September 26th 2007 by Wife in Announcements, Preparations
Yup, the title of this entry says it all - we are getting our new flat in Jurong West extension! Yipee! A 5-room flat, we are now having a headache of which unit to choose, since we are not allowed to go into the units to take a look for ourselves. Nonetheless, it’s getting exciting! With all the thinking about how we want to do up our new home, how I can design a Pooh corner (my dream!) and where to get our furniture from. Hee.. But excitement aside, there’s also the reality to face - money money money! Not only do we have to fork out money to pay the downpayment (which varies from 20-28k depending on which unit we get), we now have to budget for our renovation/ furniture shopping too. Not to mention we will have to pay for our numerous bills once we get our key. Man, living on our own is no mean feat! Growing up means greater responsibilities… 
September 17th 2007 by Wife in Feelings, Preparations
Went bridal studio shopping with my cousin on Saturday, and it was such an eye-opener! The variety of cuts, shapes and designs of the wedding gowns available on the racks of the bridal studios are simply stunning and makes one feel really spoilt for choice, as they all look so beautiful!
And to my surprise, the service of the 2 bridal studios we visited were friendly and not at all pushy. One had such young staff that I felt they could truly understand and relate to what the young bride-to-be needs!
It was really so much fun, and I hope I can be included in more of the excitement of her plans.. Hee.. 
Just some learning points obtained from the visits:
1) The gowns look entirely different when viewed on the racks compared to when they are taken down and out of their bags, or when worn on the bride-to-be’s body
2) Pre-conceived notions of particular designs of gowns that would look bad on the bride-to-be should be thrown out of the window until that particular design has been tried on personally
3) Be frank with the staff of the bridal studio as to what you need and want, so that you can obtain as much useful information as possible
4) Package prices are considered commercial secrets, so no bridal studio would pass you a quote of their packages with details. Remember as much of the details as possible, you can always write them down after you leave the studio!
5) Freebies thrown into the packages may seem attractive, but do consider what you truly need and whether the bridal studio can satisfy your requirements. An important factor might be the attitude of the staff. Imagine that you have to deal with these people amidst your busy wedding plans. You surely wouldn’t want to have to expend more energy than neccessary on arguing with them or losing the cheer of the whole process by getting annoyed by their negative attitudes, right?
When would it be my turn? 
September 4th 2007 by Wife in Feelings
Time sure flies. It has been almost a month since Hubby & I officially became man and wife. I’ve been through quite a couple of emotional upheavals during this period of time, and I am glad hubby was by my side the whole time.
So far, it’s been great to be married.
September 1st 2007 by Wife in Others
After waiting for about 5 working days, the photos we ordered from Snapfish (an online photo album that allows for ordering of prints as well) have finally arrived! It is the first time I’m trying out printing photos from online instead of going to a photo lab (so far, out of the major players - Kodak, Fujiflim and Konica, Kodak has given the best prints, though Konica offers the best rates).
I must say that the photos are majority quite well developed, but some of the photos which I opted for a digital size (4″ x 5.3″ instead of the normal 4″ x 6″ 4R size) came out pretty white-washed. I believe they used different printers, and as such resulted in a varying quality of the print-out, which is quite disappointing. The package came as a registered package though, and for the cost of postage we paid, I am very satisfied with Snapfish’s service (S$1.90 for 1st 50 prints, and S$1 for every subsequent 50 prints or part thereof). However, I believe it will still take some deliberation on my part before deciding whether I will continue using this online service for print-outs in the future, as it does take considerable time to develop (3-5 days compared to one day for normal photo labs). Plus, we have to upload the photos, which may take considerable time, before getting to choose what we want to print. Nonetheless, it is less hassle-free as we do not have to go out of the way to get the photos printed and collect them again when it’s done.
I’ve finally stuck the photos into our wedding album (but still incomplete due to a lack of some photos and I’ve not had time to do any captions), and added on some stuff to the design of the album cover. HAPPY! 
Here’s a peek at how the album looks like on the outside:
A golden album - signifiying the precious moments…
August 27th 2007 by Husband in Feelings, Others
My wife and I were featured on today’s Zaobao Fukan front page along with another 2 couples. It was a feature story on couples who married soon after graduation. There were a couple of mistakes in the article though, the most obvious one being my wife’s stipend being $1,500 to $2,000 weekly instead of monthly. I think it’s probably an honest mistake on the part of the reporter because it probably would have made no sense to anyone if the stipend is given weekly. Anyway, here’s the report:
Click on picture to enlarge
Reading about the other 2 couples, I suppose that young couples really have it tough. Money aside, people often wonder why the choice to get married so early. Some people might even think that it’s a shotgun marriage rather than a planned one. I suppose this are the consequences to face when you do things that are out of the norm.
I think the other two couples made two very good points which myself and Peiying agrees to wholeheartedly as well. The first is that life is unpredictable, and if we wait, we might never get the chance (touch wood but you never know). Secondly, family before career is something that we feel is important because the warmth of a family helps to provide a strong emotional support to ride through the rough waves of establishing a career.
I suppose not everyone agrees with such lines of thought but well, I think marrying early is really important because marrying late means that you will rush to have kids due to the biological clock ticking away. I think it’s better to enjoy a few years as husband and wife, understanding each other before the kids come because kids will definitely place additional stress on the family. It is important to have an emotionally strong bond between husband and wife before the kids come along, and for the strong emotional bond to happen, you need time to nurture it. So, if you are thinking about marriage, don’t wait! 
August 25th 2007 by Wife in Announcements
August 25th 2007 by Wife in Announcements, Feelings
After almost 3 weeks, we have our hands now on the soft copies of the photos from our ROM! Thanks to Adrian our photographer, we now have lovely shots as memories of that important day.
It’s now time to make prints! I’ve been waiting to do this for a long time. Hee.. And special thanks to Adrian also for eventually acceding to my every request, I sincerely appreciate it, a whole whole lot. I guess I was kind of a difficult customer 
Cheers to photos!
August 18th 2007 by Wife in Preparations
Now that the wedding solemnisation event is over, I can showcase our planning process! Have stopped myself from doing so earlier so as not to spoil any surprises.. Haha At least in terms of what we have designed and customized ourselves so as to bring a more personal touch to the whole event for our guests, here is what we had in store for everyone:
The whole process of choosing the right materials, design, fonts and wording for the invitation card & envelopes (clockwise from top left: a first draft of the wording and choice of font; font for our envelopes; multiple print-outs to see the effects of different designs; invitation design 1; invitation design 2; our final decision on the outlook of the invitation)
(clockwise from top left: our photo standing on an easel for the reception table; the envelope designs for our invitations; corsages for my cousins helping out; party poppers for the march-in/ end of ROM ceremony)
A close-up shot of the bride & groom accessory attached to the photo frame (left), and the decorated sign for the Photo Booth along with a pair of wedding bears!
And lastly, a personal favourite as part of the whole wedding reception - the photo guest book (after months of preparation in decorating and designing it!)! Here’s a glimpse of what it looks like:
Before the photo gets slotted in…
…and after!
There! Our efforts after the few (about three?) months of preparation, though tough, came out beautifully! I’m unable to showcase everything here, but the above are snapshots of the planning process… I can’t stop wondering now about how to make our customary wedding/ banquet more unique… Looks like this is what we call “once you start, you cannot stop” (thinking about it that is)! Haha…
Wonder when will I get back to reality?
August 18th 2007 by Wife in Announcements
It’s been close to 2 weeks after the day Aaron and I officially signed on the dotted line and are legally declared husband and wife. Despite being sick for most of the past week or so (coughing so much I feel breathless ever so often), I still have this floaty feeling and am basking in the happiness of the new marriage. Haha.. I told Aaron I want to bask in this kind of happiness for a few months without having to do anything else, but we both know this is impossible.
For now, I am looking forward to the photos from Adrian, the photographer hired for the event, then deciding which ones to develop! I’ve already printed out about near 30 pics of what I have on hand from what Zing, Sue/ Angela and my brother shot that day. I want to see more! Haha.. So bear with us for all who want to see more pics but find that there are hardly any here.
Here are a few that I particularly like though:
Click on this for more photos that Zing darling has kindly put together for my wedding for the moment!
August 12th 2007 by Husband in Feelings
Honestly, I didn’t think that getting married would make me feel any different regarding my relationship with my wife. After all, we have been together for so long (since 1999 when we met and got together in the first year of junior college) and know each other so well. And my wife didn’t think it’ll be any different as well.
Guess what, we were both wrong! There’s just something that marriage does to you that makes the relationship very different. Even for us who have been together so long, marriage just adds on another level of commitment and responsibility (at least for me). Maybe it’s because you no longer have a girlfriend/fiancee but rather, you have a wife whom you vowed to love and care for in sickness and in health.
And I also think that somehow, marriage has kind of made us become more mature in the relationship. Not that we weren’t mature to begin with, but I think we are letting go of many of the smaller things that we would usually get uptight easily previously. It is indeed an interesting experience. 
The other thing about getting married is that it feels odd to have to start calling your in laws Dad and Mum instead of Uncle and Auntie. It’s not easy to break the 8 year habit, much less to get comfortable about it. I guess that will take a while to get used to.
Now we are back to the mundane world of work and school. And there’s still the customary ceremony and house application to think about. Reality still bites.
