Taobao - Bridesmaid dresses, brothers' attire, wedding souvenirs

If you are paying for your bridesmaids' dresses or brothers' attire, a way to go easy on your pocket is by buying it from Taobao.

The brothers' attire are from Taobao (Shirt + Tie) according to common friend. It is cheap just that you have to pay abit for shipping. But overall, still cheap. Material wise, it is good but not Uniqlo kinda good, not thin or lousy super kinda of material. The bow tie is the best I feel because it comes in a very atas box and its a golden/silver polka dots bow tie.  

In my initial planning, I straight away thought of buying dresses for the sisters from Taobao. It is not only price-reasonable but the dresses are quite pretty and if you search hard enough, you really find interesting and unique dresses. Just search 结婚姐妹礼服 for  sisters' dresses.

There are sizes up to XXXL, depending on design each dress does not exceed $20! In fact, when I was googling around I saw one bride whose sisters are wearing the exact same dresses and its really pretty!! 

Well...look at this! Very elegant and pretty! This would probably be for my sisters except that I managed to get my bridal studio to include sisters'dresses for me. Hence, if you are searching for dresses, don't bother to go to local shops, Taobao is the way to go! 

FYI...

Taobao is totally not for fussy buyers. If you are someone very particular and values quality a lot then Taobao is not for you. Although I must say 90% of the dresses come from Taobao and even wedding gowns you seen in bridal studios come from there as well.

TIP: If you are unsure about the quality or the reliability of the seller, do a test buy first. Buy 1 dress for yourself to try and see if it is good or suitable for the girls. I believe if you search hard enough, there are really very good cheap and good quality stuff! 

Also, during the search for hotels, some of the wedding souvenirs that I saw were custom made and very unique. For instance, Dreamweavers is one that custom made the souvenirs according to your theme. I did take some photos but unfortunately I can't seem to find that anywhere in my phone anymore. While they did excellent in the customization but honestly speaking, their gifts/souvenirs which I can 100% confirm is that it is from Taobao. 

For instance, the love measuring spoon which common friend ordered from Taobao... it is the exact same stuff from those vendors that do customization for wedding souvenirs and charges exorbitant rates for couples!

Instead of wasting your money, just google 结婚回礼 and you can find tons of cute and interesting gifts for your guests.  For example, 

Price wise, it depends on what you choose and all. There are couples that do away with the hotel wedding souvenirs and exchanged it for other things. So if you are considering using your own, then here is 1 good place to shop! 

Lastly, if you are on super tight budget or don't really give a hoot about weddings/ rather want something unique or a gown that you really love...buy your wedding gowns online!! Plus any accessories you fancy, you can buy it from Taobao. Guess I don't need to continue further right? 

I did seriously considered buying my wedding gowns online but the thought of not using them anymore after the wedding is kinda not practical. So there! 

Wedding dolls

Hurray!

My Brown and Cony dolls are here! It is a special limited edition from Japan and I paid about $100+ for it. I really wanted this because the man and I love using the Line app to chat with one another. I always enjoyed using the line app because the stickers are so cute and they really expressed how I feel most of the time. Since we are both so connected to the app, it's quite nice to have something to represent us. So ...imagine my happiness when I found out they are coming out with this wedding edition dolls! Have to get them and I am glad I did. They are pretty beautiful, aren't they? Hee hee!

Printing wedding inserts and cards - T & T Instant Print Services at JB City Square

Yup, if you are planning to save money on wedding inserts and cards then I think this is one the places to do it -T & T Instant Print Services at Johor Bahru City Square. It is located at 5th floor near this waffle shop. When you take the escalator that goes to the cinema, walk straight past the ticket office, turn right and there you will see the shop.  

Actually, its nothing new but almost all Singaporean couples come here to do their wedding inserts and cards. Prices are based on the number of cards you are printing, paper used, the designs of the cards, etc. The last time I asked for a basic card design is about 20 cents or less per piece and the lady told me the prices might increase because there is plan to add in government tax. In any case, it may still be cheaper than doing it in Singapore. 

Some of the card designs... 

"Airport passes"

Well, I have plans to do it here since we wanna save costs but I will still go to local shop and check out the prices for comparison (but that will have to wait next year!). 

Anyway the lady advised us not to email them, to us it is a faster mode of communication but the problem is they do not have internet access and so phone call is very much preferred, besides it is way much faster to get things done (according to them). 

Check out their Facebook page for more designs and ideas here: 

T&T Instant Print Services Sdn Bhd 

https://www.facebook.com/tntinstantprintservices

By the way, just some calculation to see if all these printing insert/cards is worth making the trip down to JB... 

Hotel gave me 75% wedding cards which is sufficient (according to colleague) because most guests invited come in pairs or families. So the cost now is only the inserts/cards which I need to try to find a place to get people to do at discounted rate. The cost savings I get from T & T is used to travel to and fro from Singer to JB and I may be wasting more money instead (technically I don't see it as a waste of my time and money because I get to eat cheap food, watch cheap movies and buy cheap stuff at City Square - depends on how one sees it). I am wasting more money in the sense because insert from Shop A vs Shop JB may saves me 30 cents (30 cents x 200 inserts = $60). Hence cost savings of $60 may not be substantial enough to waste the time and money to print, especially if I am saving 10 cents  per piece, overall I am only saving $0.1 x 200 = $20. 

Hmm something which you can think about and debate too!

Parkroyal on Pickering - Wedding lunch

Attended a wedding lunch at Parkroyal on Pickering..... 

Home made sweet treats from the groom's side. 

Went for the solemnization ceremony to get a feel and see how it is like. It is held at a small function room fit for about 30 people. This is also the place where the tea ceremony is held after the solemnization. 

Reception area where the brothers and sisters are waiting and getting ready for the crowd.

Ideas for wedding. Everything is self-made. Quite a lot of effort put in! 

Photo Booth area. Quite amazed to see all the details that go into decorating the photos. 

Checking out the "bridal" room!

Small but cosy "living room"

Bedroom with great view (can even see the hotel room over the other side) and the big toilet.

Ballroom. Like the stage a lot, especially with the $200 balloons flying there.

Time for food! Food - not too bad but nothing "wow". The duck sauce is quite good though. The waiter serves the food one by one but we couldn't wait so told him we will help ourselves. They serve a lot of herbal prawns, one person could eat about 2-3 prawns. 

Post-Wedding Photoshoot at the pool area (Subject to the crowd. If there are many guests at the pool area, phototaking is not allowed - not even on your wedding). 

Super amazed because the pool is so awesome! 

Quite heartwarming to see the happy couple. Everyone used to be worried that he will not be able to get a girlfriend but now he is actually the second one to get married within the group. Happy that I could come and experience this too! The hotel is really good and since it is quite new, this is a good place to come get married and use the facilities. They have a very good gym facing the pool as well, good for staycation to just relax and have fun.