The wedding weekend is finally over..

I can't believe the weekend is already over! I've been spending all my waking moments (and sometimes sleeping moments dreaming) planning for our wedding and now that it's over, I feel a little lost. My married girlfriends told me this would happen... but the feeling really sucks. 

Well, the wedding did not go exactly 100% as per my plans, but I have to learn to accept the fact that one person cannot control everything. Yea yea, bridezilla me. 

I have been pushing myself too hard for the whole year that I fell sick just a week before the wedding and had to be hospitalized for the ENTIRE week until the day before the wedding.. So I missed out on opportunities to brief my bridal party on the itinerary & sequence, do last minute checks, etc... 

I was angry at myself for falling sick but now that I think back and reflect, I think it's a sign from God that I should slow down and not push myself so hard. Since I did not have the chance to slow down or take a break, He had to intervene and do something.. Who knows I might collapse from exhaustion on the actual days and had to cancel or postpone the wedding? So.. thank you God for all the blessings in my life and I trust that You will have a plan for me, better than anything I can ever plan for myself.

All the wedding pictures will only be ready in a few weeks when my photographer sent them to us. Meanwhile, here are some behind the scenes pictures from a bride's perspective.

Photobooth picture with Le hubby with customized design.

 My bridal bouquet from Saturday's church wedding

 Makeup in our bridal suite before the tea ceremony

We were 1hr late for the tea ceremony! It was madness cos everyone was rushing around and getting things prepared. Thank God for my wonderful bridesmaids and Nathaniel for helping me out.. if not I will have a heart attack and die from anxiety.

 Tea ceremony dress (Pic with Santi guniang)

Initially I wanted to rent a traditional Kua for the tea ceremony. I blogged about it in June but after a few weeks decided not to rent it.. The total cost to rent the dress + Le hubby's costume is $1088 and we think it's ridiculous to wear it for 30mins. Moreover my relatives from my father's side are not attending the wedding and only a few relatives on my mother's side is coming, so there won't be too many seniors that will be attending the ceremony. I forfeited the $100 deposit I paid to House of Etiquette cos it's non-refundable. Luckily I did not put in too much money cos initially they wanted $300 deposit but I did not bring enough cash that day. Thank God.

So I went to Chinatown and custom made a Qipao for $380. My friends told me that's a really good price for a custom made piece... but it turns out the material is those cheapo ones and the colour is not very nice.. So now that dress is hanging in my cupboard. One of the regretful and stupid purchase for the wedding.

The dress I was wearing in the picture above was actually planned for my 2nd march in during dinner. I bought it online and when it arrived, the cutting is not nice and the size was too big. I went to alter it but it's still not very nice.. but since I already paid S$500++ for it, just wear it for the tea ceremony.

The dress made me look 10kg fatter. Sigh. Really regret that purchase too.

In the private room at Grand Hyatt's The Gallery

After the tea ceremony, I got ready for the 1st march-in while Le hubby went around to mingle with the guests.

I changed into my Silhouette gown and my makeup artist also changed my hairstyle. The dress was altered a few times and 2 weeks before the wedding they had to pull in 5inches of material! The seamstress was very surprised that I lost so much weight since the last fitting.

Well, unfortunately I was hospitalized after the dress was altered and I think I put on some weight because they kept feeding me at the hospital (5 meals a day) and if I don't eat, no medicine (pills must be taken after food). And all I do is sleep and roll around without much physical activity.. so.. Hai. I didn't weigh myself but the dress felt a bit tighter when I wore it last weekend.

I did not lose the 20kg that I wanted (and needed) to get rid off, but overall I lost around 12kg since January this year. An impressive feat if you take into consideration that:

1. I don't exercise. At all.
2. I often eat Mcdonald's at 2am (my 1hr break at work).
3. I didn't take any supplements, diet pills or starved myself

That's how bad my work-life is.. that I only have 4 hours sleep everyday and eat Mcdonald's in the middle of the night because my working hours are 9.30pm-6.30am (officially without the unpaid OT hours I put in). I really love my job but the workload is just.. insane.

Snacks for the bride

Grand Hyatt was really hospitable and they provided a tray of light bites for me and sent it to my private makeup room (which was located just beside the ballroom so I don't have to run upstairs to my room to change my gown. Super convenient!). I was too nervous to eat anything so my tam-chiak sister helped me eat them. That's 3 cups of lychee tea she ordered from the waiter. =_=

During the cocktail hour before the dinner, there's free flow drinks & 2 types of canape that will be served to our guests. We chose the scallops & peking duck roll.

Scallops

My sister used my name and ordered SO MUCH food from the waiter! Really OMG. The guy kept knocking at my door and delivering food non-stop because she said something like "Please bring more scallops... and lychee tea. The bride wants it!". Like wah lao! They must think that I am the food monster instead of her!

Peking duck rolls

This sister of mine even brought plastic containers to TABAO the canapes.. I laughed until I wanna faint lah! She came for the food tasting with us in July and loved the scallops and peking duck rolls so she already planned ahead to bring containers to pack the food. Wahahahahhaha!

After the 1st march-in, we sat through the first 3 dishes before leaving to change and get ready for the 2nd march in.

 Changed my hairstyle & makeup..

Le hubby's bed

Nathaniel was such a great help, I cannot even express my thanks & gratitude in words. A friend like Nathaniel is like so rare.. I am so blessed to have a friend like him.

Before I was hospitalized he helped Le hubby pack his room and clear the clutter so there's space for me to put my stuff when I move in and also to make the room neater so Mama Chew can do the decorations and stuff.

 My crazy messy room

I actually planned to keep 3 days of the week before my wedding just to pack up my stuff at my rented place cos after the church wedding I will be staying at Le hubby's home.. well, since I was hospitalized.. I did not have the chance to pack! And when I was discharged on Friday, I had to go and do my nails + makeup trial so I really had no time at all to pack.. and I had to wake up like 4.30am the next day!!

Guess what? Nathaniel went to my house and together with my sister they helped me pack my room and put my stuff in boxes!

My sister (though very tam-chiak, LOL!) was such a wonderful person to have around during the wedding. She did everything I asked her to do without any complaints.. She did all the signs and arts & craft stuff, she went to Far East Plaza to develop the photos I needed for the reception at the last minute, she ran around and did this did that...I am just so thankful and grateful to have her as my sister.

My 3rd dress is my favourite dress out of the 3! It's a White by Vera Wang design which I bought online from David's Bridal. I shipped it in from USA and the total cost of the dress is less than 1/3 of the price I paid for my rental gown from Silhouette and that includes express international shipping by DHL! It's so gorgeous that everyone kept complimenting how beautiful it is and asked me where I got it from... ^_^

Love the pouffy skirt + corset bodice!

The colour suits my skin tone cos it's a light pink and I'm quite fair.

After buying the 1st dress online, I kinda lost faith in buying an expensive piece of clothing online which I cannot send back for refund... moreover, alterations will be difficult cos it's a corset bodice which cannot really be altered unlike soft materials.. But I mulled about it for a few weeks and consulted my trusted advisor Nathaniel and I decided to just try my luck again and buy the dress for my 2nd march in. Since it's a Vera Wang design there should be no issues with the cutting cos it's a "designer gown", just worried about the size and length cos there's no shops in Singapore selling/renting them and I cannot try on the size.

Thank God that the dress fit perfectly! The length was perfect after I put on my heels! No alterations needed at all! Lucky or what? :)

 Chilling after the wedding dinner

After the dinner, I went upstairs to our bridal suite. My wallet somehow ended up in my sister's bag, and since I forgot my makeup remover Le hubby had to drive to her house to take it from her + borrow her makeup remover for me.

Wany, Nathaniel & Tim helped me carry my barang barang upstairs and also stayed back with me until Le hubby came back. Super sweet of them cos all of them needed to work the next day (Monday) and they only left around 2am! :) I have such wonderful friends!

Guess how much this plate costs?

I had some F&B credit which was part of the wedding package that I had to use up before we check-out the next day so we flipped through the room service menu and ordered some drinks and food. 4 cups of juice, 1 mango pudding & 1 sago melaka cost $90++. We wanted to faint when we saw the bill.. but since it's "free", it's alright..

In comfy tee and finally eating dinner!

The hotel also sent the food that Le hubby and I did not eat during the banquet dinner because we went busy/on stage/photo-taking. Unfortunately the food wasn't very nice even though it's kept heated in the food warmer.. It became kinda rubbery and the ginko nuts in my Or-nee turned brown cos of the heat. Kua kua kua.

I wish I could go back in time to relive the entire wedding again (also to make it more perfect), but I guess I just have to wait for the videos from our videographer instead.

Heartfelt thanks & gratitude to everyone who has contributed their time, money, ideas, efforts for our wedding. I am blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful people!