L'amour Voyage - A wedding by the sea

26th April is one of the most important dates in my life ever. It was the day I signed the papers, somewhat hastily, at Aloha Changi Chalet and took the road of no return. It was the day I became 10 years older when my marital status changed from Miss Goh to Mrs Low.

Nope, I don't mean I had any second thoughts. That day was probably one of the best days of my life and I have never looked back because I married the best man you can find on earth (at least, that's how he makes me feel 80% of the time).

Right. 26th April is my wedding anniversary. The day we solemnized our marriage at the ROM ceremony in 2008 and officially became hubby and wifey.

In my all-time goal of dispelling fears of marriage around the world (other than encouraging mummies to have babies), I shall first share with you how my wedding ceremony took place like a breeze and how it felt like heaven that day.

As you might have read about in My Fairytale Love, I like to do my own DIY crafts and add personal touches to my life events. L'amour Voyage was no different.

Since it was themed a 'beach' wedding and held by the seaside, there were many ideas I had and thanks to the help of friends and relatives, I was able to execute my plans and have the perfect wedding every girl dreams of.

Below showcases some of the decoration setup which helped to transform the venue into a paradise. For more reading on what took place behind the scene, go to The Making of L'amour Voyage.

There were hundreds of origami cranes and swans hung up around the chalet. They were so vibrant and added much colour to the plain looking windows I also liked to think of each origami as a heartfelt wish from the friends who helped me to fold them. But since I folded over half of them, let's just say I gave myself lots of wishes to be a happy wifey. Which did come true!

We decorated the walls of the chalet with pretty beach, sunset, seashell pictures.

These were the wedding favours given away to all the guests. The slip of paper was actually a miniature of our caricature with a thank you message. There was also glow-in-the-dark sand in the test tube just to make it more relevant to the beach theme.

Check out the caricature. I liked it a lot! I was so amazed at how these artists can draw our faces so well just by looking at our sample photographs.

We also collected dozens of Bird's Nest bottles, labeled them each with a love quote and our lovey dovey couple pictures. Inside these bottles, we placed pebbles and also lucky stars.

I bought my first ever digital photoframe at the IT fair and decided to use it at our wedding. Well. I decorated it with stickers somewhat childishly. But well, since the event was an informal, light-hearted one, childish decorations were welcome!

My biggest project was to do up this whole piece of wall and chronicle our love beyond the shores, that is, the overseas destinations we had visited. Each picture came with a caption. This took me really long but it served as a good viewing gallery for the guests and good memories for me to look back on.

My solemnization table was done up nicely with a flowy blue cloth like the ocean and floral display along with hearts, seashells and pebbles. My dearest sister troop also gave me a big surprise by presenting their secret project to me on the morning itself, an Eiffel Tower as my wedding band holder. It was where we got engaged!

The guests also took polariod shots with us and wrote down their wishes. We displayed all of them by clipping them to the window grills and I kept all of them nicely in a scrapbook album after that. Great memories. Erm, but I couldn't help it when they started to fade and turn yellowish.

Finally, the setup of the chalet was more or less completed and it was time for our march in.

There! We were dressed rather casually but this is actually a true side of us. We love the sun, sand and sea! 

Heartfelt thanks to the near 100 guests who endured the strong sun to grace our event. You guys rock! Well, you had no choice too, right?

As our Justice of Peace read the wedding vows, I didn't know what was going on inside my mind. But when I looked back at the videos, all I could see was a big wide smile on my face from the start till the end. That tells it all, doesn't it?

Time to say 'I do' and 'I will'! Why was it that we giggled so much when we said those words? Lol. I guess it was just a sign of true happiness and bliss inside both our hearts.

Ta-dah! Time to put on that ring! In my heart I imagined that I had put on weight and my fingers grew so fat that jw wouldn't be able to put on the ring, making us the laughing stock of the year. Thank goodness my fingers probably only grew fat by 1mm in diameter so with a bit of yanking and tugging, it still slid in and fit nicely.

Here were our happy and proud mums and dads who were there to share our joy with us. Makes me wonder how I will feel when it's my turn to marry off my daughter in future. I bet I will bawl like a baby. And I bet daddy will wanna keep her precious girl to himself. Maybe at least till she turns 30.

Next, the newly weds had a mushy gushy photo shoot. Here are some of the pictures.

As the sun started to set, it was time to party! What's a wedding without food, friends, music, booze and dancing? We definitely couldn't miss all that. Oh, did I forget to mention the banner above was painted by my surprisingly artistic hubby? Great job, dear, the banner is a masterpiece! Ok, maybe love is blind.

All in all, my wedding was definitely one of the best days of my life and I never would have wanted to do it anyway different. Nor marry anyone different. It's now him that makes my world complete, and me that makes his heart a whole.

You can have your wedding your way, be it an intimate event with just immediate family members or a grand gala with friends from all over the world. You can theme it whatever you want, or even come up with the most outlandish theme. Think Flintstones. Come on, it's your big day and you call the shots.

The important thing is, don't be afraid to have a wedding! It doesn't mean you will be tied down in your life (ok it does mean you should only have one sex partner) or that you will have no choice but try to make some babies right after. It's a celebration of your love journey and a start to even better things ahead for you and your loved one.

So, to all the couples who are planning to get married, congratulations and I'm sure you will have a most beautiful, amazing and memorable day of your life. Stay happily in love always!