March wedding updates

March wedding flurry takes us closer to the wedding march. Here are all the highlights:

Commissioner of oaths - We went to the commissioner of oaths to confirm that we were actually the same people as those in the wedding application forms. I swear, it's a bizarre but fascinating process: "Is this girl in the photo the same girl as her?" "Yes." Chop. Chop. Chop. "Is this man in the photo the same person as him?" "Yes." Chop. Chop. Chop. Done.

The Chinese dinner - We visited seven Chinese restaurants to enquire about having our Chinese family dinner there. Incredibly, all of them had our date vacant (seriously, nobody wants to marry on our date!). Some, you walk in, and you immediately know it's a no. I fell in love with one, and there's also another distinct possibility. Here's to an April of decisionmaking!

The rings - We explored one option, which was prohibitively expensive, went back and forth as the price came down but not down down down and we moved on, explored other leads and we think we've arrived at a decision: a local jeweler. Custom designs. Apparently my stubby finger is a size 15.

The gown - Yes, yes, we sat down with a friend who's a designer and Athalia talked about what she wanted as he (the designer) weaved his magical pencil up and down a piece of paper. One hour later, another custom design was born. Two words: "flowy" and "chiffon".

The suit - Aha. After once declaring that I'll be a one-suit man for life (I'll get married in this suit, I'll get buried in this suit"), I ate my words and decided to get something less businessy and more retro-fitting for the wedding. An afternoon's shopping with Athalia and Shu led me to what we think is the one. Three words: mad skinny retro.

The fabric - More shopping as the wedding carousel cranks up another notch - Athalia, her mum and her gown designer hit Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman to trek through one trillion fabric shops. She came back with a great report, plonking it down for 7 metres of champagney chiffon, 3 metres of lining, and four different swaths of green chiffon (pic) as samples for the bridesmaids' dresses. And all this while I was sitting on my arse!

Actually, not quite.

The budget - We both continue to bring home the daily bread and squint at it as we assemble, disassemble and reassemble our wedding budget spreadsheet. I'm telling you, the similarities between costing for a wedding and a film shoot are amazing.

The rockout friends dinner - Ok, so I've left one of the most exciting ones to the end - just today, we received the confirmation email from the venue for our rockout friends dinner! After a bit of ding-dong with negotiations, all is agreed and we just have to saunter over there with a briefcase full of money labeled "downpayment". That's coming up this week, with much thanks to Eevon, our in-brand wedding planner of awesomeness.

And so, as you can see, March has not been a quiet month for us after all! Quite the contrary - there's been a lot of loud, exultant exclamatory words being bandied around all month, like "Yay!" and "Wheee!" and "Westilldon'thaveaphotographer!"