Joanna & Tom's wedding

Saturday Ceremony

What's on: Renowned artist Xu Shu Hua will teach you how to do paper cutting, using one of her Taiwanese-inspired designs. They look amazing, and it's simpler than you think! We're also going to try some collective art with watercolour paint and information for a self-guided tour of the gardens will also be provided. These activities will run from 3pm to 5pm, so please enjoy them before and after the formalities.
When: Saturday, June 15, 3pm - 5pm; Ceremony starts 3:30pm
Where: Zhi Shan Garden 至善園, Pine Wind Pavillion
No. 221, Sec 2, Zhi Shan Rd, Shilin District, Taipei City 111, Taiwan
Attire: Cocktail. 西裝, 小禮服, 晚宴禮服. Note: the venue is partially outdoors, take note of the weather.
Transportation: Please make your way to the Zhi Shan Garden 至善園 and enter from Zhi Shan Road 至善路. If you take a taxi or a public bus, the National Palace Museum 故宮 drop off area on Zhi Shan Road 至善路 is right at the entrance to Zhi Shan Garden. Travel time from MRT Shilin Station is around 15 minutes.; It's easy to take a bus, exit the MRT at Shilin Station Exit 1 and walk straight down the mall to the main road. On your right is a bus stop with a clearly marked sign "Bus routes to National Palace Museum". Bus 255 Shuttle, 304 Chongqing N/ChengDe Line, and 815 all go to the bus stop opposite Zhi Shan Garden. Bus R30 is another frequent option, but you will need to walk down the stairs from the top of the palace museum to the Zhi Shan Garden entrance.; A map is available here.
A bus for guests will be provided from the entrance of Zhi Shan Garden to Fashion Bangkok, departing 5:30pm.
Parking: Gugong (National Palace Museum) Parking 故宮停車場; Cars: NT$50/entry
Entry: At the gate, present the floral design we emailed to you to the security guard (either on your phone, or printed is fine), who will let you in without payment.; Here's what the gate looks like:; Once inside, follow the covered walkway around to the Pine Wind Pavilion:; Level 1 has the artistic activities, and we will gather on Level 2 by 3:30pm for the bride's arrival.

Saturday Reception

What: Celebrate our marriage!
When: Saturday, June 15, in the evening; Reception starts 6:00pm
Where: Fashion Bangkok
No 54, Dadong Road, Shilin District, Taipei City 111, Taiwan
Phone: +886 2 2833 0013
Attire: Cocktail. 西裝, 小禮服, 晚宴禮服. Note: the venue is partially outdoors, take note of the weather.
Transportation: Those attending the afternoon activity will be provided bus transport to the reception. If coming direct to the reception, we recommend taking the MRT to Shilin station, and walking the 400m from Exit 2 to the venue.
Parking: Parking is often full in the area at night, but can be found adjacent to MRT Shilin and MRT JianTan stations.

Taiwan

Getting There and Away

The wedding venues are located in Taipei City, Taiwan.

Taipei is served by two international airports, both of which have convenient access to the city. The smaller airport, Songshan, is located in the city and serves regional flights (eg Japan, Korea, China). The larger airport, Taoyuan, is approximately 40mins by express train or taxi from the city centre. Connecting via Hong Kong or Tokyo may be cheaper than a direct flight to Taipei.

For those coming from elsewhere inside Taiwan, the high speed rail, regular trains and highway buses all terminate in Taipei. Be aware that car parking in Taipei is hard to find. We may arrange a shuttle bus from Tongxiao for the wedding day.

Where to Stay

Taipei has a plethora of accommodation options, but a general rule to apply is: stay somewhere within easy walking distance of an MRT station. We did a quick search and found some options for various budgets, but definitely check out booking.com or tripadvisor to find a great deal. Feel free to contact us for advice.

Hotel Proverbs	~USD200/night	The Hotel Proverbs is a luxury boutique hotel located a stone's throw from ZhongXiao FuXing MRT. Step out of the quiet rooms into bustling night-life.
Beitou Hot Springs Resort	~USD160/night	The Beitou Hot Springs Resort provides a natural hot spring piped right into your room. Only 35 minutes MRT ride to the city centre. If you're scared of dense living this might be the retreat you need. To save a bit of money you could stay in the nearby Aloft hotel and use the public hot spring (only 1.30 USD).
Palais de Chine	~USD140/night	The Palais de Chine is about as close to Taipei Main Station as you can get. There's not a lot around the area, but you can get everywhere in Taipei from here easily, including the wedding venues.
Hotel Cozzi ZhongXiao	~USD125/night	The Hotel Cozzi ZhongXiao is the central-taipei edition of the popular local chain Cozzi. Safe and clean, with Shandao Temple MRT station right out the front, and Taipei Main Station within a kilometer.
Dandy Hotel DaAn Park	~USD90/night	The Dandy Hotel DaAn Park is a great-value option (albeit with tiny rooms). Right across from Da An Forest Park and its associated MRT station, this puts you on the red metro line to access the wedding venues.
AirBNB	~USD40-150/night	airbnb has a few hundred options in Taipei. This can be a reasonably affordable option for those who don't mind something a bit more self-service.

Things to Do

Taiwan is a mango shaped island 400km long, with capital city Taipei in the North. The majority of the population lives down the west coast - the east coast being nigh-on-inaccessible until several tunnels were made through the 3000m+-high mountain range. Taipei City and surrounds has a large variety of activities for the traveller, as you’d expect from a region with an urban population approaching 10M. The scenery on the East coast (Hualien, YiLan, Taidong) is pristine, though beautiful nature can of course still be found on the more populated West Coast. Take the bullet train and see it all, if you can. There are also outlying islands controlled by Taiwan that offer a mix of ecological discovery and military history.

Night Markets

Taiwan is famous for its night markets. Here are a few to consider in Taipei:

Shilin Night Market	MRT JianTan	The most famous night market in Taipei, and the largest with the most variety. Also the most busy, so do consider the crowds. Unusually, indoors.
RaoHe Night Market	MRT SongShan or HouShanPi	Our personal favourite. Less crowded than Shilin, with still a reasonable number of stands selling a mix of things. Also located across from to the WuFengPu shopping area that is comprised almost entirely of boutiques selling locally designed clothing and accessories.
LinJiang Street/TongHua Street Night Market	MRT XinYi AnHe	This is a good example of a smaller night market that is probably frequented more by nearby residents than visitors. Ugly concrete paving, but good food and boutiques. Nearby the XinYi bar scene, some stalls open 24 hours.
ShiDa Night Market	MRT Taipower Building	Located next to a university, the energy level at this one is pretty high. Good food selections and usually also student stands selling interesting trinkets&clothes.
LiaoNing Street Night Market	MRT Nanjing Fuxing	There is some debate about whether this is technically a night market. However, if you want night market food, a place to sit indoors and wide enough streets to not feel crowded, it serves well.
NanYa Night Market	MRT FuZhong	A night market near Joanna and Tom's home
NingXia night Market	Taipei Main Station	A basic, centrally located night market.

Outdoors

Taiwan, even just a short walk from the MRT in Taipei, has fantastic hiking. Ask us for tips. There's also some decent beaches near the city (eg Baishawan and also further afield if you have a bit more time (eg Fulong, or Kenting in the south). Diving can also be found in the south, and surfing is best on the east coast. You can also try out natural hot springs at Wulai and Beitou.

Shopping

People from Hong Kong and Japan fly to Taipei to go shopping. Areas range from the department-store-dense XinYi district to the Wufenpu wholesale district where retailers go to buy their clothes from overflowing baskets. Hit the laneways in ZhongXiao or DaAn to find the more hidden boutiques, or join the young people at Ximen (pictured). If you're not buying online, the GuangHua Digital Plaza is a tech wonder.

Eat

Taiwanese food within itself is extremely varied. Culturally, it’s a grazing/snacking culture, where a solid weekend is breakfast followed by “oh, I just remembered that nearby strawberry-on-a-stick place”, followed by “it’s lunch time” and making dinner plans while at lunch. Pack an extra stomach.

This article from CNN is surprisingly insightful, if you want a checklist
Michelin-Star Dumplings - DingTaiFung (Queues may be >90mins at peak times)
Hakka Food (no menu, ingredients purchased fresh from the market. You look at a fridge and say “that fish looks good” and have a discussion with the staff about how you’d like it cooked) - Maoyuan
Beef Noodle Soup - possibly the closest thing to a national dish. Each restaurant makes their own recipe … try many and find your favourite.
Breakfast - a surprisingly big thing for a late-starting culture. Deserves its own article due to the number of options. Can't go wrong with steamed buns or a spring onion pancake.
Large Fried Chicken

non-Taiwanese:

Local Izakaya (Japanese “Pub” Equivalent) - 549
Thai Brewpub - Jolly
Steak or Lobster - Le Blanc

Drink

Alcohol was a nationalized industry up until 2001, with everything up until then being made by Government-owned Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation. Taiwanese have held strongly onto their national brew (Taiwan Beer - Gold Medal Edition), but in the past 5 years a craft brew scene has popped up, building on the work of some Californian immigrants to now be a bit past the “hit and miss” category. The cocktail scene is solid, amoungst the best in asia, with Taiwanese bartenders currently found in some of the top bars internationally. Also, take advantage of the fact that spirits are very cheap here.

Beer

Taihu Taprooms
Timekeeper (Nangang & Banqiao) - by Red Point Brewing
Beer Cat

Cocktails

R&D
Ounce

Whiskey

Getting Around

Taipei has a world class public transportation system, which we highly recommend. It's fully navigable in English, and a single card (EasyCard) covers the metro, trains, trams, buses, ferries and bikeshare. For those with less mobility, taxis are plentiful, cheap and safe but generally only accept cash. Uber is also available.

Money

Taiwan uses the New Taiwan Dollar (NT$), which converts at about 1:30 to the US dollar, 1:35 to the Euro and 1:22 to the Australian dollar. Taiwan is still a predominantly cash-based society, with cards only really accepted in brand-name outlets. Since you won't be buying property, expect to be pleasantly surprised by how far your dollar goes. You can get a decent meal for 85 TWD (bowl of beef noodle soup), and at the maximum end a whole lobster in a nice restaurant is only 1400 TWD. A ride on the metro is 16-30TWD. A prepaid sim card with unlimited data starts at around 300 TWD.

Food

Taiwan is a foodie paradise. It caters particularly well to vegetarians, and there is an increasing amount of halal food. If you are allergic to shellfish or cannot eat pork, be extra careful as these can often be in sauces. For life-threatening allergies, this card should be helpful. Our wedding will provide a vegetarian option, but if you have additional requirements please contact us.

Children

We hear conflicting things about kids at weddings, so we decided on a compromise. Young ones are very welcome to join the ceremony, and see the beautiful bride and all the things from weddings in movies. However, to facilitate the hardworking parents who would love a proper party, we've elected to make the dinner event a grown-ups only affair. To help out, we're going to arrange some kind of babysitting - please send us details of what you need so we can let the kids have a good time too :)

Gifts

No gifts! No red packets(紅包)！ We're just so happy to have you, our amazing friends and family at our wedding. We've already got enough stuff and you've already given us so much, so please treat yourself to something special this weekend instead.

Paperless

This is a paperless wedding. That means all of our save the dates, invitations, and thank-you notes are being delivered digitally.

Our Story

We first met at a conference in Barcelona in 2009. At the time, Joanna was building information systems at CERN in Geneva, and Tom was frequently traveling to particle physics events around the world. Fast friends, we quickly discovered Tom's love to chocolate was surpassed by Joanna's love of cakes. She really has 32 sweet teeth, except when it comes to cocktails and whiskey.

Some time in 2011, things started getting more serious and fast. Uncharacteristically, both of us were basically homeless, shuffling between various friend's places having had plans to work overseas. Joanna was going to Hong Kong, and Tom's plan to move to Taiwan was abruptly cancelled by a competing job offer in Melbourne. We decided to change our future plan to be a shared one, and by August, we both lived in a tiny room in a house with a few friends in Fitzroy.

We had a lot of fun in Melbourne! We moved to live opposite Victoria Market in the city, and it was almost every day we were discovering new, delicious food. Our little kitchen was pushed to the limit. Joanna got into running and Tom was the one working too many hours for a change. At the end of 2013, we decided spontaneously to move to Taiwan. It was a rapid decision - much like the move to Melbourne in the first place - about a month and a half from decision to being set up in Taipei. Tom found his normally excellent sense of direction was off by 180 degrees for the first 18 months, but still managed to show Joanna around the city he somehow knew more about.

Joanna rediscovered her home country, and over time we both turned the new into the familiar. It was a different lifestyle, and having both of us working from home was a challenge. We met lots of friendly new people who helped us on the journey, and used Taiwan as a launching point to reach into nearby places, and the world. We became more frequent visitors to Japan, and other continents seemed closer. Spicy food was consumed. Cycling became a commute and a hobby. Tom became a competitive trail runner. We took delight in hosting and guiding people visiting Taiwan, and now we're looking forward to host you for our wedding!