Our mini Honeymoon trip to Vietnam trip - Day 02

After we reached the hotel to rest, it was pretty dark and we can hardly see much from our balcony.

However, surprise awaits us to a magical morning at Halong Bay! Imagine the sight that behold us as we woke up early next morning.

Breathe taking!

The sunrise was absolutely romantic and woodblock and me have a great time sharing this moment together.

mE AND hALONG bAY!

If you have no idea what I mean by waking up to amazement,you can check out how close my bed was actually near the balcont in full view of the vast sea!

Soon woodbock got himself doll up .....

And ready for the adventures that will come for the day.

For me, I cant help but took a number of shots with the great scenery before setting off.

After breakfast, we arrive at the dock.

We soon found ourself on the double storey JUnk Boat, feeling very excited!

The scenery just before we set off.

It was a great weather for boating! The sky was so blue and the weather felt cool, allowing us to fully enjoy the trip out to the sea with ease.

However, during the mid day, the sun was still a little hot =( So woodblock and me hide under the shaded deck from time to time.

Took a model shot of woodblock - aren't my skills not bad? Anyway for al the pics i post, i did not photoshop any of them.

Halong bay was like a mini Gui lin and I love the fact that the junk boat have this open section where you can sit down and feel close to the water. The following are more shots of us at Halong bay.

The stones are suppose to resemble 2 fighting cocks. But personally i dont really much agree.

Posing with the name of our junk boat.

Anywayour junk soon dock at some kelong and it is my first time visitng one. The fishes are awfully huge that it freaks me out. However woodblock and i din buy any seafood as we din wanna risk tummy ache in case our stomach isnt strong enuff for it.

See the hammock at the back? The fishermen really knows how to enjoy life!

Next stop, we arrive at some cave. There the junk boat cant go in and we made our way up by foot.

Somewhere in the cave, woodblock exclaim that the place looks like as though we are on the moon. So we started prancing around with the little girl from our tour group.

After climbing we reached the top of the cave and we were invited by the view of the lake from above.

Yay a shot to mark our achievement!

From the top here, we can see this popular landmark which resembles the feet of a little girl.

After this cave, the tour guide brought us to another landmark. This time round, it drove us nuts!!!! Why?!?! because it is almost 10 storeys tall and the steps were narrow and steep =( By the time we make it up, we were all huffing and puffing like crazy. However, it was an achievement to make it to the top in a short while and it was under the encouragement and company of a Primary 5 boy (mind youhe doesnt look like a pri five student but a secondary school student). He is very mature and cheerful person who stopped to wait for me from time to time before he continue his climb up each corner. At the same time he was very doting on his little sis and play with her throughout the journey(reminds me greatly of the time when I play with my brothers when I was young)

Our truimphant smile at the top of the hill!

After we came down, we took a shot with our tour mates. See how vibrant the little girl is! I was so happy that we have kids in the tour group because when woodblock doze off like an old man, I had great company playing games with me =)

I shall post the rest of the another day as uploading so many pics at one time really kills my patience at times =)

Our mini Honeymoon trip to Vietnam trip - Day 01

After our wedding, we had a mini honeymoon with a trip to Vietnam - Hanoi and Halong Bay! The reason why we chose this venue was for the scenic view of Halong Bay and sad to say that the overnight stay on the junk boat was canceled as there wasn't enough pple =(

On the first day of our trip, we had fun exploring around both terminal 1 and 3! It was nearing Christmas and Changi Airport was decked with many Mickey and Minnie Theme Decors. I really luv our airport so much because it always help to set the nice travelling mood with all the facilities and shopping before stepping foot on the air plane!


Woodblock really has great time goofing around while I was busy posing excitedly with all the aesthetic decors.

When we finally arrive at Hanoi - it was already night time and it was freezing cold! Was very upset wth our tour agent who told us that it wasnt cold at all and I packed the wrong clothes - shorts and shirts =( I didn't even brought along any jackets at all. Thanks to my dear hubby woodblock who made sacrifices by letting me have his jacket for the rest of the trip!


The morning started with some simple breakfast before we went to the Ho Chi Minh Musuem. Usually I dislike going to musuem with all the history stuff unlike woodblock who likes it, but I must say that I am really impressed and intrigued by the life story of Ho Chi Minh. I also learnt new things like how Vietnam's history is closely related to China's. Therefore, it wouldn't be a surprise to find many Chinese-like artefacts and decors in Vietnam.

How can we resist saying 'Hi' back to Mr. Ho Chi Minh before we leave!

Near the museum was a unique temple known as the 'One-Pillar Temple'. This is a small temple which is supported by one pillar and this is actually not the original one as the original one was destroyed during the war. Many may be wondering what is being house inside this temple? Someone whom many is very familiar to ' Song Zi Guan Yin'. So if you are keen to have a baby soon you may want to come here and pray. (ps: I did not pray of course but woodblock did. I hope his tummy wun grow bigger becos he is going to give birth to all the buffet food he has eaten).

Now, even though the weather was cold but the sun in the afternoon was very strong and it really gave us a mixed feeling of hot and cold =( - not the kind of weather I like.

Behind me lies the body of Mr. Ho Chi Minh. However as the period was when the museum personel do maintainance work on the various artefact and maybe even the body so we din get a chance to see Mr. Ho Chi Minh.

Next we visited the home of Mr. Ho Chi Minh. He is a guy who is very humble and we went overseas when he was in his teen to search for the solution to free his country from France. He had man close shaves as he was often being captured but he had great frens who actually manage to save him. Even when Ho Chi Minh became the Country's leader, he insisted not staying in big houses and amidst luxury, so he stayed at the servant's quarters(in the ex-house of the Governor of France stay) initially, but the pple built him another house by the lake so he then moved to the new house. His house has a great view of the lake despite it is small but I felt that it was a real nice cosy house.

Ho Chi Minh's house by the lake.

Beside his house, there were many pomelo trees planted around. Despite pomelo's are heavy, the branches were actually small.

We then went to another venue which I am not sure what the place is called. But it is the place where scholars all around the country will come and sit for the imperial exams.

Once we entered the place, we were greeted with the sight of many stone tablets by the sides. On these stone tablets, the name of the scholars who made it through with flying colours and were conferred as the new officials of the imperial were being engraved. There are 80 plus tablets in all. Many students were touching the head ot the turtles in order to gain some good luck for their studies =) Even though both of us have graduated, we couldn't resist to touch them too - just in case you know.

After a tiring half day tour, we went to a nice restaurant to have our lunch. The restaurant was located near the lake and we even saw some camera crew videoing

Next, it was off to the Ancient street - 'Gu Jie' to tour the streets on trishaws! The whole journey took 45 mins which i find it kinda slow =(becausethe the smoke on the roads of Vietnam was terrible till th point that the locals even put on masks.

Next, we visited another temple again. The lake behind us is said to house a huge turtle. The legend goes that the giant turtle took back the golden sword from the king while he was boating.

After this, we took a 3 hours bus ride down to Halong Bay.

By the time we reached Halong Bay, it was night fall and we had our dinner at a restaurant near our hotel. Now we were given a huge room with crazy facilities like massage bath system lol. However, many members of our tour group din know that usually for corner rooms in the hotel - it is usually the biggest and sometimes better. So they thought we din even have a good view to the Halong bay. After the great dinner, we rested for a while before going for some massage arranged by the tour guide.

To be honest at this point in time, many pple even the Vietnamese cannot believe that woodblock and me were married. And yes I'm not married because I'm pregnant hello. What makes many pple think that if you are married young it must be pregnancy???? Real upset by such steroetyping and I'm freaking irritated by all these questions. Sure blog the rest of the trip on the next entry =)

Slideshow of Wedding by Melvin Ho

Finally got back from Vietnam. Had been quite a fun trip esp when your tour group composes of so many fun and humourous folks.

Anyway it is a sweet surprise for me to see that Melvin has finally finished the slideshow for my wedding.

Here's the show and enjoy while i take some rest before I blog on our mini honeymoon trip=)

http://www.melvinho.biz/slideshow/vc/

How to Preserve and Process the flowers for your Floral Decorations

Christine Koh: For brides out there who are going to get your own flowers from the wholesalers in order to save your money, here are some tips that I have found from 'Do It Yourself Weddings':

'One of the most important things to consider when working with your wedding centerpiece flowers (or any wedding flowers including your bouquet) is how long the flowers will last in water. Some cut flowers start to droop faster than others so it is good to test your flowers before your wedding if you plan to do it yourself. You don’t want to create your wedding centerpieces too far in advance, and knowing just how long they’ll last is key to timing. '

Christine Koh: In this case, you may want to visit the local florist first to purchase your flowers in low qty. The reason is simple, wholsalers do not sell flowers in bundle/bulk so if you don't need that many, it will be recommended for you to save $$$ and try out the prototype first

'When you purchase wedding centerpiece flowers, don’t be tempted to buy the ones that are at their height of bloom. If they look beautiful now they won’t in two days. Buy flowers that are not completely opened yet or that still have buds on the stems. This way, the flowers will be blooming at their peak within the next 1-3 days, which is when you’ll need them to be. This is especially true with roses. '

Christine Koh: Very true indeed. I actually boughta bundle of flowers which is semi open and voila - it actually bloom so fast that about 4 hours later, the flowers were quite much more bloomed and open than what I visualise=(

At home, store your flowers in the coldest room possible. Ideally, store them in a closed off room that has a window air conditioner that you can leave on.

Christine Koh: Guess this is common sense.

'To prepare your flowers for arranging, cut off all the leaves that will be sunk under water when they are put in your vases. Cut off at least an inch from the bottoms of the stems too, this will help them take up water. Wearing gloves and using a scissors is a must here, especially if you are dealing with roses—trust me, you’ll thank me later. You don’t want cut up hands right before your wedding. '

Christine Koh: Yep cant tell you how glad I'm with my dish washing pinkie gloves! I ended up with a job of processing the roses to remove their thorns, ugly leaves and made them the right length before passing it to Hong to tie them up.

'Having several buckets of clean, lukewarm water available to set your wedding flower stems in while you work with them is ideal.

Some flowers do best if they are cut a certain way before placing in their arrangement. Roses and other plants with tough, woody stems do well if you smash the bottoms of their stems.
Flowers that are prone to going limp (such as tulips) do well if you push a wire or pin through the head of the flower and down into the stem. This helps it keep its form.


In your arrangement containers, add three drops of bleach to the water. This stops the water from getting that murky rotten smell. This is not necessary if you are doing your wedding centerpiece flowers the night before, I personally don’t like to use bleach because I’d rather smell the flowers and not the bleach. Bleach is helpful to preserve freshness for more than two days. Another alternative to bleach I to use vodka! This way there is no bleach smell, but you won’t get murky water either.'

Christine Koh: Vodka sounds expensive so a little bit of bleach still sounds btter. You might want to try masking the smell with scented candles or a little perfume spray. Let me know it works.

'If you don’t have plant food for cut flowers, adding a teaspoon of clear soda (Sprite, 7up) works wonders for your flowers and the preservatives help keep the flowers fresh. You can also use a pinch of table sugar. Crushed aspirin also works to extend the life of your cut flowers. '

Christine Koh: I suggest aspirin will be better because you don't really want all the ants to start crawling in to join in the wedding feast so as to show off how 'SWEET' your wedding is. If not make sure your venue is free from ants.MOst importantly, Sprite zand 7 up are my fav soft drinks and I aren't gonna share that with plants.

'On your wedding day, have someone top off the water in the vases if it is low. If you are having an outdoor wedding, don’t leave your arrangements out in the heat, the hot sun will practically melt your wedding centerpiece flowers if left too long.'

Christine Koh: I bought those water spray which I spray on the flowers occasionally in order to keep the flower petals hydrate. Pls don't overdo it and dip everything in water unless you wan your flowers to die faster.

OMG Princess Bed Fit for A Princess Bride

Cant tell you how much I couldnt take my eyes off the furniture advert today!

WHY????

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A CRAZY GORGEOUS VINTAGE CLASSIC BED!

I luv the bed so much! A white carriage is just every little princess dream bed. However, ths was found under the children's bedroom set section which sets me to ponder - is the the children's single and queen size equivalent to that of the normal sizes? or is it suppose to be different? But the cost is expensive =( $899(gasp in lack of oxygen supply) ! sigh there goes a life time chance of slping in a princess bed... I need to start saving up for this bed but will it still be available by then???

Vitor's Song Dedication

Poolside Wedding Deco Ideas

The other time Rachael told me in the email that she will be holding her wedding by the poolside. So today I happened to have time and started to surf around for relevent ideas for a poolside wedding decors for those dinner timing (ie night time).

Of cos when we first heard of night events, many of us should know clearly that there is one very essential decor - lightings!

Now many brides will wan to have floating candles in the pool to light it up but unfortunately there are many hotels which i foresee will not allow them unless you have book the whole venue to yourself which might not be the real case for roms.

But this doesnt mean we cant have any lights at all. Now let me share with what I might do in such events.

One simple way is to create simple candle centerpiece which may use to line along the pool sides or even the reception or even the dining areas.

Materials are simple:

You will need a mirror base (IKEA stores or art fren)

Some crystal or transparent pepples or stones (local florist stores)

Tall glass containers

Floating Candles

Just simply put them together and you will get something similar to the one below

Of cos, we do not stop here. Do position plenty of tealight candles around and if you are afraid of the wind, you can either get the standard glass candle holder or if you can manage to get ome fanciful paper(esp if you are on a budget wedding) you may also do this: Create your very own luminarias!

http://www.save-on-crafts.com/luminarias.html

Just simply place your tea candles into paperbags.

The thing which you need to look out for is to place some weights at the bottom paper bag to weigh it down and you wont want your paper bag to catch fire easily tooo=) There are many ways we can vary this design eg the colour, the paper print, the shape (who says it must be squarish?) and you can even add your own monograms to it if you like =) Finally just line this along the walkway or aisle and light up the hearts to your guests.

http://www.infonewhaven.com/_IMAGES/Luminaria_bag_closeup_web.jpg

If your hotel happens to have those hut with wooden beams - do consider hanging crystals amidst hanging candle votives - voila : Dreamy and gorgeuos setting =)

Our Life Story

For friends and families who din manage to catch our Story Board Display on the wedding, no worries! I have taken pics of the story board one by one and interlay with Hong's storyboard(similarly to protect's hong's design, I left out the background design leaving only a plain white bkgrd). I luv Hong's way of writing out our story and her dad's wonderful translation! Now the reason why i requested for the chinese version to be added in was duely becos the elderlies in our families mainly have the preference to read chinese. So I wanted some touch of the story board whereby the readers/viewers will have comfort in reading it.

Therefore this might be something for you to consider too if u are doing a storyboard for your wedding=)

Trivias about Vitor and Christine

This trivia thingy was suggested and done by Hong on our wedding to help the guests get to know us better =) very nice details. The following lines are actually in their raw forms before she edited tho =)

Trivias about Vitor and Christine

Do you know that.....?

1) When Vitor gave his first bouquet of flowers to Christine, he pretend that he have a diarrhoea so that he can go to get the flowers secretly.

2) Christine was so impatient with Vitor for asking her to be his steady until she asked him ‘Are you in love with me?’ herself over the phone.

3) Vitor and Christine went to the same secondary school, junior college and university.

4) Christine’s mom and Vitor’s aunt used to live in the same kampong.

5) By Tomorrow, Vitor and Christine would have dated for 4yrs and 6 months anniversary (this is if you have read it on 22nd November)

6) Christine only know realise that Vitor is in her tutorial class after half a year later.

7) Christine still can’t remember Vitor's house number up till this very day.

8) Vitor and Christine eat alot when they get stressed up.

9) The song that Vitor use to propose to Christine is “Nothing’s gonna change my love for you”.

10) Christine calls Vitor a woodblock.

11) Vitor and Christine each gained about 3 kg after they dated.

12) Before they dated, when Christine companied Vitor to the job agency, he lied that he was 2cm taller.

13) Vitor was first attracted to Christine when he looked at her back view while she attempts tutorial questions on the whiteboard in class.

14) Vitor came up with an excuse that there was no pasar malam in Ang Mo Kio and asked Christine to company him to go to the pasar malam in Sengkang so that he can look for her up.

15) Christine tried to create opportunities for Vitor by bringing him walk around the Punggol park but ended being fed by mosquitoes instead because he was too shy to say anything.
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The best thing which Christine likes about Vitor is that he is very thoughtful.

17) The best thing which Vitor likes about Christine is that she talks a lot so that he can listen to her nonsense like a radio.

18) Vitor and Christine like to visit the lantern festival in the Chinese Garden so much that they almost visit it every year together.

19) Vitor and Christine only ride on double bike whenever they go cycling.

20) Vitor and Christine made a pact that they will celebrate their anniversary by the Singapore River Merlion when they reach 80 years old.

21) Vitor will always sing Christine one of the Jay Chou's love song – ‘Xin Qing’ whenever he walks her home from the MRT station to her house.

22) Vitor and Christine's favourite dessert is the Apple Crumble with ice-cream on a hot plate from Swenson.