Wedding Preparation

Now that the PMC is taken care, the next thing is to actually start the preparation for the wedding. One of the more interesting parts in the wedding is in the actual preparation, and I guess I must agree with this saying. Let's just say that it is the thrill of the hunt. The biggest thing that struck me is actually how expensive a wedding can be. I mean, we have planned for a simple wedding without the frills and stuff, but it'll still cost us close to $30,000 to do it. Of course, a major chunk of that happens to the cost of the furniture when we move out and have a place on our own. Anyway, I'm hoping to cut the cost down or just live with an even simpler wedding. Oh yes, one detail that I should not have left out - our wedding coordinator is our dear sister Ruth Soh.

wedding date and venue

One of the more "interesting" rules that FCBC has for its couples is that we cannot book a flat until we have completed the PMC and consulted the pastor as to whether we given permission to marry. There is a explanation for this coming from Senior Pastor Lawrence Khong on this - that the church will not marry the couple if they find out that the couple is not ready for the commitment or if there are some serious problems in the relationship. Hmmm, in this aspect, I must agree with him.

Anyway, back to the venue and date. Touchcenter will not be chosen - the venue is too big (I don't think I have that many close friends to invite, and neither does Shuhui). Besides, with the Youth Services starting at 5:30pm, the ushers will be chasing us out right after the wedding pictures are taken. 2 of the more interesting churches are Grace Methodist at Telok Blangah Road (near World Trade Center) and True Way Presbyterian near Queenstown MRT.

Both churches have about the same application procedure, i.e., confirm the date about 6 months before the wedding with a deposit (range from $300 to $500) and then pay up the remainder of the total a week before the actual wedding (both are $1000). This is inclusive of 1 day of practice plus another day for the decoration, and of course, the wedding and reception hall.

So, after a lot of praying and hoping, we finally received the call from Grace Methodist Church saying "yes". Imagine our elation, especially since this is No. 1 choice!

As for the date, we are thinking about 3 months after Shuhui removes her braces. That will be enough time for the photo-shoot and development and then to prepare our rented flat. So, some time in April or May 2001 will be nice.

In fact, we have even informed everyone that the date is May 5, 2001. However, we had to change it. You see, we had wanted to have a professional photograher doing the shots on the actual day rather than asking a friend to do it [well, my brother-in-law was a freelance photojournalist]. After visiting a few photographers, we both liked Benny Ang a great deal. Unfortunately, he was booked for May 5. It might sound silly to change the date simply becos' of the photographer, but I would think we have made the right choice. Our "new" wedding date is May 12, 2001.

wedding dinner

Initialy we had wanted to choose the Prime City Hotel Restaurant in Kluang but decided against it becos' my Dad went there and thought that the food was prety mediocre. Now, the one we are looking at is Cincin Restaurant. The cool thing is that my Dad is taking care of the cost and invitation cards. Also, at about RM350 per table, I can even ask if my friends from Singapore can make it to the dinner.

The one thing that I did not plan for (which I found out later that it was necessary) was that I am required to foot the hotel bill for my relatives coming from out-of-town. I had a pretty long discussion on this issue with my parents, and finally relented...we'll just pay for one room per family at Anika Inn which is about 15 minutes walk from my house. Hmm, I'm even thinking of staying there for the night when Shuhui was there.

wedding budget

This is probably one of the more difficult things we have to discuss - money. Ideally, we would want to cut down on the cost but since we are moving out together, this will raise our budget quite a bit.

  • church rental = $1200 (including decoration)
  • wedding invitation cards = $350
  • wedding day photography = $1000
  • church reception (300 people x $15) = $4,500
  • gifts and cash = $500
  • chocolate gifts = $300
  • rental of wedding car = $450
  • wedding package = $6,000
  • honeymoon = $5,000
  • household appliances = $7,600
  • house utilities + rental = $2,600
  • total = $29,500

wedding package

Currently we have narrowed our decision to a few shops. I must admit that it is a very difficult task to find a shop that has both really nice gowns and good photographers.

We tried to search for one during one of the bridal shows and ended up placing a $1000-downpayment with Golden Horse Award Bridal Studio at Yishun. I guess this wasn't too bad because we were pretty impressed with the photography. When we finally went to try out the gowns, Shuhui decided that the quality wasn't really that good. So we still have a few places to go to. Still don't know what to do with them at this point of time...as we talked to many people, somehow a lot of them actually forfeited the money (but $1000 is not a small sum). We finally settled for a photography package (indoors) with Golden Horse.

Other places that we went to check out was Margaret's Brides, Divine Couture, and Irene's Creation, Ted Wu Couture and Silhouette. The general consensus, after looking at the few is that we want to have some embroidery on the gown which only 3 boutiques are famous for: Ted Wu, Donzai and Silhouette. So, it's down to these 3.

We visited Silhouette and was quite happy with the service. I especially liked one of the Mandarin collar suits, and Shuhui liked their embroderies as well. Since they did have a bridal show coming up, we decided to wait and see. During the show, the one word that came out from Shuhui was that the designs were "weird". I guess she meant that the designer was experimental enough to try out some futuristic designs which kinda made it a risk. And we are not risk-takers.

Another place that we went was Ted's Collection at Bugis Junction. A pretty interesting shop 'cos Donzai (that's the guy's name) does not believe in catalogs. He prefers showing us his gowns instead and his service is excellent. Also, all his gowns are for sale...no rent, and they are all made to measure. Excellent details especially on the lace embroidery - very obvious that he spends a lot of time in them. However, we both feel that he sometimes overdo the embroidery such that it belongs to the realm of the rich "tai-tai". Cost: $2000 for both the wedding and evening gown. Excellent service, except for one minor detail - Donzai would insist on the evening gown to be a cheongsam, and he is very adamant about it. Half the time, he would actually talked about how happy his former clients are about the cheongsam that they become his very good friends.

We decided to choose Ted Wu Couture after attending one of his shows at the Regent Hotel on July 16, 2000. First impressions when we visited his shop is that his gowns are absolutely fabulous. The embroidery is intricately done, and his cutting is impeccable. In fact, Donzai even mentioned that Ted Wu's gown are beautiful. The only big deal is that Ted's gowns are expensive, which is OK, I guess (we only get married once).

During the first meeting, Ted Wu measured our statistics and then designed accordingly. This ensured that the designs are one-of-a-kind. 6 designs (3 for the wedding gown, and another 3 for the evening gown) were presented and we will hafta choose one, which is often a very difficult choice. Shuhui took close to an hour to choose the wedding gown and decided to wait for the next meeting to choose the evening gown (quite tiring, esp when we hafta choose both the design and color). Mine was a lot simpler - I went for a dark grey cashmere wool 3-button suit...pretty standard nowadays.

During our 1st fitting, we were very impressed with the wedding gown. Already, some of the beads are sown into the gown, and the cutting sorta made Shuhui look very sleek and slim - simply stunning. As for me, the suit was quite figure-hugging, and it gave me a slight V-shape (been trying to achieve that for years in a gym). Also, Shuhui finally decided on the evening gown design and color (bluish purple).

stay tuned - more info to come....

wedding cards

For this we are actually thinking of designing our own cards, and then printing them out using our printer in my office. Either that, or I can sign for a home-loan (again the HP2000c, naturally). Why? Cos' it's the 1st printer I worked on and I still think it's the best to date!

After we had our initial design we actually went looking around in Bras Basah Complex for the perfect paper to print on (I'm in the printing business, so I kinda know that good image quality also depends on the quality of the media). I think we chose close to 15 sheets that day, of which I had them all printed out using my HP2000c printer in the office. Turned out that we liked a certain weight of one of the media, but the colour of another, and even the texture of another one. So, we need to return to Bras Basah again. Another place that we found is at Funan Center which sells nothing but paper.

In the meantime, Shuhui did some surfing in the Web for the greetings on the card and did an excellent job with it. Regarding the fonts to be used, I provided her with a copy of Microsoft Powerpoint so that we can design the card together. One great thing is that she has a new PC (a HP Pavilion 500MHz running on Windows 98) and that provided her with a lot more font choices compared to mine running on NT4.0. Also, we found some really cool screen-beans which we thought made the card fun compared to the other "boring" styles in the market. You'll see it when we send you the invitation :-)

wedding program sheet

Turns out that we went to a wedding together and the couple did not provide a program sheet which turned out really well, actually. When there is a program sheet, most of the people would actually read the sheet rather than focussing on the wedding (and on the bride)...so we decided to not have a program sheet (save on printing costs, too).

  • prelude
  • song of praise
  • processional: "Always with me, Always with you" by Joe Satriani
  • worship
  • exhortation: message by pastor
  • exchanging of rings
  • signing ceremony: "Household of Faith" by Steve Green
  • special item: "If you could see what I see" by Geoff Moore
  • doxology
  • benediction
  • recessional: "Treasure" by Iona

honeymoon

since both of us dive (we actually met while doing our first Openwater class), it will be great to see a Manta-ray during our honeymoon. Did some surfing in the Web and a good place to go is Sangalaki in Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Contacted North Borneo Dive and Sea Sports: cost RM3470 per person 7D/6N departure Kota Kinabalu Monday to Tarakan and speedboat to Derawan Dive Resort. 3 day trips to Sangalaki/Kakaban plus all meals, accommodation and unlimited diving in Derawan. 1 night stay at Tarakan Plaza Hotel, fly back to Tawau. The airfare is RM694 Malaysian Airlines Johor Bahru to Kota Kinabalu return ticket, we should be within our budget. The one good thing about this is that there is nothing to do but dive, eat, and enjoy each other's company...which is what a honeymoon should be all about.

Anyway, this had to be changed...especially after the hostage incident at Sipadan. Shuhui and I are thinking twice before heading to that region - at least for now. We also made the call to not go diving for our honeymoon. Why? Instead, we will dive in Phuket (Thailand) with Vincent during March, said to be the best season for whale sharks. So, the honeymoon will be land-based.

OK, now to decide where to go. 2 places came up to mind - Egypt and Turkey. After checking thge temperatures for the 2 places, we found that the season for Egypt is actually November to March during their winter, whereas for Turkey, the season starts in April/May. No doubt about it, based on the season, Turkey is the place to go.

After this decision was made, I wasted no time looking for details on which to go. Turns out that there are ample information on the Web and also from the guidebooks available for loan from the library (Lonely Planet, Let's Go, Insight, Fodor's, etc). One good resource is the website "www.epinions.com" where I particularly enjoyed reading the comments on Turkey from this guy named "hermes2000". I downloaded information from tour agencies ranging from the expensive (Abercrombie & Kent, Tauck, Maupin) to moderate (Insight, Contiki) to budget (Cosmos). Ultimately, all of them offered about the same place with the difference being in the choice of accommodation and food (I think). The must-go places are pretty much the same: Istanbul, Antalya, Cappadocia, Ankara, Pammukale, and Ephesus (not necessarily in that order).

If we really are serious concerning the cost, then I think a S'porean tour group would offer the best deal. This is comparing paying S$1000 for the return flight, plus another US$600 to over US$1500 for the independent tours - a S'pore tour cost about S$1800 for a 10-day tour inclusive of all meals, transport, and accommodation. After much discussion we made a decision to go for a S'pore tour with Ananda Travel (reputed the best in the country for tours to Turkey) and then extend for a few more days to either explore on our own or join a short one-day tour.

application for flat

Since the wedding is during the April/May time period, the best time to apply for a rental flat from the HDB is in January. In this way, we can actually do the necessary repairs, painting, getting in the furniture, application for utilities....stuff so that we can move into the place immediately after the honeymoon.

  • Jan 1st to 10th advertisement by HDB
  • Jan 10th to 17th application forms to be received by HDB
  • Jan 18th to Feb 7th shortlist of applicants
  • Feb 14th notification by HDB
  • Feb 21st to 30th selection and registration of flats
After discussing with Shuhui (and changing our ideas a few times), it looks like we might be settling down in Bukit Merah.

utilities

We'll need to arrange for the utilities once we move in, or even before that. Sometimes, we do take things for granted that there will be water and electricity when we move in but not so. Also, we have to paint the place and do some minor repairs (and water-heater for hot showers):

Painting + brushes/rollers = $300, House repair = $500, Telephone = $100, TV license = $110, Utilities (water and electricity) = $70, Rental (3 months) = $1500.

Estimated total for house = $2600

household appliances

The biggest chunk of our budget would be the household appliances that we'll be getting in our new place. Of course, we can hold this off and just survive on the basic essentials, but after much thought, I think both Shuhui and I decided that we wanted our new place to feel like a home the moment we step in, rather than waiting a few months for the "home-feel" to finally come to us. Anyway, here's a preliminary list of the things we wanted and the budget:

  • living room: 21" CTV=$750, TV-rack=$300, VCR=$300, Mini-compo=$500, Sofa=$1000, Telephone=$200, Shoe-rack=$200
  • Bedroom: Bed=$1000, Mattress=$1000, Wardrobe=$1000 Bookshelf=$200, Side-table=$200
  • Kitchen: Fridge=$750, Washing machine=$750, Stove=$100, Rice-cooker=$100, Toaster/Oven=$200, Dining table=$500
  • total = $9250 (hopefully less)
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