Double Happiness

Double Happiness
Originally uploaded by Aidan & Quyen.

A large Chinese character, Double Happiness, on a red piece of paper or in paper cut is always put where it must strike the eyes on a young couple's wedding. It has a story behind it.

In the ancient Tang Dynasty, there was a student who was on the way to the capital to attend the national final examination, in which the top learners would be selected as the ministers in the court. Unfortunately, he fell ill halfway when he passed through a mountain village. Thanks to a herbalist doctor and his daughter, he was taken to their house and treated well. He recovered quickly due to the father and the daughter's good care. Well, when he had to leave, he found it hard to say good-bye to the pretty girl, and so did she. They fell in love. So the girl wrote down the right hand part of an antithetical couplet for the student to match:

"Green trees against the sky in the spring rain while the sky set off the spring trees in the obscuration."

"Well, I can make it though it is not easy. But you'll have to wait till I have finished the examination." replied the student. The young girl nodded in significance.

In the examination the young man won the first place, who was appreciated by the emperor. Also the winners were interviewed and tested by the emperor. As luck would have it, he was asked by the emperor to finish a couplet, which would need a right part as the answer. The emperor wrote:

"Red flowers dot the land in the breeze's chase while the land colored up in red after the kiss."

The young man realized immediately the right part of the couplet by the girl was the perfect fit to the emperor's couplet, so he took the girl's part as the answer without hesitation. The emperor was delighted to see the matching half of his couplet was so talent and harmonious that he authorized the young man's identity as Minister in the court and allowed him to pay a visit to his hometown first before holding the post. The young man met the girl happily at home and told her the emperor's couplet. They soon got married. For the wedding, the couple DOUBLED the Chinese character, HAPPY, together, on a red piece of paper and put it on the wall to express the happiness for the two events. And from then on, it has been taken on and became a social custom.

pronunciation: shuang hsi

http://chineseculture.about.com/library/weekly/aa120799a.htm

Ladybug

Ladybug
Originally uploaded by Aidan & Quyen.

How cute! You will be seeing more of this little creature in the months leading up to the wedding... :) stay tuned...

Paper & Cardboard - Tick!

Well, what a weekend. We achieved so much, starting with a trip to Thirroul, a Northern suburb of the Illawarra.

We hve been looking for about two months now at paper and cardboard option for the wedding invitations. After much 'discussion' (sometimes with 'moments'), we decided on a colour theme and purchased the materials required to put together the invites and other parts of the wedding. Beach Art is a fantastic shop and has a good variety of colours and materials.

It is kind of hard for me though, as Quyen is the crafty one and can do so many wonderful things with paper and designs... it makes me sick! Many of you have seen her work and I am sure you agree! As for me, well...hmmm.... I didn't get any of the craft genes. All I got was the Kraft genes (I love my vegemite). Boom Boom.

230 Days to go! Better get cracking!

Bridesmaid # 1

Josline
Originally uploaded by Aidan & Quyen.

Well, finally, some substance to this blog! This is Josline, one of Quyen's Bridesmaids. Josline is also a long time school friend of Quyen and has such an amazing approach and warmth to life. Josline will be Ian's partner for the wedding day.

Groomsman # 2

Paul Erickson
Originally uploaded by Aidan & Quyen.

This is Paul! Paul Erickson is a Wollongong boy (as we all are!) and is a long-time school friend of Quyen's that I hijacked to be one of my best mates. He runs his own graphic design and website business. www.xperimental.com.au This photo was taken during our escapades at Sea World on the Gold Coast in May 2004...if you want his number, let me know :)

Wedding Dress.....update!

Well, what a massive weekend for our wedding...

Quyen headed off from her house in Fairy Meadow on Saturday morning to go and have a second look at 'that' dress from two weeks prior. Her Mum joined her, along with my Mum and Josline - we had to have at least one Bridesmaid in there!

Arriving in Warrawong, they had a look at 'that' dress and Quyen tried it on again and ummmd and aaarrrddd (did I spell that right?) over the fit. It was decided that this style can be adjusted if needed. The service was fantastic, the price was right...and....yep, you guessed it, WINNY HAS BOUGHT THE WEDDING DRESS!!!! yeee haaaaa!!!! Very exciting, of course I have not seen it. Well, I have seen the bag that it came in. Oh, and I have seen the credit card transaction for it... hmm.... thanks very much.

After Winny returned home, I posed a question. "As you have now got the dress ahead of schedule, can we bring the wedding forward?". No need to tell you what she said, I am sure you can guess it.

So that's the exciting news and developments for this weekend.....!

243 Days To Go!

Just thought I would share that with you... :)

Junior Members of Bridal Party!

Stay tuned. The Page Boy and Flower Girl are soon to be announced... The gorgeous Page Boy has accepted his posting for the day and, after a long hard, tough think about the Flower Girl, we will be asking this coming weekend and will let you know next Sunday night the two to complete our bridal party...

I think this is a record short blog. Make the best of it!

Goodnight. It's bed time for me now.

Wedding Dress Hunt

Week 2 of the wedding dress hunt happened on Saturday... The first week was spent with Quyen and two of her bridesmaids, Patty and Josline, going around Wollongong in hunt of the perfect dress. Although I know no details of 'the dress', Quyen thinks she found the near perfect one... and the girls thought the same. That was in a shop in Warrawong.

The second Saturday was hoping to be spent with the same two girls. However, due to train line issues and repairs, Quyen was faced with the prospect of searching by herself... on Saturday morning while I was getting FOUR new tyres for my car. Work that one out, one flat tyre on Friday night = FOUR new tyres on Saturday morning. That's OK, it just game out of the wedding dress budget. No probs there. Anyway, Quyen had a brain wave on Saturday morning and rang a very close friend in Binh. Although they do not catch up often, Quyen holds Binh dear to her heart and new she could count on Binh being there once again, as she has been in the past.

They scooted around Wetherill Park, Cabramatta, and Wentworthville before returning to Binh's house for a breather... then Quyen back to Wollongong...

Oh, as for the dress hunting, not too bad, Wollongong was more fruitful apparently. But, hey, I don't get to see the dresses, so tough for me to comment... oh well. I will let you know on June 11, 2005 what I think of the dress.

Man, these blogs are getting longer.. sorry :)

Oh, one more thing. For the record, Quyen did not eat the apples I gave her for the day, nor did she return my water bottle for my bike that she had water out of for the day. So, if I am fat on our wedding day, it is because I didn't have my water bottle to ride my bike. Bye.

Bride & Groom

Aidan_Quyen_Engagement_Party.JPG
Originally uploaded by Aidan & Quyen.

Here is the Bride and Groom to be. In case you are not sure. I am on the left and Quyen is on the right...

This photo was taken at our Engagement party at my Mum and Dad's house in Wollongong - July 4, 2004. It was a fantastic day, with about 45 people in the back. We had a heap of fun and winded up at about 5pm that afternoon...

The cake was a very healthy chocolate mud cake with hearts on wires out the top and shaved chocolate around the sides... sorry, couldn't save a piece :)

Groomsman # 1

Bridal_party_ian.JPG
Originally uploaded by Aidan & Quyen.

Well, this is Ian. The absolute Speed freak. Speed the movie that is. I have mentioned his site previously - www.speedcollector.com I have known Ian for about 7 years now.

Photographer - Tick!

One more thing organised and crossed off the list! Tonight, we booked the photographer. As with most things with this wedding, we have gone with one of our early choice. Pippin is a fantastic person - very kind, and warm - with a ton of experience under her belt. Check out her site - www.photographybypippin.com.au - it rocks! If you live in Sydney, Wollongong, or any other great part of the World, and are getting married, book her in! She rocks!

Mind you, the plan was to have dinner in Leichhardt, but Aidan decided to get a flat tyre on the way - bloody hell.... aaarrrggghhh... anyway, that was at 6pm in Annandale, Sydney, and the NRMA had to be called because we couldn't pull Aidan's nuts off (the tyre). They came an hour later and we still made Pippin's studio in Leichhardt for 7:30 as planned - starving ourselves out.

Paid the deposit, left smiling and confident of our choice, and marched on down to Sunny Stanmore. Well, it was dark by now so it wasn't sunny, but that is what I refer to Stanmore as, since I used to live in the suburb... enjoyed dinner at Adam's Pizzeria. Grabbed a pizza and a past and a garlic bread... yum, yum, food in the tum.

It is now almost 11pm and we are both knackered and heading off to bed.

Until next time, in a blog far, far away... i pinched that line from Dazza's blog site. Check it out http://danyltraynor.blogspot.com - check it out NOW!!!

Well, going now. Goodnight...

Share your comments on our wedding stories and add to them please.

Bridal Party!

Finally we have asked six people that hold a special place in our lives to be in our bridal party...Quyen is having her cousin, Linda, as the head Bridesmaid, as well as two very close school friends - Patricia and Josline, to be bridesmaids. Aidan is having Paulie (aka Quang) as his best man, and Paul E and Ian (the speed man) as groomsmen.

We first asked the girls for them to accept the honour, and capped the asking off with Paulie over a fantastic Thai meal at Doytao Thai on Newtown's King Street last Friday night! Mai was there with Paul and the four of us chatted over a bottle of wine for a few hours - before returning home in blizzard conditions. No man-made umbrella would have stood up to the wind...

Anyway, back on track, all are excited to be part of the wedding and the boys especially are already planning the bucks night from what I gather... hmmmm....should Aidan be scared!!?!! Yep, probably...

Welcome!

Well, here we are! Welcome to Quyen and Aidan's blog for our wedding. We live in Sydney, Australia. As I type this, there is only 259 days to our wedding!

A big thanks to Ian (one of our Groomsmen- we will get to the rest of the bridal party shortly!) for getting me into this blogging. Check out his own blog site - www.speedcollector.com and let him know what you think.

As for this blog. We will update it as much as we can with all of the movements leading up to our wedding. We will not give too much detail away though.... keeping it a nice surprise for the wedding night and for posting the photos of the special day when it all happens!

Visit regularly please! Let me know your thoughts and share your own stories with us!

Hope to hear from you soon!

Aidan & Quyen