Post-Wedding 2: Flowers.

I realized now that I have so many posts that is overdue and happened like more than 2 months ago, so here I am trying my best to squeeze all the brain juice that's left to speed it all up. Heh. 

I will admit that for the first time in my life, I pinterest-ed "perfect wedding flowers" just about less than 3 months before the wedding. I am not a flower kind of girl and if everything were up to me, there would be no flowers seen on the bid day. Hah. But Koay wants some flowers so okay. 

There are so many great photos on Pinterest but I only had my eyes on roses and baby breaths. 

I didn't really like how the combination of both flowers are like, so that means I had to choose one. 

I really like roses, and I really like baby breaths and I really don't want to combine both, not separately or together in a bouquet. 

After quick thinking (since flowers could cost a bomb in weddings), I decided to go for baby breaths. Roses are expensive but I've learnt through this wedding that baby breaths are equally as expensive, if not more. They are apparently seasonal, so yay to us that we're in their season! 

For other flowers-decoration-purpose, I left that decision with Uncle Phillip because his eyes is far better than mine. So, what he says, we'll go for it. 

My flower-related-decision was only on my main bouquet, flower-girls headpiece and what my maids were going to hold as they walked down the aisle before me. Once upon a time, I pictured each of them holding one KFC drumstick instead of mini bouquet of baby breaths, serious I kid you not. 

But I really like roses too okay seriously and I would need some kind of 'things' to be thrown at the newlyweds after they till death do us part and walk down the aisle together. 

Why not rose petals then, the brain thought. Heh. 

So yes, in the end, I managed to have both roses and baby breaths on our big day. Win all. 

All my baby breaths bouquet were handmade by a dear friend of Uncle Phillip who is no longer an active florist as she's now a proud and busy grandmother of 2 :) Thank you Aunty Louisa! She also gave us one (1) big bag of different colored rose petals that I feel have helped soften the wedding decoration :)

The way the baby breaths were tied together was inspired by Pinterest of course and it was perfect :)

Here are some photos of the baby breaths and rose petals that were captured beautifully :)

Here's a quick tip on how you can save cost on flowers. I always feel that spending so much on flowers very useless because they will die at the end of the day and they are just a one-day-thing for the decor. There are so many other things that you can use to substitute the flowers, like umm.. Okay, maybe you cannot really replace flowers with anything else that gives the similar feel, but you can strategically choose/use them. Here's what I learn from my wedding. 

Choose flowers that you can use for the lunch/dinner reception. 

For me, it was easy because I re-used all the baby breaths' bouquet. I did not want to carry my bridal bouquet anymore so we transformed that into a headpiece that my amazing makeup artist, Sam used and did for my hair. 

For the mini bouquets, we took out bits and pieces of it and lay it on the reception tables. Same goes with the petals. 

Write down on a paper

For my case, I bought too little. Heh. I missed out one baby breaths head-piece for Vanessa, so if you see properly right, instead of a headpiece, she only had a few pieces of baby breaths on the side of her head. Heh. 

I should have written down all the names of those who will be involved with the flowers and what they are supposed to receive, but lazy me just remember all in the head. Padan muka I. 

In your case, you could end up paying extra for the 'too much' so be more hardworking than me okay. 

Discuss with the groom-to-be

This one helps a lot. 

I feel men with their "MONEY IS FIRST PRIORITY" focus, they are someow able to talk us into getting flowers only when its necessary. 

Like the whole idea of not having roses and baby breaths together was his idea actually. He thought that it would save a lot of $$ and he was indeed right. 

He would asked me questions like, "You really want them together?" or "Do you think that maybe you actually just like one?"

Questions that made me think deeply. Heh. 

So ladies if I may, discuss this with your huz-to-be for they may say something that made sense once in a while. Hah. Thank you Hun :) 

I hope you will have a great time planning your big day, be it a wedding, 21st birthday or a get-together party. It's all good :)

Bye now.

Our Little Love Nest.

Our room is obviously already 100% live-able since we've been staying in here for more than a month - close to 2 months now. I somehow forgot to post on the final product because of all the hoo-haas on the wedding.

Anyways, while waiting for me to finish choosing the wedding photos (and upload them here) and a wedding video, here's a perfect time to show you guys how our little comfort zone looks like now.

There is only one problem though.

Ever since the new set of wooden furniture were moved in, our room has this kind of smell that is not all too bad but it isn't very pleasing to the nose either.

We have tried using all kind of make-the-room-smells-good-method like heating up the fragrant oil using a mini bowl thing, used Lampe Berger, used fragrant sprays and leaving the room door open with fan switched on whole day.

BUT ALL ALSO CANNOT GET RID OF THE SMELL.

It has some sour-y smell with wooden and it's been there since we moved in.

If anyone of you knows of anything that can help us get rid of the smell, PLEASE LET US KNOW! We are very desperate.

So, besides the whole smell thing, our love nest is perfect.

The bed is obviously the most comfortable thing in the room. The moment anyone lies down on it, confirm you get good sleep okay. The other day we lay Daryl down on the bed and he sleeps like a baby. Hah.

Without further ado, here it is.

Now that we've been in there for close to 2 months now, it's finally 98% complete with our little touches here and there. 

Let's see the before and after photos shall we. 

FROM THE MAIN DOOR

FROM THE (current) MAKE-UP TABLE

 FROM THE TOILET DOOR 

Our safe place :)

Bye now. 

Post Wedding 1: Fake Eyelashes.

We have thousands of photos to go through and select those that we like, so do bear with us as we find time to upload them okay.

Our first challenge was getting a laptop that has a DVD reader in it and we finally got to borrow an external DVD reader from the seven-months-to-go-groom-to-be, Nehemiah.

We have four CDs to copy all these images from, and boy so many photos to see!

While I wait for the photos to be copied over, I shall share with you guys girls/bride-to-be on this one thing that sort of bothered me during my wedding day.

Yes, it's exactly what the title says.

Fake eyelashes.

I do not wear fake lashes on normal days. I think in my entire life, I have only worn like for a few times only and other than the fact that they make your eyes feel heavier, they are actually fine.

On my wedding day, my makeup artist, Sam puts on the fake lashes on my eyes and it felt normal. As heavy as I remembered it would be.

It didn't bother me until when she puts on the veil over my head and face.

It was a struggle and the struggle was real.

I could not open my eyes when the veil was over my face. It was so difficult for me to open my eyes without my hands pushing the veil from the inside.

I cannot be pushing the veil from inside everytime I blink, right? Especially not when I walk down the aisle. The only way to handle this is not to blink as often.

The many years of cannot-blink-or-you-lose game with buddies finally have its use afterall. Heh.

So, that's basically what I did until the man opens my veil and I felt alive awake again.

My eyes were like half-closed most of the time okay! It's impossible to have my eyes opened normally because the veil was heavy on the lashes.

I even asked Sam to trim off some of the lashes because they were probably too long. She said if she were to cut some more, then my own real lashes would be gone too.

G.

You see the photos below and you will know what I mean.

Those long eyelashes. This version that she gave me was supposedly the shortest version and I wanted shorter so that it will look more realistic. 

Once the veil goes down, my eyes went down too. Hah. 

Brides who have been through this, I feel you, and for brides to be, I don't know what is the solution to this. I'm sorry. 

I had to tilt my head down so that I don't feel the pressure of the veil pressing towards my eyelids, that actually made me feel as though the fake lashes were going to fall off.

Or I had to tilt it higher than normal if I want to look at people's face or the screen during worship, or Ben when he was sharing. I got photos to prove this point, but I'll just share one. Hah.

Oh, and I did mention about it being heavy right? So, some photos, you can actually see my eyes like half-opened but the truth was I was trying so hard to make my eyes fully-opened. G. 

I dare not move when the fake lashes were not touching the veil, but that made my neck hurts so boo. 

Look at this photo below! My eyes were like half-closing already. So are Vanessa's. Maybe she sleepy la. 

Oh look! She slept already! Tough being the maid of honor okay please. Or maybe her fake lashes also too heavy for her eyes already.

Okay she's awake already. 

HAHAHA. 

I wouldn't recommend fake lashes to brides la, but then again, without it, your eyes won't look bigger so I also don't know what to do. 

 I cannot.

I looked at photos that shows my eyes like that I wanna pengsan!

The first thing I did when he lifted up my veil was I touched my lashes to make sure it doesn't come off with the veil. That would be a disaster!

Imagine the fake lashes stuck on the veil when he opens them. It would be a story to tell though. Hah.

So, here's a little sharing to spare me more time to sort out the photos and upload them sooooon.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Bye now. 

Koay's Love Language #20 and #21.

#20
We came home early on Saturday night after the Octoberfest-date and were organizing the room/house a little bit.

He: *carries our laundry basket into the room and starts hanging our clothes*
Me: What are you doing? These ones all washed d?
He: *gave me that proud look* Of course la. I washed, hanged to dry, took them down, and now keeping them in the cupboard.
Me: *super-shocked* HARR! When did you do all that? I was planning to come home to put it into the machine d.
He: When you were in office this afternoon. I didn't sleep immediately *giving his accomplished-face again*
Me: Aww baby.. *in my mind - married the right man*:)

Well, you know what people say about guys-who-voluntarily-do-house-chores get from their wife *winks* HAHAHA.

#21
This morning, after we're done with our morning routines and ready for work.

He: *checks his wardrobe, probably realizing that some of his favorite working clothes are not inside* Babe! Tonight you do ironing okay?
Me: Okayy sure can no problem.
He: *looked at me with brows raised* Well, that was fast.

He loves doing the dishes, washing, and hanging the clothes to dry but the one thing that he will never do (hates so much) is ironing. On the contrary, I hate the ones that he loves and loves to iron! Give me a whole basket and I will iron with the biggest smile on my face. It's very therapeutic okay.

I guess this way our 'chores-schedule' is set. Hah.

Wife-duty starting so soon.

Till next time, bye now.

Post-Wedding Talk.

It's been +10 days since 'till death do us part'.

This space has also been super quiet for half a month already. Goodness.

Now that the biggest day of our lives had passed and we have celebrated our honeymoon for a week, it's time to get back to the normal routines, except for me, nothing is normal again.

I don't feel normal anymore. Hah.

I am a woman now :)

Anyways, I guess the biggest hardest part of this life-change is moving out and away from my parents and maid (heh). I have never lived anywhere else without my parents and their face is usually the last ones I see before I go to bed.

Not anymore now.

It's sad in a way for me because I feel like I always want to be attached to them physically and live in the same home. All together in one super huge bungalow or something. That way, everyone happy. Hah.

Even though we are on the same island, the struggle is still real and it still feels a bit off.

I enjoy waking up with the Mister every morning next to me, but I also want to see my parents' face when I walk out of my room. Well, there's always Facetime, then again both parents do not use iPhone. Oh mannn.

Change is inevitable I know.

I'm going to just take one step at a time :) It will all be gooood.

Speaking of change, guess who doesn't need to watch their diet anymore?!

KIDDING.

Our tummy is growing on us and if we don't watch out, we may just never be able to be fit again. I meant I, not we. He's still actively involved in sports so that won't be an issue for him. I on the other hand, need to find something to do that can help me maintain my shape and at the same time, I still get to eat guiltless-ly.

No need to go 'diet' anymore yassss. I don't have to order salad only during dinner tho that's also super rare occasion. I had a very light dinner once, and did a light workout after that, straight fainted. I ended up swallowing a whole gulp of concentrated ribena and Cadbury chocolates. Lesson learnt: eat rice if plan to exercise.

It is super surreal okay that the big day happened and now it's history already. I remembered the stress clearly, and i remembered breaking down one time throughout the entire year of planning. ONE TIME.

The stress of planning your own wedding is real and it cannot be measured with anything because you obviously will have your expectations, and when things seemed to be going further away from what your initial planning was, you will burst. I did, one time.

Bridezilla, my sister will always call me that time. I agreed with her because I finally understood why I was being so stressed out. Only one reason.

I'M ONLY GETTING MARRIED ONCE IN MY ENTIRE LIFE, so you bet I was a bridezilla. Hah.

I'm super thankful however, that the entire wedding was beyond perfect. It was even better than what I have imagined it to be. For sure the planning of it was chaotic, but it was perfect.

That and also because Adrian teared when I walked down the aisle. He promised he would not, but he did :)

We are waiting for all the photos, and once we have received them, for sure we will post them up here and in FB, and most likely I will spam my Instagram daily too so too bad for you all. Heh.

I will also be posting up on some of the things that I've learnt, loved, not love here soon. Now, I need to clear my side of the room first because it's just pure mess on the table and floor. Ahh.

We don't even have toothbrush/toothpaste holder in our bathroom yet. Looks like we will be visiting DIY shop soon.

Till next time.

Bye.

Wedding Update 17.

Hello you people.

I realized that I have a few posts that's too back-dated, but I am not feeling the blogging mojo at this moment because of all the things that's in my mind right now.

Nope, not wedding.

Hah.

Who am I kidding?

Ever since Daryl was born, it seems that I cannot hide the fact that the next big thing that I must look forward to is the wedding.

Oh by the way, thank you all who prayed for Daryl. He was in the hospital for about a week due to a very abnormal case of jaundice where it was detected on the first day when he came out. The normal jaundice case usually only occurs on second day onward.

He is home now, sleeping, drinking milk and farting a lot. His jaundice (as of yesterday) went up again and he still looks quite yellow-ish. Please do continue to pray for Daryl. Doctor says that it will take about 10 days for the jaundice to stabilize, but if not then Daryl will most likely needs to be admitted again.

Praying for complete healing in Jesus' name!

AND HE IS SO ADORABLY HANDSOME I CANNOT! I'm not biased please.

By the way, Daryl is not my baby biologically okay. Just a note for those who didn't know and probably thought that he's from my womb. He's my sister's second born, hopefully not last born :)

So that is that.

Daryl came and now the next thing to come is the entire walking down the aisle (the one thing that freaks me out most now) and moving to another house without my parents.

That will feel like real adulthood I feel. No.. I don't want to be an adult can ah? So many decisions to make. Headache ni.

I do look forward to sharing the same room with my best-friend but totally not looking forward to the snores. Heh. Can never please a girl they say.

Anyways, on 24 August 2016 which was yesterday, we sat down right after dinner and finalized our table seating for all our guests.

THIS IS BY FAR THE HARDEST PART OF PLANNING A WEDDING.

What if they don't like each other?
What if this table is too quiet?
Why got one extra seat here?
All couple so how to fit one person here?
Not so nice to mix young people with old people la.
Enough food for this group or not?

That was just putting people to a seat each. We haven't even allocate the table numbers. Later put them too far say we don't respect them, put them too near to the speakers they cannot enjoy, put them in the middle so difficult to walk out, put them at the side later their kids run everywhere cannot control et cetera.

A table can fit up to 10 adults, and too bad for us, our gang of friends, clients, colleagues, families do not come in groups on tens. So, that's another difficult area to manage, but we did it anyhow.

We discussed until midnight okay I almost fell asleep on the table. Drama heh.

One thing I did learnt throughout the 11 months of planning is that I realized that there is still so much of myself and Koay that we both do not know yet, and we've been best kind of buddies for about 4 years before we started dating each other. That's 8 years in total for both of us to know each other to the core, but nope.

I think what helped is the pre-marriage counselling with Pastor Cowan. The different sessions reveal a lot of things that's in us that we were not aware of. I didn't even think at first that it was important for him to know the other inner side of me because I was being defensive and I of course want to protect myself just in case right.

One thing that makes us more effective as a unit is where we understood each other's expectations and how to manage it in peace but with lots of communications. No silent treatment all thank you.

We now understand why we get angry on certain things or how we react to certain issues and how we 'tackle' each other.

In the first 6 months of our planning, we argued so much that there were days we refused to talk to each other. It was bad, in my opinion. But when the counselling starts, everything seemed better and fun-er.

Now, we hardly argue. We still have our big/huge disagreements and we I still sometimes talk very loudly/rude when certain things came up but I now know how to see things differently.

He knows to remind me to talk normally (no need blood pressure rise up all) and discuss things through. I know how to explain to him the different perspectives before he makes a quick convenient decision. We both learnt to meet halfway and come out with the third option should the first and second not work.

Of course sometimes, he will give in to me because I have better taste (if we are referring to house-things). Kidding boy kidding. You are very good with it too :)

So yeah.

We have 1 month left to get all things sorted.

One month to Bali and Lombok :)

Oh yes please :)

Bye now. 

Wedding Update 16: Application Form for Marriage.

Yes, this is the one part that we didn't know we had to do, until my amazing wedding planner mentioned it to us and was confirmed by our Pastor who is marrying us off on twentieth of September.

Since we have one month to go, we panicked because we didn't know how long this whole application is going to take or what are the things that we need to prepare.

So, in order for you couples-to-wed not to be panicky like us, here's a few steps of what to do to prepare for the signing ceremony, be it in church or not.

Step 1

Before heading to the Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN) to get the form, here's a list of things you should do and have when you go to JPN together.

This will make your life easier, trust me.

1.  Passport photos of yourself in hardcopy (with blue background).
2.  A copy of your witness' IC in A4 paper. 
3. A copy of your own IC also in A4 paper. 
4. A copy of your birth certificate.
5. RM20 to pay for the form.

That's it.

Step 2

Bring all those documents and go to the Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN). I don't know where else JPM is located but we went to the town one, opposite Wisma TNB, nearby KDU College and located next to The one Academy College. The big brown-ish building.

Our office is nearby that area so we walked over during lunch time. It's very difficult to find parking there by the way. VERY DIFFICULT.

Remember to go together because they obviously need to see your face. The government people.

Go up to Level 3, and head to the Jabatan Perkahwinan office. If not sure, ask someone there. Their office is quite secluded inside. You will see a food court there. It's behind the food court.

Take a number and wait for 5 seconds.

IT'S REALLY QUIET IN THERE ESPECIALLY LUNCH TIME SO ITS THE MOST EFFECTIVE TIME TO DO IT.

Step 3

The government person will need both your Identification Card (IC) and she will check on her computer to see both of your legal status.

After confirm both also single, she will then bring out a piece of form and explain to you both on the things you need to do and documents you need to prepare, of which you will already have if you follow my steps. Hah. Okay, so what you need to do now is to fill up the form. There is a bahagian lelaki and bahagian perempuan and attache all the documents with the form.

BUT THERE IS JUST ONE MORE THING THAT YOU NEED TO DO BEFORE THE WHOLE PROCESS IS COMPLETED.

Step 4

You will need to bring the form and all the documents to a Commissioner of Oath, who will usually be in a law firm.

We went to the a law firm at the street along UMNO Building. It's at the same row with City Link.

The whole process takes about 5 minutes I think.

We went in and the woman took our IC to validate the information, and sign for us. Pay her RM20 for the service and off we went.

Step 5

Go back to JPN, and submit the completed form with the documents. She will check and stamp this and that and sign, then you're done.

She will pass all the documents back to you so that you may pass it to your pastor and your pastor will do the rest from there. If you are not signing the paper in church, then you should probably ask the government people on what is to do next because we obviously didn't go through that part. Hah.



It feels super crazy to complete this part of the borang perkahwinan because at a time, it felt as though we have signed the legal document as husband and wife.

Oh my. This will be my most important signature yet. G.

No turning back already. Not that I want to also :)

Bye now. 

Wedding Update 15: Room Renovation.

Oh hello there you people.

I am back with more room updates! It feels like forever to get our room all dolled up and arranged.

The last time I updated on our room, the floor was still dirty, messy and not properly done up yet. This time, all is done :) *throws confetti*

It was his desire to install the wooden flooring into the master bedroom, in fact he wanted to have all other rooms to be of wooden flooring as well but it will cost too much on us so we decided to do it in our room first.

My whole life (okay not really whole life lah, probably after teen years heh) I live in a house with wooden flooring so this is nothing new to me. If anything, this makes it feel closer to my home.

Anything to do with main room renovation, we will make sure that both of us must be there to avoid making any decisions that the other person do not like because of the no-show.

So, whatever it is, if one cannot make it, then the renovation will just have to wait. Same goes with the flooring.

We waited till the one Saturday that we both can. So take note people. Anything to do with renovation and making decisions that sometimes are irreversible (or comes with a high cost), do it together. The contractors can wait okay. No point arguing for days on it. Speaking from experience. Heh.

Moving on.

We went to many home fairs and checked out all their promotion packages for wooden flooring (some looked like wooden flooring but are actually tiles) and in the end, we decided to go for JYC Group.

Adrian's friend, Daniel, his family owns this company.

So, of course we support and also because this company is well-known already for their high quality woods and warm services.

I know that because my family also uses JYC Group for all the wooden flooring in our house. Our ex-house also okay. All this before I knew Koay.

So, when Adrian suggested JYC Group, it was like an instantaneously yes! With JYC Group handling our floors, we don't even have to be there to monitor please.

For those who plans to install these wooden flooring in your home/office/studio, we highly recommend JYC Group!

Jia Yee Corporation (M) Sdn Bhd - Office address, phone number and email address.

Maybe if you quote, "Adrian & Sarah recommended you" to them, they may give you special discounts :) Oh when I say them, I actually meant Daniel or his parents. Maybe no need say my name since I don't think they really know me :)

When the men came in to inspect around, the room was super dusty and dirty. They did not only sweep and clean the entire room by themselves, they also did not ask us to help. Okay maybe not so wow or what lah since usually people don't like ask strangers or clients to clean together with them.

My point is that they did not ask us to clean the room ourselves. Usually I think the home-owners will need to clean the floors and remove all rubbish first eh.

So, that was a good impression already.

They continued working silently (A VERY HUGE PLUS POINT!) because I was watching Greys Anatomy in the living room. Hah. Koay was just into his phone playing poker or something.

At the end of the installation, they actually also advised us on what is best to do behind our door area because I believe that they could have just do anything easy without telling us because more convenient ma but no. They took the hassle of explaining to us the pros and cons to the 2 options that we have and the man actually repeated himself a few times because we didn't quite get it. Hah.

Yay to great contractor like this one!

Highly recommended!

Have a great last week of July, people.

Bye now. 

Wedding Update 14.

Time for yet another overall update on the preparation. 

We have about 3 months to go before this big show is gonna happen so let's not go all crazy yet.

WEDDING RING

In the progress of getting it.

WEDDING DECORATION

We have discussed this with Uncle Phillip and we sort of have the overall idea of how the place will look like, so stay tuned to find out more. Heh.

WEDDING CAR

Initially, we wanted to ride on a fancy-old-vintage-rustic car but it seems so difficult to find nice ones and those that we can afford.

So, after much thinking, we decided to not rent any car because we are only going to use it once. From church to hotel, so no need to spend that money la. Better spend on honeymoon :)

ROOM RENOVATION

I did not much for this part. Koay did 100% of it. So proud of my man. I guess through this one-room renovation, we both realized that it's really not easy to handle so many different contractors at the same time trying to fit our schedule with theirs.

But if I get to choose the one thing that angers discourages us immediately is the fact that their first response is always a negative one.

"This one cannot do like that"
"Not nice do like that"
"This one do already will be expensive ah"
"Err, you sure bo?"

Oh goodness. It is really a frustrating thing because to me, it just seems like they are lazy to make a bigger hole at the side so that the awkwardly placed air-con can go to the side and we can have a full-length curtain.

But no. They said it's not nice and it will cost a lot to do that. Cost how much exactly they cannot say. Api membara I tell you.

It will always be us telling them firmly that we want it this way then only they will do it, with extra charge of course. Downs.

A random bill that I find was so ridiculous was the bidet they bought and fixed for us. They charge us RM200 for that one bidet and a service of putting it together with the toilet bowl thing. RM200! Is the bidet made of Royal Selangor material? It's just a normal sliver looking bidet.

Boleh pengsan ni.

No, I will not recommend this contractor of ours to anyone.

Summary is handling a house renovation is a lot more stressful than planning a wedding. You have no idea how many arguments this have caused between us. We're just thankful that this chapter is soon to be ending and probably few more weeks and we can finally move our furniture in.

The only thing left to do is the floor installation.

Exciting times ahead for sure :)

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER

Yes, this one is a tick!

We are using MomentoWedding for our wedding ceremony and wedding dinner. This one I will share more on a separate post okay.

WEDDING VIDEOGRAPHER

None other than Pinang Films :)

WEDDING INVITATION CARD

Our amazing designer-friend is currently working on it, and we believe that by end of June, you guys will be receiving the amazing piece of art already!

We are so excited because handing our wedding invitations is like the 'Get set, ready and go' button for us. This will be the time when both of us will really meet reality. Heh.

Please RSVP us soonest okay because the real headache would be organizing the tables and who sit with who. All you single friends out there, get ready to sit with people you don't know (yet). We are going to make this wedding a partly match-making dinner. Hah.

I don't know if I am serious.

WEDDING GOWNS

We will be picking our wedding gowns and tuxedos by this month. Koay will not know what I will be wearing for the wedding ceremony because we want him to have the first look at his beautiful bride *beh-paiseh*

I would like to see him in tears and in awe when he sees me walking down the aisle with the father. That would be my dream expectation. I doubt that will happen. I bet he would like to see me step on my own gown and fall on my face, so that he can laugh at me his entire life.

That would be epic but no. No to that. Koay, don't be mean. Hah.

My gowns will be from My Dream Wedding, despite of what happened, I would like to still have good vibes for this vendor. Only happy thoughts okay.

I think that's about it for the time-being. More to come soon.

Bye now.

Wedding Update 13: Sixteen Ways to Have a Great Pre-Wedding Photoshoot.

I've decided to list down the things that you can do/bring to make your pre-wedding photo-shoot a smooth and fun one. I want you all to be ready with all the things that you may never think you need. I didn't have a lot of advise on this before because my sister could not remember (since hers was hundreds of moons ago) so I hope this is helpful for you girls and boys. 

Get your makeup artist phone number.

I will explain why you need to do this. 

I knew that My Dream Wedding is not providing any ampules for both female and male as part of the package, so I went to Alan (in Gurney Paragon, LG floor) and bought a box of Mandarin Ampules RM38 and there are 10 small bottles in it. 

I brought the ampules to My Dream Wedding and Sharon (my wonderful makeup artist) told me that Mandarin Ampules (believed to suit all kind of skin type) is not suitable for photo-shoot makeup. She would rather not use it at all. However, since I will be doing whole day photo-shoot 3 out of 4 locations outdoor, it was highly recommended that I put on the ampules so that the makeup stays. 

With that said, she sold to us 4 bottles of ampules for the price of RM140. It's insanely high marked-up because I got mine for less than RM50 for 10 bottles, and as far as I know, all other ampules do not cost till RM140 for 4 bottles. 

So, if you would like to avoid paying this RM140, call them (your makeup artist) days before the photo-shoot day and ask for the type of ampules they use, if not they sure give you reasons why yours cannot. I like Sharon (a lot), but that RM140 is too precious for couple-to-wed okay. 

Go for a manicure session few days before the photo-shoot.

I did mine days 3 days before and I only did manicure since it's highly likely that my toes will never be seen in the photos. Hah. 

So, to save money, do only manicure and don't do the normal kind. Go for the gel type so it can last longer and if you are not a 'soft' kind of girl, gel is the way to go. Manicure is important for both bride and groom to-be because certain shots are close-ups and you do not want to see horrible un-kept nails in the photos, right? 

If you are that kind not sure what color to put, then just go with French Manicure. Serious. 

Know what kind of heels/shoes you want to wear.

I brought like 6 pairs of different heels, only to realize that I actually only used 1 black, 1 white, 1 sport shoe and a pair of slippers.

For ladies, you actually don't need so many different color because your dress will cover your leg 85% of the photo-shoot, of course unless you want the photographer to capture your feet as well. Again, it's depending on what kind of photo-shoot you want.

If you're like me, cannot decide what heels to wear and must ask photographer, then bring all you've got. Hah.

For guys, please just bring all the shoes if I may, because obviously your shoes will be seen 100% of the time, unless you want to hide your feet behind the dress, which happened to Koay.

He realized that his sport shoes didn't really match with his clothes, so he stood behind me during that specific location and block his feet. Heh.

Make sure the groom trims his hair a week before and nose hair a day before.

Okay, maybe I should not use the word 'make sure', but 'encourage'. Hah. In all seriousness though, remind the huz-to-be to cut his hair a week prior because if he does it few days before, it may not look as how he wants it. I don't think girls would wantto cut their hair before the photo-shoot, but even if you do, do it at least a week before.

For his nose hair, seriously remind him constantly. I had my share of sending reminders, but it somehow didn't work because well, he is a busy man with all the stocks to see and monitor and all the clients to entertain. Kidding. Heh. 

He forgot about it and on that photo-shoot morning, I asked casually and his eyes opened. 

I was like, "Do whatever you need to do! Just pull it! Cry also cry don't care already or just push all of them in and don't breathe out hard!"

Fun times.

If you need to do facial or hair treatment, go one week prior.

This is to avoid any unpredictable things to happen okay. You never know that your skin may decide to go all crazy on you even though you have gone through the same treatment a thousand times, so please do all these treatments a week before. 

Know what kind of hairstyle you would want to match for each outfit.

Girls, listen to me okay. No one warned me on this so I had no idea and I had to pay for the consequences. Heh. So serious pulak. 

The makeup artist asked me if I had any hair style preferences and I honestly was okay with any kind, till she started making and I was like, "Hmm.."

Turns out, I didn't really like the hairstyles that I had on me that day, but I did not do any homework prior to that so it's okay lah. Beautiful face what hairstyle also beautiful right? :)

So, please do a lot of Pinterest-searching and Googling for hair styles that you like and save these images on your phone. Remember that you are the client and client is always right. Heh.

Please wear the nude bra from home.

This one can save time and save you from feeling embarrassed because the makeup artist will be in the changing room with you to help you put on everything including the dress. 

Do know that it feels as though you are not wearing anything but it is completely normal.

Eat heavy breakfast before heading to the studio.

For boys not so bad because they will not be putting on lipstick. So they can eat whenever they want. For ladies, not so much okay. I opted to eat sushi because I can just put everything inside my mouth and chew. There is no time to eat okay so make sure you makan dulu. 

Even if you're not a morning person (like me) and you find it super hard to eat so early, you just got to suck it up and eat. If not later sure suffer. 

Our photographers gave us 30 minutes for lunch so that was pretty okay. 

Bring facial towels/tissue for the whole day use.

We did not bring any because we forgot. Heh. 

We didn't have to also because our assistant, Boy brought all the things that we need and constantly wiping our sweat on our faces during the photo-shoot. Boy definitely helped to "carry" Vanessa's responsibility. 

You may not have an additional assistant on your photo-shoot day so do remember because tissue is really needed eh. We got an assistant because of what happened with My Dream Wedding KL, so that feels pretty amazing. 

Cut down on your carbs a week before photo-shoot.

This apparently is highly recommended when you read in Google search all.

Pump up your protein intake such as meat (preferably white meat) and eggs and stuff. Food items like rice and bread and koay-teow basah has got  to go. Just tahan for the one-week.

You want to look camera-ready for the photo-shoot yes?

Easier said than done. I tried doing a week before, but I crave for rice so much (after depriving from it for few days), I went to eat rice for dinner the night before.

So my advice is eat in moderation for carbs but lesser than you normally would, unless of course you really are a hardcore-disciplined kind of person, then do it! I believe you can do it!

Don't be strangers with the team.

This is a golden rule.

Koay is a big believer of that. Ask questions that are not only photo-shoot related. Ask personal questions like you sincerely want to know about them.

That way you will feel less awkward spending the entire day with them and taking photos. One of the things that I really love about our team is that Marcus, the chief photographer always make funny 'jokes' and hokkien sentences that are way too hilarious.

A very effective way to get us laugh naturally and capture that moment. Not just us okay. He and Boy also always burst out laughing when Adrian does something silly. So, it's all good.

We made new friends that day :)

Bring your own makeup sponge.

This one is for those who really want to save money okay. For me, I had wished someone would have told me all this, so I no need to spend a single cent that day. 

I'm not stingy okay. We paid RM4,988 for this entire experience and I really expect not to pay anything anymore because that is not a small amount okay. 

They charge me RM12 for a makeup sponge that I get to bring home afterwards. I went to Daiso and they sell 5 makeup sponges for RM5 only. 

Oh goodness me. 

Yes, if I can save on this, I will feel happy also. Maybe you feel it's just RM12, what's so big deal about it right. 

Try to have a room/house renovation and a wedding for 450 people to happen all at the same season. Yeah. Heh. 

Please do not apply any hair/make-up products on the day from home.

It is really difficult for the makeup artist to style your hair if you have already styled them with your wax/gel. Leave it to the pro okay. 

For men, if you are the kind that knows exactly what kind of hairstyle you want, then go ahead and do it.

For women, a big no-no. Don't even apply any hair cream if you can. If you insist, then bring the cream/serum to the studio and let the makeup artist know first. You wouldn't want your hair to look super oily and wet for the photo-shoot, right? There's only so much that photoshop can do. I'm no expert but I'm guessing that removing the "oily-feel" from the hair is cannot-do. Heh.

Same goes for make-ups okay. Boys, you will wear some foundation-like cream on your face and your eyebrows will lightly be touched up because you just have to. Heh.

Girls, no need to say also understood. You will spend more time on that chair for your face and hair.

Pack some snacks.

You will get hungry after few hours even after having a heavy breakfast. Taking photos is hard-work and hard-work means you use your energy more than the normal days, and once your energy is used up, you will need food to make more energy. That or more sleep, and since sleep is not possible, forget sleep.

Wait, sleep is quite possible if you are not driving. For bride-to-be however, you will not be able to sleep even in the car because you don't want to mess the hairdo. Yep, no resting your head on the head-rest too. Hardwork, remember? Heh.

Be comfortable underneath.

Umm, this should be a common-sense yeah.

You will spend whole day outside, under the sun or not, standing and walking and doing lots of posing (depending on your creativity), so you should be in your most comfortable undies. This applies for both boys and girls okay. You wouldn't want to be always 'adjusting' it the whole time. You all know what I mean. Heh.

For girls, you can get like a corset kind if you feel comfortable in it but if not, just put on your favorite. For boys, same goes to you all okay.

I believe that humans' confidence is partly affected by the undergarments that we wear, hence all the nice-looking and good materials in the market that can cost so much it's crazy. So, put on the best and most comfortable then for sure, you will also feel good about yourself and the rest of the day will be great.

Avoid drinking too much water a day before.

Yes, this one I think will help. 

It is highly recommended that you avoid drinking any liquid after 8pm the night before the your photo-shoot, to avoid eye puffiness and looking camera-ready.

Caution: Dehydrating your body is quite a bad-thing, so if you experience any dizziness and discomfort, quickly go drink all the water you can find okay. 

Remember to bring your slippers.

This could save your life feet! I kid you not.

For ladies only. You don't want to be wearing your heels the entire time, trust me you just don't! Even if you are very comfortable with all your heels and you are a heels-pro-wearer, you need the slippers! You hear me? YOU NEED THEM FLAT SLIPPERS!

I thought that I had forgotten to bring my slippers out to the location, so I wore the heels the entire time outside. My feet died. I was in so much pain that it actually affected my mood for the rest of the photo-shooting. So, please do yourself a favor and bring your slippers everywhere you go.

Life is tough yeah. Bring your slippers. Hah.

Bring umbrellas.

Don't say, "Oh, it's okay we like the sun that's why we are so dark!" because it's not true when you are in a wedding dress and a tuxedo and you have makeup on your face.

The last thing you want is sweat on the face and worse if your makeup starts to melt then you really g.

Koay has sensitive skin so every time he starts to sweat, he gets itchy and uncomfortable. So, what he normally does is to make sure no sweat on his face or neck. He has this habit of wiping his face with his sleeves so when he did that, his white shirt turned brown on his right hand sleeve and part of his face has no more foundation and can probably see uneven skin tone. Heh. Photoshop is needed for his face then.

So, umbrella will really be helpful especially when you have outdoors shooting. You're very welcome :)

Lastly, remember who you are creating this memory with. 

I was constantly reminding myself on that. It was a long tiring day and I was so demotivated at the end of the day because my feet died and I was so drained.

I almost did not have fun starting from the 3rd location onwards but I looked at Koay, and realized that I'm not doing all this alone. I am creating a memory that only both of us know how it feels like because well, we are doing it with each other.

He made it funny and spontaneous with all his crazy weird ideas. For someone who feels shy and awkward to be standing in front of other people taking photos, he did superb. He suggested most of the embarrassing things that we did and boy, was I thankful that it was him that I'm doing this with.

Challenging chapter this one is but so what?

I have my partner-in-crime with me, so we'll be okay. We'll be more than okay.

Bye now.

Wedding Update 12: Pre-Wedding Photoshoot Gone Bad.

I posted a photo on Instagram not too long ago with a caption that says something in line with My Dream Wedding and being very disappointed after the 2-hours long meeting.

Here is the whole story.

To tell you what happened, I have to start from the beginning so bear with me. It's really not that long of a story/drama. Heh.

Why My Dream Wedding?

That is the million dollar question that at times I almost want to feel like I regretted making this decision. Seriously.

The main reason to why we decided taking My Dream Wedding is that we love all the hipster-ish/rustic-ish/unique-ish feeling of all the photos that we saw during the wedding fair at Gurney Paragon. One particular venue that we saw was located in KL, and at that time they did not reveal to us where this specific venue is located (fearing we may hire photographer and go there ourselves).

The location is basically a museum (we found out on the meeting day with the KL team) that stores old and abandoned planes, where people may go into the plane and take photos.

It's called RMAF Museum, stands for Royal Malaysian Air Force Museum, and yes, we really were looking forward to taking lots of shots here because it's really unique kind of a place (for us la).

The other place that looks good for us is Ulu Yam, Batang Kali. It gives the lake-ish feel and they also have waterfalls so two wins.

We thought since everyone we knew has done their photo-shoot in Penang and all pretty much looks the same, we might as well go down to KL to do it, considering that both places that we love is there.

So, we make all the necessary arrangements and took annual leaves to make this happen. Please bear in mind that annual leaves for me are very precious because they are not enough so I always make sure it is well spent. Heh.

Three days of annual leaves is a lot by the way. HUGE SACRIFICE if I may put it that way.

We went down on Saturday morning and met with the photographer on Sunday morning.

It was at that time only he told us that RMAF Museum is closed for good and that they are in the process of relocating to Malacca. We were shocked to the core. Apparently they found out about this a month ago, yet we did not receive any phone calls to this news.

Bennie, our contact person for My Dream Wedding knew from the start that RMAF Museum is the main place and reason we went down to KL, and yet no updates from them.

I think that time, my head was on fire but everyone could not see it. They probably felt the heat though.

We took many deep breaths, and brainstormed for similar places to do the photo-shoot because we didn't want to "waste" this trip and my precious annual leave. Oh wait, when I say "we brainstormed", the "we" in this equation is Koay, Vanessa and myself.

We googled for abandoned tracks & planes or old unwanted buildings. We asked if they have any idea of these kind of places but seems like they do not know much of KL places. They didn't seem to know how to google as well if I may be direct.

WE DID EVERYTHING FOR THEM.

I proposed Sekinchan, but photographer turned it down saying that it's now not the "brown" season. Almost 80% of the places that we suggested, they had an excuse why cannot work. I understand Sekinchan now is not the brown-ish season, but can't we do the green season style instead at the same place?

Anyways, the locations that they suggest requires at least RM200 payment. No thanks.

After all the googling and communicating (another struggle because they do not speak fluent Hokkien or English), we decided to tell them that we want to have the photo-shoot in Penang instead.

They made a few phone calls and agreed to let us do it in Penang.

I walked out of the shop feeling sooooo disappointed with the whole situation. It's so frustrating that we have made it to KL, only to find out that photo-shoot cannot happen and now we have got to scrap whatever ideas that we originally have. IT SUCKS BIG TIME.

That same night, Bennie texted me with a long explanation of what happened and apologized. We do not want to make it a big thing so we decided not to like demand for things (although if we insist, we could). They gave us a free upgrade of album size, arranged for us to have the Penang photo-shoot that same week and have their Chief Photographer, Marcus to do it for us. That and we got ourselves an assistant, Boy to help us with everything else.

As much as I hated the fact that we were not able to take photos in some of these places, I believe in my core-being that God's timing is always perfect, and at that moment of all the hoo-hahs, it was difficult to remember that but my partner so patiently reminds me that His timing is and will always be perfect. There must be a reason to why things just did not work out with My Dream Wedding KL.

We had fun during our photo-shoot here in Penang, and that will on another update soon, I hope. Heh.

That's it people.

Bye now.