Pronounced... Mrs Kao.

A beautiful ending to Part II - ROM....







Everything seemed so surreal and all happened too fast for us to indulge in every single moment.

Nevertheless, the vows we made to each other shall hold us together till the end of time...

Today marks our 87th month together. For the past two thousnd, six hundred and forty-six days, thank you for being there for me.

Today, I, Henry Kao, take you, Flora Ang, to be my wife, my partner in life and my one true love. I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before. I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together. I give you my hand, my heart and my love, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live.

I give you this ring as a symbol of my love, my faith in our strength together, and my promise to learn and grow with you.

Henry Kao


Today marks the 87th month you stepped into my life. We have truly beaten the odds and come a long way. Today, we will walk towards a brand new chapter of our lives from this moment onwards.

Throughout these 7 years, your unwavering love and support have seen me through life's challenges, trials and tribulations. Today, I will put on this circle of trust which symbolises how our paths crossed 7 years ago to the way you make my life complete with you in it.

I look forward to a future filled with the same laughter we shared, the support we give each other and most importantly, to build our own little cosy corner hand in hand.

Thank you for all you have done for me, and for the care I know you will offer me unconditionally, as my husband.

Flora Ang

These vows were only made known to each other on that day itself.

Panic.

I thought of trying my dress for one last time this morning.

To my horror, I find the chest area too tight for me to even breathe normally! When I put it on, mum said the dress looked a little tight but I deniably said it fitted nicely.

I tried to breathe but it was a little suffocating although the last trial at the tailor's last week seemed ok. Then I realised it was due to the monthly biological cycle that will cause a slight enlargement in the chest area!

Thoughts ran through my mind - should I ignore and just bear with wearing the tight dress for a few hours or should I make a last-minute trip to the tailor and try to see if she can salvage the situation??

I was so afraid that the dress could not be loosen anymore and that's the end of it! So I panicked and started to cry discreetly, not to my parents' knowledge.

I just don't wish to wear something that I'm not comfortable in and fret throughout the whole event or worse, end up fainting at the ceremony. But I didn't know what to do! I think my mum kind of noticed something weird when she was about to leave for work but I brushed it off and said I was having flu :(

When Henry came back from work, I could not control myself anymore and started crying again. After a while, I called up the tailor and to my huge relief, she said I could bring it down for her to alter!

We took a cab down and waited for about an hour for the alteration. After she altered the first round, it was good but still a little tight so I requested for more leeway. Fortunately, when I tried it on the final round, it felt SO MUCH better!!!

Paid her an extra $10 for the alteration but it was well worth it. I'm glad it was discovered early and not on 24th morning when I put it on before the ROM starts.

Change of plan

There will be a slight change to the march-in. Instead of my dad, mum will also be involved in it, as per her request since she wants to be more involved in the ROM :)

Mum will be walking me down the stairs while my dad is waiting for us at the foot of stairs. Together, we will walk hand in hand towards Henry who will be standing at the entrance, before my parents do the hand-over together.

Have checked with Joanne and apparently she said this is the best way to do the hand-over with both parents involved. :) She just had to make ample space for the walkway.

We are going to do a final rehearsal in the morning on 24 May.

Collection of cert & rehearsal

We collected our marriage cert from ROM today!

The ROM is now located within Ministry of National Development at Tanjong Pagar.








This is how the place looked like..





Apparently, we need to do a sompah right in front of the officer. We thought it would be a formal one with us facing a comissioner but no, it was a pretty casual one where we raised our right hand and recite from the piece of paper.

Here it is..





We had the rehearsal at OneROchester at 3pm later in the day. Joo and Jayven arrived shortly after us and we did a few dry runs with Joo being the emcee.

Thanks to both of them for helping out with Jayven posing as my dad to walk me down the stairs! Hahaha!

Joanne tested the audio system and included those specific songs we have choosen for different segments - march-in, certificate signing, champagne toasting and photo-taking. She also ran through with us on where we are supposed to stand at the table and my dad is going to do the hand-over and the flow of event on that day.

I already felt butterfies in my stomach during the rehearsal and was a little nervous.. I just hope everything will run smoothly on that day.

After the rehearsal, we sat down with Joanne to finalise the details for that day. For the flower decorations, we will be using blue roses with hydrangeas to complement our blue and green theme.

Have also discussed on the following:
- Table centrepiece (a rectangular vase filled with water and blue roses in them; ivy leaves will also be used as a table runner)
- Decoration for trellis/ pavilion (strings of crystal beads will be put up in the morning and Joanne will remove them if we decide to do away with it)
- Fans for outdoor
- Welcome drinks
- Reception table + Guest book (power point source for our digital photo frame)
- Bubbles during champagne toasting
- Blue rose petals to be thrown during march-in
- Parking space in front of the restaurant
- List of songs to be played throughout
- Ang Bao box
- Bird cage for the rings
- Feather pen with black ink

We emailed our JP and she is fine with the following arrangements as discussed during the rehearsal:

- Layout of the certificate signing table
- Introduction of JP by Joo
- Witnessed to be invited to the table after our march-in
- JP to be facing the crowd and both of us back-facing them

Hairdo

Went to Edward's again for Henry's haircut before the big day and to have a final confirmation on my hairdo on that day.

I looked through a few fashion magazines and finally picked on 3 which I like before asking Edward for his advice.

In the end, we decided on a hairdo that was a combination of 2 others. Will need to get some Baby's breath for a nice finished touch!

Have already booked an appointment for manicure and pedicure on Sunday for Mummy and myself.

Counting down the last one week

We are getting operationally ready for the Monday after next.

1. Both of us will start with our facial remedies for the big day by plastering on facial masks everyday next week.

2. I will try my best to skip dinner everyday next week.

3. We are meeting up with Edward tomorrow for Henry'a haircut and also to firm up on my hair atyling and make-up for that day.

4. Rehearsal is on 19 May, Wednesday. That is when we will firm up everything with Joanne.

5. Will collect the certs on 19 May morning.

Collected the dress and suit.

My ROM dress was finally ready for collection! We went to Auntie Yamei's house and I tried it on before she made the final amendments.

There was a rude surprise when I saw the dress initially, cos she used netting instead of organza as we agreed earlier on for the portion across the chest area. But I was glad that the netting actually turned out to be a better choice!

I was thankful that Auntie did loosen the tummy area after I told her it felt tight during the first fitting. It appeared to be perfect though the side zip was a little hard to pull the side zip up but I managed to do it with some help. :)

All was fine except that she needed to amend the zip a little so that it does not pop out at the side and just slight tighten the waist area to make me look slender when I wear it.

She needed some time for this so we went to West Mall to pick up Henry's suit first. It was perfect for him too, after the necessary amendments to the pants and jacket!

Went back to Auntie Yamei's 2 hours later and the dress was really good to go! She even gave us another train of organza supposedly to be pinned on the shoulder so that both the netting and organza can be used interchangeably. We paid an extra $18 for the feather and flower which I thought was already included in the exorbitant cost charged earlier. In the end, my dress cost me $386......

Oh, I brought my bridal shoes and that pair of bling bing earrings to try it on with the dress. I wanted to check if the whole package looks ok and apparently, yes. :)

But the thing was, one of the strings of crystal that was glued to the side of the tear drop crystal came off. Will bring down to Marina Square tomorrow to fix it.


Here it is:






My tailor-made dress with that extra organza.



Henry's suit from G2000.





It was really true that I feel much at ease after seeing and trying on my dress!

Count my blessings.

Received a very saddening sms during lunch time.

One of my bestest buddies, Yingqi can't make it to the ROM! She will be starting her new job tomorrow hence, it will be a little difficult for her to apply for leave on 24th.

I was happy for her that she has got a job but at the same time, I felt really down to the bottom of the pit.

Somehow it affected me quite a bit, not just because Yingqi is not going, but also a few others like Clarie, Yoke Ying, Jissny, Xue Fen, Angeline and maybe Rui Lian. I just felt the celebration does not seem complete without the presence of all my friends :(

What's more, the pre-marital jittery is making everything worse...

I have told Henry how sad I felt with each of my friend informing that they can't make it. Hope this ends here. *Crossing my fingers*

Ok, I should shift my focus to those friends who will be turning up in that day instead. Count my blessings!!!!

List of things to bring & Guest list

List of things to bring to OneRochester on 24 May:

1. Ang Bao packet for JP and photographer
2. ROM dress
3. Earrings
4. Shoes
5. Make-up kit
6. Digital camera
7. Wedding pooh bear set
8. Small bag to keep ang baos
9. Canvas boards + paint markers
10. Invite cards
11. Photos for display
12. Rings
13. Written vows
14. Marriage certs
15. First aid kit (For Henry, just in case he gets stomachache due to being nervous)
16. Suit set
17. Pooh bear mini fan
18. MC script
19. Hair wax
20. Wet tissue
21. Fathers' ICs
22. Attendance lists

Hope we did not miss out anything!

As of today, we have a total of 69 guests, way beyond the expected no. of 50 pax. Just called Sarah from Poppy Flora to add 10 more wedding favours, making it to a toal of 75 bottles of honey.

Googles

Daddy was so funny!

He asked if I had a pair of googles to lend him last night. It aroused my curiosity as he is definitely not someone who would go swimming.

After questioning what he needs the googles for, he told me he just bought 2 bottles of hair dying agents and intended to dye those strands of white hair for my ROM!And the googles was needed to prevent it from going into his eyes.

I almost burst out laughing!!

Suit set

We were out again hunting for Henry's suit yesterday.

Saw a black jacket at POA but somehow we found it to resemble a magician's jacket and it cost $229 for just the jacket! Alas, it does not come in grey which he intends to wear it with his grey pants.

Just when we felt weary from all the walking, we happened to like a set of grey suit from G2000! It was well worth $199 that comes with a jacket and pants.

We didn't buy it on impulse but instead went back home to check if a black jacket which he bought some time back was suitable for the occasion. It turned out to be too casual instead.

We went to JP this morning and try out the suit once again, but this time round, with the white V-neck that we bought last week. Wow, it looked dashing as a package! JP ran out of the size so we had to make a trip to West Mall to get it.

Did some alterations to it and will be collecting them on 18 May, Tue.

Surprisingly, it took us much lesser time to find a nice suit set than we thought it would take us. Happy, happy!

Pooh bear set

My elder sister bought this wedding pooh bear set for me! She saw them at Illuma selling at $30.


Cute!





Love them! Will have them displayed on the ang bao box!

Bad news.

We received a bad news this morning.

Some unforeseen circumstances surfaced and Audrey was unable to be our emcee for the ROM.

Both of us were taken aback by this news and at that moment in time, we were worried that we could not find anyone within such a short notice period to stand in as the rehearsal is on Sat.

The first person who came to our mind was Joo and we were confident that she will be able to do it well! I sms-ed her and was so glad that she was more than willing to lend a helping hand.

Joo, just want you to know that we really could not thank you enough for helping us out at the last minute!

Since Joo can't make it for the rehearsal on Sat, we have postponed it to 19 May, 3pm. Both of us have already taken leave for that to collect the marriage cert at the ROM in the morning.

Don't blame yourself, Audrey. We are not angry with you; we understand the predicament you are in right now. Don't worry, you are still being loved by us ok! The only thing you can do to redeem yourself is to turn up pretty on that day! :)

ROM rehearsal

Our ROM rehearsal is this coming Sat, 8 May!

I don't know what's going to happen, man!

A mixture of: Excited + Nervous + Anxiety + Anticipation

Some thoughts...

Am I being a perfectionist for my ROM? I mean, every girl would want their wedding to be perfect and memorable so, I'm definitely not exceptional.

Somehow I feel that some things are just not perfect enough, especially those customised items. I understand that when you customise something, there will be a certain degree of uncertainty in the overall outcome. This is totally different when you buy something off the rack where you buy it because you have seen how it looks like and you like it.

Why is it that they don't turn out the way I want them to be?

I mentioned in my previous posts that I felt a little disappointed with my shoes because I don't look like how I tried it on for the first time. Next was my earrings.. they didn't resemble the ones from the photo exactly and I find it a little too long. Oh, did I mention that it was heavy as well? So most probably I could not wear it for prolonged period.

So far, the most satisfied customised item has been our wedding bands of which I'm very glad for that is the most important that we will be wearing for the rest of our lives :)

Maybe I should just learn to see perfection from the imperfections.

Right now, I'm crossing my fingers for my customised ROM dress which I will pick it up on 15 May. I will call the Aunty a week before collection just to be sure everything is going on fine at her side. I'm worried after the previous unhappy episode.

Earrings

I was on leave and happened to be around the vicinity of Marina Square. Hence, I called to checked if my earrings are good for collection.

And here you go..




My super bling earrings..which they painstakingly customised it according to the photo I showed them. It took them much effort to glued the 2 strings of crystals at each side.




I paid $48 for the workmanship and materials used. In total, I spent $70 on this pair of earrings including the Swarovski crystals that I bought.




The multi-colour tear drop crystal that varies in colour under different lighting. I was just thinking if the length is too long... It looked slightly different from the photo though.

Pre-marital jittery

I'm starting to feel the jitters as it's just 3 more weeks!

Seems like a lot of things have not been settled yet.. Henry thought I was just being over paranoid which I think I am lah..

The fear of not having things falling into place on that day and possible bloopers are really causing some anxiety in me.

I guess this is what pre-marital jittery is about.

Updates

Bought the remaining decorations needed for the canvas guest boards.

Henry bought his white V-neck top from Esprit, his new found favourite clothing shop which never fails us. :)

Oh, and we have officially started to give out the invite cards to our friends yesterday! Yay!

I went to Marina Square last evening thinking that my earrings should be ready for collection. But when I was there, they were still working on it..