Wedding Angbao Box

I have been searching high and low for a wedding angbao box for my wedding day.
As per usual i would want something that is unique and nice for my wedding ;p

All these are pretty angbao boxes but I wanted something that is more out of the box.

IM-perfection has these GORGEOUS wedding angbao boxes that i really like! Chio right?
I think i read somewhere that the rental cost about $150? But i don't really remember...
However I think the price is out of my budget so no point asking/:

Carousell is selling a postbox angbao box for approximately $60, also a little on the high side /:
Wanted to buy a second hand one from another bride on forum but i could only deal on weekend as she stay at the other side of singapore. In the end, she sold it to someone else ):

Taobao is selling some pretty unique ones which caught my attention!

The red post box with stand: $250RMB = approximately $57SGD
The london post box (1.2m): $418RMB = approximately $95SGD
The white angbao box with stand: $106RMB = approximately $24SGD
The envelope mailbox: $224RMB = approximately $51

I have not yet decided on my angbao box...
Any one have any idea how to make a special angbao box or where to buy one for less than $30? /:

Anyway I have set up an email account for this blog! ;p
If you guys have questions/need any assistance, please don't feel paiseh/shy to contact me!
E.g. If you want to taobao something but don't know the translation I may be able to help LOL (i try lah!)
I may not be able to give immediate response, but i will try to respond when I'm free (:

Guest book for wedding day

Hello Hello!

I just bought something recently and I'm so EXCITED to share with you what I have bought ;D
I was thinking of setting up a special guestbook for my guests to sign off on my wedding day. Typical books are boring~~ so I decided to look for something special!

What's my criteria?
1) Unique
2) Can be used/kept for display when I get my own house
3) Customizable

With all these criteria in place, I shortlisted a few wedding guest "book" hees!

1) Canvas signing

Cute? Able to customize your name, wedding date AND EVEN WEDDING PHOTO into the canvas! Very unique right? You can totally frame it up after your wedding with the signature of all the people who came to give you their blessings!

Best of all, how much does it cost? $95RMB = approx. $22 (300 guests) for a high quality customizable canvas wedding sign off that you can frame up and put in your future home!

 

2) Frame up the blessings (Buy here, here and here)

This is my FAVOURITE!
You can customize engravings, the design, wooden chip shape, colour of background, colour of chips, wordings etc etc! This would be a very pretty centre piece for your house!
The only bad thing is that this is quite expensive~ approximately $120 to $140 for 300pax!
Lesser pax would be cheaper of course (: But they also have paper kind which is much cheaper!

So this is where Carousell comes into place!

 





I bought this for $50 from carousell! Its not the cheapest thing (or in the best condition) but its so nice and I have been eyeing this on Taobao for more than 3 months (too expensive for me to bear to buy from Taobao). I'm still very satisfied with it though it cost me $50! A little heart pain... It can be used for up to 240 guests o! (:

Suddenly I feel a bit 败家女 hahahas!
Saved abit here and there and end up spending so much on this ;p

Part 2: Taobao bridesmaid dress

Hellooooooo!

I'm back with my promised 2nd post on bridesmaid dress whereby I will share with you guys the other bridesmaid dresses that i have shortlisted :D

Fairy-like bridesmaid dress

Price:
Short-> 49RMB = approx. $11.20SGD
Long-> 69RMB = approx. $15.70SGD

What's so good about this dress?
Its a tieback dress, which means it is VERY adjustable at the boobs area. For the waist wise, it is fixed at indv sizes (S-XL)! Quality looks good and the dress can be worn in a few different ways! It has a few different colors (different tones of purple, champagne, blue and pink), definitely a good buy! ;D

Elegant and intricate bridesmaid dress

Price:
Short-> 39.56RMB = approx. $9SGD
Long-> 56.76RMB = approx. $13SGD
Buy here

What's so good about this dress?
Elegant looking dress with very delicate/intricate looking details. The color is very pretty and quality looks very good! In fact, out of the many dresses i have seen on taobao, this is the only one at this price with such quality and such pretty details!

Cheeky peppermint bridesmaid dress

Price:
Short-> 75RMB = approx. $17SGD
Long-> 95RMB = approx. $21.60SGD
Buy here

What's so good about this dress?
Cheeky peppermint color! So pretty! The bow at the back makes the dress looks even more luxurious! I rarely see these peppermint/tiffany kind of color on taobao! LOVE IT!

Little bow bridesmaid dress

Price:
75RMB = approx. $17SGD
Buy here (different colors available by clicking on the images in the website)

What's so good about this dress?
This little tie back bow is sooooo PRETTY! On top of that, it can help to cover the flabby arms of the bridesmaids and the tightness of the sleeve cover can be adjusted when you tie the bow, you don't have to worry that it would be too tight for some and too loose for others!

Hope these 4 designs of bridesmaid dress is something that can fit into yours and your bridesmaids requirements! I handpicked all these out of the many due to their prices, design and quality! Hope you like them as much as i do :D

Buying my dowry set from Taobao

Hey there!

I'm back again to share on my dowry set that i bought from TAOBAO!
Dowry set 嫁妆 is something that the female side would have to prepare during the 过大礼 as a 回礼.

Why did I choose to buy my dowry set from Taobao?

Dowry set in Singapore is expensive!

For those dowry set that some shops are selling, I feel that they are not comprehensive enough to cover everything that I want. If I buy ala carte, they would add up to quite a significant sum, so I would rather buy the whole set that I want from Taobao and I would be able to slowly pick the things I want from the comfort of my home (:

Of course, if you are lazy you can purchase the whole set from singapore GDL shop.
Attached is the dowry set from shuangxile that cost $169 and $189.90.

Why did I not buy a 2nd hand dowry set from Carousell?

Undeniably I did consider finding 2nd hand dowry items from Carousell.
However, my aunt advised me not to as she mentioned that 2nd hand dowry set is considered inauspicious. Better safe than sorry, so i decided to buy a new set for myself (:

What am i going to cover in this post?

I am going to do an item by item comparison for some of the things I have purchased vs prices of the items that can be found in Singapore. It may not be an apple to apple comparison but it will be a good gauge of the price difference.

Tea set + Bowl set

Shuangxile is selling these 2 at $39.90 + $25.90 = $65.80SGD

I bought this from Taobao for $95.40RMB (including china local shipping)
Conversion to SGD would be $21.70SGD

Prosperity Lamp (添丁灯）

Shuangxile is selling this at $42.90SGD
I bought this from Taobao (mid size) for $68RMB
Conversion to SGD would be $15.50SGD

Sewing Kit

 

Shuangxile is selling this at $29.90SGD
I bought this from Taobao for $29.80RMB
Conversion to SGD would be $6.80SGD

Slippers

 

Shuangxile is selling this at $13.90SGD/pair
I bought this from Taobao for $9.50RMB/pair
Conversion to SGD would be $2.20SGD/pair

Some other items i purchased from the same shop:

I would think that these few items would have been a good comparison for you to do a reference on the price difference. The only thing that I have decided to buy in Singapore is the baby bathtub (too bulky to taobao i feel) ;p

All in all, i think i only spend like $81 for all these dowry items (excluding shipping to singapore) and I managed to get all the designs I want! The quality of the items are SUPERB too! Totally love them!

So to give a summary to what I have prepared for my dowry:

Tea set x1

Prosperity Lamp set x1

子孙尺 x1

Fan x1

Spittoon x1

Face basin x1

Comb Set x1

Face towel x1

Slippers Set x2

Cup Set x1

Chopsticks x2

Sewing Kit x1

Pyjamas Set x2

Baby bath tub x 1 (buy in Singapore)

Toothbrush toothpaste (buy in Singapore)

bed sheet set x 1 (Shuangxile is selling a set at $139 whereas Taobao is selling a set for $23!)

Cute cute couple pyjamas!

节省是美德！I saved so much money for my mum and future hubby~ 

My hubby is so lucky to marry me! :D

Budget Bride-to-be

From my posts, I am sure its not hard to realize that I am a budget bride-to-be.

Why did I choose to start this blog?

I started prepping for my wedding 11 months before my AD as such I have A LOT of time to do research for every big and small details of my wedding. Penning down all these details for other BTBs would ensure that my research would not go to waste and that every budget/ala-carte brides like me will realize that planning for the big day is an enjoyable and easy thing to do.

I want to note down all these small details so that in many years to come, I can look back and laugh with my hubby on all the funny things that we have done through the major milestones of our life.

Why did I choose to be a budget bride?

It's my personal choice.

1) I always believe that wedding is just a day in my life. Yes, its a once-in-a-lifetime thing but it would be over in just 1 day. I don't see why I should be spending $50k on a single day of my life when I can better use this money for other things like renovation, holidays and my future kids etc.

2) Learning to spend within my means. I have only started working for less than 2 years and I do not have much savings to splurge. I have a BTO coming next year and i foresee finance to be tight for the next few years hence I would think its essential to spend within my means.

3) With the gloomy economic outlook due to fall in oil prices, the whole employment market is very versatile. Being in a profession/industry where oil prices do impact the company, I would think that no one's employment is completely risk-free. To prevent being caught off guard, I would think that saving money during this period of time is the right thing to do.

4) The whole bridal/wedding market in Singapore is CRAZY. Everything is overpriced and hence I would think that learning how to find/grab a good deal and counter these crazy prices is a challenging yet fulfilling thing to do!

What's my wedding plan?

Bee and I would not be having a wedding lunch/dinner at a hotel or restaurant.
We will not be signing up for a bridal package.
We will most likely not be getting a professional videographer/photographer for our wedding day.

But…

We will be going ala-carte for most/all things.
We will be having a church wedding with proper lunch reception.
We will be going overseas for a pre-wedding shoot.

Its going to be a budget wedding planning but not a cheapo wedding.
Bee and I are both comfortable and happy with our plans to date.

We once joked about this…
Whats the theme of our wedding?
价廉物美？
No I would call it 简约时尚 LOL!

Stay tune as I update my blog through this journey (:

Wedding bedsheet set for our BIG BIG DAY!

As some of you may know, wedding bedsheets is one of the things the female side needs to buy for  回礼 during 过大礼. The wedding bedsheets is to be laid out on the wedding day on the couple's new bed.

When I was shopping in jurong point, i saw this set of red fitted sheets which i thought is very suitable for our wedding because Bee and i love this kind of simple single colored bedsheets and its really affordable at the price of $19.90!

BUT when i brought the fitted sheet set home, my mum was VERY unsatisfied. HAHAHAS
There she goes again..
这么简单的床单哪里可以？去买别的！多少钱都不用紧！
My goodness.. even bedsheets she also can make a big hoo-ha hahahahas!

My mum wanted me to buy those wedding series of bedsheets with cartoon on it.
My aunt told her my cousin bought a very nice fitted sheets at OG for her wedding.

Please make a guess how much this set of fitted sheets cost?

$100!
So expensive!

I remember that Aussino used to have this kind of wedding bedsheets.

However, after researching i realize that Aussino is closing down most/all of their stores in Singapore. Even though they are supposed to have a store in clementi mall, i went and couldn't find the store at all -.-

The other brand that i think would have this kind of bedsheets would be Akemi.
I specially called the Akemi shop and the sales person told me that this series of Akemi bedsheets is not sold in Singapore. You can only find it in malaysia.. so if you want you will have to go to JB and buy /: Mafan o!

Of course as per my usual practice, i went to my favorite sites Taobao and Carousell!
For this kind of 1 time use bedsheets, i would think its ok to go for cheap bed sheet set.
This is why i shortlisted a few value for money brand new wedding bedsheets (:
Gonna share with you guys the stuffs i sourced and shortlisted!

Singapore bed sizing:
Queen-> 1.5m by 1.9m
King-> 1.8m by 1.9m

Taobao

Please note that taobao bedsheets are 10cm longer in length (1.5/1.8m by 2m) so if you mind, do not purchase. But then again i feel that 10cm doesn't make much difference, you can still tuck it properly under the mattress (:

Cost: 68-99RMB = approx. $18-23SGD
Just saw that shuangxile is setting the set at $139.00! my goodness!
You can purchase here and here

Hello kitty series:

Cost: 99RMB = approx. $23
You can purchase here

Carousell

I specially chose those that are still in original packaging as they are more presentable during GDL.
During Guo Da Li, all items are to be packed nicely and presented to the other half as 回礼.
This is why I did not shortlist those that are not in original packaging as it is more troublesome for me and price wise there's not much difference. On top of that, the brands of the shortlisted bed sheet set are typically Akemi or Aussino, so it should be pretty good.

King Fitted Sheet
(1 fitted sheet, 2 pillow case & 1 bolster case)

Cost: $20-35sgd
For the first set, it is a cutesy couple design which i feel is more modern and up to my liking (but rejected by my mum AGAIN hahahas)
You can purchase here, here and here

Queen Quilt Cover Set
(1 quilt cover and 2 pillow case)

Cost: $20-45sgd
You can purchase here and here

So here is what i have purchased for myself from carousell!!
Akemi King comforter set for $50 which includes comforter, fitted sheet, 2 pillow case and 1 bolster case!
Its a really good deal! Very cute and sweet!
Mum and Bee are both happy with it!

I'm a happy bride-to-be!