Weddingbee Blog

In addition to our wedding reception, Mr. Eggplant and my parents are hosting a 350 guest, traditional Chinese banquet on the Sunday following. Since the guest count for the second event is nearly twice our first reception, the dinner can’t be a thoughtless meal that’s merely slapped together. Our parents are even considering hiring a Chinese radio personality as an emcee who will be singing karaoke throughout the night. I know, crazy, right?

Well, my mom told me that I can do what I want for our first reception, but the mammas get final say over what is involved in the Chinese banquet, karaoke and all. Thankfully, this means that I can delegate all the responsibilities of the second event over to Mamma Eggplant and FMIL Eggplant (which is why I write less about it than our first reception). I just can’t complain if I’m forced to listen to our emcee crooning “Unchained Melody” while eating my walnut prawns and shark fin soup.

The first Chinese banquet task that fell upon the mammas was to find an affordable wedding invitation printed in both Chinese and English. They chose Ho Tai printing (which literally translates to “look good” printing) in Chinatown, SF. The store is literally a hole in the wall and their invitation samples leave much to be desired (hundreds of invites shoved into boxes that brides dig through themselves). But they are very affordable and the quality of the paper is incredibly thick and luxurious, much nicer than many other invite companies that I’ve researched. Print for our invites was pressed in metallic red ink, though the font selection was rather limited. Ho Tai does, however, print non-Chinese invitations and really nice program fans similar to the ones Mrs. Tomato designed for her wedding.

I just finished sending out the last batch of our pink and white invitations yesterday. Invitation with requisite double happiness character, pink envelopes, and RSVP cards with envelopes:

I thought the double happiness character was kind of cute. Which one’s the boy? The one on the left?

A thin strand of silver elastic holds the invite together

Inside the invites, the leftside was printed in English with my parents’ names listed first. The right, in Chinese with Mr. Eggplant’s parents’ names listed first.

And simple RSVP cards. Before sending them out, I numbered the back and kept a list of the corresponding guests, in case they were returned blank or illegibly.