Renovation Inspirations & Quick Guide

Now that we have collected the keys to our own home, it's time to start "Renovation Shopping".

To be honest, we are not the type to start planning before seeing the actual unit as we actually didn't pay attention to the details of the home contract. So you may ask us what is provided in the unit, and we would just shrug and imagine it to just have some floorings and wardrobes as that is all that we see when we pass by the work site before keys collection.

That being said, we consider ourselves very blessed to have a unit that has little defects and a very good layout.

The unit isn't as small as we imagined it to be, but the interior designs will be crucial in making the place look spacious.

The most ideal look was to have everything in white, thus giving the faux impression of a spacious unit even though it may be relative small. But we are not the type that love the "uptown" look.

Our most loved look is some thing like this:

But there is still something not very practical about this design like the low-hanging lamps and the sharp-edged furniture.


Designs inspirations aside, here's some quick tips that we gathered:

1. Visit an Interior Design shop for a quick lesson on renovations if you're lazy like us.

You'd be amazed by the information they impart to you, from the use of tic-tac doors to the various laminates for the carpentry to the regulations on certain works you wish to do. Your knowledge will go from 0 to 60% after just 1 trip there. 

 2. List down the things you'd like them to do for a quick quotation.

This will work as a rough guide for a budget. That's because "interior designers" tend to hyper-inflate their prices. Hence, the price that they provide will be a good budget for the maximum you should pay. 

3. Visit a general contractor with the same list of things that you mentioned to the Designers, and expect to be quoted 2/3 of the price.

We tried the above method and for the same price that the "Designers" quoted us, we had more & better quality work done to our unit! The only disclaimer is that you must have a plan of what to do for your home as there is no 3D design plan/layout to refer to.

Macarons

Looking forward to having a Macaroon Tower for our wedding reception.

Wonder who can resist this.

More Short Gowns!

[By Justina]

Ever since I wore that short gown for the photoshoot at Sepang International Circuit, I've been obsessed with such gowns.

And the main reason for looking for more of such gowns is that after the gatecrash on our wedding day, a puffy gown will not fit into Shawn's car.


Decided to search for another gown of such for the morning, and here are some that inspires me. 




But, I really haven't decided on which gown to wear for which time of the day. It is still to early to decide anyway.

HIS outfit for Pre-wedding Photos

It's been quite a headache for Justina to plan the Pre-wedding photoshoot.

It was not about the locations. Neither was it about the props, or her gown. It was all about Shawn's outfit for the photoshoot, and perhaps even the gatecrash on the actual day.

For friends of the groom, it is a well-known fact that Shawn sweats BUCKETS. He could even sweat in an air-conditioned room! So we had ruled out dressing him in the conventional suit for a groom, until the Actual Day.

Not wearing a suit for the pre-wedding photoshoot was also a great idea since we are not planning to do glamorous or high-fashion type of photos. In fact, it is not our style to be conventional!


But not wearing a suit for the pre-wedding photoshoot proved to be a major headache for Justina when she had to coordinate the outfits to the locations. Thankfully she had the time to scour through the library of images of Google for some inspirations.


She first fell in love with the simplicity of this style.   

That folded-up sleeve was a style that Shawn will rock any time. But she wasn't too sure about the tie as it felt too "office".


She also fell in love with the idea of cropped pants.
 

 But the tie is still too much for Shawn and that blazer will be soaking with sweat in no more than 5 minutes.

That was when she saw this.

Now who said the groom had to look formal while the bride is in her gown? And given their personality, the groom will look best in casual while the bride lets down her hair even with her gown on!


With that, these are the photos that inspired Shawn's outfit for the photoshoot:

It is easy to picture Shawn in the above style as his built isn't the scrawny asian size, nor is he the mature tuxedo style type of guy.


It was also easy to shop for his outfit since Justina had already bought some bow ties and vest beforehand, and all that was left was his bottoms which UNIQLO has!

Now that we have both our outfits, it's countdown to the photoshoot after the Lunar 7th month!

We started with macarons

[By Justina]

Looking at the e-card reminds us of our story.

Though we met at a regular car meet-up, our love blossom due to macarons.

If Shawn didn't thoughtfully surprise me with some macarons to cheer me up after a horrible day at work, our story won't have started off .

Since macarons played a rather important part of our story, we were wondering if we should have macarons as our wedding favors.

Yet another dilemma to add to the list of wedding preparations!

Wedding favors dilemma

Hesitating on whether to get such bottles and fill them with sweets that we got for each other during our courtship days.




It would make a meaningful wedding favor, but will also burn a hole in our pockets.

We have 11 months to decide though!


In the mean time, just thinking if we have any use for this lovely looking dish at Daiso.



Ideas anyone?

Sometimes, one couldn't help being amazed at how the brain of the female species works .

[By Shawn]

Take today for example:

We were at Ikea to shop for a sofa-bed for Justina's Grandpa.


While looking at the sofa-bed, she started discussing about the furniture she has planned for our new home.

Then she started to point out items that we could use as props for our wedding, and took photos as notes.



All this time I thought we were there just for the sofa-bed, yet we had so many things covered in that short trip.

I'm truly amazed by her.

Photoshoot Props Hunt

[By Justina]

Found many inspirations at Spotlight @ Plaza Singapura today.




I can't wait to start working my magic on all these. 

On a side note, had to make this purchase at MONOYONO @ Plaza Singapura B1



Didn't want to risk returning to the shop to find it out-of-stock.
Now, can you imagine the photoshoot whereby we put our rings on it?

It would be so beautiful!