A Saturday Spent in the City

We were 'summoned' by Stephen (our wedding planner) to go down to the Marriott to meet him today :P He was doing a wedding there tonight, and wanted me to check out its decor because I onced emailed him a picture of lights in ball-like shapes suspended from the ceiling. He wanted me to see it in person... but also then to tell me that this type of decor will not be suitable for our wedding venue at Sime Darby Convention Center because our grand ballroom will be much BIGGER -- the light-balls won't create too much of a wow-factor. I totally agreed -- I personally didn't like the light-balls after all.

The hall was also decorated using champagne&white-color floral arrangements -- which I also now realize that I don't quite fancy. It didn't seem as striking as how I have 'envisioned' our hall to be. Keke! So I'm happy that I have made some 'progress' in the floral & decor department because up until this afternoon, I hadn't put much thought into it!

Since we were in the city, I decided to ask Irwin to drive us to Jalan Brunei -- a small area just off Jalan Pudu. Someone had recommended I go there to source for vendors to custom-make our wedding invitations... and I'm so glad that I checked out that area (although its located in quite a dodgy part of town). 85% of the shops on Jalan Brunei Selatan are printing vendors who specially design and mass print literally anything you want -- from highly decorated boxes to wedding cards and paper bags :D We managed to source a ball-park costing for our SURPRISE invitation card idea. Again, I can't let the cat out of the bag... yet :P ... although I'm dying to share the idea! HAHA!

For soon to be married couples, do check out Jalan Brunei Selatan when sourcing for wedding invitations. You won't regret it especially if you're planning to print in high quantities of at least 500 pieces and above :)

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!

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!