Trudging along with the ROM plans

We've made some progress in this step, though nothing is confirmed until we've put down our deposits. Photographer has been shortlisted, we met up with him 2 weeks ago and the main thing I was looking for during our meetup was essentially our chemistry with him. From his online portfolio, we've already gotten an understanding of his style and skills, from our email correspondence, we've obtained the pricelist, so the ability to work together was the next criteria. At least for me it is, and after our meetup, the decision was made.

Next step is to finalise the venue. We've shortlisted a couple of places and both are waterfront sites. One's more centralised, the other is way out in the east, but I think we'll be taking the east side location as it fulfills more of our expectations. Problem is we've had some issues with the coordinator so we're now in the midst of contacting another co-ord who'ld hopefully be more experienced.

We've also shortlisted a few JPs, and we'll be contacting them once we've confirmed the ROM venue.

Rings have been put on hold for the moment, though we do pop into the stores to check out designs, we're still considering ordering titanium rings from overseas as they are cheaper AND more importantly, more durable. But my concern is how to get a design that will go with the engagement ring.

Finally, the guestlist is now at 60 people *faint* I asked mummy how many pple she had at hers then, she said, 'Your daddy and me, and the 2 witnesses loh'

>Seraphinee foams and collapses at this point<

That's all! And now I have to cater for 60 people and this is not even our actual wedding. I fear for our banquet guestlist.

The Photographer

So we've started looking into various aspects of the wedding. One major breakthrough is that we've managed to set the dates for our ROM this year as well as the AD next year, but I'ld like to keep the exact dates a secret for now. All I will say is that they will both fall in the month of August.

With the dates set, we're now trying to do a couple of things, one of which is to locate a photographer for the ROM, with any luck, if we're really pleased with the fotos, I think we'll probably stick to the same photog for the AD. I've sent out a couple of emails and received pretty prompt response. One photog is an old friend from way back while the other is a recent discovery but really I love both their works. But i think we might be going with the latter, pending a discussion with him.

I asked E to take a look at his portfolio and boy did I get a reaction. E loved his work and promptly decided that he should be the one. According to E, looking at this guy's work made him want to get married immediately. I guess we've found our photog then :) Yay!

Come to think of it, maybe I should hire him to do my graduation album. Hee!

Mr & Mrs C Wedding (12 Jan 2007)

It was a busy day yesterday. E and I attended his buddy's church wedding + dinner and E was the best man. He and Mr C met way back in jc and Mrs C was a schoolmate as well. This particular group of friends of E's accepted me into their fold from the start and I've always seen them as my friends too, so I was deeply touched to be invited to witness the events leading to their union. From the moment the bride entered the church, I saw a smile radiant and brought a tear to my eyes. It has been a long road for them and it's amazing that the journey was coming to an end, but of course it would mean the opening of a brand new chapter for them too.

The church ceremony was a first for me, I never had to attend one before and would probably be the only one I see before our turn arrives. So it was definitely useful for me to get an idea of how things go. Although it obviously doesn't hold as much significance for me religious-wise but it was a beautiful thing I saw. While the ROM formally recognises the legal aspects of the marriage, and the traditional ceremony signifies the acceptance of the family, the church ceremony, I guess, marks the spirituality of the union.

The dinner, while still sticking to various elements of the typical chinese wedding banquet, was anything but bland. The food was great and while I had my reservations about one particular idea initially, it turned out that this made the night memorable and fun. What am I talking about? They had a dance floor. Of course it was more than that. They did away with table shots and instead, chose to mingle amongst the crowds throughout the dinner. The atmosphere was relaxed and cheerful.

These are probably things I should consider at ours, but ideas are still blurry. One step at a time. We better get started on the ROM planning before I even worry about the details of the banquet.

Oh yeah, one last thing. E and I were exhausted by the end of the day and we weren't even the bridal couple. I can't imagine what it'll be like at the end of our wedding. I'll probably be a big grouch and E will tactfully leave me alone, trotting off to bed. I'ld have to beat him to death then. What a start to a marriage. Haha!

Ring ring

After browsing around the singaporebrides forum, I stumbled upon a thread about titanium wedding rings. I did a bit of research on that and the more I read about it, the more appealing it sounds. I shared the link with E and he was keen on it too, and amazingly we both zoomed in on the same design. Great minds think alike? So this option will be put up for consideration.

Later I read about some interesting wordings which people have engraved into their rings, there's of course the standard (initials) + (wedding date) format. Some chose to have romantic phrases and then there are the cheeky ones like one particular one which said "Put it back on" (Unfortunately I had so many windows opened that I forgot which forum I saw that one from, but rest assured whoever this innovative person is that I will not be copying the idea, I just loved the cheekiness behind it).

So that got me thinking, we should start thinking about what we should engrave on our rings. E suggested "Together, Forever", one word on each ring and accompanied by our initials. I vetoed that idea immediately. Why? Because the moment I heard that, Rick Astley's Together Forever started playing in my head. So obviously it's a no go!

Today I chatted with a few galfriends and one of them gave me this idea: "Seraphinee will bully E forever". I laughed my head off but come on, it's way too long to fit on a ring right? So we had to modify it.

Version 2 goes: His ring, "E is Seraphinee's slave" Her ring, "Seraphinee is E's master" Now I should have said mistress but then again it sounds wrong!

Version 2 sounds good, but it's a tad too long-winded, so I decided another round of modification would be good. So here's version 3...His ring, "Seraphinee's slave" Her ring, "E's master"

It's perfect. Now to tell E about it. His reaction when we return. *LOL*

Long Update Ahead

So many things have happened since the last entry. I've been on holiday with my family to South Korea, got my final exam results back, celebrated my first ever New Year with my fiance *beams* and it's been all good.

The holiday was great, only disappointment was that we didn't get to experience snowfall. Sure we saw a mix of natural and manmade snow up at the ski resort and remains of snow swept to the sides at some other place, but we were expecting to see some full scale snow fall action which did not happen :( And to rub salt into the wound, it was reported that heavy snows started the evening we were back in Singapore *pouts* That does it, I will convince E to list Korea as one of the places to visit, after we've done our global Disneyland tour.

Results were good as well, I'm very relieved that the whole studying thing is over, will probably take a short break now and decide what to do next. I've been wanting to pick up a 3rd language, perhaps Korean? Or baking? Or perhaps pursue a cert in Psychology. I've completed 40% of the modules needed for a graduate diploma so that could be a viable possibility. E is horrified that I can't seem to stop studying though. LOL

Because of the Korea hols, I missed Xmas celebrations with E and to make up for it, we had our own private NYE celebrations at Sentosa. It was definitely quality time well-spent and though we were a little apprehensive initially about spending NYE in such a quiet manner, I think we both agreed that it was a wonderful decision made in the end.

Now we're into 2008 and a interesting year lies ahead to say the least. Unfortunately though, HDB threw us a curveball yesterday with the release of the Telok Blangah BTO. Our queue number is in the 3000 category and we're definitely out of the quota of 420 who would be invited to make their selection. Unless the 1st 3000 people suddenly change their minds or something, this option has flown out of the window for us. But then again, there were like 6000 over applications for the 4 room flat option, so in a way, having been placed in the top 50% somehow makes me feel that teensy bit better about the whole thing though obviously it still means we're out of the race. So it's back to the drawing board for us.