Putting things in place

As we were both free last Wednesday evening, we decided to meet up with Aunt Dorine, our wedding planner, to discuss about our ROM. We have only 2 months left to our ROM and there were some things left undone.

During the meet up, Aunt Dorine gave us some advice and also helped us to assign different roles to our identified helpers. At the same time, we also discussed about when to meet up with the photographer and solemnizer. The reason for meeting up with the photographer is that we need him to know what is our expectations. Next, we need to meet up with the solemnizer as we needed him to sign our consent form as we are holding our solemnization outside ROM. These are the key things to settle.

The following day, Ju and I went to the bridal shop to pick a photo for our portrait and a dress for ROM day. The photos which were taken were quite below my expectations. Maybe they were not edited yet but I am not happy with most of them. I want them retaken! Out of those photos, we were lucky to find one adorable one as our portrait for our solemnization. It will be edited and be shown to us (as we requested for it) in the coming week. 

Wow... two months left. 60 days seemed really long but there are so many things left undone... 

The Viet Scooter

I was in Ho Chi Minh City for holidays a couple of days back. Ju did not followed as I went with all my guy friends. As it was my first time going to HCM, I was excited to see the life in Vietnam and it was really an eye opener. The traffic in the city was horrible! It was packed with lots of scooters and you can listen the non-stopping horns of the vehicles. If you want to arrive at work on time everyday, it is recommended to get a scooter as the public transports will be blocked by this little scooters.

Vietnamese culture is quite admirable. Even though the scooters were honked off the road, there was no staring sight, vulgar hand sign or arguments going on. They seemed to get used to the honk and really patient. While on our way to the hotel, I saw a lady fell off her scooter and had knocked her face to the ground. In no time, I saw 2-3 riders stop by to help her up. Impressive, isn't it? I could not stop observing the life of the Viets along the way as it was so interesting. Scooters were like part of the Viets' life. They can carry a family of three which was quite incredible!

If you have been on the scooter before, you should know that there should be chemistry between the rider and pillion to have a smooth ride. For example, if the rider is turning right, the pillion should just follow the flow and put his/her body weight to the right. There should not be too much fidgeting by the pillion as it may distract the rider.

A relationship is like riding a scooter, when our partner is in the driving seat to deal with some stuffs, eg.planning a holiday, we should just take a back seat and provide any support when he/she needs. If he/she is going the wrong way, we should direct them to the correct way with the least possible 'fidgeting' or else like a scooter, the relationship will lose control and both will end up injured. The most important thing in a relaitonship is chemistry. I am really glad that Jul and I have very good chemistry and that would definitely benefit us as we grow old together. At some point of time, there will definitely be arguments and it is our understanding in each other that will help us to solve problems and move on together.

If love is a journey, I will hold your hand and continue the path together. Love you, Ju!

Gordon Ramsay

I believe people who have watched Hell's Kitchen or Kitchen's Nightmare would know this celebrity chef, Gordon Ramsay. If you have watched the Hell's Kitchen season, you would notice that this guy has a foul mouth and is extremely crude to the participants. Every sentence that came out from him would mostly consist of the 'F' word. From another point of view, he was actually trying to grind the best out of every contestants and picked the winner to be his head chef in one of his restaurants.

Juliana loves Gordon Ramsay's show so much! She can spend the whole day watching his shows. I know about this famous Michelin star chef but I don't watch his shows until JuJu introduced to me. After watching a few episodes of Kitchen's Nightmare, I find this guy is quite amazing and nice. In Kitchen's Nightmare, Gordon would visit the troubled restaurants and find out what is the cause of the restaurant's downfall and solve the problems with the restaurants' owners. Juju and I had been watching the show and taking down the location of the restaurants he been to so that when we are in Idaho, we can travel to those restaurants for dinner.

Gordon Ramsay could just be a celebrity chef but to us, he is our link. We believe that to have successful relationship, we need to have something in common. After watching GR's show, both us are looking forward to cook together. As we were both staying with our parents, cooking might be a little troublesome here. Therefore, having a house of our own in states will give us the opportunity to 'compete' our cooking skills.

We just can't wait for the day to come where we'll be going to states and live together. There will definitely be ups and downs in these two years, but with our strong understanding in each other, we will definitely solve all the problems together.

P.S. Our BIG day is about two months away. There are few things that needs to be sorted out.
Hopefully we can meet our wedding planner next week so that we can get more help from there. Vows... vows..

Our Outdoor Photoshoot 14 Jun 13

We almost had our outdoor photoshoot cancelled when the wedding boutique told us there was an emergency photoshoot for another couple. Well, the bride-to-be is pregnant and the couple are holding their wedding next month. Being nice, I agreed to postpone ours. Two days before the photoshoot day, we received another call from the wedding boutique that they have in fact reschedule another date for the couple and ours will continue as planned. :)

As we are recommended by the wedding boutique to get our own transport, I left home early to collect my uncle's car from my cousin. When I got home, Jul was still in bed and as expected, we're late again. Here are our outdoor places for photoshoot:

1. Hort Park (as recommended by Jul's friend)
2. Labrador Park
3. Gardens by the Bay

Of all the three, I liked Gardens by the Bay the most! Even though it was the most crowded of all the three places we went, I loved the beautiful night scenery especially the place where we could take with the Marina Bay Sands as the backdrop. I can't wait for the pictures to be ready.

Hort park was the first place of our photoshoot and it was really hot that afternoon. This was my first time wearing a suit in the hot afternoon and taking photos at the open. Jul was wearing a pink dress for the day shoot and was incredibly beautiful. In the late afternoon, we went to Labrador Park to capture the sunset. The only time I went to Labrador Park was during the National Education tour where we would visit the famous guns that was built during the early 40s to deter the Japanese from attacking us by the sea. We actually went to two places there. The first one was at the doors to the tunnel and followed by the seaside. The sea breeze made the place so relaxing and made us felt like sleeping. Needless to say, all of us were very tired including the photographer and our personal assistance, Ai En, Juliana's cousin.

As it was Friday evening, we were caught in a massive traffic jam while on our way to Gardens by the Bay for night shoot. Everyone except me were dozing off in the car. How I wish I was not driving... We managed to attract a lot of attention at Gardens by the Bay till tourists requesting us to take photos with us. Our photographer told us to reject them nicely as they would hinder our photoshoot progress.

It was a long day and we finally had our outdoor photoshoot done. It's never easy to schedule for a photoshoot with Jul's work so demanding. We would really like to thank Ai En for assisting us. I thought that should be the wedding boutique's job. I'm not giving any comments on them yet till I see their works on the photo editing and the actual day arrangement.

It's 23rd Jun! 3 more months to our ROM. Time to REGISTER! :)

Changi Airport Crowne Plaza Site Visit

The open house at Changi Airport Crowne Plaza Hotel was an excellent one. The ambiance was fabulous and we immediately decided to hold our ROM there after being showed the function room. As it was pretty crowded that day, we did not meet up with any sales consultant. Therefore, Juliana and I decided to send an email to schedule for an appointment on other days.

Emails after emails, followed by phone calls after phone calls, there was no reply as promised by the sales consultant whom I spoken to. I became impatient as we have only four months left to our big day and our venue has yet to confirm. I became very frustrated and decided to send an email to any Crowne Plaza personnel I see in my email. I saw the confirmation email sent by a representative for the open house and immediately 'shoot' an email to her. This is what I wrote:

Hi there, 

I have tried numerous attempts to make an appointment to discuss on my solemnization but no one replied. 
From the wedding show, I understand that there is vacancy for my ROM to hold there.(23 Sep 13)
As it was too crowded that day, I did not speak to any of the sales rep. 
Therefore, I would like to make another appointment. I spoke to one of your staff (I can't remember her name) recently and she said she will inform the sales consultant and will get back to me via phone or email. 
However, I received none! No phone calls or emails. I am becoming very frustrated. It seems like you guys are not interested at all. 
Please get back to me ASAP. 

Regards
Ruiz

Few days later, Alina, the main wedding sales consultant replied and an appointment was scheduled right away. During that appointment, I was showed the poolside and garden ROM location. Both locations are beautiful but I preferred the poolside (I think Juliana will agree with my choice as she's unavailable due to work). What surprised me was that a function room will be reserved for us in case of wet weather. Other than that, we were even offered a one night stay in their deluxe room. I am totally satisfied with the solemnization package offered. 

With the venue confirmed, I can now relax a little and planned for other things for our special day. 
Here's what I envisioned my ROM to be:
The guests start coming in to the reception area and well-dressed for the event. They will be offered to take polarite pictures with us while holding a huge heart-shaped prop labelled, "Ruiz and Juliana ROM" as a gift. While waiting, a reception video montage of us will be shown. After the solemnizer has arrived, we will move to the poolside for the commencement of our ROM. The bride will be coming in to the place later accompanied by her dad before handing Juliana's hand to me... Commencement of solemnization. After that, lunch will followed. End. 

According to my Gantt chart, things are still in line. Now, I'm looking for a professional photographer to take down the beautiful event of ours. 

Our Pre-wedding Photoshoot with Style Bridal

We signed a $3888 package with Style Bridal at a Singapore Expo's bridal roadshow. Our initial intention was to get a wedding solemnization package. I trusted my aunt who was working as a part time planner with Style Bridal and decided to take the full package. The ROM package is $688. As I was planning to have wedding dinner in the next few years, the full package will be more reasonable.

As we need a portrait for our wedding solemnization, we decided to have our photoshoot. Another reason is we will be departing to the States in November and will not have time to come back to Singapore for photoshoot and by the time we're back, we are already old! (It's refering to me as Ju will still be beautiful and gorgeous.)

In the eve of our photoshoot, we packed the required stuffs rather late as I was working and Ju celebrating her friend's daughter birthday. By the time everything was done, it was alrady 3.45am. I fell asleep almost immediately when I lie on the bed. Ju was too excited and couldn't sleep till 7. As a result, we were both very tired and were late for the photoshoot. The actual time was 10am and we reached at a quarter past 10. Besides, we hadn't had our breakfast yet! The stylist, a young Chinese lady in her 20s, told us to have a heavy one as it will be a long day. At about 11am, things were finally on its way.

Ju's makeup took approximately an hour while I took a nap on the comfortable leather couch in the studio. My makeup took about just 15 minutes. It's always the groom waiting for the bride as Ju needed help to wear the gowns. I was totally speechless when I saw Ju in the gown. She is extremely gorgeous! She looked like one of the models advertising for a bridal studio. I'm one lucky man!

The photoshoot was very tiring as we had to keep changing and posting for shots but we really enjoyed it especially the half nude shots. We were happily dancing around while waiting for the cameraman to prepare the background. There were lots of laughter and smiles. We would like to thank our families for making the time and effort to come for the photoshoot. We believe the pictures are going to be nice!

Photoshooting is not just simply a process. It captures those romantic and beautiful moments of our journey.

P.S. I'm getting impatient with Changi Crowne Plaza Hotel as they were slow in replying to my emails and NEVER got back to us! So disappointing!

Our Appointment with HDB

7th April, 8am, is our scheduled appointment with HDB. This second appointment will be finalizing our purchase of our first ever house, Tampines Greenlace. As it was too early for us, we decided to take a cab there to have a little more time for our sleep. We had a quite meaningful journey while on our way. The taxi driver shared his religious beliefs with us and we both found it pretty logical and similar to our beliefs. The words he shared were priceless.

We didn't wait long for our turn. About 15 minutes after registering, we saw our queue number flashing on the LED board. As it was Sunday, it wasn't crowded and only a few young couples like us were seen. Juliana and I were still very tired and we were trying very hard to keep our eyes open as we make our way to the official's cubicle. A bespectacled middle age man greeted us while he was preparing the required documents for us, 'Good morning!' Mr Wu and Miss Juliana?' assuring he was serving the right clients. 'Yup!'  we replied. 'Take a seat.' he smiled. I was pretty anxious to hear what he's going to tell us after that.

All it took was 20 minutes to explain to us the amount going to be deducted from our CPF account, the option fee to be returned to us, the consequences if we parted ways halfway (we don't need to know as we love each other!) and when will be our next appointment. $1,700+  is our monthly loan installment. That's a lot of monthly but with our CPF at the moment, it seemed healthy. Definitely, both of us must work to prevent any cash top up. Sigh! What a high standard living cost! I need to start planning to ORD.

House to be ready in mid 2017 and I put in a request to extend our stay in states. First, we would have enough money for wedding and secondly, we would have money to do some renovation for our new house. Besides, we can have more time exploring the states and the world. Pray for peace!