Wine & Liquor Archives - Joan Dee

DIY and No Planners

Asking someone else to customize or to design for you would cost you at least RM450. Get in control. Sketch out your ideal wedding invitations, guest books and name placement. Get a friend to do you a favour and print it out at home.

Source: Click here

Flowers

The wedding decoration would usually cost a bomb and would wither right after the wedding. Avoid using expensive flowers. For example, you could use roses from China which would cost you much lesser than other imported flowers. Negotiate with your supplier in advance to avoid peak season or shortage.

Source: Click here and here

Dates and Venues

Malaysian weddings are usually very sensitive with dates. Auspicious dates like 12^th of December 2012 or 13^th of January 2013 should be avoided. Wedding venues and hotels are likely to be fully booked and price would be up by 30%. Choose your date carefully and cross check it with the hotel. If you are comfortable with the idea of celebrating your wedding during off peak season, it would help your guests travelling from abroad to save cost on their flight and accommodation.

Alcohol

Unless it is a Malay wedding, alcohol would play an important role to get your guests into a celebratory mood. Be wise in choosing which type of alcohol to serve. Sparkling would be very expensive and if you insist on having it, don’t sting e on the number of bottles or your guests wouldn’t be happy. Serve beers generously, before serving the wines and whiskeys. The cost of serving beer is the lowest of all four.

Source: Click here

Here are a few pointers on your wine and whiskey:

– A bottle of 750ml wine could serve 5 glasses

– A bottle of 750ml champagne could serve 8 glasses flute

– A bottle of 700ml liquor could serve about 24 shots

You know your guests and you know best how much they are likely to drink. Assuming a guest would consume a glass every hour and would have probably 5 drinks by the time the dinner is over, and this assumption includes those who will not drink alcohol.

Resist the Bargain Temptation

Brides-to-be are more likely to be tempted by bargains. The idea of saving by purchasing things on bargain would usually leads to high wastage. More purchases are unplanned and would probably be unused and kept in the storeroom, piling dust on it. Ribbons, tapes and stationeries are a few of the common wastage. Think, before you buy!

Small Guest List

This is an important determinant on your wedding cost. The bigger crowd, the higher cost incurred. I would personally prefer a small wedding, whereby I could devote a big chunk of the budget everyone every happy instead of a big wedding, where everyone is feeling meeeeeeh.

A small wedding makes it easy for you to sit back and enjoy but the unforeseen challenge is who should you be inviting? Seats are limited and someone will be left out.

Source: Click here

Fixed Deposits

If your family gave you some money in advance for your wedding preparation, please do keep it in the fixed deposits. The additional interest generated might even help you pay for some little luxuries. A wedding today could cost anywhere from RM45,000 and up too RM500,000 and some into the million dollars zone. Each dollar saved in FD would help you in the long term planning.

Big sales

The big sales could help you in choosing the right door gifts. Most departmental stores would feature massive during the 1Malaysia Mega Sale, Year End Sale, GrandPrix Sale and the Malaysia Mega Sale. You could look for small little gifts like a photo frames, his and hers items or even chopsticks.

Quirky Wedding Favors Ideas

July 31, 2013

07/312013

If you are a hands-on bride and want a personalised wedding, you should start figuring out what you would like to give away as wedding favors. It is usually a small gift given away as token as appreciation to guests for coming.

It is common for weddings in Malaysia to give out chocolates, candies, potpurries, as well as merchandises and pictures of the bride and the groom. Why don’t we innovate and give it a special touch? I’ve always thought that wedding favors would symbolize the thoughts and efforts poured into the wedding. There are so many things to think about, the moment the guy proposes. “When shall we have the wedding? Will it be in a hotel or in a restaurant? How many dresses should I have? What theme or decor would I want my wedding to have?”

With so many thoughts running wild in the bride’s mind, they tend to neglect the wedding favors. The one and only item that the guests would bring home with them, as a memorabilia.

Oh, don’t forget. Most of your guests are going to be instagramming the wedding favors so take this opportunity to get them excited.

Personally, I love handmade and crafty items. It doesn’t even have to be expensive! You can easily get those small little jars and bottles from Chinatown and fill it up with sweet little things. For example, you can fill a miniature glass bottle with vanilla essence with little cinnamon sticks insides.

Or you could simply buy bigger jars and just buy tonnes of salt and dump it in. Chances are, your guests will bring them home and use both the jar and salt in the kitchen.

If you have a budget surplus for wedding favors, miniature whiskeys would definitely score you some points with your guests. Don’t forget to encourage your guests to sober before driving home though!

Always remember that wedding favor will always be the only item that they will carry home with them. Make sure these little things are able to make not only a lasting impression, but also a memorable one!

An Intimate Affair

July 30, 2013

07/302013

A wedding is not only a union between two individuals, but two families as well. It is every woman’s dream to walk down the aisle on her wedding day and celebrating this joyous day with relatives and friends. One of the most memorable weddings I attended was in Penang at this cosy little place called Mansion32. June, the bride of the wedding decided to participate in this interview with us.

The bride and groom’s table

How many places were shortlisted for your wedding dinner?

We were contemplating having it in either Kuala Lumpur or Penang and went on a major restaurant hunt around the country. I decided between Passion Road or Luna Bar if it were to be hosted in KL, or between Mansion32 or Bagan in Penang. I wanted it to be a small wedding, an intimate one.

Pre-wedding set up

So, what were the deciding criteria?

The floor layout and set up played the major role in my decision, and the price point as well. The moment I set my eyes on Mansion32, I could envision how my wedding would turn out and it is exactly what I wanted. They had a lounge before entering the dinner area, which allows cocktails and pre-drinks to be served before opening up the door to enter the dining. In Malaysia, we have the tendency to be start wedding later than planned.

The reception area connected to the loungeThe lounge used for pre-drinks before adjourning to the main dining room

So, this would help ease the impatience and everyone gets to mingle around first. Some of the other places that I’ve seen had different rooms set up, which separates the guest with the main room.

What was the theme of this wedding and why?

Mm.. I would call this “An Intimate Affair”. Our relatives were coming from around the globe to attend this wedding and I’ve not met some of my cousins for years and this was a good opportunity to meet them. Personally, most of the Chinese weddings are usually in big scale – about 100 tables from which I barely knew the guests from 50 of those tables.

Wine cork in seating arrangement

It sounds like a small and intimate wedding! So, were that any challenges in the setting up of this wedding? Did you have the help of a wedding planner?

I was unable to find the right wedding planner and took things into my own hands. The sourcing of the location, discussions with the restaurant and set up were all done by me with the help of my family and relatives. It wouldn’t have been possible doing this alone because I wanted to personalise many aspects of it. One of the biggest challenges for a wedding of this size is keeping a tab on the head count. We had a total of 30 tables and every seat was precious. That was a major challenge! Fortunately, everything went according to plan.

The size of a small weddingOverlooking the garden, which is connected to the beach

How would you describe your wedding?

It was a beautiful moment in my life. It is a once in a lifetime moment and if done well, would be so satisfying. I loved the wedding favors and name placement particularly. For wedding favors, I had miniature whiskeys with a funny poem attached to those little bottles. It wasn’t an easy matter, sourcing 300 bottles of miniature whiskeys and transporting them to the restaurant. From multiple suppliers, it took me about 3-6 months getting them all together. For the name placement, I printed the names of my guests on a thick card and stuck them onto a wine cork. That was another challenge. This is where I had to ask friends and relatives to assist me in the search of 350 wine corks. My husband was very particular with the wedding band and finding a suitable one was difficult. Fortunately, one of our cousins volunteered to sing and that made it all perfect.