Happy 24th Birthday to Pamela!

It's my younger sister-in-law's birthday today and she planned a whole day of fun with the whole family! :) 

I was pondering on what to buy for her and wanted to just give her an angbao like we did last year for her & Cheryl's birthday, when she came home last night and showed us the Pandora bracelet that her boyfriend Vincent aka Ah Vee bought for her. She asked to see mine and said that she liked the safety chain on my Pandora cos it keeps the charms safe.. 

So before we slept, I told Le Hubby that we should go and buy her a Pandora safety chain after church today, before we meet them for lunch at Din Tai Fung (RWS). We rushed to Tampines Mall after church service to buy the safety chain and headed down to RWS to meet her and Ah Vee (Pam goes to a different church).

Brendan's 30th birthday Minion themed party!

Date: 21st September 2013 (Saturday)

Decorations & party supplies: Party City

Food Caterer: Orchid Thai Catering

Birthday Cake: Secret Recipe

Super late post cos I've been really busy.. Heh!

Last year I organized a high tea birthday party at Scotts Royal Carousel for Le Hubby's birthday. This year I decided to organize a birthday party for him at my rented house before I move out to stay with him after our wedding.

Wedding Video Part 1 - Gatecrash & Church matrimony

The wedding video that was shown to our guests on 29-Sep-2013 during the dinner at Grand Hyatt can be viewed at the link below! :) The file is too big so I can't upload it directly in my blog.

https://vimeo.com/76212108

You can see that my bridesmaids & Nathaniel did a lot to help out and without them I won't have such beautiful memories (cos there won't be so funny & interesting footage) to view.

Our videographer will give us the edited summary of the wedding dinner together with all the raw footage by end of this month. Super can't wait! Haha!

The childhood montage + "How we met" video is somewhere.. Not sure where Le hubby saved the file but I'll upload it or post the link when I have the time.... Lots of things to settle after the wedding!!

Our Wedding Angbao Box

The wedding angbao box is one of the things that I pushed it to the last minute.. I had so many ideas, so many plans.. in fact I had too many ideas for it that I kept procrastinating until DAYS before the wedding.

Luckily my sister came to the rescue and she offered to make it for me. I passed her the stickers I bought online for USD20 which I ordered months ago and told her my vision for the angbao box I wanted. 

I wanted a suitcase box that's filled with all sorts of travel related stickers on the box. I didn't really have a theme for our wedding cos it's very restrictive but it's somewhat of a travel related one since I love going on holidays.

She really spammed the stickers.. used up everything! LOL

She put in buttons on the sides so it will resemble an old school suitcase.

There's a flap at the bottom so we can remove the red packet without damaging the box.

Thank you Meimei! I love you!

She's super happy with the durian mooncakes from Goodwood Park. LOL!

On the first day after the church wedding, I was super exhausted cos I only had 1.5hrs of sleep the day before and was still on heavy medication. Luckily my sister and Pamela (my new sister!) helped me to sort out the red packets.

Super happy girl sorting out the angbaos

Le hubby thought people will only give during the wedding dinner but not during church so initially he thought we don't have to bring the box to church but Mama Chew asked us to bring along just in case.. Majority of the guests at church are our friends and all of them are super generous and nice to us! Thank you all! :)

We couldn't invite many of our own friends to the dinner at Grand Hyatt because of space constraints. I only had 2 tables including my bridesmaids so I really had to cut out so many people whom I really wanted to invite.. Really sorry if you wanted to come but I couldn't accommodate. Most of the tables went to our parents. Brendan only had 4 tables including our cellgroup friends.

Perhaps we could have gotten a bigger venue with more tables, but we only searched for hotels this year in April and for a 5 months notice I think it's a miracle we got a nice hotel with a good date. Most couples book their wedding banquet at least 12 months in advance. In fact, Grand Hyatt wasn't my first choice but it turned out perfect except for the space constraints cos The Gallery is only big enough for 26 tables maximum.

Unfortunately the box was destroyed cos on the 2nd day during dinner, there's no time to run upstairs to lock the box after the reception & cocktail session. Everyone including my bridesmaids were all seated inside waiting for the 1st march in, so Le hubby asked me for my permission to rip open the box to pour all the red packets in the little safe box in my makeup room beside the ballroom, which I had to reluctantly agree because there's really no time and it's not safe to leave it lying around. :(

RIP little box.. You served us well! 

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.