ThicknThin: The morning
It’s been a week and more since we became Mister and Missus, and everything’s been so different yet so same.
We still live apart. We still work at the same [insert adjective] companies. We don’t see each other everyday. We chat on the phone every night.
But we each have a shiny new band on our ring fingers and a lifetime of memories of the wedding. Despite all the hiccups, it was all kind of funny, on hindsight.
The day had started out peacefully enough. I tumbled out of bed at 6.15am, had a quarrel with a misbehaving water heater before emerging for breakfast. My dearest matriarch had whipped up an army of sandwiches and a cuppa tea. Yums. But before I had time to even take a bite, Lawrence, the make-up artist arrived!
The morning passed by in a whirl. Shortly after, Ead arrived and started shooting. Then the girls and one boy arrived and went on to prepare for the Big Showdown. Some of the relatives poured in and said hi. All the while, I was sitting in the chair, not knowing how I looked, and completely trusting Lawrence. At eight, the boys plus one girl texted to say that they were on the way to my place. At 8.20am, the sound of horns tooting noisily signalled their arrival. So far, so good.
Except that my hair wasn’t done yet, my uncle and aunt had not arrived with the nephew to open the dude’s car door, I can’t be veiled because my uncle and aunt had not arrived! We panicked a little, waited a bit, Ead went down to shoot the boys plus one girl, I bit my perfectly manicured nails in despair and Lawrence promptly finished up with the knot in my hair.
“Something is wrong,” I said to Trev. Hmm. I thought for a bit before realising, oh my, I had forgotten to wear my earrings and the pearl necklaces! Giving a yell of disbelief, I commanded Trev to fetch them from my dressing table and stabbed the earrings through my protesting lobes, before he was called down to be the “door opener” instead. My mum hustled up another set of uncle and aunt to do the deed and I was finally, properly veiled and waiting for my husband.
Except, it was kind of boring just sitting there while the fun went on outside. I could hear the banging of pots and pans and then the strains of a badly mangled “Joy to the World” reached my ears. Then I heard peals of laughter and my cousin dashed in to tell me that the fashion show was happening and it was all very mad. Before I knew it, I heard a familiar voice shouting from behind the closed door, “Dearie! I’m here!”
“Come in!”
“What?”
“COME IN!”
The door opened and he burst in, looking mightily cute. We stared at each other for a bit, grinning widely, and then,
“I think you are supposed to lift up my veil and kiss me.”
“Okay.”
As you can see, we are obviously not very well-versed in this wedding business. Oh well, no time for that, we did the deed and were on our way to his place for the tea ceremony in his brother’s stylish little Daihatsu Copen…
More photos from Popartgirl here.
What not to believe
6 days.
5 cameras.
4 islands.
3 rings.
2 individuals.
1 honeymoon.
Yup, we are back and looking 20 shades darker than before. We had a whale of a time at Lombok and have plenty of pictures to show for it.
But. That’s not the point of this post. The following is a video that supposedly tells of how the husband and I got together. It’s conceptualised and acted out by our wacky friends, which means that 99% of the “storyline” is nonsensical. But it’s so hilarious that I just had to share the love! I remember standing there in the middle of the ballroom laughing so hard that my sides hurt and my tears flowed freely. I had been expecting embarrassing anecdotes or photo evidence, not a full-blown nutty video.
And it was supremely awesome. The evening had started off badly enough and I was really quite down in the doldrums. But it got better and better and the video was a great antidote.
So, thanks to all our friends who participated in this “Making Of” video, especially our favourite CWB. Lots of lurving, man!
At the other side
So. The wedding day didn’t go exactly as we had planned. I have to be honest and say that I was really, really disappointed but in the heck, what really matters is that we are madly in love and married to each other, right?
Big, big apologies to our guests, especially those who had no tables, had to wait for a long time to be seated, received bad service from the wait staff or had to sit with strangers instead of friends. The move from the outdoors into the ballroom got the hotel staff in a fluster and they really made a mess of things. If we could turn back the clock, we would have done things differently but we can’t. The best thing that we can do now is to offer up our sincerest apologies and hope that somehow, you have had a great night despite the hiccups.
And now, my new husband and I are going off for a short trip to recharge. There will be lots of photos and notes to share when we get back so see you soon!
PS: If you had taken pictures during the wedding, could you kindly upload the high-res versions to Flickr and tag them “jimmyandyann”? That way, we are able to print them.
This is it
The musky scent of lilies is filling up the room, a scent that I have long forgotten.
As I stared down at my two bouquets of stargazer and calla lilies this evening, it suddenly hit me that yes, 24 hours from now, I will be officially married to the boyf. The lilies were perfect, the sky was blue and full of fluffy white clouds. We were sitting in the cosy two-seater, driving along the highway and I felt so full of life, so young and so invincible.
It’s been such a long journey that it’s overwhelming to have the destination stare at me in the face. It’s a strange feeling, isn’t it? While I can’t wait to put the ring on his finger, a tiny part of me also wishes that the process is longer because it’s been so enriching putting together the little bits and pieces. Of course, I say this now on hindsight - there have been moments when I have rolled my eyes and wonder why we didn’t just elope. Such as when I was punching out paper hearts at 3:30 in the morning. But truly, we’ve had fun doing this together and to see a wedding that’s so uniquely “us” come to life is just incredible.
Eight years, nine months and 14 days. And a whole lifetime ahead of us. It begins today.
Ah, I should be getting to bed. Wish us luck and when I get back, it’s still going to be the same me, just sporting an additional band on my finger. And oh, with a husband in tow. ;)
I’ll see you guys on the other side.
Mixed
Everything is jumbled up, right now.
