Wedding Tshirts

We received a surprise package yesterday.

In it were two white polo tshirts. It's the wedding tshirts designed by David's dad (Jim) and motivated purely by David's Uncle Derek. It seems like they will all be wearing it on the plane, on the way to Singapore. Wonder how customs is going to react when they see them. Hmm...shame you can't use the camera at the customs counters.

Wedding Bands

We picked up our wedding bands last saturday. Yay! Perfect, white gold bands. No fuss. No frills. And a lot cheaper than the ones we liked at Tiffany's. More yays!

四点金 (si dian jin)

"4 touches of gold"

One of the customary things that a teochew bride receives from her parents in-law is a set of gold jewellery, usually comprised of a necklace, pendant, a bracelet/bangle, and earrings. This is part of the betrothal gift that the bride's family usually asks for and is given to the bride before the wedding day so that she can wear it on the day. These days, it is very common for the in-laws to give it to the bride during the tea ceremony instead - usually after serving the in-laws tea, they will put the jewellery on the bride to show off to one and all. It is also common for the bride's parents to give her a set of gold as well. Why four pieces? Well, I still can't find the answer, especially since 4 is actually regarded by the Chinese as an unlucky number as it a homophone and sounds like "die" in Mandarin as well as the various dialects.

Well, not being an accessories/jewellery person myself, I finally agreed to a set of gold from my parents and a pendant & necklace from Carol and Jim (David's parents). I also decided that I wanted white gold instead of the traditional yellow gold, simply because I prefer white gold. Again, white gold is regarded by some traditionalists as unlucky as it is called "pek kim" (white gold) and sounds like the name of the 'gift' you'll give to the family of the deceased. Alas, fashion wins and many brides have gotten away the white gold option. Yay hey!

Makeup Wayang (Drama)

Tuesday was a trip to the bridal shop for my trial makeup. This gives me an idea of what I'll look like with stuff on my face! Blergh. The makeup artist has already held back and gone for a 'natural' look, but I think I still look a bit 'wayang' (drama). I guess it is because I am not used to makeup at all. Well, if anything, the session has given me another reason not to have flash photography on that day! The flash bounces off my face and makes it look WHITE. Erm, not that looking white is anything bad...it's just a completely different tone from the rest of my skin.

We've also discussed the bridal bouquet, buttonholes for David and parents, decoration for the bridal car, picked another gown for the photoshoot that's taking place AFTER the wedding, discussed photoshoot locations, and more importantly, discussed buttonholes for the rest of the family. The florist is charging the same prices as the shops we've asked so it might be easier to just order from them and pick it up all on the eve. It's S$8 for button-holes and between S$12-18 for wrist corsages. Looks like we'll might be taking orders soon.

Hmmm..anything else left to organise?

A full day of wedding errands

Today was a day of errands. We ...

1. met Professor Brian Lee, our JP, who ran through the solemnisation process with us.


2. went to the jewellers to test drive our rings.


3. went to Sir Charles florist at the Raffles to decide on our flower arrangments.


4. met up with Mervyn to confirm and finalise details on the cupcakes.


5. went to David's tailor for his suit fitting.


6. went to Alain Figaret and found David's tie and cufflinks.

All in all, a very fruitful day. Oh yes, and despite David looking so tired in the pictures, he enjoyed his shopping spree.

My Pink Sarong

My mom and I went down to Arab Street today to hunt for a matching sarong for the kebaya. We went straight to no. 101 - apparently, it used to be a hot favourite with the peranakan ladies back in the days. The guy was really friendly and allowed me to pull out all the pink silk sarongs (yes, Pink!) they had to match with my kebaya top and I'm glad to say "I've found it!". He also gave a discount. Yay!


Made in Indonesia with the traditional batik design, the silk version of the sarong makes it look very plush. All I have to do now is to master tying the sarong for the day and pray it doesn't fall off.

Peranakan Glam Rock

Last sunday we returned from another (not quite) whirlwind trip to Melaka. This time we went to pick up my kebaya, which I am happy with. Despite David's reluctance to see me in it the 7th, he stuck around in the shop whilst i tried the kebaya so, too bad, he had to give me his comments. We're missing a suitable sarong (batik skirt) for the kebaya so it is off to Arab street some time soon to hunt for a silk sarong. Fingers crossed, but I've got the lady to make a normal batik skirt for me, in case I don't find anything nice. She's coming down to Singapore at the end of the month and will bring that, my mom's new green kebaya (that she's wearing for the wedding reception), and my grandmother's new batik skirt with her. Phew. That saves us having to go to Melaka again. As much as we like Melaka, making such regular trips can be very tiring, and June's the school holidays so there will be loads of traffic on the roads and at immigration, which I dread.

Upon arriving back in Singapore, we visited my godparents (Mary and James), and she has kindly offered to lend me her antique blue kasut manik-manik , which is the traditional shoes you'd wear with a kebaya. Yay! More 'something blue', and this means I've also got my 'something borrowed' covered.


On the ‘something borrowed’ note, Godma Mary also took out her antique peranakan jewellery (looks much like the ones in this picture) that she has insisted is necessary for the bride to wear. No such thing as half-measures. The bride's got to be the centre of attention (right...now, what did I say about attention and me before?). Alas, this is not the kind of thing you argue with someone who's taken the effort to dig out her treasure trove and share it with you. Besides, I think my mom and grandmother were secretly glad that they had someone else to 'pressure' me into glamming up! Anyway, the jewellery is gold (repoussé ) set with intan (i.e. shaved rose diamond skin mined from Kalimantan or Irian Jaya). It consists of a necklace, earrings, bracelet, and a chained broach.

So, in terms of fulfilling the English traditions - something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue – I think I’ve got it covered with the Kebaya (new, blue), the kasut manik (blue, old, borrowed), and the jewellery (old, borrowed). Have I missed out anything?

2 Months to D Day

Only two months to go and we're still pretty laid-back about the day. Everyone we meet who ask us how the planning's coming along seem surprised by our 'shrugs'. Honestly, we have no idea what is left to do. We've got the place, the solemniser, the rings (ordered), dress and suit (almost complete), photographer, videographer, invitations (almost all sent out), our beautiful jazz singer and her band, erm...well, we've got the bouquet and photoshoot left to finalise on i guess but that should be easy. Have we left out something?

Well, one tiny bad news came our way last week. David's top choice pianist for the wedding isn't in Singapore so he can't play at our wedding now. Michael Stanton has played with singers such as Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder in the past, which got David really excited and was his little piece of exciting snippet he wanted to share at the wedding...oh well, c'est la vie.

We've got Weixiang now, who we both really like too. Very talented. So, I am still very excited about the entertainment for the wedding. Watch this video for a sneak preview. Weixiang's on the piano for Amandah Jantzen at Jazz@Southbridge. Cool place for jazz if any overseas guests want to find a place to chill out whilst they are here. Drinks are a little expensive though.