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I know I know~ This event has been I think over a month now and I'm only able to blog it right now because today, I didn't have to go to West Coast Park to run like a horse and therefore, I'm able to come online relatively early to prepare the images for this blog entry as well as to revamp my tumblr blog! Can't really blame me right because I don't really have all the time in the world to blog every single day, even though I want to so badly~
Let's cut to the chase because I don't think I have much time to complete this entry. Time is ticking and my weekend is going to end in a matter of days. Sad reality of being in the army when you cannot even choose what you want to do with your life. Talk about human rights...
Alvin has been like my best friend since polytechnic days though not many people realize because we each have our own clique and we do not want to mix school work with personal life. Furthermore, it's going to be inconvenient for each of us to fit into each other's cliques because the chemistry of our work teams would be different. But outside, we are still extremely good friends.
And therefore, I decided to help him plan for his big day on July 30, 2011 - that's like almost 2 weeks after his actual birthday which fell on the 19th. Well, due to lots of clashes with other birthday parties that we have to attend as well as endless weekend duties that just has to ruin our lives, we had to push the date till so far back because everything came so unexpectedly. But at least we have a blast and I have photos to prove that!
Well~ Let the film roll~~
For starters, this is the present that I gave him - a big gray cardboard box with a bow on top. Considering that he spent so much on my birthday presents (Little Big Planet 2: Collector's Edition + Gilded Tarot deck + Parker fountain pen), I can't possibly be stingy and just get something small. Therefore, I gathered a couple of random things and threw them into the box to give it more "volume". As for what I bought, that's for me to know and for you to find out! (Hint: Facebook is a great start!!)
And let's jump to the actual event at Changi Village Hotel. We've been researching on where we can hold the party and we considered multiple hotels and even restaurants (which are way too overpriced). We did consider chalets but you know Singaporeans - they book their chalets like eras before they even go there so trying to secure one even during non-peak periods is such a challenge.
Lucky for us, Changi Village Hotel is reasonably priced and is actually not that bad - other than for the fact that they do not provide toothbrushes. I mean, what kind of a hotel doesn't provide toothbrushes in the bathroom?! At least they do send it to you when you request for it though...
For the theme of the decoration, as the event planner as well as logistics as well as maid as well as everything else that fits in between, I went with photographs which, obviously, I took. Well, at least most of them I believe, featuring the birthday boy along with his friends and some of his best portraits.
Prior to heading down to the hotel, we met Yin Zhi and Hazel who came all the way from the North to Hougang just to find me (touched~) so we can head down together via the cab because we had so much to bring over. And while waiting for the arrival of the guests, they helped me with some of the decorations and first of all, that would include playing Monopoly deal while picking photos. (photo above)
I developed photos of Alvin in various sizes to give some variation in the decorations and of course, I picked those that he took along with his polytechnic clique, his BMT mate, my cousin's dog, his parents, etc. Just looking through these photos make me realize I actually have lots of photos of other people's lives other than myself. :P
This is how I went about with the decoration - the darkroom feel. Got these wooden pegs at some random store near by camp for only slightly over a dollar for 80 pieces as well as a roll of string which costed the most ($3 something I believe). I was almost afraid that I couldn't find these wooden pegs because nowadays, everyone's either using hangers or plastic cloth pegs because they are so much more sturdy and doesn't decay or get termites attracted to them. The left portrait, by the way, is one of my favorite portraits ever!
While decorating and waiting for the guests to arrive, I used Alvin's laptop to inform people on Facebook on how to arrive at the location because honestly, the hotel isn't that easy to find but it's not impossible though. It's one of those secluded corners of Singapore that no one really goes to unless they are looking for food at Changi Village. The hotel does not have wireless internet but somehow, we managed to leech off the country club opposite our hotel's internet. Coolness~ :P
Instead of a typical guest book, we went with the concept of using a cork board along with name cards for the guests' birthday wishes. I wanted to us this concept for my birthday but eventually went with a photo album instead since it's more "my style" so we got to use this concept for this party! Got the small wooden stand from Daiso and now, you'll see it featured in my CD photo shoots! Useful!!
With help from Hazel and Yin Zhi, we didn't take long to settle down and to pack the things neatly away so while waiting for the arrival of the guests as well as the food, I took portraits of them all (see Facebook album for more!!) and here's the portrait of the belated-birthday boy~ The lighting from the window was so favorable for portraits that I couldn't help but drag everyone there for me to photograph~
Unfortunately for us though, is that the hotel room isn't that spacious. Luckily again, we almost picked another hotel with an even smaller room based on the respective hotel's room specifications. During the actual party (you'll see shortly), the place got a little crowded but at least it wasn't extremely uncomfortable. Well this photo's just to show the relative size of the room as well as to depict the calm before the storm...
Being clever people like myself, we thought of an idea to bypass the security of the hotel. Due to the fact that each room should not hold too many people, we diverted all guests to the sky pool on level 8 to wait for us to fetch them to divert attention from the security guards. Another reason is because the accommodation levels require the guest's key card to access so we have to personally go upstairs to fetch them down.
In case you didn't know, the hotel's just a stone throw away from Changi Airport and it overlooks one of the most dreaded island of Singapore - Pulau Tekong. Therefore, planes flying across the sky isn't a rare sight and I actually managed to capture like a few photos of planes flying. The above photo is an enlarged version of one of such photos because I'm too poor to afford a telephoto lens. :P
The first group of guests to arrive is Ain and Yahya and I was the one who went upstairs to fetch them (thus the above airplane photo). Took this photo while they were getting comfortable on the 2 single beds placed side by side. Weird design considering that they could have just placed a Queen or King sized bed there.
Well I was obviously not the photographer of this photo. While I went upstairs to fetch Daniel, I left my camera in the room and I believe Yin Zhi managed to snap one of the most epic photos of the evening - Ain jumping on the bed and getting her head out of the frame. It seems as though Daniel and I were a little startled to see a mad woman jumping up and down in this photo. Really interesting composition~
While Alvin went across the street to collect his polytechnic clique as well as the food, Daniel - master artists of birthday gifts and cards - started to work hard as usual. It's such a waste that he's not in design because he has that sense of aesthetic for laying out things that many of us (myself included) lack. He's always the one making the birthday cards for the hosts and I must say he did a really great job! Remember the album that they made me during my birthday (check out my birthday posts - click on the links on the right of this blog), he did the bulk of the job! Amazing~
However, he tend to do the gifts on the actual day itself though... Not so tactical right? :P
Due to the fact that we had Muslim friends and that the food that we got for the majority of the people is unfortunately and ironically not Halal-certified, we ordered Pizza Hut for these 2 fine ladies and apparently, people preferred the pizza over what we got for them. Maybe it's more tasty? Maybe it's easier to eat? Maybe it's less messy? I have no clue~
And I bet you're wondering what's this "food" I've been talking about. We got 4 huge platters of Subway sandwiches and I believe we got like 80% of the menu in these 4 platters because we were unsure of who would eat what so we didn't want to take our chances. These platters are not exactly very cheap but at least they can feed a whole horde of mostly army and hungry people and we had a huge amount of leftovers in the end. Should have gotten less.
But hey~ You have to admit that hardly anyone would think of serving Subway sandwiches at a party right? It's convenient, everyone will eat it and you hardly need any utensils to enjoy a sandwich! And if you're wondering who came up with this ingenious idea? I did! :P But we kinda overestimated the amount and so, we had Subway all the way till the next day. Scary!! And the room smelt like sandwiches for the entire event.
In order to entertain the guests, other than stuffing their faces so they cannot complain about anything, Alvin connected his hard disk to the HDTV in the room and showed movies after movies after movies for the guests to enjoy. I think that night was the night where I've watched the most movies within a few hours! Normally, my stamina for movies is just one - I just can't survive a marathon!
What's Subway without its marvelous cookies?! Knowing that our guests would really appreciate these delicious sweet treats, we got like 5 dozens of assorted cookies and that means, we got almost every flavor that was in the menu - double chocolate chip, macadamia nut, raisins, peanut butter, etc! And of course, the cookies received really good response because by the end of the whole thing, 85% were finished~
Throughout the whole evening, Daniel had been trying really hard to tactically work on Alvin's birthday present but with so many pairs of eyes in the small room, doing so was extremely challenging so we gave an excuse to go up to the roof top for a breather because the room was getting a little stuffy. The real reason was, of course, to work on the present. Hardworking Daniel!!
And my personal agenda was obviously to take photos. :D The sky pool was really gorgeous at night and you get to see streaks of airplanes flying through the sky~ Reminds you of that B.o.B song right?
See how blue the pool is even at night? Just to show off the scenery of the sky pool. The hotel may be low but it's definitely not a cheapskate one! There were actually still people swimming in the pool but I guess the photo's so dark you can't really spot them.
We took lots of jump shots just to pass time as well. Taking photos of jump shots at night is really difficult because you need the camera to be fast but yet, technically, it's hard to achieve that without a flash. Even with the assistance of the light, it's still challenging but at least the process is enjoyable. Not to mention tiring too...
And here's my best shot! Don't really like what I did with my other leg because it looks amputated but at least the lines and body gesture is FIERCE!! :) And my body actually looks shamelessly good here. :P
After messing around on the roof like kids gone wild, Daniel finally finished the masterpiece and I got him to pose with it while the rest popped into the frame and added limbs to him.
As some of Alvin's friends had to leave early due to commitments or fear of not catching the public transport, we had to cut the cake at around 9 something-ish. Prior to checking in, we managed to get the restaurant at the lobby to hold the cake for us - so helpful of them! When the time came, we went downstairs to fetch the cake and placed it at the most inappropriate place ever - the toilet. You must be wondering why we placed the cake in the bathtub. That's because there was nowhere else we can put it! All the tables were occupied!
A very 80s cake design from Leon's girlfriend's family bakery. It's the first time in my entire life seeing such a huge slice of mango on a cake! This chocolate coated cake is topped with an assortment of fruits and honestly, I have no idea why the design is like so because we never really had the chance to pick a design nor design a cake ourselves. The baker kinda just threw everything together for us.
Like I said, due to space constraints, we had to do everything in the bathroom and along with Daniel, we placed 21 candles on the cake. But it looks slightly disastrous though...
TA DA!! Because the cake was coated in crispy chocolate (those that you find on Magnum ice-cream), it was a impossible to put the candles on the cake itself without creating a mess on the smooth chocolate surface because it would crack into pieces, we had to poke the candles on the fruits. Good thing there were lots of fruits for us to poke at - otherwise we seriously have no idea where to place the candles.
The candle artists in the toilet. :P
One of the most frequent mistakes I make at a birthday photo shoot is that we light the candles and take the photos. Considering that our candles were poked in such a messy manner on the fruits, wax is definitely inevitable so we decided to take photos before lighting to prevent us from getting wax intoxication. One of Alvin's friends was kind enough to help us take this amazing shot!
The birthday boy and his cake which we placed on a luggage stand. See~ We're damn good at improvising!!
Another thing that I dislike about Changi Village Hotel is that they do not provide matches like how Swissotel do. Well, probably because Swissotel is such a classier and starrier hotel as compared to this one. Lucky for us though, there was a 7-11 store located within the lobby of the hotel and we managed to get one of these cheap lighters. Otherwise, poor birthday boy wouldn't have any candles to blow out~
Trivia about these candles... When we bought the cake, we actually asked for 21 candles so that the cake doesn't look pathetic with just 3 sticks protruding out but the staff gave us 3 sticks anyway. So, I got Yahya to help me get more candles and she did! In fact, she got those big sticks which represents 10 years each and we used like 21 of these. So in actual fact, the candles on the cake amounted to 210 years old! But we didn't really care~ :P
Daniel being extremely helpful with the candles. I think without Daniel, my job as a planner or maid on that day would be so much more difficult because there's just so much to handle! I still have to take photos you know~
<Insert birthday song here~> With so many candles, who needs flash!
As always, the only girls at the party asked the birthday boy to pick out the candles using his mouth. Lucky for him, no one even attempted to shove his head into the chocolate goodness because he was standing in a corner of the room - inaccessible~ While taking photos of him doing his sabotage, I held a plate (as seen above) for him to drop his candles. I can multitask y'all!!
These are the amazing guests and friends who took the time and effort to attend the party! Well, some left before we managed to take this shot but nevertheless, this photo is one of my favorites of the night because everyone (but me, obviously) is in it! Did you know that it was extremely difficult to take this photo? I had to stand on the back rest of the sofa at the end of the room and squeeze my body into the ceiling just to frame everyone inside. I'm such a devoted photographer *flicks hair*
Besides my DSLR camera, I also took lots and lots of Instax photos for Alvin's guest "book" - featuring him and his guests. I hope I managed to take photos of everyone but I think I missed a couple of them because they went off even before I got the chance to shoot them. Think Yin Zhi took this photo of me taking a photo of Alvin and his friend, Clement.
Another one of my favorite photos for the evening because the colors are so pretty~ Chong Yee came in late because he was at a rehearsal for the National Day Parade but he still took the effort to drop by to celebrate Alvin's birthday. Such a fantastic friend~
As we had the room until noon, some of the guests decided to stay around to watch television. Yin Zhi was meddling with my camera and he took this photo of me coming out from the bathroom after relieving my bowels but being a professional, I know how to block a camera. :) Tip: Remember~ If you cannot see your camera, the camera cannot see you. So block the camera until you cannot see it and you will safely hide your face.
Throughout the night, lots of us KO-ed because we were extremely pooped. Space was an issue again and I had to sleep on the floor with the birthday boy as we let the girls take the bed. Such gentlemen we are! It was extremely cold though so I hardly caught a wink of sleep though.
In the middle of the night though, some of the guests decided to leave - probably because they want to go home to rest I suppose and I saw them out while the birthday boy continued to sleep. 24/7 events planner very hardworking okay~ :P
The sun finally rose and the birthday boy continued to sleep away but this time on the bed because we asked him to make himself comfortable as some of the guests vacate the room for home. While he continued to sleep, Yahya and I took photos of his birthday presents because we had nothing better to do and here they are~ Them presents from his friends!!
And while he still continued to sleep, Yahya and I went to the sky pool once more to look at the morning sky as well as those who woke up early to dip themselves in the cool waters. I say~ This shot can be used as an advertisement of the hotel if it wasn't for the lens flare on the lady sitting by the pool. The clear sky also allowed us to see Pulau Tekong but I don't think I'll be going back there in the near future though...
I had some of the leftover Subway sandwiches for breakfast and here, we have the steak and cheese sandwich and I must say that even though it was left over from the previous night, it's DAMN GOOD! It was the first time I tried this sandwich and I must say that the steak's really tender and juicy and along with the veggies and bread, it makes a perfect meal! If you're stuck with just the Cold Cut Trio or other cheaper subs, try this premium one for a change~ It's really delicious!!
While the Z-monster continues to attack Alvin, I went ahead to pin up all the Instax photos that I took the previous night onto the other side of the cork board. Had to slowly arrange every single frame properly in order to for me to pin them up neatly and yet not have the pins poke through more than 1 photos. But the end result is rewarding, no? :)
Guess lots of people kinda forgot about the guest "book" and left without leaving their birthday wishes but that's okay considering that they did attend the party and that I managed to take their photos anyway~ :)
It wouldn't do justice to Daniel's hard work and creativity if I don't show off his masterpiece so here it is~ He got each of us to write a short wish for Alvin and in his neatest handwriting, Daniel translates our wishes onto the board. He even went to develop these photos which he photographed personally just for this piece of art!
And finally, the event came to an end when we checked out from the hotel. Helped Alvin bring the leftover food as well as presents back home via a cab because carrying bags and bags of things just isn't convenient. At his place, he unwrapped the presents and laid them out for me to photograph~ Guess which presents are from me~ :P
This concludes this really belated post covering Alvin's 21st birthday which I helped to plan most of it (claim credits~ :P) so if you are looking for someone to help you with your party, you know who to look for eh eh? :)
Planning someone else's party isn't as simple, even though I guess it's slightly easier than planning your own because you do not have to host and plan and do the logistics as well as handle photography all by yourself - like what I did for my own birthday. But there's definitely that added pressure because you also want the person's party to rock, no? Especially when it's your best friend's party...
Given the chance, I will definitely help to organize another such event for my friend because though it's tiring, at the end of the day, so long as I did my best and that I know that the host is happy that I managed to give a helping hand, I'm glad too. It also helps to relief the host from some of that hosting stress because he/she has lesser stuff to worry about.
But~ I wouldn't mind just sticking to photographing; it's easier~ :P
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