Save the Date! Have you?

Yeah, practically I hope I can follow all the western's custom and ritual for my wedding solely because I'm so seriously poisoned by all bridal magazines, wedding blogs and sites. I'd love to have the "something old something new, something borrowed something blue" but well, let's put that aside first.

The very one and only ritual that I've no doubt to carry out is my Save The Date! I have this in mind for the longest time already ever since our engagement last December. The idea evolved from a Save The Date lollipop cookie to..... a Save The Date Cupcake!

(Alright cupcakes is sooo "in" now that sometimes I'd very much like to scrap off from the wedding, but well... that's something I'm really good at!:p)

So my simple and oh-so-pretty cupcakes. Rich chocolate cupcakes with gooey chocolate ganache centre, top with fluffly swiss butter cream. I love the soft and pastel swirl.

I ordered some clear PVC boxes for the cupcakes and printed out the label myself. It's indeed a thorough DIY project! I love that!

The calendar for the month of December, the day falls on a Thursday but fear not! The following Friday is a Public Holiday! How can I ask for more? I've also tied a sticker of our monogram to the cupcakes for our friends to stick on their calendar (but I seriously wonder how many of them actually do it!)

So we totally send out about 25 Save The Dates, not much, but enough to make us tired explaining what is Save The Date! Some even thought that this is our wedding invites! Some says what the heck is this and why you waste money like this!

Well, clearly, I do these for myself and to please myself. :D I'm happy with the result though. It's like a milestone that we made our wedding public!

I also made these cupcakes for my Pre-Wedding session with Jenny Sun!

Bits and Pieces to Update

I am not saying that I do not know that I've not been updating for almost 6 months. I knew. But I just couldn't bring myself to write. A good 6 months so let's see what did I do:

1. Pick up my dress. Was a little disappointed with the gown-maker as they did not take my measurement properly resulted that I need to bring my gown for alteration in Kuching. But it is almost exactly like what I wanted. and yup. it came out a little short for me.

2. Bought our wedding band. and Nope. it's not the rose gold ring I blogged about.

3. Had our Pre-Wed pictures / Engagement pictures taken and so far only see a teaser picture my photographer posted on Twitter. *waiting patiently for the rest*

4. Sent out my Save The Date cupcakes. I got to talk about this more next.

5. Done my invitation mock-up. I felt something wasn't that right but couldn't tell where.

6. Been spending time on Etsy and Ebay, scouting for some wedding merchandise. and bought some.

7. My thoughts have been on the bridemaids' and bestmen gift lately.

8. and also the children activity pack. mazes, puzzles & etc.

9. Confirmed the actual day photographers. Yes i have more than one.

10. Confirmed the Jazz Band for the dinner.

Well, is that achievements of some sort?

There's still 114 days to the wedding. I hope i can update religiously as i really want to.

THE Ring

Talking about the wedding band, I always always wanted a simple white gold wedding band, plain, simple, no diamond no nothing... But as usual the Mr prefers something more feminine for me, with a little bit of diamonds which shows the bling but is versatile for daily wears.

Thanks to my bad habits of buying any bridal magazine off the markets, I spotted one rose gold ring in one of the Chinese bridal magazine that at one points I thought it's a waste of my money.

I showed it to the Mr and surprisingly that he likes it as well. The rose gold is a little more pinkish then the traditional yellow gold and is more muted. (We are thankful that our parents did not step in and ask us to get a yellow gold wedding rings at any point.) I actually preferred the first ring without any diamond and it is more classic and simple as I want in the first place.

We are almost convinced to bring this picture to the shops and ask them to custom made this for us if we cannot find the similar rings around town. But one day when we casually walked into a goldsmith's, we saw this:-

Of course this is not the exact ring but a random image that I got from the net to represent the ring that we saw. It is almost a love at first sight and the price is within our budget as well. Trying to stop the spontaneous shopper in both of us, we decided not to get it on the spot.

When we referred back to the first rose gold ring, we are both thinking why not get the shop to custom made the ring for us, so mine will be the rose gold ring with diamonds, I wanted the diamonds to be half of the circle only (like the white gold ring); and the Mr will get the simple rose gold band which we initially wanted.

Hah... Perfect.

Bridesmaids' Gifts

You've seen my effort of making my Maid of Honour a "Will U Be..." card and I am thinking of something for my bridesmaids. (Yes I said I am a loner but I still a few friends and cousins...)

I bought a fresh water pearl ring together with the bracelet last time and I wanted to give something similar to the bridesmaids on my wedding day! Yep you read me right. For the wedding day as a thank you gift!

So....

It is actually inspired by a ring bearer bowl which I spotted at Etsy.com, I want it so much but the seller said she no longer ship to Malaysia.

The ring bearer bowl, so simple and yet speaks for itself. (image source)

Be Loving, Be Happy, Be True.... That's all I want the girls to be on my wedding day! It would be nice is all of them wear the same ring right? Another form of corsage?

Close-up of the peach-colour fresh water pearl ring. So sweeeeeet....

Now the problem is, I have to know the ring size of each and every one of my bridesmaids to order the ring. Not like I am going to ask them for their ring sizes, and I gotta say I ordered the ring above for myself and I got the wrong size!

My Maid of Honour

I am actually very much of a loner, I can go shopping alone, I can sit in Starbucks for hours alone, I can stay at home and not utter a single words for the whole day; hence, I do not have a lot of friends in my life. But this Maid of Honour of mine is an exception. We've known each other for almost 15 years. We may not meet so often, we may not have any sleepover together, we never travel together before but I can say she shares most of my emotions throughout my life. I still keep most (if not all) of the letters that she wrote to me in the uni days. : )

Though it is no doubt that she will be my Maid of Honour or Bridesmaid but I wish I can handmade something for her so my first DIY project (which I hope there's a lot more to come), the "Will You Be My Maid of Honour" card!

A sweet and simple dress, I cut out the dress, add the ribbon sash, and I know I had to add some sequins at the chest area but the lace hem is a spontaneous touch.

I thought it might be a little messy for me to glue the sequins and lace but I swear it feel like a cooling breeze! And I totally love the subtle, sweet and girly feel reflected here.

The inside of the card. I jotted down all the reasons I need this bff of mine to be my maid of honour. Look at the chandelier behind the layer of wordings!

The fresh water pearl bracelet that I include in the card as a gift. I bought this off an online blogshop. It is a pretty mild peach colour which is one of my theme colour. Look at the monogram, it feels so right, doesn't it?

I hope this card does reflect the classic vintage wedding theme. And most importantly, it meant so much to me to have this young lady beside me along the wedding planning journey and on the wedding day.

ps. The Mr was so impressed by the card and he said he wants something similar for his bestmen too! So let's see what can I come up with!

The Monogram

I fell in love with Wedding Monogram since day 1 I am in the world of wedding planning. It's such an simple and affordable approach to "brand" and "theme" the wedding. It can appears in the wedding invitations, the guest book, the reception backdrop, the menu, the thank you cards and all over the wedding. It's like your symbol!

To be honest, I've been drafting out the monogram since last year (yes, even before he officially proposed :p). I like how people incorporate the initial for the surename to the monogram also, apart from the couple's initials. Perhaps in the western culture, the wife will most likely change her surename to her husband's; by incorporating the husband's surename's initial symbolise the new begining of them as a family.

Though for me, I am not going to change my surename to his but coincidently we both share the same initial for our surenames. Hence, having a 3-letters monogram is stapled in my mind ever after.

#1

To suit to my theme of a vintage classic, I decided to go for a more antique, old english font. The more I look at it, the more I like it and feel like "me". Yeah but the Mr doesn't really like it and claimed that it is a little macho for a wedding.

#2

So the #2, without the initial "T". This, I suppose is more feminine, more wedding, and more typical, which I don't like. But the Mr likes it, as I predicted.

#3

This is the same monogram as #1 except the damask design, the so-called improved version after the Mr's comment. He always like some damask patterns. But I think it is a little to overpowering, don't you think so?

(I have used #1 in one of my wedding projects, and suprisingly the Mr said it looks nice when assembled with wordings and printed on paper. *big grins*)

ps. It is now officially 9 months away from our wedding day.

THE theme

As long as my venture as a wedding planner & decorator, I stressed to my customer the importance of a Wedding Theme. It helps enormously to guide both the couple and vendors to have a clearer direction towards the wedding and deliver a cohesive wedding image.

Way before my engagement, I've been pondering on my wedding theme. I do not want the very common Oriental theme, although to an extend I believe a "Shanghai's 30s" can be a very good wedding theme and the impact will be strong. Imagine, red fabrics, red round lantern, cheongsam, peonies prints... And, for sure, it will be a big hit among the elders (whereby 65% of our guests will be elders).

However, I always wanted a bespoke, understated yet romantic, whimsical, loving and warmth wedding. So one day when I was browsing the internet, it just suddenly hit me, the English Vintage!

Among the tons and tons of images I've collected over time, I pulled them together into the followings inspiration boards:

Lace details, eyelets, chandeliers, vintage typewritter, fluffy peonies, calligraphy... I am so head over heels with all these. It also more or less outlined my theme colour, dark brown, broze, champagne, ivory, and a slight touch of peach.

In order to devote my passion towards baking and love towards my cupcakes, I'd definietly want some cupcakes at my wedding (but who's gonna bake for me?). I especially love the middle picture on the top row, it's a printed traditional vows on a canvas. As we are not going to exchange vows during the dinner, I'd want something similar to honour the wedding vows.

Candles are able to create the heartwarming and magical atmosphere at any occasion, something which the Mr really like and stressed on. Everyone around me will know that I am a coffee addict and if I am allowed to do so, yeah... I like to have some coffee beans somewhere in the reception. Oh ya.. I adore adore adore the flower balls made of white daisy, maybe something for the flower girls to carry?

I do not have a extra clear image of how I am going to incorporate all the things I love into one single reception which lasted for 3 hours. But, let's see.

I hope that I'll stick to this wedding theme :p though I seen something that made my heart stopped for 3 seconds recently. The Marie Antoinette wedding....

The Dress v2

I can't keep my eyes off dresses these days, long, short, formal, casual, even though I had ordered my wedding gown already...

Apart from looking for an Evening gown which I'll wear during the reception, I am secretly looking for a casual dress which can be worn during my Engagement Potraits with Jenny Sun. I am thinking to change into something more casual apart from my wedding dress. At first, I was thinking on just throw on a pair of jeans and white blouse, but the Pisces in me is slowly taking over me that "what about a casual sundress?" :p

This is what I saw at bluefly.com and instantly fell in love with. I adore the love details on the collar of which will go perfectly with my wedding dress and also my wedding theme. I will opt for a cream or pale yellow instead of the black, scaring that black colour will be too heavy for the relax and loving atmosphere I wanted from the potraits.

These are another two dresses which can be considered as well. I love the eyelets details on the dress on the left. The dress on the right is a little too feminine and normal, i guess. What say u?

I am seriously in love with mustard yellow nowadays, so understated yet sunny; and for this particular dress, I like the ribbon at the back. I'd prefer a lighter colour tone though...

I haven't make up my mind, jeans or dress... One thing for sure, I am kind of looking forward to the photo shooting in end of July.

Something for the (Big) Boys

I've got a Mr who is a beer-lover. He will faithfully reach for a bottle / mug / glass of Heinekens both when he is lying by the sunny beach and on a chilly rainning night.

That's our can of Heineken on the sandy beach of Phuket.

Of course, not only the Mr is a lover of this yellow fluid, so as his band of brothers! Hence we do anticipate the consumption of the liquor level will be mountain high on our reception. (So a waiver on the corkage is something that we really want to stress on.)

We also expected there'll be a group of friends which will be stayed back for the after-dinner party, so all you can relate is drink, drank, drunk! :D

And I've been drawn to the following picture which I came over on the internet, which is glasses of milk with pieces of chocolate chips cookies! The couple served them as "end-of-the-night-goodbye" treats to their guests.

Awww.... how sweet, isn't it? Blame that I'm a sucker for anything baked, cookies, cupcakes, pies, tarts.... And I know perfectly how gooooood it is to wash down a freshly baked chocolate chips cookies with a glass of warm milk!

But the guys will never appreciate these, I know. But I have another thing in mind for them!

The RAMLY BURGER!!!! I suppose those big boys will be hungry after round and round of drinking and gaming; so an authentic mamak style burger would be gladly loved by them. Imagine, slice of meat patty and fried egg sandwiched with a piping hot bun which is generously spread with butter..... Double yummy!

I'll get the burger-maker to wrap the burgers with plain paper or the brown paper which usually hawkers used to wrap nasi lemak; and perhaps to stick with our monogram sticker?!

Well, guess I'm a little too fast on the planning process but just wanted to share this. Quite interesting, no?

THE Dress

I'm back from KL and successfully visited my gown tailor, and yes! Another thing off my list! Despite all the dilemma I had during the gown-selection period and the dedication of 3 posts in a row to the gowns, I had finally decide on the Lea-Ann Betler gown as shown in the picture.

Upon my visit to Neoromantic, my gown-maker, I am able to talk with Erin, the person-in-charge there and doing all the neccessary measuring works within 30 minutes! She is flexible and accomodative and I personally think that this is good if you already have in mind what do you want for your dress and already had the design selected.

I did a little alteration on the original design like I am going for a smaller A-shape dress and forgo the train behind (which I now keep pondering, should I keep a smaller train instead). The lace details at the back will be a little less in order to show more of the bared back! :D

My dress will be ready in 2 months time but my scheduled KL trip is in June, so I'll only get to see my gown in June unless I decide to make an earlier trip. On my next visit there, I'll consider to MTM an evening gown too, if I can find a design that I like.

Neoromantic might not be as notorious as other gown-makers in KL but the price is much more affordable and from some of the gown displayed there, I think the quality and workmanship is justifiable.

Oh well, I did not manage to take any picture there nor did I manage to try on any gown there! :( I well, on my next trip there for the fitting, I promised.

The Engagement Potrait

Right, the Engagement Potrait, or in the terms which we usually use in the Malaysian society is the Pre-Wedding Potraits. I have paid the deposit and booked our pre-wed potraits photographer, the very first thing that I have off my to-do list.

So, the photographer that we had enthusiastically engaged is Jenny Sun Photography! I've been following Jenny's blog for the longest time and never ever imagine that I'll be having her for my pre-wed photographer. She is actually based in both Sydney and Kuala Lumpur and I never bother to send her an email to ask for a quote, as I subjectively that I'd not be able to afford her service.

Well, thanks to my dearest friend, I thought, why not? Just give it a shot! And truthfully, the reply that I received from Jenny is the first good news that made me jumped up from my chair since our engagement back in December.

What I like about her photo is the natural light settings, and the love between the couple that overflows from the picture. It is sometimes casual, sometimes formal; which ever way it is, it made you really feel the love between that 2 people and you let out a sigh...

I never understand the usual pre-wed potraits that the couple change into 10 different gowns and pose in the studio for the camera, the outcome might be flawless but it is kind of still and emotion-less.

We are going to have our shoot at a local beach resort, but I doubt that we can be as playful as the couple shown in the picture as we are both a little camera shy. Nonethess,I am so happy for our decision and can't wait for the shoot which is scheduled on end of July in Kuching. (Did I mentioned that I've also booked Jenny her flight tickets to Kuching? :p)

I intended to get Jenny for the actual wedding day photography too but we have not fix a date for our wedding yet and Jenny is already fully-booked for all weekends of October! :( I love love love her rings shot! Especially this one on a cupcake, if only you knew how much I am hooked on cupcakes!

{Image source}

Lace & Satin

Alright, I have yet to get over my gown searching craze. But says who I need to get over? And the best finding of the day is Lea-Ann Belter.

Look at all the lace details, aww... stunning. Soft, subtle, classic, timeless, pleasant.

And my favourite of all is

Gown #8

I hope the Mr will like this gown, seriously. I especially adore the lace details at the back. Pull the hair into a loose, low bun and put on a pearl necklace, voila!

I guess I have shortlisted the crucial elements of my dress as lace overlays, Satin ribbon / sash and Empire cut. Not bad eh?

ps. I am going for a venue visit tomorrow, most probably. Can't wait.

Wedding Gown - Part II

As much as I love the gown #1 from the previous post, the groom-to-be happened to have lots of complaints towards the gown. It's sometimes so weird to hear the man's point of view towards the outfit of ours, right?

(I never thought that he will have any comment towards my gown and was so confident that I'll get THAT gown for myself. I can really forsee myself in that gown, walking down the aisle with him...)

Well... I need to browse for more gown designs and the followings are the new findings:-

Gown#5

This dress is OMG-So-Pretty! Classic with a vintage infusion. Stunning!

Gown #6

This is sort of the stand-by gown design for me. I used to like the strapless gown very much but I have realised it has become fairly common nowadays. But this dress is still pretty to me, with the lace details and I don't mind to add a little train behind the dress.

Gown #7

This is another alternative to me that I probably will adapt the design for the top part and opt for a satin finish for the lower part.

Somehow, I realised that I've kind of stuck with the almost-similar-design with the gown #1. Don't you think so? Lace, simple, A-line...

Monique Lhuillier is one of name that I came across during the gown-searching process and totally fell in love with some of the designs. Gown #6 and 7 is a creation from Monique.

I've also finally set a theme for the wedding and, no disagreement from the groom! More on that soon!

Dilemma No.1 - Bridal Gown

I wanted to do this for the longest time and I finally get myself up to do so: my bridal gown. I always secretly wanted to have a made-to-measure bridal dress and really adore the thoughts of passing the gown to my daughter (if I happen to have one) one day.

I did scrub off the thought due to budget constraint and the limitation of resources in Kuching but tee-hee... my secret wish granted. It was with lots of coincidence that I happen to stumble across a bridal gown company in KL from the web and emailed them and asked for an estimated quote. The figure revert back to me made me jump up of my chair and it made my fiance to jump up from his too!

So I am off to search for the type of gown that I like. Truthfully, gown is the last thing that I'll ever pay attention to in any bridal magazine or websites but no longer is now.

Every girl will have her dilemma when choosing the right outfit to a party, what more to say for the wedding! So these are those I have shortlisted so far:-

Gown # 1

Gown #2

Gown # 3

Gown # 4

Gown # 1 is the one that I send for quotation. I have love at first sight with this gown, love the lace details, the simplicity and the classical charm of it. And it goes perfectly well with my wedding theme in mind (will talk about the wedding theme in the future post). The question is HE doesn't like it. Well oh well...

Suggestion?

30 days into the Engagement

It's been exactly a month since we got engaged. Yes folks, engaged. I reckon the term (or status) upon the proposal is accepted; though some Chinese traditions do outlined the engagement as a ceremony prior to the wedding, which I do not think there's still lots of people practising it.

I constantly stare at the little sparkle on my left index finger and tell myself, you are getting married.

It doesn't come in a sudden, we have been discussing about marriage for the past one year. We talked about how we want the wedding to be, where it would be held, the marriage life, kids & etc etc. He sometimes popped the question over the late-night phone calls (esp after a few glasses of Heineken), sometimes in the car, sometimes when we just cuddled up and watch DVD at home. Most of the time I just teasingly shake my head and sometimes when he put it in a real sentimental way, I will give a nod.

I thought I was a lot prepared, not for the proposal but for the wedding preparation, but truthfully I wasn't. I was very much in a depressed mode a couple of days after we got engaged. I guess is the "are we?" "is it real" kind of emotions.

Right, I am going way too far. What I want to say here is we had not really kick off any of the preparation physically. I called for quotation for banquet and photography, will talk about this in separate post soon. We listed out our budget and he almost fainted. Date aren't chosen yet. I'll leave the date to the eldest, but ideally it will be in October.

I have been browsing a lot of wedding sites since don't know when due to my work scope. So though I have roughly an idea of how I want my wedding to look like, I will still put up some inspiration boards to share. (I am typing this so I sort of made a promise here and I need to stop procrastinating)

So hang on there people, and I now wonder if anyone read this. I am tied up with all the Chinese New Year bakings and hopefully I will post soon.

Next up, venue, most probably. Or the proposal story?

This is the very beginning

Being a wedding and event planner for 2.5 years had given me the privillege to read, to learn and to experience of a wedding and hence also given me the extra almost 30 months to dream about how my wedding would be or to be precise, how I want it to be.

Is it easier? A lot of people might think.

It might be in a way but then I'll be in bigger and deeper and greater dilemma to choose and decide what is best for me (and him).

There will be a lot for ponder, the colour, the theme, the dress, the decoration, the stationery and to struggle between the "I want" and "I need" due to budget limitation.

I've been reading and following a couple of wedding blogs and always wanted to create one to note down and also to share the experience of a thorough wedding planning. So this is it. The very beginning of my very own wedding blog.

I shall (I hope) post up some inspiration boards, some vendor reviews, some actual preparations, some thoughts, some bridezilla moments and many many more of my ramblings.

Let's keep my finger crossed for a joyous journey of preparation.