Ain't too long now.

15 more days before I relinquish my status as ms and upgrade it to mrs. i'm excited of course, but i'm also as nervous as hell. i mean, this is it. getting married is a huge huge deal. i'm kinda all over the place now. i have to work, i have to plan and organize a wedding, and in amidst of that, I have to also plan some itineraries since we have guests coming over from overseas for the wedding. it's crazy hectic. i can't wait until my leave starts next week and i can focus on the final details for the wedding at least to get most if not all done a week prior to the wedding so the week proceeding to august thirteenth would be spent chilling my last few days as bachelorette. although, i don't really see that happening. well, i can hope still. a few things to look forward to; i'll be taking my dress, yes the dress this weekend. oh, and my girls are throwing me a hen night. Lord, bless Penny. Don't propel her to do crazy stuff. Love her nevertheless for planning the whole thing. Oliver is coming back next tuesday just in time for the food tasting in the evening. right about time. at least then, we could share the stress together.

anyways. i thought I'll update some pictures from the recent trip to germany.

First day when Oli fetched mum and I from airport

Visited a ruin castle site

On the way to Ikea to buy some furnitures for the apartment. Beautiful weather.

German meat and sausages

Oliver presenting his thesis. I didn't understand most of it.

Oli's ultra cool graduation hat

In front of Mannheim University

Romerberg, Frankkfurt with mum

Germany's skyline with the future in laws and mum

Okay, internet connection is annoyingly slow. I'll continue another day.

The Invites

Rushing out the invites. Counting down to the day. We're excited.

Our Pick of Wedding Vendors.

A few friends have been asking me for recommendations; where do I get my dresses from, who to do the hair and make up, wedding venues, shoes, invitation cards etc. I'll try to cramp all these details into one post.

First off, I'm still reeling from the engagement cum pre wedding shoot we had last year. Although some people who have seen the pictures still ask me, ' so when are you going to do your pre-wedding shoot?' and I told them 'Errrr, we did it already. It's the ones in Shepherd Pictures's facebook.'

I guess, since we didn't do the whole fancy schmancy 'gown and suit' photoshoot, it doesn't look like your normal prewedding shoot. But that was what Oliver and I wanted. 'Sides, Oliver and I agreed that the only time he'll see me in a white gown donning a white veil would be the day I walk down the aisle to say, 'I do'. Having said that, yes, Shepherd Pictures is our official photographer and cinematographer for both prewedding and actual wedding in August. I can tell you, when we first engaged them as our photographers, we were a bit unsure because we haven't seen a lot of their work since they are quite new in the business. But just check out their work in their Facebook. Their pictures are getting better and better. As their client and friend, I am so proud of them.Then, as I mentioned in my previous post, a bride has to look her best on her big day. So, get a good hair and make up artist. I got Jeffie Jeff who is kinda like the hair and make up artist/celebrity in town. We did a wedding trial makeover sometime back and at first, I thought the make up was a tad too heavy, but when he took a picture of it, it looks amazing in photo. Maybe I am not used to the whole heavier foundation, thick and fake eye lashes  etc. But I think, I still want to tone it down for my big day. I like it more au natural.



This was at Jeffie Jeff's studio in Karamunsing Capital. I like his studio. So classy in black & white.

What else? Right. The dress! I got my wedding dress from Lasposa, SS2 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Of course, I cannot reveal the gown I chose here. Nevertheless, their customer service was good. I ordered two dresses from them because initially, we planned for two receptions. But then, the second reception was cancelled. So, I called them up to ask whether I can cancel a dress knowing that it was specified in their purchase terms and conditions that order is non refundable. But they agreed to cancel my order. Thank God! I also got a dinner dress from D'glitters Boutique in Desa Hartamas, Selangor recommended by a friend. In turn, I would recommend bride to be to check out this boutique. They have a variety of evening dresses which in my opinion are quite gorgeous and affordable. They also sell white wedding gowns with laces and tulles. I saw this really nice mermaid lace white dress and tried it on. It didn't fit me. :( Still, it's worth checking them out. Other details; let's see, shoes from Lewre, wedding invitation cards from Alice Wedding Gallery (Lintas Branch, they also have a branch in 1Borneo besides Tune Store) complimentary from our official wedding reception venue, Pacific Sutera, Sutera Harbour.

And......I think that's all we got for now. A few other things will be sorted out in due time. I'm going to Singapore this weekend to meet up with Penny and Hwan Li, two of my three bridesmaid to look for their dresses. I need to source vendors for flowers, cakes/cupcakes, after ceremony catering etc. After the wedding ceremony, we're going to have a light brunch reception and I'm planning to do a bit of DIY decor. Nothing to fancy though. I guess, everything is under control for now. No need to panic. Breathe in, breathe out. (for self reassurance). Planning a wedding is quite a task. And it's normal to feel a bit stressful because of course, you want your wedding day to be amazing and memorable.  But always bear in mind, that at the end of the day, it's all about the joy of tying the knot with your future husband. So enjoy planning you brides and grooms to be.

P.S. All the vendors specified above are linked to their websites or Facebook. :)

Life as it is

So here's the thing. I've been really occupied lately. In a good way. Besides work and preparation for the big day, I've been, get this, working out yo. So far, I've tried belly dancing. It was okay at first until the class got cancelled quite frequently because, I was the only student and the dance instructor wouldn't teach just one student. Heck, I don't know why. Then, I went on to Zumba and I'm still am. I love Zumba. It's fun and a great dance-cardio workout. I did try a few other things like pilates, jogging, still occasionally, and just this morning, I joined a bootcamp. But I have the feeling it's going to be a one off thingy because I'm just not cut out for military-style workout. Lots of squats and push ups. My shoulder is in pain. But hey, a workout is a workout. It's good and more importantly, it cuts down the calories and trim that waistline. I'm not quite satisfied, me think I still have those jiggly bits on my arm.

Anyways, I recently, discovered my mum's vintage wedding dress. I remember seeing it and trying it on when I was still a kid, like 6 or 7 and then it must have been tucked away in some old closets. But then, I came back one night and open the closet and saw it hanging and went awestruck. I straight away tried it on and woah, t'was an awesome feeling. And it must have meant Mum and I were about the same size in our 20's. Anyways, I had an idea. I'm planning to take like a vintage portraiture wearing the dress and yeah, we'll see how that goes.

It's been  bittersweet at work lah. On one hand, I enjoy my work, on another, I have to resign from it soon. But it's all for the better. I'm quite positive that, once I get settled down in Germany, take up a language course and maybe do my MBA, I would be able to find a job. Speaking of settling down in Germany, recently, Oliver and I had been looking at apartment where we're going to stay after we get married and we saw this one apartment that we really like. But the thing was, when Oli checked with the owner, there were 40 other people applying for it. So the owner told Oli and probably other applicants to write a letter to tell more about us, as tenant looking to rent the place so the owner could decide. And guess what, we got the place. Well, technically, Oli got the place but yeah, I'm so happy for him, for us. It goes to show that Oliver, my future hubby, is one of a kind lah. He out of 40 other applicants got the apartment. Isn't that great?

I think it is and I also think I ought to get back to work. I just felt like I haven't written anything here in ages. But oh well. Later.

I do...

One of my favourite browsethrough wedding photographer blogs is Rachel Thurston's. Her innate ability to capture picture perfect moment amazes me. Not only her work inspires me, but also the inspiration comes mostly from her clienteles. She's a Carlifornian based wedding photographer and somehow she has had the most awesome and interesting clienteles. From vintage garden wedding to simple but fun and quirky wedding, each wedding truly represents the couple.

Here are some of my favourite work from Rachel Thurston, but also favourite couples. I love some of the pictures because of the poses, which I intend to take pointers from. :)

How quiant!?! Picnic reception :)

When shopping for my wedding dress, I asked the bridal consultant, 'Do you have a dress with pocket?' She looked at me with a blank expression.

Sigh. I love weddings. I love beautiful pictures. I love how a picture tells a story and that you can read love from it. These for me is why life is beautiful when you have someone to love and who loves you the same. Ta.

Butterflies

It just hits me that it's March already and it's less than six months to the big day. I'm having the butterflies in my stomach as I write. The good kind. I was in Kuala Lumpur past weekend to look for my wedding dress and I found 3 dresses. One for the wedding ceremony, exactly what I wanted and the other two for the evening reception. Having a dress for the big day definitely lift up a huge burden on my shoulder and now, I can actually focus on other things like the invitations and whatnot.

A few other people around me are getting married as well. So, it does help to talk about wedding thingymajig with them as we're going through this pleasant ordeal.

I keep reminding myself amidst all these heebies jeebies of planning for the wedding, I'll be cool, grounded and just a relax bride to be. I hope I will by the end of it. Anyways, I got to get back to work. Oh, I'm gonna miss working in this desk of mine. Never mind the pressure. Ta.

Early morning thoughts

Each day I wake up, I'm constantly reminded that 7 months down the road, I'll be walking down that aisle and I'll be marrying the man that I love. It is a day to look forward to. But that aside, I'm also hit by a realization of some major plannings to do prior to that big special day. People kept asking me, how's the preparation so far, and usually, I'll just say, oh it's all good. It is still far ahead. So, no rush. Yet. Because deep inside me, I'm like

OH.MY.FREAKING.GOODNESS!!THERE'S.SO.MUCH.TO.DO.AND.WHERE.DO.I.START.

Although, as soon as I started to panic, I'll make a mental note; we've pretty much got the venue, I'm still looking for that dress, there's the invitation list to prepare along with the invitation cards, the wedding bands, songs, but I've got all that scheduled, so I don't have to worry much. Yet.

I have this  habit of writing a list of things I'd like for the wedding at random times. It's all over the place because I'll be doing some non-wedding things and suddenly, a thought will strike me like hey, I'd like this for my wedding and I write it down on random paper which reminds me, I have to get like a proper diary to pen down all these wedding thoughts. Lest I forget.

Anyways, it's 6 in the morning, still early. Up because I'm having the cramps coupled with a blocked nose due to the cold. But, I'm going to try to get a bit of sleep now. :)

Choosing a dress

I think it is every girl's dream to be a princess on her wedding day. I doubt boys would actually think the same or else it'll be just weird. I'm still trying to decide 'the dress' to wear. A friend of mine suggested to try many type of dresses because what might look good on the models, racks or others might not look the same on Yours Truly. I did some browsing through and stumbled upon Eden Bridal's website. So yeah, I saw a few dresses that I like and bookmarked. See below. Think I might have a common theme for my dress which is romantic laces and bits of tulles. Oh well. I plan to start looking for 'the dress' come January. For now, I need to just shed a bit of weight so I would complain less about looking puff when trying on dresses.

Dresses above are from Eden Bridal

Choosing a venue

For the past few weeks, I have been going back and forth to decide where to hold our wedding reception. My idea was to have it close to nature. But then, there weren't many choices here in Kota Kinabalu. I, initially thought of Lembah Impian but was still a bit doubtful. So, I look around, got quotations from hotels and resorts. But I still rather have our first reception 'not' be in a ballroom. So, we came back to my first choice, which is Lembah  Impian. Earlier today, I made an appointment with its manager, May, because they happened to have a wedding today and she invited me to go over to see how they organize the wedding. Together with me was mum and cousin Elsie.



Mumsie and I



Cousin enjoying her chocolate brownies



The 'could be' reception area

Discussing with the manager, May.



Mum and daughter talks



More talks



Considering the white marquee for my reception



Calculating wedding cost

$_$

Books and wedding

I guess for someone who loves books, I find these pictures and the idea of a library-themed wedding really cute. So simple yet almost dreamy like.

Pictures from Jessica Claire

Of us...

When Oliver and I decided to take our so called pre-wedding photos, we both agreed that we wanted a fun and casual photo session that allows us to show our personalities as individuals and as a couple. So, we engaged a photographer friends of ours, Cedric and Adrian from Shepherd Pictures. Our photo sessions which took place at several locations, from cafes, fishing villlage to memorial park and beach was all fun. So here are some of my favourite photos.

Thanks Cedric & Adrian for the wonderful pictures. We'll see you guys during our big day. :)

Marriage Preparation Course Session 3: Managing Conflicts

Ah yes, the 'C' word. Conflicts. Don't we all have it? Whether it is conflict with others; families, friends, partners or even conflicts with thy own self. It is inevitable. God didn't make us all different and unique and sans conflicts. Conflicts will always be there when you put two people in a relationship context. Any relationship for that matters.

When Oliver and I did this session, it made us realize the differences that we have between us and it doesn't have to be major, but minor things like our spending/saving habits, the way we plan/organize things, and of course the way we deal with conflicts. Oliver is a Rhino, a quiet one though, if there is anything that upsets him, he will talk about it while I am a hedgehog, I'll curl up in a ball and unleash the infamous 'silent treatment'.

But then again, it's not that bad between us, in fact over the years, we've improved on this, as in how to manage conflicts, when there is one. :) We've learnt to air it out, learn to compromise and the most difficult but important of all, learn to forgive. This session gave us a few additional pointers on how to deal with conflicts as a  partner;

1. To hit a pause button- I think this is when two people are arguing in a circumstances that only makes it worse. Like Oli knows that I get easily upset when I'm hungry or sleepy so he either has to make sure that he feeds me or that I get a good amount of sleep before any confrontation. And I know that Oli gets temperamental when he is driving. So, car is a no-argument zone.

2. To avoid phrases like 'you always' or 'you never'-Oliver and I both admitted that there might be instances when we were guilty of this. But yes, we are working on it. Rather than saying e.g. 'You never write to me anymore', say 'I missed those times when you used to write to me'. Just an example. :)

3. To listen more without passing judgement.-When two people are in conflict, they usually develop what I call the selective hearing of facts or they pass judgement without establishing any grounds yet. In cases like this, I think I'm more guilty, being the more impulsive better half and more emotional. So, while I learn to listen more and not judge straight away, Oli agreed to be more sensitive.

4. Talk, talk, talk- Communication is the most important aspect in a relationship. I can't imagine a relationship without communication, hence it was the 1st session in this course. Good thing is Oliver and I talk a lot. Of course, I talk more. But we talk. We talk to keep updates of each other, we talk about politics, about people, about us, about the future. We talk our way through arguments and talk again afterwards. Of course, at times, we keep certain matters to ourself, but given time and some bits of pushing, we talk about it. 

So yes, Conflicts. As much as we hate to have it, when we do come out of it, it does make us all the more wiser and stronger in person and as a couple.  As the saying goes, 'what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.'

Anyways, a 2nd sneak peek from our pre-wedding shoot.




@ The Garden, Curve


"Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous, love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly, it does not seek its own, it does not provoke, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things."
1 Corinthians 13

 

Read Marriage Preparation Course Session 2: Commitment here.