After slightly more than a year of planning, our big day came! When it comes to weddings, you’ll never know what might crop up on the actual day, so all you can do is to plan everything in advance, as detailed as you can, to minimise any problems that might crop up due to things that are missed out, or poor time management on the actual day. And should anything unforseen occur, you just have to try your best to solve it.

We had a church wedding followed by a lunch reception at Shangri-La hotel, since it would mean that we could end the day earlier and get some rest early at night. But because of that, it meant that we would have a tight schedule, and there couldn’t be delays in order for us to start the events on time. It’s a very different arrangement from what most other people have done, but different in this case is certainly not a bad thing.

My day started at 4.30am, with me getting breakfast and packing some of my necessities before my makeup artist Shayla came, followed by my sisters, Gary our photographer, and some of the aunties from church who came to help out. I didn’t get much sleep the night before, but the adrenaline rush managed to get me through most of the day, despite being in a zoned out state some of the time.

Gate-crashing started once the groom and his brothers came. It’s probably the most fun event of the whole process, but the bride never gets to see it! I was stuck in the room the whole time, hearing all the sounds and laughter outside, trying to imagine what was going on and not getting to see it. It was really boring to be sitting there and just waiting! When you look at it from that point of view, I guess it was a good thing that the gate-crashing didn’t last that long.

It was then the usual tea ceremony after the guys made their way in, and we headed to the groom’s house after that. It was then a problem appeared – we had ordered 3 bouquets (1 for me, the other 2 for the bridesmaid and flower girl respectively), but only mine was given to the husband when he went to collect it the night before. I was pissed off at that point, because I couldn’t make it down to the boutique that night (had to go to church to do some preparations), and I had said time and time again that there should be 3 bouquets for us. It probably wasn’t the best way to deal with the situation, but I was tired, stressed, and getting upset was a natural response in that situation. But thankfully Kenny, the bestman, managed to get us 2 bouquets from the florist nearby. I really didn’t want Winnie and Alicia to walk down the aisle without flowers… (Anyway, it turns out that the boutique somehow missed out our request for additional bouquets, and didn’t charge us for it, so it was also partly our fault for not checking when we made payment.)

The church ceremony went smoothly… should there had been any problems, our church helpers handled it really well! I’m really happy to have our family and friends join us for this special occasion, even if they aren’t Christians. We charted buses to bring the guests to the hotel, and they came earlier than expected, meaning that our guests reached the hotel at the same time as us (instead of us reaching earlier as planned), so I hope they weren’t too bored while waiting for the lunch reception to start!

But the good thing about such an arrangement is that we managed to start lunch pretty much on time – everyone was probably hungry anyway. By lunch I was already pretty stoned (walking around in the heavy wedding dress is tiring!), and my dress had to be pulled tight so that it wouldn’t drop, so I couldn’t each much. I only had time to eat the first 2 courses anyway. Changing out into the 2nd dress brought a little relief, and I was so happy when I changed into the 3rd once, because I could move much better in a short dress which also happened to be less tight. The shark’s fin was on the salty side, but other than that, I hope everyone enjoyed the food!

The day passed by in a blur, and I smiled till my cheeks were tired and stood till my feet were really tired. I didn’t have much time to think, or really absorb what was happening, but rather just moved along as according to the schedule as told to me by my helpers. When we get our photos back I’ll probably be thinking that I should have smiled more, stood with my back straighter and everything else along those lines, but I really didn’t have the energy to do it then.

No matter what, I’d say that the wedding went well, and I’m thankful to everyone for their help and their well-wishes. A big thanks to all our brothers and sisters – Kenny, Winnie, Louis, Guan Xing, Yan Xi, Andy, Gerard, Christine, Linda and Jun Jie – for following us the whole day, and helping out with the day’s events. I know everyone was busy and tired, and I really appreciate your help! Also, to our church helpers and pastors: Rev Goh, Rev Yeung and Ps Ling, thank you for helping us along the way. Ben, Justin, Esther, Auntie Lynn, Yun Mei, Darren, Eudora and Wei Xin, thank you for making the church service possible. Joshua, Joanna, Edric, Amenda, Hui Yun and Yingfu, thank you for helping out with all other aspects of the church service! And to the aunties who helped with the flowers, tea ceremony and everything else – thank you all as well. And to those who offered to help, I really appreciate it as well.

A wedding is between 2 people, but it certainly involves more than that. I’m extremely grateful for all the help we’ve received during this process, and for all our friends who took their time out to help us prepare for this event. When your turn comes, I’ll gladly offer my services! Thank you for making our day a special and memorable one.

The husband is at work and the dog is fast asleep (after being awake most of the night and trying to peep at us while we were sleeping), so I finally have the time to sit down and write.

People tend to ask, “so how was your wedding?” or much later on “so how’s married life?”, but I’ve hardly seen or heard anyone talking about what happens the day after marriage. On the day of the wedding, everything passes by in a blur, and it’s only on that very night, or the day after, when everyone has gotten some rest and is more awake, that everything starts to sink in.

The day after our wedding, we checked out of the hotel, returned our gowns and suits, and came home. It marked the end of the numerous trips down to the hotel and boutique to settle all the details for our wedding. It marked the start of moving to a new place, and calling this place home, and along with it comes new responsibilities. To be honest, I felt really weird for the most of yesterday, and I kind of missed my old home, because after all, it was the place I spent more than 10 years of my life living in. And suddenly, I’m living in a new place with new people, and the people I once lived with aren’t here… I guess this is a phase most people pass through, and I just need a while to get used to all these changes.

But change isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and I think it’s important that we move out and spend some time by ourselves, learning what it means to have our own home and handle whatever comes along with us – the housework, managing the finances, looking after ourselves and so on. Who knows what might happen in the next few years, and our parents might move in with us in the future, but at least we’ve had a period of time to learn and grow, and to become independent as a couple.

There are lots of thoughts I’d like to write down, and things about our road to marriage that I haven’t had the time to write about. I’m not sure how much free time I’ll have since I’m still moving my stuff in and there’s a lot of housework to be done, but when there’s time, I’ll backtrack and write down everything while I still remember them. It’s a new start and a lot of unknowns lie ahead, but I’m sure that we’ll learn and manage somehow as time passes.

When the make-up goes on and the gowns are worn, even the plainest of all girls can be transformed into someone more beautiful.

Photoshoots are tiring, especially for someone who’s not used to all that posing, but it is an experience after all. Our day started in the studio at 10am, and the first hour or so was spent putting on the makeup and doing my hair. Our photographer, Gary, came soon after, and the studio shoot started.

To be honest, the shoot felt like it was a test of my flexibility, my waist power and how far my neck can bend. As an advice for those going for photoshoots, perhaps it would be good to do so some stretches before the shooting, so that you won’t end up with muscle pain the next day.

3 dresses and different hairstyles for the indoor shoot, and then we were out! I believe that most people go to 2 or 3 different locations for their outdoor shoots (for a typical package), but somehow we ended up with 5. I’m certainly not complaining about that though! We went to the lalang field in Punggol, a church somewhere in the east, to the railway track at Portsdown Road, Labrador Park and lastly, Henderson Waves. We were really lucky to catch the train passing by at Portsdown Road! I hope that set of photos turn out good.

By the time we got back to the studio it was way past sunset, and I was drained. I’m still tired (and aching!) today so I’m not going to write too much; I’ll leave that till when I get the photos. But anyway, I really have to thank Gary for bringing us to so many different places, acting not just as our photographer but also our driver, and also trying to capture the best shots of us even though it must have been tough to get us to pose the way he wanted. And thanks to Shayla, my makeup artist as well, for dolling me up so nicely for the shoot! All I hope for now is the photos to turn out nice, and hopefully we won’t have too much of a headache choosing which ones to include in the album.

First gown fitting at The Aisle last Saturday! I chose them because of the good reviews I read for various sites, and I liked the general feel of the gowns that they had on their website as well.

Basically, this is how the whole process goes:

1. First consultation, where you try on different gowns to see what style/cutting suits you.
2. Confirmation, where you get to try on more gowns and confirm which ones you want for the photoshoot. Would take a longer time that the first consultation, say 3-4 hours?
3. Photoshoot itself. I have a list of dos, don’ts, and things to bring given by the boutique. Pretty standard, but maybe I’ll write that out some other time.
4. Photo selection
5. Layout for wedding album, and collection some time after that.
6. Final fitting

When it comes to choosing wedding boutiques, it’s not just about getting one with good service, but one that has gowns that suit your taste as well, and that is something subjective. I’m glad that I liked a number of the dresses Eddie (the designer) chose for me to try. I have 5 studio outfits, and 3 outfits for the actual day, meaning that I can chose from a minimum of 5 outfits to a maximum of 8 outfits (assuming that I’m not going to use the actual day outfits in the photoshoot). Choices, choices… There are a couple of gowns I’ve tried on that I really like (and have gotten good feedback on as well), but let’s see what comes up during my confirmation next month before I make the decision. I do have my heart set on the very first gown I tried as the one I’ll be wearing for the church wedding though, unless I see something that I love even more the next time round.