My Singapore Summer Garden Wedding - Page 4
As you know my color theme is Tiffany Blue and Blood Red by now, to my shock, the restaurant was only able to provide with white tablecloth. In Chinese custom, white means death just like black mean the same thing in the Western world. The point is that the look we wanted at the place we are going to tie our knot will not be completed if the major part of the decorations are in white because the building is in white so are the walls. We would think that they might have red tablecloths. So in a mad rush, we had to look at tablecloths similar to the ones below:
This is the wrong shade of blue but the seller convinced me that he will have my type of color and customised the length for me.
This is also under considerations. (We had expectations that the restaurant might have a tablecloth of this colour).
Then we did calculations with the online seller andrealisedthat we are going to buy in a lot more for about 12 tables for a one-time usage. That is going to cost us. Going back to our wedding planner for solutions, she suggested us to do with table runners instead and have little decorations on the table with Tiffany Blue or Blood Red to emphasis ourcolourtheme. And that’s what we did!
Armed with the correct colour palette template, I begin my search earnestly with a lot of sellers and these are what I found.
I loved the ends of this table runners but the seller was not willing to customised in 12 tables and all different lengths.
This seller is very willing to accommodate to my needs except that he only have shiny materials for the table colours and I wanted something matt finish.
In the end, we went with this female seller who was not only nice and polite but gave me a big discount and a lot of advices on the length I should get and shipping costs. Everyone should do their business this way! (Link:https://detail.tmall.com/item...)
Together from her, I have also orders 100 pieces of blood red napkins since I refused to use white napkins from the restaurant.
Acting on the advice of my wedding planner who suggested us to have table runners and other decorative items on the table, I went on a mad search for the items. Looking back, I think I love this process the most because I had so much fun finding new items to decorate the tables. My guests lamented that they did not know that was all my work otherwise they would have taken the entire items home. Haha!
Some of the items below I have found, not necessary purchase but it suited my colour theme.
This is super sweet decoration that can be placed in the middle of the table.
Link: https://item.taobao.com/item...
I love these coasters the moment I sat my eyes on them. It is quirky and useful as well. Intricately and delicately cut to precise. I got about 100 pieces of it.
Link:https://item.taobao.com/item...
This is another one I got for the centrepiece on the table. It means good fortune in Chinese.
Link:https://item.taobao.com/item...
Colourful and playful straws that perks up the table. Of course, I got it only in Tiffany blue and red in colours. I would love to get it in pink but that's not my colour. Too bad!
Link:https://detail.tmall.com/item...
These are lovely table cards to allow people to know where they will be sitting but my wedding are free seatings. Didn't stop me from purchasing it but my husband did stop me from using it because it confuses our guests.
Link:https://item.taobao.com/item...
Since I was having my blood red napkins shipped to me, I thought I should get these nice paper cut napkin holder but the seller wouldn't sell me at 100 pieces. The minimum to order is 500 pieces. It looks very dainty.
Same goes for these glasses decorations, we could have our names delicately engraved on a piece of paper design and perk it up against the rim. But too bad for us, seller wants to sell in 500 pieces.
Tiffany blue placemats looks so apt. Since I am getting the Tiffany blue runners already, it seems to be colour theme too much overrun on our tables.
Last but not least, the Chinese have a custom to give the guests something sweet to bring home. This is to signify sweet happiness from the host to the guests. I had 100 pieces shipped out to me and I have to fold it, put the chocolates in and tied it by hand one by one by myself. But it was worth it to see my guests smile.
My husband’s main task is to find the photographer since he was more particular about the outcome of our photos. Searching through the Internet, he found several reputable Singapore wedding photographers and I helped by listing down a few questions and email these photographers. As my husband had a business trip down to Singapore, he took this opportunity to narrow down the email replies and decided to meet up the two photographers he had finalized with.
One was The Missing Pieces (http://www.themissingpieces.sg/), Mr Jed Tan who met my husband over dinner. His work is impressive but what was the most captivating was the colors. His photographs are all edited to showcase bright, cheerful vibrant colors that surround the loving couples.
The other one was AnnabelLaw Photography (http://annabellaw.com/), Ms Annabel met my husband on another day. Her work is beautiful and enchanting and she takes candid shots beautifully as seen on her website.
But what makes my husband chose Annabel was her personality, his exact words were “I knew she is the one because her character is so similar to my wife’s.” I also was leaning towards Annabel because she was the only one who kept insisting to meet me and offered to talk to us via three way Skype before she is willing to take on us as her clients. According to her, having mutual chemistry is very important to her. I did eventually had the chance to meet her up before the wedding and guess what? Both our personalities matches and we could have talked the whole night even without noticing the coffee shop is closing.
Engaging her was the correct decision because she helped a lot on my wedding day especially when we are stuck not knowing what step is next, she manages to calmed my nerves, cracked me up and even redo my hair for the 2nd march in which is unheard of. She was a fast producer too! Knowing that we had to fly back after our wedding, she quickly completed her editing in just mere days and met us up for dinner to pass us the thumbdrive so that we will have time to share our memories with our families before flying out again. How thoughtful of her!
I couldn’t forget the wonderful time I had searching for the decorative items for my table so when my sister needed help to locate some things to decorate the reception table, I jumped in to volunteer to help. And of course, I need to pay for this stuff since she is very sweet to take up her time and her art skills to decorate both tables. The reception table is where our guests will be signing in and providing the red packets, gifts and cards to us whereas the solemnization table is where I will sign my life and happiness over to my husband. That table is also going to place at the center area where all our guests will come and witness our union.
So for the reception table, I came up with these items. Of course, as an artist and the key person in charge of decorations, my sister have the final say in which items goes where.
This is the red packet box or they called it Ang PoW box where your guests will put in money, gifts, cards into the box for bigger items, they will put beside the box.
Two of the nice big decorative words we ordered and customised the size. The seller was very accommodating and rushed his deadline for us as I need to leave for Singapore soon.
Link:https://item.taobao.com/item...
We got some antique looking photo frames too. To put in some of our daily lives photos. Mainly used for decoration purposes.
I have ordered 4 bags of rose petals in two different colors to give it a contrast and three dimension look.
Link:https://detail.tmall.com/item...
This cute little couple was actually a gift from my China friend to wish me happiness and blissful marriage. Super adorable! In fact, they are not in my possession now because they are borrowed for another wedding end of this year! Haha!
Against my husband's knowledge, I went ahead and purchased like 20 bottles of bubbles for the kids coming to our wedding. I always like bubbles, its fun and whimsical even for adults.
Portable fans are a must for our wedding since it is going to hot on that day. I bought like 50 of the fans, little do I know there are such a hit for the guests! I should have bought more. It only cost me 20 cent for each! Great seller too, he waived off my shipping fee because I bought so many from him.
Link:https://item.taobao.com/item...
Our pretty guest book from here:https://detail.tmall.com/item...
Then pens are for my poor designated bridesmaid and best man who had to stand under the sun to man the reception table so to make their lives easier, I bought them pens with a fan. I think they love the pens because I bought 5 of them and have not seen them returned.
Now for the solemnisation table, these are the items we bought.
Pillow for our rings. Not choosing blood red or tiffany blue ring pillow, the white is suppose to signify pureness and innocent of the bride and groom.
Link:https://item.taobao.com/item...
These are pens! So cute right? I love them so much, I bought more to give to my parents and in-laws. They love it!
Did I mention that food is extremely important to us at our wedding? As a host, you are judged whether you are a good one by the food you provided and the quantity of it. So it is a big no no to have horrible inedible food on the table even a bigger crime to not have enough of it to serve your guests.
My husband could not make it to the food tasting event, this is where the restaurant usually let you taste all the food they are going to serve (except desserts) on your wedding day. So together with my in-laws, we went to the restaurant.
It was after 7pm, the night was perfect, light breeze. I don't actually have to taste the food here because I am already a fan of their food so is my husband. I know whatever they cook will be up to perfection. It is more for my in-laws to taste it.
First up is the soup named Mediterranean Seafood Soup with Pesto. No complains heard. Everyone just slurp down the soup with thumbs up. I suspect that they might be hungry which is a good thing, when you are hungry, everything taste good.
Next up, theFrench Bean Nicoise with Shredded Duck Confit. It may not look like much but the duck is so moist and delicious. The greens are crunchy and fresh as well. Again, thumbs up by everyone. The plate was clean out with nothing left.
Here comes the fish! Steamed sea bass fillet with ginger, coriander and shallot. Very good, the fish was definitely fresh, the meat tender and succulent. Left with bare bones, thumbs up!
No Chinese dinner is completed without the red prawns. Goes with my theme too! Though not deliberately. Wok fried market prawns with ginger, chili and shallot. This one is so-so on my in-laws list however they did commented it is very fresh. Our wedding guests love it.
This is the Thai styled marinated chicken with lemongrass and coriander. Crispy skin and soft tender moist chicken meat that my tongue sang after each bite. So good that I am happy that my husband is not here so I can have his share.
The above two are the vegetables we will be having on that day. One is Steamed Asian Greens with Coriander and the other is Wok Fried Market Vegetables. Both are good and crunchy although both of them need more sauce accompanied with it.
Burp! That is the end of our food tasting. I am getting hungry.. aren't you?
I haven’t seen my girls for a long time, two years to be exact and for them to drop their lives and contribute their time to become my bridesmaids, I am very touched that they did that for me without me asking much. So I wanted to give them something from the bottom of my heart. I will of course, give them a red packet but I also want to give them a gift to represent friendship. I started to search and came up with the below options. I didn’t want to give different gifts because I want to be fair as well, so all three of my bridesmaids will have something equal but special. The only one who had something else eve more special will be my sister who not only became my bridesmaid but also my decorating assistant.
First, I thought of getting the girls manicure sets so everyone can use.
Link:https://item.taobao.com/item...
Then I thought to get them little cutlery like this but my female colleagues don't think its a good idea especially all three of them have not been married.
Link:https://detail.tmall.com/item...
My husband think this is pretty but a waste of space. I agreed.
Then comes a rescue angel who called me in the middle of the night, asking if she can help to purchase anything for me since she is returning from the States to Shanghai, immediately I jumped on the chance and got her to get me these beauties.
Okay okay, I went overboard abit. But I started distributing out these as presents to my make up artist, my photographer, my bridesmaids, my helpers etc and they simply adore it!
So I have settled my girls, and now the boys. Its not fair that I purely give the girls something special to thank them and ignore the guys. Especially since all the bridesmaids have new dresses to wear and the guys only have suspenders and tie. Not really fair, eh? We wanted to be frugal with our wedding but not in this way. So since I have a fair bit of my time waiting for the shipments of other products, so I thought I’ll go and shop a little bit online for the boys.
I thought these mobile stands are pretty cute and quaint but my husband don't think his friends will appreciate those.
Then I stumbled upon this beautiful notebook which cover is mad out of wood. Super solid!
Then I had a recommendation from one of my male colleagues to buy them this which is a cool speaker! I sneakily bought this for my husband instead as a wedding gift. Haha! I think he will love it more than they do.
After scratching my head for a few days, I decided to do opt for the easy way out, I got my dearest friend from the States again to do one last shopping for me.....
For the boys, now the bridesmaids and best men are equals! Hahaha!
Now for my friends who know me very well, I am very particular about my shoes. Sure, I have shoes, in fact lots of it but I only wear a few of my favorites. Why? Because if the shoes pinches me or hurts or scruff me in anyway, I’ll stop wearing them. I won’t be persuaded to throw them away (seems a waste) so it’ll just collect themselves in my shoe cabinet until my husband secretly and silently threw out those who started to collect cobwebs.
I am pretty sure I am going to go on barefoot during my wedding day afterall, no one could see my feet if I am wearing a gown! Comfort is my first choice. So is safety. Look at the stairs that I will be coming down from! It is potentially an accident waiting to happen. Oh my god!
See that stars? That's where my entrance will be. Finger crossed I don't tumble and fall!!!!!
My sister gave me some websites to take a look at their shoes. That little monster know once I take a look, I just have to buy them! Look at the massive selections!
Link:https://detail.tmall.com/item...
These looks so princess like but my sister thinks its like high heel version of bedroom slippers. But I love the intricate detailing on this shoes. I must have details like this on my bridal shoes!! Maybe not the heels....
Link:https://item.taobao.com/item...
This is simple and classy but I don't want simple and classy on my bridal shoes..yet this is pretty. Okay, I'm getting this for my own office wear.
Link:https://item.taobao.com/item...
Seriously, I can't have heels on my wedding day, I'll be the magnet for accidents! So flat it is but choosing flats does not mean I have to give up on design. This pair of shoes looks so alluring and dainty! Too bad, they don't have my size.
Link:https://item.taobao.com/item...
I love the subtle gold with the ankle wrapped around jewel to prevent the shoes from slipping off my feet. Have you seen how difficult it is to wear shoes for the bride? You basically need two person to do it!
So let's summerize:
- I want intricate details
- I want dainty
- I want pretty princess lookalike
- I don't want high heels
- Yet I love a little height
- I want an ankle wrap around
Difficult to find? Not really, I had my shoes custom made just like the one below! Its so comfortable I can walked in the shoes for miles. I love the shoes! Its my favourite purchase so far.