The Rehearsal and other things...

Been so busy lately, this poor site has been neglected. Today is already the 17th. At this time next saturday, we will be pronounced man and wife!

Anyway, the church rehearsal was held last Tuesday 13th Nov, and boy, did we have a hilarious time! Pastor Melvin keptn his straight face all the while, and even threatened to hit our heads with the microphone if we did not stop giggling. But it was really awkward to have to recite our wedding vows face to face, I really can't imagine how we'll be like on the actual day! Will we cry due to sheer emotion? Or laugh out loud due to awkwardness?? I would rather we laugh! Ha.

Very glad to see Vinay and Dawn, as well as Tim and Jean supporting us at the rehearsal. Although they did not have anything to do there except sit and watch us giggle through our vows, it was wonderful to have their presence in church that evening to laugh along side with us! What can we do without them! Especially Vinay and Dawn who, after much persuasion and a glass of red wine, agreed to be our dinner MC! Hee hee.. thanks pals!

The lovely couple!

More or less, everthing has been done. Just need to finalise our guest list and settle table arrangement, and also to search for suitable gifts for our dear helpers. Really can't wait for our honeymoon where we can just relax and nua for 3 weeks! Getting married is indeed very very tiring.

I xxx take you xxx to be my wedded husband/wife

To have and to hold, from this day forward

For better for worse, for richer for poorer

In sickness and in health, to love and to cherish

Till death do us part (T.D.D.U.P.)

Our very first promise to each other back in the year 1999 was T.D.D.U.P. Now we can finally fulfill this promise!

One More Month

Suddenly realised that today is 24 Oct.

One more month!

So scary and yet a little nervous and excited at the same time.

Scary coz we still have so many things to prepare. Haven't finish sending out some invitation cards! Haven't planned seating arrangement, music and powerpoint slide show for the dinner. Haven't settled parents' clothes. Haven't settled house matters. Haven't haven't haven't.

Nervous coz my status will soon be changed from single to married. My thoughts and actions will no longer just affect myself. People will assume married women are more matured and 'homely'. Have to spend money wisely.

Excited coz... this is it. This is finally it. The day that I have been looking forward to is just one month away.

The House

Sorry la. Couldn't think of a better title. Anyway renovation works are FINALLY done. Hopefully, (cross fingers and pray hard) I DO NOT see the uncle and his workers AGAIN.

Never ever in my life have I come across SIMPLE renovation works for a tiny weeny 3-room flat that lasted for almost one and a half months!

We got our house keys on 16 August, and started scouting around for the best reno deal immediately. After comparing prices, we settled on this friendly but blur uncle's reno quote coz he seemed the most honest and offered us the best value for money. His team of workers started work on 11 Sept. They finally finished everything YESTERDAY.

At first, things seemed to be going very well. We were very impressed with the worker's skill at plastering and smoothening out the horrendous walls. Imagine a pot-marked, pimple scarred face transforming into radiant and flawless complexion - the walls were SOOOO old that we could see the outline of each and every brick at first!

Then the mistakes started.

1. Forgot to plaster part of the kitchen walls

2. Used the wrong tiles for the kitchen wall. They put up bathroom tiles instead - poor contractor had to pry out the almost dried with cement tiles at 9pm in darkness, with his girlfriend holding onto a torch light for him. Poor GF too.

3. Plaster cracked.

4. Installed poor quality door knobs that took 5 minutes to insert and turn the key to open the door.

5. Painted the main and bedroom doors WHITE.

6. Chipped the toilet bowl and bathroom floor.

7. Cracked the toilet door and door frame and tried to hide the evidence by plastering up the holes. But they quite silly - the door is light beige while the plaster is white. So obvious to spot.

8. Installed the water heater inlet and outlet the opposite way. I discovered it when I had to bathe in cold water.

9. Drilled the washing machine water inlet and outlet too far from our original planned positions. So now we have no choice but to shift the machine to the 2 holes in the wall. The inlet and outlet were leaking at first, but thankfully they have since rectified the problem.

10. Burnt 3 holes and chipped a chunk off the laminated flooring in the living room.

11. The bathroom sink kept giving out brown water. Finally discovered that the joint in the pipe was rusty. Wonder if they were re-using an old rusty piece?

12. Kitchen tap produced horrible smelling water. Like lots of minerals, sediments and some glue/chemicals were added to it.

13. When drilling the living room wall to install the TV brackets, the opposite side (which is the study room wall) fell out! Dunno to laugh or cry when you see your wall fall out.

14. Cracked the kitchen lights.

15. Smashed the bathroom mirror.

16. The worst problem: Kitchen cabinet.

Ever seen people install the cabinet 3 times? We did. Before the cabinet was put up, Elisha specifically asked the contractor if we had to call the CityGas people to come install the gas pipes first (Pipes usually run behind the kitchen cabinets). They said no need and proceeded to put in the beautiful cabinets. Then the CityGas people said, sorry must remove cabinet, if not, how to expect us to put the pipes behind??!! So they had to remove the entire bottom cabinet, wait for the gas pipes to be done, then put everything back again. Nevermind.

When we opened the top cabinets, we were puzzled as to why they boxed up the entire top shelves, such that the shelves are useless and have no space to put things. They said, to block up the HUGE water pipes. And we asked, what water pipes?? We even had to search for old photos showing the original condition of the kitchen to prove that there are NO huge pipes to hide. So they re-did the top cabinets.

Sigh. Now you can imagine our stress and headache over the renovation. We kept complaining over this and that problem that we were kinda paiseh after awhile.

Will I recommend this contractor to you? Well, if you are on a budget, and have ALOT of time to do and re-do things, maybe i will.

Going Down Under...

... Melbourne and Adelaide that is! What were you thinking?? Hee.

Yep, our honeymoon plans are only half done, but we are going away for THREE weeks! From the 1st Dec to the 22nd Dec. We are not crazy, is just that when we were buying the tickets at the NATAS Fair some 3 weeks back, there were almost no return tickets. The earliest date is the 22nd of Dec and we even have to travel from Mebourne to Adelaide to get home. We are gonna see ALOT of Singaporeans on our trip.


In the process of booking hotel rooms and car rental... and planning the route and activites. Australia is really a friendly self-drive, self-plan holiday destination! They have plenty of updated websites and brochures for our easy reference. Just hope that what we see online is as beautiful as what we get over there! Looking through things to do in Melbourne and Adelaide, realise that we are gonna do ALOT of wine tasting. Hehehe.. Our fave activity!

A derserving hug for Elisha, who is hard at work trying to book nice and cheap and good hotels online... which is unfortunately.. very difficult to get.

Grow old with YOU!

Elisha's answer to the "Why do you want to marry her" Pastor-question was "Coz we grew together."

When I first heard it, I was like, "What??!!"

What do you mean "grew together"??

When he explained, I calmed down. In fact, I agree wholeheartedly! We have really grown over the 8 years we've been together. From nerds in school, to army and university and now work life! We can think back and say things like "LAST time.... " and "which year was it? 2002 or 2003? Can't remember..." It's also quite funny to look back at old photos and go "GOSH! We looked terrible!"

Have a look!

1999 - SAJC, JC 1. 17 years old at Sentosa

2000 - Prom Nite. He still has the suit.

2001 - Army Days. Botak Days.

2002 - Break from NUS exams. At East Coast Beach.

2003 - Celebrating Elisha's birthday. Somewhere at Cityhall I think

2004 - Cambodia. Covered in cement.

2005 - Cameron Highlands with Biwei and Keith. Sipping Boh Tea.

2006 - Chilly Shanghai. 2 degree celcius!

2007 - Boat Quay. Looking so tourisy.

I wanna make you smile whenever you're sad

Carry you around when your arthritis is bad

All I wanna do, is grow old with you

I'll get you medicine when your tummy aches

Build you a fire if the furnace breaks

All I wanna do, is grow old with you

I'll miss you, kiss you, give you my coat when you are cold

Need you, feed you, and even let you hold the remote control

So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink

Put you to bed when you've had too much to drink

Oh, I could be the one, who grows old with you

I wanna grow old with you

~ Adam Sandler

Interview with the Pastor

Pastor: Why do you want to marry him?
Me: (Blushing) Coz I love him…

Pastor: What do you like about him?
Me: Err.. he’s very street wise and able to lead, and we communicate well!

Pastor: What don’t you like about him?
Me: (Censored.. too sensitive over public domain!)

Pastor: Have you both discussed about kids? How many do you want?
Me: Huh?? Er yes. Maybe two in a few years time?

Pastor: How’s your relationship with his side (in-laws)?
Me: Getting better (especially with his mum.. haha.. you all know what I mean)!

Pastor: How about him and your side?
Me: Excellent. Never had a problem

Pastor: What do you do for leisure?
Me: Read and run

Pastor: What do you both usually do together for leisure?
Me: Eat… and play badminton…

Pastor: Do you have a regular outing session with your friends (him excluded)?
Me: Yes, but its impromptu.

Pastor: Are you possessive?
Me: Not too sure…

Pastor: Let me give you an example, if his hand phone rings and it’s a girl, will you ask who she is?
Me: Err.. yes…

Pastor: Then you are possessive la.
Me: ???!!! (like that also counted??)

Pastor: Are you a romantic person?
Me: Eh.. no I don’t think so.

Pastor: Don’t bluff. All girls are romantic. Anyway, on a scale of 1 to 10, rate how romantic he is.
Me: Ha. 5.

Phew. So stressed! And so weird!

He did this interview with the both of us separately in his office (which scarily looked like a Principal's office), and then he called us in and compared our responses! I can’t remember exactly all the questions that he asked, but more or less these were the ‘sensitive’ questions that we had to answer truthfully.

And then he gave Elisha a crash course on romance! Haha..

1. All girls are romantic. Even if she SAYS she is not, she is. (nodding furiously)
2. Remember all important dates: Birthday, anniversaries and Valentine’s Day.
3. Flowers and chocolates are not important, but they show the girl that you remember that important anniversary. Hence, it doesn’t matter if you buy a HUGE bouquet or a single stalk of rose. But make sure you buy it personally (not ask your secretary to buy it on her way back from lunch) and BEFORE meeting her (not asking to select the type and colour she wants at the shop). It the meaning BEHIND it that counts.
4. Hand-made cards are worth more than ANY branded card from hallmarks. Even if it looks like it was done by a five year old. Tip: Unsure of what to write inside? BUY an expensive card, COPY the romantic words into your hand-made one, then THROW away the evidence.
5. A guy’s mind will NEVER understand or see the rationale of these points, but abide by these romantic laws faithfully, and you will have a happy wife!
   

I was agreeing furiously with everything the pastor was saying! So funny but so true! Wonder if he does these things for Mrs Pastor too? Heh heh..

Check Yes or No

Found this good checklist in Her World: Brides magazine...

18 Months Before

• Set wedding date. Have standby dates ready.
• Determine your wedding style and budget.
• Get recommendations for wedding sites and service providers. Start attending wedding shows and scouting for locations.
• Book venu. Some months are particularly popular. eg, August to January, so you'll need to book early.
• Begin a diet/exercise regime and start getting into shape.
• Start a folder with sections for dresses, suits, flowers, etc to file away ideas. Make a checklist and check off as items get done.
• Start reading bridal magazines and check out bridal salons.

12 Months To Go

• Book a wedding planner if you need/want help
• shop for your wedding bands
• Select your bridal party attendants, bridesmaids, etc. Assign them their duties.
• Shop for florists, makeup artists, planners, favours, etc.
• Settle your wedding stationery design if yours is custom made

9 Months To Go

• Book wedding date with ROM, church or Justice of Peace.
• Confirm venue if you haven't done so. Discuss menu.
• Buy wedding bands
• Organise entertaintment. Ask for vendors' quotes and plan your music selection.
• Confirm salon, dresses and suits. Book hair and makeup.
• Shop for bridesmaids' and groomsmen's outfits, and your accessories such as heels and jewellery
• Compile the guest list with your fiance and both parents
• Enquire about wedding car rentals
• If you're having a church ceremony, plan the programme and get quotations from vendors.

6 Months To Go

• Confirm all vendors for music, invitations, flowers, etc. They can begin work.
• Reserve rooms for overseas guests
• Confirm menus and liquor

3 Months To Go

• Finalise guest list and start planning seating arrangements
• Confirm transportation for yourself and out-of-town guests
• Send reminders for venues and solemnisation officiant.
• Research and book photography/videography packages
• Confirm all wedding decor ideas, bouquets, centrepieces
• Send out invitations for out-of-town guests
• Discuss different looks with hair and makeup people and go for trial runs. Confirm looks.

2 Months To Go

• Send out local invitations
• Confirm that out-of-town guests have received invitations and settled accomodation details
• Choose thank-you gifts for attendants
• Organise seating arrangements

1 Month To Go

• Chase late RSVPs, finalise guest list and seating arrangements
• Confirm that your gowns and those of your bridesmaids will be ready on time
• Prepare fees or hongbaos where applicable, eg for officiant, and your "sisters" and "brothers".
• Start breaking in your shoes so they won't pinch on the day
• Fix a date for a church rehearsal (if you are having a church ceremony) two weeks before the wedding. Notify attendants.
• Confirm all other arrangements that have not been finalised.

2 Weeks To Go

• Have your church rehearsal or run through the day's duties with attendants
• Collect dresses
• Enjoy your Hen and Stag dos
• Arrange for bridal flowers to be sent to your home early

1 Week To Go

• Finalise all minor arrangements that haven't been done, eg Has your partner passed the rings to teh best man?
• Arrange for a bridesmaid to accompany and help you on the day - this takes the stress off you
• Give all payments to the best man; leave him to pay the respective people
• See if you and your fiance can get away for a day spa - pamper yourselves with a few luxurious treatments.
• Rest and relax so you'll both look great on your big day

On The Day

• Let your chief bridesmaid or planner take charge of everything, which includes reminding the other attendants of their duties.
• Relax and enjoy you wedding day!

Realise that alot of things haven't been done! If we count down, we only have about 2 and a half months to settle ALL things. Phew. Stressed.

Need to do the following:

1. Design and print invitation cards (look at the checklist - we are supposed to have already sent out cards to the overseas guest! No wonder his relatives are complaining.. hehe)
2. Confirm guest list and dinner seating arrangement - THE BIGGEST HEADACHE.
3. Plan and prepare church wedding - Order of Service, caterer, tentage...etc. Even the table cloth for the reception table is not ready!)
4. Powerpoint slide show
5. Shop for parents' clothes. Its quite tough to dress mum up - she's conscious of her big size so can't wear sexy gowns, cheongsams look TOO old... sigh. Dads are easy, just buy new shirt and rent the suits!
6. Renovate our new house. Now still getting quotations from various contractors.
7. Brief all our friends about their duites!

My advice to all friends who plan to get hitched some time soon... START EARLY! :)

Slim is GOOD...

... coz no one wants to buy my ex-FAT and THICK handphone!

Is it that ugly?

I had wanted to trade in my 3 year old ancient but in EXCELLENT condition (hardly any scratches, functioning as brand new) Motorola V620. At first Singtel was offering $60 trade-in value for it, but I missed it and it is no longer on the "wanted" list. So decided to try my luck in those small handphone shops. My sis (who had just traded-in her Sony Ericsson dunno what model for $100 when Singtel only offered $60) tried to ask how much my Motorola was worth. The sales person almost fainted when he heard that my phone actually has an antenna. Ha. So much for "excellent condition".

Then Elisha went with me to try get it sold. He brought along his well-worn and extremely battered, non-working joy-stick old Sony Ericsson handphone to see if anyone wants it too. He sold his yucky phone for $20 and still no one wants my "excellent condition" Motorola! I can't believe it! I gave up. I'm keeping my Motorola as a spare phone.

Anyway take a look at my NEW SGH-U600. Never make the same mistake twice. This time, nice and SLIM phones for me! Worth every cent of $298 that I paid for.

I chose the neutral white version (on the left), but was debating whether to get the garnet red (on the right). In the end, to match Elisha's WHITE Dopod, well.. heh.. I got the white one. It does look like a miniture version of his PDA!
Although I'm really not a gadget person, quite glad that I got it. Finally, I can proudly show off my SLIM and WEIGHTLESS phone instead of having finger-ache everytime I have to reply an sms with my brick-like Motorola V620.

Another plus point is its 3.2 Megapixels, half shutter, auto focus and flash camera too. Although Motorola had an in-built camera, it was very lousy and could only produce blurish images. Cannot upload unless I have Blue-tooth enabled PC too. So troublesome. Sumsung uses a convenient USB cable, which can not only upload photos, but also allows me to synchronise all my data from the handphone with my lappie.

Love my new phone!

Virgin Race

22 July 2007, 5am. Wet, cold and gloomy.

Should have stayed in bed all morning to enjoy the uncommon chilly weather. Somehow, we managed to crawl out of bed to all geared up for our very FIRST run together! Mizuno Wave Run 2007! The first run in this year for me, the first race for Elisha!

We went with high spirits but... sad to say, the run was TERRIBLY organised and everyone, I mean, EVERYONE was complaining and grumbling all morning! Firstly, there was a huge jam when we were trying to get into Temasek Poly (the start point), where we spent at least 30 minutes just to enter the carpark. Secondly, the start point was very chaotic, no one knew where to register for the run and where to deposit out baggage. Thirdly, the race route was slippery and muddy (due to the downpour), and hazy (no markers to tell us where to run, no road marshalls to direct the way) and ambiguous (Biwei and I got lost running our second half of the marathon with no one else around but 2 old men; Elisha was directed to run back to TP's start point at the stadium, only to be turned away by the security guard!) Forthly, when trying to get our goodie bag after the "race", we were utterly confused again! Everyone was simply squeezing their way into the goodie bag tent. Those who had more social grace formed long snakes of people extending out in all directions from the goodie bag tent! No one really knew where to the start of the queue was, and just did what most Singaporeans are good at doing - stand around queuing.

Nonetheless, Elisha managed to use his good sense and somehow obtained enough goodie bags for all of us... And the goodie bag was quite good - a nice nice Mizuno shoe bag (without any obiang race logo) and a dry fit slinglet! Also, very proud of the fact that Elisha was willing to accompany me for this run, and almost completed 10km - not because he couldn't do it, but because the organiser for this race was just soooooooo messy!

Poor Poorer Poorest!

My CPF has only $6.93...

But it's all for a good cause! It was totally wipped out as payment for the deposit of the flat when we went for our HDB 1st appointment yesterday. Actually we had delayed the payment by almost 3 weeks! Our original appointment was last month 23rd June, but at that time my CPF account was almost empty as Elisha had helped me to invest it somewhere else (not bad leh, I earned about 4K in 2 years!)... We did not know we had to liquidate the CPF money so early, so when the HDB officer announced that we have to prepare and PAY CASH of $27000, we almost fainted! Ha.. Thank goodness she was extremely nice and managed to postpone our appointment date so that Elisha can help me to transfer the CPF money back. And thank God that the transfer was made JUST IN TIME! The money came in on 9 July EVENING and our HDB appointment was on 10 July! Phew...

Another 30K will be flying away very soon as top-up cash for the flat. Quite scary to see my bank account drop by 5 figures.. heh.. Good thing Elisha's mum is helping by paying 10K for us.. A NICE BIG wedding present for us! :)

So expensive to get married... really feeling broke and very poor now. But it's all WORTH it! :)

Little Us

Just did up our e-invite so we can email all our family and friends to save the date for our big day.

At first, we were planning to use our wedding photoshoot pictures, but I happen to chance upon some old photos of myself and decided to make use of it for our pre wedding invites!

Not a bad idea coz we don't want to have the usual photo montage sequence on "baby Elisha - baby Jo - young Elisha - young Jo - boy meets girl - pak tuo - finally married - happily ever after" story on our wedding day! So since we won't be showing our baby photos on our wedding day, I thought it'll be quite cute to use them in the pre-wedding invites!

My mum was packing some old photos when she suddenly passed me these photos...

And I thought, how suitable! I was about 4 years old then... See my white 'dress' with the mini 'train' behind? My aunty had creatively wrapped a laced table cloth around me and somehow managed to make it look like a wedding dress! She even had a nice red rose for me to pose with! If you scruntinise my head gear, its actually a red hairband with a piece of tissue paper stuck on it to make it look more 'bridal'! Hee..

I also vaguely remembered that Elisha had some young young photos of himself in some 'suit' and searched his entire photo collection for this! This is the best photo already coz we couldn't find one of him in a tuxedo (though he says that his parents had made him wear suits and tuxedos).

Not bad lah, at least his red buttons match my red rose!

So cute right! So young yet so cheeky already!

See that his hairstyle has not changed for the past 20 years! Hahahaha...

And with the talented Elisha and some photoshop.. we have this! See how skinny and white Elisha was and how plump and tanned I was! So funny... And look at how couple-ly we look since young.. Haha..

So friends, save the date.. the actual invites will be out shortly!

Shutterbugz...

Can't sleep.. Keep running all the things I need to bring through my head right now. Supposed to be sleeping early tonight coz we have our Wedding Photo Shoot tomorrow. Gotta pick Jo up early in the morning also coz we've just got sooo much to bring there.. And it'll be extremely difficult for her to go on public transport holding her dress and stuff.

In preperation for our photoshoot, we've been scouting around on the styles of other people's beautiful wedding photos and also the different locations where we'll be taking our photos. Won't say too much now.. But if you're expecting to see Japanese costumes, Korean costumes, etc.. You won't be seeing it in our photos.. We're chinese! We're going along the lines of simple and as natural as possible.

Our photographer tomorrow morning is called "Gucci". I hope he takes as good photos as the "Gucci" brand makes it's handbags and apparel. We'll find out tomorrow! For now, I'm off to bed. Cheers all!

Of suits and dresses

We went for our first fitting on 3 Jun and got to see Jo's tailor-made dress for the first time. But first Jo had to go upstairs and get her makeup tested. By our friendly make-up artist, Emily.

Hahaha.. I got a lil joke to tell.. She couldn't zip it up.. They apprently made the dress too small (as so Jo says).. Hahaha.. Here's the wedding gown..

Did you guys believe I would show you all the gown before the actual day? Hahaha.. Not.. And here's Jo in her evening gown.. No surprise here.. Censored to maintain suspense.

Ok.. The only thing I'm gonna be showing today is my suit.. Coz a suit is a suit.. There's nothing much that can be different. So you're getting to see it.

Cheers!

Updates!!! The Wedding Ring

So sorry for the lack of updates but we have been really busy lately. From ring shopping, to gown fittings, to buying household stuff!!! Believe me, I have a 32" Akira LCD TV sitting in my bedroom now.

Well, we collected our rings already. The very friendly and efficient salesperson at Goldheart promised to get our rings done for the wedding photoshoot, and here they are! Simple yet pretty...

Spent about one week shopping around for them. Actually our first stop was at Goldheart itself. Our citeria was to get IDENTICAL rings WITHOUT any diamonds! (He simply cannot stand any ring with the slightest sparkle of a diamond, he thinks it's very un-manly!) We looked through their entire wedding collection and Elisha spotted this particular ring. I thought it looked a little plain but he loved the 'comfort fit' design. So we put it aside and went to ALL other jewellery places like Citigems, Tian Po, Lee Hwa... etc... After awhile, all the rings looked the same and they didn't seem to have the 'comfort fit'.

So we headed back to Rupert (Our trusty Goldheart salesperson -actually Elisha got my engagement ring from him too! See below...) and got these. He gave us a good piece of advice: once we decided to buy that ring, we should NOT go shopping around and get ourselves confused! We took his advice and never looked at any other rings again!

The Proposal (Part II)

Well, since everyone is asking and Elisha is too shy to tell, I'll reveal it!

It happened over last Christmas eve, when we were having some wine after dinner. He lifted up his glass for a toast, and said:"To our last Christmas as singles!" I couldn't respond for a second, and simply stared at him with my eyes wide open.

When I finally understood the hidden meaning behind his words, I hurriedly accepted his toast (by clinking my glass against his) just in case he changed his mind and asked:"Really ah???Really our LAST Christmas as singles ah???"

I was expecting him to say something like "just joking lah" but he didn't. And that was it! No going down on one knee, no flowers, not even a ring! (The ring came about 1 and a half months later on 11 Feb 2007) BUT, this is good enough for me and this is indeed the BEST Christmas present I can ever receive!

The Proposal

Everyone's been asking.. "How did you propose?"

Well, I'm not going to tell.. Too paiseh to say.. Yes yes.. Surprise... The thick skinned Elisha is shy at times.. So if you wanna know, you gotta wait till Joleen tells.. hahahaha..

Cheerios!

Burn! Burn! Burn!

I went to tell some friends about this site and as they came on the site to take a look, I started getting comments like "you putting on weight hor??", "wow.. life's been good to you.. you put on weight", etc..

Rebecca Heng said, "how come u no mention abt your measurement?".. what does she mean by measurement?? well, if you look 2 posts back, you would notice that Jo and I went for our 1st Bridal Studio appointment recently. And that means, I had my measurements taken.. For my clothing tailoring.. And, by popular demand, I hereby announce that the tailor took my waist size as 35.5 INCHES!! I so need to lose weight.. and the buffets ain't helping.. Cheerios!

Our 8th Anniversary

8 years ago, today, Jo agreed to be mine. Today we celebrated our great achievement of 8 years, which will be, in the years to come, made smaller with newer achievements each year. And how did we celebrate our day? 1st we went to do something I know Jo was looking forward to very very much.. Ring shopping.. Actually I was looking forward to it too.. We went wedding band shopping..

I had no idea that chooising a wedding band could be this much of a headache.. some too thin, some too thick. some too much design, others too plain. Some too trendy, others too obiang.. Then there's also the choice of yellow gold, white gold and platinium. with 3 different types of metals to choose, life was tough enough. But recently, there's a 4th metal that has joined the band.. they now have rose gold.. which is a red versiong of yellow gold.. why do jewellers make my life miserable by offerring so many choices??.. Outcome?? 2 people with headaches, zero rings bought.. but at least we have 2 ring designs in mind.

What else did we do on our special day? Of course doing what we love to do best... EAT!! I gave Jo a few options.. Western, Japanese, Indian, Chinese & Fusion.. And since we could not decide, we went for a buffet.. The best buffet we've been to so far..

We went to the Ritz Carlton's Greenhouse and had their magnificent buffet. It was by far the best that we've had.. Except for the Christmas dinner buffet that we had at The Oriental in 2005 which Jo still thinks is our best. But apart from special event buffets, this is really the best! I was just eating here with some associates in the Crisis Management Industry 2 weeks ago, but being a business/associates' luncheon, I had little time and interest to admire the food and the ambience.

This evening, Jo and I had a leisurely dinner at 6.30pm. The very timing that the buffet opens. We were number 1 attakcers of the buffet line.. The food was top notch quality.. Really..

Here's some of the food we ate.. Only some of the mountain of food we ate.. Haha.. The oysters were extremely succulent. I had only 1 but Jo had 3 of them.. Secret's out! Jo may look like she has a really small frame, but she sure can eat.. If she likes the food.. I ain't complaining.. This is one of the reasons why we get along so well.. Haha.. Other stuff on the plate are FRESH scallops, Australian green shell mussels, spicy beef salad, chicken salad (which was very yummy), mushroom salad, and a kinda salsa sauce for the seafood.

Another plate.. Taken by Jo.. Coz I was a little slow in finishing the supper amount of food I took. Very nice vegetables.. The last time I was here 2 weeks ago, a colleague, Dawn, took a similar plate of the tomatoes.. and as she bit into one of them, the whole thing exploded and squirtted juices everywhere.. Some landed on my shirt.. Sigh..

Anyway, there were lots and lots of food to eat and choose. There needs to be a special mention of the food.. It was really out of this world. Some of my colleagues and friends know that I like to eat crabs.. Especially the Black Pepper crab at Joo Chiat and the Crab Bee Hoon Soup at Ang Mo Kio.. But this really tops the list!! Just look at it! There was this dish which was steamed Sri Lanka Crabs. Super Duper DELICIOUS!! Just ask Jo.. She ain't a crab fan.. But she agrees that this was delicious! The meat was so full and thick.. So fresh that it just comes out in a huge piece.. Firm.. The shell was a little tricky, but the meat was so worth the work.

Here's the rest of the pics.. The food was simply delicious.. And do you know what was the best of all? It costs $48.00 +++ per person. This was a really worth while price to pay for the sumptous feast that we had. Really really worth it. The total bill came up to about $111.00 which was about $55 per person. Good eat, worthy eat, must eat!

Here's Jo digging in to the sumptous feast! Did you notice the champagne glasses? They're filled with fresh juices that come as part of the buffet meal.. Where have you heard of such a wonderful deal??!!

Very nice kueh pie ti which ain't the traditional kind. This one is special. Instead of the vege filling, this one uses rice vermicelli with some spices. Not bad! Not bad at all!! And in front of the kueh pie ti is crab omelette. One of the few chef-made-to-order dishes where the chef whips up the dish right in front of you. Very nice.

And Jo's all time favourite?? Desserts.. Look at the dessert spread. They look so appealing that once you enter the buffet zone, you just feel like attacking it first. But we were disciplined enough to save the best for last.

As we were leaving the restaurant, we had to take a picture of the gastronomical place..

And being at The Ritz Carlton, we had to take a walk about and admire the beautiful hotel. The nice decor.. This picture was taken at the 1st floor ball room reception area (lobby is on the 3rd floor). Very beautiful stairs..

And here's to ending off our 8th Year Anniversary celebration.. It's been a long time since I gave Jo flowers.. Oops! Haha.. Not even when I proposed. If you wanna know how I proposed, you gotta ask Jo.. Coz I ain't telling..

Happy Anniversary Jo! This is gonna be the last anniversary that we'll be spending as singles.. The next anniversary will be spent as Mr and Mrs Teo. Cheerios!

1st Visit to Bridal Studio

Jo and I spent the entire afternoon at Bridal de Couture today.. Getting 1 of the many things done for the wedding.. There was the choosing of wedding gown designs, the trying out of similar designs, the picking out of evening gown, choosing of my suits, arranging for fitting of tailor-made wedding gown, arranging for photo shoot, etc.. A day with many accomplishments..

Here's a pic of Jo being measured by the designer. Measure shoulders, measure hips, measure here, measure there.. I think we really got a wonderful deal with this bridal package that we got.. The people at the bridal studio were really friendly and they were really listening to every single point we had to made. Very detailed. Jo's wedding gown will be ready by end of May for her to do her fitting on 1st June.

I took some pictures on the gowns that Jo tried on, including the evening gown that I picked out for Jo. We think that it's really nice and special. Shall not post the photo of it here to provide some suspense. You'll all get to see it when the day comes.

Halfway during the trying out of my suits, Jo and I were wondering whether I would end up wearing the same coloured suits as the waiters that will be serving our wedding dinner. So we had to quickly call up the dinner coordinator to find out what colour their uniforms were going to be. So here's a note to all that are planning to get married some time soon.. Please remember to check what the waiters and waitresses will be dressed in. You don't wanna end up looking like them or the table cloth. Hahahaha..

The dates for the fitting and photo shoot have been set. Fitting on 1 Jun 07 and shoot on 13 Jun 07. The people from the studio working with us gave us a good feeling that they know what they're doing, so I think that we're in safe hands.. for now.. hahaha.. Cheerios!

Inaugural Post

It's been an extremely long time since I did any posting on my blog and now I've started another one. For a good reason... As you can see from the blog title, I'm getting married!!

I'm gonna be using this blog space to give updates, and documenting the wedding process and progress. This is also gonna be the space to watch for those involved in our wedding plans, our family and friends.

Cheerios! *eT*