Helpful resource bases with vendors, tips and reviews as well as tools to collaborate together as a couple!
Welcome to the first post of this blog! If you're starting out on your wedding planning, a good place to begin with would be these resource bases. They were super helpful in providing a guideline on everything I had to do, helping me decide which vendors to go for and even liaising for some vendors.
1) Singapore Brides
This provides an overview of everything you need to start planning the wedding. It goes into all the nitty-gritty details and ensures you don't miss anything out. I like cancelling things off checklists, so the cancellation feature in the excel sheet gives me a sense of accomplishment. It's really comprehensive, but take it step by step so you don't get overwhelmed :)
I downloaded the excel rather than using the application, because I found it easier to work in excel this way. Also this is just a template, but if there's special stuff you want to add in for your own wedding (e.g. for me it was my DIY stuff), then remember to break down the tasks and factor it in the timeline.
There are loads of vendors featured on the website, and so when I was searching for my Actual Day photographer I actually went through this whole list of photographers https://singaporebrides.com/articles/2018/09/wedding-photography-singapore-prices/.
2) OneThreeOneFour
This website has multiple uses. On first glance, it's an easy way to book overseas photoshoots with everything included (gowns, make-up and photographers). The good thing about it is that they partner with a local boutique, so you have the option of choosing your gowns locally before flying over for your shoot. The reviews I've read of it all seem pretty good!
The other use for it is that they provide an overview of wedding venues in Singapore as well, and some will have their packages available for download. This is quite helpful during the browsing process as it gives you a better idea of the venue's rates and capacity. I don't really like e-mailing vendors unless I'm seriously considering them, as often you have to answer their questions and follow-up e-mails even if you decide not to go with them. But venue rates are normally not readily available, so I end up doing it anyway.
3) Bridestory application
I downloaded this on my phone quite early on, and often spent hours scrolling through vendors whenever I was free. It's easy to use because you can sort according to vendor, country and budget. I found it easier to use than the website, because I had to log in everytime I wanted to see the vendor's pricelist on a bridestory page. You can also save vendors/articles to your own board, sort of like Pinterest. Some vendors will have reviews as well, but often there are only a few so you should still Google it yourself.
The things I disliked about it: prices may not be the most accurate/updated, and everytime I go on to a vendor's page they get notified. Some of them will then send you a message before you even contact them. So that's just something to note - they will know you are stalking them haha.
I used this to liaise with a few vendors. Some of them won't be responsive if they don't really use the app, but I ended up hiring my videographer through here!
4) Dayre
I think you will come across this blogging community once you start researching on weddings in Singapore. It's good because you get longer, more personal reviews that (usually) aren't sponsored. Sometimes people also share tips, such as how to buy wedding gowns on Taobao!
Everytime I wanted to find a review on something, I would search the item/vendor followed by Dayre. E.g. "Taobao gowns dayre".
5) Tools for Two
Lastly, tools that help you work together as a couple. Janan created a Gmail account just for our wedding, and it was helpful in separating our e-mails to the vendors from our sea of personal e-mails. This way, both of you can keep track of your conversations with vendors and you can take turns e-mailing them without them getting confused. One thing though, be sure to mark the e-mail as "Unread" if you are not the one corresponding with them! I was waiting for the proposal from the decor company for a while, only to find out they had already e-mailed us but Janan had opened it and didn't mention it -.-
Google drive is great for collaboration too. We used it to store everything related to the wedding, so it was easy when either one of us wanted to access the files. It was also helpful when it came to sharing the necessary documents with our friends (we created a folder separately and shared only that with them). There is also Backup and Sync, which you can download to your computer so that you can access it offline and put files in more easily.
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