2nd trip to Stamford Ballroom

We made a trip to Peninsula Plaza to check out the rates for printing an album at a photo developing shop, as recommended by Joe.

I was rather impressed with the albums that they make and they offer pretty good rates as well. There was even an online website for you to DIY the layout you want and all you have to do is to click "Send", then the next moment would be to go down to the shop for collection in 2 weeks' time!

They charge by the size of the chosen album and the number of pages within. The one which we wanted was about $255 only!

After which, we dropped an impromptu spot check on the Stamford Ballroom.

Photos were taken again, this time round, with a real wedding set-up:



This was what greeted us at the foyer. I want to do this too! But Hubby said it's money not worth spending cos there is no need to announce your names like that :(




The names are made of red daisies.

The foyer with wedding set-up.

Side view of the stage. They even have a small dance floor area.

Finally, we get to see the entire Ballroom! We kind of realised actually the march-in is not going to be as long a distance as the one in Canning Room. It's quite a short, straight walk. Also, we found the ceiling to be low, lower than the last time we saw it.

The stage set-up.

And, table set-up as well.

Very Hindi-inspired cos it's a Indian wedding.

Change of Ballroom in Swissotel The Stamford

Received a call from Swissotel The Stamford on 18 Jan to inform that our Wedding Coordinator, Agnes has left the organisation. Once again, we were made orphans in the midst of our wedding preparation. Hence, Dannis, the person who called assured us that he will be there temporarily to assist us.

Amid the misfortune, came a good news, much to our delight. Our wedding on 28 May took up 1/3 of the Fairmont Ballroom, of which the remaining 2/3 was taken up by another couple who has requested for more tables. This implied that the foyer where guests are invited for some cocktails and pre-dinner snacks will be shared as well, only to have a partition in between so as not to cause confusion to both weddings.

However, right now, the other couple will be potentially increasing their number of tables and thus, would require the entire Fairmont Ballroom on that day. Thus, in order to attain a win-win situation for both parties, Dannis suggested to move us to Stamford Ballrom, a much bigger one, of which under normal circumstances, would require a min. of 45 tables. All of this will be done at no extra cost from our side.

Of course, being a fussy and kiasu bride-to-be, I bombarded him with questions like, is the ballroom pillar-less, does it have high ceiling, how's the march-in route like, etc. So, he suggested that we make a trip down to have a look before we committ to the change.

Here are the photos of Stamford Ballroom when we went down this morning:

Entrance to the Ballroom.

View of half of the Ballroom, due to the unavailability of the other half for a corporate event.



One of the 4 chandeliers in the Ballroom. According to Dannis, this is the only ballroom with chandeliers.

Foyer area (left side)

Foyer area (right side)

View from the window (on the right)

View from the window (on the left)

Dannis promoted the Ballroom well enough for us to agree on the change, even though it means a longer walking distance down from our Suite to the Ballroom. These are some plus points:

- Bigger foyer area and there's no need to share it with others

- A VIP room at the other end of the foyer where we can put our barangs

- A window view from the foyer area (though the views aren't that fantastic)

- More space between tables due to the size of the Ballroom

- Nice chandeliers (although the ceiling is slightly lower than Canning Room, our previous ballroom)

- Straight march-in

2 more Jie Meis

We have decided to increase our Xiong Dis and Jie Meis to 8 pax per group. Reason being, Henry has ended up with more people than he has expected and I had to accomodate that with 2 more of my friends.

We thought since we will be renting 3 taxis for the Xiong Dis and Jie Meis on that day, it would not matter much to just add one more to the fleet.

Initially I had a dilemma in asking which 2 friends to add on the my group. I thought of asking my primary school friends but there were 3 of them so it would mean I need to choose 2 out of 3. I wanted to avoid this kind of sticky situation so I chose Haiqi who had been with me through my secondary school days as well, to be one of them.

As to the last one, I have decided on Emma, wife of Raymond (Henry's ex-colleague cum friend) who is going to be one of Henry's Xiong Di. I thought it would be more fun to have the wife "pitting" against the husband - same goes for Joo and Jayven! ;P

Photo shoot!

The day of the photo shoot is finally here!

I prayed for the weather to be good enough (at least not raining) and I prayed that my breathlessness will not act up since I have been experiencing from last Tue onwards. It might be due to the anxiety and nervousness, I guess.

We reached Tanjong Pagar together with the office crowd at 8.45am and walked to di Gio for our appointment at 9am. However, we were brought to the studio at Rico-A-Mona Bridal which belongs to the same company as di Gio.

I would think the studio at Rico-A-Mona has nicer looking props and it's more spacious.

Chris, my makeup artiste, started to prep my face for the makeup. He was great at his makeup skills as well as making small talks with us in helping us to relieve some anxiety, at least for me. I pointed out the flaw on my face and he did a great job in concealing it.

He took about 2 hours on both of us before we commenced on the studio photo shoot. I had Chris to draw my favourite smokey eyes! However, I didn't quite like the way he drew Henry's eyebrows. I thought Edward did a better job during our ROM.

The photographer, Ben, came at 11-ish to prepare for the photo shoot. I changed into my first gown, the one with some elements of maroon, and started with some standard wedding shots. Actually, I didn't really fancy my first hairdo which had a heavy Victorian feel.

The first hairdo. Oh, that's Chris..

Henry's first outfit.

Second outfit...

And Actual Day outfit for the day..

That's my tiffany-blue evening gown and the purple toga gown for the outdoor shoot behind!

Ben was a rather humorous guy and he did help to making the atmosphere more relaxing. We took about 45 mins for the first outfits before changing into our 2nd one, which for me, was my favourite mermaid cut gown for the actual day!

I love this gown TOO MUCH.

Chris explored with a new hairstyle he had never tried before cos he thought my face which carries a little high fashion and attitude feel would be suitable for it. I would say this was really great minds think alike! I have been wanting to try this hairstyle too!

The guy in the background was Ben!

In fact, I prefer photos taken in my second gown as they were taken near the shophouse window and they resemble those in the wedding magazines. Ben showed me one of it and I was pretty impressed.

First gown for outdoor shoot.. It's not very flattering on the chest though.

We rest for lunch which I didn't take for fear of bloatedness. Chris helped me with my third hairdo and prepared all the accessories needed for the different outfits for our outdoor shoot.

Initially, Ben was reluctant to have photos taken at the Tuas area bcos of the travelling time and the fact that he doesn't know the way as he was led by the couple the other time. He told us to suggest another place since it was also drizzling outside but we stood firm by that Tuas location by not saying anything at all. In the end, he had no choice but to relent.

He drove us in his car which we paid him $120 and proceeded to our first location - the central park near Chinese Garden. Before that, we drove to my house to get the sunflowers which I bought yesterday but forgot to bring them in the morning. The drizzle started again but we had to carry on with shoot at the newly-erected bridge. We did a number of shots before Henry's stomach protested and we had no choice but to leave for Jurong Point for our second location and the toilet.

We had it all planned to change our outfits at Uncle's shop in Jurong Point since it was just a stone's throw away from the NTUC. Alas, Mommy was sick on that day so she didn't get to see me in my beautiful gowns. She has already informed the girls beforehand that we will be there to change up.

I changed into my tiffany blue evening gown and proceeded to the customer service counter to ask for Cindy, the store manager who will help us out. I received thousands of stares which was quite embarrassing. The store supervisor came to receive us instead as Cindy was not available at that time. Even the staff who was following behind the supervisor whipped out his camera!

We went to the fruits and veggies area and we started to pose with much difficulties bcos of the group of people standing around us to watch. I had to hypnotise myself that we were the only ones in the NTUC! We walked over to the aisles for more shots and an Auntie told us to use the wines that she was promoting as props -_-

I even overheard some Aunties who were discussing if they should ask us for 4D numbers!

I wanted to take photos with me sitting in the trolley but Ben advised that there was a high risk of exposing myself accidentally so we abandoned the idea. But instead, we started to load many stuff into the trolley to look as if we were grocery shopping. Suddenly, this lady walked towards us and introduced herself as Cindy. We thought we were going to get reprimanded for messing up their things but instead, she congratulated us and handed us a box of Ferrero Rocher as well wishes! How sweet of them! We are so going to be their loyal customers!

The entire photo shoot took about 45 mins before we went back to the shop to change into my last outfit - the purple toga - for the Tuas area. I called up Daddy to ask for the direction and luckily Ben kind of knew the way after we were at Tuas. I think we searched for the place for a good 15 mins.

We came by this long and deserted stretch of road with lots of beautiful lallangs by the side. Of course, we took shots at the lallangs! Ben told us to sit amid the lallangs for the different shots. Actually, I thought I was very daring and exploratory in the entire photo shoot, having to sit on the dirty and wet lallangs which I would complain incessantly on whatever hygienic reasons I could come up with and.... having to lie down on the long stretch of road! In fact, I was the one to suggest lying down bcos I thought I should be adventurous for this one-in-a-lifetime photo shoot!

Although May didn't prepare the chair which we told her we wanted to bring for this Tuas photo shoot, I thought it might be good in a way that we have something different as the couple who came here.

We drove to another area and found the exact location we saw in the album and managed to take a few more shots before calling it a day at about 6-ish. During the ride back, both of us fell asleep in the car and after reaching the bridal studio, we looked so energetic that they thought we could possibly go for another shoot. Hahaha!

Throughout the entire photo shoot, Ben discovered that my right side of the face is nicer looking. Hence, I have been showing my right face in most of the shots to which my neck was aching from all the angling.

Ben said the photos will be ready for our selection in 2 - 3 weeks' time. We made our 3rd payment before we left, and guess what? Our dear Jesline was around! See what I mean in previous posts? Actually, she was the one who bought us lunch in the afternoon and she came up to see how her "orphans" were doing after such a long hiatus..

Printer and Hotel Decor

Called up the invite card printer to fix a date on 12 February and we will also be meeting the hotel decorator on 19 February .

Final fitting before photo shoot

I never knew wearing gowns could be so torturous...

Out of the 5 gowns I tried on could not give a comfortable circumference at the chest for me to breathe effortlessly except for my MTM evening gown.

May kept saying the gowns should be worn tight but at least not that tight for me to be gasping for air, right??

I don't want to faint on the photo shoot day, neither do I want to keep worrying about having difficulty in breathing so I requested for all the 4 gowns to be loosen by 1/2 an inch and some 3/4 inch at the chest area.

It got me wondering if they have made any alteration at all since the last fitting. My actual day mermaid-cut gown was so tight at the bottom that I can't even sit on a chair properly, unless with Henry's help. I felt like a heavily pregnant woman who was holding on to the chair with one hand and moving at 5km/h in sitting myself down!

So, I will still have to try on the gowns one last time on Friday before my makeup and hairdo so that there will still be time for alteration if there is a need to.

Henry's fitting took equally long but we were both rather satisfied with 2 outfits - an all black and a silver one - which we thought were splendid. The black suit has a matching tiffany blue short neck tie which fits my evening gown to a T.