piece of paper more than 8 times was not worth the paper it was written on as that has been thoroughly debunked.

So to paper over the fact that a first wedding anniversary is represented by flimsy old paper, let's concentrate on it also being the eighth anniversary of our first date! Yay eight years!  Hold up...eight years?!  When did we get so old?! Oh my, how time flies when you're having fun.

Paper puns aside, it was actually really lovely reminiscing about our special day a whole year ago.  One's mind boggles at how a whole year has manage to pass us by when it feels like it was only yesterday that we were walking down that aisle, surrounded by the smiling faces of all of our favourite people, making vows to love and cherish each other as long as we both shall live.

One of the many happy memories of the day was getting to nibble on the delicious treats after the ceremony made by our amazing friends and family.  In particular, the Chocolate Dipped Amaretti Cookies made my darling friend Lisa and her lovely momma Sharon were total crowd pleasers.

Climb every mountain, make your own wedding cake

{photo by jel photography}

Climb every mountain, ford every steam, follow every rainbow, till you find your dream ~ The Sound of Music

Well, blow me down and call me Ed but I seem to have been conquering all sorts of culinary Everests recently.  Like macarons, making my own 2 tier wedding cake was for me an act of baking mountaineering.

I think this is one of my proudest baking achievements.  Really takes the cake.

What on earth possessed me to want to make my own wedding cake you ask, when a) I was living in a different city to where I was getting married, b) I've just started at Med school and c) I'd never made a tiered cake nor worked with fondant before???  Well, with professional wedding cakes costing around the NZD$1000 mark, there was definitely a huge financial incentive.  And then there was the reverse psychology incentive: the more people warned me against doing it, the more determined it made me.  You say: "Not a good idea Nessie, too stressful", I hear "Go on, I dare you".

Me, stubborn? No...

{photo by my cousin David}

Wedding = love Part 3: My big fat Chinese banquet reception

{all photos by Jel Photography unless otherwise stated}

Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast. ~ William Shakespeare

It's finally here!  The last installment of my Wedding = love album!  

Having had a white wedding, our reception was a Big Fat Chinese Banquet.  And yes I mean really do mean big fat banquet with a whopping 12 courses!  

No sirree, we don't do nothin' by halves down here.

{Menu with all 12 courses of our banquet complete with the meaning behind each dish! Photo taken by David Chan}

Hong Kong Honeymoon: Our Top 10 Foodies Highlights Part 1

{That, my friends, is A Foodcourt With a View.}

So sorry for neglecting my post as of late, blog post that is.  It was the university hols and we were lucky enough to get to spend some of it in the shopaholic/foodie's dream city Hong Kong for our sort-of honeymoon.

Why sort-of? Well, it was our first trip away together (and first full week of seeing each other) after getting married which is very honeymooney.  But the main purpose of going back was to have dinner with and catch up with my relos in HK which is less honeymooney.  And my Mum came with us - not that honeymooney at all. 

So while it was technically our honeymoon, hopefully we'll get to go somewhere later on and lie on a beach for days with just the two of us (hint hint darling husband??).

So as a blogapology for the post-tardiness I present you our Top 10 Hong Kong Trip Foodie Highlights.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of what you should eat when in HK.  That would need to be a top 100 at least!  No, no, this is a much less ambitious venture: a round up of the tasty meals and morsels we loved most on our trip back this time.   I'd probably need to go back for months to get a more definitive must-eat list...which I would LOVE to do sometime, so if you're reading this Harper Collins - call me??

Wedding = love Part 2: The Chinese tea ceremony, hair combing ritual and other wedding traditions

 

There are seven necessities related to the starting of a family's life: firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea. ~ Chinese proverb 

Chinese weddings are steeped in tradition and symbolism, superstition and folk lore.  I'm not usually a sticker for tradition,  I really wanted to have Traditional Chinese Tea Ceremonies at our wedding.  There's just something wonderfully romantic about wedding traditions, don't you think?  Knowing that my mother, my grandmothers, their mothers and generations of Chinese women before them have followed the same rituals at their weddings for hundreds of years, made even little old kiwi me feel connected with my heritage.  A link to the past on the first day of our future together.  What an incredibly moving and humbling experience.  

Having said that, since ours was an East meets West kinda wedding, we didn't stick exactly to tradition and cherry picked the things we had time for.  I'd like to think of it as Chinese culture meets Kiwi ingenuity.

 {All photos taken by Jel Photography unless otherwise stated}

Wedding = love Part 1: Getting ready, the ceremony & arty shots

{by jel photography}

A photograph is memory in the raw.  ~Carrie Latet

 
Our photos are here, our photos are here!!!

The DVD arrived yesterday and I am so so excited bout sharing them with you all!

The very talented team of Eleanor and James at Jel Photography, were our wedding photographers and we had an absolute blast with them!  So easy going, so happy and smiley and boy can they take gorgeous photos!

So without further ado...here's our Wedding = love Album!

(All photos taken by Jel Photography unless otherwise stated)

Wedded bliss and a sneak peek

Life is not measured in the number of breaths we take, but in the moments that take our breath away ~ Hilary Cooper

Our wedding day was one of those days that just took my breath away.

I know it's so corny but it was the happiest day of my life.  Everything turned out perfectly and the things that didn't made hilarious stories.

The sheer overwhelming number of people who helped us make the day happen and the unbelievable generosity of people in their words, gifts and love was simply mind blowing.

You're surrounded all day by the people you care for the most in the world, people who know you inside out and want the best for you and getting to see them smile, enjoy the food and drink and have a good time gave us the BIGGEST buzz.

And to top it off, I got to say my vows to the person I love, in front of all our friends, family and God.

Amazing, overwhelming, indescribable.

Wedding nibbles: Spinach & feta mini quiches

6 days and counting...

Even as I type it out, I can't believe I am 6 days away from walking down the aisle.

It's been in the works for a year and a half now (and really 7 years in the making) but I still can't quite wrap my head around the fact that this time next week I am going to be a Mrs. 

It's been a frantic, exciting, emotional roller-coaster ride of organising, baking and delegating.  From the excitement of the getting to celebrate with our loved ones, the giddy happiness of getting married to my man, to the profound sadness that my Dad will not be there to walk me down the aisle, see me in my dress or share in the big day.  It's been intense, stressful, exhilarating and all-consuming.

This week has been a frantic race to get all those last minute nitty gritty details nutted out - a making-lists and ticking-things-off-the-list kinda week.  

Luckily one of the things I had already sorted out, was my contribution to the ceremony nibbles which I made while back up in Auckland.  These bite sized Spinach and Feta Mini Quiches may not be the prettiest appetizer around, but they do pack a flavour punch, and are oh so convenient!

Sneak peek: My wedding cake

Whether you think you can or think you can't - you're right ~ Henry Ford

I think I must have a bit of a stubborn streak. 

Whenever someone tells me, no no you couldn't possibly do that, it just seems to make me want to do it more.

So when everyone was telling me I couldn't possibly bake my own wedding cake, by golly it just strengthened my resolve to do just that.   

Sure I've only ever used fondant once before, sure I've never made a multi-tier cake before, and sure I'm living in a different town and am only flying back 2 days before the wedding...she'll be right, mate I said.

Now with only 11 days to go till The Big Day, the stress levels are getting up there and whether baking my own wedding cake was the wisest decision in the world is yet to be seen.  So, my lovelies, here is a little sneak peek of my wedding cake in all its bumpy 1.5 kg worth of chocolate glory.  Wish me luck!