“Before we got engaged, my husband and I spent many weekends hiking and exploring the charming towns along the Hudson River. So when we started thinking about wedding venues, we knew we wanted to get married in Hudson Valley, as it held a very special place in our hearts. When we visited Monteverde at Oldstone, we knew immediately that it was the place for us. We loved the idea of exchanging our vows on the great lawn along the river, and the reception tent was stunningly classic and elegant.

I wanted our wedding to have a very romantic feel with a soft color pallet to match the natural beauty of our venue. I chose a combination of blush and cream, with pops of green. The greenery theme was used throughout the wedding, on things such as the vines on the back of our chairs, on the escort card table, and even the on our chandeliers. I also incorporated the greenery theme in our wedding stationary, from the programs to the personalized menus to the donut sign. The string lights and lit candles throughout the tent gave the reception a magical glow that exuded a warmth that matched the love felt around the room.

My fiance and I love fashion, so we wanted our outfits to be fitting of the most special day of our lives. He chose to get a bespoke tuxedo made, and he knew from the start he wanted to wear burgundy. His burgundy tuxedo fit him perfectly and was very unique.

I also knew from the beginning what I wanted to wear – I had found the Loretta dress by Galia Lahav online and knew that was my dress before I even tried it on. I tried on over 50 dresses just to be sure, but nothing could beat how beautiful I felt in that dress with the low back and long train. As an homage to Chinese tradition, I changed into a red Andrea and Leo dress for speeches and for the father daughter dance. And for my last outfit, I wore a sparkly sweetheart strapless dress for the cake cutting and dancing. That dress was very special to me, as I wore that dress ten years ago when I competed in the Miss New York USA pageant and made it into the Top 15.

Our ceremony was very special for us – we had my husband’s best friend officiate, and we also wrote our own vows. Our officiant did such an amazing job that we had multiple people come tell us that it was the best ceremony they had ever witnessed. Overall, it was such an amazing experience to be surrounded by 200 our of friends and family who were just there to celebrate our love for one another.

About two weeks before our wedding, Hurricane Dorian was crawling up the East Coast, and was going to land in the New York area right around our wedding date. We did everything we could to prepare for every type of weather – we bought umbrellas in case it rained, parasols and fans in case it was hot. It rained the night of our rehearsal dinner, but when we woke up on Saturday morning, the weather was absolutely perfect. It wasn’t too hot, and it wasn’t too cold. We felt so incredibly lucky to be blessed with such amazing weather on our wedding day.

Another cool thing was that our wedding got featured in two Chinese entertainment news outlets, one of them Yahoo News! My brother is a well known actor in Taiwan and China, so his attendance at our wedding got some buzz.

When asked for advice for future brides, I will say that yes, it will be stressful – there’s no getting around that. But just do the best that you can do, prepare the best that you can, and then on the day of your wedding, just let it all go. On that day, there is really nothing else you can do, so just trust that everything will be just fine. Time really is of the essence – spend quality time with your bridesmaids as you get ready, savor the time you have with your new husband, and try to spend some time with each and every one of your guests – time really flies by. Just enjoy this special day!”