fibbi

First Congrats to Beatrice! The bride-to-be!

Wow...this post brought back all the sweet memory of my wedding too...

My wedding day photographer is referred by my husband's coworker. He and his wife did a very good job! I got almost 2000 pic and his wife is very detailed oriented. She helps me with my wedding dress during the ceremony. She used the big reflector to block the sun for me while her husband is setting up the camera. That day is super hot, like 30C and the sun is super strong! I really appreciate she did all that for me!

Videography: we do watch the video in the first half year (when friends come over), but after that..yeah..we seldom watch it. So the videography to me is more for entertaining purpose. I had Bailey as the videographer. His same-day editing skill is great (the highlight video that shows during the banquet)! But compare to the end product ...the end product is just taking forever to come and not as great as the highlight. But I think it serves the purpose, it's fun and entertaining. The audience (those aunt uncles) love it.

Venue: Both parents do prefer Chinese food so the dinner definitely is Chinese banquet style. Yeah I serve the fancy menu that Alcoholic mentioned in Richmond Kirin. At that time (2 years ago) the menu itself is $80/person plus tip/tax etc. la. But then, I still think Chinese food price is better...consider there are 12 courses in Chinese but only 3 courses menu (or buffet) in Western menu. The Richmond Kirin hall may not be the best (yeah there are poles) and not romantic enough. I know some guests may not see the headtable. Hopefully they see us better in the day time ceremony! I had the ceremony and cocktail party in golf club ballroom.

The pre-wedding picture in Lo cha, invitation printed from HK, wedding favour from HK as well, flower and decoration...plus lots of misc stuff. The wedding itself really costs a lot! That amount of $ could have used as down payment for the house!! Still, we don't regret la..it's a once-a-life-time memory!

tsumorichisato

Alocholic,

I can totally feel your pain cuz I am doing the exact same thing as you did. Preparing 3 different sets of place cards, setting up choices menu on RSVP, printing the menu cards, communicating w/ the venue about the # of plates..

But this makes a best reason for forcing the guests to RSVP, I can get an accurate number of guests coming.

I guess now HEE charges around 4K already. Everything just getting up in terms of price.

Everyone has their own preference of their dream wedding. Some brides like me and alcoholic prefer a warm and romantic wedding where some brides like fibbi enjoys a traditional and lively wedding.

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 ]

tsumorichisato

Wow, I can imagine how nice the place cards they were. Would you mind elaborate more about how to hang the cards on your DIY boards? I still need to think of way to display them nicely. U know the typical way is to just put them on the tables around reception area but how would my helpers be able to figure out who should get which card rite???

Even Bailey charges 1600+ so u can tell how steep the better ones are. The videographer was originally 2400 but this year he jacked up to 3000ish, like a 1K difference. I was like OMG, forget about videography then.

We have printed out the invitations in hk, too. My mom also complains that why I need to send them out so soon. Again similar to you, 2.5months ahead. Because I send them save the date notice already and they have replied me they will be going so fine I'm just able to accomodote my mom's request not sending out the formal invites that early (but still 2 months ahead).

I didn't have too much time spending on invitations when we were in hk. We just picked a fairly simple card and request to put our wedding monogram on. Nice and easy, well...at least not very "leung" lor.

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 ]

tsumorichisato

OMG How much time were you putting onto this thing? I can totally imagine how sophisticated when they all came together. I really wish to steal your board idea, do you mind PM me the picture?

I know what you mean cuz I can't delegate tasks to my wedding party, too. 90% of the planning i did it  myself. It's stressful sometimes but overall I love to prepare the dream wedding for us.

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 ]

fibbi

原帖由 Alcoholic 於 2008-4-16 15:25 發表
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 meth ...

So I"m not the only one to make those template. I have almost the same templates as yours! Each of my bridesmaid/groomsman has a copy of timeline, vendor contact number, a list of their own contact number so they can call each other while need help...
Excel spreadsheet for the guests: sorted by table number, sorted by last name, sorted by first name...

tsumorichisato

I am doing those spreadsheets,too....except I didn't really keep track of how much I actually spent

fibbi

原帖由 tsumorichisato 於 2008-4-16 18:02 發表
I am doing those spreadsheets,too....except I didn't really keep track of how much I actually spent

I don't like keeping track too...but my husband insists...coz he's the one who pay all the expense! So he would make sure we don't over spent.