Eat, drink and be married!

Here's the deal - we were not going to be fleeced by the studio. We've heard too many horror stories of brides buckling under stress of choosing photos, couples racking their brains for hours to pick and still top up and lastly, those who sit for hours and still buy all of the photos. The wedded ones throw me a grimace and advise to be wise about the situation - unless you set your heart and mind about viewing this every single month, the mileage will never quite be achieved. Yes, there are acquaintances who view their videos and photos at every single milestone of their lives, housewarming, children's birth and the story just goes on and on and on.

Tips on how NOT to be fleeced (no hard and fast rules but at least it helped us!)

#1 Negotiating for all soft copies

Since the day we embarked on this new chapter we knew that we did not want any huge coffee books nor be put in a situation that we had to haggle over the purchase of more pictures just to fill the huge book.

#2 Selecting a timeslot near closing time

We weren't too eager to view the photos that fast somehow - did not help that we had prior appointments so then, the slot was booked 3 weeks later. We were probably alot calmer and less excited as compared to a post-shoot euphoria that any couple would experience after the harrowing shoot! To cut the long story short, 7pm was our slot and they closed at 9pm. To facilitate the ease, I booked us tickets to a 930pm movie so we had to get ourselves out for dinner and then movie. No excuse for the coordinator to hold us up or for either of us to hem and haw over the selection.

The coordinator suggested that they packed dinner for us since the selection would take quite a while.

#3 Have an idea how many shots to select per outfit

We had a total of 3 gowns and 1 casual shot and with 46 shots we knew that we could not have too many of the same outfit.

#4 Chop chop curry pok!

I suppose being two rather decisive people and having the consensus meant that neither of us would spend too much time over one photo. Out of 158 shots, we had to remove two thirds. Here's how we stuck by our 46 shot rule

- Remove duplicates of the same frame i.e. the photogs tend to take a near and far shot, so decide which is prettier and remove!
- Remove photos that do not appeal at first glance i.e. fat cheeks, imbalanced smiles and big-small eyes cannot be photoshopped. Face it if it does not appeal once, the second will not either.
- Ignore what the coordinator has to say about her opinions of what is nice - nobody would look at it again except the couple so it's your opinion that matters!

So that's how we picked and signed off the final 46 that made it to our mini photobook without a single top up - all in an hour! If it surprised you how efficient we were, it surprised the salesperson who closed our deal too.

Meanwhile, here's a snap of one of the many that were rejected!


3 months till we get our final copies...cannot wait!

We both wanted the PS to be months ahead of the big day to avoid a situation of unnecessary stress and the facial reactions to it hence it was done 6 months ahead! Just two days before, we had to head back to the studio for a last fitting and see if there are further alterations required - Grooms, remember to bring your tux shirts along for the fitting else you have to make do with their samples for fitting.

On the actual day, we arrived at 11am for the makeup and the shoot was to start at 1pm...thank god for great weather..too good infact as we realised later in the day! I suppose rainy weather provides for romantic settings ala walk in the rain but definitely NOT in those heavy gowns.

We were attached to Zoey, our MUA who would also be following us around the entire day. Our photogs, Casey and I-forgot-his-name would be assisting us in capturing potentially the best angles and the best photos. A lady of few words, she warmed up to us later and well, was a really fun experience working with all of them! The PGs walked us through the poses that are common for the shoot, our selected locations and particular shots we wanted to take.

Note that the ampoules used are charged separately, the fiance had one slapped on too for the makeup to last longer. He was not a fan of his "waxed" look, given the makeup made him two shades darker than he is!

Three looks given in total for three different locations and four outfit changes!

First Location: Alexandra Village

The ex-SA alumni wanted to capture the beauty of the grass and buildings within the area but unbeknownst to us, the place had undergone structural facelifts and is no longer what it used to be. We then headed off to Mapletree Business City but faced objections from the particularly sticky security guards. Finally Hort Park that provided a sprawling grass scenery that fit the whole casual, fun, relaxed mode we wanted to achieve. I'm not sure if the gown I selected for this location was the best but it was a black evening gown complete with fuss and the weather completely did not work in my favour. Scorching hot and I am amazed how much water I can retain actually!

They had a makeshift changing room for us to do a quick change, yay! Happiest moment came to change out of the heavy gown into our casualwear. A tip for couples who are into this part of the shoot, do bring as many props as you want but you will be eating into the remaining time for the gown shots.

Second Location: MBS

We did a quick stopover at the Hortpark Handicapped toilet for a hair and gown change - Zoey brought a foldable chair along - phew! Thought I had to sit on the WC to be made up. All these while, the dear fiance was getting cooled in the van and the PGs actually took naps!

MBS has never been more crowded and hot in my memory - oh wait, the heavy gowns made it so. We really could not care less on the people starring and snapping photos - even kissing shots were blase to me by now. At some point we both wished for the shoot to end, pronto.

Third Location: Gardens by the Bay

We stopped over at Singapore Flyer for a quick change in the baby's room - I hope we were not hindering any pooping babies from getting a clean nappy! Zoey left us before the last destination so then the hairdo was less complicated...and I was in a more comfortable gown! YAY.

At least the gown was comfy but my ankles were beginning to hurt. BOO. As usual, throngs of people and we met two other couples doing their shoot too...

By the time we all hit MDW for removal of hair accessories and changing out, it was close to 9pm. What a loooooong day!! 

Fruit and buns were furnished but these were just snacks, we completely had no time for a proper meal prior so we ended up really famished by the time the shoot ended!

While the views at these places were amazing, I wanted to catch a sunset even but the whole procedure took its toll and we just wanted it over soon. On hindsight, it was a pretty good experience and we took some behind the scenes videos to reminisce on such a day.

To date, the experience has been really good and we are so glad that we chose Mydreamwedding...I shall leave my last comments until we complete this journey but for now, we are pleased as punch.

One of the defining steps to shaping up the wedding has to be choosing gowns for the photoshoot, no amount of pacing up and down the windows of the studio is going to be as real as trying out the gowns.

We had an "interview" session with Domo, our appointed coordinator for this session and she proved to be a sweet young lady who'd ensure that we were satisfied with our picks by the end of the 3 hour session. I consider myself a decisive shopper but when faced with a rack of gowns, I gave in to a weebit amount of indecisiveness.

I tried at least 8 gowns, a combination of both wedding and evening gowns and finally settled on just 1 wedding and 2 evening for the shoot. The good thing about our package is the PS and AD gowns are different so we get to pick them again!

Lots of opinions required; selection of locations, hairdos for the gown and then gowns.

One thing to note is, the gowns on display are all for AD and not photography so the "warehouse" of gowns is well hidden from the public eye and gets pulled out by the coordinator according to my listed fancies.

Tips for the gown fitting:

- Go with an open heart and mind, what looks good on the rack may not be so worn.
- Don't bother bringing heels, there's a block to stand on to elevate.
- Have fun! Try all you wish to, bearing in mind the closing hours though!

• Branded or not branded? Some girls subscribe to the marketing appeal of a robin blue box and other 'diamond is forever' type of marketing spiels. So make sure you check this through.
• Whats your budget? A ring with diamond(s) can set you back from $2,500 onwards, and the sky's the limit.
• Yellow gold? Rose gold? White gold? Purple Gold? Black gold? Ceramic? Platinum? Rhodium? Again, it's knowing her preferences. I strongly suggest observing her jewellery and decide a material that best matches her taste. Or ask her, but you might just give too much info away. If she doesn't wear jewellery often, white gold is often a good material to buy. If she has a tanned skin tone she can look better in yellow gold.
• Size. Now it's not easy to find out, but at this moment at least know if she has very slim or small fingers or she has fingers the size of sausages. Because chances are, you will have to pay quite a premium for both, unless you go with a custom jeweller.
• Store bought or custom made? Store bought designs are mostly branded and therefore have a premium. But they are usually more fanciful or exquisite. Custom made ones are usually cheaper and can even replicate store bought designs, but may not deliver 100% in terms of workmanship. Do seek out different custom jewellers and opinions to see who has the best craftsmanship to get more bang for your buck. 

• Shape. First thing you should know. Most girls actually have no clue and would just say 'I want a round one'. Which is easy for you cos rounds are plentiful in supply. But she may be looking for something fancier, like a princess cut, or marquis, or emerald, or cushion, or teardrop, etc etc. As such, it is hard to say which cut is more ex. The round cut is expensive due to demand for it. Some rarer cuts are also very expensive due to, of course, the rarity of them.
• Carat. Well the size of that rock. Or rocks, if you are going for something fancier. Although most materialistic girls would shout out that she wants something 1 carat and above, do bear in mind that it is often much better to get a diamond closer to 1 carat, say 0.97 carat, then a 1 carat diamond. The price of a 1 carat diamond versus one that is just shy of 1 carat differs by an astounding up to 50% in some cases. Smaller diamonds will be priced accordingly. However, take this into consideration: is she a tall/big girl? Small/skinny girl? How big are her fingers? Most SG girls here will look they have a fake rock if they wear something like 1 carat, because they are rather petite and would not look good with a large rock. So if that's your girl, phew! But good luck convincing her. But if she's the size of a wrestler, well, let's hope you have good credit lines.
• Clarity. Well, most jewellers out there will make you think that only FL or IF rocks are worth buying. But really, those cost a bomb. By a bomb I mean a mid 5 digits and above for a carat. You don't even necessarily have to go for a VVS1 or VVS2, which are also very expensive. As I do not have a huge budget, I would typically go for a VS1 or VS2, which are still good, the imperfections are invisible to the naked eye. If your budget is small then consider SI1 or SI2, their imperfections are only visible under magnification but somehow I think they're not that good. Why so? It's rare that an expert gem cutter would spend much effort cutting a stone that isn't very high on the clarify grade chart with much precision. Lower grade stones are usually cut by less skilled craftsman. I would not really advise going for I1, I2, or I3 grade diamonds, they aren't worth much and they look like glass. 
• Certification. Most people come to me asking whether a diamond is certified smugly, thinking that they know they are making sure they themselves do not get cheated. Well I have to break it out to you. Certificates can be FAKED, and faking is rampant in SG. Although the respectable labs such as GIA or AGSL churn out good reports, there are many labs out there faking their certs. Worse, there are printers who can doctor a cert and print it out for you. You do pay a premium for a cert since the jeweller needs to pay quite a sum to have the diamond certified. So decide for yourself whether its worth paying that premium.
• Cut. Often underestimated, the cut of a diamond actually is what makes the diamond shine. This to me is the most important aspect of a diamond. However, it is tough for you to know what exactly is the cut. Usually, this is found in the certificate, which you might need the help of a jeweller to interpret. But it actually isn't so tough. You don't really need the cert. Ask for a jeweller's loupe (the foldable small magnifying glass) and look through it. First point the diamond at a light source, then at a dark area. Observe if there are any light refraction changes. A well cut diamond should still sparkle in the dark, but a badly cut diamond will appear glassy and have dark patches in it. 
• Colour. Now this gets interesting. The 'whiter' the diamond, the more expensive it is. It starts from grade D – Z. D – F colour diamonds are very very expensive, and are the crème de la crème. If you are going for a solitaire setting (meaning a ring with a singular diamond, usually a round one, held up by a four-prong or six-prong claw), then a whiter diamond is recommended. If you are going for white gold, then D – F is a safe bet. If its yellow gold, you can go further down the scale up to J, or K to L if you want some yellow colour in the diamond. Diamonds with colour N onwards are 'fancy yellow' diamonds. These are usually cheaper diamonds, but funnily enough, they can be very rare to come by (due to lack of demand. They are usually turned into cutting stones instead). So decide on your diamond stone setting, how you want it to look. Then choose a colour. Diamonds with other fancy colors such as blue, pink, or purple, are extremely rare and therefore priced at a premium. Black diamonds are man-made and therefore are usually cheap.

As with every vain bride, I had my nails pampered before the shoot - hoping that they would be featured in the shots.

I had mine done with Junying from Thistlebelle, a homebased manicurist in Toa Payoh. I placed a deposit before securing my slot and headed for my appointment! She's got a really friendly dog - Jewel who is sucha cute fur ball!

I originally wanted something flamboyant and loud but decided against it since it was still a bridal shoot - so here's it with marbling and Sha stickers! Loving the details like the ring on my fourth finger!

Junying is so friendly and we chatted like old friends - how often do you even get that! I've mentioned a halloween theme I wanted to do, maybe I'll head back for that!