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A Walk Down The Aisle (#keepcalmandsayido – Part 4)

This blog post is a follow up from:
1) "Why so susah wan?! (#keepcalmandsayido – Part 1)
2) "The Video... (#keepcalmandsayido – Part 2), and
3) What we didn’t tell our guests (#keepcalmandsayido – Part 3)


Hey guys! Hope you had a good week so far, in spite of the haze.

Continuing with the #keepcalmandsayido series, you would’ve already known by now:

1) What we susah people actually subjected ourselves to during the #weddingmonth (by choice, so unfortunately we can’t blame anyone ) Click to read more...

2) How #babybaby and I “fell in love”; and how he proposed (hope you had a good laugh with our dumb down version of the video reenactment) Click to view video...

3) The things we DIDN’T tell our wedding guests…(not to mention how much $$$ we saved by DIY-ing the little things that made the difference) Click to read more...

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Sorry. Side track a bit – If you’ve emailed me from the previous blog post requesting for my wedding planning/budget templates, you should’ve gotten a personal reply from Moi with an attachment of the files; but if for some reason it didn’t reach you, please let me know in the comment box below ya!! Mwah mwah!!

Ok, back to this.

So yeah, I didn’t wear a Vera Wang, yet I still felt like the most special girl in the world because the man I love thought I was worth the commitment of a lifetime.

Out of all the 4 events we had, I'll admit that the last one at the church was the most emotional one for me. I don’t remember crying so much in public. So embarrassing.

Unfortunately for me, our very efficient videographers caught every embarrassing detail, so you’ll have the joy of seeing the red-nosed version of this Panda in next week’s video. Lol

For now, here are the pictures from the actual day, from my hair and makeup with Joey Lau just before 6am (thank you Joey for waking up at such an ungodly time for me!)… 

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…to the quest of “getting Hannah into that impossible dress”; spearheaded by my mummy-in-law and aunty-in-law (please excuse my English lol), assisted by Joey and mum. The 2 superwomen probably grew instant biceps from the exercise of holding up that dress and trying to lace me up. Mafan but totally necessary. What to do? Lol

BTW, thank you Suzanna for the veil, and thank you Aunty Kelene for fixing my dress and bedazzling Suzanna’s masterpiece for me. Loved the bling!!

Point to note for all future Brides: If you’re going to wear a dress like mine for your wedding, you’ll want to make sure you have strong bladder control.

Meantime, at the church, our helpful family members Christian, Joel, Ru and Nancy had their smiles on to orientate our very punctual guests upon arrival.

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I was told that my Japanese family, including Akiko Mama and lil’ brother Tomoki were the first to arrive. Early and before time somemore. I call this the "Japanese timing", from which we Malaysians have a lot to learn.  Tabik [Respect]. 

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Everything was going well and according to schedule that morning (or so I believe) until the team discovered that some of the most important people to the wedding (including the father-of-the-groom and our 2 opening emcees) were stuck in a plane that could not “park” according to schedule. I’m not sure if those were the exact details but that was what I was told; apart from the standard “don’t worry”. Yes, I understood at that time that nobody wanted the bride to have an anxiety attack. 

Dunno whether to blame the airlines or the airport , but really kesian the people in the plane and also kesian the guests at the church who had to wait.The entire family felt so bad, and I felt even worse for not having a contingency plan to keep our poor guests entertained during the wait. 

[p/s: Perhaps something for you to keep in mind when expecting out-of-town family members at your wedding.]

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Anyway, we thank God for such patient and understanding guests who made all the difference, especially since they had every right to get upset about the delay.

Thank you David Oh for keeping our guests updated in the hall during the wait. 

Thankfully, once the event started with Su Yen and Su Lin’s opening, everything else just fell into place…

We rolled this video...

...following which, Dad walked me down the back of the auditorium (which was no easy task in that poofy dress and tall-shoes).

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Reverend Kevin – our spiritual father, mentor and friend – graciously committed his entire morning to us and undertook the ceremony in spite of his hectic travel schedule. I'll save the details of the ceremony for next week's video post. :-D

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Before we knew it, the BIG day was over... 

...and it was time to toss the bouquet. Guess who caught it?!!! 

1pm. A sigh of relief, as that meant I could finally drink something and stop worrying about bladder control.

Our eventful morning concluded very efficiently, thanks to my Superwoman Jamie, Wonderwomen sisters Gloria and Victoria, Superman Joel Liew, my very gracious mummy-in-law and aunty-in-law, Mui Lin and the brilliant team.

Thank you Cayman and Li-Hsia for coordinating the busy weekend with Mui Lin and assisting Jamie, Gloria, Victoria and Joel in the setup the night before; thank you Sean Teh, Charis Tan, Vincent Kusuma, Wilson Lee, Cheryl Lee, Edmund Lee, Desmond Ng, Anna Leong, Min Yang, Chee Heng, Yuan Yuan, Ed Jane, Johnny Ng and Sabrina Chin for looking after our family and friends throughout the entire morning (not forgetting the venue setup and staying up so late the night before).

Terry and Wei Shen, thank you for sweating for us and managing our traffic flow in the unbearable Malaysian heat.

Thank you Adrian, Angelica, Emloyd, Jacob, Sharon Boon, Tressila, Johnston, Yin Har and Eleazar Ting for leading us in Praise and Worship; and thank you Zia Hao, Kim, Kelvin Lo, and Kelvin Su for making sure our ears were not abused haha. You guys did a brilliant job with the sound!

Thank you Brian Tan and Michael Tong for looking after the lights; and thank you Yee Wen, Ryan Tay, Lee Peng, Grace Khor, Francis, Tze Ken, Andrew Lee, Vernard, Sandra Boon and Dsir Shooter for the making the magic and doing such a brilliant job with the TV/media and cameras. Gordon Lee, Nelson Tan and Thomas Lee – you gentlemen made all the difference by managing all the corresponding facilities that weekend, thank you so very much.

Next week – pictures with our guests, the video that made me cry over and over again and the colour of my wedding shoes (which were not white BTW).

Love you!


All photos (unless otherwise stated) by Cornelius Lim

Design/Concept/Direction of all “A Walk Down The Aisle” materials (invites, wedding favours, stickers, food toppers, guest photo printout template, button badges, etc) by Joey & Regine Khor. 


Source: http://www.hannah.today/keepcalmandsayido/
tags: wedding, ceremony, church ceremony, church, marriage, bryan lee, hannah tan, confetti, vows, vow, modern wedding, deco, family, guests, relatives, rings, bouquet, toss, keep calm and say i do, how to, malaysia, unity, kuala lumpur, love, City Harvest Church, City Harvest, CHCKL, Hannah
categories: wedding, Relationships, Love
Wednesday 03.05.14
Posted by Hannah Tan
 

A New Chapter (Part 1)

Blogging is something which is still relatively new to me. If you knew me in person, you would know that I’m not the best when it comes to articulating my thoughts and feelings – and when I do (especially when I’m upset *laugh*), it usually doesn’t come out right.

So over the years and especially in my past relationships, I’ve learnt to…how should I put it…well, basically just shut up until I can find the right words to articulate my sentiments and thoughts. Yeah. Lol

You know how they say that with everything you do, having a reference or source of inspiration helps? Well, I have to be honest with you, that because of my work schedule (which I’m trying to change for the betterment of my health and well-being this year *laugh*), leisurely surfing the net for anything other than work comes across as quite a treat. The same way sitting in front of the TV is, to me. Yeah, pathetic, I know. I don’t deny that I’m a boring person, but that’s another story. *laugh*

So you can imagine – I barely had enough time to sleep over the past decade (most of you would know that I used to average about 4 hours of sleep daily) let alone indulge in the more recreational things in life – watch movies, follow a TV series, “yum-cha”, go shopping, play candy crush, maintain a life on Facebook/Twitter, etc. Heck, I used to kena kutuk by my girlfriends for not knowing what the TV series “Sex In The City” was all about. Never watched an episode of it, nor have I seen the movie. I actually thought it was some kind of porn when I first heard the title.

Ok, back to blogging. So I don’t have time to follow a lot of recreational blogs (wait is 3 blogs a lot? Haha), but the ones I do have indeed inspired me to keep this journal alive. See, while the pro-bloggers seem to have so much to share and say, here I am cracking my head on what to write next. Noob. *laugh* So seriously, where do I start?

*zone-out-for-10mins*

Lol

Perhaps, allow me to start from the very beginning…of this new chapter in my life. *insert-blog-title*

2013 is a year that has a lot of significance to me. So far, it’s been semi-retirement (sure, this is relative to my previous work schedule :-D), 6-8 hours of daily sleep, a healthier lifestyle, a proper vacation and most importantly for me – a new chapter in life *big-smile*.

So, what’s this new chapter all about, you ask.

You probably noticed since I started blogging in 2009, that I never talked about my relationships, or anything personal for that matter. I'm a very private person, and I appreciate the fact that my readers/followers have always been very gracious and respectful towards that. #blessed. Thank you guys. *big-panda-hug*

Most of us have had the privilege of experiencing both good and bad relationships in the past, and while we progress in life and love, we also remain grateful to the people in the past (ex-boyfriends/girlfriends/partners/spouses, etc.) who have contributed to our character-building moments. They taught us to forgive and help us to value the people we have in our lives today.

Betrayal, infidelity, violence, a broken heart and all things unpleasant in a relationship – like you, I’ve had my fair share of painful doses in the past, and I’m glad I moved on to arrive at this chapter.

By now you should know that this new chapter involves a very special human being – which I refer very fondly to as #babybaby. I’m being very specific here, since you used to know my boyfriend as my faithful laptop/computer *laugh*.

So guys, I'd like like you to meet the love of my life, #babybaby. Hehe. He's camera-shy, meaning he's only shy with the camera and nothing else. *laugh* OMG, I'm so dead if he reads this post.

To be honest, I didn’t expect to arrive at this chapter in life so soon but then again, it’s all in His time (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and I couldn’t have been more blessed. If I want to be a bit emo now, I can say that the song "ANGEL", which I wrote many years back (before I left for Japan), now has a face. *smile*

This year on May 6th, I put up a post saying:

“Amidst d divide in ‪#‎Malaysia‬ w ‪#‎GE13‬ &on a non-political note ‪#‎unity‬, my biz partner/bestfriend/eating buddy proposed& I said.."

Well, obviously I said yes. Otherwise I wouldn't be writing this. Lol

Marriage and starting a family. Overwhelming, isn’t it? Don’t get me wrong. It’s a good type of overwhelming feeling because I am the luckiest girl alive. *big-smile* Mum always thought that I was going stay married to my work for the rest of my life but for once, she’s wrong. Mwahaha!

I will share the story of #babybaby’s thoughtful proposal in another post but for now, I’d just like to officially introduce you to the very special man in my life. We’re getting married next year (not sure when, not sure where, not sure how) and my only request to you as my online family (if I’m allowed one) is that you’ll accept and love him for who he is, just as you have done with the imperfect me. As always, I appreciate your unconditional love, prayers, support and encouragement – and now – your ideas for our wedding as we plan the big day.

Unlike the typical bride, I don’t know what sort of dress I want to wear, what theme/colours I want for my wedding, what style I want it in etc. – shame on me! – (thank God I know for sure that I want to spend the rest of my life with #babybaby though *laugh*) so I’d love to be able to be able share that very significant journey with you if you, if you’ll allow me to. *smile*

In the meantime, does anyone know a good wedding venue for an intimate reception in KL? :-D


Source: http://www.hannah.today/keepcalmandsayido/
tags: dating, proposal, boyfriend, fiance, new chapter, life, relationships, love, inspiration, babybaby, baby, angel, unity, man, woman, bride, hannah, hannah tan, blessed, reception, wedding, marriage, plans, preparation
categories: Relationships, Love
Wednesday 07.31.13
Posted by Hannah Tan
 

www.hannahtan.com