Long may this continue, yes to the end of our lives!

"I briefly contemplated my issues with words like fiance, wedding, husband, etc. I just couldn't put it together in my head. On the one hand, I had been raised to cringe at the very thought of poofy white dresses and bouquets. But more than that, I just couldn't reconcile a staid, respectable, dull concept like husband with my concept of Edward. It was like casting an archangel as an accountant; I couldn't visualize him in any commonplace role."

Bella Swan thought the above just before she married Edward.

(I've been re-reading Twilight 'cos I'm a secret sucker for the love story between Bella and Edward, and also 'cos I think almost every girl can relate to the seemingly too-ordinary, clumsy, awkward, two-left-feet and ungraceful Bella. There's a bit of Bella in every girl, and I think that's what makes her so special.)

I'm borrowing her words for now, because I feel the same way. My life has been one big whirl of wedding-related activities and thoughts; I've been breathing and eating wedding preparation for what feels like the longest time ever. Now that everything's over and I have time to sit and re-collect.. I think about what concepts like the above mean.

Surely, they cannot even begin to encapsulate anything about what Clement is to me. He is a husband, yes. He is also a friend, a companion, a warm hand to hold, a shoulder to cry and lie on, my personal cook; he is the world to me. And the wedding, it is the day I celebrate the start of my happy union with Clement. But it is also a day that marks the end of my parents' care for me, the day that my grandparents are proud of how big their granddaughter has grown and how she's turned out, the day that I leave home for a new one, the day I become a wife.

Wife.
Wow.

Anyhoot.

It's been a season of much joy and happiness, and I have been blessed tremendously. There is so much that has happened in the short span of time since I aged one more year; I barely know where to begin my tales!

I will start at the chronological start (although time sometimes make more sense when one thinks of it cyclically instead of linearly..): my Bachelorette's Party, a.k.a. my hen's night - where a bride is supposed to be mourning the loss of her singlehood. Traditional hen's nights usually involve a stripper (or two), plenty of booze, and girls getting all high and cackly (hence the term "hen's night", I think.)

Well, mine wasn't quite so wild, but it was one of the best nights of my life.
With my most precious girl friends taking their Saturday off to spend it with me, how else could it have turned out? :) Cheryl Anne was my party planner, and she did such a fabulous job bringing all my girl friends together for a night of good, clean fun at the Fairmont hotel.

Trina, Carol, Audrey, Chelsa, Cheryl Sarah, Cheryl Anne - you girls are my life, and long may that continue!



This was the sight that greeted me when I returned to the room.
I was wondering if I should bash my way through, or slowly undo the scotch-tape for each piece hurhur!

  

After bashing my way through.... These were what I saw!
Pretty helium balloons, a mystery box, and a table very nicely laid out with my favourite gula melaka pandan chiffon cake from Cedele and bottles of Moscato :)





My girls were hilarious - they sang me a song to the "Happy Birthday" tune, but didn't know what to replace the "birthday" with. Somehow, seeing a cake with lit up candles always makes us wanna burst into a "Happy Birthday", eh?

  
The aftermath of my entrance. Haha!

 
Close-up of said mystery box... And its contents. ;)


Everyone trying to help me decide which of the pretty baubles to put on..

 
Okay, just two pictures of me be-decked. I do look a little crazed, but because they put so much effort in decorating me... These are for you, darlings. :D


After a change of dresses, off we went to dinner!
While at dinner... We were busy bequeathing each other with gifts.
I think I got super skills in bed, extra powers with the broom and mop, and lifelong happiness, among many other lovely, happy things. :)

I, on the other hand, gave my friends useful gifts like 20 bouncing babies, 1 million dollars (in a million years), lifelong company in the form of 20 cats, and most importantly... the gift of Punctuality (for Cheryl Sarah Lee, especially. Haha!) Hehehe.

See! Everyone looks so happy with what I gave them. :P





I think they almost managed to nail the mafia shot, if I hadn't yelled "One, two, three, SCOWL!!"









I think that's all of the pictures I can show. The rest are just... Let's say that in the interest of protecting the dignity of myself and my intelligent, beautiful, genteel friends - I will stop my picture post here.


Okay, so I have pictures of honour with each of my lovely girls.
And little messages for each of them.


To Chelsa:
We've been through and grown much together.
We both learnt what it means to love and hurt at about the same time, and we've both made it through since. We've definitely come a long long way!
You've been a shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold, the perfect study pal.
I'd never have made it through university without you, in more ways than one.



To Audrey:
You've been my voice of reason more often than you know, and for that I am nothing but grateful.
You are one of the strongest, bravest, kindest souls I know, and you don't know this but I've always looked up to you. Long may that continue, my dearest pal!



To Cheryl Sarah Lee:
I'm never ever bored around you, you rarest of girl friends, you pal, you!
I'm so glad you managed to come for my party in spite of your crazy busy schedule and working the Saturday away. It wouldn't have been complete without you.



To Cheryl Anne:
Childhood friend, we are so similar in so many ways, almost like a reflection of myself.
It's taken us a while to love ourselves, and now that we do, I cherish the me I see in you even more.
Thank you, for being you. Thank you, for seeing me for who I am, and loving me nonetheless.
And, you are one mean party planner! :)



To darling little sister Carol:
I never meant to sit on you when you were a mere baby... We've grown through our differences and learnt to accept each other, and boy has it been a long 22 years of that.
Do know that I miss you even more now that we're no longer a corridor apart.
MLM, forever and ever! :9:9


To BFF Trina:
You've never judged me for anything I've done, and in you I've always had full acceptance of all I was, am, and will be.
There is little in life that is more precious than that; than you.


I love all of you very much.

To treat these two imposters just the same

What I've been inspired by these days, from the Spring 2012 runways.
First up, a bevy of beautiful evening gowns from my favourite evening wear designers: Marchesa and Elie Saab.
Hands-down, these two always do it for me where gowns are concerned.
They always have gowns that do what evening gowns should do: dazzle and take one's breath away at the gorgeousness of it all.

Absolutely dripping with high-octane glamour.

 

 

Marchesa Spring 2012

 

 

 

 

 

And of course, my absolute favourite - Elie Saab.
I lurrrve the colour palette and the elegance of his evening wear. This is in spite of the Style.com fashion writer's lacklustre review of this collection. Lace, sequins, and flowy chiffon, these are everything I'd want on any gown I'd don for a glitzy affair. (And I've always wanted to work a gown with a thigh-high split like Megan Fox or Blake Lively - both of whom do so with such aplomb.)


Okay this is a very random post.

One of my favouritest poems, ever.

"If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

...

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!"

If
Rudyard Kipling

"I have spread my dreams beneath your feet...

... Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."
W.B. Yeats




The weekend was a fulfilling one, wedding-wise.

Thought through more decor to be done and tested out some ideas, went to choose and confirm my flowers for the church arrangements and my bouquet, got Clem's shoes and ties, collected the studio album, sat down with my programme ICs to hammer out the details of the wedding day programme...

Up next: settling the decor for the lunch hall, finalizing the dinner seating arrangements, finalize dinner decor.

WOOHOO! Things are getting settled one by one.

The list though, is never-ending.

Quick peek of what my bouquet is slated to look like:



Flowers make me happy.
If I were to consider an alternative career, I think I'd be a florist.
In my opinion, flowers are everything "pretty" should be. Delicate and vivacious at the same time, in all the colours the world can hold.

4 more weekends to the day, and I already am looking beyond that.

"But ultimately, there comes a moment when a decision must be made. Ultimately, two people who love each other must ask themselves how much they hope for as their love grows and deepens, and how much risk they are willing to take. It is indeed a fearful gamble. Because it is the nature of love to create, a marriage itself is something which has to be created, so that, together, we become a new creature.

To marry is the biggest risk in human relations that a person can take. If we commit outselves to one person for life, this is not, as many people think, a rejection of freedom; rather, it demands the courage to move into all the risks of freedom, and the risk of love which is permanent; into that love which is not possession, but participation. It takes a lifetime to learn another person. When love is not possession, but participation, then it is part of that co-creation which is our human calling, and which implies such risk that it is often rejected."

Madeleine L'Engle