Wedding Planning: Our Wedding Banquet Dinner @ Orchid Countryclub , Grand Ballroom

Hello readers! After signing our bridal package, we placed a deposit to secure our banquet venue at Orchid Country Club during the roadshow as well. Jeremy got the contact number of the sales mgr, Serene and she told us we could go down to the roadshow to look for her as they have some offers that they are providing if we book the venue during the roadshow even though she has checked for us the availability of the date for the ballroom that we want beforehand.

Besides ballrooms, Orchid Country Club do have restaurants that many do book it for wedding lunch or dinner. (If you can't book their ballroom because of the min number of tables or looking to invite just a small group of guests, you can consider hosting it at Orchid Country Club restaurants. Many do not know that Orchid Country Club do have rooms which they call it as Orchid Lodge, so you can book a room in Orchid Country Club so that when the wedding has ended, you have a decent place to rest instead of travelling back. For us, we were given a suite room that is included inside the package and we stayed there for 2 nights after our wedding.

We had our wedding banquet dinner at the Grand Ballroom which is the biggest ballroom in Orchid Country Club! We didn't go and compare or recee the different venues among hotels before deciding, except initially i did look at some restaurants but it was a no go from Jeremy and i wanted a place that i can rest after the wedding, (beside hotels) so we decided the venue pretty fast to be at OCC.

I went to research more on Orchid Country Club and reading other brides's blog who had their wedding held at Orchid Country Club before even though the info was quite outdated since those post was around 2014? I like that they had high ceiling for this ballroom making the entire place look grand with our selected decor setup. There were not many blog reviews for this, so i guess this post might helps for those looking to host your wedding at Orchid Country Club!

I think i had apply to what i learnt in daily life (studied marketing) that hosting in hotels is my last resort if i couldn't have the grand ballroom in the orchid country club. (I wanted to make sure that grand ballroom is available so we book it 1 year in advance.)

Before i continue, it's entirely each to own preference where you would like to host your wedding banquet. To me, i find that hotels are merely using their brand value so that they could charge the newly-wed higher per table cost because of their branding. You do eat similar dishes in a chinese wedding banquet even if you decide to host in restaurant, country club or hotels. But why does the price differ so much? Mainly because of the brand.

I totally do not agree that a 4 or 5 star hotels will definitely provide better service if you choose to host in restaurant or even country club ballroom like us. Everyone should know most of the waiter/waitress are all part time staff serving your guests during your wedding banquet, it really depend on the standard of the staff that is working during your wedding banquet. In fact, i do received positive feedback from my guests that the service provided by the waiter/waitress during our dinner were pretty good! They were replacing a new set of plates for our guests consistently, refilling their drink even before they had to call for them. (If you are wondering this should be the norm,yes it should be, but i had attended wedding in hotels whereby i had finished my drink and no one came to refill or after i requested to refill my drink, i had to wait for very long!)

Though there were case whereby for my halal dietary guests, the staff kept removing his fork & spoon and he had to request for a new set, but generally, everyone told me the waiter/waitress did a good job throughout our wedding banquet dinner.

I had attended a few weddings before for eg, in RWS, it is one of the worse banquet dinner that i ever attended. I think if i ever receive any invitation that are hosting their wedding there, i will not want to attend. I have told my friends around me not to host there too for their wedding. I do not blame the newlywed but question the banquet manager & the chefs who prepared the food. The newlywed should have enough to fret about and the last thing to expect was the food were not enough to satisfy their guests. The table per cost should be around $1.5k-$1.6k and to me its just not worth the value. Even though they have high ceiling too for their ballroom, but the food serving is just not enough per table.

The food servings in RWS is small, they don't provide extra 10% buffer for their food so for eg if there are 10 pax in a round table setting, there is just 10 spring roll, and its not even filling. No sharks fin as well. I remember i was finding vinegar when we were served a bowl of soup and i thought it was shark fin, later on to be disappointed its not my favorite shark fin dish.

Despite the high cost per table in hotels, many people are still willing to host their wedding in hotels, only to realised they do suffer major losses at the wedding banquet after the whole wedding has ended. Many chinese families will opt to host at hotels because of the brand and the impression they want to create since Chinese has always been known for wanting 'face' 爱面子.

Most chinese families would want a lavish grand wedding and to them, hotels has been conditioned among chinese families that it is a great venue and choice to host their weddings. Atas ma. But they have totally overlooked if their family & friends are rich enough to cover their table cost & regretted after they open all the angbaos at the end of the wedding. I am sure hotels do have their plus points but to me i am not willing to risk throwing a lavish wedding banquet at the hotel only to cry after that when i received all the angbaos collected. Hahaha.

Of cos if you are very rich and you have rich relatives & friends this will not be an issue. You can throw in as much money as you want to get a real grand wedding.

For everyone info, it doesn't mean that everyone will give you the exact angbao amount when they google the market rate of the hotels wedding lunch/dinner. Some people could only afford to give within their means and you can't blame them even if they are not giving you enough to cover your table cost. You invite them not to cover your table cost in the first place right? So if you are mentally prepared that they might not going to help you cover your table cost, the minimum that you can do is, get a less expensive cost per table for your wedding! Do it within your means and not get into debts after the wedding. This has provide me another good reason to host it at OCC.

I think many of our guests thought our table was $800+ but actually our table cost was $1100 per table after adding all the GST, this is due to the menu we have selected. I could have choose the cheaper menu which was $800+ but i don't like the dishes so we change to a higher range menu. (even though 800+ or 1000+ has shark fin but the ingredients is just different)

With no expectations, there is no disappointment. I do get very surprised the amount of angbao that i collected from my close friends!

Don't ever regard the wedding dinner to be a source of platform that you can earn. It doesn't work that way. I heard from friends telling me that they have friends who will tell them the table cost right at the start so that the friends has been 'warned' to give just enough to cover the table cost. Or, they would purposely inform them the table cost which is higher than the actual cost so that they can earn. Eventually i heard that couple do suffered losses after their wedding. Don't expect that you will not have any losses if you want to host a wedding. Demanding upfront is too much. That's karma i guess. But there are ridiculous amount that we received too, i think we were excited to find out the lowest amount, we could remember the top 3 lowest amount given till now. with the 1st & 2nd runner up angbao given to us coming from Jeremy side and 3rd runner up coming from my side! (My close friends do know that its impossible for me not to talk about this, just not in this post yet)

In order to book for this grand ballroom, you must have min of 40 tables because this grand ballroom is really huge, its maximum capacity could accommodate up to 120 tables which is 1200 guests! They had two levels for this grand ballroom. the cocktail reception area outside the grand ballroom is already like a normal hotel ballroom that could be set up to 20-25 tables.

They have a very long red carpet for march in even though when i looked back at our 1st march in video, i realised we walked real fast! Hahaha but best of all, for the 2nd march in, we are coming in via a buggy! The main highlight was the buggy. Hahaha, i mean so far i haven't seen any hotel that could allow a buggy for their march in and thought this was unique so having there was the main reason that i had initially, because of the buggy.

Serene was very nice to us when we told her we might have less than 40 tables so she checked with us tentatively our total number of table required and we told her we might only have 38 tables only but she is fine with it. But nearing our wedding date, our confirmed table was only 37 and they only charge us based on 37 tables only. she could have told us, nope we are still charging you 38 because the norm is 40 tables for this ballroom, but she didn't and we are grateful for this kind gesture! We pass her an angbao as our token of appreciation to thank her for coordinating with us for our wedding for the past few months.

Our package with OCC was as follows,

1. Free flow of soft drink & chinese tea during dinner up to 4 hours (This are the standard offering everywhere) 

2. Free flow of beer for weekend packages (Our wedding was on a saturday so this was applicable for us)

3. No corkage fees for any duty paid wine, hard liquor & champagne brought in.
(I do know most hotels do charge corkage fees but there is zero charge for any liquor brought in to the ballroom, even though i told Jeremy not to divulge that corkage fee is free if he doesn't want to be a drunk man on our wedding day)

4. Sparkling Champagne Fountain on display with complimentary bottle of champagne for toasting (Standard)

5. Choice of guestbook (There wasn't a choice, there were only one kind) Haha (Standard)

6. Choice of wedding decorations and specially designed floral arrangements along aisle to create a memorable wedding march (Standard)

7. Specially designed angbao box for well wishes from your guests (We told the manager that we was not going to use their angbao box as i had arranged our angbao box to be a wishing well form that comes under my external decor vendor that i engaged.)

8. A luxurious bridal suite for 1 night with welcome amenities, breakfast following our wedding celebration the following day (I found this to be very useful so that we could rest in our bridal suite after the entire wedding dinner has ended, almost the same you get from hotel, though i am not sure if all hotels do actually provide you accommodation or require you to pay for the hotel stay)

9. An intricate design model tier wedding cake on display with a genuine cake for your private celebrations. (Standard)

10. Choice of specially designed invitation cards based on 100% confirmed attendance (cost of printing is excluded) (Will elaborate this in my next post on wedding invitation card, we didn't choose their vendor they provide us)

11. Pre-dinner snacks with freshly brewed coffee & tea for the wedding couple will be served in the comfort of your suite (This was nice! I am not sure if hotels do provide snacks beforehand but occ has ensure that the newlywed was not hungry to host their guests before the dinner officially start) Like! I finished my entire snacks, (their snacks consist of sandwich, snacks fries & juices )before doing my makeup. Which probably explains why i was not hungry during the dinner time)

12. Choice of specially designed wedding favor for your guests (Standard)

13. Fresh floral decorations & chair covers to enhance the entire wedding experience (Standard)

14. Complimentary use of video projectors to showcase the bride and groom sweet memories (Standard)

15.Complimentary parking available for all（OCC provide complimentary parking for everyone so this was a plus point, it saves me the hassle of getting the brothers/sisters to issue out the carpark coupon during the reception.

16. Free shuttle bus to and from Yishun Mrt station at 10 minutes interval for the convenience of your guests & departure experience (Standard) This was their standard shuttle bus schedule to ferry the public in. 

17.Special invitation to a dining experience for 10 of your guests based on our confirmed menu ( complimentary) Food trial to be done on weekdays only (I always thought that food tasting should be complimentary but apparently i heard not all places do provide complimentary food tasting including hotels.)

18. 1 additional 40 seater bus will be arranged to provide further comfort and convenience to guest's arrival & departure. (This was a pretty thoughtful move for occ to add this into the package, 3 trip to fetch the guests from yishun mrt station to dropping our guests right in front of our ballroom & 3 trip back every 15min interval to Yishun MRT after the banquet dinner.)

19. Taxi & Limousine booking are readily available from hotel reception anytime.


As part of the wedding roadshow promotion, we can choose 3 offers as shown below on top of the package they are offering us. (Those highlighted in bold are our selections)

The smile offers available as follows,
1. Free flow of wines & beers during wedding banquet (4 hours)
2. One Night Anniversary stay with buffet breakfast for wedding couple
3. Second Night Stay with buffet breakfast for wedding couple
4. One Deluxe room for wedding helpers 
5. five platters of chinese canape to be served during pre event cocktails
6. 10% discount off ROM package upon confirming the wedding banquet (min 50 persons)
7.Complimentary first round of House Pour alcoholic or non alcoholic drinks in Par Lounge for Stag/Hen Parties for a maximum of 10 persons.

To me, only the first 4 choices were attractive enough. I think they are quite flexible, we choose free flow of wines that includes red & white wine since red wine is usually provided at hotel at 1 bottle per table and will charge accordingly if you exceed total number of bottle provided. Of cos, don't expect the quality to be very good since its free flow. We don't drink so to me, i don't really care about this portion except to avoid incurring any extra cost at the end of the banquet dinner if there are more guests requesting for red wine. Frank enough. hurhur

We choose 2nd night stay which was a good choice because we stayed up late counting our angbaos after the dinner and imagine we had to check out by noon the next morning, that will be so shag. So i was glad we took the 2nd night stay.

For the last option, we select the 1 deluxe room for wedding helpers, we thought the room can be provided for the brothers & sisters to rest upon check in before the dinner starts in the evening or if Jeremy's sister & mum is going to do their makeup, they could use that room too.  This option was 1 night stay for wedding helpers and i thought the room could be given to Jeremy's parents to stay because i presume the dinner will end late and they stay in Tampines. Since we are not going back, it would be appropriate for them to stay for the night. Initially, it was a deluxe room but i requested for a upgrade to family room & breakfast provided the following day. (Will post another time the photos of the rooms in OCC!)

However, Jeremy's dad need to run errands for his business so they didn't want to stay and i asked the sisters if they would like to stay instead. Initially they agreed, but last minute they told me they was not staying including my sister, OLM. Tsk! I think only JY could stay over and it was too late for me to ask Jeremy to ask his brothers by then as priority was given to my sisters first, so in the end i told JY to get her bf to come & stay with her for the night so that the room will not be wasted.

For anyone who is considering to have their wedding at orchid country club,
This is the lobby area before you climb up those stairs to the cocktail reception of the grand ballroom, For other smaller ballrooms, you will go down those staircase below instead of going up.

High ceiling~

 This was just one corner of their cocktail reception area outside the grand ballroom.

The jade suite that will be converted for our ROM ceremony on actual day. They don't used that room for other functions if there is a main event at the grand ballroom. I use that room to change my gown, hairdo for my 2nd march in. A last min decision after i checked with Serene whether there is any changing room.

Carpet,wooden doors & design layout
Personally i think if OCC could work on their renovations & refurbishing, they would definitely be able to attract more newlywed to host their wedding at their ballroom! This is just my own view but the carpet definitely need to go, this carpet design is quite old fashioned and do spoil the overall look that any newlywed would engage for external decor set up. Maybe its meant to match with the door, but that door color & material is trending only in the past.. Nowadays many use more modern design doors & & carpet.

Those tables that you see in the photo above are their cocktail tables, initially i checked with Serene whether they have those high cocktail table because my guests are not dwarfs eh. Hahaha. She told me this was new as they remove the old high cocktail table and doesn't have any more stocks but i think it would be better to bring back those because usually everyone would provide high cocktail table that looks more professional.

I went to create a photo guide and posted in our facebook event page + sending all this info to my friends/colleagues and anyone who has been invited to our wedding so that they are able to have a rough idea of finding the place as OCC might not be regarded as accessible location if you haven't been there before.

This directional photo guide include 3 different ways to get there, be it taking the shuttle bus, cab & driving to reach the grand ballroom.

Wedding Decor Theme
For wedding decor provided by OCC, they only have 4 decor set up available for you to choose from, and of cos the theme that i select looks the most pretty & decent compared to the other 3 theme.
I just thought if they could have some fairylight or flower back drop stage setup would attract more newlywed to book their ballroom based on more variety of their wedding decor setup.

Though i think they could work on the renovation of their interior of the grand ballroom.
Our theme selected was Fantasy theme which comes with the huge L.O.V.E at the stage even though i had my external vendor to set up another one outside the cocktail reception.

Flooring in Grand Ballroom
If they could change the marble floor to all carpeted flooring would be perfect. They had carpeted flooring at the side & the red carpet at the centre of the ballroom. The chairs that brushed against the floors can be quite irritating as feedback from my guests.

Table cloth, seat covers, cutlery
I would suggest them to have various color that could match their decor theme for the table cloth/seat cover including the reception table cloth. It seems they have the standard creamy white table cloth except for VIP tables.

When i told my friends all this even though they already think its good enough after the post-wedding, they tell me if i am their wedding planner, they will become poorer after the wedding, or if i work there, maybe i will end up quarreling with finance side all the time. Hahaha Nothing is perfect so as much as i recommend anyone to consider OCC for their wedding, these are just some points to highlight for consideration!

I used my own tablecloth that i bought from taobao after i saw the tablecloth Serene show me for my reception table. The color looks something close like white or black color. To me, i think both are not very nice, there were nothing close to beige so I asked Serene if i could bring my own tablecloth, maybe she might be wondering this bride siao already to bought her own table cloth. I even packed in advance to ensure the sisters did brought along to OCC when we checked in. But later, i realised it would be better if i used pink tablecloth because i had the pink ones, that would match the entire reception theme color too!

If i could, i would have changed all the tablecloth & seat covers. Hahaha. The stage design structure need to change too. I just find that the lighting wasn't too good during the dinner to take any decent photos and it would be good if they could do something to their lighting. This will be very important because the venue is used for group photo-taking and its very important to have good lighting.

What i like about OCC is that you can choose either OCC menu or Peach Garden Menu. They are able to provide your guests with vegetarian/halal menu if you require. The best part is OCC do provide almost similar food that cater for our vegetarians & halal guests, i requested to have a copy of the halal & vegetarian menu from Serene so that i can show them and allow my friends/colleagues to choose the menu based on their own preference as i have some friends that prefer to eat the chinese menu. I thought this would be the ideal arrangement because i allow them to decide for themselves.

But this special arrangement is not zero cost as there will be an additional charge if you don't group for eg: all guests that is on halal menu in one table.
(It doesn't make sense for me to group them according to the special halal table just because i don't want to pay for the additional cost, the least thing you ever want to do was to make your guests feel awkward sitting with strangers.)

So for eg, my cost per table $1100 so out of  this 10 pax and if i have 1 guest that request for halal dietary, that will be $1100 + $110 for that particular table.

I started my guest list as early as Feb even though i know there are bound to be some changes, but starting it early do saves me lot of trouble as i could focus on preparing other stuffs and i was flexible if there is any changes. To me, i think the most frustrating part will be the seating arrangement from relative side. For me, i was pretty straightforward to ask in my cousin group chat so that i can assign their seating, whether they are bringing their partner etc. I gave them an option, they could bring their partner if they want and I follow up with them on-going at least like 1-2 weeks before the wedding.

My mum told me that i shouldn't ask as it is disrespectful, but i think its not showing respect to us, the organiser as well when i leave a seat for you and you don't turn up. The most irritating part that i guess everyone would have expect was when your relative requested for 1 table but only half of the seats were filled up. Like hello?! You got problem isit? In the first place, if you are not sure of your exact attendance, basic courtesy is to inform IN ADVANCE if you are unable to attend.  Usually it comes from relatives that does not even inform if they are not coming. i had unexpected empty seats just when i thought my assignment of seats was pretty awesome, if they do have the courtesy to inform in advance, i could make some adjustment and invite others that i was unable to because i was controlling my table seating to prevent going beyond 10 tables. Which i just find it was downright irresponsible, because for all my friends, i will check if they would like to attend my wedding before i invite them, so that they do not have to give me any angbao if we know they are not coming, as we don't gian for those angbaos, i just don't want my seats to be wasted! Thank god for my dad side, we don't keep in contact with his siblings so my relatives table were on par with my friends tables.

For my side, we had 10 tables, 5 table is set aside for my relatives & my parent's friends, another 5 table is set aside for my friends/colleagues. On the actual day, i had already expected all this kind of stunts with some of my relatives not following the correct seating that i had arranged. Before that, i did asked my parents for their opinion on the allocation of seating, they tell me everything was ok, on the actual day, suddenly it was not ok, actual turn up doesn't tally with expected number of turn out.

For VIP table seating, i told Jeremy i need to blog this out after our wedding is over because this do get on our nerve, during our table seating arrangement, does it really mattar who get to sit in the VIP table? Excluding our parents, i can never understand the rationale of other relatives that insist to be seated in VIP table. Did you help to contribute to the cost of this wedding? No! Did you help to plan the wedding? (Definitely not! The main organiser doesn't even had time to warm up her own seat!)

For our wedding, our VIP table was divided into 2 table instead of 1 as Serene told us if we want to combine, it will be 14 pax instead of 20 and Jeremy side has more relatives that wants to sit at the VIP table and won't be enough to fit in my side so eventually we had to spilt the VIP tables. Funny right, even though my dad was asking because he find this arrangement to be weird, i explained to them because Jeremy's relatives wants to sit on the VIP table, not enough seats. There's gold on those seats you know.

Except the different tablecloth from the other tables, seat cover, and food being served individually. The tables are pretty much the same isn't it?! Maybe you can look at the chio bu bride & handsome groom in close distance, but we barely even sit for 5min at that table?

Even though i was teasing Jeremy when i did my VIP table seating list and there was one empty seat for my side and i told him, maybe we can sit separately since our parents are not even sitting together because apparently, there are others that is more important than our parents sitting together at the VIP table! Sarcasm in the air and he was so mad. Hahaha.

For my side, no one is fighting who had to sit at the VIP table, just that last minute, they decided that my uncles should be the one sitting together with my parents instead of my aunties. On the actual day, frankly, i don't give a damm anymore because everything was live, But what could i possibly do? create a big fuss like Jeremy do over his relative table seating because they sit the wrong table? Nah. This is my day and i had plan this day for so long! It's time for me to sit back and enjoy the moment, for all this last minute change, i believe it will get sorted out somehow, no one should come & disturb me because i had already indicate so clearly, if they cannot use their eyes to see, and decided to adjust the seating plan themselves, they may do so as long as everyone get a seat eventually and everyone will be settled well before our 1st march in.

Throughout this whole wedding, i think communication is very important and that you really need to do more meet-up session as a whole group between your brothers & sisters as well as your siblings who can help you out & most importantly include your parents in as well. To me, this isn't the best that i can do.

For me, my sisters & I met up with the brothers for the first time on our wedding day. Thanks to Jeremy 'splendid' time management and inadequate briefing were given so there were some screw up on actual day which i seen it as flaws to our wedding as i am typing this down as evidence against him the next time! Whereas my sisters have been meeting up with me a couple of times except my own blood sister that missed the meetings and was unable to understand my expectations despite me briefing her separately vs when i realised the reality she had done on actual day. I had nagged at her for countless times at the gatecrash part and will remember this as long as this post existed in this world!


Till then!

To read more on my wedding planning posts, click according to the post you would like to read below,

*Bridal Package and why getting ala carte services might be better! Click HERE

*Wedding Gown Selection Click HERE

*Tips before your wedding photoshoot and during photoshoot. Click HERE

*Our Wedding Invitation Card, Bridal Furniture & Ordering of GUO DA LI Click HERE

*Food Tasting at Orchid Country Club, Peach Garden Click HERE

*Selection of Wedding Photoshoot Photos Click HERE

Wedding Planning Process - Bridal Package & why getting ala carte for certain services might be better!

Hello readers! I am here to write this post on our bridal package for our wedding! This is going to be a very long post, with limited photos but i do hope this post will be useful for those looking to opt for a bridal package the essential things you might want to look out for those who are looking to have their wedding soon! 

Before i start, our wedding planning started as early as 1 year ago, and as much as i tried not to spend so much on a wedding, i think its inevitable if you want things to turn out pretty so i have tried to keep it as low cost as possible. Our total expenses for this wedding excluding wedding banquet dinner was around 22k. But as our expenses were not incurred at one shot but in multiple months so we don't see the pain except when i record it down. Initially i thought we spend close to 30k for the expenses, but i think we probably did incurred that amount if i include all the beauty maintenance that i have done on myself to prepare for this wedding. But excluding those, we spend around 21k only! The total cost is in fact lower if we do count those golds that we received from our relatives. 

Overall i think the planning were quite easy.  i did 90% of the overall planning as the fiance were busy with his job commitment. Even though i am busy with my own work too, but i think it may not be necessarily a bad thing if one person is the one doing the entire planning because you don't have to argue on small issues like i want this color theme, but the other partner want another color theme etc. We never really quarrel because there is nothing for me to pick on to quarrel since i make all the decisions. Sometimes i will ask him for fun but still sticking to my decisions. Hahaha.


I would only tell him roughly the cost for expenses that i am going to incurred and he will be like ok! This is better compared to if my fiance tried to scrimp and cut cost when i tell him i want this, and he tell me this is expensive, mai la, or 'you want this meh.', or waste money! and insert any possible negative response here coming from guys that are not doing the planning and yet not willing to fork out money for the wedding. I think i will be quite mad. If i want to do something, i want to do it at least decent enough & nice, if not, don't do.

It was not challenging for me at all as one year is more than enough for you to space out your planning if you are working a full time job like me at the same time. Except the part when the fiance is dragging his own feet and not giving me the necessary info that i require that makes me feel real frustrated. He only got scared when i threatened to call off the wedding probably a week before our wedding & some customs traditions issues, he has really hit my limits. I don't think any bride will be forgiving enough not to create a big fuss when they realised the groom is oblivious to the entire wedding preparation like me, I am angry not because he is not even helping out with the entire wedding preparation but his own scope of responsibilities such as sending out invitation card for his side, table seating arrangement, confirming with his own guests attendance, the actual day schedule that he said he wanted to do, the briefing can procrastinate forever if i don't keep chasing him for the info that i was feeling drained out as the wedding date gets nearer.

Whenever i feel frustrated at him, i will remind him and thank him for the 'memorable' wedding that he told me he wanted to give me when it was not my initial plan to get married anytime soon! Nope, i am not pregnant, in case you are wondering. No baby is coming out anytime soon. Haha. When we first look at the auspicious dates, there is only this date suitable for us that was 18 Feb 2017 which falls on a sat, for other hot dates, it falls on sunday, and he told me that he would be free in December so that gives him at least that 2 month to prepare the entire wedding if we decide to have our wedding on this date which was plain bullshit, because i ended up reminding him we need to do this, and that. The only thing that i assign him to do was filing the notice of marriage because i find that too troublesome to understand and i think he can go and figure this out himself. (With me still checking on him most of the time). For those who think because he is busy with his work, yes he is, but i am not sitting at home living a tai-tai life. I am working as well. FYI, he is not working 24/7, during his free time, he would rather lie on the bed to play his stupid phone games than doing his own guest list.

For any bride-to-be , if you have as much time as me, it would be advisable to come up with a timeline using excel with projection of budget expenses which i find it was very useful, i categorize according to the month, and list down all the possible things to do at different month so that even when i didn't touch the wedding preparation for awhile, whenever i refer back to the excel file, i would know where i stopped at, and what i am supposed to do for that particular month. It is also good for you to project your budget & ensure that you don't exceed your budget or having too much of fantasy over a dream wedding when you see the reality of the actual expenses. 

Unless you are really rich and money is not an issue to you. To me, i work more towards achieving a wedding that everybody will be 'wa this is beautiful' but not burning a hole in my pocket. (Jeremy's pocket)

Even though, its normal to exceed the budget even when i did a projection because i have so much time, I would buy all the small little items in different months so like i say earlier, you can't see where your money went to unless you record every single purchase. 

For eg: We bought our wedding bands in Jan this year, deposit for bridal package & securing our wedding banquet dinner venue during the wedding roadshow. Our wedding banquet dinner venue was at Orchid Country Club, Grand Ballroom.

For the wedding ring, i was not particular because i received two rings from him before and even though i have 10 fingers, but really, most of the time you will be wearing only one ring on one of your finger. So, i don't see a need to buy expensive ring for our wedding band because he has already bought me 2 expensive ring before that! We bought it at SK Jewellery, there was a promotion going on and we got our wedding bands at $1224 only. (This happen because Jeremy likes to see jewellery more than me, i am not the kind of girl that will stand in front of the glass panel admiring those jewellery that is being displayed. But he is the one that will stop in front of those glass panel and ask if i would like to get one whenever we are outside, and i will pull him away because i always think there is no value to these accessories, its just the branding, except gold like gold necklace, gold earring, bracelet etc. If i go pawn it, maybe i can still change for some cash. After i told him that, he will stop at those glass panel where they are selling gold & ask if i want to buy. But for our case, we need to have the wedding bands for the solemnization ceremony so we went in and bought our wedding bands. 

For bridal package & choosing your wedding banquet venue,

(Always look out for wedding shows or BOWS (Blissful Outdoor Wedding Show), we signed our package during their roadshow, usually they would have better deals at these roadshows. During the wedding roadshow, if you are lucky during their lucky draw dip, you might get back the $ you paid during the roadshow because if your number is being drawn, for eg you paid $6000, and you are one of the winners, they will pay you in cash any payment you have made during the roadshow! I remember staying back for the lucky draw looking at others receiving cash back on the spot. hurhur. 

The bridal studio that we signed our package was Yvonne Creative Bridal Studio, later on, i realised many of my friends signed with Yvonne creative as well. They have been in this industry for very long, because when i told them the name of this bridal studio, everyone heard of this name before. The lady boss is a very friendly & kind lady. I didn't do any prior research to that, like googling & making comparisons with the different bridal studio package. We just signed with Yvonne Creative because it was the first bridal shop that we sat down with them at their booth and having their salesperson going through with us the package they are offering and when they told us they do not restrict any gowns that we select into premium gowns/basic gowns/no hidden cost, if we like to make certain amendments to the gown, it is possible without any additional cost too. We decided to sign with them. They even offered us a promo price if we would like a custom made gown. Jeremy asked me if i would like to get a custom made gown, but i was able to find those available gowns that i like thus i didn't ask for a custom made. As i believe even if i am wearing a gown some other bride might have wore, we will look different, i am just confident of my looks la hor that custom made gown is not necessary.  Haha

I guess most bridal studio would offer more or less the same package around the same price if not higher.

For my package, as follows,

Wedding Day Entitlements,

1. 1 Wedding Gown x1 pc ( with accessories)

2. 1 Evening Gown  x1 pc ( with accessories)

3. Tea Dress or Kwa x1 pc 

4. Groom Suit x2 set (This will depend if the groom is damm hiao, maybe can request additional suit because some groom will customise their own suit, usually i heard many will go BKK to customise, but for Jeremy, he don't really bother how he look like, so he didn't went to customise any suits for the wedding anyway he won't get to wear it on normal work day)

5. Makeup & Hairdo (2 sessions + trial makeup) (1 session for photoshoot & 1 for actual day)  (If you have the money, i would strongly recommend to go ala carte for the makeup artist, will explain further in this post)

6. Bridal bouquet 1 set with (6 corsages) Frankly, the 6 corsages i didn't use theirs because the sister's corsages had to match their dress so i bought them myself through taobao. 

Thus don't ever get dupe into those that you think might be able to save cost, if you are not even going to use it anyway. 

7. Bridal Car Decoration (Artificial flower decoration) with following cars ribbon (able to give us according to the number of brother's car we have) 

8. 2 Father's suit (this is useful especially if your dad does not own any blazer, you can save some money having to rent outside)

Pre-Wedding Photography,

1. Gowns (4-5pc) (Inclusive of Actual Day Gown)

2. Groom suits 2 sets (Inclusive of Actual Day Suits)

3. Makeup & Hairdo  (4 Hairdo) (This doesn't really applies to me because i brought my makeup artist out during shoot and change a total of 5 hairdo) For actual day makeup it will be 1 morning & 1 evening makeup, but i spend money to ask the makeup artist to stay for my 2nd march in, so i had 3 hairdo & 2 different makeup done on actual day) All this require to top up $, can try to negotiate for more hairdo or even trial hairdo) 

4. Photography 1 Day (10am- 7pm, Singapore) Night Shoot ($200) 

5. Bridal Bouquet (1 set) They provide us fresh bouquet during shoot. Fresh flowers definitely win over artificial ones! 

Photography entitlements 

1.1 wedding album '12x15inch' (35 poses) (In the end, i did top up and pay for more photos so we had 2 wedding album instead)

2. Wedding Portrait '20x30' inch

3. Table Top '8x10' inch 1pc (repeated pose)

4. Mini Album '5x7' inch 20 pages (repeat of wedding album)

5. selected poses in digital format

6. '30x40' inch poster (received one more as i top up to pay for more photos)

7. Actual Day Photographer for 8 hours (return all soft copies) 

This was what were written on our package list and this package cost us $3988.

Even though i did check with my friend who sign with them earlier, to show me their package too, but its more or less about the same, maybe i have certain poster that she don't have, or number of gown is different. They signed earlier than me so the price may be cheaper.

To me, i guess this bridal studio indicate very clearly on the list, even for the price for eyelash & ampoules. $15 for a pair of eyelash and $25 for ampoules. (For photoshoot, i used 2 pair of the eyelash & 2 bottle of ampoules)

I mentioned in my previous post that i requested for trial hairdo as well as the package only include trial of makeup, for that it was $80 for trial hairdo.

To me, for those who are on a higher budget, i recommend if you really want to sign a package, consider those in Malaysia now since the exchange rate is really good, and in Malaysia, some of their package deals is worthwhile than you do in Singapore, they provide you more number of gowns as well.

But always remember, the more gowns you have, the more you will buy more photos when you select your wedding photoshoot photos. To me, its like a marketing antic, they are not making any loss when they provide you with more number of gowns, you just need to take note whether you really need so many gowns. 

More gown= more photos = more $ to top up for the additional photos. 

When they write 35 poses, it means you can choose 35 photos only.

Its impossible to choose just 35 photos if you are going to wear at least 5 gowns like me for the photoshoot. our photoshoot lasted one whole day, we took at least 300over photos after filtering those photos that can't be used. Thus either you can try to bargain to give more photos to you and the kind of album they will be giving you, eg the different poster, album and different size.

My ideal package i would recommend one to take (For those who have a higher budget)

Request to have a customise one according to your actual needs,the number of gowns/suits/bridal car decoration/dad jacket's/hand bouquet

The rest you can opt for

1. Ala carte makeup artist, 

2. Ala carte pre-wedding shoot photographer, check if they do provide you with all the wedding album, kind of album size etc

3. Ala carte actual day photographer

4. Ala carte actual day videographer.

I was too impulsive the other time during the roadshow and thought signing a package would save me lots of hassle but i regretted after that because i am so fickle-minded and i would be so pissed when i realised it is not up to my expectations and thought i should have done some prior research before signing a package, so i really hope this post would benefit some bride-to-be when they are researching for their own wedding!

However, for those who doesn't have such a high budget, i think the most you can find is the ala carte photographer, videographer, makeup artist for your actual day. If you really don't want to spend so much, just get everything in the package. 

Just pray hard your makeup-artist does not give you a heart attack and tell you they can't do your makeup on your actual day, which i encountered for my case! Literally about a week plus just before my wedding. 

I was so fucking pissed off because she is not being professional and telling me just 1 week before the wedding, where the fuck will i manage to get someone else to do my makeup when my wedding date is a very popular date? ( I heard many people were getting married on that day too, some of my friends told me their facebook feed was flooding with wedding photos on that day)

The makeup artist that i used for my wedding photoshoot was Charmaine Lin, she did my makeup for my photoshoot, i did managed to get my replacement through her after making a big fuss that i was relieved it was a good thing i didn't use her because i think i look even prettier than i do compared to the look she did for my photoshoot on my actual day! My actual day make up artist was Minnie Makeup Artist. When she told me that i can check on her facebook, i realised one of my friend who signed the same bridal studio, her makeup was done by her so i went to check with her this makeup artist and she told me it was fine before my trial makeup & hairdo that i asked for with Minnie.

I guess there is this risk,when you signed package with bridal studio that includes makeup,hairdo, they will engage freelance makeup artist to do the makeup /hairdo for the bride, however because they are freelance, they are not binded by the bridal studio, so this charmaine probably receive other bride's job to do their makeup and it would definitely be external booking so she will earn even more compared to earning from the bridal studio as the studio do draws a commission from engaging them as well, so to be realistic, anyone would choose to do that bride makeup. Her initial plan was telling me that if i insist to use her to do my makeup she will have to reach the hotel at 2.30pm for me to do my makeup, before that i had requested my sister & mum makeup to be done by her too. And, 2.30pm?! fucking kidding me, who the hell will the bride do makeup at 2.30pm when the wedding cocktail reception will starts at 6.30pm onwards? 

Even if its air-conditioned in the room, but fresh makeup is different from makeup that has been wore on the face for 4hours before the actual timing! Trying to bluff someone that do put on makeup. Ridiculous! In fact, i only check in the hotel close to 3.00pm on actual day, with my morning makeup still not washed off yet. I was super frustrated after making a big fuss with her, when she told me to see the replacement 'minnie' facebook for her portfolio, to which i was very sarcastic to her that it doesn't mean the makeup she did on that bride on her portfolio will look equally nice on my face what. Even though she told me she won't recommend bad MUA, but will anyone say if the MUA is not good?  And to be honest, taking the photos depend on the angle, telling someone like me that takes selfies well, if it looks good on that bride, doesn't mean it will look good on me. we have different features what. 

To which i told her, unless she can get the MUA to provide me another trial makeup, if not how am i supposed to know if she is good? No amount of portfolio photos will help because there is something called photoshop, filter app etc.

Initially she told me its impossible, so i was okay when she told me the latest she can push backward to start my makeup was 3.30pm. I was busy with my own work that time so i just agreed, but after i was free, when i think back, the more i think, the more i was feeling angry, like why should i accommodate other bride just because you want to earn more, i booked you fucking in advance like 5 months ago before my wedding!

The main point was not because her makeup is really fucking good that i must have her at all cost! i have good features, complexion was ok with zero acne breakout, my eyebrow shape was already there after i did eyebrow embroidery, it should be very easy to do my makeup. I was not panicking or anxious but it was frustration, anger & more anger that i had to accommodate her/ the other bride timing.

Like why should i?! So anger was boiling and building in me, and i went to whatsapp my wedding coordinator, weiting. I started off by asking her if she know what is the typical timing for makeup to be done for the bride if it was a dinner banquet. She replied that it is subjective because sometimes the makeup artist might accept other bride's makeup job so the timing need to be mutually cooperated. (And this was not mentioned when we signed the package) If i know this was the case, i swear i would really go ala carte instead, i had the thought to find ala carte for makeup artist, but i thought since i am not ugly, MOST professional makeup artist should suffice compared to me doing my own makeup.) Most Bride-to-be ended up getting real angry or frustrated when they encountered such cases because it was the first time everyone is planning for a wedding. There is really nothing much they can do except to salvage the situation if it do really happen like me.

So i continued telling her that this charmaine told me that she want to do my makeup at 3pm because she need to rush to do another makeup for another bride, but i thought i had already booked her way in advance? So this kind of agreement can be change as and when? 

She told me that she could get another MUA to do my makeup or touchup for me, but 3pm is so early and i can't even rest after that!

I regard myself to be a very accommodating bride already, i was not too fussy from gown selections, hairdo & makeup but it doesn't mean that i will take it with such last min changes & not flare up with such issues. i have not shown them my online personality in real life to them YET.

I do know wedding coordinator do face issues that bride can go down to the bridal studio for at least 7-8 times, each time not satisfied with their gown selection, having lots of demands and giving the coordinator a hard time because everyone would argue, this is only the first & last time having their perfect wedding and there is nothing wrong being fickle-minded over it.

I continue to complain to my wedding coordinator, telling her my soleminisation ceremony was at 6.30pm,  when she do my makeup + hairdo in the morning, it will takes only 1.5hour. So if she is doing my evening makeup, she would likely just use 1.5hour, so i would be ready by 4.30pm. I would still have to wait for 2 hour! Further bombarding her that she told me she is recommending another person to do my makeup but that person didn't even do my makeup before, how am i supposed to trust her? How am i to know that she is not trying to smoke me, if it doesn't turn out good, too bad la. The most i can do is complain, but what else can i do? Damage has already been done. 

It was based on trust that i didn't get her to sign any agreement during booking, if this is the case, i really should recommend all bride-to-be to get their bridal studio makeup artist to compensate them if there is this kind of last min stunt or to get them to sign some form or service agreement.

The wedding coordinator was being bombarded by my shooting questions via text, i didn't call her because i know i would start talking like a machine gun and start scolding because i was too fucking angry. Even though my word of mouth do spread fast to all my friends as i was complaining to them. 

She replied me asking if the replacement MUA was Minnie and i told her yes, she was trying to reassured me that she think she is very good too, so i told her, i did told charmaine, unless she can get me a trial makeup & hairdo because if i am not satisfied with the makeup or the hairdo on my actual day, what can i do? WHAT CAN I FUCKING POSSIBLY DO? Suck on it, isn't it? And you can't possibly expect me to pay money again for the trial makeup, because right now, this is your MUA issue of standing your customers up just because she accept external booking, why should i pay to ensure i look good with the new replacement? 

That is none of my business and none of my fault. How would you feel if your customers stand you up after booking you in advance? i also emphasize again that if the new replacement can do the makeup nice for the bride doesn't mean it will look good on me what. 

I think the wedding coordinator might have called up Charmaine and spoke to her, because i was already prepared if she is not going to do anything about it, i am going down to the bridal studio to during my 2nd gown fitting so i would definitely find their lady boss & create a big fuss + circulating this incident. 

As she didn't replied my text after that, later on that Charmaine try to called me a few times and i refused to pick up her call because i was still very angry and doesn't want to talk to her because i might start screaming at her. She text me after that to call her and told me that Minnie could give me a trial makeup and proceed to ask if she could arrange an appointment with Minnie. 

She gave me Minnie contact number but i was really lazy to initiate to contact her to give her ideas of the makeup or hairdo that i want. I was already prepared to give her the most challenging hairdo, maybe because i was really mad that i had to give in somehow. Within that short week before my wedding, i had lots of other thing to take care of that i had to apply more days of leave to settle all the pending stuffs. But it doesn't mean that i will let things rest down even after i had my replacement on actual day. 

I would strongly anyone if you happen to have your makeup artist, Charmaine lin as her, better double check and decide if you really want to engage her. I mean no mattar what, if you have already accept a booking, you shouldn't change just because  you want to earn more from the other bride's booking. Show some professionalism in your job please.

Back to the part for our wedding photoshoot, i didn't opt for overseas photoshoot as i had heard many couples that i know of spend quite a huge cost for that, you ended up paying more for your photos and i thought Singapore would be fine to avoid incurring additional cost. But.. We did incurred this expenses la, this was because Jeremy was impatient when i was choosing carefully to eliminate those photos and i needed more time and he doesn't want to wait. So in the end we pay for the remaining photos that was remaining with all raw soft copies returned to us & 1 additional 30x40inch poster as the lady boss heard that we were going to host our wedding banquet at orchid country club grand ballroom and they know the cocktail reception is very big & having one will not be enough. (Though eventually i went to print out one more myself and we had 3 30x40inch poster in our cocktail reception area) hurhur

We paid for additional $4188. (Blame it on him for not being patient and i was tired so we paid everything since he doesn't really care about the expenses haha) It was not an easy task from deleting to remaining 65 photos left! 

When it comes to choosing a bridal package,you just need to make sure you like the work that is produced by their photographer for wedding photoshoot because this is very important if you are looking to sign a package. Otherwise, if you have a higher budget, i think going ala carte will be better. For gowns, you can also look at their available gowns, i heard some bride-to-be will head down to the various bridal studio just for trying out the gowns even before signing the package.

But for me, i like anything that is bling and most of their gowns are super bling so i wasn't that particular, and i like the simple clean basic look of the wedding photoshoot, such that even if we placed it in our future house next time, it doesn't look like it don't fit the place.

It is always good to check before signing the package because if you want to make any changes, its very hard for them to accede to your request. Initially i thought it would be easier if we take everything under one package, but i realised i cannot accept it when it doesn't turned out the way i expect it to be.

For eg: for the actual day photography, i request to add inside the package, without giving too much thought, but later on i was regretting after there were this article surfaced of a photographer taking super ugly shots of the wedding couple and because it was cheap. For ours, they quoted us $700. Even though that photographer doesn't belong to this bridal, but i was afraid of the quality because we paid for $700 only. There is no rehearsal neither can it be repeated again, so i was telling Jeremy my concerns, and we went to ask our coordinator when i ask if i can took out the actual wedding photography from our package because i don't want as i am worried about the quality. She tried to show me the photographer's work but its totally different from the one that i want to engage. 

She told me she can't remove it because they have booked the photographer long ago and payment has been paid, and its based on trust when they communicate earlier. Yeah, that was before my makeup artist issue. I don't believe when they say payment has been made, no one do business this way whereby you haven't even receive the goods and you already received the payment. Maybe there are other cases whereby you have to settle the full payment but no photographer will be afraid the bridal studio will run away after booking their slot with them right? 

I was sure this was trying to deter me from taking the photographer cost out. I was quite frustrated because i told her at least 4 month ago before our wedding, there is no reason to tell me they cannot be flexible, we only pay a deposit of 2k during the wedding show, there were some balance, so it doesn't make sense. 

Eventually when we went down to the bridal studio, Jeremy saw the lady boss and spoke to her, since we have not engage videography, the alternative is to swop the photography to videographer for 10hours. (Which i believe if its ala-carte, will be a better option, but i can't get rid off so we managed to change to videographer instead)

So, never include actual day/videographer into your package first. Always remember if you really can't find any but want to add into the package later, this is always possible because they will never reject last min request of paying more but they will not entertain if you want to remove it out of your package.

I believe this does not only apply to this bridal studio, there should be many bridal studio out there who is doing the same thing like this. Which bring me to this reflection point (If you want to take out the photographer out of package, its impossible, but if you want to replace it with videographer with additional top up, this is possible and previous trust issue that she raise can absolutely be overlooked. ) Roll eyes*

I wasn't too particular about videography because i think it's quite basic for every wedding, so i only emphasise more the photography. But later on, i realised because there is really alot to shoot on my actual wedding day because i do pay much attention to details at my own house and if you had a better videographer, the video result might turn out differently. 

I went on to find my ala carte photographer and it was 2.3k for 10 hours of photography with editing. I do hope the photos will turn out good! At least from a $700 to $2.3k, i think the photos will definitely be better even if its not the best. Initially, i wanted to get one more photographer from this same photography company that has the instant print function because this photographer that i found was through attending Jeremy's friend wedding and i notice how their instant photo print color were nicely adjusted and the quality was very good.

I find that instant print will be a better option because not everyone will go to the photo booth to take photo, with instant print will means the photographer will try to go around engaging our guests to take photos and our guest will be able to keep a copy of it after that. But that will be additional cost, and beside i am not sure if everybody will appreciate taking photos with us and keeping the photo after that. So i didn't add that, but i would strongly recommend if you have the money! 

Below are the details of the vendors that we used for our bridal package, wedding bands,

Our Bridal Package - Yvonne Creative Bridal Studio 

Wedding Bands - SK Jewellery

Wedding Photoshoot photographer - Yvonne Creative Bridal Studio

Shall end for now.

Next post will be on the topic of deciding where to host our banquet wedding dinner venue!

Till then!

To read more on my wedding planning posts, click according to the post you would like to read below,

*Wedding Gown Selection Click HERE

*Tips before your wedding photoshoot and during photoshoot. Click HERE

*Our Wedding Banquet Dinner Venue  Click HERE

*Our Wedding Invitation Card, Bridal Furniture & Ordering of GUO DA LI Click HERE

*Food Tasting at Orchid Country Club, Peach Garden Click HERE

*Selection of Wedding Photoshoot Photos Click HERE

*Why Taobao is the best place to buy your wedding essential items. Click HERE 

*Filing for notice of Marriage/ Trial Hairdo & Makeup/Manicure Click HERE

*Errands to complete before actual day Click HERE

*Wedding Planning (Checklist of items to take note) Click HERE

*Actual Day Wedding (Morning Ceremony) Click HERE

*Wedding Banquet dinner celebration at Orchid Country Club, Grand Ballroom Click HERE