Fast forward

Never update since the proposal because we were so busy with the new house, wedding preparation and work projects.

It has been two months since the customary wedding. Despite us not putting a lot of time in the planning, everything went surprisingly-smooth that day.

Our wedding - 1 March 2014, Saturday

5am - woke up (bridesmaids did not have enough sleep because they were preparing the materials)

6am - Gate crash (they were late but managed to play almost all the games)

The very beautiful bridesmaids and "poor" groomsmen (they had to fork out a lot of money that day).

7am -  left for groom's house

8.30am - head to new house to take pictures

Changed into the kua for second tea ceremony at MBS

12.30pm - Change hair style and back to white gown

1.15pm - Our grand march-in

1.50pm - Change gown and hair style. 

MBS brings food to the bride and groom who are waiting for the second march-in. AWESOME!

My mua is Yoovy Tan. She is so pretty and patient. Everybody loves my hair do that day!

 Quickly take some shots in my favourite gown.

 Our thank-you speech. I had to pause a few times and rush through at the end because I was close to tears.

 Who is the next bride?

My nephew stole the limelight that day. He was super duper cute; running up and down the stage in his suit.

Photographer of the day was Leon Tham. He is very friendly and he managed to capture important moments even though he was alone. My sister in law's boyfriend took some amazing pictures too.

Our pre-wedding pictures...

5 gowns and 5 suits for 1-day photography. Very friendly service and memorable trip to Taichung, by Star Asia.

See the 5 different looks I had for one day of photo-taking session.

Local Photoshoot

By French Bridal

 This was our "main" wedding picture. We love this picture so much!

Bride's regrets

You don't get to plan wedding everyday. It is a once in a lifetime moment. There's bound to be regrets if you do not plan properly. God heard our prayers and our actual day was pretty smooth. Here are some which I hope no bride has to go through

1. I put work above anything else - Maybe this is the main reason that led to other regrets. I was trying to be good at everything but started to perform badly at work for some reason. I was so frustrated and decided to put all my energy on work. In the end, I was too tired to plan for my wedding. It led to many bad decisions, mental breakdowns, poor health, a lot of arguments...
2. I just walked into a bridal shop and sign a package - Only during the wedding planning you will get to try the gowns and dresses. This is the most FUN part of the wedding preparation. My advice is to try gowns at different shops till you find the gowns you love and the service you are comfortable with. Trying gowns is FREE, and not to mention.. FUN!
3. No theme for the wedding -  Hollywood movies, fairytales, Disney, Save-the-Earth, Blue, Gold and pink, storybook, music, games, Mario... These are the many themes we thought of, BUT... we did not have any theme in the end.
   Usually the package has the basic things covered and my husband want to stick with those. Sticking to a theme usually becomes "ala-carte", which also means more money. Well, since we have no time to plan according to budget and we do not want to spend too much money so we just went with what the hotel and bridal shop provided.
4. No wacky videos or did anything extraordinary - My wedding was just another customary wedding. I like exciting stuff and wanted to create memorable reception for our family and guests. I wanted the wedding to not focus on the bride and groom, but a time to celebrate love.
   I initially wanted to do a funny music video with friends, or to record short love stories of family and friends and showcase on the wedding day. We didn't even have a videographer that day (Thank Goodness our photographer was pretty good).
   I had the bridesmaids and groomsmen to join us for the second march-in. I asked my friend, Grace, to sing during the second march-in, which everyone enjoyed her singing. Appreciate their efforts to participate in this, at least a tiny-special something for our wedding to remember by...
5. Engaged the worst photobooth service ever - Brides have this gut-feeling whether things will be good or bad... I knew they were terrible, but hubby insisted because they came together with the package. I was ready to pay $400 for another photobooth service with unlimited print and they have different layouts for guests to choose with props. The one we engaged go by number of photo papers used instead of the number of hours. The up-side is that they allow us to customise our frame design for free. They wanted us to pay more, because only 100 photo papers included in the free package but hubby insisted that they should give what they promised. They gave in to us. On the actual day, they hid at some corner and did not set up the backdrop, giving the excuse that the backdrop was too small (or big) for the area. Only a few pictures were printed because not many people knew there was a booth and all of us were too busy with the tea ceremony to usher relatives and friends to the booth.

Random wedding facts: 

• The bridesmaids did not meet up till the wedding itself.
  
• First march in music was composed by Jonathan Priest. He sent me the music and did not ask for anything in return. Amazing musician... it was a 1 minute 30sec video and it ended just as we reached the stage (no rehearsal!)
  
• Second march in walking timing screwed up during the rehearsals and we had no time t perfect it. However during the actual march in, the song ended when we reached the stage too. The song my friend sang was "hei bai pei" by Fan Wei Qi

Despite the regrets, my wedding is perfect, and I could not ask for a better one... just being married to the man I love is already the best day of my life. Our family members, bridesmaids and groomsmen did everything to ensure our big day was perfect. Looking forward to the next phase of life...:)