Slash and cut

We were at City Square today to see the results of our bridal shoot. Reaching Dawn, we were immediately given two albums laid out with photos. There were probably over 300 photos in that stack and we had the enviable task, like so many wedding couples, before us to cut them down to only 30.

We browsed through the first time before the fun began.

Too much posing, cut! I looked fat in there, cut! We look funny doing that, cut! Before long, we were done with our first round of slashing and cutting. The ones we took with our evening wear were all cut out as we felt we looked unnatural in the many poses that we were asked to execute. Well, the fast first round elimination also meant that we were not impress with the some of the photographers style.

Anyway, the next few rounds of elimination were slightly tougher as we had to put some thought on photos which looked good, photos which looks good in a series, and to ensure that we had a good variation of poses and colour. But we still completed it all within 3 hours, while sticking to our original number.

Of course there were couple of regrets, but overall we were sure we had the best shots in the bag. Now we just have to wait for another month before we see the designs.

Flavoured Favour Dilema

Admission. I didn't really know that those little gifts left on our dinner tables during weddings were called favours until about two years back. Now they are back to haunt m -. I have only about three months to get a whole bunch of them.

Now seriously, what do you really think of wedding favours? Sure, there might be a few that you had gaped at and told yourself how unique they were. But after they leave the ballroom, they often end up on fridges, dusty shelves or in forgotten boxes in the store rooms. Most of them eventually get thrown away during house-moving or the annual spring clean. Of course, you can spend a fortune and buy diamonds for your guests, but most average couples have modest budgets and can't spare more than a couple of bucks on these.

So what do you leave for your guest that will show how much you appreciate their presence on your most special of days? Something that they will appreciate in return or put in good use? And not put a dent into your tight budget?

One thing that came to mind was something edible. A quick thank you that leaves a sweet note in the mouth and goes straight to the stomach. Candies, cakes, chocolates, there were plenty to choose from. But the flavoured cupcakes that had cute carefully crafted designs really took the cake. And they were readily featured in many Malaysian blogs.

So we asked Louisa to buy a box of them over the New Year for tasting and even sourced our own boxes. Verdict ? Too sweet, icing smudges easily, lots of assembly required (boxes come unassembled), and much effort to load them up too. Puff ... there goes the dream...

Next, we tried again with this other cupcake source. Good, they were offering wrapped bigger cupcakes at better prices ... the catch, collection only available on weekends (the good people there have full time jobs) and the cupcakes can't last till the following weekend. Sigh ... looks like this cupcake idea will have to take a back seat for awhile.

Back to scouring the web for the perfect favour!

Pre-Wedding Photoshoot Day

We had our photoshoot last Saturday, 2nd Feb. We were there by 10.30am, but not before ensuring that we had a full stomach the last the day.

Once we reported at the reception, we were ushered to the 10th floor where they rented a place to house their make-up station, changing rooms and photo studio. What followed was a series of make-up, dress-up and a whole lot of posing. Vicky had 6 costume changes (1 outdoor, 2 indoor, 1 Kua, 2 evening gowns), so that means six change-overs.

They were pretty fast with me, a few slabs of powder and some experimentation with my stubborn mane, and I was set. The rest of the time, I set around watching some old Channel 8 re-runs while the Make-Up Artist, Janet, busied herself with Vicky. Once were ready, the photographer led us to the studio where we were asked to posed in many different ways to different backgrounds.

In between the indoor shoots, we had a chance to escape the studio for more posing at the coffeeshop (level 3, City Square) and the Old Building at Sultan Park. It was raining in the afternoon, so we had to abandon our outdoor Sultan Park shoot.

We finally completed our shoot around 7pm. I guess our day was not too exhausting as we were mainly shooting in the studio. Just pray that we can choose 30 good shots out of the hundreds our photographer Henry took. It's going to be a hard choice. There'll be some heart-break and probably some deal-breaking at our next appointment there.

Choosing a Bridal Shop

Somewhere back in November last year, we had decided to go with a bridal shop in JB that covers the pre-wedding shoot and wedding gown rental. Our choices were narrowed down to those in City Square as it was a short journey from our home here in Yew Tee(considering the number of trips we need to make there) and those in clustered around Taman Sentosa were a little inconvenient without our own transport. The four bridal shop at City Square are Printemps, Dawn's, Mona Lisa and Superstar.

We finally entered 'negotiations' with the Dawn's Wedding after taking a look at the many photo albums on display, sampling online albums and filtering the many discussions and comments in 'singaporebrides.com.sg'. Here is the package that we finally got.

Price :RM3888
1 Wedding Gown, 2 Evening Gowns, 2 Men's Coats
Bouquet, Car Deco.
Photography : Indoor/Outdooor - 5 gowns, 5 harido
12 x 24'' Victoria Album - 10 pages (30 poses/photos) - full page design
5 x 7'' Album - 21 photos
16 x 40" - 1 picture (3 poses) ; or 24x30" - 1 picture with frame
10x12" table top - 2 photos
4R photo - 60pieces
CD (photos), I-flash

The main focus of the bargaining is of course the number of photos that you will finally get at the end of the grueling photoshoot. 30 may seem too few but we had to bump it up from the initial 21 while lowering down the original package price from RM4388. What drew us to Dawn's was the quality of the photos and the design work that accompanies the final album. Well hope that our faith is well placed.