It’s 5 days after my wedding and I really can’t wait to churn out this post while everything is still fresh in my head. Inspired by the reviews and posts of graduate Brides on SG Budget Brides Facebook page, here’s my honest reviews of all the wedding vendors I’ve engaged over the past 5 months leading to the actual day of the wedding.
Before I go on to write about each individual vendor, it is necessary for me to point out that I wasn’t really going for the best because we tried to keep our costs low so that we can save up more for our future home. Some of the vendors are recommended on SG Budget Brides Facebook page while some were sourced on Carousell or recommended through word-of-mouth.
Here we go!
Wedding Vendors We’ve Worked With
Wedding Gown Rental: Warm Whites
Rating: 4/5
I just wanted to simple gown which looked elegant and easy to put on. So I was already eyeing on Warm Whites‘ simplistic wedding gowns for the longest time. But I only got down to try their gowns two months ago and for $400 per rental, I would say it’s definitely a steal.
Because it’s a really small business start-up by a couple of girls (probably in their twenties), they were really flexible with rental of the gowns. I arranged for a delivery (via Grab Express) to pick up my gown 4 days before my actual wedding day. This is unlike other bridal studios where they only loan it to you for 3 days and you have to return it immediately!
The gown rental also includes the rental of the veil. I opted for a shorter one that comes with a comb so that it is easier to fix it to my hair bun.
The laced veil was really beautiful and it matches well with my bridal gown.
Overall, the whole gown rental process is very straightforward. They also do some minor alterations but my gown was rather fitting. (But it felt somewhat a little tight after wearing it for a few hours).
If you’re just looking for a simple gown, this would be the place to go to. They have very limited selection of gowns and their limited sizing (sizes ranges from size 4 to 10). But it is definitely worth checking out especially if you are on a budget. My advice is to rent – don’t buy.
Wedding Suit: Ehkay Corner Tailors
Rating: 1/5
Walking into Ehkay Tailors was a huge mistake even though they are highly rated on Google Reviews. There’s nothing wrong with the suit but just their way of charging customers. They aren’t transparent with the prices and they quote different prices to different customers.
But we have to admit that we were partly at fault to go ahead and agree to have the groom’s suit made there. I was pissed at my husband for insisting to make the suit even though it was priced at $860. Now, he regrets big time knowing that there are other places which offer really nice suits for only $300+.
Long story short, it was the biggest boo-hoo in this whole wedding preparation. (To find out the whole story, you can watch this video here.) My advice – don’t spend more than $500 on a 2-piece suit and please don’t get the vest even though they asked you to.
Wedding Venue: Flutes
Rating: 4/5
After Circuit Breaker, we quickly settled for a venue to host 20 guests. At that point in time, we were quite panicky because we have not gotten our venue. And since the both of us wanted a western-style wedding lunch, we settled for Flutes without thinking much about the price.
It turns out to be really expensive for a party of 20 guests in a small private dining room. It works out to be about $230 per pax while the usual price is about $180 per pax (if you book the main dining hall for a larger number of guests.)
Thankfully, the food was not too bad. However, I would not say that it’s exceptional for a fine dining restaurant in Singapore. Food could still be better.
We chose a 4-course menu and while the bread, soup and starter were great, I did not really enjoy the main course and the dessert. We had smoked duck breast meat and the portions were small.
Our Wedding Package
In our wedding package of 20, simple flower table decor were provided for. I could choose the colour of flowers I wanted. The menu is also inclusive of 4 bottles of red or white wine along with soft drinks as well as wedding favours. As for the wedding favours, it was just a really small tin of Japanese tea leaves. The budget side of me tells me that it’s definitely not worth paying so much for such small perks.
Our Wedding Menu
Lunch was served at Sir Henry McCallum room, a private dining room at the back of the restaurant. We had a 4-course menu which comprises of Smoked Duck Breast, mushroom soup, Angus beef or barramundi fish and Valrhona chocolate tart. We requested for them to serve coffee and tea along with the desserts. Since we had a wedding cake, I also asked them to cut the cake into 20 equal slices and serve the guests.
When it comes to the last course, they presented our desserts differently for the both of us. That comes to us as a pleasant surprise.
Overall, the service was great. Our wedding coordinator at the venue itself is quite alright to work with and she is rather prompt. Initially, there were some miscommunications due to the COVID-19 situation regarding the seating arrangement but the problems were all ironed out in the end. The waiters are very attentive too. I just wish that the food was a little better considering the price we paid for.
Photographer and Videographer: The Visual Chaps
Rating: 3.5/5
The Visual Chaps is run by a couple who offers both photography and videography services. I engaged them right after Circuit Breaker. During that period of time, they were offering some promotional packages a discounted prices. Brides who have worked with them before also gave them positive reviews so I quickly signed up with them.
We had a couple of Zoom sessions with her to talk about our wedding schedule and how we wanted our wedding to be documented. They are very polite and easy to work with. I like the fact that they have a diversified portfolio which includes lifestyle, corporate and wedding shoots. With that, I hope that they would produce a wedding video for us, which is different from the norm.
For me, I did not really expect much from them as I just wanted a simple documentation of the wedding. After all, my wedded friends were all telling me not to spend so much on photography because you don’t really have the time to look through the hundreds of photos. A good ten to twenty shots of the wedding is good enough – at least for me.
They sent us the photos and videos after two weeks. You can check out my wedding photos and videos here! To be very honest, I was quite disappointed with the photos because it looked like the photographer just mass edit the photos without looking through them to see which photos needed some touch-ups. Thankfully, the video turned out quite good and it was up to our expectations considering that there is only one cameraman. But overall, they are nice to work with. Perhaps they are not as experienced as other wedding photographers and videographers.
Livestream: Back Alley Creations
Rating: 5/5
Jootz was recommended by a colleague. He and his partner started off as a wedding photography and videography company. They only started offering wedding livestream services when the pandemic started.
I like their professionalism. With years of experiences under their belt, these guys know exactly what they are doing. They captured high quality video livestream with very smooth transitions and we were very happy with their quality of work.
I was a little particular on our livestream video because Sam is streaming the wedding over his Twitch channel so we really wanted to provide our online audience with the best possible viewing experience. I even created my own overlays for the video so that the online audience could follow along.So I told Jootz what I envision the livestream video to be. With his skilled roving camera man and his expertise in livestream, his team managed to pull off a really good livestream video. You can watch our wedding livestream here.
His livestream package includes two camera angles, one site recce and simple overlays for the video. He was with us during the wedding rehearsal with our church wedding coordinator.
Car Rental with Chauffeur: Deweds
Rating: 5/5
Samuel found Deweds on Carousell and it was one of the cheaper wedding car rental services which comes with a chauffeur and simple wedding car decor.
The driver was very punctual and came way before our starting time to pick Sam up from his house. He was always there when we needed him. It was a BMW and both the interior and exterior of the car are ultra clean.
We couldn’t ask for anything more. We sent him our schedule and he managed to drive us safely from one point to another.
Bridal Bouquet: Petalabs
Rating: 2/5
I found Petalabs on Carousell and I decided to sign up with them after looking through their portfolio. Their prices are very reasonable and way lower than the standard bridal bouquet prices.
But I guess what you pay for is what you get. The day before my wedding, the bouquet arrived along with the boutonnières for the groom and parents. She gave me two free boutonnières and I bought an extra two more from her. When it arrived, I noticed that the leaves started to turn a little yellow and two of the flowers were drooping down. I also noticed that the torns on the roses weren’t remove properly too.
I was even more disappointed when I saw that the boutonnières do not come with proper pins to attach it to the clothing safely. Instead, it came with two bobby pins. I am not too sure if this is common but I asked the owner and she said that I could use the bobby pins to pin it to the suit. However, the flower was heavy and the boutonnière kept falling off.
We had an exceptionally difficult time pinning the boutonnière to the groom’s suit.
While the bridal bouquet looks nice, the flowers weren’t kept very fresh. I was very disappointed with the way the boutonnières look. We paid $8 for the additional boutonnière and they look really cheap.
Makeup Artist: Makeup by TYPE (Tiffany)
Rating: 5/5
I really enjoyed working with Tiffany. She’s a Vietnamese makeup artist based in Singapore. She was one of the recommended makeup artist on Singapore Budget Brides Facebook page. Her rates are very reasonable
She arrived on time and was very polite throughout the process. She is open to feedback and constantly asks me if I am satisfied with the makeup and hairdo. More importantly, she is very gentle when applying makeup. She’s careful when applying eye makeup and asked me to let her known if there are any discomfort with the fake eyelash or double-eyelid tape.
The overall makeup look turned out to be the way I wanted. It looks very refined yet natural. She also gave good suggestions on which eye colour would suit me better. She completed my makeup and hairdo in two hours.
My makeup actually stayed till lunch. I even teared real bad during the solemnisation but the makeup did not run or smudge at all. That’s a real test to some really good makeup skills!
Wedding Cake: Grams
Rating: 3/5
We bought this Earl Grey Lavender cake from Grams, a cafe at SMU which is just a stone throwaway from National Museum of Singapore. We actually went down personally to try their cakes and bagels. While their bagels are awesome tasting, their cakes tasted rather average.
But we still decided to purchase our cake from them because of the distance and it was more convenient for us to collect the cake. It turns out to be not a not-so-good decision because the sponge cake layer was somewhat very bland and the cake layers are not very even at all. The cream layer was very buttery and bland. We can’t really taste the Earl Grey or lavender flavour. It was simply a very amateurish looking and tasting cake.
We bought the 8-inch cake and bought a cake topper on Shopee to amp up the look of the cake. I further decorated the cake topper with some fake leaves and flowers just to make the cake look more presentable.
Wedding Rings: Tiara.sg
Rating: 5/5
Yes, we bought cheap wedding bands from this Singapore-based online jewellery store called Tiara. Our wedding bands cost below $500 and we love it. The sole reason why we opted for cheap wedding bands was simply because we were afraid that one of us might misplace it. Besides, the rings will definitely go through some wear and tear over the years so why not opt for something cheaper yet sturdy? So we got tungsten carbide rings which are scratch-resistant. The ring design looks really classy on our fingers though it felt somewhat heavy.
You can read more of our review here. It was definitely a good buy and we have no regrets getting it!
Staycation: Goodwood Park Hotel
Rating: 3.5/5
After our wedding lunch, we booked a one-night stay at Goodwood Park Hotel. We used our Singapore Rediscover vouchers to book a hotel stay there. While the service and food was good, the deluxe room we got looks outdated.
For breakfast, we are only entitled to one breakfast set each and it was not too bad. But I kind of wish that we had the choice to order a mixed of breakfast items instead of a set. Each set comes with coffee/tea, juice, fruits and basket of bread.
We told the hotel that we are staying there for a night right after our wedding and they told us that they will give us a complimentary chocolate cake. It’s a small slice of cake enough for two people and it tasted great!
While the rooms were spacious and clean, the bathtub looks old and stained. We did not really utilise the facilities there since we were both so tired after the wedding. Though it is nice to spend our first night together, it is also not worth paying so much to stay in a hotel room. If I’d have known, I would have probably book a hotel staycation separately on another occasion.
In summary…
All in all, we are just glad that the wedding was over. The vendors we worked with are mostly pleasant except for a couple which we have mentioned above. At the end of the day, it’s just a one-time off event and we learnt how to let go sometimes. There will always be some hiccups here and there but most important of all, the two of us are happily united as one in the eyes of the Lord.
I am also not ashamed to admit that we are really going budget to save as much as we can by keeping things really simple. However, we splurged on some stuff like the venue, the suit and wedding car rental. (Do note that we paid every single cent for all these services and products!) I am firm believer that the wedding is not everything and no one will remember how beautiful your wedding gown or setting is but how beautiful your union with your partner is.
Hope you find our vendor review useful and if you would like to ask me any questions privately, you may email me at u0703890@gmail.com.
