Maybe we all have heard, read and watched the news about Japan’s powerful earthquake last Friday. Winston and I were enjoying ourselves in Universal Studio for my birthday weekend when the tweets came in. Japan is experiencing major earthquake at that moment. We weren’t aware of the massive damage that took place. Until much later when we watched the video footages and pictures.
It is heart wrenching.
These few days, I spent my time researching about the disaster for our work. After watching too much live footages of tsunami, I am convinced that human lives can be really fragile, everything we have can be wiped out within seconds. Take a look at these videos:
Japan is likened to a premium country with robust economy (although it is declining even more as we speak), highly productive and considerate, with a thriving culture and on top of that the most well-prepared nation for earthquake. Yet, they found themselves bowing down to the force of nature.
I am always amazed at the Japanese culture, the people’s spirit, creativity and authenticity. It is the one of the rare Asian culture that influence the world (At least for me, Japanese food is my no 1 favorite food here in Singapore).
In the face of disaster, their premium core is not shaken, proven by their efficiency, social responsibility and attitude.
Although they are a rich country, they still need our help! Please help support these donation portal or even buy Lady Gaga’s wristband!
“I am certain that Japan will rise again”, quoted one of the survivors. After all, they are the only country that survived two atomic bomb and yet emerged as one of the superpowers of the world.
Chinese New Year is here again! This year marks another transition to adulthood, which is giving ang bao instead of receiving one. I thought it will be weird and awkward to give out ang baos (red packet with money inside), but turns out to be just a normal feeling. I guess we adjusted well. It is Chinese tradition on the New Year for married couple to give out ang baos to the juniors. Read more about the tradition here.
Coincidentally, Winston turned 30 on Chinese New Year Eve. That’s more surreal than giving out ang baos. Do you remember Jennifer Garner’s movie 13 going on 30, when she wishes to be 30 on her 13th birthday. We always have fancy imagination of what it is to be like when we were… ( fill in the blank), yet the closer to that number, the lesser the excitement. Even when we have achieved all that, we are not as enthusiastic as the initial point of imagining. At least that’s how I feel. I think dreaming and imagining are the most exciting part of the journey, because the possibilities are endless. Dreaming is like a cycle, once you reach it, it’s time to dream another one, bigger.
Ok.. so no one is really expecting anything interesting from me, but what the heck! It has been 3 weeks since our wedding, and we are still settling down into our married life routine. The wedding was surreal in a sense and I was glad everything went according to plan. I will leave the inspirations, photos, videos and decoration stuff to Hellen, she’s better at putting everything together. She’s not resting on her laurels too, as she has been hard at work doing something absolutely amazing at home. I’m sure she will be showcasing it when it’s done *wink*.
But surprisingly, everything seems to be going well in these initial weeks, and I look forward to seeing Hellen every night at the end of the day! I just want to dispel this myth once and for all: you do not need to take effort on a wedding, it is the marriage that matters.
Let me tell you this, spending time and effort working on a wedding is an incredible way for a couple to get closer together. As we spend more time working on this project of a wedding, we learn more about each other, how we handle finances, our ideas, our short-comings and our talents. Therefore, if you can afford the time and effort, take time from your busy schedule to plan a wedding together, you may learn to love wedding and each other even more! This is what we called a true-blue “DIY Wedding”!
Well… I have been waiting for quite sometime to write this so here goes….
Countdown to Wedding Day (19-06-10): TODAY’S THE DAY!!!!!
This is it, the big day! I have done what I could for the preparation, I don’t know what else I can do, so let’s believe that this weekend will be great and wonderful!
Thanks in advance to all the helpers who has contributed in one way or another to this occasion, just be glad I am going to be married only once!!
And thank God for giving us this awesome opportunity to unite as one!
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
But I seriously feel anxious right now. I have done so many things the past 1 year and 4 months, but I also haven’t done all. I have a bittersweet habit of keeping certain things last minute and enjoy the thrill of heart-pumping moments like euphoria of gambling. That can be quite addictive. I always left some things half-done to keep me excited.
We are actually pretty organized, having done our banquet list, brief our helpers, settle with all the vendors. Now is the most crucial part of a marriage, the vow. While we are trying to write our own vow, it’s hard to quieten our hearts with so many things to do!
But we will still do it!
Anyway, here’s a sneak peak of my sassy hen’s nite. I will write the details and the juicy part when everything is less hectic.
Last Saturday, Winston and I conducted our first briefing with our helpers. Started with lunch @ Domino Pizza Katong. Followed by briefing in my house and ended with the wedding craft activity. Winston gave a brief of what’s going to happen on the day. I talked about the dress code, we assigned the task to the helpers. We didn’t manage to brief each team individually since not all team members are there. So we’ll do it nearer to the date.
The craft day was a success. We managed to finish tying and decorate 300 boxes of wedding favor, did a garland (thanks to Clarissa’s brilliant idea), packed the photos for photo gallery, etc.
We are so blessed to have group of friends that were supportive. Our cell group members made up the most number of helpers, followed by my housemates (some of which are also my cell members). We have been in the same group for 8 years and counting. Some of them know me before Winston and I were together. They have seen our transformation, seen our past and our future. I am really thankful for them, for without this group of friends, I don’t think we could pull this off. Since we dot not have big budgets to hire wedding planner to do these things for us, we rely much on friends. The least we can do is to thank them publicly and give them good ang bao as much as our budget allows!
So thank you to Lily, You Chun, Eko, Clarissa, Bryan, Kevin, Eunice, Riska, Henry (Pipin), Yong Fu, Alex, Esther, James and Amanda, Genia, Mema, Red for coming to Craft Day and helping us!
Special thanks also for Yuwei who helped us prepare our wedding invites even before craft day.
I will feature our helpers soon! So readers stay tune and Helpers, be prepared!
Here are the pictures of 17 persons cramping inside my room:
I am finally back… to writing one more entry… haha, will try to do a few more before the wedding. Here I am going to write a simple letter to my wedding guests. If you know you are one of the ‘fortunate’ ones, please read on.
“Dear Friend,
It is with my utmost personal pleasure to invite you to Hellen and my impending wedding on 19-20 Jun. As a guest for this wedding, there are a few things I hope you can do.
1. Get Ready to Receive the Invites!
As you can see from this post, our invitations are almost ready and we will be passing it to you in the coming weeks. In this other post, you can have a preview of what you are going to receive. We sincerely hope that you like it and will be excited for us as we get nearer to this important weekend!
2. Come Dressed for the Occasion!
We will be having our wedding in 2 days. Please read your invitation carefully. We have 2 invitations, so if you got a set of 2, you are invited to both event!
Day 1 (19 June 2010) is an outdoor wedding which will be romantic and possibly solemn. The dress code is Summer Chic, so come in your most colorful dressings! Don’t be too casual but at the same time, stay comfortable as the weather could be real hot (35 degrees celsius yesterday!!). We will be providing what we can to make you as comfortable and cool as possible, so do not worry. We are envisioning an outdoor garden atmosphere so let’s make it possible!
Very nice summer chic suggestions!
I know you will look great in this!!!... unless you are a dude...
Day 2 (Sunday 20 June 2010) is our banquet celebration in Conrad, so come in your formal dressings or smart casuals. (Hellen’s edit: Our banquet is inspired by Breakfast at Tiffany’s the movie, as well as the color theme: Black-White-Tiffany. So feel free to dress up in Little Black Dress or channel your Audrey Hepburn obsession here!) For the guys, formal wear is preferable. But nice looking jeans with shirt is acceptable too..
It will be a fun-filled evening for all as you walked down memory lane with us through the night.
3. Provide Your Well-Wishes through the RSVP Page!
In our blog, we have an RSVP page, so please provide your RSVP through the page by adding a comment. You can give your advance well-wishes too as we will truly appreciate that!
4. Don’t be in a Hurry to GO!!
For both days, especially on the first day, we have some surprises, so don’t be in a hurry to go!! So after our matrimony service, enjoy the sumptuous food but stick around as we have something special for you! Yes, that means YOU!
5. Smile in spite of Anything!
A lot of what we are doing is dependent on the weather so please keep us in prayers for awesome weather (no rain but not too scorching hot also!!!) In addition, no matter how much we plan, some hiccups may occur. But no worries, keep smiling! I really hope that you can enjoy yourself and keep yourself pumped up throughout the wedding for the photos and videos.
So all in all, my dear friend, I hope you can enjoy this wedding as it marks our union. When you received the invites from us, make yourself available and get ready to enjoy an atypical Singaporean wedding and have a whale of a time!
Finally a little song that I love as I prepare myself for the wedding:
Last weekend garage sale was pretty successful. Although the crowd was lesser compare to 2 years ago. The ones participating were also lesser, resulting in fewer friends coming. Thank God it didn’t rain, although the sun was scorching madly. The bad news is my arms became darker and it is obviously different tone to the covered part of my arms. I tried to prevent the tan by using umbrella and sunblock, but it still has the effect! I am in panic mode now..
I am clearing my stuff before I move in to Winston’s house temporarily, while waiting for our Punggol house to be ready. Luckily I have cleared up to 8 years of my stuff in batches. We had a big garage sale 2 years ago, and subsequently involved in flea markets. I used to rent the whole apartment and share it among my sisters and friends, so it’s not easy to shrink all that into a room in Winston’s house.
Anyway, cheers for Winston, Clarissa, Bryan (and parents) and Eunice for making this garage sale possible. We managed to sell a small fridge, a 80 GB iPod Classic (a real bargain@ $60), clothes, accessories, figurines, comics, toys, bags, books, shoes, games, hats, etc. Our Filipino neighbors came early to sweep off all the good stuff, they really can sniff a good bargain.
A big shout out for You Chun, Kevin and Alex who stayed for 2 days to help us pack. Kudos to you three! Also for our friends that came and bought stuff.. Thanks!
Since last week, we have been hit with several bad news. From shortage of invitations, my nervous breakdown, disappointment towards lack of excitement from close friends, lighting difficulties. The additional bad news came this morning. Our officiating pastor for the holy matrimony and solemnization can’t make it for the event. He has to attend to another urgent matter on that day. We are quite disappointed to hear that. One bad news after another, dampened our spirit.
Our wedding preparation reflects the marriage itself. We started off happy and super excited, planning and dreaming. But throughout the process we face discouragement, disappointment, problems. Marriage is not a bed of roses. Even roses have thorns. But we need to decide whether we want to continue pressing on when times get hard. Will we cling on to each other even more when problems come.
A lot of ideas of how nice this wedding can be, we put a lot of effort and thoughts to it. But when people around us is not supportive, we get discouraged. But when I think again, that shouldn’t be the case. While we have no control on others’ attitude, we can control our own response to it. Winston was more disappointed than me since he has been a leader for sometimes, he has even bigger expectation. So disappointment comes when expectation is not met. What we can do is manage the expectation and rethink of what our wedding should be. It should be our celebration of love in marriage, the party is secondary. I am sure our friends are happy for that.
I am glad that all these problems come before the actual day. Bumpy road prepares us and this too, shall pass..We are not just showing the good part only, but also the down part. We are not asking for sympathy nor trying to offend anyone. This is our blog, we bare because we care. Haha, sounds like a ads jingle..
Anyway we will survive our wedding and comes out stronger as a person and as a couple.. till then, stay happy!
After planning, designing and executing our own weddings (outdoor and dinner banquet), we decided to continue sharing our knowledge, passion and thoughts about wedding preparation and marriage life.
Through this journey, Hellen found her passion in designing, decorating and styling weddings. She started with Diary & Design Wedding (now defunct), subsequently to Rosette Designs & Co.
This blog has been a channel to show behind the scene of wedding preparation as well as my thoughts as wedding & event designer.
Please check out our website:
www.rosettedesigns.com
One word: Exciting!
Any inquiry on party or wedding event design please contact :
hello@rosettedesigns.com
