PS Locations

Going USA for our pre-wedding PS has been our dream since we were there in 2005.. the first moment when we step on the Golden Gate Bridge, both AH & myself know.. when we tied the knot next time, we will be definitely coming back to this place for our wedding photos..

In 3 months' time, we will be back in the place that we have lotsa of wonderful memories.. we have been doingresearch of locations that we wannt to include in our PS.. the places should have a meaning to us and also shows the "favour" or 味道 of San Francisco..

1. The iconic Golden Gate Bridge

credits: Moomedia

credits: raw | photo | design

 

credits: Jasmine Wong Photography

2. San Francisco City Hall

credits: raw | photo | design

3. Cable Cars

credits: Moomedia

4. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

credits: Photography by Junshien

credits: Kelly McCord Photography

5. Santa Cruz Downtown

 

credits: Kelly McCord Photography

6. Los Gatos Nestldown

credits: Photography by Junshien

credits: Kelly McCord Photography

Wedding Monogram

Wedding monograms or wedding logos, using the couple's initials are becoming a trend now for the local scene.. As such, I tried my hands on a online program to create our monogram..

1st prototype

2nd prototype

Both images are print screen images, that's why all the grids and arrows.. I would need to pay for my design at USD$9.90 each to get the full image.. But well, since its only the beginning.. just trying out and have a feel of what its like.. Try your hands at designing your wedding monogram here

Now I'm reading through online tutorials & websites.. reading through wedding blogs to get inspiration for my personalised monogram :)

Meet up with Pastor Keith

First appointment with our church pastor last Sun.. Initially AH & I thought that Ps Keith would be our officiating pastor for our Holy Matrimony.. but it turns out that our first meeting is just want to reaffirm our decision to get married and also to ask some formality questions..

He started off asking questions like when we knew each other, if we knew our financial status, blah blah.. Given our age, he was really surprised that we have maintained a 9 year ++ relationship.. and this year being our 10th year together.. What I can I say.. all praises to Jesus who is in the central of this relationship, and in the future, our marriage..

He went on to share about marriage in the bible.. and our decision is based on the love for each other and not just because we are in the relationship for a long time.. He also shared that as a married couple we should learn to accept the mistakes we made & the ugly side of each other..

I'm very blessed with the meeting.. and I look forward to the pre-marriage seminar & counselling sessions..

"We loved because He first loved us"

OH vs Concorde

My last 2 choices for the banquet venues..

Since I'm not a person who can make decisions, most of my big decisions are settled by AH.. but this time round he wants me to decide on the banquet venue.. AH is a minimalist, so to him as long the price of the hotel and location is good.. he doesn't care if it is pillarless, high ceiling, has private reception area or whatever march-in format.. As I'm the fussy one, and these are the 2 best options now.. He is leaving it for me to choose..

who is my other decision maker..? My Daddy God :)

Concorde Hotel

Concorde Hotel might not sound familiar to most people, its located at where the old Le Meridien Hotel is.. Our last stop for recce yesterday..

The hotel exterior really looks old and once stepped in, you'll face alot of massage palours before reaching the lift up.. The ballroom is also hidden in one corner of the hotel, have to walk passed some travel agencies before reaching..

There was no wedding yesterday, so didnt managed to see any wedding setups.. But they have a showroom of their wedding themes in a room near the ballroom and we managed to see some themes.. Overall, I've moved Concorde up my list of short-listed venues.. It has a pillarless, high ceiling ballroom.. Straight march-in, the wedding themes are nice.. Price are good as well.. Not to mention its quite near Somerset MRT too..

Now we only negogiate whether if we can keep the minimun tables to 25 and hopefully try to get free flow of beer and/or wine.. Orchard & M hotel are offering free flow now.. Will call up the wedding coordinator soon..

The current wedding themes of Concorde..

the last pics is the newest Glitter theme

Goodwood Park Hotel

Goodwood Park is my dream wedding venue.. Fall in love with the old colonial feel of the hotel exterior..and being a 5 star hotel, the interior is equally "wow".. The food from Min Jiang has also a lot of good reviews.. and AH loves their durian puff..and he hopes to get some free durian puffs if we ever sign with them.. Thou the price is higher than our budget, but we still decided to have a look since everything is good about them..

Once stepped in the hotel, I was taken in by the entire ambience.. the swimming pool is surrounded by colonial style buildings, the lobby is very clean.. and I totally loved the stairways that leads to Winsor Ballroom from the hotel lobby.. very romantic feel!!

Everything about GWP is just so lovely.. The ballroom has its own reception area.. Size of the ballroom fits our table requirements.. Pillarless & high ceiling ballroom.. Straight march-in (no L, U or whatever shape).. Everything just fits so nicely into our citeria, until we saw... A LOT OF MIRRORS! the whole ballroom is surrounded with mirrors, thou I know that mirror will have an effect that the ballroom is bigger, but its gonna be photographers' nightmare!

Some other cons..:

• Can't negogiate for additional carpark coupons as the carpark is operated by external vendors, not by hotel itself..
• No wedding themes.. AH feels that the white seat covers are just too plain for weddings..

Hence my ideal GWP is striked off our list :(

Winsor Ballroom

Wedding Banquet Venues

Since we have settled our pre-wedding photoshoot, its time to move on to another big item.. the ideal banquet venue..

Having gone to a few weddings before, I have thus listed down some citeria that will help to short list some venus..

1. Min 25 tables, max 30-35 tables.. want to keep our guest list short. My sister's wedding had about 50 tables and I think its really tiring to move around so many tables.. Keeping the guest list short will also allow us to have more time to mingle around with the guests.. Moreover, we do not want to invite people just to fulfil the minimum required tables..

2. Pillarless ballroom.. Been to some hotels before and was quite turned off by the pillars in some of their ballrooms.. Pillars really make the guests feel uncomfortable.. Imaging you have to keep shifting your seat in order to view what is on stage or the video montages.. Otherwise, the couple would have to spend extra to install projectors/tv screens on the pillars so the guests can view properly.. With a pillarless ballroom, the guests can view the stage with comfort, and the couple can just save $ on projector rentals :)

3. March-in format.. Y-shaped, L-shaped, U-shaped.. you name it, you have it.. actually before looking reading SG Brides forum, I never knew there are so many different kinds of ballroom layout and march in formats.. ideally, a straight march-in would be good.. since I'm gonna have a big gown with train.. even my EG has a train.. would prefer one thats march-in straight..

4. Solemnisation room.. Its getting more common to ROM on the same day as the wedding banquet, and NCC being a church without its own premise.. It has always been a tradition to have the Holy Matrimony right before the start of the banquet dinner.. Have to discuss with AH whether we want to have it in a seperate function room (for a smaller group of people) or have it in the same ballroom..

5. Location.. being a car-less person, it's important to me where the location of the hotel is.. since I know the "hardship" of travelling to places that are inacessible to MRT..  Walking for a short distances is inevitable, but definitely not those places that you need to walk uphill, down slope...

The search begins!