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River & Stephen (04/28/2018)

 

River and Stephen: A Love Written in the Stars

River and Stephen’s love story has been featured in Grace Ormonde Wedding Style, a highly prestigious publication. We are delighted to have received this great honor, and are inspired to share their love story with you.

The epic love story of psychic River Zhong and Stephen Cheung is centuries in the making. Stephen, a courageous Chinese general, fell in love with River’s beauty and fiery spirit instantly during a past life. As a result of war, the two lovers were to be separated for another 300 years. Their destiny was ultimately fulfilled when River’s Godmother, serving as the couple’s matchmaker, recognized that the two lovelorn souls were fated for sweet reunion. Upon formal reintroduction, the blissful couple were astonished to have finally found one another, vowing not to allow life nor death to keep them apart.

Within four short months, the couple had arranged an intricate Chinese engagement ceremony to allow Stephen to formally request that River become his bride. During the ceremony, the couple’s matchmaker negotiated the dowry between each set of parents, which consisted of yellow gold jewelry that was placed on the bride-to-be by her future mother-in-law. The bride’s family also presented gifts to the groom and his parents as part of a special tea ceremony, including a money-filled red envelope symbolizing a blessing and formal welcome into the new family. River and Stephen own two successful restaurants in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area: Lavagna, offering fresh farm to table Italian cuisine, and Pow Pow, serving up delectable Chinese American dishes. The couple later celebrated their engagement during a party with family and close friends at Lavagna Restaurant.

River and Stephen planned for their wedding to carry as much symbolism as their engagement festivities. River’s psychic abilities led her to hire me – Elisa from Exceptional Events by Elisa to plan, design, and coordinate the day of the wedding with great attention to symbolism and detail. The bride chose a complementary set of award-winning event professionals to round out the team, including Butterfly Photography, Brookhill Florist, and Bowen Films. As restaurateurs and foodies, the couple chose to celebrate their nuptials at the highly acclaimed 2941 Restaurant. River and Stephen’s ceremony was attended by close family and friends, and was gracefully framed by koi ponds, waterfalls, and a lakeside view.

The ceremony and reception décor were accented with touches of gold to symbolize wealth, along with purple and cream florals, desserts, and favors. The color red played a vital role in their Chinese celebrations as a symbol of success, love, loyalty, fertility, and honor. The couple stunned in their engagement pictures with vibrant red Chinese apparel. River wore gilded red heels for the wedding ceremony along with an American-style lace wedding dress. She changed into another white dress with a delicate embroidered cape for the reception, as is traditionally done in Chinese culture to highlight the bride’s beauty. Multiple tea ceremonies served to honor the couple’s parents and officially usher the bride and groom into their new family.

River and Stephen were delighted with the flawless outcome of their day, and they felt that their wedding was perfectly fit for a love written in the stars. The joyous couple soon enjoyed a relaxing, tropical honeymoon with family in Miami to continue with the festivities. They will be planning a second, traditional Chinese wedding to take place in China at a future date. River and Stephen are in agreement that their spectacular wedding and newfound happiness were worth the centuries-long wait.

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Grace Ormonde Wedding Style is dedicated to offering its readers innovative ideas and creative approaches from the world’s top wedding specialists. Recognized with prestigious industry awards for its superb printing and design quality, Grace Ormonde Wedding Style blends meaningful editorial content with select advertisers. Grace Ormonde Wedding Style is the most talked about luxury wedding magazine worldwide. Be sure to look for the exquisite spread featuring Leo and Bill’s wedding in the most recent issue of the magazine!

River Zhong & Stephen Cheung

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Leo & Bill’s Wedding (10-07-2017)

Leo & Bill’s Wedding: Featured in Grace Ormonde Wedding Style

When Leo met Bill, it wasn’t long before he knew that Bill was the man for him. They both desired an intimate wedding surrounded by close friends and family, and a unique ceremony that celebrated their love. Exceptional Events by Elisa was thrilled to help them plan and experience the wedding of their dreams. Leo and Bill’s wedding was so lovely that it has been featured in Grace Ormonde Wedding Style, a highly prestigious publication. We are delighted to have received this great honor, and are inspired to share the behind the scenes details of this special celebration with you.

 

Decor: Leo and Bill’s decor was simple yet elegant, consisting of garlands and centerpieces of Eucalyptus and Salal. Italian Ruscus adorned the staircase to the ballroom, the ceremony arch, ceremony aisles, reception tables and lounge tables. The greenery gave it a clean, modern and masculine look that was infused with a fresh eucalyptus scent. Candles in glass cylinder vases and lanterns bestowed a warm, romantic glow.

Planning: It took one year to plan and design Leo and Bill’s dream wedding. This included over 170 hours of event planning and design, countless venue visits, 26 vendor proposal requests, 13 in-person vendor interviews, and numerous meetings with hired vendors. We conducted frequent meetings, lunches, and shopping trips with the couple, sent over 500 emails, and communicated via countless conference calls and text messages. The timeline was organized as a detailed, color coded and categorized 28-page document that listed the chronological details of the event minute by minute.

Team: It took a veritable army to bring Leo and Bill’s wedding vision to life. This included three event planners, three decorators, five event assistants, and a timeline keeper. A floral designer with four assistants, a stationary company, and two makeup artists added their design talents to the event. The day was captured by two photographers, two videographers, and two assistants. It was brought to life with the use of two party rental companies and one audio and lighting company. Entertainment included a DJ flown in from Honduras, a string trio, four samba dancers, four samba drummers, two stilt walkers, two human living tables, and a female impersonator. Finally, a regiment of chefs, sous chefs, pastry chefs, kitchen staff, event staff, valet staff and more worked behind the scenes to ensure the wedding was a smashing success.

Vendors: The vendors that contributed to Leo and Bill’s perfect day include:
• Exceptional Events by Elisa: Wedding Planning, Designing, Styling and Coordinating
• Butterfly Photography: Photographer
• Brookhill Florist: Floral Design
• Bowen Films: Videographer
• KK’s Printing & Stationery: Invitations
• Makeup by Masuma: Makeup
• Zulma’s Event Decor: Draping
• Select Event Group: Linens and Rentals
• Boom Audio Services: AV, Lighting & Sound
• DJ AllanV: DJ
• Olivera Music Entertainment: String Trio
• Zezeh Brazil Dance Troupe: Samba Dancers and Drummers
• Big Biz Entertainment: Performers
• Porce Lain St Clair: Impersonator
• Ritz Carlton DC: Venue

Ready to start your wedding planning? If you are looking for an experienced event and wedding planner, look no further than Exceptional Events by Elisa. It would be our honor to provide you with an exceptional wedding and event planning experience. Please call us at 703-752-6287, and schedule an appointment today!

Leo & Bill’s Photo Album (Butterfly Photography)

Leo & Bill’s Wedding Video (Bowen Films)

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Grace Ormonde Wedding Style is dedicated to offering its readers innovative ideas and creative approaches from the world’s top wedding specialists. Recognized with prestigious industry awards for its superb printing and design quality, Grace Ormonde Wedding Style blends meaningful editorial content with select advertisers. Grace Ormonde Wedding Style is the most talked about luxury wedding magazine worldwide. Be sure to look for the exquisite spread featuring Leo and Bill’s wedding in the most recent issue of the magazine!

Leonidas Moncada & William Fritzlen

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