Capturing the moment (Part I)

I think one of the more challenging tasks throughout wedding planning would be appointing a photographer and videographer who'll be able to capture all the priceless moments on your big day. A friend of mine who recently got married adviced me that the importance of securing a photographer comes right after you've set the date and venue.

From what I've gathered so far, getting a photographer/videographer is easy. Klang Valley will never run short of them. But getting the RIGHT one -- in terms of service offerings, photography styles, and of course price lah; seems challenging. Plus, its not a cheap affair either. YIKES. Anyhow, time is still on our side :) And we still have lots of opportunities to scout around. But I must say that I'm surprised to also find out that some of the top photographers are already booked out on the 11th of July. Hence we won't be able to appoint them, even if we wanted to. OMG! This is craziness!

Maybe I should have gone to photography school instead.

Fit for a bride (Part II)

The hunt for THE dress is over! :) Its been a rather short hunt -- well, not really a hunt actually, and I didn't expect to get it so soon either. But I guess the task became easier as I went to more bridal shops and looked at more dresses. They were all just not me. My idea of me was something made of lace, simple and off-white, with no poofy skirts! Something that doesn't make me look FAT.

One of the main reasons why I started so early was because we're targeting to take our pre-wedding photos by the end of this year, and I initially thought of custom making my gown. That would take up to 2-3 months to get it perfect. But after looking around, I decided that getting something off-the-rack would be safer because I'd get to try on the finished product, and gauge if I really like it... as opposed to working on a SKETCH with a designer... and months down the road, when the dress is ready, I faint and drop dead when I see the end product -- that it just doesn't match up to what I've spent countless sleepness nights dreaming about! :)

That being said, I still went ahead to make an appointment with Keith Kee. HAHA! I thought, if I wanted to take the risk with any designer to tailor make my own gown from scratch, it'll have to be with Keith. I've not only read countless articles about him and his work, but he also comes highly recommended from bestie SMin, and a few other people who have bought his designs.

Anyways, when I got to his boutique, he was in the middle of being interviewed by NTV7, so while waiting, I started trying all his off-the-rack gowns. I was almost giving up, when I saw this last one -- a 2-piece gown; its top made of lace with lotsa detailing (just like how I like it), but a poofy skirt. YIKES. But when I tried it on, it fitted like a glove!!! (albeit the poofy skirt :P ) And I straightaway fell in love with it! :) Yes, I fell in love with the poofy skirt too because it really complemented the top half. Keith even said its as though he made the gown just for me (But of course, I didn't fall for that. I'm pretty sure that must have been marketing talk)

Church wedding ceremony

Irwin and I were initially playing with the idea of having our holy matrimonial ceremony away from our home church's premise, and at Sime Darby CC instead. As with many modern Christian couples these days, this ceremony is usually held in a function room in the late afternoon, which will be followed by pre-dinner cocktail and dinner at the grand ballroom. This way, it would save our guests from going to the church in the morning, and again to Sime Darby CC at night to attend the dinner reception.

Anyways, I scrapped the idea as soon as I had a chat with Ps. Aaron, and realized that an off-premise holy matrimonial ceremony would also mean that we can only do a mock signing of our Registrar of Marriage. We will still need to find a separate occasion to run back to church, and sign it in the presence of our chosen witnesses, before or after the wedding. I'm not too keen on doing that because I foresee we'll be very busy in the months leading up to the wedding. (We'll also be busy getting our condo ready, and moving in as well). Plus, the date of Registrar will not be the 11th July 2009. Eeks. As such, I would be confused as to WHEN my anniversary date is (in the yearsss to come). keke! Yes, it might seem like a trivial matter to many now... but to the bride-to-be (and hopefully the groom-to-be), I think it's really significant. So yeah... we've now decided to go through the whole church shebang IN church. Dinner reception will follow at night at Sime Darby CC.

So we've got all the basic things on the (church) side confirmed! YAY!

1. Booked the church for the 11th July 2009, though the rehearsal date is yet to be confirmed.

2. Booked our Sr. Ps. Soon Hock to officiate the ceremony.

3. Booked Ps. Sam to handle the Registrar of Marriage.

4. Booked Elder Daniel Yeoh to deliver a message (But he says that he'll still need to reconfirm nearer to the time)

5. We've also identified our pre-marriage counselors for the next 12 months!!! :)

My Bridesmaids!

There was a time when the 4 of us girls were clad in ugly green Sri KL uniforms, our hair in ponytails and schoolgirl-bangs; Some of us spotting protruding braces, and others a pair of nerdy specs :P But a pact was made in a hot and sweaty classroom. We promised each other that no matter what, the 4 of us will be each other's bridesmaids on our big day :) And that was almost a decade and a half ago! OMG.

I've had the honor of asking Ash, Bee (all the way from Melbourne) and SMin to be my bridesmaids next year and they have agreed! (Thanks women! *mwah*). But there's a catch though... Seeing that I'm the first to get married amongst us, they'll have no reason not to return the honor when its their turn -- irregardless of whether I will be fat or (worse case scenario lah...) pregnant. TEE HEE!

Last but definately not the least is my Maid of Honor (MOH) YMun -- the girl who's seen me in my worst and my best :) ... who bunked with me for 3.5 years when we were in Purdue, kept up with my nonsense all these years and still loves me for who I am! She's already having sleepless nights just thinking about delivering her MOH speech at the dinner reception! :P Thank you also for promising to fly all the way back from the States a week in advance to be a part of my wedding preps, as well as to organize my bachelorette party :)

Emails have been traveling amongst us in excitement over the past week. I hope we'll be able to keep up till next year. Thank you all again! LOVE U!

Dinner reception venue

The 2nd most important thing to do after setting the date -- which is securing a venue for our dinner reception; is done! At our meeting with Stephen and his team last night, together with Mr. Lee the person managing our account at Sime Darby CC, Irwin and I decided on a dinner menu and paid a 10% down payment to ensure that we will have all 3 ballrooms plus the foyer for our dinner reception next year.

As with all Chinese weddings, we had to decide between 3 different types of dinner packages. Stephen convinced us to opt for the top of the range, so that we'll be able to have more flexibility in 'custom making' some of the dishes. We're leaning more toward having some sort of fusion food... something out of the ordinary. Then again, its still too early to decide on any particular dishes because we can't determine for sure if the chefs would still be the same in 12 months time. Anyways, tentative food tasting would probably be in January. So hopefully, we'll be able to have the kitchen whip up something different for our guests! :)

We'll now wait for Sime Darby CC to revert with a first revision of all that we've discussed last night. After which, there will be renegotiations after renegotiations... until we are happy with what we'll be getting!

Fit for a bride (part I)

Picture taken from: Monique-Lhuillier (I'm in love with this dress!)

The hunt for my wedding dress has begun!.. and it saw my mom and I going to 5 different bridal houses today.

I went with zero expectations because I don't see myself as an impulsive shopper... and more to that, its gonna be THE dress that I'll wear to walk down the aisles. So it would most possibly be my first, my last and my only chance to get it right... yeah? :)

I have a rough concept of how I'd want to look -- nothing poofy and Barbie Doll-y. And definately no skirts with a 5-meter diameter across me. I'd like it to be as simple as possible, with just a short train behind (just to add to the 'feel' of walking down the church aisles :P ). However, my mom begged to differ. Not that she wants me to wear a poofy dress, but she said that a bride needs to dress like a bride. Ok, I seriously do not know what that means.

So out of the almost 30 dresses I tried on -- some made me laugh out loud, some made me go YIKES! ... and others were really nothing to shout about; I really only liked ONE... which I was THIS close to buying! HAHA! (Talk about not being an impulsive shopper). But maybe I was tired of trying on SOOO MANY dresses... And you know how its like, right??? When you put on something that fits the body and the eyes (nice to look at lah), it'll make you go "I LOVE IT!!!!!!"

Anyways, I didn't buy it in the end. I managed to peel myself away from the dress because I think I want to visit more boutiques first before I make a decision.

I've got an appointment with Eric Choong and Keith Kee this coming week... so we'll see how that goes first!

Our Wedding Planner

Photo and contacts taken from http://www.stephenfoong.com/

Funny how people from our parent's generation didn't seem to require the assistance of a wedding planner to coordinate their big day. The idea would have been strange to them! And I think it still does seem strange to many people, even today.

For Irwin and I, the first thought of hiring a wedding planner seemed somewhat extravagent and expensive! But we were advised by many (who have just recently planned their weddings with the help of a planner) that a planner really does take the burden off the bride and groom as D-Day approaches, as well as on the actual day. Anyhows, I guess you'll never really know the facts till you've tested the waters yeah?

So we met up with Stephen Foong last Sunday after church. Surfing through his website (http://www.stephenfoong.com/) prior to the meeting, I did suspect that he was a much sought after planner. But that seemed to be an underestimate right after I met him. To start off, he's already got next July almost fully booked; with 3 weddings on the 18th... which pretty much left us to choose between the 11th and 25th of July. keke! Strange having a planner tell you when you can get married, instead of the other way around. But we didn't mind as we don't have a particular date in mind.

Irwin and I loved him from the start. He came very well prepared (even for our first meeting), with a laptop and a list of questions for us to answer. We then went through very briefly about our (but mostly my) ideas of how we wanted our wedding to be :) He also gave us some exciting ideas to think about for our cocktail reception! And he also recommended me some places to source for my wedding gown.

The best part is that he is only charging us RM2.5k for everything from now on till next year, and he will even help in negotiation with all our appointed vendors as we go along. The other better part was that Irwin liked him! :) So YAY! Its set! We have officially appointed a planner!

We are engaged! ... but what do we do now?

Taken on the 27th June 2008; The Jewel Box Restaurant, SINGAPORE

Its barely been 2 weeks since we've gotten engaged, but we've already started to get busy! We had to set a date. Although we knew that it would be sometime in July, but when in July was the tricky part, as it had to be subjected to the availability of both sides of our families, as well as the availability of our preferred venue(s). We also decided to look into the option of engaging a wedding planner, and the wedding planner whom I thought would do the job best is a really busy man too! After our first meeting with Stephen Foong, our date also had to be limited to the weekends in July '09 that he would be available. The guy does 30 weddings in 2.5 months! OMG!

Anyways, after much discussion with both sides of our families, we have decided to set the date for the 11th of July 2009. So please everyone, mark it down in your diaries, PDA's, Outlook planner, and what have yous :)

We also decided that we'd want to hold our wedding dinner reception nearby to our matrimonial home in TTDI, instead of in the city. So there are only 2 options: One World Hotel (next to 1 Utama) and Sime Darby Convention Centre (next to KLGCC). However when I called One World Hotel last week, they told me that they are already fully booked next June/July/August! OMG! Can you believe it?

Anyways, I'm glad they were booked out :) Because we found a gem of a place at the ballroom of Sime Darby Convention Centre! Its name carrying the ring of a 'convention centre' nearly had us fooled initially. But after our reccee last Saturday, we concluded that it can anytime rival any 5-star hotel... PLUS, they still had availability for next July. YAY!