This evening gown is turquoise in ball gown shape. This is great for pear shape body. I had a can can beneath me, so for certain shots, I was supposed to run, it was a little tough. The tie that my husband is wearing is not a real tie. It’s just a silky piece of cloth tied around his neck.

One thing that struck me about this location is the numerous birds that have come back to roost. As the water was quite clear, my gown remained dry and clean. Do take note if you go to the beach to take wedding photos, especially if the waters are not very clean.

 A few months later, I signed up for the package and I went to the same place with the same photographer who tagged along with them. Following the Lavender Series, here is the winery@Margaret River series.

This is a winery in Margaret River, and there is an extremely huge Australian flag. If I’m not wrong, it’s called Voyager Winery. After the show, a lot of Singaporean couples went there to take their photos and the winery started charging people. So, my photographer was rather sneaky and we just pretended to be tourists who went in to take some photographs.

There is a lovely shop at the winery. Too bad it was not the season for us to see the grapes. I like this place because of the buildings. The roses were huge. This was the first location for us in Margaret River and we took a lot of photos. There were huge flies so, we looked like we had huge moles in some photos. Thank goodness for photoshop. The sky was extremely blue as well.

I got this peach dress from a shop Eragon or something in Marina Square. The owner asked me to send her photos, but I never got to. So, these are my wedding photos in a winery.

Other couples with us wore more casual clothes. A couple wore jeans and t-shirts. Another wore matching t-shirts and Bermudas. I didn’t really like the idea of wearing couple clothes, so we did not do that. Maybe some couples like that idea. Anyway, I’m not a jeans and t-shirt girl, so I think what I wore reflected my personality more. My husband has to match my dressing, so too bad for him. He looks good though. He got this shirt in Malaysia.

I just realised that our photographer likes to take shots from a particular angle.

Margaret River in Perth is where we went to take our wedding photos on the second day of our trip. This place is well-known for wineries and other farms. We travelled by a small coach to the place for at least 3 hours. We had packed our wedding gowns and suits in suitcases and we lugged them onto the coach.

This set of Lavender Series photos from my overseas photo shoot is taken on a farm, and unfortunately I cannot remember the exact name of the place. This place has a lake and lots of lavender flowers. It was nearly summer, so the lavender is not as lovely as I had expected. This is the main reason why I wanted to go to Perth to take my wedding photos. I love lavender.

Nevertheless, we managed to take some photos here. My photographer was great at telling us where to look and how to pose.

The clouds were many but the sky was still blue. There were a lot of flies so we spent some time swatting the flies. Despite that, I remembered to slap on a lot of sun block because the sun was very strong. One bride-to-be did not do that and she had to take photos with two red patches on her shoulders.

I like this Lavender Series simply because of lavender. Do look out for other series.

We left Singapore on a Monday. When we reached there, we simply rested and did not really explore much of Perth. It’s been almost 12 years since I last visited Perth. Thank goodness the bluebottle flies were not out in full force yet.

I woke up at 5am to get my makeup and hair done. Just before we went to take photos at different locations, the makeup artiste will touch-up my face and hair again. The weather was quite cool, so it was quite fun. I felt like an artiste or model who has flown overseas on an assignment.

Apart from taking photos, we had great fun having drinking games in one of the rooms almost every night. I would think up games to play and the photographers bought a lot of wine over. I’ll post the professional photographs soon.

I?m not sure why, but I actually shed a tear or two when I saw that press conference. I actually sympathised with him. He had been one of my favourite actors. I actually discovered his blog earlier, and he wrote the way one would expect him to (lots of swearing and slang).

I love the way he spoke in English during the press conference, but too bad it was under such circumstances. I think with proper lighting, anyone can look good. He looked horrendous in his self-made video apology with poor lighting.

I haven?t really seen the photos, but I could imagine the hurt and shame caused to the women involved. However, if they had consented to taking such photographs, then they should have expected that there was a possibility that they would be leaked out. One marriage is at stake, while another wedding appears to be called off. The complete fallout will continue to be felt.

Moments of indiscretion could come back to haunt. This incident acts as a cautionary tale to whoever wants to record their private life in the bedroom. So, hang on tight to your videocam when you go for your honeymoon if you ever think of having something to look back on. In addition, whatever you choose to do, think of how it could affect you later. It may cost you your job (Gillian Chung and Edison Chen), or your marriage (Cecilia Cheung and Bobo Chan).

According to an article I read in the Digital Life, files are never deleted on your hard disk. They are simply moved to another sector, or the name changes. Hence, forensic computer experts can find the data easily. The only way to destroy the data completely is to smash your hard disk to bits.???

I hope that people would move on with their lives and not have to bear with the consequences indefinitely.

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.

We wandered into Margarita, a Mexican restaurant. The ambience was fantastic! The strong colours of red and blue were used on the unfinished cemented walls, with lots of colourful tapestry hanging on the walls. There were also a lot of still life paintings. The lighting was dim and romantic, and the vibrant colours simply looked great.

Service was great. We did not have a reservation, so we had to finish our dinner before 8pm, which was alright with us since we were there early. We both ordered margaritas, and I think it pretty knocked me out after dinner for I couldn?t walk in a straight line and simply wanted to sleep.

The nachos as appetisers were a little too huge a serving. It reminded me of the first time I had nachos at a Mexican restaurant somewhere near Las Vegas, and my family did not enjoy it except for me. Mexican food is slightly similar to North Indian food, except that the spices used were different. They liked to have a lot of flour items, mixed with other crops such as corn or wheat, and then wrap the meat using the tortillas for Mexican food, and naan for North Indian food. We had some pork item and chicken items, but I couldn?t remember the names. There were salsa and some other flavourings and the vegetables were fresh. I usually don?t like to eat raw vegetables, but those served here were ok. They were colourful and not spicy, so I think I prefer Mexican food to North Indian food, which tended to have various shades of yellow only. I wanted to have dessert, but I was simply too full from the main course.

Now, getting to the topic of weddings, the huge area inside the restaurant looked great. I could have a more relaxed wedding lunch here if they offer booking of the entire restaurant. People could mingle around and it would be a happy occasion. The only problem is I am not sure how many people eat Mexican food. I know our extended families have very Chinese tastebuds, so I think we can?t run away from Chinese food. However, if this is meant for friends and colleagues, I think it could work. I do need to get a Halal caterer as well.

I think I?m going to try the other restaurants at Dempsey Hill to see whether there are better alternatives available for wedding receptions. Parking wasn?t an issue for us, but there were really many cars. Valet parking is available, and they have free shuttle service from town to Dempsey Hill, which is just opposite Botanical Gardens.

After dinner, we went to check out paintings at a gallery nearby, and the paintings were really great, though some were really expensive. One ink and pencil drawing of the padi field with ducks and farmers by an Indonesian artist who nearly became a taxi driver cost $13500! It was really nice though. I liked a Danish artist who drew cute animals on the ark and cars, and one painting had a penguin crossing instead of a zebra crossing. Maybe these paintings could go into the children?s room. I guess when our house is ready, we can pick up some of the more affordable paintings.

Dempsey Hill is definitely a place we will go again soon.

I’ve always wanted an overseas wedding photo shoot, so when I saw this travelogue on television, I told myself I wanted that. The pictures were extremely beautiful. A Singaporean actress, Cynthia Koh, went to Perth, Australia, to take wedding photos, with Darren Lim acting as the photographer. They were at a lavender farm, so the pictures were extremely beautiful. They were also at a winery, so everything turned out fantastic.

I wanted such photos, but knew that sourcing for photographers and makeup artistes were difficult. Getting wedding gowns overseas would be a problem as well, since it would take up a lot of time.

By a stroke of luck, on my way to my gym, I saw the exact same photos at a road show. It turned out that a local bridal studio had produced that travelogue, and they were selling the exact same package for December.

It was expensive at about S$5000, but heck, taking photos would be costly anyway, so it was more like a pre-honeymoon holiday with photo-taking thrown in, so my husband paid for the trip, even though we already have secured another wedding package with another bridal studio.

I haven’t been excited about wedding planning prior to this, but I thought it is time to get started and do my homework on planning a wedding. Wedding planning should be a breeze. I’m going to enjoy this experience. Stay with me!

Edited: Check out my Perth wedding photos that I have put up.