Wow 5 more sleeps! I think I am experiencing wedding jitters? My appetite seems to have reduced in the past few days... hmm...
We just did a very tiring but fun photoshoot around London yesterday. But before that...
Different countries have different wedding traditions and culture. Telling my local friends here about a pre-wedding shoot they have no clue what I am talking about. The wedding dress is meant to be worn first on the wedding day and it is THE moment, for the groom to admire his bride walking down the aisle for the first time (and probably shed some tears). The dress is always kept a secret, not even shared among friends. It is that big an affair. And then back in Singapore, the couple goes down to the bridal studio to choose the dress and the suit to rent together. It is very much a joint decision. So when I went back last October to choose my gown with my girl friends, the designer at the bridal shop was feeling rather sorry for me. He went "oooh Belinda I am so sorry your fiancé cannot be here with you... am sure your girlfriends are making up for it." And I had to laugh out saying it's okay because it isn't that bad, really. And I was hoping to keep it a secret for as long as I can until the actual day.
Of course being Singaporeans, we still were keen to do a pre wedding shoot although I was trying to make it more a post wedding shoot to be done after the wedding so K won't see me in my gown before 29th June. (Are you already confused by my "pre wedding" vs "post wedding" shoot? hehe) However as the photographer Douglas was only here in London for a limited time, it was difficult to schedule for a post wedding outdoor shoot and hence we had to agree to do it a week before the wedding.
Yup so yesterday was the day! Being the ever so dedicated photographer, he suggested meeting at Tower Bridge at 3am on Sunday morning. "Whaaa....?" Because of summer, the sun rises at about 4am and hence to do a pre dawn shoot we gotta meet earlier. Ok, it's gonna be one of the craziest things we are gonna do... being in our entire wedding gear at 4am at Tower Bridge. (I had negotiated from 3am to 4am.) Gabby being the amazing friend that she already is, came to stay over at our place on Saturday night and we woke up at 230am to do make up. 230am!! Earlier than the Teochew tradition... and Gabby didn't understand the whole concept. I was all dressed up for my wedding but hold on, it's not quite my wedding yet. And it was 4am. She must be thinking "you crazy people..." haha actually at that point in time, I concur.
We tried our best and arrived at Tower Bridge at (ahem) 430am where the sky was starting to turn bright. And our day started from there... it was definitely an interesting experience because I was certain we caused some slow moving traffic on Tower Bridge itself with cars honking in celebration of our wedding and people shouting "Congratulations!!" from car windows and flashing us thumbs up sign. I was not quite prepared for a warm reception like that. Especially when it wasn't quite our wedding day! Lol. A car slowed down and stopped beside us near Leadenhall Market. It was a family of 4. "Excuse me, are you guys getting married?" We smiled and said yes (don't need to complicate it further explaining it's not today though...) and they were like "Oh wow congratulations!! Happy marriage!!" What friendly people! Near St Paul's we were preparing to cross the road. Bearing in mind my big dress and we were about to do a jay walk when the big friendly London double decker bus slowed down for me. Wow at that moment, both K and I realised the power of a wedding dress. lol
Our dedicated photographer was in his element shooting us and it was so difficult to manoeuvre the big dress plus parts of the ground was wet (it rained overnight boo). Thankfully my sister in law was a great help. She held my dress, she gave me water, she passed me my phone when I needed it. And she had only 3h sleep herself (Thank you Denise!!). At 1030am, both K and I were so tired out, our mouths were literally fixed in a permanent smiling look, my knees were shaking because it was so windy and cold. As I said, fun but tiring. Very tiring.
How it worked was: we meet in the crack of dawn for a supremely early shoot, and then continue in the evening. So at 11am we parted ways outside the Royal Exchange and agreed to meet back again at 6pm for the evening/ night shoot. I won't bore you the all places we went to, but I hope to share on my blog when the pics are out :) At night, I was wearing this lace thin dress on Westminister Bridge walking up and down, posing with K and with the special LED light the photographer was using on us, we were literally in the spotlight. People stopped in their tracks and started taking photos of us! They must think we were some Asian celebrities?! haha I was both embarrassed and amused. And shivering too. It must have been nothing short of 10deg with the gale force winds. Can someone give me an award for bravery?!
I will share a shot of us last evening. I got it as a "preview" on Facebook. As I said, Douglas is amazingly talented and dedicated, even the speed is amazingly fast. I was barely thawed back at home when I saw this pic coming in on Facebook.
So yes the secret of THE dress is out now since we did the shoot. A bit sad, but I do have a second wedding dress for our Singapore wedding so I tell myself not all is lost after all. That one I am planning to keep it a real secret!
We just did a very tiring but fun photoshoot around London yesterday. But before that...
Different countries have different wedding traditions and culture. Telling my local friends here about a pre-wedding shoot they have no clue what I am talking about. The wedding dress is meant to be worn first on the wedding day and it is THE moment, for the groom to admire his bride walking down the aisle for the first time (and probably shed some tears). The dress is always kept a secret, not even shared among friends. It is that big an affair. And then back in Singapore, the couple goes down to the bridal studio to choose the dress and the suit to rent together. It is very much a joint decision. So when I went back last October to choose my gown with my girl friends, the designer at the bridal shop was feeling rather sorry for me. He went "oooh Belinda I am so sorry your fiancé cannot be here with you... am sure your girlfriends are making up for it." And I had to laugh out saying it's okay because it isn't that bad, really. And I was hoping to keep it a secret for as long as I can until the actual day.
Of course being Singaporeans, we still were keen to do a pre wedding shoot although I was trying to make it more a post wedding shoot to be done after the wedding so K won't see me in my gown before 29th June. (Are you already confused by my "pre wedding" vs "post wedding" shoot? hehe) However as the photographer Douglas was only here in London for a limited time, it was difficult to schedule for a post wedding outdoor shoot and hence we had to agree to do it a week before the wedding.
Yup so yesterday was the day! Being the ever so dedicated photographer, he suggested meeting at Tower Bridge at 3am on Sunday morning. "Whaaa....?" Because of summer, the sun rises at about 4am and hence to do a pre dawn shoot we gotta meet earlier. Ok, it's gonna be one of the craziest things we are gonna do... being in our entire wedding gear at 4am at Tower Bridge. (I had negotiated from 3am to 4am.) Gabby being the amazing friend that she already is, came to stay over at our place on Saturday night and we woke up at 230am to do make up. 230am!! Earlier than the Teochew tradition... and Gabby didn't understand the whole concept. I was all dressed up for my wedding but hold on, it's not quite my wedding yet. And it was 4am. She must be thinking "you crazy people..." haha actually at that point in time, I concur.
We tried our best and arrived at Tower Bridge at (ahem) 430am where the sky was starting to turn bright. And our day started from there... it was definitely an interesting experience because I was certain we caused some slow moving traffic on Tower Bridge itself with cars honking in celebration of our wedding and people shouting "Congratulations!!" from car windows and flashing us thumbs up sign. I was not quite prepared for a warm reception like that. Especially when it wasn't quite our wedding day! Lol. A car slowed down and stopped beside us near Leadenhall Market. It was a family of 4. "Excuse me, are you guys getting married?" We smiled and said yes (don't need to complicate it further explaining it's not today though...) and they were like "Oh wow congratulations!! Happy marriage!!" What friendly people! Near St Paul's we were preparing to cross the road. Bearing in mind my big dress and we were about to do a jay walk when the big friendly London double decker bus slowed down for me. Wow at that moment, both K and I realised the power of a wedding dress. lol
Our dedicated photographer was in his element shooting us and it was so difficult to manoeuvre the big dress plus parts of the ground was wet (it rained overnight boo). Thankfully my sister in law was a great help. She held my dress, she gave me water, she passed me my phone when I needed it. And she had only 3h sleep herself (Thank you Denise!!). At 1030am, both K and I were so tired out, our mouths were literally fixed in a permanent smiling look, my knees were shaking because it was so windy and cold. As I said, fun but tiring. Very tiring.
How it worked was: we meet in the crack of dawn for a supremely early shoot, and then continue in the evening. So at 11am we parted ways outside the Royal Exchange and agreed to meet back again at 6pm for the evening/ night shoot. I won't bore you the all places we went to, but I hope to share on my blog when the pics are out :) At night, I was wearing this lace thin dress on Westminister Bridge walking up and down, posing with K and with the special LED light the photographer was using on us, we were literally in the spotlight. People stopped in their tracks and started taking photos of us! They must think we were some Asian celebrities?! haha I was both embarrassed and amused. And shivering too. It must have been nothing short of 10deg with the gale force winds. Can someone give me an award for bravery?!
I will share a shot of us last evening. I got it as a "preview" on Facebook. As I said, Douglas is amazingly talented and dedicated, even the speed is amazingly fast. I was barely thawed back at home when I saw this pic coming in on Facebook.
So yes the secret of THE dress is out now since we did the shoot. A bit sad, but I do have a second wedding dress for our Singapore wedding so I tell myself not all is lost after all. That one I am planning to keep it a real secret!
Comments