If you don’t already know, we don’t plan weddings. We love weddings and all things beautiful. Our desire is to see weddings in this region rise to greater heights. We understand that not everyone has the budget to splurge on their big day, but creativity bursts forth when your resources are limited. That is why many of our favourite weddings this year are DIY.
Chaiyen, one of our team, took the opportunity of her sister’s wedding to show us exactly how we can maneuver the budget and personalise a wedding with small details. These lovely photos are taken by WeiMin and Chris Teoh.
Photo by Chris Teoh
Chaileng: “I do have quite a huge Coke collection. When my sister told me that we should do a red and white Coke-themed wedding, I jumped onto the bandwagon and she handled it all from there. It was great because it took a big chunk off our shoulders while we focused on all the major decisions such as guest lists and cash flow.
“Instead of spending too much on flowers, we channelled that money to our candy bar and dessert table. It was equally pretty and made more sense to us because it was edible. My sister and I were in the States earlier this year and it was close to Valentine’s Day so there were loads of seasonal candies. We bought most of our stuff from Target and Party City. We were a little disappointed with the car plate that we’d bought online because it is not real metal but I guess it still looked good in photos.
“The wedding was a celebration of wonderful people who are a big part of our lives. It was beautiful to see laughter and tears shed during the ceremony. God’s love was indeed evident! We decided on the venue because it is really pretty on its own and we wouldn’t need to spend much on doing it up. They have an in-house caterer and the food was great. It fit our budget and theme perfectly.”
Photo by Chris Teoh
Photo by Chris Teoh
Chaiyen: “After consulting our printer, we found out that we could print eight different postcard designs without affecting our cost. We understand that most people don’t keep wedding invitations, so we asked our guests to write messages to the bride and groom on the postcards and bring them back on the wedding day. Besides the rental of crates and some stuff we bought from Typo, the rest of it is from my own vintage collection. We even brought out this old luggage bag from our storeroom. We literally dug through our whole house to see what we could use.
“We didn’t exactly plan what we wanted to do; we just looked at each section and slowly added details that we figured we could do. It got done really fast with all the help that we got. We packed all our stuff in boxes according to their sections so that it was easier to set up. On the actual day, we got friends to help.
“Instead of one, we had two cakes. We just wanted a lot of variety on the dessert table. The purpose was to divert traffic so that the queue for the buffet table wouldn’t be too long. The ice cream man got a lot of attention too. With all the nostalgic, old-school stuff around, even the adults couldn’t help but stop. The wedding was pretty emotional as well as fun, but personally I felt that the time we spent coming together to do the prep was nice. It was like a big family project.”
Do watch this SDE video by our young and very talented Ken Chan.
{Steal our Pinterest board}
CHAILENG & TIMMY {Malaysia}
Photography by WeiMin and Chris Teoh / Videography by KenChan | Productions / Venue City Harvest Kuala Lumpur / Number of Guests 320 / Wedding Planning by Chaiyen Wong / Bridal Gown by BCBGMaxAzria / Bride’s Shoes by White Label / Makeup by The Art of Mae Atelier Workshop / Hair by Kaellie / Groom’s Attire by Giorgio Armani / Flowers and Décor by Wishing Tree / Additional Flowers by Fleur Concept / Crates Rental by The Great Indoors / Car Plate by One Tree / Wedding Cakes and Macarons by WHISK Espresso Bar + Bake Shop / Desserts by Fete Artisan Marshmallow and Cupcake Dazzle / Catering by Food Industrie
{Read more about this in the magazine}