moving along

I'm falling behind in blogging. :-) The last couple of weeks have been pretty hectic. What have I been up to? Engrossed in home buying and wedding planning. My weekends are literally spent talking to vendors or viewing homes.

Wedding:

• We confirmed our reception location - Jade Restaurant in Richmond. This was the easiest part of planning as Chicky's parents scoped out the restaurant for us and helped us book it.
  
• The ceremony site had been a struggle as we debated about an outdoor vs indoor ceremony. Last week we decided to do it at a Church. Chicky and I spent Saturday morning talking to a few churches and have selected the Richmond Chinese United Church. We're finalizing the booking this week.
  
• I'm really relieved to have these 2 major milestones achieved as I was afraid that Chicky was losing focus with the wedding planning in lieu of the house hunting. Now that the ceremony site is booked. We can order the invitations this weekend! Yah..one more thing to check off the list. The invitations was actually the second thing that Chicky and I picked out (after the restaurant and before the ceremony site). There's a bit of a time crunch on it as we're expecting some international guests who have a stop over in Vancouver in the middle of April. We'd like to give them their invitations in person...which means the invitations need to be printed in the next week or so. :-)
• I went to the Vancouver Wedding Show on Sunday afternoon with my mom. I didn't have much time to spend walking around as Chicky and I had to visit the grave site with his family for All Souls Day in the morning and I had to be back in a few hours for an house viewing appointment. :-) My mom and I made good time though and was able to look at all the vendors and watch a bit of the fashion show. I saw Lisa (Nick's wife) and her mom there as well. They were helping Lisa's brother's fiance pick out stuff. Though I didn't win the Grand Prize (a $56,000 wedding package), I did book the tuxedo appointment for Chicky and his groomsmen. :-) I got lured into a "one time only deal".
  

Real Estate:

• If I haven't told you by now, Chicky and I have decided to buy a home with his parents. We had discussed our living arrangement for after the wedding and this option was the best for all of us in the long run. The 4 of us have been on the hunt for a home for the last 2 weekends straight.
• On the long weekend we spent every day out with the real estate agent looking at potential homes. Not many met our criteria.
• This weekend we were out viewing show homes again - some more possibilities but nothing definite.
• I think we've short listed 2 homes and will make an offer this weekend.