Pre-Wedding Photography

So, what’s next after the proposal? We made the announcement right after the awkward situation. Mum was still smiling from cheek-to-cheek. Apparently, she knew about Kent’s plan to propose that night. That explained why she is giving me that kind of smile (from the bottom of her heart)

The first thing that got into my mind is Photography. Set aside the parents meet-up, setting the date, hunting down a venue, etc; Photography is another important task to sort out.

Well, no argument on actual day photography cos that’s something that you will definately appreciate at the end of the day; that will remind you of the very special day in your life. Well, as long as your professional photographers are professional enough to capture every special moments on that day. You know pictures that capture ‘feeling’. I am lucky to have found one for our important day =)

What about pre-wedding photo? Seriously, what is the purpose of spending a bomb for pre-wedding photos when it all ends up in the wardrobe anyway? If not because of the slideshow for the banquet session; to keep our guest ‘entertained’, we wouldn’t really need one. (Cut the crap, we still need one for goodness sake). We decided to go for a more casual pre-wedding shoot and not those ‘full-force-pre-wedding photo’. At least those that my future children wouldn’t laugh at.(LOL, cos I was teasing my parent's wedding photos)

I never fancy Wedding Studio. Other than monetary matter; the main reason is that I heard all kinds of reviews from people around me. Just to mention a few:-

·       Salesperson promised that you could choose any gown…

In actual case, you can choose any gown....from selected category which ranges from normal, vip, vvip, vvvip to vvvvip (WTH). Those in the lower categories are usually Halloween Best Costume! You will most probably ends up paying extra just to gain ‘access’ for a more presentable gown which you may/may not like.

 

·       Sales person offer you an exceptionally good bargain

That evil FOUR letter word may ends you up with even higher price due to excluded items from the packages or Top-Up items that you cannot runway. I wouldn’t say that all Studios are the same. Some of my friends did get very good deal and it all depends on your bargain skills and determination.

 

·       Poor services after signing package

You were treated like king & queen before signing the package and things turn upside down right after that (Eg. Refuse to edit your photo further and give you all sorts of reasons not to do so)

 

·       Promised to return all softcopy

You might think you are smart enough to request for all the original softcopy until you realized that they are all in low resolution and there’s nothing you can do about it

 

·       The Sample Album is just too perfect

You may be looking at some great work of a superb photographer who is no longer attached to the Studio. That’s tricky and you will not realized until you found out that your album doesn’t turn out to be very much like what you are expecting. While you may have the same gown, same hairstyle, same location, same pose, same angle, same colour scheme but it just doesn’t seem to be the same! Now, don’t blame the camera, is just 'you' that doesn’t look as good as the model in the sample photo.

 

Since I am super bad in bargaining and we wouldn’t want to risk having bad experience with any of them (and yet still have to pay for the bomb), we opt for freelance photographer. Of course not just any freelancers are experienced enough to produce ‘wow’ wedding photos. You got to really look for one that meet your requirement. At least you should be happy with their work. You know, the feels, the colour, the angle, etc

To go with a freelance pre-wedding photo isn’t an easy task I would say. You may end up to almost the same price as going to Wedding Studio. The main point here is that :-

·       We want to enjoy the whole photography process

 

·       We want to avoid ending up with unhappy situation that will bug us whenever we look back at the photo album. We wouldn’t want to remember the salesperson when we look into our album!

·       We have total freedom and control of what we want

·       We will get a customized photo album. Unlike Wedding Studio, you may end up having almost the same album with your friend who signs the same package.

·       You get a one-to-one photographer who will cater all your needs

Having been through the ‘painfully slow preparation time’, i could say that it is a challenging task. You must be ready to spend extra time and effort if you decided to go the freelancer way. Here’s a simple but not so simple list that you need to prepare for that one day photo shooting:-

·       Hire a make-up artist. Again, satisfy yourself with their work sample.

·       Prepare your own attire. Either buy or rent. There’s definitely some risk (Cutting, Quality, Size, Colour) if you are buying online. was lucky that everything turns out to be fine. Renting is expensive (about Rm500/gown and it can goes up to Rm1000+/gown for new items).

·       Decide on the photo shooting venue and get permission (if any).

·       Plan the flow of venue so that you don’t lose too much time travelling

·       Arrange for a time where your team is free and this is the most difficult task especially during peak season

·       Imagine the theme you wanna achieve from each background. Then match it with your attire

·       Prepare your props. Okay, this was kind of fun if you ask.

·       Once shooting is done, you need to decide your album layout. I guess this is more like a plus-point cos our photographer will send us his proposal and what we need to do is basically to comment. If you were to take Studio Package, you will most likely have to spend whole day selecting which photos/pose/gown you want and then another round of painful time to arrange the photos. This is normally the time when unnecessary top-up cost occurs.

With all that, my itchy butt still suggesting something more. I want to have some short video clips of the making in slide show! Of course I will need to hire my little brother as the amateur videographer. Now, the challenging part is to edit and crop and convert the video file into something that my photographer, Alan can use. I had been spending nights (working in daytime ma) to edit those clips and I could not be happier with the result.

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