the wedding part 2

gav arrived first because he had to go hunt for his missing coat! damien's car looked smashing!
for wedding favors, each guest were given a little bag of heart shaped cookies, either one BIG one, or 2 smaller ones, representing one Big God, and 2 of us joined in holy matrimony. these cookies were baked by all my very special girls from CBC!

now one thing that i really really am so grateful to God for is that we had perfect weather. i was worried that it would rain bcoz it was raining in subang and the weather forecasts said heavy thunderstorms! here's the forecast for that day, "snapped" by munkeong bcoz he believed that God would do a miracle.



in fact it was nice and cool when it was time to start! and no mozzies coz they'd JUST fogged the area. i loved my chuppah [jewish wedding canopy arch thing] that was made by gavin using poles and cement and flower pots and organza. Ben helped to set it up and my friends sewed on flowers and put fairy lights on.

it was so pretty and one of a kind! according to jewish tradition, we were supposed to stand under it but we ended up standing beside it instead.

damien was waiting at the hotel's entrance for us and while were in his car driving to the venue he called kelvin saying "the hawk has landed". i felt really excited and nervous at the same time. when we pulled in and i saw the place for the first time i was so so so overwhelmed at how beautiful everything was and how great everyone looked! although there was no grass it looked so cool because of a beachy themed thing with the sand and all. the sweet pink flags waved gently in the breeze.

i was so glad that some of my guests complied to my pink and brown dress code and that really made eveyrthing look so sweet and happy! i was so excited to get out of the car and see everyone
my dad went to wait at the wrong place so we had to call him over to start walking from here!
most people look at the bride when she walks in but i think seeing the groom's expression during this time is really special
walking down the aisle with my dad was a surreal experience. everyone was looking at me and i didn't know whether i was supposed to smile, or look solemn like those other brides i've seen do. in the end i just smiled and smiled bcoz i was so happy and so overwhelmed with joy. it was so much fun. I wasn't brief on "walking down the aisle etiquette" so i didnt think it was inappropriate for me to whisper to kimkim "this is so much fun!" while i walked past her. hey, everyone's smiling at you. it's not nice to just go by without saying hi right??
one thing that struck was how short it was! i mean, these few seconds are probably what a bride thinks of and anticipates most about her wedding and yet it's over within a few seconds. in a blink of an eye, you're at the front! and your dad is giving you away!
my dad was quite happy to do so. here's the handover.
then we worshiped God, singing one of my favourite songs "made me glad"


then pastor mal talked about marriage and how we will now interact with the world in a different capacity. although we are 2 individuals, we have become one unit. how we will live and die for each other.

and then, the moment!

just looking into his eyes i felt an overwhelming joy. it was such a beautiful and meaningful moment. after 4 years of courtship, here we are, at the culmination of our time together. through all those years we had to spend apart, all the hardships, all the heartaches, all the missing each other, all the joyful reunions and tearful goodbyes, we were finally here, at the altar, about to pledge our lives to each other before God.

here i am, marrying the man i love so much. I couldn't help but tear up! and apparently, so i was told, so did a few of my friends!

the rings symbolize the promises we made to each other, to love in times of sickness and health, for better or for worse. to encourage, to support, to comfort, to cherish.


after that was the lighting of the unity candle. ours looked so DIY because they were DIY. we could've gotten very elegant ones from teddy tales or something but somehow i just didnt think of it. it never occured to me that i could've gotten them ready made!

adeline tied the pink ribbon on and terk gave me suggestions on how to tie the ribbons on the others. the rhinestones were glued on with UHU glue.
the 2 candles represents us as individuals, and the big one represents that we've now become one.
and then it was time for gav to do his thing !

and then we're married! for the recessional, our guests in the aisles threw pink flowers at us. i was really happy. i couldnt stop smiling. later my cheeks ached.

it was funny coz after walking out, we had to walk back in again to pose for photos.
ok this is the end of part 2! part 3 will come later.

the wedding part 1

a whole month after the wedding and I realized I need to write about all my thoughts on that event so that I have it immortalized before I start to forget! God gave us so much more than we ever ever hoped or dreamed of. only last year I was thinking of how I wanted my wedding to be and I thought it would be impossible to have a really meaningful wedding full of our closest friends helping us out since Gavin's been away for years and they dont really know him but just seeing how our church family have come alongside us to make this day so truly beautiful really touches my heart so much! I wanted a garden wedding and I thought it would be impossible finding a beautiful place but my team of friends made it so much more beautiful than I ever thought possible! the sand on the ground made it look beach-themed. the chuppah with the pink cloth and fairy lights and little sakuras sewn on looked smashing! yes, most things were DIY and to me that meant so much more bcoz it means there were loving, caring people involved. some things just cannot be bought with money.

one thing gavin and i felt so strongly about was that we wanted it to be meaningful, and we didn't want to buy into that whole commercialist/marketing ploy that since it's your wedding, you ought to spend the most money and buy the most expensive things.

the fanfare started on the Thursday before the wedding when we had the hen's night, it was somewhat of a girly themed party with everyone wearing dresses.

everyone
looked so pretty! some brought nice gifts for me. some were kinky gifts, some were perfectly innocent ones.

and we had tea with scones and other tea time treats although it was an evening party. the food was really yummy and although it was "dinner"time we had cakes and cookies and ice cream. haha.

by now my overseas guests had arrived so it was really like a fun reunion, leon arrived from brisbane, ben from hobart, adele from singapore and albert from the UK.
the moment Ben arrived he was put to work, he had to draft out the master schedule for the day for me because i was panicking and stressing but still getting nothing done.
they took the daunting task of baking the wedding cake out of my hands. i was so tired i gave them the recipe from donna hay and ingredients and i went to take a nap. when i woke up, the butter cakes were ready!
the next day we had the wedding rehearsal at church, then to petaling st to buy the flowers for the bouquet, i LOVED how auntie uma made my RM18 [total!] worth of flowers look like these
petaling st was tiring though! it was jammed like mad. still we shopped around a bit and rachel pressured me into buying more lingerie. i also bought the white shoes for the wedding day [these are the 4th pair of shoes i'd bought for the wedding, long story!]
i had to wear flats because heels hurt my feet so so much and i wanted to be completely comfortable for the wedding so that I'd enjoy this day to the fullest instead of being sucked up into a tight and heavy dress, my feet bound up into tight uncomfortable shoes and feeling like i can't wait for it to be over. i wanted this day to be most "fun" and relaxed instead of stuffy. and I wanted to walk around freely without having to be encumbered by my shoes.

when we got home i was so knackered. gav brought our overseas guests to buy dinner at the ramadan bazaar but there were only leftovers left. albert serenaded us in the living room with his violin since i wouldnt get to hear him the next day. soon after the cell members arrived to start decorating the car. it took HOURS to decorate the car! here's the toyota after their hard work. poor damien had to drive it in to work like this on that day! hehe

i got the idea from a martha stewart magazine from 1999. as for the car, unlike most other people i didn't quite care what car i came in, really. the wedding was not an opportunity for me to "Show off" anything or how rich i am. in fact since im not rich there would be nothing to show off anyway. i decided on damien for the driver since he likes driving and so we used his own car since it's the most practical thing, after all he'd be most comfortable driving his own car right?

meanwhile i still hadn't decorated the wedding cake!! it was already friday night, less than 24 hours before the wedding! i am really the most disorganized bride ever and i kept procrastinating and being lazy so finally Ben and Adeline decided to take things into their own hands and decorated the cake themselves. it was a small round butter cake with 2 layers and jam in the middle, covered with sugar paste icing. Look!!
it was the top white cake that they made, all the little chocolate ones were made by my mum.
they did a wonderful job!! before this I'd looked at some very beautiful cakes from shops like choffles and so on but they were all within the price ranges of RM400-RM1400 which seemed extravagant to me. this one's entirely homemade by my friends/mum and that made it even more special.

Saturday -the big day!!
the whole day started out pretty normally, I woke up in my own bed at home in SS17.
I was so dead tired the night before but today I couldn't sleep in although I tried . so i called fanyin and asked if her dad could take me along to go to uncle hong teck's house [hereafter known as "the house"] At the house, everyone had assembled, matt and yuenching, munkeong and suetbeng, ben and adeline, auntie uma, rach, fanyin and reb, and of course terk too. Gav was nowhere in sight though!
when he finally turned up he shoved his scuffy shoes at me with some shoe polish and told me to polish them. I didn't really polish them properly though! still they looked okay.


meanwhile, the flowers were in the fridge and all the "props" were lined up in a row by the door ready to be whisked away. the house was very busy with lots of people bustling in and out, auntie allison even made an appearance. the atmosphere was very busy and noisy and cheery,
I however was in a bit of a daze and wondered if I should go along too but auntie uma strictly forbade that and so off they went!

the house suddenly seemed so quiet and lonely after they left and I had a few moments of quiet to myself. I sat down with a cup of coffee and looked at the leftover durian puffs in the fridge that fanyin had bought the day before. i hate durian. but my mum loves them so i gave them to her. I took a shower upstairs and waited for mum to take me to the nail salon nearby to have my nails done. [it's called "WOMEN FACE AND BODY", which i told the proprietor, was not a good name. it's a little shop next to leonco hardware on bakuteh row]
I chose to have a french manicure.
the plan was for my dad to take me to novotel to dress up but he took the wrong way and we got stuck in a jam for 2 hours! if only my dad had consulted gavin on this but when i asked him before if he knew the way, he kept assuring me that he did!! the fact was that he knew the old way. i was getting so stressed and worried while being stuck in the car and it looked like we wouldn't get there on time and the photographers and makeup artist were there already!!

meanwhile my wonderful team were decorating the place and making it spiffy. about 4pm
gavin decided to walk to where we were stuck [hang tuah] from jln kia peng to come get me. he really IS my knight in shining armour! there i was, in the car stressing away and at the pudu jail intersection i saw him coming toward me braving through the heavy traffic! he came and opened the door and told me to come along with him. so, there we went, in our sweaty tshirts with me carrying the dress and veil in paper bags walking through jln imbi and going through the back way, past pavillion and into novotel. i was SO glad to see him!

at the hotel, munkeong and suetbeng were just leaving as i arrived and i remember how happy i was to see his pink shirt and brown tie!! it's so perfect. soon, the makeup artist got busy.
and so did the photographers. i quickly hung the veil up on the lamp so that the wrinkles would go off, and my friends got busy too. while i was having my makeup done they [including gavin] were getting ready too. dad showed up awhile later saying that the moment i left the car the jam eased up!

while getting ready in the room terk assured me he was already dressed but when i turned around he looked like this
some of the others were waiting to shower, and gav got ready too. that western superstition on how the groom's not supposed to see the bride at all on the wedding day was totally lost on us!

anyway so after i finished the makeup gav put the veil on

then he realized that his suit wasn't there! apparently matt had taken it, so the boys went down to go to the venue. meanwhile the evening started out for our guests with some classical pieces by dr phang, our violinist. he played beautifully and with lots of "expression".
i hope the guests enjoyed it, even if they were not musically inclined, im sure the whole atmosphere was one of serene sweetness and makes one feel "OOohhh this is so nice!!". i wanted the whole feel of this thing to be sweet, fun, relaxed, meaningful, elegant but not expensively, ostentatiously glamourous.
the place looked just fantastic!! i get really happy when i see a lot of pink!
while waiting, my girls and i posed a little in the hotel room.

then it was time to go.
That piece of paper i'm holding is rachel's printed schedule for all of us!
meanwhile the guys were having their own bit of fun
thengyik's the highest! terk's feet are the highest but that's only coz he bent them, hehe. ben looks like he's being sucked up by an alien spaceship
ok this is the end of part 1, part 2 will come later!

starcruise

our honeymoon was a really luxurious cruise along the straits of malacca. we were on the ship named "gemini" and it was my 2nd time cruising on this ship. the staff were so excellent! from the moment we stepped onto the jetty we felt like we were being treated like VIPs

we didn't expect it but we were upgraded 2 levels up to junior suite! actually there wasn't much difference btwn this room and the one we booked except that now we had a bigger window.
the space between each cabin's door was really narrow so we thought the room would be tiny but it was actually spacious enough for us and it felt so cozy and posh. just being on a ship was great fun! we could feel the waves gently rocking us to sleep sometimes, other times it was really rough and choppy. when the sea was rough the glasses on the tables rattled and clinked.
standing at the ship's helm was great fun too coz you get to feel like you're "flying" with the wind beating on your face and fresh sea air. i especially enjoyed seeing the various types of jellyfish in the water.
of course the glorious food was one thing we'd look forward to everyday, for every meal.

we could choose between the buffet restaurant or the fine dining restaurant everyday. the food at both places were excellent each time! here's gavin's roast duck. he loves duck. i dont like duck though i think they're cute as pets.
here's the dessert aisle at mariner's buffet breakfast was my favourite everyday. here i had eggs benedict, which were poached eggs with a slice of ham on toasted english muffins and hollandaise sauce. it was heavenly! i savoured each bite knowing that it'll be years before i get to have another one of these. the pork sausages were delicuios too, juicy and porky!
of course there was bacon everyday and hash browns. here was one morning where I had the pancakes.
although the room was smaller than your average hotel room it was full of mirrors so it made it seem a lot less "cramped".

the only bad thing about it was that after the 5 days on water, when we finally stepped on land we felt like the ground was floating and moving. the feeling lasted about a week which made me really dizzy and disoriented.

lying

ystd we went to Enata Digital at Ampang Park and came across the sign saying "40cents per print" for digial photos. we were overjoyed, because the one we usually go to in SS14 charges 60cents.
we asked the lady, just to clarify, "how much to print 4R prints?" and she answered "40cents"

since we were only going to be there for less than an hour, we asked whether it could be done now, since there were no other customers in the shop and she was sitting there doing nothing. she said "ok"

but later when we went to collect the 12 photos, she said it was RM12!! we were shocked, and wondered how it could've come up to that amount. she said because it was "express" it was now RM1 per piece! i was livid because she did not inform us at all, moreover we asked whether it could be processed now, but we didn't ask for the instant photos. so I confronted her and asked why it was RM1 when she earlier said 40cents. she acted stupid and said "i didnt say 40centst". we were really angry so we told this chinese guy whom we thought was the owner/boss/manager but he didnt even bother about us and instead asked her if we'd paid, and when she said yes, he just shrugged and said "too bad".

seruiosly!! i was livid. not only did they lie but didn't even try to make it up to us, the customers! we were tricked and swindled by these theiving, deceitful liars. so please don't ever patronize their shop.

the Bible says it doesn't pay to do evil though.

Ps 1:6 6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

did you know that as a consumer, you can complain about goods or services here?

Kavern

here he is again!!

please pray that he'll be healed once and for all and completely and wholly!

One thing that really touched me was how cheerful and thankful Kavern is all the time, more than I am although he's gone through so much. He says that no matter what, God's never left him and he doesn’t have a doubt in his mind that God loves him so much and will take care of him.

praise God!