My Singapore Summer Garden Wedding - Page 6
Let me tell you that slimming is a nightmare for brides in Singapore! We are expected to lose the most weight in the fastest amount of time and you will think the wedding planning and all will stress us out, making us lose appetite. That is so not true, in fact, we will be binge-eating chocolates (at least, I have) in order to deal with the stress.
Worse for me is that when I was prepping to leave Shanghai, all my China friends wanted to have lunch or dinner with me! And when I came back to Singapore, all my Singaporean friends want to catch up over a meal. I am not afraid to tell you that I have gained like 2 or 3 kg over all that eating.
I need a solution fast and I want to do it in a healthy way too. I don’t want to be the bride who fainted at her wedding due to lack of food, I rather faint due to overwhelm with love. Just kidding!
So in my last post, I had spoken about my savior in Singapore. She is none other than Lynn from Haven Beaute. Below, I have included her address:
70B Smith Street
Singapore 058968
+65 63234423
An appointment is a must as she is so busy and unfortunately, she is a hidden gem, meaning no photos of her salon could be found online (and I never thought to take any photos of the place).
She provides offers a full array of spa services. These range from detoxification services like ear candling to facials and massages. They also have slimming programs that are overseen by a weight manager. She is so good that I lost about 5 kg within 2 weeks! I don’t have to take any medication, my diet was not excessively cut down (I just have to avoid certain food for the time being, example oily fried food or desserts) and exercise was kept to a minimum (I swam 5 times a week for 1 hour each time). Her prices are reasonable and I only went for 3 treatments in total to lose 5kg.
Furthermore, I thought I would gain it all back since I don’t make any effort to maintain after the wedding. Guess what, I didn’t gain much, my current weight bounces between 1kg from the wedding weight! She is a godsend, no wonder her salon celebrate 10 years in service and yet she doesn’t need to do advertising much because she have steady stream if regular loyal customers like me!
When I was told by my photographer that she will be doing a close up shot of my fingers, ring wearing shots, I panicked since I don’t have time to squeeze in an appointment for a manicure and pedicure. My nails are so bitten down to its roots due to stress and frustration over wedding planning and relocating myself out of the country and to a new country.
Relocation itself is a huge headache, let alone adding on to the pressure of “I am getting Married!” Fortunately for me, both my parents and parents-in-laws are pretty easygoing and not particular about details nor customs, this made my planning a lot easier. So I managed to squeeze in an appointment with a new nail parlor, not my regular one since they are unable to cater to my timing. All I need to do now is to choose which design I like best.
I am going to have a Tiffany Wedding anyways, thinking of having my nails painted in this colour but it will be too Cliché.
This is a nice alternative until I remember my husband doesn't really like it when my nail colours go all too crazy for him. I used to have a favourite color red and white polka dots that I thought was fun but he thought it was weird.
This is my favourite OPI colour called the BubbleBath. It is my regular colour but I don't want to use it on my wedding day. I want my nails to be special.
This is something I could consider....
I had french manicure for my toes. I wanted to keep it simply for my feet so I thought I should match my fingernails similar to my toes.
Ta-da! I ended up choosing this design because I thought it looks simple and elegance without taking the spotlight from my ring.
I admit. I am a control freak. I love to micromanage. And I freak out major if things don’t turn out the way it suppose to. I am also a perfectionist that is why I don’t run a business of my own; I think I will sooner die of heart attack than to open a business.
Everyone who knows me roll his or her eyes at how control freak I can be when comes to planning. Every details have to thought carefully, comb through meticulously. No stone will be left unturned. Below is my itinerary:
7.15am Making our way to 1 Rochester (please reach 7.50am - 8am latest) 8:00 AM Make up artist team and photographer arrive
Setting up of the tea ceremony area The photographer to advice on how to place the tea ceremony & chairs to achieve the best effect.
Decor of Reception Table
Florist Arrive
9:00 AM Arrival of the rest of best men
Briefing & Assignment of duties All gather at ground floor (except bride and groom).
9.15am Decor of location, flowers, all the tables, arrangement of seatings, placecards
9.20am Arrival of the band
Wireless Mic of Restaurant PA system
check that the mics are working
9.30am Decor of location, flowers, all the tables, arrangement of seatings, placecards should be ready. All corsages to be worn (family, best men, bridesmaid)
9.45am Reception on standby / Cocktail Food on standby
10:00 AM Arrival of family and relatives
Make up artist team leave
10.15am Tea Ceremony
10.30am Arrival of MCs
10.45am End of Tea Ceremony / Background Music
Arrival of guests
10.50am Arrival of Solemiser / Band to standby
MC introduction
MC to gather guests to sit down at Area E.
Bride & Bride's dad to get ready
Groom to get ready and are on standby at Area E.
Groom’s dad & Solemniser to be at the solemnisation table
10.55am All bridesmaids and best men in position Bridesmaid to stand at the brides side and best men stand beside groom
11:00 AM 1st March in
Mics to pass to solemniser
End of exchange of marriage Vows
Exchange of rings upon ring ceremony vows
11.30am End of ROM (We're Married!) / Cake cutting ceremony
Lunch is on standby
Solemniser leave
12:00 PM Lunch / Band starts 1st set
12.30pm Change of clothes
12.50pm Band to standby
MC on standby
1:00 PM 2nd March in
Pop The champagne
Mics to pass to couple
Couple Thank you Speech
2:15 PM Band leave
2:45 PM Everyone leave
Clear the location
Photograher leave
I even created a list of what to pack up and who is in charge of what. The above timetable is actually a simplified version. Yes, there is a more detailed version than this one.
If you gals still remember my bridal hairstyle, well, my hair stylist just called to mention that she would need some hair accessories to compliment my look. So its research all over again for bridal hair accessories.
I actually did not mind this bit because I was done with almost all the purchasing and was very much concentrating on packing up all my stuff and taping them into card boxes for me to ship them over to Malaysia.
This is boring stuff so I am actually glad for some distractions that I can make up genuine excuses not to fold some more clothes.
So where do I start? Online, of course! I am going to miss online shopping when I am in Malaysia. No online shopping is going to be as good as China. In fact, I think they are the best with same day deliveries within country.
Link:https://item.taobao.com/item...
At first, I wanted something red to compliment my theme colors but it turned out to be very drastic and drama and I'll stick to safely white.
Link:https://item.taobao.com/item...
Don't you think it is very nice! Too bad I didn't have longer hair, shoulder length hair wouldn't look as nice as this. Plus your hair needs to be thick and supple.
Link:https://item.taobao.com/item...
I look for something similar but for shorter hair.
Then an idea struck me, why not a tiara? I am the queen of the day, ain't I? But this is too much.
So ended up, I chose a small but sparkly tiara, obvious enough when I walked down the aisle due to sunshine pouring in, will be hitting some of the rays upon my head. So beautiful!
The bridal studio did loan me their faux jewelry to match with the gown and after spending like an hour trying to pick a set, I gave up and just took two sets of the jewelry. Instead, of wearing something loan, I prefer to go and source two set of my own. Faux jewelry need not be expensive; it can be made to imitate almost every natural gemstone. It may be made of glass, crystal or other substances that mimic the real composition of the natural gems. So I went and start sourcing for beautifully made faux jewelry.
I like this necklace for its simplicity and elegance however, it have pearl in the design.Pearls have been called the 'teardrops of the moon'. In some Chinese folklore, it is not advisable for a young lady to don so much pearl as it is said also to be the tears of a wiser woman.
I don't know why but most of the jewelry I found has pearl in them. In some ways, I prefer to stay steer of pearls.
This is something I would wear but in a simpler version.
This is my final choice for my first walk in gown. Simple, no pearl and classic.
For my second walk in gown, because it is a very simple gown, I want to match it with something simple too. Instead of searching for something new, I have something old and blue. My Tiffany locket with both of our photos inside. It was my Christmas gift last year from him and I love it extremely.
Writing my vows is a very sacred thing for me. My husband wanted to go along with the usual “til death do us part’ however, I wanted to do something really sweet and meaningful because this union is unique and meaningful.
So I made him to write his own vows while I wrote my own, without sharing the details until the very day itself. Little than I know I would be having writer’s block and couldn’t went beyond “thank you for loving me and I love you….”
Out come my trusty Pinterest and it actually saved my vows. The below ones are the inspiration to my vows.
If you are writing your own vows, I hope you do, one tip is to try to speak from your heart and to look him into his eyes, try not to tear because if you cry, there are only two reactions from him, either he starts to frown because your mascara is running all over your face or he start to giggle. Both reactions will not be what you hoping for.
So suck in your guts, glare him in the eye and tell him how much you love him as if he is going away forever.
The big day is finally here! My husband and I, in fact, had to visit a doctor the night before (Oh no!), both of us are so busy running around the last few days as singles and super stressed out, we both fell ill with a flu. Groggily both of us made our way to the nearest clinic to my house, queue for two hours and finally tell the surprise doctor tomorrow is our wedding day. You should seen his face! Lol!
The doctor gave us a strong dosage and instructing us to sleep for the night but guess what, both of us couldn’t sleep due to excitement, anxiety and stress. Excited that we are going to be legally married to one another, anxiety that things might go wrong in the event and stressed that our guests will not enjoy themselves.
The event went pretty smoothly without me having to worry too much, the only hiccup was that our location is wee bit difficult to find hence some of our guests were lost and arrive late, causing us having to delay the ceremony by half an hour. But other than that, all is fine.
The feedback given was positive about the food (plenty of leftovers! – which is a good sign for the Chinese), the food is great (especially the prawns), the guests love the band (and even sneak up to ask for autographs), one guest love the band so much, she even grab the mic and went up to sing with the band! But the best memory was how everyone love the ice cream cart we had (Singapore style) and we had to extended it for another hour. The best uncontrollable part is that God did not give us rain and allow us to enjoy our wedding basking in sunshine, only after the wedding did it pour, sending us gift of nature.
We had so much fun and we would love to do it again, in fact, I would love to have a wedding every year on our anniversary. Haha! I am living the part where we both most look forward to, moving to Malaysia to be with him and never have to be apart.
The most important thing for the marriage is not about the wedding, it is about life after the wedding.