Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Evening gown

Called up Jesline from di Gio to make an appointment on 26 Aug for the making my evening gown!

Got to start early as we intend to have our photo shoot in Dec this year. :)

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Live band

We have confirmed the live band for our wedding dinner! It's the one from Don's wedding which both of us thought they were fantastic!

The package comes in:

Duo band - 1 guitarist/ vocalist + 1 guitarist
2 sets - 45 mins each
Cost - $800 (with $100 deposit)

We are going to meet up with them on the songs we want and to discuss in further details on when we would like them to sing during the wedding nearer the date.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

di Gio

A fruitful and rather satisfying weekend at Her World Bridal Show held in the ballroom of Mandarin Orchard!

We signed up for it a couple of weeks back with the intention to save us the shopping for bridal boutiques and we thought the deals at the show would be very competitive among those six of them - La Belle, dio Gio, Satine, Z-Wedding, My Dream Wedding and The Feline.

I have only 2 in mind for this bridal show - di Gio and La Belle - of which they were already on my list of boutiques to visit. We made a beeline for di Gio first and found ourselves to be looking through their photo albums at other seats cos all their tables were taken up by other customers!

di Gio had the most overwhelming response and they were the only one who would not even bother to station sales coordinators to do hard-selling in front of their booth cos customers will just go to them!

We were served by their gown designer, Jesline. A very nice lady who is open to lots of negotiation. And of course, I was very aggressive in getting the most deals out of the $3,988 package! I could not care less about how they see me but I thought the best time to sign a package is when they are competing against other boutiques to draw customers to their side at the expense of offering better deals!

Here's the package:
1. Actual Day Bridal Gown
2. Actual day Evening Gown (MTM)
3. Actual Day tea dress or kwa --> Exchanged for my 2 sisters' bridesmaids dresses


4. Actual day Groom's suit x 2


5. Free trial makeup


6. Actual day morning makeup + hairdo


7. Actual day evening makeup + hair do --> I tried to negotiate for Mommy and MIL as well but she could only get us at special rate of $80 each instead of the usual price of $120.


8. Actual day and studio accessories (necklace, earring, tiara, veil)


9. Bridal bouquet (Fresh flower) --> It can be of any design or flowers I want at no additonal cost.


10. Corsages x 6


11. Bridal car decoration --> We just have to provide her with the design we want - definitely not the conventional V-shape!


12. Following Cars' ribbons x 4


13. Studio makeup + hairdo


14. Studio outfits x 3 (bride)


15. Studio outfits x 3 (groom)


16. Studio fresh flower --> Again, any design and flower to our liking


17. Outdoor shoot (2 locations) with 2 outfits (own transport at $120)


18. Wedding album 12'' x 15" = 20 copies --> It will be a 12" x 18" instead due to the promotion and we also managed to negotiate very fiercely from 20 to 28 to 35 and finally 38 poses!



19. Canvas portrait 20" x 24" (with frame) --> We increased it to 30"!



20. Free 4R - 24 copies (4 poses)



21. Free mini album (repeated poses from wedding album)



22. Free table top 8" x 10"



23. Free Guest Book



24. Free soft copy return in CD (selected photos only)



25. Fathers' jackets x 2



26. Mommy's dress --> Die die also must get something for my Mom!



27. 50 pcs of Thank you cards (to be placed at reception table) for guests --> Managed to convince her that we can do some publicity and branding for di Gio! Marketing skills really came in handy here!



The other expenses which we have to fork out money includes:



- eye lashes @ $15

- ampoule @ $25

- additonal styling of hair @ $25

- rental of wedding car + chauffeur @ $480 onwards

- additonal poses @ $80 each



Jesline was a little overwhelmed by our incessant negotiations and requests that she took my hand and said she would give a very good FINAL deal within the package - the increase of the canvas portrait by 10" more - which she told me to keep it to ourselves.

Basically, we just lay our cards on the table and told her directly that we came to the Bridal Show with the intention to sign up a package today and that di Gio and La Belle were the 2 boutiques we came for. In the end, she acceded to most of our requests with a returned promise on our side that we will not go for a sit-down at La Belle! Haha!

Then, there came our 2nd surprise when my name was called out for the 5th lucky draw prize - 3D2N to stay at Le Meridien Bangkok with 2 return tickets! This is our second time to be so lucky in these 7 years we have been together! I still remember vividly that the first time was during our 1st or 2nd Valentine's Day celebration at PS Pizza Hut where we won a personal pizza......

My secondary school mate was luckier! She won a $5000-package from La Belle for the Vote For Your Favourite Gown Contest. I didn't realise it was Jing Wen until she went up on stage.

Nevertheless, we were elated at our luck and what we fought for during the bridal show! :)

Saturday, July 3, 2010

The deal is sealed.

We signed on the dotted line with Swissotel The Stamford/ Fairmont this afternoon and were made $5,000 poorer.

Had a failed attempt to negotiate for more perks to be thrown in, for example, extra 1 more night in the bridal suite, free flow of beer and special anniversary rates on hotel stay.

We were terrible at it.




Date is also fixed on 28 May 2011.

Somehow I feel uneasy after signing the deal. Maybe it's just too big a transaction and I'm not sure if we have made the right choice.