tomorrow is a brand new start!!!!!

i will be starting on my new career tomorrow!!! yes, it is april fool's haha... super excited loh... can't wait to learn as much as i can and start to help everyone and try my best to make everyone happy =)))

so, you all might not be hearing from me in awhile cos i most probably will be working late every day... but i guess it won't be as late as some of you la... hee... you must know leh... for the past 2 years plus of my career, my average knock off time is 5 plus =Pp latest was 10 plus... not like vin, average is about 7 and latest was almost 2am hee... so i guess 7 plus every day is considerably late for me la... =Pp

anyway, many of you are very concerned for me cos of my posts about my bridal studio... yes it was a traumatic experience and vin and i thank you all for your support and concern and thank God all is well now!!!!! when we went for our trial make up 2 saturdays ago, he sat down with us and fixed our first fitting date with us!!!!! wow wow wow wow wow!!!!! vin and i exchanged surprised and pleased looks at each other loh... =)))

so yes now we are pretty happy with our bridal studio and looking forward to our first fitting =)))

but then hor, our caterer is giving us problems... hahahaha... i was asking vin one day if it is ever possible for a couple preparing for their wedding to have zero glitches. he said 'sure have! if the couple has alot of money to throw around then everything sure steady one!' true... if we engaged a very high end bridal studio, caterer, and got a famous wedding planner, everything would be flawless!!!

anyway, that is the beauty of it all ma... how we as a couple go through these hiccups and encourage each other and stand by each other and grow together. actually it is more of vin encouraging me, cos me as the female, will be upset about their screw ups and dwell on it longer than the man. vin will be very steady about the whole issue and just comfort me and take charge of the entire situation and help me deal with it. then after a few hours then i will feel more at peace, only then would i be able to take on the next challenge to continue working with the vendor...

next time then i tell you all the story of my caterers... quite ridiculous as well... anyway, now we are waiting for the caterer to respond to us. in a nutshell, they are going back on what they promised us in writing cos the sales person made an error to promise us something to us that is not their company policy... so anyway, this is what the chinese say 'one wave haven't subside, another wave rise again'... quite interesting la actually hahaha...

who says planning a wedding is very stress? not stress at all!!! hahaha... =)))

my bridal studio

i am going to dedicate one post especially for my bridal studio cos i am so amazed at how they work... tell me what you think of them...

mid-nov:
1) made appointment with the designer to check them out
2) went to visit them and realised that the designer was not around cos he forgot about the appointment. we briefly chatted with the other guy in charge of the place but he couldnt help to advice much as he was not the designer. we took their package details and left
3) went back again to take a second look and this time the designer was there. vin and i were impressed with his attentiveness and friendliness but were taken aback when they told us that the promotion package will be over by end nov instead of end dec, which we were told during our first visit. so we were 'pressured' to sign on the day as we did like their gowns and package more than the other places we went.

mid-dec:
went for first design session. felt that he was not so attentive and seemed to be quite in a hurry and slightly distracted. but as long as he will produce results at the end of the day, i am fine la. so i kept my reservations to myself.

mid-jan:
went for second design session at the new shop. he had a 1 month 'break' to do up his shop. we finalized and confirmed the wedding gown design and could not confirm the evening gown design as he did not have the lace to show us so that we could visualize the effect. he told us that we could meet him by 2 weeks to confirm the design, after he has gotten hold of the lace.

early feb:
after he postponed meeting us twice, finally he had the lace to show us, after being a week late. went to find him with great expectations only to find out that he only got hold of black lace and did not have the many cloths and laces that he earlier said he would get for us to show us. in the end, we settled on a final design for my evening gown and he said that we would do our first fitting by early march as we had to go for our photoshoot on april 7

late feb:
we started following up with him on the status of the gown, if he needs us for further discussions etc but he kept saying that the cloth is not yet ready.

early mar till now:
1) at first he will tell us that it is because i changed the design of the gown late, so he cant get the cloth.
2) after saying that he will get back to me once or twice, but never called, i got irritated with that story so i told him clearly that i already confirmed the designs in early feb, so cant be cos of me... then he say actually it is a problem with the supplier of cloth. THE WHOLE OF SINGAPORE HAS A PROBLEM WITH CLOTH... especially dark colored satin... which in any case, is mine... ya so coincidental right and as if i know if he is saying the truth... any of you deal with cloth suppliers or know the industry???
3) then he says that my cloth was supposed to reach on march 7 (originally should be my first fitting period, hello!!!) then strangely is stuck at the malaysian customs. and he says that it might be due to the mas selamat incident!!!!!!!!! ok loh anything also can say... what can i say right? i am completely at his mercy anyway... =(((

as of today, 2 weeks after the early march that he promised us, after calling him about 3-4 times to 'pressure' him, he agrees to april 22 for our photoshoot. my gowns fabric just arrived yesterday after we called him to check on the status. first fitting he still cannot confirm with us, but i really hope it will be by end of this month. it will then be a 1 month delay from the early march that he had verbally told us long ago.

we need to pray for God's divine favor upon this entire situation...
1) that the designer will stop delaying on us and putting the blame on everyone else
2) that he will not do a horrible job for us and blame it on us for rushing and stressing him
3) that we will have great weather so that we can complete the shoot on april 22 so that we have one less dealing with our designer
4) that when we meet him, he will not be so evasive and tell us all we need to know and help us confirm our hand bouquets, corsages, vin's tuxedo design (yes, he has not started on vin's suit at all), and the many other things we ourselves don't know that we don't know...
5) that he will learn to follow up with us and not always forget about us and make us have to hound him and add to our already long list of to-dos...

after reading all this, what do you think of my bridal studio? leave you with his famous words...

'your wedding is in july right? alot of time la! don't stress me ok!'

ya right, so the couple is supposed to accomodate his schedule and not he accomodate our schedule? then why so many july brides can take their wedding photos in jan/feb but not me? why people can do their first fitting within 2 months of their first design appointment, and ours is 3 months and counting? all we want to do is to finish things early and not be last minute, but as customers paying so much, we are reduced to little puppies, just letting him drag us here and there on a leash...

ok after all these negativities, i want to say that we are still holding firm to God and trusting in Him that He is in control. He put us together, brought us thus far, led us on this path to prepare for our wedding on Jul 12, so He will ensure that everything falls in place!!! =))) so keep us in prayer as we continue on this exciting journey!!!

so many items ticked off!!! =)))

yes although my gown is STILL in the making (hopefully it IS in the making cos when i called last thursday, my gowns were still called 'cloths') we managed to do many many other things!!!! =)))

1) caterer
we got mum's kitchen for you all!!! woohoo!!! i remember they have good food and looking at their website, their decorations are tastefully done too!!! so yippiee doodle doo!!!!! =)))

2) wedding shoes
FINALLY ordered my shoes from leapin lizard!!!!! after weeks of hunting for nice and cheap shoes since after chinese new year... we wanted to get a simple pair of shoes for $40 bucks at the post chinese new year sale but most of the shoes were open toe, with alot of blings and very high!!! all of which we didnt want!!! and it is super hard to find SILVER shoes...

i mean, if i had alot of budget to play with, i can buy a pair of cream/off-white shoes (there are alot of nice ones that i liked as well) and another pair of shoes to match my evening gown... but no la, i rather spend on other things... most of you will know that i don't like to buy stuff anyway... =Pp yes many have laughed at my shoes when i still wear them even though they are spoilt to the max...

3) found out even more things that we need to do for our wedding
thanks to mag, i learnt that my parents need to prepare quite alot of stuff for my dowry... also finally learnt from her and shu fang that 4 gold a.k.a. 'si dian jing' is made up of (A) earrings (B) necklace (C) bangle (D) ring... so helps so much in our preparation!!! at least we know now, rather than my mum finding out a month or so before my wedding then we all stress out together HAHAHA

then on sunday night, vin and i realised that we forgot about our honeymoon again HAHAHA... still the dilemma if we should go to maldives or bali... how how how...

maldives:
cos it is beautifulllllllllllllll and our dream destination but it is 3 times of bali's price and i havent got my advanced certification in diving!!!!! it is quite sad that i won't be able to dive deep into the beautiful ocean there to see the amazing underwater world there...

bali:
cos at 1/3 of maldives price, we can live more luxuriously there!!!!! but then again, vin won't be able to have his ocean view once he wakes up... (and yes, jacki was saying that the resort can place a ocean picture on the wall facing our bed... durh... hahaha)

so i guess, it will be another month before we decide... ^_^

thanksgiving!!! =)))

God is good all the time!!!!! sometimes He really amazes me to the max... (my new pet phrase is 'to the max' as vin keeps telling me hahaha)

remember how i was worried that we can only have 420 guests to our wedding? on sunday, we spoke to the church manager and went to count all the chairs and pews capacity and voila!!!!! we can have 524 guests!!!!! so happy!!!!! can invite more of our dear friends to come and share in our joy!!!!! =)))))

since you have been regularly catching up on our wedding preparations progress, i am sure you have already blocked in your calendar 12 July 2008 for Vin & Jean's wedding right????? hee... so i assume there will be at least 90% turn-up rate for our wedding ah... must come when we invite you ah... HAHAHAHAHA...

so i am almost done with the confirmation of caterer cos we have a firmed up number now and just confirmed the english wordings on our wedding invites, so happy!!! next step is to translate them or write some traditional cheena words for the chinese invitation, then can show our printers liao =))) happiness...

also done up the seating plan for our church wedding!!! *leans back on chair and looks at clouds* life is good... need to call my bridal studio tomorrow to see if he has started on my gowns... ohhh need to draw charis location map as well so that you all know how to come to our church wedding... =)))