AD Videography

Yay, one more thing settled! Hahaa actually we already know that we will be engaging Teck Kuan for the videography la. But we have not signed the contract - so met him today to sign on the dotted line. Similar to photography, AD videography packages range from $1000+ - $4000+ for 10 hours of videography. Teck Kuan's regular package includes 2 videographers, same day edit wedding highlight, and final delivery of the wedding DVD.

For the photomontage, we will not be including the childhood pictures as I don't see any values to it being included as there is not much link to the wedding. Also, don't want the wedding to be filled with so many things to play. There would be the bridal photos during reception time, gatecrashing video and photo montage during dinner. Also, there would be the overseas pre-wedding videography that TK will be helping us with in Taiwan. So must see how all these fit in. But he is giving a disclaimer that doesn't know how the pre-wedding videography would turn out as it is his first time doing it. If it is real bad, it wouldn't be played - but we don't believe it would be that bad. We believe that he can do it. Yes, so all the major things are more or less settled already. It would be time to start looking at the details!

Here's the videographer. His works can be viewed at http://vimeo.com/teckkuan/videos . Do let me know if you are interested to engage him!

Raffles Town Club

We went to the Raffles Town Club wedding show as there were attractive lucky draws haha! Besides f&b and accommodation vouchers by RTC, there were also photography and instant print packages to be won. Even if we already have our own packages already, I wouldn't mind another package. Haha, if really we could win another pre wedding package, I would want it instead of selling it away. I am totally in love in wearing those pretty gowns :)

It felt pretty easy to win something because they had 6 prizes and 60 couples. But sadly and expectedly, we were not the lucky ones. Nvm.. better luck next time! I love being busy with wedding related stuff during the weekends!

AD Photography

26 Oct 12 Fri
Yay, we settled our AD photographer already! Have been searching for a photographer for the past month. Emailed 30+ companies to ask for their quotes and looked at the various works by them. It is amazing how prices can vary from $800 - >$4000 for the same kind of service. Frankly, after seeing one website to another website, we are not able to really differentiate the works by everyone. Moreover people only post the better ones online, so everyone look like they can do good work. The market for photography is sooo saturated. So we did not see the point of engaging a photographer for a few thousand dollars. We eventually focused on the photographers that charge around $1000.

In the end, we decided to engage Alan Dai from Mirage Pictures. He charges only $800 for 10 hour of AD photography, which includes a free album with 400 4R photos developed for us. We have read good reviews of him from the perfect wedding forum, and people all say that he has a good sense of humour and interpersonal skills, and is able to make people smile naturally. So we decided to make an appointment and meet up with him. His schedule is really packed! When I call him the last week, he was booked for weddings the last weekend, and this fri-sun too. He was only able to meet us at 2pm, the break that he has after gatecrash and before dinner.

Alan is a 50 year old free lancer and he doesn't post his works online except for a few photos on his fb. So it was crucial for us to meet him and see his works in the office. He is a malaysian and speaks mostly mandarin. We flipped through his album and it looked decent enough, haha, cos we don't really see the difference between his and others' work. He is also a humorous chap. Most importantly, he is not a newbie who just started freelancing. He has already been in this line for 15 years and is one of the few who still maintained his pricing. I have seen forum reviews about him as far back as 2004, so his experience should be real. Alan's main source of business comes from word of mouth.

He told us that he will take around 1000+ photographs on AD, and will return us all the raw images. 400 photographs will be further edited before he prints it out. He would be taking photos using 2 cameras on that day. I have compared this with the industry standard and find that he takes and edits more photos as compared to the rest of the photographers. So we decided to confirm him as our AD photographer! What is amazing is that he doesn't take a confirmation deposit from us. We only need to pay him the full sum after he develops his album for us! Wow, so trusting. Haha, so this means that while we confirm him, but if we happen to chance upon a better choice, we can still give him up. But don't think we will do that la, see how : ) Below photos taken from his fb.

Rico A Mona

<Backdated post> I read from the Perfect Wedding forum that there was someone who wanted to let go of her Cang Ai AD package at a really good price (inclusive of AD photography). So we decided to go down to the Tanjong Pagar stretch to look at the gown selection that Cang Ai has before deciding whether to buy the package. But unbelievably, Cang Ai was not open on a Sunday! Hello, close on the day when most customers are free? Strange, cos they were opened when we walked around that stretch a few Sundays ago. So nvm, we decided to walk into the other bridal shops to look at their gown selection since we were already there.

Before going to Tanjong Pagar, I have emailed 20+ bridal studios to enquire about their AD package. We have also listened to a few sales speech by Julia, My Dream Wedding and La Belle. So we roughly know how much AD packages should be, and what is in it. This is very important so that you will know what to bargain for when you want to decide on one! I have also read reviews on bridal studios on the forums so that we can avoid those which have a bad reputation.

We first went into Sophia. Actually it was our first time walking into a bridal studio. Previously, we were only looking at the studios' gown selection from their iPads at roadshows. So it was very exciting for me! Anw, Sophia's gowns are separated into overseas and local sections (which has different pricing of course). Their local collection is boring, overseas collection is better. After listening to their package, it really didn't attract us at all. It is the most expensive among all those which we have listened to. They let me try one of their wedding gowns and I couldn't fit in. Can't zip and can't breathe! Omg, low morale, my first wedding gown and I can't fit in. So, we left without allowing ourselves to waste more time there.

Then, we walked into Rico A Mona. This is a 3 year old studio and they are sister companies with Di Gio (actually we went in after persuasion from the uncle outside). I looked at their wedding gowns and saw a few that looked ok. My style - I like simple design as I thought that a clean cut elegant design suits me more. Without any hesitation, the coordinator Jesline, offered to let me try her wedding gowns. I was quite surprised as I thought that they will usually tell us about the package before showing us the gowns. So I accepted the offer readily as I believe that I am able to fit in most wedding gowns hahah. I told her that I like simple gowns and she gave me an A line gown. After which, she said that I shouldn't waste my height and figure (hahaha) and let me try a mermaid gown. I also tried a ballgown and in total, I tried 5 gowns.

And guess what? I found one that I really loooooooove to bits!~ It is a ballgown with elaborate bling bling at the top portion. It is translucent with only the 2 padding covering the vital parts. The rest of the front portion are covered with bling blings and it gives people the 若影若现 feel. As it is a ballgown, I had to wear a can can underneath which gives the gown volume. The bottom is very fluffy and voluminous with lace sewn on it. It is a totally dreamy, fairytalely, princessy wedding gown which gave darling the sparkling WOW reaction the instant I walked out of the changing room. Hahaa, I actually didn't want to try on that gown but Jesline insisted that I listen to her recommendations. Luckily I listened to her, cos now I know that actually, I look better in elaborate gowns. Simple gowns are too boring on me. 原来 both of us like 重口味 one. But sad, I wasn't able to take photos of it as we hadn't sign the package yet. We came to know that Jesline is actually the designer of Rico A Mona, and that dress was just designed by her!

So we listened to the package price. She first quoted $26XX, excluding gst. But this was higher than the rest that we have heard, so of course, I had to exercise my negotiation skills already. After a loooong and tough battle, we managed to shave the price to something that we can accept, including gst. I have also asked her to throw in quite a lot of things into my package. The package price was actually secondary as I love the gown selection at Rico A Mona. Besides that unforgettable wedding gown, I have also looked at their cheongsams, evening gowns, tea dress and ROM dress and I can really imagine that I will have a tough time deciding during the AD gown selection. Oh btw, I did not decide to take THAT wedding gown cos what if there are better ones next year! What my package consists of:

-1 Wedding Gown
-1 KUA/Cheongsam/ Teadress
-1 Evening Gown
-1 ROM Dress
-2 Suits for him
-2 Fathers' Jackets
-2 Mothers' Evening Gowns
-Makeup and Hairstyle (Trial, Morning, Night)
-Corsages
-Car Decorations

All are off the rack. I don't need a made to measure la, I believe I have lots to choose from the racks. I'm so excited! I can't wait to wear those gowns!! Have to look for shoes to go with the gowns. One thing to note is that I may not be able to wear some of the gowns if my heels are too high. I tried on one of the wedding gowns with an 4 inch heels and in the end, my legs were longer than the gown..... Have you ever seen that happening? Hahahha. Some of Rico's gowns with the styles that I now like. Pictures taken from their website :):)

Oh, we forgot about Cang Ai already.

Live Music Band

Back dated the post to 2 Oct, haa no time to update. Yes, we have booked our live music band already! Fast right! After emailing and tabulating the quotes for 10+ live band companies in Excel, we have finally decided on Acoustic Saturday. We have decided on a 3 piece band which will have a female vocalist, pianist and a male vocalist cum guitarist! We think that a 2 piece band is a little too bare and a 4 piece is too over. Things to look out for when you book a band:

-How many piece band do you want and what the composition is
-Always look at their works at Youtube/ Website before signing up
-Most of the bands will ask you to top up $100/$150 for the rental of their keyboard as it will incur additional transport cost. I totally think that this is a rip off.
-Most of the bands will ask you to top up $300 - $500 for the rental of their sound systems. They will say that the hotel's sound system are not that good and they recommend you to use their sound systems.
-If you require a singer to double up to play an instrument, most of the bands will ask you to top up $150 - $200. But this is cheaper than asking for an additional member to play in the band.

So with these comparisons across the various band, we chose Acoustic Saturday. They do not charge extra for a singer to double up playing an instrument. They also waive the surcharge for the rental of the keyboard as we are taking their sound system. Actually one of the main reasons why we booked so early is because Acoustic Saturday has a promotion, where they give a $100 discount for those who book within 2 weeks from their first enquiry. Since we made the comparisons and have already decided on them, might as well just sign with them.

We are going to engage Meryl (female vocalist), Justin (male vocalist cum guitarist) and Elaine (pianist). Besides being pleased with the videos that they have put up on their website, we have personally seen Meryl perform before at the Sheraton Towers wedding show. At that time, she was a representative for Sparkle Music (Tay Kewei's company). Realise that many of these singers sign up with more than one company, cos when I searched across the companies, I could see their names being surfaced more than once. I hope that all those whom we have requested for do not drop out at the last minute next year. Total damage: $1,500. But I'm sure that it will be worth it!

Au Laut Open House

We went to this restaurant, Au Laut at Botanic Garden's open house even though we have already booked the banquet place. Cos we wanted to look at the other vendors which provide photography, live band, wedding planner and florist services. There is also a lucky draw haha.

Too bad Chris Ling photography and the live band is out of our budget. We also didn't get to win anything from the lucky draw, where the 3rd prize is a bottle of red wine, 2nd prize is $200 off Chris Ling photography package and 1st prize is a $400 dining voucher from Au Laut. Haha, no big loss anyway. It's a relaxing Sunday afternoon in Botanic Gardens.