vandusen gardens wedding

Wedding at Shaughnessy Restaurant at Van Dusen Gardens - Esther and Jimmy

Esther and Jimmy get Married at Shaughnessy Restaurant at Van Dusen Gardens in Vancouver // Victoria Wedding Photographers

We met up with Esther and Jimmy around this time last year, to discuss their wedding.  They told us about their laid back lifestyle, how they met, and some of the unique details of their wedding.

We were excited from the start: not only are Esther and Jimmy easy-going and easy to talk to, they planned on doing a few things at their wedding that would be entirely new experiences for us.  By the time their wedding day came around, we were bouncing in our seats.  Jimmy and Esther were hosting their wedding at iconic VanDusen Gardens, in Vancouver, a first for us, they were doing a first look which we love to do, and they’d be playing door games before the wedding.  All of these elements were going to make for a beautiful, sentimental, and fun-filled day.  Needless to say, easy going Esther and Jimmy kept us on our toes!

If you’re not familiar with Chinese wedding traditions, door games are something you should definitely know about!  The morning of the wedding Jimmy sent his handsome groomsmen to retrieve his stunning bride, Esther.  However, Esther’s bridesmaids weren’t about to give her up so easily.  Presented with obstacles, Jimmy and his groomsmen had to complete a series of challenges, to the gleeful delight of the bridesmaids (and to us capturing it).  These challenges included everything from rapping on the spot, to tasting a variety of questionable ‘candies’.  The games finish with groomsmen bribing the bridesmaids for the bride, a few aching stomachs (for the groomsmen – from the food, for the bridesmaids – from the hilarity), and of course, with one very green mouthed groomsmen.  Victorious, Jimmy headed outside to see Esther, in her wedding attire!

After a beautiful and intimate first look, it was off to Shaughnessy Restaurant at VanDusen Gardens to meet up with family and friends for the wedding and photos. With quests traveling all over the globe for the day, table-to-table cheers and toasts, and occasional roaring chants of “Fiddy! Fiddy!”, Esther and Jimmy’s wedding reception proved to be beautiful, heartfelt, and so entertaining!  Hope you enjoy the photos.

Vendors we loved from the wedding:

Venue // Shaughnessy Restaurant // VanDusen Gardens
Ether’s dress // David’s Bridal
Sash // Davie and Chiyo
Jimmy’s Suit // Moore’s
Bridesmaids // Autoalive
Makeup // Anita Ho
Hair // Cathy Nguyen
Officiant // Verna Magee Shepherd
Flowers// Sky Florist
Cake // BlueBird Cakery


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