Tips on getting down on Wedding

After 8 years down the journey, my Mr Right proposed at Huka Falls to me.

In the 9th year, we are tying the knots and settling down on our wedding ceremony.

There are so much to consider and we both know we started a little late.

To all couples out there, I created a list of things to consider/plan for your wedding, hoping that this would help you along the way.

• Setting your ROM date and Wedding date

Some people may do it on the same date but some may prefer to have their ROM date as their special day, while the wedding date just needs to fall on the weekend. I do the latter as my anniversary happens to be on a weekday and we want it to be special.

• Registering your ROM date

• Confirming the wedding date with your families

• Set a rough budget for each of the expenses, E.g. Engagement Photography $3k, Banquet Dinner $20k.

This would really help you while you are sourcing for vendors. It can be quite frustrating in the process, like Oh no, I like this but it's over my budget. So both of you need to ask each other, are you willing to up the budget, or find another one. If it's not over by too much, I would say you can consider.

• Find out which venue would suit your style and what would you like to see in the venue

Well, wedding is never easy. Myself too. I thought I should keep it as simple as possible. But ideas keep pouring into my mind. You can only do this once in your lifetime! (I mean we all say this to ourselves and hopefully this stays through :)

At first, I really like Crowne Plaza Changi Airport because of the pillar-less and tall ceiling feel. It feels very modern and high. It doesn't have anything jutting out of the ceiling like a chandelier. So we explore the idea, I did send e-mail to them enquiring about their wedding show, but no reply came. We went on exploring for others. Till, we found one that blow our mind away and that's the one! I shall not reveal it yet but I promise to post some photos till the day comes :)

• List down your invitees and number of invitation cards required

This is really important as you need this to find a venue. Some venues accept a minimum number of guests. So you need a rough estimate of guests you would have. Not to forget, you have to include your VIP table as well.

I learn something about invitation card. I have an elder sister who is married, so I thought I don't have to send a card to her since she's my immediate family. But, no! You have to send ONE to her as she is considered married off to her husband, so you have to address the card to her husband and his family/wife. So this applies to all who are married, whether you are the brother/sister.

• If your venue does not provide dinner, you would have to source for wedding caterer. (Like me!)

If you are not picking a hotel or restaurant which provides dinner, you have to out-source to wedding caterers. There are a few out there. If you are a muslim, no worries, you have Orange Clove Wedding and Rasel Catering.

• Engagement Photography

This should be done at least 3-4 months before your Wedding date if you want to show people. It is also called Pre-wedding Photography in Singapore. There are a few ways to do this. You can either hire a photographer and a make-up artist (MUA) yourself and rent a few gowns and suits, do the shoot locally or your preferred overseas destination. Or you can look for a bridal shop which has all the services.

There are Pros and Cons here and there. We went back and forth on this. And we settled on bridal shop. Simply because of the cost, package and album design. I'm not asking you to do the same as me as everyone has their own preferences. We like how the album from the bridal shop looks and the range of gowns to choose from. But bridal shop gives you limited number of images to print, whereas if you have your own photographer, you probably get back all soft copies and have 40~50 photos to print in the album.

• Look for ideas of your ideal wedding gown before you rent or purchase one

Everyone would have their own likes and dislikes and what suits them. There are many different type of designs/material.
Material: Do you want satin or chiffon?
Length/train: Do you want it short or long or very long?
Design of the top: Do you want gown with sleeve/sleeveless/halter neck/small sleeve/straight tube across the chest/scallop at the chest area?
Design of the bottom: Short Dress/Long Dress/Ball Gown/Mermaid etc.

• Decide your photos style

Do you want the classic indoor studio? Or fun, outgoing? Or romantic? With lots of props? With lots of background?

Communicate with your photographer before your photoshoot to let him have a better understanding of you. We made the effort to make an appointment to meet our photographer. My partner doesn't like solo shoots as he feels it's boring. He likes it fun and natural while I likes it romantic. Our photographer took note of these and he took great care of it.

• Decide your photoshoot venue

Do your research if you really want your photos to turn out the way you want. Your photographer may suggest a few places to you but you have to love it. We made the effort of listing down the venues we like and we communicated with the photographer. He made some comments and it helped. Some places need permission to take photo while some have charges.


I hope the tips above would help all brides and bridegrooms. This is not all... We have a Part-Two. When you are done with the above, go on to Part-Two.