Our First Year Wedding Anniversary

The nice wedding cake from Rasa Sentosa


Us, trying to take a pic from the rom venue

It has been a year already! A year since I last updated this blog with entries. Life has been busy for past 1 year cause we found our love nest and was busy building it. Heehee. We had a rather simple anniversary celebration. Went for our spa and facial before heading to Rasa Sentosa's Silver Shell Cafe for dinner. It was a nice evening, a little warm. We tried to head down to our ROM site to take a picture but we were there too late (because our facial ended late) and the sun has set.

Just trying to recall how many times I had flipped through my wedding album. Hhmm... I think less than 5 times. The video from our wedding probably watched it once only. We said to watch it every year but we didn't cause it is too long. LOL.

Wedding is over... A New Life Begins...

My outfit before I return to my granny's house. Skirt was designed by myself.
Full outfit
At our house, with Dino
The ROM table setup
The ROM ceremony
See how the sun is setting? So beautiful
The kiss
Waiting to enter the ballroom for the first march-in. Check out the back of my gown.
Check out Joey's "tie". I designed it too.
Took a photo with my god-granny before we go for our second march-in
Drinking the champagne
My beloved family

Finally I have some time to write a note. Married for almost a month now. It does feel a little different although we are together for 9+ years. It's hard to explain why it feels different. Probably it's because Joey makes me feel different. He has been trying his best to be a good husband now, i.e. to take good care of his wife e.g. picking me up from work, wash my dishes for me after I cook dinner, pay for everything etc. Ok, he used to pay for everything but now he seems to pay for more, even my shopping at times. Getting quite spoilt now. Haha...

Well, we do miss the wedding a lot. I missed the ROM ceremony the most. It was ssssoo beautiful. The sun was setting while we said our vow. Joey missed the dinner more. Overall, we are happy that everyone enjoyed the dinner and it went well. Oh well, it wasn't as smooth as it was planned. Here's what happened.

Everything went fine in the morning, the tea ceremony was on time, everything was on schedule and we arrived at the hotel at 2pm, just nice for check-in. Managed to squeeze in a nap in between, before the ROM and dinner starts. Everything went fine except that some of the coaches that we arranged got caught in the traffic jam and some guests didn't manage to take the coach cause they waited at the wrong location. We delayed our ROM for awhile which was fine because the sunset was a little glaring too. We managed to finish the ROM at 7.30pm and the guests proceed to the cocktail reception and had some fingerfood and enjoy the stroller band as well. My expected time for dinner to start was at 8pm but eventually we couldn't start the dinner because some relatives were late. We started at 9pm which was really late and everything was in a big rush. Fortunately we ordered the fingerfood else the guests who were early would have been really hungry.

There might be a few unhappy events that happened during the preparation of wedding but they are actually blessing in disguise when we think back now. No doubt our initial bridal car got into a car accident but we managed to strike lottery with the replacement car's car plate number. No doubt dinner was started really late, but we were not drunk because our friends got to leave by that time and we managed to go to St James for our after-dinner party. No doubt it rained heavily in the morning but we got a beautiful evening and it didn't affect our ROM.

The photos and videos are out already. Check them out at www.mywedding.com/joeysandra

We are glad that we didn't go for honeymoon immediately cause we were quite tired for the next 2 days. Some friends said that we deserved it because we still went clubbing and counted our red packets till 5.30am on the wedding night. Haha... anyway, Joey got a new job recently and we can't go overseas for long. But we are going to Phuket over the Deepavali long weekend for our short honeymoon. Another trip to Ho Chi Minh City over the Hari Raya Haji long weekend in December. =P

Our next plan would be to get our dream house. For those who might ask - we are not going to have kids so soon or even might not have one at all.

An advice for all the couples - No doubt it can be quite frustrating with the preparations etc, but you must remember to enjoy the process else, you will lose the meaning of the wedding. Don't be upset by the comments from other people because there is no way you can please everyone. Do what that makes both of you happy because it is YOUR DAY. Control your parents (so that they be reasonable with their requests) as much as possible so that it makes things easier for both of you because the more comments and opinions, the more arguments and the harder the process will become. I might sound very unreasonable to you now but that is probably the only way to keep everyone happy. Make them understand that they already gone through their own wedding before, so do let both of you make the decision so that you guys will be happy too. I guess they will also want you to be happily married and enjoy the day specially for both of you. ;-)

Car Decor

Check out our car decor. We handmade this because our bridal car colour will be changed. It's going to be simple, just this heart with roses at the front and a Just Married sign at the back. =)

Going to the ROM

At the ROM
The form that we filled up to confirm that we are getting the certificate
Joey and I waiting for our queue number to be called
Our number (78) being called
The oath that we took and signed
Joey taking the oath
Me taking the oath

Handing the documents to us

It was quite an exciting day yesterday. It's our first time going to the ROM to collect our wedding certs. Joey seems to be more excited than I am. He was laughing and cracking silly jokes while we waited for our queue number to be called. Our appointment was between 8.30-9am (very early right?) but it was very crowded when we reached there. All thanks to the auspicious dates this weekend. The wait wasn't that long, about 30 mins before our number was called. We took our oath and collected the certs within 10 mins. Then we were off to the spa.

1 upsetting thing happened on Tuesday though. We got a call from our car rental shop that the Mini Cabriolet that we rented got into an accident the night before and was quite badly damaged. We were offered other alternatives but I wasn't quite happy because Mini Cabrio was my dream car. Anyway, till the point of writing, the manager is still trying to find us the car we wanted and trying to convince other owners to lease it out to us for this weekend. Joey and I even went down to the Mini showroom, wanted to get a new car but was told that it is sold out for the year and we have to wait for the new model next year. =(

Moral of the story - there will always be accidents no matter how well planned you are so you can only confirmed that your event is successful only till the very last minute of it.

Rest and Relax

Time really flies. Joey just proposed to me when I first started this blog to record down the whole weddding preparation but now we are just 1 week away from our wedding day. Now it's time for the rest and relax. Check out our pampering sessions below. I got a weird feeling now. We have been so busy for 1 whole year for the wedding and now we feel kind of loss cause it's almost over and we will be quite free after the wedding. Haha... Nevertheless, we enjoyed the whole process. :)

Here our schedule for our pampering treats and perhaps you can pick up some tips on what you can do to relax yourself when it is 1 week to the wedding:

Thur - Facial
Fri - Meetup with groomsmen and bridesmaids
Sat - Stag Night and Hen's Party
Sun - Go to the hairstylist for a hair colour, hair cut and hair treatment
Wed - Go to ROM to get our marriage certificate etc before going for our spa
Fri - Have a relaxing dinner with parents and family and sleep early
Sat - Actual wedding day!!!

An Chuang and Guo Da Li

Our nuptial bed
Example of the basket but the one we used was much bigger.

We woke up at 6am yesterday to do the An Chuang i.e. to place all 4 types of fruits, pineapple, huat kuei and angpow on our bed. Most couples will choose to buy a new bed but we chose to just flip over our existing bed and remove the plastic covering cause we bought the bed not very long ago. We bought a new set of wedding themed bedsheets from Aussino (cost $79.90). They got really nice bedsheets for weddings and their designs change from time to time. Our auspicious time was from 6am to 7am hence we got to complete it by 7am. We managed to finish it on time, took a quick shower and rushed out to do the Guo Da Li.

Guo Da Li basically means to give all the agreed betrothal gifts, cash amount, number of boxes of traditional wedding cakes and 4 pieces of jewellery (only if you are a Teochew) to the bride's family after the parents agreed to the marriage (the groom supposed to ask for the hand of the bride from the parents before this). Joey is supposed to come up to my granny's house with another woman who is acting as a matchmaker, but because this process happened too early on a weekday morning and plus the matchmaker has to fit certain criteria (she needs to come from a good fortune family i.e. perfect family with a son and a daughter) which is not that easy to find, we decided not to have one. Anyway, everyone is so modern now, so we tends to skip a few steps and simplified the process. I called this process - moving things around Singapore. Haha... The funniest thing I thought was the traditional chinese basket which is used to carry all the betrothal gifts. Joey collected the traditional chinese wedding cakes the night before and our bakery offered us free rental for the basket if you purchase more than $100 from them. Joey told me that the basket was too big so he left it in the car. I find it weird but when I saw it the next morning, I really burst out laughing. Too bad I didn't take photo of it. But I found a picture from the internet to show. But the basket that we used it all red and much bigger. It's almost a metre tall and 5 layers I think.

After the moving is done, we went to pray all our ancestors to inform them that we are getting married next week. I managed to get home and rest at 4.30pm. It was so tiring, but I would say that it was quite interesting.

Hen's Party

Check out what my cheeky cousin has done. An invitation for my hen's party this coming Saturday. It's going to be the day where we are going to pick up the gowns from the bridal shop in the morning before I come back and meet them for a nice dinner and party afterwards. It's probably going to be at O Bar instead of StJames because we can get a table and going to be great fun. :)

I'm not sure where Joey's friends will be bringing him too. Hahaha... probably some nightclubs or something. =P

Just a quick note for the men who are reading this blog. Stag nights is definitely about having fun to celebrate your singlehood but make sure that you know your limits and don't do anything to betray your partner. Don't start your marriage with a lie. There is a limit to what girls do during hen's party and it definitely won't be as daring as what men will do, so nothing for the men to worry about their bride-to-be going for hen's party.

Hand Bouquet and Boutonniere

Material used - ribbon, green tape, thin copper wire, safety pins, scissors and crystals
The finished product
My hand bouquet with crystals

We have decided to use artificial flowers for our hand bouquet and boutonnieres. There are various reasons for doing so.

1. Our wedding is a whole full day event and we doubt fresh flowers can last in our weather without turning yellow at the end of the day.

2. We got a beach ROM in the evening so the hand bouquet is needed twice rather than just once for most weddings.

3. We want to finish up whatever things that we have earlier so that we have lesser things to worry nearer to our wedding date

We found a shop at Tekka Mall 5th floor, which sells artifical flowers that look very real. You probably can't tell in the first look if my hand bouquet is real flowers or not. I have also bought some crystals from 1 of the shops at People's Park Centre at Chinatown and added them onto the bouquet and boutonniere. I would say that it is not difficult to do. I am not good with art and crafts so if I can do it, I guess anyone else who has the time can do it too. =) The best thing of all is you can have a bouquet that you designed on your own.

Our First Wedding Gift

The Champagne (free from the dealer that we ordered our red wine)
The glass with my name, there is the other one with Joey's name
Can you see our wedding date?

Check out our first wedding gift. It's from a lady from my Sydney office. We were moving office when we found some really nice brand new champagne glasses and she insisted that she will bring it for engraving and give it to us. Really sweet right? They are really good quality crystal glasses. Check out my name with our wedding date on the glass.

Joey was trying to practise popping the champagne at home yesterday. Haha. We even practised crossing our arms to drink. As most people know, I am quite short and Joey is damn tall so we can foresee that I will have difficulties doing that move without spilling the champagne onto my gown during the wedding banquet. It was funny because I put on my high heels at home, taking the glass, crossing arms, and both of us trying to find the right position so that both of us can drink properly.

Wedding Vow and Ring Vow

Most people probably didn't know that they can actually write their own vows. It is actually more meaningful and sweet because you choose a reading that you want to say to your future partner. Well, we decided to write our very own vow and my main reason was so that we can say something that is simple, short and sweet and cut short the whole ceremony. Haha... quite lazy and unromantic right? =P

Anyway, there are 2 parts to the whole solemnisation process - the wedding vow and the ring vow. Just need to google for wedding vow and I am sure you can find a few samples. And here are our vows for your reference. Apparently it's not short after all because Joey thinks that they are the most meaningful and romantic vows that we found. We did a little editing but it is still as long. It's a little mushy, so put on your winter jacket before reading now. Haha...

Wedding vow:
I, (name), take you, (name), to be my lawfully wedded (husband/wife), my one and only love from this day forward. In the presence of our family and friends, I offer you my solemn vow to be your faithful partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow. I promise to love you unconditionally, to support you in your goals, to honor and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to cherish you as long as we both shall live.

Ring vow:
I give you this ring as a symbol of my love and faithfulness. As I place it on your finger, I commit my heart and soul to you. I ask you to wear this ring as a reminder of the vows we have spoken today, our wedding day.

Invitation Cards

Giving out invitation cards is really tiring but it has been a very fun process. It's a chance for me to catch up with all the friends. A good excuse to get them out from their busy schedule to go for dinner, chit chat with me. These are my primary school classmates who are all very excited about our wedding. They even insisted on taking photos at the train station to prove that they have received my card. I felt really touched.

A buddy who got married in Feb this year told me scary stories about friends who avoid your call/sms, delay the RSVP till last week and cook up some ridiculous excuses, just to avoid your invitation. And I really feel very fortunate that we have a lot of friends who really looking forward to attend my wedding. Feel so loved. Heehee. =)
Sad that I don't have the luxury of time to meet up all my friends to pass them our invitation cards personally due to the remaining of the wedding preps and also my work. Heading to Sydney next Tuesday for a week.

Food Tasting

Meet Perry, our super nice coordinator
My first course - cold dish
Sharks' fins, so sinful
Cod fish, unfortunately, changing this dish
Fresh prawns

My favourite is the dessert - white fungus with hashima

It is usually advisable to do the food tasting about 1 month in advance but because we were told by the elderly people at home that it is best not to do anything related to wedding during the lunar 7th month hence we are pushing it forward 2 months earlier. We are kind of running out of time because of my business trip in the next 2 weeks too.

Our advise - listen to the elderly and accommodate them when possible to avoid unnecessary nagging and conflicts. We will still proceed with our wedding preps in August (whole of August happened to be lunar 7th month) without them knowing, basically the stuff that won't involve them at all. Heehee.

Our food tasting went well, didn't change much except for 2 dishes. 1 is the fish. I have chosen cod fish because personally I love eating that fish plus it's an expensive fish. But eventually I was told that we need to have head and tail to the fish hence we got to change to Red Groupa. The other one was the asparagus for our scallops. It's those USA asparagus which tends to be a little too hard for elderly to chew. Hence we change it to Thai asparagus which is smaller but as crunchy. And the lesson that we learnt is - never give people too many choices because you are just giving yourself more problems, creating an opportunity for conflicts to happen. =)

E-Invite

Time to show off my technical skills. Heehee. It makes life easier for us to create an e-invite and send out to our friends and colleagues both locally and overseas. They can easily RSVP online with their mailing address and I will just need to consolidate them into a spreadsheet and do a mail merge with Microsoft Word and ta-da! I will have all the mailing addresses on labels. Next would be to stick and post them out after writing their names on the cards.

Part of the reason for me to do this is also to find out how many people can attend and give out the Sentosa car pass only to those who will be driving and attending our wedding.

Another thing that I have created is the wedding portfolio at mywedding.com. I think it is a good tool to share photos around too, especially those friends that are unable to attend but still very keen to look at our photos. Of course, it takes quite a bit of work to get it done.

Check out our wedding portfolio - http://mywedding.com/joeysandra

Wedding Cards

Guess it's never an easy thing to do especially our cards because we are arranging for 6 coaches to pick up our guests around the whole Singapore. Hence we need to make sure those coaches can stop and wait for the guests at those locations that we picked. It's not easy. We even drove down to 2 of the locations to survey the area and also find out the exit number from MRT so that we can have precise instructions for guests to find their way there.

We chose the 3 folds cream card instead of the maroon one because we feel that it looks more classy. Our coordinator is very good, packed everything nicely for us with all the needed stuff and left the package for us to collect on Labour's Day. Joey went and picked it up when I was out doing my dancing classes.

I have passed the empty cards to my printer and hopefully will get the layout sorted out soon. It took us almost 2 days to get confirmation for parents' names etc because it is written in traditional Chinese. I can't even understand the writing myself. Haha... anyway, I am very fortunate. My company printer lady is very nice, she offered to print for me so she did the layout for me. The only thing that I contributed was the pair of Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel cartoon for my cards. =P

The cards were done in less than 2 weeks after the confirmation of the layout. I love the colour of the words. Ming (the lady from the printing company) specially got this colour for us. It looks kind of like shiny purple, like the purple gold at the Lee Hwa shop. Really nice. =)

Pre-Wedding Shoot Photos

Here are some of my pre-wedding shoot taken in Jan. Taken them off the screen of the computer when we viewed the photos last Sunday. I like the design of the layout.

A couple of things/tips to remind those grooms/brides-to-be:

1. Make sure you start sleeping enough at least 1 month before your actual shoot day so that you can get rid of panda eyes and your eyes will look bright.

2. Don't drink too much water the night before your shoot. No alcohol too.

3. Remember to bring insect repellent and put them on before you go out for your outdoor shoot. I got a mosquito bite on my cheek although I sprayed the repellent, so some places still cannot be avoided but there is always some software called Photoshop. Haha...

4. Always tell the makeup artist if you have any allergy to certain products.

5. Look up the net for a few hairstyles before the wedding shoot. You can ask the makeup artist's comments and get her to do it for you. In that case, you can use the hairstyle suitable for you on your wedding day too.

6. Groom might want to shape the eyebrow a little so that will have a cleaner look. Of course shave too.

7. Bring clothes that are easy to take off, e.g. button tops. Avoid those that you need to pull it off because you will mess up your makeup.

8. If you need to diet, please do so 6 months before. You probably won't have time to eat on the shooting day so don't have to worry about tummy bulging out. =P

Yeah We Graduated!!

Finally, we came to the end of our marriage counselling course. We had our last session on Wednesday. Both Joey and I enjoyed the course a lot and we kind of missed it. They were really enjoyable sessions and the counsellor, Dr Lee, is quite humorous. He is really experienced, can give us really good examples to relate to and to understand what he means.

Dr Lee showed us our temperament profile on our last session. Joey's character is totally opposite of mine! Maybe that's what they meant by opposite attracts I guess. Dr Lee did stress that we both need to change our character a little to compromise with each other so that we don't end up in fights. One interesting finding was that my nervous and stress level is pretty high. Joey's nervous level is quite high too but he is not stressed about it at all. Haha... Dr Lee did mention that I need to relax myself more.

Marriage Counselling Course

Most of friends who know that I am getting married is also attending the marriage counselling course by the Care Corner Social Service. (Check out this link - http://fcd.ecitizen.gov.sg/CommunityDevelopment/PromoteFamilyLifeEducation/OrganiseFamilyLifeTalks/Marriage+Preparation.htm)
I think this is really a very good course to attend. It really gives you an insight of what to expect when you are married and living together. Although Joey and I have been together for almost 9 years and we have been living together also for almost 3-4years but there are still so much to learn from the course. There might be incidents whereby we don't voice out and just let it be but both of us were able to speak up to the counsellor because he is acting like a mediator. The communication and conflict management that we learned is really useful. I have learned some before during my poly days on communication skills but it's more for work related usage.

I would seriously recommend anyone who is getting married to take some time to attend this course. It's 5 sessions for $250 and there is a rebate of $70 from the government if you complete the whole course.

Viewing of Photos, Hong Kong Trip and our Wedding Car

My Bridal Shop

Stuff I bought from Hong Kong

Finally we managed to view our pre-wedding photos but unfortunately, I can't show any of them yet. Not because I don't want to show them but it's because the photoes needs to be touch up. The photos will be ready in 2 months' time so hopefully I will be able to show some. We chose a lot of our outdoor shoot though cause they looked more natural, more like the usual us. :)

It has been a month since we came back from Hong kong. U can see that we bought some interesting stuff from there. My Hong Kong colleague recommended us to go to the Gum-Do (golden capital) shopping centre on Nathan Road at Prince Edward MTR. It was an extremely good recommendation as it's a building, 4 storeys high, FULL OF WEDDING STUFF! My best friend tailored her wedding shoes there and only cost less than $50! And best of all, it's hand-sew within an hour! Amazing. She also tailored her ROM dress and got it sent over to Singapore. Cost her only $120.

Check out our wedding car. It is my dream car. Hopefully one day I will be able to afford this car but meanwhile, I can only use this as our wedding car. We rented this from the http://www.weddingcars.sg/ and so far it has been the cheapest 3 days weekend package that I have found. 3 days for $738. Quite worth it. :)

Wedding Photoshoot

Haha... Joey also got to put makeup
His grouchy face before the makeup starts
Me after I am done with my makeup
The final product

We went to Johor Bahru to do our photoshoot on Saturday. I was there on Saturday to choose my gowns. The indoor shoot took place on Sunday and the outdoor shoot was on Monday. It was very fun. Not as tired as I imagined it to be, maybe because it is easy for both of us to smile and also get the right angle that the photographer wants. The indoor shoot took about 10 hours and the outdoor took about 9 hours. The best part was we went to Kota Tinggi for our outdoor shoot all for the sake of the waterfall there. It is beautiful. Natural waterfall, something that I have not seen it before, so it was extremely fun and interesting for me. But it was super cold!!! Why would we feel cold? Cause Sandra was extra again. I wanted something that is more nature and unique hence suggested that we go down to the waterfall in bikini and berms. Poor Joey was shivering all over. Heehee... well, that's all that I am going to share. Once I choose the photos, I will upload and share and you can see the beautiful waterfall. =)

One tiny issue that happened during our trip though. Our car tyre punctured when we were on our way back from Kota Tinggi. First time in my life I got to stop at the roadside and try to change a tyre. Anyway I only helped out, Joey and the driver had to change the tyre together. The carplate number is 6255. Let's buy and hope that we can strike a small amount before the Chinese New Year!

In case you are curious which bridal shop I go to, it's in JB, an area called Skudai and the bridal shop name is Mondero Bridal House. The service is excellent and the coordinator is extremely accomodating. Her name is Cindy. The makeup artist, Jessica, uses products from MAC, Chanel, Shuemura etc and her skill is good. Joey likes the way she do my hair and my makeup and keep saying that I look very pretty that day. Haha...

4 Pieces of Jewellery

According to Teochew custom, the groom needs to buy the bride 4 pieces of gold jewellery aka "4 Dian Jin". This is only applicable to Teochews. Lucky me, Joey is a Teochew! Heehee... so here's another 4 pieces of diamond jewellery that I will be getting. I tried my best to save some money for Joey by using my birthday discount to buy them. But still, they are huge diamonds and still cost almost 3k after all the discounts.

Tip of the day - always wait till birthday and get birthday discounts from jewellery shops (only applicable to those who already got member cards) else look for friends who can get discounts. ;-)

Changing the Colour of My Free Ring Pillow from Lee Hwa

Now you see it...
And this is how I do it...

Now you see it being transformed!

Close up of my purple roses =)

Well, this is what hard-to-please Sandra will do when she doesn't like the colour of something that she got for free. Heehee... Transform it to something that she likes!! I'm quite happy with the product. At least it is not so plain now. Just need to activate a little of my creative cells. Haha... in case you are curious what I used to turn the roses from white to lilac, it's just clear nail polish and lilac glitters. Easy right?

Photographer and Videographer

Joey and I had a discussion and we decided that we wanted to record all the happy faces on our wedding day, therefore we started hunting down a good photographer and videographer.

Ping (my sister) suggested that we use Yong's (her bf) childhood friend's brother (ok, I know it's a bit complicated). His friend's brother has been a photographer for many years and does weddings in Singapore and also in Malaysia. He does have a shop (shop named to be updated shortly) but because we go direct to him through contacts, we managed to get a special rate. Working with him, is a videographer who does freelance for Mediacorp (he was involved in the recent President Star charity show). We decided to meet up with him to check out the photos and videos they taken.

I like the way the photographer takes the pictures. He captures all the special moments as well as the happy faces of the people involved in the wedding i.e. family members etc. Unlike most photographers who focus solely on the wedding couple, he understands that the wedding couple would like to see the surrounding as well as the whole wedding process. I like his shots especially those angled photos. He is very nice too. He doesn't mind my wedding being very early and long because we are doing our ROM together on the same day. It will definitely exceed the 10 hours limit set by usual photographers in the market.

The video from the videographer is very interesting too. Most videographers would just shoot and play the whole process after cutting and pasting the clips, but this videographer will put in words in between to show what is going to happen next. I think this is good because my bosses and friends from overseas, who doesn't know how a Chinese wedding is like, would know what's happening.

I did make a research for the market rate for photographer and videographer. So far the cheapest rate would be $780 onwards and usually they are restricted to 10 hours of shooting. Videographer on average would cost at least $850 and above.

Another interesting thing from this photographer is that he gave us an option to top up $100 for a magazine style wedding book. It means that all our wedding photos will be printed in a magazine so that it will be easier for people to flip through and see.

Crazy Act 1

Been awhile since I have done preparation for our wedding. We managed to get most of the stuff we need from Bangkok. Recently, I'm so bored and I decided to make my own fake nails to match my gowns. Heehee... so take a look at the picture above and you will know what crazy stuff I did again. Yes, I spent almost $50 by now buying all sorts of different nail polish colours, stickers and fake nails. My crazy best friend is the one who insisted that I take this picture. But till now, I have not even started painting any single nail yet. Haha... perhaps start next year I guess, else really nothing for me to do.

Back from Bangkok! Wedding Shopping Done!

Joey, Yong, Ping and Me having Thai Food at Suanlum Night Bazaar

Hurray!!! I am back and yes, I didn't get tax by the airline! Heehee... I'm so happy because I got so many nice stuff for my wedding AT GREAT CHEAP PRICES!!!

We arrived at Bangkok at almost 1am cause our flight was delayed for an hour. Next day, we went to Best Tailors at Ambassador Hotel near Nana BTS station to tailor Joey's suit. I love 1 of the Hugo Boss design that I saw once online and got them to do a similar one for Joey. It turned out perfect. He look really good in it and it only cost $180 for a whole suit. =)

I have also tailor a really sexy and unique dress that I saw from a magazine (it's actually from Gucci. Haha!). But because it is too technical, the tailor will need more than 1 week to do the dress. He will mail it to Singapore once he is done. If that turns out fitting for me, I will be wearing it as my evening gown. Haha! Cost? Almost the same as Joey's suit cause it is very hard to make.

Next we went to Platinum Mall at Pratunam to search for my bridesmaids' dresses. My goodness! There are 5 levels full of shops!!! Our legs were aching like mad! Good thing is I found a really nice tube dress that I think would be suitable. The boss of the shop looks really young, still studying I guess and she told me that she sew all of them. I was quite amazed. She was very happy to know that I wanted 6 pieces. Sad thing is that she don't have the colour that I wanted. So I chose a white and black one instead. Cost? $10 per dress! Cheap isn't it?

Platinum Fashion Mall The Shop The dress but not this colour

Joey also managed to get his Best Men's ties. All at great prices too. It was a tiring but fun trip. Our initial plan to visit the Tiger Zoo didn't work out because we end up going back to the shopping malls to get more stuff. The results, we hit the baggage limit just nice at 60kg. Fortunately, the airline didn't check our hand baggage. Haha...

The most ridiculous thing that I have bought is my 11kg water fountain from the Chatuchak Market. It's so nice and cheap that I couldn't resist. Joey and the rest got really stressed up on the last day trying to make sure that we don't get tax. =P

My favourite item would be a cheong sum top that I happened to see at the Chatuchak market too. It's so nice and I am going to wear it for my tea ceremony. Not going to show the picture because it's going to be a surprise to all. =)

My Luggage

The best surprise that I got was that our wedding date came out as the 4D consolation prize on Sunday. Won $60! Haha... so my bridesmaids' dresses are paid by Singapore Pools! Thank you!! =P

My Mummy is Crazy!!

See my handsome boy? Yes, my beloved Dino. Our wish is to be able to bring him to the hotel and to attend our wedding, but I guess it is quite impossible. I have even bought him a tuxedo to wear on our wedding day. But he has grown fatter and doesn't fit him very well. Nevertheless, here's one picture that I have taken of him (can see his annoyed look, he usually smile quite happily when we take pictures of him in his clothes).

Our ideal wedding ROM is to have Dino to piggyback our wedding band to us but that will definitely not happen because he is a Jack Russell. We probably lose our bands in the sand. LOL. But well, that's a good idea for you if you have a well-trained dog who can walk down the aisle slowly with you.

Leaving for the friendly Bangkok tonight. Hurray!!!

Bangkok, Here We Come!!!

Yeah! 1 more day to another holiday for me. But this time round, there are more tasks for me other than my regular shopping. E.g. Get a good tailor for Joey's suit, get my bridesmaids' dresses, Best men's ties, maybe wedding favors, tailor my cheong sum or kua if it is cheap... but I guess we will enjoy ourselves this time because we will be there for 5 days, so won't be too rush.

This year I will miss celebrating the mooncake festival with my family cause I won't be in Singapore till next Wednesday. My neighbour's kids were quite disappointed just now when I told them that I will be away this weekend. But I decided to share my Hello Kitty mooncakes with them.

More updates and photos to come after my trip! =)

Exactly 1 More Year to Go...

We went and collect our wedding band last night at Lee Hwa. Finally it is ready! We also did our engraving on the spot. Joey decided on what to engrave cause I am totally clueless when come to such things. He decided to use the same format that we used previously for our couple rings (we got a set of couple rings when we were together for 2 years, it was actually a wedding band from Gold Heart Jewellery though). We got a pair from the Jorn Rainer limited edition collection and because my ring size is too small, they need to custom make my ring as it is not possible to alter.

My annoying sister has msn me this morning with the following message:

Ping says:
next yr de today u are MRS Tan Liao
BeBe says:
wow
Ping says:
MADAM YEOW
Ping says:
MADAM
BeBe says:
MA DE
Ping says:
OHH no more MISS
BeBe says:
Ms Yeow
Ping says:
MRS TAN MADAM YEOW
BeBe says:
stop it
Ping says:
wahahaha

Obviously she is out to annoy me, knowing that I fear of being old. But she is right. 1 more year from now, my status will change. I got to tick "Married" instead of "Single" when filling up forms. Kind of feel sad now cause somehow I link marriage with losing my freedom!!! Although Joey has reassured me so many times that nothing will change after we are married and my friends said that I'm so wild and no one will be able to control me too, but I still don't quite believe that nothing will change. I think I am still not mentally prepared for it. It' so scary!!!

Personalise Wedding Accessories for my Bridesmaids

"Ta-da!! The final end product"

I'm getting more and more interested in planning our wedding. It no longer involves just two of us and what we want. It's more like planning for the perfect wedding, taking care of every single detail, including what my bridesmaids wear as well as their accessories. Even the best men will be wearing the same coloured tie. =)

Talking about bridesmaids and best men. According to Chinese traditions, we need to have even number, as well as balanced numbers on both bride and groom sides. So, having 2 is too few, 4 is unlucky, we decided to stick to 6 bridesmaids and best men. Another thing to note is that they are not supposed to be married nor older than I am. This has upsets 2 of my elder cousins and me because I am quite close to 1 of them but she is older than me. =(

My 6 shortlisted bridesmaids will be my 2 sisters, 3 cousins as well as my best friend. They are all the people that I love dearly, went through all the thick and thin with me and I really hope that on my wedding day, they will also be the prettiest bridesmaids that a bride can ever have.

My recent Australia trip has gave me an idea for the accessory that I would want my bridesmaids to wear. Normally, bridesmaids will wear a corsage which is usually a flower with lace, ribbons etc. I saw this bracelet made of artificial pearls with ribbons and immediately I know that I want my bridesmaids to wear something like that cause it looks very sweet and elegant. It cost about A$20 for that bracelet and Joey told me that we can easily make this ourselves. Therefore, here comes the DIY session (took me only 30mins to do all 6 of them).

I got my material from a shop next to my bridal shop in JB. Heehee. It's just coincidence that Xueni wants to go into that shop to check out the prices on some stuff for her wedding favours.

I hope that my bridesmaids will like them. =)

Wedding Studios Selection

"My Boss Signing the Contract"

We have concluded that there are 3 bridal package options for us.

1. Get one from Singapore, cost roughly 3-4k and with very minimum.
2. Get from JB, can get a pretty decent one at the cost of only 2k. Problem is we need to get car rental as well as a makeup artist for me on the actual day. We will also need to decor our car ourselves.
3. Tailor made my gowns and Joey's suits from Bangkok (we are heading to Bangkok on the 21st Sept), skip the photo shoot and wedding album and just concentrate on getting a good photographer and videographer for my actual wedding day.

I have checked out the bridal shops along Tanjong Pagar Road with my sister last few months, just to check out the type of gowns in fashion as well as a rough pricing. It turned out to be quite a disappointment and only Z Wedding gowns interest me, but I also happened to know that they are one of the most expensive bridal shops in town as their gowns are mostly designers ones.

Our next option is to check out the bridal shops in JB. I'm not quite keen with the Bangkok option as it is quite a big rush for us. The Bangkok trip is for us to relax (I'm going with Joey, my sister and her boyfriend) and do some shopping for my bridesmaids' dresses and tailor Joey's suit.

Stanley (one of my buddies) is getting married with his girlfriend, Xueni, next year in Jan. Xueni is a Malaysian and she got her package from this shop that is consider not in the city area and is quite good. So we decided to make a trip in to check out the shops.

Yesterday (8th Sept 2007), we arranged for a trip into JB. First, we went to a few others along that area and I was kind of extremely disappointed because the gowns look like they are in the 60s! Resembles the ones that are worn by my mother during her time! I know I might sound a bit too exaggerating but it is true! You cannot imagine how disgusted I was. Finally, we went to the shop that Stan and Xueni bought their package from.

Our coordinator is Cindy, she is very friendly, helpful and sincere. She showed me an 2 albums and immediately I was able to point out at least 5 gowns that I really like. She is very nice and offered me to try those gowns to see if I look nice in them. This is something that I will never get in Singapore bridal shops. SERVICE and the chance to try on gowns even BEFORE I sign any packages with them.

I guess I am a girl who really knows what I like, what I want and what looks good on me, so it was easy for me to select gowns that I think I will look nice in them. We brought our camera along so that we can take the whole process down. Normally bridal shops in Singapore will not allow you to take pictures of their gowns. So this is an exception in JB.

I was extremely happy with the deal that I got because the price was very reasonable, included almost everything that I want, plus the gowns are very trendy and best of all, the service is very good. Coincidentally, I bumped onto Ven Chee, one of my ex-colleagues at the bridal shop too. He is getting married in Nov this year. This has gave me quite a bit of confidence because they are Malaysians too and if they also go to that same shop, it must have means that it is quite good. For those who are interested to know the details, do contact me.

Next thing to do is to get a good photographer and a good videographer. =)

Signing of the Final Contract with Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa

Finally on 4th Aug 2007, we signed the contract for our wedding banquet with Rasa Sentosa. It took us almost 1 month to get the whole thing settled because our coordinator was away for his reservist as well as his annual leave.

Joey will be leaving for his Adelaide trip tomorrow and I will also be heading to Sydney for business trip 1 week after him. Both of us will not be back till end of the month. Fortunately, Perry was back before we leave for our trips.

I checked through every single tiny detail in the contract before Joey signed. Dino was there with us too. We took it as a chance to bring him to Sentosa for his bi-monthly outing (we owed him quite a few times already due to our busy schedule).

So, finally we got the most important thing settled. So far so good, we have only argued once over the number of coaches we should request from the hotel.

That night, we went to Suntec for dinner and also to pass my god-brother his letters and guess what, we got our wedding bands too! We found a pair that we both like. It's from the Jorn Rainer collection from Lee Hwa. As my god-bro is working there, he had managed to get us special discount. We have to wait for more than 2 months for our wedding bands as I have got really thin finger (size 6 by the way) and my god-bro said that they need to custom made for me. =P Troublesome woman hor?

I like our wedding band a lot because it is very matching with my proposal ring when they are worn on the same finger. I deliberately do that so that I can resize my proposal ring to be worn on my ring finger with my wedding band. I love my proposal ring a lot so I don't want to leave it at home once I got my wedding band.

It's only less than 2 months after the proposal and we seems to get almost everything done. Next would be the wedding photo shoot. Although I love to take pictures (especially after I took off my braces), I really like the idea of spending $3000 on some photos. Although it is a once-in-a-lifetime event, I still think that it is a waste of money because they will just be stored up in a cupboard after the wedding.

Wedding Venue

It's so easy for us to decide where we will hold our ROM and wedding. Being together for 8 years, we know each other quite well, what we like and dislike and fortunately, we both have same taste and liking on most of the things.

We started our relationship at Sentosa 8 years ago, so it make logical sense for us to hold our wedding day there. At least logical in my sense (ok, I am a perfectionist). Our first choice is Shangri-la Rasa Sentosa (make logical sense because Joey proposed there). We calculated the number of guests and we came up with roughly 28 tables excluding family friends which our parents may invite.

Now it's my turn to use my excellent planning and great organisation skills. I'm in charge of coordinating and negotiating (or rather bargaining... heehee) with the hotel. There were only a few places we can hold our dinner in Sentosa and after requesting for numerous quotes, only Rasa Sentosa can accommodate the number of tables that we want.

There are a total of 2 ballrooms available for wedding banquet at Rasa Sentosa and believe it or not, by the time I called up, we were left with the option of the Grand Ballroom. I got panicked and arranged to meet the coordinator on Friday and took urgent leave to go down to Rasa with Joey. The reason why that date is so popular is because it is 1 day before the Lunar Mid Autumn Festival.

On 13th July 2007 (exactly 1 year and 2 months away from our actual wedding date), we met Perry Tan at Rasa. He's quite a nice chap. Friendly, straightforward and funny at times. I like his style, tell me everything that he can give me, so save a lot of my saliva to ask for things. But of course, I will always try to push my luck a bit further. =P

That's a picture of us in the car, on our way to Rasa Sentosa. Waiting for Perry's official contract and he had booked the Grand Ballroom for us already. Hurray!!

Hhmm.. What's next? An Auspicious Date!!!

It's funny... both of us don't know what to do next after the proposal. Fortunately, there are forums like stylewedding.sg and singaporebrides.com which gave us some guidance. GET AN AUSPICIOUS DATE so that we don't get any nagging from the elderly at home. =P

Joey (being the more religious one) read through all the forums and found a contact for a geomancist which is highly recommended by a lot of couples. He's Master Long Tian Xiang. Joey sent him our details (our birth date and time) as well as our parents' zodiac.

On 8th July 2007 (Sunday), we went for our appointment with Master Long. We went to his place located at 16 Lentor Loop #14-01 Bullion Park Tower 3. It was pretty exciting because it is like waiting for a verdict. Previously I wanted our wedding date to be on our 9th year anniversary next year or the 8th Aug (it will look damn nice on our wedding cert, 080808) but our 9th year anniversary happened to be Joey's granny death anniversary and 080808 falls in the Lunar 7th month.

Master Long is a very nice and fatherly person, explained to us on all the procedures on what to do and he also gave us a brief fortune telling. Basically, both Joey and I have quite fortunate life. Joey was extremely happy with the explanation and gave him a bigger angbao. Haha...

He said that I will bless my husband, have got good Ren Yuen (PR skills), recommend that I start my own business if possible and I will live my life like an empress. But there are good and bad being an empress. It means that I will have a good life, get everything that I want and it also means that I can be pretty unreasonable and demanding. Well, I must agree to those. =P

Joey wise, he is born with a good life too and Master Long said that I found a good husband, one that takes really good care of the family. Most importantly, he said that both of us will have a blissful marriage. That is good enough. =)

We have decided to go ahead with the date which Master Long as recommended as the BEST date for us - 13th Sept 2008 (Sat). That's a picture of us taking in the lift before reaching Master Long's condo. Hee... It's a good thing that I have more than a year to prepare as I am extremely fussy and picky (see? Master Long is right) and yet, I am always after the best deal (must get Joey's money worth mah... else how can I live up to my nick... the Great Shopping Queen! Haha). In Hokkien it's called, ai pi you ai qi.

8th Year Anniversary

Well well... many of my friends know that Joey and I have been together for a lllloooonnnggg time... so how long is exactly long? It's actually 8 years on 29th Jun 2007 (Fri).

Joey brought me to Rasa Sentosa for a 1 night stay and a spa massage. I hurt my lower back due to excessive dancing so he thought that it was a good idea for me to go for a full body massage on our anniversary. He also told a white lie the day before our anniversary so that I will not plan other stuff on Saturday. He told me that we are going to Malaysia.

On Friday morning, we brought Dino for his annual vaccination at Namly Animal Clinic before heading to Sentosa. I guessed the destination immediately after Joey told me that I don't need to bring passport at all.
I got a nice surprise when we reached the resort. Joey ordered a bouquet of 40 champagne, lilac and cream roses to be delivered to our room. It was an extremely beautiful bunch of flowers that I didn't scold him this time for wasting money on flowers. :P

We went for the spa in the afternoon. I had the spa massage and Joey went for the spa facial. It was really good. My back feels so much better after the massage. It was already 6pm after we are done with the spa. We ordered dinner into the room as Joey is rushing his presentation in the resort. After the dinner, we had a walk down the beach. We went for the sky ride and the luge ride. It was quite fun. Not long after, it started drizzling and we decided to go back to our room.
Now here comes the most interesting part whereby all my friends keep asking... how Joey proposed.

After we reached the room, I went to bathe first. Since it was early, I decided to have a bubble bath. I was in the bathroom for almost an hour before Joey started knocking on the bathroom door, telling me that it's almost 11.30pm. I got panick and started washing all the bubbles off and rushed out of the bathroom to grab my mobile phone. Why do I do that? It's because 8 years ago, at 11.30pm, I agreed to be his girlfriend. So that particular moment is special for both of us and we always send each other a sms to wish each other happy anniversary. This time round, I got a shock, when I was running out to grab my phone (in bathrobe, hair dripping with water and with bubbles left on my chin), Joey was on 1 of his knees proposing to me with the bouquet of flowers. It actually caught me by surprise although I did tell my best friend that I have an intuition that he will propose soon.

Funny part of the proposal, instead of saying yes immediately, though I was in a state of shock, I still manage to maintain the logical side of my mind to pull out some questions for him before accepting the proposal. Questions that I have asked - I can still study right? I can still continue to dance right? Nothing will be changed right?
After the questioning, I agreed. Heehee... Joey asked me to search for my own ring as he had hidden in the room itself. But my eyes are sharp enough to spot it immediately. He then put it on for me. It is my dream ring, heart shaped diamond and it was uniquely set. I really love the ring a lot. :)

I am really touched that he tried to make it an extremely romantic and surprising proposal for me which most girls don't get it at all now.

Our wedding date has been fixed. 13th Sept 2008. Mark your calendar!