Photos from the Mommies

The funny thing is that the photos that I've received (other than the ones taken by the photographers) are all from friends who are moms. I wonder why that is- although my guess is that they were all documenting the inaugural wedding appearence of their kids!

Looking back at the photos, I realize all the little details that I didn't know on that day. It really does pass in a blur! Some things I saw for the first time were well, the cake, for one, which I got all of two glances at, up the ailse and down and even what the dessert table looked like when it was fully stocked. (By the time the ceremony was over, half the passionfruit meringue tarts and the salted caramel macarons were gone- my colleagues sometimes get my baking products at work and they are well versed in the Way of Macaron Consumption, which goes something like "but by dessert-time, there won't be any left!").

There were even smaller things, like the groomsmen's ties and boutennieres. Even Z's tie, which I don't really think I noticed on that day (even though I bought it). Also, one guy friend (naturally) pointed out to me that "I love how your bridesmaids dresses form one blue line, did you plan for it that way?" (No, I didn't and they aren't even the same height!)





Another thing I realized was just how many kids we had in the bridal party- I now think it was an even more cute idea (then when we first thought of it) to have the bridesmaids with infants carry them down the ailse but I didn't know, till I saw the rehearsal photos, just what a procession it looked going before me. I love it, they are adorable, even though I didn't really get to witness their cuteness myself.






Other things I realized were that one must never tamper with an original design, to appease my dad, I had a slip of tulle added to the otherwise slightly revealing neckline (not really low at all but my dad is Amish about these things) and I realize in the photos that it throws the proportions of the dress off because the heavier neckline accentuates, rather than balances the ruffled shoulders.

On the good side, I'd already known that my mom's dress would be stunning (having picked the cloth in Beijing) but I must say, I didn't know till I saw the photographs, how beautifully it would photograph. I wasn't sure my mom would like the cloth, I knew she would like the print, with the peonies and birds resting on the shoulder but she typically doesn't like green. Me, I love green and I love the fading pattern of the clustered leaves and I still think both look great on her.








I also realized that the foundation colour was too light, the lighting in the White Rabbit was too dim (most photos had to be dimmed if taken with flash and lightened if not) and that the netting on a birdcage veil whites out your face! No wonder they are reserved for black and white photography- things Mindy Weiss doesn't teach you!

Photos from the Blue Wedding

Many years ago, I already had an inkling that Y.'s wedding was going to be challenging, given that her favourite colour is blue. Blue roses, she told me a long time ago, blue and cream.


I also didn't know that her wedding was going to be in LA and that it would be winter and that she was going to through me for a loop by suddenly saying that the curtains in the dining room were red!


That being said, running around the LA Flower Mart was the best experience ever. I contemplated trying to persuade Y.'s to change her mind about the colour scheme because we found these gorgeous dark purple-black dahlias. Arranged with triangular petals, these were full and textured. There were also pale pink zinnias, dahlias of peach, rose pink and red colours, pale peach amaryllis and tall budding foxgloves. It would have made for the most lovely, girly flowery, temperate wedding.


I had intended to make blue, cream-white and purple bouquets, filled with hydrangeas and lilacs, which is pretty much what has been popping up on some wedding sites. However, on the day itself, we found two things that changed the picture. One was these huge bunches of riveira blue hydrageas (which we later realized were white sprayed with a dusky blue) and the idea to have accent colours of dark, bright red to match the curtains and the setting. We still had the lilac, blue, cream colours but there were accents of red in every design.


We made 2 large arrangements backed with tall, wild eucalyptus for the ceremony table, 10 table arrangements including one large square arrangement for the head table, 5 corsages, 5 boutennierres, 1 bridal bouquet and some flowers for the cake in coordinated colours for under $200, much cheaper than Singapore primarily because of the hydrageas which were $1 per stalk. Y. also wanted a very simple binding, so we alternated the cream and blue ribbons, then pinned them at the base of the flowers. Thinking about it, we could also have intertwined them in a V-shaped pattern.


I snapped a photo of this awesome vintage sign and fonts in downtown LA, a day later. Love the shapely cursive!

Photographers in Singapore

The first photographs from Vicki and Tom, pulled from their website, are not of the wedding at all! We took them on a night-tour of Singapore and there were some really lovely long-exposure shots from the trip, these are two of them. They are home and working on the wedding photos though, so we are in excited anticipation of seeing some of them later this week.

Photos from Noah's angle

While waiting for Tom and Vicki's photos, I thought I would post these photos of my nephew, Noah. I think he had as good a time at the wedding as we did! Maybe even better, he got to stay with his Dad at the St Regis and by the looks of it, had gorgeous bathtimes with that huge standing tub and bathrobes, went to the Zoo, the Science Center, the Tiong Bahru Food Market (whereupon he encountered a squat toilet!) and during the wedding, he gamely participated in the tea ceremony, the lunch reception and took pictures with the band!

The first photo is Colin and I in the first part of the first dance, more on that to come. My favourite photo is definitely the last one, I love how he is framed by all the bedcovers and how happy can a little boy's face look!

The 5-second round-up for the day

Wedding Dress-Up

One great thing about the wedding being over, is that I can finally talk about the wedding dress. Z. had not known, until the day itself, which dress I had chosen and actually, for the longest time, I didn't know which dress I had chosen!



I was lucky in the sense that there were few dresses that really suited both my taste and the occasion. I knew right away that I didn't want a large dress but rather a soft, streamline dress, so that knocked out about 90% of the options. Then, I had visited a few made-to-measure bridal salons here but they were depressing experiences, each more sequinned and pretentious than the next and all of them made me feel (and in some cases, verbally suggested that I was) about 3 sizes too large for the average Singaporean dress, which was inveriably a satin embriodered bustier. There were a few bridal shops in Singapore that I wanted to check out, Margaret Brides, with their sweet wispy dresses and Renee Leong's collection but a lot of the top designs were also reminiscent of styles from US designers.

It wasn't hard to decide that I would stop doing that and by a dress off-the-rack from the US, where I was a very predicatable size. There was also only really one dress I loved, the simple, girlish Monique Lhullier lace Claire dress, with it's basic dipped front and back, paiseley lace and beautiful silhoutte. There were some other dresses I considered, the Monique Lhullier Scarlet, with it's daring keyhole back, an empire shaped Victorean Vera Wang dress with assymetric dark crystal beading down one shoulder and a vintage, slightly flapper looking lace and matt sequinned Vera Wang.


In the end, I decided to go with the dress that was a little more detailed, a little more quirky, I think, a little more me. Since it was from the 2007 Fall Collection, the dress was actually fairly rare now and in the US, had stopped being carried in-store, even though in that year, it had been lauded as one of the two "best of Bryant Park" sort of thing. The funny thing is, after I decided that, I suddenly started seeing the dress everywhere! It was on the web and in Martha Stewart and even in Facebook, each time on a very beautiful bride, so I took that as good affirmation!





For the tea ceremony, I didn't want to wear the dress (especially since Z's family wanted to have it at the parents) so I tailored a very bright red qipao in Beijing. The change-out or bridal shower dress I'd found quite by accident, while shopping in the Hong Kong Chloe outlet much earlier this year. I love it's deconstructed look and didn't even think about how I really couldn't justify yet another white dress!