Xiao & Keith | Grand Oaks Country Club | Staten Island, NY

“Everything Was Delicious”

Keith: I’m a police officer. I had an intern who was in college and he went to school with Xiao. He asked me to come along with him one day, not expecting me to fall in love with Xiao, which I did!

Xiao: After our first meeting, we started connecting on WeChat, a Chinese messenger app. I invited Keith to a barbecue and we began to hang out more. Eventually Keith asked me out and we started dating.

Keith: We were dating around three years and I was deeply in love with Xiao. I wanted to propose so I scheduled a trip to Long Island and set up a beautiful surprise beach picnic for the proposal. I told her that we were going on a boat ride near the beach.

Xiao: We were late for the boat ride that morning and I was worried. I started running on the beach and ran past the surprise picnic which I did not know was for me. Keith grabbed onto my arm and asked me if I liked the picnic. I said no because my mind was occupied with the thought of missing the boat. He said, “This is actually for you, and there is no boat.” I was very surprised and could not stop laughing about it. Then he proposed.

Keith: We live in Brooklyn and had about a year until the wedding. We wanted a place convenient for our family and friends. We looked in Jersey, Queens, Brooklyn, and Long Island but ultimately decided on Staten Island because it was closest to all our family and friends.

Xiao: Grand Oaks Country Club also had a beautiful outdoor space. Amanda Hempel was our wedding planner at the venue. We didn’t really start managing all the details until one month before the wedding and she was really good. Even if I emailed her late at night, she would still respond immediately.

Keith: We brought in a lot of material ourselves and they helped us set everything up and answered all our questions. It took a while for us to pick the songs for our ceremony. We were going through lists and lists of songs to finally find our perfect one.

We wanted the ceremony more outdoors with nothing covered, but though the venue has a tent which could not be taken down, the ceremony was everything we were hoping for.

Xiao: Looking back at the photos, I like the tent. It’s also nice looking and it eliminates glare from the sun.

Keith: We were very busy taking pictures, but I knew our guests had a great time because they said the cocktail hour food was great.

Xiao: Our “From the Sea” station had Little Neck clams and blue point oysters, plus a frutti di mare salad with poached shrimps, scallops, calamari, and mussels. We had a smoked salmon station and a sushi station. Our carving station offered marinated flank steak with Merlot roasted shallot demi-glaze and roast suckling pig with pineapple teriyaki glaze. We also had rigatoni with roasted eggplant, tomato sauce, and mozzarella perusals, plus penne alla vodka.

There was an outdoor bar, so there was plenty of space for drinks. There was so much more and our guests said everything was delicious! The uplighting was very good too. For dinner our guests chose from chateaubriand, Norwegian grilled salmon, pan roasted chicken in a white wine garlic sauce, and grilled cauliflower. And our tiered wedding cake had chocolate inside.

Xiao: The florist suggested many beautiful themes and styles, but I had a hard time picking just one. So I asked if they could create a mix of colors, with short and tall centerpieces. They did a wonderful job.

Xiao & Keith: We want to thank everyone who made the time to come to our wedding. We also want to thank Amanda for being so prompt in answering all our questions and thank our florist for taking in all my opinions. I also want to thank my husband. He was the most supportive person in this whole wedding planning. And we want to thank everyone for their generous gifts.

Grand Oaks Country Club, Staten Island, NY
718.356.2771, grandoaksnyc.com