Wedding Presents!

Wedding Video: Childhood montage + Story of how we met

Our graphic designer is a young & very talented lady from Malaysia. She designed our church wedding invite, church program, wedding poster and also created our childhood video montage + an animation on how we met. 

The video was shown during our wedding dinner on 29th September 2013 at Grand Hyatt Singapore before our 1st march in. I think it's very important to have a proper video done for your wedding guests because most of them might not even know us personally as they are our parents' friends, so it's good for them to know a bit of a back story. At least they won't feel like they are at a wedding where they don't know anything about the couple at all.. it's good to feel involved. :)

Click to watch the video! :)

We also used her designs for our photobooth!

The vendor for our photobooth is Baicapture.

Chee Ching is extremely patient and efficient. She was willing to make edits until we were satisfied and she always replies to her emails/whatsapp messages on time. Do consider her if you are looking for a graphic designer. You can communicate with her via email/whatsapp and do the payment via paypal or bank transfer to her Malaysian bank account. 

Highly recommended! :)

Visit her website for more information and also to view her other works!

http://www.cheechingy.com/

Our wedding videographer - Aaron Wende (Aaron Lim)

We received the final edit for our wedding video from our videographer and Le hubby posted it on Youtube! It includes both footage from Day 1 & Day 2 of our wedding weekend on 28th & 29th September 2013.

Our videographer Aaron is really talented and he managed to capture all the important moments of our wedding and highlight them all in a beautifully edited video summary.

I am not sure how he managed to do it because there were so many footage to choose from and digest before editing them into a 12mins44sec video! I couldn't have done that myself.. Well, that's why we hired a professional! Haha!

He gave us all the raw footage from both days which are over 80GB worth! That's a lot of videos and I am glad he took so many so we can look through the videos at our own time because the wedding weekend just flew past so quickly and we couldn't be everywhere to see everything that's happening during the wedding.

Many people ask me "How do you choose your videographer?".

Well, you really have to do your homework. You cannot just choose someone based on reviews you see online, or what is the biggest mistake that most people make.. based on the price.

Expensive doesn't guarantee a good product. Cheap doesn't mean it's lousy. There are many videographers out there so how do you select yours? Do your homework! Watch their works and view their portfolio to understand their style and vision.

I watched hundreds and hundreds of wedding videos before we chose Aaron. Literally hundreds and hundreds.. during my breaktimes at work, when I am travelling in the train, before I sleep, while cooking.. just squeezing in time to see other people's wedding day videos so I can see what are the "style" of the videographer who filmed it and if it's what I wanted for our wedding.

Please don't listen to your friend/relative/neighbour and choose your videographer based on what other people say. You cannot redo the wedding video if it's not done properly. There is no NG scenes and "Take 2" chances.. If your videographer sucks and produce a lousy work.. too bad. Cry & beat your chest for the rest of your life.

Aaron is our cellgroup leader Wei Hao & cellgroup mate Annette's wedding videographer. We first saw his work when they shared their wedding video after their wedding in November last year. After seeing all his work then, I shortlisted him in the top 3 as our videographer, then I showed Le Hubby samples of his work and the two other videographers I shortlisted.. before we both decided on Aaron. Then we met up with him to see if we have the "chemistry" with one another before confirming and booking him for our wedding.

One very important advice is to meet the videographer before you confirm him/her for your wedding.

If you don't feel comfortable with him/her, it is very difficult to trust that he/she can do a good job. You have to leave everything up to your videographer as you will only be seeing the morning highlights during the dinner cos there is no time to see the video (you will be too busy doing other stuff). Though if you are really OCD you can ask him to show it to you before the dinner, but what can you do if you don't like it? There's not much time for him to edit it anyway right?

So....... morale of the story is, do extensive homework before choosing your videographer then trust that he will produce a good job (hey, you chose him/her right?) and let him/her do their job without interfering or controlling them.

Choose wisely so you can relax on the actual days. :)

If you are a bride/groom-to be and is searching for a good videographer, do consider Aaron as he is very meticulous & good at capturing emotions. You can view all his works on his Vimeo account.

My previous roomie happened to be his schoolmate and she sang high praises for him when she saw him at my church wedding. She did not know Aaron was my videographer until the very day and she said we made a good choice + his rates are reasonable for his standard. When we met up with Aaron, he shared with us that my roomie Sharon is a very respected DOP in the industry.. 高手 praising 高手.. Haha!

All of my wedding vendors entries will be labelled under #Wedding Vendors. I will update more on the other vendors soon! :)

My wedding makeup artist - Sam Khor

I received many inquires from friends & readers of my blog asking me about my wedding vendors, so I am going to blog about them so you can know more and contact them if you want to engage them for your wedding. :)

All the entries will be labelled under #Wedding Vendors and I will blog about them in separate entries and also tag my older entries where I blogged about other vendors.

First up, my makeup artist! She's the angel that made me looked so much more beautiful that I can ever dream of during our wedding weekend on 28 & 29 September 2013.

Her name is Sam Khor and she's from Penang! She's super super good and I highly recommend her for any bride-to-be. If you want to hire her for a wedding shoot or your actual wedding days in Singapore, you have to pay for her airticket & accommodation on top of the charges for her services which are actually quite reasonable because she charges in Malaysian ringgit.

Her prices are actually on par with many top makeup artist in Singapore but cheaper because of the exchange rate when you convert into Singapore dollars. Whatever she charges, you just divide by 2.5 into Singapore dollars! Of cos you still have to add in the airtickets and accommodation charges but it's worth it!!

I flew her in on AirAsia with additional luggage allowance for her makeup stuff and put her up in Holiday Inn Express for 3 nights.

Sam was my best friend Tabitha's makeup artist when she had her wedding in Penang in January this year. I trust her skills so much before I even met her because if anyone can please Tabby, she's good enough for me! I only had my makeup trial the day before my wedding to try out the hairstyles and also for her to ascertain what is my skin tone so Sam only need to bring products that suit me and not the whole arsenal (which is a lot of stuff she brought over from Penang).

I learnt bridal makeup & hairstyling before (took a diploma course but did not complete it.. long story) so I know a thing or two about bridal makeup, and she is really good. I can't sing enough praises for this woman so I am just going to show you another picture of me after she worked her magic..

2nd march-in hair & makeup

If she can make my bread face, fat nose & pouffy eyes look good..... Well, I rest my case.

Not only is she crazy talented, she's also really hardworking & sweet! She is always hovering inconspicuously around me in the background to arrange my hair, touch up on my lipstick and know where the cameras are so she will not get in the way of the photographer & videographer.

In fact, some people who attended the wedding asked if the photographer, videographer & makeup artist are from the same company cos all of them worked so harmoniously together! Well, that's what happens when you get professionals who are good at what they are doing and love what they do. :)

Our wedding photographer will only be able to give us our photos in a few weeks time so I don't have any "professional pictures" of myself with makeup during the wedding days. Pictures above are taken from a camera phone. However I've seen the wedding video highlights for our church wedding and my makeup made my skin looked flawless even when it's shot in HD. :)

I found some pictures in Le Hubby's Sony camera which was taken during the bouquet toss at church where she was fussing over me. Prior to that, I've already dismissed her and told her to go and have some food, but she insisted on staying with me until I go down to the buffet area cos she wants to ensure I look my best all the time.

 

 

There are many many instances where she stayed close to me and made sure my gown is fluffed properly, hair is in place, my lipstick is not smudged, my eyelashes are properly glued on..

Honestly I was so overwhelmed by all the attention (no wonder some celebrities went crazy) that I didn't know who/what/where to focus on.. Thank God for Sam! :)

You can contact Sam via whatsapp (she replies really quickly unless she's busy with a wedding) or email, but I recommend you whatsapp her instead as she can be busy and takes longer time to reply to her emails.

Please book her early if you want her to be your makeup artist as she's really popular in Penang where she's based and she's usually booked months & months ahead. Let me know if you need an introduction. Say "Hi" for me if you really contact her! :)

CONTACT DETAILS:

Tel:  +60 12443 7727

Email: samkhor.pg@gmail.com

Website: http://www.samkhor.com/

Wedding Video Part 1 - Gatecrash & Church matrimony

The wedding video that was shown to our guests on 29-Sep-2013 during the dinner at Grand Hyatt can be viewed at the link below! :) The file is too big so I can't upload it directly in my blog.

https://vimeo.com/76212108

You can see that my bridesmaids & Nathaniel did a lot to help out and without them I won't have such beautiful memories (cos there won't be so funny & interesting footage) to view.

Our videographer will give us the edited summary of the wedding dinner together with all the raw footage by end of this month. Super can't wait! Haha!

The childhood montage + "How we met" video is somewhere.. Not sure where Le hubby saved the file but I'll upload it or post the link when I have the time.... Lots of things to settle after the wedding!!

Our Wedding Angbao Box

The wedding angbao box is one of the things that I pushed it to the last minute.. I had so many ideas, so many plans.. in fact I had too many ideas for it that I kept procrastinating until DAYS before the wedding.

Luckily my sister came to the rescue and she offered to make it for me. I passed her the stickers I bought online for USD20 which I ordered months ago and told her my vision for the angbao box I wanted. 

I wanted a suitcase box that's filled with all sorts of travel related stickers on the box. I didn't really have a theme for our wedding cos it's very restrictive but it's somewhat of a travel related one since I love going on holidays.

She really spammed the stickers.. used up everything! LOL

She put in buttons on the sides so it will resemble an old school suitcase.

There's a flap at the bottom so we can remove the red packet without damaging the box.

Thank you Meimei! I love you!

She's super happy with the durian mooncakes from Goodwood Park. LOL!

On the first day after the church wedding, I was super exhausted cos I only had 1.5hrs of sleep the day before and was still on heavy medication. Luckily my sister and Pamela (my new sister!) helped me to sort out the red packets.

Super happy girl sorting out the angbaos

Le hubby thought people will only give during the wedding dinner but not during church so initially he thought we don't have to bring the box to church but Mama Chew asked us to bring along just in case.. Majority of the guests at church are our friends and all of them are super generous and nice to us! Thank you all! :)

We couldn't invite many of our own friends to the dinner at Grand Hyatt because of space constraints. I only had 2 tables including my bridesmaids so I really had to cut out so many people whom I really wanted to invite.. Really sorry if you wanted to come but I couldn't accommodate. Most of the tables went to our parents. Brendan only had 4 tables including our cellgroup friends.

Perhaps we could have gotten a bigger venue with more tables, but we only searched for hotels this year in April and for a 5 months notice I think it's a miracle we got a nice hotel with a good date. Most couples book their wedding banquet at least 12 months in advance. In fact, Grand Hyatt wasn't my first choice but it turned out perfect except for the space constraints cos The Gallery is only big enough for 26 tables maximum.

Unfortunately the box was destroyed cos on the 2nd day during dinner, there's no time to run upstairs to lock the box after the reception & cocktail session. Everyone including my bridesmaids were all seated inside waiting for the 1st march in, so Le hubby asked me for my permission to rip open the box to pour all the red packets in the little safe box in my makeup room beside the ballroom, which I had to reluctantly agree because there's really no time and it's not safe to leave it lying around. :(

RIP little box.. You served us well! 

The wedding weekend is finally over..

I can't believe the weekend is already over! I've been spending all my waking moments (and sometimes sleeping moments dreaming) planning for our wedding and now that it's over, I feel a little lost. My married girlfriends told me this would happen... but the feeling really sucks. 

Well, the wedding did not go exactly 100% as per my plans, but I have to learn to accept the fact that one person cannot control everything. Yea yea, bridezilla me. 

I have been pushing myself too hard for the whole year that I fell sick just a week before the wedding and had to be hospitalized for the ENTIRE week until the day before the wedding.. So I missed out on opportunities to brief my bridal party on the itinerary & sequence, do last minute checks, etc... 

I was angry at myself for falling sick but now that I think back and reflect, I think it's a sign from God that I should slow down and not push myself so hard. Since I did not have the chance to slow down or take a break, He had to intervene and do something.. Who knows I might collapse from exhaustion on the actual days and had to cancel or postpone the wedding? So.. thank you God for all the blessings in my life and I trust that You will have a plan for me, better than anything I can ever plan for myself.

All the wedding pictures will only be ready in a few weeks when my photographer sent them to us. Meanwhile, here are some behind the scenes pictures from a bride's perspective.

Officially Mrs Brendan Chew!

We are married! Officially! Legally! Whoopeeee! I had so much fun today and though things got a bit rough right before the ceremony (messy coordination), overall everything went well! I am so blessed & lucky to have a very strong support system, Brendan, bridesmaids + Nat!

Our church wedding was held at our church, Lighthouse Evangelism Tampines and we had close to 280 guests who attended excluding my bridal party! That's more than our wedding banquet! Wow! 

My Sony camera was buried in one of my carton boxes so I don't have many pictures from today but luckily I have friends who are trigger friendly and they sent me many pictures of me walking down the aisle and also during the ceremony! My cousin Jane sent me many pictures and I am glad she did cos it will take weeks before I receive the official photos from our photographer.

I don't know why my sister is missing from the group picture.. Hmm.. I think she sneaked off to eat. LOL!!!

My sister stayed over with me last night and that was the last night I am staying in my rented room in Serangoon cos from tonight onwards I'll be staying with Le bf Hubby and his family until we buy our own place.

My bridesmaids did an awesome job during the gatecrash and the matrimony ceremony was so beautiful.. I cried while reciting my marriage vows. Couldn't help it.. But everyone was so supportive and they clapped to encourage me to go on! Awww.. :')

My mum brought Chloe home so I don't have to worry about her being alone in Serangoon, nor stress about her getting used to Le hubby's home because his dog is quite territorial and I don't have the time or energy to deal with it now..

I really need to get some rest because my medication is making me drowsy and my headache is coming back... tomorrow night will be our banquet dinner at Grand Hyatt! Thank God it's not today because I have no more strength anymore..

Good night everyone! ^_^

My wedding makeup trial & wedding nails

Updates!!!! It's almost 3am in the morning and I need to wake up at 4.30am to get ready. That's very little sleep if you do the math and I really hope I don't get dark circles or something! :(

Well, I was discharged from the hospital yesterday at 12noon and had to rush to do so many things!!!! The two main things are my makeup trial and manicure+pedicure. I couldn't do it earlier because, well.. I was hospitalized from Monday-Friday and didn't want to do my nails too early cos I am really clumsy. I couldn't do my makeup trial earlier because my makeup artist is from Penang and she only flew in on Thursday afternoon.

My previous makeup artist is a local and her services is bundled with my Silhouette package. I have 2 makeup session with her which I used for my prewedding shoot on 1st July and also our church wedding rehearsal on 20th Sep. 

I chose Sam Khor because she was Tabby's makeup artist during her wedding in Penang earlier this year and Tabby highly recommends her. Since I trust Tabby, I decided to engage her for my wedding weekend in Singapore! I booked her in April and luckily I did that because she is so busy!! She is one of the more sought-after makeup artist in Penang and I am glad she is willing to be my makeup artist in Singapore for my wedding.

We communicate via whatsapp on her fees and charges. After confirming her for the dates, I booked for her return air-tickets and accommodation. I only sent her pictures of my gowns and very very little sample pictures of what I want cos I was too busy with work and I trusted her to be good enough to do her magic and recommend what is best for me. Sometimes it's best to leave things in the hands of the professional and let them do their work without much interference.. 

Le bf dropped me off at the hotel for my makeup trial and rushed off to do other wedding errands.

I booked her a room at Holiday Inn Express, just beside Paragon because it's walking distance to Grand Hyatt, where our dinner will be held on tomorrow and very near my home in Serangoon via taxi. She's so happy that I booked this hotel for her cos it's new and has a very good location. I think she expected Hotel 81 or something.... LOL! That's how nice & undemanding she is. Well, I wanted her to have a comfortable stay so I chose this hotel for her. Lucky for me I had some discounts using my IHG agent rate! Perks of being a travel agent staff. :)

Here's my bare face. Tsk.. Sickly & pale and bloated from all the food they fed me at the hospital (I can't eat my medicine on an empty stomach so they always monitor what I eat.. cannot escape. And I had cheese fries craving! LOL!)

Look at all the stuff she brought from Penang! This is only a fraction of what she brought! She said she doesn't know my exact skin tone so she had to bring more stuff, but she will only carry two cases during the weekend. TWO!?!? T_T"

1st look for my march-in at church!

 Without tiara..

 With tiara.. (She brought a dozens of tiaras for me to choose!)

 2nd look for tea ceremony! 

She bought a new red M.A.C lipstick just for me. :')

 Love the hair!

 But from the front a bit like SQ stewardess (w/o the flower)

Added pearls for a nicer finish!

 Alternate hair piece instead of flowers..

We tried several more looks for the 1st & 2nd march in during the wedding dinner and I really love her so much! She is a perfectionist like me and it's either her best or nothing, which is so my style! Hahahaha! She's gonna help my sister do her hair and makeup later before me. She said she will do Joanna first so I can sleep longer.. so sweet right? :)

Afterwards I cabbed down to Ang Mo Kio to look for my trusted manicurist who was working in Boon Keng previously. I told her to do whatever she wants because I did not have the time and energy to research on wedding nails. Well, some of my friends whatsapp me many suggestions which I showed her but some were too time-consuming and I only had 3hrs to spare so we can't do those. I wanted something lacy and less flashy but Annie insisted on something more "bridal" and bling so it can catch the photographer's flash & lights.. Turned out really nice (but makes typing a pain in the ass).

Ok.. Time to crash! In a few hours I'll be walking down the aisle!! Wheee!! Hope my bridesmaids don't torture Le bf too much.. Hahahahahahah!!!

Our Shutterfly wedding photobook guestbooks!

A few months ago I created an account on Shutterfly.com and designed two wedding guestbooks with the layout of a photobook concept. I wanted something unique and special instead of the usual run of the mill guestbooks you can buy in any gift shops.. something that can showcase our pre-wedding pictures and also let our guests have fun writing and signing.

My Hens Party! ❤ [14-09-2013]

2 weeks ago on 14-September 2013, my bridesmaids + Nathaniel threw me the best Hen's Party ever!

I mentioned before how much I dislike wild havoc crazy hen's nights so my bridesmaids have to think of a clean but fun Hen's Party for me. Everyone is so stressed cos I am usually the party organizer and they have to organize something for me in secret.. but they did a really fantastic job! I am so blessed to have such wonderful bridesmaids!

Pamela is the head planner and she is so sweet to rally the bridesmaids together and plan for my hen's party.

The night before Le bf stayed over at my place and we woke up to go for lunch before he drove me over to Aramsa Spa at Bishan Park. Pamela was supposed to come pick me up but there was a massive traffic jam and she kinda went by the wrong way so Le bf had to drive me instead. It was really funny cos Le bf was being grumpy about Pamela being Pamela and always so blur and not on time (his words), and she should have gone by this route not that route, blah blah.... and he could have just fetched me there himself in the first place cos it's very near my house and Pamela need not come all the way down to pick me up.. blah blah.. Just harmless old man grousing. Cheryl was in the car with my little sister and I was whatsapping them and we all were like "HAIYO! PAM!". 

So we met at Aramsa Spa and Pamela was apologizing profusely to her korkor.. LOL!

Pamela & my sister walked me to Aramsa and signed me in and paid for the treatment before leaving me in the good hands of the spa people and left to go and decorate the hotel room for me.

I was shown to the ladies where I have to change into a bathrobe and lock my stuff in the locker.

Disposable panties & shower caps!

Ice water for kitty! :)

I explored the shower rooms & sauna room too.. Really outdoorsy!

Beautiful garden walkway!

After changing, my spa therapist led me to the treatment room..

Pam chose the treatment for me so I don't know what to expect.. She's super cute cos she kept reminding them to be nice to me cos I'm getting married in 2 weeks time. Hahahaha!

There's a private garden in my room with an outdoor shower and bathtub! ^_^

Really relaxing and I enjoyed myself a lot!

Meanwhile, they have been busy decorating the hotel room!

Nat cut so many of these "feathers" and stick them all over the room! Soo much details! The theme was "peacock" but I didn't get the memo. LOL! Only my sister wore a peacock print top. The rest main wore blue/purple.

Look at all the food!!!! O_O

Potato Party. LOL!

Home made pastries! 

These are the only "dodgy" stuff they made for me cos I wanted a clean party. Joyce's brother made the cupcakes and Joyce made the penises. Damn funny lah!!! Hahahahahaha! And somehow I guessed at the first try that it was made by her and she was so indignant and yelled "HOW YOU KNOW???". 

Cos I am smart. Hahahhaha! And she had the cheeky smile on her face lah.

All my bridesmaids (except Santi who is in Batam) and Nathaniel, my bride attendant!

With my 2 future sister-in-laws!

Queen gang Joyce & Yaya! Old time friends from Poly!

I don't know what she was asking me to do.. LOL!

We tried on the bridesmaid dresses and Nat helped everyone tie beautiful patterns and designs cos it's a convertible dress. I wanted to get those bridesmaids gown but it's so hard to find one that everyone likes (I have 8 bridesmaids) and also their sizes are so different! So they voted on the colour and I bought these convertible dresses as they are sorta free size and they can wear it in whatever way they want. :)

Afterwards we played some games and had loads of fun! I love girly sessions like these! 

No alcohol and he's already high. Wahahaha!

Thank you darlings for putting so much effort, spending time & money for my Hen's party! Love you all!