lyricalisse

So my biggest “hurdle” right now with wedding planning is finding a cheongsam for our Vancouver banquet. (In Mandarin it’s called a qipao but I grew up speaking Cantonese, so to me, it’s a cheongsam.) Joe’s mom generously offered to make one for me, but given the long-distance, it’s not practical– plus it’d be a big project!

So I’m trying to figure out where to look. If I were in Seattle or New York City, this wouldn’t be such a challenge– but I’m in DC, where Chinese boutiques are almost non-existent. And I really have no idea how to go about finding quality information on cheongsam vendors. Can I trust the top results in Google? If I look in the Yellow Pages, what category do I look under? Should I roam around Chinablock and start networking with folks who are “in the know”?

What I really want is something like Yelp with reviews so that I can discern: 1) where this type of dress would be sold, and 2) of those choices, which would be accessible to me and make a high-quality, affordable product. I want to know pros and cons of ordering online vs. going to a boutique in person.

I need a cheongsam librarian!

Joe and I have been long-distance for a month now, and it’s been a process figuring out how to communicate across 3 time zones and an international boundary.

At first we used the method we’ve been used to– our cell phones. But those calls between Canada and the US add up! My cell phone plan charges 15 cents per minute for calls to Canada, and Joe’s plan charges 10 cents per minute for calls to the States. If we were to talk for an hour every day using this method, that’s a whopping $450 a month!

So then my roommate suggested calling cards. I still have the calling card I used back in college (before cell phones were popular!) to call my parents– 5.9 cents per minute to call Canada. That brings our $450 down to $286.20. Better, but doesn’t pass. We’re frugal Chinese.

Plan C. Joe has a GrandCentral account which provides you with a free phone number that can be forwarded to all your phones. The GrandCentral number has a US area code, and we got it to forward to Joe’s cell! So I can use my US cell to call a US number (at no additional charge to my cell plan) which forwards to Joe’s Canada cell number. Now we’re down to $180.

Still not good enough, because meanwhile, I’m racking up way too many peak hour minutes and going over my monthly usage limit. It’s hard to restrict calls till after 9pm and weekends. We need to use the internet!

But my roommate and I are frugal and don’t pay for internet– we’ve been relying on unsecured wireless in the neighborhood, which is weak and unreliable, but works for things like e-mail and IM. So Joe uses his Skype out account ($3/month) to call my cell phone. This is fine, but it means that he always has to call me and I can’t call him, and often the reception is unclear. Lame.

Finally, I break down and decide to pay for cable internet so we can use iChat, which IMHO is way cooler (and more reliable) than Skype. This is our method of choice now because iChat, in all its awesomeness, has video chat!

…and even a screensharing feature!

So not only can we see each other when we communicate, we can share web projects we’ve been working on via screensharing! This past week I showed Joe the new Serials Solutions ERM I’ve been working in and Joe (tried to) show me some CSS stuff. We can also have Hulu dates and watch “The Office” together– iChat lets us do voice chat while we watch, so it *almost* feels like we’re in the same room as we chuckle and banter about the show.

Geeky, I know. But we’re making it work.

My mom is an artistic soul. She loves to draw, press flowers, rubber stamp, write songs, do paper-cutting, and decorate cakes (she used to run her own Chinese cake and pastry business in Virginia).

It’s been hard figuring out how to involve our families in the wedding planning– it’s difficult to find appropriate tasks to delegate when they’re on the other side of the country. As I was reviewing our task list, I realized one thing we had overlooked– decorating our wedding arch. We’re renting one of these for our outdoor ceremony:

I started running through a list of DC friends in my head as potentials to delegate this task to, but couldn’t think of anyone who would be particularly enthused about the task… when I realized my mom loves this sort of thing! Perfect! I sent her this link for inspiration and within two days, she had taken two trips to Michael’s, selected about 3 different types of silk flowers and 2 types of leaves, and created this:

How awesome is my mom? Hmm…. what else can I delegate to her…

…instead of tables and chairs for our backyard wedding, we had picnic blankets?

Probably not going to happen, though…

We’re having two wedding events–a ceremony and backyard BBQ in Washington DC area and a Chinese banquet in Vancouver BC. 141 days until we’re officially married, and 182 days until our banquet celebration!

I was in Vancouver over the weekend and Joe’s parents very generously treated us to dinner at our banquet restaurant on Saturday. The food was amazing–I think we had 12 courses, including jellyfish, roast duck, lobster, steamed fish, and my favorite, Chinese veggies, how I missed you so! The service was amazing too– each time a dish came out, the servers prepared individual plates for each of us. This isn’t normal, because food is usually served family style and everyone helps themselves. Wish I had pics to show, but I still haven’t been able to justify purchasing a digital camera for myself. :p

Joe is staying in Vancouver to start looking for work and settling into our new place, while I’m back in DC for work and to help out w/ church ministries… so we’ll basically be long-distance until our wedding. We’ve been apart for four days and let me just say that I have a newfound admiration for friends who spent months or years of their relationship long-distance! How did ya’ll do that?