Our Lovely Wedding in Taiping Part 1

*Updated with link to photos! 

Since we are done with Cloudy with a Chance of Wedding Bells a.k.a our wedding in KL, it's time to finally have a look at our wedding in Taiping! 

We kick-started the day with the morning session and like all you brides out there, I had to be up as early as 5ish in the morning. Juno from Juno's Perfection Studio was my make-up artist and based on my short dress and the birdcage net (that were all tailor-made), I've requested for a vintage hair and make-up and thank god he really nailed it! :)

Love how the vintage look gives me a totally different style that I've never seen myself with!

Obviously the Loo brothers are very talented in their own ways! Juno's brother, Isaac was our photographer and based on his young age, we were extremely surprised and impressed with his work! I personally love how creative his shots are!!!

We kept our morning session very simple too. I had no 'ji muis' except for my two real 'ji mius' and a cousin sister to help out. All we wanted Deardo to do was to read out some love messages to me entirely in Teochew! Oh yes, by the way, he had some Heng Dais but I guess they didn't need to help him much! :p

Deardo arrived at my house and found a surprise obstacle in my crazy aunties who just asked him random questions about me! LOL!

That's our Teochew script! 

One for the album! 

Tea session was quite a short one, with priority given to those who weren't there at our wedding in KL.

Tea for one of the most important persons, Ah Ma! :)

Once again, I couldn't help but praise Isaac for his capabilities in capturing some really nice photos and surely, they are very unforgettable moments at our wedding!

These are truly precious set of photos of my two Ah Mas smiling/laughing their heart out! Some said it is very rare to see them smile/laugh like this! 

So we were taking our family photo and Isaac asked Papo and Mamo when was the last time they kissed??? 

Our crazy family photo!!!

Oh man, I tell you, that was the first and probably the only time I've seen them kiss in my entire life!!! Really owe this to Isaac man!!! Hahaha...

More crazy photos with the families and Heng Dais! :)

After the morning session at my place, we went off to the church to our supposedly small R.O.M but turned real church wedding! LOL! Kinda defeated the purpose of me making a short dress but then again, I thought well let's just be a different bride who had her church wedding in a short dress! I mean, nothing wrong with that too, right? In fact, I think it was kinda cool idea! *wink~*

Insanely beautiful photo of Papo walking me down the aisle.

I think we were reading our vows here...

Rings-exchanged! Deal is done!

That church wedding officially made us a married couple, like legally! :D

We did some photoshoot in town too before heading back to Deardo's place but I shall share that with you guys in another post. Here are some other snapshots at Deardo's place, before we wrapped up the first half of our wedding day in Taiping.

Yum Cha???

One cute family photo too! :)

More to come in the next post! See the rest of the photos here.

Missy June's B'Day Dinner @ Pantrie, Oasis Square

The colleagues and I celebrated June's birthday last month at Pantrie, Oasis Square. Yeah, I guess we really love that place since we have been there for a few times together so far! 

Simple decor but comfy ambiance. 

This time we tried Pantrie, only a few shops next to Epiphany.Definitely a humble-looking restaurant with minimal over-the-top deco, the restaurant also offer not-too-extensive menu but has enough of choices, which has a mixture of Western and Japanese dishes, with some odd Asian fusion dishes as well.
We had a look at the menu and decided to first order some starters...

Chicken Wings with Spicy Dip, RM 14.

Potato, Cheese and bacon Croquette, RM 14.

The Chicken Wings with Spicy Dip although simple, were really awesome. I personally love the very unique-tasting dip! The Potato, Cheese and Bacon Croquette were a bit of a let down though.
And here comes the main!!!

Spaghetti Aglio Olio Tossed with Prawns, RM22.

Spaghetti with Mixed Mushrooms, RM20.

Spaghetti Tossed with Spicy Duck, RM22.

Crispy Battered Pallock with Chips, RM18.

Chicken Chop with Herb Sauce, RM18 with extra order of Sauteed Vegetables, RM5.

I had the Spaghetti Aglio Olio Tossed with Prawns and it was quite decent. Balance amount of garlic and chili and fresh prawns made the dish quite worth the price. I tried a few other dishes from the rest and my conclusion is they serve better pastas than other dishes! My personal favourite has to be the yummy Spaghetti Tossed with Spicy Duck which comes with chili padi and tender duck meat! That and my Aglio Olio were the top scorer that night, that's for sure!
Lea ordered an extra side of Sauteed Vegetables to go with her Chicken Chop, which was pretty nice! :) The Crispy Battered Pallock with Chips was a little weird to us probably because of the texture of the batter which makes it looks and tastes like Goreng Pisang instead of Fish & Chips. The fish was also a bit too hard and dry to our liking.

Pictures of us to proof that we were there!

The menu has more dishes that sound good but at a higher price which we didn't order such as Wagyu Rib-Eye, Pan Seared Cod which may be nice to try one day.
Overall, Pantrie has very nice pastas while you have to choose carefully on their other mains. The Chicken Wings are definitely a must try! Personally, I think it's a great option compared to those that are too commercialised. Without tax and service charges (we got discount for this), we ended up paying RM146.50 for the dinner and it was quite affordable for six persons!

Pantrie
D-G3A, Block D,
No.2, Jalan PJU1A/7A (Capital 4),
Oasis Square,
Oasis Ara Damansara,
47301 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7859 9920

Like our usual ritual, we went next door to Epiphany for coffee and cakes!

It was a failed surprise but June pretended that she was surprised anywayz...:p

Say hi to the gang!!! :D

Happy Birthday to June, once again (a month later, LOL)!!! 

To the rest of you, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY YAW!!! :D

Kolo Mee You Must Try @ Restoran Unlimited, SS14 Subang Jaya

Just a few months back we went to Restoran Unlimited for some of our favourite food, which unfortunately closed down. We were left with no choice but to try the new stall selling Sarawakian noodles such as Sarawak Laksa, Kolo Mee and Kan Pua Mee. 

Just another random kopitiam with a hidden gem.

Not yet a famous stall but serves really good food!

Since I am a huge Sarawak Laksa fan, I went on to order one for myself while Deardo had the Kolo Mee.

Sarawak Laksa at RM6.50(small), RM8 (big).

Kolo Mee, RM5 (small), RM6 (big).

Big and crunchy pork lard found!!!

The Sarawak Laksa isn't too bad with big and fresh prawns and authentically comes with the thick bihun. It is however, not the best Sarawak Laksa I've ever had. The Kolo Mee however, is the REAL THING here. Comes with some handmade springy noodles, Char Siew, minced pork, fish cakes, the bowl of simple-looking goodness is made tastier with pork lard (as in the liquid version) and some crispy pork lard (oh yes, that's how much of pork lard it has)! Oh yummmmzzzz...

The Kolo Mee always make us happy! :D

We have since visited the place for this delicious Kolo Mee (sometimes even a Laksa to share) numerous times. I mean, I haven't visited Sarawak yet and this Sarawak Kolo Mee is the best one I've ever had in KL so far! After so many times, it still never failed to give us the satisfying taste that we went there for! :)

Ice Barley, RM2.

Also give the barley at the kopitiam a try! It comes with bits of pumpkins and it tastes surprisingly nice (surprise because I hate pumpkin)! :)
Don't be surprise to see us there when you decide to try out the Kolo Mee there one day! :p

Restoran Unlimited
78, Jalan SS14/2,
47500 Subang Jaya,
Selangor

My Beautiful Vera Wang-Inspired Wedding Gown

If you have read my previous post on choosing a coloured wedding gown, you should know that I actually tailor-made a Vera Wang inspired gown for our wedding and in this entry, I would like to share with you a little bit about the gown.

I've always have a thing for Vera Wang wedding gowns cos they are really unique with certain signature details that are truly hers. I know however, I can never afford a real Vera Wang! So as I decided to explore the possibilities to make a gown, I naturally checked out her website first for inspirations. Unsurprisingly I was really excited to see so many super unique gowns in her website! And then I stumbled upon this in her Spring 2012 collections...

The jaw-dropping 'Harlow' gown.

It caught my eyes because of it's cool and stand-out train. I've always wanted my gown to have a nice long train that people could pay attention to when I march into the banquet hall or church. And this one really gives me the 'grand' that I wanted in a grand entrance. 

I then met up with my tailor, Erin who then drafted the design without following the original design blindly mainly because she knows what suits a body frame like me. So we changed the top to a heart shape top with a lower waist cutting to showcase my 'assets' (LOL!) and cover the belly fat. I also had to make the grey colour to a lighter shade because of Deardo who didn't like my gown to be too dark in colour. We also forgo the know on the waist because I didn't think it looks nice when it's on low waist.

I seriously had goosebumps when I received the draft from Erin!!!

So gorgeous!!! 

I however, think I've given her a tough job because at the first fitting, both Deardo and I were not very happy with some details on the gown (obviously Erin isn't Vera Wang) but it looks great after some changes! And I like to call it save the best for 'the back'!

I'm also quite glad that I changed the colour a bit cos it gives the gown a romantic-dreamy feel instead of dark and sad. I also feel the colour makes the gown looks 'younger'. It might not look super impressive in real, but the effects on photos are really so beautiful!!! 

Pre-wedding photos showcased my beautiful gown with the pretty details at the back!!!

After wearing it trice - for pre-wedding photoshoot, wedding in KL and in Taiping, I still honestly love the gown heaps. But now that I've dry-cleaned it and hung it in my wardrobe, it has come to no use anymore. Hence, I'm ready to let it go. 

At our wedding.

Just so you can have a look at the details at the top of the gown.

So if you are a fan of unique and coloured wedding gown with a gorgeous train, just like me and is looking for an affordable one, here it is. I might not be too good at the technical part of the gown, but I shall try listing them out here:

1) Heart shape top 
2) Low waist design
3) Can Can design (although no can can used) with 5 layers of materials
4) Materials are mix of soft tulle, organza and satin
5) Light grey with soft pink details
6) Train length: 70cm
7) Detachable flowy soft tulle included at the top back of the gown
8) Absolutely perfect for photoshoot and march-ins
9) Asking price: RM900

Here's the catch... Because the gown comes with a side zipper on a soft tulle, if alteration is made to widen there may be stitch holes seen on the gown. So it is preferably that you are smaller than me or at least same size as I am, which is around a UK8-10 (please e-mail for exact measurement). But of course if you are from a bridal house I don't see size as a problem as you may use it for only photoshoot so small stitch holes are not too bad and you could actually convert it into corset closure. 

So if you or somebody you know is interested, kindly please drop me an email at shirlexiatan@gmail.com and we shall see how we can arrange things from there on. :)

Cloudy with a Chance of Wedding Bells (The Finale?)

Of course, it's not the finale! There are more stuff that I haven't blog about our wedding but for the KL wedding entries, this shall be the last part.

Our wedding video is definitely the perfect way to summarize the wedding itself. Excuse us for our long speeches because one of us was drunk and the other one didn't have a speech prepared. :p


Although I won't say our wedding video is perfect, but both Deardo and I are very happy with it because of some good quality of cinematography, visuals that were well-captured (even lovely moments that I missed on the day itself) and of course the songs that were chosen by yours truly went quite perfectly with the video. :) I truly love how the video really presented our wedding just the way we wanted the wedding to be - no ji muis and heng dais or gate-crashing games yet it can still be such a beautiful, memorable and fun wedding! :)

Engaging JC Studio for the videography of our wedding is probably the best decision I've made for our wedding. They are very easy-going, committed and their work is simply awesome (though they took three months to finish the post-production of our video)! So many thanks to Jonathan and his crew and to you guys who are getting married, book them!!! 

Once again, thank you for watching! :)

If you have missed other entries on our wedding in KL...
Cloudy with a Chance of Wedding Bells!
The Thank You Post
Cloudy with a Chance of Wedding Bells Part 1
Cloudy with a Chance of Wedding Bells (Intermission)
Cloudy with a Chance of Wedding Bells Part 2

Quality Italian Cuisine @ DV Ristorante Pizzeria, Bukit Damansara

Hi guys! How have you been enjoying your CNY this year? Mine has been a pretty quiet yet busy one! Will talk about it later when I gather more photos from my sister and cousin!

It's only the fifth day of CNY and I'm already a little sick of Chinese food which dominated the festive season, which is why I decided to blog about this particular Italian restaurant that we have recently fallen in love with.

If you remember, I first visited the restaurant during my bridal shower, but because I didn't take photos of the food I gave up blogging about it until one fine Sunday when I managed to persuade Deardo, SIL and BIL to go give it a try. :)

The restaurant doesn't have a fancy set-up, just a very simple but clean concept. What I really love about the place is that you are surrounded by mostly civilised people and I'm not sure about night time, but it is pretty quiet during day time you may even wonder if their food are nice by looking at the one or two tables of customers.
Their menu is simple but it has all the basic dishes you need at an Italian restaurant, trust me.
And so, here are what we ordered to share...

Antipasti - Carpaccio Di Manzo, RM18.

Quattro Formaggi, RM28.

Now the show-stopper here is definitely the Quattro Formaggi, which is the four-cheese pizza. Comes with mozzarella, gorgonzola, parmiggiano reggiano and asiago (of course I only know the first one, LOL), this pizza is a SUPER MUST TRY. I've remembered this dish since my last visit and I can tell you I will always order this whenever I visit DV again! The cheese are so aromatic yet not overly cheesy, while the crust are of high quality it's sooooooooo good!!! The Carpaccio Di Manzo was quite decent too.
And here are the mains we had...

Chicken Scaloppine with Wild Mushrooms, RM28.

Spaghetti alio Scoglio, RM28.

Tagliatelle con Panna e Fungi, RM 22.

Branzino Alia Grilglia, RM32.

SIL's Chicken Scaloppine with Wild Mushroom turned out to be a surprised everyone's favourite. The chicken fillets were done so well they are super tender while the wild mushroom added a kick in flavour into the otherwise pretty simple dish. In fact, the portion is pretty big too! My Branzino Alia Grilglia (phew, such a long Italian name for grilled seabass man) is not fantastic but I love the salsa and capsicum sauce that came with the dish a lot! 

Staying true to its Italian roots, the spaghetti certainly didn't disappoint. I mean, I'm not too sure but I could taste that the pasta were fresh (probably handmade) and of very high quality. The mushrooms, seafood and even the tomato paste tasted really fresh and you could taste it's not some random canned food! Love them! :D

Deardo being a responsible uncle here... Kekeke...

Me, the very happy diner! :)

SIL and BIL noming their way...

One thing for sure though, is that their coffee sucks! My piece of advice? Go enjoy these insanely delicious Italian food with some nice wine and forget about ordering their lousy coffee.

Little Jolie trying to do a 'peace' sign but er... :p

Food and drinks for four of us, including a 10% service charge, came up to RM195.25. I can say it's slightly on an expensive side but that location and that kind of food, that's actually very decent, especially when we ordered six food items!
Deardo has been craving for the chicken and I have been wanting the pizza (and you know I'm not actually a pizza fan) for a long long time! Can't wait to go back!

DV Ristorante Pizzeria
77, Jalan Setiabakti,
Bukit Damansara,
50490 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2098 2001