We have almost 1 year for the preparations and checked off the 'wedding-to-do' list as the days passes by.
We bought almost every local wedding magazines as reference and came to realized that the same set of advertorials are repeated over and over again for wedding planners, hotel banquets, bridal shop as well as video/photography.
When ideals ran out from magazines, Internet is the next best friend to source for ideals. Soon after, we started to visit VIMEO and YouTube for wedding video ideas and attended wedding fairs to check out on 'good deals'!
Starting from scratch was tough as there was nothing for us to work on but with the help of the above resources, we managed to get the ball rolling with plenty of effective communications!
The few most important decision were off the check list soon, first was the wedding date:
23 September 2012
Few dates were given to us after my in-laws got the auspicious dates and 23rd was decided after going through the working schedules of our family members and guests.
Followed by the venue for banquet:
Decided to hold our banquet at Orchard area due to the centralized location and made a trip down to different hotels for the price-list. We were very comfortable with Holiday Inn at Orchard and went ahead fix an appointment with the wedding consultant. Visited the ballroom, had a rough idea on how it'll look like, went through the menu, overall package during the initial meeting and confirmed the package within a week.
Damages: $2,500 deposit on 19 September 2011!
Damages: $2,500 deposit on 19 September 2011!
Then the bridal shop:
Jazz Bridal (Sister company of French Bridal)
Minimum researches were done for bridal shop and we chanced upon French Bridal on the day that we plan to 'check out' any available wedding fairs for the day. French Bridal was the only fair available at Suntec then, and we decided to make a trip down. Spent half a day in the small room, went through all the details and finally decided to go for it after getting what we negotiated for :)
Damages: $1,000 deposit in 31 July 2011!
Damages: $1,000 deposit in 31 July 2011!
And, photo and videography for the actual day:
We saw a few photo/videogaphy companies on the Internet, Magazines etc but none felt as comfortable as Mirage during the whole 'sourcing' process.
It was through BOWS wedding show where we checked out Mirage's wedding production. As we were rushing off to catch a movie, and didn't want to make hasty decision, we kept the information for the next few weeks before the deposit was made to confirm the deal. A little more time was spent in confirming Mirage as I believed in 'saving money for other matters, than on photos' as it will all go into the storeroom till we aged and turn to dust.
But again, we exceeded our budget and took on a pre-wedding video for the fun of it, along with the actual day photo and videography.
Damages: $870 deposit on 29 October 2011!
It was through BOWS wedding show where we checked out Mirage's wedding production. As we were rushing off to catch a movie, and didn't want to make hasty decision, we kept the information for the next few weeks before the deposit was made to confirm the deal. A little more time was spent in confirming Mirage as I believed in 'saving money for other matters, than on photos' as it will all go into the storeroom till we aged and turn to dust.
But again, we exceeded our budget and took on a pre-wedding video for the fun of it, along with the actual day photo and videography.
Damages: $870 deposit on 29 October 2011!
With the main items off the checklist, we are ready to look into the wedding details! Stay tuned for my next wedding post for more information...
