3 weeks of....

Break down of the next few weeks:

Fri/Sat (18 & 19/09) - Parents arrive from Malaysia/UK
Mon (21/09) - Move house
Wed (23/09) - Marriage registry
Fri (25/09) - Fly to KL
Sat (26/09) - Booked for hen day in KL (not sure what is happening..eeeks!)
Mon (28/09) - Stag week for the boys in Phuket and Kuala Gandah trip for the girls
Tue (29/09) - Back to Johor for last min prep
Thur (1/10) - Boys back and down to Johor, guest start coming down
Fri ( 2/10) - Dad's bday and Mendhi night
Sat (3/10) - D-day!! Traditional wedding and Reception
Sun (4/10) -Guest start trickling away
Mon (5/10) -Back to KL
Tue (6/10) - Siem Riep, Cambodia with mates!
Fri ( 9/10) - Back to KL and trip back home to Mel


It is going to be a very busy 3 weeks indeed!

Wedding stuff - pt..whatever

Should I be worried that I am not worried that I am getting married (the registry part that is) in 17 days?

The making of a Traditional wedding pt 2

WIP List - 4 months to go and counting...

• Wedding cake - yes/no?
• Accommodation arrangements for KL (for hen and stag nights pre-wedding day)
• Accommodation arrangements for guest
• Travel arrangements for guest (only if notified)
• Shoes - for reception
• Sandals/Kitten heels (?) for temple
• Traditional garlands for temple
• Bouquet for bride
• Bouquet for bridesmaids - yes/no?
• Liquor - quantity- for reception

Others

• Send out wedding invites (must wait for the good month)
• Ensure weight doesn't go up so can fit into dress and sari blouses :p
  

Fat - or flab?

Well - with 4 months or so left till D-Day - the pressure is on to start exercising to look freaking good for the wedding and the subsequent pictures that comes as part of the day.

After all - *shock horrors* - one CANNOT look ugly and heaven forbid gain WEIGHT before the day can we? What would ppl say?

Let me say that exercise and I are like oil to water - we simply do not mesh! Not these days anyways - I am just too simply knackered by time I get home to even worry about changing and rushing to the gym.

Gee whiz.

The making of the wedding pt 2

Just some items I got for the bridal party.

1.Some sexy shoes for the bridesmaid. The pic does no justice to the actual item. To be used for the dinner reception

2. Sari for my future mum-in law (groom's mum).

3. Sari for my mum (bride's mum)



4. Sari for the bridesmaid - yes Shirly - this is yours.

5. The other sari's for the bridal party. There is suppose to be 4 in all - but 1 was already given to the primary bridesmaid. The other 2 are for my cousins who are part of my bridal party who will also act as usherers/flower girls.

Back from Malaysia - the making of the traditional style wedding

I've been meaning to start jotting about the wedding prep (or lack off) but have been putting it off for heaven knows how long. Gosh! I am getting married!

Biting the bullet and all - and taking advantage of the long Easter weekend this April, BF and I headed back to Malaysia to assist mum and dad with some wedding related decisions.

As a tick list

Things completed:

Purchased:

1. Wedding sari
2. Reception sari
3. Groom's salwar khamez
4. Wedding bridesmaids/usher's sari's
5. Groom's best man and bride's brothers Nehru jacket
6. Sari's for bride's and groom's mum
7. Brides wedding dress
8. Wedding rings (his and hers)

Picked:

1. Mehndi designs for bride and guest
2. Menu for lunch - Banana leaf
3. Menu for reception (6 courses)

Booked:

1. Mehndi (henna) night specialist for night before wedding
2. Wedding photographer for pre wedding/wedding and reception
3. Temple - for wedding proper
4. Temple hall - for lunch after wedding
5. Hotel restaurant - for night reception
6. Caterer for lunch
7. Dias and temple decorator
8. Accommodation - after wedding for self and future HB (now BF)

To be honest, I have heaps I want to put down on the blog. Something for me to look back to perhaps once this is all done and over with. However, I am still somewhat getting back to "Aussie mode" after spending 10 lovely days with the folks and catching up with some selected mates.

Coming from a mixed background - but seeing that I am marrying to a completely different one, I wanted to incorporate some of these things in but trying to coordinate things from across the seas really doesn't help esp as mum is hindered by the fact that dad is not really doing very well with his recovery (more on that later).

Never mind, this is just the beginning eh.

Life lessons

I've been browsing through for my usual lazy Sunday blog reads and stumbled across this write up by a popular Singaporean blogger.

To cut the whole story short

1. She is currently living with her boyfriend who is Caucasian.
2. She is wanting to settle down, have the big wedding, diamond ring, mixed kids etc
3. He is saying that since they are living together already, why rock the boat as in his own words "We are as good as married"
4. Due to that, she in her mind thinks that they are "engaged"
5. She has logged on HIS Facebook account and changed his rship status to engaged.
6. And has accepted and both Facebook status now reads as "engaged".

But SERIOUSLY!

I don't know really. Is marriage really needed these days? I have been doing quite a bit of thinking now that it has come to a point where I have to start planning the logistics of my own. I have 12 mere months before I become a Mrs (I am planning to keep the Ms thank-you-very-much) and even though it is not freaking me out *yet*, a small part of me does wonder sometimes. After all, I have been independent and living on my own since 16, I have travelled the world, I have/am working abroad, am used to calling the shots.

I already see changes in pattern.

It is not so easy wanting to just drop everything and get away from it all. I have the other half to think of (living together has its responsibilities).

I cannot simply just say "Honey, I am wanting to go off now, see ya later!"

The old (single) me would have just went away without care and reason.

Getting married is not simply about the wedding, it is about the marriage.

It is about compromise.

I have started thinking about the wedding prep though; am still uncertain whether I will have a celeb here in Melbourne but the slightly bigger traditional do will be held in Malaysia. The guest list here will be just family but the traditional wedding will also still be small for Asian standards. Nothing more than 180 ppl with only my close friends invited and the rest being from my parent's guest list.

The date has been set, the countdown now starts.

The hunt for the"perfect" ring

So BF and I started on the whole wedding prep by looking for the appropriate wedding bands this weekend. Fortunately, BF is not so fussy with the rest of the arrangements (he is leaving it up to me and my wedding planner aka mum), but he has in his mind very definite ideas on what the wedding bands should look like. We have also decided that we would not mind spending a little bit more on the rings which is fine by me as we are going to be using it for the rest of our life (touch wood - esp as we both are very anti-divorce).

Well, taking advantage of the long weekend holidays, we went around the Mel Little Collins area in the CBD and started on our research.

The aim - Wedding bands

Budget - Up to $5000 for 2 (around RM 14000)

Outlets visited - George Jensen, Tiffany & Co, Canturi

BF has taken a fancy on the Canturi "Comfort Band". The prob now is, my engagement ring is a solitaire and being a single stone, the wedding band has to be equally complimenting. I personally do not fancy a plain wedding band esp if one is paying quite a bit for it. I did try and liked their white gold "Upswift Band".

Next stop - Tiffany & Co. We immediately fell in love with their "Sheamerice" white gold band for him and it does come with a female version. However, the feminine version was overshadowed by my current band and we started looking around. The "Channel" 2mm complimented mine precisely (oh the sparkle!) but decided to head up to Georg Jensen ... but not before I eyed this gorgeous diamond 0.1 pendant which is on my "wish list" for the mo. ;)

At Georg Jensen .. we both liked the "Fusion" collection. BF doesn't want any diamonds on his, I am still contemplating my options but the 3 tone effect looks good on him whilst the 2 tone effect (yellow and white gold) suit me better as I have (and I say this without sounding like a vain pot but all of the sales ppl say it), long delicate fingers.

Heading to Chaddy tmr to look at more rings. Rather we do the research early than be stuck later on. Furthermore, it gives us more time to budget!

p/s: Yeah, BF and I are engaged. We got engaged over new yrs. He asked my dad for permission first. Its a good thing that he did too.. as apparently my dad was going to have a 1-on-1 if he didn't.. so he got brownie points for that.

Proposal venue - At my parents - His original plan was to do the whole she-bang thing back here but as he wanted to show them the ring, the wasn't any hoopla on it. :)

The ring - Platinum set, "Love Diamond" single solitaire from the C-Club (formerly Carat Club), Pavilion - KL