2 weeks in Melbourne and only after a big fight and a few days before leaving that we seriously sat down to discuss the wedding plans.
At first, the plan early this year was to elope and get married. Come back to Singapore and then announce. Then, we decided to just asked the parents to come in Oct for his graduation and surprise them by going together to the registry of marriage to witness the legal procedure. We finally scrap those plans because, it means that I have to return back home alone although married. Pretty depressing!
So we planned for a December celebration in Melbourne, however, we realised that by that time, everything might not have fallen into place in terms of settling down, getting own place to stay and basically moving there. Also, December seemed rather rush too. Heck, since I have waited for 9 years to marry this idiot, what harm is more waiting? So, I bravely suggested June 2005. Guess what, he was visibly relieved. Again, since there is no rush, he sink back into comfort zone.
Well, I didn’t care, I insisted that since I was there, I wanted to find out more. I made bridal enquires and then even book for appointments with a couple of upmarket bridal boutiques. That Friday, we went to Jane Hill and Mariana Hardwick. At Mariana Hardwick, that’s where it stole my heart and made him stand up and ‘wow’ over me.
The service was excellent at Mariana Hardwick. Suzy asked me lots of questions before I choose my gowns, wedding date, venue, and what is my theme (i didn’t know), what sort of ideas I had in mind, etc. She then asked me to choose a few gowns I like and even made me try some that I would have never imagine trying. It was really fun. Suzy did a little bit to my hair with flowers and a matching veil, gave me some accessories to match, matching shoes and then taught me how to hold my gown before stepping out to show KL. The first gown I tried made KL stood up from the chair and froze. It was a wonderful feeling looking at myself with the wedding gown. The second gown is called ‘Sabrina’, the gown I chose, She did my hair again and asked me if I would be wearing any family heirloom or any particular accessories, I told Suzy that KL’s aunt is getting me a string of pearls and then her eye brighten and got me pearls to wear. I stepped out for the second time and then I saw KL’s jaw went loose. I told him that I love this gown, he couldn’t find the words to say and stood there motionless staring. I walked around a bit and then came back to him. At that time, Suzy had already told him that I look so feminine and classy in this that he simply agreed nodding his head. It was only after a while that he said, “You look so beautiful. I love this gown too.” It was really exciting because, I have not seen KL look at me this way before. Nope, not in the last 9 years. How sad huh?
Anyway, after spending about nearly 2 hours trying on close to 10 different gowns, we finally narrowed down the search to 3 gowns. Our favorite is still the ғabrinaӮ The price quoted was AUD 3,895 without the veil. *Gosh! Our budget was AUD 2,500. I was really disappointed although KL assured me that we can stretch our budget as it is worth it. How sweet! The next day, we had an appointment with Caroline, a highly recommended dressmaker. I described the dress and she showed me many different materials, laces, etcɦinally the price quoted РAUD 2,630 or 2,320(less expensive materials).
At the end, I still left Melbourne half hearted. Iնe been dreaming of ԓabrinaՠevery night. However, Iխ keeping my options open and trying to save as much money as possible now. Gosh, wedding preparation is damn stressful and having limited funds with little parental financial assistance is worst. Well, at least I have 11months to stave myself in order to save money and lose weight for the wedding.
