Chinese wedding tea cup set

One of the many items that is needed for the bride to return during the 过大礼 would be a Chinese tea cup set.

I once saw a Hello Kitty set and it is to die for.

http://www.bachelorette.com.sg/_/rsrc/1414603442706/chinese-wedding-customs-singapore/premium-wedding-tea-set-singapore/Hello%20Kitty%20Teapot%20Set_1.jpg

It is a whopping $80 and I know Ah Lau would have gasped at the look of it. So we decided on an economic one since it can only be used once.

Of the sets that I saw at Chinatown look pretty much the same. There are 4 tiny cups with a tray and a tea pot. The tea served is not Chinese tea but red dates tea. There are however, some that comes with plenty of small tea cups, this is to facilitate the bride to serve many people at a go without the match maker having always needing to back to wash the cups. 

http://whiteweddingcars.blogspot.sg/2014/09/planning-your-chinese-wedding-tea.html

There are some modern-asian fusion ones that only come with 2 cups but are in the shape of the traditional Chinese tea cups with lids.

http://www.micheleng.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/DIY-chinese-wedding-tea-pot-cup-set1.jpg

As well as some that comes with handles to hold the tea cup properly, after all the tea would be served luke warm which might shock the elders when they touch the cups.

https://emarriage.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/tea-bowl-mug-set/#jp-carousel-178

There are also the cute cartoon ones which are being increasingly popular these few years.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii0M4nLHoVz3yEbo1MIma7MqQTJ-mKpVyKi0kRVSI3S8g4Aj1bc0XKmv5c_ogTHkZsBRYwuqypAcbUo3GyeBHJCfBS6OuBD-iTn9GfougPUsUwgRurwAFlqMNZhhkxgoVSoM_vzN9d91s/s200/IMG01475-20100619-1859.jpg

And who could missed out the Rrrrrrrreally traditional ones like this one?

https://ddominikwicklesromance.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/tea-ceremony-pot-2.jpg

And oh, these Japanese ones...

http://i01.i.aliimg.com/wsphoto/v0/823656495/Endulge-japanese-style-ceramic-kung-fu-font-b-tea-b-font-font-b-red-b-font.jpg

Usually, the bride has to buy another set for the tea ceremony at her home. But I have decided to use the one that has been sitting in my house for years until no one knows who bought it.

The paint is pretty much faded with age but it's gold trims and dolly prints still look good to me. 

And then there is the one my Mum chose and bought from JB... They all think that the cartoons suit my bubbly nature...

过大礼 part 3

Wa went to make reservations for the cakes and Lao Ma Gor at the bakery today. In case you are looking for one, this place is apparently one 老字號. It's a 24 hour bakery and confectionery at Bukit Batok West Ave 6, I think its at blk 151. 

And we also simplified everything else and got:

- 4 packets of sesame sweets 

- 4 packets of peanut sweets

- 4 packets of mee sua

That's all! Oh yah and a gigantic ang bao to put in the 娉金. Never seen one this big, not even the usual shops that sell wedding stuff have this. 

Food tasting at Faber Peak

On the 22nd, Ah Lau and I brought our families for the food tasting as well as for the parents-meeting session for the first time.

A very unnerving moment and Ah Lau and I ended in a fight afterwards but all turned out pretty well during the dinner. The mothers had a lot to say which is pretty expected, the fathers were unusually quiet and the siblings were all polite and on their super supportive mode. Thanks to my 7 year old nephew who not only took the limelight but also lightened up the mood by a mighty lot and helped us all loosen up (no credits to the wine).

I must say that for $1380 per table, the food wasn't fantastic. In fact, my Dad said we are actually paying for the atmosphere and the scenery and view for that price. I could only agree. For a die die don't want hotel and only want garden view mindset, I can only land here with a Chinese dinner. The rest of the other places that offer garden views do not offer a beautiful night scene, either that or only provide western dinner menu.

Anyway, all is too late to do anything, we have already paid 50% of the price and are expecting 18 tables. I think what is most important is that the ballroom is not too packed, is cozy and the meal is nice.

So the food tasting...

The first dish was the cold dish. Everything on that plate was delicious except the stupid duck breast slices. They look like what you'll get at an NTUC supermarket- super low class and totally not worth it. I don't care of it not that at all, because it does look like it.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/save22.com-product-picture/1322196447757-smoked-duck-breast.jpg

Ah Lau and I were given a feedback paper for us to write any damn thing about every dish and so I did. To substitute this, I asked for drunken chicken or suckling pig. Here's hope that they don't ask for top ups. 

Sentosa Leisure Group is one of the companies that does not support sharkfins. I hated the thought of it lah. I mean, what is a wedding without sharkfins? And I don't care about killing sharks and whatever because if those people are so righteous than don't ear meat please. So I tried to push for sharkfins to no avail. And in place, I got some chicken soap with 4 treasures-  namely, scallops, fish maw, superior mushrooms and crab meat (I think). 

The fish was okay, except it was in steamed Teochew style which Christian said was kind of cheap-looking but the dish came out okay and was pretty good, except the fish was almost tasteless. 

Chicken was too overcooked and too small for 10 people. Broccoli with mushrooms has stale taste and broccoli was too big for the usual bite-size. Prawns in yam basket were too little and finally, dessert was too sweet. Except for the noodles, everything was not up to standard. Oh, and I left out one thing, the coke was stale and not gassy too. Argh, as a coke-lover no gas drinks are a big no no. 

Furniture shopping part 3

So after that few hours of horrendous fighting off that manager who kept pushing us to buy more photos, we went back to do tons of painting.

Ah Lau and I will shuttle between his Woodlands home and my maiden Batok house between the weeks to be fair to both parents. So technically, we have 2 marriage rooms so 2 rooms to repaint and buy new furniture. 

My room in Batok has always been very well furnished (it being a girl's room of course) so besides the new study desk that Ah Lau and I saw the Ikea which can sit 2 people, a brand new dresser and a fresh coat of paint, we actually have nothing else to buy for Batok. 

I never felt the need to have a dresser since I always do my make up in the corner of the kitchen and sometimes in the big mirrors in the dining area, but Mum says I have to and it is one of the necessary things to buy for a new bride. So I searched Carousell and have been following @furnituresg and bought a slim dresser at $165. The dresser however at Woodlands will be a make shift one from a long mirror to be mounted on the wall and a small square table from Ikea. 

Here is how the dresser at my Batok home looks like. 

Photo picking (1)

On Friday, Ah Lau and I were excited (or maybe it was just me?) went to pick photos for the wedding album. All the pictures taken by Jeffrey from Beautiful Love were pretty well taken. Except for a few where my buck teeth was so obvious that I cringed just looking at them and some where Ah Lau looked like his smile was as stiff as anything (he was having a bad tummyache on that day), out of the 136 photos, I just deleted all of the rejected ones and was left with 98.

I was kind of excited as spoken, to be able to see all these nice photos and with us dressed in such nice clothes and with such beautiful scenery, only to be slapped with a $9k bill. I was like WTF! And when the manager pointed out in the small print of the agreement that I have signed that says $95 for every additional photos on top of the 30 poses in 10 pages of album that are already in the package, I was about to flip the table, computer and keyboard and all.

Since it is Ah Lau's 2nd marriage, he already knew what we were in for and he had warned me when we were on the way there, but I did not know that it would be an almost $10k bill. I would rather spend the money on a wedding cake or a better venue. So I insisted a big no.

The manager then of cause, tried to sales talk us by giving us a little discount here and there to which Ah Lau and I were very firm. From $9k to $6k with 60 photos. I said no. And then from $6k to $3k to 40 photos and still I said no. What the hell, why must it be 95 freaking dollars for just 1 photo? It just simple photoshop that you are applying and putting it in the album with some sort of layered artwork! And Ah Lau made a good point, why pay so much for an album just to leave it in the cupboard to collect dust?

So 30 poses it was and it still is. All in all, we have 2 dresses in 6 indoor scenes and 3 dresses in 3 outdoor locations. We took the time and really skim through all the photos and picked those that we can leave out. In the end, we kept to the 30 poses by taking equally from the 5 dresses but we had to forego a few of the indoor scenes. A pity but like I've said in my previous posts, I hate these people who print extra shit in small print and not let us know before hand what we were in for, only to throw shit back and expect us to pay.

Okay enough ranting. Despite so much anger and disappointment, Ah Lau and I were still pretty much satisfied with the photos. We picked a beautiful outdoor shot as our portrait photo. Will show you guys when they are ready.

Wedding invitation cards

Hi!

Ah Lau and I just went to T-Dragons, the designated wedding cards printer for Faber Peak (as far as I know, they are the designated printer for MOST wedding venues in Singapore).

We were spoiled for choices. There are simply too many to choose from.

But I am so glad and happy to know that Ah Lau and I have the same simple and yet exquisite taste in so many things. *beems*

First of all, what caught our eyes were the modern with an Asian fusion type that comes in a cover and the words of the invitation are actually printed on a piece of hard paper to slot it in.

Here are some of what I found on the internet.

http://img01.cp.aliimg.com/imgextra/i4/275591156/T2AkTvXlXXXXXXXXXX_!!275591156.jpg

http://www.inthiepcuoi.com.vn/Image/Editor/Img/Thiep%20cuoi%20suu%20tam/in%20thiep%20cuoi%2020.jpg

http://i01.i.aliimg.com/photo/v1/1395894715/Chinese_Red_Wedding_Invitation_Cards_Laser_Cut.jpg_350x350.jpg

When we have decided to pick one like one of the above, we were told that we have to pay an additional $0.30 more for each card to be slotted in. Since we are so striped for cash, we have to give it a skip.

The traditional cards are all in the regular rectangular shape or the square ones so we were not really keen to be giving those. And there were those that are too Chinese-y which I don't like nor think that it is suitable to be given to my relatives because they are all English-speaking people. 

I was looking at these and I was like, no way!

http://planner-wedding.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/chinese-wedding-invitations4.jpg

http://i00.i.aliimg.com/wsphoto/v0/1539004304/Chinese-style-font-b-wedding-b-font-font-b-invitation-b-font-double-tassel-font-b.jpg

I also recalled always receiving wedding invitations where the words are printed on an insert and then tied with a gold string to the card. I often wondered, why the hell not print it directly on the card anyway? Can save time and money to tie the insert and card together. Then I realised... the couple must be afraid that they might write some names wrongly and so reprinting the inserts is cheaper.

http://wedding.983.com.hk/showroom_tc/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/1003b.jpg

Anyway, as I was saying, whether its tying with a gold string or gluing it on one side to the card, it's as ugly as anything. Honestly, it just makes people want to throw it away, especially those that comes with the string. 

So I was damn determined to print the words directly on the card and so I did. 

Back to choosing how the card looks like; Ah Lau and I wanted one with some sort of modern and Asian feel to it. I want it to look happy and not so traditional and one that is of a unique shape. 

There! What do you think? 

Air brushing trial

I had a trial air brushing session today, what a big difference this session was compared to a prior one with another artist.

The designer with an artistic attitude introduced an air brush artist to me during my initial choosing of dresses and with her endless assurance of how good she is, how her price is reasonable and so on that made me decided to get the red evening bustier as my evening gown. 

Since I am opened to more options, I decided to give this recommended artist a try. And I did. But what a great disappointment she is. She didn't know that she can't put concealer before the air brush and she did so 2 hours later, my tattoos showed up like a rose in a desert. Wth! And the ink that she uses is water-based and not alcohol-based so naturally, it doesn't last. 

So I bounced back to my first choice, Rui who is also cheaper and did my trial in the comforts of my own bedroom. 

Looks good as you can see, it's quite a thorough cover up and Rui even air brushed a white layer as base before the beige colour goes up. Till now, the air brushed colour is still on my shoulder albeit a little being rubbed off coz I was rolling around on the sofa. 

And I like it that Rui asked me to shave my back before the actual day. I laughed at first coz I don't have a hairy back. I'm Chinese for god's sake. But after the trial, I was amazed at how fine hair on my shoulders and back really affected the effect. 

See those grey lines? Those are hair! Without them, it would be perfect. 

One session like this with at least a base of white and 3 layers of skin tone air brushing ink can last for 6 to 8 hours if you don't perspire or scub it. So I booked Rui once in the morning, once in the evening before my solemnization and once more before the 2nd march-in. 

Cost me $550. 

Thankful

70 days to my big day. Most of the preps are already done and I am thankful, so thankful to have an ever accommodating Ah Lau to attend to my needs. Also grateful to my future parents-in-law and my parents for helping us in every way they can. 

I am thankful for my friends who will be there on the day to help, be it emcee or bridesmaids, they never say no. And to everyone else whom I've left out, thank you. 

An exciting 70 more days to the day.