EDD: 9th December 2014 Gynae: Dr Lee Keen Whye Clinic: KW Lee Clinic & Surgery for Women, Gleneagles Delivery Hospital: Gleneagles
Actual Day: 29 March 2013 Wedding Dinner Venue: Marriott Hotel Singapore Bridal Studio: Julia Wedding News Wedding Bands: The Diamond Atelier AD Photography: Avenue 8 (Douglas Fun)
ROM Date: 20 November 2011 Solemnisation Venue: Poolside, Swissotel Merchant Court Venue Decor and Flowers: Love Droplets ROM Photography: Avenue 8 (Dave Wong) Love Nest: Punggol Emerald (2014) JP: Dr Phua Tan Tee
I love road trips, love short getaways for the wkends without a care in the world, just the 2 of us driving and heading to nowhere.
Well okay... not actually to nowhere, but our frequent trips across the border still gets me psyched up like a kid in a candy store. Maybe because it's still a vacay without it costing like an actual vacay. Times like this I wish so much to be staying in Canada, the States or even Australia. Road trips will be 10 times the fun than it is here.
Great hotel, great food, best companion in the world who does all the driving and gets lost once in ten thousand times. The only picture missing here is the amazing Baskin Robbins we had on the drive back. Some low-fat yogurt caramel goodness that tastes soooo damn good! Our first and definitely not the last!
This was no easy feat. As I'm writing this I can still feel my head reeling from the repetitive motions of lying down, and getting up, and lying back down and getting up. We started the hunt hoping to try out the 3 S-es of reputably good mattresses, Simmons, Sealy and Serta and are now pretty well-versed in the differences between the 3 brands.
Was it that much of a pain in the 'S'? Not so much surpringly, due to the simple fact that all our conversations and negotiations with the different sales people took place while we were sprawled on extremely comfortable beds and having a conversations with them as though it was boring pillow talk. We were lying in the most heck-care of positions because we wanted to replicate how it was going to be like in real life. I even had the tiniest urge to ta bao some macdonald's ice cream to the showroom to complete the 'feel'. But no, that didn't happen :)
Simmons
Simmons was amazing. Beautiful showrooms, amazing beds, welcoming sales staff with warm lightings and lush carpeting. It was like coming home. Man... and what an expensive home it'll be. As we lay down on bed after bed, our backs started to groan against the cheaper mattresses and purr against the more luxurious ones. The longer we wanted to linger in bed, the higher the prices climbed. Madness. $12,000 for my dream mattress. Bye bye to a nice sofa, a coffee table and a dining table. We shall eat, sleep and watch tv on the mattress till the end of time. I was pretty set on a Simmons in the beginning. But we decided to delve further into mattress research and continue the hunt in search of slightly more affordable ones.
Individual Pocketed Coils
Sealy
Our first encounter with Sealy was at Courts Tampines right after our talk with the Simmons salesperson. We tried out "Quiver" from the Knights Collection which was just right! Gosh, not too hard and not too soft. Cushy yet immediately supported when you first rest on it. Comfortable and within budget. KIV-ed. Next up was "Yarrow" from the Spring Collection at CKTangs Vivocity. Ooooahhhhh... Mad comfy! Semi-firm yet soft enough to keep us lying down on the bed, refusing to get up. All the sleep angles felt right. I wanted to cave in right there and then. But we were adamant not to be rash, so we pushed on. A thing to note; shopping for Sealy will be a pain. Different sleep clinics or shopping malls carried different models. There wasn't any Quiver in the boutiques and no Yarrow in Takashimaya. It was individual boutique exclusives. I named "Obsession" to the salesperson at Courts and she shook her head immediately and told me "Only Taka". Not good! We wanted a side by side comparison which was definitely not gonna happen with Sealy. Really very annoying.
Serta
Serta was at the back of our minds to be honest. I first heard about Serta when Samantha, our wedding coordinator mentioned the cute Serta sheeps they were giving with every mattress purchase. I remembered viewing some Serta ads before movie screenings in the cinema but that was it. Here are some of my favourite Serta ads.
Anyhoo, we were over at IMM and were lucky enough to bump into Kelvin, the store manager of Serta Sleep Clinic IMM. In the beginning we were slightly put off by his 'don't bother' attitude towards us because we walked in for abt 5 mins and he ignored us. But as he warmed up to us, we realized that he was really well-versed in his products and very welcoming of neighbouring competition. So much so that his ultimate goal was for us to come to our own conclusion instead of pushing us towards liking what he has to offer. He was concise and quick, non-pushy and very professional. He told us about his 2 best selling models, Serta Sophistication and Diamond Suite (used in many hotels). We tried out Diamond Suite but felt it was too soft for hubby.When we tried out Sophistication, we felt as though we hit jackpot. The pillow top was luxuriously soft, yet firm enough to support our backs after a long day. It was amazing. Most importantly, because we are both light sleepers, any movements on either side would most likely wake us. Kelvin explained to us that in our situation, we could only go with Serta or Simmons' as Sealy's springs are interconnected hence a small bounce on one end could definitely be felt by your partner on the other.
Kelvin then told us about how he was formally an employee with Simmons and how the employees are treated really well with benefits and bonuses. This explained Simmon's high priced mattresses. I did some googling and discovered that Simmons filed for bankruptcy September of 2009 and was bought over by Serta's management Ares and TPC. They plan to operate Serta and Simmons Bedding as independent entities that will continue to compete with one another. Just a good to know in case anybody's interested..
Serta' Nested Pocketed Springs
The "honeycomb" construction of this spring allows full coverage of sleeping surface, resulting a firmer and more responsive support to body contour. A pocket spring coil system is used in Serta's Sophistication mattresses. These springs are separated into little fabric pockets, which helps you to be less affected by your partner moving around at night. Hubby tried bouncing on one end while I snored on the other. Minimal movement was felt. Excellent.
The affordability, perks and mattress comfort quickly put Serta on the top of our list. We were really
excited about our new find but wanted to sleep on it to digest all the information that we have. We must have slept on about 20+ mattresses so far. Making a decision based on something we rested on for 10 mins spread over a period of 3 weeks is really not easy.
So finally on Saturday, we headed down to Plaza Sing's Serta Sleep Clinic and had the pleasure of being served by Steven. The Plaza Sing's branch is the largest sleep clinic in Singapore currently and had the 2 mattresses we were deciding between. Serta's Sophistication and New Sophistication. Steven was really no nonsense and professional. He was not as charismatic as Kelvin was, but he was definitely knowledgeable about his products. That in a weird way, gave us a lot of confidence because we knew he was serious. Serious about helping us, serious about giving us a good deal and serious about helping us make the right decision. We alternated between the Sophi and New Sophi mattresses and after about an hour, we still couldn't decide. Hubs love the New Sophi for that added firmness whereas I enjoyed diving into Sophi for the lush plushness. Steven then told us that we need not decide on the spot, and that we had till the week before our delivery date to confirm our choices. So we could deal with Sophi and indicate on the contract about an option to upgrade to the New Sophi mattress before delivery. We were thrilled by this and paid the deposit immediately.
Serta Sophistication with Meh-Meh saying "Gimme five!"
Serta New Sophistication with Meh-Meh saying "baaahh!"
New Serta Owners!
Our Sophistication package came with
1 x Sophistication Mattress
1 x Bed Bench
1 x Long bed pillow
1 x Mattress protector
2 x Nano gel pillows
2 x Comfort pillows
2 x Long bed pillow covers
2 x Signature Serta Sheeps
Price: S$3499
I think we drove a hard bargain. Steven was really nice.
The New Sophistication Mattress package came with a Bedframe or Divan ($100 cheaper) at $4208. We'll have another 5 months to decide. In the mean time, any suggestions on affordable and beautiful divans would be great!
For any other information on Serta mattresses, do drop by their showroom for a visit. What I've said is solely our point of views and can never beat lying down on different mattresses and finding one that suits you and your partner.
I was requested by a reader to do a review of my Serta Sophistication mattress and how it go on after sleeping on it for almost a year now. I think this request couldn't come at a more appropriate time seeing that my wedding anniversary is just around the corner :)
Firstly, it has to be said that while I LOVE the idea of a luxurious plushy bed, the husband suffers from a spinal fracture due to an old basketball injury and has since been dealing with backaches for the past 12 years. Hence, it was important that we attempt to find a mattress that would suit both our needs.
And after experimenting for a year, we conclude that we cannot have the best of both worlds.
I love my mattress to bits. I can lie in bed all day everyday and swim in the luxury of my 1000 threadcount Egyptian cotton sheets till my hubby blares the alarm in my ears or flood the room with glaring white light to get me out of bed. The question is then, why is he up before me? How can he stand to leave the luxurious comfort of his bed behind? This is because prolonged lying on this plushy goodness is not doing wonders for his back. The first few hours of sleep is absolute bliss for him, but lazing in bed for more than 9 hours will cause his back to ache. So this is classic case of, 'too much of a good thing is bad for you'.
I wish it wasn't so, because when I see his mild agony, I wished I had given up plushy goodness for a firmer mattress. Such as Serta's New Sophistication, or Simmons's Backcare series. But we gave ourselves a 5 year expiry on the mattress before we upgrade to an "old folks" mattress which will benefit our backs more in the long run.
But without his injury, I can vouch that this mattress is perfect is many ways. Much more affordable and extremely comfortable because it is both firm and plushy at the same time. Just not firm enough for someone with a bad back.
Hope this helps you guys!
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Been a sick duck for the past 4 days. The flu and the fever, oh the disgusting phlegm ugghhh!
I alternated my time at home between moping around like a wounded puppy, organizing my wardrobe and putting more stuff on eBay for sale, checking my work mail and lying in bed watching new episodes of Ellen and HomeOrganizing on my iPad. Totally awesome.
We were supposed to do a roadtrip this weekend and it turns out that hubs is on the verge of being a sickie too. So we postponed it because roadtrips are all about binge-ing on awesome unhealthy food and having tons on fun no? There's no way we're gonna sneeze our way across the border and stay in the hotel room feeling dead. So no go, we're gonna lay low this weekend and spend some time with Liam Neeson at the cinema instead.
Mum made me google for some Burberry polos for her on Nordstrom claiming that she needs them for her teambuilding trip this month. -_-" Excuses. No complaints from me because she was really kind to
get me one as well. Maybe she struck 4D and didn't tell anyone... hmm.
I adore my new bread machine from Kenwood! I've been making bread on a twice weekly basis for the family which is really cost efficient for us seeing how we go through bread like water. I'm still working on my own recipes. So far I've perfected the walnut linseed loaf and the brioche bread. Now to get the banana walnut loaf to work. :)
How could I have forgetten to do a post on my photoshoot nails?! *Flabbergasted*
>.<
Damn lousy iPhone cam resolution dun do it justice!
Simple french for the toes
I didn't want to spend so much on my nails this time round, because the main focus of the photoshoot is on the outfits and us. Hubby said to me, "The more pretty things you have on you, the more pictures the photographer will take, the more pictures you'll wanna add when it comes to picking the ones for the album!* *shudders*
But anyway, here it is! I did japanese lace french tips with AB crystals and a gelish french for my toes. Very simple and feminine. Madlurves :)
I had my nails done at The Nail Status at Far East Plaza.Christine and Mabel (the owners) were the ones helping me with my nails and they were both extremely professional and non-pushy. Christine carefully kept within my budget and took time to talk me through the services even though her shop was extremely busy. She said that I need not do a manicure because she could push back my cuticles and apply cuticle oil to mask the edges to keep cost low for me. Saved me $20 and it worked! Needless to say I was thoroughly impressed with her service!
Do call to book an appointment first because they can get really busy! :)
The Nail Status
#04-83 Far East Plaza
Tel: 6836 2005
