Wedding Ceremony - Part One

It has been more than a month after the wedding. We have received the photos from our wedding photographer, Adrian Tuazon. There are heaps of photos, and I will try my best to describe how my big day went.

You cannot imagine how nervous I was. While I thought I would fall asleep easily the night before the wedding, mainly due to exhaustion, it certainly was not the case. I got no sleep at all and was extremely stressed on the lead up to the big day. Yes, the nerves were definitely kicking in.

While the day was pretty windy, I thank my lucky stars that it was not raining! It rained earlier in the morning, and I nearly fell off my chair while I was getting my make up done, just looking out at the window in the hotel. But by the afternoon, the grey clouds disappeared, the skies turned blue and the sun was shining.

One of my closest friends, Mr Happy, was appointed the driver of our bridal car. He picked us up early from the hotel and we arrived at the ceremony venue very early. To kill time, we made a pit stop to a nearby McDonalds, as we had a very hungry driver in the car. Mr Happy helped pick up my wedding flowers earlier in the morning from the florist, drop them off to me at the hotel, and deliver the buttonholes to the boys. Finally it was 2.30pm, we drove in to the convent, and I was (NOT) ready to step out the car.

Walking to the oak tree, where all the guests were waiting

My dog made a special guest appearance, starting off the processional!

Followed by the two kids, my bridesmaid Little Miss Bargain Hunter and my Maid of Honour, Little Miss-Drink-A-Lot. They walked in to 'Ave Maria' by Beyonce....

Next up, was my turn!

My father looks hilarious here. He is a retired navy captain and he took the 'walk his daughter down the aisle' duty very seriously.

I picked 'I Love NYE' by Badly Drawn Boy for the Bridal Entrance song. While the name of the title does not particularly suit the whole wedding thing, it is a song I personally loved a long long time ago. It was used in the movie About A Boy, and also in an episode of SATC, whereby Harry proposes to Charlotte (a scene which makes me burst into tears).

There you go. I made it to the ceremony, in one piece.

It was the first time my groom has seen me in my wedding dress. I cannot believe how we managed to keep it a surprise, considering his mum made my wedding dress and us, living together in the same house. But we did it, and he told he could not describe the feeling. It was really special.

All images by Adrian Tuazon Photography

It was paradise

Straight after the wedding, we were off to a short and sweet honeymoon at the Whitsundays in Queensland. We booked for 6 days at Club Med in Lindeman Island. So first thing on Wednesday, we took the morning flight to Hamilton Island. We were so excited!! Finally we had some alone time together!!

When we arrived at the airport in Hamilton Island, we got on a boat transfer that brought us to Lindeman Island. This is what it looked like, when we were on the boat:

Oh shit.

But... we assured ourselves, we were going to catch up on sleep anyways. And its nice to sleep when its pouring outside, right?

Half an hour later, we arrive at Club Med. We were greeted by the GMs (they call themselves Gracious Members) and GOs (Gracious Officers). Although, we have no idea what is the difference between the two.

The next day, it is beautiful and sunny! I am so happy!

The best part of staying in such a resort, is the all inclusive thing. We had no need for our wallets for the remaining six days. For Grumpy, his favourite part was the drinks.. beer, cocktails, spirits... as much as you want!

The pool overlooks the beach. We would sit by the pool, under the coconut trees, have a nice cocktail, read a book, fall asleep and wake up with a tan! It was paradise.

During the nicer days, we signed up for a kayak excursion to a nearby island. That was a 7.30am start! Grumpy and myself shared a kayak. It was really fun and scary at the same time, because we were really out in the sea. When we arrived safely at the other island, I was so relieved!

Notice behind me, that is the resort. Doesn't look too far, but I promise you, it is, when you are kayaking with fake nails from the wedding, and a husband who is still half asleep.

When we got to this other island, we took a short hike and arrive to another beautiful beach. I took with me two pumice stones from the beach, so that I can give myself a pedicure when I return to Melbourne. These are real pumice stones, so light in weight.

Before we make our way back to the resort, someone offered to take a picture for us.

At night, after dinner, we would normally stay back in the theatre to watch the performance. There would be people doing sketches, singing, hanging from the trapeze, etc. My favourite bit was the Mini Club, which were little kids performing. They were absolutely adorable.

At the end of each night, we would then head back to our rooms and sit by the balcony, which overlooks the sea, and just listen to the waves. The temperature in the island was perfect too. It was cool enough at night, but still no need for a jacket (unlike Melbourne).

We decided to go for another excursion one day to Whithaven Beach. This beach is among the top ten beaches in the world. Visitors are not allowed to stay on the beach (to protect it), so only day trips are permitted. Famous for its white silica sand.. we were warned to be careful with our cameras as the sand was so soft and fine, it could damage our cameras. We booked with the excursions manager, paid the tickets, and boarded the boat the next day. We were quite excited..

When we got on the boat, the excursion manager came running to us, telling us to get back to the jetty. "Whithaven trip is cancelled! The weather is quite bad!"

Oh shit! AGAIN!

So we did not make it to Whithaven... shame!

Instead, we headed back to the resort and we took a two hour hike (return - by foot!) to another beach, called Coconut beach. Coconut beach is in Lindeman Island itself. It was quite beautiful. The best part was that because it took us forever to arrive to this beach, when we got there, we were the ONLY two people in the beach. Very rarely we get an entire beach all to ourselves!

The water was so amazing. It was the perfect temperature. Grumpy took heaps of pictures of me. Of course he did, as he is my biggest fan! (Or at least I would like to think he is). And when you can't go to the gym to do yoga because you are in a far far away island,.... you bring yoga to the island with you! Notice how my feet would sink in to the sand, it was very soft...

Apart from doing yoga poses and playing tennis (especially after watching the finals between Roger Federer and Andy Murray), I accompanied my hubz to the golf course as well. The seventh hole, is at the peak, which overlooks the sea. Breathtaking views!

Lucky number seven :)

The honeymoon was absolutely perfect. Despite some bad weather, we enjoyed every minute at Lindeman island. We caught up with sleep, ate too much food, drank one too many cocktails, and most importantly, we had each other. All to ourselves. In a beautiful island.

Video Montage

I thought I would share with you the video montage I worked on for the wedding. When I went back to KL in November last year to collect my wedding dress, I spent some time looking through plenty of photos, especially baby photos :)

Even for the first four or five years we were together, digital cameras were not available, so all of the photos were taken on film. Looking at the pictures, I cherish a lot of moments, not only with Grumpy, but with my family and friends.

We scanned the pictures, and I used iMovie on the Mac to create this video. It was kinda stressful, because on the eve of the wedding, it was only 80% completed. I was about to forgo the entire video thing at the reception, however, my BFF Little Miss-Drink-A-Lot came to the rescue. She helped me with the video, adding the music and converting it into a suitable format. And this was all completed on the wedding day itself. During the tea ceremony, she excused herself, and worked diligently at the hotel, outside our room.

The story does not end yet...

When we got to the reception, she found out the music from this video could not be played on the PA system. The DJ offered some substitute music. Little Miss-Drink-A-Lot said to me "Strawberry Fields" by the Beatles? I asked for something else. She asked for No Doubt, the DJ said nope. Oh gawd, finally they decided on "Here Comes The Sun", which is also by the Beatles. Obviously, the DJ was a Beatles fan. Thank gawddd it worked out well. I was very pleased with the video.

So here it is... but my version... and not the DJ's-who-happens-to-be-a-Beatles-fan.

These are the two songs I originally wanted, 'Underneath It All' by No Doubt (because I am a huge No Doubt fan, and not so much a huge Beatles fan), an acoustic version, and 'The Way I Am' by Ingrid Michaelson.

popcorn

Happy Chinese New Year and Valentines day to you! Hope you are having a more exciting day than I am...! I sit here at home, its 8.30pm, alone (well there is the dog... so not completely alone) and just had popcorn for dinner. So much for a newlywed. What happened to love and respect? Please come back!

It was just a chip

You spend nearly an entire year planning your wedding day. When the day finally arrives, it goes by so very fast. Before you know it, the night is over and you are bidding your family and friends goodbye.

So, how did my wedding day went? It was perfect. Everything was perfect. Grumpy and I are so happy that everything turned out well, and the most important thing is that we made sure we had certain moments to ourselves, it is after all, OUR wedding day. I will blog more about the ceremony and the reception once I get the professional pictures from our very talented photographer, Adrian Tuazon.

We had an instant camera at our reception. It was so cool! Everyone should have one of these!

Here is a sneak peek of us (I scanned the instant photos), one with me in the ivory gown, and the other one, I am wearing a chinese traditional cheongsam.

And a funny one.. Grumpy posing like how our photographer Adrian was asking him to do earlier in the day during our location shoot "Smell her temple" "Close your eyes" LOL


As the wedding was on Saturday, we had a few days after that to catch up with our family and friends. I even squeezed in a Jersey Boys musical with my parents on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning, we were off to our honeymoon. A last minute decision Grumpy made. At first, we decided we were not going to have one due to the money factor, but we gave in at the end. So before Christmas, we booked ourselves an all inclusive 5 nights package to Club Med in Lindeman Island, at the Whitsundays. It was a wise decision. My friend told me it was important to head off to the honeymoon as soon as the wedding is over, before the feeling wears out, and most importantly, to spend some alone time together. We are so glad we did this short trip to the Whitsundays. We had such an amazing time there. Pictures to be posted very soon..

Before I go to bed, I will tell you a short story about our way back home after our honeymoon. Because we arrived Melbourne yesterday at 3pm, everyone was at work, no one could pick us up, we made our own way back to the house from the airport via public transport (we are as budget as you can imagine). We took a Sky Bus from the airport to Southern Cross station. From Southern Cross, I was lining up to buy us train tickets to go back to our house. Our usual train. While waiting for the lady to print out our train tickets at the counter, Grumpy shoved a chip into my mouth because he bought a burger and some chips earlier at the airport.

Then the lady said to us "Are you newlyweds?"

Indeed we are. OMG. HOW CAN YOU TELL?! We literally just got back from our honeymoon!

She said "I can tell.. especially when he is feeding you!"

Big smile on her face.

It was just a chip. Lol.

She wished us well, handed us our train tickets, and we thanked her.

I swear, I am a big pile of love right now.

Three more sleeps!

I cannot believe everything is actually happening. Time has flown so quick...

In three days, we will become husband and wife. I could not really adjust to calling Grumpy my fiance, what more my husband?

It has been very overwhelming so far. With many friends and family that have already flown in from Malaysia, we have been busy juggling wedding preparations and playing host.

My hens party was last week, and it was absolutely awesome. A lot of time, effort and money was spent by all the girls, I am truly very lucky to be surrounded by such lovely ladies.

What more do I have to do? Hmmm..

• Video montage
• Name tags - which will be hung over a wooden pear tree
• Packing

Most of it is nearly done. I have four different spreadsheets, so hopefully I don't miss anything anywhere. If I do, oh well.. shit happens.

I must admit, I am a little bit under the weather. I have been too busy to go to the gym or even for my usual runs. Grumpy gets on my nerves every other second. Dad told me before, just go out of the house, go for a walk, get some fresh air. I guess he is right. Only today I was able to sleep in a little because yesterday was my last day at work.

Work has been equally hectic. However, I was pleasantly surprised yesterday afternoon when someone rang me from reception to say I have just received some flowers! I thought to myself, hang on, I haven't had a fight with Grumpy.... but it turns out to be flowers from the Dublin office. I am very touched. It has been over a year now since I left, and they still have me in their thoughts, wishing me the very best for the wedding.

The Melbourne office has been very nice to me too, embarrassing me with a presentation, a cake to share with everyone, a bottle of bubbly and a David Jones voucher.

Mum brought over heaps of presents and cards from family, neighbours (?) and close friends in KL.

I am indeed very grateful at the kind thoughts and generosity of everyone. It is amazing..!

I really must learn to relax now, stop being an uptight bitch, and just enjoy myself!

Three more sleeps to go! OMG!

oh what a year! 2009!

This year has been quite an eventful one for me. Most of the my spare time was spent on wedding planning. Apart from that....

• Beginning of the year I was settling back to my normal life in Melbourne after spending 6 (glorious) months in Europe. Let me tell you now, it was not easy in terms of my relationship with Grumpy and even Dopey.
• I signed up with Fitness First. I heart yoga. And running.
• I started a new role at work, which involves working with Singapore and Hong Kong offices.
• We went back to Malaysia twice this year.
• I had three of my remaining wisdom teeth removed.
• And then I quit smoking! *clap hands*
• We had a very expensive dinner at Vue De Monde.
• I had my first personal flying experience by a friend's brother who is learning to become a pilot.
• I got to see Britney!
• My grandmother left us... to be in a better place.
• We said goodbye to our most loyal dog, Simba. He will be missed dearly! It was so very painful seeing him suffer epilepsy, but we will always remember the best of Simba!
• Was able to spend a bit of time with two of my closest friends, which I do not normally get to see them very often, Little Miss Drink-A-Lot and Little Miss Bargain Hunter.

2010... I hope to....

• Travel more
• Enjoy my job. If not, look elsewhere.
• Be a better person, especially to my loved ones.
• Enjoy the life of a newlywed.
• Save money after spending too much on the wedding
• Read more
• Run more. Maybe half a marathon someday?
• (Secretly hoping to) Move to another country, work there and explore the culture, lifestyle and hidden treasures

Here is a toast to the New Year! Best wishes everyone!


May the new year bring you lots of love and happiness! Wish me luck to our wedding, only 22 days to go.. jeeeeeysus!