Our New Chapter Begins!

Our wedding has finally come and passed, after more than one year of preparation. Everything went smoothly on our big day (great weather too!) and we are really thankful to all who have helped in one way or another – Our parents for getting busy with all the customary wedding stuff; our Xiong Dis and Jie Meis for the morning gatecrash and all the great help before and during the wedding banquet; our emcees for bringing life to the banquet; our photographer Kenny and videographer Jennifer for capturing the precious moments; our solemniser Mr Soon Min Yam. And of course, all our relatives, friends and colleagues for their blessings and for being present to share our love and joy!

It was indeed a memorable day for us which we will remember for a long time to come. And that day marked the beginning of a new chapter in our lives, and the start of a journey as husband and wife which we are very much looking forward to!

Blog posts on our wedding day will follow once I have received the photos from Loud! Productions.

 

Our Pretty Wedding Ring Dish

Some time back, we were thinking of ideas for a holder for our wedding bands during solemnisation as we dont really like the idea of using the usual ring pillow. While googling, I chanced upon a wedding ring dish, which is something new and fresh for me. And from there, I discovered Etsy – “A place to buy and sell all things handmade, vintage…”

It is indeed a great virtual marketplace filled with lots of nice ideas for weddings. After browsing around, I finally found 2 wedding ring dishes that I like, and within our budget. Both are from the same shop – Promise Pottery, whose owner is based in the United States. She hand-made all the pottery items for sale, and could customise them as well. Eventually, I chose a design that can be customised with our intitals. I also requested Julie (the owner) to include our wedding date to make it even more personalised!

As this was a customised piece, it took some time for Julie to make and our wedding ring dish was only shipped on 21 Dec 2012 via USPS First Class. I was worried that it could not reach in time as from some forums, seems like USPS is not that reliable. Some shipment from United States to Singapore actually took more than 14 days! So when I still did not receive the package this week, I was already mentally prepared, that it might not reach in time.

To my pleasant surprise, the package arrived today, just 2 days before our wedding hah.

The much-awaited package!

Our pretty wedding ring dish!

The wedding ring dish turned out great, just as I would like it to be! Thanks Julie for the wonderful job! I would recommend her shop anytime, if you are keen in customised pottery stuff.

 

Collection of Marriage Certificate

Today is our appointment to collect our Certificate of Marriage at the Registries of Marriages at Fort Canning. We reached the place at about 10am and took a queue number. As the wait was quite long, we walked around the compound (since it was our first time there hah) and read some of their publications while waiting.

Exploring ROM compound

It was then our turn and we produced the necessary documents to the registrar and verified the details. We were also required to read out some declarations before being handed the Certificate of Marriage!

Our Certificate of Marriage!

After all is done, we informed our Solemniser, Mr Soon Min Yam, and everything is settled!

We then headed for lunch before going down to La Belle again to collect the remaining gowns, since some alterations were still needed after last Sunday’s final fitting.

 

24 Dec 2012: An Chuang

An Chuang, or the installation of bridal bed, is yet another one of the many Chinese wedding customs. We bought a new queen bed (and bed frame) from Courts a while back for this purpose. I am not really sure how is the whole An Chuang process like, as my parents took care of everything on 24 Dec 2012 while I was working hah.

I was not allowed into the room for 3 days after An Chuang, and am also not supposed to sleep on this new bed until our wedding. Hence, I am now temporarily sleeping in my sister’s room, on my old bed which as been shifted there hah. With the bright red wedding bedsheet and quilt cover, and our framed wedding photo and a few “Double Happiness” word stickers here and there, my bedroom is 100% ready for our Big day in one week’s time!

Our bridal room

And yes, time flies! Our wedding is exactly one week away and I am now feeling some pre-marital jittery hah.

 

22 Dec 2012: Guo Da Li

Yesterday was our Guo Da Li, which is the delivery of betrothal gifts by the groom to the bride’s family, as part of a typical Chinese customary wedding tradition. My aunt accompanied me for this and we reached dear’s home at about 9plus in the morning. In fact, my uncle came with us too as there were simply too much stuff to deliver hah.

Guo Da Li stuff from the groom’s side

The bride’s family then returned a portion of the gifts we have given, and they also presented the bride’s dowry. The Guo Da Li ceremony was then completed, and we were another step closer to our wedding!

Returning of gifts and bride’s dowry

The whole afternoon was then spent driving around Singapore with dear and her family to distribute the Guo Da Li cakes and the wedding invites. Though it rained a little, thankfully most of the time the weather was fine which made the delivery easier. It was also nice meeting dear’s relatives and family friends for the first time. But at the end of it, I was pretty tired hah.

Next up: An Chuang (installation of the bridal bed) on 24 Dec 2012!

 

DIY Monday

Both of us took leave yesterday to get our hands dirty and do some DIY decoration stuff for our solemnisation and cocktail reception. It is nothing elaborate, just something simple and easy-to-do.

Firstly we planned to make a “Bride” and “Groom” signs to be hung on the back of our chairs during solemnisation (and the signs can be reused on the reception table during cocktail reception hah). Next, we wanted to make a signage for our mini candy bar during cocktail reception. We would also be decorating some glass jars with ribbons, to be used for the mini candy bar.

After a few hours of hard work, we finally completed our mini DIY project hah.

Our DIY decoratuon project

Pretty pleased with the results of our hard work! Hopefully these DIY decoration stuff could add some personalised touches to our wedding.

 

Busy Weekend with Wedding Errands

In exactly 18 days time, it will be the day where we will make one of our most important decisions in life. In these 18 days, there are only 2 weekends left and hence they are very precious. Nowadays, weekends are for us to talk about wedding stuff and to run wedding errands. I think it has quite been some time where our conversations/ activities do not revolve around the wedding hah.

1. Shopping for Guo Da Li stuff

We spent some time last Saturday (together with my mum and dear’s parents) shopping for Guo Da Li stuff at Amanda Dreamweaver, which is located at People’s Park Centre. There are so many customary things to note for Chinese weddings, and the list of things to buy is quite long. After spending about an hour at the small shop, we were more or less done. The bill came up to be a shocking $270 for dear’s parents! This is indeed one profitable business as since it is for wedding, most people will not scrimp and save too much. Anyway, our Guo Da Li will be this coming Saturday on 22 Dec 2012.

Photo credit: minelifeaffairs.blogspot.sg

2. Collection of photo album and photo frame

On Sunday, we dropped by La Belle to collect our 20-page photo album and our photo frame to be hung on the wall. The album is so freaking heavy hah. We are quite pleased with how the album turns out but are not overly wowed or what. During the visit, we also chose the hand bouquet design and the car decoration to be used on our wedding day. The next time we meet La Belle will be during the final fitting on 30 Dec 2012.

Our wedding album by La Belle

3. Finalisation meeting with Swissotel Merchant Court

Right after La Belle, we headed to the hotel to meet up with Francis for the finalisation meeting, where we discussed the details of our banquet. We covered stuff like the ballroom layout, the guest attendance and seating arrangement, the confirmed menu and other nitty gritty details. We also chose the decoration theme and the wedding favours for our guests. Francis also brought us to view the cocktail reception area and the poolside pavilion again upon our request.

Finalisation meeting with Francis

4. Shopping for DIY decoration materials

We also went to Art Friend at Buona Vista MRT to shop for some decoration materials we need for our solemnisation and cocktail reception. We planned to do some DIY stuff to personalise our wedding a little hah.

5. Wedding Montage

We will be making our own childhood montage to be screened during the wedding banquet. We have each shortlisted some pictures to be used, from the different stages of our lives. We have also decided on the song to be used and the last step now is to put everything together and add on some words, using Animoto. This is still work-in-progress and hopefully it will be completed by this weekend hah.

 

Recent Updates

With less than one month to our big day, there are still quite a bit of major things to be done, such as creating our wedding montage, and preparing the decoration stuff for our solemnisation and cocktail reception. There are even more nitty gritty stuff that needs to be taken care of hah. Since my last blog post, there were some updates recently in our wedding preparation journey.

1. The Xiong Dis and Jie Meis Meet-up

On 1 Dec 2012, we arranged a meet-up session for all other Xiong Dis and Jie Meis. The main objectives include getting to meet and know each other, and to run through with everyone their roles and responsibilities, and the detailed program on our wedding day. We met at Cedele at Raffles City at 5pm. Unfortunately, three of the Jie Meis could not make it due to work/personal commitments, and one of the Xiong Dis also could not be present as he is in London for work.

Our detailed program flow

We spent quite some time to come up with a detailed (maybe overly detailed hah) program flow and define the roles and responsibilities of each of them during the different parts of the day: Gatecrash, Solemnisation, Cocktail Reception and Banquet. But we understand that things are not likely to go as planned perfectly. Hence, it serves more as a general guide and hopefully, it doesnt deviate too much from plan hah. Everyone should be more or less sure of their job after this session! But it is a pity that the Xiong Dis and Jie Meis did not really mingle hah.

2. Wedding Album Design

We went down to La Belle last Sunday to look at the wedding album layout designs. As requested, they kept the designs pretty simple by minimising those special effects processing, motifs etc. But we still requested for slight modifications to the layout designs hah. During that session, we also chose the picture and frame design, as well as the album cover design. They completed the modifications in two days and we were satisfied with the revised layout designs. We have given the green light to proceed for printing, and it should be ready in two weeks! We have also received the soft copies of the edited 65 selected poses in hi-res.

3. Sending Wedding Invites to Relatives

Today was a tiring day driving all around Singapore to give wedding invites to my relatives.

Wedding invites for my relatives

We started at 10am and only finished at about 8pm (including lunch and dinner stops hah). A total of 140km was covered, travelling from Jurong to Bukit Panjang to Yew Tee to Sembawang to Upper Thomson to Ang Mo Kio to Hougang to Seng Kang!

 

The Red Mailbox

I have been hunting high and low for those vintage-looking red mailbox to use it as our Angbao box. I finally came across someone selling it a few weeks back on Carousell, an iPhone app to shop and sell stuff. The price quoted by the seller was $100 for a gently-used one (the seller has only used it once, so it is still in almost mint condition)! I thought that was a little too steep even for a brand new one. Hence, I offered $60 but the deal failed to be closed hah. The lowest the seller could go was $85.

I  was very tempted to be honest. But we decided to think about it and secretly, hoped to find this red mailbox in our upcoming Bangkok trip then hah. Though in our Bangkok trip, we managed to buy some wedding stuff such as cupcake stand ($10 from Chatuchak!), we did not manage to find the red mailbox sadly.

Just when I was about to go for the $85 deal, I chanced upon a shop selling these mailboxes on Facebook! I immediately emailed them to enquire and was so happy to know they are selling it at $59.90 hah. Besides red, they have just launched some other colours as well. All very nice, but we chose red for auspiciousness and timelessness hah.

We headed down to their shop in Haji Lane last Saturday and bought it!

Shop Wonderland at 53 Haji Lane

The shop is called Shop Wonderland, by Wonderland for Detailed Planners. Do drop by this charming little shop for some wedding decor and other finds! In fact, I think Haji Lane is quite a nice place to hunt for such treasures hah. We will soon visit again for our next target: A wedding ring dish for use during our solemnisation.

 

Guo Da Li Cakes

We are getting our Guo Da Li cakes from LE Cafe Confectionery & Pastry, which is located at Middle Road.

“Steeped in tradition, we are one of Singapore’s oldest and finest cake and pastry shops. Our long and illustrious history (over 50 years) will attest to our growing reputation for the renowned quality and unique taste of our products. Our selections are 100% crafted by hand, and contain no pork or lard. From award-winning pastries to customised cakes, we have something perfect for any occasion.”

Guo Da Li cakes from LE Cafe

This is specially requested by dear and her family, as they find their cakes tasty. Last week, I called and placed an order for 22 boxes at $10.80 each. We went down to the shop yesterday to make the full payment for the cakes. Collection will be on 22 Dec 2012 (Sat) 8.30am which is the day of our Guo Da Li. The rest of the Guo Da Li stuff will be taken care of by our parents thankfully. If not, it will be more headache for us hah.

 

The Jiemeis Meet-up

Last Friday was the Hari Raya holiday and dear has the first meet-up session with her jiemeis at Coffee Club, Wheelock Place. Besides getting to know each other, they also spent the couple of hours brainstorming for gatecrashing ideas.

The jiemeis meet-up

Of course I have no idea what has been transpired in that meet-up session. But I have been reminding dear (perhaps to the point of being naggy hah) to keep the gatecrash fun and civil, nothing in bad-taste and nothing overboard. I have no wish to see my xiongdis being humiliated with lingerie or suggestive objects like bananas, or get food poisoning with some special concoctions. So to the jiemeis who are reading this post, please be gentle with us, and we will be generous with you ($$) hah.

Anyway, I will be meeting my xiongdis next Sunday too! This first meet-up will be for them to know one another (though most do already hah), to iron out some logistical stuff and to decide on roles and responsibilities.

 

Meet the Parents

Our parents have met before already, but the dinner just now at Joy Garden at Safra Jurong was considered the first “official” meeting to discuss about wedding stuff hah. Despite being a Saturday, the whole restaurant was like empty except for two other tables!

The discussion

Both our parents started discussing about all things regarding our wedding – from what they want for Guo Da Li, to bride’s price, to angbao rates for the xiongdis/ jiemeis/ make-up artist/ chauffeur etc. It is good that both sides are easy-going and not calculative. Hence, everything was harmonious and smooth hah. Most major discussions were done before the food was even served!

Besides discussing the wedding stuff, this was also a great opportunity for them to get to know each other better hah. We will all meet up again during the food-tasting, which is scheduled on 3 November!

 

Notice of Marriage

The earliest date to file notice of marriage is 3 months before the wedding date. Hence, for our wedding on 5 Jan 2013, we could do so starting 5 Oct 2013. As our solemnisation will be at the hotel instead of ROM, we have to find our own solemniser. We have decided on Mr Soon Min Yam to be our solemniser. He is the Director of Alumni Affairs of NTU, and coincidentally was the solemniser for Jing Min’s wedding too!

We have reached out to him some time back and recently, we obtained his signature for the consent form. Hence, yesterday, we filed our notice of marriage!

The process is pretty straight forward and can be done online at the ROM website. Details required include bride’s and groom’s names and NRIC numbers, the 2 witnesses’ names and NRIC numbers, solemnisation venue and time, as well as solemniser’s name and license number. And lastly, a credit card to pay the $26 fee hah.

OK one more thing settled!

 

Counting Down 3 Months!

Goodness, 3 more months left of freedom for me! Hah, time flies indeed. With 3 more months to go, we are surprisingly still pretty relaxed. But there are still quite a lot of stuff that need to be done from now till then.

Counting down 3 months!

Our To-do list:

• File Notice of Marriage with ROM
• Book villa for our mini honeymoon in Bali from 7 to 10 Jan 2013
• Confirm guest attendance
• Settle seating arrangement (headache!)
• Create childhood/ wedding montage
• Arrange meetup sessions with Xiongdis and Jiemeis
• Decide Xiongdis’ attire and hunt for them (Jiemeis’ dresses all settled)
• Choose invitation card design and print inserts
• Decide if we want photo booth/ instant print service during cocktail reception, and book one soon if we want it!
• Brainstorm decor for solemnisation and cocktail reception, and prepare the stuff
• Arrange for meetup between our parents to discuss the customary stuff
• Arrange for food-tasting
• Send out invitation cards
• Prepare speeches
• Select songs for march-ins
• Select songs to be played during wedding banquet
• Choose wedding favors
• Collect our wedding album in November
• Go for our final fitting of suits/ gowns
• Meet up with AD photographer and videographer to communicate the style we would like (is this necessary?)
• Meet up with the banquet coordinator from Swissotel Merchant Court to discuss the details and run-down of wedding day program
• Send our wedding bands to Canary for engraving and polishing
• Prepare Guo Da Li stuff and actual day customary stuff

Seems like a long list! And I am not even sure if it is a complete list hah. Things will surely get more and more hectic, but we are still enjoying the whole process!

 

BMW 523i (F10) as Wedding Car

I have been googling for wedding cars available for rent. With our limited budget, we could not possibly afford those exotic options like a Volkswagen Camper Van which dear likes a lot! Hence, we have to settle for something more common, but looks nice enough for us, such as BMW, Audi and the likes hah. There are actually quite a few bigger names in the wedding car renting business, such as WeddingCars.sg, WhiteWeddingCars etc. There are also some “freelancers” – people who rent out their own cars as wedding cars. They typically charge lower rates as compared to a proper car rental company, and the difference could be quite significant!

After much enquiries and lots of emails going around with different companies and freelancers, we finally decided on one – a BMW 523i F10 in Havana brown.

Our wedding car booked!

We met up with the owner last Sat to view the car, to check the condition and also for dear to see if it is spacious enough for her bulky wedding gown hah. We were pretty satisfied with the car. Despite being slightly more than a year old, it is very well-maintained as the owner doesnt drive this car much (he usually uses his another car). It is a bonus that it has a very nice number plate. And very importantly, it was quite a good deal at $350 nett for 8-hour use, chauffeur-driven and petrol-inclusive!

I just paid the deposit of $100 yesterday and our wedding car is now confirmed! One more thing down hah.

*Note that the rate for weekend is now $400 nett and for weekday is $350 nett. Anyone interested can leave a message and I am happy to share his contact.

 

6-Month Countdown Begins!

In about 6 months time, it will be our BIG day! All my recently married friends are telling me that things will get busier and busier hah. It has been a happy journey so far preparing for our wedding. Hope it stays this way and shall enjoy the whole preparation process!

6 more months to the BIG day!

Counting down to 5 Jan 2013!

 

Wedding Bands Collected!

About 2 weeks after we placed the deposit for our wedding bands, The Canary Diamond called and informed me that they are ready for collection! We went down to the shop on a very special day – Dear’s birthday – to collect our wedding bands hah. Not that we specially chose the date to collect or what, it just happened that we took leave on her birthday and had dim sum lunch at Yan Ting in St. Regis Hotel, which is nearby.

We both like how the rings turned out! I especially like that it feels very solid, and also like the 8 tiny weeny diamonds that have been added to both sides of my ring hah.

Sneak-peek of our wedding bands

Alson, the friendly staff who served us, welcomed us to go back to the shop when our wedding nears so he can help us polish the wedding bands before their debut at our solemnisation on 5 Jan 2013 hah. And we would be thinking of what to engrave in the inner side of the wedding bands. Any time we have an idea on that, we can head back to the shop to get the engraving done.

Cant wait to put on this wedding band!

 

 

The Bridal Shoes

Besides getting ourselves busy over our wedding bands, we were also on a lookout for bridal shoes. This is another quite urgent item as it is needed for our pre-wedding shoot in early August. For the groom, it is very simple. A pair of black leather shoes will do the job. For the bride, it gets a little trickier. This is especially so for dear who is 1.75m tall. It is already not easy for her to find shoes for her daily use, so it is quite a headache shopping for bridal shoes.

We went to the well-known Sinderella, which provides off-the-rack bridal shoes and offers semi-customisation as well. They are not able to design from scratch and custom-make any size you want. They can, however, offers flexibility in the height of the heels, the colours and the size (up to a certain maximum). Dear could not find any suitable ones and was pretty disappointed.

There are like not many places in Singapore that sell bridal shoes. Hence, I thought perhaps instead of bridal shoes, she can wear normal high-quality shoes like Ferragamo or what. Who says wedding gown must go with wedding shoes? It may also be a more practical option as they can still be worn on normal days after the wedding hah. But we couldnt find suitable ones as well.

Last Sunday while at Jurong Point, we decided to drop by Anna Nucci to take a look. We have been to that shop before already but was not a very fruitful trip. However, that day she managed to find something that she kinda liked and that fits! It helps that the sales staff serving us was very pleasant and patient.

Bridal shoes settled!

So after spending quite some time in the shop, dear walked out a happy bride-to-be!

 

Our Wedding Bands

Ok finally another update to this very inactive blog hah. Not that we are lazy, just that really not much updates lately. But for the past few weeks, many of our weekends were spent shopping around/ looking everywhere/ googling online for ideas for our wedding. Miscellaneous stuff like photoshoot locations, photoshoot props, save-the-date ideas, wedding gowns inspirations etc.

However, the main focus was still hunting for our wedding bands (the rings we wear on our fingers, not the group of musicians/singers playing during wedding banquets hah). We went to almost all the big jewellery chains like Soo Kee, Lee Hwa, Goldheart, Love and Co and others. For dear, it is pretty easy – eternity ring (hmm, actually is half eternity ring due to budget contraint and ease of resizing hah), which is available in almost every shop. The challenging part is finding a ring that I like! Out of all the shops, only the “Promise” series of rings from Love and Co. caught my eyes. I like its chunky, simple design. We would have gotten our wedding bands there, if not for the cost. The pair of wedding bands we like cost about $3,300. Gosh.

Hence, we decided to keep our options open and have a visit to The Canary Diamond Company where I had my proposal ring set. They do not actually have a huge range of wedding bands, but they are able to custom-make. The same guy, Alson, served us and we let him know the kind of designs we like. Again, for dear, it is no issue as they have ready stocks of eternity rings for her to try on. However, as it is hard for me to visualise without an actual ring. So he offered to make one for me to try, with no obligations to buy if it is not up to expectations. Pretty good service!

We returned last Saturday when the ring was ready. I felt it was a tad too broad. Hence, I requested for some minor adjustments to the broadness, and also some additions of small diamonds hah. Dear, on the other hand, was pleased with her sparkling half eternity ring, which goes perfectly well with her proposal ring! We paid a deposit of $300 and our rings will be ready in mid-May hah.

What we like about The Canary Diamond – Reasonable price, good service, high quality (the ring feels really solid as compared to those from mainstream jewellery chains, and they use generally good diamonds). I would recommend that shop anytime hah.

 

Money Woes

Getting married in Singapore is a very expensive affair, usually. Most probably, there will be bridal package (which includes pre-wedding shoot and actual day use of gowns and suits), actual day photography and videography, wedding bands, chinese banquet at a hotel, rental of wedding car, angbaos (for the xiongdis, jiemeis, car-opener, solemniser etc), honeymoon, among others. To make the banquet more interesting, some couples may also have photo booths, dessert bar etc during cocktail receptions, live band performing during the dinner and stuff like that.

And all these need money.

Hence, even before we start looking at venues, bridal studios all that, we have drawn up a budget to adhere to. Yes, wedding is one of the most important events in our lives and it is certainly worth celebrating. But it will be unwise to overstretch yourself and land yourself in debt after the wedding day – a  very bad start of a marriage, as we know financial issues are the cause of many marital woes. Hence, the key is to spend within our means.

Our wedding budget

Listing down a list of items and putting a cost to it, the end figure was a little shocking. Seems that even if we keep within our budget, we need about $65,000 for the wedding (including honeymoon)! Assuming we recover about 70% of our banquet expense, our wedding will still cost about $36,000 – not a small sum, it takes years to save! But at least it is a sum we are still comfortable with, to celebrate this once-in-a-lifetime affair.

So for this year, there should not be any reckless purchases hah. Really need to save up! And after our wedding, it is time to save up again for our future home’s renovation and furnishing hah.