Open Question: Please Help Me Find
October 31st, 2006 @ 1:16 pm by Open Question
- FMIL is throwing a Chinese banquet and I’d like to wear a qipao. Where in NY can I get an affordable qipao, and does it have to be a certain color for the wedding festivities? ~ A
- I am looking for clear, monogramed, dated tags for wedding favors. Where could I find these? ~ Nina
- Has anyone used the new service for making your own stamps for their wedding? Or is that just too cheesy? ~ Jayme
- I’m looking for a makeup artist that is good with Asian faces in Northern NJ/NYC area. Can anyone recommend one? ~Cindy
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16 Responses to “Open Question: Please Help Me Find”
i purchased a custom qipao from flushing, there’s a dress shop in the ‘mall’ by the sheraton mall. it was about $350, and they took about 2389423 measurements. it fit like a glove.
http://i.xanga.com/amyxshi/DSC01118.JPG
(the white dress)
oh i think in chinese weddings it’s supposed to be red… apparently white is death? i’m not sure… i’m korean… hehe
Ms. Snail is a damn good artist. Look at Ms. Butterfly’s trial!
Jayme,
I got my BIL stamps with my neice (his daughter) on them. They came out great, I just received them. They are pricier than regular stamps, so the cost might add up, but they add a very personal touch.
For inexpensive qi paos/cheong sams, you should check out chinatown! Any color is fine…I’ve seen brides in the traditional bright red, matte gold, magenta, baby pink, silver with colorful embroidery…pretty much any color is fine but keep in mind that white is associated with death, funerals, and mourning.
Look online at http://www.pearlriver.com for ideas and what’s out there. The qipao is only one type of dress, there’s a more traditional Chinese dress, i think it’s called a cheongsam, but basically it’s red and is 2 pieces (a top, like a jacket and a long skirt). I have one from China (my grandfather got it) for my Chinese banquet, I also have relatives buying the other dresses I have to change into for the banquet.
Megan Garmers is amazing for Asian hair and make-up. I am Chinese and she did both for my wedding and I was endlessly complimented on how beautiful I looked. Her website is http://www.mghairandmakeup.com
The 2-piece outfit is actually called a Qun Kwa, and is traditionally worn by Cantonese Chinese people 
I think Mrs. Spider wore one for her banquet. Search “kwa” in weddingbee and you’ll find a picture of it!
Cheong sam and qi pao are the same thing for women, altho men’s traditional outfits are also called cheong sam.
HAVE AN OPEN QUESTION -
…more like a big etiquette dilema.
My husband and I were recently married and friends of ours gave us a very generous check as a wedding gift. The same friends were married a month after us, and we reciprocated with a check for the same amount. WELL, today we received a notice from the bank that their check to us bounced due to insufficient funds. Not only are we being charged $10, but we are down several hundred dollars. We would have never been able to afford giving them such a generous amount had they not given us their gift in the first place. HELP! We need to bring this up to them, the questions is how?
You can go to http://www.efushop.com or http://www.chinabridal.com for cheongsam/qipao and kwa’s. My sister had hers ordered and custom-made from efushop and it was really nice. I think she paid less than 100.00. You get to choose your style, design and fabric from their list. I know of another person who also went that route, and it turned out really nice. Backless, halter-style, mermaid bottom.
I went cheongsam browsing in Chinatown earlier in the month, here’s my “review” and the info on a couple of places: http://tinyurl.com/ybehpc. From reading on a bunch of different Chinese-American wedding forums (yep, there’s a bunch out there), it seems like custom silk will start at around $300-ish. For the under-$50 (usually synthetic fabrics), definitely something like Pearl River on Broadway, or one of the online sites.
qipao in ny,
you should check out the wedding salons in flushing. they usually have silly names like “love boat”. they typically rent out GORGEOUS qi pao and qua dresses.
good luck
Try Peony Red in Chinatown - they have a great selection of qi paos at decent prices…it’s located on Centre St (before you hit Grand St) so far enough away from Canal so that it’s less touristy.
There’s ready to wear and they can also custom make.
I am not from the NYC area but am willing to travel there if I can find a tailor who will make a Kwa set. Can someone please post some names of business or contact numbers? My wedding date is less then 2 months away and my local sources here and SF did not work out.
Thank you.
Open Question
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Jayme, I ordered my mother a gift from photo stamps - stamps with a picture of her grandchildren, and she LOVED them! I was considering them for the wedding, too, but not a pic of us - maybe our flowers or something like that.