On the top of our to-do list was to find our 姐妹 Jiemei (Sisters) dress. Similiar to Western counterparts, it is ideal that the 姐妹 Jiemei (Sisters) have identical dresses or at the very least, dresses of the same color.

I guess a lot of times when it comes to searching for that perfect dress for that special occasion, it all boils down to one question, "Where exactly to get it?" If you read Sean Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, habit 2 says "Begin with the end in mind." Me being me, I'm not gonna deny how reliant I am on social media. Whenever someone pose me a question, my colleagues would go like, "Wait a minute, Patricia needs to ask her best friend, Google." I usually start off by googling for ideas of where other people get their dresses for that particular occasion and most of the time, there's a picture of them wearing it. And if I like it, then I know where to get it or at least narrow down my search.  

Love Potion

Far East Plaza

14 Scotts Road

#04-58

Singapore 228213

Shereen

Far East Plaza

14 Scotts Road

#03-49A 

Singapore 228213

Off-the-rack dresses from Love Potion start from $70 onwards. They do offer made-to-measure services too at additional charges. We got our Tiffany blue henkaa convertible dress ($39.90) from Shereen in the end because it is convertible (we can decide to wear the style that fits us best). 

We were quite proud of our efficiency because we found and got our dresses in less than an hour's time! Don't say I didn't pre-empt you, if you're thinking of getting the same convertible dress that we did from Shereen, do go down at least a month ahead because they need to place the order with their supplier.  

Who pays for the 姐妹 Jiemei (Sisters) dress?

In our case, my cousin aka the bride, Lixuan paid for our dresses. As a rule of thumb, if the wedding couple have specific requirements for 姐妹 Jiemei (Sisters) dress such as color, design etc then they are expected to pay for the dress. If there is no specific theme to be followed, then the wedding couple can choose not to pay for the 姐妹 Jiemei (Sisters) dresses.  

2) Sisters/Jiemeis Shoe shopping

We like how Lixuan's manicurist make her manicure more fun by using glitter polish on both of her ring finger. 

And here's her gelish pedicure with silver glitter!

As one of Lixuan's sister (jiemei) 姐妹, of course I had to do my nails too! Although I am quite adventurous when it comes to my nails and know the latest nail art trends from Korea or Japan, I like how I can count on Nailz Treats' staffs for nail art recommendations or ideas. They are very flexible in the sense that if I see something I like from 3 different pictures, they can tweak the design to accommodate what I like which I think is superb (think personalization!) because I will have the one and only nail design that differ from others! 

Because I love watercolor and galaxy nail art, bows with a bit of character (think K-pop and K-fashion!) instead of the plain ol' sweet princessy look, this is what my manicurist came up with. 

I had a lot of people including colleagues, friends, fellow bloggers and random people on Instagram telling me how much they love my nails. In fact, my nails were very much of a conversational starter whenever I meet anyone new these days.

For my pedicure, I chose a neon orange from China Glaze and a midnight blue from OPI. My manicurist was telling me that alternate colored nails is a big hit in Korea now. In fact, the neon orange reminds me of a Korean makeup brand, 3CE. 

Here's Lixuan, Bing, Si Ling and I looking very happy after doing our nails!

With our manicurists.

That's my manicurist, Kate behind me! Yes, she's the one whom did my watercolor galaxy nails. She's really patient, creative and up to date with nail trends!

I know, you're probably thinking where we did our nails so here it is - 

** Special thanks to Nailz Treats for sponsoring the bride, Lixuan and my nails for Lixuan's big day! 

Here's an overview of the games that we decided on. 

1) Post-it harlem shake:

Objective: To shake off post-it note within a stipulated time

2) Skipping on Healthy mat (Running Man inspired)

Objective: To skip barefooted X amount of times on the healthy mat

3) Food Relay (Running Man inspired)

Objective: Each person to finish his allocated food and whistle before the next person can start eating his. To complete food relay in X seconds. 

The amount of preparation work required will vary according to the gatecrashing games that Sisters (Jiemeis) 姐妹 have decided on. 

1) Purchase/prepare logistics/items required for games

- Post-it notes

- Double-sided tape

- Portable speakers

- Timer (use handphone)

- Healthy mat

- Skipping ropes

2) Food preparation 

Normally, the sisters (jiemeis) 姐妹 will prepare the 酸甜苦辣 (sour, sweet, bitter, spicy) concoction for the groom and his brothers but we decided to do away with it as we heard quite a number of horrifying stories like how it results in the guys having stomach upset and all. 

For food preparation, all we did was stuff wasabi into Collon biscuits. For the food relay, most of the food didn't require much preparation. We only needed to boil the egg, boil some water for the cup noodles, steam the kee zhang (plain rice dumplings) as the other food items are dark chocolate, popsicle and coke which didn't require any preparation.  

3) Rules of games

The rules of the games MUST be defined before the actual day so that the sisters (jiemeis) 姐妹 can explain the rules of each game to the brothers (Xiongdis) 兄弟 on the actual day. 

Eg. Stop shaking when music stop. To eat 1 wasabi-filled collon biscuits for each post-it note left on their body. 

The sisters (jiemeis) 姐妹 can also take this chance to ask the Groom to bribe them with red packets (angpows). 

Eg. Total post-it notes left on Groom and all brothers (Xiongdis) 兄弟 is 50. Groom can bribe the sisters (jiemeis) 姐妹 with red packets (angpows) to reduce the amount of wasabi-filled collon biscuit to half.

4) Role and responsibilities 

- Set up cum logistics: To lay out the equipment needed for games.  

- Game IC for each game: To explain the mechanics of the game. 

- Timer: To keep track of the time for each game and to make sure that the games end on time as Chinese in general are very particular and superstitious when its comes to timing for weddings. 

I hope this post gives you some insights when it comes to planning a Singapore Chinese wedding. Stay tuned for more updates on Lixuan's actual day wedding! 

Love, 

Patricia