The search for the PERFECT bands!This is a very long and extremely detailed account of our search for the perfect wedding bands, so that I can read back after many years later and still recall the irony and difficulties in this hunt. So... unless you don't mind being swarmed by very minute details, i suggest you don't read on!!
P.S: Most pictures of the rings are not that of the actual one, cos I cant find them online… They are just very similar in terms of design to the actual one. Only the Cartier pics are accurate! :)
4 Dec (Saturday)The hunt began on 4 Dec, Saturday. It was supposed to be a search for bridal gown. But we went to Adelphi (instead of Delphi Orchard) by mistake and end up with no bridal gowns to look at. So we decided to change our plan and search for the wedding bands first!!
We went to Raffles City Shopping Centre to check out the jewellery shops there. There was the Diamond Atelier (which is part of Lee Hwa) and looked through their entire collection, which was not a lot compared to the next shop we went to. We very quickly decided that none caught our eyes and moved on to the next shop, which is Love & Co. They are a shop that specialises in engagement rings and wedding bands, so we had one whole shop of collection to look at and we stayed there for almost one whole hour i think! They had lots of fanciful designs. While they have matching bands, the salesperson also said that it is ok for us to buy bands of different designs. So we started our independent search and after trying this, look at the hands, wear that, look into the mirror, we at last settled for a pair of rings - the eternity ring which has diamonds all around for me, and for him a ring with some design using straight lines at right angles to sort of create the look of 3 parallel channels around the ring. To us, it was just a preliminary search - this was the most 'acceptable' pair we could find in this shop. To the salesperson, it was a check of our finger size, a quotation, and a quick check with their factory to see if the factory is able to make the rings for us in time for our ROM. The factory said they could, and immediately we were asked to place an order. Although I was quite happy with my ring, I just don't feel comfortable buying it without shopping more. It's after all not just any piece of jewellery! Hence I firmly told the salesperson I am not able to decide now, and will have to come back again. The salesperson tried to tell us that we already v happy with the design no need to consider further.. plus we do not have much time to consider since factory need certain time to manufacture.. but eventually she had no choice but to tell us that we have to make the decision by that day or the latest the day after so that they could rush the rings out for us.
Love & Co Eternity Ring look-alike
After that, we went over to Raffles Hotel's Tiffany & Co to check out their wedding bands. We walked in, saw the small range of collection (relatively to the earlier shop), all with very simple designs (mostly plain), and walked out of the shop in less than 5 min. I recalled I was rather disappointed with their plain collection, and 'crossed out' Tiffany & Co from the list of potential-shop-to-get-our-wedding-bands.
The search was then put on hold for that day since we were both tired from all the spot lights and dazzle. I asked if there was any other shops we would want to look at before we decide on the Love & Co pair, since we needed a decision by the next day, and I also recalled him mentioning sometime ago to want to look at Cartier's collection. I wanted to be sure that we have looked at all we wanted to see and not regret in the future. He replied 'No shop in particular'. -_-"
Over dinner, we discussed further on wedding bands. He wondered why people still buy from Tiffany & Co even though it offers such a simple collection. I recalled my answer was something along the line that this 'simple' design is a classic design that never runs out with time.. so it is likely that it was a design that TIff & Co came up with since they started out many years ago and passed down over the years. And with the brand name engraved on it, it became a trademark item that everyone identifies with Tiff & Co.
The more we discussed, the more I realised what I wanted for my wedding band. No wonder smtg was bothering me at Love & Co even though I had chosen a ring which I liked. It did not look like a wedding band to me; it was too fanciful; it looked like just a piece of fashion accessory with no meaning! To me, a wedding band is of high significance - it should be obvious to others that it is a wedding band, and it should be something that is "long-lasting" - not just its durability but design wise too! That's when I realised I did not want a fanciful design for my band. Which totally contradicts my earlier thinking that we should go for the fanciful ones so that it is not so common and will be unique to us. How woman's mind changes!
So with that, we decided to let go the Love & Co rings.
7 Dec (Tuesday) Sometime ago after he mentioned about Cartier, I had already checked out the Cartier's collection online. The collection is mostly plain too, but the name 'Cartier' sounds so right for a wedding band. I know it is gonna be expensive… but see see no harm right?
So we went to ION's Cartier. We looked through their entire collection, the range is just the same as what I saw online. Tried on the plain one with just the word "Cartier" engraved on it. Found it too thin, and looked on. Was about to give up when the helpful salesgirl showed us the Trinity 3-gold ring. It is the first time we saw such designs and was rather interested. She then explained that the 3 gold symbolises the different stages of a relationship: white for friendship, rose for love, and yellow for fidelity. That represents us very well! Plus we can both wear the same design! We were so happy with it that we asked her to get the rings of our sizes from other branches/warehouse so that we can come back to try again before buying.
Cartier Trinity 3-Gold
9 Dec (Thursday)Went back to ION's Cartier to try out the ring of our sizes. Somehow the ring doesn't appear so pleasing to the eye that day. Plus it kept rubbing against the middle and last finger until they hurt. Was quite displeased with it. Salesgirl recommended that we go back to try another day, perhaps after a long day at work it is not the right time to shop for this.
12 Dec (Sunday)I still had my reservations about the Trinity ring. So he suggested to take a look at other shops. We walked to Orchard Hotel in search for Ling Jewellery, but it was closed. Walked to Ngee Ann City to look at Piaget, spent 2 minutes there and we walked out. Passed by Tiffany & Co, and he suggested to go take a look at them again since we are now looking for classic designs. I couldn't rmb their collection, so it was quite refreshing to revisit the collection and we found a pair of Milgrain 4mm ring which we liked! It wasn't a love at first sight, but the more I looked at it, the more I like it. So we tried a pair of our size, and asked to reserve it while we consider whether we liked it more than the Cartier's Trinity.
Tiffany & Co 4mm Milgrain look-alike (should have the cursive words "Tiffany & Co" engraved on the outer surface too)
Went into Taka's Cartier to look at the Trinity ring, and to me, Tiffany & Co win hands down. But we decided to just wait and think a bit more before we buy the Tiff & Co rings.
Went home to do some online research on Ling Jewellery's wedding band. It is a shop that make customised wedding bands, i.e. you can design your own rings, and they can do it within 2 wks. We found some photos of the readily available designs plus a photo showing a client's customised ring, We concluded that we don't need an elaborate customised design and the chunky italian style is not for us. Hence Ling Jewellery was 'crossed out' too. A quick scan through Bvlgari's collection is sufficient for us to cross it out too.
It is down to a fight between Tiffany & Co's Milgrain rings, or Cartier's Trinity 3-gold rings. I am for the Tiffany & Co's, he is netural. In our online search for other brand's ring, we found other rings with similar 3-gold design!! Looks like Cartier's Trinity 3-gold design is not unique at all! This fact rendered Tiffany & Co with more points. woohoo!
14 Dec (Tuesday)
From Cartier's website, there is actually another ring that caught my eye. It is the one with 'matt-shiny-matt-shiny' surface finishing. However I did not see it in the shop and I can't be sure if it is just an illusion. If it IS available, there is a chance that it might win over the Tiffany & Co Milgrains!
The 'matt-shiny-matt-shiny' design
So in a last attempt, we went back to ION's Cartier to check out this 'matt-shiny-matt-shiny' ring and also to tell the salesgirl to release our Trinity 3-gold ring order. It turned out that there is no such ring. There is only the fully shiny surface finishing one with the cursive 'Cartier' engraved on it and with either zero, one or two diamonds. This is actually one of the first few rings which I tried on in our first Cartier's visit. But this time round, instead of dismissing it immediately, i fell in love with it! It seems like just the one I want!! And he is also very happy with the matching pair without diamond!
It's just like finding 'THE ONE', I just know that this is the perfect ring which I have been looking for. But as again, to ensure I have no regrets, I asked to go back to Tiffany & Co again to try on the reserved pair. It took just less than a minute of trying before I told the Tiffany & Co salesperson that I am sorry but I prefer a design of another brand.
And with that, we got the pair of wedding bands which we both love. Matching. Classic. Elegant. The perfect symbol of our love. :)
I am totally ecstatic!
signing off @ 12:21 am with
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Our Biggest PurchaseWhat a day!! Was out and running about from 10.30am and only reached home at 12.30am!!
In less than 2 days, I have made the biggest purchase of my life. A purchase that will ground me in Singapore for life… :'(
Earlier this wk, I will still telling my mum & bro that we won't be able to enjoy the HDB grant anymore since we have burst the $8k income cap, and EC is too expensive. So can only settle for re-sale flats. Then one or two days letter, one of my colleagues was telling me about a new EC coming up and told me it will b a good investment and that his son may be going for it! I rmb I told him it is out of our means, and he replied 'But it's cheap!'. -_-""
So in any case, perhaps out of kapo-ness, I went to check it out on Wednesday. Other than Esparina (which we were earlier interested in before its launch but later decided it was too expensive using the HSBC home loan calculator on its website and hence didn't even go to its showroom), the other ECs launched now are The Canopy@Yishun and Privé@Punggol. I am not in favour of the location of The Canopy and its publicity material designs are simply not attractive!! Though I was rather intrigued by the badminton court they offer rather than the usual tennis court [Later on I was told that The Canopy is from a Chinese developer hence they prefer badminton to tennis.. lol!!]. As for Privé, turns out that it will be launched to the public on 10Dec (Friday), and the e-application to ballot is just closed the day before (Tues)! Not really sure what this e-app to ballot thingy is about, but we contacted the agent anyway to see if we can go see see look look on Friday.
Earlier on when considering to get resale flat, we already calculated the comfortable budget which we can afford. So when we went to the showroom on Tues, we know the biggest unit we want to get is a 2bedroom + study (2B+S). With that in mind, we checked out the remaining 2B+S units left and asked a banker to help calculate our loan installments. To my surprise, it is much lower than my calculation! I then realised it is because of the very low interest rate offered by the banks now. With these info at hand, we went home to think through, bearing in mind we had to make the decision by the next day if we still want to have any decent units.
With the illusion from the current low interest rate, plus the more choices available with bigger units, and of course a more comfortable size for a family, we decided to forego our earlier 2B+S and hunt for a new 3B unit on the next day! Most of the remaining 3B units are <10 storeys with no balcony and for those >10 storeys most come with 2 balconies (i.e. very expensive!!). We very much wanted a unit with 1 balcony.. so we had to either settle for a lower flr e.g. 10th storey, or we go for those units with the number '13' or '14' in it.
We kept scanning back and forth on the big board showing the list of units with yellow stickers tagging the sold units when I suddenly noticed that there are a few top fl unit with 1 balcony not taken up!! Checked against the price on the agent list.. "eh.. not TOO ex for a top flr unit leh!! so why are they still not taken up?" that's because of their locations - either facing the road which can be nosiy and dusty, or facing the HDB with no view. Oh well. "But top flr got high ceiling in the living room!!" haha.. so we went to recalculate our budget, and just like that, we placed the booking fee for a unit.
Of course it is not so simple lah. Before going down to the showroom a second time, I whipped out my potential-banker-skills and worked on a few excel spreadsheets to calculate our available cashflow against our future expected wedding expenditures and did a comparison between buying a resale flat and a new EC. If we looked purely at the aspect of buying a home, it is obvious that an EC will be more value for money since there is no COV, marginal reno cost with wardrobes and aircon and stove etc given, plus it is new. So that is expected. When it comes to forking out cash upfront, it seems that there is no diff since the COV + 5% downpayment for resale works out to be the same or even slightly higher than 5% for EC. So if we were to go for resale, it is only because we get to choose the location and we can get the flat sooner!! right??
WRONG!! Of course, usually it will be faster to get a resale flat than waiting for the construction of a new EC to complete. But with our minimal or no savings, even if we get a resale flat.. we still gotta slowly save up before we can renovate the flat and buy the furnitures then move in. So in terms of waiting time… there is only a few mths difference, or at the very most, 1 year.. which is so not worth it in our opinion!
So turns out it was a fairly easy decision to go with an EC. :) Although the location IS pretty far, it is just abt 2 min away from TPE, abt 5-10min walk to MRT & bus interchange, and hopefully it will be rather self-contained after the new town centre is up. Just hope that our HQ don't shift to Jurong… otherwise I will ask for a transfer to go work at Punggol-Serangoon Reservoir!!
So after filling up all the application forms, HDB grant forms, this form that form and sign all the documents and OTP twice until my signature went distorted, and running from bank to bank to put all the savings into one acct to make up the 5% downpayment cheque… We have got our 'love nest'!! lol!!!
And from now on, I am declared to be a poor girl with no savings and no CPF. :( But i am oh so excited how to wait till it's ready?? It is now only a piece of bare land with some concrete and crane on it!!
signing off @ 2:11 am with
Monday, December 06, 2010
MadnessI have gotta be crazy. I just signed up for the Sundown Marathon. Even if it is just 10km… I still think I am crazy.
