Important Sunday! Betrothal 下娉/过大礼/纳彩

That morning, it seemed a little weird to intentionally display the customary practice to exchange the dowry items. However, we had as much fun as we could. My dad & Eythan's mom complete everything in a split second & I missed the act! Ended up got everyone to re-enact for me to snap in my camera. My family all shake head cos there is a blogger at home. :p

While Eythan went hand- delivered some relatives cards with his mom after that, me & my family went around this island to distribute our cards & the Teochew biscuits. With such big family, good thing we split the job as my dad went to my paternal side with my aunt and I went to my maternal side with my mom & sis. Ended at the final stop in the late afternoon.


These traditional teochew biscuits from Gin Thye Pastry are really tasty!

Upon arrival with all the important items - Handing over the dowry angbao - Returning gifts


Got an angbao from Mdm Lim Sai Kim. Hee... She's my grandmother and she's 90+! Apparently, she kept the angbao for a long while already but it took me now to marry. Haha!

Lelong! Lelong! Lelong!

These bridal magazine are up for give away, FOC!!! 

Anyone wants them, please let me know. Need to clear my room by 8th! 

Fyi, some of the pages fell off... :p

Dresses of the Dowagers

Take a peek at mothers dresses of both families! Sexy sexy...

Time to give dowry

We have to distribute all the invite cards & necessary items to all our relatives tomorrow. It is going to be a long day boy!

Few of the most important items (Betrothal gifts 娉礼) for to present to a TeoChew bride's parent are as below:

- Hard liquor & Red packet.

The latter has to be exceptionally big (for more cash)! So cute...

- Teo Chew biscuits (1 for each family relative of the bride).

My dad told me the Teochew biscuit is "abt $6 per box, verrrry cheap", it turned out to be $18-20 each! We got the $20 ones because they look more presentable.

See how packed the rear of his car is with all 16 boxes!! And oh... we get to loan the traditional baskets for free!!

- Oranges

I think it is supposed to be distributed to relatives together with the biscuits.

- Canned Pig Trotter

We encountered a problem, the favorite canned pig trotter has recently been banned from China & it can no longer be found in Singapore! We've combed NTUC & Shengsiong and really can't find any.

http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20071128-38826.

Selecting hotel settings

Went hotel to meet Hotel Manager to select some items for hotel... Opted for black table linings & black seat covers!! Something gothic that I like... Too bad the florist has nothing similar to offer... sigh!

Also given these items for selection of wedding favors... Quite a few that I like as I think they are something unique. Guess which one I've selected?? Hee...

Selecting Ballroom decor

The florist under the hotel is June Florist... Frankly, there is nothing much fantastic about their stuffs. All kinda boring & old fashioned. Disappointed why the theme wasn't set in line with what the hotel has to offer (for the table linings etc). 

Eventually, I have no choice but to compromise with below few as they are not the worst! Sigh... 

After that, we went Great World for a short walk, before our movie. This little boy saw the wheeler display & insisted on having some fun with that. At that moment, I felt like a mommy following behind him, hoping he will not crash onto the wall or worst, on someone! 

Hand bouquet & Corsages

Went to our Bridal Studio to collect wedding photos & select the hand bouquet & corsages for cars & friends. Will post some wedding photos soon! So watch out for them...

Can't decide which to go for until I get some opinions from my friends & get them to choose for me soon. Hate making decision with so many choices... (Well, a decision not to make any choice is also a decision huh... :p)

Wedding Stuffs - BED

We decided to get a cheapest Queen sized bed & mattress over the weekend, with a tight budget of $800. 

Bought a reasonably ok bed frame + pocketed mattress for $1k+. Although this matrimonial bed is only for temporary use, until we get a bigger house in 2-3 years time, we thought we might as well enjoy the use of it for awhile! Haha... With tight budget of that amount, abit tough man... Yippee, no more cramp & stiff bed!! Can't wait for new bed to arrive in June. 

And we finally get to use the 100% silk bedlinen I bought from China in Feb! Spent almost S$1,800 on the complete set, including pillows with silkworm's solid excretory product! They said it circulates blood & treats headaches etc. 

Wedding Stuffs - Traditional Items

Last weekend was a busy week for us, and a fruitful one... 

Went Chinatown to look for customary items for wedding day. Got a pair of the bedside Lamps 床头灯, 2 sets of Dragon/Phoenix candles 龙凤烛, red drapes 红彩  for main door and big big angbao for dowry $$. Wanted to cut down & simplify the event but the man at the shop commented that some of these are necessary. 

This small shop is Doraemon! It has got a million items in there! See how many wedding red packets there are.

Invitation cards

I think I've made a mess with my invitation cards, when working alone... Wasted few cards due to my lack of focus. Ha...

How can we miss out our favorite tea snacks? Haha!... We have Siew Mai & Chicken Pie!! Guess who are these fellas are?? Hee...

Preparing the invitation cards (Rene)

I prefer to work in a group... bigger the group the better, then I can do lesser... Haha!  :p 

The difference between me & Eythan is, he is much closer to all his relatives than me with mine, so it is much easier for him to communicate with his guests. My tactic is to get my sisters to help me make 1st contact with relatives, then I took over to invite them verbally & get RSVP. 

Somebody commented that my handwriting is horrible... I do admit that, especially when I had to write in Chinese! The biggest joke is... my writing is not the worst!! Check out this written by my 1st sis, Fiona!! Hahaha... She very reluctantly allowed me to snap this "evidence".

We also found a 37 years old nude photo of hers at mom's house! Soooo funny!

My 2nd sis, Sophia took the effort to make us some fried ice-cream! Not bad huh...

Really enjoy doing things with my sisters & had so much fun... 

Preparing the invitation cards (Eythan)

As expected, this gan cheong spider started writing all the cards the moment he got his hands on the cards and he prefers to work alone. He is sooo determined to get it done & completed in an afternoon that NO ONE can get his attention for even 1 minute! Duh....

For all those friends & relatives of his, be careful of his wet saliva on the card! hahahhaa.....

Can't even turn his head around when asked to smile at my camera... 8-|

Food tasting @ Hotel 28 April 08

Finally the day to discuss dowry is here! 

As both our families gathered at the hotel private room for a nice meal, chit chatting & having beer, my eldest sis told us she has become a "sworn" shark conservationist & she is not going to have the shark's fin soup. Sad to say, I tried to after I saw the documentary video of the killing of sharks too... Argh!!! *slapping myself* 

BUT who can resist something so special... Spinach broth Shark's Fin soup!  Almost as determined as my sister said that, she ended up fighting over her that bowl with us eventually. 

A final shot before we say goodbye and at the end the night, both families have not spoken a word about the dowry! Haha...