Happy Halloween 2008!

No Halloween Party this year unlike every other year because I'm in Gold Coast. Guess going on my honeymoon is a good enough reason not to have the standard Halloween parties.

Have a ball everyone and Happy Halloween!

Check out the post this time last year for some older Halloween pics.

So Much To Blog About

There's so much I want to blog about!

The Chinese wedding, the Tea Ceremony, the Fairy Wedding, the JB wedding ........

But there's just no time and and we're off to Gold Coast tonight.

So once we're back from our honeymoon, I'll be blogging about all the above and the honeymoon.

Will be back in 2 weeks so do come back then! Thanks!

7 Hours Till the Chinese Wedding

Woke up about 10 plus this morning feeling lazy and refreshed. Paul went out to get his truck washed then he'll send it over to the florist for it to be decorated.

Meanwhile I pottered around the house, put away some stuff and logged online to check my mail. Then I had a barrage of MSN messages, all of my friends asking "It's your wedding today! How come u still have time to come online??!".

I just told them that everything is done. I'm just sitting here chilling, checking mail, chatting, blogging ......

My girls will all arrive at 1 plus with tapau-ed lunch. We'll eat then get ready for the make up artist to come and we'll be ready at 5pm to meet the guys and head down to KL for the Chinese dinner.

I'm actually quite surprised that there's not the slightest hint of butterflies in my tummy.

Sin Cyn, guess there's no need to tranquilize me anymore as planned.

Apart from having an excellent team to help me plan the wedding, guess it also means that the wedding will go smoothly and that I'm ready for this union.

Let the show begin!

A Night Before the Chinese Wedding, 2 Nights Before the Fairy Wedding

Believe it or not, people have been calling up today to say they can't make it to the wedding or that they are bringing someone. So the RSVPs needs to be changed along with the seating arrangements. And the wedding is tomorrow. Madness. I was trying to reaarange everything till it got to a point when i said SCREW IT! I ain't gonna be stressed out the day before my wedding. Those who can't come, doesn't matter. Those who want to bring someone, they can't. It's as simple as that. I revised the guests list as best as I could then Paul and I went to 1U to jalan-jalan, had dinner then went for a 2 hour full body massage. That was really nice n relaxing.

Tomorrow is the Chinese wedding and I'm guessing I'm not at all nervous cos at Chinese weddings, there's not that much for the couple to do but to cut the cake, make a toast, go round to the tables, smile and drink. Easy peasy.

But the fairy wedding is on Saturday and that's the one I've been working on for the past 10 months. From an event organizer's point of view, this is my baby and my biggest event ever. A lot of sweat and tears (thankfully no blood!) have been poured into planning this wedding and everything needs to be executed flawlessly for it to be the magical event which I've envisioned.

Yet I'm not worried at all. I believe it's thanks to my wedding planning committee. I have a team of more than 20 people involved (for a wedding with less than 100 guests). Many of them are close friends of which many are in advertising and events so I can totally trust in their skills in planning and time management.

I think I'll be able to sleep quite soundly tonight.

After so many months, it's hard to believe THE day is finally here.

Wish me a magical wedding!

RSVPs still coming in

I'm supposed to be chilling and doing things are a leisurely pace for the next few days leading up to the wedding.

I have all my things in place and the team knows exactly what to do.

But as with all events, there'll always be curve balls.

I've done up the final guest list and done up the seating too because the RSVP deadline was on 1 Oct.

But till now, I still have friends RSVPing to say they are coming.

So I'm constantly going back to my Guest List and Seating Plan and moving people about.

And my mum, being the last minute person she is, will not be done with her RSVP till Wednesday!

This is so frustrating. But I'm not allowed to be frustrated.

Sigh. I'm going to Mid Valley and The Gardens now. The make up artist told me to go buy the Shu Uemura bridal eye lashes. Apparently this is THE fake eye lashes for a bride to use.

I'll also go walk about and just relax before picking up one of my bridal gowns this evening.

Just a few more days to go. I'll survive this.

Embarrassing Stories Part 2

I was thinking about my previous post about embarrassing stories and I remembered a time when I used to be so easily embarrassed.

I could never hide my feelings because I'll be blushing. I used to blush so easily! And when someone notices my red face, they'll point out "Look at her! She's blushing!".

I'll then turn from a tomato red to a deep beet red.

After a while, it was a hassle turning red all the time. So I got fed up and decided not to get embarrassed anymore. And the easiest way of doing that is to not hide anything and be totally honest about everything. If I express all my thoughts and every silly thing Ive done, there's nothing anyone can bring up against me and nothing to be embarrassed about.

Problem settled.

So I guess I won't be a blushing bride on my wedding. Hah!

Dishing Out the Embarassing Stories at the Wedding

During the final wedding planning committee meeting, Fruitcake the Matron of Honour and Jon, Paul's best man threatened to dish the dirt on us during the speeches at the wedding.

I know Paul is quite 'clean' so they won't be able to get much about him.

And somehow though I've dome so many insane things in my life, I'm not afraid at all. Simply because there's not much I've done that my friends don't know about.

Like the time I broke my foot when I fell off a pole in Iguazu Club in Bangsar and continued dancing till Fruitcake asked me why I was dancing on one foot to which I replied I was not but looked at my foot anyway and realized that my foot was the size of a loaf of bread. I was then rushed to the Accident & Emergency of Pantai Hospital. That was about 4 in the morning. But I was so high on whiskey that I was giggling all the way there and laughing so loud that patients probably thought I was a mental patient having a relapse. I asked for the doctor but he was walking away so I yelled at him even louder and he came to me and said "Girl, I have a patient upstairs who is having a heart attack. So I think he needs me more than you do right now. So if it's okay with you, I'll go up for a while and I'll come back down to see you shortly, okay?". I nodded my head. I may be drunk, but I'm still nice. When the doc came back, I insisted that the doctor put my foot in a cast (because I wanted friends to sign on it) which he said it was not required but I insisted so loudly that we finally compromised and he let me leave in a pair of crutches (which I still have).

Or the time I had a thing for this guy and we were chatting at my poolside till 3am. When I finally went up, my mum thought I was asleep in my room so she locked the door and I could not get in. I didn't bring money with me, thinking it's just going to be a chat at the pool. So I had to call Marsupial who lived 5 mins away, woke him up and told him I was on the way in a cab and that he had to come down to pay for the cab fare and that I was crahsing at his place for the night.

Or the time when Fruitcake and I were in Stringfellows in London and we were looking in awe at the male stripper. I was particularly shocked by his 'package' and asked my then boyfriend if he thought it was real to which he replied "Why don't you go find out?" I then started jumping up and down in front of the stripper and started waving my hands. He took one of my hands and pulled me up onto the stage. I started dancing with him and i ran my fingers down his chest, then to his abs (boy, did he have ABS!) and then lower and grabbed his 'package'. I then turned to my then ex and Fruitcake who were on the floor below me, nodded my head and mouthed "OMG! It's real!". The stripper retaliated by coming at me from the back, held on to my waist and fliipped me up and around. Twice. I did a full cart wheel without even me moving myself. When I got back down to the floor, Fruitcake whispered in my ear "I'm glad you decide to wear underwear tonight". Till this day, I'm wondering how a guy who's almost one foot shorter than me, is able to flip me that way.

Anyway, what else is there ....? Lots more stories.

But Fruitcake was there during many of the crazy events so even if she was going to bring up the stories, they'll probably be more inciminating for her because in reality, she's the nutty one. Nuttier than me though she'll argue on that one but sometimes she's in denial.

If only I was blogging then. There'll be so many more stories because my life was so much wilder then. Our one year in London alone will be enough to publish a book on 'Crazy Things We've Done'.

I'll proudly relate the stories to friends just after they happen because most of the time, it's really funny and it makes for good story telling.

So I'm thinking, apart from the reason above, maybe all the while I was preparing for my wedding. Better to tell the stories and have everyone be entertained for many occasions and for many years rather than to be embarassed on my wedding day?

Then again, Fruitcake says I can't be embarrassed.

I think I can. I just can't think of any embarrassing events at this point.

Fairies and Garden Gnomes

A friend just MSNed me to ask how the wedding prep was going so I updated him that it's going very well indeed.

And I was wondering, apart from my bridesmaids and Joyce Kinky Blue Fairy, who else will come dressed up.

He said that he'll come as a garden gnome.

I think that's an excellent idea! Even tho he's probably joking.

Whenever I ask a guy friend if he's dressing up, they usually respond with "You must be joking" and give me this wide eyed, mouth gaping look.

Or they'll just stare at me, furrow their brows, cock their heads to one side, squint a little and walk away.

Marsupial will do his standard -ine-I'll-humour-you-but-you're-out-of-your-mind look while shaking his head really slowly from left to right.

I can't wait to see Joyce who's been so excited about the wedding right from the start. She's even bought her wand from Bali. And Looqy who's in New York and has ordered her wings just for the wedding.

Why do girls get more excited about dressing up and going for themed parties more than guys?

Less Than A Week To Go!

The wedding planning committee came over to my place today for coffee, cakes and to finalize the wedding plans and to ensure everyone knew their exact roles and what will happen when. The meeting went well, all questions were clarified and apart from Jon the best man who asked "And when's the wedding again?", everything was settled.

So my role from now till Friday is to not do anything pertaining to the wedding. I'm just gonna chill.

Apart from going for a mani and a pedi, and to the spa, Sin Cyn passed me the Private Practice box set so I'm just gonna stay home and watch that all of next week. Or go have tea with friends.

Oh, my mum just told me that Jimmy Choo can't make it to the wedding cos he'll be giving a talk in Japan. And neither can his prodigy who owns Lewre shoes who will be in Istanbul at that time. And Melinda Looi has a prior engagement. But Bill Keith, Alvin Tang, Albert King and Annie Wong will be present. Along with some people from the Prestige magazine.

So I'm going to have a nice mix of close friends, colleaguaes, some celebrities and media people there.

Can't believe the wedding is less than a week away!

To my wonderful wedding planning committee, I can't thank you enough for what you've done and what you'll be doing coming this Saturday.

It's all in your hands now. Make magic happen.

This Moment, A Week From Now

This exact time next Saturday, I would be married (we're bringing the Registrar of Marriage to us), taking photos with friends and family and having cocktails while waiting for more guests to arrive for the second part of the wedding (not only are there several weddings but the Fairy one has 2 parts to it). I would have signed the marriage certificate, don on my white fairy wings and be ready for the fairy bridal march.

The wedding is just one week away and I'm glad to say that there's not even a hint of panic or rushing through the To Do List simple because nearly everything is done!

After 10 months of planning and running around (with the last 6 weeks being the most frenzied), finally, there's really not that much left to do.

I did tell myself that the one week before the wedding is for chilling and total relaxation. No more running around allowed. I need to focus on being radiant and to be able to enjoy the wedding and not be stressing out about the minor details (which is really hard because my event planner mode is perpetually switched on).

I've passed some decor items and candles to Passion Road this morning.

I went for my fav beef ball noodles near Central Market.

I came back home, checked my email and read friends' blog.

Tomorrow morning, my mum, Paul and I are going shopping in KLCC or The Gardens.

Then the wedding planning committee is having a final meeting in the evening. After which, I'm going to hand over the reigns to the wedding planner and to my team.

I was hoping for Paul & I to go for a 3 hour couples spa session this Wednesday.

I've a mani & pedi scheduled for Thursday.

And on Friday, it's the Chinese wedding and on Saturday, the long awaited fairy wedding.

I'm going to clean the house now. Why? Because I've time to do mundane things like that.

Country Music in My Stage of Life

Country music is not a genre of music I'd mention when someone asks me about the music I like. It's so far down the list that I don't even think about it.

Apart from more commercialized country artists like Shania Twain who has some pop hits, I hardly know anything about country.

But now that I'm growing older, somehow my ears are more tuned towards the slower melodies and taking in more of the words rather than simply moving to the beat.

And because of the wedding, I've been searching for a lot of different songs for the wedding march, the wedding video and more. I've widen up my search because I'm an R&B girl and often R&B is about sultriness, sexiness, sex and lotsa bootilisciousness. Rap is hardly romantic. And neither is house and trance.

One of my favourite songs which I'll be using for part of the wedding is Shania Twain's "From This Moment"

Instead of saying "For better, for worst, in sickness and in health, till death do we part" which is the norm at weddings, she sings it as:

I'd give anything and everything and I will always care.
Through weakness and strength, happiness and sorrow,
for better for worse, I will love you with
every beat of my heart
From this moment life has begun
From this moment you are the one
Right beside you is where I belong
From this moment on

It's so beautiful. She says the same traditional words in a more heart warming and deeply meaningful way.

And the morning after Paul proposed, we sat by the pool at our villa and we listened to Keith Urban's "Making Memories of Us". Though I'm not that close to my parents, I found this part to be very meaningful and touching yet there's a touch of bad boyness in it.

I wanna honor your mother
And I wanna learn from your paw
I wanna steal your attention like a bad outlaw
And I wanna stand out in a crowd for you
A man among men
I wanna make your world better than it's ever been

I was just looking for a final song to pass to the photographer and was playing random songs from iTunes when Colin Raye's "If You Get There Before I Do" started playing and i just felt goose pimples (the good kind). I listened carefully to the lyrics

"If you get there before I do
Don't give up on me
I'll meet you when my chores are through
I don't know how long I'll be

But I'm not gonna let you down
Darling wait and see
And between now and then
Til I see you again

I'll be loving you
Love, Me."

I read those words just hours before my Grandma passed away
In the doorway of the church where me and Grandpa stopped to pray
I know I've never seen him cry in all my fifteen years
But as he said these words to her, his eyes fill up with tears

It's not like I've not heard these songs before. But it's as if I'm listening with new ears and appreciating the beauty of country music now.

I think it's partly due to the wedding and partly aging where I'm looking for more meaningful things in life.

Because almost half my life has passed, it's like most things I do now should be for a reason. Everything I do should benefit someone or myself. And not do something for the sake of doing it. Those days of mine have long done.

Life is funny. We change as we go though the different stages of life.

I think I'll move country up a few notches.

Change of Wedding Dresses

I could never understand why brides change their dresses so many times during a wedding. Some tell me that the dresses are so beautiful and they can't decide so they'll take all 3 and change 3 times so that they can wear and showcase all the dresses. I think that's bull. It's not easy getting in and out of wedding dresses. Most dresses need a helper to help you into it. And even then there's a lot of hopping or jumping involved. Of course, this is all behind the scenes. Hahaha! Not to mention at least the hair (if not the make up too) needs to be changed or modified slightly to complement the dress. What a lot of time wasted doing all of that. I rather be spending my time being among my friends at your wedding rather than in the changing room.

But I finally understand (kinda) the reason now that I'm a bride myself.

And I'll be changing twice. But not for due to the beautiful dresses.

The wedding dress itself is usually very beautiful but tight fitting. But it needs to be tight fitting in order to have that WOW factor and for the bride to look like a princess (or a fairy, in my case). So I'll start off with the main bridal gown (of which I have 2, for the different weddings) and when I can no longer breathe or move, I'll change into a second dress which is more comfortable and I can move around and mingle easily.

It's not easy to walk around in a tight dress, with a full skirt, with a train and in high heels to boot.

But i still won't go to the extent of changing 3 dresses.

Getting Used to the Title

I recently had to fill up a form. As with all forms, it starts with selecting your title.

Mr, Mrs or Miss?

So I filled in my name first and went back to look at the 3 boxes with the different titles.

In the end, I checked 'Mrs'. Figured that by the time they processed the application, I'll be married.

Recently Paul's friend opened a new salon so we went to say hi. Paul introduced me as his wife.

It felt a bit strange. But it was kinda nice. Guess I'm just not used to it yet.

It'll probably take a while to get used to the change of status from Miss to Mrs and from 'girlfriend' to wife'.

Wonder how long till it becomes second nature.

Happy Birthday Patrick!

Happy Birthday Patrick Who Saves The World When the Powerpuffs are in Bed!

It didn't seem that long ago that I was making a purple plastercine birthday cake for him but that was 2 years ago!

We don't seem to have time to chill out together and go silly things like making things out of plastercine anymore. So many other things occupying our life now. Life changes and live moves on.

Patrick, don't let work rule your life, yea!

Have a great day tomorrow and i hope u like the e-card. See u at the wedding!

My Hunt For Glycerin

Audrey gave me a Gazillion Bubble Making Machine last Christmas because she knew how much I love bubbles. And because my nic is Bubbles, obviously.

And this gift is perfect because I've always wanted to have bubbles floating around at my wedding.

Paul and i took the machine out to test that it's still working.

It was and it was lovely!

The Gazillion Bubble solution had run out so we tried out a mixture of dish washing liquid and washing detergent. But the bubbles were inconsistent and didn't last very long. So we added some shampoo to the mix. But that didn't help much either.

How come when I used dish washing liquid when I was a kid, it worked so well?

Anyway i Googled "How to make strong soap bubbles" and many sites told me to add glycerin to the mix.

So I went to a Caring Pharmacy because the pharmacists at Guardian and Watson are either off duty or have no idea what I'm talking about. Anyway Caring is more of a pharmacy pharmacy and the other 2 is more of a jumble of medicine, health, beauty and toys.

I walked in and spoke to the very friendly and knowledgeable pharmacist and asked for gycerin.

He walked away from his counter, to the aisles and started looking for a bottle of glycerin. He walked up and down and looked all over. While waiting for him to produce the bottle, I made small talk, "What's glycerin usually used for?".

He stopped looking for the glycerin and looked at me and asked "What are YOU using it for?"

"Errrr ... soap bubbles".

"Mmmmm ...."

"Why?"

"You're the second person asking for glycerin today. You're not all trying to make a bomb are you?"

"Huh? Glycerin can be used in bomb"

He smiles now. "No"

He cracks me up! Anyway he gave me the pharmacy's number and asked me to call again in a few days to check if their stocks of glycerin has arrived.

But by then I was fed up with the search for glycerin so I went to Toys R Us and paid RM16.95 for a big bottle of the bubble solution instead.

Happy 30th Birthday Paul!

We had a celebration at home which was also in conjunction with the stag night, hen night and house warming too!

I bought Paul a PS3 for his birthday.

And as soon as Jon arrived, the 2 of them were already playing.

Then people started to arrive.

See the look on Sin Cyn's face? Sure she has a Coke bottle in one hand. But what's in her other hand?

Probably a bottle of whiskey.

Sing a birthday song to Paul (don't we already start to look like husband and wife? Hahaha!)

After the chocolate birthday cake was eaten, it's time for the games to begin!

It stared with a boat race then Paul got into his stag getup.

And I got into mine.

And just like the good old teenage days in the park, we sat in a circle, placed an empty beer bottle on the ground and a bottle of whiskey too. We spun the bottle and whereever it pointed, the person downs one shot of whiskey, then chooses a Truth or a Dare.

After a dozen or so rounds (of the game and of whiskey), it was Dare all the way.

And that explains why there are no more pics to show ........

As agreed with everyone present, whatever happens at the party, stays at the party ;)

What Happened To My Day?

These days, I wake up and before you know it, I'm in bed again. I have no idea where the day has gone so I flip open my To Do Book (yes, it's a To Do Book, not a To Do List) and go through what has been filling up my day. I find that my day is usually filled with these things:

• Confirm the honeymoon plans with Live Life, Travel! Ashley.
• Pass travel details to insurance agent for travel insurance.
  
• Finalize the wedding flowers with the florist and check on set up time.
• Inform the wedding planner about the florist's set up time.
  
• Research fairy flowers for the table placards (I'm using flower names rather than numbers).
• Send selected fairy flower names to Paul for him to print out and for me to cut up and pass to Passion Road.
  
• Chase the photographer for the wedding album.
• Check with Sin Cyn on the RSVPs from those invited from Saatchi.
• Call more people up (because people just don't RSVP)
  
• Pay the supplier for the wedding alcohol.
• Prep the wedding kit.
• Buy citronella sticks to be used as fragrance cum mosquito repellent at the wedding.
  
• Redo the wedding budget because the numbers keep on rising.
  
• Talk to the art director on back drop design.
• Go for a wedding dress fitting.
  
• Save pictures and videos for DJ Beryl to be added on the wedding video.
• Go to the bank to make some change in personal details.
  
• Complain to the condo management about the faulty water heater.
• Supervise the plumber in fixing the water pressure.
• Reschedule hair cut & colour.

No wonder I wonder where the day has gone!

How would I have managed if I was holding on a full time job?

Thanks goodness that's all in the past. Because my days were so jam packed and I did so much in the past few weeks, I can safely say that nearly everything for the wedding has been done. The next few days will still be pretty busy but from this Saturday onwards, Paul and I are going to take it easy, relax and just look forward to the wedding day. We're going to check ourselves into a spa this Saturday and just enjoy the day without running around doing any errands or wedding stuff.

Can't believe the wedding is just one week and a bit away. We've come a long way from when we first started the wedding planning.

I'm really looking forward to 18 October 2008 and watch as magic unfolds.

So, What Do You Do?

The tenant in my Ritze Perdana studio needed to move out so I set out to look for a new tenant. I was a bit worried about the tenant moving out before the end of the tenancy agreement and it also came at a time where I'll be busy with my wedding then going off for my honeymoon.

How will I have time to call realtors, show the unit and meet the prospective tenants?
But before I could make calls, half a dozen realtors were already contacting me, looking for vacant units. I didn't realize Ritze has become such a hot piece of property!

So after a few viewings by different people and different realtors, one girl was very interested and was willing to put the deposit down the same day. I met and interviewed her and the offer to rent was signed.

Despite everything, your job, what you do and your position says a lot about you and plays a big part in first impressions. It sure does when I look for a tenant. Since I've not met the person yet and initial negotiations are usually done over the phone, the first question I'll ask the realtor is if its a male or female. The second question is what does he or she does.

(My new tenant is a doctor).

And yes, I probably would not want to rent the studio out to a male student unless I was really desperate.

It's the same when you are out meeting people. Be it a corporate or social event, after the rounds of introductions have been made, name cards would be exchanged. Or if it was a more social event, the next question is always "So, what do you do?" And with your answer, the other person would have formed an initial impression of you which leads to how they would interact with you, be it consciously or subconsciously.

I'm trying really hard not to let my job define me but in the society we live in, it's pretty hard.