Solemnisation Details

Gonna keep this in virtual memory, lest I become senile and only remember how many pairs of shoes I own.


Solemnisation Venue: Raffles Institution, One Raffles Institution Lane

Tex was a guidance counselor there last year and I've been to his office several times to have dinner with him on days when he worked late. We always found his office cozy like a home and it seemed like a crazy idea when he suggested, "Perhaps we could hold our solemnisation here?".

I brushed that idea off and the day to book the ROM slot came. By the time we got our hands on a computer, the morning slots for officiating at ROM Fort Canning were gone and we were left with disgusting PM slots like 1300 hours and 1400 hours. Totally not suitable for our brunch idea!

Then the frantic search for a venue begins. Tapping my toes as I laid on the mattress on his house, I mumbled, "Okay, we need a place, hopefully it's free, can contain 30 pax and allows us to decorate minimally." We then looked at each other and smiled. (Perhaps it would be apt to input "sends good shivers down my spine" here. HAHAHAHAHA!)

A quick call to his boss, Mr Koh Siew Yen Gary, we got his permission. And a FREE venue. Yay! Gary was like, "Har? Solemnise at the office? Errr, okay."


Brunch Venue: Selfish Gene Café at 40, Craig Road

Tex and I were very particular about the brunch meal that we were going to host. It was important that the venue provided a calming and relaxed ambience, served great awesome food and had impeccable service. We went to many cafés during our preparation and at first, we thought L'etoile Café had hit all the spots - it was near our houses, has a really quirky café design and homely ambience. We then spoke to Yvonne, the lady boss, regarding our intentions and what menu we had in mind. Initially she was really nice and telling us that she could do all that we wanted. Besides, she mentioned that there would be no booking fee. We were happy that we finally found a place that was affordable, kinda represented us and brightly lit, full of sunlight. What's more, their Azuki Chiffon Cake was to die for!

The quotation came and we were thrown off our chairs. She was charging about $58++ per person for a very simple brunch menu. Think scrambled eggs, sautéed mushrooms and potatoes, French toasts on chaffing dishes, normal coffee (not gourmet coffee) on dispensers. True, there was no booking fee but it was obvious it has been included into the per pax price. Several emails later, there was no totally no reply from Yvonne - that left us really disappointed to the extent, we didn't even want to visit the café to look for her. When we finally visited the cafe a few weeks later, it had transformed from a simple café with a basic coffee and food menu (which we liked), to one with extensive food choices (in our humble opinion of course) and forgot to stay true to what they were good at. Somehow, they decided to brush a very sincere customer off by not replying. That, to me, is just plain rude.

No doubt, we were disappointed but we continued to search for our alternative. While on our visit to The Plain Café on Craig Road, I learned that there was another café (Selfish Gene) down the same lane. Tex also visited it in the same week. He ordered the Mushroom sandwich and was surprised in delight! We went back to Selfish Gene the following weekend. Tried their Breakfast Plate and I was so amazed that their scrambled eggs were so tasty!

Tex then spoke to Gene and we were given a fairly reasonable quote. Although it was out of our budget for booking the entire café, we voiced our concerns with Gene and he was really patient and upfront with us on his constraints as well, which was very reasonable. We liked that he was honest, understood what we wanted, served awesome awesome brunch and was upfront about our requirements. Even though his menu wasn't as extensive as Yvonne's, I'm sure he did every item well. Prior to our solemnisation, we visited SFC almost every weekend, either to plan for our Europe backpacking trip last year or to just have a cuppa and while the rest of the afternoon away. We tried as many types of food as we could and we were all satisfied with them. This was the place for us!

Gene is as upfront an owner as we would like to have met.

Me: Eh Gene, give discount leh.
Gene: I don't give discount one. Unless I fuck up.
Me: Okay, then you better don't fuck up.

By the way, I liked Selfish Gene almost immediately because they were playing Lisa Ono the first time I patronised them. :)


Her Dress: ASOS Bandeau Dress with Embellished Trim
His Jacket: H&M in Tan

Like many other girls, I dreamt of having my lovely little dress for the ceremony. We even went to a tailor at Orchard Building and tried to enquire about prices to tailor-make one. We were quoted $400 for a short ROM dress and my balls shrank. I turned to my online resources.

I bought this dress off ASOS last May. Originally I was looking around Taobao for cheap deals and totally had no idea how to buy from the website, hence I gave up. Then I saw this dress on ASOS and fell in love with it. It was in a lovely peach colour and had pearl embellishments! Totally my kinda dress. Alas, it was selling for £38 and I refused to spend that time of money on what I thought was going to be a simple but elegant dress. When it went on sale for £19, I grabbed it! Kept it in mind that I always have this dress as my ROM dress even if I couldn't find a nicer one!

Date drew nearer and innately, I already had imagined all scenarios with me wearing this dress. There was really no need for me to look any further! Hence, two weeks before our ROM, we brought my dress and his jacket to the fabulous seamstress aunty at FEP! Thank you, Ying Tian, for recommending the aunty if you are reading this! She did a wonderful job for us and only charged Tex $25 for his alteration of his jacket, when some other uncle at Lucky Plaza tried to charge us $100 and even scoffed us about it! T.T


Her Heels: Nine West Barbe in Dark Bronze
His Shoes: Taipei

 

I didn't feel like spending money on a new pair of shoes just for the solemnisation plus I always wondered if I would be able to embellish my old shoes to make it look like a new pair. Therefore, I embarked on a quest to revamp my favourite Nine West!

To revamp your shoes, please choose a pair that you see yourself wearing it for long. Do not choose cheapo shoes like those that you bought from Mitju or whatnot as your diamantes may end up costing more than your shoes. Select a pair that is made of good quality leather and with foreseeable long-wearing intentions.

I chose my pair of Nine West because it was relatively new - I wore it for no more than 4 times. It was made of real leather and I felt that it was worthy of my 'investments' of the diamantes. The colour of the shoes also matched the dress I had in mind. First, I thought of how I wanted my end product to look like, brought my shoes to the shop to choose the colours of the diamantes and my 3-day project kicked off!

I don't have the best craftmanship but I am so pleased with the results! They were really sparkly in real life and I felt like I got a new pair of shoes! Makes me very happy when I see the diamantes! Please buy only swarovski diamantes!


Nails: Nails @ Hues from Far East Plaza

My trusted manicurists always do such a wonderful job for me! Super love their service. I am always the last one to leave the shop and never once did they rush me off, so they could end work early. They also refer to Tex as "Obama" because the first time they saw him when he was waiting for my nails to be done, he was reading a biography of Obama. Haha! The diamantes used for my nails were in the same colour scheme as those used for my shoes.


Accessories: Earrings from Forever 21 // Bracelet from Parkson Grand in Malacca

I'm a big lover of F21 accessories. I can always find amazing accessories over there. Of course, Lovisa is one Aussie brand that I really love as well! Got the earrings from F21 for about $7, I think. Really big and exaggerating hence because of it, I decided to go without a necklace before I look like a Christmas tree. I've also been trying to find a pearl bracelet for damn damn long. Wanted something classic without looking like it's been bought from a Buddhist store. When I was to visit my sister in Malacca, I went to Parkson Grand and saw this lovely bracelet on display! Caught my eye immediately as the pearls were small and dainty. As I have rather big wrists, when I wore it, it didn't look 小氣 on my wrist at all! Cost about SGD$25! :D


Her Bouquet & His Boutonniere: Handmade pearl bouquet with Swarovski pearls

I don't really like to deal with flowers. I find it really a waste of money to spend almost a hundred bucks on something that can barely outlive its value. Tex probably thinks the same way hence I only receive $1 flowers from the market in his neighbourhood. Hahaha #truestory but I still love the thoughts behind it and I put them in my vase every single time I receive them. You might like to note that, nope, there were no flowers during his proposal. It's really okay, although I always like to tease him about it for my own amusement. Hehe.

I was reminded of Michelle Chia's bouquet some day and I figured I could do the same. Only I realised that to make an all-crystal bouquet would cost me about six times more as compared to what a normal hand bouquet would cost and to have that for a day solemnisation is too exaggerating; deviating away from what we wanted - simplicity. Then I remembered that I love pearls! So off to pearl-searching, I went (with Tex).

It's really not rocket science to make a bouquet, you just need patience. I finished the bouquet in no time and in fact, it was left idling for a good few months before the solemnisation. Tex's boutonniere caught me though. Such a small accessory left me fumbling for a few weeks; I had difficulty attaching the pin to the accessory without making sure that once it was pinned on, it did not topple over. I had to sew and glue and sew and glue. Took me a few tries to finally secure it. I'm glad Tex loved it. :) And I think it's rather meaningful that I made something like this - happy tales to tell my grandchildren in future!

'Cept that now both the bouquet and boutonniere are sitting on my desk and I'm contemplating whether to sell it away or re-use it for the customary. Hmmm, decisions to be made at a later date.


Solemnisation Pens: "Sponsorship" from TAKA Jewellery

Nope, you didn't read it wrong. While others were deciding over what brands of pens (Swarovski, Parker, Mont Blanc) to buy to sign that important signature, I got it free from TAKA Jewellery!

So what? It looks nice and classy. Seriously, did you think it would have made a difference if I used a Swarovski pen to sign on the black and white cert? I'm happy with the one holding the pen to sign and that's all it matters.

Alright la, I cheapskate can? I was buying a ring from TAKA when the aunty decided to give me a free gift. She brought out a sample of the pen and asked me to choose between green, blue or purple. I chose purple. Then she took it out and I was surprised by how classy it looked, given that it was a free gift! So I 厚臉皮 and 不要臉 asked her, "Aunty, 可以給我多一個嗎？我要拿來註冊結婚用的。很美咧!"

Her face lit up and without questions asked, she whipped out another one. I was so happy! Free and pretty pens for solemnisation! No need to use ball-point pens! LOL! Save money again. :)))))

By the way, the ink worked perfectly. Hehe.


Make-up: Melvina Koh

I'm not a professional at painting my own face, but yes, I think I can do my own make-up for my solemnisation. It may not be the best but I would like to think it's good enough. Look presentable right? Right. So okay la, mai hiam ok!

Besides, it's free. :D

Actually, Tex and I were always amazed by the fact that Kate Middleton did her own make-up for the royal wedding. Tex then issued me a challenge to do it too. Challenge accepted!

Okay la you see. Not too bad right? Still can improve.


Hairstyle: Cousin

Very thankful for my cousin who came over really early to help me out with my tresses! If there's anything I can't tackle, it would be my hair. I'm really lousy at it - I can't even tie plaits or braids for my own hair. I pity whoever's going to be my daughter next time. Hahaha, happy until forgot to take a proper photo of it.

Asked for just a simple bun. Not a fan of too fanciful hairstyles or some weird flower that's too big on my head. I was trying really hard to articulate to my cousin what kind of hairstyle I liked before he finally reached a conclusion - "Orrrrrhhhh, 你要看起來像是自己綁的 bun HAR?!"

I was like "YA YA YA YA YA!"

-____- Nothing too made up please. Hahahahaha.


Wedding Favours: Hand moulded soaps

Inside these little brown bags were soaps that I hand-moulded personally. I added fragrance oils (skin-tested) and soap colourings to achieve various shades of turquoise and mint! Had absolute fun while enjoying my little project! :)

The reason why I chose natural soaps as favours because personally, I didn't like receiving wedding favours from other couples that turned out to be useless if I didn't use it or a waste of space. Imagine if you went to a wedding and you got a pair of chopsticks. I'm very anal about things like that, I need my things in twos - cups, bowls, drawers, bedsheets. Anything related to home decorations, I like them in pairs. That pair of chopsticks totally didn't match with your house theme and you just kept for the sake of keeping it. That's just hoarding. Or salt and pepper shakers which were too romantic for your theme.

So I wanted something that can be used and will disappear in other people's lives even if they bring them home. I sure do not want my name lying around other people's house even five years later. Didn't like giving out food because it's so conventional. Plus, I love soap bars (more than liquid soaps)! Something Australia rubbed off me. Hahaha!

By the way, one of the worst wedding favours I received was a glass ruler that said "LOVE RULES" on it. FML.


JOP: Mr Koh Siew Yen Gary

It makes a lot of meaning when your boss officiates your marriage for you. We like the fact that this entire solemnisation seemed like it was a combination of efforts from families and friends who actually took leave on a Friday to spend such quality time with us! Many thanks to Gary who very 爽快地 agreed to officiate for us.

If you like a JOP who is English-speaking and quick, look no further! Drop me an email if you like to have his contact and I'll see what I can do! Do note that most JOPs have full-time occupations and they are not paid to officiate your marriage so be nice! (Although they do have a quota to hit.. Haha!)

Update: So they do not have a quota to hit! And "all solemnizers are given an honourarium by the couple (as indicated by ROM) of a suggested rate of $48".


I guess that's all! If you have any other questions, you can also email me at blackocea@hotmail.com! I'll reply as soon as I can! :D

Will be blogging about our staycation and after-party next! Hope I won't be too caught up with my new job scope T.T