He asked if there was any hairstyle that I preferred, so I told him I wanted some hair down. So he did a Korean style loose ponytail swept to the side. He added in hair extensions and curled my tresses together with it.
My ash ends looked really good when curled with the darker hair extensions.
My make-up was thicker as compared to the day’s make up. Honestly speaking, I’m not very used to very thick make up haha. I think I looked quite scary close-up. But in fact, my mom said my makeup was very light and natural in the morning. She was surprised and even commented that it can be thicker one. Haha! Anyway, I think my own falsies are more beautiful hahaha.. cos the lash bone is translucent and I preferred that cos it looked more natural. Hmmm.. anyways, people tell me pretty then pretty lor. It was a pity I didn’t take a selfie for the evening make up as it was too rushed.
My solemnization was at 6:10pm and at 6;15pm I was still in the suite trying to wear my gown.
Heng Sam’s sis-in-law was around to help me tie the corset back and she told me, "Slowly, mai gan chiong. No choice one." Lol!
Luckily when we reached the solemnization room (ORD room on the 4th level), the solemniser still have not reached haha! Phew! We found out that he dropped his car keys and was trying to find it at the carpark. Lol..
The session started around 6:20pm. Lariza asked me if I wanted a march-in song for the solemnization and she even helped me to choose “From this moment”. So thankful for her! I was still worried what song to play and how to project the sound out haha.
So, I marched in with my dad into the room.
Our solemniser was Mr Lim Tze Beng. He’s this young chap who’s quite talkative (good, cos he can make the solemnisation very lively). He even encouraged us to write our own vows and on hindsight, I’m glad we did! Cos the vows are all written with what we wanted to tell each other, not the standard vows we always hear and with words we may not mean it.
Mr Lim asked us questions which we had to think on ur feet. Like state one thing that you love about your partner. He started with Sam first, so I had more time to think through wahahha..
We were made to say I LOVE YOU very loudly to each other also haha..
After which, he also asked our parents to say something, what wishes they have for us. He even made my parents kiss and confess their love for each other. It was quite funny cos can see my parents were really awkward, but happy lol
Sam’s brother was one of the witnesses and he said their late-dad would be happy to know about this.. He was so overcome with emotions and it set many crying in the room too. I was also trying to fight back my tears.
I think our solemnisation was damn touching haha. Even our handwritten vows were touching I think.
I meant every word I said and even included the “Love is patient, Love is kind” verses.
I think it’s so meaningful. Don’t you agree? Love is such.
Exactly the description.
“Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs……Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
I also included the following: “May we build a home that is compassionate to all, full of respect and honor each other and others, May our home be forever filled with peace, happiness and love.”
And every day (especially when I’m doing housework! Hahaha…) I constantly remind myself of the vow I’ve uttered.
Anyway, our solemnizer gave us a handmade 囍 papercutting (actually he said he tore it instead of cut) as a souvenir. It’s so nice haha. Thank you Mr Lim!!
The search for a solemnizer was’t exactly smooth. I emailed so so so many of them but all reverted that they were not free. Some weren’t exactly very friendly still. But Mr Lim was very approachable and readily accepted the invitation. He had 7 solemnisation sessions on our wedding day! Amazing! And he even thanked us for inviting him. :)
We met up with him around 3 months before our wedding day as he would like to meet us personally and brief us on the procedure / details. He told us to write our own vows and make it very personalized., like adding in examples of the nice things your partner has done for you.
He even asked Sam to sing in public (his greatest phobia!) during the solemnization hahaha… we thought he was abit weird (siao?) and overly-friendly at first, where got people say story in their wedding vows one?? Hahaha… but after the whole thing, I’m glad we asked him to be our JP J or else our vows may just very much be repeating sentence by sentence after the solemniser. Then won’t be meaningful after all. So yea.
After the solemnization, we continued with the 敬茶 session in the room as more relatives have arrived by then.
After that, we went back up to our suite to touch up before heading down to the ballroom. Cos by then it’s around 7pm whereby cocktail will start. The dinner should commence at 7:30pm.
Initially I was planning to go down maybe only at 7:30pm cos usually the banquets I’ve attended I never see the bride at the reception area one lei. Plus I am very shy one and do not like crowds haha (even though it was my own wedding haha). But there was nothing much to do back in the suite, so sam and I went down to the banquet hall.
I was soooo wrong to think I wanted to stay in the suite lo, haha cos once I reached the reception area, I was super happy to see my friends / relatives / colleagues. Totally don’t have the “very shy and I don’t wanna be in the crowd-phobia".
My friends and relatives were also so excited to see me hahaa.. then we became damn high and just kept taking photos and more photos lol! I make it a point to talk to every single one of my friends who came for the dinner. I was so happy that night :)
We engaged Mojoideas for our Actual-day photography and videography. I think they are darn good!! Very funny team and we totally enjoyed ourselves. We had their “instant print” package as well, so once your photo is taken, it will be instantly printed 4R size :) and live fed (projected instantly) on the projector screen in the ballroom.
I didn’t want to opt for photo booth cos I don’t want people queuing at the booth instead. The other time I went to a friend’s wedding and she’s got this photo booth.
When the dinner was starting and when asked to stop queuing and adjourn to the balloroom, nobody moved. They all tell the person, No wait, we want to take photo first!
If I’m the bride I confirm very sad one haha
So, to prevent that from happening, it’s best that the photographer moved around instead of having guests to queue at a fixed place to take photos. At around 7:45pm, the guests were all seated and our ‘childhood montage’ was screened.
We engaged Adrian from Corazon Events P/L as our emcee as I didn’t want to tax friends to do the job. I just want everybody to enjoy the dinner so I’d rather pay a professional to do it. As for the childhood montage, it’s not really a montage of our old growing up photos, but a story of how we met. The conventional montages are just too cliché and overly used. One word boring.
I have been finding alternatives and the other time I was talking to cousin kaya, she told me her friend’s childhood montage was damn cool. They hired someone to draw it instead. You know these “Draw my life” series you’ve seen on YouTube? Yeah. I thought it was such a brilliant idea and decided to try it.
Kaya told me they recorded the drawing using a handphone on 4x Fast motion mode. After which, do the voice over and add in background music. Seems doable :D So during my one week leave prior the wedding, I went to our new house to draw as there’s more space there. We bought a whiteboard, 1 duster and a pack of 4 whiteboard coloured markers. I did the storyboarding on some white drawing papers first and started recording. I drew the story in a few scenes and Kaya edited to put them together into a full clip. After that, we recorded the commentary and she added in background music of my choice! She's sooo talented!!! What would we do without her? omg.. now as im writing this, i'm still so so thankful of her :) haha..
Our video was so well-loved by the guests (sorry i buay hiao bai, but it's true! haha) and many came to ask where we got it professionally done. wahahaha....
watch it here :)
Next was 1st March-in :D
we were walking super fast and the photographer had to run and overtake us and signalled us to slow down... which we did eventually, Lol He prepped us beforehand but i guess we were too excited haha..
Cutting of wedding cake ceremony....cliché hahaa
Us at our table :D
We had a huge VIP table! of 20 pax seating :D
my brother's beautiful family! Now there's a new addition mei mei! (i dragged until now then blog. My sis-in-law already gave birth and maternity leave over! ahhaa)
Second march-in after the video screening of "Morning Highlights"
im loving my navy mermaid gown! Actually i love the morning & evening gowns. My 1st march-in gown is so-so only as the top is weird i think.. wasnt very flattering hmm.. but i so love the bottom! Love the ombre blue and purple colours! haha
Champagne popping..and pouring... cliché
Our speech to family and guests...
Adrian sabo us by asking us to act out a skit of Romeo and Juliet zzz it was quite stupid so it's entertaining for the guests, haha
Special thanks to our emcee, Adrian and (oh gosh i cant remember her name, she was very helpful and cute!) from Corazon :)
Wonderful team from Mojoideas! Super entertaining duo (they are brothers!) haha. Thanks for the wonderful photos and videos! and the great friendship fostered even after our wedding :)
Thant's all folks! :D