So I started to research more information about shark finning, from reading articles (Vancouver Sun did a series on Sharks recently) to watching documentary films (Fins and Shark Water), to see what the big deal is. Isn’t shark fin just food? If you do not know what shark finning is like, here’s a video:

Can you imagine someone chop off your limps and throw you out on the streets to die? That’s probably how the shark feels after its fins were cut off.

But they are just food, like chickens, pigs, cows…etc, right? Why should we care?

Yes, I agree, sharks are just like the fish we eat. However, just slicing off their fins and leaving them to die in the ocean is not sustainable at all. What if we only chop off chicken feet or wings and throw away the rest of the chicken?

But there must be lots of sharks in the ocean, just like all the other fish! We don’t need to worry.

I think this is a misconception. There’s a growing list of shark species being endangered or near extinction because of finning and long-lining. Here’s a short documentary “Fin” by Claire Garner, Josefina Bergsten, Andy Limond and Alex Hofford which had won the People’s Choice Award from “I Shot Hong Kong” Film Festival 2009:

Fin from alexhofford on Vimeo.

I hope you had as much laughs as I did when I watched “Fin” because of the ridiculous comments by the Chinese shark fin vendors, like “shark sashimi” or “if we don’t eat sharks they’ll eat all the fish!” (Is he trying to imply that they are the “good guys”?)

I’ve also watched Shark Water. It’s an excellent documentary on sharks. Since I’ve learned all these information about shark finning, I’ve decided that to spread the word about this issue, it’d be a good idea to not serve shark fin soup at our wedding. I’ve talked to Al and our parents about it (read it here at my wedding notebook). Most of them are supportive but they still don’t understand why I’ve decided to not serve the soup since:

a) the restaurant will most likely not reduce the price on the menu even if you substitute it with another soup

b) since it’s already on the menu why not just eat it! the older generations probably doesn’t care about the unsustainable part of it anyway.

Well, my point is we could use our wedding banquet to spread the word about how unsustainable it is to consume shark fin. I understand that it has been in the Chinese history for many many years. But just because it is a tradition, it doesn’t mean it’s “right”. I also have to make my point clear on the fact that I’m not promoting that eating shark fin soup is a bad thing. The soup itself is fine. It is how we obtain the ingredients to make the soup that bothers me. If they didn’t fin those sharks and left them to die in the ocean; if they’d use a sustainable way to obtain the shark fins (and make use of the rest of the shark) I think it’s fine to consume shark fin soup. But the way they currently do it just doesn’t sit right with me. Wouldn’t it be sad when your children, grand children or great grand children read about sharks in books and ask you where they can see them and you can only reply “Sharks are all dead, dear. We ate them for their fins and now they are extinct, just like the dinosaurs.”

I’m still working on finding alternatives to shark fin soup for our wedding. I know both our parents still thinks I’m a little crazy for doing this but I hope they (and our guests) will understand once we explain to them the reason behind not serving shark fin soup. Wish me luck!

It’s been more than a year since I last opened my wedding planning folder, I’m a bit excited to get back into it. Over the course of the last 6 months we’ve actually came up with some interesting ideas for the wedding. Such as having a masquerade at a heritage building or a BBQ wedding at the beach. However, our wedding guests list grew so large that I was not able to find a nice heritage location that would fit all of us for the masquerade, and Al thinks that with the rain we get in Vancouver, having a beach wedding is almost a 100% fail.

So with the wedding planning switch being turned “on”, I’ll probably update my wedding blog more often. If you have any ideas or suggests, feel free to throw them my way.

Anyways, the best part of these weddings is that the location is very unique. I attended a ceremony in the UBC Boathouse and a banquet at the Vancouver Art Gallery. I’ve wrote about the two venues on the wedding notebook so if you’re interested in how the venues look like head over to view the pictures.

I didn’t get a chance to take too many photos at the weddings but for my dear Kaya here are some photos of the triplets.

This is at the dock at the UBC Boathouse.

I love this picture!

Cheese!...with the Kan couple.

At the Vancouver Art Gallery (outside).

For Richter...with ♥~ lol

Two more weddings coming up in the Fall. I haven’t been to fall weddings yet. Hopefully it won’t be too cold.

[That's Ah Bu, the photographers dog. He's so cute!]

[Taken at Hycroft Mansion. I really love that house.]

[Fixing my hair, or at least pretending to anyway.]

[Why hello there! That'd be my thought bubble for this picture. Taken in Gastown.]

Ok more pictures to come later. You’ll also find some posted at my wedding planning blog. Let me know what you guys think of these.

Friday

I had a day off and went to have lunch with MH out in Richmond before heading over to HN Wedding to review the 2nd draft of the wedding album layout. There are still more changes to be made but I think we’re close to finalizing it. I also got a chance to get copies of my photos which I had upload a few for people to see. I thought they turned out pretty well, although there are ones where Al liked that I didn’t. Pictures will be posted in the next post.

Saturday

There was a sale at Making Memories with Scrapbooking so I went there with MH to look for something specific but they didn’t have it. (Can’t say what it is because it’s a gift =p) After a light lunch at Crystal Mall I met up with WuWu to go to the Taiwan Fest. There were more people there than I thought, especially at the food location. We went pass all the food vendors first to get a glimps of what’s available before deciding to start off with this huge meat dumpling with shredded bamboo shoots. It had this special sauce which is a little like sour and spicy which made the dumpling wrapping taste really good.

Next up we got this combo of 2 skewers of bbq lamb, 1 skewer of “stinky” tofu (it’s actually like fried tofu) and 1 skewer of bbq squid. The tofu is actually not even stinky compared to the one you can get in Asia. The squid was good and so were the lamb. I tried a bit even though I usually don’t eat lamb. For dessert we got shaved ice with taro dumplings, red/green beans and peanuts. Instead of condensed milk they use a simple syrup. It was very refreshing.

[click to enlarge]

We took a walk around the vendor section where I found these cute handmade cellphone accessories made with clay. They were so adorable. I got a peach baby and a crab baby.

The was also an arts and culture exhibition. Some of the items were really fasinating. Like the “pillow” made with wood and the thinking chair. I actually learned a lot about the Taiwanese culture when we visited the history/cultural section where they had information about the country as well as the different tribes living on the island. Thanks WuWu for history lesson! More photos from the Taiwan Fest are posted on my Picasa Album.

Sunday

Since the twins got asked to go pick up the bride with Alvin, I ended up having to wake up earlier to shower and get my hair done. Usually it doesn’t take this long when I’m at my own house but the twin’s bathroom is still a bit foreign to me. Plus curling all of your hair by yourself with a curling iron takes a long time. But since weddings are the only time I’d actually get to take my curling iron out for some action, I don’t really mind it that much.

Before heading to Minoru Chapel in Richmond, I went over to Alvin’s for lunch as well as the tea ceremony. There were so many people there and thank god I didn’t need to take off my heels (yay for hardwood floor!) since the strap wraps around my ankle twice which makes it a hassle to take the shoes off. I finally get to meet Ryan and Andrew, both which I had met online before in World of Warcraft. Acutally, I think about 1/4 of my guildies were at the wedding!

I was very excited to find out how the wedding ceremony was like at Minoru Chapel since I’m having my wedding there next year. The only thing I didn’t like was the crackling of the floor/chair as people stood up/sit down because it’s a pretty old chapel. Aside from that I don’t exactly mind the short aise because that means I can get to the alter faster, which leads to a faster ceremony! After taking pictures, the twins and I headed back home to rest before going to the dinner reception at Shun Feng Restaurant. Since it’s the standard Chinese banquet, I’ll just tell you the highlight of the night, which is when MH caught the garter! Those who were there will know what I mean. LOL

Here are some of the photos that LawLi took of us at the reception:

[I think Al looks too cute in that one...almost like my little brother...]

Monday

I had to do work on Labour Day because our CEO wanted the entire website to be updated by end of Tuesday. So in order to make sure I meet the deadling I took a head start. I can’t believe summer is over. Oh and only 11 months to go before the big day. Starting to feel a bit pressured now since I haven’t worked on the invites yet. I’ll get around to it…