Black Hound New York

Black Hound New York is a European-inspired pastry shop featuring a delectable array of cakes, cookies, savory treats and confection. Everything is made from scratch using Belgian chocolate, pure butter and all natural ingredients. Their retail store is located on 170 Second Avenue in NYC. I recently had the pleasure of sampling a few of the cakes at a wedding. What an indulgent treat for the guests! I barely had room for these desserts especially after a traditional ten course Chinese banquet! But fear not, I always have room for sweets.

This is a picture of their dessert table set-up! And also a close-up of the cake stand. Our favorites were the strawberry and creme, and the pear almond cake! But I also love anything with ganache on it. Bring on the chocolate!

Weddings at the Empire State Building

With Valentine's Day less than a week away, romance is certainly in the air. What bigger celebration of love is there besides getting married? Well, in NYC, the most romantic location for a wedding is certainly the Empire State Building. And do you know that only 440 couples have actually officially gotten married at the historic building? Since 1994, the landmark has only chosen a handful of couples to get married on-site. This Saturday, only 14 out of 400 couples who entered the Empire State Building wedding contest by writing their love stories, will have the unique opportunity for exchanging their vows on top of the Empire State Building.

One year ago, Jessica Chan and Nicholas Liu won the opportunity to get married on the Empire State Building. To read more about their story and other previously married couple, click here. This couple was also featured in the local news for winning this contest, currently organized by Brides.com. Winners are chosen from their heart-felt stories.

(Say awwwww...)

DIY Wedding Program Fans

This is my next DIY project: a fan that can be used as a ceremony program at weddings or other special occasions. I think this is a cute alternative to the traditional wedding booklet. While I wished I had done this for my wedding, this is more appropriate for spring or summer weddings or if the theme is a beach or English garden party. The program itself is quite easy to make - consisting of 6 'blades' printed on cardstock paper and then cutting out and assembling with an eyelet or ribbon.

Materials (per fan)

2 sheets of 110 lb cardstock 8.5x11 in size
eyelet or brad or ribbon/tassle depending on how you want to assemble the fan

Other Materials

scissors or ruler and knife-cutter
computer
printer
Optional: hole-puncher

Template

Open the template document in MS Word and personalize the information with the details of your wedding ceremony. (Post a comment with your email address if you're interested in the template)

Optional: Select a clip art or image and copy onto the template. Make sure to select the image behind the text so that the wording can still show through. This is a wonderful way to enliven your ceremony with lovely details!

Directions

Feed the cardstock through the printer and print. Cut out the pieces using the knife-cutter and ruler on the straight edges. And I would recommend using the scissor for the curved part of the 'blade.' Use a hole-puncher to make a hole on the bottom of the blade and assemble using a brad or ribbon. If you are using an eyelet, you can skip using the hole-puncher.

That's it! Repeat the directions for each fan and then sit back and enjoy your beautiful programs!

Making the Double Happiness decoration

Today I went to a bridal shower and we were making arts and crafts! Since the bride needed Double Happiness decorations for her house, her bridesmaids decided that we would make them for her! We were given white paper, red tissue paper, red/gold glitter and gluestick to work with. Armed with a template of the Double Happiness symbol, I drew the outline and decided to fill it with pieces of red tissue paper. It was very simple to do (although it was quite tiring to rip and roll up small pieces of tissue paper).

Here is what it looked like half way through my gluing process. The final result looks wonderful. I can't wait to see it on her wedding day!

Click here to read about the history of the Double Happiness symbol in Chinese weddings.

Customer Survey on Wedding Gowns

Experienced with shopping for wedding gowns? Want to share your opinions on your wedding gown shopping experience? Click on the image below to answer a short survey on customer behaviors in bridal shops!!

UPDATE: Thank you for your interest but my survey is now closed for additional responses. If you have any comments, please feel free to do so.

Fairy Tale Wedding Gowns

The trend in wedding gowns is inspired by fairy tale princesses including Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. Little girls everywhere have grown up with the fairy tales as their bedtime stories - and dream of the day when their handsome prince in a white horse will swoop down to marry them and they will live happily ever after. We can all dream. But before we become too jaded and discount the value of fairy tales, nonetheless, they are inspiring wedding designers to create gowns that are reflective of the classic fairy tales.

Here are some gowns from the Fall 2008 Disney Bridal Collection:

Cinderella's dress is a strapless ball gown that has a beaded bodice made of duchess satin material and silk tulle. Stunning touches of scattered crystal and silver treading sparkle and shine like the midnight sky - exactly as we remember Cinderella in her ballgown as she met her handsome prince!

Sleeping Beauty's dream came true with a single kiss. The regal fabrics of stain, chantilly and netting with cap sleeve and modified a-line with back fullness represent a sleeping princess. The gown is luminious and radiant - exactly what I would be wearing if I had to be sleeping in a gown!

Snow White was the fairest of them all. And this gown captures the gentle grace and beauty of Snow White in exquisite silk, chiffon and satin. The rouched bodice and cap sleeve empire waist with ribbon detail is befitting of a princess who finds her prince and claims her kingdom.

One of my favorite Disney princesses is Ariel! She was willing to defy her father and cross the ocean to find true love! This flowing dress with draped neck and draped overlay in chiffon material is perfect for a beach wedding.

To see more, including the Spring 2009 collection, click here. Don't forget about bridesmaids and flower girls! Designer Kirstie Kelly also has a full-line of dresses for your bridal party!

A Wedding And A Funeral

Something funny (and yet not-funny) happened to me recently. This is the story of how I went to a wedding and a funeral. And yet, this is also the story of how I did not go to a wedding and a funeral. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I did both at the same time.

A funeral implies death so before I continue, I'd like to say that death is not a joking matter. However, since I don't know the bride or groom or any of the 200+ guests AND since the person I went with only knew the bride for less than a week, I don't feel too bad about finding humor in the situation. I'll admit it probably says something about my moral character, but I know you all love and enjoy it ;=)

Basically, my other half, who I'll refer to as Jandergirl, was invited to a wedding. I'm not sure why she invited Jandergirl, since the bride has known her for less than a week. I'm not sure why Jandergirl wanted to go since she's known the bride for less than a week. I'm sure I'm not going to even try to pretend to the understand the female mind because the resulting logic would be something like:

"I'm getting married! Let me invite some random person off the street!"

The bride told Jandergirl that she could wear pretty much anything...except nothing sleeveless and any skirts/dresses would need to be ankle length. I asked one of my co-workers about this and he thought this was a little odd since it made them sound a little hardcore Muslim.


Neither one of us owns clothes like this. I figured I should dress nice and wore a gray pin-striped suit. Since Jandergirl didn't want to be the first woman in New York State to be publicly stoned, she wore pants.

After getting dressed in stone-safe clothing and locking the car doors since we were going to be passing through Jamaica/Queens on the way to the wedding, we eventually arrived at the mandir.

Okay, so that's mandir in the wikipedia looked like. Instead, it was just a normal looking building. Actually, I thought it was pretty small for an empty building with locked doors - how would they fit 200+ people inside and feed them? And did I say that the building was empty and that the doors were locked?

I thought it was kind of odd that there was no one there. Actually kind of scandalous, after all, I just watched Sex and the City: The Movie the other day so my mind was in overdrive thinking of possible reasons as to why no one was there. I asked Jandergirl if it was odd and she thought maybe it was because we were early.

After waiting fifteen minutes, I called my co-worker, Lobster, and he told me that traditional Hindi weddings were very punctual since the timing was determined by some kind of special calendar and/or fortune telling - so it was possible that they started at twelve o'clock sharp and locked the doors. I told him that while the doors were locked, the temple was 100% empty. Lobster agreed that it was all very odd. So far, I'm thinking that this is not a good omen - way to get the marriage off on the right foot by starting late!

Another couple showed up later since they thought they heard the wedding drums. Since there weren't any, they went back to their homes around the block. That's what I like to see - dedicated wedding guests!

After waiting for an hour, we were about to leave when someone from the wedding party showed up. As it turns out, the wedding was cancelled because there was a death in the family. Instead, they were having the visitation that afternoon. While they tried to call most people to let them know that the wedding was off, they missed us and this little old lady who came all the way up from Brooklyn.

This was the story of how I did and didn't go to a wedding and a funeral. Since we were hungry/bored, we went to Applebees for lunch.

THE END

Wedding Favors

Weddings are an obsession of mine. In fact, I like to think that I'm still planning for some sort of big event in the future, whether it be my friends' weddings or even my parent's wedding anniversary. So one of the best parts about wedding planning, imo, are the wedding favors! They are often misconstrued as inexpensive trinkets that collect dust after the wedding. However, I believe that the bride and groom should aim for utilitarian gifts that their guests can use and enjoy for months after the special day. The guests have already feasted on a delicious food and drinks...so shouldn't they have something to bring home to remember the special moment by? Secondly, the favors should not be expensive. Given the average budget of weddings in the U.S. last year was almost $28,000, there is absolutely no reason for the happy couple to spend any more money than they have to on wedding favors. A combination of DIY (do-it-yourself) and inexpensive favors is the perfect combination for the successful wedding favor.

Here are some of my favorites courtesy of Favor Warehouse http://www.favorwarehouse.com/

The tried and true standby, picture frame that serves as placeholders.











Glass flutes serve as tableware and useful gifts for the guests. The only negative? Potential Personalized breakage.












A modernized glass coaster that holds photos. Beware of purchasing these from an Internet dealer who will charge an arm and a leg for shipping this fragile and heavy item.










For the bride and groom who love to travel, heart-shaped luggage tags!












And finally, I could not resist to add the adorable frog in the prince - perfect for any fairy tale lovers.