Back and burnt!

Hello beanies! The boy and I are back from our little getaway to Phuket and yes, I am looking rather crispy now, especially around my shoulders. Urgh.

Loads to blog about but first up: Pictures of the gorgeous TwinPalms Resort in Phuket where we stayed:

I love the simplicity of their logo.

The large lobby with nice high ceiling.

The driveway.

The swimming pool in the middle of the resort.

Obviously quite a “couples” resort – just look at the poolside chairs!

Deck chairs in the pool.

Our room for the stay, #38.

It was located on the second level so we had to ascend steps to get to our room. It was actually better than a ground-level room because everyone could peek if you didn’t draw the curtains!

Long-stemmed roses greeted us when we entered our room. I told them that we were celebrating our wedding (never mind that it’s been 5 months!). We also received a complimentary bottle of champagne, completely chilled in an ice bucket.

The quiet corner of the room.

Chocolates presented in the shape of the Twin Palms logo. How cute!

The king-sized bed with 4 fluffy pillows and a skinny ‘bolster-looking’ pillow that I liked very muchg because I sleep with a bolster at home.

Check out the bathtub filled with rose petals. Ha. We didn’t get a chance to use it though!

 

The H-U-G-E bathroom with the basins on the right and the wardrobe on the left.

Another view of the room with a peek of the balcony.

Bathroom with separate basins – I LIKE!! Oh and did I mention that they had really wonderful smelling toiletries provided by the Twin Spa? I have never enjoyed hotel toiletries *this* much!

Located at the bedside table was this control panel that allowed us to control pretty much all the electrical stuff in the room. Interestingly, if I left the balcony door ajar, the “Door is OPEN” sign will light up and the aircon will automatically switch to ‘fan mode’.

Hwah. So intelligent lor.

 

Prep me beautiful

I realise that many bride-to-bes sign up for facial packages up to a year before the big day. Thankfully, I am blessed with pretty decent skin and I have been going for a facial every 3 months. I know this is probably not ideal but as I mentioned, my skin is pretty decent except that it tends to be rather dehydrated.

For many many years, I had my facial at Good Earth Day Spa located Forum Galleria.

Credit: http://www.sothys.com.sg/05partners/05_.presence.htm

I cannot even remember how I ended up there but I vaguely remember it was through the recommendation of a friend who said that they use good products (Sothys) and there was a good therapist. Let’s call her EG. Before I knew it, I have been a faithful customer of EG for a good 5 years! Quite scary, isn’t it? No wonder they say that a woman’s relationship with her facial therapist and hair stylist usually lasts longer than many (romantic) relationships combined.

Tee hee hee.

Anyway, what I liked best about EG is her experienced pair of hands and the fact that she does not hard sell. There is nothing I hate worst than to have a therapist constantly running down my skin and telling me how I should buy product A and B and C because it is ‘good for my skin’. And more often than not, these products are really expensive! Ask any girl and they will tell you that for every product that comes in a small shiny bottle, it will usually cost more than $80. How to afford such expensive creams every facial session??

I guess being in the ‘long-standing relationship’ with EG was good because she knew my preference (no hard sell please) which means that she knew when to recommend and when to not say anything and just give me a facial session. She also knew my skin well and knew exactly which products worked and which don’t. We also used to also chat about everything under the sun including men (and how much they are afraid of pain – hehehe), travelling, work, etc. I always enjoyed my facial session and would walk out feeling refreshed and ready to face the world again.

Alas. About a year before our wedding, she dropped the bombshell on me – she was going to leave the company. She didn’t elaborate but I guessed it must have something to do with the management of the place (typical, isn’t it?). I was stunned and horrified, to say the least. “Who was going to do my facials then?!” I wondered.

As I had a package with the spa, I continued to patronise it with other therapists. I soon found a replacement in the form of a lady called N. She wasn’t as skilful as EG but she was good enough. What I missed most was the fact that when EG squeezed the spots from my face, she never left a mark. This meant that I could continue shopping or meet up with friends post-facial without looking like aliens made potholes on my face.

To cut a long story short, N went on maternity leave (thankfully after our wedding) and told me that she’d be back in September. I rang the spa about 10 minutes ago to ask if she’s back and true to what I suspected, the lady said:

“Oh, N is no longer coming back”.

Ha, I was correct. I guess I had a hunch that she was going to leave because during her absence, Good Earth Day Spa changed owner and became Presence Beauty Wellness. Again, I’m suspecting that she left before of the change.

HOWEVER!

This time round, I am not as traumatised because I kept in touch with EG and she just told me that she’s now with another spa place and they also use the same products. Woohoo! I promised to call her once my package has ended because I’m sure many ladies would agree that once we find someone who “gets” our skin (or hair), we stick to him/her like the plague.

Simplicity

I come across many bride-to-bes asking about Bridal Veil’s basic package which is called ‘Simplicity’ so I thought it’d be easier if I just list down what the package contains so here goes:

• 1 Made-To-Measure (MTM) Wedding Gown
• 1 MTM Evening Gown (to keep)
• 2 sets of jewelleries (gloves, veil, hair accessories)
• 1 executive groom’s suit (to keep)
• 1 trial make-up session (click here to see how the session went)
• 1 day make-up
• 1 night make-up
• 1 Actual Day bouquet (click here to see the flowers we had for our wedding day)
• 1 Actual Day car decoration (with real flowers – click here to look at how our wedding car looked)
• 4 corsages (for parents)
• Ribbons for 2 bridesmaids’ car

You basically get to keep the evening gown and the groom’s suit. Also note that the groom’s suit that is included in the package is the executive suit, i.e. NOT a tuxedo and does NOT come with a waist coat. You can, of course, ‘top up’ if you wish to ‘upgrade’ any of the items on the list.

The boy made an extra white shirt for the day and kept the shirt that was included in the package for the evening. He also made a black shirt to change into when I wore the evening gown at his usual tailor. All in, he had a total of 3 shirts – 2 white and 1 black.

Sorry, I had to black out the boy’s face because he’s shy. This is one of my favourite photos from the photoshoot.

You can’t really tell but the boy is wearing a waist coat under the jacket. We had to pay extra for it but I can’t quite remember how much it cost now. Probably about $200-ish? It’s money well-spent though because it cuts a slimmer silouhette. Tee hee hee.

Oh and don’t forget that you have to get your own earrings because although most of the jewellery is provided, no earrings are provided for hygiene reasons. This explains why we went on a earrings search! In the end, I only wore this pair throughout because in the haste of the day, I forgot to change into these for the kwa. I didn’t even wear the intended earrings with the evening gown!

Well, to be honest, no one really notices your earrings unless they are REALLY bling or looks like a Christmas tree. Or both.

We took up the Simplicity package with photography which cost about S$5K. We chose to do our pre-wedding shoot with Utopia who did an excellent job. Our package also included additional studio make-up as well as a bouquet of flowers for the photoshoot.

The Wedding

No, I’m not talking about our wedding. That’s like, long over lah.

I’m talking about THE wedding of Christopher Lee and Fann Wong. I mean, can you NOT know that they are getting married? That jewellery advertisement pops up at every advertisement break during prime time, the trailers for their wedding (BEAMED LIVE!!!) is almost as hard as trying to avoid the ERPs during rush hour in town.

So yes, unless you have been on Mars or under a (very large) rock, it is indeed very hard to avoid THE WEDDING OF THE YEAR (say this in a very loud and booming voice please). I mean, they even have an entire website dedicated to THE WEDDING!

Last night, I was nursing a bad tummy so was sprawled across the sofa watching whatever’s on tv. Soon after, at 8pm sharp, the live coverage of THE WEDDING came on. I have to say that I watched the on-goings with a mixture of amazement and incredibility.

I know weddings are usually big and joyous occassions but a live broadcast, along with an official website? What made me blink twice was how tv viewers could even send in their congratulatory messages via sms! And who is the sms provider?

Mediacorp (but of course).

I’d like to state for the record that I think Chris and Fann make a gorgeous-looking couple (Singapore’s very own Brangelina!) and although I’m no big fan of them, I am not a detractor either.

However, watching their wedding proceedings last night got me a little disconcerted. It was all about THE BLING! THE DRESS! THE SUITS! THE ANGBAO! THE VENUE DECOR! THE WEDDING SHOOT AT MALDIVES! THE DIAMONDS! THE CARATS! THE SPONSORS!

I guess I found it hard to see the “heart” that was at the wedding. Yes, the happy couple expressed their happiness at being married to each other and Chris was kissing Fann ever so often during the one-hour screening but call me cynical or skeptical but I just felt that the wedding was…..one big very successful television production.

I will never know the truth and perhaps, they are indeed a very “normal” couple who are totally in love with each other. Perhaps they had to broadcast the entire wedding (and milk it to death) because they are, afterall, a very very public couple.

Perhaps it wasn’t even their idea!

I guess one will never know.

Oh and I have one more thing to say:

Am I the only one who does NOT think that the $300,000 Bally wedding dress is nice? To be honest, I think it’s really – gulp – ugly! I mean, it was OTT and dramatic but NOT in a good way.

What’s that…thing on her head? To show off the gems, I guess? I have to say I quite like Chris’ suit though.

The happy couple with their ‘Ah Bu’ who sponsored the Maldives photoshoot, the additional gems on the Bally gown, etc etc etc.

I did like her Vera Wang gown though. Heh.

Vera Wang gown + Zegna suit = very nice.

New swimmies

We were out at Parkway Parade yesterday afternoon doing a spot of window shopping post-lunch when I spotted swim-wear going for $5 a piece.

Yes, FIVE DOLLARS a piece. HOW INSANELY CHEAP IS THAT?!

I went closer to take a look and realised that they were from Sunseeker Australia. Wow. So it wasn’t some cheap bikini. These were good stuff! I’m quite sure they were from the past season or something but who cares? They were FIVE DOLLARS a piece.

I quickly got into the swing of things and found these 2 sets that are just PERFECT for our upcoming beach holiday in Phuket:

Original price – Bottom: $31.50, halter top: $40.95

Original price – Bottom: $44.10, tube top: $42

I still cannot believe how cheap they cost me. WHAT A BARGAIN

Mr IB and Miss L’s wedding preparations

Preparing for a wedding takes alot of effort and time.

A LOT.

Ask anyone who has prepared for one and I am sure they will agree wholeheartedly. More often than not, it is a precarious time of balancing emotions, everyone’s expectations (you will discover that relatives who never existed suddenly becoming the parents’ best friend and has an opinion on EVERYTHING) and most importantly, keeping within the set budget. And we all know not bursting the set wedding budget is a skill known only to few.

Last evening, the boy was ’summoned’ to the home of one of his oldest pals, Mr IB. Mr IB is getting married come 10.10.09 to Miss L and last night’s meeting was one between the wedding couple and the band of brothers, aka 兄弟团.

The boy studying the detailed wedding day program.

Side note: The very comprehensive wedding day program was developed by Miss E who was our awesome wedding planner. I was fretting over the wedding day program and couldn’t bring myself to get the details down and she swoops in to save the day by giving me the wonderful template where all I needed to do was to fill in the blanks.

I passed the template to Miss L who edited it to fit her proceedings. We should start charging for the service. Heh.

Check out the wedding day program booklet. Very comprehensive eh? And it comes in a nice booklet style in a compact handy size.

The couple also took the opportunity to hand us our wedding invitation cards and I hit upon the idea of blogging about all the wedding invites we receive since we receive quite a few in a year anyway! Here’s their wedding card:

They created the “shuang xi’ character on their own and pasted the pink paper behind. Very pretty eh? I cannot imagine the amount of work that went into all the invitations though. Phew.

The card opens up into 2 panels.

Looking forward to the big day!

Girly time

I was looking through the image folder of my mobile phone and forgot that I had this picture:

It was taken the day before our wedding day. Mummy, sister and I trooped to Lush Nails at Thomson Plaza to get our nails in order. It was a time of clipping, scrubbing, cutting, painting.

Heh.

Of course, all of us walked out with pwetty nails for the big day

In case anyone’s wondering, I had the classic French manicure for the fingers and the same shade of pink for my toes (without the white line). It’s classic and pretty, exactly how nails should look like on your wedding day.

Lush Nails
Upper Thomson Road
#01-20 Thomson Plaza
Tel: 6452 2112

missene-eats

This is a quick advertisement to let everyone know that because miss ene likes to eat, she started a blog detailing all that she eats!

Click on the banner above to check it out

八月初一

Last Saturday, we attended the wedding of our cousin, Little Mint. It was 八月初一 so it was definitely a red-letter day to be getting married!

It was held at Royal China at Raffles. Raffles Hotel, that is. I’ve attended wedding dinners at the ballroom of the Raffles Hotel but it was my first time at Royal China.

It was smallish, cosy restaurant. If I remember correctly, there were only 18 tables. I also found out that they have recently renovated, little wonder the place looked and felt ‘newish’. Ha.

What struck me and the sister was the colour scheme of the restaurant. We both exclaimed: Tiffany Blue!!

Have a peek:

Ok, so it wasn’t exactly the same shade of Tiffany & Co but it was a nice shade of turquoise which is pretty close.

Each table was prettily decorated with a flower centrepiece lit with a candle. Each course was also plated individually which is great. I don’t have many pictures of the food so you’d just have to imagine it.

The food was pretty good, especially the ‘pi pa’ duck. At least that’s what I think it was called. Wedding favours were in the form of pretty cupcakes with 4 different designs:

So pwetty

PINK Flare

Not quite anything to do with weddings but just thought I’d help the sister do a little promotion for her new online shop, PINK Flare.

Check it out here.  Go on, you know you want to

I love this little quote on the blogshop:

How true