Wedding Checklist

Organizing a wedding can be a daunting task and sometimes make you feel stressed rather than elated that you're a bride-to-be. So after going through some books and website for guidance, i've create a simple breakdown of the different areas for us to tackle.

1. Decide on the wedding date.
2. Set a budget.
3. Decide on the number of guests and make a list.
4. Book the church ceremony and reception venue.
5. Research and book photographer and videographer.
6. Choose the best man, bridesmaids, ushers, pageboys and flower girls.
7. Research and book entertainment for the reception.
8. Create the invitation cards and send them out 3 months in advance (home based) and 5-6 months in advance to family abroad.
9. Start looking for wedding dress ( 1 day dress and 2 night dress) and shoes.
10. Start looking for suits for the groom and ushers.
11. Start looking for bridesmaids dresses.
12. Decide on colour palette.
13. Decide on wedding flowers.
14. Choose a toastmaster/emcee.
15. Arrange wedding favours for reception.
16. Start wedding hair and make up trials.
17. Decide on reception floor plan and guest sitting arrangement.
18. Decide on table stationary and table place card design.
19. Prepare Order of Service booklet for Church ceremony.
20. Order wedding cake
21. Go for a full body massage and Spa, and hope it all fall into place :)

Bride to be xoxo

The Engagement Dinner Party (Family & Friends)

Thank you everyone for the endless love and support.

The Engagement Dinner Party (Decorations & Setting)

Big Thank you to Hyatt Regency Kinabalu for the wonderful decorations, amazing food and top class services. Here is some detail photos. Enjoy :)

Menu Of The Night

* Starters *

Vegetable Stick with Island Dressing

Assorted Finger Sandwiches

Nagisa’s Fotomaki Sushi

* Entrée *

Roasted Rosemary Chicken

Rosemary Sauce

Mashed Potatoes

Roasted Mix Vegetable & Roots

Deep Fried Prawn Dumpling

Beef Satay with Condiment

* So Sweet Like Love *

Cheese Cake

Chocolate Brownies

Crème Brulee

Fruit Skewer

* Fountain of Love Thirst Quencher *

Pink Lime Soda Drinks

* Made in Heaven *

The Engagement Cakes & Cupcakes

Red Wine

White Wine

A Little Update on Engagement

Ok, we are doing it just right. The Engagement Party by tradition is to be held 2 months after the guy proposed to the girl. So, that 2 months is almost up! So counting down 14 days from now. Super excited!

Picture taken in Koh Samui in April 2012 where he proposed to me by the sea underneath the moonlight and the stars. Yup, just like in the movies. Haha!

Official venue for the engagement will be Hyatt Regency Kinabalu Hotel. Offering us their finest food selection with generous add-on of our favourite Balinese theme decorations. I can never ask for more. Trust me. I can't thank you enough to Hyatt for doing this for me.

For cakes and cupcakes, I trust Sunny Koh is preparing well on his side. Hope his moving back to KK from Sydney Australia isn't taking too much of his time so he can start working on the designs.

For the Engagement favours, it's going to be a very last minute one. Think we can only start preparing it when I'm in Kota Kinabalu. I really want to hands on for this section of the planning because I want to add a little personal touch to thank everyone that make their time to celebrate this special occasion with us.

The dress. Yup. The engagement dress. Unfortunately, I can't afford Justin Yap to design my engagement dress, it is way beyond my budget as there is only one of us that is currently working now and James was pretty unlucky as he did not received his salary with previous company for 1 month and half forcing him to resigned and moving back to UK soon (pretty dissapointed with that to be honest) So in terms of finance, we are pretty tight with it. Wait, VERY tight! Hahaha.

Therefore, I have been joining some contest to win a dress and even scouting some of my friend's dress, many of my friends so kind to lend me their dress. Thanks babes! I'm also lucky enough as there are some high fashion boutique actually offered to sponsor me a dress for my engagement party too! But, I have yet to decide on anything for now. I need more time to decide.

My guest list is actually more than I have expected. I was pretty stressed about it at the beginning because I can't afford to pay for it.... but glad that my parents agreed to help me out on the additional expenses after I told them my situation. So it's all good now. Thank you :)

I just want all my family and friends to be there even though many still could not make it as they are UK based and some in Canada and somewhere in the world. I shall cheers for them on that night tho. Haha. More reasons to drink ;)

I'm so nervous actually. But hey, it's going to be an awesome night!

By the way, today is my dad's birthday. So Happy Birthday daddy! Love you loads and can't wait to see you soon!

For more information about Hyatt Regency Kinabalu Hotel, do check them out at their official website. Here is the link http://kinabalu.regency.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels-kinabalu-regency/index.jsp?null

Love,

Bride to be.

Engagement Inspiration Colour

So apart from the two photos that are for real (the engagement card and Hyatt Regency Kinabalu Hotel's poolside photo) the rest are just something I found over the Internet to get some inspiration and colour coordination. Not expecting all of this to turn out 100% but it's worth a try to throw this colour theme party!

We have also bought our balloons in advance from Balloon Buzz, some love theme decorations from Typo and at the moment we are in the process of preparing a small Thank You gift to all our beloved guests. It's not a big gift, just a little Thank You for showing your love :)

Cupcakes will be provided by Sunny Koh, my sister's best friend. He's a very experience chef based in Sydney Australia and moving back to Kota Kinabalu so he decided to help design our engagement cupcakes! Yay!

*excited*

From the bride to be :)

Lingerie for Wedding?

why not? :)

Engagement Party Venue

It's confirmed.

Thank you so much Hyatt Regency Kinabalu Hotel for letting us celebrate this once in a lifetime moment at their beautiful newly renovated swimming pool area. We are truly excited and can't wait to start planning on the decorations. We love your menu selections as well, perfect fit for a simple engagement such as ours but with taste and full of love.

Thank you once again.

From a very happy bride to be.

Pre-Wedding Videographer - Found!

We have found the perfect guy for this! His name is Gordon Ling. Thanks to Norman for introducing him to us. I really love his work and his style.

You can check his work here: http://gordonlingfilm.tumblr.com/

We're going to skype meeting soon. Suppose to meet up but timing seem to clash and he's at Sunway and my car hasn't arrive yet. So skype will do :)

Love,

A Happy Bride To Be.

Pre-Wedding Video Ideas

so our video should look something like this... maybe.

The start of the video will have both of us walking by the beach side by side. Then one of us will start to describe the moment we first met, which still remain a secret until today. It's actually really really funny!

And... that's all i can think of for now. Then maybe clips of James snoring :P

Background music should be non-lyrics type, but more towards like a movie soundtrack. I don't want my wedding video to be associated to any pop band singer anyway.

I am hoping to get this shoot done before the engagement party. And best to have videographer from KL to so we can road trip to the closest beach. Video time estimate about 5 minutes like that.

Should be fun shooting :)

Still looking for a our type of videographer.

Loads of love,

from the bride who wants a pre-wedding video by the beach :P

Cupcakes Ideas

This is what we have in mind :)

If you can do this, please let me know asap! Good business for ya hehe :P

Loads of love,

A Happy Bride that wants cupcakes for her engagement :)

Kisses!

I like this idea for the engagement :)

My first bridal magazine!

First time bride with her first bridal magazine! :)

Current Updates

Well, we're having some choices about the venue for the engagement party besides my parents home. Thinking if do outside also not too bad can be less of hassle in terms of decorations, catering and cleaning up after party. Plus can get indoor places with air con because I know how warm it gets in KK and sometimes heavy rain with strong winds at night. So unpredictable. Better play it safe.

Hyatt Regency Kinabalu Poolside with long tables

We trying to get Hyatt Regency Kinabalu Hotel. They are my first choice because they have been supporting so much especially during the time I organized the pageant few years back. It's not going to be a big fat one. The best part is I don't have that many friends so my guest list is so small but my family is huge!!! So majority of the guests are my families and most of my cousins already married with kids and the family is still growing :)

I am also currently looking at cupcakes. I want cupcakes. I want all the sweet tooth lovey dovey stuff. Pretty flowers. I found this flower wrist from one of those florist website. It's so beautiful! Thought of getting this for my engagement party :)

love the colors!

It's a bit difficult for me to organized things in KK when I am in KL, so I am depending a lot on my sister to help me sort some things out. Well at least we already found our wine supplier! Hahahaha... alcohol first huh? Well wine is actually good for you! :P

Until then. Happy Labour's Day!

Love,

A Very Happy Bride to Be :)

My Maid of Honour

Will be my one and only sister. Her name is Stephanie Stella Lai. Please contact her if you would like to introduce your company that is in relation to what we need for the engagement and the wedding.

You can leave your message here for her to get in touch with you, or if you know her personally, just feel free to give her a buzz!!!

Thank you.

From the bride to be xoxo

Designer Dress

Kronenbourge 1664 fashion show 2012 by Justin Yap

I found my designer already. Justin Yap of course! An award winning Malaysian Fashion Designer. I have known him for so many years now and I have just asked him to be my wedding dress designer, and he said yes! Wooohooo!!! Feels like i'm proposing to him... Hehehe :P

He is now in Singapore, so I will be meeting up with him as soon as he returns to Kuala Lumpur so we can discuss how I should look for the engagement and the wedding.

This can only mean for a very serious business... Thank you so much Justin for saying yes!

Loads of love,

Bride to be...

Engagement Checklist for Kota Kinabalu

Okay, I'm so new to this. Duuuhhh.... I have been googling some checklist. So apparently we are good with timing. It says that the engagement party should be organized few months after the proposal. We choose the 1st engagement party to be on the 7th July 2012 for Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Although, we do wish to have his families to come for Kota Kinabalu engagement but due to geographical challenges it's difficult... So that is why we are having two engagement party before the wedding.

Checklist for Kota Kinabalu.

Seven to Four weeks:

1. Guest List

2. Engagement card design

3. Send out invitation

4. Planning Menu

5. Find Caterer

Four to Two weeks:

1. Decorations

2. Shop for Necessary Decorations

3. Confirm Food and Beverages

4. Choose Photographer and Videographer

5. Pick a Dress! *my favourite part*

One week:

Just remain calm and drink more vodka! Hahaha... imma just kidding...

...and the rest, we just hope for the best that everything will fall into place on the day! Hahah! So since my sister is my maid of honour, she should get busy already! Love you so much my one and only sister! Muakkkss!!!

Countdown: 67 Days to 7th July 2012, our 1st Engagement Party in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

From the bride to be.

Proposal and Engagement

The Proposal:

It was done on the 24th April 2012 during our short trip to Koh Samui, Thailand. He proposed to me the traditional way, super sweet... On his knees and pop the question with the ring in his hands. My reaction; shocked, speechless and happy... and of course I said yes!!! I knew this would happen because we have been talking about it for some time. My eyes was all watery but he did not notice and I try to hide it. But I was mostly smiling and laughing all the way and so was he. We are just so comfortable with each other. It just feels so right!

The Perfect Engagement Ring:

I have always, always wanted a Sapphire. It's my birthstone (September) and I just love the royal blue colour. So James bought a Sapphire ring 18k Gold surrounded by 6 tablet cut diamonds. It's beautiful! It was perfect!

Telling Our Parents:

I told my parents on the 27th April 2012 and he told his parents on the 28th April 2012 (due to time zone difference). Both parties are truly excited about the good news! My mom already plan to repaint the house before the engagement :)

Next step:

Basically, it will be the engagement. Why have one party instead of two, right? So that's why we're planning to have two engagement party. The first one will be about 3 months from now which will be held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Then the second one will be in December which will be in Bristol, UK.

Currently nothing is confirmed yet. We are still planning everything step by step. I'm really nervous and excited. A bit worried also. I guess it's normal to feel a bit disorientated at the early stage of planning.

If you have any suggestion and recommendations for caterers, decorators, photographers, videographer or even bakers for cakes stuff... please please please, do introduce them to me. Preferable them to be based in Sabah, unless they don't mind the travel. Thanks!

That's all for today.

Loads of love from the bride to be :P