my BIG day!!!

*back dated entry*

today is my BIG DAY!!! after like slightly more than 1 yr of preparation, the BIG day has arrived!!! I will not be posting my wedding photos since i dont have them but more of sharing with you guys what kind of things will happen on your wedding day......... & if you all need a sample of itinerary can email me at vivi_kinki@hotmail.com    i wanted to post a link for the file but i am not IT savvy enough to do that, sorry about that....

so my auspicious timing for groom to step into the home is 9am so you will need to start preparing about 7am.....so i gotten my girls to come at 7am to prepare stuff for gatecrash, makeup artist as well as photographer & videographer also arrived around the same time..... & that marks the beginning of your hectic day...... 

the makeup artist took like a good 1 to 1.5hr to do my makeup + hair, she plastered like so much things on my face... really hate thick makeup but no choice since will be taking lots of photo & need thicker makeup in order to see in the pictures & for the look to last =( so about 8.30am, groom & brothers will come for the gatecrash thing, stepped in about  9am, came into my room & fetch me, took group photo before heading to guy's side to do tea ceremony... then come back to my side to do tea ceremony, more photo as well as creative shoot before we break for afternoon.... that was a really long & busy morning, i will put up the itinerary at the back so you all can use it for reference....

so after the long morning, we finally arrived at fairmont about 2pm & we check into our suite....

nice selection of drinks - complementary =)

nice variety of TWG tea bags

walkway to living room

pretty toilet+wash up area

open concept bathtub

enclosed showering area

nice cozy area to relax or simply camwhore

lovely bed

view from the room

another view

another angle

pre-wedding snack

i chose seafood hor fun & sandwich

 so yup, we relaxed in this nice suite before the main event start at night.... we had like about 1hr of rest before me starting my makeup at about 3pm & hubby has to start preparing for briefing with the hotel staff as well as the brothers + MC....

we had our solemnisation at 6pm, prof Tan was very punctual & the ceremony was short & sweet... he didnt say much in the intro, went straight to the point that everyone was there for our solemnisation... i think the whole process took about 10min??? somewhat shorter than i expect cause we didnt exchange any special vows & finish it shorter is also a good sign so that we were ahead of schedule & can spend more time on taking photos....so after that will be reception & of cause dinner commence... the whole thing ended close to 11pm, after we went back to our suite to wash up, we had to count angbao $ while having our supper as we want to pay off the remaining banquet bill with cash when we check out....

then the next morning we had the international buffet at the hotel cafe.... lovely place, really nice view with nice food =)

lovely cutlery

cafe

food selection

ready cooked section

cereal & yoghurt

bread & cookies

wide variety of spreads

my lovely breakfast

it was really a tiring day for us as well as all our helpers & relatives.... i am really glad & grateful that everything went according to plans despite having some small hiccups along the way....  so now i will share my feedback for my wedding services

La belle:
i mentioned in my earlier post that i engaged la belle for my pre-wedding shoot as well as actual day gown rental..... i would say their services were quite good, peiwen (our coordinator) was really nice & helpful, really appreciate her help.... gowns & suits were all packed nicely & easy for us to carry.... the car decoration service was not bad either despite having limited choice of ribbon colours so i bought my own & they helped me tied up

wedding car

so if you look closely the car itself doesnt look that nice, can read up on my bad experience with advance car rental here.... but thankfully the ribbons managed to cover up the flaws & the car still looked presentable for our BIG day...

moments in 7:
we engaged their services mainly due to their cheaper package but it didnt turn out as well as they promised to be... again... lesson learn, we should not just go for cheaper alternatives

i cant remember if posted about it before but anyway we had our pre-wedding video shoot in june.... Justin, the videographer aka the "boss" for moments in 7, shoot the videos for us, the shooting was fine but what happened after was not.... he told us that the first draft will be done in about 2 months, to me it was abit long but fine i just wait for him... so we message him in august then he said not done yet cause he had reservist so need another month... fine, we waited... then september came & we had to like pester him for the video before he finally sent it to us like early october & my god, it was terrible!!! the video image quality was acceptable standard but whole story was wrong!!! we gave him the script & the exact flow for the video & it turned out that he just randomly link the different video clips together... like seriously??? i know it's the first draft but at least give me something more decent... so hubby gave up on Justin so hubby had to get the raw clips from him & edit the video himself...

then came the actual day, we supposed to have Michael as our photographer but that very morning another 2 guys came & told me that Michael was not available!?!?!?! i was like WTF!?!?!? i mean we dont care who is the photographer but you should not just change it last minute & especially not informing us beforehand!?!??! so we were very disappointed with their services... now we only hope that the actual day photos quality will be good....

Fairmont:
two words = GREAT services..... i think choosing fairmont is 1 of the best decisions we made in our wedding preparation.... we signed the contract with danny but subsequently wendy liaised with us & it was such a relief.... i feel danny is a more rigid guy but wendy is amazing!!! she is very attentive & flexible with the terms... like they can start serving beer during reception instead of only at the banquet, gave us additional projector without additional cost (previously danny insisted that we had to pay for the use of 2nd projector), additional parking coupons & changes to the menu.... really appreciate wendy for being so nice & flexible with the options.... the hotel staff for the AD event were great too.... our wedding concierge , xue ling, was a lovely girl too.... in short, i think fairmont services turned out much better than what we expected =)

i shall end off this long post with the picture of the lovely complementary chocolate cake from fairmont =)

complementary cake from fairmont

search for solemnizer

as my wedding is getting closer, we start to search for our solemnizer since it will be held outside ROM.... actually this is like the MOST important thing for your wedding cause without this cert, no matter how pretty or extravagant your banquet can be, you are not officially married!!!! we thought of finding a solemnizer about 6 months before our wedding but kind of forgotten about it & from the ROM site, it is recommended to look for one about 3 months prior to your wedding so we heed their advice.... so about last week which is almost 3 months before our big date, i start to search online for solemnizers.... & only then i realised there are so many things that we need to consider!!!!

so naturally we start off with googling who are the popular solemnizers & their reviews... before reading up on ROM site, i thought any lawyers can be a solemnizer but nope... they must be licensed... so most of the time they are either justice of peace (JP) or grassroot leaders but of cause there are other people who are also appointed to be solemnizers... ROM has a list of licensed solemnizers....... quite a comprehensive list i would say.... i think there are like at least a hundred names on that list but separated into different category..... based on the net search, people recommend to look under Partners of FamilyMatters@Work if you are free-thinker.... cause if you look under some religion then there may be some religious teaching during solemnization and some people may not be comfortable with it.... so if you are fine with any guy to do the solemnization then can just email or call or sms anybody on the list.... then me being kiasu will want to get someone with good reviews so i went to read blogs & forums to sieve out potential candidates..... so let me share those people that i have contacted & some good sites that i found....

blog 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 , top 40 solemnizer in singapore

1. Dr PHUA Tan Tee (phua_tan_tee@nea.gov.sg)
- he is like the MOST popular guy, like every blog or site i searched, his name will definitely pop up....so naturally i email him as my first choice & he replied within like 5min but sadly he's busy =( kind of expected if he is like THE BEST guy.....

2. Mr LEE Keok Boon Peter (peter_lee@moh.gov.sg)
- another popular guy but nah... not free on 29th nov

3. Mr TAN Yan Boon Alex (alexyanboon@gmail.com / 9850 0689)
- popular guy, he did solemnization for my future bro-in-law, quite nice & friendly looking guy... but also not free

after i emailed my top 3 solemnizers & they are all not free... i get desperate cause 29th Nov is like bloody popular date... so i begin to mass email instead of asking 1 by 1 & wait for their reply...

4. Mr SIM Khee Wang Simon (simnotco@gmail.com)
- popular guy and expected he isnt free but he referred me to his friend

5. Dr KWOH Chee Keong (asckkwoh@ntu.edu.sg)
- on top 40 list but no reply after 1 week so out....

6. Mr Wong Eric (9848 3286)
- also popular guy, very prompt reply but also not free

7. Mr LAU Tat Chuan (tatchuan@fathers.com.sg)
- popular guy with very prompt rely but not free

8. Dr CHUNG Tang Fong (9672 9312)
- prompt reply but not free

9. Dr HO Nai Kiong (honaikiong@yahoo.com)
- 1 review say he is nice but also not free for me =(

10. Dr CHEW Chee Tong (pctchew@gmail.com)
- no reply after 1 week

11. Dr CHUA Swee Boon Raymond (8112 5093)
- a statistician in NUS if i am not wrong but no reply after 1 week

12. Mr KAN Teck San (9682 0054)
- top 40 list, took 5hr to reply but also not free

you see, i have contacted like 12 guys & all not free... can you imagine how devastated i was.... so i being to search for those not on the popular list & try my luck

13. Mr HO Hoe Sing (9635 4543)
- referred by Mr Simon Sim but he also not free

14. Mr TEH Chin Huak Zenon (zenonteh@singnet.com.sg)
- he is under additional solemnizer category and quite a few good reviews on him.... he is booked at 6pm which is our intended timing so he kindly suggest to us that he can help us if we can do our solemnization at 5pm or 7pm... but we prefer so stick to our original timing so sadly we had to reject him...

15. Mr WEE (9017 7888)
- referred by Mr Ho, very prompt reply... at first he agreed but after that called me to apologized that he couldnt make it on 29th Nov.... but kindly referred us to his buddy....

16. Prof TAN Wee Hin Leo (leotan@nus.edu.sg)
 - i was happened to stumble upon a page that state that he was a newly appointed JP in 2013 & he is from NUS.... he looks like a very nice guy from the picture so we tried our luck & FINALLY... he say YES!!! i was like OMG!!! FINALLY!!! some kind soul is free for us!!!

17. Mr YING Adrian (9640 9653)
- referred by Mr Wee but we didnt contact him since we gotten Prof Tan

i contacted like 16 people before i gotten my solemnizer!!!! i read in blogs that most people found theirs after asking like less than 5 people.... i asked like 3x the amount lo.... kns.... but no matter... at least i found mine....

Meetup with Prof Tan
so we met up with Prof Tan today... really very nice guy... very fatherly looking... probably in his late 60s??? he is from Dept of Biological Science.... i felt that i have seen him somewhere.... he MIGHT have taught me before but oh well.... he first congratulate us and start off with some casual talking and sharing with us that it is important that we are truly ready for marriage due to the high divorce rate.... he also gently guide us on the procedure as well as what will happen on the actual solemnization.... throughout our 20min+ meetup, he is always smiley & optimistic.... we have found the RIGHT guy!!! YEAH!!!! really happy to have him as our solemnizer =)

Prof Tan, photo taken from DBS site...