Overwhelmed

hmmmm... where do i start?

I'm pretty much overwhelmed right now... Too many thoughts going through my head. Although watching the whole Season 1 of Gossip Girls is making it slightly more tolerable. (p/s the first episode of Season 2 is up here!)

This entry on weddingbee pretty much sums up my feelings right now.. glad i'm not the only one feeling this way about wedding planning. And we've been engaged for only 5 months..LOL...

Oh well, here's something really beautifully written, for the next time when i ask why i am doing this again...


Why Marriage?
Mari Nichols-Haining

Because to the depths of me, I long to love one person,
With all my heart, my soul, my mind, my body…
Because I need a forever friend to trust with the intimacies of me,
Who won’t hold them against me,
Who loves me when I’m unlikable,
Who sees the small child in me, and
Who looks for the divine potential of me…

Because I need to cuddle in the warmth of the night
With someone who thanks God for me,
With someone I feel blessed to hold…

Because marriage means opportunity
To grow in love in friendship…

Because marriage is a discipline
To be added to a list of achievements…

Because marriages do not fail, people fail
When they enter into marriage
Expecting another to make them whole…

Because, knowing this,
I promise myself to take full responsibility
For my spiritual, mental and physical wholeness
I create me, I take half of the responsibility for my marriage
Together we create our marriage…
Because of this understanding
The possibilities are limitless


To more happier entries ahead...if we don't elope and get married that is!

We've made progress!

So its been about two weeks since the last post, and i'm really happy to say we have made progress!!!

Hurhur... In this short time, we have debated / argued / rationalised and change our minds on the reception venue like a grand total of 4 times. We settled on the Community Centre option, then couldn't let go of Fort Canning Gallery still, then thought of doing it separately to cut down on the headache of housing 2000 guests and then, we were back at square one.

I'm glad to announce that we have not killed each other (brain-juices) in the process and we are still finding that thin line of compromise of having what we want in our wedding, together with what our parents want. I guess a wedding is a family occasion and well, we just want everyone to be happy and enjoy our day, at the end of it all...

One venue that's 98% finalised (have yet to book!) is our location for the solemnisation. We had decided to have our solemnisation on our 4th anniversary and we knew we didn't want it at home. So after searching for restaurants and country clubs, our 'wedding planner' (more on her below) suggested having it at a mosque.

Have to say i was not fully convinced of the idea at first. But after some discussing with the parental units- who gave their complete blessings, i started my search for a suitable location. And i found the perfect venue lar! Nestled in between Sembawang and Admiralty ie. minutes from home and fantastic architecture. What's not to love...

I present you one of the most beautiful mosques in Singapore...

Assyafaah Mosque

images from here

Modern, beautiful and so serene. I was awed when i saw these images... One venue down! yeahhh!

The wedding planner mentioned above is actually the mister's sis-in-law. She has courageously volunteered to be the wedding planner to this super indecisive and 'kan-cheong' couple. And she's been fabulous, sometimes getting even more excited than us! She loves weddings, the details, the planning, and she has the same taste as me, so that's really great. Now i have someone, other than the mister to do my non-stop wedding chatter with... heeeee...

Talking bout the mister, we are taking this whole planning thing pretty well...thus far. It has kinda brought us together, closer than before in some ways. It is still fuzzy, this whole idea of being married by this time next year. So surreal, yet we are definitely looking forward to the next chapter of our relationship. Right dear?

Till the next post, happy 080808 and happy 43rd birthday Singapore!!

I'm back...tanned and refreshed

*dust away the cobwebs*

I feel truly horrible for neglecting my blog. Its been a pretty looooong while since anything wedding related has been published BUT i promise that I'm back, refreshed and recharged from my beach getaway. It was indeed time well spent with the bestie...

taken from my deckchair, Koh phi phi

the hotel didn't disappoint

happy faces

Aaaaand back to wedding talk...

Since the past month, aside from celebrating our 3rd year together, me and the mister have been contemplating our wedding dates (after much pestering from the parental units). Hmmm... To have it in 2010 or 2009. To have it all on 1 day or to have it on 2 separate days. To keep it at one location or two. Decisions, decisions... And talking about decisions & locations, we are really stumped out. Is there any decent community centre/halls or club hall/any other venue that we should be considering?

We are going to have a combined function, so we need a space big enough to accommodate our pretty huge guest list (i do not have exact figures, but i am very sure his guest list will be extensive. No more smallish wedding for me!). From our current plans, we will be having the nikah (solemnisation) in the evening followed by dinner and the sanding (lunch reception) the next day at the same location. This is also to divide the guests into more manageable group and save on the hassle of decorating 2 separate locations. Sounds like an idea... Only thing is we still don't have a clue where to do it. Anyone with their 2 cents is welcome to make suggestions, coz at the rate we are going, we'll prolly get married in 2020!!!

It has been tough trying to get started and it seems there's so much to be done. We do not have any vendors in mind for anything yet and truth be told, we are kinda lost where to get started. Well, we did went to the last wedding expo, but not many of them left much of an impression. Or perhaps, at that point we weren't really keeping a lookout for potential vendors.

My dear fiance has been interviewing his colleagues that has just gotten married and he actually forwarded me an excel sheet he downloaded from windows for wedding planning. So cute lar... he seems to be very excited, which is great after hearing from friends how their hubby-to-be weren't too keen to be involved in the wedding planning. Let's keep my fingers crossed..

Then whilst browsing through weddingbee today, i saw this post. Yipeeeeeeee!! any sort of wedding planning tool is heaven sent for me, given our current situation. I just signed up and got started. How simple, and its totally free too! It automatically generate a to-do list for you from now till your wedding day and after. So if i refer to the checklist, first and foremost we need to set a budget. We do have a figure that we are working with, so that's errm.. done.

Great! One done and 115 more tasks to go. *gulp*

Next is to start on the guest list. This will be a surmountable task given the expected amount of guests. But i do have my guest list from my engagement party to start with, so that's a good start i suppose...

And then, its to start searching for a reception & ceremony venue! Uh huhhh.. this one will keep us busy for the next few weeks.

Some google searching gave me these to ponder;

http://www.cateringonline.sg/event/

http://www.singaporebrides.com/venue/the_legends/index.htm

http://www.nasibriyanilounge.com/topics/Wedding-Venues/Q195.html

http://www.galleysgourmet.com/photo_gallery.php

If any of you reading have any suggestions, pls leave me a comment or drop me a mail at cna_moon{at}hotmail.com. Till the next post, have a great weekend!