Richard and I had
the first set of invitations completed by the end of June, shortly before
heading off to Edmonton to visit my mother's family for my uncle Thanh's 50th
Birthday and Canada Day.
All the invitations
were hand delievered to my mother's extended family, as per Chinese traditions.
My relatives have all accepted the invitations and all have RSVP'd YES!
My aunts and uncles
are all calling our wedding invitations, thick wedding invoices...hehehe
For those of you who are not aware, Chinese
weddings, guests usually present the bride & groom with red envelope, (also
known as a red packet, in Chinese: (Mandarin) 紅包, hóngbā and (Cantonese) lai see, in Korean: Sae Bae Don (세뱃돈/歲拜돈) and in Vietnamese: Lì Xì) containing a monetary gift
rather than a wedding gift. The RED of the envelope symbolizes good luck and is
supposed to ward off evil spirits. The EVEN monetary value of the gift is to
represent the couple (and the value cannot containing any 4s as the word 4 in
Chinese resembles death) . The gifting of these red envelope is an auspicious
gift to the couple that is also a blessing for a blissful marriage!
All my cousins are
excited about next year, where we're ALL going to be together in Vancouver!
Plans are underway
for the family to spend most of August in Vancouver...maybe starting as early
as late July to catch the Celebration of Lights and to help Richard and I with
final preparations for the wedding. So we are starting to look for full vacation
house rentals for the month of August...it'll cut down hotel rental costs for
soo many family members. We're probably going to have at least 2 vacation homes
rented for August...one for the cousins and one for the aunts and uncles. A
handful have also decided to stay at a hotel for the wedding...they love room
service!
The next set of
invitations are now underway...for Richard's family, then for the family
friends and then A-List guests...there's going to be around 3 rounds of
invitations...lots of invitations to make...
