Wedding 101: Wedding Preparation - Part 1

I will be sharing my awesome wedding experience with you guys over the next few blog posts. It will be a little cluttered to put all into one so I'll be splitting this into a few post but I hope you guys will find this useful.

Of course, I'll be sharing my experiences from a Catholic point of view but I still followed some of the Chinese tradition; after all, I AM Chinese. Just because one does not understand the significance of the Chinese tradition doesn't mean its funny or superstitious. It's tradition, custom and practiced by many till date.

I'll be sharing whatever I know but it might not be entirely correct so take everything with a pinch of salt alright?. I'm just sharing a tip or two which might help some of you out there.

Disclaimer: I won't be revealing prices/quotation but I will share with you some info on budgeting. Hope you guys understand.

My wedding ceremony at St. Francis Xavier

Proposal went well? She said yes? Congratulations! So you're planning for your big day now. Where do you start? What are the first few things to do? Top two priorities for me were:

1. Book the date with your parish church(and priest).
2. Book the restaurant/hotel of your choice.

My reception at Eastin Hotel

I was lucky because Father Simon actually booked his dates for my wedding(wedding mass and dinner) because normally, its quite hard to book a particular priest for just that day but in my case, it all went well.

With the church part done, me and my wife started surveying for a reception venue. Our few filtering criteria was we wanted to have it in a hotel and if possible, we wanted a banquet hall with no obstructing pillars. We want our guests to enjoy the night with good a view of everything that was happening that night. Luck was once again on our side as Eastin Hotel had just refurbished their rooms and ballroom not too long before we enquired. I've been to Eastin Hotel for quite a number of wedding dinner so I know that the food was pretty good. Prices were still reasonable and better yet, its located in PJ. Other hotels such as Renaissance KL and Grand Dorsett Subang were already charging RM1.6K++ per table(and I was enquiring these in year 2010 for 2011).

With two of the most important things done in my list, we began looking at other areas. These are not in any particular order. I'm just listing them down as I'm blogging this.

• Photographers
• Videographers
• Florist
• Make up artist
• Hair stylist
• Catering service
• Gown and suits rental
• Wedding Bands(rings)
• Betrothal of Gifts(dowry and stuff)

For this entry I'll talk about photographers and videographers first.

Photographers

Photographers are the ones capturing your big day so choose wisely! One can ask around for recommended photogs(basically, photographers in short) but you still got to do your homework. Many were introduced to me and I have to admit, its darn hard to pick one out of the whole bunch; they all were good. I took my time to viewing their portfolio and finally I have decided on Fifoto. Fifoto was my first choice but due to unfortunate circumstances, I had to look for another. In comes Creative Clicks to save the day :D

If your budget allows, always opt for 2 photographers although there are packages that offers only one photog. Two photogs is recommended because in the morning, 1 photographer will be at the bride's place while the other will be at the groom's place. Each of them capturing moments of your ACTUAL day preparations in the early morning; You know, moments of dressing up, bride's make up session, groomsmen shots and the list goes on. The only moment where BOTH photographers will meet up is when the groom picks up the bride from her place. From there onwards, they work together capturing each beautiful moments of your big day.

As prices for wedding photography are increasing, I would advice your budget for photogs to be around RM4.5K onwards. I'm talking about Klang Valley rates so if you're from other states in Malaysia, other charges such as traveling will apply for most photogs. You can opt for cheaper alternatives like freelance photographers but please check out their portfolio first.

My official photographers for my actual day were Sze Ming and Darren from Creative Clicks. They are really an awesome duo to work with. I love their work and photography style. Of course, just like any other photographers of one's choice, you have to meet up with your photographers.

I've met up with Sze Ming and Darren a couple of times to go through a few things as well as to get to know one another a little better. Don't worry about what to talk about because they're really an experienced bunch and rest assured, you're in good hands. I'll be sharing some shots on my blog but I shall save that for another entry. So for now, feel free to check out their facebook page as they are currently revamping their site.

Videographers

This, my friend, is optional. If you have budget for such services, by all means, GO FOR IT. As I have enough budget for this, I went ahead in engaging a videographer. For videography, you can also opt for one or two videographers for your big day. I personally wanted TWO videographers but wifey and parents were saying one is enough. To be honest, I regretted the decision. I should have went ahead with TWO; like they say, two is better than one but ONE wife is the best by the way :P

Nigel and Jason helping out with the video work for my big day

I didn't really scout around for videographers because I've been following works of my friend, Nigel Sia and I love his videos. I first got to know Nigel through a CROCS video making session back in 2010 and I've been viewing his portfolio ever since(through facebook/twitter updates). When it came to searching for a videographer, I sort of knew who I wanted without even scouting and comparing packages by others. I contacted Nigel and everything went from there. Was it too hasty of me? Nah, everything is great! Superb Full HD recording with clear and good audio recording too. Everyone loved the video captured and edited by him.

You may check out his video works on his FB page but check out my wedding highlights by Nigel

Andrew + Amanda // Wedding Highlights (2011) from Nigel Sia on Vimeo.

Like I said earlier, I didn't scout around for other videographers so my budgeting advice might not even be along the lines of current market prices. I would estimate a budget of RM3K onwards for videography. I heard from some of my friends that most videographers in KL are already charging more than RM4K for videography work but I might be wrong.

That's it for now.

Till then, feel free to check out my older blog entries.