Engagement Sneak Peeks

8am: Getting ready 10:40am: 1st part of the ceremony included offering tea~ and 2nd part was sitting on a high chair waiting to exchange gifts and rings 11am: Family portrait after the traditional ceremony12.30pm: Making our 1st entrance
It only took us 15 mins for a dress switch & we're ready to make our 2nd entrance~ thanks to Jasmine
Lighting candles at every table

We're Engaged!

Tada! I'm still feeling shy about revealing my outrageous UP-do~but... here it is!Nov 15th, 2009 went by in a swift! Many friends asked if I slept well the night before the engagement, and yes, I replied. Cliff and I worked on our "growing up" & "daily life" slideshow and I must have been too exhausted to stay awake. After snoozing my alarm twice, it's time to hop on the cab @ 7.30am for the make-up appointment. The video grapher showed up @ 8, photographer came at 8.30am, Jasmine arrived @ 9~ and morning was filled with my enchanted ring tone. We finally arrived @ Sherwood by 10am, headed up to the suite 1014~ but no one was there.. Jas & I headed down to the engagement ballroom, ran into the Emcee - my cousin Olivia, and I was told.... the bride-to-be has to hide out! Cliff & family arrived at a well coordinated 10:10am, welcomed by my brother- which is part of the chinese tradition. I'll spend some time later on, describing Traditions 103, once I received photos from all over!

Anyway, the 10.30am traditional engagement ceremony delayed for about 15mins and ended quicky~ I headed back to the suite for a short break, time passed and it was soon 12.30pm, the doorbell rang and, appeared the bridal secretary & Cliff. We weren't feeling anxious as we waited by the door, for our 8 min growing up slideshow & the right musical moment to enter the ballroom. As we followed 3 pairs of hotel personnel down the aisle, all I could remember was bubbles in the air & being in the spotlight. All happened in a blink of the eye. We are engaged, part of my family's reluctance to the fact of "marrying off" their precious daughter & sister is probably dissolved.

7 days to our Engagement

It was another busy weekend, a fresh start of my Sat morning involved some cheerleading at work's annual sports day! Rushed back to taipei, finalized flower corsages @ the florist, & did a final run down with Joyce @ Sherwood hotel. We tested the music I picked for our 1st entrance, our slideshow & the growing-up video we worked on through the night. My cousin Olivia~ our Emcee also joined us for the meeting and did a rehearsal walking down the "imagined" red carpet. My pre-conceived notions of an engagement has completely turned 180 degrees. After our long meeting, we have to give ourselves a treat!
Back to Smith & Hsu for some tea "sniffin"~

Dress Try-outs

Standing & giving rounds of speeches @ our opening day of the Creativity Lab exhibit, I hopped on the shuttle, and off to high speed rail station. Caught the 5.30 train & made it just in time to Western Studio Design in taipei. Jasmine & my mum had already arrived! Gobbled down my MOS burger, we headed on upstairs, being served by Shu-hua, a new gown assistant. We're not supposed to take any photos, but we broke the rules and secretly took a couple until they found out!

Color & bow was my style~~but the top resembled a pair of minnie mouse's ears! Off it goes~white gown with strings of roses down the side~ this was the exact same dress I tried on during the 2nd try-out.
Purple Flora babydoll dress~ i liked but didn't make my final decision on it!

Engagement Luncheon Preparation

I've put a pause on wedding planning since the Engagement luncheon is less than 2 weeks away!The weekend right after S'pore was packed fully with pre-meetings with Joyce (our sherwood sales-representative). It's all coming down to details~

Nov 15th, 2009 (Sunday)

10.30 -11am Ceremony

12 noon Luncheon

Right after our meeting with Joyce, we headed on to Smith & Hsu~ where little glass bottles with No. & name of the tea leaves are carried out in a tray before we make our order.

Scones with lemon curd, cream cheese, tea & sandwiches made my day!

My to-do List run down:

1) Timely schedule of the engagement ceremony & the luncheon

2) Table seating arrangements

3) Write a Speech for our guests

4) Video-making

5) Burn my music on a CD

6) Communicating with the video-photographer

7) Final run-down with our Emcee

8) Dress-fitting & measurements

9) Final meeting with Joyce @ Sherwood 11/7- 3pm

10) Photo shoot-dress-picking -this Weds! 11/4- 7pm