A big thank you

Took some time to write this one final post because I am so tired. The daily camps that lined up all the way till the wedding day has already rendered me tired, now all of a sudden, I have to adjust to a brand new lifestyle. Thank goodness I get to go home everyday. I am just so home sick lah.

The wedding went by in a breeze, although I must say there are so many hiccups that took place that could have spoilt the wedding for instance, 4 laptops were utilized and yet none could play. Lucky for Lloyd to help me and my bridesmaids Chris and Sam and my emcee, Dez or the wedding could have been ruined.

I was very tired that day and couldn't wait to have the wedding over as soon as possible. I hate to socialise and I hate to network and perhaps my tiredness is so obvious on my face that everyone kept asking me to smile or ask me if I was pissed cause I hardly smiled at all.

But nothing could mask the gratitude in my heart for so many ang baos and wonderful friends who love me to come and give me their blessings, even relatives whom I hardly talk to turned up and were so happy for me; I could not ask for more.

So to everyone who helped out one way or another, gave me their blessings in words and in red packets- thank you from the bottom of my heart.

And for my followers and readers who read this blog from day 1 and followed me on my journey of being a bride and wife, thank you and I hope whatever I've put up on this blog can be useful to you if you are looking at having some advice on getting married in Singapore.

Collection of papers and 安床

Here at ROM collecting papers for our solemnization on 21st March. Awaiting our turn to go in.

Got an SG50 plastic bag to put our papers in. Haha! And a nice cert cover too.

Then when I had to rush for camp, Ah Lau went back to 安床 

Final leg

8 more days to our wedding and I was telling Lloyd that I am just dying to have it over and done with. All the planning, discussions, choosing, picking, fights, arguments, fatigue, disappointment only mounted to this day and I am just so lethargic.

Lloyd says it is normal and all brides think that way. But I am sure that all this fatigue will be gone on the wedding day and I will eventually look forward to it.

Yesterday, Ah Lau and I went down to Beautiful Love for our final dress fitting and to take everything home. He was kinda mad that we were not told to put a $500 cash deposit to take the clothing away and I feel that, yah... damnit you should have told us way before too. So now, we are another $500 short and strapped for cash.

I hadn't have a chance to show you my solemnization dress. It is a short one with a very low exposed back that I couldn't remember picking it. I got a shock when I tried it on and had to call my air brush artist to show her this picture and tell her that she has to air brush more of my back (the initial plan was to air brush half) to accommodate this dress.

All in all, this has to be one of my favourite dresses because of the huge bow at that back that has a tail with it too. I love tails and bows!

At the end of the dress fitting, we did a checklist of what we have to take back and I took a look at the jewellery that they are loaning me. I asked for a long veil that touches the floor, exactly the one I had for the photo shoot with the same hair accessory, and they lend me a nice set of jewellery for the red evening gown too. 

Then, I walked 1 more round at the boutique, taking in all the beautiful dresses in their magnificent colours and bid farewell to this one last time of dress fitting and all those beautiful dresses that I would love to wear every single day but am looking forward to not ever wearing them again (pun intended)

I am every thankful for my friends Sam and Lloyd and Ah Lau's friends who are there to make everything better and easier for us. Only 8 more days to the wedding but they have already done so much for us. 

My emcee will be my good friend and buddy, Dezmond who has an amazingly beautiful voice (I only want a male emcee) and who was so ready to be host my wedding for me. 

I must say that I have been disappointed many times throughout this wedding planning journey but I also managed to see and am grateful of so many other people and loves who care so much for me to make it better. These are the true friends and I cannot express my gratitude anymore than giving them a huge ang bao. 

For instance, Lloyd did a monogram for us; a wonderful suggestion since Faber Peak has tons of TVs hanging from the ceilings, it would not be wish to keep flashing our wedding photos as our guests eat so we only have a looping video as our guests walk in and for the rest of the evening, a monogram of our name will be flashed on those TVs. 

I think the next time I update this blog would be after my wedding when Ah Lau and I are officially husband and wife. 

Meantime, gotta prepare for camp and some last minute buys like hair removing cream and stockings. 

Thanks all!

Table flower arrangement

Oops,

forgot to put this post up. Faber peak let me choose the flower arrangements for the table settings. Needless to say, none of them are in the theme of turquoise I want. Ah Lau and I have already given up on having the turquoise colour in everything. Sometimes, things are only workable if you are a millionaire.

Ah Lau and I chose the Royale Grandeur since my evening gown is red. Also, with the dimmed lights and wonderful view of the cable car, the red and purple colours will be very romantic and grand. The candles also make the entire atmosphere warm and more comfy. We like it. If you are asking if we have a 2nd choice, no answer is no. None of the other colour combinations or arrangements are to our liking at all. 

Final draft check list

2 more weeks to the big day yo!

What is the main thing that gives us the most headache is the invitation list. There are relatives and people who cannot decide whether they can make it (How is this possible?), and there are those who cannot decide who they want to bring along. My goodness... So Ah Lau was almost pulling his hair off because of his relatives and on my side, almost a few quarrels and arguments on who to fill the table because so and so cannot come.

It is harder on my side because I have so many relatives and they are mostly overseas, some are definitely not able to fly back but for others, I am not so sure. And everyone kept saying they will get back to me etc. Argh!

Not to mention, Ah Lau and I are swamped with work. I have so many camps lined up right till the day before the wedding. But hey, not that I am complaining, I love my job.

So now, everything on the check list are basically ticked and there are almost nothing else to add to it. I'm just going to put up a list here on the things I still need to do.

- remind video, photographer, make up and air brush artist of the time and to give Sam's number to them
- also to give Sam's and a bestman's number to Events manager and to JP
- finally also to give my Mum's contact number to the buffet lunch caterer

Omg... just by mapping this out has already made me giddy.

The importance of cold dish

I cannot stress the importance of cold dish during a Chinese wedding dinner. It is one of... no THE most critical dish of the night. Whether the rest of the dinner goes well or not depends on this one dish - its combination, its wide variety and the particular dish of the 5 dishes in this appetiser.

For Faber Peak, they offered us the prawn salad, baby octopus, crab cake with mango and the smoked duck breast (my earlier post about it here). In that post, I talked about how the smoked duck breast cheapened the entire dish and the entire dinner I must say, so I asked for change.

I have gotten word from my events manager today that they would be able to change the smoked duck breast to my first choice if suckling pig at no extra charge! Yippie!

Here is a picture of what could be my cold dish on my wedding day. Looking at it is already making me salivate...

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Serving dinner to the photographer / videographer or no?

I called Lloyd, a good friend of mine who has been working as a free-lance videographer for weddings so many years if I should give up 2 seats to the videographer and photographer during the dinner? He said it is not mandatory and that both of them would know to eat before the arrive for the dinner. So being a 'normal' bride, I was thinking not to offer them seats during the dinner, because that would be taking up 2 seats and therefore 2 ang baos (I know, I know, I am stingy). I was also at my wits end because I am offering Rui, my air brush artist a seat because I asked if she could swing by for a 2nd touch up before my 2nd march-in. Her reply was I might as well give her a seat and so I did.

So imagine my surprise when my photographer wrote me an email to say that he is a vegetarian and it would be good if he can only have vegetarian fried rice, nothing expensive and fanciful. I was guilty as hell after reading his email! How can I be so stupid and stingy! Of cause they have to eat! After all, the solemnization is at 6pm, they can't possible eat at 4.30pm and expect their dinner to last their tummy till 10pm!

So I am arranging for Spuds and Aprons for a pasta dinner for both my videographer and photographer since Faber Peak would most likely not be cooking just 2 sets of fried rice for them. God forgive me for being not being mindful enough.