Married ever after

I have been married 1.5 weeks now! And we've kept busy with my parents still visiting before and S officially moving into the house. Since being married I find the following things to be superbly amazing:
1) How much S has grown and become more loving in his actions. Being a husband becomes him. I get to win arguments now! Yippee!

2) How much housework there is with the addition of just one person in the household. Either I was taking many shortcuts before and not having proper meals and keeping the house tidy... Or I just have had to put up with a new set of habits and a foreign lifestyle from my own and it's causing the extra work load

3) How well I am surviving without trashy tv and ploughing through forums or other people's blogs which used to be my chillax thing to do in my evenings. I just spend time with S now and I wonder if he'd get sick of that soon. Hmmm...which begs the question, do married couples have to do everything together? I am not entirely sure how long I will keep this up for either.

4) How easy it was to be single and living with nuclear family compared to living with a spouse...for example, Money and how you chose to use it was not an Issue with my parents... Especially when I made my own.
But somehow the spouse seems to have a right over what I make and can tell me to slow down spending! Certainly the Issue of the moment..,

5) Space! How a guy can need so much space for his stuff. S doesn't look much like someone that needs it though considering he only has one good pair of jeans and a couple of t-shirts I usually see him in. It's a mystery that applies to men too I suppose the wardrobe that is so full but yet holds nothing for you to wear.

The last of the blooms from the wedding remains...



The only living remnants of the beautiful memories. The other stuff we accumulated needs to be packed away... But S has kindly put them into the garage for the time being so that I don't have to deal with them just yet.

He promises me that things might seem tough now but he'll do more for us throughout the marriage. Yep! He's changed since we said those vows. Sometimes it is worth sticking around and not giving up on a person even if they couldn't promise you anything then...


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Wedding flowers!

Flowers we had in the house

Bridal Bouquet

Bridesmaids flowers

Icing Flowers on the cake... still counts!

The Perfect template for an Australian-Malaysian Chinese Wedding

It's official! And we have had a beautiful day on Saturday... S is so happy and I am so glad we pulled it all off without any big glitches.

I can't believe we pulled it off! All the year's hard work and planning all really paid off on the day and we were so showered with gifts and compliments that we were really humbled to have been able to share this beautiful moment with such close friends of ours...

What worked well:
- All our wedding vendors were fantastic and very professional. They have proven that they were worth every penny paying for and all arrived when they said they would and did everything as we had discussed and made sure everything was running per schedule... we were always ahead of time for the day!
- All of our relatives and friends that S and I hand-picked for specific tasks, they were really responsible and made sure they took care to be able to make our special day that much more of a delight for us.
1) Our MCs took our NYC theme and our personalities and totally ran with it which blew us away. We could have paid a professional and not achieved this effect in a million years!
2) The ushers who made sure the guests were well attended to and that all the gifts, bubbles, programs were handled and handed out properly
3) The aunty who cooked all the delicious food and made sure we all had enough to eat! I ate more than I have been told Brides get to eat on their special day cause everyone took really good care of me. I got nutritious food, water, caffeine and alcohol all at the right moments of the Day to sustain me and help me pull through the whole day.
4) Our priest who made sure I didn't end up crying a single drop throughout the ceremony and was told afterwards that I was the happiest bride the guests had ever seen. It was one of those weddings!It was my secret wish; I am so glad!
5) Our friends who helped us check into the hotel so that all we had to do after such a long and exhausting day was to siddle up to our room and relax!
6) Our bridal party who gave us refreshments, carried umbrellas, constantly supplied me with lip gloss when I needed it...and drove us around on the day. They even saved us on the dance floor when no one would join us on the floor to dance and unrehearsed...they did a fantastic job!
7) My fabulous cousins, MF and G and the plus ones they roped in to help, Y and A, for the wedding day from the start to the finish of the day. They might not have realised it at the time, but they were my angels in helping us pull together the strings that made the event seamless and picked up the pieces that I didn't manage to catch...
8) The Cake, Music, speeches, outfits, jellybeans, Crazybooth, restaurant food, wedding cars...all worked a treat and were big hits!

What I needn't have worried about after all:
1) My reception dress's length! Surprise surprise... cause the tulle got caught inside the dress and never fell out to cover my shoes after all and in the buzz of the night, I never knew better and the guests were none the wiser... so focussed were they on the details and the design of the dress...no one figured out that it was too short!
2) The weather. We really were blessed...as many of the other brides we bumped into at The Rocks and Observatory hill would attest to... there was no rain until the pictures were done and by then we were safely indoors!
3) Accomodation for out-of town guests.... they all sorted themselves out and found free accomodation with friends and relatives and I never needed to have offered!
4) Budget...of course I couldn't have been a spendthrift either and gone overboard...but we were so blessed with our guests' generosity that we are not in debt post-wedding and all up, probably only spent $10k max on everything wedding and honeymoon related.

S says this day has raised the bar for all multicultural weddings and we were able to create a day that was truly us and enabled our guests to really enjoy what we stood for and our heritage, that being Australian-Malaysian Chinese. I am sure this is a biased opinion....but the fact that I received this wedding card during the reception, it was really the only thing I hoped for... and I did it!

One more sleep

We had the Hen's on Sunday... and I had an awesoooome time! I haven't seen the photos however, but the girls assure me they are Incriminating *Gulp!* I will upload pics hopefully next week when the excitement dies down and the girls have passed on the Hen's "Scrapbook" that they promise to make me. By then I might be lamenting the loss of my singledom I think. I do have however a picture of the cake they got for my Hen's

Since then, I have been running through all the last minute tasks for the DAY whilst trying to calm a panicked Groomzilla and tending to all the relatives that have begun arriving. My house is turned upside-down. I've forgotten how important meals are to a Chinese culture... my relatives are constantly revolving between the Supermarket, Kitchen and the dining room. It has been dish after dish after dish. And they are all Malaysian culinary delights. It feels surreal, sitting with them for meals and hearing them compliment each other on how well they've cooked each dish eventhough the ingredients here are different from the ones they find back home.

It didn't feel like I was getting married all this time. More like I've had relatives over for a visit. Another exciting thing is that mum's brought her jewels from her dowry to give to me. Whilst I don't wear much jewellery, I couldn't help but think, wow... this belonged to my mother. Given to her by her mother and I shall one day pass on to my daughter. I never thought either that I would have a family heirloom, but there is this ring. This ring that I am very drawn to. And it fits me like a glove. I wish I had thought to have that as my wedding band instead, but I'll one day hopefully give it to a son to pass on to his wife.... although S thinks its not that great an idea... he is worried his son will marry a floozy or a golddigger and my heirloom will be gone. Ain't that cute? We are really getting ahead of ourselves here...

The Rehearsal dinner was yesterday. I hadn't been to one where there is so much laughter and roasting. Made me assured that we had certainly picked the right bridal party and that we will be real fine on the day. Right. What else is there to do? The internet ticker I have says: 1 Day till I wed my soulmate. I think I will write a letter to him. I want him to know just how happy I am that I am marrying him... and how happy I know he can make me and that, through all our trials, and through all the tears, we have always found hope and laughter in our relationship this last 9 years. I'd say, holding his hand for the rest of life's journey is my true joy.. and my honour.

Krazee!

I actually think I am crazy.

Any normal girl would wake up first day of a long weekend about to attend a wedding in the afternoon and say... I think I'll paint my nails.

But no, not I. I haul myself out of bed at 7 a.m. eventhough I need a lot more zzzs and I say,"I think I need to paint my fireplace because it's disgusting. What will the girls think when they come over for the hen's tmr?" so there I go... Picking up paintbrush and pave paint and in my pajamas still, creating this beautiful feature piece.





I think S will do a double take when he sees it later...


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