The Driver and The Navigator

Furniture hunting a few months ago was FUN -- when it was just purely for research and scouting around to get ideas. But with just about 2 months to the great exodus from both our current houses (and into our new place), furniture hunting now is more overwhelming and tiring, than FUN... perhaps due to the fact that decisions need to be made... wisely.

With the help of Google maps, we practically combed the whole Klang Valley this past weekend -- driving from Kota Damansara to Segambut and back to Sungai Buluh...TWICE. We have sat on at least 100 different types of leather sofa sets and bounced on another 40 mattresses... and still have yet to come to a decision on what to get. HAHA!

For some reason, I decided to assign myself the task of The Driver; and Irwin The Navigator (maybe because the prospect of burying my nose in the map throughout the whole journey was not very appealing to me :P ) Of all the places we visited, we were most impressed with Even International; a company that produces leather sofas and all types of modern pieces for the export market. Its factory is buried deep within Kampung Baru Sungai Buluh and has this amazing 3-storey showroom... and wow!!! I don't think I've seen so many sofa sets, chair peices and dining tables in ONE place in my lifetime.

Irwin and my latest PINK novelty! :D THE iPHONE! Seriously, its the best thing ever made on this planet... It brought us EVERYWHERE -- through roads and parts of town we never knew existed! The only minor complain is that the battery hardly lasts a full day on heavy usage :(

The (frustrated) Navigator in action...

Put on your Dancing Shoes

Behold! We have identified something more challenging than both our jobs combined...

After years of persuading Irwin to take dance lessons with me (just for the fun of it), he finally agreed just recently. I couldn't think of a better way to start off dance lessons, other than for the purpose of learning to dance to our song for our first dance at the wedding. So with 4 left feet and our amazing (and most importantly patient) dance instructor Teresa, we found ourselves at Studio 33 this past Monday learning the first part of our first dance -- boy, was it challenging. I nearly gave up after 20minutes. keke! And I also thought Teresa herself was going to give up on us after repeating her instructions for the 1000th time.

Overall, we enjoyed the hour spent at the studio despite it proving to be a steeper climb than we initially expected :D Hopefully, by the end of 10 lessons, we would have been able to master our first dance and not make a mickey of ourselves at our wedding dinner.

Our FIRST Wedding Gift!

When I met up with my dear friend Yen Ching (from Purdue) a couple months ago, I was pleasantly surprised when she presented me our very first wedding gift! :) It included an angpow and a gift voucher from IKEA. Making sure that I'd put it into good use, we visited IKEA this past weekend to pick up some stuff for our new place -- It still seems quite surreal that we'll be moving into our very own place in just a couple months' time :)

Since we are also in the midst of discussion with an ID to get some minor things refurbished and built at our new place, we also took the opportunity to scout around IKEA, looking for suitable conceptual ideas for our place. I fell in love with one of IKEA's flagship products -- the BILLY Series; which I found ideal in making our dream library-cum-study room come true.... at a fraction of what the ID would quote us. Only downside is that it won't be 100% wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling as how we initially envisioned it to be. Nevertheless, I am happy that we have found a more affordable alternative for our library/study room should our ID choose to charge an exhorbitant amount. And so... as usual... I am still awaiting for his final proposal/drawings and quotes. Ah, as they say -- Patience is a virtue.


^ Waiting patiently... ;)

Of Food, Laughter, Tears and Heart-to-Heart talks

^ The mystery of the Chinese girl at the Mansion! :D

Completing our 10-session pre-marriage counseling course over a span of 7 months (since last August, can you believe it?!) called for a mini celebratory dinner this past Tuesday with our counselors who have painstakingly guided us through countless discussions and walked us through lots of laughter and some tears :) It was a celebration dinner of yummilicious fish head curry, salt-baked chicken, prawns and JCo DONUTS! (I had been craving those donuts for a week prior to this) HAHA!

Irwin and I have learnt so much about each other over these 10-sessions, we feel that it was worth going through the whole syllabus -- something money will never be able to buy. Issues that couples usually wouldn't delve into were brought up and discussed about, and I am glad we had the opportunity to do so despite finding ourselves in heated arguements at times :P

I wouldn't say that our impending union would be one without hiccups anymore; rather we definitely conclude that we have a tad bit more wisdom now to brace the challenges ahead... by God's grace :P keke.

The Beginning of Crunch Time...

The time has arrived for us to start designing our invitation cards. This is perhaps the trickiest part of wedding planning aside from table arrangements (which will be handled by our parents) because essentially, we will need to get 6 people to be in agreement before we send the final design to print -- Irwin, myself, and both sides of our parents :P

SATURDAY -- we made our ways back to Jalan Brunei Selatan; where we last visited Mr. Z back in September!!! Surprisingly, he still remembers us; and most importantly remembers promising us that he would take our orders for a minimum quantity of 400 pieces. He usually doesn't take personal orders for Chinese weddings; unless you go through a certain popular Malaysian wedding planner. Anyhow, we hit it off with him right away, discussing our ideas and budget $$$. We especially loved him for being very straightforward in his pricing and rather easy-going with the extras he will throw in altogether.

As with the whole wedding planning process, WAITING for quotes, designs, proposals and final outcome is the thing that kills me most :P We now have to wait for 2 weeks till we see the first draft of his design. After which, we will start discussion and finalizing with both sides of our parents. We have estimated that we will see the finished product in at least 6 weeks; if not more. Hopefully, the cards will be ready by mid-May so that we will all have ample time to fill it up, post some and hand-deliver others.

Pre-Wedding photo sneak peek!

Its been a month since we've taken our pre-wedding photographs and its been killing me to wait 30 days to see the results! The master copy is in our hands now, and we'll be spending the next few days combing through the photos to pick the ones which we will include in our album, and print on our invitation cards.

Its been a rather exciting journey of ups and downs; and Disappointments and satisfaction so far throughout our wedding planning... Four more months to go... :)

Here's a sneak peek of one of our photos taken in Carcosa. We've changed some pictures on our wedding website, so do check them. Patrick Low, our photographer has also posted them on his blog. He will be posting a couple more in the coming week -- so do tune in to his blog too.

p/s: The header of this blog is also part of our pre-wedding collection

The Birthday Girl

Just like that, I found myself celebrating my 27th birthday today -- some say, the last birthday as a single :)

Over the weekend, Irwin told me that he had cracked his head for TWO days thinking of what to get me as a gift... but finally gave up and asked me what I wanted instead. Apparently, its not easy to buy something for a girl who's already got everything, he said. Ah... excuses? :P

So I told him I wanted a card (with a letter attached -- like a love letter lah) and a couch for our new apartment :D Later on, I saw a laptop bag and I fell in love with it for many reasons -- one of them being that it doesn't even resemble a laptop bag to begin with! Its got a water bottle compartment and all these ergonomic features and padding and what-have-you-not. It's lovely! I won't look like a dork lugging it all around town after work anymore ;)

I also requested to have Italian for dinner, and over dinner, as promised, Irwin produced my much anticipated birthday card... and letter! *ooo... I teared from reading it... because my King-of-Surprises just didn't give me a card. Enclosed with the letter, I found this beautiful crucifix pendant -- with a center diamond and rubies surrounding it :) Apparently, he had purchased it many years ago as an investment; and today, he finally understood why he did what he did -- he wanted to give it to someone he truly loved. *awww* See why I teared? :)

Here's to my 27th birthday... and another wonderful year ahead!