Pre-wedding Photography Session

Wishing everybody a belated-Happy Valentine's Day! ♥♥♥
 
After goggling for places to take our pre-wedding photos, below are places that we have decided on. Yes I know it's nothing special, but I like ;p 

We did our shoot few days ago, I purposely planned it the week before CNY so that I can eat without reservation during the festive season haha. Anyways, the whole photo-shoot took about 7 hours for both indoor and outdoor, excluding 1.5 hours of make-up and hair do.

1. Botanic gardens

Address: 1 Cluny Road, Singapore 259569

Parking: S$0.02/min, recommended to enter via Tanglin Gate.

Get ready to sweat! Super hot!! My nu-bra shifted, luckily it didn't drop hahaha.

Quite paranoid so I applied for permit, in case they didn't let us shoot for whatever reason.

We felt like celebrities (for real!) when we reached botanic gardens - we passed by a bunch of students from the photography club (I think), once they saw us, they immediately snapped photos of us (without asking- like some paparazzi) and even stood nearby to watch us during some of our scene shots and enthusiastic enough to stop the photographer half-way to request to take some photos of us. Haha what an experience. 

2. National Museum

Address: 93 Stamford Road Singapore 178897

Parking: S$2.50/hr (7am to 6pm)

If you would like to have your shoot done inside the museum, you can apply for the permit at the front desk on the actual day and make a payment of S$184 for 2 hours. Since we are on a budget (means no spiral stairs photos, sad!), we decided to just take it on the outside which can be quite nice (and hot) too.

Credits: Pinterest

3. Marina Barrage

Address: 8 Marina Gardens Drive, Singapore 018951

Parking: Free

We waited till sun set to have our photos taken against the city-lights. Nice! 

Here are things I prepared for the shoot:

1. Wet wipes

2. Tissue papers

3. Hand-held electric fan 

4. 2 x 750ml water bottle for us and the photographer

5. 1L of honey water (or any energy drink in case you have no time or appetite to eat)

6. Lunch: Mum was super awesome, she made egg mayo and cheese sandwiches for the photographer, makeup artist and her assistant and J. While I made blueberry overnight oats for myself.

7. Bobby pins

8. Hair spray

9. Lip gloss and blusher

10. Slippers (a must!! especially for botanic gardens, lots of walking) 

11. Mini sewing kit (you will never know what will tear)

12. Panadol

13. 2 Lenless specs for J (he's so vain that he even brought 2 watches to change to suit his suites)

14. Money for ampoules and lashes

15. 12 helium balloons (purchased just the day before) 
16. Other props but we forgot to take it out from the car -.-'''

PetiteFreckles ♥

The Aisle Bridal

6 more months to the big day!

I nearly forgot to update about purchasing the bridal package. Beginning of last year, before J even proposed, for the fun of it, we did check out the wedding shows for bridal packages at any shopping malls that we happen to go to. So one fine day, we chance upon The Aisle Bridal and I remembered my friend telling me about their reasonable price so we decided to listen to their sales talk. After half an hour, we were convinced and yes we signed on the spot and made a deposit of S$1500. Have been crossing fingers since the day we signed with them, that we made the right choice. Will be reviewing them soon and will upload my checklist on questions to ask before purchasing.

Oh and here's what I learnt from mistake during bridal package shopping:

1. Do check out their physical shop before signing, to get a better idea of what gowns and suits they can offer. (we didn't :( ) 

2. Check out their reviews online (we didn't...) 

3. Have to be thick skin to ask for more perks
4. Make sure everything you negotiated for is in black and white

5. Be prepared for miscellaneous costs to be included after signing the package (we weren't...) 

6. Do note that they have many couples to handle so you will need to do some follow-up on your own instead of waiting for the bridal shop to call you to make any sort of arrangements such as trial session for make up and gown selection. Or else you will never get anything done -.-''

Preview of 2 of my gowns:

One of my gown for outdoor shoot

Thinking if I should choose this gown for my actual day in Malaysia, what do you guys think? 

PetiteFreckles ♥

Pre-wedding Shoot Shopping

Since shirt and shoes are not  provided by the bridals shops, we started to shop around for it about a month before the pre-wedding shoot. We got J's shirts and shoes from Vivocity, as there were some post-Christmas sale going on. 

Here's what he bought:

1. Black dress shoes from Pedro: $93 (after deducting the $30 DBS voucher that he redeemed prior to the purchase)
2. White oxford shirt from Top Man: $39
3. 2 shirts (black and white) from G2000: $59.40 (after 10% Citibank discount)

Total damage incurred: S$191.40

For my own shoes, I decided to wear the nude heels that I previously bought from DMK for my friend's wedding. Will be purchasing my actual wedding shoes at a later date.

Guys, do note that vests, ties and bow ties are provided by the bridal shop but do buy your own if you do not like what they have as some of them can be pretty backdated -.-

PetiteFreckles ♥

Pinterest, My Wedding Bible

Ladies! For those who have not heard of Pinterest, do check it out at https://www.pinterest.com/ now! Or you can download the app! ;D 

TRUE THAT!!!

In my opinion, it is really one of the best content-sharing site that I have ever seen. Since I downloaded it a few months ago, I have been super hooked on it. I check it out every other day haha, it contains a whole lot of interesting and useful information such as DIY ideas for wedding, house decor, fashion, travel tips and more! Pinterest is my go-to app/website for almost everything ♥♥♥ 

Here's a sample of what I have pinned for my pre-wedding photoshoot mood board :D Will be showing these to my photographer, excited!! 

Wait no further, download it today! ;D

 

Photo credits: Pinterest

PetiteFreckles ♥

Happy Birthday, Mummy!

Brought the whole family out for dinner to celebrate Mummy's birthday. Dad felt like having vegetarian so we decided to try Classic Lao Di Fang Vegetarian Restaurant, located in Park Mall.

Address

Classic Lao Di Fang Vegetarian Restaurant

9 Penang Road #B1-12, Park Mall, Singapore 238459

You have a choice of buffet or ala-carte style, we decided on ala-carte as we weren't that hungry:

• Special mushroom soup  (S$13.80)
• Mango prawn roll            (S$16.80)
• French Bean                    (S$9.80)
• Stir fried sambal fish       (S$18.80)
• Chrysanthemum tea x 4   (S$8)
• Rice x 4                            (S$6)

Total: S$81.85 after service charge (No GST)

Verdict: 

• Soup was good and filled with lots of mushrooms and had a nice herbal taste to it
• The sambal fish was awesome, the sambal was aromatic, adequate spiciness and the texture of the "fish" was convincingly real, a MUST-TRY! But you have to eat it while it's hot or else it won't be that shiok
• You can't go wrong with french beans
• As for the mango-prawn, texture was very prawn-like, A pretty decent dish :) 
• Chrysanthemum tea was super diluted and expensive, should have ordered the organic juice instead
• Overall the portion is just right for 4 pax 
• Service was prompt and the restaurant was really clean 

PetiteFreckles ♥

Pune Retreat, India

Just got back from a 6 days retreat trip to India with J and my parents which was organized by the Centre of Inner Studies (CIS), Singapore. CIS was established in 2006 and is affiliated to the World Pranic Healing Foundation in Manila. They are a non-profit organization which teaches pranic healing with proven scientific approach (a “no-touch, no-drug” energy based healing modality). And the best thing is that it is not linked to any religion. 

The trip to India was a real eye-opener, we thoroughly enjoyed the process and food. And it was seriously therapeutic, love the peace and quietness over there :D We arrived in Mumbai and took a 6 hours bus ride to a mountain in Pune. We passed by many slums and it was really sad to see the living conditions of the people. The weather was slightly chilly at night (around 10degrees I think) and in the afternoon it's really warm. 

Indian Vegetarian food on board Jet Airways

Passing a town on the way to the mountain

And I have to say that I had the most memorable trip of my life- I have a terrible case of acrophobia but because of my 'itchy backside' (nothing literal), I decided to give mountain hiking a go. With only a torchlight, we took off at 5.30am in pitch darkness, it was really scary for me especially with my wild imagination and any lack of concentration can send me rolling off the mountain because it was pretty steep. The hike up and down took about 4 hours and throughout the journey, I was like tearing non-stop and kept saying "OMG i'm gonna fall off!" and didn't want to move, haha that was how bad my phobia was. But I'm so glad that I managed to conquer the mountain and to have J next to me ;D

Sorry didn't have much photos of the trip.

On the way to the airport, we stopped by a mall to take a look and to do some quick shopping :)

PetiteFreckles ♥

Restoran Hua Mui: Hainanese Chicken Chop

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 

Few weeks back, J's mum suggested to have lunch at Hua Mui and told me that they are known to serve one of the best Hainanese chicken chop in Johor!

 

So here goes..

 

Restoran Hua Mui 华美茶餐室 is located near City Square Mall:

131 Jalan Trus, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Opening Hours: 7.30am to 9.30pm

 

 

 

J's family ordered the famous chicken chop and I ordered the fish and chips to have more variety. If i'm not wrong, it costs about RM$12 for the chicken and RM$13 for the fish, both served with green peas, potatoes and tomatoes. The fish and chicken was sufficiently juicy and the batter was thin and crispy too, really not bad! :) Oh I love the gravy, next time I will ask for more of it haha.  

 

Verdict: 3.8/5.0

 

PetiteFreckles ♥