Brothers and Sisters attire

Settled the brothers and sisters attire. FINALLY!

Wedding Insert & Ideas

Its September! Time flies...and I am slowly swinging to preparation mode. First up is the wedding inserts which I finally got it done in August! Very ang mo style but I think its good enough. I skipped printing the chinese characters because I think its too much work, just prefer to keep it simple and easy. 

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I also got a bit boliao and started stamping Meme stamps on the guests' envelopes ....

It may or may not be appropriate but for us... I think it suited us being full of fun and laughter. But of course... for the elders and bosses, I opt to use the chinese stamp.

Wedding Photography - Underthestars & others

March and April saw me browsing through the different wedding photographers of different price range and styles, emailing all of them and then meeting up with the selected photographers. It was a super hectic and tiring process!  My final decision to select Underthestars was purely because Lawrence is the only one whom I can connect with during the meetup. Well actually it is also purely after making the decision not to do wedding videography and just go for a better wedding photographer instead.

Lawrence is friendly, genuine and shares quite a bit about the wedding preparation and by far the only one that wants to know about the wedding schedule so that he can work around it. But more importantly, I really fancy the wedding photos that he shoots as his style is more towards classic, timeless and elegant.

Of course... it is also a bonus that he was the winner for Blissful Brides' Editor's Choice Preferred Pre-Wedding Photographers Award. To all reading this, you can take a look at his portfolio and see if his style suits you. I was clueless with mine! I did not know that there is indeed different styles by different photographers and not what I have always said "Every work looks the same to me". So thanks to L, he helped me made the decision in the end. So yes, now the bride has engaged Underthestars and shall await 12 October!

Website: Underthestars
Blog: http://underthestars.sg/blog/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/underthestars.sg
Wedding Photographer: Lawrence

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And so... I shall also share my experiences with other wedding photographers whom I met up. A mixture of disappointment and happiness from meeting up with the different photographers. So read on..

1) Sundayz Photography





Alex was the guy. Nice and very honest with sharing with me the operations of a wedding photographer. I appreciated his honesty because then I understand how things work (For eg. if you make a photographer work overtime and refuse to pay, then his quality of work will drop and he will not be very willing to take your photos enthusiastically since they are paid by per hour). Should I decided to do videography, I would have engaged Alex because at the time when I inquired on his rates, it was very attractive and reasonable based on his portfolio. Lawrence also shared that based on Alex's work, the price that he was charging is fairly reasonable too.

However, what I didn't like was that he is very adamant and strict on the music used for the actual day photo montage. He only has 2 music which he spent $100 per song for the rights and there is no negotiation on using other music. If it isn't because of this, I would have actually engaged Alex straight away. =|

2) Simon Video

There were 2 things on my mind during the research process. Just get a cheap photographer since everyone is saying that all the photos will be stored in the storeroom and so just hired someone who can take decent photos and move on OR get a cheap videography/photography since its just purely for wedding day and all the photos from different photographers that I have looked through looks roughly the same to me.

I was still half-hearted then so I decided to meet Simon since his rates were really affordable for both videography + photography and not forgetting the fact his company actually won an award too.

But.. its a big disappointment after learning how Simon operates. No albums to view, he prepared nothing for me to see. Just to meet up and talk about price and his services. Its like beautician trying to sell the facial  package to me and assuring that their products are top quality. Its really not for fussy couples and couples who are on budget. I thought I was being chin-chye but after talking to Simon, I realised that I really wanted someone that can shoot my wedding day and bring out all those beautiful moments even if I were to chuck them aside after a few days. After spending so much on my wedding, I cant be too chin-chye with photography. So I decided to strike off Simon and move on.


3) Elicere Emovere Studios services

Huge disappointment and disastrous meeting with Ken. Maybe I was really angry and upset that I make time to meet up and yet Ken prepared nothing for me to view or discuss. Everything could be seen from Facebook, which I know but I supposed I expected to see more work when I do meetups or to talk more. I find it disastrous because it was so awkward with Ken who was just looking at me and expecting me to talk. I did ask a few questions which I wanted but after that it was just weird and the feeling he gave me was really to tell me it was a waste of time. I was speechless and needless to say, I strike them off.


4)The Missing Pieces

So now instead of looking for cheap photography, I decided to ditch videography and look for a middle/better range of wedding photographer. Read from forum that Jed is highly recommended for wedding photography. His style is towards contemporary, quirky and with a lot of tilted angles. So its a very refreshing and different style of wedding photos you ever see.

Met up with Jed to find out more but realized there isn't much connection as compared to Lawrence but it was good knowing that Jed himself is getting married this year and we talked about HDB and all.. so it was a good sharing!

There are a few more I did inquire and meet up but honestly speaking, none of them were able to connect with me. Even when I decided to go for budget photography/videography, in the end I realised it may not be a wise choice and I might regret it one day. Not to say budget photographers are not good, they are good in their own ways but.... I suppose connection with the photographer plays a part too.

Guest List

We have finally (roughly) done up the guest list!

This week, I am very happy to mark a few things off the checklist.
1)  Gown selection (Finally, settled this although still feel that my actual day gown isn't 'wow' enough)
Will also talk more about La Belle Couture services.
2) Settled "Save the date"picture
3) Setting up a date for the Jiemeis to meet up

Anyways...This is a short update and me...wanting to share excel sheet on guest list. If you are interested, drop your email or if I dont respond, you can always email me askrosyroxanne@gmail.com
Not to forget, I am also sharing comparison of hotels excel sheet !

Reminder to self:
Talk about ...
Francestar Taiwan experience
La Belle Couture Gown selection experience
Searching for photography experience (This is truly a headache and zapping my energy away!)

Pre-wedding shoot at Taipei by Francestar

This is probably the only best photo I really like out of the hundreds photo taken. It is very easy for me to choose 40 photos for the album because none of them were really fantastic except for this. Luckily I requested for a kissing shot here and then later the photographer decided to ask his helper to flip the dress for me, hence I managed to get this shot. I am in love with this picture and I promise I will blog more about my experience with Francestar when I have time to spare. =)

2 weeks to Taiwan

My lack of updates = laziness = no mood to do anything wedding related/cool updates that I want to keep for memories.

Too busy at work and by the time I reach home, the only I want to do is just laze around and watch Korean drama and cry my hearts out. Now I am forcing myself to get in the mood by starting to searching for wedding song. Hopefully 1 thing leads to another and I will use that time to get stuff ready for the Taiwan photoshoot.

I have given up losing weight because there is this thing called photoshop so gonna just procrastinate and heck it!!!

Anyways, there are so many songs that I want for my wedding and it is so hard to choose!! Mostly they are Korean songs, oh well yeah that's because now I am highly influenced and absorbed into the K culture now. Yet.... I want songs by my favourite singers like David Tao, Wang Lee Hom, Leona Lewis, etc.... =( man, this is really very tough.

But.... am gonna just list some songs that I like and would love to use:

1) 你是我心内的一首歌 (Lee Hom & Selina)
2) 心中的日月(Lee Hom)
3) 最重要的决定 (Fan Wei Qi)
4) Love of a lifetime (Firehouse)
5) I wanna grow old with you (Westlife) 

In fact, I already know what is the theme/topic I want for the montage... that is pictures of us in different parts of the world and all the outdoor sports that we love doing - hiking, kayaking, walking, running, swimming, river tracing, river rafting, oh and our latest love is SKIING and SNOWBOARDING!! We also have plans to learn diving so that we can fully utilize our honeymoon by diving in the beautiful sea....

Travelling + Doing sports

basically that's what we both are. Now....just need to find those songs + photos..

If anyone of you reading this, please recommend me some songs!!! Thanks a million!! =D

Attempting to stay fit - Take 2

This is a big milestone for me because I never think I will ever spend such a bomb on such things in my life.

Due to my injury I am really sad to say I have to give up running for a long period. How long? God knows...wish my injury can heal faster so I can start running again. Nothing beats running when comes to exercising..... sweating profusely, the adrenaline rush and total satisfaction of completing a long run at night. Mostly it's the amount of sweat that gives me the shiok feeling that " Yes!! You have did a good workout!". But I suppose yoga can do the same for me too...well hopefully..... Since yoga inductor advised me not to run, guess its a sign to try something else.

Well.. 3 more weeks to Taiwan photoshoot! Hope I can persevere and look good! Please wish me luck!