Australia Pre-Wedding Photoshoot: Sat 19 Feb 2011

Silly blogger did a maintenance and all my writing was lost, I'll have to find the time to re-write the post again. Hopefully they restore my previous post soon. Otherwise enjoy the photos first. :p

Wedding Cake thoughts and Limousine Transport

With the months going by quickly, I started browsing around for cake suppliers and emailed a few of them for quotes. Darling was actually quite pleased with the idea of a cake and cupcake combination. We figured it was something different from the usual and also much easier for guests to just pick up a cupcake and eat instead needing to cut and serve them.

Here are a couple of designs below which I found on google. Basically the top most tier will be a single layered cake and you can have up about 4-7 tiers below of cupcakes decorated in circles around the stand. We haven't finalised the theme and colours and I really hope to come to a decision soon as my bridesmaids have also been asking me about our wedding theme.

And so based on pricing and email communications, I have shortlisted about 4 cake suppliers:
1) Special Treats by Carolyn, Knoxfield
2) Three Sweeties, Oakleigh
3) Sweet by Nature, Heidelberg
4) Wild Holly Cakes, Brighton

Special Treats by Carolyn was recommended by Ammie whose colleague had a very lovely and delicious Tiffany styled birthday cake made by them. The first of our appointments is in early April and so I'll update about the cake later on.

Getting on to transport, initially we thought of using my uncle's Merc. But then I just realised that the bride and groom are not supposed to travel to the ceremony venue together. The groom needs to be standing at the alter waiting for the bride already when she arrives. And so we would now need to go in seperate cars.

Thus I thought we could get a limo so my bridesmaids and I and possibly even my parents can get to the church in style. ;) I only emailed one company so far as transport one thats later down the list. But I'm really loving the Chrysler 300C limo and 1300Limo gave us a quote of $1155 for around 5 hours.

Looking at a black coloured Chrysler 300c which can sit up to 10 passengers.

The interior of the Chrysler 300c, all pimped up with lights and leather seats.

Now that I found out the limo doesn't have to do a pick-up for darling at our place, that means we might not need the vehicle for the 5 hours at all and could possibly save some money. So we're keeping this company in mind and will contact others later on.
We're personally not a fan of the old vintage vehicles for some reason and so are not interested in looking into those at all. Till then fingers crossed that we can make a final decision on the wedding theme!

Decorations for the Ceremony Venue and possibly the Reception Venue and Transportation

We just ticked off another item off the list by placing a deposit to book our wedding decorator. Getting my contact when I signed up at Australian Bridal Service (ABS) website, Nicole the Director herself emailed me and informed us that she was decorating the Scotch College Chapel for a wedding in April last year and invited us to drop by to have a look. That was when we took photos of the church and looked at the church interior for the first time.

Name: Your Knight Events and Delightful Occasions
Website: http://www.yourknight.com.au/ and http://www.delightfuloccasions.com.au/

Nicole actually owns both companies and they sort of both deal with the same stuff so I'm not really sure why she chose to have two websites. But I think Your Knight Events deals in corporate stuff and travel whereas Delightful Occasions is more on wedding.

Anyway we chose them because we thought her prices for decorations were quite reasonable based on the decos she had done for the church that day and the testimonials on the websites. And I was also impressed with her professionalism; the fact that the Director herself, was dealing and communicating with us.

Here are some of my favourite picks from the website:
I was also really happy to know that Nicole is actually a florist by trade and does the flower arrangements herself and they do make flower bouquet decos for putting on top the car bonnets as well. Being something that was only common in the Asian cultures, I was really glad to hear that as I didn't want having only a plain boring white ribbon. I can't wait to make an appointment to drop by their Carrum Downs show room to look at their decorative displays as well as to discuss further the decoration needs for the ceremony.

We haven't really decided if the reception places needed other decorations as well because chair sash and table centre pieces are already provided. And so that might be something we'll consider later. These event companies also actually does flowers and cakes and so I'll get a quote from Nicole when I have more information on what type of flowers/colours/cake types I'd like to match our theme. And so the next thing on the list will be the cake!

The finally complete Melbourne Pre-Wedding photoshoot gown with accessories and shoes to match. :)

I collected my gown for our pre-wedding(engagement) photoshoot a couple of weeks ago. If you had previously read, this gown had gone through two different seamstress before it was finally perfected. It wasn't that the I was asking too much, the first seamstress (a wedding shop at that), just did a bad job.

Anyway I was glad to get it back after so long. I tried it on last Monday and showed it to mum on Skpye. She was happy to see her "work"(the maroon coloured sash with sequins and beads sewn) on it. Initially we thought we couldn't use it, but the seamstress (the 2nd one) had this brilliant idea of using buttons to secure parts of the sash onto the gown because it was covering a portion of the zip on the back.

The gown - finally with all alterations and designs completed. Nine West Nuncio Heels Pumps - in Strawberry colour	Flower fascinator to clip on the right side of gown where the ribbon hangs down.
	Crystal and pearl hair comb possibly for the side of the hair
	Crystal and rhinestone hair pins for other parts of the hair.
	Stretchable rhinestone fashion ring for the other hand. ;)

I got on to buying my shoes and accessories to match thereafter. All of those were bought online at much cheaper prices, yet not off setting the quality. The accessories were all from eBay while the shoes were from this fabulous shoe shop in New York - http://www.shopnewyork.com.au/ that sells and ships to Australia at great prices!

And so we have finally scheduled our Melbourne photo shoot for next Saturday! There will be sort of "an entourage" of 4 others including the photographers coming along. We're looking at places like the Botanic Gardens, Melbourne Park, Docklands, Tennis Courts(of course) and anywhere else if more recommendations come along then. Really looking forward to it! :)

P.S: Friends out there who know about "Tubby's shoe incident", can you imagine his face when he saw my shoes!? LOL.

Music & Entertainment for the Reception

We just placed a deposit to book a DJ and music equipment for the reception! Tubbs(Darling) and I found them when we attended the Ultimate Bridal Event in May last year. Their sales reps are nice and friendly and they have good testimonials on their website too. We could have just gone with an iPod package - which is just music playing the whole ceremony, but of course we opted to have a DJ instead to liven up the atmosphere.

Tubbs and I weren't a fan of having a live band playing. If there were to be any live singing, it would most definitely have to come from me (the singing wannabe), my bridesmaids/groomsmen and guests. Afterall it's our special day and we don't really need some outsiders performing for us! Tubbs is a bit shy singing in front of an audience and would only do it in the lounge room with me on our gaming consoles. :p

Anyway, we went with their standed 5-hour wedding package. Details below:
Name: Pro Mobile DJs
Website: http://www.promobiledjs.com.au/

Standard Wedding Package = $445 for up to 5 hours
* Professional, fun and experienced DJ for up to 5 hours
* Suitable for up to 150 people
* MASSIVE music collection covering all genres from 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and today
* 2x Powered 15 inch speakers on stands
* Dual CD player with mixer
* 2x Intelligent LED lights
* Microphone for speeches (on wire)
* Complete customer service 24/7

Oh and they also provide setup and rental of data projectors. I think it's about $100 for the whole event. We definitely need one because we plan to do a slide-show of our pre-wedding photos that night so guests can see while awaiting our arrival. I'll also be picking up my pre-shoot gown tomorrow from the seamstress! Can't wait! :D

Booking our Reception Venue: Brighton Savoy, what's left on the list and receptions back home in SG/MY.

I'm so happy that the blog posts are all finally up to date. But most importantly the other happier thing is that we finally placed a deposit on the reception venue a couple of weeks ago on Tues 14 Dec. That's another tick off the list and one less thing to worry about. Since hearing that 2011 was a favourite year for couples to get married (I mean, come on Prince William and Kate at that!), having the most important things on top of the list sorted out certainly placed our hearts a little more at ease.

As you might recall, we went to inspect the Brighton Savoy a few months ago in July. They have been really good in holding the date for us for 5 months and only requesting a deposit to be made after another couple expressed interest as well. Throughout that period, they have constantly kept in touch with us to find out if we were still interested in holding our reception there. And so that's a good indication of customer service. :) The other venues that we visited made no contact at all, except for a couple who checked back a day or two after the visit and simply forgotten us after that.

Ticks on lists so far:	Next on the list:
Ceremony Venue Reception Venue Celebrants Photographer & Videographer	Flowers and Cake Bridemaid's Dresses Actual day gown Hair and makeup Artist

Not forgetting to mention that I have asked my uncle and auntie if I can leave from their very beautiful bungalow on our wedding day and they have happily said yes. And as you can guess coussy Kayla (their daughter) is extremely elated too. We'll most probably borrow my uncle's Merc for the bridal car and save on the hire car. I would really like to decorate it as well, hoping we can find a shop here that does it.

For the moment, we're still in holiday mood for the rest of the plans. We're having discussion about the reception lunch/dinners back in Singapore and Malaysia for year end with our parents though. Apparently as in the chinese lunar calendar, this year (the year of the Rabbit) is a popular for weddings back home as well because couples want to conceive and have a "Dragon" baby in the following year. LOL. So we have to be pretty fast in booking the venues for Dec 2011 and Jan 2012 too.

Till then Happy New Years 2011 everyone and may this year be a good one for everyone too!

Melbourne Pre-Wedding Photoshoot gown alterations and possibly finding my actual day Wedding gown.

I bought my pre-shoot(engagement) gown from the Bridal & Couture Sample held at the Bayview Eden Hotel in July. As in most Asian cultures, couples actually dress up in wedding gowns and suits to take photos before the actual wedding. This is so that the photos will be ready and printed in time for an album to be displayed at the reception place for guests to view.

Though Photography Studios here are slowly starting to introduce Engagement Shoots, it is still not something that is commonly done and Melbourne. But we still chose to go ahead with the culture with pre-shoots in Melbourne, Malaysia and possibly Singapore. ;) To save money, our pre-shoot in Melbourne will be done by friends James and Weichao.

The super long gown when I first tried it on at the sale - got it for $400. It was literally sweeping the floor and I wasn't a fan of the body-hugging design down to the hips.

First alteration was done at Be A Star Bridal. The shop didn't do a good job. My gown turned out to be too short in the front and the seams at the back weren't even/symmetrical with the front.

I intend to put a coloured ribbon around from the back to the front and so I tied a thin ribbon round, took a photo, and made it thicker in Photoshop to see how it looked.

After being happy at how thick the ribbon should be, Mum and I went to Spotlight to get a thicker piece of cloth and Mum sewed on sequins and beads to personalise it.

The problem started when we found out the front and back seams of the gown weren't even/symmetrical. We realised then the bridal shop had done a bad job in the alterations. A plastic strip was also poking out from the right side near the hips. The gown thus needed more alterations done as well as getting the ribbon sewn on it properly.

On one of the off days I took to spend time with mum before she went back Malaysia, we visited Nifi Bridal in Oakleigh. I just intended to browse around when I tried on this really gorgeous strapless gown with laces and embroidery. It didn't really seemed my type until I tried it on and it fitted perfectly. All it needed was alterations for the length a little.

At that moment, it felt like the gown was "the one" for my actual day and I hastily put a $200 deposit on it. About a week later, I was having second thoughts because our wedding was still about a year away and I probably have time to look at other places. But I guess I have been pretty good in not being impulsive and putting deposit on the first shop I visited in April! The $200 is still sitting there awaiting my decision as they need at least 50% deposit in order to make an order for the gown.

In any case, the lady at the shop also recommended a seamstress they use who was in Clarinda, pretty near our place. This seamstress operated from home and her work certainly looked much better. She was also very helpful and knowledgeable in recommending what needs to be done to alter the gown properly and to fit the ribbon. I felt more comforable this time leaving the gown to her.

Edit 08/12 - I have gone back for a first fitting since then and am very much looking forward to collect my gown after the 25th of Jan when she returns from holidays. :)

The one year countdown to our Wedding!

Today is exactly 1 year (or 12 months or 365 days) to our wedding! And the countdown begins!

Our wedding blog launch today is to commemorate this special countdown. This blog took months of preparation and up till now, I still have not finished all the posts! There are still a few posts in draft mode which I need to get my hands round to finishing them up soon! Posts all updated now! Very happy! :)

But meantime, please enjoy having a read of all the completed posts so far. Start from the very first post at the bottom - the unofficial day start day of our plans on Sat, 3 Apr: Little John Memorial Chapel: A Sneak Peak. Keep going up by clicking on the post titles from the Blog Archive on the right.

Also check out the pages: About this blog, The Proposal and Wedding Details. I'll add photo albums as well soon on the wedding gown try-outs, reception venues, cakes, cars, expos etc. just for the visual people who can't be bother reading! :p Thank you for visiting our blog!

Brighton Savoy Bridal Expo

When we visited Brighton Savoy about a week ago, the sales rep. reminded us that they were having a Bridal Expo the following week. The expo, held on Sunday 17 July was at the hotel itself and was of a smaller scale. Of course it wasn't as big as the ones at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Though it was small, it also meant that we got to see other smaller scale wedding suppliers apart from the usual ones at the large expos. The expo was held at the Seaview room itself and spanned out to the open area leading to the Gala Room and Wellington Room.

Kat's Cakes and Formal Hire - the first few booths we saw	Tables were elegantly set up in a nice wedding theme
Beautiful table centre pieces were on display	A large diamond ring table centre piece
Bridal Diva - wedding gowns in plus size for the slightly more rounded figure	One of my favourites - Fancy a Macaroon Tower for a wedding cake?
Another beautiful table centre piece in a lovely decorated Wellington Room	Vintage bridal rental cars if you're into the old stuff for your wedding
View of the Wellington Room set up for a wedding - more for smaller number of guests like less than 80 or something

I also received a goodie bag with heaps of free brochures and two thick bridal magazines inside. A couple of them were more for brides in the Mornington Peninsula and so weren't too useful. But there was no harm in getting ideas from other regions.

We chatted to the guy about the Macaroon Tower and found out it was about $700 for that. Bought some home to try and they were really tasty - but not sure about spending that much for a "wedding cake". Brighton Savoy sales execs. were also around to give advice and help. I think the expo made it an inch closer to us making a decision on our reception venue.

Reception Viewing: Brighton Savoy

We started the beautiful Sunday with lunch at the Brighton Baths Cafe / Bar. James, our tennis mate/friend and pre-shoot wedding photographer first introduced us to the restaurant around March.

There was a set meal offer going on at that time with a 3-course meal for around $30 or $40, I can't quite remember. The restaurant was upstairs while the cafe / bar was downstairs with stunning views overlooking Brighton Beach.

The plan that day was just a relaxing lunch and to look at a reception venue - The Brighton Savoy, along the Esplanade, facing Brighton Beach. Prior to that I had already view photos of the venue online and was really blown away by the photos along the beach as well as the function room that was facing the beach.

Venue Name: The Brighton Savoy
Website: http://www.brightonsavoy.com.au/weddings/index.htm
Prices (2011): Sit-down dinner 5 hours from $106 pp
Package includes: Canapés, 3-course meal, table centre pieces and chair covers, cake-cutting and serving, 1-night accommodation and personal M.C or Hostess included.

View from the bar and coffee/tea room waiting area for guests.	Along the corridor from the reception area to the other function rooms.
The Seaview room - the function room that they recommended to us.	Darling was discussing something with the sales exec. I can't quite remember what it was.
Facing the beach - not so obvious now because of the sunlight.	From the Seaview room looking into the recption / lobby area.
The Seaview room opens up to a back garden and apparently they told us that it will hopefully be renovated in time for a more modern look and added gazebo.

After viewing Brighton Savoy, we pretty much had our minds set on it although we didn't quite like the min. requirement of 80 guests for that function room. Then again after some calculations, we realised we could probably make up that 80 guests if not more. :p But since we still have time, we just asked them to hold on the date for us for the time being.