Wedding Evening Gown by Yes I Do

Hello Friday!

As promised in my previous post, 

I'm gonna unveil my beautiful custom-made gown by Yes I Do in this post itself! :)

I haven't gotten a full set of photos from my photographer yet (work is piling up on him!), so before I blog about the full wedding day, I shall share about my wedding evening gown by Yes I Do :)

So ladies & gents, here's my beautiful lilac mermaid gown! :)

Absolutely love the high slit and long train. It was a true beauty, extremely fitting and comfortable to wear all night long.

These were taken at our dinner reception bridal march. As you can see, Boon and I were laughing cos we seriously felt really awkward to walk in, smile and wave while everyone else just stands, cheers and claps. It was so weird. We just couldn't stop laughing :P

I'm really glad I chose this gown as it was really easy to walk in and to move around too. It was not heavy at all like some evening ball gowns. Glad I took the advice of Shawn from Yes I Do to pick a dress such as this! 

Wanted to pick a princess ball gown but she advised that I would have a difficult time moving about, and I wouldn't want such restriction on my wedding day. True enough...this really made me feel so much at ease the entire night :)

Another detail that I love is the crumpled lines of the gown, and not forgetting the low back V-cut. It was just nice as even my long hair couldn't cover that particular detail that I loved :)

The train of the gown was also just nice for me. It was long, but not to the point that it would get stepped on easily or stuck in between chairs :P

I really love this shot as it showed off the gown perfectly. It fit me really well and showed off all the right curves, which is really what every girl wants! ;)

Here are some of the photos I took with my dear wedding guests!

The top part of my gown had sequinned flower details on it, all the way from the bra top part of the gown all the way to the slit. The slit enabled me to strike crazy poses with my siao friends too! :P

Took a risk to match the white/silver sequinned flower details the color lilac. But thank God it turned out beautiful. Really love the color combination...just what I wanted :)

Group photo with my new cousins + sister!

Plus, I left the decision to my hairstylist on what he thinks suit my dress that night. After I saw the gown, he immediately got to work, and styled me an Old Hollywood Glam hairdo. Albert Koh the buddy knows me well that I love the big waves look, and it turns out to really match my gown!

Wanted something different than the usual hair-up, or hair on the side, and I must say that I love my dinner look to bits :)

Thanks to Yes I Do for sponsoring and making me such a gorgeous dinner gown. And did you know that a gown like this doesn't actually cost a bomb?

Yes I Do is selling the exact one I wore for only RM480! Plus, if you wish to wish your gown color just like I did, it only costs an additional RM50.

An average evening gown bought off the rack would cost at least RM450 and above. This is custom-made to your body fit, and change of color is available at a low cost! Most custom-made evening gowns cost above RM1.2k. This is really a great deal :)

You can view more choices and different categories of gowns at Yes I Do's Facebook Page. They offer affordable custom-made wedding bridal gowns, evening gowns, prom dresses, bridesmaid dresses, and even cheongsam and ROM dresses. I'm sure you can find something there for yourself :)

For me, I'm just really glad that I made a choice to go with Yes I Do. The entire discussion and preparation process with them was just really pleasant. They try their best to accommodate and attend to your every need, even details as small as changing the side of the slit from left to right!

I really enjoyed working together with them, and I'm sure you will too :) *Like* Yes I Do on Facebook, and stay tuned to all their latest products and promotions available! 

Happy shopping, ladies :)

love, careen

My Wedding Florist: Sunny Days

Flowers used in wedding symbolize many things. From believing that flowers could ward off evil spirits, bad luck and ill health in ancient times, to signifying hope for fertility and bloom, flowers have since become a must-have in weddings.

We're so used to seeing flowers in weddings that we hardly pay special attention to them. But, the thing about flowers is that the moment they are absent from a wedding, it's easy to tell...as flowers do somehow, magically make a wedding look and feel more...wedding-ish and lovey-dovey.

I, for one, am one of those who never paid any special attention to flowers in weddings that I have attended. Well, not until I'm about to get married and choose my own flowers and florists! The types of flowers that I knew before this were only limited to roses, sunflowers, calla lilies, baby's breath, and.....yeah that's about it. 

That is why whenever Boon gives me flowers, I'll be happy no matter what cause I knew close to nuts about flowers! But now, after all the research done in these months of wedding preparation, my knowledge of flowers have increased tremendously (chehhhh hahahha), and I have come to discover the types of flowers that suit my style too :)

After doing all my research, it was then time to select my florist and share with her what flowers types + look and feel of the wedding I want. But the problem with flowers is that they are definitely NOT CHEAP! Flowers could easily come down to 3-4k, and A LOT can be done with 3-4k.

Boon and I surveyed all around for the best deals, but to no avail. Visited many, many florists and it's either they offer low prices but mediocre services and flower qualities (and lack of creativity!), or they provide flawless services but charge a sky high amount! We took a really long time to look for a florist that could fit into our budget, offer what we look for, and someone we were comfortable enough to work with (no point working with people who would give you faces and attitude towards your big day!).

We came to a point that we sort of gave up looking for wedding florist for a while, and decided to concentrate on other aspects of the wedding for the moment. It was really difficult to source for a good and reasonable florist!

But one day while I was chatting with Shawn Wong from Yes I Do, she recommended me a florist on Facebook whom she had been following closely, and asked me to check them out. And so I did, and the rest was history :)

http://www.facebook.com/sunnydays.my

As usual, I'd do my extensive research on the entire Facebook page, stalk all the photos and albums that they have, and see for myself if they're good. After looking through everything, I decided to give Sunny Days a text, and we subsequently communicated very frequently via emails and texts.

Sunny Days provides not just wedding floral decoration services, but also for any other occasions, be it corporate functions, flower bouquets for Valentine's, Mother's Day, anything at all. Their flower deco and arrangements are really pretty!

The prices of flowers and wedding packages were surprisingly very reasonable! They're the most reasonable I ever came across.

Sunny Days church wedding packages only cost RM699-990 depending on the package chosen, and garden wedding packages from RM899-1699. For those of us who have done our extensive research everywhere, we know that this is a really, really reasonable and good deal.

Thankfully, Sunny Days isn't one of those florists who would charge super cheap, and give your mediocre service. If you look at their past works photos on their Facebook page, you can see that they really put in 101% of effort and attention to details into making their work stand out.  

RM110

My choices of flowers for my bridal bouquet are roses, hydrangeas, and carnations. I loveeeee round and full hand bouquets with flowers in full bloom, and they happened to have past works which were exactly what I had in mind for my bridal bouquet! Look at how pretty they all are:)

RM200

These are some of the photos taken from Sunny Days Facebook Page.

These are some of the flowers that really capture my attention as they're of the same style and arrangements of what I had in mind :))

RM180

RM120

RM80

And guess what, these beautiful bridal bouquets didn't cost a bomb! They all range from RM80-200, while most florists probably charge double of these prices.

So I got in touch with Sunny Days, and we decided to meet to recee my wedding venue together. 

Meet Alice, my wedding florist from Sunny Days! 

And of course, I'm truly thankful and grateful to have my church wedding flowers fully sponsored by Sunny Days! They're really a bunch of dedicated, detailed and pleasant team to work with! Realized just how awesome they were while all the emails were sent back and forth just to plan and finalize the littlest details of the wedding. 

Alice requested to meet up another time just to have a better look at the church, and took photos of all the spots needed to be decorated. She specially came at a time when there was a wedding to see the set-up of the hall, arrangement of chairs and stage so that she could get a clearer picture of how to decorate the church with flowers. I was truly amazed at her attention to details. Really dedicated :)

Bride-to-be's, and even boyfriends/husbands, if you're looking for a florist for your wedding, or simply just getting a bouquet of flowers to surprise your gfs/wives, try Sunny Days! They're really creative, and most of all, they make sure that they deliver beautiful flowers at really reasonable price.

But do book them as early as you can as they're really busy and are booked up for almost every other weekends!

Once I get my actual wedding day photos from my official photographer, I'll update on the beautiful work that Alice has done for my wedding. They were all beautiful and I can't thank her enough :)

For inquiries and more details, contact Sunny Days here!

Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/sunnydays.my

Email Add: sunnydaysgiftflower@gmail.com

Mobile Number: 012-2273704

:)

love, careen

My Pre-wedding Encounters with Yes I Do

It all started on one fine Sunday afternoon when I was hanging around the church cafe, chatting with my dear friend and sis, Anna Chuah about my wedding gowns.

She asked me if I were custom-making my gowns for the big day, and I told her that no, custom-making gowns would be too expensive and beyond what we have budgeted for. I've asked around at so many places for custom-made gown prices, and they all start at RM1.2k for the very basic, all the way until RM8k for a more elaborate gown.

Anna was obviously shocked, and immediate whipped out her iPhone, and begun showing me photos taken from this particular Facebook wedding gown page. She has saved a few of her favorite designs in her phone, and told me that when she ties the knot, she will be getting from this page as the designs are real pretty and the prices are really reasonable. So I asked her to show me the page, and within just minutes, we were both marveling at the beautiful gowns and dresses in this page called, Yes I Do.

www.facebook.com/yesidogallery

What impressed me was firstly, of course, the price of the gowns!

Where on earth can anybody find a piece of beautifully custom-made gowns for the price of RM400-600??

It really sounded too good to be true, cos it is usually cheap but not nice, or nice but not cheap! I thought I have done lots of research but man, after that day, I realized that there is truly HOPE in life! :')

They had not only bridal gowns, but a wide range of various evening gowns, prom dinner gowns, and even short gowns and cheongsam available! 

So since I already paid for my bridal gown way ahead at another bridal gallery, I thought maybe I could give my evening gown a try from Yes I Do. They had plenty of choices available, and for a person who loves simple and elegant gowns, I was thrilled to see so many on this album! :)

But of course, weddings are once in a lifetime. That is why people have no qualms about spending so much on their big day, especially for brides on their wedding gowns. If the gowns are reasonably priced, but the quality is not good, I wouldn't dare to take the risk with my one and only wedding day. It's not something that we can undo!

Being the careful consumer (I'm super picky when it comes to what I wear, especially on my wedding!), I went through the entire page and all its photos *stalker mode ON*, and came across this particular album where all the custom-made gowns were displayed.

I absolutely love the fact that they post up not just the glamorous photoshoot pictures of models in gowns, but also photos of their customer's big day and close-ups on the details of the gowns.

There is also an album of testimonials/screenshots of the positive feedbacks given by their satisfied customers. That really made me feel a lot more confident in choosing my wedding evening gown from Yes I Do :)

Another thing that gave me more assurance about this page is that the owner isn't afraid to show who she really is! At the 'About' section, you can find her personal Facebook profile where you can add her as a friend and directly Facebook message her for inquiries. 

The best part is that her working mobile number is also listed at the page! Not many people does that, and upon seeing that, I know that this lady means serious business with her page :) 

I dropped Shawn Wong, the founder of Yes I Do a Facebook message at the page, added her up as a friend, and even whatsapped her on her mobile to discuss on our own phones at our convenience. We clicked immediately and it became not just a business inquiry, but a girl friend chat! :)

After getting to know each other better and upon knowing that yours truly is a blogger, she was absolutely kind and generous to offer a sponsorship for my evening gown! :)) Can't tell you just how stoked I was! It was truly, truly an honor! :")

Ladies & gents, meet Shawn Wong, the super friendly and nice owner of Yes I Do! Dealing with this lady has really lessen so much of my headache and burden as a bride-to-be. She knows the struggles of a bride-to-be as she, herself is also set to be married early next year! :)

Shawn really made my wedding evening gown preparation a bliss, and made our measuring session a fun and pleasant one as well :)

So after we fixed a date to meet for measurements at Shawn's place at Setapak, I continued to decide between 2 very, very gorgeous pieces.

I first fell in love with this princess-y piece as I have never worn anything like this in my life, and after the wedding, I doubt I would have any more chance to wear this too. It would be too grand for just a dinner, unless I wear it to model or perform but that's a different story altogether. It was really simple and nice, just the way I like my gown to be.

But at the same time, I can't get over my love for mermaid gowns :')

I saw this piece and I fell head over heels for it! Firstly, of course, the stunning electric blue captured my attention. Secondly, I am a HUGE FAN of sweetheart necklines and slits! This piece totally stole my heart :)

But since my gramma said that blue is a bad color for weddings (as according to Chinese customs *shrugs*), I had to give up this color and choose a different color. Afterall, Yes I Do only charges RM50 for change of colors! No biggie! Shawn was also really kind to absorb that fee for me as well :) *touched*

So after much deliberation (You have NO IDEA how long I took to decide. Until Shawn had to give me a deadline cos they needed time to custom make the gown :P), I decided to go with my heart and what many advised me to go for.

I chose this stunning mermaid piece! :)

Look at the choices of colors I was given to change my evening gown to! You can seriously find any color you want to change to from these color templates.

After much deliberation again, I decided to change the color of my evening gown to one of our wedding theme shades, lilac :)

After confirming my desired evening gown design and color with Shawn, I went through a period of restlessness, gan-jeongness, and excitement. Couldn't stop wondering if my gown would turn out to be how I envisioned it to be. Guess this is every bride-to-be's feeling when taking a risk to custom make, instead of just buying off the rack.

The anticipation and the wait for worth it, as I received my beautiful, gorgeous gown that fit my perfectly after just 2 weeks :)))

Stay tuned to this space as I'll be posting about the evening gown, and how it all turned out to be! :)

In the meantime, ladies, do visit Yes I Do's Facebook Page, *like* the page and stay updated on their latest designs available. The page is very frequently updated, and if you're looking for wedding gowns, prom dresses, ROM dresses, cheongsams, or just a nice dress for a date, I'm sure you can find something there as they also have ready made pieces for sale/rent :) 

www.facebook.com/yesidogallery

Hope this post helped you to decide where to get your wedding gowns done, girls ;)

Be right back!

love, careen

Pre-wedding Engagement Ceremony | Gown by Yes I Do

As much as almost every modern, young couple would try to avoid having any traditions in their weddings, sometimes it is just inevitable. There will be bits and pieces of things that our elders would tell us it's a "Must-do" or "Must-have".

Having said that, traditions in weddings are actually pretty beautiful. Afterall, it is because of traditions that we do what we do in weddings these days!

If you search up the Internet about wedding traditions, there's a meaning for everything done in weddings. From the proposal to brides wearing white, cake-cutting to the first dance. Really interesting to know how what we do these days actually came about! :)

For example:

The Bridal Bouquet isn't just a beautiful accessory for the bride. The bridal bouquet and veil both originated as ways for the bride to ward off evil, as brides were regarded as vulnerable to enchantments. Brides in the past even carried garlic and dill as bouquets! Thank goodness that tradition is no longer practiced :')

As for the Engagement Ceremony, the bride groom is accompanied by his parents (with a total of six to ten people), when he delivers the red wooden box containing the betrothal gift to the bride's home. After the groom arrives, the gifts are properly arranged, and the bride is led by the "lucky woman" from her bedroom to the living room, and the whole tea ceremony begins.

Well, for our engagement ceremony, it was definitely not me & Boon's idea, as what we want is really just a simple and personal Holy Matrimony, dinner & dance & party the night away with our closest families and friends. But due to many requests from parents and grandparents, some things must be carried out...such as this. So instead of saying no and risk upsetting our elders, we said yes and here's where the story begins :)

On the 7th of October, 2012, Boon & his family came all the way to Malacca for the Delivery of Betrothal Gifts, known in Mandarin as 过大礼.

Here are the red gifts that both families trade. They include desserts, flowers, yam plant (?), angpows, dowry, etc. Each item signifies something. It's pretty amusing how anything can mean something!

For example, the bride's family needs to give the groom's family 2 bottles of carbonated drinks:

One F&N Orange- which represents giving birth to a girl

One 100 Plus- which represents giving birth to a boy

I mean...who came up with these things??? O.O

It's really pretty amusing. Hehe..

So my eldest aunt was my "Lucky woman" in this case, as she explained each and every gift and their significance. 

Look at all the red stuff!!!

Btw, these red stuff are not cheap man...everything was bought in one of those official, one-stop "Chinese Weddings Shop" in Malacca, where you can get ANYTHING you need in packages. They provide everything traditional chinese weddings require. My grandma spent thousands at that shop just to make sure I'm being married off presentably (in her terms). Talk about money-making business!

So of course, I had to wear something "red" for this to signify good luck and blessings. And thanks to Yes I Do for sponsoring me the beautiful dress, I don't have to look like an angpow for the occasion. 

Everyone including myself and also my relatives loved the dress. So it's a win-win situation for everybody :D

Hehe yours truly's baby photos.

On the left: Photo of me and my brother, Gladys :P

So after trading gifts, Boon and I paid respect to my late grandpa, and then proceeded to the hotel for a lunch buffet reception for all our Malacca relatives :)

Paparazzi shotz.

Boon cannot take paparazzi shots lah hahahahha :P

My soon-to-be sisters in law completely in our color theme :)

Check out lazy workers at the back hehe.

Groom is hungry.

Meet my wonderful soon-to-be parents :)

My pretty angels :)

Melody, Charity and Evangeline.

Am gonna miss them *cries*

Our pre-wedding photo album by Vincent Cheng. We love his work :)

Sisters :)

Gladys, Jasmine, Vern May.

Choc & Green Tea fondue!

Meet my cute, thoughtful and extremely loving grandma :)

Her clothes were specially custom-made by Wow-couture! She super loved it :)

The first, new family portrait. Love this picture :)

My sisters and their new and only (for now) brother.

My parents now have a son! :P

My man and I :)

My parents and Gladys specially went through all the trouble and hard work of sourcing for a designer and printer just to create a backdrop for the reception. Gladys kept Whatsapping me all the details to finalize so that I'll really love this backdrop :') *touched*

Our wonderful sister and Maid of Honor, Gladys.

No one else could be better than her at this :)

Love this pic!

A beautiful candid of my grandma :)

Another beautiful candid! She was so happy that day :)

Look at my gorgeous dress! Absolutely loved it!

My baby girl.

Yeah had enough of being prim and proper hehe.

Through this, I newly unite with so many of my cousins that I never knew we were related!

Meet my hot cousin, Cookies (that's her nickname).

We knew each other from the freelance world, but we JUST found out that our parents are cousins, so we're actually cousins! *GASP*

And another of my blog reader Facebook messaged me to tell me that he was at my lunch reception. *DOUBLE GASP* Such as small world! Our parents had such huge families that we have cousins everywhere!! O.O

The gown that everyone loved so much :) Especially my grandma cos it's a lucky color hehe.

I've always loved tube, full-laced, mermaid cut gowns, and so happened Yes I Do had one which fit all my preference and the best part is, it was Hot Pink baybee!

It was a pretty last minute thing that I had to get a gown, as I've been looking far and wide for something like this but to no avail. Something not too casual, not too grand, something which is just nice.

So I asked Shawn Wong from Yes I Do for help. We quickly scheduled for a meet up at her place to try on several ready made gowns she had in her collection, and viola! I found my missing piece! :D

Thanks Shawn for receiving me with open arms even at such a last minute! She made the whole gown-trying, and gown-choosing process (I can be pretty picky) so pleasant and a bliss. It was just like going to a buddy's place to try on her clothes from her closet! That's how she made me feel :)

Most of us are skeptical when it comes to ordering gowns from China. Being a person who is really particular about details and quality (especially on what I put on)), I have never trusted online shopping and custom-making dresses from China until I met Yes I Do, which was recommended by a friend. 

The dresses are all made in SuZhou, China, the place renown for bridal gown makers, and have exceptional skills in handling delicate details of dresses. Most of the dresses made in SuZhou are meant to be exported to European countries to be sold, where prices would sky-rocket like mad. 

When I first approached them, Shawn promptly replied my Facebook messages and made me feel so comfortable dealing with her, as she was not at all pushy (I cannot stand pushy people!). From then on, we started to become friends through this business encounter! :)

Loveeeeeeeee <3

A BIG THANK YOU to Shawn Wong from Yes I Do for being so superbly nice and sweet to me. Thanks for the gorgeous dress! Definitely quality assured. Fits me perfectly and shows off the curves at all the right places too ;)

If you're looking for custom-made or ready-made dresses for weddings, proms, dinners, and even rental of dresses, you can consider Yes I Do. From my experience with them, I can safely say that they really do focus on the needs of their clients and would go miles to make them happy. 

Plus, their prices are really reasonable, ranging from RM200-600 for custom made gowns! Highly recommended by me :) You can place an order with them simply by Facebook messaging them on their page, or email them at yesidogallery@gmail.com.

By the way, they'll be making my wedding evening gown too! Extremely excited and can't wait to put it on! :)

Next stop is the real deal! 

16 days left *ganjeongz*

love, careen