I had been looking around at LCD projector rentals but they were all quite pricey. The rental rates depended on the ANSI Lumens, which is a measurement of the projector’s brightness. The least expensive rentals would have the lowest luminance ratings, but they might not be bright enough for a nice and clear projection.
I asked Sze if he could borrow the LCD projector from his office but he was pretty reluctant as the portable unit at his workplace was old and not as bright. I too could not borrow any from my office as there were no portable projectors there.
Next, I tried asking for the LCD projector from Mr. Koh, a client of mine. I had previously seen the projector in his office, so I knew that it was a pretty good unit. My client agreed to try his best to help out but he could not promise anything.
In the end, I am thankful that Mr. Koh managed to obtain the LCD projector and lent it to me for an evening. :)
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Wedding Music
As I was compiling the music for our wedding dinner reception, I searched online for ideas and found many samples of wedding songs on amazon.com. I went through those music samples every now and then to make a playlist and shortlisted quite a number of songs.
Sze was supposed to narrow down the music selections but he had little time for that. But after much delay, we got to choose a bunch songs whereby the most important selections were for our wedding reception ceremonies:
- March-Down ceremony: Canon in D (by Pachelbel but added with a funky beat and accompaniment).
- Unity Candle ceremony: You Light Up My Life (by LeAnne Rimes).
- dinner hall March-In ceremony: I Love You (by Martina McBride).
- First Dance: (I've Had) The Time Of My Life (by Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes).
In addition, a CD of various songs was compiled for use as soft, background dinner music while a non-stop medley of several rock & roll songs was compiled on another CD for guests to dance to after dinner.
(We had not anticipated our guests to be so outgoing, and bearing in mind the time limit set by Bankers Club, what we thought to be sufficient for the dance CD proved to be inadequate as the guests simply wanted to continue dancing and the CD had to be repeated several times!)
Video recordings of our March-Down, Unity Candle ceremony, dinner hall March-In and First Dance can be viewed in our Video Gallery at:
http://www.zenetlife.com/wedding/video.htm
Sze was supposed to narrow down the music selections but he had little time for that. But after much delay, we got to choose a bunch songs whereby the most important selections were for our wedding reception ceremonies:
- March-Down ceremony: Canon in D (by Pachelbel but added with a funky beat and accompaniment).
- Unity Candle ceremony: You Light Up My Life (by LeAnne Rimes).
- dinner hall March-In ceremony: I Love You (by Martina McBride).
- First Dance: (I've Had) The Time Of My Life (by Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes).
In addition, a CD of various songs was compiled for use as soft, background dinner music while a non-stop medley of several rock & roll songs was compiled on another CD for guests to dance to after dinner.
(We had not anticipated our guests to be so outgoing, and bearing in mind the time limit set by Bankers Club, what we thought to be sufficient for the dance CD proved to be inadequate as the guests simply wanted to continue dancing and the CD had to be repeated several times!)
Video recordings of our March-Down, Unity Candle ceremony, dinner hall March-In and First Dance can be viewed in our Video Gallery at:
http://www.zenetlife.com/wedding/video.htm
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Dinner Program
A wedding dinner program was important as it would set the agenda for the entire evening. Just as the menu took care of the food “agenda”, our program would decide on the order and timing of proceedings before, during and even after the dinner.
Equally important would be who to put in charge to coordinate each itinerary. A friend of mine who did not look into such details ended up not even knowing who played her wedding march-in music too early while the groom was still on the phone. Consequently, she had to rush out to find him as the parents-in-law had already marched-in ahead of them.
We also discussed our dinner program with Shangkar, the Bankers event manager, and took into consideration his recommendations. In the end, this was what we decided on:
- Cocktail reception with live pianist and pre-wedding album display & slideshow.
- March-Down ceremony.
- Unity Candle ceremony.
- (We had not originally planned for this but Kin Yuen, the best man, spontaneously arranged an orderly dinner hall March-In since we already had the music for it - guests first, followed by the bride’s parents, groom’s parents and lastly, the bride and groom.)
- Dinner starts, with the Bankers staff having their own food presentation ceremony.
- During the 4th dish: Cake-Cutting and Toasting ceremony (cake to be served together with dessert).
- During the 5th dish: Groom’s Music Performance.
- During the 6th and 7th dishes (we had requested for the fish and fried rice to be served together): Chen Chen & Sam’s Music Performance, and a multimedia Presentation “Gift” from a group of 8 student guests.
- After the Presentation: Table-to-Table Toasting (the 8th dish to be served in the midst of those numerous table visits).
- After dinner: Guests to be invited to the dance floor to witness the wedding couple’s First Dance.
- Guests to join in on the dance floor and continue dancing while the bride and groom (together with their parents) proceed to the reception area to bid farewell to (non-dancing) guests.
- (It turned out that we only bade farewell to a handful of guests while the rest were either on the dance floor or were just hanging out at the reception area enjoying the nice atmosphere. With so many guests still staying back and not ready to call it a night yet, we took Shangkar’s suggestion to perform the Bridal Bouquet Tossing ceremony).
Equally important would be who to put in charge to coordinate each itinerary. A friend of mine who did not look into such details ended up not even knowing who played her wedding march-in music too early while the groom was still on the phone. Consequently, she had to rush out to find him as the parents-in-law had already marched-in ahead of them.
We also discussed our dinner program with Shangkar, the Bankers event manager, and took into consideration his recommendations. In the end, this was what we decided on:
- Cocktail reception with live pianist and pre-wedding album display & slideshow.
- March-Down ceremony.
- Unity Candle ceremony.
- (We had not originally planned for this but Kin Yuen, the best man, spontaneously arranged an orderly dinner hall March-In since we already had the music for it - guests first, followed by the bride’s parents, groom’s parents and lastly, the bride and groom.)
- Dinner starts, with the Bankers staff having their own food presentation ceremony.
- During the 4th dish: Cake-Cutting and Toasting ceremony (cake to be served together with dessert).
- During the 5th dish: Groom’s Music Performance.
- During the 6th and 7th dishes (we had requested for the fish and fried rice to be served together): Chen Chen & Sam’s Music Performance, and a multimedia Presentation “Gift” from a group of 8 student guests.
- After the Presentation: Table-to-Table Toasting (the 8th dish to be served in the midst of those numerous table visits).
- After dinner: Guests to be invited to the dance floor to witness the wedding couple’s First Dance.
- Guests to join in on the dance floor and continue dancing while the bride and groom (together with their parents) proceed to the reception area to bid farewell to (non-dancing) guests.
- (It turned out that we only bade farewell to a handful of guests while the rest were either on the dance floor or were just hanging out at the reception area enjoying the nice atmosphere. With so many guests still staying back and not ready to call it a night yet, we took Shangkar’s suggestion to perform the Bridal Bouquet Tossing ceremony).
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Dinner Venue Decorations
I was quite particular about the wedding dinner decorations at Bankers. I didn’t want to overdo the deco but yet, I wanted something with style. Fortunately, Sze left the deco all up to me, so I had the freedom to decide on what I wanted the place to look like.
I had done some research and I already had several ideas in mind. 1st of all, I wanted our theme color to match the classic wood environment in Bankers. We saw some photos of a few previous wedding dinners there and found that light purple blended in very well with the Bankers interior. The color was very unintrusive and gave me a nice, warm feeling. Even Shangkar, the Bankers event manager, loved that color.
Now, wedding without flowers would be no wedding at all. I wanted a floral centerpiece with a pillar candle and 2 bouquets at the base of the staircase railing with netting to cover the spotlight.
(Nobody could imagine what I wanted, so I did the centerpiece myself. Bought the flowers 1 day before our wedding and DIY the bouquet myself. But that was not such a great idea as I did not have time to relax at all.)
Shangkar would also scatter rose petals and place tealight candles on the stairs, window ledges and tables.
We saw from some photos that too much deco could crowd out the classic and elegant environment in Bankers (which would then defeat the purpose of choosing this venue). Hence, we decided to keep our deco relatively simple (when compared to those photos… hehe).
Although Bankers did provide chair tiebacks, we did not take up that offer as they did not match our theme color. So we sourced for the tiebacks ourselves. We went to meet Hassim at one of his wedding events. We chose the tieback color we wanted from his color palette but we missed each other and did not get to meet. Everything was done through the phone and we would then bank in the money for him after our dinner event was over. Unbelievable as it may sound, this business deal was all based on trust!
More photos of our dinner venue decorations at Bankers can be viewed at:
http://www.zenetlife.com/wedding/dinnerrec/dinnerrec.asp
http://www.zenetlife.com/wedding/AddDinner/adddinner.asp
I had done some research and I already had several ideas in mind. 1st of all, I wanted our theme color to match the classic wood environment in Bankers. We saw some photos of a few previous wedding dinners there and found that light purple blended in very well with the Bankers interior. The color was very unintrusive and gave me a nice, warm feeling. Even Shangkar, the Bankers event manager, loved that color.
Now, wedding without flowers would be no wedding at all. I wanted a floral centerpiece with a pillar candle and 2 bouquets at the base of the staircase railing with netting to cover the spotlight.
(Nobody could imagine what I wanted, so I did the centerpiece myself. Bought the flowers 1 day before our wedding and DIY the bouquet myself. But that was not such a great idea as I did not have time to relax at all.)
Shangkar would also scatter rose petals and place tealight candles on the stairs, window ledges and tables.
We saw from some photos that too much deco could crowd out the classic and elegant environment in Bankers (which would then defeat the purpose of choosing this venue). Hence, we decided to keep our deco relatively simple (when compared to those photos… hehe).
Although Bankers did provide chair tiebacks, we did not take up that offer as they did not match our theme color. So we sourced for the tiebacks ourselves. We went to meet Hassim at one of his wedding events. We chose the tieback color we wanted from his color palette but we missed each other and did not get to meet. Everything was done through the phone and we would then bank in the money for him after our dinner event was over. Unbelievable as it may sound, this business deal was all based on trust!
More photos of our dinner venue decorations at Bankers can be viewed at:
http://www.zenetlife.com/wedding/dinnerrec/dinnerrec.asp
http://www.zenetlife.com/wedding/AddDinner/adddinner.asp
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Makeup Artist
Looking for a makeup artist (MUA) did not take too long. Although I had been monitoring the forum for contacts, I did not really need to check them out. This was because I already had several contacts of my own.
When I went for our pre-wedding photo shoot, I enquired about hiring Ivory Romance for their makeup services but that arrangement did not suit me. Ivory’s MUA would give me a makeover in the morning at my place but in the evening, I would have to go to their studio to get my face colored, which would be quite inconvenient on such a busy day.
A friend of mine then recommended her MUA, Vivien, to me. I checked out her pre-wedding photos and I thought the makeup was very natural. I also checked out a few other MUAs but they were all not suitable. So I decided to hire Vivien as my MUA. She was charging a standard rate of RM600 (in 2007) and we made arrangements to meet up to show her the way to my place.
I found Vivien to be a petite and nice lady. She would do the makeup in the morning at my place while she would come to Bankers for the evening makeup session. I explained to her that she could do the usual natural makeup in the morning but I wanted bolder makeup for the evening as that would look more prominent in the dim Bankers environment. Vivien was quite receptive to my request as she never really had much of a chance to apply more daring makeup until this. I paid her a deposit before she left.
(Btw, Viven did a great job with my makeup on the wedding day. She also did some makeup for Mom on that day. Mom, Godmom and Sis were all very impressed with her skills. They even thought of taking makeup lessons from her!)
Photos of the evening and morning wedding events can be viewed at:
http://www.zenetlife.com/wedding/dinnerrec/dinnerrec.asp
http://www.zenetlife.com/wedding/TRADC/tradc.asp
When I went for our pre-wedding photo shoot, I enquired about hiring Ivory Romance for their makeup services but that arrangement did not suit me. Ivory’s MUA would give me a makeover in the morning at my place but in the evening, I would have to go to their studio to get my face colored, which would be quite inconvenient on such a busy day.
A friend of mine then recommended her MUA, Vivien, to me. I checked out her pre-wedding photos and I thought the makeup was very natural. I also checked out a few other MUAs but they were all not suitable. So I decided to hire Vivien as my MUA. She was charging a standard rate of RM600 (in 2007) and we made arrangements to meet up to show her the way to my place.
I found Vivien to be a petite and nice lady. She would do the makeup in the morning at my place while she would come to Bankers for the evening makeup session. I explained to her that she could do the usual natural makeup in the morning but I wanted bolder makeup for the evening as that would look more prominent in the dim Bankers environment. Vivien was quite receptive to my request as she never really had much of a chance to apply more daring makeup until this. I paid her a deposit before she left.
(Btw, Viven did a great job with my makeup on the wedding day. She also did some makeup for Mom on that day. Mom, Godmom and Sis were all very impressed with her skills. They even thought of taking makeup lessons from her!)
Photos of the evening and morning wedding events can be viewed at:
http://www.zenetlife.com/wedding/dinnerrec/dinnerrec.asp
http://www.zenetlife.com/wedding/TRADC/tradc.asp
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Photographer and Videographer
Our wedding was getting closer each day. Everything and everybody were being booked fast for the year-end wedding peak season. We really need to confirm a photographer soon before it’s too late.
I had been checking the malaysiabrides forum everyday in my search for a decent photographer. I read about Jim Liaw and was quite impressed by his portfolio, but his quote was a little too high for us. I also contacted Louis Pang from Sabah but it was a similar problem. In addition, we would have to pay for his flights, accommodation and allowance too, which would add up to a big sum. By the way, both photographers’ fees range from around RM4,000 to much higher amounts.
Soon after, I short-listed another 3 photographers, whose rates were closer to our budget and their styles to our liking too:
Kok Weng RM1,100
Aivee RM1,000
Kevin Han RM1,300
It took us several days to decide on the most suitable photographer. But in the end, we decided to opt for Kevin. So, what made us choose him? Although Kevin had the highest rate, we still picked him over the others because of his very natural lighting and nice photography. And especially in a dimmer environment like Bankers (our wedding dinner venue), his wonderful lighting would be crucial, and that made the decision quite easy when we compared their photos side-by-side.
(Btw, Kevin did a great job on our wedding day. 2 of our photo albums taken by him can be viewed at:
http://www.zenetlife.com/wedding/dinnerrec/dinnerrec.asp
http://www.zenetlife.com/wedding/TRADC/tradc.asp
We also heard that he has already increased his fees.)
We would not hesitate to hire a photographer for our wedding but a videographer was optional. Fortunately for us, Sze’s brother from Canada, Kin Yuen would be attending our wedding, and he would be bringing a brand new video camera along with him… yay!
(Turned out that Kin Yuen was too busy to be the videographer on the wedding day as he was also the best man. So Sze’s cousin Boon took over the job instead. We were very impressed with his commitment as he was working like a full-time videographer! We had not expected this kind of dedication from someone who was just doing it for free. We were quite thankful but at the same time, we also wanted him to have time to sit down and enjoy the dinner. That was one of the reasons why we hired a photographer, whereby Kevin was an equally committed professional.)
I had been checking the malaysiabrides forum everyday in my search for a decent photographer. I read about Jim Liaw and was quite impressed by his portfolio, but his quote was a little too high for us. I also contacted Louis Pang from Sabah but it was a similar problem. In addition, we would have to pay for his flights, accommodation and allowance too, which would add up to a big sum. By the way, both photographers’ fees range from around RM4,000 to much higher amounts.
Soon after, I short-listed another 3 photographers, whose rates were closer to our budget and their styles to our liking too:
Kok Weng RM1,100
Aivee RM1,000
Kevin Han RM1,300
It took us several days to decide on the most suitable photographer. But in the end, we decided to opt for Kevin. So, what made us choose him? Although Kevin had the highest rate, we still picked him over the others because of his very natural lighting and nice photography. And especially in a dimmer environment like Bankers (our wedding dinner venue), his wonderful lighting would be crucial, and that made the decision quite easy when we compared their photos side-by-side.
(Btw, Kevin did a great job on our wedding day. 2 of our photo albums taken by him can be viewed at:
http://www.zenetlife.com/wedding/dinnerrec/dinnerrec.asp
http://www.zenetlife.com/wedding/TRADC/tradc.asp
We also heard that he has already increased his fees.)
We would not hesitate to hire a photographer for our wedding but a videographer was optional. Fortunately for us, Sze’s brother from Canada, Kin Yuen would be attending our wedding, and he would be bringing a brand new video camera along with him… yay!
(Turned out that Kin Yuen was too busy to be the videographer on the wedding day as he was also the best man. So Sze’s cousin Boon took over the job instead. We were very impressed with his commitment as he was working like a full-time videographer! We had not expected this kind of dedication from someone who was just doing it for free. We were quite thankful but at the same time, we also wanted him to have time to sit down and enjoy the dinner. That was one of the reasons why we hired a photographer, whereby Kevin was an equally committed professional.)
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Bridal Room Furniture
We needed a new set of bedroom furniture as the number of “residents” in the room would increase to 2 (single upgraded to double… hehe). We looked around the Cheras and Puchong areas for a reasonable bedroom set.
Our room isn’t that big, so we decided not to get a king-sized bed. A queen-sized bed would probably be a more practical option. My sis, Fiona, had previously suggested that we get the bigger king-sized bed so that we could share the bed with our baby too when we have one. I thought it wasn’t such a great idea as a big bed would make our room more cramped. When baby comes along, we’ll see what we can do then.
As we were looking around, we came across a bed set manufactured by Batu Emas. Apparently, it was made of solid wood and looked good. Of course, it was also a little more expensive.
We continued to look around and found this shop called UMI Furnishing Design near Sze’s house in Puchong. The shop owner, Francis Chew, was a funny guy. He seemed quite honest and recommended several bedroom sets to us. We felt comfortable and our confidence in him grew which led to trust.
After thinking it over, we went back to the shop the next day and paid a deposit for a bed set which we mixed and matched from the catalog. In the end, we were quite happy and satisfied with the choice of bedroom furniture that we purchased.
Our room isn’t that big, so we decided not to get a king-sized bed. A queen-sized bed would probably be a more practical option. My sis, Fiona, had previously suggested that we get the bigger king-sized bed so that we could share the bed with our baby too when we have one. I thought it wasn’t such a great idea as a big bed would make our room more cramped. When baby comes along, we’ll see what we can do then.
As we were looking around, we came across a bed set manufactured by Batu Emas. Apparently, it was made of solid wood and looked good. Of course, it was also a little more expensive.
We continued to look around and found this shop called UMI Furnishing Design near Sze’s house in Puchong. The shop owner, Francis Chew, was a funny guy. He seemed quite honest and recommended several bedroom sets to us. We felt comfortable and our confidence in him grew which led to trust.
After thinking it over, we went back to the shop the next day and paid a deposit for a bed set which we mixed and matched from the catalog. In the end, we were quite happy and satisfied with the choice of bedroom furniture that we purchased.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)