I vividly remembered signing up with Holiday Inn Orchard City Centre one year ago, after falling in love with the Crystal ballroom at first sight. Over the past 1 year, Adeline, my sales manager has accompanied me closely throughout the whole hotel selection process of deciding flowers, table cloth, wedding flavours etc. Everything was hassle free and went smoothly. The food tasting was exceptionally good, we tried 5 dishes and our family had only praises for them. During the food tasting, I observed Jonathan, the banquet manager was extremely attentive and service oriented, I told Adeline that I want Jonathan to be my Actual day banquet manager.

On the Actual day, we were welcome by a big bridal suite completed with rose petals, champagne and chocolates. The ROM venue was nicely decorated by my props, and there were two staff to guide us throughout the ceremony. The main highlight was of course the dreamy magical crystal ballroom. The aisle was decorated withcrystal lighted stands with fresh pink and white roses. The stage looked magnificent with high stage and high ceiling. This ballrooms has 6 projectors, therefore no one can missed a view of the footage regardless of where they are seated. I am memorized by the huge crystal chandeliers which what made the crystal ballroom exceptionally captivating. We have chosen gold colour lighting for 1st march-in, blue colour lighting for 2nd march-in. As we march into the ballroom, the projectors flashed our march-in real time, it was fantastic. The moment we stepped into the hotel, Jonathan was there to brief us, guide us when we are on stage, and attentive to every single detail, we felt assured under his care. Adeline came and check on me during the evening time, to make sure everything was okay, indeed, everything went perfectly well with no hiccups. Our entire dinner had nothing but praises from the guests, the food was excellent and came in big portion. We really missed checking in holiday inn in Face book after the wedding, it was an amazing and memorable experience with Holiday Inn and we are proud to hold our wedding dinner with Holiday Inn.

Childhood montage

Sis and I did the Childhood montage together; it was fun digging all our old photos. I realized that time has passed so quickly and I am going to be a bride, felt a sense of growing up as I was looking through the old photos. Sis proposed the idea of putting the childhood photos first, followed by the dating photos then finally the wedding photos behind the scene. She combined two songs in the montage namely, “Mine” by Taylor swift and “Can I have this dance” by high school musical. It took her about 3 months to complete. We had a minor hiccup where by our hard disk crashed with the montage inside, therefore she had to re-do the whole montage again. It was a tedious process, but the end result was very professional and portrayed our love story beautifully.

Wedding photos montage

We have about 3 wedding photos montages done by venders. All 3 montages were fascinating and unconventional to showcase our wedding photos. We played the montages throughout the whole wedding banquet and showcased about 60 wedding pictures in all.

Rom march-in:

I really like Canon in D since young; therefore it was my chosen music for my Rom march-in. I bought a CD from “That CD Shop” that contained various variations of Canon in D. In the end I chose the more uncommon variation of flute combined with symphony.

The kissing part:

I have chosen Enchanted by Taylor swift to be played during the kissing part, when JP announced us man and wife. We extracted the chorus and soften the Singer’s voice, so left the music only. Luckily his bro managed to feel the moment and play it when we kissed. haha

1st march-in:

I only managed to find my 1st march-in song 2 weeks before my wedding. Sis have helped me streamlined a lot of songs, but I still don’t think it’s the one. I don’t like the traditional “from this moment on” kind of songs. I like something slow, romantic and not commonly used for my first march-in as the ballroom has a long aisle. And there, I have chosen, “Always be my baby” by David cook. A truly perfect romantic song to accompany us through our 1st march-in. I can listen over and over again to reminisce the memorable 1st march-in.

2nd march-in:

I chanced upon “Happy” in one of a montage, and immediately I love the music and rhythm. Initially I did not know the title of the song as it was not heard in the radio before. Sis managed to find the title of the song and we purchased it online. One of my favorite song for the wedding as the music is so soothing and touching! We extracted the climax, the last phrase of the song to be played for the 2nd march-in.

Champagne pouring song:

As the chosen march-in songs are not commonly used in weddings, I wanted the same as well for the champagne pouring song. Sis and I agreed to use “Right here, Right now” by high school musical, a lovely fast-paced duet by the main casts. It is a romantic duet song that suited perfectly for the champagne pouring ceremony.

First dish song:

We have chosen the “Hymen” song from the Hotel. It is a foreign song with fast beat rhythm and majestic music. It suited the arrival of the first dishes very well, accompanied by the hotel’s laser lights and misty effect of the smoke. It was an eye-opener.

Bride & Guests Frames

Small sis and me hand-made these frame to facilitate the guests to the respective areas. Since my 1^st march-in is throwing of feathers, I thought of making the frames with feathers too! We added on beads and flowers to make it more outstanding.

The Heart Shape Candles glass

Small sis and me hand-made this glass few months ago. We sticked the crystals, hearts, beads, ribbons one by one into the glass. It was a challenge as the items are soooo small. We spent quite some time to complete this masterpiece. However few days before the big day, we tested it with water and tea-light candles, to our horror, the glue turns white! It almost destroyed the whole thing. Luckily sis rescued it by re-doing some of the crystals and covered it with lots of varnish. It turned out sooo lovely at the reception area.

The 12 Lighted Porcelain Angels

Stumbled over these lighted porcelain angels in a website and I knew I must have them. These angels’ light is always changing; it will turn from blue to purple to orange etc. Sis placed it around the reception area to give off that cosy glow.

The Guests Pens

Found the bear pens in Taipei, and I bought it immediately. It looked so unique and cute! It is a marker pen so I placed it on the reception for the guests to sign the guest scroll.

The rose pens were also for the reception area as well, sis and I decorated the pen with additional crystals that spiral down to the pen tip. It’s pink and the top of the pen is filled with fake roses, very sweet!

The Fake Petals and Feathers

Rom march-in:

I brought these two items to the hotel, the fake petals and feathers. The fake petals are used to décor the aisle of the Rom venue. As the aisle is long, I figured that real petals would be expensive hence I settled for fake petals instead! I love the combined colours of red, pink, peach colors of the petals! The petals are lined in two sides and at the end, there’s heart shape feature and it looked so romantic! It is how I had imagined it to be.  All thanks to the hotel staff for helping out with the fake petals.

1^st march-in:

I like uncommon things; therefore I would not want to use flowers petals for my 1^st march-in. I want my 1^st march-in to be non-ordinary, haha. Finally I thought of using feathers as it gives the dreamy and fairy-tale like feeling. Indeed the effect was very dreamy for my 1^st march-in; many guests commented that it was a nice and unusual idea and they saw it for the 1^st time.

The Wedding Gown

 My wedding gown was a love at first sight; it was indeed my dream gown. I loved it ever since I laid my eyes on it. It fulfilled my expectation of finding a dreamy, princess, long train gown. The gown is drop-dead gorgeous with stunning details. The top of the gown is a heart-shape bustier, hint of pink, with lots of glittering sequins and beads. The body of the dress (waist) is altered extremely tight to support the long train behind. The outer layer skirting is made of ruched organza layers with hand-sewn baby pink roses and pink heart shapes petals. The inner layer is filled with beads and sequins again. The most spectacular part of the gown is the long long train behind; it is filled with the roses just like the skirting, and beautiful lace trimmings. The workmanship and design of the gown is remarkable, no words can actually described how heavenly gorgeous it looked.

 I am sooo ecstatic, happy and proud to wear the gown on my wedding day, it made me look ridiculously slim and I received tremendous praises from friends and guests. Even my guy friends also commented it was a gorgeous wedding gown. I’m glad I have found my dream gown and wore it on my big day! It was perfect.

The Evening Gown

It was definitely not easy finding a nice evening gown, I like pink colour gowns, but pink is too safe and common, I want a gown that stands out and makes people go “wow”. I changed my evening gown to this sapphire blue gown 1 month before my wedding. It was not really a love at first sight gown for me, but after trying it on, I was impressed by the lovely, unusual shade of blue colour of the dress. This blue colour changes to a slightly different blue color in different lighting. It was very sexy with deep plunging neckline covered by a transparent layer, surrounded by sparkling crystals. The skirting is filled with layers and layers of ruffles with crystals embedded on it.

This gown is something I would not have expected myself or others expected of me to wear it, it was a drastic different style compared to the wedding gown and rom dress. Without a doubt, I received many praises from guests too; many said the colour was very pretty and unique. It was a very gorgeous sexy gown, love it!

The Rom Dress

I wanted to wear a short dress for my ROM ceremony, spotted this toga dress and immediately I tried it on. Love at first sight again, it was very pretty and had a nice slimming cut. The toga sleeve is a huge ribbon (im crazy over ribbons) covered with sparkling crystals. The skirting has a draping design, and towards the side, there’s a long flowing cloth that landed on the floor. The whole dress looks very demure, unique and romantic. I love this dress a lot as well even though I wore it for half an hour only ;p

One of my best decision on my wedding was choosing Ponnie as my MUA ! I emphasized on having Taiwanese makeup artist only and Ponnie is my first choice. l almost freaked out when she called me 1 month ago to tell me that she injured her leg and might not recovered in time for my wedding. Fortunately she recovered, thank god.

She transformed me into a princess on that day. I had 4 styles on my wedding, morning, rom, 1^st march-in and 2^nd march-in.

Morning: A curly bun up hairdo. I was initially apprehensive when she suggested that morning hairdo to be bun up as she felt that I should have more different styles. This is not a traditional bun up style; she made it so curly and poofy that it did not make my face look big on photo. Cute hairdo completed with white roses at the side.

Rom: Rom hairdo is one of my favorite out of the 4 styles I had. It took Ponnie 2 hours to complete. The end result is amazingly gorgeous and intricate. The hair behind is wavy and the curls are intertwined with ribbons and big curls flowed down at one side of my shoulder only. I super adored this hairdo, it’s was indeed a great “masterpiece”.

1^st march-in: My 2^nd favorite hairdo! After the rom ceremony, Ponnie re-do my hairdo and make it flow down in curls at the back. The shape of the hairdo is sooo pretty like a princess; hairdo is completed with a flower sparkling hair band.

2^nd march-in: Ponnie finished this hairdo in half hour as we need to rush down for 2^nd-march in. This hairdo is beautifully braided and buned up with a gorgeous blue flower at the side. This hairdo is very Korean-ish looking, a dramatic difference in the above styles.

All hairdo and makeup are very Taiwanese and natural! All my guests keep commenting how stunning I looked on my wedding and resembled some HK actress! A lot of people also said my eyes are very lovely, as Ponnie gave me double layer of fake lashes to make it more dolly looking.

Ponnie was very professional; she was very punctual on that morning, as well as at the hotel! As I opted for 2^nd march-in makeup, she stayed behind and waited for me. I appreciated her thoughtfulness when she offered to lend me her powerful eye drops when my eyes became a little red due to contact lens.

I really love all the hairdos she gave me, very princessy kind. She is very meticulous and spent lots of effort for each style (I had 4), and made sure it’s nicely done before I go for my march in. I let her decide for me on all the 4 styles, each style is very different and gorgeous. As for makeup, she gave me a very natural and radiant look, with emphasis on my eyes! I simply love it because it not overly dramatic!
I’m very particular on hairdo and makeup; she gave me all the styles that far exceeded my expectations. Whenever she finished each style, I was so amazed on how pretty it looked!

She has a big makeup box with lots of cosmetics with different colours, from various reputable brands. She will also bring along pretty accessories to match with the gowns!

I really felt like a princess on that day and I sincerely thank her for completing my perfect wedding!

There were many medical suites on every levels, and it looks posh and most importantly high privacy haha. I felt as though im walking along corridor in hotel rooms!

Feedback on Dr. Andrew Tay:
Dr. Andrew Tay is angmoh mixed chinese, he’s very patient and professional. He listened to my problems and recommended few methods to reduce my dark eye circles! Will consider and save up money for it as it is very expensive.
Im so bloody broke! But for the sake of becoming a beautiful bride, i will have to do it! :p As usual Dear told me i’m crazy whahahaa.

Some good news to share, we have confirmed our wedding actual day videography+photography package! One thing off the preparation list Phew~
We really love the works of this funky team, both of us saw the sample works on that day and we agreed that THIS is what we want! Really interesting videography style that suits our requirement! Although this package comes with a hefty price tag as well, we felt that it’s really worth the money!

Now have to think of a theme for the wedding banquet, design jie mei dresses ( can’t wait to start! ) …. the list goes on

hee (unedited version) =p

We had our 9th year anniversary dinner at holiday Inn 2 weeks back! From the restaurant , we saw another couple holding their wedding at the crystal ballroom. It looks so magical with all the dry ice effect. We can’t imagine that exactly one year later, it will be our wedding at the same place =p

There are so many things to prepare, but i have no idea on where to start =p

On a side note, my long time bestie is getting married soon, and i specially bought a pink dress to attend her ROM

Please support Tokyo Pink specially manufactured top ok?

Some of the new arrivals at Tokyo Pink

So we are proud to announce that our wedding is confirmed on our 10th year anniversary,  19 June 2011! Yay!

Some more pictures of Holiday Inn Crystal Ballroom! Im soooo in love with the ballroom!

credits to http://13sept.wordpress.com/category/venue/