This will be a series tracking my journey as a bride to be and maybe some tips for the others! Research before hand is important before signing your life away (not entirely) but usually this is amongst the first few things to do when your man proposes.

I have to admit that the laundry list of things to do grows exponentially by the day - blame the female genes for conjuring up the 1001 possibilities of the ideal wedding the moment you are proposed to.

This entry will focus on bridal studios. Not a lengthy one since the decision was made rather promptly. Fickleness is not quite a trait I have neither does the fiance so he is lucky he did not have to plough through tens of booths or bridal shop visits before we decided.

"When I decided to get married at 40, I couldn't find a dress with the modernity or sophistication I wanted. That's when I saw the opportunity for a wedding gown business."  - Vera Wang.

I wish I had such lofty ambitions or a family member who owns one. I did not grow up with an idea of how my white dress should be like though I had many black dresses. Here is the opportunity of a lifetime to be dressed in white and nobody will dare say I look bad.

If anything, I grew up knowing that Vera Wang has THE gowns and Jimmy Choo THE shoes. Yet realistically, without a budget to the tunes of a pretty 10 grand, the gown is not achievable. I have attended weddings where brides are clad in Vera Wang and for sure, they look stunning - a cut above the rest, not too sure about those Jimmy Choos though.

I was really clear what I wanted though, a one stop shop with majority of what is required. Bearing in mind the budget, I contemplated sourcing my own photography or even an overseas shoot...and wanting to do ala carte gowns.

Singaporebrides, perfectweddings...are just a couple of forums to help you by with reviews of bridal studios but fact is, what I was keen on ended up not being the choice studio.

Wedding fairs are a good place to start, to have an idea of what is available.





We intended to drop by a wedding fair just to get a rough idea of what to expect. Infact, we allocated too little time to drop by more than two bridal studio booths and one photography. Absolutely zilch time to consider the rest.

In the face of flailing flyers of all sorts of material and sizes and people blocking your way just to get your butt into their booth, I braved that all to my first stop: The Aisle Bridal Studio. I favoured them over the rest because online reviewers highlighted they are the least pushy of the lot. Fair enough, they did not have people pedalling their works like crazy outside their booth and the lady was patient enough to go through the package with us line by line. Yet the discussion took its toll when it was heading nowhere and the freebies tossed in seemed a little too over the top. A basic package that included a ferrari for photoshoot within 2013, actual day photography and mom's and bridesmaid outfits all thrown in. Sometimes less is more and that's how we found our way to the next stop.



Amongst the flyers distributed, My Dream Wedding somehow came to attention and not long after, we were engaged in an hour long discussion with their ever enthusiastic wedding planner. I'm not sure if his Hongkonger descent had anything to do with the outcome of the talk but it was easy bantering in cantonese and we felt completely at ease. We worked through details and made the necessary exclusions and not long thereafter, signed the first deposit away!



Happy campers with the lovely folks from My Dream Wedding - Amy and Alex who made two hours seem like a breeze.

The thing about bridal fairs is, one has to know exactly what you need rather than be distracted by what is thrown at you. For sure there will be tons to look at and heaps of things going on at the same time but do have some fun haggling and...hopefully win some things!

 

The truckload of freebies that came in the goodie bag.

Last but not least, fill up those coupons and wish for the best to win something!