Auspicious: Gift Exchange

Disclaimer: We're officially husband and wife as I wrote this. Sorry for the long delayed post. Many things to do I just got no time to sit and write!

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Oh boy, this is the headache part. If you search through the internet, you will find MANY and I repeat, MANY AND VARIOUS different items you should chuck into the basket for gift exchange (Guo Da Li). Be it for the groom or bride. There are different items to pack depending on which dialect you're from, hokkien, hakka, cantonese, ... you know..

I'm not going to confuse you by telling what dialect we're from, because personally, we did not follow thoroughly what to pack and what not.

If you went for Loh Tit Pat to get the auspicious date for wedding, you will be supplied a list of items to pack. Don't worry, they will let you know which is the MUST HAVE and which is optional or which can be replace with red packet as a symbolism. ( I love this idea)

(Honestly, if it is even possible, I would want to replace everything with red packet symbolism. Of course, with both families agree to it. It makes everything so simple! Imagine this. In the gift exchange list, you're suppose to give a pair of live chicken - yeah, I'm not kidding, and you're suppose to keep it alive until it die on its own. For simplicity of the current generation, it's replaced with red packet as a symbolism. AWESOME right?)

So what's in the basket: (Arghh! I do not have the photos anymore - blame the phone low storage space)

From groom:
- 2 bottles of liquor
- 8 oranges
- Invitation card
- Dowry
- A pair of chicken (replace with red packet)
- Biscuit ( replace with red packet)
- 9 ft red cloth
- Dragon phoenix candle (replace with red packet)
- Red packet for the bride *

What inclusive in the list of red packets (*) was:
1) Hair combing
2) Money for parents
3) Sisters (sibling)
4) Facial
5) Bride's Chaperone
6) To buy new pajamas 

All red packets from the groom must not be packed empty. It has to be filled with any amount (of course, Chinese would like it to be auspicious amount)

In return, bride will have to return the groom with gifts.
- 2 bottles of orange juice/honey
- 8 oranges
- Cypress leaf
- Lotus root
- Pomegranate
- Trousers
- Belt
- Wallet
- Red packets *

Yes, bride would also need to return red packet. 
1) Hair combing
2) Hair cut
3) To buy new pajamas

Note: All pockets must not be empty. It has to be filled. This includes the trousers pockets, wallet pockets and of course red packets.

Note2: We include oranges in our list even though it wasn't mentioned in the list from LTP. (Too much resource from internet). There are suppose to be more items in the list but we omitted be cause it was just TOO MUCH.

Note3:  Bride and groom are not allowed to touch the gift exchange item until after/on the day of wedding. Family members can though.


Disclaimer: All these superstitious believe whether who can touch or can eat or what not are mostly based on hearsay whether it's from our elders or friends who were wed through customary way. So best is to consult professionals since we ourselves don't have a "dai kam jie" to guide us.


Of course, the list from LTP is just basic guidelines of what is necessary to have. These list may change depending on both families agreement. I heard the request can go as ridiculous as a piece of land, cows, goats, rice, ruler... whatever thing that can be thought of. 

Just my two cents. At the end of the day, we're going to be family. Why not we just make things simple and after the wedding, we're one family. We should help each other as a family. Let's not look at materials and monetary in higher position than family relationships. This builds longer and lasting relationship than worldly material.

Jo

Photo Album and Misc collection @ Precious Bridal Studio SS2

Hey hey! Sorry for the long hiatus. As it draws nearer to our wedding date, we hardly got much time to juggle between working and wedding preparation! We only got that leeway during weekend to manage our preparations.

This post will be yet another review about our bridal studio! Honestly, I really like their service. I hope I wont be biased when I review about them.

As the title goes, it was the time where we collect our photo album and some other photos collection. What we have in our package was:

• 1x Vintage box to put our main photo album
• 1x mini album
• 2x bride and groom design album
• 1x canvas portrait
• tons of standing/hanging photo album 

From Top left (clockwise): Vintage box, bride & groom mini album, one of the photo albums, glass photo album

The amount doesn't look as though it is a lot but trust us, once you got all these back, you would doubt if the both of you are narcissist. We only got 45 poses in total and obviously all these photo albums will have repeats. We also have an imbalance number of portraits and landscape photos hence our options to accommodate the photo album got really lowered down. Really, remember to select a good balance of portraits and landscape photos.

Here's something that's worth mentioning:

My hubby is a thorough person than I am. I went alone to collect these items and I didn't check that the vintage box, mini album and the glass photo album have a little defect. So we called up the studio and told them our problems. Our PIC which I really like her customer service attitude, Mandy told us to bring the items back so they could check for us or exchange if they have stock for the box. Within the same week, Mandy called us and along with other item collection, we returned to the studio. Mandy tried on few other boxes that they had in store to replace my box that has defect. I know it's what a customer service suppose to do but I still appreciate that they go in and out of their store to unbox the new vintage box and check one by one for defects.

Alright, that's it for now. More preparation to come! Hopefully all BTB can manage them well !

Photo Selection @ Precious Bridal

2 weeks later after the photo shoot, we were back again at Precious Bridal for photo selection. We were excited to see the results of our photoshoot!

The photos doesn't disappoint. We love each of the photos (thus making it more difficult to choose an amount of photo out of the total!) 

We then started screening by going through one round through the photos. While we were screening it, we chuckled to ourselves as it reminds us on what we did. 

Taking our own sweet time to go through the pictures, the crew came in and out of the room offering their help and tips. With that, we actually made some progress. 

The tips given by the crew was that we should select few photos of the same theme as they will be used as a story when they print them onto the photobook.  

Selecting a few from the same theme wasn't easy. There were so many hundreds of pictures taken that day!

Nevertheless, we finally made up our mind and succeeded in selecting our photos without adding additional photos to the package. (Note: adding additional photos to the package will cost money depends on the bridal shop charges)

Update:
Here are some of the photos selected!

Pre weddng photography location selection

I had this trouble when I was selecting location for my pre wedding photo shoot, you know, it's some special photos, you want it to look best!

0. Have a theme
- Decide on a theme for your photo shoot. Fun, romantic, serious, anything. That pretty much give you a rough idea what background you want for your photo shoot.

1. Research, research and research!
- Google is your friend. Really, there ought to be a lot of blogs and reviews about places to go for pre wedding photo shoot.

2. Distance

- Ask yourself this: Do you mind going far to get a good picture? Is the time taken to travel a problem for you? 

- Sometimes we don't mind traveling just to get those good pictures! But at the same time we might get time bound.  Maybe you will need to pay extra fee  o your photographer for their extra hours?  All the factors you will need to consider when deciding your photoshoot location. 

3. The big question: Where?

- What kind of background you will want to see in your pre wedding photos?

Here are some of my opinion based on theme. 

If your theme is fun, go green! Gardens, fields or even parks. These are some locations to show you and your partner's playful side. Tips: Candid shot will make it looks more fun. 

If your theme is romance, try beach, lake, sunset view or night view. 

Serious theme. This is more of formal photoshoot I would classify. Studio or structures background like bridge or building can pull this off. 

Casual. Even better. Candids! Just relax and be yourselves and everywhere can be your background. 

These are just some ideas to pick your location based on your theme. Of course, it can be anywhere of your favourite even at home!

One of the most important thing I learned while doing my photoshoot was to be ourselves, relax and enjoy the day! Both of you the celebrity couple of the day!  

Have fun in your photoshoot!

Pre Wedding Photoshot @ Precious Bridal Studio

Let me just summarize that in one word. FUN.

I've listened to my colleagues and friends ranting how tiring photo shooting day will be. How much they won't redo it all over again. But to us, we agreed that it was a lot of fun! Let me just share with you the experience.

First off, I was reaaaaally excited about the day. I couldn't get enough sleep but I'm just so glad that I got that covered with make up. I brought along my own false eyelashes and facial ampoules. My make up artist on that day was Ivy. She asked me what style of make up do I want. Honestly, I don't know! So she went on, asking me about our vision for the photo shoot, what kind of theme will it be. That really gave me some idea what I want.

So I told her I wanted something fun but romantic at the same time and most importantly, I want to still be able to recognize myself. She got it and started working on my face and then my hair.

Here's the first photo shoot's style that she did for me:

Our photographer of the day was Ken. It was really fun working with him. He gave us a lot of idea how to pose and where to pose. We started of the day with studio shots, they only provide us with hand flower bouquet, so it's a good thing we brought our own props as well.

Here's the after studio photo shot taken with our phone.

Ken and Ivy have a pretty good chemistry as I suppose they have been colleagues for long. It was never boring having them around. Ken was really experienced and he's really good instructing us how to pose and imagination of how he wants the photo to turn out.

After the studio shots, we had a quick lunch and Ivy put on my second style for the photo shoot. 

The groom doesn't have much thing to prepare. So I'm glad he has time to take all these moments.

 
Then we head out for the rest of the day! We had chosen Putrajaya as our outdoor location. That city is so big, we really have a lot of locations to choose from even road side!

Some tips: We went a week earlier to check the place out beforehand so we knew where to go and what kind of picture we wanted to take from these locations. Then you can give ideas to your photographer and he/she can be creative about it.

Before each scene of the photo shoot, Ivy would touch up our make up, yes, the groom needs to make up as well. We brought our props along for outdoor shots. Our idea of props was really simple. Holding it, take picture, that's it. Ken was really creative and work with our props and make varieties of poses out of it. We're so glad to get directions for poses. Both of us are really awkward with cameras!

I guess both of them were familiar with the area as Ivy told me they also had another photo shoot the day before. Jon and I both heavily count on Waze for directions but having a (two in fact) human GPS were really helpful.

Tips: Always trust that the photographer know what he is doing. He is experienced enough to guide you where and how to pose for best results.

I actually wanted to take the night view but we ended up with only sunset because the time frame doesn't allow. We started at 11am from the studio and back at studio at 8pm. It was indeed a long day but it was really enjoyable. My colleague told me from his experience that we would be so tired keeping our smiles whole day that we will get cramp from smiling too much. That wasn't the case. At the end of the day, we still able to laugh in the car on our way back to Precious.

Note: We were the one driving. The photographer and make up artist will only follow along.

The crew and us

Read the related post:
Gown selection @ Precious Bridal Studio
Photo Selection @ Precious Bridal

Wedding Dress Selection @ Precious Bridal Studio

Hey, we're back again to share our experiences up until now with our bridal studio. 
So it's finally revealed that the bridal studio that I signed up for is Precious Bridal Studio because I'm happy with their service.

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The day before the appointment, the staff from Precious Bridal Studio called up to confirm the appointment. I like this kind of reminder. Even if you remembered, it's still a nice gesture to call up to remind again. 

On that day, I brought 2 of my girlfriends along for the gown selection. It's really nice to get a 2nd or 3rd eye for opinion. Of course, my hubby too were there. We waited awhile before we ransacked the bridal house to choose the gowns because the wardrobe coordinator was busy.

We were all like monsters. The girls had me tried many designs and colors that I knew myself wouldn't have picked. It turns out pretty nice! 

Girls, if you're expecting reaction like in TV dramas, where the audience would look astonished at the first impression of you with your wedding gown, no. Frankly speaking, that didn't happened. I don't look astonished with myself too. Unless you've already had it all prepared with hairdo and make up behind that curtain, then probably a Yes. Otherwise, you still look like you before you enter the changing room. (Sorry, I sounded disappointing here. Too much dramas! HAHA)

Anyway, here's some of what I've tried on:

 

The top 3 was what I had for photo shoot session. Please don't mind the ignorant face I had. I was having awkward moment to pose.

These four above was meant for actual day! I like the first and last one, but we chose neither because the girls said I had too many of this choices. It got bored. Haha.

These 2 were what I'm getting for actual day! And another dress which we didn't took photo of because it was a last minute pick. Don't get me wrong, it was nice too.

And in all my experience with Precious Bridal Studio were good so far. Helen were really quick in getting the dress on and off! (I hope I don't sound wrong here).

I've tried over 20 dresses in less than an hour. Gosh, I don't even know how many dresses I've tried on. Everyone just went on rampage to find the right dress for me. I really appreciate that! It actually saved my time to search for them if it was just me and hubby.

The red one was a lace based dress, so there were additional charges for the cleaning fee of RM250 before GST. I really wanted to wear a Oriental dress for my wedding so we paid for that. Thanks hubby! 

Alright, next post will be an update to this, the photo shoot!

Jo

Read the related post:

Pre Wedding Photo Shoot