2 August 2007 - I know I’m terrible when it comes to blogging about vacations. Thing is, as eager as I am to share all our adventures and travel experiences, and of course photos, it always seems like such a colossal effort to cover everything that I don’t know where to begin, and hence often don’t. However, I did give my word that I would cover the entire process from the proposal to the honeymoon (NOT to say that this is the official one, better state that first before my hubby gets any funny ideas. Heh!), so here I am delivering my promise.

So when we told people that we were going to Hanoi for our honeymoon, the main response tended to be “Erh Hanoi? Nothing much to do one leh.” Well that may be true compared to some other places in the world, but seriously, we didn’t have enough time to do all the things we wanted to do. In fact, would you believe it? We were so caught up with whatever we were doing that we didn’t even have time to go pay Uncle Ho a visit, THE number one tourist attraction in Hanoi, save for Ha Long Bay of course. But what is even more unthinkable is that the whole time there, with seamstress, tailors and fabrics abound, in a city where even shoes can be made-to-measure, all I bought in terms of clothing was one dress! One single dress?!? And no, it wasn’t that there was a lack of choice, but somehow I just wasn’t particularly keen.

So what were we doing? Yeah, what did we do? Well, we were very busy taking our own sweet time to do much about nothing. Honestly. And it was hard not to. The vibe of the place commands it. Here’s an instance when we weren’t particularly productive…

…and here’s another…

Haha, another topless picture of poopie!

And it’s strange because actually if you look around, there’s quite a bit of hustle and bustle going on. The traffic never stops, nor does the honking, and the streets are lined with people and activities of all manner, so much so that one is often forced to walk off the pavement and onto the roads where one has to jostle with cars, buses, bikes and cyclos. And yet, for some odd inexplicable reason, there is at the same time a very idyllic mood in the air, almost as if you were caught in a dreamscape and everything was passing by in slow-mo. How can the two scenarios I’ve just painted co-exist you ask? Well, that is the mystery of Hanoi.
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20 Apr 2007 — OMG, OMG… the date draws nearer and nearer… yes people, William and I will soon be wed, the customary way that is, since we have already signed our legal binding papers back in January last year. The preps for that event was nothing compared to the monumental task at hand. But I’m glad to say that endless heated discussions and sleepless nights later, William and I are finally seeing eye to eye and making some headway at long last.

For one, we have finally compiled our guest list, gathered all their postal addresses (yah, like who even sends snail mail anymore these days?!?) and even finalised the wedding card design. Like geez… who would have thought that even the words on the card had to be sooo precise, like whose names comes first, the proper terminology of our ranking in terms of siblings, etc, etc.

Haha, and in line with our whole Oriental theme, we have opted to keep the traditional Chinese wordings in the cards. I love it! So campy! Now all that’s left is to get them printed and sent out… I know, I know, even our wedding co-ordinator is hurrying us, so not to worry, if you’re on the invite list, you will be getting them very very soon, and once you do, please RSVP ASAP. Wah liao… take our own sweet time to send out the invites but demand guests to reply immediately… like dat oso can?!?

Another thing that’s moving along rather than stagnating and fermenting is the layout of our wedding album. Yes… believe it or not, we are paying other people but doing the job ourselves. The designer that J&M got us just cannot make it lah… the way she designed the album was sooo cheena, and not in a campy way either! Just very very salah. It’s a very very thin line between what is campy and what is LC, and far too few people tread it well. Definitely not her! For instance, look at this one page:

Alamak! So secondary school autograph book right?!? So many “special” effects, somemore kena cheesy love poem?!! How to make it you tell me?… And the more pages I saw, the more my blood boiled… somehow or other, this designer with her putrid bad taste has succeeded in transforming our rather tasteful photos into a very run-of-the-mill JB-studio album!!! Argh!!!! And after several failed attempts of trying to convey the clean, slick look we’re after, William was so frus he decided: forgit it, we’ll just do it ourselves! Grrreat, another colossal project I have to somehow orchestrate remotely. But yes, weeeeks later, we are almost done.

We’ve also decided on the caterer for the day’s buffet — Elsie’s Kitchen. Yep, both mum and I somehow ended up picking the same company. Came with the recommendations of my Sam Yee; she’s gone through tons of caterers with all the parties she’s organised, so Elsie’s must be good! Peranakan food = lots of yummilicious spicy lemak stuff… sedap. I had a grand time looking through their various buffet menus to pick out the items we’d like. Top on my list: Sotong Youtiao and Or-nee (Yam Paste)! How long has it been since I had any of these things… TOO LONG! That’s how long!

Being rather productive during our last trip home, we have also settled on our actual day videographer and photographer. The former’s gonna be The Wedding Paparazzi and the latter, Tinydot Photography. TWP was friendly enough and we really dig their upbeat snazzy style of videography, but with Tinydot, wow… I really liked the guy from the get-go. Yu Hsin, the photog, was sooo affable and down-to-earth that he put us at ease from the very first, or actually our only, meeting. No airs about him whatsoever. And even with his busy schedule, the guy makes time for a blog (anyone who’s got a blog is naturally in my good books), where he talks passionately about his work, the couples he work with, and most importantly it seems, his family. Awww… you gotta love that! And of course he’s got a great eye and flair for capturing those special moments too. Oh, and I must admit, for the amazing work he does, his rates are still very very affordable.

Peiling was so pleased with the job he did for her ROM (sample above), she’s flying him all the way to Bali for her actual day, and she has confessed that she has utterly fallen in love with him too. Really, go check out his site oredi!
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2 Dec 2006 — Cause it suddenly dawned on me that taking up the job in Maldives would mean I definitely won’t be back in Singapore till the beginning of May at the earliest (reminder: my wedding’s on 26 May), I flew into a mad frenzy with wedding preps. Yep, I’ve been uncharacteristically slacko about it. As I’ve said before, planning the wedding is turning out to be a monumental pain in the ass, and I’ve just been trying to put it off for as long as I can. William, needless to say, is more than happy not to have to lift a finger. There’s like a million and one things to prepare: cake design, ballroom decor, compile guest list, liase about gowns, favours, flowers, corsages, music, actual day photographer, videographer, etc, etc, etc. The list seems endless! Doesn’t help that I have to “remote control” the whole event either. And at least now, I still have broadband and cheap international calling rates. Who knows what’s gonna happen the moment I touch down on ulu dulu Maldivian soil?!? And of course, like all other girls, I crave the PERFECT wedding, one where every littlest tiny detail goes according to my infinitesimally meticulous plan which allows absolutely no room for mistakes. Hence, no wedding planner, can’t trust them. Hence endless painstaking, stress-raising, blood-boiling wedding-prep induced days and nights… As if that’s not enough of a strain on my blood pressure, there’s also my exodus to Maldives to wrestle with. ARGHHHHH!!!!!……….. Can’t. Breathe………

But enough of that depressing stuff. This was supposed to be a light entertaining blog, dunno how it turned into a major whinging session. Sorry folks.

So yes, as part of my research, I scoured through endless images of other couples’ weddings on Google and Flickr, and geez, some of the things that people come up with is nothing short of cra-zy, not to mention funny! So let down your hair, kick back your heels and take a moment to enjoy the Weird and Whimsical World of Wedding Cakes.

First, something a little tame…

Cute, very retro-chic!
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3 Oct 2006 — Finally the wedding shoot is over and done with! Yep, so what happened was that William and I arranged for the bridal team from J&M in Singapore to come to Sydney to take our wedding pictures here. And before you go thinking we’re acting like spoilt rich brats, we have our reasons, good ones too.

1. It costs the same to fly ourselves back to Singapore, as it would to fly the photographer and make-up artist down to Sydney.
2. No, I don’t think we are creative enough to scout out any more new and unusual places to take our photos in Singapore, and no, we don’t just want a rehash album filled with photos of us at Sentosa, Botanic Gardens, Changi beach, Chinatown, you name it.
3. We’re probably leaving Sydney soon, and wanted something to commemorate the time that we have spent here.
4. We don’t trust the local ang-mor photographers to do the job because (do you realise?) in Western tradition, they actually do not have the concept of doing this, i.e. having a pre-wedding photoshoot. In fact, it’s probably pretty weird to them since in their culture, the groom isn’t even supposed to see the bride in the wedding gown until the wedding day!?! Right Joerg? The only photos ang-mor brides and grooms take are the actual day spontaneous ones where they pose naturally in their actual wedding gear. Thus we didn’t feel we could communicate to an ang-mor photographer what it was we were after, not to mention having to scout for a separate hair and make-up artist here, and what about the gown???
5. We figured it would prolly cost us a whole lot more if we were to do the photoshoot separately from the rental of the gowns and suits + flowers + car + car decor. Believe me, signing up with this sort of package is actually a lot more cost-efficient even after taking into account the 2 extra plane tickets.

Ok, so hopefully I have convinced the skeptics out there that no, we’re NOT trying to throw money down the drain.

So, it’s been a week and sadly, Elbson and Adrian have taken their leave. Yes, actually we had such a great time with them that we are really sad to see them go. And I think it’s safe to say the relationship between them and us has become a tad more incestuous, we’re definitely more than mere bridal studio and client now. Awww….

Where do I even begin? Firstly, they turned out to be really down-to-earth and easy-going — they didn’t mind flying Gulf Air, nor putting up with us in our apartment (Elbson even said that it’s nicer than a hotel?!?). They were also very appreciative and was never giam-siap to show it (unlike some other people we know) — haha, especially Adrian, especially with regards to all the makan places we brought them to. Hmm, wouldn’t be surprised if he’s put on a kilo or two!

They are also very far-ni, with Elbson, the designer, being the 典型 glam-queen “sister”, and Adrian, the photog cum 老板, being the typical roly-poly goofball. I mean look, isn’t he a dead ringer for NONO from the Jacky Wu show?!?

And looking like that, how serious a person can he possibly be?… So yes, many a moments, the photoshoot was filled with ease, laughter and sheer enjoyment; and sharing a natural sort of chemistry that fuelled us, the “working” hours actually passed fairly quickly.
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17 Sep 2006 — So where am I now? Thailand, Singapore or Sydney? SYDNEY!!! After 5 months and 11 days, I finally stepped foot again on Aussie soil — and not a moment too soon. Never thought I’d miss downunder THIS much! Surprisingly made it through customs ok, not too much drama at all. Hmph! This Billie, as usual, not in sight. Damn, no mobile nor coins somemore. Need to get some change. Ok, bottle of Mount Franklin from newsagency. Gave the cashier a $5 note, got back 1 $1 coin and 2 $0.50 coins.

That’s it. That’s it? Surely there’s got to be some mistake. A bottle of mineral water usually only costs me 6 baht (A$0.21) from the supermarket, or 10 baht (A$0.36) from 7-11! No, sorry might come across LC but I couldn’t let it go. “Erm, sorry but is the water $3?” “Yep.” $3? 3 freakin dollars?!?… Replay that night at the Spit Roast Deli: “What?!? How much is that teeny tiny couldn’t-be-any-smaller slice of grilled chicken with sweet chilli?!?” I used to pay XX baht for a WHOLE chicken in Hua Hin!!!…

I soon realise I’d better readjust pronto(!) or life’s just going to be miserable…

To Billie’s credit, the house though, was spick and span, just as I’ve ordered. Oh, how I’ve missed our bed with that gorgeous view! And look, isn’t he a sweetheart?

He’s even prepared some “welcome home” gifts — probably paid too much for them.

So what else have I been up to apart from trying to get used to how expensive everything in Australia is? @#$%! Trying my darnest to lighten and whiten lor!!! This whole wedding photos business is nothing short of a ROYAL PAIN IN THE A**, REALLY GIVING ME THE SH*TS! I guess if I was born with the natural good fortune of those sickening stick-thin girls who never had to diet one freakin day of their life, or if I could be more 潇洒 about the whole damn thing and just continued to eat whatever I like, throwing all caution to the wind, it might be a less tedious process. Alas! I am neither. Unfortunately, I am but a self-confessed vainpot who puts on weight just by looking at anything suggestively fattening! @#$%! Doesn’t help that we’ve engaged our photographers to come all the way to Sydney to do the photos, just piles on the pressure. Also didn’t help that in the last few weeks, ‘cos I was leaving, suddenly everybody was my friend and was asking me to one farewell party after another!

And it’s not like I haven’t tried. From high protein to fruits and vegies only to plain starvation, I’ve probably tried every freakin diet out there. AND I have also been rigorously exercising, quite regularly too I might add.

And see, as proof of my honest efforts, not only have I armed myself with books — doing it the analytical intellectual way aka Adeline. Gawd!?! That girl is now obsessed with Fitness! She claims she’s found the perfect hobby for herself, I think she’s dicovered her mission in life. Not only does she exercise for up to a few hours a day, she actually goes to the National Library to borrow books on the topic! And to top it off, she’s signed herself up for a marathon! Siao! Also taking supplements, what… I’m a nutritionist after all. If I don’t put my knowledge to good use on myself, then who?

But you know how it is, the more stress one is about something, the more it works against you, or seems too anyway. Dunno leh… the weight just doesn’t seem to be shifting, or it is, but at an incredulously slow pace. The other day when I finally dragged myself down to the bridal studio for the fitting, I found myself apologising to the designer for having put on weight since the measurements were taken, and he curtly replied, “看就懂了”. Ouch. Guess when you sign on with one of these cheena-biang bridal studios along the Tanjong Pagar stretch, you’d just have to be prepared for brutal tactless honesty — part of the package.

The other gruelling procedure I’m putting myself through is whitening. That seems to be the latest craze back in Singapore with the myriad of products being advertised all over the place — from SKII’s Whitening Source to Lancome’s Blanc Expert to Christian Dior’s DiorSnow Pure Perfect Whitening Skin Repairing Essence (wa-lao, such a mouthful, it’s got to be effective!)… there seems no end to the list. And usually, other than putting on sunscreen on my face, I’m not the sort that bothers with such things, but again having been exposed to the harsh Thai sun, I can tell that I am a few shades darker ‘cos even after I remove my wedding band, you can still see a white mark over the finger. Well I’m vain enough to care about that!

But whitening? Whitening? The concept does not exist here downunder. This is afterall the land of solariums and skin cancer clinics where quite the contrary, not getting an even tan’s the bigger problem! So whilst I was back in Singapore, I made sure to stock-up on all these skin-bleaching goodies. Somehow I wasn’t quite convinced that the likes of SKII, Lancome and Dior were any different from Olay, Garnier and Loreal in terms of effectiveness. Those companies probably just have a bigger advertising budget, and I suspect that even if I did pay top-dollar for those premium brands, my skin wouldn’t be an ounce whiter, brighter, more translucent or luminous. Eh, what? These skin-whitening things not cheap leh… a 50ml bottle of SKII’s Whitening Source will cut you back S$188!!! And frankly, don’t you wonder? How much of that money actually goes into your skin, and how much winds up in the pockets of Sammy or Qiqi? I mean I’ve looked through the ingredients of the various products, and they basically look the same to me… Ok, ok, I’m just cheap, can anot? Anyway, I wound up at good ol’ very middle-class afforable Watson’s and here are my final selections:

I’m surprised I even managed to settle on something, what with the mind-boggling array there was! And see, heh heh, I’m gonna try out a whitening mask even! 5 for that matter! Have to be done over 5 consecutive days for bext results.

So yep, these few days till the arrival of Adrian and Elbson (the wedding team) are devoted to losing weight and gaining fairness. Somehow the saying 平时不烧香, 临时抱佛脚 (very literally translated to “normally don’t burn joss-stick, hugging the Buddh’a feet at the eleventh hour) comes to mind… aiyah what to do… now I can only try my best lor… worst comes to worst… there’s always photoshop!

25 Mar 2006 — It’s not usual to receive engagement presents for us Singaporeans, so we were completely surprised when Satoko and Bill sent us a pair of Hoyts La Premiere cinema tickets.

Wah… so high-class. It’s something we’ve always been a bit curious about, but never enough to want to pay for. And ‘cos it was such a special treat, we really wanted to wait till a good film was showing to use them, not just any trashy Hollywood blockbuster. The tricky bit is that out of all the Hoyts cinemas around, only 2 had the La Premiere set-up. Kind of why it has taken us this long to get round to it. But yes, we did it today. The film — Woody Allen’s “Match Point” — a seemingly worthy film.
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16 Feb 2006 – It’s two days since Valentine’s day, and well, Billie and I survived it. I say “survive” ‘cos we almost didn’t. First I’d just like to remind everyone that it’s our first since we got married, and so, could you really blame me if I had that itsy-bitsy little bit of expectation for it to be nothing short of spectacularly romantic?

The plan was to be “japped” out. First we’ll have lunch at Ramen-kan, the best ramen we’ve ever had, then to watch Memoirs of a Geisha, and to finish off with dinner at Musashi, feasting on sashimi and other tasty offerings. And the day started off normally enough. I was scheduled for an interview with an allergy clinic at Bondi Junction Westfield. Hence leaving a window open for Billie to shop for my Valentine’s day present, yeah, yeah, he’s been so bogged down by work that he hasn’t had a chance to get it beforehand. But that’s ok, we’ll give him a chance, BUT whatever he manages to conjure up in that half-hour had better be good.

So I proceeded with the interview, all went pretty well, looks like a nice place to work, and pretty excited that they had an actual dispensary with bottles of yummy liquid herbs. Called Billie to check on his progress… nope, not done yet, another half-hour or so… ok, guess he’s working pretty hard to surprise me… good good… Bondi Junction is a big place, I’ll just window-shop till it’s time to be magnificently swept off my feet, I can wait… another half-hour… still no news… another fifteen minutes… aha, finally he’s here. Hmm… not holding any package in his hands… that’s alright, diamonds are small, would easily have fitted into his bag.
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8 Jan 2006 — After sending off the rest of the guests from 1827, Wil, myself and some of our friends finally took a breather and made our way to Hotel Intercontinental — chosen for its central location, and lots of makan around if needs be. Haiyah, must at least one night romantic a bit right? since we don’t have our own place yet. But as it turns out, we were so beat, we just fell straight to sleep after the long night…

The hotel management were so kind as to upgrade us to a business room, hey not too bad considering we only paid S$160+++ (sponsored by my dad)! It was actually very spacious, and the bathroom was huge! It even came with a tub, but like I said, we were so shacked that night we didn’t even put it to use!?!

Isn’t this a classic photo? Just check out the 3 couples (from L to R: Admund & Siew Yin, David & Jessie, Jeff & Serene, and not forgetting Wil’s mum): Amazingly, the guy and girl of each couple have the same expressions on their faces?!!

oh… the very enticing and comfy bed

When our guests left us to relax, bathe and get ready for dinner, we horsed around and took another few photos of our own:

Here I am wearing my mum’s dress from 30 years ago. Want to know what’s the most amazing thing about it? I didn’t have to alter it one bit!

And here’s my intricately done-up hair before AND after removing about 1 million and 1 bobby pins!

Next we proceeded of course to the very important task of counting the ang-pows. To be honest, with these sort of events, we do tend to be a bit kan-cheong to find out if we “cover” or not. And yes, with the very generous gifts from our friends and relos, we did! Relatives don’t say lah, but where friends are concerned… the “hey, big spender” award for the night goes to Mr Alvin Jiang!!! I think maybe he confused our ROM with the actual wedding?!? As for everyone else, we also want to thank you for all your generosity, and more importantly for gracing our day with your presence. Though we might not have had the time to speak very much to each and everyone of you, we really really do appreciate all of you for making it to the event despite that crazy storm!

By the time we were done with the angpows, we were absolutely famished! Didn’t really get to eat much during the reception, as expected, which was a shame considering how yummy the food supposedly was! Luckily 1827 even gave us dinner vouchers to go back and dine for free! Such a sweet gesture right? But for tonight, we’ll be filling our tum-tums with the shiok food from the Railway Station — such a well-kept secret! Especially on nights with good weather, you can even dine al fresco. But as you can see, tonight the rain just didn’t let up…

Alvin giving us a ride in his Maserati.

But with the company of good friends and some shiok sedap food — what’s a little bit of rain? Must-trys: Mee Soto, Mutton Soup, Satay and Teh Tarik! So good, so cheap and so fun!!!

The night ended with a round of coffee at TCC back in Bugis Junction, and then it was off to bed… Ahh… such a sweet ending to such an amazing day. Hee hee (once the groundwork has been done) getting hitched is fun indeed!

8 Jan 2006 — Haloo Everybody! Sorry been out of action for so long, but there’s no stopping me today from shouting out that WILL & I ARE WED!!! Yes, FINALLY! Despite the torrential rain and some minor hiccups during set-up, the day went as planned, and turned out absolutely beautiful!

We really have to thank all our guests for arriving on time despite the weather, for sharing the day with us and showering us with much love and hee hee, gifts (especially our overseas “visitors” like Foke Leng jie-jie, Wini, Scott, Alvin and Adeline); our parents (both sides) for their never ending love, support and encouragement all these years; Wendy, Peiling, Jeff and Serene for helping us in so many ways not just today but all through the time we’ve known them; Sean for his wonderful chocolate fountain, lending us a hand and of course being an awesome brother, and last but not least, to 1827, for the great job they did with the food! Got lots of comments that the food was yummilicious! Too bad Wil and I were too kancheong to really savour the food… Oh and before I forget, also thanks so much to all our friends from abroad who have sent their well-wishes and actually remembering the day: Kate, Sumie, Amy, just to name a few…

It really was a special day, and I wouldn’t have changed anything. It was priceless to see the shock expression on my mum’s face when I appeared wearing one of her old dresses, Billie looked so dashing and gave such an impressive speech, our friends and relatives were all so genuinely happy for us, or perhaps just relieved we finally got hitched (though many advised me not to bully William, hey, what’s that supposed to mean?… Me bully him? Never!), the Justice of Peace, Dr Chung, was so pro and even had a sense of humour (what more can you ask from a JP? Anybody needs one? I’ll give you his contact), the venue was stunning, and even the flowers were gorgeous!

The day was pretty much a whirlwind for us. When we have settled down and got our hands on some photos from our “official photographer” Jeff, we’ll post up more. Till then, thank you once again everybody!!!

12 Nov 05 — So with Admund and Siew Yin gone, what have we been up to other than me birthday? Well, Billie’s been trying to work when not pestered by me, and me, heh heh preparing for our ROM of course! Just about every girl’s favourite project in the world isn’t it? Well, other than the BIG wedding of course. But man, it sure hasn’t been all that easy, especially when you’re trying to organise things remotely. Take the venue for one, quite a few times, I almost threw the towel in, proclaiming “I’m not getting married!” Right. But frankly, couldn’t have done it without Jeff and Serene who went round scouting all the places for us, liasing with the restaurants and being “our eyes” for us. Jeff also took tons of pictures so at least we have some idea of what the places look like. Frankly Singapore changes so fast that a lot of the locations we were considering we’ve actually not even been before! Really really had to stretch our imagination… But finally after much consideration, and even more negotiations, the venue has been booked. Hoorah!

Oh, oh, oh and after the venue, the next most important thing was of course finding the right wedding bands. Somehow the notion that this was something I had to wear everyday for the rest of my life created a certain amount of anxiety — we better better make sure it’s a design we won’t get sick of wearing or looking at! We must have visited at least 30+ places, from the poshy-poshy upmarket ones like Bvlgari and Cartier to funky hippy places at Paddington, until my Billie want to scream out “Enuff Oredi!” I think. We were down to two designs we really love. One: the Georg Jensen “Fusion” rings (on right), which would cost us A$3200 for just the 18K gold ones! Or Two: a matching set of rings at some neighbourhood shop called Linda Jewellery in this really ulu suburb called Rhodes (we just happened to pass by ‘cos there was an IKEA there). Here it would costs us only about half the price for the two rings in white gold, and I even get 0.5 carats’ worth of diamonds in mine. So just two days back, sick and tired of searching, we settled on the latter option. Hah! Rhodes?!? Who would’ve thought!? You really never know where and when the right one might just pop up, kinda like men…
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