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!