All Tied Up

For his evening outfit on the actual day (AD), Eric Banana's original plan was to match it with a scrunchie cravat. Then he thought about it - and decided to buy a bow tie for good measure. A proper black silk one - none of those clip-on crap that come in funny colours offered by the bridal studio.

At first, budding fashionista DGT suggested that Eric Banana should buy his bow tie online and recommended a pretty good website - Beau Ties Ltd. The online store carries a wide selection of bow ties and Eric Banana was about to order a bow tie... when he realised that the shipping charge for international orders will amount to at least US$25. The only way to rationalise such a purchase would be to do a bulk order but Eric Banana doesn't need that many bow ties (although they do carry other stuff like neck ties and coordinates as well) and he has no time to assemble a "purchase consortium" (or what some people term as a "spree"). In the end, Eric Banana gave up the idea and bought a simple bow tie from Takashimaya S.C.

Buying the bow tie was the easy part. Sometimes, Eric Banana just exhibits his classic male shopping pattern brazenly to shock the sales assistants with the speed in making his purchase decision. DGT was concerned that Eric Banana may struggle with tying the bow tie and asked him if he wanted to get the sales assistant to do a demonstration. The confident Eric Banana said that there was no need....

... and promptly regretted his stubborness once he tried to tie the bow tie around his neck back at home. Actually, tying a bow tie can be quite confusing for a first-timer.  The attached instruction sheet was not very helpful. Looking at a few diagrams on the Internet didn't help much also. After a long while, he managed to tie the bow-tie but it was done wrongly. It didn't help that he has two left hands either :S It was only after watching the second online video that he finally got it right.. Phew! The end-product was not the most beautiful of bow ties but it sure beats having to put one's tail between the legs and run back to the sales assistant for help :P

To widen his styling options on the AD, Eric Banana also bought a black skinny tie. He already realised that tying bow-ties is not quite the same as tying a normal tie. Doing one after the other can add to the confusion. For skinny ties, it makes more sense to go for the four-in-hand knot. Eric Banana thought he knew how to tie a four-in-hand knot. But somehow, he has never really tied one - he usually goes for the windsor knot. Besides, he doesn't need to wear a tie at work, so it's hardly surprising that he lacks practice in this department. Oh well, this was not a problem that the Internet cannot solve. A Youtube video later, *voila* it's done :)

Okay, let's hope Eric Banana won't forget his newly-acquired skills on the AD...

2 Weeks To Go!

25 September 2009.

After one whole month, the Hungry Ghost Festival finally came to an end last Friday. With that, AstroBanana were able to despatch their invitation cards once again. (Most elders think it's a bad idea to give out wedding invitation cards during the seventh lunar month.) Finalising the guest list has been one long nightmare - so much so that it will warrant a separate blog entry on its own.

Eric Banana took a quick stab at formulating the schedule for the actual day (AD). After a while, he found it hard to work with fixed timings. Somehow, his project management instincts kicked in - and he started to add duration, predecessors and successors to the equation. And suddenly, things began to make more sense...

On Sunday, AstroBanana will have to 安床 and 过大礼. By next Friday, they would have to confirm the final number of tables with Club Chinois. They are then scheduled to go for their final fitting next Saturday. Final fitting sounds very definitive - as if AstroBanana (or rather, just Eric Banana) would have to stop eating and maybe even breathing until their AD is over.

Of Organic Food & Escalating Prices

While AstroBanana were at Ngee Ann City this evening, they decided to have dinner at the newly-opened Cedele by The Bakery Depot located in Basement 1, where Delifrance used to be. Interestingly, Cedele chose the entrance with less human traffic as its main entrance. Maybe there is less space constraint on this side. As AstroBanana perused the menu, they realised that there has been a change in some of the menu items. Not all changes were deemed to be good. More glaringly, the prices have also gone a bit north.

Wow. While AstroBanana think the food at Cedele is quite nice, they feel that the new prices have gone beyond the reasonable range. AstroBanana do recognise that organic food tends to be more expensive due to the ingredients used but charging higher prices just because they can is not. It's not like AstroBanana cannot afford that extra few dollars but they are not interested in helping profit-driven companies make even more money.

So, no more meals at Cedele for AstroBanana from now onwards. Okay, maybe for that occasional slice of carrot walnut cake...

3 Weeks To Go!

18 September 2009.

Only three short weeks remain before AstroBanana are united in eternal bliss. Somehow, the countdown clock seems to have intensified once they started to count down in terms of weeks. Eric Banana has been so busy at work that he has not accomplished much for the wedding preparations last week. He did manage to finalise the wedding montage last weekend though. The wedding montage was created with Adobe Premiere Elements 4. After generating the AVI file (which came up to a monstrous size of 1.91 GB), he wanted to create an iPod Touch-friendly version. The usual conversion software he uses was unable to convert the file successfully. He then realised that Adobe Premiere Elements 4 was able to create a compressed version for iPods and iPhones. The compressed MP4 file was only 62.1 MB in size.

The final product for the wedding montage was very much in line with Eric Banana's original vision. And he did everything himself at zero cost. More importantly, it has been approved by Astro Girl! Yes! *wheeee* The only way to get a first-hand viewing of the wedding montage is to show up on time for AstroBanana's wedding banquet. Members of the working committee can get an exclusive sneak preview =)

1 Month To Go!

9 September 2009.

Amazing but true... only all of ONE month is left before AstroBanana tie the knot. They recall a time - not too long ago - that they had over a year to go before their wedding date. After today, they can no longer countdown in months - they would have to countdown in weeks.

Over the past month, AstroBanana has tied up some of the loose ends. Eric Banana has gone to Astro Girl's house to 提亲. Preparations are underway for the items required for 过大礼. They have finalised the design and layout for their wedding photo album. Astro Girl has picked her tea dress for the actual day. She only went through less than ten outfits this time. The bulk of the invitation cards have gone out but some have yet to make their way to the mailbox. A lot of progress was made on Operation HI (Read: Home Improvement) but that will be saved for a separate blog entry on another day. They have come to an agreement on their honeymoon plans - these will be discussed separately too.

The 过大礼 will take place on 27 September 2009. Same for the 安床. The final fitting date has been set as 3 October 2009. There are still many things to do and AstroBanana are trying their best to do them while having lots of fun at the same time... but right now, what Eric Banana needs to do... is sleep.

A Sneak Preview of AstroBanana's Bridal Photoshoot

AstroBanana went to My Bridal Room last Sunday to review the design and layout of their wedding photo album. As they went through the post-production photos, they suggested a few changes to the designer. While there were some changes which the designer did not think were feasible, he still sportingly did a mock-up of how each suggested change might look like and explained why it didn't work. For the rest of the changes, the Photoshop whiz kid basically made them on the spot with a few clicks of his mouse. This saved AstroBanana from having to make another trip to MBR on another day. AstroBanana also received a soft copy of the original photos as well as the post-production photos there and then, so yes, the photos ARE available.

Nevertheless, AstroBanana have decided to post the photos from the bridal photoshoot on this blog only after their wedding dinner, although Astro Girl did agree to let Eric Banana post ONE photo, so here goes...























For those who are interested to see how the photos turned out, you can view the wedding photo album at AstroBanana's wedding dinner :)