My wedding experience...

It was only last Saturday, that we celebrated our wedding with our closest family & friends. We wished our families from afar could have celebrated with us in person, but nonetheless, they were in our thoughts the entire time.

Our guests described our wedding as "beautiful, lovely, fun & elegant". That's all the bride & groom need to know/hear - sometimes, a wedding will not go exactly the way you wanted it to be, it's how you deal with the changes. In our case, there were things that did not went according to plan, but we were too happy to be bothered by it. Below are the things that were a little off track, but somehow managed themselves around us.

Church

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• We were 10-15 minutes late for the church ceremony (luckily Fr. Tan wasn't angry at us) - Fr. Tan skipped the 2nd reading, due to time factor.
• After the ceremony was over, we couldn't take much photos inside of the church, because there were guests seated for the next wedding.
• The bride's march-in song was slightly off tune in the beginning.

Tea ceremony

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• My hubby's parents wasn't familiar with the tea ceremony culture, so there has been some awkward moments, but they eventually got back on the right track.
• Non-relatives started to serve the bride & groom tea, which makes it a little awkward as well, but we just go with the flow :D
• I only brought a casual top to change for lunch (forgotten to carry my shorts along), thankfully, one of my bridesmaids offered me her dress that she was supposed to wear for dinner - Bless her soul.
• Luncheon in Dynasty Dragon, Berjaya Times Square was served a little late.

Dinner

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• It was raining - traffic was pretty bad (was worried for our guests).
• Champagne did not POP the way it should be, probably because my hubby was aiming to pop at the bunch of nicest/most helpful groomsmen (LOL).

These are things that we couldn't care much, because it worked out well by its own. We ended our wedding celebration with a BANG!, thanks to our marvelous emcee & band.

There is nothing I would change to make our wedding better, because we are beyond blessed that we have such supportive family and friends to help us out, without expecting anything in return. 

I've heard from a lot of people say that, the bride will be most stressful on her wedding day. Let me tell you, this is not necessarily true, when you have wonderful people who are always there for you. 

Tip: 

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• Invite people whom you trust or genuinely helpful into your bridal party.
• Do not be afraid to delegate.
• Always be appreciative for the things your bridal party/helpers.
• Be positive and don't try to control everything.
• Only the bride & groom matters, all other things will fall itself into place.
• Lastly SMILE, SMILE, SMILE.
• Honestly, just enjoy your day! Think beautiful thoughts, don't worry about anything else in the world - just you and your hubby that matters.

Words can never express how thankful we are for having our bridesmaids & groomsmen by our side. Not forgetting our family members who helped out financially, physically & spiritually.

It was the best wedding I've attended - my OWN wedding *big smile*

Church reception

Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe (OLOG), Puchong was our initial choice to have our wedding ceremony. At that time, we found that our wedding date was still available for booking, although I saw another application with the same date, in progress on the clerk's desk. But the clerk said that the applicant have not paid the booking fee, so handsome quickly took out his wallet and paid RM 100 to secure the date (actual amount to pay is RM 500 - covered for admin fee & church deco only). This church is well-known for its very strict dress code and the existence of red tape. Well, I can confirm to you that it's true! 

Our personal experience of red tape in OLOG includes:

1) We are not allowed to contact the priest directly, instead we have to call the clerk to state our intentions of meeting up with the priest. Once the priest confirmed his available date, the clerk will call us back to inform date and time of the meet.

2) The clerks were quite reserved when we first started asking questions about wedding matters. But, they were more approachable when we are actively involved in church activities. (the church strongly encourages its people to join and be active in the community)

3) Dress code for the bride (or ladies for that matter): no plunging necklines, no bareback, no spaghetti straps, covered shoulders & knees, no slippers/sandals.

4) We are required to show a picture of the wedding dress to the priest for approval (before the wedding date), before confirming it with the bridal boutique.

5) To have weddings here, there are a lot of imposed charges, and what I am most upset about, will be mentioned below.

After some realization, handsome and I agreed that the traffic and the long journey from Puchong to Banker's Club is not worthy. So, we approached Church of Holy Rosary, KL and guess what, we managed to contact the priest directly on his cell phone! Our first impression of our priest, Fr. Tan was serious/no-nonsense, but once we get to know him, he's in fact a pleasant and funny man. We felt comfortable talking and asking him questions about the wedding protocols. The priest and the administrative officer were ever so helpful. No red tape, quite lenient on the dress code (as long as decent), and only RM 100 admin fee for weddings, no other charges.

Now, back to point#5 above mentioned, since we have informed OLOG four months ahead of our wedding date, that we intend to have our wedding mass in the Church of Holy Rosary, we expect the church to return the RM 100 deposit that we initially paid, since there were hardly any paperwork to process. Unfortunately, the priest do not allow refund, not even half! On top of this, the church charges RM 50 (deducted from the RM 100) to courier our documents to Holy Rosary *disappointed face*

Conclusion, these experiences had challenged us as a couple, to make decisions and go through thick and thin together. 

Venue visit #5: Bankers Club KL

It's time to reveal our venue of choice *drum rolls* ... Bankers Club KL!

I know, I know...it has one of the worst traffic in KL, and limited parking spaces made available. But we fell in love with the decor and we felt so comfortable by negotiating with PIC Mr Shangkar because he's understanding and so flexible with our requests. I've researched about weddings being held here, and overall there seemed to have plenty of positive reviews from their food right down to their services provided.

The atmosphere and the decor is definitely one of a kind for weddings. The pictures you find on the internet about this place is exactly just that. Bankers Club is a penthouse inside Amoda Building, situated opposite of Berjaya Times Square and in front of Lowyat Plaza, hence the heavy traffic and limited parking spaces.

Whenever our family and friends learnt the location of our wedding reception venue, we can see that they were annoyed about the traffic and parking issue. But in fact, we have no regrets choosing Bankers Club, because the venue represents us as a couple. Both of us loved the venue and the service, and we want our guests to experience a new change other than hotels and Chinese restaurants. In terms of pricing, we categorize this as intermediate between Chinese restaurant and hotel standards. Below are some pictures from one of the previous wedded couple, for more photos, you may visit her blog at: http://wedding.ahdear.com/blog/default.aspx?id=1&t=KL-Wedding-Dinner-Part-1

Photo source: http://wedding.ahdear.com/blog/default.aspx?id=1&t=KL-Wedding-Dinner-Part-1

Photo source: http://wedding.ahdear.com/blog/default.aspx?id=1&t=KL-Wedding-Dinner-Part-1