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Thursday, 16 Aug 2001
Collected a "Consent Form" from the Registry of
Marriages this morning. The form is for our solemniser to sign and acknowledge
that he has agreed to solemnise our marriage. Our civil solemnisation
ceremony will be held just prior to the banquet on 20th October in another
function room at the Pan Pacific hotel. Due to the limitation of space,
only relatives and close friends will be invited to this ceremony, which
will probably be very short and sweet. We made the arrangements for this
seperate ceremony with the hotel at the time of booking and they will
be charging a nominal fee for the use of the room, with suitable decor
(flower arrangements) and chairs in a theatre seating configuration.
Anyway, I also collected the 400 copies of the photograph that will be
used on the cover of our invitation card today (we did mention this was
a DIY project, didn't we?). No no, we aren't sending out 400 invitation
cards! We've estimated about 250 cards are needed for the invitations,
but the remaining cards will be used for the Solemnisation Ceremony Programme
card and perhaps a few other uses.... We just print a different inside
page. The photo is a digital composite image I put together out of several
images taken by Ray (our photographer) and I sent the file to my usual
photo lab (35mm Colour Lab, 733 Bukit Timah Road
#01-06 2nd Ave Junction, Tel: 467 5535, http://www.fotohub.com),
where as always, they do a fantastic job! Essentially, the digital file
was "printed" onto normal photographic paper, and it is almost impossible
to tell that it is actually a composite image. It was lots of fun to create,
and hopefully everyone will "get" the message of the images..... of the
sense of anticipation and preparation for the celebrations on the big
day (For an idea of what the card looks like, see the RSVP
page. - Tim
Tuesday, 04 Sep 2001
The past week has been a whirlwind of activity.
Most of it is now a blur and I can only vaguely recall that we met up
with various friends who will be our coordinators or major helpers on
20 Oct, printed and made up lots more invitation cards, did the detailed
planning of the timetable for the next 6 or 7 weeks, as well as the
day itself (down to 15 minute blocks, but allowing for delays and contingencies),
and made (and still making) a whole bunch of other arrangements.
All this to do and of course, Yi Peng's office workload is beginning
to get heavier again! She has lots to record in this logbook, but no
time to sit down and write it. Amongst other things, she has finalised
the itinerary and bookings for our honeymoon, sorted out the menus with
the hotel (see our Menus and Schedules section),
designed her mum's and sister's gowns, sourced for the fabrics at Arab
Street and then bring them to the tailor, brought her dad to Justmen's
to make his suit, sourced for gifts (shhh! Surprise factor keeps me
from saying more), and so many other things. If I can remember more,
I'll make another entry!
At least the official bridal carriage (ie. Car) has been sorted
out. My uncle Melvin has graciously put his Merc at our disposal for
that day and after much designing and deliberation, Yi Peng and our
dear friend Linda have come up with a winning decor scheme! With Linda's
experience vis-a-vis car decorating, we have entrusted her with transforming
the car on the night before the wedding. - Tim
Thursday, 13 Sep 2001
Whew! The majority of invitation cards have gone
out by now, and boy was it a lot of work! A few more people still need
to be contacted. In this fast-paced world, even mobile phone numbers and
email addresses change very quickly, and getting hold of old friends can
be quite a problem! - Tim
Tuesday, 18 Sep 2001
Funny how you can "open your big mouth" just
a little too soon.
We actually made about 490 invitation cards in the end. Looking back
through the logbook, you'll see that on 16 August, I had optimistically
said that we would be making only 250 cards. As it turned out, the number
of cards we needed was an amazingly consistent 70% of the total guest
count. In other words, for every 100 guests, we needed almost exactly
70 invitation cards! Even when the guest list was broken down into 3
groups, representing our respective parents' guests and our own guests,
the requirement was 70% of the guest count in each group. And of course,
it was only then that we finally found out from various sources that
this is quite a "standard" figure for most weddings in Singapore. So
those of you out there thinking about making them yourselves, do note
the quantities needed. With a few exceptions, we sent the cards according
to this basic protocol: One card for every couple ("Mr & Mrs" or "Mr
& Ms"), one card for every family with children below 18 years
("Mr & Mrs & family"), and one card to each adult (18 and above).
We of course discovered, much to our chagrin, some cross-cultural issues
with the above ("Westernised") protocol. Apparently, it's pretty unseemly
in some traditional quarters to send or receive too many invitation
cards to one family (as in the case where there many be several adult
children within the family group).... It comes across as imperious and
parsimonious. Discretion was therefore required. ;)
In times gone by, a single invitation was sufficient for the whole village,
and was typically read aloud and then pasted on some convienient wall
along the main thoroughfare. A hand-delivered "invitation" to a relative
was (and still is) seen as tantamount to a summons to attend.
Planning and preparing for this wedding has been very much a learning
experience in terms of customs and traditions for us. The sending of
invitation cards being a case in point. However, we figure ourselves
fortunate in having families easy-going enough (and perhaps even largely
unfamiliar) with regard to the traditional wedding hoopla. No need to
leave the house before dawn ("before the cock crows"), no need for the
groom's entourage to present the traditional dowry and/or good luck
items such as a whole roasted suckling pig (apple in its gnarled mouth,
no less) and tiffin carriers of sweets, oranges and such, no need to
time the days events around auspicious times (eg. Leave the house at
exactly 6.22am, arrive at exactly 8.28am, whatever), and so on.
But then again, maybe I'm opening my big mouth too soon... *grin*
- Tim
Thursday, 20 Sep 2001
Ok, let's see. What have I been up to? I have
in the last 2 months, been scouring Arab Street again for more fabrics.
This time, for my mum's and sis's gowns. I also chanced upon some lovely
Indian sari material which I have decided to get May to make
into a casual dress for me to change into during lunch on 20th October.
I couldn't resist as the fabrics were on sale. I have also taken my
Dad to Justmen's to get a new suit made.
I have also been considering a few caterers for lunch on 20th October.
Finally decided on Glory (the one at East Coast Road). It was between
Glory and Smiling Orchid. I finally decided that we get better value
for money at Glory. So that has been sorted out. Well, almost. I have
to go back to the office to check their confirmation fax to me.
Finally, as if I do not have enough stress, I found out from our Australian
travel agent, Tasmanian Travel Company, that Ansett Airlines had been
shut down (We have been too busy to keep ourselves aprised of the news
at that time). Our internal flights in Australia are with Ansett! I
am sad to say that Chan Brothers, from whom we bought our airtickets,
did not contact us with the news at all. When I called them, they claimed
they were waiting for SQ to announce the "solution". (Our tickets are
SQ tickets with free internal flights on Ansett). I did not hear from
Chan Brothers even after SQ had made an announcement on its website.
I had to call again. This time, I did get a nice girl who TRIED to be
helpful. She informed me that according to one of her colleagues, we
would have to return our existing tickets for a refund and purchase
new ones. Now, I hear the word "refund" and it sparks me off. I mean,
have you ever heard of anyone who got their money back promptly? You
usually have to wait and wait and wait and chase, and chase and chase...
Further, it does not seem that such inconvenient steps are necessary
as SQ's announcements was that alternative arrangements for (only) the
internal flights will be arranged. I know that it is not Chan Brother's
fault that Ansett shut down (and I did tell them as much). But I think
there is definitely room for improvement in terms of after sales service.
In the end, I had to "suggest" that she call up SQ to clarify. I am
now waiting ... - Yi Peng
Thursday, 20 Sep 2001
One more month to go!
Many things have been settled, some things are works-in-progress, and
some things still need to be sorted out. Every spare moment is spent
feverishly working on some aspect of organisation or on some do-it-ourselves
item. - Tim
Monday, 24 Sep 2001
IMPORTANT!! If any of our
guests have made use of the website's RSVP page and submitted an online
wedding RSVP between Sunday 23 Sept and Monday 24 Sept, PLEASE re-visit
the page and send the RSVP again,
or contact us directly (contact details as per invitation card).
We apologise for this situation, but it was due to a service disruption
of our email server (but not the web server), because they SUSPENDED
OUR EMAIL ACCOUNTS, WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE, AND THEY DID NOT ANSWER OUR
QUERIES ON THE LOSS OF SERVICE, UNTIL WE CONTACTED THEM VIA PHONE,
NEARLY 9 HOURS AFTER WE FIRST QUERIED THEM. All this because of a billing
foul-up on their part, that somehow led them to believe that we had
been delinquent in our payments for the web-hosting services.
That they had the gall to suspend services without prior notice, and
then IGNORE our service help requests for the lost service for 9 hours
was reason enough to terminate our hosting plan with them. But to make
matters worse, after some typical corporate (not-my-department) runaround
between 9pm and 10pm tonight, I finally get a senior exec to call me
back after telling them that I would be seeking legal and financial
redress!... Only to find out that the reason was our failure to pay
the bill for the July to October period.
As it turns out, this was true, insofar as that they DID NOT BILL US
for that period, neither were there any reminders, whether via post
or email, and to top it off, the CURRENT bill for October to December
does NOT make any mention of outstanding amounts due. This also begs
the question as to why we were billed for the next quarter, when we
had not paid up the previous quarter? Take our money and still keep
us cut off?!
The most ironic thing about all this is that, just this morning, I had
sent out the cheque to pay for the current bill.
Anyway, in case this whole tirade (yes, I am so fond of tirades!) seems
to be going off on a tangent, I would just like to tell you what I told
the webvisions staff: THIS website just so happens to be OUR MISSION-CRITICAL
website. It's our wedding website, and the wedding is only 26 days away!
Guests are RSVP'ing via the webpage, and also directly via email. I
personally lost probably about 20 to 40 emails today.
Anyways, I am so glad Gerald of Webvisions had called me back just now
to explain the situation and make amends. So for now, my endorsement
of Webvisions (in the form of the "Powered by Webvisions" logo at the
bottom of the main pages of this website) will remain...
Should have known eh? Murphy's Law applies, regardless of time or place...
In our mad scamble to plan a special and trouble-free wedding celebrations
(contingency plans included), we totally overlooked the fact that a
"web-enabled" wedding like ours can be brought "down" by silly "old-economy"
problems. S.N.A.F.U. - Tim
Tuesday, 25 Sep 2001
Ooops! Nearly forgot all about it, after coming
home from the hotel and facing all the problems with our email system.
We actually went down to Pan Pacific yesterday to meet with Wai Leng,
the wedding coordinator who has taken over our account from Eng Yan.
We worked out the majority of outstanding issues (decor, AV equipment,
menus, and lots of other things), had a look at a couple of weddings held
there last night for the theme and decor choices. We worked out a few
minor changes to the menus, namely changing the prawn dish for another
style of preparation, a minor change to the cold dish, and the dropping
of the Western Vegetarian menu due to the almost non-existant demand for
it. So far, all our vegetarian guests have RSVP'ed with the Chinese Vegetarian
menu as their choice, and the low number (if any) of Western meals required
would be below the minimum required to keep that kitchen open. Our apologies
to any of our guests who might have been keen on that menu.
Anyway, there are a few more things to settle, like the finer points of
the AV projector and other video equipment and to set a date for the rehearsal.
- Tim
Thursday, 11 Oct 2001
Less than 10 days to go! Been terribly busy as
you can well imagine. But lots of stuff have been done and many outstanding
issues settled.
We received our shipment of custom hand-made confectionary from Perth
a few weeks ago, and have been spending time making the boxes, tying
ribbons and packing the confectionary (it's a surprise!). We thought
it would lend an extra special touch to have the specially-made treats
waiting for each of our dinner guests! We must thank our good friends
Zahiri and Yvonne for helping with the time-consuming and delicate work
of making the boxes... 600-plus boxes!!
In other areas, I have been engrossed in lots of the technical and logistical
details. We have managed to get an external contractor (ComTech
Equipment & Supplies Pte Ltd, contact James Lee at mobile: 9006 6822)
to supply the 2 high-powered (3000 lumens) video projectors we need,
at a decent rental price. Due to the sheer size of the ballrom and locations
of the built-in screens, a single projector would only be able to present
a clear picture to part of the audience, hence the need for 2 projectors,
despite the technical difficulties this brings. I am sorting out the
techinical difficulties now, and hopefully all should be well on the
day itself.
As for the logistics, an "operations plan (ops plan)" has been developed
and is being refined each step of the way, in close consultation with
our good friends who will be our coordinators.
From experience gained from helping out at other weddings, we have tried
to come up with a schedule that balances timings, such that we actually
get everything done on time, yet build in contingency timings (slack
time) to cater to the inescapable hiccups on the day itself.
And most importantly, the 2 of us are trying very hard to remember that
while we can plan and plan and then PLAN somemore, we will and MUST,
handover the ops plan to our coordinators to "run the show".
- Tim
Saturday, 20 Oct 2001
Today's the DAY!!! Hard to imagine, and even
now, still seems so strange. The Tea Ceremonies are over, and we are
about to leave for the Hotel in 5 minutes. Just a quick note to say
it's been fun, but terribly tiring up till now. But we are ready and
raring to go for the solemnisation and dinner later!
The past week has been such a blur... cannot remember any details for
the lack of sleep! See you all there later. - Tim
Tuesday, 18 Dec 2001
It's been just about 2 months since the wedding...
time really flies by!
The wedding day itself was great! We managed to enjoy ourselves, even
though we were both so spaced out from the lack of sleep. We slept at
3am, only to wake at about 7am to get ready. There were of course, a
million and one things to get done in the last few days leading up to
the actual day, and it's all just a blur now. Plenty of last minute
details, like guests with unexpected emergencies to attend to and were
therefore unable to attend, confirming the banquet details with the
hotel, and lots more that just defies definition or description... There
were just loads to do!
Several things we kept as surprises for the day itself (and thus not
mentioned here on our website previously) went down very well, which
made us really happy. Firstly, we had custom-made rock candy with a
"Tim-Heartshape-Yi Peng" design made as wedding favours, which guests
received at the banquet. We ordered them from Roc
Candy in Perth when we were there for our photo
shoot. The boxes were bought at The Concourse shopping mall in Singapore
and were then hand folded and tied with ribbons. We bought small silk
flowers from Art Friend (Bras Basah Complex) and had them tied in with
the ribbon. This was quite laborious we can assure you!
 
I also spent a lot of time planning, filming
and putting together 2 video presentations that were shown at the banquet.
The first one was a slideshow of our "baby" photos, followed by a filmed
sequence depicting the events of the wedding day (but was actually filmed
in advance) which then culminated in our first entrance into the ballroom.
That was quite a job for our coordinators as the timings had to be so
precise.
The second video show was a simpler slideshow of our wedding portraits
taken in Western Australia. Both seemed to be very well received! Hooray!
At least the effort was worth it!
I have finally scanned and put up a
selection of the pictures of the day's events from our albums. For
those of you who were unable to attend for one reason or another, or
for those of you not living in Singapore, have a look!
We had a WONDERFUL time on our honeymoon and decided that we would write
a travelogue, illustrated with our photos. Be patient, and it should
be put up in phases over the next few weeks (or months?). There have
been many requests for our travel itinerary in Tasmania from our friends...
The travelogue we are writing will have all the pertinent information
and our opinions on what's worth seeing in Tasmania! Watch
out for it here!! - Tim
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