Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre

Wedding Day

Wedding

Fortune House Seafood Restaurant

Reception

Our Wedding

How We Met

During the summer of 2013,&nbsp;Nate and I had met through a dating website called okcupid. We had both been recommended by friends to try this dating website, as each of our friends had found their spouses through this dating site. This was prior to the popularity of dating apps, so there was no swiping right or swiping left here; we had to go old school...scroll, click, click, click, scroll, etc.&nbsp; 

We messaged back and forth several times about food, music and honestly I don't really remember, but after some back and forth messaging, we exchanged numbers.&nbsp; 

I expected Nate to text me to set up our first date...but instead he CALLED!!!&nbsp; Being an English Literary Nerd and living on Main Street in the hipster hood at the time, I was all over anything old school and chivalrous. This guy actually picked up the phone and dialled my phone number?!! C'mon, let's be real...I was pretty darn impressed.&nbsp;

So we chatted on the phone for a bit&nbsp;and set up our first date for August 8th. After I got off the phone, my first thought was 8/8?!! Pretty good optics...but we'll see.&nbsp;

How We Met

In Chinese Culture, the number 8 means "fortune", "prosperity", "success".&nbsp; Multiples of 8, like 88 bear the resemblance to "double happiness" which is often used as a symbol of marriage.&nbsp;

What's the Deal with the 8's?!!

Our first date was on August 8th, 2013. After our initial phone call, we made a plan to meet at Matchstick coffee on East 15th in Vancouver. I parked on the side street and walked over to Matchstick and saw Nate, who was already there. I thought he was really cute.&nbsp;We&nbsp;greeted one another&nbsp;in front of the shop and he told me the coffee&nbsp;shop was closed. The sign on the door said something like, "Closed early for staff meeting. Sorry for the inconvenience." I thought to myself,&nbsp;Oh mans, where are we going to go now? There's nowhere around here... Then Nate suggested we have dinner at Les Faux Bourgeois. In my head, I was thinking...dinner on the first date?!! Oh mans...here we go. We've been together ever since. Best first date ever!

Belinda & Nathan

Belinda & Nathan

Photos