Alcoholic

乜妳地頂得順妳老公做007/男兒當自強/MIB角色來接新娘咩? 我就唔得喇，所以我搵左第二間公司影.... i think it's called fairy tale production.

as for wedding pictures, we used HEE, and we are 120% super satisfied with the quality and the style. i would strongly recommend HEE for pictures.

[ 本帖最後由 Alcoholic 於 2008-4-14 23:52 編輯 ]

Alcoholic

beatrice,
to be honest, HEE is a bit pricy, especially for us Chinese people. my package (with one really nice photo album, over 800 shots, 10 hr day, 2 dvd of all pics on file) was $3000 approx, which, as i said, is pricy for "Chinese company". But again, i like their style: romantic, artistic, and "sweet" feeling... nothing "作裝" (aka bailey video style). it's a mixture of chinese/western style photography. the outcome is very elegant, & classy. hmm.... but because my hubby and i really like their style, we still think it's totally worth the price. my family, and even my coworkers (i took the album to work), they were all stunned.

I've been to wedding fairs (2 years) before i got married. I honestly don't like the Chinese "嫉" style. yet the western style is too "藝術" for me & my hubby. So that's why for our taste, i think HEE is the most suitable....combination of chinese/western style.

as for Videography, as i say, i used Fairytale Production. the style is touching & romantic. i don't want any 007/MIB joke in my wedding. my package with Fairytale was approx. $1600. it includes 2-3 DVD with cover, 2 videographers. my wedding banquet is western in a downtown hotel, and we did not have a "day-of projection slide show"....because my hubby and i also think it's pathetic to show childhood pictures & naked baby pictures to 200 people. Overall, we're satisfied. but there is room for improvement.... don't know how to explain. hehe.... but i would say we're very satisfied too.

katamari,
i would say i did spend alot on my wedding compared to the average chinese couples.
the big expenses on the list would be the following:
- 180 people banquet at the Pan Pacific Hotel $21K
- Hee photography $3000
- 2 wedding dresses (one is $1200, one is $3000. but i had no evening gowns)
- Wedding planner $2000 (i had to, because my friends are not responsible, reliable, dependable enough)
- FairyTale Productions $1600
- Wedding cake from Cupcakes $500
- Flowers $2000 (but my flowers were absolutely stunning. nothing like the 求其 flowers at a typical chinese wedding... it's light green orchids, peachy big roses, etc... on every table, all the "kum花", bouquet, and i had 2 large arrangements at the front of the aisle when i had my ceremony outside the hotel, on their poolside deck)
- wedding pictues in HK 羅浮宮 $4000 CAD

with other miscellaneous stuff my ENTIRE wedding was.... $70K CAD (including airfare going to HK to buy wedding stuff & take the hk wedding pics).

[ 本帖最後由 Alcoholic 於 2008-4-15 18:54 編輯 ]

Alcoholic

beatrice,
congratulations to you
you don't need to admire my wedding. as long as you're marrying the love of your life, your wedding will always be memorable no matter if it's a small or big wedding!

i wouldn't be too cheap for photos & videos. even if it's not much use in the future, at least if you do it, you won't regret right? so just try the best to keep everything into your budget lor...

Alcoholic

原帖由 Catpiano 於 2008-4-15 09:54 PM 發表
21K for 180 people ?

How many year ago ar ??

2006 lor~
most of our guests are not alcoholic
and we gave the hotel a "max # of bottle" for each red and white wine to open anyways.
we don't want our pretty wedding to turn into an orgy of drunkies ya mah we've seen some out of hand drama @ some of my hubby's friend's wedding...

in terms of western style wedding, it's not THAT pricy wedding.
but being CHINESE having a wedding, i do agree that my wedding was splurging in some areas lor...

no method la, i really don't wanna dress in rainbow color 晚裝 & do a fashion show for my guests at a chinese dinner banquet. & i don't like the quality of food provided by chinese restaurants. most importantly, i don't like the 氣分 of having a chinese banquet. not romantic at all!!!! & it's like a show...not like sharing happiness.
the only people that we know that is chinese that had a banquet more expensive than ours was one of my hubby's friend. they had banquet @ Kirin Richmond Center. ding.... EACH guest have their own 盅仔翅，own 鮑魚， the appetizer cold plate had clams! works out to over $110 per head of guest! 唔值得囉。。。not including wine yet wor.... the taste of the food is okay. of course better than most chinese banquet restaurants la, 收得咁既價錢. but still, if you pay $110 to go eat sharkfin & abalone, you will expect the taste to be better. but you can't expect much when they're mass produce cooking right? and Richmond Kirin 個場地唔好. so many 柱, many tables don't have good view at all. actually, we barely saw the head table.

so, i rather have nice 西餐，好好睇睇, 氣分浪曼，酒店各調喇~ & i picked a choice of menu that is still suitable for 老人家 to eat. my 婆婆都話好食，清哂碟！for my 180 people, including wine, divided per head is $110 approx. my room had ocean view... including ceremony outdoors on their poolside deck, facing the ocean of North/West Vancouver.

好懷念結婚個日。。。hehe

[ 本帖最後由 Alcoholic 於 2008-4-15 22:34 編輯 ]

Alcoholic

原帖由 tsumorichisato 於 2008-4-15 10:34 PM 發表
seriously now the chinese restaurants are charging like crazy.. my friend told me a very ordinary menu (will have to upgrade for sure) for a 2008 wedding is over 700CAD, it's not even Kirin or Shiang  ...

really? chinese restaurants banquets jacked up the price to $700ish/table ar? OMG...

hehehe... i agree with you on the buffet part. my hubby 形容 buffet as "要老人家排隊拎兜派米"
at another one of my hubby's friend's wedding, they had buffet lunch at the Sutton Place hotel. the way that couple made each table of guest to get food was....not so good. they had a DRAW of table #'s. if your table get's drawn out first, you get to go first. 勁唔大睇囉。 besides, buffet, they don't refill enough. eventually, it's pretty empty, they stop bringing out more food, & eventually it's still 唔好睇。

so that's why i didn't choose buffet, i had plated dinner (guests chooses entree on their RSVP card). besides, buffet is not cheap either. just per head before wine is min $70!!!!
since i chose plated dinner, it made me do EXTRA work. not only i must confirm all attending guests, i had to confirm EACH guest's choice of entree. having to know what each person chose, i needed to make place-cards with some sort of color code so that the waiters know which entree to serve each guest. and i made all those by hand. cus if you give the hotel exact # of each plate ahead of time, it's not as expensive compared to letting the guests choose on the day of the wedding.

& since alot of elders don't eat beef, my choice for entree was either salmon, or chicken. but it was so 正~ the quality at the tasting session matched up to the quality on the day of my wedding. each plate was really a-la-minute. & the chicken was not 乾. the fish was not 猩. the flavor western 得黎，我亞婆亞嬤亞公都肯食，仲清碟。i was very surprised & satisfied. the dessert was so good too!

so overall, i was very satisfied with Pan Pacific in terms of service, location, decor, quality of food.

[ 本帖最後由 Alcoholic 於 2008-4-15 22:55 編輯 ]

Alcoholic

tsumori,

*sigh*
back then, i still remember when i was in hk looking for invitations, i was unsatisfied with ALL (yes, i mean it) the invitations that i've seen from TST, MK all the wedding shopping centers. all the invitations in hk were either:
- Chinese style: red or gold color with HUGE 喜喜 or 公仔wearing chinese traditional wedding garment
- so-call Westeran style: Precious Moment 公仔 on the cover.
dammit, i don't want mine to be like that lor!

eventually, i went to a company in Wan Chai, i sat at the store for TWO HOURS, & i drew my own orchid invitation cover & picked the peachy Pantone color that i had in mind on the spot. before i went back to hk, i had already written out the contents of the invitation, & designed my own RSVP card layout so that guests have the option to pick an entree, with space to specify which name with which entree.

it's so frustrating because since i did western banquet, the invitation HAD to go out 3 months prior (so i have enough time to confirm all guests with their entree). then the chinese traditional people will always ask why i give it out so early, blah bleh blaaa.... so annoying.

my placecards, i DIY myself. i saw an idea from a bridal magazine that i loved so much, that i was determined to do it. it was actually tags with name of guests & crystals hanging from it. so when i was in hk, i made a trip to Shum Shui Po to buy plastic beads (of course i can't afford to put a huge @$$ swarovski crystal on 180 tags la. made a color coding system out of it, & 自己串珠仔   the brown hearts was for chicken, the green tear drop was for salmon. & in order to display my "place cards nicely", i had to DIY 4 boards to display at the reception, & hung each card with a pin. so guests can be given out their own placecards by my reception helpers.

HEE so expensive now la? $4000?! i remember going through like 8 freelance profile albums & decided that freelance is not my type of choice. they were relatively cheaper, from $800+ back 2 years ago.

hmm... everything is so expensive. after my wedding, we didn't go on a honeymoon cus no time & no money. so we made it up going last October to Hawaii as our 1st year wedding anniversary lor

[ 本帖最後由 Alcoholic 於 2008-4-16 11:32 編輯 ]

Alcoholic

tsumori,
i tried to upload pics of my invitations & cards here. but dunno why, it won't load up the page. i already sized down my file

the placecards... imagine this:
- a 1.5" square, cut from white cardstock (with printed guest name table #)
- i used those decorative sissors to cut them out, so they have an edge
- the little square is actually in "diamond shape"
- top point of the square, i hole punched it with a small hole-puncher, & tied a thin light peach ribbon on it, & tied a knot (so it's a loop, so i can hang it from a tiny pin later after i make the display boards)
- the bottom point of the square, i also hole punched it. but i used craft wire (thin gold coating), & i 串左 one small grayish plastic bead approx 1cm, & on the bottom of that bead was either a larger brownish plastic heart-shape bead, or a larger light greenish tear drop bead. the heart/tear shape bead is approx the size of a loonie. all the plastic beads are transparent, moulded as if it had crystal cutting.

so the end product is like a very pretty hanging christmas ornament in some way lor.

the boards that i made, i went to Michael's & bought a 2cm thick styrofoam poster board that has a hard cardboard top layer (need styrofoam so i can pin the hanging placecards on by the peachy ribbon). then i went to fabricana, bought green satin finish fabric. but also bought a golden sheer fabric. i wrapped the green satin one over the board. use heavy duty staple & stapled it along the sides of the board. then used the golden sheer as over lay on top of the green satin, & staple it also. at Michael's there's ribbon that's actually a coil of wire with transparent irrediscent (excuse my spelling). i hand bent big flowers. secure the shape with glue gun. i also glue-gun together flowers made of the heart/tear shaped beads used on the placecards into flowers. i put all the flowers together on the corners, on the sides of the fabric board. will in the spaces with a cream color tulle (also from Michaels). & i pinned each hanging place cards in horrizontal rows on the poster board, by each table i assigned seating.

very long description. i hope you can imagine it...HAHAHAHAHAHA

I remember in 2006 Bailey ain't that cheap either. so we were more determined to find a videographer with a style that we like. i don't want family members to do amateur taping. you know... as i said before, i don't wanna regret! so some money, can't really save lor in my opinion.

I'm the type that i know exactly what i want. very picky. so it makes me not able to delegate it to somebody else to help me out. but good thing is, i enjoyed very much planning 90% of my own wedding, it makes it so memorable.

[ 本帖最後由 Alcoholic 於 2008-4-16 12:53 編輯 ]

Alcoholic

hmmm....
i spent insane hours putting it together. but the outcome im satisfied because i did it, thus i can make it the exact way i want it. and i'm very detailed in doing the whole thing.... no method la. if you want it, you need to do it with your own hands. if it doesn't turn out the way you want it to be, you can only blame yourself for not enough efforts, & not to blame others.....

aside from my planning notebook, i was insane enough to make excel spread sheets for the following:
- budget planning
- actual spending
- contact list of vendors
- timeline to remind how much deposit i paid, & when i paid
- ideal schedule of the day of wedding
- guestlist with columns (name, relationship, designated table #, title written on invitation, how many 餅卡 was given, replied yet, entree choice)
- another guestlist for my reception to use, with #-ing system to put a sticky note on the card/人情 that my reception will receive, whether the gift is from groom side or bride side.

so if you any of you brides want a template, i can send you a copy to use as an sample LOL



[ 本帖最後由 Alcoholic 於 2008-4-16 15:27 編輯 ]

Alcoholic

原帖由 beatrice 於 2008-4-16 09:43 PM 發表
OMY, can't belive so many tasks needed to get prepared which I have never imagined before!!

The time and effort input for wedding are so huge and I really need to plan in more details for my BIG  ...

傻婆~
Tsumorichisato 好似嫁左架喇~~~~係咪丫???

Alcoholic

ok. then i'm the 傻婆
cus in the other thread, you listed out so many things that beatrice asked, so i thought you're married already!!!! waaakakakak
btw, i sent jor 3 pics to your email la