tumbletot's countdown to da beeg day

It's over...

2006-01-16T12:56:00.000+08:00

It's been more than two weeks since "Da Beeg Day" so to speak, and I still feel that it was like a dream. Thank goodness I've got photos and video to prove that it all happened. And in some weird way, although I'm glad it is all over, with the insomnia and the stress, I still feel sad on the other hand that I will not be able to re-live that day again. It's a final goodbye to my gowns (except for my sari which I bought) and everything else that was part of the wedding, the planning, the liaising, the hotel and the lovely suite, and most importantly, the anticipation. (Sob...)

I would like to use this little niche on cyberspace to thank all my friends and family who have supported me and helped me in one way or other with my wedding preps to make the day go so smoothly, for without them the day wouldn't have been so perfect. Also, thank you to the weather, for of all the rainy days of the season, it chose not to rain on my big day. And it was the only day of the week that didn't rain! So thank goodness for that.

If any of you reading this are my friends and wish to view my wedding photos, pls leave me a msg and identify yourself and I'll send it via email. Be sure to leave me your email though, if not I'll have no way of sending it.

2 more days

2005-12-24T11:40:00.000+08:00

Just had my final helpers' briefing yesterday, so I've officially unloaded all my stress onto them. The word is "officially". Unofficially, I'm still stressed out and worried about all the "what if's". And like the lady from my BS mentioned, I'm like a balloon. First part of stress I bloat up and put on weight. Then when the stress increases beyond a limit, I deflate all the weight away. Lost close to 3 kg in a week due to all the stress. Hope it doesn't make me look too hagged though...

Have already collected the gowns and my surprise outfit. Not many people know about my surprise outfit, so shall not mention too much. Only have my manicure/pedicure tomorrow and to pick up my flowers for my hair from the BS and all my itinery is complete. I hope. Wish me luck...

Guo Da Li

2005-12-18T11:22:00.000+08:00

Finally down to the last week. The exchange of gifts was carried just 2 days ago in which Boo had to officially "propose" by offering bridal gifts to my family as well as a dowry as indicated by Chinese customs (song4 li3). Gifts included 16 cakes, 2 pairs of dragon & phoenix candles, oranges, 2 bottles of wine and a number of sweet items which had auspicious meanings to them, indicative of a good marriage ahead. In return we had to give back some of those gifts (hui2 li3) to the groom's side, 2 bottles of Ribena, half the number of cakes, sweet items as well, a pair of dragon & phoenix candles, a teaset, and 2 lamps. Can't remember if there's anything else.

With one week to go before the big day, tensions increase with the tallying of the guestlist, arrangement of guests to tables and all the other preparations to be completed. Luckily I'm officially on leave so I have time to go around with my mum to check out the what we have to do last minute. I have to be! I'm so stressed out coz I keep having to juggle work with the preparations that I've ballooned and started popping out pimples! Then there's the helpers meeting in which we have to brief our "brothers & sisters" the schedule for the day to ensure that everything goes smoothly since the schedule for us is very tight due to our very large families! And I keep having sleepless nights that everything goes wrong on the day! Arghh!!!

The only thing I need now is sleep... Please grant me a night of dreamless sleep!

Busy, busy, busy...

2005-11-26T23:53:00.000+08:00

Have been trying to tie loose ends for everything, but still something crops up occasionally. Very stressful. Even got problem trying to get all my sisters together for a meeting. Well, can't accomodate to everyone, so I guess I just have to go ahead with what I have and let the rest catch up via email.

Suddenly, number of ppl in guestlist increased! Now up to 49 tables! Help! Plus haven't done the arrangement yet. Really have to rely on parents to do this stuff... all the family politics, they would know best.

Somehow now I wish I have more off-days and leave to help with the planning...

Photo albums

2005-11-25T00:14:00.000+08:00

Yeah... finally got my photo albums from my BS. Really fantastic! Guess it's worth the extra $3K we paid. Got 2 large albums, one 18R of 45 studio shots, designed in magazine format, another in 15R portrait of 30 outdoor shorts also in magazine format. Also have 2 5R albums of the same shots, 2 2R albums of the same shots, 2 10R framed shots, one wall portrait 20R and 60 giveaway shots. Plus I got my negatives back. So happy!

Still dealing with the invites... guestlist and the likes... think the last 2 months is really a terrible strain. Luckily settled a lot of stuff early, like flowers, music, decor. Plus parents chipping in to help on logistics stuff as well, like catering and stuff. So happy to have such supportive parents and parents-in-law. Really helps to have them encouraging us and helping in every way they can, that way we have less to handle and less stress.

Just on the side line, I even got a bow-tie for my dog to wear on the day, so that he can be part of the celebrations.

Invites and more (2)

2005-10-21T23:04:00.000+08:00

Have already started doing the invites, but just realised only have less than a week to do them all if I wanna send by the 2-month mark. Luckily, have already started asking people if they can make it, so give a little allowance to 6-week mark? Time really flies... so fast only 2 months left!

Photo preview still not ready yet, BS having trouble with their printer, told me will only be ready next week. Nevermind, can still wait... I guess...

Have started planning the day's schedule... everything seems so tight! Dunno whether got time to breathe or not. Help! Maybe need to bring oxygen masks...

Invites and more

2005-10-15T23:28:00.000+08:00

Just received notice that my invitation cards are ready. About time... the thought of having to pen and send out so many invites is already giving me a headache. Hope that I can use some free time during work to fill up some of those cards.

Photo design layout should be ready soon, have to call my BS to check up with them when I can preview the photos.

Just went shopping for bedsheets for my beds. Plural coz I have 2: one at my place, and one at his place. [Sleeping arrangement has been made such that it would be fair to both sets of parents that we alternate our living quarters, till such time that we need our own place.] Took advantage of the John Little sale, which had quite good bargains lah. But am far from being done. More to come... sheesh... still need other stuff like comforter and more bedsheet sets, can't survive with only 2 sets per place. Help!

Photoshoot 3

2005-10-01T01:12:00.000+08:00

Delayed post again. Super busy with work as always, and have yet to recover from the long hours plus extra time.

Well, as mentioned in previous posts, my photos were out pretty fast, so went to take a look with Boo. Spent almost two hours? pouring over them and despite having told myself countless of times not to top up the package, I had to eat my words. It was soooooo difficult to sieve through all the photos to select the max number in our package which was 24 pics, my eyes got all blur and teary trying to choose at the end of two hours. Boo just got a headache (or maybe coz he was down with the flu, he wasn't exactly in the mood). In the end, we gave in and had to top up a whopping sum of 3K for a total of two albums, one consisting of 45 shots of indoor @ 18R and the other of 30 shots of outdoor @ 15R landscape, both in magazine style. Plus similar selection of individual photos in two 5R albums, 2 mini 2R albums and selection of 2 photos for table-top in 10R and 6 copies of a selected 10 different poses for give-away. The highlight was I got to pay through 12 month instalment, which was less taxing on my pocket (or our pocket).

So much for budgetting.

Photoshoot 2

2005-09-17T23:13:00.000+08:00

Wow... love my BS for their efficiency! Just received a call today to say our photos are out and ready for selection! Isn't that fast? Only 3 days! Have to hold back some of my other plans (like arranging the room for the furniture etc.) to go down to look at the photos. They are top priority for the moment: can't wait to see how good/bad they turn out.

Photoshoot

2005-09-15T08:53:00.000+08:00

A long day awaited us today as we woke up early to go down to our BS at Harbourfront for our photoshoot. Took a cab down coz had loads of things to carry down like my ROM dress to return, my shoes, my flowers for the photoshoot recycled from our ROM and Boo's suit.

We reached there pretty early with the intention to take a heavy breakfast first before going for the shoot since it would probably be a long day for us. (And I was right in thinking that.) Had a sumptuous breakfast at Coffee Club (eating more eggs than the number of eggs acceptable in a week) of sausage, eggs and bacon while Boo had scrambled eggs and sausage with toast. After the eggy breakfast, with free flow of coffee/tea, we went up to the BS to find we were still early and my poor makeup artist Lily was sitted alone on one of the joy rides for kids outside the shop.

We didn't have to wait long though. Carroll came just a few minutes after us and opened the shop in a blink of an eye to allow us to deposit our stuff before I scooted to the toilet to have a quick relieve. After that, I sat down for a grueling hour or so to do my makeup and hair while Boo was shooed out to enjoy Harbourfront so that he wouldn't feel bored (or wouldn't be in the way).

After my makeup was done, I went in to change for my first shoot, which was a white Japanese Kimono while Boo had some makeup done to him to help he cover up some acne scars and to prevent him from looking pale in the photos. He also had a Japanese outfit the change into. When we were all set, we went into the studio.

Think the photographer must have been super irritated with us coz I think we were easily the most uptight couple to shoot. We kept having instructions being thrown at us, where to look, how to tilt the head, lift the chin, fall back, stick the butt out etc. Argh... I'm really so thankful that I ain't a model. After the Japanese one was done I was relieved to step out to rest my body and neck while Lily set to change my makeup and hairdo for the traditional kua while Boo went to change into his mandarin collar.

It was almost 4pm by the time we were done with our last shoot in our actual wedding outfit, my gown for me and his suit for him. By then we were so tired (especially since that shoot was the longest, taking advantage of my gown details to take more shots) that I couldn't even be bothered to eat. I just had some biscuits and coffee that Lily made for me while she did up my hair for the outdoor shoot while Boo went out to grab some food to fill his grumbling tummy. After a half-hour break, we left to take our outdoor shoot at Sentosa.

Thank goodness that the weather was really good yesterday. We attracted a lot of attention as we waited by the taxi stand for our lift into Sentosa, and were really lucky coz the driver so happened to have just sent a guest into Sentosa for some event so we didn't need to pay the entrance fee as he had the re-entry pass. Our first stop was at the orchid garden, where I attracted loads of mosquitos and got two bites on my hands before I managed to kill that dreaded insect.

We trapsed around Sentosa's various locations, and were quite enthralled by some of the upgraded places of attraction where we had some of the shoots. (Personally I have not actually gone to look-see at Sentosa's attractions for a very long time so it was really interesting for me). Our last location was at the Siloso Beach where we took some photos on the bridge and beach itself. By then I was so tired of smiling, the photographer JJ had to tell me my smile was getting a little fake for me to perk up. Worse thing was that I was getting very distracted too coz Sentosa is a very popular place for a lot of couples to have their photoshoots and we were surrounded by many wedding couples doing exactly what we were doing that my eyes tended to stray away from the camera after a while. I guess JJ could tell we were super exhausted coz he called it a day after a few shots at the beach.

By the time we got back to the BS, I was so hungry that I hurridly changed out of my outdoor gown, which was freaking dirty with sand and mud and had another person, Elaine, help me with my hair before we adjourned for dinner at Sakae Sushi. Time check then: 8pm (total time spent for photoshoot: entire day!)

Although we have to wait a while for our photos to be done, Boo cleverly took some photos with his phone of me while I was having my makeup and hair done, so I have some photos to remember the nice moments of the photoshoot.

ROM

2005-09-13T01:53:00.000+08:00

Had my ROM on Monday, September 12. So now I'm officially no longer single. :D Spent the whole day very busy, as I expected. Went down to have breakfast early in the morning, then after that enjoyed a quick mani and pedicure before rushing home to have a quick lunch and await my makeup artist's arrival.

Makeup was delayed, probably coz it was the first time my artist, Lily and I met. Also it was a last minute decision to do my hair coz it was a little on the long side and messy. During this whole time, Kenshin, my poor dog was so upset that I was in a room with a stranger he had no chance to sniff out. According to my mum he was anxiously staking out outside my door trying to sniff her smell out. It took awhile to persuade him to go to my aunt's house so that he would be less upset.

After the whole do-over, we literally rushed to leave the house coz we were running late. Of course, we had to stop by to say bye to my doggy who was so excited and making a lot of noise. Then we were off.

Thank goodness we reached the ROM on time, plus they were behind schedule for the day. When we were there, we had to hang around on the outside to wait for our time. Of course time was whiled away taking photos. We only entered the Registry Office almost 20 minutes passed our original time.

After 10 - 15 minutes of the proceedings (a little personal, so will not go into details), we were pronounced man and wife. More photo sessions outside and at the Fort Canning Park before we proceeded to have a little dinner celebration at Copthorne King's.

(Photos are a little private, so will not be putting it up on a public blog for all to see. If you are my friend and you wish to view them, just email me and I will send you a link to view the album.)

Gown choosing (for the rest)

2005-09-07T23:12:00.000+08:00

Have been very busy lately ever since coming back from HK. Went down to the new BS located at Harbour Front to choose the rest of my gowns, my ROM dress, the evening gown and the kua. Bad news was I had put on a bit of weight while in HK; good news was there were still gowns for me to choose from, although the range was substantially lesser.

Spent a good two hours plus looking and trying out the selection. Finally picked out a bronze brown strapless evening gown with lovely sequined detail on the top and black brown organza for the skirt. Chose this coz of the brassiere support, so it helped to keep my fats in. :P Also chose a kua (didn't have much to choose from for this coz it was more embroidery than beads so it was less gaudy and less heavy.) For my outdoor shoot, I chose a very nice and simple spaghetti strap, v-neckline with a see-through organza back. Last but not least I managed to pick out a lovely and simple white duchess satin dress for my ROM.

One less headache completed... :)

Dowry shopping 2

2005-08-02T01:23:00.000+08:00

I didn't wanna add this part in at first, but if not, it would seem like the first part be very incomplete.

Ok, remember the pendant my aunt chose for me that looked like two dangling earrings? we (well they actually, my mum and aunts) finally completed the set. they found a lovely pair of semi dangling diamond earrings (semi coz it's not long enough to dangle actually) and a ring that looked like a matched set, with miniscule diaminds set in two long rows that makes it look like that pendant. And all of them from the same jeweller as the pendant and the bracelet. Funny thing was that the girls somehow didn't know their items well enough to actually mix and match for my mum and aunts, it was actually my mum and aunts browsing around and finding it themselves. Guess those people working at the jewellery store are so dazzled by such lovely trinklets every day that they can't remember what exactly they have.

On a separate day, another aunt and my cousin Kauai called me out for lunch to take a look at some pendants too. They picked out a few lovely pendants for me to select, among which were black onyx and white gold, purple and white gold, and rose and white gold pendants. Although the black onyx caught my eye, I knew it was pretty expensive coz I had looked at it with my mum before. So I decided to settle on the purple and white gold one which was really pretty and had that classic look which I knew would probably be one of those everlasting designs. However, after that I was politely dismissed by Kauai and I do not know til today what they got in the end. Not that I mind very much, coz seriously, I feel kind of paiseh having all my aunts buy jewellery for me, and even though they have my best interests at heart, I know it is pretty heavy on the pocket and I wouldn't mind them giving me less extravagant stuff coz I know it is the thought that counts and not the value.

Now my mum has got into this dowry shopping mode that she just brought back a really cool pair dangling earrings and made me hooked onto it. Needless to say, we are probably gonna acquire it to add on to my already very abundant dowry.

Flowers, cards & such...

2005-07-30T00:59:00.000+08:00

Ok, as always, ain't blogging on the exact date that events occur, but better late than never. On my off days again, managed to get some of the preps out of the way, to settle things as soon as possible.

Firstly went round looking for furniture. Went down to Great World City on Tuesday to look at some furniture shops to get a feel or idea of what we wanted. Stepped into LifeStorey first, but price range beyond what we could afford. Next was Art of Living and Natural Living, where we saw some nice furniture, but not quite what we were looking for. So things were put on KIV status. Went round to v. hive to look at what they had, but still did not really catch much attention. Also popped by Barang Barang, but things didn't quite look like what we had in mind. So journey to Great World was a wasted trip. Next up was LifeShop at Raffles City. Again another pricey place, but one kind of looked nice, so KIVed it. Then decided to have a change of scenery and pop by the card shop, TDragon to do our cards, which was in the vicinity.

Went to take a look at what they had to offer, which was basically mostly what was featured on the website. Actually we already had something in mind, so we told the person serving us of what we wanted. Since it wasn't inside the selection of free cards, we would have to top up the price. Took the opportunity to haggle for a better offer since we had the intention to print thank you tags and get the envelop stickers from them. The lady who served us, Allena, was rather helpful in trying to work towards the budget we had. (However, we were so overwhelmed by everything we were doing that we didn't notice she quoted us the price of the wrong quantity of thank you tags, until we got home. So it was back to the phone the next day to inform her about the mistake.)

Anywayz, after the card shop, we dropped by my parents' office as we had an appointment with them to take a look at one furniture place called Zen, down in Kallang, which was pretty inaccessible. Turned out to be the right place for us coz it had exactly the kind of style that we were looking for. (Probably also coz we were so exhausted from all the furniture shopping that we decided to go with what finally caught our eye.) Also, since the quality seemed so much better than what we had looked at the whole day, we didn't have much qualms about it, except maybe to check to see if the room could accomodate the furniture. So we took a quotation and told them we would get back to them.

The next day was spent sourcing out flowers at the hotel's florist Stefii's. Place was situated in a quaint old place, which smelled heavenly becoz of all the flowers. Looked through all the various photos available and settled on something that I always had on my mind, a combination of red roses, centre pink roses and white lilies with loads of baby's breath. Also chose the kind of stage decor and aisle decor, the kind of setting for the VIP table and the table cloth and chair decor. So fun, but strangely exhausting. Boo of coz left most of the decision to me, let's just hope it was the wise choice. We also took the opportunity to order two bouquets of flowers for our mums, to be given after the speech. Flower choice to be confirmed but I think I have set my mind on lilies. Let's see what choices they have when the date draws nearer.

My parents represented us today to help us settle the furniture stuff, since the promotion would be ending at the end of the month. As always, my mum (no hard feelings though) had to meddle with our choices. Made Boo and I rather unhappy. Dad tried to persuade her, but ended up leaving things hanging in the air so as not to cause a scene. They kept calling me at work to check this and that (which made me kind of wish I could have just taken a day off for this) and mum was like dissuading this design coz the dresser had sharp edges, not safe for kids if we were to have kids in future and the likes. Finally I put my foot down and decided on the bed design which Boo and I had settled on, but mixed and matched with the dresser and side tables of the other design. Kind of managed to get my tone of voice sound firm enough to convince my mum that I had set my mind and that I did not want to change it. After that it was the settling of the bill and the amount to pay in installment and stuff. Which really made me very irritable coz with my line of work, I can't always be on the phone, which meant the conversation kept being cut off when someone came by for my assistance. Think between my parents, Boo and myself, I made more than 12 calls within a span of 2 hours. Yikes. Thankfully everything has been settled, except for the delivery date of the furniture, which my mum is still arguing over. For now, would just let her have her say, till we can confirm when would be a good time to get things in. Hopefully by then, we would be so busy with preparations that she wouldn't be interfering anymore with such trivial matters.

Dowry shopping

2005-07-11T02:05:00.000+08:00

Should have done this last week, but was really plagued with work, so only doing the entry today. 2nd excuse, got hooked onto Yahoo Towers, a multi-player game online. Ha... Anywayz, here goes...

Had quite a bit of fun going dowry shopping with my mum and aunts. They had actually gone out together and selected a few jewellery pieces for me and made a date with me especially to go see what they had chosen and if I liked what I saw.

The piece that my mum chose was quite unique, based on gypsy-indian design?? Was a set of pendant with matching pair of dangling earrings. Really lovely! Only couldn't find a matching bracelet to go along. The one my aunt chose was a very extraordinary pendant, that looked like it should have been a pair of dangling earrings instead. Really neat. However this pendant was so unique that till now we can't find a pair of earrings to match it. Instead, they found a very sweet half-tennis bracelet whose design really suits that earrings. Didn't know dowry shopping was so fun (probably when you're not the one footing the bill :P).

Have also been browsing mags for ideas on flowers, decor, hair-do, among other things. Time seems to be catching up, but seem to have so many things to do! Have also been asking my dad to get his contacts for wines and other alcoholic drinks for the wedding. As for my gown selection, it has been postponed to the end of August as my BS will be shifting to Harbour Front. So have been advised to wait till after the shift so that I have more to choose from. :)

More updates

2005-06-18T01:02:00.000+08:00

Should have done the rest of the updates earlier, but didn't have time. So here goes...

Went bridesmaid shopping with Moon, and did manage to get a lovely fushia pink calf length scoop neck dress for her for the reception dinner from Daniel Yam. There was even a matching bracelet to go with it. Looked very nice on her... great!

Also had a great make up session with MAC. Any of you out there who wanna go for one that teaches you what colours suit you and how to make to accentuate your looks, go for MAC. They're really good. Wish I had a photo to upload, but it's all in Moon's phone at the moment.

Emcees: Have broken the news to Ade and Tat. Feel super bad about things... but am glad they're really understanding. Thanks for being such great pals! Would really have been more meaningful to have them emcee, but parents come first, I guess.

Videographer: Finally managed to engage one. Actually our photographer was supposed to help us get one, but coz she felt that they were using backward technology (still burning in VCDs), she decided that it would more beneficial for us to engage someone ourselves, preferentially using the more updated technology aka DVDs for better quality. My dad found one, who turned out to be pretty good, and the charges were one of the more affordable ones, for the kind of package we were looking for. Went to drop in at his place to take a look at some of his portfolios/footage of previous works, though most sample footages are about the same stuff, his had quite good a resolution. So Boo and I just decided to go for it. Am glad too, so we have one thing less to worry about. Cheers!

2005-06-18T00:58:00.000+08:00

As promised, here's the picture of my shoes. Have just managed to pick up my shoes today, a week after doing the fitting. Do you think it matches my gown??

File notice of marriage

2005-06-12T00:42:00.000+08:00

Just to record the excitement I experienced just now, I just filed for notice of marriage! Had an exciting moment just now, coz I wanted to be kiasu and make sure I get to choose all the available time slots before others. So what I did was to fill up all the relevant info on step 1 & 2 of the efiling site and just wait for time to pass for the site to update past midnight. When it updated, I clicked on the confirm button and was then asked to select the date intended. Unfortunately, the entire site had not been updated yet, and so I could not choose the date that I wanted!!! So I had to refresh the same page a few times to try to wait for the updated version. 3 minutes into midnight, no new changes had occured yet! Irritated and anxious, I redid the entire filing procedure of step 1 & 2, and when I had finished both steps, the site just updated itself with the date I had in mind. Yippee! So on record, I will be down at the Registry of Marriages on Sept 12th to be soleminized in the afternoon at 3.35pm.

Emcee trouble

2005-06-11T00:48:00.000+08:00

Yeah... big problem to me. Seems like without my knowledge, my parents had asked another friend who is a DJ to emcee for the reception. Had a big row with them, namely mum, for the past few days. Brought up all the points about having a professional doing the emcee-ing compared to "people with no experience" and basically brought up a lot of hurtful comments. Plus the talk about wanting "face" and how it would reflect if a pro was emcee-ing, especially to all the guests... more "face". So coz of "face", will have to bow down and lose my own "face" by telling my good friends Ade and Boon Tat the bad news. Guess to be fair, would have them probably take charge of program/entertainment? I don't know... such things are so difficult to retract once they've been said, and just hope that they don't harbour any ill feelings towards the entire matter... have yet to even break the news to them! :(

Shoe fitting

2005-06-08T01:16:00.000+08:00

Another update after a long quiet spell. Finally went down to fit my wedding shoes. Really came out lovely! Didn't need much alterations, just a little tweaking to tighten the straps and adding on the padding and I can pick them up next week! Will try to post photo of them when I get them.

Bridesmaid shopping: Have yet to go with my bridesmaid Moon to shop for her gown and stuff. Am planning to take her out next week to shop for her evening gown/dress, shoes and go for a make-over session for the both of us. Hopefully can make use of the Her World special, though if not was thinking of some backup. Any suggestions?

Will update again, when more stuff come in, like evening gown selections and stuff... probably will occur in July. Now to fine-tune the finer details on organization...

First fitting

2005-05-18T01:18:00.000+08:00

It's been some time since my last post, even for my normal blog. But today's one is really interesting coz I went for my first gown fitting!!!! My BS called some time last week to inform me that my gown was in, so I was pretty excited when I went down today. And I had every right to be. They really did a fantastic job making the gown as close to the one I wanted as possible. Of coz the colours weren't the exact one, coz they couldn't get a champagne gold material, but it was close enough, the combination that they chose (or rather we agreed on).

So everything was swell, till I tried it on... Then I realised I was fat!!!! Think I had gained a bit of weight recently after some binge-ing, and it showed!!! Argh!!! No doubt the gown still fit, coz the weight wasn't really significant, but I did know I had gained weight coz my body was giving me tell tale signs, and the lumps of fat just popped out! So... it's back to strict diet routine for me again! Really regret the two weeks of binge-ing, all because of PMS! Thank goodness I still have my jazz classes, so I better make full use of them to lose even more weight! Have another three months before photoshoot, so I better start losing NOW!

Anywayz, now that I've tried my gown on, think I can get my shoes started. Goody!

1st IPL session

2005-04-18T13:04:00.000+08:00

Finally started my IPL treatment. The eczema rashes on my arms have almost healed, so decided not to wait too long before starting treatment. Plus the extra push from my mum to start treatment early. So I went on Friday to do it. Had this nervous thrill of adrenaline rush through me as I entered the room. The lady first started shaving my arm hair (I have rather hairy arms for a gal...) before she applied some clear jelly (looked rather like KY jelly to me, hehe) on my arms. She then armed me with a pair of dark glasses, asked me to close my eyes and placed the machine on my arm to begin. Didn't feel very much actually, just a little burst of heat each time the machine pulsed its light and then it was gone! Of coz the light was super glaring, even beneath my closed eyes, I could see a flash of light that can easily rival the flash of lightning one sees during a thunderstorm. Other than that, the entire experience was rather boring, coz I was just lying on my back with my arms outstretched in all sorts of weird contorted positions to allow the machine to reach the most difficult areas. In fact I was so comfy I started to doze off. Am not sure if I snored, hope I didn't. Anywayz, it was pretty fast, both arms were done in an hour, and all I felt after that was a naked feeling coz my arms were hairless! Well, am due for another session in three to four weeks time, in which the hair on my arms would most probably grow out again, and I have to shave them before going done for the treatment. But was told that after the first two to three sessions, the pores on my arms would shrink and the hair growing out would be more fine, and gradually cease to grow. Let's hope that does happen, coz I don't like that thought of having constantly to shave my arm hair for the rest of my life!

Wedding shoes

2005-04-06T01:06:00.000+08:00

Just went to get my shoes custom-made for me yesterday! So cool! Went to this shop called Leapin' Lizard in town and was so pleased with the service. The lady really gave me lots of choices, in design, colour, height of heel, type of heel, and even agreed to give extra padding to take off pressure from the toes. Chose something really simple in design, so that it could be used for any other occasion, but probably only for formal wear since there are Swarovsky beads on the shoes. And the colour was a new colour, which is between champagne gold and silver, and not too shiny, so it can match both my gown as well as any other coloured gown, which is pretty cool. Best thing was the price, just about slightly more than a hundred dollars coz my design was simple, which was definitely less expensive compared to proprietary shoes! Wish I could do a rough sketch of my shoes but I can't, so I guess I'll put up the photo when it's done. Haven't got her to start, coz I have to check with my gown to see how high a heel it can accomodate. And it'll probably be ready one month after I confirm the heel height with the shop. Really good service, highly recommend it to all brides-to-be.

Some other stuff... have already chosen my "sisters" that would help me on the day, and I'm really kiasu coz I have eight, excluding my cousins. Just thought the more fun the merrier, plus a good time to catch up with my close friends. Anyway, my two cousins Moon and Kauai will be more involved in coordinating, so I don't wanna stress them out too much if there were too few sisters. Boo has also chosen his "brothers", 5 of them, plus his brother the best man. Think it will really be fun coz the gang we have are all the rowdy sort. Very glad that they've all agreed to help. Thank you all, if any of you are reading this blog!

Master of Ceremonies confirmed

2005-04-01T01:20:00.000+08:00

Met up with our two MCs, Adeline and Boon Tat, today for dinner cum advanced thank you session. Had a good time catching up with old friends since we had not seen each other for a super long time. Talked about work, and complained about limitations of each other's job, which we could understand pretty well since we were all in the same line of work.

Then we came down to business, not so much of business but more of the discussion proper. Ade has had some experience hosting for a few weddings so we asked her for her expertise in what was the norm, typical procedure and stuff like that. Kind of got the gist of things, but we still didn't have anything concrete in mind, so we pretty much gave them the go ahead to come up with some ideas first, then things would be added as we went along. The main thing that Boo and I highlighted was that we didn't want it to be too serious or boring, though given the fact that there would be elders and relatives around. After all, every wedding would probably have that kind of seriousness, and would become a bore, so we wanted things to be slightly different. Tat also had some tricks up his sleeves but unfortunately it was towards sabo-ing us, so there were some whispers and stuff between the two of them. Well, guess that's part and parcel of weddings so we kind of took things in stride.

Other than have the two of them as our MCs, we also formally asked them to be our brother/sister so to speak for the morning festivities, which both of them agreed. That sparked us to start asking our other friends to be brother/sister, which I feel was the right time to do so, since we had to be sure that the person would be free to help us out on the actual day, plus give them due notice in advance so that they could note it on their schedules. All in all, I have five confirmed sisters at the moment, while Boo has confirmed three brothers. Since we messaged them kind of late in the night, I guess the rest of them would probably answer tomorrow morning. So let's just keep our fingers crossed.

Photographer...

2005-03-31T00:54:00.000+08:00

Spent a good half of the day doing essentially nothing coz Boo and I were waiting for our appointment to meet with our photographer. After looking through the impressive storybook album package, we decided to sign on for the package with her and paid for the downpayment. She was really helpful too, coz she gave us lots of reminders as to what to start doing now that we had time in our hands and not to leave things to last minute. Her helpfulness was one of the factors why I decided we should choose her, apart from her competitive pricing plus the added fact that she's my future in-laws' friend. Her reminders were really good, coz it got Boo started to thinking that there wasn't as much as he though there was. (He's been procrastinating on a lot of things, while I'm the kanchiong spider trying to settle as much things as possible. Luckily, someone is taking my side of things now.)

Was supposed to go look at the shoe shop in International Plaza, called Leapin' Lizard, but had no time. Went to the one in Lucky Plaza yesterday, but coz didn't make appointment, the guy was obviously not around. Wasn't impressed by the shoes though, found them to be a little outdated. Will look see at Leapin' Lizard, since a lot of people have recommended it, tomorrow, and see how things are.

Have also settled on my second wedding march for the second entrance. It's called "At Last" by Etta James. Lyrics are as meaningful as Tony Bennett's "For Once in my Life".

At last
My love has come along

My lonely days over

And life is like a song

Ooh At last

The skies above are blue

Well my heart was wrapped up in clover

The night I looked at you

I found a dream

That I could speak to

A dream that I could call my own

I found a thrill

To press my cheek to

A thril that I have never known

You smile

Oh and then the spell was cast

And here we are in heaven

For you are mine at last

Ooo Yea

You are mine

At last

Our Perfect Wedding March has been found!

2005-03-25T00:45:00.000+08:00

This ought to have been posted yesterday, but in the midst of all the excitement, I kind of forgot to do so. Boo and I have found the perfect wedding march! Yay! After so many endless searches, and squabbles, we have both agreed on Tony Benett's version of "For Once In my Life" for our first entrance. Here's the lyrics of this beautiful song:

For once in my life I have someone who needs me
Someone I've needed so long
For once unafraid I can go where life leads me
And somehow I know I'll be strong

For once I can touch what my heart used to dream of
Long before I knew
Someone warm like you
Would make my dreams come true

For once in my life I won't let sorrow hurt me
Not like it's hurt me before
For once I have someone I know won't desert me
And I'm not alone anymore

For once I can say "this is mine you can't take it"
As long as I know I have love I can make it
For once in my life I have someone who needs me

Master of Ceremony(s) & helpers

2005-03-25T00:00:00.000+08:00

Call me kiasu, but I decided that it would be better to start choosing our MCs and helpers and give them ample time to decide if they can help our rather than suddenly drop the bombshell on them. Well, I ended up still dropping the bombshell on them, and reactions were kind of different.

Adeline, fondly known as WeeWee, is a good friend of mine in Uni and were both Boo and my classmate then. The three of us at one point in time had a curious relationship between ourselves and through this incident, our friendship evolved. Anywayz, Ade has kindly consented to be one of the two MCs. Yippee!!! Although she promised us that she'll definitely contribute to the share of sabo-ing during the dinner, I'd really glad that she has agreed. With her bubbly nature and witty remarks, I'm sure she would help make our reception dinner a more gay and lighthearted one.

Boon Tat, is also a good friend and classmate of both Boo and me during Uni days. His wit and charm delighted and destressed many during school days when he included witty jokes and dry humour into the boring every day announcements and reminders. Both Boo and I have also asked him to be our MC, but he seems a little hesitant about it and keeps stressing on us to find a more suitable candidate. Well, not to be deterred, little old me thickened my skin to send him a long email filled with many endless reasons as to why both of us want him to be our MC. After all, he was the first one that came to our minds. (And incidentally also our lamp-post when Boo and I both went on our first unofficial date. That joke still comes around once in a while when we get together!) So let's keep our fingers crossed and hope he doesn't turn me down after that long email I sent him...

Not wanting to burden my cousin Moon the bridesmaid and Boo's bro the best man, I decided to ask my cousin Kauai to help be the key coordinator for the day's events . Knowing that the bridesmaid and best man would probably have a lot on their hands, I felt a key coordinator would be good to help lighten the load by taking charge of the program for the day as well as the behind-the-scenes logistics, as the bridesmaid and best man may be too much in the front line to have to handle all these. Unfortunately, Kauai is a super-busy business woman who is afraid that her constant travels out of the country may make her unsuitable for the job as she may not be always in S'pore to help. Unbeknownst to her, the main bulk of her help would only come in in the last month before the day, so looks like I may have to discuss things in detail with her, before we make the decision.

Another teeny problem has cropped up, coz my mum has appointed her ideal MC herself without my knowledge and has already spoken to the person concerned. Plus she was agitated when I mentioned I have already selected our MCs and refused to back down in her decision. Of coz, though her choice was a good one since the person concerned was a professional DJ and MC herself, I felt that the tone set by this particular person may not fit the type of ambience I have in mind. So without her knowledge, I have come to a consensus with my dad to help tell the person about the little mix-up we had, hopefully without making the person feel bad. Kudos to my dad's foresight and capabilites, don't know what I'll do without him!

With all these little kinks in the planning, I've just been reminded to continue to email to the rest of my candidates of my helpers and ushers to let them know in advance to know that they are involved in my reception committee! Sometimes, being kiasu does have its rewards.

More gown news

2005-03-22T16:29:00.000+08:00

Ok, just came back from bridal shop. Guess my bargaining prowess weren't at their peak today. Didn't manage to bargain further for the workmanship, but instead upgraded the package to offset the extra costs. Upgraded my photography part, which includes the album, the portrait and the photo giveaways. Feel like it wasn't successful trading, but I guess I have to be happy still, coz I'm still getting my dream gown! Will probably get to try it on in June, since they've already taken my measurements, but am hoping to lose more weight, so that I'll look nicer! Let's hope my jazz classes will pay off.

Now that the gown's been settled, time to do other things... my shoes and my accessories! Looking forward to the shopping spree...

Guest list & others

2005-03-22T11:56:00.000+08:00

After much hours of struggling with various lists from my parents, my future-in-laws and my fiance, I finally managed to compile and total up the guest list. And guess what?? It came up to a staggering figure of 494!!! That is close to 50 tables! And to think we estimated it to hit the max of 45 tables! Sheesh! Am not sure if it's over the budget, would now have to do lots of calculations to see if some adjustments have to be made. Also, am wondering, what are the chances of everyone in your list being able to make it for the dinner?? There's definitely never 100% attendance. And it's way too early to start getting people to RSVP. So... how do I proceed from here?

Gown updates... received a phone call from the bridal salon yesterday to tell me that with much discussion, they realised that the gown that I wanted had a very unique design and they were willing to do the gown for me and lower the extra costs for workmanship to $400. Wow... talk about my bargaining abilities! (Plus the lack of foresight from the salon...) Well, have not confirmed anything with them yet. Will be meeting up later (2 hours from now) to discuss and make concessions with them. After all, I do not want to fork out that extra $400 since a MTM gown was supposed to be part of the contract! Let's hope my bargaining prowess prevails...

After sitting on it for some time, finally made arrangements to meet up with my photographer to go through their packages and see if what they have to offer is in tune with what we have in mind. Am kind of excited since this photographer was highly recommended by my future-in-laws since they use her (it's a her!) whenever they have dance competitions and stuff. (Yup, my future-in-laws are quite active in the ballroom dancing scene!!) So let's keep our fingers crossed!

Weight loss... a topic that I thoroughly hate, but it's the same thing all brides-to-be go through to look good/their best on that special day. Well, thought with my being transferred to a busier store, losing weight would be easier coz I hardly have time to take toilet breaks, let alone meal breaks. But my body proved otherwise. After managing to shed off 3kg in my first month at my new store, the weight loss has come to a standstill. My body has managed to hit an equilibrium, and doesn't seem to want to change any further. With some encouragement from a friend, I've decided to get more active to help lose that extra poundage to hit my ideal weight. So, I've decided to enrol in dance class, namely jazz. Have already set out to buy my jazz shoes so that I won't back out of the plan, but seriouly, I'm looking forward to it. Have stopped dancing ever since I entered university, which is a good 6 years. No doubt I probably still have my technique, since I used to dance ballet for almost my entire childhood and teenage years, but I wonder how good my body and muscles would be, when they realise I intend to fully work them out again. Hopefully, I'd also be able to tone up my muscles with dance classes, which I definitely would enjoy more, rather than having to drag myself off to the gym to work the sweat off, which I have not been doing for the past few months and have effectively wasted my already-expired gym membership. So let's just keep our fingers crossed...

Gown updates and more...

2005-03-07T00:34:00.000+08:00

Ok, I know this should have been done last week, immediately after everything, but was just too busy working late nights for the past few nights that I was too exhausted to do anything upon reaching home!

Well, first things first: the gown. Spoke to my bridal salon about the design I liked, and guess what? They quoted me a whooping $800 surcharge to have it made-to-measure coz of the intricate embroidery and design!!! Call this blackmail! And all becoz the designer that I was working with previously had already left the salon! Haven't totally decided on things yet since they weren't fully prepared for my visit (and I'm still peeved becoz they never told me about her departure when I called!) so have made an appointment at a later date to check out all their designs before making my decision to either get it OTR or have it MTM. Well, at least I made some demands; left a copy of my gown design with them so that they could look through and pick out similar designs from their own collection. Just hope it'll be good; don't feel very happy to have to pay an extra $800 even though my bridal package was quite a good deal.

Next up: IPL (Intense Pulsed Light). After procrastinating for so long, and with the constant urging (or nagging) from my mum, I finally made an appointment with Expressions to check out on IPL to help lighten my eczema scars. Area of concern: my arms. If not, how on earth am I to wear a strapless gown??!! Ok, so I booked an appointment and went down with my mum, which was a good thing coz she's really good with bargaining. After a short consultation (which is free by the way), ended up deciding on having my full arm done, since IPL would also cause hair removal. Bargained a lot with the consultant (or rather my mum did the bargaining) and managed to get a very good price, have them to absorb the GST and on top of that, at on extra facial skin rejuvenation sessions FOC! Well done Mummy! Unfortunately, the price is still a whooping $5000! which I can opt to pay (which I did opt to) by 24 month installations, absolutely interest free! Call that bargaining power ya? Sad thing is, I can't start immediately coz not all my rash wounds (or scratch wounds) have totally healed. Can only start after they have since IPL is supposedly to be a little irritating and very drying on the skin. Would have to ensure that it is always prepped with moisturizer and topped with sunscreen as my skin would become photosensitive. So, what did I do? Hint to Boo about it and he got my moisturizer and sunscreen for me. Yay!

2005-02-24T01:56:00.000+08:00

Upon Boo's urging, I have started gown shopping, or rather gown researching. Surfed at theknot.com which I guess one of the most popular sites coz it was the top of the list on my search engine. Anyway, got carried away with looking at all the elegant gowns that I just whiled away a few hours. This is the one I like best, seems very different to have a champagne gold gown. Any comments?

Videographer/Photographer

2005-02-23T11:39:00.000+08:00

Okie, finally got time to follow up on what I last did. The search for our videographer/photographer is almost complete. Decided to take a look at Boo's parents' lobang and visit them but they are in the process of finishing their StoryBoard album for one of their clients. Hence the meeting has been postponed so that we can view something new when we go down. Somehow I feel super-excited about this.

Stationery shopping may probably have to been carried out again, this time looking for printers. Tried out the place cards and they did not turn out nice at all. Had a little pow-wow with my parents and they felt that it would be better to print, and not have the cards individualised too, coz people tend to prefer to sit freely. Point duly noted, would have the thank-you's printed out but without any name on the place-cards. Still, the task of having to allocate people to which table seems super-tedious. So much politics involved! Argh, think I leave that till later (procrastinate) when the guest list has been confirmed. (Guest list is still being compiled even though I started on it last year!)

Boo and I are still looking for the perfect Wedding March. Somehow, we have not fully settled on "There is Love", still haven't found that song that Boo's happy with. (It's the perfectionist in him. sheesh!) I'm still making use of MEP background to do some research on classical Marches that are quite good as Wedding Marches, but aren't able to get my hands on much stuff. (Anyone with any suggestions, feel free to leave your comments.)

Among other things I'm still searching for the perfect gown. Have been looking around, but styles seem pretty much similar. Have found something that caught my eye, but its from an American site, so I don't think it's available in Singapore. Will pounce on my bridal salon designer and ask if she can replicate it, but don't have too high hopes on that. Thinking of changing my kua to a kebaya instead, will probably ask her to source for something for me. Again not banging too much hopes on it, since kebayas can be very expensive. Will try and post the pictures as soon as I get the hang of how to upload pictures.

Stationery shopping

2005-01-27T01:30:00.000+08:00

Went stationery shopping today for place cards. Decided to add a personal touch by having individualised placecards to designate each person their seats for the reception. Boo felt that it was a waste of time and lot of effort but when I pointed out that they could also be used to double up as thank-you cards to our guests, he relented.

Searched around for cheap cards, knowing that expenses would be high since we were planning on a dinner with 40++ tables. Set my eyes on some place cards by Paperchase a while ago, but they were just too expensive!!! Decided to go cheap and look around at some stationery shops where we could get plain cards and make them ourselves.

Went online to search for cheap stationery shops and found a few nice ones at Novena and Bras Basah. Went to Novena to try out and got hold of some nice plain cards that we could fold and decorate. Got some nice marker pens too, so will try out with a few to see if it works out. If it doesn't, may decide to ask our wedding assistant at the hotel to see if they could give us some lobang on this.

Boo has been checking out lots of nice songs to compile as our CD for the reception dinner. After long months of searching, we finally found a song that we wanted to use as our wedding march. Didn't want the typical ones that people use, coz we felt that those were just so cliche and so not us. Nearly settled on Pachebal's Cannon in D when we couldn't find any nice ones! Well, the one we found that really seemed meaningful to us is entitled "There is Love". Sounds a little gospel-like, but the words are so meaningful and match the event splendidly, I don't think there's any song better suited. Other songs in our compilation include "Feels like heaven", "One day in your life", "Nobody does it better". Not the typical selection of songs, but I think it suits us wonderfully coz the songs have terrific lyrics. Plus we're having a time of our lives looking up all these songs. Have a total of 50 songs to date, excluding the wedding march.

Recap of initial preps

2005-01-26T01:15:00.000+08:00

Hiya! This is my first entry, so bear with me as it may be rather long. Gotta take some time to recap what has been done since this blog is started way past the very first initial preparations.

Preps started way back last year after Boo proposed. First thing we settled on was to look for my engagement ring and our wedding bands. Had my eye set on a Brilliant Rose diamond for a long time and I kind of hinted to Boo that the only time I'd say "yes" was when he gave me an engagement ring with a Brilliant Rose diamond. Choosing rings was kinda fun, especially when it was sale time and we could make use of the promotional discounts to get a better offer.

Next up was to choose a venue for the reception. Bookings had to be made in advance if you wanted to get your first choice venue so I started doing my homework quickly. Bought all the bridal mags to glance through to get an idea of the pricing of available venues so that we could set our budet. Went to tour some short listed places over a span of a couple of weeks, emailing the respective people involved, and finally settled for the Grand Copthorne Waterfront for its beautiful ambience and its close proximity to our favourite clubbing area, Zouk.

In the midst of searching for the reception venue, there was also this awkward moment in which both our parents had to meet. We decided to keep it short and simple and have the meeting over dinner. Thankfully everything went quite okay.

After all the hustle and bustle of travelling around the island to look for the venue, we took a little time off to get started on the guest list. Also, I decided to pop by the bridal boutique near my workplace to get a feel of the wedding packages that they had. Ended up being psycho-ed into signing up with them. Have yet to choose my gown though coz I wanted to give myself time to slim down to my ideal weight and also have a look-see at a newer collection of gowns.

With the compilation of the guest list ongoing, which has been for several months, we took a little break to settle back into the routine of work as we had finished clearing our December leave.

Since then, we have had little to do, but not to worry though, coz I enlisted the help of an online Wedding Planner site that would send me reminders of when I needed to have something done.

For the next part, I have to not only mull on the guest list, but also go check out suitable candidates to help us capture those happy moments on our most important day, the videographers.