Reuben gets hitched!

My brother got married over the weekend. Joseph is so happy to have a 'kim kim'!

Leading up to the wedding, I helped my brother make a photobook out of all the lovely pre-wedding photos he had. I picked http://www.thedigibook.com/ because they are one of few that offer it in A3size and they had the most reasonable price. I had previously used them before and encountered no problems. So I uploaded the book and ordered it on 28 July 2009.

Ten days later (as stated in their website), there was still no sign of the book. I emailed them. No response. I emailed them again and again. Still no response.
Finally I googled their phone number (because it's not on the website) and asked my sister-in-law in Singapore to call them. This was on Wednesday - 3 days before the wedding. The book was still in the office and they promised to courier it that day so that I would receive it on Thursday.

On Thursday 13 August 2009....17 days after I ordered the book (and one week overdue), there was no sign of the book. This time I called them up myself. The book was still sitting in their office in Singapore! I gave them a good scolding. The lady even had the cheek to tell me to pay extra express courier charges. Seems they have no sense of time.

Finally, I told them, "Call up this number, and arrange to take it to my sister-in-law's place right NOW!"

So my sister-in-law got the book that night itself, and they brought it with them to Seremban on Friday, and straight to the wedding on Saturday.

RM178.90 worth of stress

The photobook aside, we had a lovely wedding.

All dressed up in the theme colour (purple again!), we took the opportunity to take family photos.

I'm happy to report that Joseph and Joy-Anne performed perfectly. They walked straight down the aisle looking cute and happy!

Joy-Anne in her RM75 dress with self-added sash and roses.

Joseph wore the same suit that he did at my sister's wedding last year. But I had to release the 5-6cm of length that I hemmed up last year, and I didn't fold his sleeve this year. I made a purple bow tie for him.
And of course he proudly carried the ring pillow that I hand-made with tonnes of love and care.


We had a full house, starting right on time at 2pm.



It was a short and sweet ceremony.


And Reuben is a very happy man to have such a lovely bride!


Daalin and Danny were tasked with counting and guarding the loot. With my cousin's (a very experienced wedding planner) help, they did it very efficiently and quickly.

After the ceremony, we went upstairs for the tea ceremony, after which Joy-Anne had to recharge her batteries.

Joseph fell asleep in the car on the way to Bukit Jalil Golf Resort and continued recharging his batteries in the ballroom while waiting for the dinner to start.

After he was fully recharged, he had a blast with his cousins at the next table. We managed to get a decent photograph of the 5 boys.

I was quite impressed with the balloon decorations. Intially when my brother said he wanted it all decorated with just balloons, I thought he must be mad. But it turned out to be really tasteful and unique.

Joanne looked absolutely lovely and radiant in her ballgown. Joy-Anne also changed into a dress that yee yee bought from USA.

Joanne's gown rental cost RM180. Joy-Anne's dress has a original price tag of USD100 from Neiman Marcus. Yee Yee paid USD15. It's a size 4T.


We hung around to take photos after all the guests had left.

By the time we got home, it was past midnight and the kids (having slept in the car) were recharged again. They were very alert and jumping on the bed till almost 2am.

And then they woke up at 7am on Sunday morning! Duracell rabbits...

I made them nap in the afternoon before we left for Ipoh at about 4pm. Joanne's family had a small dinner at Restaurant Kok Thai in Ipoh Garden last night.

Joy-Anne was very very busy. Here....she's trying to stuff cabbage down her dress.

Joe had a good time being entertained by Yee Yee.

The food was good and abundant. But more importantly, we had a good time as a family. The Lord has been so good to us. I know my parents are very happy and certainly feel very blessed looking at our growing family.

Hopefully, we'll have a new made-in-USA addition next year. My mom is already dreaming of it...

my new hobby

Santa Claus also helped me buy some plain hairbands from USA. I couldn't find them here in Malaysia. I transformed the plain plastic hairbands into these... Everything made by my 2 hands. Thank God for 'em. RM15 each.

Christmas in August

Santa Clause landed at KLIA early Monday morning. The flight was on time even though it departed Stockholm 30minutes late.

I'm not quite sure how 4 huge bags, each weighing 50lbs, fit into my tiny Proton Iswara. Nevertheless, all Santa's presents arrived intact. Thank God!

Plenty of clothes at dirt cheap prices e.g. Banana Republic t-shirt (genuine one ahh...) for USD3. There's also toys and books everywhere. I had to clean out Joy-Anne's wardrobe to make way for new (some hand-me-down but look like new) and bigger clothes. Now her drawer is full of Gymboree size 3 years clothes. Thanks Aunty Yinfern for Josie's clothes.

Joseph is currently most in love with his new Black Mack.

He gave Yee Yee big hugs and said "I miss you so much". Coz he's certainly enjoying the new stuff and going kai kai when Yee Yee is back.

My cousin's lovely garden wedding

My cousin got married yesterday. It's been quite a while since we had a wedding in the family so it was quite a big deal!

We had to be at my aunty's place by 7.45am to avoid being trapped outside with the groom's entourage.

Joseph woke up really early but Joy got up just in time to get into the car.

I dressed her in her new dress which I 'enhanced' by adding red organza roses I made. I think it looks so much sweeter like this.

We got home at 10am plus and the kids went to bed. I had expected them to sleep till about 3pm but they were awake before 2pm. Must have been super excited.

While my mum and I got ourselves ready, the kids busied themselves by digging in the pockets of my diaper bag. They found Joy's hats and hairbands and put it on.

I 'flew' to Cyberjaya in just 30minutes. We were a bit late in leaving the house and I was afraid we would be late. But we got there in plenty of time.

Purple was the theme colour!

This is the excellent worship team - fantastic job with only 1 practice.

Joy-Anne was very very hyper! She did a lovely job walking the aisle as flowergirl but I don't have any pictures as I was at the back telling her to walk to Nana. I hope the professionals got some good pictures.

And very busy during the marriage solemnization. Here...Albert sprang a surprise on Michelle by singing her a song after the signing.

Joe was really obedient - He sat still for most of the ceremony. And he wore the bow tie all evening. I made the bowtie myself. The shirt is from Domii. Regular retail price = RM99! Unbelievable! Of course I don't pay such prices. I found it on sale and paid only RM14.90. Such great timing too because it was the only decent purple shirt I found in all of Midvalley, and the last piece in his size.

Joy continued to busybody...dressed like a princess, climbing like a tomboy!

I actually had trouble finding a decent dress with purple accents. Everything was either too expensive or too gaudy. So I bought her this dress from Flowergirl in Uptown for RM75 (in size 3!!!) and added the purple sash and butterfly myself.

When Pastor Datuk Kee pronounced Albert and Michelle as husband and wife, she also clapped!

We took some photos after the ceremony, before retreating into the cool of the air-conditioned waiting room.

Once in there, we freshened up and Joy-Anne got changed.

Joe didn't change. I just took off his inner shirt which had soaked up his sweat, wiped his face and he was good to go.

Joe wanted me to take a photo of him holding a flower.

While waiting for the dinner to start, the children ran all over the place...

Joy-Anne would walk up to lots and lots of strangers and just say, "aunty...uncle...".

The dinner was good. Great planning. Lovely entertainment in between the good food.

We were busy taking photos after the dinner and by the time we got home, it was past midnight. The kids fell asleep in the car. We finally got into bed at about 1am. It was a long tiring day. But a very good one. This is probably the best hotel wedding I've ever experienced.

pretty dresses for my pretty princess

After we got back from Melbourne I found that Joy had outgrown all her dresses. So I was googling around for dresses and stumbled across Jesslyn's website. Her simple pretty dresses were very affordably priced.

In conjunction with the 2 family weddings coming up (both with the theme colour purple), I ordered this lovely dress in lilac/lavendar. Even with the short duration I gave her (I think I emailed her the measurements last week), she did a fantastic job and I received it today, giving me just enough time to get it washed before the wedding this Saturday. I purposely measured for a longer dress because I don't quite like them too short, exposing her butt.

Joy seemed to like the dress, walking around and trying to twirl the umbrella skirt.

I ordered two dresses to make the shipping more worthwhile.

Both look very lovely to me. Only RM35 each. (But prices have been revised now.)

I would have ordered more if not for the tight deadline. Thanks Jesslyn for the lovely dresses. Appreciate the rush job very much!