My Big Day ~ 11 August (Part 1 ~ Peace before the storm)

My eyes sprung open the moment the alarm went off at 6.00am. Oh my god this is it. The day we’ve all been planning for all this time, today is the day. I got up and made the bed while sis stirred in her mattress on the floor next to my bed.

The house is so peaceful. Mom’s making my favourite shanghai soupy nian gao! Yum… looking forward to it later. I’ve only just washed up when the door bell rang. My gosh, who is it so early? Turns out to be Chew Bee, one of my bridesmaids. She was afraid that she might lose her way so she took a cab here, not knowing that the lack of traffic on a Saturday morning would make her turn up exceptionally early. Ha ha she’s so cute right…

The make up artist came right on time at 6.30am and we got to work immediately. But… but… I haven’t had my breakfast yet! The photographer and camera man came soon after and they started snapping away. Well, our house has a lot of deco to shoot.


So I was trapped in the room doing hair and make up until late in the morning while the girls enjoy hot coffee and breakfast. Hello~! Can someone bring me a cup of coffee please? If I don’t get my coffee soon, don’t blame me for releasing bride-zilla on everybody! Ahh... finally got my coffee but had to stare at it longingly until it was cool enough to drink it from a straw.

Finally I’m done! After we’ve bun up my hair did we realize that we forgot to ask for spare flowers from the bridal shop for my hair! Then some genius (was it me?) suggested using the flowers from the table’s centerpiece. It was BEAUTIFUL!!! PERFECT!!! Haha…





Before the make up artist pin up my veil we took pictures of my parents putting it on for me. After the picture taking then I was ‘unveiled’ again for her to secure the veil better with more pins. Haha… abit fake but it was a nice gesture for memories sake.

Winsome showed up then and quickly got to work. The acrylic flowers on my nails were on alternate fingers only but it was so beautiful I wanted it on every nail! (BIMBO haha…) So Winsome had to bring her stuff that morning to add more flowers for me. We all exclaimed how beautiful the final artwork was and started taking photos of my hands. Then suddenly Winsome notice something odd. I was wearing my rings on the wrong hand! Whaha.. thanks Winsome for noticing!

Anyway, everybody was so mesmerized with her work that the makeup artist, the camera man and the photographer asked for her name card! Later she even gave Serene complimentary flowers for her toenails.

Yeah! Finally get to eat my favourite breakfast! But somehow I don’t seem to have appetite anymore. I can’t even finish one bowl! Guess my body must be running on pure adrenaline.

I don’t really feel much anxiety, just… excited, heavy and stiff. Heavy dress, heavy make up and heavy hair (go figure). And then we wait! Of course not forgetting goofing around, and, oh yah, taking a zillion photos.

It was so much fun, but I did feel like a giant white penguin waddling around with not much grace. Each time I entered the bedroom it feels like I’ve taken up half of the room space. Hahaha…

Every now and then I’ll glance at the clock, wondering what he was doing. Does he feel as excited as I am? Is he out of the house already? Then suddenly the phone rang and my brother was asked to go downstairs to wait. They are reaching soon! So exciting… Everybody started shoo-ing me into my parent’s room and arranging my veil and dress so that I’ll look picture perfect. The camera man positioned me for the best angle, and then left the house to join my brother downstairs. Suddenly, a loud car horn was heard blasting downstairs! I quickly got up and went to the window. My prince charming is here!!!!

(To be continued…)

The Day Before The Big Day ~ 10 August 2007

I lie in bed that morning and looked around my room. Only one more day to the wedding and my room is still in a mess! I have to clean it up by today. Bo Bian. So 1st thing I did after breakfast was to look for a face mask and lots of trash bag. But I did take some photos of the living room before I started cleaning.

When I came home last night, I was stunned at what my sis and parents did to the house. It was outstanding! The deco they put up completely transformed the house. Very beautiful, festive and stunning.

The champion has to be my dad. He actually makes all the sofa covers, the seat covers and the curtains from scratch!

Good huh!? Sis and I were contemplating starting a business in making sofa covers after seeing his work. But he said that it was too much work! Haha... too bad, another business idea down the drain. Ok back to work!

Man it was dusty, I should have cleaned my room more regularly. Haha… that’s what my mom said as I complained away. Well, the room definitely turned out much cleaner. Could be due to the fact that I threw out 30% of my stuff (which turned out to be junk) and packed the rest of the 30% into bags and moved them to my love nest. A bare room is definitely cleaner than a junk filled one. Haha… After the bedroom's done, on to the living room. Clean clean clean! Vacuum! Mop! Wipe everything you see! Ah… I’ve done my part. Thank you very much.

I practically turned into a vegetable for the rest of the day. Didn’t everybody say that the bride should take it easy before her big day? So I veg-out on the sofa, watch TV and ate while mom, cook and clean some more, and dad fixed the lights and stuff. Sis came over in the afternoon and keeps complaining that I’m the least stressed person in the house. As if that’s my fault.

Then she took over and started fussing over my dresses, accessories, the deco, the ang pow, etc. How is it that each time she appears, suddenly there seems to be a lot of work to be done? So we bustled non-stop around the house the whole afternoon. (Hey I was suppose to be resting!)

The flower centerpiece came! Oh they were so beautiful! It’s amazing because the florist decides on the choice of flowers and arrangement and yet they fit the deco of the house perfectly!

Later in the evening we made sweet soup and tang yuan (glutinous rice balls) for the combing ritual later at night and for tomorrow.

I like them big and filled with gula melaka (palm sugar) but sis likes them small with NO fillings. :P Since she’s the one making them I had to make a lot of noise before she unwillingly made a few with fillings.

The combing ritual is performed at both bride and groom’s family. We looked up for an auspicious timing and 10pm was perfect. Bro made it just in time after a dinner with his bosses. When it was almost time, I took a shower and put on my new pajamas. (Sis gave them to me – Victoria’s Secret from US!)

Cobby told me that his was done in the next morning and he wore a baby blue silky pajama which he swore he would never wear again. ROFL~

A table was set up in front of the window with a pair of dragon phoenix candles, a tray of auspicious items, fruits and the sweet soup with tang yuan. At 10pm, we light the candles and Dad did the ritual for me by saying three blessings:

一梳梳到尾，(First combing, together all your lives)

二梳百年好合，(Second combing, harmony in your marriage)

三梳子孙满堂，(Third combing, blessed with many children and grandchildren)

There is a forth blessing but we don’t like it. Four in Cantonese = sei = death = bad.

四梳白发齐眉。(Fourth combing, blessed with longevity.)

After combing he clips a pin with a red string onto my hair and we had yummy sweet soup with tang yuan to wish me a sweet and complete marriage.

What happens then? Very important! Take more photos! We had so much laughs with sis’s camera's timer function. Apparently it’s her first time using the timer function. Please forgive her, she’s not very good with gadgets. Haha…

Turns out beautifully...

So with that we finally settled down for the night, sis went to shower, I quickly turn on the TV and watched The Ghost Whisperer, bro went out and continued round two partying with his colleagues, mom went to bed while poor dad had to stay up and watch that the candles don’t burn down the house. (The candles cannot be put out. It has to continue burning until it burns out or just goes out by itself. )

After the show I went to bed at around 11pm. Strangely I don’t feel nervous. I just remembered thinking to myself: “It’s gonna be a great day tomorrow, but it’s also gonna be a loooooong day. Better sleep early so that I wouldn’t feel tired tomorrow.” And just like that I feel into a dreamless slumber.