#HanxPrincessLiya Wedding Vendors: A Review (Part I)

Growing up, I’ve never had a dream wedding. In fact, until Han and I got engaged, I never once gave a thought about what my wedding should look like. All I know was that I wanted a small and cozy wedding affair with minimal cost as possible.

But… nope, it didn’t happen. Ha ha.

Our parents were against the idea, of course, because we both happen to have big extended families (1000+ pax for each side) and as the good son and daughter we both are, we gave in. And well, there’s also the fact that they wanted to bear the cost of inviting that many guests, heh. So we didn’t have much say – it was their event as much as it was ours.

And so I began my research. Attended weddings after weddings to recce (I actually followed my parents to almost all their jemputans! Rajin anak Mak..), read kakak2-kahwin blogs, watched wedding videos, talked to my fellow kakak2 kahwins (helps that my ex-colleague Aqilah was getting married 2 months before me so we talked about wedding preps like, almost every day) and after much contemplation, I finally decided on my vendors!

I’ll be splitting this review into 2 because so long lah, tired.

Catering, Decor & DJ: Pu3

Many may know Pu3 for their Nasi Ambeng restaurant at Bencoolen, but not many know they do weddings as well where they serve the typical Pengantin dishes. And their spread is pretty good!

Pu3 wedding spread (Facebook)

We took their package which included catering, decor and DJ. We were also given 2 options for live station – either Roti Kirai or Choc Fondue – but we didn’t choose either because my mother wanted Satay and I, I wanted Churros 😀

d23b846196198c9e5b53a8fabf5acd2b
Credit: Zaifie Zainal Creation

Anyway, I LOVED MY PELAMIN! It was really more than what I expected. All I showed Kak Puteri during our appointment was this sample picture above but since Kampong Ubi CC’s stage was huge, she told us that they may not be able to cover the whole stage with drapes without additional cost. So we didn’t pursue it..

..but they did it anyway and I was so pleasantly surprised. <3

Our DJ was also awesome. Here’s the thing – being the worrier warrior that I was, I hated how there was no way I could know what to expect. I mean, there were no past videos I could refer to and I had no idea who was going to be emceeing. I had seen enough DJs at past weddings who kinda made me cringe (bad jokes and all) so I really wanted a ~chill~ one. Alhamdulillah, mine was pretty great! Not sure what happened after we left at 2PM but throughout the time we were there, he was tiptop.

I also gave them a long list full of old-school boy band songs and they tried their best to accommodate. Oh and I’m not sure if it’s the same for other vendors but I had to go to COMPASS to get a permit for them to play at the CC. $50 if there’s no live band or karaoke, $100 if there is.

Mr DJ helping out at the 1st hadang!

A reminder for BTBs – if your solemnization and sanding is on the same day, at the same place, do not forget to ask your DJ if they can set up the mic and sound system earlier for the Nikah. If not, everybody, except for those close to the groom, won’t be able to hear anything and that would kinda dampen the mood.

Live Stations: ChooChooChurros & SBY Opah Satay

Han making me fat with @ccchurros on our 1st day as a married couple (Instagram)

My mother really wanted her Satay and to be honest, I kinda booked ChooChooChurros on a whim. It was a pity I had no appetite on the Day itself because Han and I had a plate full of churros and satay each served to us but I couldn’t eat them 🙁 I heard people had to queue for those but only got 2 pieces per serving. But I also heard the satay was really good and my nephew only ate churros the whole day so that’s good enough for me!

For the churros, I opted for chocolate dips only but if you want other flavours, you can add on! CCChurros has other flavours such as salted caramel, white chocolate etc.

Wedding Satay
Satay, satay, satay! (Facebook)

Photobooth: HurHur

Wedding Photobooth
I love filmstrip photos!

Deciding whether I should engage a photobooth was tough. Although HurHur charges less than its competitors, it was still quite a sum and I almost wanted to burn my deposit and back out last minute (this is what wedding jitters do to you). But so gladdd I didn’t because..

  1. I got to see who came for my wedding and it’s pretty fun seeing pics of your guests at your photobooth
  2. I didn’t have to trouble any relatives to be on standby to take care of the booth. There’s nothing wrong of course, if your relatives are more than willing to do but I’d rather my cousins chill for mine 😀
  3. HurHur has this cool software thing that took pictures automatically and had a ring light and it reminded me so much of a neoprint machine. Although many ended up having unglam shots at the start because they’re not ready but hey, guests are able to take as many as they want so all’s goood~
  4. The pictures were printed out on a filmstrip design (see above). Mad lovee~ The team also uploads allll the pictures on their Facebook page!
  5. I get to keep my custom backdrop and props! 😀

Happy people at @HurHur photobooth! (instagram)

So yes, Hurhur comes highly recommended! 🙂

Dulang Gubahan & Sireh Junjung: Kak Ain

Omg, did you know that the market rate for dulang gubahan can go up to $45 per tray? How expensive is that!?! Imagine if you have 6 trays and you’re paying $270 for trays to put your already-expensive hantaran items for just a short while ????

So I was delighted when I got to know about Kak Ain from my SIL. She charges less than half the price per dulang but STILL DAMN NICEE. (Sure it’s even cheaper if I DIY but it ain’t my forte, yo.) Also, Kak Ain is the chattiest and nicest lady ever. I think we could simply go for hours and hours just talking if we weren’t aware of the time.

Gubahan Trays – Left: Han to Me | Right: Me to Han

We opted for songket because it looks so classy. Blue for him, Red for me. I really think it’s value for money but last I heard, she may not continue this business next year but am not too sure about that.

She also offers printing of tray tags but I decided to design, print and cut them myself. I printed the tags on photo paper. I love my printer!

img-20160928-wa0004

Invitation Cards & Berkat boxes: Kadlawo JB

I think it’s a known fact that things are a lot cheaper in JB, so that obviously includes invitation cards as well. From what I heard, a simple card here can cost about 70cents each whereas for that same amount, I can get a card+berkat box+signage+bunting banner+button badges, all of which I got at Kadlawo. Their JB outlet is conveniently located near the Causeway at Jalan Ibrahim so it was pretty easy to find.

Lawo benor card dan kotak berkat kami dari kadlawo ni! (Facebook)

All their card designs are really pretty that it took me more than an hour to settle on one (yeah, Han can vouch for that lol). Although initially, I got them to make *alot* of changes (I ended up re-designing the whole thing on Photoshop and told them specifically what font to use etc haha omg I’m anal), I was finally very happy with the end product!

Han also took the same package too and his was really nice too! Haha funny thing is he took only like less than 15 minutes to decide. Damn, how can people be so un-choosy?

Because I was quite over-enthusiastic about my invitation cards, I actually did up a name label template with the same design (see below). I then printed them out on label sticker paper and pasted on the envelopes! It’s a pretty neat trick for people like me who have horrendous handwriting, lol.

My package also included button badges, but I didn’t really fancy the idea of getting my family members to pin them on their tops and risk spoiling their outfit. So I made random designs and got kadlawo to print those instead. I pin them on our camera bag, backpacks etc.

Our own button badges!

And that’s that for Part I of my wedding review! Wow, I have so many things to say, I’m amazed by myself. I’m not able to review on Han’s side though because I’m actually not sure who they engaged. But believe me when I say their food was SO GOOOOOD (I think they ordered from Nur Nadhirah).

Check out Part II of my review HERE!

Till then, Sayonaraa~

6 thoughts on “#HanxPrincessLiya Wedding Vendors: A Review (Part I)

  1. Thanks Liy for the good wedding info for BTB! I like how your wedding cards have the name of your invited guest printed on it! Super nice

Any Questions? I'll be glad to answer!