Pre-Wedding Photoshoot

This is one of the most exciting things happening and keep me sooo looking forward due to all the raves I saw on Korean Wedding Photoshoot!

Wedding samples courtesy of Wedding Ritz

So pretty right?

A year ago, was toying with the options of having our pre-wedding photoshoot locally, in Taiwan or Korea.

NB made it clear that we shouldn't go Taiwan as it's getting too common, we would rather have it done locally. So next consideration was the price. Besides factoring the cost of photoshoot, to have it in Korea, we need the air tickets + lodging expenses! Would it be worth the moolahs spent?

Deciding on the Pre-wedding Shoot

So, we listed down the pros and cons of the korean shoot:

Pros:

- BEAUTIFUL

- Unique (as of now before the trend booms of course)

- Return of ALL raw photo copies

- No hidden costs (e.g. false lashies, ampoule)

- No hard-selling

Cons:

- Popular for indoor shoot (Pay so much just to shoot indoors?)

- communication breakdown? (there's a translator though)

- Expensive

- Need to get separate bridal studio for actual day package in Singapore

So we see that the Pros had more pointers and after hearing the horror stories of wedding studios (for both Singapore & Taiwan studios) who hard-sell and couples having to top up so much more! 

I have a colleague who topped up till a whopping 10K for the photos. Other friends topped up another S$1-2K each

I could have gone Korea twice or joined Wong Wong for her Venice photoshoot. =/

I guess having that assurance that you will get all the raw photo copies is a huge deciding factor which means I had to go on to further research on the 3rd party companies managing these photoshoot for overseas couples like us!

Deciding on the company

I've looked at a couple companies:

- I-do Wedding (One of the more popular, trusted one as they have a Singapore rep but pricing is on the high side)

- Hanja Wedding (No local rep and pricing doesn't sit in my pockets)

- Ti-Amo (One of my 2 shortlisted company, prompt replies from them. They have offices in Asia like Hong Kong and nearby Malaysia. Some packages were cheaper than WeddingRitz but deciding factor was our final decision on the studio which WeddingRitz had a better pricing)

and of course...

- WeddingRitz (No local or nearby offices which made me quite paranoid but so far so good, they have been responding even after the deposit was placed and they were pretty patient with my endless emails =P, pricing was good and even managed to get videography for less than 1k!)

Deciding on the Photoshoot Style

Having read up on the Korean wedding photoshoot styles and asking the agents themselves what is best for us, it boiled down to a major decision:

To choose between an indoor shoot (in Seoul) or outdoor shoot (in Jeju).

Do you know that Korean photoshoot's main USP is it's indoor studios?

i.e. Koreans (even celebrities) love the korean Pre-weddings cause of the beautiful studio settings they have. Although some images may look like it was taken outdoor, they are actually taken indoor within the studio! The last time I asked the Korean rep from Ido, she said if the Koreans like Cherry blossoms in the pictures, they don't have to wait for Spring in April, they simply build it in the studio and tah-dah! you have it!

Credits to Ido-Weddings

So it was an inner battle for us whether to go all the way to Korea only to take indoor shots =P

So I weighed the benefits and decided to go with an outdoor shoot in Jeju cause...

...the last time we were at Jeju, I fell in love with this place, Seopjikoji!

I realise there wasn't a picture I have that justified the beauty of the place so it's just the image above =P

Go Google and you can find a lot of nice pictures of the place! ;)

The studio did warned of the limited gowns as compared to Seoul studios and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that in 2 days time, I'm able to select my dream gown(s) there. ;)

Having the videographer there to capture the precious moments of our photoshoot in Korea means a lot too! Just hope I don't look too BIG on screen! Prays!

Till my next update of the photoshoot, ciao! ;)

120512

It's been a while since I last blogged and so many things have happened!

And it's been more than a year since we ROM-ed at our cosy humble abode!

We moved in together after our ROM.

My dearest friends, Julia, GY and YY are finally married!

And in a day's time, we are going to Korea (yet again!) with his family for our Wedding photoshoot!

Woots! Working hard (but not hard enough =P) for the past month in preparation! Hope it turns out well! Excited =)

For now, let me do a recap of our ROM matters (if I still remember =P)

12 May 12

Here's our little RSVP invite for our close family and friends.

Sent through What's app and email as an e-invite =)

There are many website with templates like this, or those design savvy Brides to be (BTB), go creative and design your own to go with your wedding theme. =)

 *Personal details masked*

Having explored with the idea of holding at offsite venues like parks, hotels and restaurants, thought we could make us of our newly renovated place to hold the ceremony, acting as a house-warming too.

Besides, our reserves were pretty dry from the renovation cost etc =P

Nevertheless, it did felt special with a huge significance since all we dreamt of was to have our own place and start our Di Chang Da Heng goal! =D

As our place is a little squeezy 4-room flat, had to make sure we don't over invite.

Even so, the actual day had our family and friends literally squashed together and some missed all the actions at the solemnisation table. Sorry guys!

Also wanted to hire a professional photographer to capture the moments then but finally decided on using the expertise of NB's bro (Alex) who invested in a very good professional camera and his other musketeer pals who were avid photography lovers. ;)

Oh, and Sis was videographer of the day! Catch her in some of the photos below. Hehe!

Saved us some moolahs and the pictures in the blogs are all credited to them (mostly Alex's).

Keeping it light on the wallet, chosen to self decorate the place with simple alphabet  & heart shaped paper cut outs, pretty Gold ribbon sash for the chairs and fresh roses for the table top.

Get inspirations from Martha Stewart!

This was left hanging on our wall for the next couple of months =X

Our big D&C now hanging on the wall in the Masters.
Hope to fill up another photo frame soon ;)

Where the flowers, cert and rings tied on the pretty ring pillow sits.

Never knew there's a technique to tying the rings on the ring pillow till I researched.

The food table took up a huge area at our lift lobby =X

Special thanks to NB's Mum's friend who made this lovely (and delicious) heart shaped agar-agar.
It became our "wedding cake" for the day! Check out the photo below.

Having the make up done with a bloated face! >_<

One huge concern was curling my locks. 

Never felt convinced of having them curled/ permed! Looks too mature on me (I don't even look young to begin with). So ya, when she let down half of the curls, I immediately got her to change to a fully bun-ed up look. *Cringes*

And while I got ready in the Masters, guests arrived. Left it to NB to entertain them... hehe!

Bro and the lil Bob Hair!

Ah Ma, Uncle and the cousins self entertaining.

So me and sis taking a shot with Aunt!

Cdians where here too. =)

NB and the girl who just didn't want to let go of him!

My shot with the Sis and Bro below! 

Chummies with adorable baby Sarah.

My JP, Prof Yu Shi Ming.

He looks a little stern here, but nah, he's nice :)

Us at the ceremony as the guests peeps over to catch a glimpse.

Once again, apologies as they were made to stand at the hallway, blocked. =(

Check out Ju giggling away behind. LOL

Us, signing our Lives away (LOL) as YX peers on.

NB sealing the deal with a firm handshake! =P

Too touching? Hehe!

Since it was close to Mother's day, we had a little tribute to our mums! 

We prepared the carnations before hand together with our roses.

NB presented a carnation to my mum and I presented to his mum!

=)

Naughty bob hair trying to steal the flower from mum.

Shot with the JP and the kids came in as well.

The Tan family with a very reluctant YX cause Yiyi stole her favourite Kor kore away...

Muahahaha!

The Ang Family and YX who refused to leave NB.

My relatives looking all over the place. Too many cameras! 

Of course, with Cdians.

NB's musketeer pals and their other halves.

Chummies and the very young Baby Sarah!

Shots with NB's mum's friend.

With the Mok family & Dylan.

Loved this series of photos!

NB's sisters couldn't help not taking pictures with who you can see on TV.

Cdians at the masters.

Baby Sarah was such a dear!

And there! Our Wedding Agar Agar cutting ceremony! 

Didn't prepare a pretty knife for it so used a huge-ass Kitchen knife to do the job. Heh!

So there you have it, our simple and heartwarming solemnisation day, 120512.

Thanks to all our loved ones who came over to share our joy!

Appreciate all your attendance, time spent with us, the wishes and gifts!

=)

To be continued... #Project2014