How I Became a Wedding Planner Part 3 - Wedding Lunch Reception
Here comes the last part of our wedding! The lunch reception.
I have to tell you that this is actually my dream wedding when I'm a grown-up woman. When I was young, I had a dream to have a beach wedding. But when I reached 35, my dream wedding(if I ever had one) would be a lunch celebration with a small group of friends in a cosy restaurant with a band playing our favourite indie songs.
Luckily that I met my husband who shares the same thinking about the wedding and he gave me the freedom and support to put all these ideas together. Also with the help from so many friends and family members to make it happened beautifully.
Firstly the location was easily agreed on that we will do it at The Cabochon Hotel. A cosy colonial-style boutique hotel which is our most favourite hotel for drinks and North-Eastern aka. Isaan food(best beef brisket everrr). With the support and assistant from the stylish owner, GM whom we became friends along the way and the whole team, it made the whole event went so easy and smoothly. The place is a dream and just perfect for our intimate wedding party. The only downside of the place is the limitation of capacity and parking spaces. So if you are considering this hotel, you can only have around 40 guests maximum and transportation for the guest.
OK. The reason I could do all this myself without an organiser because I'm taking a career break and one of the things I learnt from my career in retail is event planning and organising. So check list excel file is a must have!! I have my check list for all 3 days event to make sure that I didn't miss anything or minimise the hiccup as much as possible. It consisted of the items, supplier, status, event schedule including a budget control sheet. So when anyone asked if I was excited about the wedding, I simply replied that it was more like anxiety before a retail event.
After we drafted out our plan, we started to search for the suppliers such as a florist, a band who can play our song list (we saved all the songs we like in Spotify), invitation card and etc.
Florist @6188Flowerbar
I've known Gib from 6188 Flowerbar for a long time, we connected through instagram but never really worked together. When I saw that she started her flower project, I know right away that her style would be perfect for our flower decoration. And she really did great as we aimed for white/green in natural free form. Everything came out perfectly together with our visions.
The band @aeytheape
Well...we have a very particular taste in music so it was quite difficult to find a band we'd like to use. Luckily I could find the right band who can play most of the songs from our play list with help from @MOOB. So we just threw our requirements at him and he would suggest the band that matches ours.
Wedding Favours
We used "Mint To Be" which we found from Pinterest, unfortunately, I couldn't find any suppliers in Thailand who produce this kind of things. So I tried to research for all possibilities and ended up ordering things separately. The tin boxes from Shopee app which was super painful for me as the quantity they delivered were always wrong and we ended up had to order 3 times with many follow up with the shop. Mint To Be stickers were ordered from Etsy for both of our wedding in Bangkok and Germany. The last but not least "The Mints", we had to taste and research for the mints that we like and ended up with Wrigley's Doublemint. Yes, we counted and did the packaging ourselves.
Invitation Cards and all printing materials
We used Manita Wedding for all printing material with inspirations from Pinterest again. So we got all the welcome poster, invitation cards and seat plan in the same graphic design. We were really happy with the results when they combined with beautiful flower decoration on the day.
Hair and Makeup @macartist_ohm
I've got their contacts through my dear friend and I was very happy with the results. We aimed for natural old Hollywood glam which combined perfectly with my headpiece. Talking about the headpiece, I've had this reference from Pinterest which didn't quite workout with my first attempt. I had to find a few alternatives with fresh flowers or crystal headband. Then in only 2 weeks time before the wedding with help from my aunt in law, I finally had this custom made from Japanese clay work and it looks really close to the reference. Since the headpiece is going to be the key piece, I kept my jewellery low key with a pair of crystal Miu Miu earrings.
I have to tell you that this is actually my dream wedding when I'm a grown-up woman. When I was young, I had a dream to have a beach wedding. But when I reached 35, my dream wedding(if I ever had one) would be a lunch celebration with a small group of friends in a cosy restaurant with a band playing our favourite indie songs.
Luckily that I met my husband who shares the same thinking about the wedding and he gave me the freedom and support to put all these ideas together. Also with the help from so many friends and family members to make it happened beautifully.
Firstly the location was easily agreed on that we will do it at The Cabochon Hotel. A cosy colonial-style boutique hotel which is our most favourite hotel for drinks and North-Eastern aka. Isaan food(best beef brisket everrr). With the support and assistant from the stylish owner, GM whom we became friends along the way and the whole team, it made the whole event went so easy and smoothly. The place is a dream and just perfect for our intimate wedding party. The only downside of the place is the limitation of capacity and parking spaces. So if you are considering this hotel, you can only have around 40 guests maximum and transportation for the guest.
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| Image courtesy to Conde Nast Traveler |
Then I started to collect all the decoration ideas on Pinterest. It is definitely the best ideas bank for wedding and etc. From the wedding favour, stationary, welcome poster to flower centrepiece, you named it! After we discussed and agreed with the direction and colour scheme we like, now it's time to execute!
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| We collected the ideas together in a secret board |
OK. The reason I could do all this myself without an organiser because I'm taking a career break and one of the things I learnt from my career in retail is event planning and organising. So check list excel file is a must have!! I have my check list for all 3 days event to make sure that I didn't miss anything or minimise the hiccup as much as possible. It consisted of the items, supplier, status, event schedule including a budget control sheet. So when anyone asked if I was excited about the wedding, I simply replied that it was more like anxiety before a retail event.
 |
| Our To Do list and we kept track of the progress along the way |
After we drafted out our plan, we started to search for the suppliers such as a florist, a band who can play our song list (we saved all the songs we like in Spotify), invitation card and etc.
Florist @6188Flowerbar
I've known Gib from 6188 Flowerbar for a long time, we connected through instagram but never really worked together. When I saw that she started her flower project, I know right away that her style would be perfect for our flower decoration. And she really did great as we aimed for white/green in natural free form. Everything came out perfectly together with our visions.
 |
| The set up in Thai Lao Yeh restaurant |
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| My gorgeous florist |
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| We use Thai gardenia tied with the place cards |
The band @aeytheape
Well...we have a very particular taste in music so it was quite difficult to find a band we'd like to use. Luckily I could find the right band who can play most of the songs from our play list with help from @MOOB. So we just threw our requirements at him and he would suggest the band that matches ours.
Wedding Favours
We used "Mint To Be" which we found from Pinterest, unfortunately, I couldn't find any suppliers in Thailand who produce this kind of things. So I tried to research for all possibilities and ended up ordering things separately. The tin boxes from Shopee app which was super painful for me as the quantity they delivered were always wrong and we ended up had to order 3 times with many follow up with the shop. Mint To Be stickers were ordered from Etsy for both of our wedding in Bangkok and Germany. The last but not least "The Mints", we had to taste and research for the mints that we like and ended up with Wrigley's Doublemint. Yes, we counted and did the packaging ourselves.
 |
| The place cards were also handmade: I cut all the cards and beautifully written by our lovely calligrapher |
Invitation Cards and all printing materials
We used Manita Wedding for all printing material with inspirations from Pinterest again. So we got all the welcome poster, invitation cards and seat plan in the same graphic design. We were really happy with the results when they combined with beautiful flower decoration on the day.
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His Wedding Look
My husband wore a jacket from Ralph Lauren, blue Emmanuel Berg shirt, off-white pants from Echizenya at The Decorum Bangkok, polka dot tie from Drake's and a pair of brown tassle loafer from Crockett & Jones.
My Dress and Shoes
I found my dress from one of the vintage shops in Etsy that I'd ordered. I knew from the first moment I saw it that this is me. Old Hollywood glam - checked, cut out details - checked and most importantly sexy back - checked! For my shoes, I was considering my existing shoe stocks and changed my mind to go for these nude colour strappy stilettos from Alexandre Birman instead.
I've got their contacts through my dear friend and I was very happy with the results. We aimed for natural old Hollywood glam which combined perfectly with my headpiece. Talking about the headpiece, I've had this reference from Pinterest which didn't quite workout with my first attempt. I had to find a few alternatives with fresh flowers or crystal headband. Then in only 2 weeks time before the wedding with help from my aunt in law, I finally had this custom made from Japanese clay work and it looks really close to the reference. Since the headpiece is going to be the key piece, I kept my jewellery low key with a pair of crystal Miu Miu earrings.
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| The reference I found on Pinterest |
Photographer: @tachpasit
My husband found Tin by chance when he searched for wedding photographers. We both agreed that his style really suits what we like, candid and not too posey. It was a good decision to have him taking our photos as it came out exactly what we expected.
A special shuttle Tuk Tuk
As I mentioned that there is very limited parking at the hotel so the guests had to park at nearby community mall. We decided to organised 2 Tuk Tuk to shuttle our guests back and forth. And to have a nice gimmick to it, we asked another printing supplier to do the vinyl boards to attached to these Tuk Tuk.
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The event format: Drink reception followed by Sit down lunch
Due to the limited space of 40 seats, we had to be very precise and get confirmation from our guest at least 2 weeks before. This also because we had to have our "Seat Plan" board produced on time too. For Thais, we don't really have this kind of format for a wedding so it was quite a challenge for us. However, we had our seat plan settled and went smoothly.
We were really happy with the event and things went very well without any hiccup on the day. Our main goal for this lunch is to celebrate and share our happiness with our love ones. It was very intimate, memorable and joyful for us. So all of the guests are friends and colleagues whom we feel really close to and really know us. We were also overjoyed to hear that they enjoyed the time and like all the small details we put in.
Finally, this is the end of my wedding series. To us, the wedding is only the beginning of a long journey and there will be good times - bad times and things we would have to learn to make the marriage works. So thank you for reading and hopefully, you would find something useful or just enjoy reading my blog.
Until next time... ð
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