Love, Love Me Do

I’m back! After a long sabbatical in Singapore and Japan, I finally have regular internet access. Please forgive the lack of posts and Spotlight features. This Sunday, I will feature my all time favorite wedding photographer, Jose Villa, who has been featured in countless wedding magazines and top 10 lists. Charmaine and Kon actually managed to snag him for their wedding (I’m so envious!).

I love how the traditional details like fuschia peonies, tang yuan, cheongsam and candle with ‘Xi’ words are made modern. I like the leafy centerpieces and the emerald green cheongsam with its glittering phoenix. And I wonder which talented baker created the beautiful art deco wedding cake. Can someone tell me please?

These days, when I post on this site, it is with a lot of guilt because I have been taking far too long in between postings! I am so sorry! But I really promise you exciting contents to come. In September, I am flying off to Leh, India to attend a wedding and I can’t wait! Meanwhile, there is a green-themed wedding to attend in two weeks’ time. Loads and loads of pictures to come…

Now, I am finally getting down to the topic I’ve been meaning to write - Wedding cakes or pastries for distribution to family and relatives. These cakes could be part of “Guo Da Li” which is really the delivery of Chinese wedding gifts by the groom as a display of sincerity in his intent to marry, respect and also demonstration of his ability to support the family after marriage. Typically it would consist of a consortment of goodies like dried seafood, canned fruits, liquors or even the roast pig, along with dowry, red cloth. Honestly, I cannot tolerate such traditions though and did not go through it myself. It’s simply too troublesome and why take dried or canned food that is choked with preservatives?! Save it for the wedding dinner, I say.

Nonetheless, I did go ahead with the distribution of the cakes to relatives. They don’t cost much and make people smile when they receive gifts. Ah, to make your relatives smile - that is something pretty subjective at times. Simply because the older folks might have different expectations from what you think and at times, some people just love to criticise. Yet, when you win them over, you hear praises from the end of the island. So which cakes to buy, so that you are ensured a smooth wedding experience? 

The usual and most economical cakes would be butter (marble) cakes or fruit cakes. I bought mine from Bengawan Solo because it was the most economical ones and the taste was reasonable. Recently, I went to Tong Heng Confectionery and was amazed by the kind of names they label their wedding pastries. For example, there are “Blissful Crisps” that “come loaded with the authentic taste and symbolism of matrimonial bliss, continuity of futrue generations and nuptial blessings“, as I read from Tong Heng phamplet. There is also “Dragon Phoenix Cake with Lotus Seed Paste” - this is really interesting because dragon and pheonix actually represents the groom and bride, whom when paired together, is a symbol of harmony.  I can’t locate the Tong Heng Confectionery website though I found a very good blog posting on their pastries. 

Picture by Sparklette

Another shop that I am impressed by is LE Cafe Confectionery. This store is famous for its pineapple tarts and beancurd egg tarts. The latter make you feel that eating egg tarts is never a sinful thing ever again. They offer wedding cakes that look really colourful and would appeal to couples who want to go along the modern trends. However, I have to warn you, this store is famous and that unfortunately comes with a kind of attitude…if you get what I mean.

Wedding Cakes by Le Cafe

In modern times, before there is a wedding, there is love. Normally. 

A favorite game among bridesmaids to tease the groom before he could win his bride over, is to make him say “I love you” in at least 10 languages. It can be easy or difficult, depending on how demanding the bridesmaids want to be. Guys, prepare yourself and show off your linguistic talents. Take a note from the image below.

Image created by Ryan Dwyer

Sorry folks, I know I have been missing out on posts here! There is a whole lot of posts waiting to be written but I am so caught up on other fronts of life.

Yesterday, it was the soft launch for The Wedding Mansion, a whole new concept in Singapore of having a couple of independent wedding professionals housed under the same roof. There are some very unique offerings and goodness, where have they been hiding all these while? Watch out for coming posts on these professionals. There are just too many and I am even more convinced that there is no reason local weddings should be boring! Today, I intended to write about wedding cakes and pastries, usually given as gifts to relatives along with the wedding invitation cards. Unfortunately, something more important cropped up - Housework.

Allow me to douse your spirits of getting married a bit, just to make sure your feet are on the ground.

I had been cleaning the house for past weeks already, by myself. The hubby had either been sick, too tired from practising for a marathon, and the latest, from the marathon itself. And I had been busy too but I can’t stand a dirty house. Granted that most of the foreign articles on the floor actually come from me - my hair, wire bits, loose beads, I just had to clean up. And then, there’s the laundry. Even though there is a washing machine that does the job, there is no auto-ironing function! So, the clothes though clean, have been piling up on the iron board. And there is the bug problem. If you can afford, try to buy quality furniture rather than from this shop which logo is blue and yellow. Budget constraints forced us to buy 90% of our furniture and finishings from that shop. The wood is soft and it is best not to leave the tabletops or the cabinets moist. We had been pretty vigilant about that but somehow little brown bugs had been invading our kitchen.  I really have no clue what they are and I am trying not to believe that they are little nymphs of some undesirable creatures. They would be found dead beside the water tank, around the oven, the sink. We hardly cook or spend time in the kitchen so the bug presence was really puzzling. Until we opened the main top cabinet that is cramped with tupperwares of sugar, salt and more bottles of oil, soy sauce and the instant food. More bugs found. We took out the middle wooden plank that separates the cabinet into two storeys. Oh my God. That wooden plank was literally infested!!! We figured that it was the moisture from the packet drinks that were previously from the refrigerator. The plank was subjected to heavy insecticide treatment and dumped unceremoniously.

Scary huh. I never had to deal with all these nonsense before marriage. And I just have to point it out to those who are going to have their first house together for no one or media pointed that out to me. I know I am not alone too. My married friends all have bigger house than me and in the end, they dread the cleaning so much that it’s done just once in two weeks. They could live with it because as they say, the floor is blue, can’t see the dirt…

My advice after those horrible experience? Set an irrevocable agreement with your spouse-to-be about the cleaning schedule, take a good look at each other’s hygiene habits and don’t stinge on quality furniture. A clean, tidy and uncluttered house is good fengshui, creating a pleasant and romantic environment too. In the period of some mutated virus going around, take care of each other’s health!

p.s. My house floor is shiny beige-white and I intend to maintain that!

Before I start on a new post, I realized I made a boo-boo about the si dian jin. Many thanks to Ruth and Joyceln for pointing it out. Do please read their comments. Now, at least I know there are real people reading this blog!

Topic of the Day: Let’s talk about beauty. I have not written on this topic for some time already, considering my own cutback on monies spent in this area. It had just been a good simple routine of cleansing and moisturizing, and yes, I skip the toner part. Since the wedding, my skin has been looking alright but not fantastic. I would still need a greal deal of photoshop.

Recently, I came across Persian Rose. Both the hubby and I were completely enticed by the scent and forgot about tightening the purse strings. What I am going to introduce you is what I have tested on myself for consecutive 5 days.

The secret lies in the Rose

Persian Rose is organic and painstakingly handmade from Damask Rose, a premium rose breed that grows in the mountains of Iran, previously known as Persia. Rose oil has long been known for its gentleness and effectiveness on acne-scarred and eczema skin. The fragrance of rose oil and rose water is therapeutic and thus often used in aromatherapy.

I bought two products from this brand, organic hydrating face mask and organic rose hand cream.

First, the face mask: It’s actually green clay mixed with rose oil, aloe vera and other minerals. It promises to improve the elasticity of the skin, detoxify and rejuvenate it. The first time I applied it, I was caught by surprise by the rapid rate it dries up. And it was a thick layer that I smeared on. What was noteworthy was the tightness felt. I have always played around with clay mask but this mask from Persian Rose seems exceptionally tight. After ten minutes, I washed it off easily. The skin did feel smooth. The next morning, upon close examination, I thought the reddish parts of my face seem to be less obvious now. I continued the regime for the next four days. On the 2nd day, my sister commented that the foundation I had on had really good coverage. I blinked, what foundation? All I had on my face was the usual oil control powder which has no coverage powers. On the 3rd day, my hubby kissed me on the cheeks and remarked that he never realized that they were so smooth. Tata! My secret lies in the face mask.

Hydrating Face Mask

It’s interesting that the mask should work for me because I have oily skin. The mask says “hydrating”. It did not make my face oilier and instead, make the pores less visible. The instructions for the usage of the face mask is to use it once to twice a week. For sake of experimenting, I used it for a consecutive period of 5 days. I think I will switch back to the recommended frequency for the bottle costs S$70.

Organic Hand Cream

Next: The organic rose hand cream. Containing shea butter and vitamin E, it promises to soften hands and encourages healthy nail growth. Ever since I started to play with handcrafting, I have been developing calluses around the cuticles and broken nails. To go to the manicure has been kind of money wasting as they cannot last over three days. And having a house to take care of since marriage also means hands roughened by all that housework. The organic rose hand cream sounded like a good investment. For the past three nights, I had been applying them before sleep. The fragrance is wunderbar. To sleep soundly like a baby, you don’t need to use only Johnsons and Johnsons now. The cream isn’t too heavy and can be absorbed easily. I only needed to dab a little, amount of probably a-third of a teaspoon. And yes, the hand feels so soft and still smells great the next morning.

Brides can consider introducing the regime of applying the green clay mask regularly for smooth and calm skin. The hand cream is definitely useful. Remember, wedding photography likes to focus on your, ahem, fingers and that ring.

Another product that’s fascinating me is the organic rose eye gel. It promises to reduce fine lines, puffiness and dark circles under the eyes. Even more importantly, it can enhance the healthy growth of lashes. Looking bright-eyed for the wedding is a must. Given its organic nature, I have no qualms about chemical or metal contamination.

Eye Gel

Persian Rose is carried by a sole distributor which site is here. RunRave is helping to carry these too. If you like a sample, come down to The Wedding Mansion at 20 Emerald Hill, Singapore.

If you are a lucky bride, you might just get some trousseau from your mother before the wedding. It is in the Cantonese Teochew Chinese tradition to give “si dian jin” which is contributed by the in-laws and sometimes, your own mum. In other races and religions, it could be wholly borne by the bride’s family instead.

Giving trousseau is really a dying tradition though. We squirm at the sight of thick gold bracelets or huge bulky chains that make you look like loansharks. You might just keep them under lock and key and they will never see light till you’re ready to marry off your own daughter and this time, you make sure she suffers your same fate.

Nah, I am just kidding about the last part. How about a whole new refreshing idea of trousseau? Someone called it a hope chest. I love that idea. A hope chest is an accumulation of items collected since your girl is young. The items represent her growth, you as a Mother and the bond between both. For example, a fountain pen to commemorate her first day in school, a pair of earrings that will last forever on the day of her first date, or even an apron to celebrate her first edible cooking. Of course, you might just need to throw in some newer stuffs when the time to hand over has come. It is all about leaving behind a legacy for your next generation, not recycled stuffs!

Photo credits to Wide Open Spaces

A legacy