The Matter of the EMCEE

For the past few weeks, I have been fussing, tossing and turning over the fact that I had not yet found an emcee for our wedding dinner. IMHO, an emcee should have the following criteria:

1. Knows the bride and groom
2. Fluent English speaker
3. Quick with wit and able to joke :)
4. Has persona, charm, charisma and stage presence
5. Is used to being put in the spotlight with a mic in hand :)
6. Wise and won't say anything contrary to our beliefs

With all this in mind, I wasn't keen on putting this task to an outsider. Also I wasn't sure who among my circle of friends I could ask. Well, I did have someone in mind but wasn't sure if he would say yes and I kinda didnt want to blow my one and only option by asking at the wrong time or at the wrong place. A lot of table cloth wringing happened there.. :p In the end, after running out of excuses in buying time for myself, I finally drew a deep breath and asked. He said Yes!

Thank you PIN! :) I can now sleep much happier at nights. Another big TICK on my to-do list!


cheryl

Danai Spa: Bridal Shower (Part 1)

Firstly I must start off by saying thanks to the wonderful girls who came and held this shower for me.

Mace - Bringing us together and the many gifts for each of us
Eunice O - For coordinating the spa
Jami – For ironing my gift :)
YeeLong - For celebrating with me

It was great fun and it wouldn’t have been the same without you girls. And because this will probably be a long entry on its own, I will post two entries. Word of warning, many pictures ahead. I will try and put several pics into one to make for easy viewing.

Arriving at 1030am we were given a form to fill out with our details and seriously, detailed it was. Apart from allergies, they wanted to know our preferences, stress levels, health conditions, the amount of water we consumed each day, contact details and etc. Together with the form, we had a nice cup of warm ginger tea. The spa was decorated with Eastern influences-I detected Balinese and Chinese influences. It was tastefully done and the ambience was great for relaxation. We settled for a 30 minute Jacuzzi and a 90 minute massage. They offer two kinds of massages, the Danai Signature Massage and the Aromatherapy Massage. The first is good for those who want heavy handed action (namely me and Mace) while the latter is good for those just want soothing, relaxing strokes (that would be Jami, O and YeeLong)

After that we were ushered into the locker room where we were given a sarong wrap, disposable underwear and slippers. Jami, Mace and I were the blur ‘sotongs’ (a Malaysian expression for blur-ness) who didn’t know how the sarong wrap worked. One, it was too long for a one time wraparound. Two, it was too short for a two time wraparound. Anyhow, we made do and figured it should look like this.

In comes the spa lady, she goes “No, no… neck.” It took us awhile to understand what she meant.
And then we go, “Ohhhh… a halter!”

* EuniceO, Me, Mace and Jami

Hahaha. Smooth ladies, real smooth. We were then ushered into this nice open area, bright and sunny to have our feet washed. This place had indirect sunlight and the soft breeze going through the place made it nice and cool albeit a bit too bright for my liking.

Next to us was a shallow pool with water dripping from all directions, the pots, the figurines and the intentional holes in the pipes above our heads, I believe it was to simulate rainfall. After our feet were washed we were told to walk through this pool and exit from the other side before entering our Jacuzzi. None of us got the purpose of this exercise. Raindrops relaxes people? It’s a scenic route to the Jacuzzi? Anyway we just did what we were told.

We spent 30 minutes in the Jacuzzi, taking in the nice setting and though wet, managed to take a couple of pictures.

* From the left: Mace, O, Me, YeeLong. My wrinkly toes. Keys to locker#3

Time always flies when one is having fun. I thought the 30 minutes went by far too quickly. We were taken to this bamboo kinda hut to change into our robes and a dry set of underwear. EuniceO and I shared a room for our massage. Again, the 90 minutes in there went by quickly as well. The masseuse was good with her hands and I did feel relaxed after it. While going through my back, she pushed down hard and there were 3 loud cracks. That felt good. And while going through my arms, she yanked hard and again there were 3 loud cracks. Both the cracks happened on the right side of my body. I reckon it couldn’t have been a coincidence. She tried on the left but there were no sounds. So in conclusion, I think I have to work on my ergonomics. I must be stressing the right side of my body way more than my left. Midway through she slapped my back so hard it shocked poor EuniceO out of her mid-slumber. Hahaha... Admittedly it was rather loud slaps but it didn’t hurt. In fact it felt extremely good. I do think that I could have done with a harder massage. I did mention it a few times to my masseuse but I think she did the best she could.

After we were done, we got changed. Definitely looking fresh and energized, no?

In the locker room after everyone had changed, suddenly Mace goes, “Cheryu! Take off your baju!!” (Baju is Malay for clothes)
I was shocked. For a moment I was like…?? How scandalous! And she said it in such an authoritative voice too! :) Guess why?

She made it herself with fabric crayon. Pretty cute huh… It’s in my theme colors too! Pink and brown. I get to keep this for my kids to view in the future. And yeah I was made to wear this for the rest of the day. But it’s ok… all in the name of good fun. No complaints from me!

* From left: The ground at our feet, Going up the stairway to leave, Pool by the entrance

Next up, time for lunch!

cheryl

SummerGarden:Bridal Shower(Part 2)

* From the top: Facade of Summer Garden, Interior, Menu, Bar area

Lunch reservations were made at Summer Garden. I have not been here before and had not heard about this place. From my first impressions of the place, it looks good and has great ambience for dining or drinks with family & friends.

4 of us ordered set lunch which came with soup and dessert. Right before serving us, the waiter asked if we would like our soup hot or chilled. Since we had not had cold soup before we decided to all give it a shot. However after having a few spoonfuls of it, EuniceO and I decided to hand it back to the waiter for warming up. I guess the two of us are really ‘Chinese’ to the bone. No cold soups!

Now, the girls still had a few tricks up their sleeves. I’m not sure if the other girls were in it or not but Mace definitely had puffed up sleeves! I should have seen it coming though. Especially since I have had experience with her coordinating my past birthdays :)

So to keep the story going, the girls gifted me with La Senza. It was nothing terribly scandalous, just sweet and brown. Thank you, thank you girls. The only unfortunate thing was the outfit was kind of crumpled and since none of the other girls were very skilled with the iron, Jami was handed the task of smoothing it out! I still laugh at the idea of Jami ironing the thing.

Right before lunch arrived, Mace pulled another rabbit out of her hat and this time, it was a questionnaire of 12 details meant to test me on how well I knew Alex. You would think that this could turn out tricky and uncomfortable huh? :) Well, you read the questions below. To complete the fun each of us girls were given a sheet each and our scores would be totaled in the end.

1. Does he know his own car license plate number?
__ yes __ almost __not even close!

2. Does he think eating dinner in bed is:
__ Great! He’d do it every day if he could?
__ OK on rare occasions?
__ Too messy even to contemplate?

3. Does he consider a walk on the beach in winter
__ Romantic?
__ A waste of time?

4. Can he type without looking at the keyboard?
__ Very well
__ OK
__ Not at all

5. If you ask him to recite “Mary had a little lamb,” How will he do?
__ He’ll recite it easily
__ He’ll stumble but more or less get it right
__ He’ll mess up

6. He’s invited to a dinner party and offered a chance to choose his table partner, knowing nothing but their occupation, which of these would he pick to sit next to?
__ Newspaper reporter
__ Minister
__ Firefighter
__ Librarian
__ Fish distributor

7. How many of snow white’s seven dwarfs can he name?
__ None __ One to three __Four to six __ All seven

8. Does he know Cheryl’s mother’s maiden name?
__ Yes __ No

9. A meal without dessert isn’t really a meal. He would:
__ Agree __ Disagree

10. What is he better at?
__ Darts or __ Ping Pong
__ Omelets or __ Scrambled Eggs
__ Hearing or __ Smelling

So you see, they were pretty harmless questions. Nothing that could spark a fight between Alex and I :) It was really fun and upon scoring our results, I scored the HIGHEST! As expected right? Haha…

Mace then coolly goes, “Oh now that THAT is done, I have another here. It’s called Bridal Scattergories!” (Didn’t I say she had tricks?)

The purpose of the game was for everyone to come up with answers to the categories listed using the agreed upon first letters of my name C, Y and L.

Example: A famous male icon - Prince Charles.
A romantic comedy - Casanova (ok its not a really a comedy but there were funny parts!)
A household item - Carpet Cleaner... etc.

We played the game by rotation around the table and it kept us busy while we enjoyed our main courses.


* Picture of the dessert (Sorry, I was having so much fun I forgot about the other dishes!)

After that, Mace, pulled more stuff out of her ‘bag of tricks’, handing out thank you gifts to the rest of the girls, another gift for me, a gift to Eunice for organizing the spa and yet another gift for me to combat the dry weather in Australia. Isn’t she amazing? :) I personally felt like giving her a standing ovation for pulling off so many things. I guess I really didn’t really expect very much and all the surprises really made me a very happy bride-to-be.

* The other 2 gifts Mace handed me from her "bag of tricks"

So again I must say thank you girls. You were all wonderful and really made the day special. I will miss you all so much! Oh, and I didn’t give you guys a hug that day cos’ we were all feeling icky sticky from all the oils and creams from the massage!

* The Fabulously Relaxed Five: EuniceO, Jami, YeeLong, Bride-to-be :p, Mace

cheryl

Bridal Shower

A few girl friends are throwing me a bridal shower this Saturday! I'm sooo excited. Its gonna be a day at the spa followed by a light lunch. Not a big gathering, just a small one with a few close gal pals. Dear sweet Mace pulled this together including the invite. Isn't the invite pretty? My theme colors too! Pink and bronze-ish brown! Thanks Mace! :)

I'm looking forward to a nice looong massage... heavenly!

cheryl

Wedding Invite!

After making many trips to the card makers and many edits to the wedding invite, we finally have the finished product. So excited!

On one hand, I'm glad they are finally done (its one more checkmark to my long to-do list) but on the other hand, I am kinda displeased about some minute details about the cards. Anyhow, as I told someone, I shouldn't nit pick about small things because there is a bigger picture to look at here and by not nit picking, I can avoid stressing myself out. However with me, this is easier said than done.

Mom and dad has pretty much kept mum about the whole card fiasco - all my demands and the editing - fonts too dark, fonts too fat, background's not suitable, background's too fat, alignment needs a change, fonts needs a change, words need a change, change the shades....etc. Admittedly, for the amount I'm paying for these cards, I sure did ask for a lot from the card makers. In the end I felt that I should cut them AND myself some slack and just let the cards be. So yeah.... Here is the finished product!

I can't wait now to get the Penang cards printed so I can start folding, addressing and handing them over to my invitees............. Ooh, what fun!

cheryl