Pictures taken by Mitch Ranger. Please be patient for them to load!
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Pictures taken by Mitch Ranger. Please be patient for them to load!
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We turned the prefunction space at the Radisson into a cocktail lounge, rather, a VIP lounge. There were two bars, one on either side of the room and the color scheme in this room was black and white with hot pink accents.
Any images without an asterisk (*) were not taken by a professional. All others were taken by Mitch Ranger.
Guests came up the escalator and were greeted by the escort card table. The buddha on the table was actually part of our home décor before the wedding. As a last minute decision, I told Corinne that I would bring it in case she could use it and I loved where she ended up putting it. The Radisson set up all the little escort cards I made.



Then, they turned and found their seats on the very simple table map. I made it simple as to not take away from what they’d find behind the first post…
…which was our VIP lounge areas. Corinne hung up the panels I made to separate the little areas.
My panels!

She designed the coral centerpieces on the modern tables and brought in modern furniture to bring our theme to life. I brought the candle votives which were previously puchased at Ikea.


There were four cocktail tables that guests could stand at and sign our guestbook cards. There were awesome centerpieces on each of them along with the box of guestbook cards. I LOVE mokara orchids.


The guestbook was also placed by the room entrance for guests to deposit their messages.

Cocktail hour lasted from 6pm – 7pm and was used to allow guests to mingle with each other and with us! It was our effort to allow people a window of time for people to arrive and to be able to chat with as many guests as possible. During this time, guests were able to wander around the prefunction room and the reception dinner room. The photographer set up his back drop and the signature drink flowed freely.
Any images without an asterisk (*) were not taken by a professional. All others were taken by Mitch Ranger.
I quickly changed back into my traditional dress for the cocktail hour. We wanted the guests to get a taste of Vietnamese tradition.
Guests found their tables with the DIY escort cards and DIY table map.

They also signed the DIY guestbook-scrapbook.



Everyone enjoyed three hot appetizers: spanokopita, scallop wrapped in smoked salmon, and seseme chicken with plum sauce.
They also enjoyed the "DonThao" signature drink: champagne, peach schnapps, cranberry juice, and soaking blueberries among the fully stocked bar.
We mingled in the VIP lounge as everyone arrived!









Then, at 7pm, we started the party with entrances.
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Tools:
It was very easy for us to come up with a theme. We are both city people and love to dance and meet people. Naturally, we went with an ongoing theme throughout our relationship: VIP party. These weren’t meant to be elaborate or end up on any bride’s MUST-DO list; rather, it was just our way of introducing our wedding with our personalities.
Since the theme was a little more personal among our friends, we just sent it to our friends. (Plus, the guest lists from either rents was not ready by the time these had to go out 6 months before the day.)
What goes with a VIP party theme? Well, a VIP pass does, of course! I bought cardstock and took one of our engagement photos of us goofing off in the middle of the city to plaster on its front. The printing at home took FOR-EV-ER. This is the template I made for the card.

Then I created a very simple and clean magnet design using Paint Shop Pro. I made it portrait orientation, then rotated it 90 degrees to make it landscape. This is important for vistaprint, or else, the image will be stretched. The file was saved as a .jpg. image. If you don’t have fancy schmancy software, you can create it in Word, take a screenshot of it and paste it into Paint or another similar basic image creator.
I logged onto Vistaprint.com. I really wanted it to be graphic like a VIP flyer, not necessarily "pretty". I uploaded it for a magnetic business card option.
Then, I chose to "Upload Your Own Design". I found the image I created. The rest is up to how many you need to order, etc.

Here are my magnets once they arrived!

I purchased lanyards from Staples and a rectangular hole puch from JoAnn’s (they always have 40% off sales).


So basically, you opened it to see me and Donny in a very strange picture. "Hmmm, what is this about?", one might ask. Then one would open it, remove the VIP lanyard, and read:

And then the picture on the front makes sense. Hopefully. Ok, maybe not, but SOMEONE must’ve gotten it. Well, 3 stamps on many envelopes later, they were on their way out approximately 6 months before the big day!

I saw some people put their magnets on their refrigerators with the lanyards attached–made me giggle, but it was definitely refreshing to see the hard work displayed! The responses have also been great. Our friends said, "It is so you guys!" That’s all I can ask for =).
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