Courtesy of Andy Lim

Wan Sim recently got married in the U.K (where she currently resides) and back here in her homeland, Malaysia. Having written her first post about her ‘English’ Wedding, she took the liberty of also sharing her experience of planning her M’sian wedding from halfway across the world in London!

Written by: Wan Sim Tan-Sainsbury

Here is the list of suppliers whom my husband and I genuinely believe to be on our A-list. Four thumbs up for all!

The Venue

A small wedding, less hassles? Not quite. Since it is not the norm in Malaysia to have such a wedding, most of the hotel banquet rooms require a minimum of 200 guests.

Our winner was the Ritz Carlton Kuala Lumpur. It is centrally located and has beautifully set up function rooms that suit smaller weddings (from 40 – 120 people). The fact that we always had a very pleasant stay in this hotel did sway our minds a bit. It was also such a blessing to have a very capable and professional in-house wedding/catering coordinator, Ms Lim Kim Shia.

Being abroad, we heavily depended on emails to communicate. Kim Shia was so efficient that every time we emailed her with a long list of queries, she would respond adequately within 24 hours. She did not only undertake her role competently but always went the extra mile to arrange various other matters for us (even call us in the U.K). The service that she provided was just exceptional.

Courtesy of Andy Lim

We booked an apartment at The Ritz Residences for the Chinese Bridal Pickup session. The residences were also my ‘boudoir’ for the night before my big day while my hubby stayed across the road at the Westin Hotel. The Chinese Tea Ceremony was held after the bridal pickup in the day function room, which was set up in a theatrical style. The white glove services and the personal touches by the Ritz Carlton are highly commended by not only us, but our guests too.

Banquet Menu

The banquet food was of high quality and very much refined, since it was prepared by the Cantonese chef of the award winning Li Yen Restaurant of the hotel.  We had maximum flexibility in choosing our banquet menu; in fact it was really anything that we fancied!

What impressed us most?

When they took the initiative to personalise all our wedding notices and menu cards with our own logo, without us knowing! It was a pleasant surprise when we saw it after we sat down at our table.

This is simply the trademark of Ritz Carlton, where service has a personal touch.

The Photographer

Mr. (& Mrs.) Andy Lim from Emotion in Pictures

After months of correspondences via emails, we finally met up with Andy two weeks before our wedding. Andy and Junnie (his lovely Mrs.) were highly recommended by a recently married friend of mine in London (Andy was his wedding photographer). It all happened when I expressed my concern to my friend that I may have a problem getting a reliable professional photographer in Malaysia (that’s also within our budget).  We realised through our search, that there are either the very good ones who strive to be better, or the used-to-be very good ones, who just remain as they was before.

In my opinion, a wedding is unique to each couple – hence it should be individually expressed by the photographer through his/her own lenses based on the surrounding moods, people and emotions of that very special day.  Andy was all that. He achieved all the above successfully with his non-intrusive and relaxed manner. Natural laughter, tears and joy of everyone can be expressed without the feeling of uneasiness.  Andy amazingly captured not just our emotions, but also the emotions of the people around us.  I believe this is not simply because of his photography skill, but his actually his natural ability of foreseeing people reactions by cleverly interpreting the mood of that split second.  Just from one of his photos, it will tell you the story of that very moment.

Courtesy of Andy Lim

Believe it or not, Andy was also with us for a photo shoot just two days before our wedding! We were in Langkawi for part of our wedding video shoot, and thought that it would be a good idea for our Malaysian team to collaborate before the wedding. What can I say, it turned out to be a great success! Andy produced some pretty amazing WOW shots that just blew our minds away and we were so excited to see them on TWG.

Courtesy of Andy Lim

The Florist – Spring Cottage at The Ritz Residence

Spring Cottage is the in-house florist for the Ritz Carlton. We corresponded via emails a month before to discuss ideas and flowers availability. We actually had our first face-to-face meeting only 2 weeks before the wedding! I brought along some photos of my preferred flowers arrangements and a list of the flowers that I would like. A list is useful as it does give the florist an idea of the colour tone, effects and even the flower scent that you want. For me, I was making sure that my flowers did not have any heavy scented flower/foliage, as I wanted the room to be filled with my favourite scent, Lily of the Valley (yes, I did bring all my candles with me from London).

Spring cottage was very good as they did a few sample arrangements for me right on the spot, which is usually a good sign of a competent florist. This gave me the virtual impression of the flower arrangement mix and we got to fiddle with size and texture. They do have an extensive portfolio, so you won’t be out of ideas if you need some guidance. Since I was staying at the Ritz, it was convenient for me to pop downstairs and check on my flowers the day before my wedding. Lucky me, they were absolutely spot on.  The flowers were just gorgeous! I could not be any happier.