Ah, a couple of updates!
Last weekend, Yanxian and I went down to Ted Collection for her dress design (at last!) I must say, I can sometimes be averse to effeminate guys, but Don and Yap were simply amazing. They're like aunties, who chit chat about everything under the sun but still get things done. Yap was so accommodating about our designs, and based on the cut-outs that we brought along, he designed a really nice bridal gown with all the features that Yanxian wanted. I think we're more hyped about the evening gown though, it looks really quite nice, at least on paper.
Now we're finalising our photographer and make-up artiste. I got a little too fast and got hold of the florist, only to be told that the decor comes about 2 months before the event, which means it'll be Aug before we meet up with the florist.
Also, we've finally found a first dance song that we both like. =)
We actually got a couple more things tied down during the span of 1 week! Visited Ted Collection again today to confirm that we're using their services, and paid the $500 deposit. As usual the men were very bitchy and even bitched about pregnant brides who only told them after the dress had been made, and showed us the very same dress in question! But wow. We both LOVED that dress! Anyway, we are working on a very comfortable schedule here for the dresses. We can chill out for the next few months and work on conceptualising everything first, then head back in Feb for a discussion on dress design. The dress should be complete by June, ready for photo-taking.
We also firmed up on what the dinner will be like, including a rough itinerary and some sort of theme to go by. I used to think that themes are plain cheesy. Stuff like Shanghai themes, pink/blue/gold themes etc have been used ad nauseum. I'm pretty excited by what we decided on. =) I realise now that perhaps, themes aren't as cheesy as I thought. They kind of serve a function even - to streamline the planning process, and ensuring innately that the aesthetics fit well together. You might not end up with a stunning piece of eye-candy, but at least you probably will not end up with an eye-sore either - not unless the theme colour happens to be a lurid, shocking pink.
Finally! I think we're set on the designer for Yanxian's wedding gown!
We visited Ted Collection at Sago Lane today. They aren't the typical wedding boutique, but rather a tailor that specialises in cheong sam, but have since ventured into wedding gowns. My first impression was that they were quite friendly - I received a reminder call from them yesterday that I have an appointment today, and we met up with the designer for some discussion as well. To be honest, they aren't cheap. $2700 for a wedding gown to rent, a tea dress to keep and an evening gown to keep. That being said, the dresses are all bespoke, so it's actually VERY reasonable. A good bespoke suit would cost half that price alone, to be fair. Their fabric is of reasonable quality, and I like the insurance I get that I'll be paying just a set amount for the dresses - compared to those wedding boutiques that lure you in with $2000 packages but slowly start charging you $70-90 per extra photograph, $600 for extra lace on the dress and so on. I prefer honesty and knowing what I'm getting into.
Anyway, it looks like we're treading down the path of doing it a la carte. We'll probably use their tie-up florist and make-up artist though. In this case, we pay the respective vendors themselves, and not the wedding boutique, so that's cool. And that's the actual day makeup/hairdo and bouquet/car decor settled! How cool is that!?
Need to settle the dress within these few months .. we've bought some magazines for reference, and possibly looking for a place that can make designs of dresses that we've seen in the mags. Problem is that almost all of these bridal shops are pushy. Pushy is just annoying, but some are plain dishonest (refer to my previous post on the Suntec city incident). Makes dealing with them a real pain. I'm really keen to take our own photos, but Yanxian thinks that my skills don't cut it. =( Oh well.
Ooh we bought a few bridal mags yesterday from PageOne. The overseas mags are a much better buy than the silly local ones. For one, the models look more normal (read: not anorexic!) and of course, you are spared the visual bombardment of the same adverts again and again. The clothes are also more interesting, since they don't follow the same trends as the locals. Fun!
Ah, things are in the works now!
We've already decided on our banquet venue, and are in the process of getting the menu sorted out. It's going to feature their very excellent dessert buffet, and the difficulty is now in making sure the dessert doesn't overshadow the mains. And yes, of course there'll be chicken for the mains. We're toning down the number of mains that'll be served on that day - less food, but better presentation.
Should be aiming for paperwork to be done in 2-3 weeks' time. We made a quick detour to their ballrooms last weekend and bumped into their wedding banquet sales manager and one of the chefs. As it goes right now, we'll be taking up 2 ballrooms with a dance floor in the middle. Unfortunately because the Raffles Ballroom can be split up, there will most probably be another wedding right next to ours. We're also going to fix the pre-dinner reception - they have a really handy bar counter and VIP room available for us right outside the ballroom.
Yay ...
Venue, Part I
After some discussion with Dad, we're more or less set on Swissotel The Stamford! The cost is within budget, and of course it's of sufficient capacity. The only grouse I've seen so far on discussion forums is that they don't offer as many extra perks compared to other hotels, but then again .. perks aren't always that great or important. Have contacted the sales people there, and we'll see what we can do about the menu. I'm not really that hot on a traditional sit-down Chinese dinner, especially when the forte of the chefs there isn't Chinese. Their ballrooms are a tad sterile though, as they are usually used for conventions etc, so hopefully the decor people can work some magic on that.
So for this week, pending reply from Stamford regarding what we want. We might pay a deposit next week or in a fortnight to guarantee the date. And next up will be finding the gown.
About the dance ... we're planning for a dance floor, definitely, for the dinner. It'll take the space of some 10-15 tables I think, depending on how big it'll be. The idea is that since a fair bit of our guests are actually dancers - ballroom etc - we'll just get the DJ/band (if we can afford one ..) to cycle through various genres of music for people to take to the floor. We'll also be doing a couple of dance items. Yanxian was very keen for rhumba since it's so romantic, but I must profess that it's not one of my strongest latin dances. So we'll probably end up with 2 dances - rhumba, and lindy hop. And thereafter, a mix of latin (cha cha, jive, samba), classical (waltz, tango, foxtrot), social (square rhumba, salsa, bachata, jazz/lindy) and of course a bit of the regular club music. Sounds good?
This is very pleasant, preparing for the banquet. A nice silver lining amidst everything else. =)
We're now at the stage of preparing our guest list and subsequently searching for a hotel. Currently we stand at a minimum of 50 tables, according to my dad (he and his business friends etc etc), so there aren't many ballrooms to choose from - a blessing in itself! More or less we're thinking about Meritus Mandarin. We're doing a conservative budget of $1000 nett or so per table, it's just foolish and ridiculous to pay too much. (chances are, it might go beyond that.) Alas! I'm actually very interested in the Ritz. It has the capacity, and the look I want, but it's simply too expensive.
I actually don't want a traditional sit-down Chinese 9-course thing. How many times have you gone to such an event, gotten really full by the 6th course, tired by the 8th, and spent less than 5 minutes with the bride and groom? Eeeks. No, I don't want that. And I'm glad my parents are also all for getting rid of the ridiculous going from table-to-table photo-taking thing. =) We'll see how it goes. Yanxian actually had this really great idea of a themed party, like a masquerade. I'm pretty sure many of the younger folk will be game, but the problem will lie with the older ones, which unfortunately will probably take up much of the attendance.
More to come!
Whoa, the clearing-up was quite something to be reckoned with! We put some memorabilia into the ang pao box that Felicia so painstakingly made for us, and tried as best as we could to stash away everything else.
Computer's still down, so just a quickie. Photos stolen from Andrew's and uncle Dennis' Facebook, for the benefit of those who don't have access to them!
Yay! We're legally married! Up next: preparations for the tea ceremony and wedding dinner!
The day is here at last!!
Completed!
We got our laundry back, and wow! It was quite a relief that nothing serious went wrong, after the horrible week. I was told that 1) the bra cups could deform 2) the rhinestones could fall off or lose their shine. Thankfully, neither happened. I am impressed with the ladies there - for future reference, this was at Jelita Drycleaners on the 2nd floor. Highly recommended.
This has been somewhat a terrible week. Maybe as it draws closer to the date, my tolerance for slip-ups decreases drastically. I am now blogging using Yanxian's MacBook, as mine is now DEAD. Yes. Dead. With my last backup 2 weeks ago, this means that my edited photographs, songlists and others are now gone. I was plugging my computer into the printer outside, when it just went dead. Subsequently the computer couldn't detect the startup disk - probably a fried harddisk!! Thankfully, I still have all my RAW images on backup and on the SD card - I'll have to do post-processing again, but at least the photos are still there. Last night, Yanxian re-downloaded the wedding songlist and re-edited the important songs using GarageBand.
Hen & Stag Parties
My, what a weekend!
Just a little filler before the weekend thing - we spent 2 days at Jubilee Road doing our shoots in our makeshift home studio! I rented 2 very excellent lenses from Desmond, the Canon EF 24-70 f2.8L USM and EF 70-200 f2.8L USM. It turned out to be an excellent decision, even though it set me back by quite a bit. The images were contrasty and tack-sharp, and on hindsight I could have just made do with the 24-70mm lens. The second lens had a focal length that was just too long for my cropped factor camera body, althought it produced really flattering portrait shots at the long end of the zoom.
Here's a pic of the makeshift studio!
Yanxian's very ghetto dressing table. That lamp is actually my continuous flourescent light that is used for product shots.
The shoot covered 2 days - the first shoot was done in casual clothes, but alas! I initially set the camera to shoot in small jpg files while I was doing the lighting adjustments, and later forgot to set it back to RAW! Felt really sore about it, but thankfully the images were nothing to shout about anyway. The good thing that came out of this shoot was that it prepped me for the following day's shoot, and as a result things were done much faster as I was more familiar with the lighting adjustments and ratios.
We went back the next day with our ROM attire and a few other props. The main concept for this shoot was to do a series of seamless high-key shots, and some off-camera crosslighting as well.
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