Wow - where has the time gone? 5 amazing years in London and loving every minute of it. Trust me, there are still days when I wake up and I have this warm fuzzy feeling on the inside of me - the realisation of living and working in this cosmopolitan city, a privilege I don't take for granted, and I thank God for this wonderful opportunity.
And it's also that feeling knowing that I would not be here forever that makes me cherish each day and each season when it comes. I would tell myself it might be my last summer here in London - I guess it's what they say, to live each day as if it is your last - yup so make the best of it Bel! :)
Last year I organised a "Happy 4 years" brunch with my girl friends, asking everyone to wear either red, blue or white. Turns out, almost all of us turned up wearing navy blue and white striped tops, it was hilarious. This year is slightly different. I spent my 5th anniversary finalizing my wedding details out in the English countryside with K and our close friends the Geesons. Whoever knew!
In case you haven't heard, we will be having a small and intimate wedding ceremony here this summer in June, followed by a proper wedding dinner back home in September. I am so excited about the one here because we are capping it at 40 people and so it is easier to manage, and whilst it would be mostly an English wedding, K's best man is thinking of doing our traditional yum-seng! haha it was a joke but actually I think we should introduce some Singaporean flavour to our wedding here - what do you think?? We just started taking lessons for our first dance (yes we are that serious) so it is all very exciting and fun :)
We chose our venue beginning of this year, and thanks to the power of Google, we found this beautiful manor house (now hotel) in Hertfordshire outside London.
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| No this isn't the venue!! Just a nice cottage we walked past hehe |
We took a direct train from Euston train station and reached Tring in 40min on Sunday afternoon. Due to the London marathon we could not drive, but hey train ride isn't too bad. Less the stress of being stuck in traffic. From the station, it's a nice 10-15min walk to the venue, and along the way we saw green fields with sheep grazing. Love the setting already lah.
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| Yes this is the venue! |
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| Gabby & Ben |
It was only after we chose this venue that we realised the symbol for the hotel is two peacocks because they have about 6 roaming on their grounds. How special.
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| Be careful |
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| We spotted the first up there above us. Which prompted my question "Peacocks can fly??" |
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| Inside the Oak room where we would be holding our dinner |
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| Love the wallpaper and colour scheme of the Oak Room |
I was told that you would be really lucky to see a peacock in its full display and I think it was indeed our lucky day.
We were discussing with the wedding co-ordinator our wedding details when suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw the white peacock opening up its feathers and obviously that being more important than our wedding discussions, Ben and I ran out to take some photos. Tsk tsk.
You can't blame me because I have not seen such a wonderful sight. The male peacock was proudly showcasing his beautiful feathers and the female was all aloof and oblivious, at one stage even went near him to peck his feathers! He was busy chasing after her which made us giggle. Ben commented "oh how typical, even for humans!"
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| He even tried doing this 180deg turn to impress her. She was not at all bothered! lol |
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| After 10min or so, he was tired and the feathers slowly came down |
I was too fascinated that I took so many photos of them and here is leaving you with one artistic shot of Mr Peacock.
I have quite a few ideas of what I would like to do or have at our English wedding, one of which is to light a huge sky lantern so everyone can write their wishes and let it float high into the night sky. Aww how romantic isn't it? *dreamily sigh* oh oh and of course, I am hoping the peacocks on the grounds would proudly display their beautiful feathers on our wedding day. For us. That would be extra special ;)
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