Review: Our Wedding Band, Wedding Shoes and Wedding Gown.

No matter how much we try to save, we just can't save every single thing. Therefore, I will be sharing the 3 budget buys Mr OOPS and I got in preparation for our wedding. It will be namely our wedding bands, my wedding shoes and a wedding gown from Taobao. In this post, I will be going through in details, together with visuals, on where, how and why we make these purchases.

1) Wedding Bands (From Lee Hwa)

Wedding bands are basically the wedding rings which we will be putting on for each other during solemnization and basically what we will be wearing most of the time after getting married. Thus we wanted to get something that is aesthetically simple and sturdy but not losing out on its quality. I was aiming for a half eternity ring for myself and a simple white gold ring for Mr OOPS.

I'm not sure if there's any difference in the different jewellery shops. But we basically went to enquire at 4 different shops. Citigems, Jannpaul, Lee Hwa and Taka Jewellery.
  • Both Jannpaul and Taka were offering about $2200 -$2400.  (Price consulted when it was not sales period)
TIP: Only buy at periods when the store is having sales. We consulted on the prices again during Christmas sales period.
Indeed we saw a reduction in the overall prices. 
  • Citigems offers us the cheapest rings, no doubt about it. We were quoted a little more than $1000 sgd for what we wanted. But because it was that cheap, we started to read up about it. Seems like it's not really the best range around and thus they could offer really low prices.
  • Lee Hwa was offering a discount of 20% to 50% for their wedding bands. For what we wanted, it cost about $2200 after discount. Reason being there is not much of a discount for eternity wedding band as it is a timeless design that goes well with solitaire diamond ring, which is a common engagement ring.
We eventually settled for Lee Hwa, which we felt they had better quality diamonds and white gold than Citigem.

However, instead of getting the design which we wanted, we opted for this pair of wedding band instead. It was going at a 50% discount! So both rings only cost us less than $1500, which is below our budget.

It also comes with a free ring pillow! 

2) Wedding Shoes from Plain Jane 

Shoes are a woman's best friend. A good pair of wedding shoes will help us to survive the long night throughout. Due to my wide height disparity with Mr OOPS, I needed a pair of heels which is at least 5 inches high. So although I hear lots of good online deals of cheap wedding shoes, I am not willing to take any of that risks in case I ended up limping the entire night.

I first started putting in that extra thought into wedding shoes when I was attending one of the wedding showcases at Mandarin Orchard Hotel last year. There was a booth by this company called "Stardust With Love" that specializes in bridal shoes and was offering some good discount. I understand that the company uses the same heels but they will adjust the designs accordingly. So I went to try the heels. Sadly, although it was my usual size 36, it felt very uncomfortable for my feet.

After that experience, I have been always on a lookout for comfortable and decent looking wedding shoes. I tried going Aldo but their heels are just pretty and nowhere near comfortable to me. And one evening while I was waiting for Anna to have dinner, I chanced upon a collection of wedding shoes offered by this shop called Plain Jane at Junction 8. They were selling at $39 per pair. So I thought, no harm trying right?

So this is heel number 1, which were really uncomfortable because I can't feel the ground at all when I was walking around in it. I will most probably slip and fall without knowing why I slip and fall if I chose this. Haha! And I find it abit too silver, not really the white heels I was looking for.
Heel number 2. A slightly more white colour but the front was too tight for me. The white crochet design on the heels were done using cotton material. So I think it will probably stain quite easily. I will probably end up with grey shoes on my wedding day if I get this. So, this was out too.
Heel Number 3. It's pretty much my ideal kind of wedding shoes. White base, pearls and some bling but not too overly bling. Once I wore it, I thought "This is it!" because it is 5 inches tall and yet I can still "feel" the floor while walking around with it. It's a bonus that it only cost me an affordable price of $39.
I ended up buying it after wearing it and walking around the shop for about 5 minutes. Let me take another shot of it! =D I have worn this out for my pre-wedding photoshoot in Singapore too. It has proved to be quite a comfy pair for its height.

3) Wedding Gown (From Taobao)

The idea of getting a wedding gown from Taobao was a really impromptu one. We heard about one of our common friends who got a wedding dress from Taobao to self-take their pre-wedding shoot. So Mr OOPS and I are inspired to do so too! 

So this is how we got the gown. We ordered one gown from Taobao, shipped to an address in China, Mr OOPS went China for a holiday and also picked up the dress. In that way, we saved on some shipping costs.

Eventually, our wedding gown only cost us a whopping $44 sgd. Ta-da, this is how it looks like when we first opened it from the packaging. We can already see the sequin details on the dress. 
It comes with a cancan, accessories, tiara, veil and some gloves and fur jacket. I only managed to take a photo of the accessories that comes with it.

When people hear about my purchase, they often ask me how do I do it. So here's sharing how I decided on this particular dress!
  • First go to www.taobao.com
  • Under the search function, enter the keywords: 婚纱 (literally wedding dress in mandarin) and click on the orange box.

  • Then I will click on the keyword: 销量 (which means sales in mandarin).
  • What you see next will be the highest selling gowns in taobao. And this particular one caught my eye. It was the second highest selling for the month and the price is really affordable.
  • Opted for the one that doesn't come with the long train for convenience sake and comes with all the extra freebies and accessories. like cancan, tiara, matching jewellery, veil, gloves and even some fur jacket for mine (because I bought during winter season in China).

Basically for online purchases, I do not really go for exclusivity as I am worried that I will not get what I see on the website. So I opted for highest selling gowns (because that will mean they are really not bad) and high reviews (with photos of the actual products).
  • I confirmed that this product is safe by reading their reviews. When you scroll the page down, you will see the below, the first circle at the top indicates the total accumulated reviews for this product. The higher the number, the better. The second circle below indicates reviews with photos. Clicking on it will reveal photos taken by satisfied customers.

Thanks to a tip from Lay Pheng, there was a recommendation to use this forwarding agent to get your taobao stuff to Singapore. Link: www.65daigou.com

And so, just to prove that Taobao dress can be just as awesome. Here's some preview photos of my solo shots in our self-take pre-wedding shoot.



That's all, for now! :) Do not hesitate to ask me questions or share the post with people who may need them!

Cheers,
Mrs To-Be OOPS

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