Happy Halloween

I tried to get Praveen to dress up as a pumpkin to give Shan a laugh, but it failed miserably. I became the pumpkin and gave everyone a laugh instead.

table arrangements

Today Shan and I were discussing the seating arrangments for the wedding...aiyo what a headache! As usual people did not RSVP in advance (or maybe they're planning to only RSVP at the last minute) and what is more troubling is how difficult it is to seat people who MIGHT have er..."issues" with one another. Is it ok to sit a couple who broke up a year ago at the same table? But if we don't then who should be entitled to sit at our theatre studies class table? We can't choose one friend over another, that's just not right...
Shan spent 4 hours just calling everyone who didn't RSVP to check if they're coming, and even then, half of them said they'll only confirm with us again next week. :(
And then there were people who said that they'd come and then changed their minds again due to other appointments and stuff. sigh.
Also, we were toying with the idea of sitting Praveen's single colleagues at the same table as Shan's unmarried cousins... but we're not sure if it's a good idea. Would it be better for the cousins to sit with family? But they might not enjoy themselves as much anyway because they're mostly in their 20s and the other distant aunts and uncles coming from India to attend the wedding aren't very close to them...
And there are more than 12 main family members when you combine Shan and Praveen's families together, so who sits at the main table?! (there are only 10 spaces, at most can squeeze 12 only) Looks like Praveen's great-grandmother might need to shift to the next table! It's either that or Shan's aunt (who stays with them in the same house, moves to the next table)... aiyo, very political lah...

buffet bombshell

We had a grand meeting and Shan just dropped the biggest bomb on us ever! Instead of a sit-down dinner, it’s going to be a buffet! That meant we had to call up caterers and look through their proposals. I spent the entire day just waiting on the phone for the people at the other end of the answering line to pick up. What’s with service these days? And Geri, How Ngean and Caleb haven’t been doing anything but eating cake. Cake with Madagascar – bourbon Vanilla and Valrhona chocolate ganache no less! They had better leave me a slice! GRRRRR!!!!
After hours on the phone, we finally settled the menu:
Deluxe open faced canapés and finger sandwiches (pre-cocktail) :-creamy egg mayonnaise, tuna mousse with bell pepper, cherry tomato salsa
Cold Appetisers:-iceberg lettuce with shallots and vinaigrette dressing, asparagus wrapped with turkey breast, prawn coulis with mango salsa
Stall:-chicken kebabs
Hot Favourites:-grilled dory fillet with parsley cream sauce, ebi prawn with mayo dip, mussel au gratin with parmesan cheese, steamed broccoli with almond butter sauce, lyonnaise potatoes, golden seafood croquette, spaghetti aglio olio with mushrooms, pillaf rice with seafood
Sweet Temptations:-deluxe fresh fruit in glass, tiramisu in glass (yay, we are still keeping the tiramisu), mini chocolate fondue with fresh strawberries, kiwi cubes, snowy cream puffs and marshmallows and assorted deluxe French pastries - mini apple crumble, assorted tartlets, chocolate éclairs
Beverage:-fruit punch and pink guava
Menu B wasn’t chosen because Shan and Praveen didn’t like the Japanese corner, and the carving station for not many people would eat lamb and beef and everything else seemed the same.

I like black !!!

hmmm…..was quite annoyed…seriously I like black so WTH!! Grrrrr……so not happy wif the boys….sumore karaoke party!! Had to remind everyone it is MY wedding…dont care about them….geri and I had fun shopping and both of us think we look nice so THERE!!!! I look boomz!!!

Feel much better now that ive vented it out…..So anyway, told them about the buffet dinner…tats settled…specified to caleb that it HAS to be blood red rose petals…and candles….love candles in red holders….hahaha…special memory for prav and me….need to remind everyone of the dress code…wait some aunty come in saree and lots of jewellery I will just stare at her wif my big round eyes!! Grrrr…..know a few who will make things difficult…oki shan pls calm down…breathe…

update again

Shantini revealed her grand design plan to us, from flowers to cake to colour scheme. Very nice, indeed. Black table tops, blood red roses centrepieces, very drama, very passionate. Trust the theatre studies girl.

Then, Shan told us about her dress for the evening. Black halter neck! Aiyo-yo! What is this? Blum & Co??? It should be BLAH & Co… It’s not a karaoke party, you know? Oh well, it’s her wedding. Poor Geraldine she helped to pick out the dress and was a little upset nobody liked her taste too.

And, she dropped the bomb on us. The dinner is now buffet but there will still be an open bar and also full service for alcohol/drinks. As for timing, Caleb bitched that it would upset his schedule. Shan also announced that the MCs for the night would be her brother, Kuna, and Pravin’s friend Sathia. So, they would have to be briefed by Shan about us.

It’s been a while since I blogged.

It’s been a while since I blogged. Been so busy with all the coordinating !
Oh my gosh! I am so intimidated after today’s meeting! So many problems and things to settlel!! ARGGHH! Shanthini finally gave me some directions for her ‘dream wedding’. I don’t have time to settle so many things. And How Ngean kept going on and on about wine and booze. My God! Enough already! Its Shan’s wedding! Not a wine tasting ceremony! Who cares about the bloody wine!
Everything is in a mess and sooooo last minute! Buffet for a wedding dinner?!! I don’t mean to bitch but she can NEVER make up her mind! (and seriously…who serves buffet?) I have to tell Brian to make the necessary changes if not they are going to charge us. Urk…extra work for me! I have to make changes to my schedule. Hello…I’ve made 10 drafts already!
Why did Shan choose a black halter dress? Yes the wedding is a performance but it is not your dance recital! Who cares if its Blum and Co. Tsk tsk….Shan Shan…It’s your big day! I don’t want you to look like an ugly duckling!
I hope Brian will not screw up the cake.

Baker Brian explains what's cooking in the wedding dinner kitchen

Super super loooooooong day…

Super super loooooooong day…

brian, prav and i did our food tasting at Gustos… it was good!! No joke!! Good choice brian…. hahaha...i had to eat the aglio olio but it tasted pretty good...better than normal la...and then we have the kebabs and the chocolate fondue and the cake brian is gonna make and all e alcohol!!! loving it all over again!!! and then prav and i settled the deco stuff with christine...brian had a thing going with her man!!! Hahaha…we got discount sumore!!! keeping fingers crossed...hopefully all the tables can go black...and then prav;s proposal will come alive for all to see!!! :P my romantic bf....

then came the second part of the day....getting ready for a mini photo-shoot ....had a few ties from pa n boi....wasnt sure which one thou...luckily geri and her makeup person came early!! But tat lady was soooo weird!! KUNG FU HAIRSTYLE!!!! hahahhaha....scary mary...

den she started tearing my 4strands of hair and making it look lovely...geri just clicked and clicked as I was getting my eyes done….prav got his face done and we were late....hmmm....but sharon n kenneth were having super fun too!!! hahaha....such cool stuff!!!

and in all this mess, i forgot to call kavitha.....my best fren from primary 1!!!! when i called her jus now, she screamed at me....well i did deserve it.... :(

Possible hairstyles

So tomorrow the make up artist cum hairstylist is going to work on Shan's hair, as a demo/try out before the actual thing. Shan said that I should suggest some possible designs for her as well as for myself. So I took a look at some magazines to get some inspiration. Here are some options that I found:


Thought this would be really nice for Shan! The flowers can be fresh baby's-breath, weaved into curls in her hair. It's good for medium length hair like Shan's.

This could be another nice option for Shan. She says she doesn't mind if her hair is bunned up in a French chignon kinda style.
I could lend her some accessories to create this look, or we could just use the tiara that she bought already, on a hairstyle like this one.


As for me I think I'll probably just go for a long mess of waves at the back :) and a flower at the side. I think the hairstylist SHOULD be able to manage that:

saree shopping

we did shopping for my saree!!! It was such a looooooooooong daysumore day after deepavalli… sleep deprived…aunty insisted I buy a red saree….my mom, well she din say it, but we all usually use yellow…..haiya…was the first moment when I HAD to make up my mind….hmmm…well I wanted something a bit different….plus thankfully prav already bought a blue jibba suit, I didn’t need to take sides!!! Lalalala!!! so I jus insisted on blue to match his suit!! :P was really glad I didn’t have to pick sides…I personally like yellow but if I went wid tat, it is as though I’m not listening to his mom…hmmm…the delicate in-law balance…one wrong move and you are out-lawed….

stag night

I have personally volunteered Pravin’s stag night! I have roped Brian into help! My first stag party, indeed. Brian and I decided to hire a stripper for him, much to Shantini’s dismay but Brian really had good idea: since Ris Low no longer representing Singapore for Miss World, we wonder if she is free for us to engage her in for the party? It will be BOOMZ if we can… and it must be leopard prinze bigini – to start with. Maybe get her to jump out of a cake and yell SUR-PLISE! BOOMZ!

Obviously there will be plenty of alcohol… hmm who’s flying these days? Must get duty free!

The coordinating is really driving me crazy!

The coordinating is really driving me crazy! The venue is gorgeous! But looking at what they are providing or rather not providing, we have to rent/outsource EVRYTHING!
I think I am really going to burst her budget! I need to start sourcing for cheaper alternatives without compromising the quality of the production, performance wedding! What’s wrong with me? Its Shanthini’s wedding! I don’t want to use any performance theory to analyze her wedding! What has Theatre Studies done to me! Anyway, yes… think Caleb think! Where to get cheaper alternatives!
I’m just glad How Ngean and Brian are taking care of some of the logistics. Thank god! Flowers check! Alcohol/Booze Check! What’s an Indian wedding without alcohol rite? (internal joke) I really hope everything turns out well.
Need to sort out everything at our next meeting.
What am I going to wear?

Choosing the march-in song

So Shan needed my advice on which songs are best for the wedding march-in. Caleb already managed to form a very nice list of all the songs that could be played on loop in the background as the lounge music for the guests etc. :P Now for the *jang jang* songs that will introduce the happy couple!
We thought about using a couple of popular bollywood tunes that Praveen and Shan love, but that has the possibility of excluding some of the other guests like their colleagues who might not be the sort who watches bollywood movies; besides, Shan intended her dinner to be "posh" and "black-tie", so perhaps something like big band music or jazz?
Nat King Cole's L-O-V-E is always a possibility. I told Shan that if she likes, my a cappella group can even sing it Live for her as she walks in :) she seems to like the idea, and told me that she'll consider.
Alternatively, we could even get a couple of friends to form a mini string quartet to play a song. Emma one of my friends' is a professional pianist and Jocelyn can play the cello pretty well, I have the music score for John Schmidt's rearrangement of blending Taylor Swift's 'Love Story' and Coldplay's 'Viva la Vida". Shan was very excited at that possible song choice. So I guess these are the two shortlisted songs :)

Here's a version of the wonderful 'Love Story + Viva la vida' arrangement:

we found a place we found THE place!!!!!

we found a place we found THE place!!!!! My dad’s recommendation!!! prav loved it!! 1. aircon, 2. facination with city skyline 3. would be dark at night and 4. shan loved it... :) since it was prav and my first ever official function we were throwing for our family and close friends, we made all decisions...hahaha...i dare say venue was my decision strongly supported by praveen! :P

made couple of phone calls and TEAM WEDDING arrived!!! Love how excted my frens are for me…. J Kenneth said no prob with the lighting for photography and the skyline would be oki to take!!! Geri said my black gown wud look fantabulous and the red/black theme would be a hit!! Caleb as always only interested in how many powerpoint socket there were…..sigh….brian being brian insisted tat I get Christine to view also!! Hahahaha…something is DEF going on….how ngean’s Indian-influened showed itself when he went “there is a bar!!!!” hahahhahaa….love my pals!!! Wooohoooot!!! Just on cloud 9 already!!!

update

Haha. Shantini’s having a tough time writing her vows! She was the one who wanted to personalise wedding vows. “I am not romantic at all! How am I going to write mushy things??? Pravin will have no problem ‘cuz he is more romantic than I am,” rolling her eyes. But the girl loves Pravin. Awwww…

Moving on to serious logistics: Shan has OK’ed the choice of wines and also champagne. And we found out that Brian has suggested an orange cake with Grand Marnier… YUM!

Venue recce: we all went to see The Pod. It’s really spacious and for just 12 tables, we can perform a dance there! Ok, as if one production, re: Shantini’s wedding, is not enough. Oh hell, how did I get into this??? It’s no joke struggling three courses in uni, being research assistant, and, doing this wedding. But it will be fun. And, I must say that Shan and Co. really did welcome me into the fold with open arms.

Good grief, Caleb (our DJ), why don’t you kill us with sugar. He showed us the list of love songs he compiled. Hmm.. am not sure how the unromantic Shantini will take to the song list but I guess weddings are not just for the couple. It’s a performance. A public performance to validate the coming together of two people. We have family members and friends who become the audience and spectators of the ceremony and the act of coming together. Oh help. I am expounding performance theory here. Shut up already.

Recce Day.

Recce Day. The place is lovely. Shan and Praveen are having the wedding at The Pod, the swanky place where the National Library is. It is rather appropriate I must say – cosy, lovely view of the city and the city lights. Caleb was hitting on the bartender… oooh love is in the air! The flowers have also been decided on. The Pod is going to be filled with the fragrance of a thousand roses and many sprigs of forget-me-nots. We ought to do an American Beauty-esque type of poster with Shan and Praveen decked head to toe with rose petals and blow it up to A40 size J Time to get working on the cake… I feel hungry just thinking about it!
Just to make sure I can see the instructions properly on 1 page, I’ve decided to put down our email correspondence:

-----Original Message-----From: BrianTo: Shanthini Subject:
RE: wedding cake
oki sure!! will leave it to u!! jus as long as its big, classy and shan-ism...hahahahhhaa....

.-----Original Message-----
From: BrianTo: Shanthini S
ubject: RE: wedding cake no lah... you cut the bottom tier... actually really depends.the thing is if having the cake on top of the styrpfoam, it'll be top heavy. not too good an idea.B

-----Original Message-----From: Shanthini To: BrianSubject:
RE: wedding cake yes ur rite! the one with the monogram and scattered rose petals with red dots right. squareish one thats white.We like it wif the plate tat sticks out and the seperate tiers. ie jus like the picture la...so tat it will look tall and classy. Plus we like e gold finishes of the plate also. wud go well with the overall deco.Our choice is Orange/Citrus with Grand Marnier. sounds yummy!!!! Plus it will be different from our dessert spread whcih wud be primarily chocolate/vanilla.I am not sure how the dummy thingy works but yes sure! I'll jus leave it to u... jus as long as it looks elegant and classy can already!Jus to check, is it possible to make the top tier real instaed of the bottom one? since we will be cutting the top rite?thanks for the cupcakes deal brian!!! but really i dowan you to be baking all saturday....its a party for all of us to enjoy u noe!! anyway indian kids (only my 3 nephews and niece) SHUD be introduced to alcohol sooner or later!! hahahahaha!!!! so no need to burn out with tat dude...thanks again though!!!if u got sample of this cake prav n i wud love to try la...cos it sounds interesting n funky but we dunno how it wud tatste...k go get ur suit ready!!!!!! woooohoooot!!!!!

-----Original Message-----From: BrianTo: Shanthini
Subject: RE: wedding cake
Just to confirm, it's the one with the monogram and scattered rose petals with dots right?It's a design I could work with. If we are looking at fifty people, that should be about 4 - 5kg of cake. What I could do, is that I make the first tier out of real cake and then instead of getting the dummy from the cake supplies supplier which is quite unworth-it for you and myself, I could purchase Styrofoam myself from artfriend and the top 2 tiers will be fake. This will cut the cost substantially for you. Would you prefer separate tiers like the picture or would you prefer the tiers joined together like in Row 2 third picture from left?As for cheesecake, if you want icing, than cheesecake and icing cannot go together. 1.The moisture from the cheesecake will cause the fondant to melt so it'll look like globs, ie disaster. 2.icing plus cheesecake = very bad tasting cake. If you want to stick to the cheesecake, then it can only be cheesecake alone without icing. Probably can decorate with fresh flowers.Some flavours that you can consider are:Orange/Citrus with Grand MarnierMadagascar Vanilla with Baileys ganacheCoffee with kahluaChocolate-Cherry with kirschVanilla with rum-soaked raisinsChocolate with hazelnut liquerBecause you are my friend, I could do a non-alcoholic version of the wedding cake for kids, in the form of cupcakes, say 20 cupcakes for free.-Brian

-----Original Message-----From: Shanthini To: Brian
Subject: wedding cake
hey brian!!!this one we tot looks simple and elegant.http://galleries.frugalbride.com/html_ver/gallery.php?curr_page=12nd row first picture.Can make it for just 50 people to eat? I will be very sad if it goes to waste.Also, if it is simple like this, possible to make it in cheesecake flavour? Cos i not sure..hehe...if cannot den we just stick to orange.thanks!!!!cheersshan

Menu?

White: Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc

Red: Nederburg Pinotage

Bubbly: Jacob’s Creek Sparkling Rose

It’s the perfect mix for the appetisers, actually. Even the chicken kebabs will be nicely washed down with any of the three.

I must say Shan and Pravin did a fine job with the menu. It’s got good stuff in it. Won’t give too much away since it’s still early days. Kudos to caterer Gustos too; have actually heard great things about them. Can’t wait.

Caleb stresses about the Wedding Day Programme

1st draft of Weding Run Down

1st draft of Weding Run Down
3pm:Arrive at Venue (The POD)
3-4pm:Setting up of tables (Flowers to arrive at 3.15pm)
4-5pm: Setting up of stage and logistics
5-6pm:Setting up of bar and reception
6-6.30pm:Buffer Time for touch up
7pm:Guests to arrive
7.15-7.50pm: Pre Dinner Reception
8pm: Arrival of Bride and Groom
8.15pm: Dinner to commence
9.30pm: Speeches from Bride and Groom
9.45pm: Champagne Toast
10.30pm: Dinner to end

Well..nothing always go according to plan anyway. So what’s the point of having s

I hope Shan like the songs I’ve chosen!

I hope Shan like the songs I’ve chosen!
1. Nothing Compares To You. Sinead O’Connor
2. Close To You. The Carpenters
3. Power of Love. Jennifer Rush
4. Love Me Tender. Elvis Presley
5. I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You. Elvis Presley
6. Just the Way You Are. Billy Joel
7. When You Say Nothing At All. Ronan Keating
8. From This Moment On. Shania Twain
9. You Made Me Love You. Al Jolson
10. How Deep Is Your Love. Bee Gees

*lovessssssssss*