Another dot

I am returning to my blog and have no idea how I should continue..

Last month, September 11th, I emailed Tra - the bride whose wedding was the first one I planned as a wedding planner, to congratulate on her first anniversary.
Few days ago, October 10th, I saw Kim's status on my Facebook also about her one year anniversary with her husband.
And I got to know at least three of the brides I've worked with are going to have babies soon.

This time last year I was envisioning bythuongtran would be blossoming a year later, making weddings unique, delighting and memorable to the brides and the grooms, to everyone attending. By now I would have taken at least one wedding a month, and I would have had a team of 2 or 3 great people working together.. I was so ambitious about becoming the number one wedding planner in the country.

Then - withdrawing from all competition, I chose to take another path, a path that I hoped would keep me close to wedding or event planning. I prepared myself it would take a long time until I become a professional event manager at where I work now. I thought I would be settled at this position at least in the next 2 years. I thought I would have a lot to share, to keep my friends or who follow my blog/page updated about my post-bythuongtran job (nevertheless it turns out that corporate world has too much confidential information that I can't just simply talk about it publicly).
...

I am always amazed and at the same time wonder myself how my life would turn out. Especially when I just made another move in my career, which - in a way - anyone would say brings me further away from "event planning" (which is already very far away from "wedding planning").
I seem to go back to the question before I had bythuongtran "Is this something I like to do?" Yet, to be a beginner again, to be curious, to have opportunities to try and explore - make me feel confident that I would do great.
Remember Steve Job's speech at Stanford? "You can't connect the dots looking forwards, you can only connect the dots looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future!"

The photo: You think it's a name card? Yes it is, but not from any stationery shop; it's from Chris - Executive Chef at MBS; and it is made of chocolate. This is the sweetest surprise since I got to this new position :) 

Let's believe all the dots will be connected.
I wish myself - and us all the best :-)

It's great to be back!

Two months since I moved to Singapore and joined Marina Bay Sands, I've been living in anxiety until I boarded the flight to Hanoi 3 days ago, and only until now - this moment - I felt half relieved.

I remember November last year, I got a booking from 2 clients in Hong Kong for a wedding on the first day of July 2011. I was pleased since it is a special wedding (actually, any wedding is special!), I would have a lot of time to prepare for it, and I was curious how a wedding in mid-summer in Hanoi would be like.

Then the decision of moving to Singapore made me worry if I should drop this project due to the new job commitment. My directors in Marina Bay Sands are kind enough to promise me I can go back early July to help out the couple, and my girls in Hanoi are passionate and courageous enough (and probably love me enough) to help me taking care of all the preparation on site when I am away.

I am back in Hanoi for few days. Wandering around the city wondering what I should buy, if there's anything left to worry or to care about for the wedding, wondering if the wedding would go smoothly as I didn't feel I was really hand-on with it; except following long email threads between the couple, me and the girls in Hanoi, and once in a while talking to them about issues going on with the progress...

Only when I realized the floral arrangement is 99% like the expectation, the mirrors are just in their perfect size, the wedding favors, the macaroon tower, when I realized lighting up all the candles didn't take so much time as I thought... when everything was precisely as it should be, only then I smiled to myself and throughout the party kept saying to the girls: "This wedding is the nearest to perfect we've ever done, the most fun and touching in all sense!".

Photo: me and the girls beside the Macaroon Tower at Jose & Tim's Wedding 1st July 2011 

I tried to recall how many weddings I've attended. All of a sudden the memory of "being a wedding planner" came back to me, and for a moment I asked myself if quitting is a right decision (but I am not really quitting, am I? :-) ).

It's great to be back, to talk to Ha and Van again, about the preparation; to see how better they've been (and hopefully I've been too); to be at the hotel earlier than anyone, to make and to see the venue turned ready, to see everyone happy, to feel happy...

I will write more about this wedding in the next blog, with some more photos. I am sure the couple and their families and friends are still having fun at the bar. The girls - hopefully already reached home by now. I am in bed, looking through all the photos today, and soon will need some rest before the second day of this wedding celebration tomorrow!

Hanoi July 1, 2011 - a very cooling day

The world is big

Today is exactly one month since I joined to MBS. When I was at the airport departing for Singapore, I thought about 6 years ago, when I also "moved" to Singapore, the first time. I saw how much I stayed the same, how much I've changed. And part of me was happy, proud; part of me was sad, confused. But all those made who I am today.

In the last month, and maybe the next few more months, I feel like I am a kid looking at the world with my eyes wide open: I start to learn everything from scratch, everywhere I want to go - I need someone to take me there, everyone sees the confusion on my face whenever I walk around the property, the "adults" always ask me if I am used to this new place, how I am settling down... most of my colleagues do not know I've known Singapore for four years.

It is a new and old experience for me - working in such a big company. I can't help comparing my job now and my job - a month ago, my colleagues now and my "colleagues" - a month ago, my life now and my life - a month ago, and my life in few years. I can't decide which ones are better, and I don't know which ones I should be happier for...

 Photo: the hotel room key collection at Marina Bay Sands I am and will be working on

As someone said to me: "You are young, you are pretty, you are smart; but you are inexperienced"

Next

Another month passed and the last month is indeed happening to me, personally and professionally.
Sometimes I still have a feeling that Nga and Akshay's wedding was just yesterday. Still don't know how to explain it, but it was such a special event, so special that I consider it as a benchmark for myself.

And just less than a week after that, I went to Singapore and had an job offer to work as Event Manager (well, sort of; the full title is much longer) at Marina Bay Sands Singapore (www.marinabaysands.com) - the icon of Singapore now. Although I would like to share how I got the offer, what happened was so-not-traditional that I can't explain everything in a note... All I remember is I got it after 4 days; 2 interviews; and 5 days later all the paperwork with the company and government is either waived or set so I can start working right away.

So, yes - still memorizing how my life as a wedding planner has been going in the last year, still packing a small suitcase for a wedding in Hoi An taking place in few days time, still working on other weddings I have in Vietnam until July, I am moving to Singapore in 10 days; taking the job that I consider no less interesting and challenging than bythuongtran.

You, as most of my friends (especially friends who are brides-to-be in a year or so - as I suspect) may have asked what would happen to bythuongtran. What I can say is I am not going to close it down; I love it so much (and so many people love it too!), and I am proud of it so much that I can't just simply shut it down. What does that mean? I like wedding planning and I want to keep doing it; but as I also have another career to pursue, time spent for bythuongtran is like time for my hobbies. I will still plan weddings, in Vietnam or Singapore, or where ever I can do, but the not-so-good news is not as frequently as I did in the last year,  and the good new is bythuongtran is no more a for-profit business :-)

Of course, since time is limited so the priority will be given to friends and special requests from any brides and grooms who I feel I would be inspired so much by them, who I believe I would be able to create "extraordinary" celebrations for.

And what would happen to this blog? I will keep writing it, once in a while. But I will change the name as it is not only about stories of a wedding planner anymore, it is a diary of a young event planner at the finest integrated resort in Singapore :-)

And to end this entry, I'd like you to know how my new workplace is like:

If you ever come for a visit, drop by and say Hi to me :-)

Vivaha

The reception was over and the couple is about to board for their honeymoon, still I don't know how to describe exactly my feelings about the wedding.. If there was any wish I could make for it, I would wish I had known Nga and Akshay better, that we'd talked more than just about the wedding - although there was a lot to talk about it already! It was great to work with them, and I am sure it would be even greater to be friends with them :-)

This video filmed the Vietnamese An Hoi and Indian Vedic ceremonies in Hanoi, and was edited overnight so it can be played at the Reception the following day.

less than a week until the wedding

The bride and the groom arrived at Hanoi today, after a 15-hour flight probably. Somehow I feel thrilled, and anxious. I keep thinking how it is possible that I am working on the two very important days of two people, who have neither met nor knew me before?

The nearer it's getting to the date, the more I think about the days and everything I've been through for it.  The bride contacted me in October, we've talked twice on the phone, and then communicated only through emails. Within four months, we've exchanged 450 emails in total in 58 email threads. I feel I am trusted more by the bride and the groom, I feel all of us gradually find it more comfortable working with each other; more decisions are made, and they are made faster... that's my intuition, I will probably meet the couple - for the first time - tomorrow, will see if they really feel the same way :-)

I always think whether a wedding turns out beautiful, fun, touching... or not; it's mostly about the bride and groom. And you will see how great the bride and the groom I've been talking about in this entry are; when you see photos of their wedding, later on :-)

ps: and the number just increased, we've exchanged 452 emails by now. Her email says "We just reached. Shall we meet tomorrow?"

What makes my day (2)

I received a very fine piece of stationery this morning via air-mail and I keep investigating it (with excitement) ever since. Guess what it is?

This is not the first time I received a formal invitation from my clients but always feel more special if I do.

Oh well, Hanoi in July is hot. But people still love and get married; regardless of the weather ♥