This is an entry about what we did in preparation for our wedding.
We had about a year after our registration of marriage to plan for our wedding.
Right after the ROM, I was contemplating getting a wedding planner but abandoned the idea shortly after finding out the fees that they were charging. I think wedding planners deserve every single cent that they ask for, however we just couldn’t afford the service.
Hence, the birth of Kimzilla the bridezilla. Hurhurhur….
Invitation card
The entire theme of the wedding was inspired by our invitation card. Designed by Gareth’s lovely and very talented colleague Chee Ling, who spent so much time making so much changes because I was am crazy.
We did not want our faces or likeness on it. We insisted on having fist bumps. We wanted something kitsch but still stylish. We wanted colourful.
Chee Ling also came up with the awesome idea of putting a candy into every card.
# – Front and back of the card.
# – Inside of the card. I photoshopped the eyeglass candy in – like how a guest would receive it but with a real eyeglass candy. There’s a phrase near the candy that says, “SWEET LOVE x INFINITY”. Geddit, geddit?
# – The card closes to reveal a fist bump with the word “Woohoo”.
Thank you very much Chee Ling, this is one of my most favourite part of our wedding – the invite! It really represented us as a couple :)
Venue
You can read about my high strung search for a venue here. Now that I read the post again, I am like….woah I was fucking crazy.
In the end, we settled for The Saujana Hotel. There are several reasons for our choice:
1. The perfect ballroom size with no pillars. We didn’t want a space that’s too big as we’re only taking around 30 tables. We ended up having 35 tables and it was just nice.
# – No pillars.
2. Parking was free for everyone and there were plenty.
3. Nice, spacious reception area and it has its own bar too!
4. There’s no noise restriction as the ballroom is located in its own building away from the accommodation.
5. Within our budget (this is not an advertorial)
I was very happy with our choice of venue because the service was just fantastic. Everything was really well taken care off.
They even helped us hang up the DIY multicoloured ribbons on the ballroom ceiling without additional charges and trust me it wasn’t easy because I was there overseeing the work.
They also made us the backdrop exactly how we wanted it. When I saw it I almost cried because they really kept to the theme /sniffs
# – Our wedding backdrop.
# – Customised menus were happily printed out for us as well. It was designed by my husband :)
Food-wise we were happy too. It was also very nice to retreat back to a suite overlooking greeneries and large pond after the wedding dinner.
I would personally recommend The Saujana Hotel.
Decorations
We did not pay for fresh flowers at all although I did have them at our wedding because it was part of the banquet package. I just personally couldn’t justify the cost of fresh flowers.
Instead, I bought a lot of fake flowers and different coloured fabrics from a shop called Apple House Enterprise in Klang. Almost the entire wedding decorations were made out of materials from this shop. I also bought ready-made corsages from the same place.
Thank you to my awesome bridesmaids who came weekend after weekend after weekend to help me DIY the wedding decorations. They cut and shredded fabrics into ribbons until their fingers were blue and sore (hugs).
# – Ribbons, ribbons, ribbons everywhere.
# – If I remembered correctly, we made about 40 metres of this.
# – Celine, Sin Loo (maid of honour w00t) and Jayna.
# – Haze in charge of whipping out the flower bouquets. By the way, you got to check out Art Misfits, Haze’s new venture.
# – The main bouquet. The wonderful thing is that I can keep this bouquet foreverrrrrrrrrrr!
# – I made a matching boutonniere for Gareth.
# – Girls taking a break from the back-breaking work.
# – End result.
I also bought a lot of photoframes from Ikea for decorations at the reception area. I printed both our faces out and glued them to candy sticks for photo opportunities.
# – Our faces. This blog is not called “Narcissism is Necessary” for nothing, you know.
# – One of the signages made with Ikea’s photoframes.
# – Kim & Gareth House Rules
The hotel had provided us pre-dinner titbits at the reception area but we wanted something more aligned with our dinner theme – nostalgic technicolour frenzy.
I bought loads of old school candies and snacks from a confectionery shop in Klang. Then I made a sign for every type of snack.
# – Must have ChupaChups.
# – Haw flakes and jelly.
# – Rabbit sweet and eyeglass candy.
# – Bubble gum and lemon tablets!
# – Even got nostalgic bottled soft drinks :)
They were a hit because there was nothing left after dinner was over haha :)
# – Mom-in-law and Gareth’s aunt Jean also made us this beautiful and traditional ring pillow <3
Car decorations
My mother-in-law, Susan made all car decorations! There were 8 cars altogether in the entourage so there were 32 pompoms she had to make.
Sounds little?
It’s not. I can’t remember how many times she got burnt by the glue gun and poked by needle. Thank you mom <3
# – Mom made 32 of this #likeaboss.
She also made the heart shaped pompom for the bridal car :)
# – Heart <3
# – Our black bridal car, followed by the entourage’s white cars.
Am probably the only bride I know who decorated her own bridal car. As in, I tied all that shizz…haha. It took me 1/2 a day to do it and I was happy.
Again, couldn’t justify few hundred ringgit for some car decorations picked out off a catalog, so I did it myself!
Because we both like our cars, I should probably mention that we used the rare Lexus IS F as our bridal car – the only one in whole of Malaysia and some say South East Asia. Thank you for lending us the beast if you’re reading this!
# – Sexy beast.
Bridesmaids and Bros
I bought the bridesmaids dresses from Ladies Fashion Trading. They are infinity dresses that can be worn many different ways.
Despite my selfish, crazy and ridiculous demand – that the girls are not allowed to wear any tube top or use any transparent bra strap, the dresses fitted really well. My bridesmaids looked so gorgeous!
# – My lovely bridesmaids in the apple mint dresses. Back – Haze, Celine, Sin Loo, Whey Lu, Carol, Yuki, Jayna, Li Ling. Front – Ee Laine and Ruby.
As for the bros, they wore their own white shirts and jeans. I made DIY green mint bowties to match the girls’ outfits. Fabric bought from Kamdar.
# – The DIY bowties.
# – The handsome bros – Derek, Michael, David, KY, Zess, Terence, Sam, Lance, M (bestman w00t), Damien, Horng and little Seb.
Okay, this is the conclusion of Part 1 of our wedding preparation. Thank you to each and everyone of you who had put in your time, money and most of all love in our wedding. We love you!!!
Till next post! Part 2 here!