Getting Ready for 2014!

With our house coming in april 2014 and our wedding at december 2014, we knew that things will get really busy and therefore, being a pair of couple who plans plans and plan, we decided to start doing things progressively and steadily in various phase.

The entire planning of our house renovation and the wedding took place in June 2013; 10 months before the house key arrives and 1 years 6 months before the big day!

It begin with simple research which quickly develops to budget planning and time allocations. We speak to friends who are already married and also friends who are in the midst of preparing the house or the wedding.

We set up budget, time-line and excel spreadsheet. We had ups and downs, happy moment and not so happy ones. but all in all we always remind ourselves why we are doing this all. And of course to learn to enjoy the process and love each other more.

It has been many many months since the planning started and we are definitely looking forward to it more as it is really us achieving our common goals together!

So here are some of the things which we find useful in our planning process and we would like to share it with you all!! =)

Wedding Planner from Singapore Brides 

Draft guest list before deciding how big a wedding to have. 

Know your budget & work within your means! 

Thus far, planning has been going on well. and by starting early we know we have more time, less stress and thus we will not need to be too bother about rushing. But of cause consistent work counts and we hope to be able to keep up with it even when all the work pours in and it gets too busy! 

Counting down: 

1) 6 months to key collection

2) 1 year 2 months to wedding day! 

Fighting! 

Escape to Higher Grounds!

Every now and then when i have the chance i would love to escape! As i always say, the only way for me to now work is to leave Singapore! and sometimes even when i am out of Singapore i am working; school trips! So escape to another world is always my kind of thing. And i am really very blessed to have found someone to do this with me, my travel buddy for life; Stanley!!

He can stand my nonsense when i travel, my madness when i am not being a teacher and all my crazy talks and actions.

So here is our little escape to Cameron Highland, also to celebrate me getting older. Haha. -_-'

Travel with 5 stars! 

Walk for miles and was lost! 

Hahaha... 

Higher grounds have nicer flowers! 

Queen Bee!!! 

Strawberry!! My Fav!!

Honeycomb!! Real one ok!! 

Traditional Planting!

Veggie!! 

Farmer Sim!! 

More flowers! 

Catus! All kinds!! 

Looking Wrong! 

Farmer Sim again! 

Watercrest plantation! 

Farmer Tan! 

Modern Farming 

Fruits dropping!! 

So pretty.

Stop and smell the "roses"

Us! 

HOT POT is a MUST here!! 

Love this trip, since cameron is like a very nice cooling place where things are slow and you can just chill and walk around without feeling hot or like you are dying. Will go there again to escape for sure!! =)

Choosing the VENUE

Since we are in the midst of planning for our big day, I kinda got few things going to help us get through this and not die!!

1) Budget Template (for House & Wedding)

2) Saving Plan!

3) Probable Wedding Dates
1st Choice: 13/12/14 (because i like 13 and also if you are writing it in american then is 12/13/14)
2nd Choice: 20/12/14

4) List of things need to do from now up to the wedding!

So up on this list i am here at which VENUE is next, and this will then kinda help me sort out item 3 as well.

So yup, Stanley and i really dont have much expectation on the venue, cos on my part i dont see a need of having the wedding since we are already "married" but yup, stanley also say that we should not move too far from the norm and we should really try to make our parents happy so yup here we are. (actually i not too happy lah, but too bad, it just got to happen!)

All in all, i feel that stanley have a better idea in what he wants for the venue and all. So yup he is the boss now! =)

So here are some of the criterion we listed (actually is he more).

1) GREAT FOOD (this i agree, cos ppl only toks about the food during the wedding, they dont remember anything but the good / bad food.)

2) Nice Environment (we are not looking for classy thingy but have to be presentable i guess)

3) Fuss-free (it will not be nice if half way during the wedding they have to find you to say they run our of beer wanna open a barrel or no more wine wanna limit the bottles, so yup.)

4) Budget friendly. (we are working on quite a tight budget as our house will be in around arp 2014, and we are not the kind who believe the ang bao will cover it so choose the most exp thing you can find, we want to be logical and reasonable and work within what we believe is our means, no need to show off, cos after the wedding is your life u have to live!)

5) Good coordinating manager! (someone who is experience and is able to help you on the big day not give you more prob!)

6) Extra room for the helpers!

So basically, after this list of "expectations" we kinda short listed the hotels we would like to see! And because of criterion 1, we kinda decided that restaurant hotel will be the best. But here is a list which we shortlisted.

1) Peony Jade @ Kepple Club
2) M Hotel
3) Peach Garden @ Hotel Miramar
4) Tung Lok Signatures @ Orchard Parade Hotel
5) Hotel Royal @ Queens by Grand Banquet
6) Orchard Hotel by Four Season Group

With this list it was easy for us to hunt and finally decide. We basically research, call, visit and also meet up with the hotel ppl. When down to a couple of hotels, met the manager there, when down to Royals twice and see real wedding taking place there, like look at the place before their wedding start, look at the hotel rooms. And also since the both dates that we choose are both HOT dates, like how we know right, not like we count, is just random. We have to kinda decide fast. Singapore everything must fast! hahaha.

And finally, decided to go with Hotel Royal @ Queens, since they have a very comprehensive package with free flow of beer, wine and VSOP (God bless Stanley and the merlion team!), they also give us a free helper room, and they have nice teochew and canto food! So yup it was GREAT! So just like this our Big day is also fixed!

13/12/14, Hotel Royal @ Queens

Now it is prep and count down to the big day!! =)