Wedding Fever

I love weddings.  I love attending them, I love planning them, I love everything from the wedding dress to the wedding cake to the beautiful floral arrangements to the music to the dancing and the all-around overwhelming amount of happiness that consumes all weddings.

And there’s something about 2009 that’s giving everyone wedding fever. I’ve personally been to 3 weddings this year and I know of over 10 weddings that took place this summer.

A fun fact that not too many people know about me: Earlier this year, I was a wedding planner and together with my wedding team, we put together an entire wedding in just under one month. Not only did we do a wedding in a month, we did a kick-ass wedding in a month.  With limited high-end wedding stores/resources in China, we decided to just do everything ourselves – our own design, our own production and presentation.  From the wedding invitations to thewedding dress & tuxedos to the guestbook to the wedding programs and wine labels and everything in between, we created it all from scratch.

During the month up to the wedding date, I was a crazy woman.  I was super stressed, I barely slept and when I did sleep, I was dreaming wedding stuff. But in retrospect, as much work and time-constraining this project was, I learned a lot, it was a great experience and it was a lot of fun too. It’s fun to spend countless hours researching for the perfect wedding dress for Hannah, finding the most elegant floral patterns, and pulling all nighters with my wedding team finishing up last minute designs, etc.

One of my proudest days of my life was Alan & Hannah’s wedding day – an extravagant, beautiful, perfect wedding day that I was proud to have planned.

And it’s a great feeling to have been a part of such a special celebration for people that I love on a day they will always cherish and remember.

Here’s the BIG NEWS:

Most recently, I have learned of a few new happy couples.

Congratulations to Kat Don & Dan Touff, Fashionista’s ‘IT’ Couple!

Founder of Riviera PR company and PR socialite, Benoit Thebaut,  just got married in LA!

And just two days ago, I was asked to be a part of the planning for another big Beijing wedding day:

Love Birds Ken Li (owner of Bling & All-Star) & his beautiful bride-to-be, Julia Li have decided to tie the knot!  Tentative wedding date: May 2010! (Thank goodness I have more than a month this time around)

Love Birds Julia & Ken

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL YOU LOVE BIRDS!!  I wish you a lifetime of happiness and love.

To Mentor is To Inspire

Having had the opportunity to collaborate and work together with so many diverse projects, I’d had a great advantage over those who choose stability.

I’ve had the opportunity to learn through working on different projects with different people in different work environments and management styles. From straight up dictatorship to playing the friend role, it’s been quite an experience to manage each relationship on a basis of loyalty, honesty, professionalism.

Lucky for me, I’ve never been alone.  From the days I first started managing PR for Block 8, I was fortunate enough to have two incredibly caring and inspiring mentors: Sebastien Noat & Alan Wong.

Sebastien is hands-down one of the most ambitious, brilliant, eloquent, energetic, and hard working people I know. He is always on the go, full of creative ideas, indisputably persuasive, and knows exactly what he wants. And he goes after it. I saw him go from the General Manager of Block 8 to starting up his own Consultancy Agency – Alchemy, where he took me under his wing and made me part of an unstoppable team, working with some of the most prestigious F&B client companies in China including Domus & Cabaret with the Tiandi Group and LAN Club with the South Beauty Group.  Alchemy is also the creative group behind the concept, design and launch of All-Star Sports Bar & Grill + Club Bling.

While in many ways Alan is similar to Sebastien in the sense that he is extremely capable, personable,  has an inherent gift to managing his staff and business associates, along with the power to inspire and teach, Alan is also one of the most down-to-earth, chillest people on this planet.  This is where Alan’s management style is so brilliant.  I have encountered too many times, people who manage through means of commanding, dictating – which to me, is just condescending. Alan, on the other hand, I have yet to hear yell at anyone or seen him truly angry.  I have seen him frustrated, worried, stressed, and at the worst, I’ve seen him disappointed, but that to me is more powerful than anger.  What he inspires in those who work for him is a motivation that drives people to do not only do what is best for Alan or themselves, but more importantly, what’s best for the team.

Before I saw Alan as my mentor and before I even started working for Alan, I was already Alan’s ‘little sister’.  Turns out, we went to the same high school – Rio Americano High School in Sacramento, California.  Small World, huh?  Now, after two years, I’ve worked for Block 8 and all of Alan’s restaurants in the Hatsune Restaurant Group, including the launch and grand opening parties of his two newest outlets in Sanlitun Village: the second Hatsune restaurant & Karaiya Spice House. Since then, I’ve had the honor of working as Alan & Hannah’s wedding planner and most recently, I’m a proud Auntie to baby Mason Kalei.

I have yet to begin my own company where I’ll be mentoring and motivating my own staff, but when that day comes, I will be happy if I can instill just a fraction of what my mentors have inspired in me to achieve.

Alchemy Team: Left to Right - Joe Zheng, me, Sebastien Noat