R & R – Our Stories
About the bride
Me, engaged! I am the Bride to Be!!!!
My name is Rachelle Vanessa Marie Cadieux and I was born in Ottawa Ontario Canada. My parents are Marylyn Service-Peters (mom), Robert Cadieux (dad), Bob Peters (step-dad) and Karen Cadieux (step-mom). I have four siblings, Chantal (sister), Jason (Karen’s son), and Kyle & Corey (Bob’s son’s).
At the age of 4 my family moved to Kingston Ontario and at the age of 16 I moved to Victoria British Columbia with my mom and Bob. I lived there until I was 27 and then made the big move to Vancouver BC where I happened into a party and my life changed! Forever!
About the groom
I found me a keeper!
My name is Randal James (Yong Teck) Foo born to Zelma and Yeap Foo. I have two younger brothers, Derek (3 years my junior) and Philip (my little bro, 10 yrs after me). I was born and raised in Lower Hutt, Wellington New Zealand, which is on the south end of the North Island.
After graduating University I quickly embarked on my first OE adventure to Denmark where I started my own business with Government money. I stayed for a year and a bit and had many memorable adventures. Then I came home to Lower Hutt.
In September 2000 I moved to Vancouver. There I met many great friends and eventually ended up at a friends penthouse for the Vancouver Fireworks party where my life was forever changed!
The Story of Us…How it all came to be
Guest staring in the chance meeting
Kelly Hale, Robin Biernacki & Susi
Chris Breikss
Paul Tremblay
And of course, McDonalds
So, we met and there were fireworks. Literally!
It was August 6th, 2005, the final Symphony of Fire event in Vancouver. At home Randal was nursing his hangover while his friends were in the background organising a night that would guarantee the girl-guy ratio of 5:1. Randal will tell you that it took these odds for him to land a phone number of a girl. Apparently it had been a while since he had been in the market, but now he was in the game and ready to go, if only the hangover would dissipate.
Rachelle was at home with Robin, Kelly and Susi having a few casual drinks and preparing for the mobs of people down at English Bay wrestling for a seat to see the display of lights. Ten’s of thousands lined themselves up on the hill and beach in Vancouver’s beautiful English Bay every year to see the amazing display of fireworks by different countries.
We left the house before sundown and as we crossed the street we here a voice saying, ‘Hey Kelly! How are you?” It was Chris Breikss, one of Randal’s good friends and business partner. We engaged in idle chit chat about the evening when he promptly invited us to watch the event from Paul Tremblay’s penthouse. What a decision, being manhandled by the throngs of people all vying for the perfect seat on the hill or sitting pretty on one of the top floor suites overlooking the bay. It was a tough one…we went up! Chris took us to the door and put us in the elevator. The elevator doors opened and a young girl, probably 15 years old, came and asked if she could take our coats and showed us in. Wow! That is all I have to say.
As soon as we walked into the condo I hear a voice coming from the living room, “Hey Kelly! How’s it goin’?” This was my first impression of Randal. He was cute! Wearing a long sleeve green dress shirt and beige cargo shorts, he looked good. Randal is not too sure what I was wearing that night (but you must forgive him, remember he was hung over and almost did not even go to the party).
Throughout the evening Randal came over to chat with us. At one point Robin mentioned that he seemed to be spending a lot of time talking to me, nah I said, he’s not interested. What did I know? At one point we were out on one of the many side balconies’ sharing friendly banter. We talked about all sorts of things but not once did I realise he has an accent (albeit a confused accent) and that he was not from Vancouver. I was not the only one fooled though; he thought my banking career was quite impressive! Ha! Whatever it takes I figure. But if you can imagine, the cincher for Randal in wanting my phone number was that I could recite without even a pause, the burger special for every day at McDonalds. I can finally say that working 5 ½ years at McDonald’s has paid off!
The fireworks had finished and the girls had decided it was time to find some food. McDonalds was my vote but pizza won in the end. As we were getting ready to leave, we were all standing in the kitchen. Randal was leaning on the counter acting kind of coy when Kelly asked him what was up. While staring at me he leaned over to Kelly and said, “I was thinking of asking your friend her phone number”. I gave him a hard time for not remembering my name but knew I wanted to give him my number anyway. Being the brains that we are, it was decided that I would write my number on the back of the ‘Hello My Name Is…’ sticker and then put it back on his shirt.
The days go by and another friend, Suzanne, mentions that she heard I had met Randal and asked if I had heard from him. “No, he has not called. Ah well, guess it wasn’t meant to be.” A few days later I was at work and got an email forward from Suzanne, the first and last. Less than an hour later I got another email, this time from some person, Randal Foo. At first I thought it was a client of mine and then I opened it up and proceeded to read about how it was nice to meet me and that he had LOST my phone number. He asked for it again and I tried to be all coy but just gave in.
Finally, 9 days after our first chance meeting he called and asked me for a date. On August 16thhe walked up to the back door of my building wearing jeans, a black Independence t-shirt and black shoes (why he was not wearing flip flops/jandles/thongs) was beyond me. Apparently he got some advice from John Blown about the intricacies of the first date. According to Randal I was wearing pink capree’s with a white hoodie and had chopsticks in my hair. And he thought this was cute, lucky for me!
We went to Jupiter Lounge in the West End of Vancouver and spent over 4 hours talking, laughing, and eating, along with a few drinks. Randal claims that our first date was so successful because he thinks I could not understand him and was only laughing to be kind. I say it was successful because I put drugs in his drink so he liked me!
And here we are, sharing our story and our lives with you!
