The Wedding Prep Chronicles II: T-3

So, this is it. We are now just 3 days away from the Big Day and I'm having mixed feelings. In the sense that I'm really looking forward to it, yet I don't want the day to come so soon cos I'm afraid the day will pass by too quickly. :x The going-to-be-a-Mrs feeling is rather surreal now. Nonetheless, I'm sure the day's gonna be a fab one. :)

KU and I spent the past weekend working on the backdrop for our church wedding. Thank God I had KU to help me cut out the letters from the styrofoam board and he even sewed them onto the tulle using fishing line.

On Monday, I met up with SST, Marie and Joyce to go through the programme for the wedding day and their duties over dinner. On a sidenote, I'm really loving the fish masala garam crepe from Out Of The Pan at Raffles City Shopping Centre! Loads of kick in the spices and the fish meat was quite fresh - no wonder it's a chef's recommendation. Plus, the DBS/POSB card promotion (1-for-1 main course and sweet crepes) got each of us our meal at only $9! Ahem.. Anyways, it was great meeting with them and feeling excited about the wedding. :) Thank God for the help of my bridesmaids!

Then yesterday, we had our wedding rehearsal in church. I'm extremely thankful to have the support of the musicians and worship leader who arrived early to practice Canon in D for our processional and the two worship songs. It's really important to me that we have close friends to help us on our wedding day as it's a really meaningful way to share the day together. (though said friends may or may not agree with me. HAHA!) I'm glad too to have my dearest sister on first key and bridesmaid Joyce on second key. :)

The march-in practice was rather nerve-wracking cos I had to keep reminding myself not to walk too quickly. Dad even had to mutter to me, "Left, right, left, right.." while staring down at our feet. Too hilarious! :P And just seeing KU waiting for me at the end of the aisle, while the band played beautifully, almost made me tear. I have a feeling I will cry on our wedding day! Then we worked out the standing/sitting/kneeling segments, and practiced our vows. During this whole time, Andrew, Ron, Joshua and Regina were hard at work putting up our backdrop for us. :) And we are really really REALLY thankful for everyone who came down to help us and be there for us yesterday.

I said before that the wedding has taught me some lessons and has showed me how blessed we are to have all these friends come together to support us for our special day. And this, we can't thank God enough for His grace and love for us. :) Thank you, dear friends, from the bottom of our hearts. We hope that we can one day bless you and others in the same way you have blessed us. :) *million hugs*

The Wedding Prep Chronicles

The wedding is just slightly more than a month away and I realised that I've not immortalised the wedding prep process in any way! O.O I mean, my wedding will happen only once in my life, and I really don't want to look back on 2012 when I'm 60 years old and think, "What did we do for our wedding?" Such things are nice to reminisce about with your spouse when you reach that age, aren't they? :)

So, KU and I are extremely blessed to have Josh & Regina be our church wedding coordinators cos honestly, they are two of the most organised people I know and I know our church wedding is in good hands! We had our first meet up with them in March/April to go through our rough programme for the first half of the day, and boy, were we overwhelmed. I seriously felt abit demoralised at the end of our almost 4-hour long discussion cos there were so many things to do and so many details to see to which we've never considered before. :( So we went back, looked through our scribblings and worked intermittently on them. Unfortunately, I'm ashamed to say that we weren't very diligent about it though. :(

Our second meeting which took place 2 weeks ago went slightly better, even though I forgot to bring all our wedding materials. *sheepish* Thank God my super organised fiance had his wedding folder with him! By then, more details had been addressed - for example, I had my full band in place, and the caterer was booked (though in the end we decided to look for more catering options). I very thick-skinnedly asked Josh & Regina if they could settle the RSVP of our church friends for us and they very kindly agreed. And with that, I felt a lot better. I guess my biggest concern (and hence, headache) was the RSVP of the guests and cos our church guests formed the bulk of our guestlist, having the RSVPs taken from us was a real relief. I was a lot more diligent this time - I've revised the programme further, created the contact list of helpers (both categorised by duties and by surnames) and updated the RSVP list with contact numbers. *proud smile* The only thing left to do is to email the documents to Josh & Regina!

Then recently, KU and I went down to our hotel to meet with our coordinator to talk about our feedback for the food-tasting session. Sidetracking abit, I'm sure our guests will enjoy the food cos the seafood was fresh, the portions were huge (coordinator said the actual day's portion would be the same) and the food was really generally delicious. From the bottom of my heart, we have no regrets booking this hotel for our banquet! :) Anyways, we also chose our wedding theme, table linens and wedding favours. The whole experience was a rather exciting one for me. Our coordinator brought us to this room which had all the available wedding favours, guestbooks, angpow boxes, table linens and fake wedding cakes on display. I went crazy looking at the shelves of wedding favours and I think we chose really interesting and cute wedding favours for our guests! Can't wait for everyone to see them. :) I think it was on that day when I really felt the excitement for our wedding. :P

Then just this evening, KU and I met up with Rev Ong and Rev Luke to discuss our church wedding programme. It was helpful to have this meet up to get to know Rev Luke, who will be marrying us, and to get feedback from both pastors about our wedding programme.

And the thing I'm currently most excited about is my hen night! *beams x 10000000000000000* Supposedly it will be happening real soon and it's gonna be a full day thing, so yes, I'm super super super excited and totally looking forward to it! :)

Time's passing really quickly now that I'm counting down to the actual day. There are many more things to be done, but I don't feel as stressed as before. I'm just trying to delegate the tasks so that there's minimal stuff for us to worry about. Hehehe.. :P On a serious note, KU and I are extremely grateful to God for blessing us with wonderful friends who have volunteered to help us prepare for our wedding and to be on duty on our wedding day. I promise we will return the favour in any way we can. :) Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.

And I know this is mushy and all, but I simply can't wait to get married to KU and start our new lives together. As cliched as it sounds, I wanna grow old with him. Whenever we hang out with more matured, married couples and I see the loving looks they give each other, I just feel this sense of bliss on their behalves and I pray that we will be like them in future too.

Krabi Pre-Wedding Shoot

On Sunday, KU and I went down to our bridal salon to go through the layout of our pre-wedding album and got the softcopy of our pictures at the same time! :D I gotta say that, even though I'd loads of complaints about the salon, the pictures turned out really really nice and that we really had good make-up artists and good photographers who cracked jokes to relax us in order for us to pose naturally.We actually had our pictures taken in Krabi this January, and then locally in March. It was my first time to Krabi and I loooovvvveeed the place!



Road leading to Ao Nang Beach





Just for laughs: check out the name of the clinic!



Thailand has no lack of beachy areas and many people usually go to Phuket when they are looking for a beach destination in the Land of Smiles, but Krabi, in my opinion, is more beautiful and raw than Phuket. Even though we were there for a short 3D2N trip, I completely fell in love with Tup Island, which was our first shoot location for the day. It was a pity that we did not extend our stay in Krabi cos I would have loved to explore Phi Phi Island too. But I guess that means that we'll be going back some day to settle some 'unfinished business'! :D

Upon reaching Krabi in the late afternoon, we took a taxi from the airport to our hotel, which was called The Small Hotel. (I remember asking our studio coordinator which hotel we would be staying in and she was like, "Oh, the small hotel." And I thought, "Ok, she doesn't know the name of the hotel so we'll just look out for a small hotel." Then, as though she read my thoughts, our coordinator said, "The hotel is called The Small Hotel, but it's not really that small." And I was like, "OH! That's the name of the hotel!") The Small Hotel is this orange building located along a small junction, only 2 minutes away from Ao Nang Beach. As the taxi turned into the junction, my greedy eyes spotted a pancake stall just outside the hotel! *salivates*



The Small Hotel





The list of hotels along this street



After checking in, we went up to our room and were greeted by a really big and clean room, with an ensuite washroom/shower that was about one-third the size of the room, and really luxurious and clean too! Yes, clean hotel rooms with clean toilets are very very important to me.



Towel swans and rose petals on the bed





Clean washroom/shower!



Mini pantry of sorts



Our cosy balcony which we had no time to utilise. :x





Voyeuring our neighbours across the building :P





1st floor rooms with their own pool right at their balcony



Spacious corridor

 After setting our things down, I insisted on visiting the pancake stall I had spotted earlier. And well, what was sold were not soft fluffy pancakes, but roti prata with all sorts of sweet sauces on it, which I really preferred over pancakes! :D


Pancake menu





Pancake uncle



Our 'pancake' with condensed milk and chocolate sauce

 With our tummies happily filled with chocolate sauced-prata, we decided to explore the area near our hotel and scout for potential dinner places at the same time. Walking in the direction away from Ao Nang Beach, we were led to a street of dilapidated shops which were mostly selling groceries. :( Was disappointed cos I thought I could buy some Thai knickknacks to bring home. So we headed to a beach that was just across the street. 



Tiny translucent crab scurrying across the sand with its prey in its pincer

 We had an early dinner so that we could sleep early cos we had to wake up at 4am the next morning to get our hair and make-up (more like my hair and make-up cos the make-up artist spent less than 30 mins on KU!) done for the photoshoot. Dinner was at this seafood restaurant by the beach that we were at, and the food was -___- to say the least. Ambience was nice though with the strong seabreeze that came in. The service staff was abit weird though, cos we bought a 1-litre bottle of mineral water from the restaurant and she kept topping up our glasses even when they were still about three-quarters full. We asked her not to refill our glasses cos we couldn't finish the water and wanted to bring the remaining back to the hotel with us. And she kept nodding and saying, "OKAY!" really loudly, but she kept doing it anyway, until we resorted to covering our glasses with our hands everytime she was near our table. :S

So while eating, I saw this man walking along the beach with a large plastic bag in one hand and he was waving a large paper lantern in his other hand. After some discussion (yes, it was serious), we bought a paper lantern from him, wrote our wishes on it and sent it into the sky. On hindsight, it was a really environmentally-unfriendly thing to do and KU did highlight it during our 'discussion', but I wanted to do touristy stuff and I promised (I think) that this would be our first and last time. We stood there for a long while, watching our paper lantern fly higher and higher until we couldn't see it anymore. The uncle who sold us the lantern also stood beside us and watched the lantern with us, which I thought was really sweet of him to do so. :)



Writing my wishes



KU writing his wishes



Lantern uncle lights up the solid fuel in the centre of the lantern base



Flip it over carefully



Let go with mouths wide open



Byebye lantern!

 The photoshoot took the entire second day and we were sooooo tired after all the adrenaline rush of posing together and seeing beautiful new places in a foreign country. I had a total of 4 outfits, KU had 3, and we went to 4 different places to shoot. Such an awesome experience which made me feel a twinge of sadness when the day ended. :x

A few of my favourite shots:

On Tup Island:

At a rubber plantation:

At the National Park:

Near our hotel:

To end our last night in Krabi on a high note (sort of), we decided to have seafood for dinner. Our make-up artist recommended this place called Aree Baba, which she said was approximately 10 minutes from our hotel by car. Well, we were going by foot, so it took us wayyyyy longer than that. Best of all, she couldn't remember which side of the road the restaurant was on and she said to just keep following the path from the hotel, past Ao Nang Beach, and further down until we see it. 0___0

So we walked, and walked, and walked. Somewhere around the 15 minute mark, I started grumbling. Hehe.. Thank God the route was interesting - there were shops selling sundresses, straw hats, bikinis, string bracelets, diving bags, and restaurants specialising in all sorts of cuisine - and we could people watch - so many Caucasian tourists around. After trudging along for more than 30 minutes, KU spotted the restaurant across the road and I was jumping for joy in my heart (finally, FOOODDDD).

And I gotta say, the food was somewhat worth the long walk there (and back). The fish was super fresh and it was drenched in spicy and tangy sauce that just flooded my tastebuds with bliss. The phad thai was to-die-for, fried slightly wet (as compared to the Thai Express one in SG) and just really really delicious - I don't even know how to describe it - and awesome.

 Aree Ba Ba menu	 Fresh seafood displayed at the shop front 
 Grilled fish with Thai sauce; BBQ-ed king prawns  Phad thai Beautiful Ao Nang Beach	 Fried asparagus with tofu  Last 'pancake' for the trip 

Just a short trip, but it was a really meaningful one. :) Now everytime Mum suggests going to Phuket I cringe and go, "I prefer Krabi. Let's go to Krabi!" Hehe.. But really, we'll be back someday.

What Planning For Our Wedding Has Taught Me

Ever since KU and I started planning for our wedding, we've gone through so many highs and lows in our relationship (as most engaged couples would). It has been both enjoyable and stressful so far, though these few weeks it's more stressful than enjoyable. :x

The whole experience to date has taught me a lot of stuff. It has shown me what both our thresholds for sudden, unpleasant changes are, and more importantly, it has shown me who are the people who really care.

In this busy time when both of us need much help in so many aspects of the wedding, we do really need loads of help in whatever areas that don't require us to attend to personally. So far, we've asked some friends for help - some have agreed, some have declined. And I'm honestly extremely moved and humbled by those who have agreed to help, for they have gone above and beyond their 'help scope' and I know that God has blessed KU and me greatly by giving us awesome friends.

And this is a sidetrack, but of all the friends who are helping, I can't help but rave about dear Lava whose talents I have milked for the purpose of our wedding. Hehe.. :D It was while we were in university that I realised that the woman is an awesome artist/designer. Her doodles were always artistic damask-ish designs, her handmade cards had amazing handdrawn motifs and she even designed the maskhead for the blogs of some our uni classmates. So, for the wedding, I knew that I had to ask her to design our church wedding invitations!

And I must say that she's done an abso-fantastic job, cos I've distributed and mailed out most of the invites and everyone says that the card is really nice!! :) I personally looovvveee the design to bits and I'm so proud of Lava, I need to show her and her skills off to everyone! Hehe.. :)

Anyways, back to the topic.

The biggest lesson learnt so far is not to take things too hard. For me, it's easy to say but so hard to do cos I'm a very reactive person by nature. When (bad) things happen, I jump/rage/cry before finally calming down (after a long while) to think things through. Multiply this activity by an average of 2x a week and you can imagine how exhausted and utterly depressed I feel after each saga. So what I'll do nowadays is to take a deep breath and tell myself, "Not worth getting upset over" over and over again until I feel myself calming down. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but I'm putting in effort to be more calm about things and not to sweat over stuff. After all, I'm the one who suffers when I blow up, not the person who hurts me, so I should be kind to myself and learn to let go.

Nevertheless, I'm grateful to God for His kindness and many blessings. At this point in time, I really couldn't ask for anything more.