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"~

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

Make-up trial

Once the hungry ghost festival (which lasts for an entire July: Lunar calendar) ends, weddings are held right after. Joyce, our sales invited us to visit the actual decor of the ballroom right before a wedding is held on an auspicious saturday morning.

With the recommendation by Debbie, we made an appointment with J-video for photography & videography for the engagment. Nov 15th is considered the MOST auspicious wedding/ engagement day in 2009... so most bridal secretaries (for makeup & hair) have already been booked. J-video has a partnered bridal secretary, which I made an appointment for a trial make-up. As I sat patiently getting my makeup & hair done, cliff and my mum checked out J-video's photos & videos. Cliff had a smurk on his face when he saw the heavy make-up. I also noticed everyone looking at me while I took the subway home...Photo is attached below, What do you'll think?

We ended up signing a contract for just the photography & videography. As for the bridal secretary, I 'll have to look online again, and start calling each of them~

1st Dress-picking

Upon receiving a call from Western design studio-'s Emma, I was told that i was scheduled at 7pm for engagement-dress picking! Gee... we've been miscommunicating via email all this time, right from the beginning. It's a work day... and I'm an hour away..

Anyway, I hopped on the high speed rail right after work, grabbed a burger and headed over just in time. Since I had only asked for 1 dress for the engagement luncheon, we estimated to complete in 1 hr. But it took 2.5 hrs... and worst of all, still undecided!

We communicated on the style, color of my preference and Kaka- gown assistant went on searching for appropriate dresses. More than 15 dresses has been eliminated.

I figured I'll be dead tired last night, but I flipped & turned all night. 2nd appointment has been made, this Sat, for more dress try-outs! Fingers crossed!

Engagement Planning

Engagement ceremony will be held in the morning, followed by luncheon, according to chinese traditions. It was meant to be a smaller party, with just close relatives of under 50 people, and having a larger wedding.

Since we chose to hold the wedding at Grace Hill, the number of tables is very limited (25 and under). Thus, we chose to hold a larger engagement party (hosted by my family) in order to accomodate most relatives from my side of the family.

So, for the past few weekends, I've ran around places with my parents, grandparents for venue searching! From Regent, Grand Hyatt, World Trade Conference 33..... most auspicious dates were already booked! We were lucky to have found Sherwood Hotel, their ballroom can only fit 144 guests and our estimated guest list will just fit perfectly~

Engagement Date: Nov 15th, 2009

***For friends living abroad: If you are travelling around Asia during Nov, let me know~