The Chinese Wedding Shop

A couple of weeks ago, Mom, darling & myself spent an entire Saturday shopping for the traditional Guo Da Li stuff. Mom wanted to go check stuff out at Chinatown which we were alright with since we had already reserved the entire day for her.

Needless to say, Chinatown didn't work out as most of the shops selling traditional stuff, had only Chinese speaking staff. Mom can manage Hokkien but Mandarin is way off for her.

We settled down at Yum Cha for a tim sum lunch before deciding to head to The Chinese Wedding Shop in Ang Mo Kio. Darling & I had ealier discovered this shop hidden off the Hub & we were so pleased that the owners not only could speak perfect English, they could also explain everything in great details according to the different dialect groups.

Tim Sum lunch at Yum Cha. Was good after all the walking we did in Chinatown.

My favourite century egg porridge. I MUST have this if we eat tim sum. It just completes the meal.

The Chinese Wedding Shop

A very cool place, neatly organised & you really can get EVERYTHING settled here when it comes to chinese wedding tradition. Heck they even picked a good date for us to have the Guo Da Li. How cool is that?

Michelle took the time to patiently explain the meaning of all the items to mom & make recommendations. They even have packages according to the different dialects. The packages were flexible. Like for example, being Catholics, it won't be necessary for us to light up the dragon & phoenix candles & so she took those out of our package & reduced the cost for us.

We added on the bedsetting set which comprises of a tray of sweet stuff & ang pows. That symbolises many offsprings for the couple.

The basic package is more or less like the above. For the baby bathtub set, we replaced the life sized ones for miniature ones. According to Michelle, they symbolise the same thing & is alright to use. We didn't even have to pay extra for that!

The items for the groom to bring over will be nicely packed in baskets (apparently, there's a certain order to arranging the items). The baskets are for rental at no extra cost so we just have to return them within the next couple of days. Everything else will either be packed in nice Double Happiness bags or have the Double Happiness stickers pasted on them.

What we found remarkably impressive was the focus & patience that Michelle had in answering ALL our questions & also in making good suggestions when it came to deciding what to buy & what to leave out. She was a fantastic help & we all left happy. There isn't even any left over stuff to do for the Guo Da Li. All we need to do now is to pick up the stuff from the shop two days before Guo Da Li. Nice! :)

To round up the day, we headed a few doors down to the Hong Kong dessert place. Gosh, it was such a good choice!!!! The desserts were yummy!!!

Darling's milk pudding with some boiled pear thingy. It's supposed to cool down the body temperature.

For me, I headed straight for the mango with pamelo bits in it. Never goes wrong. Mom had a mango smoothie. Wish we had more days like these. Great feeling of satisfaction after getting something done for the wedding with minimal stress & plenty of fun.

* Some of the pictures above are taken from The Wedding Shop. Thanks Michelle! :)

On a side note, Nan & Ah Ma would have been so happy for us. It would have been such a special moment for them to participate in our wedding. At the same time, they would have been beaming with pride to know that we are doing all the traditional chinese wedding customs & also not forgetting to keep a little of the Eurasian customs. A pity they are no longer with us but I'm sure they are smiling at us from above & nodding their heads in approval. :)

A baby cradled in your arms
Teaching me your gentle charms.
Growing up with you by my side
Learning from you never to hide.
To understand & not to judge.
To practice love & kindness you did impart.
Through the years you've watched me grow
Teaching me everything I'd need to know.
Listening to every word I've said
And every word I've written you read.
You've been there for me till the end.
Until the day for you, God did send.
Now you watch me from up above
Shining down on me your heavenly love.
I will miss you with all my heart
Thank you for being there from the start.