Counting Down

Am back again to post updates of my life. The big day's looming really near, and the past few months seemed to have just gone by so quickly. We seemed to have been preparing for our wedding for ages and this is the final lap.

Thank God we got most of the usual wedding stuff settled or in progress to be confirmed. Photos shot, and re-shot. I really liked the studio shots that were re-taken. Nicer makeup, hairdo and was in a happier mood to SMILE. Conversely, Dan felt that he looked better during the first shoot. Hmmm, we'll see what friends have to say about the pics when they are ready. Settling this matter was a huge load off my mind, cos I can now focus on other pressing decisions.

We printed our church and dinner invites at 2 different printers, collected them and got down to finalising our guest list. We emailed, smsed, called various friends and colleagues to check their availability, and this task is by no means completed yet. We are in the midst of sending out cards and obtaining RSVPs. We will also have to start arranging our guests' seating for the dinner. Am trusting God for strength.

Dan's family will be shifting to the new place next Sat. Dan and I were at the house yesterday, cleaning and mopping the place. We spent a whole afternoon there before heading off for my niece's first birthday celebration. Over this week, we will need to go pay the balance for our mattress before its delivery in mid Nov. Thank God that Dan's parents have taken care of all the renovation works and purchase of some furniture. Come Sat, we will probably shuttle between his current and new place, bringing over the personal belongings in batches.

We may also be attending WIN on Tue evening cos an anointed speaker is in town and heard that he'll be coming to speak. We'll also be meeting for cell this Friday. Seems like a pretty busy and tiring week. I will also be preparing to go for a Training/Conference in Brisbane next Mon-Sat. I really need to get familiar with my materials as I will be presenting a paper at the Conference. Er, have not gotten time to feel jittery about it. Think I have got so many things on my mind that my focus for this trip is just to attend the training, and deliver the presentation simply, and that's it. No time to walk around and soak in the local scene. I will hop onto the next available plane back right after my presentation. It's a pity but guess the timing's not quite appropriate for R&R.

We will be meeting our church reception caterer the same day I reach back, to firm up the menu and stuff. The caterer is not available on an earlier date. Well, think the following weeks, we will be running on adrenaline! Appreciate MW who is helping me with the guest book. She also shopped with me for materials to make the helpers' wrist corsages. I will find time during the weekday evenings to work on these... Hopefully it will be straightforward enough cos we did a prototype together. =)

Ah, we will met our florist at church next Sat morning to discuss the decor. Then we will celebrate my brother and sis-in-law's birthday next Sunday. Hmmm, packed huh?

Upon my return from Australia, we will need to schedule for a final fitting, arrange to meet our photo and videographer for final instructions, plan our actual days' programs, get the draft of our program sheet cleared with pastor and send it for printing. We gotta meet our coordinators and brief them thoroughly. We will meet our brothers and sisters separately for bonding and planning. Then there is the wedding rehearsal days before the wedding. We need to do up our photo montage for the dinner march in, and prepare gifts for our parents. Gotta pack my room and shift things over to Dan's place. We will also need to prepare for our HM and for the M'sia leg of dinner celebrations. That's a huge amount of things to do!!

Thinking about it stresses me up! Thank God I am also more emotionally prepared to be married now. Went through a period of fear and uncertainty. Also was feeling quite emotional about leaving my parents. Thank God for allowing me to experience these emotions and helping me sort through them, so that I am now more ready to be a wife!

Today at service, I was reminded by God that our focus for the solemnisation service is to honour God, and that is far more important than all the small details that got me fretting. It was a timely reminder as I gave thanks for the various details that fell into place as we pressed on with our preparations. I trust God that He will cause all things to work out for good of those who love Him and who have been called according to His purpose. Amen!

Milestones

Have been super pre-occupied with wedding preparation. And that's not to say that we have completed very much. Rather, I spent lots of time and effort finding out information, planning in my mind, and then FRETTING! I realise that I am such a big worrier. I told Dan that I spent more energy worrying than getting things done. I am also rather indecisive, preferring to seek other people's opinions before forming my own stand. This cost me dearly when I was choosing my MUA. Went through lots of consideration, worries, stress that I lost sleep and appetite over it! Oh mine, a wedding shoudn't be this stressful!

The unhappiness carried over to my PS and I didn't enjoy it as much as I liked. Thank God for Dan who was trying very hard to cheer me up, and for a very patient and understanding photographer who accommodated our preference although we ended almost 2 hours later than scheduled. I hope that the photos will turn out well. Oh well, the purpose of this post is to state that we have finally completed 2 major milestones, and not to complain about the PS. So, yes, (1) our PS is over, and we also had our (2) food tasting with both sets of families yesterday. Thank God it went pretty well. Everyone was cordial, though it took a while to break the ice. Appreciated my brother's presence. He is surprisingly friendly and vocal. Heh. Oh, the food was great too. Am overall satisfied with the dinner. Had an icing to the cake cos I was thrilled to see our names beamed on the monitors for "Today's events". Wasn't expecting anything like that, and we were treated like valued customers.

With time flying by so quickly, we really need to be getting things done. Dan is pretty relaxed about all these while I am the "gan jiong" spider. Sigh. Praying that the pressure will not build up cos I really want to enjoy this entire preparation process, and to enjoy the special day!

Season of Busyness

As usual, I am taking a long time to post up updates of my life cos (1) I have been super BUSY, and (2) I am not too disciplined to take time to record the happenings in my life. But I am still around k, and doing my best to be posted on how everyone is doing, and to provide updates of my life.

I have been busy with the wedding preparations. Big decisions such as the dinner venue, church wedding prep course, bridal boutique, photographers have been confirmed some months back. Thereafter, we have progressed slowly to work on the details. There seem to be endless things to settle as the big day approaches!

We have purchased our wedding bands from Goldheart after visiting a few of the shops, since Dan has the membership discount here. The designs are asymmetrical and we both loved it. Mine comes with small diamond bits which I love too :)

We shopped at several places before purchasing our Sealy mattress at the Courts’ anniversary sale. It’s classified as a medium soft with a pillow top. I am used to firm mattress while Dan prefers the softer versions. So we’ve got a compromised level of softness. The mattress will be delivered end of the year. But as we are not too certain about our future accommodation yet, we have put the purchase of bedframe and other bedroom items on hold for now. Guess we should be able to settle this in September.

Then, we met up with Kim our designer to discuss and confirm the eventual design of my evening gown. I tried on a few designs, cuts and colours to narrow down the options. It was pretty fun to go through the ideas and hear her professional opinions. We managed to confirm the design and colour of my gown quite quickly, and I can’t wait for the fitting next month!

Dan also got to select his suit and shirt cuts and materials. Kim offered various ideas for us to consider. We are rather relieved that she has got classy taste, and she doesn’t hesitate to say if a color or design combination is too “ching chong”. Heh, her suggestions suit Dan very well =) He eventually decided on making 2 suits, 2 shirts, 1 vest and a cravat. Heh, speak about extravagance… It’s a bit of adjustment for us here, since Dan is very fine with such expenditure while I tend to be thriftier and more budget-conscious.

Having decided on our gown and suits, we went about shopping for our shoes. It was rather difficult to find a suitable pair of shoes for me. I wanted something elegant, yet not too high. After scouting many places unsuccessfully, I got from Addie her contact for her wedding shoes. This place had a good range of designs for brides-to-be, and I found a pair that I liked. Rarely do I come across anything that catches my attention at first glance, and this pair did! Heh, I was so tired of futile shopping that I decided there and then to have my shoes customized because the original model came only in 4inches. Despite the high price, I am glad to finally end the search for my dream shoes and we can move on with our preps. Dan managed to find his shoes quite quickly. And for that, we are thankful. I collected my customized shoes yesterday and am so pleased with them. =) We are now ready for our August fitting!

Through all the gown fittings and stuff, I couldn’t help but notice my visible tummy!! When I weighed myself, I realized to my horror that I have put on 2 kilos since knowing Dan!! We had been eating out so often and I confess that my appetite had increased! And boy was I determined to shed the 2 kilos, if not more, before our photoshoot in September. I quickly devised a weight loss program that included exercising and dieting. I go to my office gym about twice a week at lunchtime, and jog around my estate whenever possible. That means exercising at least 3 times per week. I do feel somewhat healthier with the improved stamina though I am not sure if that is psychological. I also scale back on my food intake especially during lunchtimes at work. Sure, I do feel miserable at times, having to control my diet, and taking cereals or soupy stuff for lunch, but its amazing how motivated I can be when there is a clear goal to work toward. I am proud to announce that, after 2 months of shear effort, I have managed to shed 2+kilos! And my tummy is more trim now. Heh, I shall continue to press on and aim to shed another kilo! =)

Over the past months, I was also pretty caught up with preparing Dan’s birthday present. The idea of doing a scrapbook of our r/s and milestones came to mind as early as 6 months back, so I spent much time collating and arranging information, data and pictures for the “mini-project”. Am pretty satisfied with the end product and I hope that it is meaningful to him too. Now that the birthday’s over, I find that I do have a little more free time when I am at home. Heh, no longer need to type away on the PC… But well, with all the wedding preparation to be done, I will never run out of things to focus on.

Last weekend, we have finally confirmed our honeymoon plans! We will be going on a tour package to Europe (Switzerland, France, Italy). Am so excited about this! Before this, we have been scouring around for tour ideas, both F&E and packaged tour. We decided on a packaged tour instead of F&E because its gonna be very tedious to plan our Itinery and we prefer not be stressed out over this considering the many other things we need to look into. We considered going to Japan, West USA, Hawaii, Maldives, Mauritius and various combinations of these destinations. But the tours are either too expensive or the dates are non-suitable. Then, during one visit to an agency, we browsed through the Europe tours and I was smitten by what they offered. The scenary and experience will be awesome! Europe quickly became an attractive option. On hindsight, Dan shared that he had always wanted to visit Switzerland for honeymoon, but I hadn’t been too keen at first (cos of the cold), so he kinda dropped the idea. It’s amazing how everything falls into place now. Can’t wait to visit the countries and spending a Christmas in winter wonderland!

Outstanding things on hand:
We are in the process of confirming with the caterer our tea reception. Gonna work through the guest list in greater detail and also select the songs for the worship, church/banquet, photo/video montages. We will be going for the trial makeup and the fittings in August. Photoshoot and food tasting are scheduled in September. We’ve got to design the invites and send them for printing. Yes, helpers’ list needs to be drawn up and confirmed. We also need to select our florist for the church decorations. We need to pack our respective rooms and throw out all the clutter. Dan’s family will be shifting house these next 3 months, so that’ll be more packing / unpacking and adjustments. On top of these, I will also need to travel to Australia for a week for a work Conference presentation / training in mid November. Just thinking about all these stresses me up. I guess it is still at a healthy level. Healthy stress is not too bad, prompts me to get started on things that I tend to procrastinate to the last minute... Just praying that God will grant us the strength and ability to juggle all these.

CARS

Heh, I have been wondering if I should migrate to Multiply site. Heard that its much faster to post the pics. Oh well, am still here... guess I am less inclined to changes. Told myself I should blog about this: Cars...

Daniel is actually quite crazy about fast Jap cars. And my knowledge and interst in this area is really minimal. Ever since knowing him, he has been talking about various cars and the performance, costs, and how to modify the cars etc. He is super conscious of cars that are on the streets and can tell what engines they have, just by the sound they make. I am one who is not even aware of sportscars when they zoom by. Now, after months of being with him, I am now quite conscious of turbo charged cars that are on the streets. Heh, and I do not even have to try to listen out for it. Talk about influence... Oh well, but I am still a supporter of good, simple, reliable and economical sedan cars. =)

Also on the cars, I count the number of different cars that Daniel has driven us in since we've been together, and that comes up to a grand total of 9 different cars! Within 7months? Thought that its quite a record. Some of these cars are rented, while others are lent to us.

1) Dan's old Nissan
2) Dan's current Nissan (Off peak car)
3) Dan's friend's car (Honda Accord - used to drive me and parents to airport for our Hong Kong trip)
4) Dan Dad's car
5) Weibin's car when he went for holiday
6) Bro's Lancer
7) Skyline (Rented for V-Day)
8) Dad Friend's manual car
9) Bro's Carens

We have been very blessed cos from time to time, we have people offering their cars to us for use when they go on trips. And these cars do come in very useful since Dan's current car is OPC, and it can be quite inconvenient at times. So yes, I am very thankful.

More happenings

We are really thankful for the use of my brother’s car during the March school holidays. We used the car to visit various bridal boutiques to enquire the packages and check out the gowns. As many of these services are found in the vicinity of Tanjong Pagar Road, we incurred quite a lot of ERP and parking charges in the CBD district.

We visited a range of boutiques, from the Taiwanese style to the designer style ones, and generally received quite good service. Thank God for that. Of course there were persistent ones who “refused to let us go”, but I was pretty firm on not committing to one until I have visited all my shortlisted boutiques. Poor Dan had to accompany me on these many trips, and he was nursing a cold through the week.

Some packages were value for money, but the in-house photography did not appeal to us. Other boutiques had acceptable gowns but Dan wasn’t too conversant with the in-house designer/photographer in Mandarin. Different “frequency” I think. Some boutiques had designers whose skills we were not too confident about. Others had confident but strong opinionated designer whom we will probably not enjoy working with so closely. The “a la-carte” designer boutiques are generally non insistent and provides us their package lists to take back whereas the Taiwanese style ones will hold onto the pricelists.

No particular shop wowed us very much, i.e. until we stepped into Divine Couture, and we were blown away by the service of the designer Kim. She radiated such warmness and sincerity as she attended to us. We have had a long day of traveling around before stepping into this boutique for our last stop. And I had earlier copied the wrong address which resulted in us entering the Orchard CBD and paying exorbitant parking charges at Meritus Mandarin. Arrrgh. So we weren’t exactly feeling very chirpy when we visited DC. But wow, we quickly warmed up to Kim as she attended to us. Amazing PR skills. She selected some lovely gowns for me to try on, and shifted her attention to Dan while I changed. They discussed ideas for groom’s suits and she freely offered useful advices. Then she got him seated comfortably on the couch to view the photographs as she brought out the bride to him. It is such subtle attention that makes her service outstanding. For the first time, Dan felt that he actually existed! Heh, Kim came across as confident, yet non pushy as she explained to me what gowns would suit my body type.

Dan was all ready to end the search and sign up with DC. We both felt assured that we would be in good hands if we signed up with her. But me, being me, wanted to do more comparison, so we visited a few other boutiques. None came close to DC when it comes to the service quality. However, the drawback of DC is its higher cost. The package including photography will burst our budget so I wasn’t sure if it is a wise decision… :( We are still deciding. I plan to make a second trip to DC to look for a gown that I really love, so that I will not need to have a MTM gown, which costs an extra $1K!

We visited a photographer on Wednesday to check out his portfolio and packages. A we are both very comfortable with him and his photography style, we plan to engage him for the photo shoot. That’s another item off the checklist. Whew! And many many more stuff to do. Praying that we will pace ourselves comfortably, and not wear ourselves down during this period.

Happenings

It has been a month since the last entry, and so many things have taken place, in preparation for our wedding and future. We have confirmed our Big Day to be in Dec 08. We have scouted around and visited several hotels for the banquet dinner package. We are considered rather late in our search for hotels as many hotel ballrooms have been booked by other couples. Yet, God has been good. He reserved for us Pan Pac hotel which Dan loves and has always dreamed of holding for his wedding dinner there. We were very comfortable with the coordinator as well. It helped that the online forums had good reviews of both the hotel and the coordinator. The perks seemed to be most comprehensive among the various hotels we visited.

After confirming the hotel, we started looking at our future housing options. We have submitted a total of 3 applications for various HDB balloting exercise. We were rejected for 2 of them (Boon Keng Design & Build, and flats in mature estate) and successful in 1 application (Build-to-order 4-room flat at Punggol). We’ve been praying together for God’s provision and leading regarding our future dwelling, and so it seemed that God has closed 2 doors and opened 1. However, as days passed, I became more unsure of the Punggol flat, mainly because the project will only be completed in end 2012, a good 4 years after our wedding! That is a little too long a wait! We discussed this several times and agreed to try searching for available resale flats. Alas, property prices are so high now, most flat owners are asking for at least 30-50k above valuation, and these are probably the older flats and a distance from MRT stations. Since we are able to stay with either set of parents immediately after wedding, we were in no hurry to find a place to stay. Hence, we are ready to forgo the Punggol flat selection and take our time to scout for a re-sale flat that we liked. We can continue to take part in HDB’s balloting exercise if more ready flats are offered in the future.

This had been our stand until 2 Sats ago on 8 March, Dan received a call from the agents for the Boon Keng Design & Build project. We have been shortlisted in the second round for selection of flat! We were told that we were unsuccessful about a month ago, and it was a disappointment as we had liked the convenient location. We prayed and thanked God for His closed door, and put this option aside. Little did we realize that God would open the door for us again. We were so excited at this news and went about doing our homework, calculating our finances, recording the sale prices of each unit, reccee-ing the surrounding, going up to top floors of nearby flats to check out the views etc. It was truly a fun and rewarding experience. Before our selection date, I experienced the anxiety pangs as we checked the units left from time to time. Top floor units with sea view were quickly snapped up. On our selection day, we managed to get our first choice unit at the 19th floor. Whew! Thank God for His provision! We trust that we can enjoy unblocked sea view from that level. Although we will be saddled with huge 30 year loan, we trust that it is a good investment and we can get to enjoy the prime location for many years. The construction has started, and it is expected to be completed in mid 2011, if not earlier. :)

Right after we signed the documents, Dan received a call from the developer of a private condominium asking if we are interested to get a unit at its condo. There is now a 20% discount of the sale price. Since we have already committed to this, we just convinced ourselves that the condo option is not as good. Although we will get the unit immediately, we will have to pay at least $100+k more for the unit, have higher interest rates for bank loan, cough up cash to furnish the house now, endure the inconvenient location without MRT, possibly have a harder time selling off the unit in future… Yup, so we are still pleased with our purchase at Boon Keng. Another testament of God’s provision.

Update 2

The other person who entered my life is Daniel. Am so amazed to see God’s hand in bringing us together. He has indeed been our source of strength, wisdom and direction. I marvel at how God turned my heart round, from one of disinterest to openness in building the friendship, and eventually to fall in love with this man whom He has prepared. Yes, I am touched by Dan’s love, sweetness, maturity, generosity, humor, persistence and many more attributes…

Though we have only been together for 4+ months, I have learnt much in the process of growing this relationship, to communicate, to understand each other and to know our likes and dislikes. We have shared times of joy, excitement, tension and tears, and I do say that these moments have strengthened us as a couple. I thank our Lord for leading and guiding us thus far.

Dan joined my family for visitation in KL this CNY. It must have been a bit of a culture shock for him, to visit relatives in a “Kampong” style neighborhood, to take in the different sights and sounds, to taste local food, to feel the heat, literally, in KL. I was a little worried that Dan might not be used to it. Thankfully, everything turned out quite well, and we even managed to spend some couple time in the midst of this festivity. On the third day, my family also managed to drive up to Genting to spend an hour or two in the resort.

We celebrated our first V-day together this year. Dan painstakingly planned the evening’s program, and he themed it “Sweet Surprises”. I was so full of anticipation for the evening cos he had hinted at something special. It was indeed a night of sweet surprises!

First surprise – Dan rented a performance car for the occasion. Didn’t recognize his car when he came to pick me after work. Actually he wanted a convertible car, but the car was sent for servicing last minute, so he settled for a turbo-charged car. Heh, guys’ toys…

We headed to Botanic Gardens and I was pleasantly surprised that we were fine dining at au Jardin, a French restaurant. Wow, the food was great, exquisite and delicious. Waiters were all decked in jackets. The restaurant accepted only 12 couples for the evening. So there was a lot of quietness and privacy. Was initially quite tense and self-conscious, but settled in comfortably as time went on. It was a 7-course dinner, served at a comfortable pace. We took in the ambience and classiness of it all. I couldn’t resist taking pics of the food that were served. Unfortunately, I left out one or two dishes and only remembered after the food was eaten. Heh. This dinner is definitely a rare and fine experience for me, and it costs Dan a bomb! A big bomb I must say! Am so touched by his extravagance.

Venus clams in salsa verde, horseradish & caviar d'Aquitaine

Smoked quail with foie gras & Jamon Jabugo

Slow roasted Wagyu beef tenderloin with braised beef blade, shallots marmalade

Sometime through the dinner, Dan arranged for a bouquet of roses to be delivered. So sweet of him and I loved it very much! Dan also prepared 6 little notes to hand me, at various intervals through the night. And each of this constitutes a surprise for me. He has gotten 2 tickets for us up the Flyer on our next month’s anniversary J He has purchased a blouse online, to be delivered to my home, which I am to wear on my birthday. He also bought me a sweet Precious Moment figurine featuring the “unbreakable cords of love”.

Heh, my gift to him is a humble fragrance, and a DIY snack jar for him to have in school, whenever he is hard pressed for time and has no time to grab a proper meal. Don’t want him to go about on an empty stomach. Had wanted to buy him some biscuits initially, but it developed into this gift idea of packing him a nice snack jar full of goodies. Hope that he likes it and finds it useful.

After the dinner, we took a slow walk in the garden and Dan found a nice spot at the symphony lake and sat me down. He read me a sweetly composed poem, and I almost teared as I listened to him. Such words of love, affection and sincerity. Dan handed me a box with the note “Will you marry me?” It was then that he went down on his knees and presented a most beautiful ring to me. I was very moved and said yes to him even though we’ve not been together very long. It helped that I was prepared and had seen it coming cos we’ve talked about our future oftentimes. I was also assured that God was the One who brought us together and we had been working toward possible marriage when we first started the courtship.

Update 1

It’s been “donkey years” since my last post. Much has happened during the span of these few months. Two important people have been added to my life.

First is my baby niece, born on 4 Nov 2007, to my brother and SIL. My parents and I literally went ga-ga over her, and for the record, we are still very much smitten by her each day. Her smile will send our hearts fluttering as we take turns to play with her. Having said that, my niece’s cries are also very powerful. We have had times when she was virtually inconsolable when we were having dinner outside. Oh well, she'll have very powerful lungs.

Tthey say that the first grandchild is most doted, and I tend to agree. My niece is enjoying much attention from both sets of grandparents. I am also happy to be able to help look after, carry and soothe her from time to time. Increases my confidence in handling babies. Heh, here are some pictures of her taken through the months.

As a newborn

After 1 month

Updated photo