In Memory Of....

I was suppose to go for final fitting for my gowns after work. But SB called just after office hours, his dad called to inform him that Beck died..I was kinda expecting that to happen. Beck hasn't been well for the past few days. She refused to eat and drink. When i saw her on sunday, she can hardly move. Thought of bringing her to the vet after my fitting session..but gosh..she can't wait.. Well, i guess its a relieve for her..We really dont wish to see her suffering in pain & hunger. I called sattine to change my appointment to 8.30pm. Got to rush home to bring Beck for cremation. When we reached home, SB's dad already cleared her pen, placed Beck in a shoe box. Beck was lying in the box. I was very calm when i saw it. Perhaps its bcos i've expected it to happen. Memory flashback to the time when i saw Oreo's (the previous guinea pig which died) body..at that time, i just broke down when i saw its body cos that happened too sudden.


It was raining heavily when we were on the way to Mt Peasant Hospital. When we sent Orea for cremation 2yrs ago, it was also raining. However the rain stopped when we reached Mt Peasant. We were told to fill up a form for the cremation of Beck.We chosen a common cremation for Beck. After paying up, the man just took Beck away.. without letting us take a last look at her. But this time round, i was prepared cos that was what happened when we brought Oreo there. Well, we did what we can do for Beck, give it a proper cremation.. Hope it can reunion with Oreo (her best friend) in another world...

To-do List

There's so much things to look into, to follow up with...I'm getting abit confused & uptight. Therefore, i've drafted a detailed to-do list so that i would not miss out any details...

Recap on to-do list
- View Album Layout
- 2nd Trial Make-up
- Draft AD schedule
- Xiong Di Meeting
-Collect wedding rings
- Collect wedding album
- Appt with Sattine for trying on father's suit
- Hen Party
- Order buffet (AD lunch)
- Book SPA
- Prepare Ang Baos for helpers
- Send AD Schedule to Emcee
- Prepare payment for PG & VG, Emcee, Bridal Car
- Send AD Schedule, Roles & Contacts to Jiemeis
- Send 15 songs to VG
- Wedding montage
- Table planning
- Draft speech for emcee (Solemnisation)
- Draft out guest list, table arrangement
- Draft out table-table photography arrangement
- March-in songs, Background songs
- Write thank-you cards for helpers
- Call up bank to increase credit limit for banquet payment

One week before wedding
- Highlighting hair
- Cfm timing with Emcee
- Cfm timing with Make-up Artist
- Cfm timing with MUA for Mil, Mom, Sis
- Cfm timing with VG & PG
- Cfm timing with bridal car rental
- Pack for Honeymoon
- Book Manicure & Pedicure Appt
- Meet up with hotel coordinator
- Montage Test
- Cfm no. of tables
- Run through dinner schedule again

3 days before wedding
- Collect marriage certificate
- Send a reminder to JP
- Go for SPA
- Collect gown

2 days before wedding
- Cfm arrival timing with Jiemeis & Xiong Di
- Pass catering contacts to both side parents
- Tagging luggages to be bring to Hotel - for Jiemei's easy reference
- Cfm table seatings with parents again, run through AD program with them

1 day before wedding
- Collect bridal car, hand bouquet, car corsages & parent's corsages
- Manicure & Pedicure
- Buy freesia for hairstyling

Guo Da Li

Woke up around 8plus in the morning.. Mom and Dad just back from market.I was told to call SB informing him that they can come over around 9.30am. Just before 10am, SB came with his parents (nowadays we cant find mei po anymore, so his parents will accompany him to my place) They were lugging 2 huge baskets which were rented from cake shop and plastic bags full of tarts. Dad and I was entertaining the in-laws while my bro helped my mom to unload all the stuffs in the baskets. It was an informal gathering for the in-laws. No formal ceremony involved. Just exchanging of gifts between the two families. Im glad everything went well... I think both SB and I are cool about it, just that our mothers are abit paranoid. SB's mom actually said that she had a sleepless night the night before. And my mom kept asking me if we did miss out anything for the in-laws. I assured them that everything is in order. Nothing to worry about. Hopefully my words gets into their head.
Stuff brought over by SB
- 20 boxes of walnut tarts
- "long feng" candles
- 2 packets of hokkien "ang pao" packets which consist of those peanut candies
- 12 or 24 oranges
- Red tray, one big red packet (for pinjin) and also a red cloth to wrap the red packet. (Bought from the cake shop)
- 2 big baskets to hold the GDL's stuff- 36 pig's trotter can
- Ang Pao to replace 2 bottles of hard liquor
-"si dian zhuan" my mother-in-law bought for me.

In return, my mom also prepared some "dowry" for me. She bought all the stuff before lunar 7th month. She said no preps should be done during that month. :) Pandang right! She got me a

- red baby bath basin
- baby's potty
- a set of sewing kit
- a mickey mouse musical box *_*"
- a set of "xi" quilt sheet from aussino
- towels for my in-laws and SB's brother (sewed with small little round coin lookalike called "yuan". Supposely, with this "yuan" on the towels, i would be able to get along better with my in-laws in future)
- a set of "xi" towels for SB and me
- 2 bolsters
- an ang pao for SB (cos my mom is suppose to buy him a pair of pants. we are using ang pao to replace the pants)
- an ang pao for SB's grandma ( not sure what is it for, i suppose it should be out of respect to her)
- a teapot set for my in-laws ( for tea ceremony on AD), for tea ceremony at my mom's place, we will be using my bro's wedding teapot set. So my mom only bought one set.- a set of lamps (to be light up on AD)
- A set of gold jewellery
- 2 bottles of orange juice

Stuff my mom bought for AD use will be
- a red umbrella
- a set of new silk pajamas ( from my sis-in-law)
- a gold ring for SB (to be given during tea ceremony)
- a red "xi" hanky. Its nice but i doubt i'll use it on AD. Haha...

D-Day approaches...

D-Day approaches...

The final pieces of the jig saw are finally falling into place. Bit by bit, the picture is getting complete, so are my nerves slowly eroding. It is a nightmare to co-ordinate the entire show, making sure every nut and screw falls into place

The major headache is the wedding banquet, both WJ and me want to keep things personal thus we came to a agreement that we will keep the banquet as small as possible. We plan only to invite close friends and relatives so we have more time to interact with our guests, making it more sincere. Next comes the dilemma of which colleague to invite. The easy and most PR savvy way will be to invite the entire dept, but it was against my stand of "keeping it personal". But not to invite everyone risk people gossiping behind your back. The devil on one side and the deep blue sea on the other. Well in the end I decided to invite colleagues whom I have close contact/interact with in my course of work. Can't be bothered if I offend some parties in the process.

Obviously my parents do not share the same sentiments. Without discussing with us, they opened the flood gates and invited the whole chain gang. Neighbours, friends, distant relatives etc etc the list goes on... people that I hardly know. So much for making it a personal event.

Well they are my parents after all, and I have to respect their decision. Maybe that their way of sharing their joy. Call it generation gap, but my thoughts and idea of joy sharing are poles apart from theirs. Or it could be because of poor communication that they misunderstood or did not get our hint that we wanted to keep thing small.. But hell, what is done is done we just have to make the best out of it. Isn't life full of surprises, we just have to take things into our own stride.

Having said and done about the guest list, they have yet to show any action on writing the invitation cards. Despite constant urging, the cards are still lying on the shelf. I reckon it will take a typhoon to "blow" then into getting things done.

Luckily, there are some events that did brighten us up. We to collect our wedding bands from fairy's inc on sat. We finally get to see the rings that we conceptionalised. They were a piece of art, except for the fact the WJ thinks my will look better if it is glossy, so its back to the jeweler's for some touch up. And on mon, we went to view the layout of our photo album. We got to hand in to the magic of photoshop, ordinary pics look so surreal after some editing. Wow...

Well just a few more things to confirm and we are all prepared (I hope so..). I'll be stocking up on panadol and coffee for the headaches and long nights to come.. haha.

A month away....

Only about a month away from our wedding. I'm trying my best to settle whatever I can so as to free myself from struggling days b4 wedding.
Recap on what is done
- Jiemei's meeting (29/9/07)
Very glad that Yan last min joined as Jiemei as she postponed her wedding to nx yr. Now, i hv 5 Jiemeis and 5 XiongDis. :) The Jiemei meeting was a fruitful one, we managed to go through the schedule for AD, their respective roles for AD and also brainstorming for the sabotage session.
- Sattine's Appt (1/10/07)
Managed to settle my ROM dress & Tea Dress. ROM dress would be a short white gown which comes with a red sash. It was the first one that i tried, both SB and i felt that it was the one. It was the Tea Dress that gave me headache. I tried on a few gowns, was rejected by SB. According to him, the Kua i wore sucks. so was striked off the list. Finally i settled on a short bright yellow gown. SB said i would look more refreshed in it after the morning session. :) Also managed to settle the AD hand bouquet design. Red is SB's fav colour. So we settled on a combination of bright red & cream roses. Car Deco was also decided. However it was rather disappointing as my coordinator only took out 3 bouquet of silk flowers for us to choose from. The silk flowers will be the centrepiece of the car deco. But, it doesnt looks good at all. But i guess i will hv to make do with that. Chosen the cream colour silk flowers with cream sash for the car deco. Finally, we made an appointment for our fathers to try out their suit. :) Another exciting matter is that i've managed to grab another MUA for my AD. Going for trial make-up next monday. Hopefully everything turns out well.
- Sending out invitation cards
W've distributed most of our invitation cards to our friends and colleagues. Another load off our minds. However, we cant sense the urgency from our parents side. All the invitation cards are still left intact. None have been writen nor sent out. Hopefully its not too late by the time they decided to take action. Haha..

There are still lotsa stuff waiting to be done.. Hopefully i can settle them all fast so that i can sit back and relax b4 wedding.

Honeymoon - Bali

Finally decided on our honeymoon's destination. We are going for 6D5N trip to Bali! Hmm..We had to forgo "Australia" which is on our initial plan due to time constrain. We couldn’t afford a two weeks holiday after wedding. FH is having his exams end of nov & early dec. He needs to hit the books while i had to juggle with my limited annual leave left for the year. Sob sob.. Therefore we decided on a short getaway for honeymoon. We are planning for a longer trip nx year if we are able to take time off. So for short trip, i guess we have not much choice. Especially we only want to go for F&E instead of Tour Groups. Don't wanna tire ourselves after the wedding. Juz wanna find a place for retreat and go for my favourite spa & massage. So Bali is definitely the best choice. Its a heaven for honeymooners. I've chosen to stay in villa instead of hotel rooms. Wanna enjoy the privacy and the spa in my own villa. *_* Have chosen to stay in 2 different areas. One in seminyak whereby all the upmarket shopping & restaurants are and also its near to the beach. I've chosen the villa with a private jacuzzi n pool for this villa.


The other one in Ubud (midst of forest)- The Arts Village where we can enjoy the tranquility & nature. For a change, villa with private swimming pool is chosen.

We can also get some decorative items for our nest there. Haha.. Thats another plus point for Bali. Having said so much, i really looked forward to this trip. -_-*

Food Tasting

Last Saturday was our food taking. We also took the opportunity for our parents to meet for the first time. The first future in-laws meeting, of course my heart was pounding with anxiety. How her parents would react to mine, will they say something wrong to offend the other, can they get along? All these and a million other questions raced through my head. Well there’s only one way to find out and I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed.

The dinner is where our parents we will talk “terms”. Find out what each party wants and is willing to give. What the bride’s family will give and what the groom’s family will give, so on. Pig’s trotters, oranges, cakes; just to name a few. According to traditional customs, there are quite a number of things to follow. Luckily we are both not from very traditional families thus a lot of customs are done without or are simplified. Or else, I will suffer any splitting headache. Dinner went uneventfully; food was rather good and the portion ultra generous. There we at least thirty prawns and we struggled to finish the food. Burning with curiosity and contempt, we questioned the captain that will it be the same portion on the actual day. His reply was: “Yes, of course!” However, we all doubt so.

In retrospect, the dinner strikes me that it is pretty much like a scene in Hong Kong gangster movies, where the triad boss “tan pan”. Well I can’t help but find the setting very similar, a negotiation over dinner at a restaurant. Each side stating their terms and the other party will be trying to bargain for something more favourable. When an agreement cannot be reach, they’ll turn the tables and a huge fight erupts. Luckily our meeting was more civil, no turning of tables of smashing of wine bottles. However there was still quite a bit of tension. Diplomatic etiquette and choice of words were the order of the day. Well at least more so in the beginning. When the first dish was served, I swear that on one dare touch it for at least 2 minutes. It just lay in the middle of the table. I suspect that everyone was waiting for someone to make the first move. At last I have to step in to start the ball rolling by offering it to the elders first. Well over food and drinks the atmosphere started to lighten up and I could see that both families are more at ease when talking. The ice begins to melt and some small jokes can be heard. Over the course of the dinner, hopefully my parents and her parents got to know each other a little better. Well I could see their effort in doing so. My worse fear would be nasty in-laws relationship, for that I can heave a sigh of relieve. Well as the Chinese saying goes “A good beginning, is winning half the battle”. It still a long journey, hopefully through the years, their relationship will be just a good.

Photoshoot Session

My outdoor photoshoot Gown.

Make-up & Hairdo for EG

Had our Photoshoot last wed. Had our breakfast at bk before reaching Sattine at ard 10am. Jessie was already there waiting for us. Started off with make-up after I gave her my comments for the trial make-up. She made some adjustments to the make-up then. While Jessie was busy putting on make-up for me, FH was busy entertaining himself. First of all, he went into the room whereby all the alterations was done. Took out their iron and start ironing his shirts( its my fault that his shirts are crumpled, i made him squeeze his shirt into his bag cos i said it looks ugly carrying his shirt ard). After satisfied with his ironing works, he went on to try the suit. He helped himself with the scarfs and vests on the rack. Trying to figure out which combination would be the best. haha...it was a comical scene though. Not long after, Yan came up to the second storey. He n his assistant actually stayed over at the studio to finish up some photoworks. Tough job for them..
After my make-up was done, i went to change to my EG. Afterwhich, Jessie did the hairdo for me. I let my hair down for the EG's hairstyle. had a silverish hairband over the permed hair. However, my hair was too short. Therefore, the effect wasnt very good. Sigh...Hopefully my hair grows longer on my wedding day.
When the photo-taking session starts, both of us really had no idea how to pose nor react. Yan kept giving instructions n tell us not to be nervous. He said "juz be yourself".. FH is not used to smiling into the camera, so Yen kept cracking jokes with us, making us feel as relax as possible. I was able to smile very cheerfully for the first n second gown. Afterwhich, i was attacked by the regular migrine.. Couldnt smile for the third gown. Sigh... Yen could immediately detect that there's something wrong with me. Then i told him i had a headache. So FH went to cheers to get panadol for me. After taking panadol, i felt much better.
At ard 3pm, we set off for outdoor photoshoot. Upon reaching our first destination, Yen immediately carried out the photoshoot session. The weather was so hot that im feeling so uncomfortable, but had to act like im feeling so happy n in love...Sigh..Wasnt an easy task. It was so stuffy and humid. I felt as though im baking in an oven...
The second location at alexandra was much better. Up in the slopes, was very airy. Hopefully the pic turned out well. The third location was labrador park. We took pics at the beach there. It didnt have v nice n clean beach there. But Yen said its much nicer than those at sentosa. He said everyone is going to sentosa for photoshoot, so dun encourage us to go.
Tml we will be going to choose our PS photos. Wonder how would it be. I've already set a budget, so im not gg to burst my budget for the photos. Wish me good luck ya.. *_*