The Wedding Vendors.

As you all know, I did not hire any wedding planner. As a designer myself with a taste of my own, I trust nobody but myself. I added a lot of personal touch to everything in my wedding. A lot of DIYs. The corsages, the ang paos, the button badges, the gown, even the wedding shoe! In short, I'm a fussy and hard to please person.

I guess this is what most suppliers and service providers fear most. Bloggers commenting their service in social media. It's either you make it or eff it. The following post is not an advertorial. I paid for all the services, hence I have the rights to comment them, good or bad.

THE GOOD

The Wedding Photographer and Videographer

A huge thanks to designBAR for the wonderful photos and video. It is not because they are my friends so I chose them to be my wedding photographer. It is solely because of their ability to capture the important moments and magnify each moment into such emotional photographs. They truly live up to the famous quote, "A picture speaks a thousand words."

With Fann, the assistant photographer.

And good job on the video. It has brought a lot of people to tears. No words can describe that feeling of happiness and fulfillment watching the video.

Check them out at designBAR Facebook 

The Wedding Make-Up Artist

Was not very convinced with what I saw during the trial. She did quite a few hairstyles for me but none of them are like the references I showed her. But she was provided by Reuben and Fann from designBAR and money has been paid, so I just kept my fingers crossed on the big day. Surprisingly she did quite a good job, and I really like the make-up =) As for the hair, she finally did what I wanted, even nicer!

Just one little comment, maybe she can go easy with the iron and hairspray for more natural looking hair, else the hair will look stiff and dry under lighting. Other than that, it was all good =)

Love the braids at the back!

Check her out at Suz Make Up Facebook

The Condominium for the Bride's Tea Ceremony

I rented a boutique style condo unit for my family to stay over during my wedding. I found this apartment rental service online and they were doing promotion. Their unique designs caught my attention and I instantly booked their purple and silver unit in Titiwangsa. The place is cozy, beautiful and felt totally like home. They have shampoos and other toiletries in the bathroom, plates, cutlery and even spices and sauces in the kitchen! So convenient.

photo courtesy of Alexis, taken from her Facebook.

Just that I was not very satisfied with their customer service. I contacted them via phone, email and even saw them in person when I was checking out. The guy was quite friendly, but the person who returned my emails are quite rude. But if you don't mind about it, the place is really worth renting if you are looking for a place to rent for party or stay over. They have quite a few units around KL and even Malacca! Maybe we can consider renting the Malacca unit during our next road trip =)

Check them out at their blog, Boutel.

The Bridal Studio

Many people complimented my pre-wedding photos. Yeap, it was from My Dream Wedding. Like any other bridal studio, their consultants are quite pushy too. But I really love the gowns that they have, they are oh-so-gorgeous! The photographer is very friendly and experimental. And I super love the make-up artist. But her charges are twice the market price because she uses high end products and I don't need to talk about her skill, OMG! If her price is not that high, I would have so totally hire her! Thank God the bridal studio provided her for my pre-wedding photos! Yippee Yai Yay!

View here for her masterpiece on me.

Check her out at Raynis Make Up.
And also My Dream Wedding

The Wedding Dinner Photographer

One day my college friend text me to congratulate my wedding. He offered to take photos for me during my wedding dinner for free, as a wedding gift. Aawww....We have lost contact for a while and the first thing he said to me after all these years are free photos for my wedding dinner. I'm so touched T_T He also brought along one of his friend, who happened to be a student in my old college too! Good lar! Twice the amount of free photos XD People said don't expect too much if its free, but I oppose that. Apparently their photos are awesome. I super love the editing by the student friend, Joshua.

View here for their photos.

THE BAD

The Restaurant

This is going to be a long one. Everyone should know Delicious, the contemporary dining place with yummy desserts and famous for their turquoise colors and bird cages donning their restaurants. But to my surprise, having such big name, the management who runs the business is totally crap. I contacted them to book their branch in Marc Residence for my wedding dinner, signed and paid the full amount. I was quite suspicious why none of them contacted me to talk about the arrangement of the wedding dinner.

One day, one of Alvin's friend called him and told him the most shocking news. She happened to pass by Delicious in Marc Residence and saw the place was closed down. She checked their website and saw the announcement of the shifting of Marc Residence to St. Mary. I was so shocked none of them contacted me about this! I called the person who liaised with me and I was so furious at that moment, I blasted and bombed like there was no tomorrow. She kept apologizing to me with the reason that they received the last minute announcement from the higher management of the shifting too, but unfortunately they left me out. Imagine I arrive on my wedding dinner day in my gown with my guests just to find out the place is no longer there!

Savor the wrath of the angry bridezilla!

She tried to pacify me with the compensation of the reprint of my invitations and rearrange the venue of my wedding dinner. Too bad, you messed with the wrong woman. With such huge mistake and such small compensation, I wrote a long ass angry email to the management at that same night (too bad I don't have a copy of that email!). To my surprise, my phone rang after 10 minutes. The General Manager called. After talking for 20 minutes, he successfully pacified the angry bridezilla. Below is his email recapping the compensations.

It was all good after that. But during the dinner day itself, I arrived at the venue at 4pm and saw the staffs just started to set up. It was clearly stated in the EO I signed that the set up time was 3pm. My guests were to arrive at 5.30pm. Hence their delay has caused me to go on with my wedding dinner without rehearsal and system checking. One of the TV wouldn't function at the beginning and the system guy didn't know when to stop playing the march in song. Causing it to overlap with my wedding video. I gave the event organizer an angry stare. My friends convinced me it was ok because technical problems do happen during wedding dinner.

Discussing about their arrangement of tables.

I had fun during the dinner from my side with my friends. But it's a different story with Delicious management. They suck balls, big time.

The Dinner Make-Up Artist

I have nothing good to say about this one. I found her online and her price was quite cheap. judging from her online portfolio, I thought with that price I can make do with her make-up. Furthermore, with my pretty face, any make-up can look pretty too. Boy, was my perasan mode went so wrong. First, she totally forgot about my appointment. She was supposed to come to my house at 12.30pm on my wedding dinner day. I called her at 12.30pm and she said she forgot. WTF! She arrived an hour late after that. Secondly, she did not apply any ampoules on my face before applying make-up and don't make me start with her make-up tools. They are so dirty I felt like offering her my own. After a while I looked at myself in the mirror and was horrified with my eyebrows.

Yes, my brows look like hers.

And the lipsticks. Like my mom's era. For my hair, I showed her a reference and she told me she doesn't know how to do it. It's just a simple half do. WTF! I didn't bother asking her to fix my make up since I was already late. I sent her out the door, got up to my room and fixed it myself instead.

Check out her Facebook. Don't hire her. Good no cheap, cheap no good.

Thank God Paige brought her make up box. She fixed my face, like a pro.

Okay, that was Hooi. 

Paige fixed my brows and blusher. I mixed my own eyes and lips.

An Evening Affair.

Sorry for the delayed post of the wedding dinner. I was waiting for the photos from my friends who generously offered to take for me...FOR FREE! And the photos are awesome V^^V

First of all, I sincerely apologize to those people I did not invite. Since both of our parents suggested not to have a huge grand banquet, I know...everyone was shocked hearing this because my husband is the eldest son. But his family is not the social type of people and so is my mine. If we were to have the wedding banquet, his parents will need to have more than 100 tables because they run a business with lots of clients. Imagine the chaos of 100 tables O__o

Hence, we decided to have a small intimate dinner instead with those closest to us, that's why I called it "An Evening Affair". Friendly, cozy and warm-hearted. The place in Delicious Dua Residency can only occupy 50 people so both of us scratched our heads and pumped our brains to shortlist 50 people to invite. Trust me, it wasn't an easy job because we worried those that we didn't invite might get offended. So please please please, accept my sincere apology if you weren't invited.

And I didn't know people actually like to get invited to wedding dinner. I usually see them whine and cry whenever they get an invitation. But for my case, people either asked if they can come or they scold because they weren't invited. WTF!

A few days before, I found out Nike was having their annual marathon too, SAME DAY! SAME AREA! SAME TIME! DAFUQ!!!! Who on earth will have marathon in the middle of KL city in the evening?! Making the traffic jam even worst! The organizer must be thinking...Eff the jam! Just do it!

So I announced in Facebook to my guests to leave their house earlier to avoid the jam. God must have heard my prayers. It poured on that day and miraculously, the traffic were smoother than my skin on that day. The Nike Run organizer must be shaking. But I was happy, yay!

The first couple to arrive was my wedding day photographers, Reuben and Fann. Arriving early to let me have the first preview of the wedding day video and slideshow.

Bridezilla explaining the flow of the event. DO OR DIE!

Felt so much happiness and love watching the video and slideshow designBAR did. 

No wedding planner, have to do it all on my own!

Nearly wanted to blow up that time because guests were coming in but the decorations weren't done yet, and
my friend had the balls to ask me to smile for the camera.

LOL! Same pose like monkey dancing hahahaha!

The decorations.

Thanks Hooi for helping out!

D.I.Y. table numbering.

Door gifts for the guests. Giant diamond ring keychain and candles with their names to light up during the wedding march.

(photo courtesy of Fann, taken from her Facebook)

Some of the guests.

Eeva, Kelle and Hooi.

The 3 Alvins. From left, Alvin Gan, Alvin Soi, Alvin Ho.

The husband's college mates.

Eeva and her boyfie.

Juno and his girlfriend.

My bestie and her boyfie.

The husband's high school friends.

Sau Yeen and her boyfie, flew all the way from Singapore for my wedding dinner!

My highschool besties, Shum and Sau Yeen.

While Alvin was entertaining the arriving guests, I was in the toilet changing and hiding =_= Sharon took some photos of me hiding at the back of the building, but unfortunately her was phone was lost/stolen =(

6.30pm sharp the event was kicked off with our wedding entrance. Initially I wanted to line the staircase with candles but it was too narrow, I was afraid the train of my gown will get burned =__= So scrapped the candles at the staircase idea.

The husband telling me he was very nervous. SO WAS I!

My first time finishing one glass of wine O_o

Let's toast!

YUMMMMMmmmmMMMMMmmmmmMMMMM!!!!!!!!

A huge thanks to my bestie, her mom and her boyfie for this lovely wedding cake. This cake just screams ME!!! LOL!!! The colors, the details and even the dress is exactly the same with the one I was wearing!

We also had a toast session. I chose one person from each table to give a 5 minutes toast, I think mine was the longest, LOL! The first person to kick start the toast session was Sharon. She kept saying how nervous she was, but I think she did great. She even left her seat and toast at the center of the crowd *applause*

The second representative from table 2 was Manda's mom. Her toast sent me to tears T___T She said I was like a daughter to her and she was so grateful that her daughter had me when she needed someone T___T I was trying so hard to keep my tears in my eyes!

When Andrew speaks. LOL!

Finally it was our turn to toast. At first Alvin was reluctant to do so, he is a very shy person. He said if he toast, he will toast in Hakka! LMAO! I was waiting for that moment but he ended up speaking English =_=

As usual, he spoke like Jay Chou. Please decipher what he was saying, because I couldn't hear anything =____=

Thank God I used to do presentations in front of huge crowd back in college. Hence the courage to talk so much for the toast, hahaha!

Looking back at the video of my toast, I realized my English is sibeh Malaysian! Dafuq!

My college mates.

Reuben and Fann!

Alvin's college mates.

With all his brothers.

With all my beautiful girls!

With bestie and also the host. Thanks for everything, my love.

The other 2 besties that I can't possibly live without.

Fann and Eeva's idea with the door gift. LOL!!! Reuben's expressions were all-time classic!

High school besties! Thanks for flying all the way from Singapore!

Parents in law turned up almost at the end of the event.

Kiss the bride! Punch the groom!

Punch the groom! Stab the bride!

Group photo with all the ladies in white!

Group photo with all the men in white!

After this experience, I feel that a wedding dinner is for people to come and celebrate the union of 2 lovers and be genuinely happy for them. You don't come for the sake of coming, obliging or worst, for free booze. Sadly, our local culture practices this. A huge banquet might look grand but as the star of the night, it is totally impossible to mingle around with everyone. You probably wouldn't know who turned up and who didn't.

I'm so glad that we had this kind of small intimate dinner. It's a small one but I could feel most of my guests attended because they were genuinely happy for us and wanted to be there to witness our marriage. We got to mingle around and took lots of pictures together. Though there were also a few people who came for the sake of obliging too. I should have just gave their seats to other people who wanted to come, wasted my precious seats since they don't appreciate my sincerity of involving them in the biggest event of my life. CIS!

Most of all, after the dinner we still managed to have after party! Woohoo!

We partied all the way at Butter Factory! We had so much fun shaking our booties XD

(photo courtesy of Paige, taken from her Facebook)