Singaporebrides | Real Weddings
November 2013
A Wedding Planner’s Wedding Journey
We’re all familiar with a wedding planner and the magic they wield over planning an outstanding wedding. But what happens when a wedding planner herself gets hitched? No problem at all, after all, an experienced wedding planner already knows what to do, just like our bride, Telli. But instead of planning her big day herself, Telli decided to engage a fellow wedding planner to help her with the wedding so she could fully experience what it was like being a bride. Follow her journey from proposal to her wedding day and pick up wedding planning tips on the way!
We heard yours was an offshore romance. Tell us more about the day you first met each other!
We first met each other at Pulau Ubin when I was leading a group to a training camp and Louis happened to be standing in as the instructor for that course. During the 3-day course, we had little personal interaction with each other but I remembered that he was very charismatic at work. I also knew he wasn’t one to be attracted by looks because despite watching me vomit throughout a 3-hour rafting exercise due to a case of extremely bad motion sickness, he said he had a good impression of me. To this day, I have no idea why he said that. After the course, we kept in touch via Facebook and started dating soon after.
Word has it that there was a mischievous plan to tire you out before the proposal to make you more agreeable. Tell us exactly what happened during the proposal!
Indeed! We were in Bali for our second anniversary and Louis had booked us a captivating private villa with a pool so we could spend some quality time together and arranged for us to go on a 10km cycling trip around the countryside the following day. Unbeknownst to me, while we were enjoying the scenic and cooling the ride, our villa was being decorated with candlelights and flower petals and prepped for a private dinner as he had previously requested. He proposed over dinner that night with an impressively touching speech, which he professes he can’t remember a single word now. He also confessed that the 10km cycling trip was to get me tired enough to agree to anything he said that night! It wasn’t necessary – I would have said “yes” to his proposal in a heartbeat.
What was your wedding preparation like?
Both of us already knew we wanted a cosy and intimate celebration and that pretty much helped us decide on our wedding venue. Food wise, we were on the lookout for great Chinese food. I’m Taiwanese and having delicious Chinese food is a must for me, so we explored various well-known Chinese restaurants before we decided on Peach Garden at Orchid Country Club. We were absolutely in love with the glass panel, which offered an astounding scenic view of the golf course and provided the perfect backdrop for our exchange of vows.
To help us decide on a theme, we started with a long list of keywords we wished for our guests to experience at our wedding. Because the list was simply too long, we canned it and decided that what truly mattered to us was for all our loved ones to enjoy and have fun, and to remember us as who we are – lovers of nature. So, we decided to go with a olive green and blush pink colour theme and filled our special day with fun and nature.
The rest of the wedding preparation went down smoothly with plenty of DIY participation from our families. My sister-in-law designed and hand-drew all our wedding stationeries while my family helped with the factory-lined packaging of wedding favours.
You’re a wedding planner with nearly a decade’s experience in planning weddings. Was it easy to decide on a wedding theme and did you already have a clear concept of what you wanted for your own big day?
Here’s a wedding planner’s confession: even though I have 8 years of wedding planning experience in Taiwan and Singapore, I did not have a clear concept of what I wanted for my wedding theme and my big day itself! During my career as a wedding planner, I’ve done it all, from glamourous and elaborate to intimate and homely right down to fun and whimsical weddings, and I love them all! And as a bride, it’s very easy to get caught up with the unrealistic desire of creating a unique wedding that no one else has done before. Although unrealistic, it is understandable why brides want their weddings to be the best wedding ever. But at the end of the day, when Louis and I held on and looked at each other, we realised our wedding was already the best wedding ever – simply because it was our wedding!
That sounds really sweet! Did your wedding planning experience come handy when it came to planning your own wedding?
Yes, extremely! All the vendors we engaged for the wedding were already close friends we’ve made over the years. Having them around just lends so much reassurance that everything will work out as planned! Also, since this was my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a bride, I wanted to enjoy every single moment of it, so I hired Kim to help with my wedding planning! With her overseeing every detail of my wedding, I could focus on looking beautiful, smile, interact with my guests and simply bask in the day knowing that everything is in good hands.
What did your family and friends have to say about your wedding?
Everyone had a good time! We’ve never seen our parents and siblings cry and laugh harder during the exchange of vows, our friend’s and our thank-you speech. Now that beats anything anyone says about the wedding.
Your solemnisation must have been a beautiful and emotional moment. Were there other particular moments that were especially special to you?
Absolutely. During my career, I’ve heard many wedding vows and I’ve always loved that part of a wedding where laughter and tears cross paths and a myriad of emotions takes place. And of course, Louis and I wrote our own vows and included words of gratitude to our families, and it will always be a moment I’ll remember.
We had also pre-arranged for our families and groups of very close friends to be interviewed and filmed. Louis and I only found out what our dear ones have to say about us when we watched the film for the first time during the wedding celebration, and I am confident that this will remain the one thing we will love after a year or a decade down the road!
As a wedding planner and a bride, do you have any wedding tips for other brides?
It is important to remember that your wedding day is not the end goal of a marriage. Don’t get over enthusiastic and focused on preparing for your big day and forgot about your relationship and the true meaning of marriage. Louis and I coped by allocating days in a week where we will deliberately avoid discussing our wedding details and simply spend time together.
The Gown: Made-to-measure from Chim Culture; Cheongsam from Lady Xiang
The Venue: Peach Garden @ Orchid Country Club
The Wedding Planner: Kim Tay from Heaven’s Gift Wedding Concierge
The Photographer: Kailian from Lightedpixels Pixies
Make-Up Artist: Joanne Low
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