CHIJMES: Walk Down the Aisle in Grand Vintage Style

Getting married in CHIJMES is the closest you can get to a Royal Wedding, think Westminster Abbey. Built in 18th century, this convent building carries a Gothic architecture style and it has been well preserved since then. The last activity for religious and education purposes was in 1983 and it was adapted for public use till now. Thankfully the hall managed to survive over the years and now is a popular wedding hall.

We (Rosette Designs & Co) have planned and designed a few weddings in CHIJMES and are still in awe of their potential & beauty. Having the characteristic of a cathedral with tall columns, beautiful ceiling and huge stained glass, it was perfect for Western and Vintage inspired wedding. The best part is, you don’t have to be a Catholic to walk down their aisle.

The hall can fit in up to 30 round tables, but of course the best arrangement is the long table!

Since the hall is generally sports cream and off white color, it’s a designer paradise! We have done weddings in a few colors.

Purple Vintage

Peach Perfect – Vintage Lovely

This wedding gave us a chance to challenge ourselves.. turning a theatre setting for Holy Matrimony…

to Dinner setting in an hour during Cocktail timing! Challenge accepted and completed!

The trick is to hide all the tables into the side wings and hide them behind the elegant drapes. Love how the draper elegantly merged with the venue.

I even recycled the posies from the ceremony to decorate the drapes gatherings. Not a detail is spared!

What is a vintage wedding without antique typewriter and real old books? The books are imported from the father of the Groom’s library. Since both of them are law practitioner, these law books hold bittersweet memory during their study days.

Check out our full portfolio here!

Garden Setting

One of our favorite flower and somehow a lot of our bride love them too!

So if your eyes are drawn to this look and feel, maybe you can consider this venue. Of course, we will be delighted to plan and design your wedding too! We love creating wedding in CHIJMES! Expect Pinterest-worthy wedding.. haha..

She says: Introducing Diary & Design: A Wedding Story

After the success of our wedding, we received a lot of compliments and requests regarding wedding planning and design. It has always been my secret desire to cultivate my love for wedding design to a concrete plan. So, when Lily, my wedding coordinator asked to meet up to talk about the possibility to partner, I couldn’t feel more happy! This is the moment I’m waiting for!

It feels so right and so natural for us to plan & design wedding. I am always championing a life of passion and purpose. There is a purpose of why we are wired this way. Why we are born with certain tendency or talents. Some people are naturally drawn to numbers, sports, music, biology, or some cool ones, like design *haha*. I happened to be born with a love for art and design. I was an aesthetically-inclined child with tons of imagination. My mom can testified to that. She had to repaint the wall many times because of my constant sketching.

So now I know why I love and is able to do art and design, so one day I could help many brides to have a beautiful, memorable and stress-free wedding. Man, that was some revelation!

Anyway, enough of childhood flashback, now the future is in front of us. We are officially launching Diary & Design: A Wedding Story today!

Diary & Design Wedding combines the individual strength of a well-designed and well-organized wedding. You get the best of both worlds. Neither design or coordination becomes secondary. Both are given the same priority and full attention. This partnership provides assurance that all of your design and coordination needs are covered, so that you can relax and enjoy your big day.

We already drafted the services and packages to suit your preferences. We even have the Design-It-Yourself packages to help you materialize the ideas you are dying to impose but have no idea how to!  *Gosh, I wish I had that privilege when I planned mine*

UPDATE:

This post was written about 3 years ago, when everything is still in the infancy level. Now the ladies of Diary & Design Wedding are more mature and experienced, not to mention big thinker. So DDW is undergoing restructuring process and will be officially branch out into 2 companies, which each specialized in different area, wedding planning and wedding design. We have yet to officially announced it, but being a design junkie it is a no-brainer for me to head the new baby, Rosette Designs & Co, which specialized in event design & decor. Please check out our portfolio in our facebook page, while we work on our website.

No matter what is the company I am belong to, my love for design & decor is always prevails.

 

She says: 1 MONTH to go!

It’s 1 month to go!! Haven’t really sink in me yet that I’m getting married in 1 month. All the tense preparation that we had since the beginning of last year seems to vanish in the presence of the future. We are nearly done with the preparation, and sent out most of the invitations already. These are the list that we managed to tick off:

• Venue ( Matrimony & Banquet)
• Venue Decor & Flower
• Programs + Coordination
• Photography & Videography
• Pre-wedding Photos
• Catering
• Wedding Gowns & Suits
• Make Up
• Wedding Car + decor
• Wedding Ring
• Wedding Favor
• Invitations
• Bands & Music
• Accommodation for Relatives
• Bridesmaids Dresses + Groomsmen ties
• Honeymoon
• Montages
• Booths: Photobooth +  Dessert Bar

That’s almost everything we need to do to pull off a wedding. Maybe left with the program booklet for matrimony, which we haven’t do yet.

I have a very useful habit of keeping journals and diaries. I started this habit since I was 13 years old and I am still keeping a journal until now. I love this habit, as I always reflect back of how I felt during certain particular events in my life. I still had them with me, except 1 diary that I burned when I had a big fight with my first boyfriend at 15 years old (so dramaaaa..).

So this wedding is no exception. I prepared a notebook when I started this preparation last April 2009. Now it’s already the second book and  almost runs out. It’s really heartwarming when I flipped the pages and saw my own hand writing listing the potential venue or florist or photographer. It shows the depth and thought involved, not just another impulsive decision.

I championed journal-keeping habit! You can look back and see how much you have grown!

(I did the cover (watercolor drawing) for Animation Illustration Ministry (AIM) during Marketplace Bazaar)

She says: Invitation Suite- Ready to Send

Last last Saturday, we finished packing our invitation suite. I really like our invitations. It’s like a dream come true to have letterpress printing for many Martha Stewart’s devotees. We, in Pemberley, managed to do our own press and imported these delicious cotton paper from US.

I would like to thank Yuwei and Alex (and You Chun the previous week before as well) to help us packed the suites, cut the rubberband, place the sticker in the middle, stapled it and make sure its nicely arranged. Especially to Yuwei who has helped us for 2 weeks. Thanks, gal!

She says: Confession of a Paperholic

Yesterday was Earth Day (22 April). I wouldn’t brag about being a green person looking at the amount of earth-damage I contributed in my wedding alone. The most-used element in my wedding is paper. I have to confess. I love paper, a  lot. I love stationery since I was young. The main element of my outdoor decoration is paper. I bought almost all aqua paper from Popular to do the paper rosettes and envelope liners.

and the tiffany boxes..

Well at least our letterpress invitation is made of 100% cotton paper (that is why.. they cost a bomb!)

We still have a menu for each person and displays for guest signing.

At least we try to redeem ourselves by designing them neatly so the guests won’t throw it away right after the party (or I hope so).

For the eco-bride, here are some tips from our friend at National Parks Singapore :

• Hold your wedding in a park or garden
• Use single layer invitation cards printed on recycled paper, treeless paper made from bamboo or other materials, or better yet, use e-invitations to reduce paper wastage
• If using disposable tableware, choose biodegradable products
• Encourage your guests to car-pool or van-pool
• Choose a caterer that is familiar with the venue to avoid any damage to the site during their setup or teardown
• Select wedding favors that are useful for your guests to minimise throwaways
• Consider using pre-owned items (e.g. wedding gown, decorations) for your wedding
• Decorate your wedding venue with potted plants that you can use again to decorate your home instead of fresh cut flowers where possible
• Source for local flowers and plants to decorate the wedding venue to minimise resources used in transporting them
• Setup a gift registry to minimise unwanted gifts
• Let your guests know to avoid giving congratulatory cards but instead sign their best wishes on your wedding guestbook.
• Request for guests to donate towards an environmental cause
• Request for cleaners at the venue to separate recyclable items from those that are not and dispose them accordingly
• Avoid shark’s fin in your menu
• Avoid the use of confetti

She says: Sneak Peek – Our Letterpress Invitation

Some of you might know my side wedding stationery business, Pemberley, with my best friends. Here‘s some background of it.

We are launching our very own letterpress collection this year after our wedding.  We are seriously in love with the crispness and the deep impression it leaves in my heart (pun-intended). We will kick this off with my invitation and Katryn’s suite (the other Pemberley lady).  Hers is much more elegant and classy, reflects perfectly on her taste and style.

I am so thrilled when I lay my hands on it. Its a dream come true !!

Here’s the sneak peek..

[Winston's edit: I am generally busier nowadays and has not been blogging often as before. Thanks to Hellen who keeps this going! 64 days to our wedding!]

She says: Outdoor Invitation Design (finally)

As I have posted in a previous post, I run a small wedding and event invitation business with my girlfriends, called Pemberley Paperie. Ironically, I am too busy doing other people’s invitation that I almost neglected my own invitation! It is very hard for me to narrow down to a certain style of design, so I created 2 distinctive designs for holy matrimony and wedding banquet. One is cheerful and fun while the other is classy and understated chic.

Currently both is ongoing production and both will be letterpressed! I am so excited about it.

Let me share with you a sneak peek of my invitation and the maps.. I love cute maps!

It is inspired by the pinwheel rosettes decoration that I made. Currently I am planning to make 50-100 rosettes to be hang on the white tiffany chairs. I’ll talk about it next time. Here is the samples of the rosette:

Here is the map of OMSQ. I did all the drawings and the cute buildings. It looks a bit complicated.. i tried my best to simplify it!

Our lovely envelopes are almost ready!