long weekend!

It was a super long weekend, running around from morning till evening....but it was a fulfilling one too!

But at least in terms of wedding prep, we have settle on our wedding ring band =)

so left:
1) Church
2) Photographer

Wedding Photographer: Ambi or tri-angles??

some comments please ppl! which photographer for Actual Day (church + dinner).

we have settled pre-wedding as Tri-angles.

next thing, please pray for us - we are looking for a church to hold our church wedding, but its quite difficult nowadays as most churches do not rent out their premises anymore...sigh...

but! we trust God!

also trusting God for an apartment to rent for $1oo0 and below! almost impossible, but we're praying =)

Post edit by matz:
Ambi or Tri Angles?
And well, we need to sort out our accomodations! :)

Of Gowns & Hairdos

I told myself that we would get started on our wedding prep after Elynn & Bernard's wedding.. and we did! Currently in the midst of confirming our photographers as well as the church venue. Please pray that we can get the church venue confirmed... its really important to me. Not that the other aspects do not require prayers.. *hint hint* Pray especially that God is present in every aspect of the preparation :)

Meanwhile, a picture from the wedding which i think is aptly entitled 'sleeping beauty':

Hehhehe

I recently went to my Dao Gu's place to bai nian and it turns out that my niece and i are getting married at the same period. They gladly offered their Japanese bridal magazines for us to browse through and i was completely blown away. I must admit that my obsession with bridal magazines (especially the US based ones) is getting alil out of hand... but Japanese magazines... WHY HAVEN I DISCOVERED THEM EARLIER?! The gowns are gorgeous and nicer and everything just seems more feasible! Since the magazine wasn't mine, i immediately went shutter happy with my camera phone (pictures later!).

So 'neway, i popped by Kinokuniya to get my hands on some of those Japanese bridal mags (why they are called books are reasons beyond me). Thank God the entire place was on a 20% sale (sorry dudes, it was only for the 31st of Jan) and i went alil mad as usual. And since there was a jolly good sale, i helped myself to the latest Martha Stewart Bridal Magazine too :)

I did felt alil guilty spending quite a bit for 2 magazines. Later on though, when my mum, gramps, 'lil sis, aunt and uncle were poring over the magazine together after Lao Yu Sheng, it all felt worth it. They were talking about gowns, cakes, hotels in an excited chatter. Even my grandfather helped pick out the gowns i can draw inspiration from! Weddings bring people together ain't it? :)

Alright, nuff words. Something for the bridesmaids:

Mummy, Marilyn & Isaiah love this one

Ideas for the evening gown:

Is this too much?

Love the details on the back!

More ideas for head-dress (or whatever its called):

Looks alil heavy for her huh?

Lovely, but will it look like i rummaged my head in the gardens?

And my favourite picture of the day:

Lovely gown, lovely colours :)

Hilaron from Tri-Angles asked what i would like in our pre wedding album; well, this would be it. Vivid, bright colours and happy shiny faces :)

Please, not shiny faces because its oily...

OMG! 10 Months Exactly!

OCX just reminded me....exactly 10 MONTHS!! woo! haha

The settled list

we have a few things left to settle

1. Actual Day photographer. i'm thinking of Ambi. what does everyone think?
2. Pre-wedding. most likely we are going with Tri-Angles. its cool cos we may go Tanjong Pinang to shoot! it will be hot & dirty, but meaningful i think. we'll try to time it so that we are there while the mission trip is on
3. Church. we have two one choices so far. Trinty Theological College Chapel@Bukit Timah and Church of Acension.....TTC doesn't rent anymore starting in 2009....dots.....so now looks like its a slim hope for Acension.... Hopefully someone calls us back! If not it is COS (MP)!
4. Wedding Dinner. Gosh this one will take some time....the invite list for the dinner is a headache and we're still thinking about who shld we ask to co-ord and MC the dinner.
5. Pre-marriage Counselling. that's with Ps Mark and starts in April =)
6. Church Wedding. Thanks Mr Ong & Ms Teo...the helper list is with them liaoz...thanks in advance to everyone that is volunteering to help =)

some people would outsource this to a professional wedding planner, but its good to know you have people around you that you can rely on =)

its in about 10 months..

somewhere in NYC

I had a revelation this morning.
It suddenly dawned on me that our wedding is in slightly more than 10 months time. We have passed the one year mark.

Uh oh.

Hotel booked.
Bridal Package booked.
Church being confirmed soon
Photographer being confirmed soon

and a million other things to do.

Think FUN! :)

p.s. Elynn & Bernard's wedding was soooo great! We were super tired, and in fact still trying to recuperate from it. Photos to be up soon.

YES! ONE MORE DOWN!!

Thank God we finally gotten our Bridal Package! I'm really glad that we got that settled and measurements etc will start next year!

Next up, pre wedding photographer (eyeing tri angles!) and church location.

Any recommendations for the latter?

We are really thankful for God's blessing. It's been a tough and rough time for the financial world, but we are sure that His hands will always cover us :)

I'll gonna be away for the next few weeks. Please take care of my hubby-to-be!

the mouse comes out to play!

Isaiah's not around for a couple of days and I've filled up my social calender! Should have spent a day or two at home instead!

Anyway, i'm currently so in love with this dress.

I love the way it ends at the bottom! Hopefully the tailor can do magic! :)

Chris Ling & Tiny Dot Photography

Been to Chris Ling & Tiny Dot in the past week.

Must say that Isaiah and myself started off with pretty diverse opinions on the photographer we were interested in. After browsing through so many of the online, i am starting to get confused. haha.

There's normal actual day (AD) photography and there's the journalistic style.
There's pre-wedding (PW) where's there studio and outdoor shots.
There's coffee table books and albums.
And many more jargons. I'm confused.

Oh, and i want to write to NUS to let us take pictures in central library - where we spent most of our uni days together. I even made Isaiah stay over night when the library started opening 24 hours the year after i left :) I remembered that i was in NIE then and i didn't had much to do. But the thrill of staying overnight in my beloved central library gave me the adrenalin rush. Haha. We took cab at 11.30pm, paid surcharge just to do that :)

Path way to Chris Ling

Just outside the place

Chris Ling has the advantage of experience on his side. With an impressive portfolio, we are tempted to just sign up with them because Silhouette is offering an awesome package. On the other hand, i was hoping to see more natural and happy shots from the ones we saw. But Arvinna did very kindly told us that Chris' used to take fashion shots but he does natural happy shots well too.

Tiny Dot Photography's Yu Hsin was so warm and nice that i felt instantly at home. Aside from his charming personlity, the great thing is that we get all our shots back. Every single one of them. However, Isaiah and myself did agree that we prefer his actual day wedding shots to the pre wedding ones. A pity our wedding date falls on his mum's birthday! I cant bear to bring him away from such a special day. :)

Ok, we're looking at Vivid Shots (Monica Eng) & Lighted Pixels next. Need wisdom, pray with us and for us :)

The Final Search for the wedding venue

After 3 months of visiting hotels/ resorts/ restaurants, we have made a decision! Let's first look at the shortlist:

Raintree Villa


(picture taken from http://marshmellow-hugs.blogspot.com/)Pan Pacific


(this picture doesn't do much justice to the elegant place)
The Ritz Carlton


Marina Mandarin

Mandarin Oriental

Fullerton Hotel

Shangri-la Hotel

Amara Sanctuary Spa

Fairmont (previously Westin Hotel)
Marriot Hotel
The Sentosa (Beautford)
Rasa Sentosa
Goodwood Park Hotel

And we are pleased to say.. we have settled for...

Four Seasons Hotel

Lock it in, 28 & 29 November 2009!
More details on the day Isaiah became semi broke :)

Choosing the wedding photographer

wooh! another of our friends is getting married! 19/09/09

so that makes 4 weddings to attend in 2009 already!

Gown, looks like our original choice is the winner.

but for photography?

hmm....have to make appointment and visit them! there's this new trend where couples take nude shots for their wedding pix....but erm...i think we will pass on such photographers...so that's a big pool eliminated. maybe i shld just take myself haha since i have my tripod, just need to get the remote for our camera =p

http://www.chrisling.com/

http://www.vividshots.com/home.htm

http://www.utopiaphotography.com/portfolio_2.htm

http://www.tinydotphotography.com/portfolio/pc_portfolio/ (pls vote this for "Others"!)

help needed - choosing the bridal studio

Or collective wisdom as Isaiah would say :)

Been to a couple, triple, quadruple.. well, a few bridal studios so far. Quite sian to go because it's a pretty tough thing to make appointments, fix a good time, then travel all the way down there. Ok, i know it ain't that tough but i'm pretty lazy. And i know i shouldn't be lazy because it's the dress. But..

*snaps out of it.

Ok, drum roll please.

(silence)

I SAID drum roll..

*drum rolls...

(hahaha, i am entertaining myself at 1.30am)

First choice - Silhouette The Bridal Atelier
Second choice - Bridal Veil
Of no order of merit.

To be honest, it's pretty unfair to simply list the names down without further explanations. However, since i have to get up at 6am tomorrow morning and my greatest fear is being late for work....

Right, enough nonsense from me. Inputs please :) Thank you peeps.

The search is on for the Bridal Studio!

Am looking at these bridal studios (or BS as the forums call it. the terms are killing me) currently:

Silhouette The Bridal Atelier :) :) :)
Bridal Veil :) :)
The Wedding Present :)

Been feeling quite sian recently. The short endorphines moment from gym are keeping me going! It's time for me to go back to God, for regular QTs.. for regular conversations.. and to stop feeling so irritatingly sian..

Some gowns from Tan Yoong

Thanks Jon for the site! :) Just browsed through it and some designs were rather interesting :) Some of my favourites are:

And it has begun - the search for white dresses :)

Nothing much to post because no pictures were taken. And i reckon that i prolly won't take pictures and post it online too. Then it would be too boring on the actual day itself right? :)

First appointment today. I was feeling alittle apprehensive about trying on the gowns cos it seemed so real! And my goodness, the gowns were so long and heavy i couldn't find my legs to put them through. But it was beautiful :) And i'm excited for the next appointment :)

Three conclusions made:

1) I need to lose weight! Cut down on eating after 8pm! Hehehe.

2) I will keep my hair long (that's why i straightened it! so i won't get so irritated with it!)

3) Those movie moments where the fiance sees the bride in the gown for the first time... it really isn't true! :(

Amara Sanctuary Spa

After sending Cyrus & Elaine off last Saturday, sleepy head me went home for a nap while wonderful isaiah went to church for worship practice. It turned out that we were late for our 1230pm appointment with Amara @ Sentosa. We arrived an hour late.. but we tried calling the coordinator since 1230! Her reply only came at 1.30pm when we were there already, saying that she had to rush off. Determined to not make this a wasted trip, we asked the front desk manager for permission to tour the place.

God is good! The hospitable front desk manager agreed wholeheartedly. Not only did she bring us to the ballrooms, she brought us all around to the suites, etc. Talk about great service! :) If she was the wedding coordinator, we would have seriously considered Amara @ Sentosa!

The reception area
Pretty deco on the wall

Amara Sanctuary Spa is a really beautiful place. Though it doesn't directly connect to the beach, it has this beautiful rustic-ness that comes from remaking the colonial buildings into beautiful suites. Remember Ritz Carlton, Bali? I dare say that its the closest we can get to that in Singapore! Beautiful!

Except for a few service staff though (especially not the lovely frontdesk manager), the service leaves much to be desired. I guess what made Isaiah said a complete no was the incident where we were walking out. A service staff was talking to his colleague at the door and as we approached them, they continued talking (and alittle staring)... and made no effort to open the door, even when the door was next to them! Oh well!

Anyway, to spend a nice afternoon at a nice restaurant, we tried the food there :)

Piping hot buns.. yummy!

served with unlimited supply of butter :)

Mocktail something!

Looking extremely tired and sleepy and grumpy

Isaiah's angel hair pasta with a generous serving a roe!
Prawn was grilled to perfection!

Hot favourite --> chempedek Crème brûlée

Water is good for you. Have a you drank enough today? :)

Ooh lala! :)

Full & Blessed!

Small updates! :) Many pictures, hotels, etc to share but no time yet :) Something small to keep this going! Four Seasons treated us to a great meal (thanks Regina!). And it rocks big time! Tell u more laters!

Wedding Photographers - The second list

Thanks for your comments! Hi Marilyn! long time no see! =)

btw its isaiah here =p

saw some other photographers that are good too!

1950s

lighted pixels

tiny dot photography

like these 3 too!

Wedding Photographer - The first list

We need collective wisdom haha....

3 photographers below, help us choose which you think is best!

OneEyeClick

Tri-Angles

O-Studios

Bridesmaid Ideas

Some ideas lifted from the magazine. I like the cut of the one on the far left (with the blue sparkle). Alittle simple, but the dress can still be used for other things! And the one with the pink sparkle just looks nice & elegant.

Hee hee :) So fun!