Tips + Ideas

Wedding Ideas

Where does a would-be bride go to for some good recommendations on vendors and wedding ideas? Overseas, there are heaps of wedding portals to visit for ideas, but when it comes to finding vendors who would actually make those cute-little-couple-kissing-salt&pepper-shaker wedding favours you’ve been eyeing in Malaysia, it’s hard to find. Here are two recommendations for Wedding portals that you should definitely check out (click on the logo to visit their site). Of course, Stories by Integricity Visuals is in their directory listing! :)

The directory listing in Weddings Malaysia encompasses every aspect of a wedding. From cake vendors, make up artists, where to go to for a spa, decorations, even finding a Master of Ceremony… you can find it under one ‘roof’ or rather, under one website in Weddings Malaysia. The person behind Weddings Malaysia, Kris Wong, is also the man who spearheads That Special Occasion, a boutique that churns out beautiful wedding gowns.

Wedding Guide Asia was started by Stephanie Chai, who decided that hip Malaysian brides needed a space to find good, trustworthy advice and ideas for her wedding. Wedding Guide Asia is a wedding portal catered for the Asian bride who wants something a little more stylish and unique for her wedding. You can find articles ranging from fashion to planning to honeymoons.

Sometime soon, I will be blogging a little about my wedding 4 years ago, and how some ideas started. Alex and I went all out in getting our wedding favours from Bangkok Thailand, and assisted the help of our maids and family members in preparing it! And we partially handmade our wedding invites – all 1000 of it. Yup, we had 3 wedding receptions and there were about 1000 people to invite! Now that I look back at it, it was a crazy decision to do it, but we had fun in the process. I am glad that Alex is the kind of man who is interested in the wedding planning process! But more on that in another post!

Alex Lam In Musings, Relationships, Tips + Ideas

Techie wedding features an iPad and an iPhone

Well, Steve Jobs has done it again – creating lust in the hearts of many with the newly launched Apple iPad. This couple got married and had lots of Apple product branding featured. No, I don’t think Apple is going to give them money for their video, though.

Many mixed comments were hurled on YouTube, but let’s just relax and let them have their special day the way they chose. Watch and enjoy.

Alex Lam In Musings, Relationships, Tips + Ideas

Need proposal ideas? How creative can you get?

Late one evening, I sat with my back toward the dark skies, fresh from a thunderstorm, still clad in my office attire at the office. I was doing heavy research into flash player functionality and surfing YouTube as a reference site.

Randomly, I clicked on this proposal video that looked vaguely interesting and voila… my research faded into nothingness as it took precedence on my screen. Soon, 2 other colleagues crowded around my Mac to watch this heart-warming proposal.

My favourite part is where they strip off their blue t-shirts to reveal the white ones.

It is a tad shaky, but the content is great – believe me. Enjoy!

Grace Tan In Musings, Tips + Ideas

New Creative Ideas for Wedding Cards

Kelvin and Cathryn are 2 really creative people. Kelvin is a talented musician and heads One Accord Sdn Bhd as the 1a.m. director. 1a.m has come up with a few albums and their style of music is contemporary and fun with meaningful lyrics. Cathryn is a pastor at Eagle Point Covenant Fellowship (ECF). In quite a number of weddings, I have seen Pastor Cat officiating the wedding, or saying grace before meals. But this time, it’s her turn to be married, and walk down the aisle! So Wedding Story is really excited to be a part of such a special wedding this 14th of March 09. We will be filming and photographing this momentous occasion.

It comes with no surprise then, having 2 such creative people come up with an equally interesting wedding invite! Their wedding theme is about God’s grace, and the invite resembles a movie poster.

kelvin_cat
Photo credit: Benjamin Foong, Direction: Kareem Koh

As it says on the card (the pic is a bit small):
On the outside, it looks like things are falling apart. On the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without His unfolding grace.

We will be doing a special interview with them soon to incorporate their life story into their wedding video. We love new creative ideas! If you are an engaged couple, come talk to us about your ideas and we are excited to turn it into a reality. Don’t just settle for the normal ways of doing things. Why not create an entire movie campaign for your wedding? Want to create a poster like this? Let’s talk about it!

Grace Tan In Musings, Tips + Ideas

Investment of a Lifetime

Whenever I talk to a couple or friends about their upcoming wedding plans, the first thing they usually moan about is the cost of having a wedding. Yeah, no doubt you’ll be spending thousands of dollars on this one occasion, and though I don’t recommend any couples starting off their marriage in debt, I still think that it’s an event worth saving up for.

As one of my clients said to me recently, “It’s the biggest party I’ll ever get to throw in my lifetime! I MUST be interested in it.” He also said most of his friends commented that it’s usually the women who go shopping for vendors, who are interested in who the photographer is, want to plan the little details etc etc. Usually guys are the ones forking out the cash, and leave most of the decision making to their future brides.

His response?

“If I am going to spend that much money on an event, I’d better know where my money goes, and be assured that what I am spending on is worth it.”

How true. Usually when couples come to Wedding Story for a consultation, they need to take some time to think about whether to invest in our services. We don’t hurry a couple to make a decision on the spot because we understand that it is a big decision, and the couple may need time to think through things, move budgets around and talk about it. We even tell our couples to shop around until they are certain about what they want!

So when they return to us a 2nd time, we know that they are keen on our services because they like the quality of our work.

So here are some of our tips on how to manage your finances for your wedding:

1. Talk things through with your fiance and see how much you are willing to spend overall on the wedding. No point having big plans that cannot be achieved financially. Or worse still, arguing over money matters.

2. Start shopping around so that you know the market price for various necessities – eg photography, videography, flowers, gowns, etc. Best to set a realistic budget for each category so that you are not disappointed in the long run.

3. Determine what is your priority for each category. Are you willing to sacrifice RM1000 on the budget for a tailor made gown so that you can hire the photographer of your choice? What are the creative ways to save money? For example, maybe you can think of creative ways to make your own wedding favour instead of buying expensive gifts.

4. Set aside a wedding fund from the moment you are engaged. Better still, have a separate bank account from your normal savings account so that the both of you can bank in a set amount each month. That way, you’ll be forced to save for the wedding. And no withdrawals for any other usage other than wedding expenses!

5. Create a wedding blog or website and share with your friends and family about the kind of gifts they can give you (other than ang pow). Perhaps you might find a rich relative living in the UK who is willing to sponsor your videography costs!

6. Eat Maggi Mee at least three times a week till your big day to save money on normal food expenditure. *Haha, ok we’re kidding on this!*

Alright, if any of you has any other tips to share, do write a comment so that we can all learn from it. Happy shopping!

-Grace-