To spend, or not to spend?

Last week I asked a graphic-designer friend to quote his charges to customize my wedding invites. The numbers came in last night and after comparing to the absurd quote provided by a watercolor artist lady I approached much earlier, I was dead sure I'd go with him. His package included:

1. Design (Visual to FA)
2. Main card
size: 210 x 148 mm
color: 4c x 4c
finishing: matt lamination both side
paper: 360 gm matt
quantity: 250 pcs
3. Envelopes x 250pcs

Total: RM1,040

That comes up to RM4.16 per card which is I THOUGHT was very reasonable until....

I go and gatal tangan browse for kad kahwin printers and omg I found a lot of nice ones for a fraction of the price!  Here are the few that I really liked. The price stated is for 300pcs and obviously the more you order, the cheaper they get.

thekadkahwin.com

RM1.50 with matt lamination/RM1.30 without

jentayudesign.com

RM ? 

Didn't see this one on their website and the price wasn't stated on their FB page

style-weddings.my

RM1.60

This package comes with 2 buntings, stickers and die-cut envelopes

kadkahwinlovely.com

RM1.73 

kadkahwiniris.com

RM ? 

Mom wouldn't approve but I find the tribal theme quite refreshing. 

Why do I do this to myself?

Vendors from hell and THE RING!

Scariest shit I've read since I started reading bridal related blogs. This happened several times in Singapore last year. Although I doubt these syaitons are still in business, the companies you should simply avoid is called Atira Weddings/Love Weddings International (here) and Anggerik Impian (here). If this happened in Malaysia, someone would have had sent a hunt for their heads already.

The horror stories from here often involve designers more than anything else. One of my best friends appointed Hatta Dolmat as her dressmaker. He promised to deliver her dress a few days before the dinner reception (which is considered late, apparently). 45 minutes before she had to walk down the aisle, that man was still stitching flowers onto her dress which completely fell apart after the night was over. 

I've read an ugly review on Salikin Sidek too - one of the leading names in traditional couture. See the thing with bad reviews are that they automatically overwrite all the good things you've heard about these people. I don't know about the rest of you but once my friends or family has been affected by bad service, I won't even bother acknowledging these vendors' existence. If they only want to cater for high society, it should be stated clearly on their fb page/website etc so as to save the rest of us our time and resources.

Enough of that.

This weekend, my best friend is bringing me to her aunt's boutique in Ampang for me to look at her ready made Songket kebayas. I'm really hoping to be able to just rent my baju instead of paying thousands for a tailored one because well, where else am I going to wear it to? Then, I'm going to meet a ring maker who happens to be a manufacturer for Habib Jewels to get a quote for this beaut:

Berangan tak? Haha. Bloody gorgeous though, right? It doesn't need to be exactly the same because I know this could easily cost tens of thousands. I pun pandai jugak eh diamond diamond ni semua. I haven't showed this to Redza for fear of giving him a heart attack. I forgot where this is from as it has been in my wedding folder for a while now.

Doakan dia fall between the 2-3.5k range please.

x