Wedding Breeze

I?m taking my wedding photos on Tuesday and I?m having some pimple outbreak on my left cheek. I think my internal body clock must have gone wacko because I have been sleeping at 3am. My eye bags are horrendous and now acne is plaguing me.

I so need to detox and get rid of all the toxins in my body. Or maybe it?s time to wash my pillow case because I have been sleeping on my face. Maybe I should throw in a back scrub to make sure the back acne is gone when I wear my low back gowns.

4 days left to ensure everything goes well. I have been sick so I had not been heading to the gym for the past two weeks. My tummy is flabby. Thank goodness I got ball gowns, so they can hide my flabby tummy.

Let me go and put a facial mask first before I worry any more. Does anyone have any ideas on how to solve my skin problems immediately?

Today was the second fitting for the wedding gowns at the bridal studio. We went in the late afternoon, and since it was a Monday, there was only one other couple there, compared to the busy weekend we went the other time.

On the previous occasion, my husband tried on his suits after I had finished trying on my wedding gowns, so today we could try on at the same time. We had matching colours, so it was great seeing how we looked.

My first gown was alright, so I asked the wedding coordinator how many other people had worn the gown, because I saw my friend wore the same evening gown as another bride from this studio. She told me that it was a new gown, and I was the first one to try it. They would not have allowed me to bring this gown for outdoor shoots, but since she said I looked good in it, she let me bring it over. That was really great of her!

As for my second gown, a luscious turquoise (I think) evening gown, she changed the padding, and it became tighter. I couldn?t breathe and so they would have to add another half an inch to the gown. My husband?s dark navy blue suit did not look that good today, and he looked more like a Japanese school boy, so the coordinator told him to get a blue shirt to go with the jacket.

As Vesper in Casino Royale said, ?There are dinner jackets and there are dinner jackets,? I strongly believe that people will only look great in suits if they are tailor made. Since this was just for photo shoot, and my husband would not need to wear suits at all in his line of work, he just had to get off-the-rack suits.

My third gown, a short white wedding gown, was fine, and it matched his suit nicely. He looked good in his third suit.

Unfortunately, I haven?t bought the shoes yet! It?s hard to find low heels that are in silver. I?m going to do my shopping tomorrow. We brought our luggage over, and they would pack the gowns and suits for us.

Flight details were confirmed, and three photographers would be going with us. There would be four couples together, so I think it should be ok. According to the coordinator, we were the most matching couple, and my gowns are the nicest! They hope to use our wedding photos as samples, and I really wish our overseas photo shoot will go smoothly.

P.S. I’m a guest blogger over at Romance-Fire.com, and check out my post on Overseas Wedding Photos.

What a bummer. I?m flying off on Monday for my photoshoot?in December at 9am, but I have a singing exam at 2pm. I?ve tried getting my bridal shop coordinators to change to a later flight for us, but they said they can only put us on the waiting list because the flight is full.

They had been telling me it was at night, even though I had asked them a lot of times before. When I finally tried my wedding gowns on Saturday, they gave me the itinerary.

The exam date cannot be changed, and I wrote to the person-in-charge. She said she tried asking other people whether we could swap the dates, but who wants to go for an earlier examination when they could have more time to practise? Even earlier dates were unavailable.

So, I am on two waiting lists, and you know how difficult it is to get things done. I should have trusted my instincts that I would have a problem taking the examination end of this year.

Now, I feel like cancelling my exam, because the unease of knowing my actual date is making me unable to concentrate on the exam. The money I may have to spend to get the new tickets may be more than my examination, which is $700.

I was upset with my mother for suggesting that I should not have gone for my wedding photos overseas. I don?t see why the two should be linked together. It?s the examination centre who had scheduled me on that day, even though I had requested for November.

Oh well, my teacher is telling me to go for the wedding, and see how much refund the examination centre can give me.

Apart from a wedding gown for my Australian photo shoot, I tried on evening gowns. I wanted a red gown, but the photographer said I would look like a red chilli in the middle of the park and winery, so I looked at turquoise, and other various shades of pink. I tried on a lot, but somehow still selected a ball gown. In the end, I got a halter neck as a little bit of variety. I took a turquoise gown, which was one of the first few I tried.

I liked a dark pink gown very much, but the number of layers for the bottom made me looked like a wedding cake. It also made me look very wide horizontally. Since I?m pear shaped, I didn?t even bother to try on a mermaid silhouette gown.

For a short wedding dress, some of them made me looked like Bjork trying to lay an egg in her infamous swan suit. I don?t have super lean legs, so I didn?t really like many of the short dresses. I finally chose a embellished top with a bit of fairytale fluffiness on the bottom. All in all, it took me three hours to choose three gowns. The short dress was too tight for me, so that would require some alteration.

I finally tried on my wedding gowns over the weekend! I wanted to get the first gown I tried on, but the wedding coordinator got me to try others. The first one was a tube dress with ball gown shape. I wore cancan underneath it. The back was stringed. I didn?t like those transparent back covering. I think it is quite dated. I didn?t want super low bare back either, not because I don?t have a nice back, but I also thought it was not fashionable now. I?ve seen people wearing them for a few years already.

So I got a sweetheart neckline, which is actually a letter M shape tube with ball gown. I got beige since I liked the defined neckline. I think there were some designs from waist down. I spent at least 1 hour just trying on the wedding gown. I was glad with most of the dresses I tried on.

The wedding coordinator said I was slim enough compared to many of her other customers, and I think the mirror was very flattering, so I was happy with how I looked in the mirror! In fact, based on all the other female customers I saw there, I think I looked the best. (Super thick-skinned, I know.) All I need to do is to make sure my arms are not flabby. I managed to flatten my tummy, plus the cancan hides any other bulges that I have.
?

Having a financial budget for your wedding is important, because you need to know whether you can afford the type of wedding you have always dreamed of. If you have the means to do it, go ahead. If other people are helping out with the finances, then you need to decide whether they can really afford it and how much they can afford. Would this create undue stress on their finances? For example, your parents may splurge that sum on you, but it could be part of their retirement fund.
?
It is possible to have a great and memorable wedding without going over the budget but you might need to change your plans accordingly to do so. Some people get into debts right into their marriages, and this is not starting on a good footing. Both parties have to discuss all aspects of the wedding and the costs involved and then see how much money is available to cover these costs. Apart from the wedding, housing is another factor to consider.

By spending so much on the wedding itself, you may deprive yourself of the chance to have a more expensive and pleasurable honeymoon. You and your partner have to decide on what is more important, rather than what is more important to others. Some parents may insist on more expensive wedding dinners just to show off their wealth, and they may demand on more dinner tables for their friends. Does that add value to your wedding? Many couples have quarrelled over the choice of people to invite, especially with older folks who may be quite stubborn in their selection of guests.

Perhaps the best thing to do is to discuss this at length in an amicable manner with your partner and both sets of parents.

When we are on a budget, having a lot of shots taken by friends and family allows us to use these digital images and enhance and manipulate then with programs such as Photoshop to get a truly professional image.

It might even be well worth investing in a good digital camera yourself as you can get someone to use it for taking photos at your wedding. In addition, you can then bring it on your honeymoon to capture all the images of your lovely romantic holiday too. There are many models available.

Good digital cameras are relatively small investment for the ongoing enjoyment that they can bring with the unlimited photos that you will be able to take. It would be useful to choose those that have anti-shake proof, especially for those with shaky hands. You won?t want to get images that are blurred. After a getaway to Bintan, my husband and I decided to get a great camera for my birthday with that feature, because many of the photos were not sharp enough, especially those of me.

Don?t leave the photos on your computer. They will be wiped out through viruses or hardware failure. There are even services available these days where professionals can take your digital images and upgrade them for you with digital imaging allowing you to only pay for the specific images that you have chosen as special. You can even use software to design the photos like expensive books and print them out. Some of the websites offer such free designing service and you get a good coffee table book to show others.

The quality of your wedding photos is extremely important as your wedding is the best opportunity to capture the great moments for life. Having a backup is even more important. I just read somewhere that a bride lost all her photos because her only photographer got drunk and was forced out of the cab when he vomited in the cab, or almost vomited. The cab then sped off with the camera still inside. All the memories are gone.?

It is definitely worth the time to get the best photographer possible depending on budget. Even then, friends or family members should be quite willing to help you take some photos, so that you can get a variety of shots from different perspective. If you are enlisting the help of your family and friends, it would be better if you can get more of them especially if they are not professional photographers.

Where there are no professional photographers present you are going to have to rely on quantity to help you find the quality shots that you will be pleased with. With digital cameras, developing the photos is not a problem. All you need is to have enough memory cards to store the photos, and enough battery. Many people have digital cameras, so it will not cost extra money to take hundreds of photos.

While the most important thing to remember is how your hair will look on the day it is also a good idea to keep in the back of your mind any other woman who are a part your wedding party, such as your bridesmaids, and if at all possible have them get a similar hair style or one that will complement yours on the day.

This can be quite difficult to achieve if your bridesmaids have completely different hair and hair styles to yours but it is just another factor in the fine tuning of your wedding that can make a lot of difference particularly in the wedding photos. If you have chosen a specific theme for your wedding then it can make all the difference if your bridesmaids follow along with that theme and in doing so have the appropriate hair styles to complement the theme.

Some people with medieval themes like the popular Lord of The Rings elvish wedding theme will certainly go for a certain look. It will certainly spoil the wedding photos if you have a traditional theme yet one of your bridesmaids had a punk rock hair style.

You might even need to consider who you choose to be your bridesmaids if this is going to have an impact on the overall look of your wedding photos and whether or not you will have any bridesmaids at all.

If you plan to get their hair styled, you must be willing to fork out the money to pay for their styling, unless the hair styles are quite simple and they can do the styling themselves. Your makeup artiste may help your mother to style her hair a little if there is enough time. However, since many traditional Chinese weddings are held early in the morning, there may not be enough time.

Once again it is your decision to choose what you like and if others are unwilling to comply with your requests then you need to make decisions accordingly to ensure that your day goes as planned.

Sometimes planning a wedding on your own is extremely daunting. What you can do is to create a list of wants and needs and then work out the cost of these. Write down who will be doing which duty. Is it only you, your husband, or can you involve your friends or relatives?

This will help you to prioritize which of them are essential to having the wedding of your dreams. You may need some time to get costs and compare them from various different places, including everything from the wedding venue to minor expenses such as hiring suits, buying flowers, buying the wedding cake and so on.

I actually did my own flower arrangement for my ROM. It looked good enough to me, and seriously nobody else will remember what flowers you used. I saved a lot of money. By the way, I love receiving flowers, and I don?t mind my husband buying from the nursery to save cost.

You also need to consider that quite often expenditure runs a little higher than anticipated as last-minute changes or additional expenses can occur.

If other people offer help in any way provided it doesn’t encroach on your wedding plans it is well worth accepting this help to reduce any financial or other stress before the day. This can be quite tricky, because you may have different expectations. My friend, who almost turned into Bridezilla, was extremely upset because she did not like how the angpow box done by a friend turned out. And yet she did not know how to let the other party know about how she felt.??

You will often find that family and friends are only too willing to help as people like to get involved in other people’s happy occasions.? Once again remember that you are in control and only accept help that will be beneficial to you. You don?t want an embarrassing situation like what Monica and Chandler faced in Friends when Joey wanted to be the priest and he kept coming up with terrible lines.