Marriage is not just a vow of commitment to each other, but it goes deeper than that. It is about being unselfish, unconditional sacrifices when you realise your only aims are to make your partner happy and feeling secured. I am a good old fashioned man. I enjoy the traditional aspects of the wedding, exchange of vows, tea ceremony, wedding march, first dance and toasting. It solemnised the importance of the wedding.                                                                                                                                                                -Michael Hii-

I am excited to share with you the wedding of Michael and Jun Yee which was held at The Bankers Club, at the penthouse of Plaza Amoda. Both Michael and Jun Yee are based in London and they engaged our services about six months prior to their wedding. Despite not being able to meet up face to face, I could sense that Jun Yee has a great personality, with her bubbly persona and sweet voice. Not to mention, the colourful emoticons on her MSN! hahaha… well, we all know lawyers are the best exemplars of “Work Hard, Play Hard”. ;P

I think I only had a word or two with Michael over the phone, just before they came back about a week before their big day to coordinate the surprise segment for Jun Yee. After our first meeting, I told Jun Yee, “Michael is a really great man! You are really lucky to have found each other!” and she retorted,  “How do you know he’s a great man?” Hmm… call it six sense.

The wedding of Michael and Jun Yee had a classic English ambience infused with bright colours of summer. Volumes of law journals form an integral part of the decoration, along with Shakespearean quotes and feathered pens in mahogany and black. The classic, aristocratic stuffiness was soften with colourful butterfly message cards and blooms of orange, yellow, peach and red carnations, roses, orchids and lilies. As the planner, my biggest concern was to ensure the bright colours will not make the setting look tacky or OTT. The direction of conceptualisation was to ensure that the wedding was classy but not too old-fashioned. I think we did pretty alright in balancing the rich colours of red, orange and yellow in tasteful details that are current yet would remain timeless.

With Jim, Ning and John of Jim Liaw Photography as the official photographers, one can be assured that all those  priceless moments would be captured beautifully and encapsulated in timeless art. Marching in to the song ‘Daddy’s Angel’, Jun Yee entered the hall through the grandstairs of Bankers Club together with her father. He then handed her over to Michael and together, they walked to the stage for the cake-cutting ceremony and first dance. After the bouquet toss, guests were then invited to the next hall for dinner. Miniature towers of Ferrero Rochers doubled as centrepieces and wedding favours. The ambience for the evening was intimate and laid back, with Keith Tan, Malaysia’s very own Jason Mraz serenading the guests throughout the evening. For the second gown, Jun Yee wore an exquisite  royal blue embroidered silk gown from Shanghai Tang. Sharon of Wedding Isle did a beautiful side swept hairstyle for Jun Yee, finished with some yellow Mokara orchids and slightly deeper pink cheeks. The dinner started on time and ended early, but both Michael and Jun Yee had a good uninterrupted time to catch up with old friends throughout the night. I really enjoy planning intimate weddings, it’s always more meaningful when the couple gets to talk and thank every guest who attends the wedding.

This wedding is also featured on Wedding Guide Asia.

Wedding Planner/Coordinator: The Peak Xperience / Wedding Photography: Jim Liaw Photography / Wedding Venue: Bankers Club / Wedding Gown: La Sposa Barcelona / Evening Gown: Shanghai Tang London / Wedding Shoes: Christian Dior / Hair & Make Up: Sharon of Wedding Isle / Flowers: Wishing Tree / Stationery: The Peak Xperience / Wedding Car: Prestige Limo

This wedding was years ago but it’s still one of my favourites! It’s the epitome of Mediterranean simplicity, where all you need is a good venue with sun-drenched walls and infusing the warmth of the Tuscan countryside with simple enhancements.

I call it the “Casablanca Happy Everything Production” because they were a cheerful lot, and by they, I mean the wedding entourage of whom are from the Young KL Singers gang. Naturally, as a singer, songwriter and the theatre manager of KL PAC and Actor’s Studio, Ian composed a song for May Yee and sang it during the dinner. CD containing their favourite love songs were given away as wedding favours which also doubled as seating indicators, beautifully designed by Joel Wong. A very intimate wedding with lots of singing, dancing, merriment, joy and laughter.

Photography by Jenny Sun Photography.

Much earlier, we featured a post on the pre-wedding shoot of Lipson and Jessy at Maldives.  Now, feast your eyes on their wedding which was held at The Hilton Kuala Lumpur. When you think of weddings, your mind might wander off to the soft pastel colours of pink or purple, or perhaps the crisp colour of white or the bold shades of red. Lipson and Jessy have never wanted your standard-ballroom-wedding we’ve all come to expect. Their wedding oozed charisma! Although inspired by the cold tones of winter-themed wedding, Lipson and Jessy weren’t keen on yet another white fairytale winter-themed wedding but wanted a clean, modern wedding with royal blue, plum purple, black and silver as their colour theme. In fact, they specially requested their guests to come in dark shades of purple, blue or black.

I only met Lipson once, i.e., just days before the wedding during the finalisation stage when we had to get acquainted with the emcee and bestman.  Lipson, a very successful financial planner attached to Manulife, was often busy with work, leaving the wedding in the hands of his beloved wife.

Jessy was a decisive bride who knew what she wanted. From magnetic invitation cards to personalised place cards for every guest, butterscotch black fondant cake to translucent tea pot filled with rose tea buds, every detail of the wedding was planned to a T. There were times when I would get up to 15 emails a day from Jessy! haha.. She even bought me oriental slippers during her trip to China. *Thanks so much! Hugssss* She was also a hard core DIY bride who decorated her bridal suite, made the pomanders for her sisters and many other personal touches that made the wedding truly meaningful. I used to be so worried that she’d be too busy or stressed out on her wedding day to complete all these tasks. But she was the coolest, most stress-free bride I ever know! It was indeed a real pleasure working with Jessy on her wedding!!

Wedding Coordinators/Planners: The Peak Xperience / Wedding Venue: The Hilton Kuala Lumpur / Wedding Photography: Lifetale Studio / Pre-Wedding Photography: Touch Collection (Malaysia) and Muha Photos (Maldives) / Wedding Gowns: Micky Tan / Wedding Cake: Truly Scrumptious! / Flowers: Wishing Tree

I first met Su Kwong and Chloe on the eve of New Year.  They are based in Perth, and we were communicating via phone calls and MSN before we finally met up to finalise the decor and programme rundown. Their wedding was a two-day event but since we were already booked on the prior day for another wedding, Su Kwong and Chloe only engaged us to manage and decorate their wedding reception.

Their wedding was held at Oriental Banquet, PJ and they wanted a theme which was reflective of vineyard theme but not too overly done to please the conservative aesthetics of the older folks. They picked a photo from their engagement shot at a winery in Australia to be projected as the backdrop for the stage.

The couple’s family had 2 sessions of food-tasting at Oriental Banquet because they were utterly unhappy with the quality of the food, but on the big day, everyone had high praises for the mouth-watering dishes. I think the only set back with the venue is that the Banquet Manager who doubles as the emcee can be quite a difficult person to work with, and even the sound tech coordinator had to multi-task as a waiter.

Wedding Coordinators/Planners: The Peak Xperience / Wedding Venue: Oriental Banquet, Petaling Jaya / Wedding Photography: Armadale by Cheryl Yaw / Wedding Gowns by Keep Gallery

In a press statement released on Monday, Amber Chia had announced that she has married her boyfriend, whom she has been dating for the past  1 1/2 years, in a private ceremony in Bali. The ceremony was held at a private beach within the exclusive Diwangkara Holiday Villa Resort and was attended by approximately 40 family members and close friends.

This wedding has actually been in the planning for the past 5 months, and the newlyweds are ecstatic that they were able to have a private ceremony with just their friends and family, something they both dreamed of. The couple also visited the beaches of Sanur, the lake of Bedugu and the cliffs of Uluwatu for their pre-wedding photo by The Photoz and video shoot.

Amber’s wedding dresses, 7 in total, were specifically designed for her by two of Malaysia’s top designers, Keith Kee and Alvin Tay paired with beautiful jewelry by Rafflesia.

Amber and her husband are looking forward to settling into a life together. “We have discussed the future, and we definitely want to start a family together” said 28-year old Amber, who jokingly added “I would love to be a mom before I am 30″.

The couple will be shortly honeymooning at an undisclosed destination. Congrats to Amber on tying the knot!

These beautiful photos were taken by The Photoz.

Say hello to Jessy and Lipson who had their pre-wedding photos taken in Maldives. Jessy first contacted me in year 2007 when she started planning for her wedding. Unbelievable, isn’t it?! At that time, she insisted on having a beach wedding and the top venue of choice was Avillion Resort Port Dickson.  I still remember the sentence she uttered in a brim full of excitement, “die die also my feet must walk on sand!”.

Needless to say, more than 700 days of thoughtful consideration later, the venue was finally confirmed at The Hilton Kuala Lumpur. No sand indeed, but she got her wish by having a pre-wedding photo session at Maldives.

The infinite shades of blue and the crystal clear ocean is simply paradise to the eyes! To save the cost and hassle, they decided to engage a photographer directly from Maldives.

Did You Know? With an average ground level of 1.5m {4 ft 11 in} above sea level, The Republic of Maldives is the lowest country on the planet.^[6] It is also the country with the lowest highest point in the world, at 2.3m {7 ft 7 in}

I was totally head over heels with the simple elegance of Andy and Paula’s wedding which was hosted at The Bankers Club. They are both really easy-going couple of whom I’ve had the wonderful pleasure of working with last year. Totally committed in keeping their guest list to a maximum of 160, we had the names of each and every guest painstakingly hand drawn on their three-tiered wedding cake by Truly Scrumptious.  The evening started with a beautiful ceremony witnessed by their close friends and families, followed by a cocktail reception that ended with dance and merriment. Do check out Wishing Tree’s blog for more photos.

Wedding by The Peak Xperience. Photography by Sam Leong of Keep Gallery

The best of weddings doesn’t necessarily mean it has got to have the most beautiful blooms of flowers, or the most elaborate 9-course meal or the most spectacular display of entertainment. Sometimes, all it takes is a sprinkle of joy…well, lots and lots of it actually, to totally rawk a wedding!

Alvin and Kitti first met at Money & You, an excellerated program aims at providing the highest quality of transformational and entrepreneurial education. It was through this strong network of empowered leaders and entrepreneurs that I met Kitti.

Despite working together on the logistics team, Alvin and Kitti are two very distinct individuals who never ever  saw the soulmate in each other until they attended the Excellerated Business School program at Holiday Villa Subang. Kitti, the infectiously joyful, outspoken and bubbly girl, and Alvin,  a humble, observant and  quietly sociable businessman; connected at a whole new level during this 8-day seminar through experiential ctivities (during which  one was ‘Love’ and the other was ‘Joy’ in one of the games) and two years later, he proposed to her at Holiday Villa, right where it all started.

Hence, the basis of their wedding was themed Dances of Joy in a Garden of Love.

I think this table had the best view of the lake and stage!

The wedding had a different twist that might make it difficult for lots of people understand why we did what we did, especially the older, more conservative folks. Hence, it was important for us to have emcees who were aligned with the couple so that they could help set the context for the evening.

The wonderful emcees, KL Fong and Jaclyn in a  “What do you feel like sharing tonight?” moment.

Both Alvin and Kitti believe that in order to have fun, to really bring out the essence of joy, we must really commit and immerse ourselves in the game even if it means looking silly or having to be a child again.

And joy was what they brought to the wedding, as we kicked-start the evening with a freestyle  march-in dance to  Henry Mancini’s Pink Panther theme song. Alvin’s dad was so sporting that he fully participated in the idea right from the beginning as he ushered his guests in a chilli red chinese silk shirt and a red, funky hairpiece. Kitti chucked her bridal bouquet aside and carried a pink panther doll as they sashayed down the red carpet to thundering applause.

Alvin and Kitti dedicated Josh Groban’s You Raise Me Up to their parents. In the 5-minute silence, the essence of love was so strong that it touched the hearts of so many guests.

They also acknowledged their bridal party including mua. Little did I know that the pink panther doll she carried into the ballroom was a gift for me! *chuckles*

Everything went so smoothly that in fact, our programme was ahead of the scheduled time. It was certainly a fun night to remember, and a wedding experience which was somewhat different in essence and execution.

If our actions are always limited to the fear of what others might think, we will never be genuine to ourselves. Above all, be true to yourself because there is no greater joy than the freedom of expression and no greater love than unconditional acceptance of who you are by those who matters most to you. – Natasha Khoo -

I was really disappointed when I could not attend the wedding of Faye and Kevin. That’s one of the setbacks of being a wedding planner, we often end up working during these auspicious dates. I did, however, manage to get some pictures from her.

Their wedding was held at Grand Stage Hong Kong. Grand Stage is located at a 1906 British colonial building at Sheung Wan. One look at the photos and the first word that came to my mind was ‘fairytale’ venue. With it’s large chandelier, cavernous red brick floor to ceiling walls, granite arch and balconies overlooking a large dance floor, this place has all the potential for a magnificently grand wedding. Hence the name ‘grand stage’. The venue is able to cater to a maximum of 28 tables (of 12) on the ground floor and a maximum of 9 tables along the balconies. Banquet package starts from HKD4,988 onwards to HKD8,388 per table.

Congratulations to Faye & Kevin!!

Looking forward to welcoming you to sunny Malaysia in December!

Location: Grand Stage, 2nd floor, Western Market, 323 Des Voeux Rd Central, Sheung Wan

Early this year, I had the privilege of being a bridesmaid to one of my best friends, Chen Chin. There is a saying that an acquaintance would ask you about your love life, but a  true friend can blackmail you with it. The latter is probably how I would describe our friendship as we’ve known each other for more than 20 years since the age of 7. We’ve had our fair share of embarrassment over unrequited crushes, consoling each other over broken hearts and sharing all the joyful tears together. It took her one big circle to realize that her soul mate and lifelong partner is someone close to home, her high school archenemy.

It becomes really fun when both the bridesmaids and groomsmen know each other really well, so much so that we could ‘go all out’  when it came to the extreme bridal door games on the morning of the wedding ceremony. We were however, very guarded under the watchful eyes of some elder folks who weren’t too pleased with our games. I thought we were already pretty decent compared to so many other weddings.

Dinner was held at Oriental Pearl Restaurant at Bukit Jalil Golf & Country Resort which serves a tasty array of Cantonese dishes. I like Chen Chin’s selection of wedding gowns from Casamia Bridal Studio. Don’t you just love the long white train and the shocking pink dress which matched suitably well with her skin colour?

Calvin and I were given the honourable task of giving a toast and as the (self-appointed) Maid of Honour and Best Man, we ahem… let loose some skeletons in the closet. I guess we weren’t that honourable after all. hahaha…

Check out how stressed up the groom was.

Gan and Calvin also played some on-stage games, namely Kiss & Profess and the Shoe Game. I was happily munching away. It’s not often that I get to eat at weddings since I’m always on-the-clock at weddings. Thanks to Liew and Chen Chin for being such a great sport! After all, what are friends for right?

Photography by Chantique Studio.