Married!

I cannot believe that it has been more than a month since I last updated this blog. I mean, it has got to be the most important phase/day of my life (other than my birth and my death) and I totally didn't write anything to help me remember it in future. Argh.

Must have really been caught up in the last-min preparations. Plus, relatives and family friends streamed in during those last few days. Everything just went by in a blur. I only recalled that I was totally in my operational mode, totally NOT feeling that it was my wedding day, and while I was walking down the aisle, I kept pulling at my Dad's hand and hissing under my breathe, "Don't walk so fast! I stepped on my own gown again!" And oh, the fact that I was totally nervous right before I did my dinner march in, partly from the tightness of the gown and partly from the fact that I had to sing. I recalled Adel putting her hand on my arm, looked at me in the eye and said, "Are you going to be alright?"

And then, it was off to the HK wedding (which was completely unlike the SG one because everything was so informal and unprepared... in a nice way) In the end, I had so much fun that I wanted to do it all over again - except that I obviously can't.

Now that everything (including my Japan honeymoon) is over, and I'm at a new work place, it seemed as if I'm really starting a whole new life althogether. There is a husband in the house and I am trying to play my brand new role as a wife (e.g. making breakfast, tidying up). Am also experiencing the newbie feeling all over again in the office, although I already know a handful of people there even before I joined. I supposed things will fall into place eventually. This year is going to be an eventful year, not just for me, but for Sis and Hwei who are going to get married too.

Life is really flying by fast and soon we will hit the big 3. This year's resolution is to perhaps work towards something meaningful? If work load is not too heavy, perhaps DLTP 1? Or to at least help out more at church starting with the filos community stuff. Fai was giving me advice on office relations today... but I suddenly felt that it really didn't matter cos' work is not everything, and am just going to be a simple employee.

Yep, that will be the direction I'm taking this year. ^^

Calmness in preparation madness

If I were to look back at this moment in time, I want to remember that despite the occasional panic attacks of not finding the right dresses, right hairstyles, planning for the seating arrangement, grumbling at yet another need for change, going "argh" over the amount of details I have to go through for the programme/montage/music, coordinating food/decor/manpower with Mr. Jang...

I am enjoying myself, and deep down I'm calm, as calm as I can be, like one year ago... as if the wedding is not like 10 days away. My operational mode has kicked in, and I'm having fun, because this is the only time I can get away with what I want to do, and any disapproval can be answered with "oh, different people have different style and mine is this."

Awww... simply awesome.

Honeymoon planning

Am planning my honeymoon itinerary for Japan and am secretly knocking myself on the head for being totally not involved in the planning of previous family trips to Japan. For instance, I know that we need to get JR passes to get around the region but how it works exactly, and where to purchase it... well, I am only starting to find out now. It's not too late, but yeah, retribution for this family lazy bum!

Anyway, everyone was raving about those private onsens which couples could use in their own rooms. Found this online (Hotel Senkei) and was really quite tempted to book it. Since Mr. Jang and I don't really eat raw stuff, I chose the plan which doesn't include Japanese breakfast and dinner. The room prices ranged from SGD 320 for a basic one, and SGD 510 for a more premium one, which seemed reasonable. But in the end, I decided to let this go since other than the private onsen, there is really not much interesting to see at Hakone. I'd rather stick to the original plan to go Osaka, Kyoto and Nara.

Am getting a tad more excited about the wedding, since I have more time to plan for it now. Went for a church friend's wedding just now and it was the grandest church wedding I've ever been to! Was a little... in awe of the decor, the food variety, and the sheer no. of people who turned up. Mine will definitely be a much more smaller and simpler ceremony. And I think I prefer it this way too. :p

- . -"

I am seriously, seriously, seriously missing HK because of:

i) the weather
ii) the fact that I have to work again, and
iii) the realisation that I have LESS THAN A MONTH to go before the wedding day.

Buck up, Grace!

Have you seen my childhood...

Didn't get to do any shopping today because I promised my grandparents that I'd yum cha with them in the afternoon. Spent the day at their place, digging through old childhood photos which I can use for the wedding montage.

I hereby confirm that I'm a grouchy person since the moment I was born. Look at the way I frowned. It's professional.







And all my smiling genes must have been used up by Sis - her smile is as permanent as my frown. Oh well...





Today's weather is freezing by the way. I seriously don't remember feeling this cold in HK. Quite hazy around the city area as well. Brr......

Back in HK again!

Am in HK right now enjoying the cool weather and my new found freedom - no more exams ever again, at least in the foreseeable future!







Today's plan is simple: i) have lunch with parents, ii) shopping at Causeway Bay, iii) gown-fitting in the late afternoon, and then iv) perhaps have dinner with Gugu.

A thought just entered my mind... this is the last time I'll come back to Hong Kong as a single. Who would have thought that I'll be where I'm at now... when we packed our bags and moved to Singapore almost 20 years ago. Loads of thoughts and emotions suddenly...

Work and wedding preps

I went back to a somewhat lonely office today with only DJ, Jon and Medha around. Tried my hand at CCD collation and actually found it to be more difficult than our previous Friday reports. Guess that's because I'm so used to trade/economic-related issues already. Am also not much of an arty/techy person, so naturally the issues don't appeal to me.

Managed to book my air tic back to HK in December as well - the prices are as high as 1000 bucks for SQ, and over 800 bucks for JetStar! Had to take two more days of leave in order to fly back on a date that offers a more reasonable price. Felt quite bad as that meant I will be away from the office for more than 3 weeks. Ah, oh well...

(Met Mr Jang's parents for coffee after dinner. Quite relieved that there isn't much tension despite the ceremony issue over the past few days. Keeping my fingers crossed that it remains this way).

Oh, chick organised a good doggie day at K9 cafe yesterday. Here are the photos:

5th attempt at sharing

Missed two consecutive rounds of church service due to work earlier this month. Was a little distracted today cos' halfway through Mr. Jang called from Thailand to speak about the customary ceremony thing, and I ended up being grouchy and sulky again. It's no wonder that I found it hard to concentrate even though the sermon was really apt, esp at this point of wedding preparations.

Secret to Contentment

God's providence - God will provide all our needs (but not greeds!)
God's power - "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength" Phil 4:13.
God's promise - When God's work is done in God's way for God's glory, it will not lack God's supply.

I totally agree that contentment is not inborn, but a process to be learnt.

Wedding blues

I was just commenting to Mr Jang yesterday that I am indeed getting a little nervous about the whole wedding thing. Now that the mega event is over, all that is left between now and the actual ceremony is my exams (which will be over soon). I am starting to feel how real this whole thing is.

Really didn't help that the first call I received from him this morning has to do with my worst fears about the ceremony and marriage in general - clashing traditions and unhappy in-laws.

I suppose I did overreact a little. To me, this has long-term implications - never mind the fact that he thought i) I'm frustrated because I don't like/can't deal with change, and ii) I'm being jumpy about things that haven't actually happened.

I must really explain that i) I can deal with change, but not change that arose from some inexplicable reasoning because I have to know if I were to expect more changes and plan within them, and ii) the mini sensing unit in me does foresee that the issue probably will not end here, just like how I've foreseen that this mini crisis will happen despite us having discussed and agreed on this before.

And my conclusion to this is that I now totally agree with the saying that marriage is not just about the two of us anymore. And perhaps, this adds on to the frustrations because I've always lived my life in a very independent way. Now, I've really got to learn to put down that self-centredness and be a good wife, daughter-in-law, and in future, a mother. No time to think if I'm ready to take on the roles. There is only one way out - just do it, and hope for the best.

Wragh.

(Special thanks to xin who answered my frantic call this morning and calmed my nerves, to Mom who assured me that she is flexible with the arrangements and she will help handle my Dad's expectations if necessary, and to Mr Jang who probably experienced the worst morning from being the messenger, and being stuck between demanding parents and a crying fiancee).

Goal: a smaller waistline!

Woke up at 10am this morning but still managed to do a fair bit before I headed down to Orchard to meet my ex-colleagues from SQ for lunch. Saw this cute uncle wriggling with a hoola-loop made of big wooden beads as we crossed the road from Paragon to Takashimaya. He was all smiles when I took out my camera to snap him. I bet his waist is slimmer than most of us. And Mr. Jang just commented that my waistline is indeed getting a bit... rounder. I actually have a similiar elastic hoola loop in Hong Kong. Maybe I should dig it out and bring it back to Singapore. I still have 3.5 months to work it out before the wedding... jia you!

More wedding preparation thoughts

Had a really good discussion with Jun on wedding plans this evening after the yummilicious Tom Yum steamboat dinner at Parkway. We are going to get married on the same day (yes!) and so were updating each other non-stop on the status of preparations. Showed her all the stuff that I've bought so far and the design of the gowns etc etc.

Really wanted to use the bright pink theme for the church decor but everyone's advising against it - won't look nice with the bridesmaids' dresses anyway. So was flipping through the magazine with her and found this really sweet looking hair piece which I'm thinking of using as my pew decor. It won't look as sharp as the bright pink flowers but at least it will look coordinated and blend-in. For the bridesmaids' hand bouquet/flower ball, am probably going to stick to the apple white shade like the corsages with a little bit of baby purple to match the dresses.

(I didn't think I will spend this much time pondering over the colour themes/shades! But heck, if the decor of my church wedding would look like a wild garden in the end then so be it ... no more brain cells left already... argh)

Wedding prep updates

Haven't been updating the blog for a long time because there hasn't been anything to update, really. My life has been revolving around the same things - work, school, wedding preparations. To be exact, it's ard 7 weeks to the event, 8 weeks to exams, and 15 weeks to the wedding. Like a typical SAR-style update, the foundations have been set and preparatory work is underway.

For the wedding especially, am already trying to squeeze as much time as I could in between work and school to do my part as one half of a couple. Didn't want to rely on Mr. Jang all the time because it's 'our' wedding afterall. Having said, am really grateful that he is taking the lead for most of the items. We've finally booked the pre-weddding shoots and will be heading to China to do it in less than a month's time! :) Don't think my raccoon eyes will recover by then, and I just hoped that it won't get worse because we are heading closer and closer to LW. Am actually quite excited, and it's precisely because I don't really have very high expectations on how it will turn out in the first place(the package is so cheap!) So there's really no stress about it not turning out good enough.

Am in the midst of confirming the floral arrangements, searching for the right kinda music, and coming up with ideas for the programme. It's not just because it's our wedding, but it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make the event truly reflective of "our style", if we have one! So might take the opportunity to do stuff that we otherwise won't do. Just need time to sit down and really explore the creative "options" we have... and hopefully they will materialise.

Wedding stunt ideas

I think my bridesmaids will kill me if I make them do this:

http://sg.video.yahoo.com/watch/5612352/14729764

Church decoration ideas for wedding

While waiting for my hair to dry just now, I sketched out the rough ideas on how my church decoration would look like. I have started out with some self-made decor (which Lil said looked like bambo-sticks for hanging clothes) but have since outsource the whole plan to Mom. Nevertheless, have sent her a couple of ideas just for info. They are quite straight forward coz' there are certain restrictions (e.g. no candles / confetti) and there's limited time to do up the venue...

Pre-wedding counselling

Mr. Jang and I went to church at 9.30am this morning to start our first pre-wedding counselling class with PC. To be honest, I wasn't super enthusiastic about it cos I thought PC is more, erm, serious compared to PG who was conducting the classes for sis and OSH. I was a little worried about saying the wrong things, and having PC looked at us like we're mad.

Turns out, Mr. Jang, in his usual jovial self, did most of the talking. I glared at him a couple of times during the session to hint that "pssssssst... maybe we shouldn't tell PC about this!" but he happily went on to talk about everything under the sun. (Ok, maybe this is what the session should be like - open, honest, naked sharing - but still I was a bit more careful.)

And then came out-of-the-blue questions like, "how do you define marriage?" I went "er......" again coz' seriously I haven't really thought about this and was rather caught by surprise. To me, it was more like Mr. Jang proposed and I said yes, so let's get married! But I haven't really given a good thought to how I define marriage. Maybe just simply starting a family? I don't know if it's a dumb answer (?) but I have quite a simplistic view towards this.

Thereafter came the temperament test. Apparently, Mr. Jang's perception of me is quite in line with my perception of self whereas his perception of himself is rather different from my perception of him. PC joked and said that perhaps it's time for me to "wake up" some ideas about him. Okie. Funny.

At the end of the day, Mr. Jang said that we shouldn't take the test results too seriously, cos i) he might have misunderstood the questions and ii) PC also said that we shouldn't read too much into the details cos the indicators have to be read in totality.

I am not affected. Maybe just worrying too much like I always do. Afterall, although Mr. Jang said that marriage shouldn't change anything between us, I still feel that it's a huge step into the "unknown". But I know we'll be alright cos God is with us! And as long as we keep Him as the first priority, we'll be fine!

Fantasy and reality

Fantasy: Haoxiang sent me pics of her month-old daughter today. So cute! Also saw photos of her in France where she's staying with her husband. Both of them are living a simple yet 幸福 life! Ooh! And those photos made me miss France so much! Argh. If only I'm working and staying there too! I can go to the louvre or eiffel tower everyday. Just for fun!

Reality: Mr Jang and I went to meet a photographer for our wedding. I quite like his work although the price is slightly out of our budget. We're thinking of not doing professional videography and spend the money on photography instead. The package comes with a fine arts coffee table book, which is quite different from what I see from the standard packages. Can click with the photographer and his wife too, so most probably going for this fella (he does film photography too). And well, we really hope to settle one more item cos the date is drawing nearer!

Trial make up!

I went for a trial make up for my wedding on Sunday and ta-da! Here're the results!

Think this is the most traditional looking one. Am going for this when I'm gonna wear the Chinese Kua in the morning.

Am considering if I should continue wearing this pin-up style for the church wedding as well. Perhaps with a pearl / sparking hairband or something. Tiaras are too common now I think!

This is an alternative. Think I want to try letting my hair down (depending on how long my hair will be in Jan). A more casual look! Didn't really like the curls here though. Maybe if I'm really doing a half-up, I'll do the hairband thing instead of flowers (yes, those are tissues you see in the photo). And less curls... only waves at most!

I thought the make up looked too white indoors, but the outdoor look is quite natural. I like! :)

The hunt for wedding bands

Mr. Jang and I went hunting for wedding bands after we sent Gugu and Uncle Mushroom off at the airport. Most of the designs we saw were quite common but there were two that caught our eyes. One was from Lee Hwa - a rather thick, unconventional, funky kind of design where both bands had three diamonds on it; the other was from Tian Po - a very traditional and classic design which looked and felt quite solid (something like this). The Lee Hwa pair would cost less than $2000, while the Tian Po pair would cost a whopping $4500!

I actually prefer the Tian Po one. It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing afterall, and we'd have to wear it for the rest of our lives. But then again, I can't imagine spending so much on a pair of wedding bands. I could use the money to go for a nice holiday. :'(

P/S: The salesman at Tian Po said that my diamond ring could easily cost more than 2 pairs of that wedding band. Suddenly I salut Mr. Jang for having the courage to purchase such an expensive thing. Now I believe him when he said that he has no more money left in his account. Haha.

:'(

I asked LL if she would cry on her wedding cos I've been hearing Slipping Through My Fingers from Mamma Mia and I suddenly feel so sad. :'(

Mr. Jang always said that just take it as my parents are gaining a son. I mean I feel happy that I'm getting married. But at the same time, for some reason, I still feel sad. Is it normal? :'(

HK Trip (3)

Since I settled most of the stuff on the first two days of the trip, the remaining two days were spent shopping, eating loads and just walking here and there idly.

Managed to go to 深水步 on Sunday to look at some decorative items for my DIY church wedding. At night we went to this really nice place at 尖沙嘴 to have Korean BBQ. Oh I just love the food in HK. That and all the stuff you can find at the 茶餐厅.