Vendor Reviews: Catering, Decor, Entertainment

Ahhhhh at last! Publish jugak ini blog entry kan hahahahaha dagu boleh berjanggut and rambut boleh beruban kan tunggu for this entry to get published? Hur hur hur.

Anyway, as promised in my previous entry, let the review series begin! :D

Let's start the review series with three heavyweight champions okay - iaitu catering, decor and entertainment.

Okay lah, Saliheen and I regard these three as heavyweight items for our wedding lah, maybe you and your partner punya definition of heavyweight is different from us. Manalah tau, barang dulang is more important to you all because you kasi sebiji motor as dulang item to your partner ke... kan considered heavyweight tu. 

Catering By Puteri Wedding Services

Services: Wedding Catering

Company: Puteri Wedding Services

Email: puteri.fariq[at]hotmail[dot]com

 Facebook: Puteri Wedding Services

Website: Puteri Wedding Services

I first wrote about engaging Puteri Wedding Services here.

I seriously don't think I can rave enough on how good the food and service by Puteri Wedding Services (PWS) was!!!!! I love their presentation, I love the quantity and quality of their food, I love their service, I love everything lah.

Kan I wrote about having some time to rest, makan then change to our second outfit for our sanding reception? We actually directed one of our orang kuat to bring us some food before we change into our 2nd outfit into our itinerary tau! Buttttt we didn't have to do that because less than five minutes after we went into the changing room, one of the budak kendarat from PWS brought up trays and trays of rice and dishes specially served for us :D

I was so pleasantly surprised and truly impressed, and I thought that was very proactive of PWS - don't know whether other caterers do this but I loved the gesture! Really make the pengantin feel like raja and permaisuri sehari, you know! Hehehehehe.

We only had one grievance with PWS (which we didn't get to mention to them personally because we didn't go to the post-wedding feedback session) and that was them not telling us in advance about needing a particular area of space for their dessert setup. It would have been better if they had asked us whether they can use that particular area of space instead of assuming that we will have that space ready for them.

There was a good reason why we kept confirming and double confirming with our vendors on the space that they needed, you know - the setup arrangement was particularly important to us because we had a few things to make space for for our wedding and had already agreed on the most ideal arrangement with our decorators beforehand. So for me to receive calls a day before the wedding, basically telling me we had to give up that space to make way for PWS threw me a little off-guard.

Then because of one area of space yang kita kena give up, we had to rombak balek the whole arrangement lor. But okaylah, thank you God for blessing me with quick decision making skills because I just told our decorators which tables to swop, which tables to sacrifice, swop here swop swop there terus settle the kettle.

I don't know whether there were shortcomings that guests might have felt while taking the food from the buffet lines or the quality of food itself but we've not received any complains (only sky high praises!) so as far as I'm concerned, Saliheen and I are very happy with the food at our wedding and the service provided by Puteri Wedding Services.

Plus the kendarat looked professional and were on the ball, and we loved that there were servers for the buffet lines to monitor the food, top up whatever's necessary and clean up any mess left behind by guests.

 

Decor & Dais By Kasai Sayang

Services: Decor & Dais

Company: Kasai Sayang

Email: kasaisayang[at]gmail[dot]com

Facebook: Kasai Sayang

Website: -

I first wrote about engaging Kasai Sayang here.

In case it isn't obvious, our colour scheme was white, pink and mint green (champagne was added into the mix by Kasai Sayang - it didn't clash terribly so we were okay with it and let it go) and we incorporated scallops!

Our initial idea was to have a white-based wedding with pops of rainbow colours (something like this and this and this) but we decided it might be too "childish" or "party-ish" for our parents to accept, so we changed to a white-based wedding with pops of blue, yellow, purple and pink idea instead.

But about a year before our wedding, we went down again to our venue, realized that the colours of our venue might clash with that mix (we weren't really sure and didn't want to risk it) and made the final change that we thought would match the colours of our venue better - teal and pink, which then evolved into mint and pink because:

(1) We realized it'd be better to have a shade lighter than teal so the decor tak tenggelam (kononnye ada contrast lah gitu); and

(2) We came across a lot of inspiration boards for mint and pink from our research lol so senang sikit ah nak refer (ni nampak sah case dah malas!)

So itulah dia, al-kisah warna warni Aidilfitri of our wedding~~~~~

(Well, honestly, if you want me to terus terang as to whether those two colours were my dream wedding colours, I'd tell you a straight 'No." 

If we were given full free rein of our wedding colour scheme, without having to bear our parents' preferences and feelings in mind + if we were able to find a bare white-colored venue in Singapore that does not cost an arm and a leg and our freaking heads and does not have ten million "cannot do this" and "cannot do that" rules, I'd have wanted a white-based wedding with pops of neon - something like this and this. 

But alas, the ridiculous limitations of planning a Malay wedding in Singapore have denied me of my ultimate dream wedding lolz)

But, anyway, back to our wedding decor and dais:

[Pictures by Kasai Sayang]

The centrepiece (?) in between our reception tables that helped create a distinction (this was before there were writings on the blackboard) and our sireh dara, also by Kasai Sayang! So pretty, we ended up lugging the whole thing home hehe. There's another huge one in white but I can't seem to find a picture. Meh. Oh, and that's the reception table for my side, before my sisters propped the sign up on a mini wooden easel bought from Art Friend.

Our bridal table:

I found out much later that our bridal table decor was done by none other than Fazly from Chic Factory Wedding!!! Tak dapat Chic Factory Wedding as our main decorators pun takpe lah, at least dapat bridal table done up by the talent himself right :D 

(Chic Factory Wedding was one of our top choices but we took them off the list after they decided to stop doing weddings in 2012 boohoo)

 

 Some pictures by our official photographers, Bliss Photocinema:

The last picture is of the dais without the kerusi at the end of the night. Don't worry, it's missing not because the kerusi kena makan, the kerusi just kena drag aside for end-of-the-wedding pictures lololol.

Oh, and as you can see from pictures, we opted for a single chair instead of two separate ones because we wanted to be seated together for easier conversations on the pelamin HAHA. And entah lah, to have one chair instead of two is pretty symbolic, I guess? After all, the union is about two individuals getting together as one... right? Yang nak duduk lain lain tu dah kenape hahahahaha oh tak eh

Oh, and we were very happy when Kasai Sayang allowed us to use our own entrance arch!!!!! So sweet kan dorang. Before we asked them for permission, we actually expected them to say cannot seh, because some vendors are just very rigid and very particular about sticking to their own look or concept kan. But Kasai Sayang was different! Which was why we chose them as our decorators in the first place lah kan.

The reasons why we chose Kasai Sayang as our wedding decorators:

(1) We wanted a vendor who was flexible and would allow customization because we didn't want to choose a template design;

(2) We wanted decorators who were realistic - Saliheen and I were wary of overconfident vendors who will sweet talk their way though but then fall short at the end of it. Kasai Sayang was confident of doing up our wedding, but they brought us back to Earth by being transparent and telling us the limitations that we should be aware of, the technicalities and the realistic expectations that we should have, so that was the hook for us; and

(3) Kasai Sayang's rate was waaayyyyy within our budget. So ape lagi kan :D

Oh, and our wedding entrance arch was actually from this wedding:

(Source: Hafiz Ismail International Wedding & Portrait Photographer)

Suka sangat! I didn't realize this until I scrolled through our Instagram hashtag after the wedding but our guests actually used the white light coming from the bulbs to take great flawless pictures!!! (Kirakan you stand facing the light so it reflects nicely on you and gives you a very pretty glow) Pandai sangat eh korang seize the opportunity hahahahaha.

How our entrance arch looks like:

The entrance arch was built by my uncle yang memang suka bertukang, by the way - we weren't going to make Kasai Sayang build up a brand new arch just for us, what did you think we were, pengantinzillas???

If you'd like this arch for your own wedding, feel free to ask Kasai Sayang okay! We gave it away to Kasai Sayang so they can reuse for other weddings. Takde gunanye pun if we were to lug it back, takkan nak pasang depan bilik kot, siapa mau layan.

Anyway, I'd just like to say that Zahrin and Rashid of Kasai Sayang are really the sweetest vendors ever and I cannot thank them enough for their professionalism and kindness and for being such gems!!!!!

It sucked for us knowing that we subjected our decorators to our venue's rigid regulations - we got into a lot of issues with Singapore Silat Federation, you see, (I will blog about what happened in a separate entry because those bloody buggers need to have their own entry), which in turn affected Kasai Sayang's setup in a pretty major way :(

But considering the limitations that were imposed on them, I think Kasai Sayang managed well and great okay! And I really, really appreciate the awesome boys of Kasai Sayang for being really patient and really accommodating and understanding throughout the whole process.

Overall: Saliheen and I thought the decor was very lovely, the dais could have been improved but considering the limitations they had, it was good enough + they gave us the big open concept pelamin that we wanted and of course, their accommodating and friendly nature was the best of them all. So easy to work with them!

Music & Entertainment By Medialite

Services: Music & Entertainment
Company: Medialite
Contact No: 68714141 
Email: enquiries[at]medialite[dot]com[dot]sg
Facebook: 
Website: http://www.medialite.com.sg/

I first wrote about Medialite here. 

What can I say? I love love love absolutely LOVE Zan Sofiyan of Medialite.

Let's just say we might have missed telling them certain last minute changes and arrangements which caused a fair bit of kelam kabutness on their end (you have no idea how terrible we felt!!!) but Zan came out okay in the end (we hope!) and he was a true gem during the receptions!!! 

His delivery was flawless, he was proper and did not make silly inappropriate jokes and he was quick on his feet (as we expected) and I don't think we would have been this happy with any other emcees. Bummed we couldn't talk to him in person on the day itself so I think we owe him a Thank You email... soon!

 You can check their packages out here and find their contact here.

Okay I'm gonna cut this entry here because it has gone on for too long now, but more reviews coming right up!!!!!

Tapi tak tau ah bila akan dipublish, mungkin... tahun depan kot.

september be crazy

Crazy, crazy month so here's a quick, quick update on what's been happening!

Ever since September started, my mamat and I have been meeting every weekend to discuss and finalize all the nitty gritty details of our wedding and as exhausting (and sometimes frustrating) as it is, I actually find it really exhilarating to see everything start coming together! 

We took leave last week to sit down and discuss our ideas and expectations with the two lovely ladies of Dessert Artisans and the two great gentlemen of Kasai Sayang separately, and I've been texting with the super nice liaison person for Puteri Wedding Services fast and furious to pester him ask him about the floor layout lah, tables and chairs lah, ini lah itu lah... 

(Why cannot just dump all the vendors into one Whatsapp group chat and let them sort out their requirements amongst themselves ah haha)

Have also sorted out some stuff with our wedding emcee, the awesome Zan Sofiyan from Medialite - he cracks me up with his bersahajeness sometimes!

Anyway! One thing that's been bugging us to no end is the projector and screen issue for our dinner reception - we were supposed to get the projector and screen from our venue but sekarang..... aku pun dah malas ah nak cakap eh. 

So now we're going to source them out on our own - asked our videographers CST for contacts but didn't get the answer I wanted, asked Medialite but their contact charges at a whooping $500 for laptop, screen and projector. Thanks eh geng, $500 boleh kasi 35 orang makan kat majlis aku sak. Sungguh tak worth it, considering we're only using it to show a 5-minute wedding highlights video to our dinner guests. If we can't find a cheaper reliable alternative, we might just end up paying that extra $500 though :/ (This is what we mean by last minute extra payments!!!)

Have also emailed Compass to apply for permit to play music during our wedding, and booked a minibus for a 2-way trip from Million Bus so our orang orang kuat, MUA and photographers don't have to worry about driving to and fro our venue and photoshoot location on the day itself. Woohoo, super yay to clearing all the minor details out of the way!!! (Ingatkan boleh cari chance ambik one of the sweet rides from Kombi Rocks but tak make sense ah bayar anything more than $100+ for a transport arrangement of this nature)

Oh, we've also asked for a change in the colour of our cushions - XOXO & Co recently launched their new black chiavari chairs as well as new coloured cushions... got new cute colours!

(Source: Tiffany Chairs BY XOXO & Co)

Luckily dorang ada new colour that can match our colour scheme hehe :D

Next week will be particularly exciting period for us too - heading to Ishq by Nora Zee's boutique next Thursday for our fitting!!!!! Still undecided whether I should take half day leave so I can go home, rest and wash up first. Kalau pergi terus dari office nanti takut penat. And bacin.

Then next Saturday will be spent accompanying my bridesmaids to Manja to collect their bridesmaids' outfits (I hope you are all excitez, girls! Adalah requirement untuk bridesmaids aku to be excited about such things eh) before running through the itinerary with them. 

On Sunday pulak, we'll be attending a friend's wedding before sending our barang barang dulang over to Ola Lola... we be heading to Hougang, y'all!!! I think the last time aku jejak Hougang, primary schools masih pakai PETS coursebook sak.

My mat and I are also trying to settle our post-wedding staycation by this week - I think we've pretty much decided on Oasia Hotel but it's just a matter of whether we can take up their Weekend Savers promotion... already emailed the hotel so we're hoping for good news. Hehe best kan staycation! Kirakan warm up for two, three days before flying off for our honeymoon gitu :D

Oh, simple reason as to why we decided on Oasia Hotel by the way: It is very near to Saliheen's place... kes kalau buat standing broad jump tiga kali dah boleh sampai kind.  Tak bedek! (Okay lah, bedek sikit lah, kalau buat standing broad jump tiga kali dari rumah dia, at most boleh lepas rak rak kasut dia je ah hahaha)

The reason why we want to be near his place: We'll be bundling up and storing all the barang barang from the wedding (e.g. gift trays, barang dulang, etc) at his place right after the wedding so once that's done, his dad can drop us off at Oasia Hotel without having to drive too far or for too long. Kesian bapak pengantin, nak rehat jugak after the wedding kan! 

And since we need to go to his place after we check out from the hotel to angkat his barang barang and baju baju to be transported over to my place (since we'll be staying at my place while waiting for our BTO to be ready in 2014), it makes sense to book a hotel that is near his place ah.

Well... that wasn't such a quick update after all, was it? HAHA.

You know, I really kesian everyone on my social media feeds who have had to endure influx of wedding-related Instagram pictures and tweets from me for the past few weeks!  Promise all of this kahwing madness will be over in six and a half weeks, korang.

Can't believe two years of Kahwin Khronicles will be coming to an end, eh?

CHANGE

I previously mentioned that I'll blog about the change in one of our wedding service providers.

Jeng. Jeng. Jeng.

Hahaha ok lah tak perlu nak dramalah, let's keep it simple and keep it quick ok - the service provider that we've decided to change isssss...











... our service provider for entertainment.

That's right. Entertainment. Which is supposed to be - that's right - Sri Mahligai.

Before you all pikir bukan-bukan, let me explain what happened and why we've decided to change Sri Mahligai to something else.

It all started at Sham and Aisyah's wedding earlier this month.

(Yes, guys. Ni semua korang punya pasal ok!!! Hahahahaha.)

My future parents-in-law, who went to Sham and Aisyah's afternoon reception, were very impressed by the wedding emcee that the latter engaged for their reception. They really liked his eloquence and his steadiness in addressing a wedding crowd, and they were especially pleased with his mindfulness towards prayer timings and informing guests on the location of prayer rooms.

Even my mat and the rest of his friends thought the wedding emcee in question was a good speaker and handled the wedding proceedings well. But part yang paling penting that really appealed to them was: He did not make merepek lame jokes or inappropriate comments like some other wedding emcees that we've seen and heard at other weddings! Sejuk~~~ jantung aku dengar (a'ah dia ada telinga, boleh eavesdrop.)

It can be really painful to look and listen at some wedding emcees ok! Very cringeworthy. Everytime a wedding emcee cracks a joke yang inappropriate or tak kelakar - on a booming microphone, no less - I never know whether to force a laugh or cry in shame or yelp in extreme pain. Kadang kadang macam nak tolong dorang dig a hole for them to hide in pun ada.

My mat and I were talking about Sham and Aisyah's wedding when we started considering the idea of dropping Sri Mahligai and engaging the said wedding emcee instead. Our original idea was to get Sri Mahligai to help make general announcements for the reception (Sri Mahligai can make general announcements for receptions, it's stated somewhere on their website) but after talking it through, the idea of having an actual dedicated wedding emcee seemed to be more appealing.

Plus, his parents were really super duper keen on this dude, and my parents were super duper cool with the idea so after a quick discussion listing the pros and cons, we decided to take the plunge and engage Zan Sofiyan from Medialite as our wedding deejay/emcee!

(Without a goddamn karaoke set for all the mabuk microphone hantus to abuse! Woohoo! Very pleased that we didn't have to go to any perang dunia ke-tiga for this because our parents share our sentiments! Ok fine, my mother would have preferred to include the karaoke set but she's an excellent team player who goes with the majority vote so the motion to not have karaoke set was carried unanimously.

Fuh. Dah macam Annual General Meeting seh, ada motion carried segala. Haha!)

What we considered before making the decision:

(1) Our contract with Sri Mahligai is for a 6-hour gig from 11am to 5pm at the price of $1,600.00. Our initial plan was to have Sri Mahligai play at our lunchreception and then engage a deejay/emcee (someone who will come with own equipment segala) for our dinner reception, which would have cost us an extra $500.00 to $800.00.

(I know some people rope in friends to help emcee dinner receptions but we didn't want to do that right from the start because we wouldn't want any one of our friends, especially a rapat one, to stress over or focus too much on his/her role as an emcee - we want all our friends to be able to enjoy the proceedings in peace and move around as they please.)

The Wedding Lunch + Dinner DJ Package from Medialite, on the other hand, costs $2000.00 for a 10-hour gig from 12pm to 10pm, which fits our lunch and dinner reception schedules perfectly.

This means that: 

(a) We don't have to susah payahkan diri to look for another deejay/emcee for our wedding dinner; 

(b) We only need to liaise with one service provider, instead of two separate ones; 

(c) The cost is more or less the same, with more convenience and better planning for us (instead of Sri Mahligai setting up in the morning then packing up in the afternoon to make way for the dinner emcee to set up, it will only be Medialite setting up the night before, and then packing up after the dinner reception is over. Quick, clean and fuss-free.)

(2) One of the things that we realized from helping or attending our friends' weddings is that having a good wedding deejay or emcee is something that is pretty important - sadly, this is something that is often overlooked by bakal pengantin, including us!

We used to only fuss over bridal and decor and catering, but surprisingly our wedding journey has shown us that having a good wedding deejay or emcee at your wedding makes a huge difference to your wedding reception - a good and trusted wedding deejay or emcee ensures that:

(a) your guests are properly welcomed and entertained and he/she knows when to announce for guests to come up to the dais for phototaking

(You'd think that this is perkara standard that all deejays/emcees will do but ho no no no, my friend, there are idiotic deejays/emcees out there who will stand around and play music with no initiative to usher/direct guests - this happened at my friend's wedding recently wherein the deejay had to be prompted a few times to announce that the pengantins are ready for photo-taking... and even then he didn't get a list of names from the pengantin's family or whatever - he just did a generic announcement over the music which did not even get the guests' attention or get the guests moving, and my friend didn't get to take pictures with a few key groups of friends);

(b) your event timing is taken care of and does not run off course for too far or too long due to unnecessary hegehness; and

(c) ensure that guests get clear directions as to who or where the mak bapak pengantin are, what is going to happen in the next five minutes, explain the proceedings to your guests who are not familiar with Malay wedding proceedings, stuff like that.

(One of the criteria that we had for a wedding emcee was for him or her to be able to speak comfortably in English. My mat told me that Zan Sofiyan's English is pretty lancar so that's a plus point for us!)

The downside to this whole thing is of course the forfeiture of our $100 deposit with Sri Mahligai, but the pros outweighs cons by berkilo-kilo so in the grand scheme of things, forfeiture of $100 is something that we can take. We might have been more reluctant to let go of the deposit if it was $500 or half of the contract price but it's not so... let go of Sri Mahligai, it is!

To think Sri Mahligai was one of the first few items that we booked for our wedding early tahun ni seh. (Don't judge ok, we did not plan to book entertainment that early, until we realized at the point of enquiry that Sri Mahligai was booked up until early 2014. Tak kelakar, geng.)

Both our mothers, my mat and I met Zan Sofiyan last week (our fathers wanted to come along but had other commitments) because he preferred to have parents around so he can get a feel of our family backgrounds and dynamics. The meeting went pretty well, I thought, different from what I expected but it was good nonetheless.

He was tersangatlah chatty hahaha (he's a deejay/presenter, of course he's chatty, geez) and was very serious and religious-centric when it came down to business, sampai at one point he must've have caught the mood of the discussion and he himself said "Ni dah macam marriage counselling eh" hahahahaha ah tau takpe eh bang. Even my future mother-in-law joked at the end of the session: "Rasa macam berbual dengan tok kadi!" Haha!

When my mat and I recapped the whole meeting over the phone that night, my first comment was: "Wah, at the start of the meeting, I ingatkan dia nak kasi khutbah or syarahan agama or something seh." Not that there's anything bad with this, of course! I must say you're better off with someone else if you're looking for a gila-gila wedding emcee though, because Zan Sofiyan is - in the words of my future mother-in-law - someone who is very... beradab. Which is something that both our parents like so it's a good match lor.

(Side note: This dude believes and is forever quoting “The wedding belongs to your parents and the marriage is yours” - a sentiment that I understand and can agree with to a certain extent, but I also feel that this is something that cannot be applied across the board. Judging from our tweet exchanges about this statement, my group of friends are pretty divided about it but we haven't had the time to fully debate the statement... TIME TO CATCH UP OVER DINNER AGAIN, GUYS! New topic to pertikaikan! Hur hur.)

It's a damn shame we can't have both Sri Mahligai and Medialite together at the same time for our reception. I still think Sri Mahligai is one of the best Malay traditional bands in the market and would love to have them perform at our wedding! Unfortunately, we think that $1600 (Sri Mahligai) + $2000 (Whole day emcee services) = $ 3600 for entertainment is a bit too excessive so it's one or the other.

Plus, we also have to bear in mind that having them both onsite would mean we would have to allocate more space for entertainment alone. Mana nak letak pelamin, mana nak letak dessert table, mana nak letak buffet tables, mana nak letak sound system, mana nak letak kerusi meja, mana nak letak kandang untuk letak and ikat kanak kanak budu yang suka lari lari tak tau diam...

We also considered having Sri Mahligai for our lunch reception and then Zan Sofiyan from Medialite for our dinner reception but that idea very cepat kena tanam di ladang gandum because it didn't make sense to top up $1380 for Zan Sofiyan to emcee our dinner reception for a mere 2 and a half hours.

If any of you happen to have the same wedding date as me and memang nak Sri Mahligai, cepat cepat cepat pergi place your deposit before the slot gets snapped up ok! (Note: FYI, Sri Mahligai's rates are no longer $1,600.00, but $1,800.00. Their price hike happened on 1 May this year.) 

So I guess this is it... Bye bye Sri Mahligai booking :(

I hope you'll go to another couple who deserves good music and entertainment at their wedding ok! (Nampak sah dah gila, berbual dengan a mother bloody booking hahaha)