Venues Venues Venues

Right after my lovely, spontaneous museum trip with my school kids today (only 5 turned up), I stopped by the library to pick up some wedding books for tips and ideas on how to PLAN my wedding.

That's like the very TIP of an iceberg. Seriously.

I need a wedding planner.

I spent the rest of the evening on google with Clare who complained to me what a slow turtle I am at checking out over 10 venues on weddingku.com one at a time! Fine.. I gave in. I let her take control and I swear.. by the time we're even halfway through, I got so exhausted that I was ready to fall asleep on my face even though my heart seems to be pumping over 200 beats a minute.

Why? Well that's cuz when I see pictures of venues, I just want to skip to all the other more 'interesting' details like what dress I should wear, what colour for the bridesmaid outfits, which theme should we go for, deciding whether to pick the traditional cathedral with no air condition, or the modern church close to our house......... *Snap* Blackberry alerted me. It's my maid of honour, or in short, MOH who always seem to pop up at the right time (although she is in Jakarta at the moment). There she is forcing me back to reality. Venue first, she reminded me. FINE.

I came back to earth to Clare who is still painstakingly 'open-in-new-tab'bing all 50 of the featured venues in one go. MAN THIS IS CRAZY i thought. Can I go now?

She showed me each of the venues to which I answer "NO. No. Yes. Keep. No. NO. Yes"... THEN she complained again "Daph!! stop judging the venues based on the decor!"

It's true. I am looking at the decor.

HOWEVER, I also look at other aspects that we unsuspecting Bruneians have no need to worry about.. such as traffic jams, hotel arrangements, socio-economic area, transportation, accomodation, ...BUDGET...

SHIT this is tougher than i thought.

Bruneians have it good. Less choices but Good choices which is more than enough for me.

That's our amazing Empire Hotel. I wish there's that in Jakarta.

I need less choices!

I need a wedding planner.

We live in a small world

This morning at school, O* came in with his dad G*, who said to me

"Daphne, do you know that you're now a star?"

I got confused and asked why?

He answered "You're story was sent to all of us" loud enough for everyone to hear.

And then I realized that he works for Air New Zealand and had gotten the email from the CEO about the whole airplane drama :P

IM SO EMBARRASSED!!!!!!

I can only hope and pray that he won't start circulating the email to all the other parents.....

Small world indeed.

My sister Clare's birthday

21st of December is her birthday. She just turned 21..
A big moment, a ginormous leap into adulthood.

I really can't believe one moment, she was my cute little baby sister... and the next moment, she's this tall, beautiful chica.

Anyway so finding a birthday present wasn't easy. Soooo last minute! Everyone knows how stressful that can be.
However, I'm actually known for my last minute presents as they always turn out with an extra 'Bang'.

But that's not the point..

The point is... now that I'm officially engaged.. which is halfway through before being married, I have to start taking the other half into consideration.

While I was shopping for my sister, I saw many things that she would like.
And so I happily picked the right items without a second thought.

It came across my mind only after I paid at the counter that one day, all our presents would have to be labelled "From Andrew and Daphne" ...

Instead of "From Daphne" or "From Andrew"

Wearing an engagement ring IS a big deal

Eversince I was a little girl, I always believed that I shouldn't ever wear a ring on my left ring finger. So every time I played with dress ups and jewelries, that finger was forbidden and absolutely untouchable. It was reserved for my knight in shining armor. (Again, cliche much?). It was a strict regime and I continued that belief faithfully.

Reaching adolescence, there were many crushes and guy-friends.
I remember using excuses like "oh, I just get on better with guys more than girls" as an excuse to spend more phone time with my guy pals. Don't get me wrong, I still do have some of them around today despite distance and all that. But those were the days where life revolved around school and tuition, where worries were based on exams, gossips and sleepovers!

Around the testing period of 18 and over, many of us had already moved to different countries and pursued various careers. Got to meet new friends, a flurry of social activities, partying was my norm, drink(ing / games) were my favorite past time, and you know, I really began to open up. And I tell you, freedom was a wonderful thing. It tests you. It makes you aware of the environment and people around you.

At one stage, while I was dating prior to my fiance, I remembered how naive I was. I thought the world was a merry-go-round. I was so happy that there were actually early hopes of marriage. I had no idea of man's fear of getting attached emotionally, or on a long term basis and such. Living conditions for the future didn't matter.. and whether being stably financed was an issue. I wasn't going to have any of that thinking. I had no idea.

Today I am 26. That's nearly a decade ago. I cannot believe how much time has passed since then. I know that I have matured and grown up a lot though. Andrew and I have been dating for nearly 5 years now. 5 years of building our foundation. Im so glad that I have found someone who is able to plan ahead and shape the future.. our future.

And I never doubted it. From the moment he slipped the diamond ring on my finger, its like a halo has appeared over me. A beam of light. Despite our shaking hands, we were both ready for this moment. This is the feeling I've always imagined it'd be to finally have my future husband-to-be's ring on my forbidden finger. Everyday that passes makes it even better. The diamond seems to be glowing shinier and shinier... as if it knows my heart and how happy I feel as we begin to plan our wedding celebrations.

Story of my proposal

Funny thing, proposals...
They catch you off-guard, even if you have that knowing feeling... the real deal is a totally different experience.
...and especially if its to someone you love deeply.

My Andrew proposed to me in a special way. Its now been exactly a month So as a 1 month anniversary present (lol cliche?) , I've decided to continue my dormant blog and thus blog throughout the process of our wedding plans, plus tidbits of other interesting things.

Below is the letter we wrote to Air New Zealand's CEO. He wants to send our story to all 11,000+ Air NZ employees around the globe..

In some ways, a small part of me wants to keep it private. However, this is too good to keep to myself.

Andrew's always a step ahead of me.
I always thought that Andrew would propose in a high tower in front of city lights......privately.
Instead, he went higher than the highest tower, amongst the cottony clouds and the bright sun as our view.. Publicly !

_________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Rob,

I am the happiest man on Earth, who with the help of your AMAZING crew onboard flight NZ123 on 19 November 2010 bound to Melbourne, successfully attempted and experienced an incredible and heartwarming romantic proposal for my now fiancee, Daphne. As a form of our gratitude and appreciation, we would like to write a little (or long-ish) story of our journey. We do hope that this would put a smile on your face, as well as inspire you further on the AMAZING job you are doing with the airline... A special mention also goes to Air NZ staff Ben Willy Limisella, Andrew Shannon, Laki Domitakis, Errol Poutoa, Anthony Hart and the rest of the crew for their assistance in planning, and encouragement during the groom-to-be's excruciatingly nerve wrecking pre-proposal waiting period. (there's another crew member who took a big part in this whose name I unfortunately didn't remember, but he was this tall Asian man. A huge thanks to him!)

Everything was very smooth from check-in and the lounge experience. The build up nerve in the morning was especially excruciating and I have lost my apetite by the time we were in the lounge. Completely unaware of it all, Daphne was happily enjoying the lounge and really loving the homemade greek yoghurt! I wasn't sure whether the lounge staff knew what I was about to do, but as we left the lounge, one of them gave me the thumbs up and a wink. Ha!

When we got to the gate, the ground staff checked my passport and ticket, then he piped up suddenly and greeted us knowingly using our names and Daphne made a comment how truly amazing and "personalised" the service is!

The most part of the flight went uneventful, except that Daphne was sure I had caught something the night before as I kept going back and forth to the lavatory as an excuse to see the crew and discuss my proposal plan. When the time finally came, I had to return to the "lavatory" one last time. Daphne was then watching a travel documentary when the screen froze and the text PA SYSTEM IN PROGRESS appeared on it. Anthony (and the tall-big-asian man) made a quick introduction and I was suddenly in control of the PA system. Below was Daphne's own recollection of what happened.

When I heard his voice on the PA system, I was stunned. I thought I was just hearing his voice on my headphones but I quickly realised, to my horror, that his voice was heard through the entire plane! He was proposing!! I had no idea where in the plane he was doing it, and I didn't know whether to cry with joy or to hide with fear. When he finished telling everyone on the plane how much he loves me (everyone!) he returned to our seats, got down on one knee on the aisle, presented me with a beautiful ring and asked me if I would marry him. Of course I said YES (actually it was a vigorous nod as I couldn't get the words out even if I tried). We got up to everyone's cheer and clapping and the crew came to us with 2 flutes of champagne. Thank God for that, we can't think of another perfect timing for that doze of alcohol!

This was so unexpected for me as I never thought that something like this could ever happen in real life! And even if it were, I never thought that the service of the crew members could be so well organised and calm. They were all in on it but yet, they managed to carry about with their normal duties effectively and promptly. We are very very impressed with your airline.

Since then, we have had an amazing trip to Melbourne, and returned from a lovely holiday in the South Island (on Air NZ, of course.) We are still in the midst of planning our wedding which would most likely happen next year. Attached is a photo of us right after the proposal.

Once again, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you!


Warmest Regards,
Andrew Tanyono and Daphne Chen

picture

Feeling excited!

This Sunday, my mum and I are going to travel around China and Hong Kong for a month. We have been planning this trip for a few years now. And finally the day has arrived.. Last minute changes and bookings have just gotten us running amok. Visa applications, hotels, tours.. its all mentally challenging, I'd say.

After our month, I will fly straight to Taiwan to meet up with Andrew (my partner) and his mum and sister. Mum will return back to Brunei with a few friends that we have just found out are coincidentally going to be on the same flight. Andrew's family and I will then visit a few schools. Andrew's mum calls it an "educational trip" for our career/future lol. Yes i'm quite excited about the whole thing.

Oh and to continue again, We will then travel to Jakarta together for a few days of touring, then Andrew and I will travel back to Brunei in time for our friend's wedding on the 7th of July 2007 where I am appointed as one of the bridesmaids.

Andrew and I have been apart (distance wise) since middle of May. At the moment I am relaxing at home in Brunei. What a life it is! Everything at my fingertips. I don't think there will ever be a place like Brunei. I am basking in the glory of a new resurrection in the word freedom!

And don't get me started on food... This is where i say "home cooking is definitely THE best!"

...Well, let me verify that statement again after my trip! Cheerio for now.