I just discovered this beautiful blog, and I’m in love with its hazy, dreamy images and Amanda’s (blog-owner) personal and easy to read commentaries. (Complete with how-to-create-dreamy-photo’s tutorial. I like!)
It’s been a promising day, and also a thought-provoking one. With the promise of opportunity comes the what-if’s, and in my case, truckloads of them.
Wow. Looking back, it’s been quite a challenge of a year. I can’t wait to see what next year brings – I have a feeling things can only go up from 2009. :)
{images courtesy of Mocking Bird ; Mocking Bird prints on Etsy}
So, after a good weekend, Monday can feel a bit like a rude awakening.
Highlights of my weekend include re-watching The Devil Wears Prada (I love Meryl Streep’s controlled acting), inter-familial bonding between the in-laws during our wedding reception food tasting, shopping with Monny, M and Yang, and last but definitely not the least, the buttery, just-out-of-the-oven-flakey char siew sou (a savoury Cantonese pastry) at Imperial Treasure restaurant.
By the way, Szechuan Court at Swissotel has awesome Chinese food (but give the desserts a pass). Must-tries include the hot and sour soup, beef cubes with garlic and pepper, and the e-fu noodles :) I could finish that whole dish of e-fu noodles on my own, and almost did!
I’d like to end this entry by welcoming to this world Caitlin-Mae Loy, my dear friends’ new baby girl. She was born this morning at 9.26am, and I can’t wait to meet her soon!
{image courtesy of The Peeping Thom}
I chose this image because I realized something in the past minute -
What you want is there, you just have to calm down and not panic, to find it.
I needed some information that I churned out a while back on my computer, but having printed it out and lost the handout. So I went about wringing my wrists and being all woe-is-me.
But what I forgot was that I still had the soft copy in my Email inbox so I could reprint it.
My past self was savvy enough to realise my future self would panic about this. But it seems that doesn’t work vice versa…? :)
Anyway, it’s been a long day and a look week. I’m looking forward to a home-cooked dinner of spinach and cheese tortellini, by the dear husb.-to-be tonight.
When tomorrow is over, I’ll heave a sigh of relief!
{Vic from Lost}
I’m a romantic at heart… so here’re some eye candy to satiate mine and your sweet tooth…
Lights in little heart shapes, and a little glass heart.
The joy in a vintage-chic wedding.
This all-white love nook.
A little heart sewn by your lover into your shirt pocket, for safe-keeping.
{images from weheartit; last image from garance dore}
This amazing terrace suite (or as the Hotel calls it, ‘suites panoramique’) made me gulp.
I really, really want to go to Paris when it is warm and blue-skied.
{Hotel de Sers, via The Cool Hunter}
Hello, new layout!
Do you like it? :) I did it just to add a bit of cheer ’round here. Seeing as I’ve been stressed and overwhelmed the past week or so, and my skin is paying the dues. Which leads to an itchy, scratchy, not-so-happy me.
The trouble is, there are just so many things to do, so many places for my brain to be every other moment. And it’s all happening now, this month. Things need to be bought, vendors need to be cajoled and negotiated with, logistics need to be discussed, work needs to get done.
I need some order; I need some respite. Or maybe I just need a plate of pasta. And a back-scratcher.
But I really should just head to bed, right?
{Nightingale Black Dress by itsokmydear}
There is no more bitter taste than disappointment in people you care about.
And there seems to be a effing lot of that floating about these days.
I am in love with that font, and the 50’s dancing couple. Check out the amazingly dreamy wedding these cards came from, here.
Update 1
By the way, we’ve found our wedding singer! Her name is Joanna Dong, and she’s a multi-talented local artiste who dabbles in jazz, Chinese musical theatre, electronica and more. Her voice is melodious and clear, and has a Stacey Kent type quality to it. If all goes well, we’ll be able to assemble (in Joanna’s words) a “dream team” of a quartet with ace local musicians on double bass, piano and saxophone. :)
Update 2
I’ve also bought my wedding jewelry.
Now, this was quite a point of contention for me.
I’ve always believed that precious jewelry is at best a decadence, at worst a waste of money.
At this point in my life, cash is still my most treasured asset. (Probably because I don’t have a lot of it!) It’s liquid; jewelry is not.
Besides, that cash spent on a few pieces of jewelry could easily go to a sofa, a nice bed, or an Eames chair (or six).
But my mum was very insistent that she purchase some as ‘jia zhuang’, or a bridal gift from parents to daughter upon marriage. So, realizing I wouldn’t be able to talk (and then, argue) my way out of it, we visited the diamond dealer and purchased a necklace and a tennis bracelet.
They are beautiful, I concur. But as I left the diamond dealer’s office, I jokingly told M, “I must be the saddest diamond customer in the world!”
But having suitably mourned the loss of the money, and realizing the irreversability of the thing, these are the ’silver linings’ I can think of.
1) I have small wrists. So that meant lesser diamonds on that tennis bracelet. It could’ve been worse!
2) The jewelry will come into good use in future, as everyday or special occasion jewelry.
And I guess the most important point of all, which has nothing to do with Return on Investment… my mum and dad’s sentiment. They want this to be a piece of my history, a gift from them to me as I enter a monumental rite of passage, a tangible piece of their love and a tangible marker in time of this event.
Now, that….. I won’t argue with. :)
{image by Max Wanger, via 100 Layer Cake}
Loose ends to be tied up :
- Solemniser
(needs to renew license ASAP, latest mid-Dec. If not, approach another)
- File for notice of marriage
(Dependent on solemniser situation)
- Musician
(Decide between Anne Weerapass, Josephine A Little Dream, & Joanna Dong)
- Flowers
( SAM!)
- Wedding jewelry purchase
(2x necklace, day bridal & evening gown. 1x bangle or bracelet)
- Wedding makeup purchase
(eyeliner & mascara, before 2nd fitting & hair/mu trial)
- Emcee meet-up and scripts
- Favor assembly
(stamping, packing)
- Photo movie
(waiting for my baby photos from dad)
- Invites
(addressing, stamping, sending out – to be completed by mid/end Nov)
—
A lot of people have asked me, “Don’t you just wish for the day to be over already?” And the answer is no. I don’t. I don’t want it to be ‘over already’, in the sense of dreading it and wishing I could get it over and done with. But I do want to just get to the day, like now. Without some of the nitty gritty that I wished we could do without.
