wedding posts

I'm so blessed to have a team of great people who gave of themselves and their time and their talent in helping me out!!!

i love you all!!! {muaks}

here're the lovely angels hard at work.

this pretty elf is surely in the running for "homemaker of the year' award.

charlene made yummy hotdogs for lunch. the macho hairy guy in the blue shirt made himself very useful as well, helping to stir the cookie batter and ferry my mum around that day.

the ooi bros surely put their muscles into good use!

look at him go!!

cookie cutting time! I didn't have to tell them what to do. it's as if they magically acquired the skills!

sealing team at work!

thank you ALL for helping us out!! I don't know what I would've done without you girls! [and 3 guys] :D

I hate going to KL because it's so congested, noisy, polluted and crowded. this day was no exception... but we had to go there to buy more wedding stuff. the KTM we tried to take was stalled 4 times and it took us an hour to get there from subang!

sigh. anyway this is the place to go to get cloth and wedding stuff.

lotsa lotsa shops selling the same things!!

bunga reben. my fav shop to buy ribbons, beads and sewing stuff.

i want an arch like this, does anyone know where to get one? please!?

I like malay wedding gowns SO much better than those from Chinese shops. really!! they're the only ones who can make gowns that don’t reveal the shoulders/arms. they make the bride look so elegant and sweet without having to reveal too much skin. i couldn't even find ONE evening gown in a chinese owned bridal boutique or formal gown boutique that covered my arms and i don't like revealing my arms! those strapless/sleeveless ones are only suitable for those skinny/ thin girls and i couldn't find anything suitable although i went to so many shops. so in the end i opted for a bespoke dress.

all those chinese salesgirls tried to tell me that i MUST wear a strapless gown in order to look elegant and it's absolutely necessary and if i don’t i'll look bad. but the fact is that you CAN look elegant and attractive without having to reveal too much flesh!

bukit bintang at night. so many people. so much commercialism and consumerism and hedonism. gav and i agreed we'd had enough of those to last a month!

idiosyncrasies

I knew gav was a hoarder bfore i said "i will" but i didnt know he was a real life monica [from friends]

we were putting on his bedsheet today and as i was about to tuck the edges under the mattress, he stopped me and said we have to flip it. but why??? i thought.

apparently the motif on the sheet had teddy bears on the ground and stars in the sky and he says that when you walk into the room and see the bears, they have to be at the "bottom" of the bed, where he puts his feet because obviously the stars are up in the sky where his head is!!!!

arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

he says he doesn't want to see an upside down bear!!

if you were to ask me what is the single most influential thing on my views toward weddings/marriage it would have to be this chapter in one of my favourite books, "little women" by Louisa May Alcott.

In many ways, I see myself in Meg most of all. Perhaps a little rebellious like Jo, homely like Beth, maybe a bit vain like Amy. but most of all, Meg. a romantic at heart, trying to be responsible as an eldest daughter should, loving yet sometimes selfish.

"Meg had spent the time in working as well as waiting, growing womanly in character, wise in housewifery arts, and prettier than ever; for love is a great beautifier. She had her girlish ambitions and hopes, and felt some disappointment at the humble way in which the new life must begin. Ned Moffat had just married Sallie Gardiner, and Meg couldn't help contrasting their fine house and carriage, many gifts, and splendid outfit, with her own, and secretly wishing she could have the same. But somehow envy and discontent vanished when she thought of all the patient love and labour John had put into the little home awaiting her; and when they sat together in the twilight talking over their small plans, she felt herself the richest, happiest girl in Christendom."

"...Meg looked very like a rose herself for all that was best and sweetest in heart and soul seemed to bloom in to her face that day, making it fair and tender, with a charm more beautiful than beauty. Neither silk, lace, nor orange flowers would she have. 'I don't want to look strange or fixed up to-day,' she said; 'I don't want a fashionable wedding, but only those about me whom I love, and to them I wish to look, and be, my familiar self.'"

"...and Meg opened her arms to her sisters, who clung about her with April faces for a minute, feeling that the new love had not changed the old"

"I'm not a show, aunty, and no one is coming to stare at me, to criticize my dress, or count the cost of my luncheon. I'm too happy to care what anyone says or thinks, and I'm going to have my little wedding just as I like it."

after the wedding, Sallie [the rich girl] commented to her husband:

"That is the prettiest wedding I've been to for an age, Ned, and I don't see why, for there wasn't a bit of style about it..."

dont you just LOVE MY INVITES!!!!! Rachel's design!!! wheeee!!!!

there are some times when you're all pumped up and full of bubbly cheery "happy" and can think of 101 reasons to feel alive.
others, you're too tired to try to convince yourself that u should be happy.

this is one of the latter times. [don't continue reading if you're not interested in listening to me feeling sorry for myself]

ever since i was ...maybe 15-16, i knew i wanted a garden wedding. i had it all planned in my mind... fairy lights, candles, flower petals, organza drapes.
pink and brown flags. when gavin made a proposal i couldn't refuse, it was all finally coming to reality, all these dreams and fantasies.
i wanted a small, intimate and personal wedding, surrounded only by our closest friends who truly loved and cared about us.

so, i wanted 2 things
1. small, intimate, personal
2. garden

however the parents wanted a huge dinner where you invite every single person you'd met ever since you were born. so, to reconcile these 2 differing expectations, we decided to have 2 celebrations. one, the ceremony that would be in a garden, with only120 of our closest friends. all the other people who didn't konw us personally and who'd only come to give my parents "face" would go to the chinese dinner. this sounded like a plan that would suit both our wishes. so we had a "friend" who said we could use his garden. i thought everything was so perfect and i was so happy about it.

little did i konw that a few months later he'd go completely insane and was absolutely uncontactable for weeks. phone off, didnt reply emails although i emailed asking about things and telling him about our plans to have a meeting to plan the wedding. absolutely nothing. this person wouldn't talk t anyone at all so we realized he was not going to return to be our "friend" about 2 mths before the wedding.
as the malays say,

"kalau nak tolong pun, hati tak ikhlas" [translation: whats the use of your good deeds if your heart is not sincere nor willing?]

i wasn't about to spend the most impt day of my life at someone's house who isnt willing and doesn't even want to act civil to me, much less be a helpful and willing friend. i didnt want to spend the whole day thinking about how he's probably sulking somewhere in a corner. it would totally ruin the experience for me.
so we sought another place.
but since it was in such short notice all the places with gardens had been fully booked for the next 10 mths.

finally we found a place.... that looked good. although it was an expensive place, we quickly paid the deposit for fear of losing it...because this garden wedding meant so much to me. gavin just wanted to grant me this one thing that was so close to my heart... i really really wanted a garden wedding, so much.

but when we finally went there to see the "Garden" we found that it was nothing more than gravel and sand, with no grass. it was so ugly.
dejected, we settled for having it indoors inside the restaurant after all. but really...if we'd known we would've just settled for church coz it wasn't gonna be a garden anyway but we'd already paid the deposit, and printed the invitations so what could we do?

so now, we have to pay for 2 expensive dinners, but still no garden.
if we'd known earlier that all this was gonna happen, we would've just settled for having it in church, at least it would've been cheaper... all this has sent our expenditure through the ROOF.

sigh.................

all i wanted was a simple garden wedding... i didn't want to be extravagant so i opted for very budget things..my dress costs only RM200, we didnt opt for a studio photography package bcoz it was too expensive...my shoes, only RM24.90. i wanted a simple garden thing that didnt cost much ... and yet, it was not to be. a series of bad bad bad decisions, trusting the wrong people.............
now we're going to end up spending more than the average malaysian chinese couple's wedding.

feel so tired and so frustrated and so fed up of it all right now.

throughout the hard times in the many months leading up to the wedding, Gavin's always been there with me, feeling my joy and my pain and my frustrations. throughout all of it he was always supportive and encouraging and reassuring, and its so good knowing that there's that one person who wants to make me happy. I know God will still come through for us despite all the setbacks and at the end of it all, im' really really thankful that i'm marrying gavin. that to me is already the most priceless thing ever...
and no one makes me happier than he does.

i will be rejoicing on that day, not bcoz the decorations looked perfect or that the people are enjoying themselves eating caviar canapes, but bcoz i'm marrying the best husband i could ever dream of.

the mourning is for one of the carps in the pond who passed away today. the tadpoles starting eating its flesh. poor Fabian the fish. he was a good fish....