One Step Back, Countless Steps Forward

Key says

Since young, the thing I longed for and dreamt of is a tender, loving, caring, supportive and happy family. Perhaps this has got to do with the fact that I was never brought up by my parents and all these elements were missing from my childhood, hence I craved for something which I have never had. In just a few hours more, I'll be welcoming one of the most important milestones in my life - marriage and soon I will have my own family, and hopefully, I can build my own tender, loving, caring, supportive and happy family.

As I sat waiting, I wonder what all the soon-to-be brides and grooms are feeling when they were in my shoes right now, i.e. waiting for the moment to arrive. Do they feel nervous, anxious, excited, worried, paranoid or perhaps nothing at all? Personally, I just hope everything well turn out well. People might say that I'm worrying too much (especially those who followed our blog) since we started planning for our wedding very much in advance, but the fact is that there are some components in our wedding which till this very moment does not seem to be 100% ready. As Pat and I are (i) perfectionist and (ii) someone who prefer to have things finalised in advance, having this uncertainty certainly puts a stress on us mentally (and perhaps very much on Pat), especially over the last few months.

Adding fuel to flame, there is still the matter of turnout which I have shared earlier in my post. Somehow, I just have this strong feeling that there would be issues of attendance (especially so for my relatives side) and there were really unforeseen circumstance resulting in last minute absences (with regards). Some are really unfortunate and uncontrollable and I'm not blaming them, but it's just that there is this imperfection in the planning which bothers me and I really wonder if I have made the right choice (at the start) to keep the banquet small? But there's nothing I can do now and the wedding is just hours away and all I can is hope for the best.

As I look back on the 998 days since we have decided to embark on the journey as a couple together, it is indeed an amazing journey, and rather an unbelievable one. From acquaintance to friends to lovers - never do I imagine I would one day cross the line from friend to lover as friendship is an important aspect in my life. Nonetheless, the journey together have been sweet, beautiful and memorable. There are moments where we get into disputes but most of the times, it had been good. Now on this 999 days together, we will be making commitments to each other, vowing to be together for better, for worse, for richer,  for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part. Looking forward to the many days ahead of us.

PS: I love you, Patricia.

It's Getting Real...

Key says

It's less than 3 weeks to the actual wedding. Though we have started preparing for the wedding perhaps more than a year ago, it has never seem so real till now. Also, though we have engaged the necessary parties, e.g. photography, videographer, wedding singer, rental car and banquet venue etc, somehow I keep having the feeling that something has not been covered. Adding to that is I am also worried about the turnout of the guest. We have tried our best to give advance notice to our friends and relatives, somehow the feeling I get from most of them is that they are uncertain of when is my wedding! This is especially worrying as I do not hope to see an empty banquet hall... Hopefully, everything turns out fine... I hope...

Wedding Photos Collected

Pat says

We collected our wedding photos earlier today. hehehe.. to my amazement, I feel that the end product is not bad indeed!

I personally like the texture of our wedding photo album. (*LOL*) well, it is something to comment about, I find the material that they used for the album is of like not bad quality like that. Also the colour of the photos came out nicely too. *pleasantly surprised* though not saying that I expect it to be bad. hehe..

Since we already saw the photos like a zillion times due to the picking of photos the other time and we kinda knew the layout of the photos already hence I did not have much excitement on seeing the photos per say. Perhaps more excited on seeing the real deal printed. =)

OH! and we saw our MV! Remember earlier on, I mentioned that we had an MV too besides our photoshoot. haha.. we did not get to see anything till now! the end product. I was so nervous and shy. Basically cause I did not think I was a good actor and worried that I might look ugly in some places. haha.. So.. they showed us the video on FULL SCREEN. *faint* I had to like cover my eyes for some parts cause really too shy to see myself already.

But overall, I would say thumbs up!! I actually think the video was not bad at all, love the last part the best and the music too!~ All thanks to our videographer cum producer and photographer and editors for all their hard work. It is really impressive! =) The lady was telling us how expressive we were and it really made our video easier to do. HAHAHA *I was laughing to myself* she further added that there were some couples that does not have much expression at all. And she thought our video was very nice. hehehe.. *brownie points* lolx.

We were still thinking of whether to show it at our wedding anot. But since we spent money on it, I was thinking why not. haha.. though I will be SUPER SHY afterwards. Seriously, I am NOT an actress in making at all. >.< So for those who are reading this and going to our wedding, please bear with us on the video. I hope it makes you laugh and smile though. *A little light entertainment from me and Key* =)

Key says

When I know that the items are ready, the only thing of interest to me is the MV as it's the only thing that we have not had any preview of. The video actually turned out quite well but as it's purely fictional, somehow I still feel that it's a bit "fake". Nonetheless, the ending part is especially nice and since Pat has decided to play it for our wedding banquet, hopefully it provides some entertainment for the guests. I would most probably upload the video to this blog on or after our wedding as well for the rest of the world to see. :)

Actual Day Wedding Gown Selection

Pat says

Just about 3 months ish before our actual wedding day and we were scheduled to chose the actual day wedding gowns on 25 May 2013!! I'm a fan of pinterest, so thru my causal browsing in the wedding section I have pinned a couple of gowns for reference already. =)

I did not have much expectation when I arrived at the bridal studio, mainly because my mind is still blank from my overseas trip to Bangkok and I just arrived in Singapore the day before. *Luckily, I slimmed down instead of putting on weight!*

Our consultant seems to have an idea of what we wanted after some causal talking. *idea was something different from the usual usual* and she asks us to go thru TONS of photos so that if we saw something we liked, she can let me try it too! She was super awesome, letting me try ALOT of gowns (even though some was not within our package price amount, but just try try first). She was very excited about the whole thing and kept saying I must wear something that showed my figure. hahahaha.

So in the end I tried mermaid, A line, asymmetric gowns and gowns in different colours! *Tip: it will be good to be as open as possible, something when you see it might not be nice but you will know only when you try it! and try as many different designs as possible so you know which one you like or suits you* Personally, I was not a fan of mermaid dresses, especially white mermaid dresses. I think I looked quite old in it. >.< because our consultant let us try all the different, interesting design first, when we tried the usual usual ones, it doesn't seem special anymore and our consultant also knew it. After a while, she commented that we don't have to try other stuff anymore because we tried all the "weird weird" ones already and would not like those normal de.. hahahaha.. she is cute isn't she~

I was abit disappointed with the fact that they did not have one gown that I saw in pinterest. But no matter, I still managed to pick two gowns for the night. *I did not pick any evening gowns though, main reasons was they seem normal (if I could buy it, I'll buy it to attend weddings instead) or they make me look old. hahahaha* Our consultant seems very satisfied with our choices too. She said I look best on those. hehe. *we had to top up abit for one of the design, cause it was considered as the premium version, but I guess it's worth it! (you will be able to see from the pictures after our wedding!)*

For the kua, they basically just had two designs, the dragon or phoenix. I tried a toga kua first which was awesome! hahaha.. looks super nice and different. I also tried a cheongsum kind of "kua", but as the toga kua was too nice already so this pales in comparison. As for the normal kua, it looks decent. hehe.. after having some discussion with my sister, we decided on the normal kua. *she claims that the toga kua make me look like a ge tai singer and old~ and the normal kua makes me look very young and super nicesh* haha.. but anyway, it is a once in a life time thing to wear a normal kua. so I was fine with it. *don't need to top up additional $$ too, hehe*

So we decided on the day for final fitting and collection of gowns etc.. *so many things to be concerned about just before the wedding, how to concentrate on work.. (sighs)*

Overall experience: I had a great time trying the gowns at My Dream Wedding, many thanks to our consultant! =)

Key says

Another 6 hours spent in the bridal studio! When choosing gowns and suits, the main focus is on the bride as what the groom wears is to compliment the bride's gown. As such, my selection is done only after Pat's. As what Pat mentioned, we started with the more exquisite gowns followed by the traditional gowns. There were other considerations besides the design, such as ease of walking or if it look nice on photo and eventually Pat made her choice.

One important thing to note for those engaging the service of My Dream Wedding is that once the choices for the actual day gown has been made, you will actually acknowledge on paper and there will be no changes. Well you can but a fee must be made so for those who have not choose their actual day gown with My Dream Wedding, please take note!

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Wedding Photos Selection

Key says

Though I understand that it's quite a norm that the bridal studio will try to sell the photos, it is actually quite difficult not to make additional purchase. That is because 30 photos (included in the package) is simply too little... We took a total of about 300 photos and after 2 to 3 rounds of elimination, we were left with 62. It's been very difficult to eliminate further as the photo really looks good and is able to tell a story (well we sort of plan it to be so during our photo-shoot but since we cannot have a say on the layout, I'm not too sure if the album will turn out to be as story-telling as I want it to be).

Nonetheless we decided to keep all 62 photos, i.e. we will be making additional payments to buy these photos. There wasn't any hard-selling by the bridal studio, it's simply just too difficult to reduce the numbers further. After the selection of these 62 photos, we need to choose like another 43 photos from it to be used for various things, such as mini albums, photo frame, cover photo etc. All in all, we spent close to 3.5 hours in the bridal studio!! At the end of the day, we are exhausted simply by looking at photos over and over again.

If anyone is reading this, perhaps it's good to consider bargaining to increase the number of photos when purchasing a bridal package so that perhaps there's no need for further top-up. Not too sure is this possible but oh well, never ask never knew but in our case, the 30 photos from the package is definitely not sufficient. Nonetheless, we are satisfied with how the photos turnout and the service/help rendered during out photo selection. +1 more brownie point for My Dream Wedding.

Pat says

One word: *Tiring*
We had our appointment to chose the photos after our work, which was a serious mistake. Imagine looking at your computer for close to 8 hrs or more already and now had to see TONS of photos to pick those you want for your wedding. *it's seriously strenuous to the eyes*

I remember we were very worried on our photoshoot day as we worry that there was not enough nice photos for us to pick. hahaha!! In the end there were about 300 photos to view from and we had several rounds of eliminations too. *Tip: if you want to save money, you had to be strict with the choosing of photos, if not it will take FOREVER to chose from a big pool of photos just a few that you are willing to spend on*

Once we had a rough gauge of which photos we were interested in (obviously more than the 30 photos that were included in our package) we need to eliminate more as we did not want to spend too much on it. It was very difficult at the final stage of elimination because the album will be in layout form (aka afew pictures in two pages), therefore there were some photos that had similar themes that had to be together then nice. but lets say if we like one/two photos from the similar themes then we can't really pick it either as it would not go well in the photo album. (I hope you get what I mean, >.<)

In the end~~ 62 pictures was it and we of course had to pay extras. I like our new consultant for the photos choosing (at first, I thought it will be the same consultant throughout the whole experience) as she was genuine in helping us pick nice photos and not just hard-selling photos. *super likes*

Out of the 62 pictures, we had to chose pictures for mini albums, bed side photo frame, cover photo for big album, bed top photo frame. *argh* I was seriously tired after it.

Usually for the bed top photo, it will just be one super enlarged photo but for My Dream Wedding, we saw one that consist of 10 pictures and you can move the pictures around like jig saw puzzle. *super likes* haha.. so.. we upgrade to that instead.. =x

Overall experience: I'm just glad it is over.. hahahaha! but I can't wait for the finish product! =)

Photoshoot

Key says

Weather has been kind to us. It was raining heavily a day ago and there was some slight drizzle early in the morning. However by the time we reached the wedding studio, the rain has stopped. After confirming the gowns and suits are ok one last time (the day before there was a fitting and it was amended for today), we waited for our make-up artist to arrive.

Frankly speaking, I was actually a bit disappointed when the make-up artist arrived late as it sort of throw our schedule off because we are late for the first location shoot. However, in the end we managed to complete the shoot at the first location on time and subsequently the other shoots is on schedule. Also the make-up artist followed us throughout and help us do our make-up, wipe away (my) perspiration, carry our bags and even help to create the bubbles effect. The helpfulness and friendliness have completely undo the bad image of her late arrival.

After this wedding shoot, I think I will highly recommend My Dream Wedding to my friends if they are looking for a bridal studio. Prior to the shoot, I have already blogged about how satisfied I am with their services. Today, they have far exceeded my expectations. First and foremost, it's a crew of 3 following you for the photoshoot (2 photographers and 1 make-up artist), unlike the typical wedding shoots we saw along the way where there is only a photographer and the couples. Next, they have a mini bus which fetches you around your location and they helped to prepare (i) cold cut fruits, (ii) mineral water and (iii) breads for you during the shoot so that we will not be hungry - talk about being considerate!. Throughout the shoot, we do not need to worry about anything at all and just concentrate on the shoot.

Well the day has gone by pretty quickly and smoothly. Since there will not be a second photoshoot, I just hope the photos turn out well and the way we want it to be. If so, My Dream Wedding would have won another (3rd) brownie point from me and the last critical event will be the actual day!

Pat says

I didn't knew I was that excited till the fact that the night before I woke up at 2am (thinking it was 6am), then 3am, 4am, 5am etc.. (u kinda get the idea) BUT! the funniest thingy was I nv felt tat excited to wake up almost every single hr thinking its my waking up time. >.<

Well, I wanted to eat Mac Breakkie for breakfast, so we suggested to meet super early to eat our breakfast and take our own sweet time to go My Dream Wedding (MDW). It didnt rain at first, but after we ordered our breakfast and started eating, it slowly drizzled abit then poured =(. My heart almost dropped when I saw this situation. But I kept reminding myself that it'll be okay. We can still do raining shots! (interesting and unique~) I guess that was the only thing that brighten my spirits. Well, as what Key said the weather was good to us. (super nicesh indeed!!)

I was actually kinda worried about whether we need to think beforehand poses to do or stuff to bring etc. But apparently on the day itself, they kinda planned it all alr. They were super experienced with the places that we are gg and the cameramen alr knew what kind of poses he wanted, so he just instructed us on how to poses and all. We just had to follow accordingly. hehehe.. Which is definitely a relief on my part. =)

But I felt impromptu poses by us helped too.. We wanted this drinking shot that he didnt planned to shoot, then it somehow became part of our MV too! hahaha.. and they prepared like items for the shoot/MV too! but we brought some stuffs that we tot would be useful~ (shall not elaborate too much~ *secret* till the MV and photos are out) muhahahaha..

Thinking back, I think it was an enjoyable experienced! We felt very taken care of, except my mosquito es bites part. The mosquitoes ONLY BITE ME! sighs.... got 7 presents from the mosquitoes..

Reviews of photos are available within a week time (so fast right~), we were very shocked too. But as chinese new yr was up next, we settled an appointment on 21 feb 2013 instead.

Cant wait for the photos to be out! hopefully my face looks slim~ (*pray hard*)