Juniper’s Bella NTV7 Appearance

Last Tuesday was one of the most memorable days of my life if only because I made my first tv appearance on NTV7’s Bella at 11am. I got a call from someone just 48 hours before the show asking if I could drop by the NTV7 Studio in Glenmarie, Shah Alam at 10am Tuesday 11th September 2012. I’d be asked questions on weddings. Okay, I could drop by but I did mention that my knowledge on weddings wasn’t all that all-encompassing. No problem, they’d send me an email with the questions to be asked so I had time to prepare.

Well, I didn’t receive said email till Monday afternoon which was less than 24 hours before I’d be interviewed. There were 18 questions divided into 2 parts : 1st part wedding preparations & 2nd part wedding dress. I called the only wedding planner I knew who was on her way back to KL from another state. She said she’d call me back once she was home but as the hours passed, it became evident I wasn’t going to be called so luckily, this is the age of the Internet where you can find out anything and everything.

First of all, I had to find my way to their Glenmarie studio on Monday evening since I wasn’t about to possibly lose my way on Tuesday morning. When I am pressed for time, I start to panic and the last thing I want is for others to wait for me. So a bit of reconnaisance was necessary if I was to guarantee that I’d get there by call time, 10am Tuesday morning.

I arrived before 10am to find an empty studio, the only activity was in the makeup room. One of the makeup artists came out to take a call and informed me that the crew hadn’t arrived yet so I sat in the waiting room rehearsing my answers. Couldn’t be that hard. After all, everyone looks so natural on all the chat shows I’ve watched. I thought the worst that could happen would be me asking if I could phone a friend. Oh wait, wrong show!

Not long after 10am, the producer of NTV7 arrived and gave me a briefing on what to expect. The interview would be live (gulp!) and the host would be the seasoned Daphne Iking whom I’ve seen a few times when she emcees at events. I wouldn’t be the only one interviewed (thank goodness!) as the other interviewee was a lady who designs wedding dresses and baby shoes. I couldn’t have been more pleased as it’d take some of the heat off me. What if I was asked a question I couldn’t answer immediately? That would be embarassing and awkward.

Ours would be the 1st segment of the show and it’d be approximately 15 minutes. Off to touch-up makeup and it was the very friendly and approachable Daphne Iking getting her hair done. She said she’d be asking questions like “In Europe, the wedding season is in spring/summer around May/June but in Malaysia, it’s usually the end of the year. Why do you think it’s like that here?”. That wasn’t one of the 18 questions I’d been emailed. Yikes and double yikes! What had I got myself into? Must think fast!

We were already seated in the studio a good 10 minutes before 11am. It was a little unnerving but to my surprise, I didn’t have butterflies in my tummy. I think it’d have been much more nerve-wrecking if I’d have had to face a large audience since I’m no public speaker. Just imagine the cameras aren’t in front of me and I’m just chatting to Daphne as I would to a friend, I kept telling myself.

“1 minute to on air….3-2-1” went the countdown. Then the screens around us changed to models walking down the runway in wedding dresses and Daphne introduced her 2 guests. How surreal to see myself on the screens. What’s my best angle? Should I look at Daphne or look straight into the cameras? Don’t go “ummm” and “errrr”, those were the thoughts running through my head.

Then the first question was directed at me, the same question Daphne asked me in the makeup room. There were questions directed at the other guest and we took turns to answer questions such as whether a wedding checklist was necessary and what should be on it, wedding trends now, do bridal fairs help and in what way, the ideal wedding dress and what women look for in a wedding dress, what colours other than white are appropriate for wedding dresses, how much should couples budget for the wedding dress.

It certainly seemed like a lot of questions for 15 minutes albeit with a short commercial break. Thanks to Daphne’s expertise, I didn’t feel have an attack of nerves. My only regret is that I didn’t have anyone to help me take photos with my camera and the images here are of the tv screen taken by someone with their handphone which explains the graininess but I can’t complain, something is better than nothing at all to show for it.

It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it might be and I would like to think I was calm and collected. Hopefully it appears so to viewers. I enjoyed the experience and it’s been enriching for my self-confidence. There’s nothing like being thrown into the deep end of the pool if you want to learn how to swim.