a day in the life of a wedding photographer

Saturday my sister had a hair/make up consultation with Bello Wedding World. She wanted to take the opportunity to take some "pre-wedding" pictures with herself all done up. I had asked some friends to shoot the pictures for her. Unfortunately when Saturday rolled around, she was without a photographer. So I offered my amateur services. :-) Both of us were a bit nervous at the whole idea. I've never taken wedding pictures before. My specialty lies within food!

So I looked around for my gear and we got her dressed in Betty's wedding dress (as she still doesn't have hers yet). Micheal, she and I went down to Rocky Point in Port Moody to take some pictures. The weather was grey and looked like it was on the verge of rain. We crossed our fingers for some blue sky and it worked! The rain held back and we were able to take some pictures around the park. We drew a lot of attention as it was just the 3 of us and the 2 of them were all dressed up.

At the park KA wanted to go to the downtown public library to take some pictures. She likes the structure of that building. So off we went to try to get in the last few rays of sunshine. The library was packed with people. It was fun shooting down there with the crowds. Neither of us knew what we were doing so it was a lot of trial and error to get what she wanted out of me. :-)

I've posted some of the pics to my web album. Take a look if you like.

light and portable

KA got a new laptop today. Michael bought it for her - though I think she was hoping for a new puppy. I'm mighty envious as I've been dreaming about upgrading my own for a while now. The good thing is that we won't have to share mine anymore.

She is now the proud owner of a Dell XPS. It's the perfect size (12.1") and has a Windows Vista operating system. KA asked me to make her laptop "work" - which basically means set it up so that all she has to do is click on the icons and they will work. During this process I found that the Vista operating system is not all it's cut out to be. The menu system is strange to me and it took me a while to figure out how to connect the wireless network. Then I discovered that I had to change my own router settings in order to ge the laptop to work. Normally I don't broadcast my wireless network. So basically you would only know that one exists in my house if you had the network name and encryption key. Prevents people from seeing the network on their computers across the street or others who try to hack in. :-) A bit too much security? Sure - can't help it. I work in IT so I know the good old "tips and tricks" of hacking into other networks.

In summary I would like my next laptop to be a 12 - 13" screen. Having 100GB of hard drive space is good and so is more memory. Looking forward to using this laptop in lieu of my own!

wedding challenges

Only 3 more weeks till KA's wedding. Amazingly she's still smiling with some of the challenges and obstacles that she's been facing. Her wedding dress has been delayed so much that it's "suppose" to arrive a week before the wedding - she ordered it over a year ago...talk about stressful. Consolation? They're going to give her the dress for half price (if it arrives on time). Bello Wedding World proved to be incompetent in their booking details - due to a miscommunication months ago, KA discovered last week that she's going to be without a makeup artist and hairstylist. This was strange as they came highly recommended by family and friends who have used The workaround?! Pay Bello staff overtime to make the wedding party pretty at 5am downtown then come back home to stay "fresh" till the wedding - which will be at 2pm. Needless to say KA's list of "bad" vendors is growing. :-) It almost rivals my list of "crappy-experiences-with" retailers. I'm learning from her experiences though. As I listen to some of the challenges - my first instinct is to treat them all like FutureShop. What does that mean? Lol - have people sign personal contracts drafted by moi. :-) Yes - a bit extreme but VERY efficient/effective. You'd be amazed at the improvement in service levels if the vendor perceives that they will be legally accountable for their actions. Trade off? You will be instantly labelled a tough customer and will have to deal with management directly. In light of it all - I'm still impressed with KA's level of organization. Some that I aspire to in terms of wedding coordination!

break out the BBQ

Chris hosted a bbq birthday party for Cindy yesterday. The weather wasn't ideal but the food made up for it. Everyone brought something yummy to share and it was nice to see people I haven't seen in a long time. It was time to mingle and catch up with everyone's lives. Wow - so many kids at Chris' home! :-) I guess we're reaching that age where little kids will be common place at our dinner parties.

island bound

Yesterday I took the day off to attend KA's graduation from the University of Victoria. Michael and I got to witness another milestone event in her life. She graduated with her nursing degree.

Being the well organized person that she is, KA had pre-planned our day for us. We miraculously boarded the 7am ferry bound for Vancouver Island. Luckily there were some slow foot passengers who took their sweet time getting onto the ferry as we were the last car allowed on and was squished between a school bus and a cargo freighter. :-) Speed bumps? What are those?!

Ferry food has improved since I've last ridden. The last time I went to the island was when Tanya was looking for a place to rent in Nanaimo. Wow - long time ago! I had forgotten how long the ride was and tried to pass time watching a Crystal Reports training video (for work) on the laptop. "Critical battery failure" prevented me from completing video - which wasn't so bad as I think I had lost interest in the content about 5 minutes into the video.

Once in Victoria we drove down to see my sister office - downtown Victoria. I stopped in to say hi to my manager and the rest of my collegues. Then it was off to the Royal BC Museum to see the Titanic Exhibit and catch the Titanica IMAX show. This year is the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic - hence the exhibit. $36 and 2 hours later we emerged from the museum a bit disappointed. The IMAX show was lacking in content and quality. KA/Mike actually slept through it. Since the 3 of us have seen the Discovery Channel documentary on the Titanic - this IMAX show had bits of irrelavent content (such as the fascination with filming a Russian submarine captain expressing his views on fish and other marine life). We're spoiled by Discovery Channel. The only good thing about it was that before going into the exhibit - we're all given "boarding passes" which is a mini biography of a real passenger on that ship. I got to be Mrs. Strauss...an aristrocat...passenger 1st class! Lol - we had fun with our characters and went around the museum looking at stuff found at the bottom of the ocean. Part of the exhibit were people "in character". Reminds me of the Burnaby Museum tour - also speckled with actors.

The museum took the life out of us so we went to find food. My coworkers recommended the Noodle Box. An asian fusion take out restaurant. Basically everything was packed in those chinese take out boxes. Thinking that it's a western run joint - I ordered my meal mild-to-medium. OMG - I could barely eat it as it was so spicy! Which says alot as I tend to eat pretty spicy food. :-) Well - good thing it was already packed to go - as I took it home.

We got lost on the way to convocation. KA had to pick up her regalia. The ceremony was 2 hours long as the law class was also convocating at the same time. It was great to see KA walk across the stage. We cheered her on. During the ceremony I couldn't help but think that the costumes that the professors, etc wear remind me of the Harry Potter movie! :-) Obviously I haven't been to that many convocations in my life so I don't know what all the colors, hats and stripes mean. After convocation we had snacks then went around to take pictures. There were so many bunnies on UVIC campus. Couldn't help but take some pictures of them as well. All pictures are loaded into my album if you want to look.

my 2nd job

The social club has turned into a full time job lately. Since the induction of the new Board of Executives, I've been running around doing a lot of clean up and administrative things. Since my role now is "secretary" - I'm tasked with a lot of the tracking of information, control of access to documents and overseeing the website. This also includes many more meetings with vendors. The new board members are enthusiastic and want to take the club in a new direction. Their energy is contagious! I missed our first meeting yesterday but published the agenda before hand so in reality didn't miss too much. The best thing about it is that we finally have a team that has chosen to be on the Executive. Not like our last 4 "leaders" - who were coerced to stay on till the end of their term. They were good people but I'm happy to see them go and take their negativity with them! Can't wait for our 2007/2008 Planning Session with this crew.

After work today I went over to PNE to meet with the Special Events Coordinator to go over the plans for the Summer Picnic event and to make a deposit on the location. I was a bit lost (PNE is too big) and felt rushed as being off yesterday meant that I was behind on my real work and had to catch up with that first. Since our time is valuable (as this is all VOLUNTEER work) - most vendor meetings consists of the vendor and just one of the Executive members to represent the Club. I looked a bit harried today and felt sloppy at the meeting. I always like to attend vendor meetings looking crisp, assertive and energetic. It's a business meeting so we should all dress and act the part! Guess I should brush my hair or something for the next vendor meeting! Oh well - at least I'm always prepared paperwork wise. Tomorrow I have a meeting after work at the Bank of Montreal with their financial officer to complete the paper work to get me signing authority to the Club's main accounts. Muahahaa....access to LOTS of money! Just kidding. It would mean that there will be more flexibility in terms of who can issue the corporate cheques. I've been coordinating many of the events to so it makes more sense if I can cut the cheques to the vendors directly without having to go through the treasurer, president or vice president. It's amazing how much the Club runs like a business and not so much as your typical run-of-the-mill-social-club. :-) Doesn't really surprise me though. Due to the magnitude of the membership (nearly 1000 PAYING members) and the amount of vested interest from the members - we HAVE to make sure that everything is legitimate and documented. Lol - plus it keeps the auditors (PriceCoooper Waterhouse) happy at the end of the year when they have to review our statements.

burning the midnight oil

Work and school is getting hectic. I'm feeling a bit burnt on the edges. Monday morning was the usual chaos at work. It's becoming pretty much a routine now. To the point where I don't want to get out of bed on mondays. Having survived the mayhem, I came home, gulp down dinner and attempted to study and do homework. Needless to say I passed out on my books. 2am I wake to find the lights still on and a bad kink in my neck. I turn off the lights and try to sleep for 3 more hours. 3 hours fly by, the alarm rings and I have a pounding headache. Most likely caused by my previous sleeping position. I lay in bed and contemplate my options. I decide that I'm in no mood to drag myself to work so I call in sick. Feeling somewhat guilty for doing so and thinking about the meetings, work items and emails that I will be missing out on - I go back to bed. Woke up in time for lunch, an hour of TV and another attempt at studying for my midterm (which was that night). By this time of day I'm totally lethargic and walking around the house is quite a chore. Panic and anxiety creep in at about 4pm and I decide that studying infront of the TV is counter productive. Especially when I'm tuned into HGTV for all the home renos, etc. I head out to school to cram an hours worth of math into my mind. It's realistically a feeble attempt as with all math topics - you either know it or don't. I opted for winging it. Lol...I'm counting on partial marks for "showing steps" to equations. Having pumped myself full of caffeine, I walk into the exam armed with my calculator and a few basic equations memorized. :-) Ah...quadratic functions are formed from base equations anyhow...how hard can it be right? I wrote the exam and sweated a few times. Crazy word problems, have to get the right equations built first before you can even attempt to solve it. Lol - nothing like erasing a whole page worth of equations and notations when you discover (at the very end) that one of the 3 equations you wrote was incorrect and that it affected all other equations that are built ontop of that one. What did Ashdin use to say? "Show confidence...use pen". Of course he was a math whiz and calculus class came second nature to him. I spent calculus class writing/passing notes to Chris and Josie. :-)

red egg and ginger party

Tonight Chicky and I attended Joshua's red egg and ginger (one-month) party. It was very sweet of Chris/Cindy to invite us as everyone there were close relatives. It was good to see old familiar faces. What a surprise it was to see David and Melissa, who are Chris' cousins. I haven't seen them in years (not since before they got married). They are expecting their first baby in a month! Melissa looks great and is excited about the new baby.

The food was wonderful and I had a chance to talk to Cindy's sisters and their family. They sat with us so we chit chatted in Vietnamese about life in general. Most surprising of all was when Chris' dad pulled out the original "menu" from Chris' own red egg party (30 years ago). Wow - talk about a sentimental family! Lol - I can see where Chris gets it from. His dad even gave us the origin of the red egg and ginger party. As many of us have been to them but don't know what the significance of the egg is for.

Want to know what the Top 10 Symbolic Chinese Foods are?! Click here.

bbq weather

This evening KA hosted a planning bbq for her wedding party so that everyone could meet each other. I got to mooch in on the festivities - ah...the benefits of living at home with them! Just kidding, I was invited too as KA has appointed me the wedding coordinator. I given my own personal schedule (so nicely put together by her) and contact sheet of the "important" people and vendors. The great part is that KA is VERY organized so it's no work at all. She knows me well and put together the package so that I can go nuts in my hyper-organizational ways. Oh - sticky notes are so fun! I'm all about the stationary! This should be a breeze to help organize as KA has a type A personality but won't admit it. :-) I just have to make sure everyone plays their part in the whole grand scheme of things. Lol - she's utilizing my bossy/persuasive personality to her advantage.
The bbq was wonderful. TONS of food (as always) and lots of wine. Another task for tonight was for the wedding party to help in the selection of wine for the wedding reception. One bottle of red and white wine will be left on the tables for the guests to help themselves. KA and I went to the liquor store last night and picked up 6 bottles of wine that were reasonably priced (considering she wants to provide wine for all the guests). The consensus is that most of the guests won't know how to drink wine so it won't matter so much what she serves as long as it's easy to drink. So we ate the chicken, ribs, salads, appetizers, fresh fruits (which was the favorite dish for everyone), desserts and sampled the wines. Only some of KA's friends actually drink - so it turned out to be 6 people who actually had wine. Which meant we would have to drink an equivalent of a bottle each. Doh...dumb asian blood prevents me from having more than one glass before I look drunk. :-) Good thing I'm at home already and can stumble around the house without embarrassing myself too much. It was nice to meet the wedding party and I'm looking forward to seeing them on the BIG day. But till then there are many more parties to plan for and last minute details to put together.
By the way - BBQs are so fun and easier to prepare food for. :-) Chicky and I had our own bbq dinner friday night - just the 2 of us as everyone in my family had things to do or go to. He made himself lamb and I waited for him to cook something as it was taking too long. He still needs help in the bbqing-meat department. While standing around the bbq last night we agreed that if we ever owned a home, a bbq would be one of the first things we'd buy. Not just any size...has to be Chicky size! :-) Mmmm....bbq meat...

along came a mouse

I broke down and bought a new mouse for my laptop. My other Microsoft mouse was dying as the cord was loose or something. There would be moments when I would have to shake it to death in attempts to get the optical light to turn on. This was dangerous as I'd be peering into the light to see why it went off. Lol - and who said I was free from occupational hazards?!

Went to Future Shop. Picked up a Logitech mouse and stood in line to pay for it. The line was so long that I had time to thumb through the weekly flyer. Low and behold there was a wireless mouse on sale. Hahaha...so I ended up getting the MS one for half the price of the Logitech. Sweet. Yah - I know. Not exciting for some of you but for my fellow geeky friends out there - a deal on any kind of tech product makes you smile all day long. I totally love the new mouse - so responsive and convenient. I'm no longer tethered to this laptop! :-)

getting in the mood

My coworker Chris came back from Las Vegas last week in which he won an all expense paid trip to compete in the Help Desk Institute International competition. Nothing like staying at the Mandalay Bay for a week and getting paid for it too! I'm so proud of Chris as he's the winner for Canadian division and is also a coworker. Part of his presentation on what he learned at the conference included a video of the "Evolution of Dance" in which the original performer was at the conference. :-) So cool. I'm not sure if any of you've seen this yet but it's HILARIOUS and inspiring! Click on the link below and see for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg

seek the peak

Well - it's summer and time to kick off our Grouse Grind 2007 season. Rav and I hit the trail today. Haven't hiked this since last summer so we were weary about how well we'd do. Our goal was to just complete the hike and not worry about time, etc.

This is our 3rd year doing the Grind and I have to commend us on not complaining. Sure - there were moments when I questioned what in the world made me think that hiking on a day that is 26 degrees outside is a smart idea. :-) So we silently grumbled to ourselves and carried on. Each of us encouraged the other to keep going. We took MANY water breaks, leaned against trees and let other hikers pass us by. there was much chit chat on the way up as this is a social activity for Rav and I. We're not the types to leave the other person behind in pursuit of a "decent" time. I was surprised to see the amount of snow still on the trail. Made some parts very wet and slippery. :-) Ah..bad day to wear white shorts.

We emerged from the top still breathing normally, chatting about work and checked our watches. 1 hour 30 mins - not too bad for the first attempt. :-) Hiking Grouse is only fun when it's social - and since Rav and I are both executives of the Social Club - we have much to discuss. In the early days we use to have a large following of coworkers. Over the years people dropped off and lost interest in the weekly hikes. Rav likes to try to convince me to join numerous things as once. He's got the enthusiam to jump on any bandwagon that comes his way. Only problem is that he's notorious for jumping off the bandwagon on a whim. I kept trying to convince him that buying a pass would be a waste of money. He doesn't think so. I happy to hear that Shannon is hiking the Grind now so maybe I'll join her on one of the morning ventures (when it's cool out and not many people are on the mountain).

dim sum time

Today I had dim sum with the girls. it wonderful seeing everyone again and being able to talk to them. It's been a couple of months since we've gotten together to catch up on our lives. We went to our usual place at Metrotown. Tanya, Shannon, Tracey, Nicole, Charlene, Josie, Mary, Brandon and I showed up for this round. I'm not use to ordering by a ticker-card and ending up ordering WAY too much food. It got to the point where the plates were being stacked on top of each other because there was no room at the table. Mental note: let someone else order next time. :-)

After dim sum some of us strolled around the mall to work off some of the food. We went to look at make up, clothes, etc. Kenny came by and joined us for some shopping so that was good. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the next outing. Maybe we'll change it up a bit and do something other than dim sum. :-)

dress shopping

Went dress shopping with my mom today. We're looking for something nice to wear to KA's wedding. The wedding is a month away. Can't believe how fast time is flying by!

So for 6 hours I drove from Coquitlam to Metrotown then to Richmond and then finally back to Metrotown. After numerous dress shops and road rage experiences, mom decides that she didn't see anything "interesting". I nearly shook my head. Being the chauffeur - I lost interest in trying on clothes once we were in Richmond. Goodness - how can anyone drive around in that city without getting road rage?! We witness 2 close-calls for pedestrians being hit by cars backing up in parking lots. Not to mention Number 3 Road is a nightmare. :-) I feel for Chicky as he has to work in that area. Hahaha...

Tonight Chicky and I are going to see Pirates of the Caribbean with The Kids (Carol, Minh, Betty, Hanif, KA and Mike). It's going to be a super long line up but we have strategy. :-) My family has no qualms about sneaking outside food in. We're not so fond of having over priced Burger King meals at the theatre. The movie should be good. So many summer blockbusters coming out. :-) You can bet that Chicky and I will be there for each of their opening nights!

social butterfly

On Friday I had the Social Club's Annual General Meeting. It was a fun event. We had a buffet dinner and dance at this banquet hall close to work. The meeting is pretty official as it's where we introduce the new Board of Executives to the membership. :-) I'm happy to say that there has been a big turn over and that the people who weren't excited about the Club have finally left. The new faces will be an asset as many of the people we recruited have particular skill sets that we desire (hence why we went after some of them!). Hahhaa...I think I can pitch the "join the executive" speech pretty well by now.

I'm looking forward to the 2007/2008 term as "secretary" for the club. Being actively involved in it has opened doors for networking and building on my leadership and organizational skills. :-) I find that I'm quite social and don't have much hesitation when it comes to making a fool of myself infront of large crowds. As you can guess...no one wanted to be the first on the dance floor so the executive turned to me to "get the party started". My feet were tired from wearing stillettos and running around all night making sure that the food was filled up, that the bartender wasn't over charging us, etc. So I laughed, slurped down some wine (liquid courage) and went to the dance floor by myself. Danced a bit then went around the room and pulled strangers to the floor. Eventually I had the whole floor filled. The rest of the night was pretty much like that - walked around the room, asked people to dance and wouldn't allow them to say no to me. Most were good sports about it. Haahaaa...I think people laughed at one point where I was walking across the room with a clipboard (looking for the head waitress to clear up our bill) when a swing song blasted on the speaker. :-) I couldn't resist! So I slauntered onto the dance floor and did my little swing number (alone) and with no shoes on (I had to take off my shoes hours earlier as my feet were killing me). Some old lady thought I was funny so she came onto the floor and twisted with me. The 2 of us danced by ourselves till others joined. I had a blast because the music was from MY era (which is oldies and disco stuff). I could sing to every song so it made it even more fun! Ah...the party ended at midnight and it was just the DJ and I getting our stuff and saying good night to the staff. I was pooped and pumped after 6 hours of dancing. I love Abba music and swing music. I got home and had an urge to watch "So you think you can dance?"

additions to 2008

Congratulations to Nick and Lisa who just got engaged. Nick is Chicky's roommate and has been with Lisa for many years. We're very happy for them. :-) More weddings to attend in 2008!

Nathan is a month old

Nathan is a month old now. How does time fly! We went to his one month party at Chicky's parents clubhouse. Chicky's parents sold their house so we won't have the clubhouse to entertain in much longer.

The party was good - lots of family and friends came out to see Nathan. He was a very good boy too - didn't fuss at all when people took turns holding him. Mary's aunt even baked some cakes for all of us to share in. It was really sweet to see all the kids. Logan, Amy and Avery were there to entertain us as well. May is looking VERY pregnant and is ready to burst. She's due in a couple of weeks so that will be exciting. :-) We commented on how many kids there are at the family get togethers. The great part is that they will all be close in ages (just like their parents are). Can't have too many cousins right?!

I've loaded some pictures from the party to the photo album.

pineapple express

There weren't many people at work today so we had a little fun. It was hawaiian shirt friday. People dressed up in some brightly colored clothing and we celebrated our own ray of sunshine on the cloudy day.

After work I went out to Ambleside Park with Ian and Mike. Mike is a photography enthusiast while Ian just bought a digital SLR. It was cloudy and windy so we didn't stay very long. We saw MANY cute dogs in the park and Mike took some pictures of them. There was one dog owner who was a cute girl that wanted to give her email to us as she wanted copies of the pictures we took of her puppy. Hmmm...great way to meet girls in the park?! Take note boys...you don't need a puppy to attract girls. Just get a camera and take pictures of their dog. Of course it's probably easier to go in a group - that way you don't look like the crazy stalker type. I've put the pictures in my album under May 18th.

not pizza again!!!

This afternoon I attended a seminar on team building hosted by the Help Desk Institute of BC. Title of the seminar? "Not Pizza Again!!! Having Fun with Your Team". As always I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to attend such seminars that are centered around this topic as it's dear to my corporate-heart. :-) I think my manager doesn't mind giving me the afternoon off for this type of seminar because I am actively involved in the social clubs. Beats going to tech seminars! The speaker was great and had interesting ideas on how to mold your team towards functionality. I quite enjoyed the ex cerises (such as drawing a giraffe at the start of the seminar). Hopefully we'll be able to incorporate these ideas into future events or integrate them into the subculture. I was quite pleased that our departmental social club had already accomplished many of the goals and on a corporate social club level we were pretty organized. I met other team leads and discovered that many support centers suffer from the same issues on stress, morale and attrition that we did.

At the end of the day I had a smile on my face and was pumped full of Gung Ho energy. Now to bring that same level of energy and enthusiasm back into the office to conquer those skeptics that stand in my way! I'll even try out some of the games we learned on you guys one day! :-) They make good party games.

Happy Mother's Day!

Sunday afternoon we celebrated Mother's Day with Chicky's family at Kirin Restaurant. Had some dim sum and enjoyed the company of Brandan and Nathan. I haven't seen Nathan since the hospital. He's growing up so quickly! Took a few new pics of him for my web album. His one-month party is this weekend so time is sure flying by!

In the evening my family and Betty's family had a Mother's Day bbq. My family LOVES to bbq and even though the weather was cloudy and gusty - it didn't stop them from standing outside next to the grill. Plus it's easier than trying to get a table for 15 people at any restaurant. It's so fun having a big family - get togethers are so loud and obnoxious. We had some great food, played with Nyah, painted nails, ate some more and played some poker. It was nice to have the whole family relaxing and doing their own things. We're all looking forward to the summer bbq season and are already scoping out potential sites for us to spend our weekends at. I think Cultus Lake will remain a family favorite though. Lots of great memories there and it's so convenient.

After dinner the women centered around the kitchen and did some manicures and pedicures. Betty painted her mom's nails and Carol's nails. I wasn't really interested in painting my nails as they always get chipped at work. Nyah is such a cutie and growing up very quickly too. She's very strong and wants to sit up at 3 months - we think she might be teething too! Hanif told us that he wants to pierce her ears. We all said to wait till she's at least 6 months old. She's at the age where she's starting to be interactive so it's fun to play with her and watch her react to us. I've loaded new pics of her to the album as well. Everyone was here till nearly 1am and I got barely any sleep as I had to work EARLY today. I think it was eating cake and dessert so late at night - we were still on a sugar kick. Only Angelina had to go to bed early as she has school the next day. Oh boy was I tired after having like 3 hours of sleep last night! Time for bed now!