When your wedding is over, and you feel relieved that the stress is now over, but at the same time here comes the withdrawal effects to all the excitement and anticipation that have been built up over the past few months..
Now I understand why wedding preparations have to be done a year in advance. There are really so much to do! Ours is not a huge celebration yet we felt a little overwhelmed at times. Or maybe it’s just the paranoid me. But I’m really glad that I took things into my own hands, just like managing my own little project. And as much as I may over worry most of the time, the process of planning for our own wedding is more enjoyable than I imagined.
WARNING: This post is really long so skip to the vendors that you are interested to know about! (;
TEA CEREMONY – Bespoke Photography
We had a simple tea ceremony without gatecrash. And poor me had to wake up at about 330am to prepare. My mum and I had our make up done by Amber (The Moment Bridal), she has always been really sweet and sincere each time we met and I’m so glad that she is my MUA.
We started our tea ceremony at about 730am and Siyuh was with me from morning. We only had 2 bridesmaid and 2 groomsmen for our wedding btw.
While I was feeling awkward with the whole photo-taking session again, the photographer from Bespoke Photography made it really comfortable by guiding us what to do. Love how the photos turned out too! I’ll only be sharing a few sneak peeks in this post otherwise this post will just go on forever.
VENUE – Picnic @ Wisma Atria
We actually settled for Dazzling Cafe at the beginning. In the end, we had to forgo our initial plan as we exceeded the capacity. While Picnic was actually in one of our top considerations, it wasn’t in our first choice because of the exclusivity issue. To book the entire venue would require 250 pax and it exceeded our budget as well. However, we decided to go for Picnic after forgoing Dazzling Cafe as it is the kind of dream rustic/ botanical wedding theme I have always wanted.
We had our solemnization held in the Flower Garden Room for some privacy and shifted out to the Central Flower Garden for the cake cutting and lunch after. The solemnization table/ chairs/ flower garland are included, while I brought my own table decor. Because of the restaurant design, minimal decoration was required.
Totally in love with the greens and florals!
Other than exclusivity, another huge downside about this venue is the table and chairs setup, which may be a little on the casual side. (It’s called picnic for a reason right?) They do have back rest chairs but only limited ones, which we have reserved for the family and relatives.
I do notice that Picnic is not a common place to hold weddings as there are not much photos or reviews online. I would say that if you are not particular about holding a conventional wedding and want to go for something different yet affordable, Picnic is a great choice! (Especially if the venue design is your huge priority)
Friends have also gave us feedback that the buffet food in general were delicious! They were really generous with the variety as they refilled different types of food so that guests were able to try out different types. Desserts, drinks and ice cream were available to order at the counter so that was a steal!
Cristina was very patient with our concerns and enquiries the whole time and she tried her very best to accommodate to our needs. Absolutely no regrets choosing Picnic for our wedding venue!
INVITATION CARDS – Vista Print
Having some experience in Photoshop, I decided to go ahead with our own personalised invitation cards. First of all, it’s gonna be a lot cheaper. Getting someone to design and print would cost about $3 each. Secondly, I was rather particular about the design and wanted full control of it.
On Vistaprint, the cards cost about $1 each and the price would go lower if I ordered more than 20 pieces. Due to a change in venue and lack of time, we only gave the physical invitations to our relatives and sent digital copies to our friends instead.
PROPS – Taobao/ Ezbuy
I bought all my props from Taobao/ Ezbuy because it’s so cheap and convenient to source for an exact item that I want. Since our wedding is botanical themed, I was naturally drawn to the florals and wood finish. I cannot recall the exact amount I spent on my props but it was a couple of hundreds.
Besides table decor, I also bought bridal car decor, flower baskets, fake petals and paper photo props.
I particularly love this “Sign a heart” guestbook frame, which I thought was really meaningful for guests to sign their name/ write a short message on the hearts and slot it into the frame. We’re planning to hang this in our future home too!
I also love the customised ring holder which was perfect for our theme. Most of the other props could be kept for our future house use or for photo-taking with my cakes!
WEDDING BANDS – Love and Co
Right from the beginning, I was already quite certain what type of ring I would want to get. For engagement ring, I only like the classic designs, and for wedding band, I like the ones with multiple small diamonds.
Steve from Love and Co was really friendly and genuine in helping us with the rings, and we’re really glad to pick from the right store!
WEDDING CAKE – Monice Bakes
Most of you know me as a baker/ owner of Monice Bakes, and it would only make sense for me to be responsible for my whole family’s birthday cakes all year round, including the cake for my very own special day!
No second thoughts! I was definitely planning on baking a 3d buttercream roses cake to match the venue, but made the side of the cakes a little rustic style instead of the classic smooth design.
BALLOONS – The Balloon Thing
I really like balloons decor and really didn’t want to miss this out, hence I engaged The Balloon Thing to help me decorate the surrounding fence with my favourite pink and white balloons to provide a little more colours to my photos.
I also requested for a customised big balloon to be used as a centrepiece during my solemnization and cake-cutting ceremony. Best part about such balloons is that they are really long-lasting (At least a month).
FLOWERS – The Flower Practice
I chanced upon The Flower Practice on Blissful Brides app and sent them a few designs I was looking for. Christopher has been really patient and friendly in his replies even though I have been asking a lot.
I told him that I wanted something rustic with red roses and greens to match the venue (Sent him some photos of Picnic) and this is what he created for me! I love how the bouquet turned out, unfortunately the roses were quite fragile and a few were slightly damaged during the delivery process. Other than that, the colour palette turned out the way I wanted!
I also bought the corsages and boutonnieres ($12-15 each) from him too.
SOLEMNIZER – Mr Chia Ah Sah
I highly recommend to start looking for a solemnizer more than 3 months ahead of your actual day, especially if you are looking for the popular solemnizers on popular wedding dates. I really started to panic when more than 10 solemnizers told me that they are already fully booked (Even 3 months in advance)! Thankfully I found Mr Chia on some bridal recommendation page.
We met up to let him sign the solemnizer form and updated him again a week before our actual day. I’m glad that everything worked out smoothly because I have heard of horror stories about other solemnizers who backed out on the couple or was late for the solemnization.
DOOR GIFTS / WEDDING FAVOURS – The Garden Fortune Company
Fortune Cookies are great ideas not only for CNY but for wedding door gifts too! Thanks SH for suggesting such a great idea. I thought the gold accent was quite a nice match to the surroundings and my decor as well!
I love how the fortune cookies not only have fortune readings but many positive messages for motivation as well. (Oh! And 4 digits at the back too!)
For brides who are on a tight budget or wish to provide an extra gift on top of your door gift, you can consider using fortune cookies too! Nowadays, chocolates and cookies are becoming more common wedding favours, I guess fortune cookie works too!
I also bought separate love birds “salt and pepper” door gifts for my guests!
BRIDAL FACIAL – My Cozy Room
About 1-2 weeks before our wedding, I had my Premium Illuminating Bridal Facial at My Cozy Room Spa.
After my US Holiday trip, my face has a lot of clogged pores unfortunately. This facial treatment was effective in removing my acne and pimples in just one session. While some of my acne scars were still visible without makeup (Miracles don’t happen overnight), my skin did feel brighter and more radiant than before!
Having smooth and radiant skin also made it easier for makeup application. Just remember to put on a mask the night before to keep your skin prepped well for the next morning.
BRIDAL NAILS – Sally (Home-based)
It’s my first time doing gelish nails because bakers can’t have manicure hahaha. I wanted somewhere decently priced and most importantly convenient. My friend recommended me Sally who was actually staying at the same condo as me, just different block!
I chose a simple pastel pink design with some silver flakes which costs $45. I had to wash it out in a week after my holiday trip as I’m a baker but no regrets! And the colours really suited me as well.
EMCEE – Cecilia (Totally In Love)
After the event, I realised that having an emcee is important to help coordinate the schedule and ensure that guests know what to do next. Cecilia was also really helpful in making suggestions of the timeline during our initial discussion.
I think I made a right choice such that I had one less thing to worry about on the actual day!
VIDEOGRAPHY – Wilkohgraphy
When I’m overly nervous/ excited, I am usually unable to capture the details of my memories. Having a video was important so that I could rewatch over and over again in the future to reminisce about it. Wilson really exceeded my expectations for our wedding highlights video. I was initially reluctant about hiring a videography due to the extremely high rates, and since our wedding was a small event, I didn’t want to hire a half/full day VG.
Thankfully, I chanced upon Wilkohgraphy which charges by hourly rate (Including a few minutes highlight edits). I thought the price was really affordable and the video was so well done for the price that we have paid for! I can honestly say this was one of the best decisions I made for our wedding.
PRE-WEDDING & ACTUAL DAY PHOTOGRAPHY – The Moment Bridal
(Including makeup/gown/suit rental)
Joshua and his team has been really sincere and helpful since Day 1. In case you didn’t know, I engaged them for our Pre-wedding shoot as well. You can read more here:
https://m0nice.com/2019/01/our-pre-wedding-shoot-the-moment-bridal.html
The actual day photography was taken by another photographer Yang and he didn’t disappoint as well!
Yep, it still feels kinda surreal once in awhile that my status has now been changed from GF to wife, the feeling hasn’t fully kicked in yet probably because we haven’t move to our new place yet!
As of now, I’m glad that I have another huge excitement to anticipate for! (;
Stay tuned!
