[Part 2]- Our Very Own Wedding Guide to Planning A Nautical-Themed Wedding, #MJWeds0205

As promised, here’s part 2 our wedding guide to planning a nautical-themed wedding.
Like we mentioned, you have won half the battle when you have completed your bridal photography and so, what’s next?

File your notice of marriage with the Registry of Marriages [ROM]!

Do note that there is an earliest date and a latest date you can file for marriage and you should check out Registry of Marriages Official Website for more details.

If you have a preferred Wedding Solemniser after checking out Singapore’s Best Wedding Solemnisers, do contact him/her immediately and check his/her availability. We know ROM will advise you to contact the Wedding Solemniser 3 to 4 months before the solemnisation date but really, by then; your preferred Wedding Solemniser would have been booked by other couples already [so plan way in advance]. 

In case you’re wondering, our Wedding Solemniser was Miss Soh Geok Kee and our solemnisation was done in English at our residence. She was very friendly and helpful throughout and we were really honoured to have her solemnised our wedding.

Well, since we are Chinese, there’s a few additional things that we had to do and they are the Guo Da Li [betrothal ceremony] the An Chuang [setting the bed], and the day before the actual wedding, the Shang Tou [hair combing]. In fact, for a typical Chinese wedding, there are a lot of customs to follow and many taboos to be aware of.

For us, we made a trip to the Chinese Wedding Shop at Ang Mo Kio to get everything we needed for the Guo Da Li, An Chuang, and Shang Tou.

The Chinese Wedding Shop has 4 outlets in Singapore and they are very well-known for their Guo Da Li and An Chuang packages. The lady who served us at the Ang Mo Kio outlet was extremely helpful and she gave us all the pertinent information we needed for the Chinese wedding customs.

Another good place to find more information about Chinese wedding customs is the Internet but do be aware that certain practises may vary and it is always good to check with your parents and even grandparents what they expect for Guo Da Li, An Chuang, and Shang Tou.

While the Guo Da Li and An Chuang packages offered by The Chinese Wedding Shop is pretty standard and rather convenient, some people may prefer to buy the items separately as it may be cheaper.

After you have more or less settled the Guo Da Li and An Chuang, it is also about time that you shop around for your wedding bands and look for vendors who can liven up your wedding day with an entertaining live band, a delightful desserts table, memorable wedding favours, and a fun photo booth! Also, not forgetting the most important task, assembling your wedding entourage!

Our Wedding Bands from Love & Co.

We gotten our wedding bands from Love & Co. and as much as we hate to say this, we regretted making this decision because we could have gotten JannPaul to customise the wedding bands for us at a much more reasonable price. If only we knew about JannPaul much earlier, we would not have to spend the high price of SGD$4800 for our Love & Co. wedding bands. Nevertheless, we are still pretty satisfied with our premium Love & Co. wedding bands.

The five grooves on the band signify the elements of an everlasting relationship; love, bond, devotion, commitment and togetherness.

The Wedding Car- The New Volkswagen Beetle 1.2 TSI [DSG]

From the many car reviews that we have done, you would probably be able to guess that we are very big fans of hatchback cars and that is the reason why we purposely chose to have a Volkswagen Beetle to be our wedding car. I know there is the Mini Cooper but we personally feel that nothing can beat the timeless classic of a Volkswagen Beetle. Elegant yet drives sporty, we are really glad to have the Volkswagen Beetle because our plushies that comes from Germany [the NICI Wedding Bride and Groom Sheep] matches the classic German car!

Just so you know, our entourage cars were all hatchbacks [Kia Picanto & Honda Jazz] too.

You can read our review of the Volkswagen Beetle here.

The Wedding Live Band- Juni Goh and Band

We first met Juni at Saint James Powerhouse where he was performing and we really liked his style and the splendid performance that he put up. Straightaway, we approached him that night, engaged him to perform at our wedding banquet, and it was the best decision that we had ever made to hire them.

Why?

All our guests were full of praises for Juni and his band and were rushing to get his contact after our wedding banquet.

If you are looking around for a live band for your wedding, you might want to consider Juni and his band; and if you want to have a preview of Juni and his band, you can hear them sing at Shuffle on every Monday and Wednesday at 8pm; and Switch on Thursday and Saturday at 8pm and 9.30pm respectively.

Desserts Table- Sooperlicious Halal Cakes Singapore

We initially arranged and confirmed with a baker for our desserts table at the wedding but because we had to wait so long for a response and were worried about the possibility of a no-show, we decided to engage Sooperlicious Halal Cakes Singapore to bake some sweet and delectable desserts for our guests.

To be honest, we were extremely impressed with the overall setup of the desserts table for our wedding and Hana and her team of bakers were very meticulous and detailed when setting up our desserts table. The table décor matched our nautical wedding theme perfectly and we were just so amazed.

Not only does the desserts table looks good, the desserts taste just as good because we saw our guests helping themselves to multiple servings of macarons and cheese tarts! Just so you know, Sooperlicious Halal Cakes Singapore has a baking studio and retail store operating at Block 144, Tampines Street 12, #01-390 and both Jacqueline and I are definitely thinking of going there to pick up some baking lessons soon!

If you are interested to engage Sooperlicious Halal Cakes Singapore or to find out more information, do like their Facebook Page!

The Photo Booth- SG Media

There’s no doubt about it; we wanted our wedding to be fun for our guests and so, to liven things up during the cocktail reception, we engaged Gary from SG Media to set up a photo booth that employs green screen technology. Gary was very helpful when responding to our enquiries.

He advised us on the background that we could use for the photo and he even went the extra mile by giving us ideas for the photo booth. We are really happy that our guests enjoyed themselves and had fun at the photo booth

Actual Day Videography and Photography- Big Boss Production

Melvin & Jacqueline 2015 Wedding Highlights Video from Melvin Lee on Vimeo.

Needless to say, we were very pleased with them as they were very accommodating to our needs. For the actual wedding day photography and videography, it cost us SGD$2500.

Wedding Favour- Mrs Prachi Garg, Founder of Je ‘taime Perfumery

In one of our blog posts about the Singapura: 700 years exhibition at the National Museum of Singapore, Mrs Prachi Garg, Founder of Je ‘taime Perfumery, was the person behind the special scents that depict Singapore’s colourful history and much to our surprise, she was very kind to sponsor handmade perfumes for all our wedding entourage and guests!

If you are interested to learn how to make your own handmade perfume, Mrs Prachi Garg is definitely the right person as she conducts perfume-making workshop too!

Now that we have given you so much insights to our nautical-themed wedding, do note that this guide is by no means exhaustive and if you have any questions for us, please feel free to drop us your comments or send us an email. 🙂

Have fun planning your wedding and while you’re busy planning for the big day, don’t forget to enjoy the process of it too!