i got married to the love of my life!

finally, after writing about wedding photography/ videography, wedding dresses and other outfits, favours, invites, decor and wedding bands, it's time to talk about what happened on the 3rd of september, which was my favourite part of everything! reliving these moments before other moments take over and memory fails.

so it started from a few days before the wedding..

25 aug, we took time off work to collect our marriage certs for signing on the actual day, and pledged that our info in our application was correct.

27 aug: han yang came over to my place and gave us a fat angbao as a gift of gratitude to my parents (but we couldn't outgive their angbao which was many times fatter)

anyway, i could still remember the horrendous work load i had amidst all the preparations. i wanted to look fit and radiant for the wedding by exercising more and eating more fruits and veges, but because of busy work, i didn't have time to reset my lifestyle at all.

i never got my exercise flush, or fruits/vege radiance, but i was just pale, with eye bags that makeup was unable cover up that day. i also thought my period would come before, but i was so stressed that it was like 1.5 weeks late, and it came immediately the next day after the wedding. O_O

han yang and i took off for the last 3 days before wedding, i should have took off for more days seriously! i was severely sleep deprived but still so many errands to run.

reviewed my chats with han yang to remember what exactly happened:

wednesday, 31 aug

05:00: i was texting han yang, and at home completing the last of work

08:25: still at work, so horrendous right. i was so upset that work was consuming my life up till 2 days before the wedding. never again, on important moments in my life.

10:09: i was still doing work. my mum was packing postcards for me:

11:17: lhy was at home doing table arrangements and having to change things around coz of last minute dropouts. we worked in silos for the day, settling separate stuff

14:30: settling table arrangements through messaging with lhy

16:12: managed to finally settle my hair appointment for sat night at prep luxe at capitol piazza!

17:00: went for a 1.5 hr massage just downstairs. i totally needed it and it was the shiokest massage in a while, but to be honest i couldn't relax with my wedding dress still not settled at the back of my mind

20:00: sis and i dropped by JM flowers to pick out flowers. we had around an hour to pick out flowers coz it closes at 21:00. 

21:00: han yang came to fetch us back and picked up bottles and tons of logistics from our place.

thursday, 1 sep

08:00: in a bid to feel healthy, i went out for a 45min run and suffered a tan line.

early afternoon: poor lhy still sorting out tables :( can't remember what i did.

15:00: went to esplanade library silent studio to practise the celine dion song for sat dinner. 1 hr chop!

17:30: han yang went to robinsons, sending me photos of ties for his outfits. yup, 2 days before wedding. meanwhile, i was at home getting ready for a long night ahead of altering my wedding dress.

20:00: finally start altering after collecting enough inspirations on pinterest for neckline and back design. i finally decide on mandarin collar cos i'm the most familiar with it, and also cos it's delicate/intricate enough.

friday, 2 september

05:00: still at the dress, almost done

09:40: han yang and his friend prash reached al azhar for breakfast. i was late. had a good time meeting prash and getting to know him!

11:30: made my way home. told me dad to help me with the writing on all the wooden planks. :) my sweet papa.

13:30: went for my manicure/ pedicure. lady was shocked when i told her i was getting married the next day (apparently ppl get theirs done a few days before, i didn't even know. won't the nails grow out?) i can't sleep cos i needed to alternate between her applying gel and putting them under UV:

my nails never look good in manicure; look like kid's nails

16:34: picking up make up stuff at sephora

17:00: go to SICC to drop off favours and stuff needed for dinner

20:00: decide to drop by TRBC to say hi to my sister, mum and LG, and found out that the decor had still not started much, stayed around to help them! i was actually half zoned out, and so stressed :( thank God for my LG!

sat, 3 september

01:00: reached home. han yang started to wrap red packets. none of us had started on wedding speeches yet. i sit in bed thinking about the speech and fell asleep with the lights on.

04:30: woke up in an awkward, uncomfortable sleeping position and wrote the speech, packed my bags for the wedding

06:30: friends arrive at my house and i had just finished bathing. they ask me why i still hadn't done my make up:

so my day started! i usually get an hour to put on full face make up and look nice, but it was such a rush job! ok, people ask me why i didn't get a make up artist in to do my hair. the truth is i got someone in, but she bailed out on me, and i decided to heck it, save money and just do it myself. since i've been doing my own makeup and hair since forever, and i wanted the make up to look natural anyway. i only booked to have my hair done by someone for the night cos i needed an up-do for the tea ceremony/white dress walk in and my hair down for the green evening dress.

anyway, i should really have started much earlier so i had time to dry my hair and curl it.

i put on my make up in less than half an hour:

i really looked super cui on that day! my hair was half dry and i was trying to figure out how to use hui yi's automatic curler, the kind that sucks your hair in. 

but in the end i gave up and decided to just do the updo without setting the hair. anyway the make up also badly done; my eyebrows looked weird. and i forgot to pin up my hair. hair was falling all over my face half the time in photos. SILLY ME!

after doing my own hair i helped cass to do her hair #mosthardworkingbride

while taking videos of my hands jeshua said "why your veins popping out, are you very tensed?" i told him my veins always pop out, am i stressed all the time? O_O

i think it's just genes. my dad, mum and sis's veins are also popped out.

finally i'm resting and people are helping me put on stuff.

yipee, i'm getting married! had to pose for this shot. heh

with pretty ladies :)

:)

since 13 years old <3, she's seen me through my weird days!

my love lau han yang is here! nice shot with the orchids/greens in the foreground.

we had to move at 0.5x the speed for all these shots. it was such a happy day and i kept telling lhy "really we are getting married?!?! :D :D :D"

my hair! urgh, why!! also, han yang had a bad hair cut cos his hair dresser decided to try something new for his wedding. WHY!? haha

dad walked me to the wedding car. we made a decision not to decorate the wedding car cos it was peripheral.

look at the veins on my hands!

 

haha my eyebrows, seriously. han yang looks so cute <3

went up to the holding room!

meanwhile, gabriel my favourite boy has arrived!

si hui holding a corsage. love seeing these photos of stuff happening else where.

brides maids still arranging flowers!

in the room chilling with my love. after a while he left to say hi to guests.

my sis came around to draw my lipstick/apply lip balm!

my bridesmaids chilling out <3

meanwhile our dear friends were running the show! zel was our very capable stage manager and oversaw the whole service, and jansen was her stage hands. qian jin and qinny in the back ground working out their script.

heh

duper cute ana

the ceremony starts! my aunt jennifer has arrived :) waiting to enter!

my happy papa and meee :D how cute is my lovely papa?!?!

 the video was playing and i heard alot of laughter at unexpected parts.

gonna be with my love soon!

<3

i'm coming now love! 

it was so exhilarating, walking down the aisle with my beloved papa, seeing the many familiar faces of my loved ones, some whom i haven't seen in years. my heart, so warm. such a happy, happy occasion, i couldn't help grinning.

but i forgot to bring the bouquet with me, the one that my sis made!!! urgh, can't forgive myself that the bouquet didn't get enough air time!

heh i love papa's expression!

yay, got handed over to the love of my life

heh, i see jonas standing along the aisle with ah gu, our resident photographer. :)

worship starts!

led by the lovely gwen, with her absolutely beautiful voice

novi! my lovely friend who has supported me through leading worship in LG

shirley gave a beautiful sharing about seasons in marriage, of going through the ups and downs of life with a hope in God, a hope in Jesus and a hope in his everlasting love. we will keep this so, so close to our hearts!

pastor daniel then took over and solemnised our marriage. we said our vows to one another.

in the course of writing vows, i went through many versions, and only picked the ones i was sure i wanted to follow through with. promises are sacred and i wanted to be sure that i could keep these vows.

"i, hui xin, take you, han yang, according to God's holy word, to be my lawful husband. i promise from this day on to love and honour you for who you are and who you will be. i promise to stand by you in sickness or in health, in poverty or in wealth, in sorrow or in joy. i promise to support you in your dreams and visions, and to always be your no. 1 fan. i promise to pray for you daily, and to always remind you of the Lord's plans and promises for us. 

i promise to support you in creating a home filled with music, learning, laughter, patience and compassion. and where there are arguments, i promise to always listen and to forgive you. as we go on this life journey together, i promise not just to grow old, but to grow together, in the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. i treasure you with all of my heart, mind and soul. 

i will keep this vow by the grace of God until the Lord Jesus Christ comes again or till death do us part. 

before God, i pledge you my faithfulness."

throughout our time of knowing each other before marriage, we had gone through so many ups and downs, and this relationship had revealed many things about my own character and the way i handled things. i'm sometimes impatient, judgmental, uncommunicative and defensive when provoked, and being with han yang made me realise how experiences (family, friends, hurts) had shaped my communication style and how much it needed to change. being with him was a fresh change because he's always so gracious, rational, yet loving when handling disagreements. i wanted to learn from him, and this was the promise i wanted to give to him in marriage - to always be patient, and to always honour him as a man, and to forgive easily and to always speak truth, yet with love.

these were his vows to me:

"i, han yang, take you, hui xin, according to God's holy word, to be my lawful wife. marriage is for life but i promise, starting with this vow, not to inflict long sentences on you. that our quarrels will always be kept short and our disagreements quickly resolved. whether we have little or much, are in sickness or health, i promise to love and honour you. i will walk with you though the joys and travails of this life, and support you in your dreams. i promise to grow with you into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, and never let the shade of my thoughts obscure the light of your personality, you zest. 

i am yours, wholly and unreservedly. i will keep this vow by the grace of God, and until the Lord Jesus Christ comes again or death parts us. before God, i pledge you my faithfulness."

we exchange rings!

and then we kiss <3<3<3 ^^ haha look at ma and pa's expressions, so cute :)

heh, what a happy day!

we get prayed by ps. daniel, our first prayer as a family! han yang looks funny with his eyes closed

gwen sings "crooked lines" by corrinne may. beautiful song.

"God writes straight with crooked lines 

He takes the mess we make in life 

Turns our groaning into perfect rhyme 

Hidden by the veil of time 

The wisdom of His love’s design

God writes straight with crooked lines"

the first thing we do is to take the Lord's supper as a family, because this is a symbol of how we want Jesus to be at the centre of our marriage. han yang looks funny with his mouth wide open heh

after being married in God's eyes, the next step is to get our marriage recognised formally by law! 

i sign.

he signs.

papa signs.

pa (han yang's dad) signs.

HAHA, what is pa looking at? and why do grown men like to open their eyes so big in photos?

then ps. daniel declares us husband and wife! we take our first walk-out and walk in as a couple.

so happy please!

finally our speeches! i've no idea how we managed to, but we wrote our speeches in the midst of the day's events (we were even discussing our parts on the way to church) and delivered them okay. if i could do it again i would have done it weeks before cos we actually missed people out! we forgot to thank qianjin and qinny for hosting. sorry guys :'/ why are we so last minute!

don't know about han yang, but i definitely enjoyed giving my speech! :D 

we wanted to use our wedding as a way of thanking our loved ones for being in our lives, and for never giving up on us. i got papa all teary-eyed, oh no. i love you mama and papa!

my new ma and pa. i love them so much too, they're the sweetest!

this is us, when i was thanking han yang, and told him that "i used to have grandoise ideas and expectations of how a guy should treat a lady, but gradually found myself recalibrating my expectations." and then this was met with laughter and i had to clarify that it was "not lowering them, but to appreciate you for how you love me." hehehe too funny.

han yang recalled that he once thought that "marriage is both a happy and a very sad thing. it's happy cos you get together with the person you like, but sad because you choose who you ultimately depart from at the end of the day." (i've also had that thought before! it would be so depressing to lose him) but that i reminded him it's the happy moments in between that count! yes, it's true, <3 i have so many memories of us already, and i'm so excited to build more with him!

after our speeches, it was time for photo-taking! picking out a few significant ones:

with my family! look at han yang's face. he looks like he's from the 1930s.

 my NYGH friends! the ones who've seen me through puberty and being weird, being funny. <3

friendships from many places - (from bottom left up) joanne (epiphany), lu wei (NHPS), qi min (ACJC), valerie and philip (YMCA), adam and christabel (my SEA travel buddies!)

dear friends that i made in SMU!

and my work family, asia insight! so many many hours of fun (and hard work) with this bunch

with the wise ones! uncle jerry and auntie jerlyn, mag (who mentored us for prepare-enrich and really gave me soooo much good advice and prayers in my times of uncertainty in the relationship), ps. claudia, ps. daniel (thanks for solemnising our marriage!), tuan, sok mian and nam seng (all 3 were our MPC mentors)

my christmas musical famileeeee! <3

tuition with love! these beautiful souls!

my dearest, dearest, beloved lifegroup!

the SMU group <3

the YG group

 the worship ministry (it just gets bigger and bigger!)

 

thanks to han yang's lovely LG for helping out so much in the preps too!

and last one with the lovely friends who helped us out! missing steph, sihui, jansen and a few more faces!

next we went for lunch! i didn't have many photos to show but anyway i was just super tired!

and then my LG and parents had to help to pack up and load the stuff into the car to be transported to SICC!

raphael (our driver for the day) drove us to the Westin for check-in. that's where we booked to spend the night cos i heard so much about their heavenly beds!

but you know i was so so tired that we didn't take any photos of the staycation at all! 

raphael dropped us there, where we had a quick bath. i washed off everything cos my next appointment was at prep luxe at capitol piazza, 3.30pm, to do my hair.

meanwhile, i'm not sure what han yang and raphael did but i guess they hung around till i was done.

i can't remember who did my hair but he was so sweet and patiently listened to my needs. haha, he was so shocked that it was my wedding hairdo, cos i don't think he usually gets people going to salon to do their wedding hair. anyway i told him i needed an up-do that later needed to be let down into curls.

he did an amazing job with the curls, i had never seen such bouncy curls in my life. best decision to get someone professional to do my evening hair. i should have done the same for morning la!

anyway, after doing the curls, he set them with some light hair spray, and started to pin them around the head. the end result was amazing! he said he didn't want to set it too much with heavy hair spray so i could let them down easily. anyway, i was very impressed, and would totally go get my hair done by him again next time if there was ever an occasion.

by then it was around 5pm and i hadn't done my makeup!

we quickly drove to SICC and i did a very quick make up, it was really badly done la, i dunno why!

meanwhile, our friends and my mum was setting up the table and the favours!

my mama who worked so hard at the arch!

so beautiful against the setting sun right!

anyway at 6.30pm we started our tea ceremony!

han yang's godma (his aunt, affectionally known as mummy) and my sis :D

me whispering to han yang "what do we say ah?"

calling ma and pa!

tea to my in-laws

mummy was a great help, teaching us the ropes of tea ceremony!

 

tea to my papa and mama!

tea to ah-chek (that's how you spell? not sure)

my hair is starting to fall out of place.

tea to my new siblings, chuan and brenda!

and an serving tea to us

my beautiful, one and only sister!

and my baby brother, zhi zhi!

meanwhile people were streaming in!

bumped into friends streaming in

karen and jas! my childhood friends <3 karen flew in from the states and landed just that afternoon!

dinner started promptly at 8pm

walked in! so much smoke i tell you! i was trying to get it out of the way by blowing the air.

we went on stage to cut this 3 tiered cake! this is a cake made by my BFF, ng hui yi, who owns bloomsbury bakers. she has been making amazing cakes since i was 13, and i was always super pampered by her delicacies. when i was 18, she promised me she would make me my wedding cake, and we were just joking then. then after she finished her uni, she went to pursue her passion at le cordon bleu in UK and came back home and started making even more perfect cakes! <3 love this amazing girl!

then, we gave a short speech and went down and dinner began.

next, we were serenaded by our friends!

daixuan, nic yong and nehemiah were our talented friends who spent days preparing 2 sets of songs for our wedding. they were simply phenomenal

by then we were taking some table photos.

my hair was starting to fall apart!

and then raphael gave his revenge best man speech.

and then my lovely sis! <3 so heartwarming!

then chuan gave his speech. it was extremely well thought out with great humour.! haha, laughed so much.

and an with his toast! haha, he really surprised us all!

toasting!

time for our long speeches. we wrote them in the hotel room, on the way to the salon, and in the salon/while waiting for me.

i tried so hard to summarise my speech for my parents again, and there were just so many examples of their love for us, but i picked three and shared them!

<3<3

han yang was ingenious, he picked his pair of shoes and used that as the connector for the thank yous to his family. it was too cute. just some quotable quotes:

"..my brother bought me these pair of shoes back when river island was still a thing, back in 2010. it was an unsuccessful attempt to stop me from wearing flip flops to SMU.." 

"..my mum has been nagging at me to throw this (pair of shoes) away for the past year, and she sends me whatsapp notices of shoe sales that go on at ang mo kio hub and places that she frequents every other month.." 

"these shoes remind me of how you (an) blaze the trail ahead of us to do things that are different, like i never knew that you had this voice inside of you when you came on stage to propose a toast!" 

"..my father is the only one that is supportive of me wearing this pair of shoes. he says we should support the local economy, so he has brought them to the cobbler a few times on my behalf, and what you see now is a mixture of plastic, leather and rubber.."

and then we thanked our loved ones by presenting them with a song! 

it was because you loved me by celine dion. challenging, i had such a hard time staying on tempo, and also didn't manage to reach the highest note!

it was quite enjoyable!

took more photos!

after taking photos with the 40 or so tables, we finally called it a night!

here's a summary of the day's events!

---

we went back to the hotel, and had room service cos we hardly ate anything during dinner.

and yes, we also fell asleep soon after and it was the most perfect sleep i had in a long time! we woke up for breakfast, then i fell back asleep cos i had severe cramps. han yang began his 2nd day of married life walking around CBD looking for an open shop to buy pills + sanitary napkins, a premonition of his days to come.

<3 and then, this is home.

there is still part 2 of wedding, and honeymoon to come!