Wedding Dinner in Penang - Before The Event

The Canberra wedding was a big big rush for everyone involved. Right after the lunch reception at The Deck, the entire family went back to the church (the sun had already set by then) to collect the remnants from Waldock Hall. Serving dishes, coffee, tea, cake, trays, knives...etc.

There was much to do as most of us had not yet packed for our departure which was to happen at 7am the next morning. Can you imagine 10 people leaving for the airport at the same time in a mad hurry? Home Alone the movie comes to mind!

Anyhow, through the lack of sleep and mad rush, nobody got left behind :) We all flew and arrived in Penang for a 2nd round of mad rushing again. I will try and depict the events that followed before the big dinner on the 12th of July. My Penang photographer has yet to email me the link to all his shots (which I am told are ready) so hopefully I will get it sometime this week. I'm not sure if reviewing it will be lots of fun because mom has told me he took a massive 1200 shots!

Anyways, to begin the flurry of things to do, we had some more planning to finalize before the dinner so we met up with our Traders Hotel event coordinator, Muzaimin to run through the finer details of the night.

While I was in serious and deep conversation with Muzaimin, the two 'brudders' were goofing around and having a blast with the free coffee/tea and scrumptious spread the hotel had available that day. (Brothers - yeah, Ying Kai and Alex developed some kind of brotherly bond and have since been referring to each other as brothers)

The 'brudders' by the coffee machine

After sorting out the details with the hotel, I met up with Uncle Keat Cheong and family to firstly formally introduce Alex to them and secondly to lightly discuss his role for the night of the dinner.

The next thing on the to do list was to get us girls sorted out with our manicures. So Debbie and I dropped by this nail place called Sam's Nails in Prangin Mall to get it done. We couldn't make it to my usual joint, Nails Hansen in Queensbay Mall as it was at least a 20 minute drive so we decided to try out Sam's. It was quite good. Nice and clean. Very floral. Too bad we had to take off our shoes outside the shop. That was the one thing I thought was kinda odd. Fancy leaving your shoes outside a shop in a mall, albeit in a shoe cupboard. We don't have pictures of the shop but here are the results of the manicure. Not bad la.

Debbie's manicure

My manicure

And of course, the men got bored and had their brotherly goof again, as shown in the picture above. However, there must have been a goof bug going around because, the next thing I know, this happened.

I must have some sort of immunity :p

After sorting those details, the next big thing on the list was getting our relatives who came in from Singapore, KL and Australia sorted out at the hotel and arranging for a big 8 course chinese dinner.

The spread that evening, the table running quickly out of space

On the day of the event, we had a pre dinner run through with the banquet team at the hotel. We also met with Pin & Mace to run through the slideshow and to as best as possible get them sorted and introduced to the banquet lead as they were going to be the MCs for the night :)

The main table, partially set up

The Pinang Ballroom at 1pm that day

Us watching the run through of the slideshows

Lights on the stage being put up

Alex and I having our 'moment' together in the midst of the preparation

Once the preparation of the hall was done at 2pm, we rushed off for a quick bite of take-away chicken rice before our next appointment at Aspial the bridal house for the hairdo and make up for the evening. Here are the shots.

Sitting still, getting my hair done

Make up next, looking natural so far

Debbie getting her hair done, I like the braiding

Debbie with her make up, nearly done here bar lipstick

Sisters are all pretti-ed up!

So this is basically a summary of some of the running around we did prior to the event. For those getting married soon, take it as it comes, keep your sanity and cool together, smile always and don't worry about the tiredness. You will be running on adrenaline and receive your deserved rest after :) However in my case, the rest only came 2 weeks after the actual wedding!

More later.

cheryl

Wedding Day - Photos with Randal

We hired Randal as our photographer for the day and right after the church reception, we rushed to Federal Square to have a short 30 minute photo session outdoors. The weather was great that day. It had been raining the Saturday before and we were praying hard for the sun to shine because that would be all that would keeping me warm from the chilly winter.

Are you wondering how I managed to wear the wedding dress without freezing? Well, I was running high on adrenaline. Hence I was somewhat distracted from the cold. I am amazed at my sister Debbie for holding up so well. She was in a tube dress and a short dress at that too! She was fantastic as a bridesmaid :)

Our shots were done in a rush, with us running from one spot to another and I'm glad they turned out quite alright. I reckon it could have been much nicer if we had more time. We had to run because our guests were already waiting at the lunch reception for our arrival.

Here are the shots.... Say nice things! :p

cheryl

Its my B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y!

I interrupt the slew of wedding day, wedding dinner and wedding photo posts with a post on my birthday! I turn a day older today!

Today is my first birthday in a series of many birthdays as a married lady :) Some ask, is it any different? Well... I miss the parties/dinners that friends back home would throw for me :p Thank you thank you dear friends!

However I must say that its great that I have Alex celebrating with me. And since we just got married, he made extra effort for a birthday surprise. For those who don't know, in the past Alex couldn't keep a surprise to himself for anything in the world. But this time, he really surprised me.

Firstly on the 26th he said he had made reservations at a nice place for dinner. It was a place that leaves a rather significant dent on the wallet. So I thought that would be it.

Then on the 27th at 1145pm, I got a nice little surprise in part 2.


A professional massage at a business location of my choice! I am dreaming of spas, hotels, ladies gyms, anywhere one would find a relaxing, rejuvenating massage. And I thought that would be the end of my birthday gift.

Then on the morning of the 28th, the sneaky fella went out to the shops and bought me roses before I woke up! 18 roses! White ones too! My favourite..! Some of the roses had a light pink tinge. Instead of breakfast in bed, I got flowers in bed.

I took it out of the wrapping and placed it in a makeshift Nescafe jar (don't have a vase yet...had to make do...hehe) snipped off some leaves and parts of the long stems then placed it on my kitchen counter. So pretty..!

And there is also a movie planned for later so it was a 4 part surprise. The fact is, the bigger surprise to me is that he managed to do all this without me having a single clue. THAT.. truly is a feat.

Happy, happy....


cheryl

Wedding Day - Lunch Reception

The wedding day was a pretty long day. We started early with preparations, followed by the church service, then a light reception at Waldock Hall, then a photo session with our photographer and then a small lunch reception by the lake. The day ended only at 430pm.

I have broken down the pictures of the day into segments and here is another. This segment is of the lunch reception. It was held at a lovely restaurant called 'The Deck' at Regatta Point. Regatta Point is this elevated place overlooking Lake Burley Griffin. It has a beautiful view of opposing buildings on the other side of the lake. Unfortunately I don't have many nice shots showing the beauty of the set up or the outside of the restaurant. If you did manage to take some nice shots, do send them to us :)

Some of the shots below were taken by Alex's sister and friends.

Simple table deco - Table 1

Our menu at The Deck & the souvenir for our guests


The view from the deck

More of the view

Sunset view from the restaurant

Arriving at The Deck - prior to my outfit change. Dragging the long white train around tables wouldn't have bid well with the red wine being served with the entree :)

Wide shot of guests at the restaurant

Some of our guests

More of our guests

Table of our relatives and close friends

The beginning of our toasts - we went around the tables

Toasting some friends and family

Everyone having a good laugh while toasting my in-laws

Toasting my parents

Happy family shot

cheryl