Our wedding cake

We got to the restaurant at 1pm and posed for some pictures with our wedding cake first. Then I had to quickly rush outside and throw my bouquet. We had orginally decided to throw the bouquet at Newstead Abbey but as it was raining and time was restricted we decided to throw it at Mr Man’s instead.

Getting ready to throw the bouquet

My friend Aymii who really went for the bouquet

The lucky girl who caught it, well it actually hit the girl behind her on the left (Mimi) but she didn’t want it so it fell to Claire.

The guestbook which everyone signed.

Dave’s dad and granny. I’m in my second outfit which is a kwa for the tea ceremony.

Dave’s dad who got quite emotional at the Tea Ceremony

His parents

Bling bling

After the Tea Ceremony, I quickly got changed into my 3rd outfit as I couldn’t really lift my arms up properly in the kwa so I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat properly.

The So’s

My parents with Dave’s parents & granny

I only sat down to eat for the first 2 courses as I wanted to take more pictures with my family and friends. After food I got changed into the red cheongsam to do the cheers.I think 4 dress changes were 1 too many. If I had to do it again, I would only have gone for 3 dress changes.

Me with Gen & Georgia

Our rings

My hair

Cheers

Dave with his dad and best men

Martin’s speech - he read from a laptop cos he was too lazy to write it out

Dickie’s speech

Dickie brought Dave’s mom on stage to give her a big round of applause

My husband’s speech that was only written the night before.

Fun shoot with my cousins

At the end of the reception - No Dave was not drunk, they were just fooling around.

Thats all I have to say about our wedding, I may have rushed it all but I really didn’t want to write an essay. I don’t know when my next post will be as me and Dave will be really busy with our house so I hope you’ve all enjoyed reading my website.

Ciao
Mrs So
xoxo

The journey time to Newstead Abbey took just over 2 hours. We left Worcester at 8.30am and got stuck in abit of traffic but we still made it with plenty of time to spare. Our Ceremony was due to start at 11am but you have to get there at least 30 minutes before to sort out the paper work.

Getting out of a limousine was fun, especially with my long train.

When we got to Newstead Abbey, we were both taken to a room where we sat down in front of the official registrar. He then asked us to confirm all the information we gave when we applied for our notice of marriage. I was really nervous at that stage and then when Dave left to take his place at the Ceremony Room, I was even more nervous.

Dave and all our guest waiting for me to arrive.

Walking towards the ceremony room with my dad and bridesmaids

I walked down the aisle to Desree’s Kissing You. I was abit worried about the timing of the song as its not until 30 seconds into the song before she starts singing so I had to tell my bridesmaids exactly when to walk down. That way by the time I get to the front, she will have sung the 1st verse. Things didn’t exactly go to plan as she was still singing when I reached Dave. Oops

Making our declarations was the most nerve wracking, I was so determined to not mess up on the vows in front of everyone. We both actually got through it ok, thank god.

Exchanging rings

Heres a picture of Dave saying his own written vows to me. I didn’t cry, I always thought before our wedding that I would cry during his vows but I was just so happy I guess.

Then it was my turn to say my vows, theres me thinking the hard part is over, if I didn’t cry during Dave’s vows then I probably wouldn’t cry during mine. I was wrong. After the 1st sentance I was already bubbling. Then I couldn’t stop myself from crying, I had snot running down my nose and Dave had to wipe it for me. It made everyone laugh which is quite a memorable part on our wedding video.

Sealing the deal

Dave’s mom and his 2 best men, Martin amd Dickie

Dave’s family (minus his granny and Dad)

On our way out of the ceremony room

The confetti throwing and bubbles

A petal went down my dress and Dave thought he’d fish it out in front of everyone, luckily my parents were behind us so they didn’t see any of this.

The photographer decided it would be a good photo opportunity if Dave carried me away

One of my favourite pictures of us

My family

Dave’s family

The paparazzi

We took quite a few formal pictures outside and after we did a group photo, it started raining. So everyone went indoors and we continued taking more pictures. A lot more pictures hahaha, I won’t put them all up though.

The Tea Ceremony started with me and Dave kneeling down in front of my grandma. We then offer my grandma a cup of tea from each of us, in return she hands us a lai see (lucky red envelope) and says words to wish us well in our marriage.

In Chinese Wedding Traditions, the tea ceremony would start off with the eldest in the family and continue in desending order.

My Dad giving me a big lai see

My mom receiving her tea

Dave offering tea to my aunty

My aunty & uncle

My uncle giving me a gold bracelet on behalf of my aunty

Tea for my sister and her husband

Because my sister and I are of the same generation, me and Dave don’t have to kneel down in front of them. We all just stand up for the ceremony.

Some family pictures

Exiting my home with a red umbrella over my head

Handing out lai see to the kids who were at my house

Me & Dave with our best men and bridesmaids

All the guys

The Guys

My girls put a red ribbon across the front of the door to act like a line that the guys could not cross and it also looked very nice too.

They first made Dave put on a silly outfit which was a black Elvis type wig with a vest vest which had a 6 pack drawn on it and a hairy chest. The back of the vest had the words “I’m a property of Sally So” and to complete the outfit he had a blinging gold chain which had “Who’s the Daddy” on it.

The Hing dai’s also had something to wear. The night before, Fion and Pauline were customising some pants for the guys. They had red hearts on the front and my name on the back.

As with most Chinese Weddings, the guys are meant to go through 4 stages, sweet, sour, bitter and hot. My girls had prepared a nice breakfast for the guys hahaha first up it was the wasabi buns which was just a starter. Fion had baked the Wasabi buns by hand and she put a good helping of the wasabi in the centre.

The sweetness was a bowl of Orange Jelly and Maple syrup which was deadly sweet.

The sourness was lemon wedges with the juice from a bottle of jalapenos

The bitterness was a mug of strong cold black coffee

The hotness was a bowl of jalapenos

After the food and drink, my gee mui’s demanded 3 guys to get their legs waxed. Pauline waxed the 2 best men first, Martin and Dickie.

Then Hing was nominated to have his leg waxed. Dickie decided to wax it for him and ripped it off so fast that there was still wax on Hing’s leg.

Next came the group sing along which Fion printed out the lyrics for the Savage Garden song - Truly Madly Deeply. The guys didn’t even sing in unison, all I could hear from my bedroom was them mumbling to the song.

Dave had to do a solo aswell. Fion chose a song by Adam Sandler from the film ‘The Wedding Singer’. Its called ‘Grow Old with you’ but Dave had no idea what the song went like so it was really funny, hearing him attempt to sing it.

My Gee Muis of course wouldn’t let Dave through without first shouting “I love Sally” to me and also getting the lai see from him and his Hing dai’s

Lastly he had to read a pledge to me at the bottom of the stairs before he came up to get me and give me my bouquet.

My train was so long that Dave couldn’t walk down the stairs with me, he had to wait behind me

I should start off with the day before cos thats when it really started. Well I had my older sis Helen and my cousin Michelle with me in the morning. We had a few things to get from town like flowers to decorate the Weddiing Cake table and some gel pads for my feet. Then the we went for a nice lunch to calm my nerves, I wasn’t feeling nervous if I remember, I was excited and just wishing for the day to arrive already.

In the afternoon my 2 best friends and bridesmaids, Fion and Pauline arrived from Birmingham. My flowers also got delivered in the afternoon but it was unlucky that during the unloading process, 1 of the bridesmaids roses from the bouquet broke off and 1 of my roses on my bouquet got bent. I was a little upset but there was nothing I could do, I wasn’t there when it got delivered but thats probably what you get when you pick the cheapest florist.

We had to do quite abit of running around that day, my bridesmaids had to go and buy the stuff for the door games so I took them to the supermarket and they also had to check into their hotel and have dinner at my house too. At about 7pm I tried on all my dresses in front of all the girls cos they hadn’t seen any of them yet and then at 8pm, everyone left and I got ready for bed.

I did not get any sleep the night before my wedding, even though I got into bed at 9pm, I even watched a really boring film but I still could not sleep. I think I only managed to get 30 mins sleep before I woke up at 4am.

The Wedding Day

I started the morning with a cup of coffee and 2 slices of toast cos I didn’t want my tummy to rumble during our ceremony hehe. I then did my make up, well just the base as Helen would be doing my eyes for me. At 5am Fion, Helen and Pauline arrived at my house, it was still dark and we had to be ready by 7am. Prior to the wedding day I had printed out our wedding day schedule for only the key players i.e bridesmaid, best men, photographers etc…

My hairdresser arrived at about 6.20am, she was late but she still completed my hairstyle in time. Although I think she kinda rushed it but most people said it looked ok until you got close to my hair and you could see it was a little bit messy.

All my flowers had to be trimmed aswell so my little sis Mary and my cousin Kim were cutting them at 6.30am. Our videographer arrived at around that time too so he was filming all the preparations and to be honest he really didn’t get in the way, even through the whole day both videographers were kinda just in the background which was a good thing. All my Gee Mui’s arrived on time aswell.

After some last minute steam ironing and touch ups to my make up, I was ready and waiting for Dave and his guys to arrive. They were meant to be at the front door by 7am. The Hing Dai’s got there on time but Dave and his best men didn’t arrive until 7.10am. I think they planned to be late so that my gee mui’s wouldn’t have that much time to spend on the games.

I think thats enough for now don’t you think?

More pics here

I have finally gone through all 2000 colour and 2000 black and white pictures from our professional photographer. I have selected about 170 to be printed as a photobook which should be ready next week. Yay! We are still waiting on our Videographers who are working on a preview video which should be ready anytime soon. Now that the wedding is over and done with, I have been thinking about what to do with my website. I could either turn it into a married wives club type website or stick to chinese weddings and find new brides-to-be who want help.

I’ll be posting up a few of the professional pictures very soon…………in the mean time let me have a little moan about the state of our house. I really advise newly married couples not to buy a house which needs major renovation work. Our house at the moment is a nightmare, well I think that it looks like a wreak but Dave assures me that it will all look nice once the work is finished are done. I seem to think it will never be finished this year. The extension is nearly built up, the builders are just putting the roof on. The house itself however has a massive hole in it and its freezing inside. The builders have knocked out the wall in our living room and the kitchen wall below it for the extension and balcony.

OMG look at the mess, I don’t even want to put the rest of the pictures up……………..

Wish us luck with the house cos I really think we’re going to need it. I’m not a pesimistic person, I’m just realistic.

If anyone is considering going to the Maldives for their Honeymoon I would say to them “Don’t go in March/April as its the hottest time to go and you will get burnt”

On our 2nd day we sat in the sun for 4 hours and yes we did get burnt. Tropical sun is not to be messed with.

I think this was the hottest day of our stay, I think it hit 33 celsius

awwww bliss

are we abit red??? lol

We went to the Thai restaurant Baan Huraa that night. The food was ok, nothing amazing. Dave was a little peed off cos he had the King Crab curry, the waitress said it was a whole crab but when it arrived it was missing the head.

Breakfast is served buffet style. They do Chinese/Japanese style breakfast which consists of congee, miso soup, fried rice, fried noodles, fish curry, stir fried veg. They also do a continental breakfast and an english one. On top of that they have an omelette chef who also cooks fresh waffles and pancakes. There is alot to choose from and because we were on a bed and breakfast rate we tended to pig out on breakfast so that by lunch time we were still full.

The effects from 4 hours worth of sun. We decided to stay in the shade for most of the honeymoon from then on.

Maldivian Buffet night at 73 degrees. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone as it turned out to be £40 a head and the food was not really something I liked. Its kinda like indian food but not. After this night we didn’t really want to go to any buffet style night as they do have special nights at Fushi Cafe which is why we never ate there.

There is a pool table and 2 PC’s at the resort and there are also tennis courts and gyms here too.

If anyones a fan of shisha’s like Dave then they will be happy here

Getting the little boat to the other island

The food at Dhoni Bar was really good………..

…………….and they have board games that you can play

We went on a Sunset fishing trip which was ok. I caught 1 fish, Dave didn’t catch any.

I was craving sushi for ages and we finally found a restaurant that serves it. The Fudan Grill, which we had to wait 4 days to get a reservation. Apparently they have alot of free tables but its their policy not to have a full house as they don’t have enough staff to give high class service. This was just a starter potion which was quite filling for 1.

At The Fudan Grill there is a selection a selection of seafood and meats that you can chose from. You then select how you want it to be cooked, either in the tandoor grill, stir fried in the wok or grilled.

At the Italian Restaurant. The food was good but the view you get from the restaurant is alot better.

One thing you do notice about the Anantara Resort that even though it was at full occupancy there wasn’t that many people around so you do actually feel like you’re in your own kinda paradise sometimes.

The Dhoni Pool

The Amazing sunset by the Dhoni Pool, perfect for pictures

Dave went snokerling right from our water bungalow

Room Service pizza, fantastic service as they even lay out the table for you

Taking a picture whilst we were both lying in the hamock

Our last night. The cleaner made this for us. Another thing which is good about the resort is that your room gets cleaned and serviced twice a day.

So sad to go………………..

Choosing a resort to go to for your honeymoon is a hard task and I must have spent 2 months trying to find the right one. I think writing reviews for resorts is a good way for other people to find out truth instead of looking at the resorts websites which sometimes can be misleading. I always use trip advisor and I will be making my in depth review on there too.

The resorts in Maldives, especially the 5 star ones like Anantara are quite pricey so be prepared for that. We roughly ended up spending £120 per night for both of us on dinner which is really expensive. I think its mainly because they have to import everything cos they are on an island. We never actually knew the Maldives was 10/11 hours away and maybe if we knew that from the start we might not have gone but I don’t regret choosing this resort as I have no negative words to say about it. Oh one more thing I have to mention, there are quite a few chinese/korean/japanese couples that come to this resort so I found that a good thing.

I would love to come back to this resort as when we spoke to the manager he said they would be changing it and adding a different restaurant like a teppanyaki one, I told him to do a sushi bar instead as thats alot nicer. Who knows maybe sometime in the future we’ll be visiting a different resort instead.

It’s been a month since me and Dave got married and it really does feel like we’re still in the honeymoon stage, I hope it lasts this way forever. We’ve been really busy since the wedding, we’ve had the honeymoon and everyday since we’ve been back we have been at our house working our asses off (with the help of Dave’s lil sister Bianca) to get the house ready in time for us to move in next month. On top of that we’ve had our professional pictures back from Life Photographic in Nottingham and we’re in the process of choosing the best ones out of 4000 pictures. Yes I know its alot but really its 2000 in colour and 2000 in black & white.

Anyway lets talk about my honeymoon I mean our honeymoon in the Maldives. Ahhhhhh It was total bliss, the perfect honeymoon. The Anantara resort was amazing, everything was so clean and the staff there were really friendly. The Anantara resort in the Maldives is made up of 3 little islands, 2 of which are connected by a walkway over the sea. The food was great too. We tried all the restaurants/bars apart from Fushi Cafe as it was mainly a buffet type restaurant. There are 5 restaurants and 2 bars which you can eat in. They do fresh fish/seafood, Thai food, burgers, pizzas, pasta, sushi amongst other things so there is a wide variety to chose from.

Here are some pictures………..

Reception

Our Over water bungalow

The super comfy bed

The view from our bungalow

The bathroom complete with a wet room style shower

His and hers wash basin - I would love to have these in our house

Heaven - sun bathing on the balcony/terrace

Dinner @ 73 Degrees - Fresh juices

Salad buffet

Hahaha we kinda got greedy on this one

Fresh Fish with veg and rice, simple but yummy……….

…………..the after pic

I have more to write about this honeymoon but duty calls and I have to go to the house for some more hard labour.

More pics here

I will write an entry in a few days about our Wedding Day but I’ll try and make it not too long as I don’t want to send anyone to sleep.

The Day was perfect, no major hiccups and the weather held out for us for a while. It was the longest day ever!! I only had about 30 mins sleep the night before and I hope you can’t tell from the pictures. I think I stayed awake for 21 hours!!! Thats why for the last few days I have been trying to catch up on sleep.

Here are a few pictures from the day. I will be posting up our professional pictures as soon as we receive them.

The Games

Tea Ceremony

more pics to come…………………