Nice gowns

Some nice gowns from La Belle Couture ... ...

Lady in Red
(I love the hair accessory)

As colourful as a Rainbow

Royal Yellow
(the jewels straps on the back look beautiful)

Elegant Black and White
(the lace is fantastic)

I can't wait to go for my gown fitting ... ...

Sonia

Finally decided on the wedding venue!

My family felt that York Hotel still lacked that "special" something. At that point of time, Bob suddenly remembered that the coordinator from Orchard Hotel had called him recently to follow up on our decision. Since Orchard Hotel was just round the corner (York Hotel was located behind Goodwood Park), we decided to make a trip there.

The Orchard Hotel coordinator, Haze (HY), was really nice to repeat the wedding package to my family as well as to bring us to view the ballroom. It was also very thoughtful of her to give us a call to follow up. If she had not done that, we would not have reconsider our choices. Anyway, my family was truly satisfied with Orchard Hotel after the "site visit".

After much consideration, we realised that we have decided that the wedding banquet venue shall be at Orchard Hotel. Although we didn't managed to get any further perks (even though I know of someone who is now working in the hotel), we are still quite ok with the wedding package. Since the hotel is already extending the perks under the wedding promotion to us, I kind of expected that it will be difficult for our co-ordinator, HY, to offer any further benefits to us. But she did offered to up the free parking coupons from 20% to 30% of the confirmed attendance. We really appreciated that.

My mum and sisters went along with us as well. HY also showed us the selection of table cloth, cutlery and wedding favour that will be available for us to choose. There was this silver glitter rimmed serving plate among the selection of cutlery and I knew immediately that my sisters will love this design!

Now, I can finally announce to everyone that I will be getting married on 18 September 2010!!! And I am really grateful to er jie for sacrificing herself because that day is supposed to "冲" people born in the year of OX. So she probably would need to "回辟" from the time the groom arrives until the bride steps out of her room (based on the geomancer's instructions).

This is just the beginning and I am already feeling so excited!

Sonia

The search for the wedding banquet venue (Part 3)

The weekend visit to Park Royal on Beach Road and Holiday Inn Atrium did not turn out well. My family was not really impressed by the hotels. They all felt that the pillars in Park Royal's ballroom were too big and obstructive. The march-in route was also too short. As for Holiday Inn Atrium, they felt that the hotel was a bit old. But what really disappointed us was the carpark. We could not believe it when we realised that the hotel was still using the outdated carpark ticketing system. We were staring at the bulky, old-fashioned, yellow and black ticket machine as it churned out the exit ticket and giggling at the same time. We could almost imagine our guest to be as surprised as we were on the wedding night. It's a "face" problem. Since this would be our BIG DAY, we wanted every little bit of it to be perfect (as much as possible).

So ... we lost our first choice venues and were back to square one ... We had no choice but to continue searching again.

A Post-Work Sojourn to the not so 'new' York Hotel
On one of the weekdays after our one-week leave, I was surfing the internet and came across an unfamiliar York Hotel. We decided to visit the hotel and enquire further on their wedding package.

It was a pleasant surprise. The interior of the hotel looked new and classy. The ballroom looked grand and elegant too. The prices were within our budget and the biggest ballroom can accomodate a maximum of 38/40 tables (but we were strongly advised not to have that many tables due to space constraint).

The hotel lobby

The ballroom

The lift lobby at the ballroom area

In the event that we were going to have 36 and more tables, it would be an open-concept ballroom whereby there would be no doors (i.e. you would see the tables once the elevator door opened). But the coordinator assured that they would arrange for some nice foldable partitions to carve out a reception area.

The ballroom and the two projection screens

Bob and I were pretty satisfied with this "find". My family also went to view the hotel on one of the weekday evening. We were expecting them to be very pleased with this hotel .... but .... they were pretty neutral ... no strong likes or dislikes. I only had one conclusion from this experience. Either Bob and I were too easily pleased or my family was a bunch of hard-to-pleased people.

Sonia

The search for the wedding banquet venue (Part 2)

First stop: Swissotel Stamford / Fairmont Singapore
The second day of our search started in earnest with a trip to the Swissotel Stamford / Fairmont Singapore. With the numerous makeovers that the former Westin Stamford had seen, many a guest had been left wondering about the newest name for the hotel. However, both of us have had our D&Ds here (Sonia has had 4 years' worth of crap food and equally inept performances). But we just went there to get a brochure anyway. Looked at the price, compared our reviews and decided to chuck it aside.

Second stop: Carlton Hotel
For some reason or another, I was particularly fond of Carlton. It could have been the food (my Company Law prof brought me and the SMU gang to dine at Wah Lok) or it could have been the promise of a spanking new banquet hall in the wing under construction (slated to open in late 2Q 2010). However, capacity constraints meant that Carlton had to be considered carefully, as it had a maximum capacity (think of a packed HK mahjong centre) of 40 tables. Nevertheless, we put down a tentative booking for the 3 dates in advance.

Third stop: Park Royal on Beach Road
As opposed to its sister hotel Park Royal at Kitchener, we both felt that the lobby and the reception area of the Beach Road version was relatively new and appealing.


The banquet hall was nicely furnished as well. The sole sticking point was the fact that 4 thick pillars were located towards the rear of the hall, and coupled with its elongated rectangular shape, the people who were going to be seated beside and between those pillars would not be able to see the stage. This bothered me greatly.


What really caught Sonia's eye was the promise of an open-air pavilion in which we could conduct our solemnization ceremony. The sales manager promised a view of the Flyer and the CBD area (we realized the Flyer was pretty insignificant at that distance) but the pavilion was something else in itself. This was a major contributing factor in our decision to consider the locale, even though it was relatively inaccessible (it fronted Beach Road on one side and The Furniture Mall on the other). In addition, it was still available for booking on 10 October 2010 (our priority date) and the surcharge was only an extra premium of $50 per table only!


Fourth stop: Grand Copthorne Waterfront
This was by far Sonia's favourite in terms of hall layout. As the sales manager was describing the sequence in which weddings were typically conducted, I could see that Sonia was visibly attracted to the 'Garden' sequence. The spacious ballroom had high ceilings and relatively modern decor, and with the unique 'unveiling' of the garden (on the left of the following picture) during the wedding march, it was certainly part of our plans.


Unfortunately, most of the auspicious dates had been taken up by other couples (remember that we were planning 1 year 4 months in advance) and the sole auspicious date available was the 10 October 2010. This came with a hefty 400 dollar premium over the usual price, and we decided that the premium was not acceptable.

Fifth stop: Holiday Inn Atrium
We crossed the road over to the other hotels located within the area. We chose the Holiday Inn Atrium for our final destination of the day (the rest looked slightly dodgy from the outside [Copthorne King , Furama Riverfront and Riverside Hotel]). Bob had a funny thing for the design of the high roof of the hotel. It looked something like this (although a tad more grimy):


The interior of the hotel was acceptable, if a bit dated. The reception area was narrow, but the manager suggested that we could use the meeting rooms to the right of the corridor for our reception as well.

The pillars in the banquet hall were not too obstructive either. The manager attending to us was very helpful and agreeable to most of our requests, and we were quite taken in by the large number of free perks that he promised to throw in.

It was a good day for us because we both found a hotel that we like at the end of the day's search. Sonia preferred Park Royal on Beach Road (because of the outdoor pavillion and the overall furnishing) while I voted for Holiday Inn Atrium (because the pillars were less obstructive than Park Royal's and the perks were better). Since we could not decide on the same hotel, we decided to rope in our families and get some third party opinion for reference. Sonia managed to persuade her family to visit the two hotels with us again over the weekend.

Bob

The search for the wedding banquet venue (Part 1)

And we began the hunt for the ideal wedding venue with some lofty ideals.

Our selection criteria:

• available for booking on 10 Oct 2010, 23 Oct 2010, 12 Sept 2010 or 18 Sept 2010
  
• reasonably-priced
• accomodation for 35 to 40 tables
• reasonably-delicious food
• interior of the ballroom (preferably no pillars to block the view)
  

We visited a number of hotels and we also took photos of the ballrooms so that we can share with our families and get their comments. Although it is OUR wedding, I thought it would be nice to also involve our families and get them to participate, wherever possible. Of course, there are also times when everyone has differing views and Bob and I will try to compromise to keep everyone happy. I know we don't really have to do that (because it's OUR wedding) but I just feel more assured and comfortable with the decisions made when (almost) everyone gives the green light to go ahead (I think I just need the reassurance). Our families have been quite supportive. Giving us their opinion and advice without imposing their will on us and suggesting alternatives where relevant, etc.

First stop: Orchard Parade Hotel
The wedding banquet would be handled by Club Chinois (should be quite palatable, given Tung Lok's reputation for good food). The ballroom looked cosy but it could only hold about 32 tables (likely to be too small). There were also 2 pillars which would potentially block the guests' view of the stage. It was the first one we visited and the first to be axed due to capacity constraints.


Second stop: Orchard Hotel
The banquet would be catered by Wah Ting (a reputable Cantonese restaurant). The minimum capacity for Ballroom 1&2 was 40 tables and it could hold up to 50 tables (within our range although the minimum capacity requirement appears to be on the high side). The interior was grand ... high ceiling, no pillars, chandeliers, spacious, L-shape march-in. As the price was a bit on the high side for a 4-star hotel, we did not seriously consider it as one of our best choices after that.



Third stop: Park Royal on Scotts
The hotel lobby was really elegant and impressive. But we did not even get to visit the ballroom/function room because the maximum capacity was only 10 tables. We were surprised by the lack of a function room (of a respectable size) as the opulence and grandeur of the lobby suggested otherwise.

Fourth stop: Grand Hyatt
The banquet would be handled by a team of banquet chefs (which leaves some doubt on the quality of the food). The ballroom ceiling was really low but the sales manager was saying that this gave the ballroom a really cosy feel. I kinda agreed and it was pretty dark too especially with the black table cloth and this combined to give a rather sleepy and dreamy feel to the ambience with the down lighting.

One memorable remark was that the manager mentioned about having extra-wide seats (that catered to large posteriors... ahem...) and this was supposed to be a differentiating factor in our consideration. Anyway, the pricing was a bit on the high side for us so this was struck off the list as well.


Fifth stop: Concorde Hotel (the old Le Meridien)
It was already after office hours when we finally made our way to Concorde Hotel. The sales personnel probably had already called it a day so the Catering Director had to attend to us instead. He was a really nice person ... very attentive and sincere. Bob was not too impressed by the retail outlets and the general outlook of the facade that shared the premises with Concorde Hotel and the overall "feel". The ballroom capacity was able to accomodate 30+ to 40+ tables.

When we visited the ballroom, there was an ongoing L'Oreal sales function and the numerous chandeliers caught my eye. We decided to place a tentative booking with Concorde on 12 Sept 2010 as the other dates were no longer available.


Sixth stop: Holiday Inn Parkview
The ballroom really looked ok. But it just got this very strong "Indian" feel about it. Not trying to be a racist here, but we really felt kinda out of place when we were there. First, we were greeted by the statute of an Indian god (Bob said it's Ganesh ... well ... I am not too sure about that) sitting in the hotel lobby. It was right above the reception ... no one would miss it. Then we realised that the majority of the hotel guests were Indians. Even the receptionist and the Manager who attended to us were non-Chinese (I am seriously not trying to be a racist here). In fact, we felt weird to be enquirying them about Chinese wedding banquet.


Not a very fruitful day for us even though we have covered 6 venues. It was really tiring to be walking for the whole afternoon. But we had a good dinner with my family at Ah Yat Seafood and shared with them our findings for the day.

Sonia

Getting the auspicious date

Our plan is to have the wedding next year. So Bob's mum and grandma were supposed to help us get a list of the auspicious dates. But because the "tong shu" will only be issued in August, we were afraid that most of the banquet venues would be snapped up by then.

Instead of waiting for the "tong shu", we went to the geomancer recommended by CLK. The auspicious dates were available in 2 days time. Our preferred dates are 10 Oct 2010, 23 Oct 2010, 12 Sept 2010 and 18 Sept 2010. We would love to have it on 10 Oct 2010 but we also understand that this is a hot date and there will probably be extra charges for having the banquet on that day too. With the list of auspicious dates, we are ready to start hunting for the right wedding banquet venue.

Sonia

After getting the name of the geomancer from Sonia (who had displayed a very welcome dose of initiative to source for the contacts), we secured his services and were supposed to make a trip down to Beauty World Complex for a face-to-face meeting.

I had expected an incense-ridden dingy shopfront with a white-haired mystic poring over voluminous tracts of ancient scriptures to determine the dates that did not clash with the Chinese zodiac signs of our immediate relatives (and us).

In the end, it was a fairly modern cosy corner with a desk (and airconditioning, thank goodness) and a full size advert of the man himself. Apart from the Chinese compass / 轮盘 that he held in the ad, it was a fairly modern geomancer that we were speaking with.

As the saying goes, judge a man by the company mobile phone he keeps. And he kept a N95 8GB. Not too bad.

He showed us the dates and gave us a set of ancient coins (古钱) that we were tasked to keep under the matrimonial bed. A senior member of our family was to place the coins at the four corners of our bed during the 安床 ceremony, all whilst verbalizing auspicious phrases such as 百年好和，白头偕老，早生贵子 and 子孙满堂 or something... This would happen on the day before the actual wedding at an auspicious hour.

Also, the part I found the funniest was the act of getting a non-member of my family (undoubtedly a guy unless Sonia gives the green light) to sleep beside me on the night before the wedding. I was wondering which of my bros would sleep with me... HAHA

Ryan Bob

Bridal studio ... Confirmed!

It was the Sunday before the start of our one-week leave. It was also the last day of the IT Fair and the last day of a bridal show exhibition (both were at Suntec). The plan for the day was:

1. Pay a visit to the bridal show to see if we could finally get a deal on a bridal package
   
2. Rush to the IT fair to get his and other people’s IT gadgets (And we had only 3 hours to spare between the bridal show and the IT fair)
3. Rush off for his soccer training

Searching for a bridal studio (BS) is really a tiring and time consuming process. And most of the BS will be talking about the same thing as there is usually not much of a difference between the wedding packages that each offers. As each session with the BS stretched close to an hour (based on past experience from a 2-hr Bliss interrogation at Vivocity), it would not have been possible for us to cover all of them on that day. So prior to our visit I had already done some research and we decided to enquire with "The Aisle", "La Belle" and "Golden Horse Award" BSes only. Our selection was (mainly) base on the collection of gowns (and the groom's suit) and the photographic style (for the album). Of course, the price, extra perks and the customer service were also important factors.

We did manage to enquire with 3 BSes and it took us the whole afternoon. But instead of "The Aisle", we were pulled to "Thomson". Bob also had to skip his soccer session in the end and pang seh a bro who had came back from UK.. Luckily, it was not a futile experience during the bridal show so it wasn't a wasted trip for him. It was a tossup between "La Belle" and "Thomson". I was indifferent between the two but we signed a package with La Belle because Bob had preferred the design of their suits (he needs some attention too).

I hope we have gotten a good deal. The fact was that we did not even go down to La Belle's studio at Tanjong Pagar to view the gowns before we took up the package. But I thought their gowns should be fine based on what I had seen from their website and the albums that we saw at the bridal show.

Sonia

The ball has finally started to roll... After some 6 months

After we had gotten over the hype and excitement of the proposal on 26 Dec 2008, we were back to the “happily attached” life that we were so used to for the past 8 years. We did not really have a concrete plan for the ROM and customary wedding. Things were moving slowly for us, probably because there isn't a push factor to drive us (such as a flat) and the "tying the knot" idea seemed to drift further and further away as time passed. This continued for about 6 months before we finally put an end to our procrastination.

I had no idea what really got into us but we suddenly felt the impetus to start planning for our BIG DAY. Both of us were clearing one week of leave in mid June and we took this opportunity to try and settle as much as we could. And I am glad that we have achieved quite a great deal (by my standards) by the end of June (a total of just 2 weeks). We obtained the auspicious dates, confirmed the bridal studio and the wedding banquet venue. But probably because we were so tired of going through all the different wedding packages offered by the bridal studios and hotels, we just wanted to get things confirmed as soon as possible ... haha.

Sonia

It all began with a...

Kiss?

Nah. I don't do things the simple and sweet way.

It was just another Boxing Day, albeit one with a party (of my friends) thrown in.

But first things first...

The Ring

Planning had started way back in September. Having broached the idea to Koof, I set myself to learning all about diamonds. And boy was there a great deal to learn. This site helped immensely - the accountant in me appreciated the fact that the diamond merchants saw it fit to attach alphanumeric ratings to the various Cs of a diamond.

And then the diamond hunt started in earnest October. It was a period packed with diamond fairs (I remember Celest's "3 months gross pay minimum" at the fair in Ngee Ann City's Civic Plaza) and some random hunting. Huimin, Jing, Ra and Koof tirelessly went with me on those (fruitless) escapades. I was torn between the Carat and the Cut. A combination of both would lead me straight to Chapter 11, and after much torment (and irritation on the part of my friends), I decided on a compromise of both. At Larry's.

Smoke Screen

I had surprised her with a new pair of couple rings on Christmas Day itself packed neatly in a nice jewellery box - this was in a desperate attempt to throw her off the scent. I had 'borrowed' her diamond solitaire that her mum gave her for her 21st to ascertain her ring size. It just so happened that she went into spring-cleaning mode, which was triggered by the mysterious loss of her pendrive.

The Proposal

And so came about the Day.

My friends were the ones who made it all possible.

The original idea was to kidnap Sonia (after work) and then chauffeur her to a romantic setting where I would then propose and we would live happily ever after. It was soon thrown out of the window after we considered the following:

• It would have been a sweaty proposal
• Sonia might call the police

And so some other ideas were thrown up: TJC Sports Complex, someone's place, the Flyer...

Until the idea of a hotel party was suggested. Immediately the negative aspects of so doing became apparent:

• Heated food would be a problem
• A standard room would not suffice (we had 10 pax)
  
• Logistics would be a nightmare
  

Still, my dear bros (and erm, girls female friends) bent over backwards to make it all possible.

A big THANK YOU to my bros and the girls

It was a wonderful event (and a visual feast [of the culinary kind]).


Whilst she wasn't at all touched by my botched script (she said yes before opening the ring box / I could have saved on the ring), we both agreed that it was a night to remember.

She thinks that it's just another exchange of Xmas gifts. She has absolutely no idea what's awaiting her...

Success !!!

Ryan Bob