Selection of Gowns

Finally done with the selection of AD gowns at Rico! One of the favourite parts of preparing for the wedding is trying of gowns. Love to see myself fit into those pretty long gowns, smth which I wouldn't have an opportunity to do so in future! Haha, but my sister and darl who were there were totally shagged out. Their phone batteries were also all dead. I have 1 wedding gown, 1 evening gown, 1 ROM gown and 1 tea ceremony dress. I took a total of 6 hours to select those gowns. Rico is famous for its elaborate wedding gowns. Their evening gowns are quite limited and the choice is even more limited for tea ceremony wear.

The wedding gown that I have chosen was at their main display and hasn't been worn before. It was love at first sight, except that it has a lack of bling blings in front. My coordinator, Jesline asked me to go buy Swarovski crystals for her to sew on. It costs $210 but I still decided on it anyway as we really like the gown. The crystals were bought at JP's beads shop at B1 of the new wing. For the evening gown, I only had one which I shortlisted. There is a red one (below) which I really like but as it is similar to the cutting of one of my gowns, I reluctantly decided against it. She will also be adding blings to the evening gown that I have chosen.

 

For the tea ceremony dress, one thing for sure - I am not going to wear a kua! I know it's a once in a lifetime thing, but I prefer smth more modern. So, was looking at their cheongsam range; will also not wear a cheongsam next time ma. But sadly, all their cheongsams were too short for me and I only had one which I could choose. It was a dark green one  (below) and many others said that it is not bright enough for tea. So I went back to Rico and asked to change this gown even though the design is very nice. In the end, my coordinator offered to add lace to a bright cheongsam that I chose to lengthen the whole thing. The design is not as nice as the green gown but oh well, the colour is suitable and I didn't have any others to choose from the very limited selection!

 

 

I didn't try a lot of ROM dresses. We decided on one pretty quickly. We couldn't take pictures of all the gowns that I tried except for those confirmed ones. Their rationale is that they are afraid that the competitors will copy their gown designs. Aiyo.. so we could only secretly take pictures. They were very sharp and we weren't able to take many pictures of the gowns. This is another secretly taken pic of a WG that I rejected.

 

 

My package also includes 2 mother's dresses and father's jackets. We have also already made 2 separate trips to settle those. So right now, gown selection is considered settled unless I wake up one day not liking my gowns anymore. So right now, got to wait for them to add blings to 2 of my gowns and lace to the cheongsam before going for the final fitting.

Save the Date

After some procrastination, finally sent out the Save the Date invite to friends and relatives! At this point, people (esp relatives) also cant really say whether they would be able to make it for the wedding. But at least it's good to inform them early so that they can avoid holiday plans in Dec. Will definitely be prepared for last minute changes to the attendeeds, the most headachfying part of the wedding! Nice not, designed this myself :)

Si Dian Jin

His mum got some jewelleries for me. We didn't talk about this beforehand, but one fine day, she just said let's go and get some jewellery next weekend. She asked whether my family needs Si Dian Jin. SDJ is a Cantonese custom where the MIL buys 4 types of gold (necklace, bracelet, earrings, ring) for the daughter in law. But in Singapore, we are quite japalang in these customs and people just buy SDJ regardless of their dialect group. To be safe, I didn't want to give a reply until I ask my hokkien cum teochew parents whether there is a need to buy SDJ. In the end they told me no need, but the future MIL still wanted to buy me some stuff.

Alright, so we went shopping at Ion Jewellery Street one sunday. I told them that I didn't like gold as it looks obiang. It is not practical to buy something that you don't like as you wouldn't wear it. I know, everybody tells me that gold is good as it will appreciate. But so what after it appreciates? You mean you will sell the gold? Maybe people in the olden days would pawn the SDJ for cash, but no, I wouldn't pawn things that people give me. So, we decided to look at white gold instead.

After a 3 hour shopping at all the shops in Ion jewellery street, we settled on a diamond necklace and bracelet. Yea, I love diamonds! (3 years ago, I told darl that diamonds are a waste of money.) The necklace is a brilliant rose necklace! From Soo Kee.

The second item was a bracelet from Goldheart. If you notice, I like bracelets and will always wear them when I go out!

Thanks very much for the Er Dian Jin and am feeling fortunate that I was able to choose the designs that I like. But ok la, their taste are not that off as we were able to see eye to eye on the designs that look good on me. Will see when I will wear these diamony jewelleries.

MUA for mum and sis

Booked the make up artist for mum and sis! After searching through about 15 MUAs, decided on Sherlynn from Lurve Blush. I think all MUA are quite similar because once you do up a woman's eyes and hair, everything else will look in place. So, the deciding factor on the selection would be the price. I also look at the number of likes they have on fb to determine their popularity. Sherlynn charges $80/ pax and her package includes makeup, hairstyling and eyelash. She will spend about 1 hour on each person and will do the makeup at the hotel before the wedding dinner/ solemnization. From my short conversation with her, I find her friendly and responsible, hence have decided to engage her. To confirm her service, you need to pay a $50 deposit. She is contactable at 9800 9945. Do look at her FB link to view her works!

Ballroom and Solemnisation Decor

To settle the ballroom and solemnization design, we have to visit the 3 florists that MBS partners. They are June Florist, Sing See Soon and Woodsville. We set aside a Sat to visit all 3 florists together to decide on the florist we want to take. The main thing that will make or break our decision would definitely be the stage design. The second thing would be whether they will throw in free solemnization décor for us.

We first went to June Florist. Their shop is very small and the designs that they have are limited. The sales person also didn't know how to sell their designs, basically quite left us alone to flip the hardcopy pictures in the clear folder. We left after about 10 min.

Second, we went to Woodsville. Also a very small place, but they made use of technology to show us their selection. The pictures were projected using a laptop and there were many folders to look at. The lady who served us, Cecilia was very sincere. She was able to introduce the various designs and the kind of feel that it could create. Most importantly, there were 2 stage designs that caught our eye. Plus a bonus, she agreed to throw in free solemnization décor for us! We didn't confirm immediately as we had not visited Sing See Soon at that point.

Finally, we visited SSS. They only had 1 stage design. The gazebo design that they offer is romantic, but then we will have to stand inside the cage thing when we do the cake-cutting ceremony. Feels a bit caged up. When the salesperson talked to us, we were already more or less decided on going with Woodsville.

So, I contacted Cecilia from Woodsville to settle the stage design that we want, the 8 floral stands for the ballroom, the VIP table flower, the guest table flower, the reception flower and the solemnization décor. Very well, one more thing settled!

Booked the mini honeymoon!

We are planning to go to Europe for our honeymoon. But because the weather would be too cold in Dec and I will turn purple when I am in a 20 degree celcius room for a prolonged period of time, and that we generally do not like the cold, we have decided to postpone our Europe trip to May 14. But if we don't go for a holiday right after the wedding, it wouldnt feel like a wedding at all! So we decided to go for a mini holiday (yay, double holiday) right after the wedding. Destination decided --> Krabi!

Have not been to Krabi before, and decided to just go to a place to chill. Have researched and there really isn't much to do at Krabi, but there's nice scenery though. Have done up a rough itinerary of the trip, and we will see how it goes. There isn't any airticket promotion for Dec holidays, so we just booked the Airasia flight. Not very ex la, only $321 per pax.

Our wedding is on 14 Dec, will stay an additional night at MBS on 15 Dec, go home to pack bag on 16 Dec and will fly to Krabi on 17 - 20 Dec! For the first 2 nights, we will stay in Ao Nang. I picked a hotel with a great view --> Aonang Cliff Beach Resort at $173 per night. Most importantly, there are McDonalds, Starbucks and 7-eleven right outside the hotel.

 

 

For the 3rd day, we will take a ferry to Phi Phi island. It is a more hip place where many youngsters hang out. Booked a night at P.P Palm Tree Resort at $183 per night. We booked a room which has direct access to the pool. The hotel is located near the ferry terminal and right in the middle of the town.

 

 

 

When we go on this trip, I will become a Mrs. Oh my oh my.

Booked the JP

27 Jul 13 Sat
We need a justice of the peace to help us solemnize our marriage. As I don't know who is good, as usual, the forums are a good source of looking for such information. After searching various forums, you pretty much know which are the more popular JPs around!

People online say that usually the popular ones would not take in any booking more than 3 months before your wedding date. But well, they wont be afraid you see, they would have couples going to them everyday. Would have business no matter how early or late they take a booking. But then there are also people who say that when they approach the JPs at the 3rd month mark before their wedding, they find that the popular JPs were no longer available! Ok, I will definitely take the kiasu route. Hence, I emailed 4 JPs at the end of June. Haha kiasuuu. I emailed Dr Phua Tan Tee, Prof Yu Shi Ming, Peter Lee and Alex Tan Boon Yan.

Dr Phua was very fast, replied in half a day's time to let us know that as our wedding was still far ahead, he could not confirm with us due to his work commitments. Asked us to go back to him in Sep. Though you could tell that it was a template reply, he sounded very sincere. Out of the solemnisers, he is the most popular one and has the most grandfatherly look. But oh well, I cant wait leh.

Prof Yu Shi Ming replied in half a day's time to say that he couldnt commit now. But his reply was made up of 2 short sentences. Sounded cold.

Mr Peter Lee replied in 3 days to ask us to check back with him in 2 weeks time as he might be travelling on our wedding date. When 2 weeks came, he replied to say that he wouldnt be in Singapore from mid Sep to end Dec. However, he recommended two of his friends who could solemnize for us.

Mr Alex Tan took the longest to reply. We waited a week before we got his reply - a yes! That was in the midst of waiting for Peter to get back to us. I agreed before Peter's schedule was out as I wanted to chop chop secure a JP. The feedback about Alex are that he is effectively bilingual, is humorous and can liven up the atmosphere. OK la, settled! He asked us to fix a date with him so that he could sign the consent form for being our JP.

We met him at Marina Mandarin hotel as he had a solemnization there. Very satisfied with the meet up. He went through with us what we would be expect on that day, what his style was, how long the whole thing would take, what we should do and bring, what is the market rate for his transport etc. Very informative and helpful. Also got a good chance to see him in person. He is a very personable young man, eloquent and confident. Apparently, he does this full-time and has his own business, drives a Mercedes. He also shared that he just had 8 solemnisations on that day. Oh wow, easy money right! If you do this everyday, you could earn $800 a day for 2 hours of work!

A picture of him below! Oh btw, he was also the solemniser for Xiaxue.