Annette and Ray » Dress

Qun Kwa

Annette — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 07:42:38 +0000

A little bit of history! The Qun kwa is a two-piece traditional southern Chinese bridal dress. It stems from the Qing Dynasty and is still worn by Chinese brides today. I’ve decided to wear a qun kwa because I want to preserve my culture. I believe tradition is very important and worthwhile especially for special occasions like weddings.

Besides, qun kwa is a beautiful piece of garment! It has two separate sets, top is a blouse jacket and bottom is a long skirt. The blouse is often 3/4 sleeve to reveal the bride’s creamy skin on hands and wrist (…not that I have creamy skin!). The dress is generally red with dragon and phoenix stitching. Initially, most of the qun kwas I have seen online were very simple and made with plain polyester. Today I found a site that offers traditional qun kwa with gold and silver threading which definitely made it more elaborate and elegant. The craftsmanship looks wonderful compared to the flat piece of cloths I’ve seen earlier. Of course, it also have to cost 5X more!

Wedding Dress Shopping

Annette — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 05:21:46 +0000

Made a trip to David’s Bridal for some wedding gown shopping fun! Initially I set my mind for only trying on two dresses. Two! However, that is not the case. I migrated from simple gowns to some pretty elaborate Vera Wang’s. I blame this entirely on my maid of honor. Yep.

I felt like a Barbie doll playing dress up. Sales ladies suggesting various accessories to put on me. As one lady said “You know what’s great with that Vera Wang dress? A Vera Wang veil!”. Oh yes, I ended up propping a $250 cathedral veil on my head. Pretty as it is, I am not buying Wang veil nor her dress. My heart is still set on one of my original two. Nosy sales ladies aside, dress shopping was fun!

Wedding Dress Conversation

Ray — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 01:16:37 +0000

Why is Ray reading up on wedding dresses? It started with something like this:

Annette: “I bought a wedding dress”
Ray: “Huh?”
Annette: “Yea, they had a 20% off coupon at David’s Bridal” (Coupon.. yes! I love that girl)
Ray: “How much was the dress?”
Annette: “It had beads and sequins that I really like”
Ray: “How much was the dress?”
Annette: “Originally for $700, but I got for $560″
Ray: “$560 for a dress!? I’d rather get you two Marc Jacobs or Coach bags. At least you can use those more than once”
Annette: “I know, but be glad I didn’t go for a designer wedding dress. Plus most dresses start around this price point anyways.” (Good points)
Ray: “Well… ok” (Making a mental note to verify this claim)

So off I go, investigating wedding dresses.