ROM album-Fruit of our labour

Hi and happy holidays to all readers of our wedding blog!
This is going to be a showcase of the scrapbook album we made especially for our ROM ceremony at the Shangri-la Hotel waterfall Terrace! Enjoy!

Page 1 is actually our cover page

Cover page of our scrapbook album

We bought an acrylic album to house our scrap pages, so for the cover page, we wanted something glam! Heehee, silver is natural choice. We went to buy some more bling bling gems to brighten up the cover page, by sticking them onto the acrylic cover, while we stick the cover scrap page on the inside of the acrylic cover =)

SGH days

This first page of the album is also the first scrap page we did together! And I feel it’s the most meaningful piece of all. We met and started our story in SGH and so, this page is dedicated to SGH and us =)
Fate brought us together. We choose to be friends with each other and we suddenly realized that we are uncontrollably in love with each other…and the story continues… …

Meaningful words

I always love to stroll with darling especially at night when it’s quiet and cooling, and this following scrap page is inspired by the night =)

Can you feel the love in the air

The photo of us holding a candle and the “be mine” bear was taken on our first year anniversary. We were having a vacation in Japan at that time and the photo was taken in Tokyo. The photo below with the bridge was taken the following year when we went to Seoul. It’s taken at the riverside after we took a stroll. The entire feeling is of love and romance. Can you feel the love tonight?

Apart from walking, we loved to kiss each other too! Keke, a pity darling is too shy to kiss me after we exchanged wedding bands =p

Happy Valentine

The photo on the swinging bridge is taken in KL when we visited the garden behind the KL tower. We stayed behind the crowd and took the photo when nobody is watching =D
The photo with Mickey is of course taken in Disneyland! This is Tokyo Disneyland =) And I even managed to wear matching colours.
We loved kissing each other and the quote on the scrap page is so appropriate…hehehe

Kissing zone

The next scrap page is designed to enhance the Hanbok costume we wore while we were visiting Seoul! The one I wore is supposed to be the one worn by The Emperor! The one worn by darling is…I dunno man ??The concubine?? I think it must be worn by the most beautiful lady in the palace! That must be the case!

宫

Darling has this pair of oriental looking purses which she bought from Shanghai years ago, which she found during spring cleaning, and Yes, we thought it looked like cheongsam material and so cut it out to become the background for our big heart! Then we found this red lace in Spotlight to complete the heart. To make it even more oriental looking, we decided to finish off by tying a “jade pendant” together with the bushy bushy red threadtail =)
We topped it up with a “宫”
The finished product is exactly what we envisioned it to be..truly oriental!

The next page is one of the simplest page to do =) We bought this very nice paper with all the love and hearts but somehow, cannot find a way to enhance the “sweetness”. Finally, we decided to cut up the paper and reassemble the pieces, viola, our scrap page is done!

Sweet true love

The pictures show the soft toys given by me to darling =) The pictures all taken on darling’s bed.
As for the flower on the top left hand corner, we cut out a white flower base using white cardboard paper and added some colourful lace bought from Spotlight =) We even managed to use the heart-shaped photo frame as part of the design on the bottom right hand corner! This frame is bought by Darren and Sze Yin as a gift for us when they returned from Thailand.

My heart beats only for you

I am always fascinated with waterfalls. I love to look at how magnificent the forces of nature are and I love water =) Waterfalls are nature’s way of rewarding those who took the effort to trek her forest terrains and makes all the hardwork worthwhile. I am trying to expose darling to waterfalls…heehee, coz before she met me, darling has never seen a waterfall before. Now I am going to bring her to see waterfalls with me!

Life is Beautiful

The waterfall on the right is the Biryong waterfall in South Korea Seorak mountain (Darling’s first waterfall!) and the one on the left is found in Ko Samui, Thailand.

we will find waterfalls together

We had a big headache with the following scrap page too. This frog prince design was supposed to create a fairy tale feeling but we have no idea how to decorate it initially! By buying another paper of a darker green tone, we decided to play with 3D effects and yup, the overall feeling of the design is still quite appealing =)
“Far Far Away castle” is thought up by me leh! Of course, darling gave me inspiration. =p

Far Far Away Castle

The green paper with the 3D effect

The picture on the left is taken in Japan with the golden pavillion, while the picture on the right is taken in Taiwan Taroko gorge.

The following scrap page is designed with the image of Buddhist scriptures in mind. Remember the pictures of Buddha and the Deities you see in books? They seem to always be surrounded by flowers and stuff, so we seek to re-create that effect using the paper! Smart darling managed to find the paper that brings out the effect perfectly! Both the Buddhas are situated in Ko Samui, Thailand.

Sacred love

We also used dolly paper to add to the sophistication, notice the different paper on the right third of the scrap page? That is red dolly paper. We also pasted stickers of lotus flowers on the left and right of the scrap page. We are quite impressed at how it looks when it’s completed. Yay!

This is a fun scrap page to make as we tried out new ways of doing things! We did a little bit of craftwork as well. Darling has this good suggestion of using cardboard to create the “country” feel, especially so to enhance the background of the photos. Notice the top left photo? The walls inside the photo appears to “extend” out of the picture into the cardboard. The photos are taken in Taiwan, when we went for a hot springs dip in Beitou!

Hot spring is warm and fun

Darling has this wonderful suggestion of doing up a clothes line to “hang up” our clothes while we are having a dip in the hot spring
Initially she wanted to “make” an underwear for me, but the result was horrible, so I had a towel to wrap instead while darling has this pink lacy dress hanged up =) Darling also tied the knots herself using twine bought from Artfriend. Those butterful knots with the flowers are all tied by darling! Such nimble hands!

The final scrap page of our ROM album is a theme on butterfly lovers. This is where we first tried out the “pop out” effect using foam stickers.

Butterfly Lovers

We tried to create the effect of butterflies in flight motion and it seems not too bad =)

The whole experience with the scrapbook is wonderful! We got to spend time together and cooperate on a single objective. In the end, we are both quite amazed at ourselves…we didn’t know we can create so many ideas out of paper! Scrapbooking is fun!
And of course, the guests at our ROM are equally impressed =)
I love you darling!
Maybe we can try to have a scrapbook wedding album next time?

 

ROM couple album

Hey this blog has been quite busy very lately with all the updates! Haha. I also write till shiok! It’s like spilling out all the secrets which we have been holding back during the preparation of our ROM. All for the sake of the surprise factor! Heehee.
Today, I shall review the truth about our ROM couple album!
If you have been following, we signed up with Venus bridal studio, located in Taman sentosa of JB. We wanted to have beautiful pictures taken of us, but wants it to be a bit more “wow” than the ordinary wedding pictures. We are not having an actual wedding yet, just the ROM first, so we decided to have a “couple makeover” instead =)
We initially wanted to transform ourselves into something unrecognizable, like me dressing up as darling or darling dresing up as dar dar…lolz, just joking. We wanted to present a different side of us to our close friends, to make it all the more memorable for them and us. It is also to show appreciation to them for being our close friends, by giving them something unqiue to savour.

Just to recap: We had a total of 5 outfits
1) spanish
2) peranakan
3) cheongsam
4) our own outfit –> which we chose to be a blast from the past retro with a pink pokka dot outfit complete with male suspenders
5) our own outfit –> which we chose to remember the time we first met by wearing our work uniform and darling specially sourcing out the vintage SGH green uniform for the shoot!

spanish dance

spanish royalty outfit

In this set, darling is transformed into a curly haired babe wearing the multi layered dress complete with a tiny hat as a hair accessory. She has this royalty feel when she is posing for the shoots. I am wearing this frilly willy shirt which is kinda fun. This set is pretty but not our favorite as you can see that it only occupies 2 pages of our album.

Darling transforms into the little nyonya

This set is one of my favorite as I love the way darling lie on the sofa. She looks so cute and adorable!! We are also trying to imitate how the old peranakans would pose for the family portrait by remaining a solemn face…lolz…I think I still look comical.

re-living the old Shanghai life

black and white nostalgia, me trying to be cool

artistic modernistic feel

This set definitely has the “wow” factor…ok, at least it wowed me. I love to see darling dressed up in oriental style cheongsam, with the high slits! Ah-Wooooo…brings out the wolf in me!
Darling definitely has the sultry look! Lolz, and it makes her all the more sexy!
I am in this white suit which is quite stylo, in my opinion. I even had the chance to act cool for once…lucky it didn’t turn out too bad!
We loved the set with the photographer using a single light source and playing with shadows, creating the artisitic feel. We saw a similar portrait hanging on 1 of the walls in the bridal studio and we knew we must have a similar looking set! Haha, this is definitely something refreshing for us as we definitely do not come across as artistic people. Darling has a different dimension of sexy in this set. I love you darling, you are so dynamic!

Finally we have the own outfits!
In the retro set, the photographer is trying to get us to pose as what a retro couple would pose, with tiny details of how we need to hook our feet, stand with the tip of the toes on the ground and to adjust spectacles from time to time. He even brought along an umbrella. Of course we did our own homework by trying to synchronize our colour combi. Darling insist that my suspenders are a must to re-create the retro feel. And darling is spot-on yet again! Check this out… …

When we first set eyes on each other

Going out and sharing a tiny umbrella...we look kinda stiff, Lolz

We will go out together rain or shine, always under the same umbrella

No matter where U go, I will find you and hold your hand

Trust in me, we will open the doors to a whole new world together

Old movie theater dating

Hug me and never let me go

I will keep you smiling always

Hold me in your arms, life is beautiful

The last set is actually a “re-enactment” of how we first met. Lolz, of course we didn’t do the things we did in the photos lah. No lying down on each other, no playing with stethoscope lah, just plain simple, innocent love. Darling went all out to source for the trademark green SGH uniform. That was the uniform darling was wearing when she mesmerized me in the ward =p
The uniform actually belonged to her 2nd sister. Well, thank goodness she still kept the uniform, and that darling can fit into the uniform! We had a lot of fun for this set. Our photographer is kept entertained as well as it’s his first time taking pics for couples in uniform. He is too used to taking pics of couples in gowns etc with his various standard poses, so we posed a challenge to him =p. Well, all went well and we came away with some pretty cute and fun photos! The page layout designer even managed to help us design the layout page with such a cute background! This is one of my favorite pages in the album, apart from the retro pages.

Fun and love at work

So this is our ROM couple makeover album. This is our first time taking a photoshoot together. It has been tiring having to smile all day, it has been troublesome going in and out of JB a few times to get things done but everything is worth it! The album is truly beautiful and we are very satisfied!

 

wedding drawing near

1 month 7 days more…so what have we been up to?

Many things happened during the past 2-3 weeks and I am glad to say these are very happy things!

First, we had another go at Prize Stage at Marina Square =)
Darling has this vision and dreamt that she won the giant Rilakkuma via the jackpot, so in order to make her dream come true, we chiong to the marina square the following day! Heehee, happens to be payday cum bonus day so we can afford to spend spend spend!
There are 2 versions of the giant Rilakkuma doll, 1 with Rilakkuma wearing a scarf and mittens and the other 1 with Rilakkuma wearing a jumper-like yellow pants. Darling fell in love with the one wearing pants and off we go! We need to strike 4 jackpots on the same day in order to bring the prize home and so money money money changing time! We had a tough time getting our first jackpot, spending almost 80-90 golden coins before it came, the subsequent 3 were more efficient and we got our 4 jackpots within 300 golden coins =)
We also got a lot of Rilakkuma bears together with our giant one and darling can actually form a Rilakkuma gallery in her own bedroom loh! Haha, maybe we should set aside a Rilakkuma corner in our new flat to house our Rilakkumas.
Second: we have seen our pre-ROM shoot album layout and currently still making minor changes to 1 of the layout page. We are quite impressed with the rest of the 15 pages, just 1 page that needs to be altered…so we are looking forward to that. Jiayou Venus bridal!
Third: We just finished 6 pages of scrapbooking during our annual leave! Wow, I am very impressed by our works and we really put in a lot of effort in making our scrapbook k! We try not to repeat designs and we try to have themes in our every page. Scrapbooking is quite fun I must say and I am glad Darling is there with me to think of ideas. We will brainstorm ideas and go buy accessories, embellishments and papers before going my place to create these wonderful pieces of art! We loved the experience in doing the scrapbook and we really enjoyed each other’s company…a pity our leave ends so soon. We are aiming to have 10 pages of creative scrapbooking and the rest of the pages we will decorate for our guests to sign in. I am sure our guests will be mesmorized by the beauty of the book and amazed at how creative we can be. Heeheehee…I am proud of my darling!
Fourth, We just met up with our JP, Mr Jude Yeo and signed our consent forms. We efiled our ROM as well =)
Fifth, I just collected our wedding invites today and the cards are pretty and they are all personalized with our names =) Fellow friends, stay tuned, you will receive yours soon!

Time is running short, but excitment is building up and we are enjoying every moment if it! Now we can’t wait to go Bali for our honeymoon!

 

Happy Birthday My Dear Wife!

6 dec is a day in history worth remembering, it is the day the heavens sent an angel down to love me =) Kekekeke…goosebumps yet??
It’s my darling’s birthday! Yay!
I got her a gift of course and I am confident to say that she loves it! What gift did I give her??? It’s something handmade with love by her DarDar me =) I shall leave it to her to blog it…if she wants to share it with the world =p But I am quite impressed at myself for being able to make it happen! Hahaha.
We went for our birthday girl treat at Dozo restaurant and shall share my experience here…heehee (dear, if you are reading this, share your view too? =p —>> arrow shot —->>)
I feel that it’s a very romantic place, all your senses will be relaxed. There’s soothing music, nice fragrance, romantic lighting and friendly staff. Not to mention the food is well planned out and exciting to see and eat and drink =)
It’s a 7 course dinner and yes, it’ll be just nice for your tummy, not too full, and you will not leave hungry.

The sticks are actually edible and comes in green tea, spices and cheese favour!

We were given this slour plum sorbet to boost our appetite then our feast begins with an chef arranged appetiser, SUI! It has scallop, foie gras and smoked salmon
Our first dish is the cold dish, Darling has the air-flown sashimi with herringfish, salmon, prawn while I had the king crab claw salad!

darling's fresh airflown sashimi

my king crab claw with bristle hair! Gross but nice!

Next up is the starter, I had escagots and darling had this wonderfully rich chawanmushi with foie gras, check it out!

escargots with cheese!

darling's foie gras infused chawanmushi, smooth!

Then we have the soup! I have this crab bisque in cuppucino style (yup, supposed to drink it like U would a cuppucino and it also has bisque foam on top) and darling has the rich mushroom soup with truffle.

chewing the truffle first is supposed to bring out the mushroom aroma!

my cuppucino crab bisque

And the main dish makes their appearance! I had this wonderful beef tenderloin on a hot stone with “pu-ye” leaf while darling has her sweet cod fillet, where everything on her plate is edible! How Shiok!

beef tenderloin on sizzling hot stone with pu-ye leaf, decorated with a tempura cheese-stick tempura fan and mushroom sauce

darling's cod fillet with delicious layout

Ok, time for some comic relief with my tempura cheesestick fan!

darling as the demure maiden

my ugly ji-gong impersonation

Next up, we were served our fruit teas, nice, sweet and refreshing!

Darling had the mix-everything iced tea while I had my green signature Dozo minty fruit tea

Next up, Darling had her birthday cake yet again! Hahaha, this is her 4th cake this birthday, shiok right! I got her 1 slice of cake on her actual birthday at 12mn, 1 whole cake for her actual birthday celebration with her family and her sister bought her 1 cake too, and now this is the 4th! Yay!

a pity her name is spelt wrong...maybe it's my pronunciation over the phone to Dozo

And finally, how can a meal be complete without our dessert???

this is my chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream...oh heavenly...

this is darling's 2 peanut coated mua-ji with green tea ice cream topped with sparkler candy!

We had a wonderful dining experience and what better way to end it all than with a kiss? Heeheehee

and you may now kiss the bride

 

リラックマ Rilakkuma

Don’t understand what you have just read?
Courtesy of Wikipaedia: “リラックマ; a combination of the Japanese pronunciation of relax and the word for bear”
A little background… …(I must admit this is also very new to me!)
All that is known about Rilakkuma’s back story is that one day he appeared in the apartment of an office worker named Kaoru. Rilakkuma wears brown bear suits. In picture books Rilakkuma is frequently seen sitting around waiting for suits that look exactly like him to dry on the clothes line. When Rilakkuma’s mysterious zipper located on his back is opened, you can see parts of a light blue polka dot pattern. When he has his bear costume off he is always wearing a spare costume. True to his name, Rilakkuma greatly enjoys relaxing. This includes sleeping, laying around, watching tv, and soaking in hot springs. (Wow, who don’t!!) He loves using Kaoru’s yellow bean bag pillow. He is often accompanied by Korilakkuma, who is a smaller white bear with a mischievous personality, and Kiiroitori, a yellow chick who plays a tsukkomi role (considered to be the smarter, more logical one who criticizes others for making mistakes). Kiiroitori is basically the opposite of Rilakkuma because of the bird’s hard-working nature and love of cleaning. Kiiroitori is Kaoru’s bird. Kiiroitori is always nagging Rilakkuma on how lazy he is. Korilakkuma frequently plays pranks on Rilakkuma whilst he is sleeping, such as drawing on him, putting headphones on him and sewing odd color patches on his bear suits. Because Korilakkuma is still a child, he doesn’t know how to speak very well but can often be found copying what Rilakkuma is saying. It is not known where Korilakkuma came from, he just seemed to appear. Korilakkuma also loves music. He loves being a troublemaker. Rilakkuma’s favorite foods include mochi, pancakes, dumplings, flan, and doughnuts. (I like too!!) Rilakkuma once lied to Kiiroitori and Korilakkuma by telling them his ears were made out of castella. They then proceeded to bite his ears.
Enough background of the lazy bear, Now our background with this bear’s acquaintance… …when we were in Japan Osaka… …
We came across this shop of UFO catchers and darling simply adores this Rilakkuma holding a sakura flower, but I failed to catch it for her, so sad. I even tried 2 days with no luck, so we had to leave Japan with only our doraemon (pic in my profile). But now we had this wonderful chance to reconcile with Rilakkuma! Darling found this shop in Marina Square called “Prize stage” with all the UFO machines with big big toys! (seldom seen in Singapore coz most of the toys offered as prizes are either small ones or not cute ones) Of course darling is super excited and so we decided to pay a visit to Marina Square on 27/11/09. We played a few rounds of catch on 1 machine, spending close to 30 bucks but the stupid Rilakkuma refused to budge! Then we decided to change machine and try the jackpot machine instead, where we have to scoop up small teddies and hope the small teddies trigger the jackpot counter. This is fairly new to me and darling, so we took a few tries to get the hang of it. Once the eperience is gained, we are off scooping teddies! And boy are we lucky! We strike the jackpot with our first counter trigger! Here’s what we caught! After spending 23 bucks on this machine only!

pair of Stitch siblings (Friend's children)

Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma (represent us, the lovely couple)

Korilakkuma, our eldest daughter

Our baby boy twins

Rilakkuma family

Happy darling

Happy Mummy with her children

Darling is so cute! I was like crazy and excited like shit when I hit the jackpot but darling was like “huh, what happened? Did we win?”

I love you darling!

 

3 years 8 months and counting… …

Time flies… … It’s Happie Anniversary again! Kekeke. 18 Nov 09 was our 3 years 8 months anniversary and we spent it in luxury! =)
We went to meet Melanie regarding our estimated guest numbers and we have to make a number of decisions! Oh my, we increased our original plan of 30 pax to 50-60 pax! Our friends rulez!~
What we had to do… …
1) chose our invitation cards designs;
2) the inlays colour;
3) fonts for our wordings in the cards;
4) table linen;
5) seat cover;
6) lunch tables setup;
7) flowers and colours;
KIV wedding favours
That was quite a handful…but making those decisions makes it all the more exciting coz the date is drawing near! We want a march in as well…hmm…still undecided between marching in from the Koi pond/man made garden before our ROM proper, or walking into waterfall terrace after ROM proper… ..most likely going to choose the former. =p
We had a most scrumptious buffet dinner at The Line, kindly sponsored by my darling… heehee…will tell you why at the end of the post…

Outstanding issues to settle within these 2 months before our ROM!
1) scrapbook (have not started working on it yet, but I am sure with Dar Dar and Darling powers combined, we are Captain Scrapbook!)
2) wedding montage (heeheehee, I have been lazy I admit)
3) wedding song list
4) Darling’s ROM gown (going to look at the 99% finished product this sunday, will request minor alterations)
5) Darling’s shoes (soon-to-be ready for collection)
6) Dar Dar’s suit, shirt, pants (ready on 25 Dec 09)
7) choosing our pre-ROM shots from Venus, JB (going JB on 21 Nov to choose our photos! Can’t wait to see how beautiful my darling looks!)
wedding bands (they will be ready on 7 Dec 09, so exciting!!)
9) Honeymoon (going to email the Bali Villa the credit card details soon)
10) Meeting Mr Jude Yeo AKA Uncle Jude, as Darling will address him (mid December)
11) confirmation of guests, sending of wedding invites, choosing of Emcees at a later date in Dec/Jan

Now…why did Darling have to sponsor our anniversary dinner? Because she forgot my handphone number! Hahaha. =p

PS: Message me more, my dear, so you will never forget!
PPS: I still love you my dear =x

PPPS: Darling was playing with the sliding glass door sensors and making the glass doors open and close when nobody is walking through! Hahaha, and she truly enjoyed it…and I will enjoy it too coz I caught it all on video!

PPPPS: I love my darling! She’s so cute!

 

Venus, Fire, Desire

Hey yes, it has been a long long time!
Time for an update!

We went for our pre-ROM make-over photoshoot in JB on 6 Nov =) It is truly enjoyable!
It so happens to be Xian’s and my off days so we can avoid the weekend crowds. It’s our first time having our photos shot by a professional! (Ok, if you consider the neo-print machine as a professional, then it’ll be the second time lah) but still, very very looking forward to it! We even thought of what we are going to wear for our shoot! Hehehehe.

As a preparation for this shoot, darling and I went to source for retro clothings to suit our retro photo set. Man, it’s tough looking for guy’s vintage wear! We managed to find this shop in The Cathay called “de javu” which sells truly vintage wear….ok, not cheap lah, but if you are a avid supporter of vintage wear, that’s the shop to go! I bought a tight fitting top with zigzag lines (hmm…I choose to believe it’s tight fitting because it’s MEANT to be tight fitting, and not because I made it tight fitting! Humph!), and darling bought a really cute pink dress with white pokka dots!
Initially we thought that will be my outfit, the blue tight shirt with the brown shorts I bought in Melaka, but my bushy curly leg hair may spoil the picture leh =( Not to be disappointed by this minor set back, we had some last minute shopping on the eve of ur photoshoot! We scoured the whole of bugis street but cannot find any retro pants to go along with my retro top….so sianz…but alas, “the yellow sky do not let people with hearts down”, we found my retro outfit in Topshop! First we found a striped pants with those horizontal pockets (instead of the diagonal ones…hmm…guys should know what I mean), then as we are walking towards the changing room…..叮当叮当叮当叮当叮当 (hmm…supposed to be the drumroll type of thing, imagine lah!…….) we saw this pink striped shirt on display with the 2 black suspender straps as the accessory! We were like “WOW” This is it! (Okok, a tribute to Michael Jackson here…MJ, U will always be the king of pop!)
Yeah, this is it! I tried the shirt on and we bought it…total cost for the short, pants and suspenders S$150+, well, at least I get to be their Topshop member free for life! Kekeke.

Finally the day has come for our photoshoot! (It has been raining for hte past 2-3 days, and we are very lucky we have very nice weather during our outdoor shoot). We each brought like 2-3 sets of clothings and shoes into JB, can’t wait to be transformed!
We had a total of 5 sets of outfits….
1) retro pink–> we used this as our theme for the outdoor shoot in sultan garden
2) oriental–> here, Xian is being transformed into the seductive babe in white cheongsam, very Shanghai feel!
3) Spanish –> Darling has a change in hairstyle with a small hat as a hair accessory. She was wearing this triple layered dress, looking sexy, while I am wearing this shirt and suit with frilly sleeves.
4) Peranakan –> Darling is again in a bun hairstyle with pearls as hair accessory. She has a red baju kebaya with gold sarong. Really charming, I thought she looks like one of the actress…U guess who? =)
5) Last but not least, we don on our uniforms and went for the shoot! Yup, darling was wearing her green SGH uniform while I am in my long sleeved short and pants and tie, complete with stethoscope. The photographer, MUA and PG assistant had some fun playing with the stethoscope and listening to one and another…haha, so cute!

getting ready for photoshoot

next up, the hair

our pre makeup look

almost finished makeover

My first time applying makeup and having hairdo

How do my darling look? Sweet hor!

How do I look? Suave leh!

We are ready for the shoot! Let's go!

We are really impressed with the MUA, the PG and the bridal studio overall. The indoor shoot backdrops are really nice and there are really a lot of backdrops to take with! Their gowns for photoshoot are also very elaborate and not stingy with the docorations such as beads, gems, lace etc. All look very very nice. We had a very enjoyable time there!
Can’t wait to see our photos on 21 Nov 09! I foresee having a headache, trying to choose the photos, but I am loving it! Darling is confident that she can choose easily the photos for the album….we shall see!

Hee……darling and I discussed…we will only show the blog readers our retro 造型….the rest will be shown after our ROM! Hahaha…..stay tuned!

Thank you Liffey, our MUA, for giving us so many different looks!!
Thank you Gilchrist, our PG, for making us models! hehehe
check out his blog! “www.gilchrist84.multiply.com”
Thank you Qi, the assistant, for helping us here and there with props and clothes.

 

Melaka trip

As the name implies…we finally went on a holiday! Yeah! After a long long time….although it’s just nearby Melaka, but still better than nothing right!

forgot anything for the trip Dear?

0730h, Grasslands bus brought us through the 2nd link into JB and up the north-south highway into Melaka!

We reached at about 1230h…guess who we saw on route??

starting on a journey, I saw darling and darling saw me...haha, of course there's more to see!

u recognize these people? Little Nyonya!

old times Ah 哥!

old times Ah 姐!

We arrived at Hotel Equatorial and checked into our RM270 ++ room! Haha, cheap cheap. Relaxed our legs a while, did some cam-whoring and set off on our food and adventure tour!

relaxing darling

can't resist a couple pic

view from 1326

We wanted to go staight for our chicken rice balls! But got distracted by some very fun stuff! Check it out!

men will always be men...so darling, please forgive my forgetfulness at times! =x I still love you

relive the A & W experience

unbelievable but true...Darling's first ever coney dog!

airplane in Melaka

牛郎 is here for his 织女

darling on a merry go round round

with heavy weight me on the other side, how can darling not fly?

happy darling on the swing

happy swinging

Okok, enough swinging! It can be quite tiring to play on the swing I discovered, as I was panting away after the whole thing….but it is all good fun! We then proceeded on with our heritage tour! The red tour….We went to the St Paul’s hill and what’s left of his church, the stadthuys, Chris Church, the red clock tower….ate some cendol and darling transformed into “DutchLady”…=)

St Paul's house on the hills

darling with the Man-now-without-a-hand they called Paul

darling with background of "eye on malaysia" and revolving tower

engine BomBa

museum we didn't go into

Oh My Goddess!

Us and Christ Church

What's the time dude?

time for cendol... ...Yummy

time for Dutch Lady Dutch Lady!!!

We went to Jonker street to walk walk see see. The area was part of chinatown and they were mainly shops selling ornamental stuff. Jonker street is also lined with peranakan houses on both sides of the street. The road is small yet the traffic quite busy and crowed. There are also antique shops, artist shops etc scattered among these. The baba nyonya heritage center is also situated on this street. It’s here that “小娘惹” shot most of its scenes =)

Of course, how can we not have some authentic cendol, chicken rice balls and satay celup?

Jonker street

We had chicken rice balls before continuing our journey! Yum Yum! Biong Biong!

Me and my rice balls set!

Xian equally impressed with her Biong Biong...the biong biong she's holding on to...and her biong biong of course

It’s 小娘惹 time!

House of "小娘惹"Juxiang.

front of Baba Nyonya heritage museum

notice the "square" on the ceiling? It can be opened so that the owner can see who's at the front door from the comfort of his bedroom and pour urine on the "unwanted guest"! Shiok! Pee time!!

place where Juxiang ganna beaten

the elaborate staircase leading upstairs

corridor upstairs

scenes from Little Nyonya

peranakan marriage bed...a pity I am not in the picture

we continued walking along the nice old street then....

we chanced upon this wonderful dessert store which is also a peranakan house!

can't resist some pics of the nice interior

the other view from inside showing the lanterns

"Dar Dar, are u done taking photos? I want dessert =("

"sayang darling, I bought U nyonya assam laksa ok?"

"ok sayang, I got U some more baba cendol and baba ice kacang ok"

nice old feel about this picture, so serene... ...

lots of meaningful wall displays, protraying love

lovely couple taking pic in front of love banner

darling, I think you are same level, if not prettier than these retro beauties!

when night falls....jonker street transformed into pasar malam street!

we even caught a karaoke competition cum Ge Tai!

The Ge Tai show was hilarious! It’s actually a resident get-together session with karaoke lah. We initially wanted to just sit down a rest a while, but there is this uncle who came up to the stage and really entertain! He was the only with costume and dressed for the occasion, and he was jumping, dancing, swaying his hips along to the song “热情的沙漠”! Really made the whole place high! A pity I can only show his picture coz cannot upload video here.

shiny bow tie up!

The Melaka superstar!

It’s getting late…but it’s not time to go back to hotel yet, coz we still missed out 1 important food in Melaka….guess? Give up? Kekeke…. It’s Satay Celup! And no one does it better than…….

Yup Capitol Satay!

step 1, get the original sauce base...

step 2...add lots of peanuts

step 3...keep stirring and we have the legendary satay celup sauce!

more satay please!

full and satisfied customers

Filled to the brink of out tummies, we retreated back to our hotel room and rested for the night…hee…we really slept like dead logs till 1130am the next morning! Kekeke….

Breakfast/lunch time! The only thing left to try is…..Peranakan food! How can u leave melaka not having had peranakan food?

Dar Dar on a food hunt!

nice interior, don't waste. Let's take pics while waiting for our food!

wonder if we can take our wedding pics with this sedan...looks nice!

nice picture?

Food is finally here! Udang lemak nanas everyone.....pineapple prawns, the signature dish here in Restoran Peranakan

Next up, another crowd favorite...Ayam buah keluak!

the dish that always satisfies....Nyonya chap choy!

last but not least...the firey slightly spicy Otak otak!

It’s really a filling spicy meal….as darling can testify. She ate so much that she became a “merlion”. Poor darling… …

Lucky that made her feel much better. A lesson learnt…never eat too spicy food when holidaying, and must always bring along gastric medicine when going on any trips. Darling, sorry for forgetting the medicine and allowing u to suffer like that. Next time we go eat peranakan food again k. I bring u eat again, well equipped with losec!

Too full and too tired to walk back, we engaged a trishaw….

Not too bad an experience but costs RM15. well, we are tourists mah, and tourists should do what tourists should do. Try out new things and boast about them! Hahahaha…kekeke

A final conclusion on our Melaka trip...a colourful ride back home

Bye bye Melaka

Melaka has been a yummy trip and is a good short getaway. Whether I will come back again? I don’t know…but I don’t mind stopping by for some food lah.

This short trip is FUN! All trips together with darling is FUN! Thank you darling for making everything fun and beautiful!

Can’t wait for our ROM!

 

Venus

Today we start our hunt overseas for our pre-ROM wedding shoot! (The grass is greener there)

Before business proper, we have to fill our tummy mah…haha, who can resist spending less and eating equally good food? Check out Kim Gary Hong Kong!

darling waiting for food

 

fries with special mix

triple mango blend

unagi stone grill rice

darling's supreme curry rice

darling with food spread

1 objective in mind, to choose 1 out of 3 shortlisted candidates….the one who is going to have the priviledge of shooting my darling! =x

It’s SG Bridal house VS Fables VS Venus.

The day started out well, good weather, not so much a traffic jam, and we arrived at the new JB checkpoint smoothly. Wow, the checkpoint is now connected to City Square! It’s so much better this way, makes us feel safer. We used to have to make our way through the shabby JB customs, then have to take a dark moist underpass to the other side of the busy road junction. Back then, we have to cross the petrol kiosk, then climb an overhead bridge (filled with evil looking people who looks like they are going to steal from you etc), before reaching city square.

It was all smooth going, then the first major cock up happened! We were walking from 2nd to 3rd to 4th floor and couldn’t find SG Bridal house! Oh Man, I have cocked up big time, I thought all along that SG Bridal is in city square itself but it’s not! Poor darling have to walk all the floors for nothing!

Okok, lucky got my ever reliant Nokia e71 with the IDEAS internet…hehehe. Managed to find out the exact address and RM 8 and 10 min later, we are at the SG bridal house. Crystal crown hotel is the landmark. =)

SG bridal house has quite a small shopfront but it seems quite popular, judging from the number of shoes outside it’s doors. Doreen came by and showed us the photoshoot packages they have. They have 3 photographers, each specialising in different feels. We were introduced to the “maximum” package costing RM 2388. Consists of 10 pages with 21 poses (I think) with a 16 x 20 photo with frame and 6 different makeovers. She seems friendly enough but gradually became a bit “sales person” like…..Hmmm….”shall consider” we say, then left.

Round 2: fables… …

Fables is just opposite the road and is a newcomer in the area. It’s under same boss as Venus but the management and styles and gowns are all different. There’s not a single customer in fables while Venus is filled up man! Nontheless, we went into Fables to hear what they have to say. Xiao Qing attended to us, Yup friendly auntie….but not very impressed with their photography. They have only 1 photographer and his style is not exactly the feel we like. The package is atractive though! RM 2000 for a 20 page album with 1 big photo and 5-6 makeovers.

Round 3: Venus

Kim attended to us. This place seems busy and popular judging from the number of customers inside as well as the number of photographs and albums waiting to be collected. Kim was not too pushy and offered us a good price of RM 2200 for 1 photo album 22 pages and 30 poses. Also threw in a big photo and 6 pieces of 8R photos. we had a tour of their studios (which is in the middle of a makeover itself!) They actually change their backdrop every now and then, so couples who take their photos here will not have the same backdrop! How thoughtful! That’s customer service for u! We are quite impressed by their “artistic” pictures and would love to have 1 of our own! Haha.

So decided, the winner who gets to shoot darling is Venus! Yeah!

It’s been a tiring day and we have spent all our money on food and the deposit for the photoshoot. =p

So we sat inside starbucks to chill! Yup, as darling pointed out and reminded me….this is the starbucks we went to when we first visited JB together years ago! Thank you darling for the trip down memory lane!

darling with caramel frap and frap java chip

We went through what our photoshoot shall consists of… …

1) Us in peranakan costumes with a old old photo feel

2) Us in work uniform

3) artistic photo with lighting effects

4) Cheong Sam oriental photo

5) outdoor shoot around JB sultan garden

6) me in dut dut outfit with darling as retro queen!

Well, well, what a day…we are all excited at what our outfits will look like! Must be super funny yet artisitc and FUN!

 

MAF 2009

中秋节快乐!

Today is a really fun and happy day!

Mid-Autumn Festival (MAF if u not already know) is day of family cohesion and today we did just that! Haha.

I went with Weixian’s family (My future family =p) for a family protrait photoshoot! Yeah! At serangoon broadway =)

We are a major force to be reckoned with ok! Got Auntie (Xian’s mum), Weiling, Weiting, Weili (Xian’s sisters and nono, they are not evil), Teckjun (Xian’s bro), Uncle Bohlen AKA Bryan (Weiling’s boar boar), Lihan (Weiting’s hubby), Claire AKA 猪猪 and baby Caden AKA 123 (both Weiting’s dearies) AND Finally my princess Weixian darling! A major force of 11!

Serangoon Broadway was very busy, full of families taking protraits with their children in graduation robes….can’t wait to see darling in hers! Here’s what I did while waiting for turn =p

Xian with Jun

darling also likes to take pictures!

Eh? What is darling looking at?

oh....it's her bling bling shoes!

Ok, here comes the main characters!

Drum roll… … …

self pic! Man, I am getting better at this

couple pic!

Ting to the left, trying to put eye shadow on Ling (right) with wei li on the back left, Jun on back right. Of course, Xian is in the middle!

A very enjoyable photoshoot, with lots of partying happening in the background as we tried to grab Baby Caden’s attention throughout the photo….Hey where got 9 months baby know how to look at camera one? So lucky we have a rotating globe which Caden loved to spin…that distracted him good enough and kept his line of vision straight! All that we shall see when we have a few pictures I can post up here =) Meanwhile…imagine

After the photoshoot, we went to have dinner at 天外天鱼头卢 =) The standard dropped liao loh…and it’s evident from the lack of crowd in this otherwise filled to the brink place years ago…sigh…where did the original chef go? Looks like we have to go 南华昌 near darling’s jalan bersah place for our 鱼头卢fixes…next time we go there, will post tantalizing pics which make u drool k!

King on throne declares start of dinner!

braised duck with sea cucumber

fish head steamboat with Weili tucking in

well done guys and gals! All finished up!

baby head steamboat anyone? Haha Shhh...Auntie at background, don't let her hear this...

After dinner, Darling brought mooncakes from St Regis to my place to give my parents =) Yeah! Those mooncakes are really yummy k! Thank you darling! =x (public display of affection, some would say….I say I don’t care! =x)

Darling I love you!!! Muacks! Kekekeke

It was 930pm, time to go back to darling’s place….and to our surprise…the 2 dearies are still around!

Yeah! More camera picture opportunities!

darling comfortable on her new bed frame with same mattress =)

lovey dovey time

Darling with Caden

Darling with Claire

Claire and me

And finally the multiple poses by Claire! The next Hiao婆! hahaha The next Singapore top model! 十连拍

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This is a really wonderful day! Thank you darling for letting me be a part of your life!

I love you!