Hello readers! This month was a relatively busy month for Jeremy and me! Time flies because we had our wedding photoshoot done! Our wedding is due to take place next year february but preparation started as early as Jan this year so that we do not get so burn out with so many things to do. I like how i apply what i learn at work to my own wedding preparation, i would recommend couples who are planning to had their wedding to create a google shared folder such that all the info can be shared inside the folder and its easier to refer. Beside that i created google sheet(something like excel file) for the budgeting cost and listed down all the stuffs that we need to do and projected budget and actual expenses on each item. I also created a timeline for it, since we started planning in Jan, i could create each column of things to do at least for each month so we just need to refer to the sheet to ensure we completed what i had listed for each month. In this way, its easier to plan a wedding because you are able to forecast and identify anything that you may have left out.
So in Jan, we placed a deposit to confirm our wedding venue, i did not spend too long deciding on the venue or even recee a few wedding venue location that i had in mind before we confirmed our wedding venue. To me, i don't have any dream wedding in mind, but i need to like the place. So, i only did some research before i set my eyes on orchid countryclub, grand ballroom. Maybe there are hotels that i did not do any research that has high ceiling too, but a few hotels that i attended wedding before, the ceiling is low, low as in, its not as high as the grand ballroom in orchid country club. The orchid countryclub has this super long red carpet, and since i doubt we have a chance to walk on the red carpet on normal occasions, i thought this was quite cool, the distance confirm can never beat any hotels carpet that they laid! Hahaha With the high ceiling, it create the impression and perception of the entire wedding dinner looking grand. For our 2nd march in, there is a buggy to drive us inside the ballroom! Hoho. Initially i thought hosting at orchid countryclub would be relatively cheaper compared to hotels, but i think with all my add-ons subsequently, its about the same if i host in hotel. But the minimum criteria will be, you need to have at least min of 40 tables to host your wedding in the grand ballroom. The main reason was pretty obvious because it will looks too empty if you do not have at least 40 tables as the grand ballroom can accommodate up to 120 tables! which is about 1200 guest! We have not decided on the menu which we will only do it probably by December.
So, after we confirmed our wedding venue, we went to email the person in charge and she told us we could head down to BOWS since they will be having a booth as well, some of my friends told me you could get a better deal usually when you goes to wedding shows. We went to the popular BOWS that is always happening at least twice or more each year, if you are lucky when you make a deposit for anything during the show, you may get back the cash during their lucky draw time! Jeremy's friend won back some cash when they went the BOWS in jan as well. We signed our bridal studio package during the wedding show too. I didn't research much on the bridal studio as well, so i do not know the usual market rate for a bridal studio package, since the bridal studio package generally cover everything that we would need so we make the deposit for the bridal studio package as well.
I would suggest any bride-to-be to do some research online first before heading down to the wedding show when you have all the necessary info at your fingertips.
I only did some comparison after i signed my bridal package and i noticed that generally most bridal studio is about the same in Singapore, either they give you more gowns, the number of photos that you can select after the photo-shoot or adding other perks in the package, just to name a few. Every bride has their own preferences, it really boils down to what the bride really wants and most of the time, you won't know what you want until you start selecting your gowns or the photos. When i mention bride only because i believe most of the groom should not have any specific preferences unless your groom is super vain.
For us, i changed my mind by not having our photoshoot overseas eventually after listening to some advice from my friends past experience that the wedding album would end up in the storeroom so they told me not to spend too much $. By doing a overseas photo shoot, i expect the photos would turn out exceptionally good and i will be more tempted later to add more photos which equal to higher cost so i thought it was safer for me to have our photoshoot in Singapore. Save the pocket!
For the cost part, I think it also depend where you would like to take the shoot, to name a few, Taiwan, Korea, Japan or Europe countries, you will probably have to spend even more compared to doing in Singapore because some bridal studio may not include the air tickets, transportation cost for outdoor shoot, bringing the make up artist out to help you to change your gown/change of hairstyle/touch up makeup or you have to pay the accommodation as well as the photographer, makeup artist, all this should definitely cost more than doing the shoot in Singapore unless you are opting to do the shoot in Malaysia which the exchange rate is so good now and i have seen how some of my friends used some of the bridal studio in Malaysia that offer better perks than in Singapore for their package.
Even when i did my photoshoot in Singapore, i had spend $1k++ just to prepare before and on actual photoshoot day. We were so tired after a day shoot that i was so glad i had only opt for photoshoot in Singapore because we spend our weekends after the shoot sleeping at home after that.We signed our bridal studio package with Yvonne Creative and later found out that i had other friends signing their bridal studio package with them as well. They had been in this industry for more than 20 years and i think if any bride-to-be is looking for a basic decent bridal studio package can consider Yvonne Creative because the sales exec was very practical when she explain to us the package. She did not up sell us to take any expensive package, she will tell you what is the basic you will need in a bridal package. During the wedding show, it will be easier to get their lady boss, Yvonne to give you discount if you sign a package with them on the spot. They are able to offer customize made to design gown for you at a discounted price if you go during wedding show. Initially Jeremy asked me if i would like to get the made to design gown since its only a few hundred top up but i told him to let me select my gown first, unless i am not satisfied, otherwise i see no point to customize the gown when i will only be wearing once only. I am also not interested to purchase the gown because it will be wasting my wardrobe space and my wardrobe is already full of stuff that i don't want to waste my space.
Most of the bride-to-be should know if they did some research that some bridal studio may offer very cheap bridal studio package but when it comes to selecting your gown, you may have limited selection or you need to top up for the other 'premium' gowns. I didn't face such issue with Yvonne Creative but i heard from other friends that warn me to be careful when i sign a bridal package before i even start planning for my wedding. At Yvonne Creative, you can select any gowns that you want or you can find in their racks. No hidden cost at all. However i would like to highlight they do have their specific selection like certain gowns can only be wore for indoor,actual day and not for outdoor shoot. This usually applies only to outdoor white gown that you need to select for shoot. But rest assured some of their outdoor gown is nicer than indoor gowns. For gown types, most of their gowns has those adjustable strap instead of zip up, so for plus size girls like me, you should not have any issue fitting in their gown, alteration is possible! Before i sign the package, they also mention certain gowns can also be alter if we like to do some minor modification to the gown at no charge, but i did not request for any modification, i was more stressed choosing the gowns that i want instead because i can only choose 5 gowns and its so hard to decide. (Inclusive of Actual day white gown & outdoor shoot white gown) But for any bride-to be that are looking for wedding dress with long sleeve laces, you may be disappointed as they have limited selection, i didn't see any when i was selecting my gowns. If i am not wrong, those need to be made to design because when i went down for the 2nd time to select my gown because i was not satisfied with my choice, i did saw some beautiful gown with long sleeve lace but my coordinator told me those are customized gowns.
This was Yvonne Creative new office, they moved from tahjong pagar to ang mo kio which was so convenient for us because i stay in woodlands. The location is good, at least for me so that i do not need to travel too far to select my gowns. They had two office and one more at another level for indoor photoshoot.
They do have the male section for their suits and Kua selection but i forgot to take a photo of it. I still remember i went to get my hair done before my first gown selection because i always feel that hairstyle is very important when you are selecting your gowns, but at that time i opt for a darker tone hair dye and hair treatment which is different from the color that i choose for my photoshoot eventually. Haha.
One important thing to note, never turn up at the studio feeling hungry! Make sure you had your lunch before going down because i spend so much time deciding my white gown that i sort of anyhow choose my colored gowns because olm & her bf did not had any lunch and Jeremy slipped out halfway to buy Macdonald. They spend their afternoon accompanying me to select my gowns. So i try to do a quick selection which doesn't help as i am very fickle-minded and i had to go down the 2nd time to try out other colored gowns again because i was not satisfied with my choice. Even after i went down for the 2nd time, i still changed my mind up till before my actual photoshoot day. So i choose my gown in June, request for a second gown selection in late Jul, change my mind again after i go back and scroll those photos that i took, change again just before my photoshoot in this month and change again my actual day gown during the gown fitting before photoshoot. Even though i feel very apologetic to my coordinator, but i think i will be damm sad if i can't find the gown that i like.
I am not sure if other bridal studio do allow you to take photos during your gown fitting, if they don't allow, don't sign with them! So ask before you decide whether to sign with them. Hahaha. i just feel if they prohibit you to take photos because they are worried you might end up like me being fickle-minded when you go back to scroll through those photos, either they are worried their gowns are not good enough or they just hope you should make up your mind and not waste their time by changing again and again. I think most of the coordinators should be quite used that all bride-to-be would change their mind again and again but i think i am definitely not the worse one. Hahaha. I didn't ask them whether they do allow photo-taking before that because i expect that they will allow photo-taking. Just that i heard from some friends, certain bridal studio don't allow you to take photos.
Gown selection time as i was busy taking out a few gowns from the rack before trying it out. I thought that off shoulder gown can make my arms look smaller, but i think my arms look bigger instead.
My coordinator, Wei ting asked my preferences of the gown type that i would like to try, i told her i only want ball gown type, no mermaid cuts, column or trumpet design gown because i always believe these design need to have a superb figure and i know my own limitations. Mermaid cut actually restrict you to standing poses only for photoshoot. Beside i like ball gown because i like the 'pong pong' effect at the same time hiding my fat thighs. Haha
So my first gown that i tried has some bling bling on it. Didn't put padding so my chest looks flat. Haha, its better to wear a nude bra when you go and select your gown!
The gown is nice, but it does not look good on me.
Haha, ok maybe i go abit extreme when i had video-taking as well. Olm was the one recording it, pardon me if i walk kind of weird because it was not easy trying to turn around with this gown!You can't really see how bling it is until it's a video recording, it may not be so clear, and pardon my fats at the back because i was just trying it out, the usual is to put a white cloth behind. haha
Look at how bling it is! Hahahaha. I love blings.
Let's just say that i don't know how to appreciate layered kind of wedding gown, i select this just for fun because i wanted to see how i would look like. I look like a wedding cake. Hahahaha.
All these gowns can only be wore on actual day or indoors only because the gown is all quite new, and this was only choosing for my actual day white gown! In the end, i choose this wedding gown below as my actual day gown. I love this piece the moment i put it on, its bling but its not too exaggerating with the details.
So it took me not too long to decide my actual day white gown, before we move on to selecting my other 3 colored gowns! Don't really like this gown, next!
This color is bold but the strap at the waist is too big that makes my waist looks bigger.
I like to try bold bright colors so i try this red color gown as well! But i find the design is too simple for me. Haha
My coordinator found this gown and let me try to see if i like as she mentioned this is nice when you go for outdoor shoot. I had mixed opinion when some say this gown is nice and some saying its not nice. Jeremy say i look auntie over here.
Initially I choose this color of the gown to be my second march in gown, and i love how it was striking that no one will wear as bright as me!
I choose this fiery red color as one of my colored gown too! This gown was the only piece that i did not change it away after i went down twice to select my colored gown again. It was surprising that many commented that i actually look slim when i wear this red toga gown.
So initially i choose red,hot pink and turquoise color as my three colored gowns, super fast as i mentioned they were hungry while waiting for me. But in the end, i change everything away except the red toga gown. Hahahaha. After selecting the colored gowns, we move on to choosing my outdoor white gown for the shoot. First one, simple & plain.
So after the first round of gown selection, i went back and start sending those photos to my friends, showing to my family and getting their advice and everyone had different opinions. Some say its not nice while some say i should change to other gowns that i did not select. I was having second thoughts on my outdoor gown and colored gowns. All the gowns are nice but its hard to find one that i really like and i can't stop thinking whether i should change to another piece. Beside i choose super fast that i was wondering whether i may have been too impulsive. So, i texted my coordinator to ask her if i can go down to select my colored gown because i don't really like those that i had initially select after i went back. I am equally troublesome compared to those who spend almost a whole day in the bridal studio because i think i need to choose properly before i regret else i will be so upset when the photos don't turn out good or when i don't look good on my wedding day. Luckily, my coordinator book another appointment for me to go down and try again!
As i went down the second time, i managed to see other gowns that i previously had not seen on the rack, probably they have just hang it back after washing.
This was one piece that i spend super long to decide whether i should take this!
I actually love this grey gown! Which i decided to change to this grey gown last minute like 3 days ago before the photoshoot? Hahaha.
I first decided on this purple gown because most of the gowns that i like can only wear indoors and not outdoors like the light blue and grey gown. So it was a very difficult decision to make, and this purple gown can bring for outdoor shoot so i change my turquoise gown for this. This gown looks very sweet looking as well, but i decided to change after Mich's friend who also signed with this package choose this gown for her outdoor shoot as well, so i took the grey one eventually.
My last piece was actually choose by my coordinator, i think because i was not able to find one that i really like until i saw her bringing me this gown, even before i tried it on, i find the gown super chio already! Eventually, i choose this as my actual day 2nd march in gown! I love how bling it is, its actually peach colour but due to the lighting, there are some shots that was like as though its in pink.
This gown is very beautiful! When there are others that tell me this gown color is very common, i am no longer bothered because i am easily swayed only because i can't find something that i like, but once i found the gown that i like, i stick to it and i no longer bother what other say anymore! I love the bling!
So in the end i confirmed my colored gown to be peach, red & purple gown.
But later on before the photoshoot, i changed purple to grey. Hahaha. I guess there shouldn't be any more new changes. As for my outdoor white gown, i went to try only two gown before i change my original selected gown.
In the end, when i went to try all the gown, i change this outdoor gown to be my actual day morning gown as mummy told me this is nicer as she say the previous one was too simple. But actually both are super chio! So i was in this dilemna for quite long before i decided to change this as my actual day morning gown instead!
I shall end for now, in my next post, i will be writing a whole list of items to prepare before the photoshoot and recee on locations that we have selected to do our photoshoot.
Till then!
