The past few days have been like the weather forecast gone bad: pretty much like what we’re experiencing currently.
Saturday was like a bright sunny day – perfect for a beach day out. Met up with the bridesmaids for fittings and it went well! The girls looked absolutely pretty in their cream and pink combination while my green cocktail dress (which I was a lil’ hesitant about initially) turned out nicely – complementing mum’s dragon green cheong sam. We looked like a nice happy family of sisters and mum as we snap some ‘family shots’ in the shop – fussing about with each other’s hemline, telling the tailor to cut the slits higher, skirts shorter, bust line lower etc. Women!
Headed out to Riders’ cafe for a nice brunch out and made sure we ordered a dozen spicy buffalo wings this time round. I shared a breakfast plate with Et while Jas, mum and Luke happily settled for their burgers & cinnamon toast. Again it felt like some family meal together and made me feel utterly blessed to have such wonderful company, with wonderful weather on a wonderful day. Hah! Luke went for his much needed massage thereafter while the girls and I waited and wasted time by talking about ways to diet and hen’s night at the couch. Luke could hear our laughter while in the massage room. Thank goodness for walls and doors! 😡
Sunday came and went like a cloudy day. The family celebrated mother’s day with lunch at an Indonesian restaurant after Church. It was nice seeing the cute-as-a-button baby Ian and adorable Faith, whom we missed seeing for a while. Spent some quality time with mama before heading to Luke’s to get the wedding invites printed and sorted out. Watching Formula 1 that evening took up most of the time and before I knew it – I was home catching up on my emails.
I had a big shock (or was it anger or disappointment) when I received an email from the Church assigned decorator asking me to appoint a proper florist instead as he could not meet our requirements (pissed me off big time because we had asked previously and they insisted that we could not hire our own florist). He did not say much, except that he would be now taking charge of the altar flowers (which he was also adamant previously that it fell under someone else’s care) and ended with another liner saying he was “…sorry if I(he) wasted your time.” I would have appreciated an offer to help, or a more apologetic note for the last minute notice but oh well.
It’s about a month to the wedding and we had confirmed about 80% of everything, including payment procedures and amount. Yet he did not bother replying to emails / smses that we sent till now. Looking back, perhaps it was a blessing in disguise after all. I can now appoint my own florist and be rest assured that everything will be delivered professionally and yes, at least he told us now instead of 2 weeks’ prior to the wedding day – which would have probably wreck our moods even more. Friends and relatives were utterly helpful too, consoling me over SMS and giving me contacts of various florists. I was entirely overwhelmed by everything that I suffered a major mental breakdown on Sunday night but was soon delivered by God’s grace – and like the same scenario of printing the wedding invites, I may just end up with a better deal and result after all.
The next bomb which dropped came Monday afternoon just when I was about to meet Fay for our much-anticipated lunch at Nanxing. Luke called, sounded absolutely cold and straight to the point – that his mum disliked our cards because it had black elements and demanded that we re-printed everything for her. I was frustrated because I hadn’t fully recovered from the aftermath of the Church decorator suddenly dropping us like that; while Luke was pissed because he knew how much pain and effort I had gone through just to get the cards done and delivered and besides, they were our wedding cards. We had specially printed another set for the mums with their names on it and just because his mum didn’t like black, we had to re-print them?! Mum was really sweet and proactive and quickly contacted the printer asking if she could help to change the colours (since she still had the artwork, thank goodness we sent over a freehand file to her) before calling Luke and reassuring him that the cards could be re-printed within 2 working days. Mum’s actions really helped us out much, especially since work’s at its peak for both Luke & myself – and while I still couldn’t understand the his mum’s sudden demands and hope that this was an isolated incident on top of all the other funny request which we’ve received and got turned down by Luke firmly, it was good to know that the husband stood by me too. BFF was really sweet, knowing that I was having an awfully bad day – came to accompany me for a while after work just so I could let it all out. My eyes were welling up in tears for the entire day and it was good just to let it all out when I finally could, after work. Helen (Luke’s elder sis) was a darling too. She called twice, from the UK, just to ask if everything was in order and if we needed her to probe and speak to her mum on the matter. I really appreciated the help received and knew it was God’s way of showing me how much people around me cared. It was like a stormy day which eventually cleared up with cool weather.
Tuesday felt heavy in the morning with work to be rushed out but got better when evening came as I finally went for my hot yoga session which I missed out for 2 weeks. It was also comforting to receive email and well-wishes from Godma and Jo., sharing with me that I wasn’t alone in all the inevitable that was happening and that things can only get better. Helen also shared with me an advice which made me feel better: there can be perfection in imperfection too. Nice.
Tuesday night also ended perfectly as I finally got myself finishing the entire disc 1 on Cashmere Mafia which Karen had thoughtfully loan me about 3 weeks ago. It was good spending so me-time over the chic-dramedy which I totally enjoyed. Unlike SATC, Cashmere Mafia didn’t have a protagonist and reminded me more about the Queenies because their friendship started off from Uni as well, except that they were 10 – 15 years older than us Queenies! ‘Zoe’s’ character reminded me a lot about myself while ‘Mia’s’ character (the fashionista in the group) reminded me a lot about Mabes .
I eventually succumbed to beauty sleep before continuing on disc 2 (which I will, tonight).
That’s the updates for now. Have a great mid-week peeps!
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