the wedding package

We have a wedding gown design in mind. What we want from a bridal shop is one that can sew the gown that we love and not have all the hidden costs coming from the materials and any additional workmanship. We've heard:

''lace additional $1000''

''beading additional $1500"

Bullcrap.

Frankly the shops in the Tanjong Pagar stretch disgusts me. From their cheesy in-house photography to their hard sell close-on-the-spot tactics. Some of them are pretty good but generally their sales style puts me off. I have heard of all their stunts they pull. From the everything-also-can-quickly-sign-first tactic. To the we-do-the-ROM-for-free-if-you-sign move.

I saw a pair of victims first hand in one shop. The couple did their shoot and are choosing the photos. I figured that the groom finally realized how much he is getting raped for. He had this super 黑脸 expression on and was super stern and quiet. The atmosphere was dynamite. The sales person and the bride were both too scared to talk. I heard of too many packages gone wrong both for word-of-mouth and from the forums. That is some scary shit.

After going through too many bridal shops, we made our decision.

Irene's Creation.

8 Oct 2007:

We called up the designer, set the appointment and brought the best negotiator this half of the globe has ever seen: my sister. An hour later, we walked out with a very ala carte package:

1. Wedding gown made to measure
lace + beading + silk all included
evening gown to be converted from wedding gown <-- interesting huh?

2. Men's suit made to measure (purchase)

3. Flowers

4. Make up + hair do

5. Kua/Tea dress

We scrapped the evening gown as we feel that after spending so much effort on the wedding gown, Shuyi should wear it more. I'm excited to see how our designer will propose the transformation from wedding gown to evening gown.

The wedding gown turned out great. But it was quite tedious working with Irene's Creation. It felt like I was working for them.

To summarize:

We started with A. Then A left and named B as our new designer. Then B left without informing us. We had to call to find out that piece of news ourselves by calling them. We went to look for C who was suppose to help us now. When we reach there, C was totally uninterested. Instead, a D stepped in to help us. Months passed and we found that D have left without anyone informing us. It is super near the wedding now and guess what? B is back to help! All thoughout the whole year of liasing with them, we had managers lie to our face and wasted trips. Oh and as of now, only B is left.


Now any bride who had done her homework that Irene's Creation's price is by no means cheap. Every single time I went there, I would start longingly at Wedding Veil by Michelle Huimin. They always have consultants who looked and acted so professional.

After the wedding, we went back and confronted the manager who flatly refused to compensate us on our bills. He did promised some other form of compensation but did not follow up on his promise. Fine. I'm tired of dealing with them anyways. argh

I've read horror stories about the high turnover rate of staff there but I had to try it first hand to know. Good luck with choosing your wedding package. Forget the forums. Almost every single shop have their horror stories. Simply trust your eyes. I have to get mine checked.