So much happiness!

Post-ceremony.
For this, there are no words. Just smiles all around, and hearts bursting with joy ♥

My glowing husband ❤

My new Dad :) 

So much happiness!

With my husband, walking up to the Little Knight's Room, where dinner would be served 

My cousin Ali

Shank, Daniel, myself, Diana, Ali

My cousin Ali is one of the kindest and most caring people I know. He doesn't feature in many of the photographs, because he spent much of the day making sure everything was running just fine. That was quite a feat, especially considering he had just come in the morning of the wedding.

I'm sure his duties and sacrifices are more numerous than were tasked to him - together with Liyana, he helped with the table arrangements and the flowers, including the decision to move our apero into the castle instead of out on the lawn (we were told there was a 15 to 75% chance of rain - a really difficult range to base a decision on). He thoughtfully bought me lunch even though I didn't ask for it, and spent the majority of the ceremony sitting on a stone step at the back of the venue, independently running the AV equipment. 

What I like most about Ali is how warm and real he is. He has a good heart, and a high sense of moral integrity, which both impresses me, and inspires me. Even though he practices kindness, he is also courageous, and perseveres in standing up for his beliefs. Our families have always lived in different countries, but when we were younger we used to visit each other a lot more than we can now. Still, it always feels cosy catching up, and I am very grateful to have such a loving cousin in my life, and that he was a part of a very special moment, in his characteristically self-sacrificial style ♥.

A short reflection on the past year(s)

At our anniversary last year ♥

A few weeks ago, we visited the little village at which we tied the knot. It was the first time we had been back since we exchanged vows in the herb garden shaded by four beautiful trees, which still stand witness to the day. This time, the church bells did not ring, and the birds were a lot more quiet - as if giving us a space a to reflect on the beautiful two years that have gone by. It was an interesting moment - visiting the spaces holding our memories, and retracing our steps: the endless stairway through the rose garden finally leading up to our castle, the stone-strewn aisle, the beautiful garden flowers flanking our ceremony, the ledge that looked on to a graveyard by the church, the passageways I tried to escape to to practice my surprise song for him (but failed, because he sweetly followed me around, thinking I was having the jitters), the hallway where my make-up artist gave me sagely advice while making  me beautiful.. I could really go on forever. It was a fairy-tale like I could never imagine, filled with so much laughter and love.

The lake near our home - so beautiful.

It has been almost 2 years to the day we got married now, and so much has happened in both our lives. We have been reunited for a year now, and have moved 4 times since. Home feels a lot more stable,  a little apartment in another little 'village', furnished with the kindness of other people - a beautiful piano and various trinkets, donated to us by a lovely lady looking for a good home for furniture from her childhood, a statement lamp from a professor who heard about student's moving home, and plants from our thoughtful neighbours. Hopefully this represents the last of moves for a long time to come.

Welcoming him home - Daniel's first trip to Sg since the wedding

We've come to appreciate having to spend our first year apart, as painful as it was. On hindsight, it was a sweet experience -- the excitement of seeing each other, the intense sadness of having to be apart once more, and counting down again to the our next reunion. "The gift of missing me", Daniel would say. Now, I look forward to when he comes back from work, so we have our few hours of the day together, and weekends, when I have him all to myself for 2 days straight (such a bounty!).

I spend most of my time pouring over acadaemic papers, while Daniel is hard at work. We spend our time together mostly doing the laundry, grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning (weekends being an especially intense effort at good housekeeping).

People I love cooking for me! Daniel's learning how to make roti from my mom. He's also makes a mean chicken curry (thanks Rashi for teaching him!), dahl and random Indian vegetable dishes :) 

We've learnt to fill each other's longing for the homes and countries we have left behind. We spend our nights reflectively, joyfully learning together how to be good people. We continue trying to support each other's dreams, to honour our differences, and to not take our relationship for granted.

Like our wedding, there have been few grand gestures, only little things. Thankfully our little things are of the loving kind. Today, I felt so immensely loved when he emptied the dishwater before leaving the house, even though he was on his way to catch an early morning flight. He really didn't have to, but he wanted one less thing for me to do while he was away, and it was so thoughtful.

I didn't expect our love to deepen everyday the way it has. I didn't even know we could be any closer. I wonder how much love our hearts will hold when we are a hundred.. I wake up feeling so thankful, and go to bed feeling blessed and loved.

..because a tribute to the past year would not be complete without a throwback to the time he decided to break the other leg, you know, to balance out the injuries.

I recall dark days in my life, when I felt my world was falling apart. Daniel would meet me after work (which was very late when I worked at the hospital), and be the friend I could lean on. And I remember thinking, no matter how the world conspired against me, as long as we had each other, I would be alright. It still feels very much that way. I'm glad we meet our obstacles together, and I am so happy for having you in my life. You are, by far, the best husband I could ever ask for ♥.

It all comes together

❤ The man I love

I melt in your arms, and live in your heart. ❤

There's a special feeling when you know you will be together forever with the person you love most.

A feeling of bliss, almost like a miracle - and if you never believed in miracles before, you would now, because you see one being created just for you, unfolding before your eyes.

On the day we officiated our marriage, I remember feeling so lucky, so happy. I remember Shank asking me if I was tired from smiling - but I would have smiled wider, brighter, harder if it was ever possible.

We've made it this far, the physical distance doing nothing to keep our love apart.. and I feel like our love only grows with every passing day. Every day I wake up still feeling as blessed, still feeling as lucky - actually even more so than our wedding day - and so thankful to have you with me.

You are an amazing husband, the best I could have asked for.

As you make your way towards me tonight, it's a similar feeling. While we have been close at heart and in spirit, the feeling of knowing you will now be beside me, and this time it will be for good - it's all finally come together, and I feel so happy. No longer will I need to count the weeks and months for the few days we have together, only to repeat the cycle again.

Tomorrow and forever, I will wake up to your handsome face, your gentle spirit and your beautiful heart, and thank the heavens for moving the earth to bring us together and keep us together. Thank God for creating you.

I love you very much ❤

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant..

..and whatever a sun will always sing is you

I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart)I am never without it (anywhere
I go you go,my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling)
I fear no fate (for you are my fate,my sweet)I want no world (for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)

Wedding planning was like a second job - so after work at the hospital, I would come home and juggle reading up for the next day's work with planning and co-ordinating the wedding. We had a good distribution of labour taking account our locations, with myself in Singapore and Daniel in Zurich: I did most of the planning, and Daniel did most of the legwork, although we did have to make Skype calls at punishing hours, seeing as to the time difference between where we were.

Because the wedding was really small, we did not have a large group of bridesmaids and groomsmen. I had a maid-of-honour, Liyana, and Daniel had a best man, Shank, and his wonderful friend Marco who was really kind to him when he tore his ACL, and that was about the size of the bridal party. 

I loved that it was so intimate, Shank and Liyana have seen both of us through many life events and our relationship, but it also meant that work was shared within a very small group. 

Right up to the night before the wedding, all four of us were running around trying to get things done - liaising with the transport, last-minute changes in itinerary, making the napkin holders (fresh rosemary and wire), putting together the programme booklets.. etc. etc.

By the time we were done with all of these, it was 11pm the night before the wedding.. that's also when we realised we hadn't memorized the poem we were to recite in turns, our individual prayers, and that I was meant to teach Daniel to sing his song for the next day.. we did not even have the lyrics, so we were re-playing the YouTube video on loop, trying to figure it out.

While everyone went to bed, excited for the next day, Daniel and I were at the hotel (I had an awesome bed with hospital-like controls, allowing us to raise the head/legs/both - so fun to play with!), testing each other, teaching each other, and laughing at each other. There was certainly a lot of laughing (I smile now just thinking about it!) and it was majorly fun :)

As can be expected, memorizing 4 things at that hour was not very effective, although I am glad we tried, and it made for a great memory. It was a sweet memory of the last moment of singlehood. ♥ 

I remember Daniel leaving at 1am, and I remember feeling sorry that he still had to cycle all the way home, while I was already in bed, although truth be told I was so excited that night I couldn't really sleep anyway. 

 This E.E. Cumming's poem was the first of our recitations. 

I carry your heart with me.. 

(I carry it in my heart)

..we had to ask for a programme booklet so we could actually recite it, but that was ok. In my mind, the wedding had begun, and I couldn't be happier ♥ 

The Private Ceremony

The view on the way to our beautiful ceremony 

After the civil registration ended in the Stadthaus, it was time to make our way to Rapperswil, a quaint little town along the east side of Lake Zurich, for our private ceremony. A bus was chartered for the guests while Mirriam's godparents drove us to the venue. Perhaps it was excitement of the wedding day, or the anxiety from having to memorise our wedding prayer, but it was almost 5pm and I had forgotten to have both breakfast and lunch..

Liyana hard at work

We reached the wedding venue in Rapperswil ahead of our guests and I was so hungry that I helped myself to the Apéro first. It was going to be about another two hours before dinner would be served. When the guests finally arrived, Liyana (the maid-of-honour and sole bridesmaid), between the munchies, went around taking Polaroid pictures of our guests which were subsequently used to decorate the guest book. It was also around this time when Mirriam decided, for reasons I was only going to find out later, to scurry in circles around wedding venue. Thinking that it could be the pre-ceremony jitters, I decided that it was probably a good idea to stay close. It would appear that she eventually gave up scampering around the Schloss and we decided to go through again the wedding prayers that we had intended to commit to memory.

Mirriam composing herself

The private ceremony started with Mirriam performing her rendition of Elvis' "Love Me Tender". The song was not part of our agreed programme and so I found out that she had been avoiding me earlier because she had wanted to warm up her vocal cords for the surprise song. As usual, she sang beautifully, despite the fact that I foiled her warm up plans.

The handsome-as-a-movie star groom, sans spectacles!

..but then I couldn't see my prayer, and so the spectacles came back on

When she finally marched over to the front, I was not able to see her too clearly because my own vanity had compelled me to put away my glasses. Unfortunately, it turned out that we weren't able to recall the wedding prayer that we were supposed to have memorised, and I had to put on my glasses anyway as we read from the printout.

My Walk Down The Aisle

Getting their priorities right on the other end of the aisle ;)

Walking with my daddy  ♥

Daniel and I had a little ceremony in a herb garden facing church bells, which we call our spiritual ceremony. It was the part of the wedding I was looking forward to the most.

Four trees provided a beautiful canopy, and marked the boundaries of the ceremonial grounds where we seated our guests. Our aisle was the pebbled path of the garden, and our flowers were the natural blossoms. The sun was out, the skies were blue, the air was cool, and the birds were singing. It was so perfect, so beautiful.

Daniel loves my voice, I think mostly because he loves me. Sometimes, out of the blue, I will get a text from him complimenting its beauty, even when he hasn't heard it at all that day. I find it very sweet of him, and also very amusing, to be thinking of my voice, and it is always a nice surprise to get such a message from the man I love.

As a gift to him, I wanted to surprise him with a song before I walked down the aisle. I chose the ballad, 'Love Me Tender', because it was romantic and pure, and expressed raw, vulnerable emotion. It was simple and unembellished, and I felt that was what love needed to be - simple, and unembellished.

Between the civil ceremony and our spiritual one, we had a little apero for our guests to refresh themselves and fill their stomachs. I was hoping then to be able to warm up my voice, and practice a little, so it would be perfect for him.. and I tried to sneak away. Quite unexpectedly, I found him following me around. He was so adorable though, heart-meltingly so, so in the end, I decided that it was more important that we were relaxed and happy together, than to stress out over making the song perfect and missing out on spending these funny, happy, romantic moments together.

When it came time to walk down the aisle, I closed my eyes, and took a deep breath to compose myself. I called on God to make everything just right. And then I trusted, and sang. ♥ 

"..Love me tender, 
   Love me true, 
   All my dreams fulfilled.
  For my darling I love you,
  And I always will.."

I remember feeling a wash of calmness after singing it, the same feeling I get when I have prayed with all my heart. I liked that it was directed at Daniel, but it did also have an effect on me. It reminded me of the Baha'i prayer for husbands, which starts curiously with a stanza for the wife, and reminded me how our actions for someone else have such a big impact on our own selves.

When I was done, I remember my dad saying to me "Well done.", and smiling. That meant a lot to me. Then he took my hand, the music softly playing, and we began our walk down the aisle.

The stony path was difficult to walk on, and I struggled to keep my balance without stepping on my dress as my heels pierced through the chips of stone. I remember having to hold quite tightly on to my dad's arm.

When I think of it now, it was such an interesting mix of feelings.. the terrifying feeling of falling into the stone and tripping on my train, the uneasiness of being photographed and wondering how to smile (a very awkward feeling), the melody of my wedding march music and its beautiful lyrics - this same song I had played over and over again while awaiting this momentous day - now playing for the moment itself,  the ecstasy of marrying the man of my dreams and the incredulousness of this being a reality, the love and smiling faces that surrounded us, and the peace that encompassed all these feelings, as if all my emotions belonged to a home of joy and peace.

Daniel and I have many magical moments, but I would say this was one of exceptional magic. I was so happy when I finally reached him. ♥