First overseas wedding of the year was in Jakarta. What was so different about this wedding was:

1. it was on my birthday!
2. it’s Fiona’s brother’s wedding!
3. as i said before, it’s in Jakarta!
4. a sniper in a wedding (a real one, not camera ‘snipers’!)
5. a president (a real one too!)….hehehheh

Never having met Suseng before, we were whisked to his place on the morning of the wedding day and started to snap away right after our brief introductions. Suseng had presented Hermes ties to all his heng tais and that added a nice touch of yellowish gold to their already smart suits and off they went to pick up the bride from her place back to Suseng’s place for the massive tea ceremony. When i say massive, it’s because his family is huge! I think at least 150 – 200 (if not more) people were in his house at that point.

It rained cats and dogs but i heard that it’s a sign of good luck to have it rain really heavily on your wedding day. Unless you plan to have an outdoor garden wedding, then you’d need to have Fiona to shoot your wedding because not only is she a really good photographer, she can ‘mind control’ weather too!

After the Tea Ceremony, we then adjourned to Hyatt’s “On Five”, a cozy little area next to the pool where the Church ceremony was held. Decorated with pretty white flowers, crystals, drapes and a woolly walk-in carpet, the place look amazingly dreamy, like in an enchanted white forest!

It was quite an emotional moment when Suseng read his vows and teared up, which made his lovely bride, Jessica tear up as well, together with a whole lot of other guests. There were many tissues being passed around that day! The cutest part was that both Jessica & Suseng had their vows on cue cards held up for them by a bridesmaid and bestman, just in case…

The wedding reception the next day can be described in one word…..MASSIVE! When i say massive, i mean massive! And it was really ….. here it comes again… MASSIVE!

It all started with the family photos. A local Indonesian photographer was assigned to shoot the formal family portraits but i managed to steal some shots using a slow shutter (Hence the motion blur!). With a huge family, you must have a huge backdrop, and you must have huge lights to light up the entire huge family. Did i say huge too many times? The picture below is Fiona and her 8 other brothers and sisters! (1 sister missing as she had to rush back to HK!) And add up the husbands and wifes and children, that’s huge right?

A huge ballroom, maybe twice the size of KL’s largest ballroom, a huge white gondola-ish stage with many lighted globes, 2 mingling areas, a band of musicians, at least 4 food stations, massive amount of flowers transforming the place into a garden-like setting, and countless guest coming from all over the world, not to mention the many security personnel including one real life sniper (i didn’t actually see him with his gun, but he was carrying something huge on his back) to protect Indonesian President Susilo Bambang and ex-President Megawati who attended the event.  If that’s not massive, i don’t know what is!

The one other thing that was different was that in Indonesian weddings, guests don’t really sit down and eat the full 8-9 course dinners. They actually eat as and when they want but the “must do” tradition is to go up stage and greet the bride and groom and their respective families. So imagine, more than three thousand guests waiting for their turn to shake the happy couple’s hands. I think that’s all the bride and groom did for a solid 2 hours!

After Suseng and Jessica had finished shaking hands with everyone, the bridesmaids and the groomsmen went up on stage to present a musical number to the bride and groom. Suseng, not wanting to be out-staged by them, decided to take the stage himself to belt out 2 songs for his lovely beautiful wife Jessica. He wowed everyone with his singing (even Fiona didn’t know that her brother could carry a tune so well!) and made a tear or two roll off Jessica’s cheeks.

The funniest part of the night was when it was time for Jessica to toss the bouquet. I was very shocked to see two grown men fighting with a young girl barely into her teens (Fiona’s niece, Coco) to catch the bouquet! Believe me, the guy in the striped shirt really wanted the bouquet! And he got it! It’s ok Coco, you’re still young and have another wedding to go to, to hopefully catch the bouquet….

So aunty Fiona, when can your niece catch your bouquet? Hint Hint!!

Adding to Chaswood’s already impressive portfolio of F&B outlets are newly opened Markethall and Bedroom at the Pavilion. Located on the 6th floor, the two outlets are adjoining with two separate entrances.

Markethall looks and feels exactly as it sounds, but think of it as the posh, upmarket, high-end kind of market you find in Australia. Markethall is spacious. In one corner you can imported foodstuff and condiments. In another, is a semi open concept kitchen with one area dedicated to fresh greens and fresh seafood. The decor is slightly rustic. I love the raw wooden benches, netted grills and paint buckets that hang over the dining tables. (thankfully they arent filled with real paint!)

If you are curious and explore past the end of Markethall, you’ll find a small opening to a cozy private dining and wine area fit for 10-12 pax. On the other side is Bedroom, a lush bar/lounge beautifully decorated with Persian rug designed prints placed in classical Europena-styled wooden frames, hanging above you on the ceiling! And to keep with the bedroom theme, you have an entire rack of fluffy white pillows to lie on, lull in and fight with at your expense!

I ended up having a fee drinks at Bedroom in between my daytime and evening shoot! It’s a pretty cool place for after hours drinks! So check out Markethall and Bedroom if you’re in the Bukit Bintang area and if you’re hosting a private dinner party, the Wineroom would be perfect!

I take off to the US tomorrow and am looking forward to my 2-week  vacay, my good friend Rita’s wedding, catching up with all Ma’ Girlies and mostly likely return with a new art addition on me! (and not forgetting a few iPad 2′s !)

California & Texas here I come!
Have a great weekend y’all!!!

Trips to Penang, even short 1-day ones are always fun because it means a chance to eat my favorite Sister’s CKT breakfast or a Green House supper! Day trips are hectic & tiring but worth the while! Just like any other Penangite food lover, it’s the food that ends up becoming the main highlight of the stay!

This time, I had one more thing to look forward to – our family portrait session with Ching, William and Mikey! Based in Melbourne, we were recommended to her by Pauline, our Client/friend who we shot her pre-wedding, wedding and portraits in the past 3 years. Having communicated with Ching via email for the past 6 months, I was stoked to finally meet her in person! And I wasn’t surprised to find her as sweet in real life as she is on email!

I also got to meet their 14-month old baby Mikey who’s chirpy demeanor was a BIG bonus for me! He smiled and laughed the entire time, being swung about in the sea and playing in the sand! He was also easily amused by the birds in the sky and thankfully I had discovered that trick early in the shoot and strategically used the word “bird!”, pointing to the sky and that would just catch his attention! (even though there were no birds 50% of the time, he was still amused!) Steve even used the magic word on me, pointing AT me, so he’d look my way thinking I’m BIG BIRD!! And it worked like a charm!

We headed to the Spice Gardens afterwards and despite the mosquito attacks, we had an exciting mini adventure by the huge swing and finding a centipede! The weather also stayed perfect for us! It was a funfilled day and looking back at the photos, I remember what a blast I had with Baby Mikey & gang!

…Bird…bird…

bird…

my favorite shot of the day!

Baby Mikey finally gave into his boredom!

…the GAP family…

The last time I was in Guangzhou was in October when I went shopping for bathroom accessories and household fittings. That was a nightmare, not because of the language barrier (I speak “poor” Mandarin but could get by perfectly fine, especially with Anny who was there to help me translate) or anything else but poorly because of the abundant choices that were available and trying to balance design, practicality and costs was a big headache. If you’re into design and have ever done any renovations before, you’d know that beautiful things aren’t necessarily the most practical. Let’s not even bring price into the picture! So, it’s been quite a fun and challenging journey for me trying to balance all 3 aspects of interior design! I get to use both my left and right brains in the process and am really enjoying seeing things down to the nitty gritty details to ensure its aesthetically pleasing, practical and cost effective.

My trip to Guangzhou this time was nowhere close to a headache. In fact, I had a blast being spoilt rotten for choices!

Upon arrival, we visited Zhu Jiang Xin Cheng Furniture Mall in Guangzhou, just for a look see and price checks. I was initially quite apprehensive because all the things I like are modern furniture and I was afraid I’d only find the cheesy China-made stuff. Oh boy I was sooooooo wrong! So the first day was a good one – I had found a few sofas, chairs, shelving and other items I liked, a lot. All things were KIV until after Shunde, Foshan which was the main purpose of the trip.

The next day, we drove to Shunde, an hour’s drive from Guangzhou city.

I was very impressed and amazed as I stood in the middle of the Louvre Furniture mall in Shunde. I stood in awe as I stood amidst the 183,000 square meter (that’s 2 MILLION square feet, mind you!). 8 storeys of shops, all furniture! Holy Crap! Just name what style you like and they WILL have it! Neoclassical furniture, modern, post modern, antique, wood, classic Italian… The list goes on! Forget about backward China. Forget about cheesy china-made items. That was like 20 years ago. The modern stuff you find in this mall alone is more than all the modern furniture places you find in KL! And the best part is, they are sold at a fraction of the cost! (well, ok to be honest the prices aren’t as cheap as I had expected, well at least not for the items I chose anyway. The better quality stuff, you get at probably 1/2 the price as compared to KL. If you choose to have leather, it gets quite expensive! There was an imported chair I liked that cost RM4000! We managed to bargain it down to RM3000 after half an hour of negotiations and purchasing other items at the store) What’s also cool about shopping in China – you can pretty much custom make everything! From material to color to measurement which is probably why I enjoyed it so much! I even made FIFOTO carpets!

The entire main street of Shunde is lined with gigantic furniture malls. The street is at least 1 km long! GO FIGURE!

The mall next to Louvre, which we only had 30mins for, was lower end and I found the same exact items for even less! So.. If you have the patience and energy to hunt down the best prices, Shunde is the place for you!

This trip to China was certainly an eye-opener. Sure, I know all things nowadays are made in China and of course, I know Shanghai is a cosmo city and I constantly hear my dad sing praises of how the Chinese can do the impossible, etc but you don’t really know or more so, your mindset doesn’t really change from hearsay. This time, I witnessed it for myself and I must admit, am impressed!

All I have to say is… I’m PROUD to be Chinese!

Here are some cool finds!

I bought these… One side of the bed – A bunny!

The other side of the bed – The Pistol…. and on the floor, a rabbit carpet! MUAHAHAHAHAHA

I absolutely love these red “Jimmy Choo” chandeliers but thought it would outlive its novelty within a few months…

… and this is comfy chair!