Honeymoon!

HEHEHHE. As the title suggests, I'm on my honeymoon! Its gonna be 24 days long. We're going around the west coast of USA, starting from San Francisco! We just got here 2 days ago and am really apologetic for the lack of posts. :(

I am a lot more frequent on Instagram and you could follow me there as well for photo updates if you'd like. :) You can find me by the user id "colourlee".

Long story for the choice user id. Hahahahahaha.

Hope to see you there!

FYI, its effing cold here. :(

Herbalife Day 1

As many of my friends know, I've been battling weight problems since my BF (now husband) and I went through a rough patch 2 years ago. I have tried Duromine, a controlled drug that drives me nuts at night cause I can't sleep although effective (I become very very moody and glum). I've tried BottomSlim and paid a hefty sum that showed little results. I even went for Lipsonix and Coolsculpt on my inner and outer thighs (Effective for Liposonix on the outer thigh but no difference on the inner thigh - Coolsculpt).

Now, with my friends' introduction, Imma try Herbalife! Here's the plan I have laid out for myself for today till the day I fly off for my honeymoon (6th to 14th Jun):
Morning
3 caps x Herbal Aloe Concentrate with 200ml of cold water or milk (optional)
2 tabs x Cell-U-Loss
1 tab x Total Control
1/2 tsp x Herbal Concentrate with 200ml of cold water
3 tbsp x Formula 1 MRP with 500ml of cold water
Water consumption: ~1Litre with the water needed to swallow the tabs.

Lunch
3 caps x Herbal Aloe Concentrate with 200ml of cold water
2 tabs x Cell-U-Loss
1 tab x Total Control
1/2 tsp x Herbal Concentrate with 200ml of cold water
3 tbsp x Formula 1 MRP with 500ml of cold water
Water consumption: ~1Litre

Snack/Tea break
3 tbsp x Formula 1 MRP with 500ml of cold water mixed with 250ml of non-sugar fruit juice
1 slice x fruit

Dinner
3 caps x Herbal Aloe Concentrate with 200ml of cold water
2 tabs x Cell-U-Loss
Normal dinner (Nothing too oily etc)
Water consumption: ~250ml

Guaranteed total water consumption for the day: 2.5L (I heard the daily recommended amount of water to drink is 4L.)

From what my friends tell me, its not advisable to take Total Control or Herbal Concentrate after 5pm cause it contains caffeine equivalent to 1 cup of coffee each unless you're on Subaru Challenge or something. Hahaha.

Anyway, from how my day went, I can safely say, if you haven't tried MRP before, good luck! It smelled so delicious after mixing and the total opposite from what I pictured it to taste like in my mind. ROFL. I knew it was gonna be bad, I just didn't expect to make me wanna throw up.

I usually take 3 slices of bread (whichever is available) with a thick layer or peanut butter on top of a layer of butter PLUS either a slice of cheese or a meat patty. LOL. To me, breakfast is the most important meal of my day. Lunch normally would consist of just like 1/3 of the normal rice serving with heaps of meat and vege (I normally order 3 sides, 2 meat and 1 veg mostly, and some days, I order 2 each). As for dinner, I eat just 1 mouthful of rice, with 1 serving of meat, 1 serving of veg and soup.

You can imagine the torture I'm experiencing right now. Lol.

The Herbal Concentrate and Aloe are both sour, and very easy to swallow for me. I generally like sour stuff and my tolerance for sour things is high. So most people may find it mutha-sour. Hahaha.

I don't have a weighing scale in my new home. :( Wonder why we never got one. I'll update my weight when I get the chance to!

Express morning highlights

Ooooh, I was in one of the worst conditions to be photographed and videographed that day. I had a super puffy face from the lack of sleep, and one of the worst hair days! But, heck! I thoroughly enjoyed myself. So thankful for everyone's help. Couldn't have been better.

Hope you all like it. :)

Same day edit - The wedding of Eric & Carol [must watch!] from Benjamin Ong on Vimeo.

Childhood montage

Hehe. As some of you readers know, my AD was just 2 days ago. We received tons of professional help and had friends flying in from all parts of the world to celebrate this special day with us. :)

One of which, included a childhood montage which I'm gonna do a short post about.

Here's the video which my poly friend has kindly sponsored without conditions. We loved it. Of course, the elements of a good video consists of essentials such as the photographs and music provided. We wanted a sweet feel to it and he nailed it!




Will do a proper post when we've settled everything else! :)

Till next time,
♥

4 more days!

Oh boy, just a blink of an eye and we're just 4 days away from the day we've planned a year and a half for. ;)

Can't wait I must say!

Here's a look of what Lily (my MUA) did for my trial makeup. Didn't manage to take a picture of the hair she did for me initially though. The awesome part was that despite a trial hair do not a part of the contract, she kindly did a 10min hairdo with some gel and hair products to show how it was gonna look like on my wedding day. And made sure I left the studio presentable enough so I could go out in style after! This is the picture of the makeup and hairdo I left with.

I. Was. Blown. Away!

Okay, I'll admit. I was very skeptical in the first place because she stuck the double eyelid tape so close to the inner corner of my eye that it was really really obvious (my right eye with inner crease). She kept reassuring me that I wouldn't even see it later on. She even kindly corrected the way I stuck my eyelid tape. :)

She was very attentive to what I wanted (Super large eyes). And normally. What I experienced with makeup artists, the lazy ones can't even be bothered to highlight your brow bone, give you a 2 shade eye shadow. This one, however, used over 7 products, carefully shading and correcting my eyes as I have uneven eyelids + 1 is droopier than the other. Even for a trial makeup, she made sure I had double fake eyelashes on the ends. Plus highlighted my nose! I didn't get that for my bridal shoot with You-You. :) Very very contented.

11 days to go!

Hey ladies :) In a blink of an eye, we're down with 11 days to our wedding day! Truly been an exciting journey with many disagreements and arguments, but through this, we've learned more about each other's quirks. Things have been going round in turmoil lately. So many fights, we nearly gave up. Many times I wanted to call off the wedding but thankfully with the support of our friends and family, we've managed to get this far.

Truthfully, throwing a banquet has never been on the books for us. It was only because I'm the only chance at marrying off a daughter my parents will ever get.

Let's move on to happier stuffs anyway!

Here's our wedding bands!




And here's my wedding gown and evening gown!



Gotta go off now! Hehe.

Actual Day Itinerary

Its been a while since I've blogged a decent post so I've decided to do a double post today!

Here's a pretty accurate gauge of my actual day itinerary. I'm gonna pray everyone can be on time, no vehicle breakdowns etc cause we're really tight on schedule!

Time	Activity
0500-0515	Bride / Groom wake up
0515-0530	Wash up / Get ready
0530-0545	Brothers arrive at groom's place Sisters arrive at bride's place Makeup artist arrive at bride's place Videographer arrive at bride's place Photographer arrive at bride's place
0545-0600	Driver arrive at groom's place Sisters get ready "Groom's door opener" arrive at bride's place
0600-0615
0615-0630	Groom and brothers arrive at bride's place
0630-0645	Groom take photos with brothers
0645-0700	Gate crash start!
0700-0715	Gate crash
0715-0730	Gate crash
0730-0745	Take photos with brothers & sisters
0745-0800	Bride, groom, brothers & sisters leave for groom's place Bride's door opener arrive at groom's place
0800-0815
0815-0830	*****Groom & bride arrive at groom's place
0830-0845	Eat tangyuan, etc customary stuff
0845-0900	Brothers change into shirts and suits
0900-0915	Leave for Little Guilin photoshoot
0915-0930
0930-0945
0945-1000	Arrive back at groom's place
1000-1015	Chill / cool down
1015-1030
1030-1045
1045-1100
1100-1115	Start tea ceremony at groom's place
1115-1130
1130-1145
1145-1200
1200-1215
1215-1230	Bride change into tea dress Leave for bride's place
1230-1245
1245-1300	Start tea ceremony at bride's place
1300-1315
1315-1330
1330-1345
1345-1400	Leave for hotel
1400-1415	Check in hotel
1415-1430
1430-1445
1445-1500
1500-1515
1515-1530
1530-1545	Makeup artist arrive
1545-1600
1600-1615
1615-1630
1630-1645
1645-1700	*****Refer to setup checklist Brothers and sisters arrive at hotel to setup Bride's family arrive Groom's mother arrive
1700-1715	Bride's mother, sister and groom's mother do makeup
1715-1730	Makeup!
1730-1745	Photographer arrive at hotel Take some photos in hotel
1745-1800	Videographer arrive at hotel Rest of groom's family arrive Bride's brother family arrive
1800-1815	*****Refer to solemnisation guest list & plan Solemniser arrive Guest arrive
1815-1830	Solemnisation start
1830-1845
1845-1900	Move décor into ballroom Bride change into gown
1900-1915	*****Refer to dinner guest list & plan Groom await guests
1915-1930	Bride arrive downstairs
1930-1945	*****Refer to seating plan Guests be seated by 1945
1945-2000	*****Refer to dinner plan Dinner start Bride and groom 1st march in
2000-2015	Serve 1st dish
2015-2030	Groomsmen x 2 bring angbao boxes up to safe and lock Serve 2nd dish
2030-2045	Serve 3rd dish Bride & groom leave to change
2045-2100	Serve 4th dish
2100-2115	*****Refer to dinner plan Montage Bride & groom 2nd march in Serve 5th dish
2115-2130	Serve 6th dish Thank you speeches
2130-2145	Serve 7th dish Start going rounds to take photos
2145-2200	Serve 8th dish Take photos
2200-2215
2215-2230	Thank guests

To be updated with the solemnisation and dinner plan!

Bargains for your bridal package!

After reading a couple of older posts, I realized I haven't posted anything on the bridal packages. Here's a guideline of what you may request from the bridal studio you have decided on when bargaining in no sequential or order of importance. :)

1. Photos selection (Soft copy & printed). Its usually 30-36 photos for a mid range package.

2. Free design & re-designing of layout (How your photos are arranged, printed out, the effects etc)

3. Free addition of pages if you purchase/choose to have more photos printed and wish to have photos spread out. Some bridal studios charge $120 per page if you overflow into a new page. Therefore, if the album you've chosen has 4 folds x double sides (my case), it'll be $120 x 4 folds x 2 sides = $960. This is a trap you shouldn't allow yourself to fall into. - Refer to No. 36

4. Rental of OTR (Off-the-rack) x 1 Solemnisation dress

5. Rental of OTR x 1 Solemnisation suit

6. Rental of OTR x 1 Wedding gown (Actual day) - Refer to No. 14

7. Rental of OTR x 1 Tea dress / Kwa (Actual day) - Refer to No. 14

8. Rental of OTR x 2 Evening gowns (Actual day) - Refer to No. 14

9. MTM (Made-to-measure) gown if you don't find anything you like off their racks FOC

10. 4R photos x 100 pcs (Repeated ones from your selection in No. 1)

11. Mini album of selected photos (No. 1) x 1

12. Table portrait of selected photo from No. 1 x 1 with FRAME

13. Wedding portrait of selected photo from No. 1 x 1 with FRAME

14. Open choice of gowns (All ranges)

15. Open choice of covers and laminates or material used at no additional costs

16. Rental of wedding car (They usually charge $300 for a Mercz-300 with petrol & driver)

17. Pick your photographer

18. Pick your make up artist

19. Transportation for day of photoshoot

20. Free re-shoot if you're not satisfied with photos

21. 3-5 Outdoor locations

22. 2-3 Indoor shoots

23. Different makeup/looks for all outfits

24. MTM x 1 pants for groom

25. Rental of suits x 2 for groom (Actual day)

26. No charges for over-time shoot at night

27. No charges for early shoot - Both the photographer and makeup charged me $120 EACH for coming in 2 hours earlier. :(

28. Rental of suits for groomsmen (Actual day)

29. Rental of dresses for bridesmaids (Actual day)

30. Rental of suit x 1 for both fathers (Actual day)

31. Rental of dress x 1 for both mothers (Actual day)

32. Open choice of car decoration

33. Open choice of hand bouquet (Actual day)

34. Open choice of corsages for family and bridesmaids (Actual day)

35. Makeup and hairstyling x 2 for bride (Actual day)

36. Some bridal studios allow returning of ALL photoshoot soft copies - If not, "under-table" through your photographer.

37. Wedding banner x 1 (Actual day) - This is for placing at your wedding venue foyer to notify guests which ballroom/floor it is

38. Trial makeup x 2 (Day & Night makeup)

39. MTM shirt x 1 for groom - Not all bridal studios offer that

40. No early charges for makeup artist (Before 6-7am on actual day) - Mine charges $100 per hour you require her to come before 7am! *Slaps forehead*

41. No early charges for drivers (Actual day) before 7am too!

42. Photographer and videographer for actual day (I don't think the quality will be very good though) - Its easier for photographs to be captured if models hold still. But its a whole new ball game for candids and captures on the move. Just my two cents worth.

43. Open choice of flowers for all following cars (Actual day)

44. Outfits x 5-6 for bride on day of photoshoot - Refer to No. 14

45. Suits/Outfits x 2-3 for groom on day of photoshoot


I think that's all for a mid to high range bridal package. I didn't manage to get all of the above for mine. Didn't perform enough research before we settled on the package. Of course, this is just a guideline. However, my colleague managed to get ALL of the above for $3k-ish (I feel like bawling my eyes out!)

But, of course. It also depends on type of bridal studio you've engaged. A general rule of thumb is to view the gowns they have (usually prepared in an ipad) and photos of actual couples they have printed as samples before wasting time to bargain. Hahaha.

Hope this entry will help some poor brides-to-be in getting their moneys worth!

Our wedding bands!

Really satisfied with the product and workmanship! Most of all, our jeweler gave us a relatively good price. :)

Okay, this picture is taken unpolished and diamonds not framed yet.

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Groomsmen & Bridesmaids Outfit Ideas!

Hi ladies! I must really apologize for the lack of updates. I've been busy with work, the guest list, invitations and outfits for our bridesmaids and groomsmen!

After much much and more changes, we have FINALLY settled down on a theme. East meets west. That's to satisfy both our cravings. For my HTB, he dreams about being an emperor (I know WTF right? HAHA) and mine, to have purple maxi dresses on my bridesmaids.

At long last, he has settled on being a dressed down emperor (Qing Dynasty one) and the brothers dress as his erm. Imperial bodyguards? I'll have photos to illustrate better later. As for my bridesmaids, I gave a couple of maxi designs for Grecian Goddess theme. Although not exactly the purple I wanted, it still beats than having other colours.

Since the whole theme evolved around my HTB's desire to be emperor for a day, we thought the brothers could be imperial maids and the bridesmaids could be eunuchs. You didn't read wrongly neither did I type wrongly. HAHA. However, I was unable to find a size for our king kong groomsmen. So, mission aborted.

On to the next, was HTB still being emperor, I be empress, groomsmen be imperial guards, bridesmaids be imperial maids. Another problem, I didn't wanna miss my "cover veil" ceremony with parents. :( And it'll prolly look weird if I dressed as a Qing Dynasty bride. -.- Yet again, mission was aborted.

Then FINALLY. My clever bridesmaids thought of a theme where we can do an East meets West, where I can stay in my beautiful white gown, still have my "cover veil" ceremony and I wouldn't be out of place! *LOVE THEM*

We had a problem however, HTB's groomsmen consists of 2 kingkongs, 1 skinny dude, 1 average sized but a tad short dude and A GIRL.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Here's a photo of the Qing Dynasty costume I have found to be custom made for the brothers!! *Pats own back*


HAHAHAHAHHA. I KNOW ITS DAMN AWESOME RIGHT. :D

As for my ladies, beautiful and elegant Grecian Goddesses!


And lastly, my darling emperor.


We have arranged for a dress down Qing Dynasty theme rather than a formal one as the costumes are tardy and uncomfortable. The dress down ones are a lot closer to our budget and easier to get out of!

So the plan goes like this, the boys arrive in their Qing Dynasty get up, emperor looking for a bride with his bodyguards in disguise. He meets me, a westernized girl. A tad cheezy, I know. Hahahahahahahahaha.

We will do the gate crash and all in each respective costumes, and head downstairs after the gate crash is over for the East meets West theme shoot, then head over to HTB's place and after all the traditional things, the boys will change into their suits and white shirts. We'll do a western, elegant shoot nearby. :)

After so much planning has been done, I really pray the photos will turn out well!!

Till next time. :)

How to pick your banquet fish dish

We were offered pomfret fish as part of our menu and decided to upgrade to black garoupa or black grouper (I don't really know why menu states garoupa instead of how its actually spelled "grouper") at $20 nett per table. But during the food tasting, the fish turned out overcooked and parts of the flesh was stuck onto the bones (my in-law called it Lou2 Gou3). It wasn't that the chef's skills aren't good but more like, black grouper just has high chances of that happening.

Since elders and most people I know judge the value of your banquet based on whether there's roast pork and the fish grade of your menu, we thought we ought to feedback to the chef. Since the problem lies mostly with the fish itself, the chef kindly offered an upgrade at the same price offered to us for black grouper and we took it without any research on the kind of fish lol.

We went home and thought we should research on the grades of fish as there are really little information as to what fishes are regarded as superior to the elders. Here's what I managed to pull from the internet starting from the cheapest fish. Please correct me if I'm wrong though. :)


7. Tilapia
How it looks like alive

How it looks steamed



6. Sea bass
How it looks like alive

How it looks steamed



5. White pomfret
How it looks like alive

How it looks steamed



4. Black grouper
How it looks like alive

How it looks like steamed



3. Soon hock - I don't know what's the english name :(
How it looks like alive

How it looks like steamed



2. Cod fish
How it looks like alive

How it looks like steamed



1. Red grouper - They say fresh water ones are usually red like the next picture suggests. Whereas the good sea water ones are often pale red.
How it looks like alive

How it looks like steamed


Something to note about banquet served fishes - they are mostly bred, which means bred in fresh water. The poorer quality ones have this muddy taste which can be easily musked over by deep frying and serving in sweet and sour sauce etc. Therefore, to ensure the quality of your fish dish, opt for steamed fish as you'll be able to judge better if the fish is good.

I will be going for CoolSculpt by Zeltiq this coming Friday. I'm so excited! Will blog after the treatment on Friday. :) Stay tuned!

Update:
Well, we clearly remembered that the sales consultant from Feline promised to give us free additional pages when we purchase photos. But that's not the case when we went back to review our layouts today. We needed 4 pages to fill up 1 fold that would cost us $160 x 4 = $740. That's mad. No way in hell we were gonna agree to that. And since the digital artist didn't mention to us during our first layout review and change, she had to redo the layouts to fit the contracted 20 pages for free.

Plus, Rachel, the owner of Feline, gave a stack of tiny, wallet sized printouts we saw from our 1st review free of charge. It contains photos that we didn't pick. But not all the prints are there. Still better than nothing I guess.

Here's some of our favorite fun snaps! :)

---

Gonna go visit Feline this Sunday to view our edited photograph layouts, can't wait to share!

Till then. :)

Wedding songs

I've compiled a list of songs used for our big day. Hope you'll find this of use to you :)

Wedding montage song
Javier Colon & Natasha Beddingfield - As Long As We Got Love

First march-in
K-Ci & Jojo - All My Life

Second march-in
Jamie Cullum - Everlasting Love / Mariah Carey - I'll Be There / Jeffrey Osbourne - On The Wings of Love (It's a tie!)

Banquet songs
Jamie Cullum - Everlasting Love
Mariah Carey - I'll Be There
Babyface - Every Time I Close My Eyes
K-Ci & Jojo - All My Life
Firehouse - I Live My Life For You
Damage - Forever
Jars of Clay - Love Song For A Savior
Extreme - More Than Words
Lady Antebellum - Need You Now
Jars of Clay - Nobody Loves Me Like You
Taio Cruz - Telling The World
Mariah Carey - Thank God I Found You
Josh Groban - You Raise Me Up
Howie Day - Collide
Firehouse - Love of A Lifetime
Firehouse - When I Look Into Your Eyes
Carrie Underwood - Inside Your Heaven
Kelly Clarkson - A Moment Like This

Customized wedding bands!

First of all, happy new year everyone! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year, as well as I had. :)

As we're closing in on our wedding date, there are tons of things still unsettled. But fortunately, with my die hard persistence and powerful nagging skills, we finally got our wedding bands customized!

I can't wait to share. Hohohohoho. We haven't gotten the actual product back from the jeweller yet but trust me it's gonna be really pretty!

We zoned in on the Tiffany's signature milgrain design. Pictures below.


Guy's 6mm thick version


Female's 4mm thick version


We also really liked this design from Tiffany but HATED the yellow gold. Plus, my engagement ring had rose gold on it too so I wanted our wedding bands to match it. We took the design to the jeweller and requested for the center piece to be fully made in platinum and ONLY the milgrain part to be in rose gold. *Nose bleed*

Next, I requested a half eternity band on my milgrain wedding band! MUAHAHHAHA. Specifically, the claw design and not the pave one. My inspiration below!


Price wise, it really wasn't cheap. My ring size is just 1 size smaller than my husband-to-be's. LOL. I know it's pretty unbelievable. But it's painfully true. If we had gotten the exact same design, nobody would know which is the guy's/female's. FML.

But hubby-to-be chose the 6mm design, saving me from embarrassing questions. Hahaha.

Anyway, we'll be expecting the product in about a month. Really excited!