Pre weddng photography location selection

I had this trouble when I was selecting location for my pre wedding photo shoot, you know, it's some special photos, you want it to look best!

0. Have a theme
- Decide on a theme for your photo shoot. Fun, romantic, serious, anything. That pretty much give you a rough idea what background you want for your photo shoot.

1. Research, research and research!
- Google is your friend. Really, there ought to be a lot of blogs and reviews about places to go for pre wedding photo shoot.

2. Distance

- Ask yourself this: Do you mind going far to get a good picture? Is the time taken to travel a problem for you? 

- Sometimes we don't mind traveling just to get those good pictures! But at the same time we might get time bound.  Maybe you will need to pay extra fee  o your photographer for their extra hours?  All the factors you will need to consider when deciding your photoshoot location. 

3. The big question: Where?

- What kind of background you will want to see in your pre wedding photos?

Here are some of my opinion based on theme. 

If your theme is fun, go green! Gardens, fields or even parks. These are some locations to show you and your partner's playful side. Tips: Candid shot will make it looks more fun. 

If your theme is romance, try beach, lake, sunset view or night view. 

Serious theme. This is more of formal photoshoot I would classify. Studio or structures background like bridge or building can pull this off. 

Casual. Even better. Candids! Just relax and be yourselves and everywhere can be your background. 

These are just some ideas to pick your location based on your theme. Of course, it can be anywhere of your favourite even at home!

One of the most important thing I learned while doing my photoshoot was to be ourselves, relax and enjoy the day! Both of you the celebrity couple of the day!  

Have fun in your photoshoot!

Pre Wedding Photoshot @ Precious Bridal Studio

Let me just summarize that in one word. FUN.

I've listened to my colleagues and friends ranting how tiring photo shooting day will be. How much they won't redo it all over again. But to us, we agreed that it was a lot of fun! Let me just share with you the experience.

First off, I was reaaaaally excited about the day. I couldn't get enough sleep but I'm just so glad that I got that covered with make up. I brought along my own false eyelashes and facial ampoules. My make up artist on that day was Ivy. She asked me what style of make up do I want. Honestly, I don't know! So she went on, asking me about our vision for the photo shoot, what kind of theme will it be. That really gave me some idea what I want.

So I told her I wanted something fun but romantic at the same time and most importantly, I want to still be able to recognize myself. She got it and started working on my face and then my hair.

Here's the first photo shoot's style that she did for me:

Our photographer of the day was Ken. It was really fun working with him. He gave us a lot of idea how to pose and where to pose. We started of the day with studio shots, they only provide us with hand flower bouquet, so it's a good thing we brought our own props as well.

Here's the after studio photo shot taken with our phone.

Ken and Ivy have a pretty good chemistry as I suppose they have been colleagues for long. It was never boring having them around. Ken was really experienced and he's really good instructing us how to pose and imagination of how he wants the photo to turn out.

After the studio shots, we had a quick lunch and Ivy put on my second style for the photo shoot. 

The groom doesn't have much thing to prepare. So I'm glad he has time to take all these moments.

 
Then we head out for the rest of the day! We had chosen Putrajaya as our outdoor location. That city is so big, we really have a lot of locations to choose from even road side!

Some tips: We went a week earlier to check the place out beforehand so we knew where to go and what kind of picture we wanted to take from these locations. Then you can give ideas to your photographer and he/she can be creative about it.

Before each scene of the photo shoot, Ivy would touch up our make up, yes, the groom needs to make up as well. We brought our props along for outdoor shots. Our idea of props was really simple. Holding it, take picture, that's it. Ken was really creative and work with our props and make varieties of poses out of it. We're so glad to get directions for poses. Both of us are really awkward with cameras!

I guess both of them were familiar with the area as Ivy told me they also had another photo shoot the day before. Jon and I both heavily count on Waze for directions but having a (two in fact) human GPS were really helpful.

Tips: Always trust that the photographer know what he is doing. He is experienced enough to guide you where and how to pose for best results.

I actually wanted to take the night view but we ended up with only sunset because the time frame doesn't allow. We started at 11am from the studio and back at studio at 8pm. It was indeed a long day but it was really enjoyable. My colleague told me from his experience that we would be so tired keeping our smiles whole day that we will get cramp from smiling too much. That wasn't the case. At the end of the day, we still able to laugh in the car on our way back to Precious.

Note: We were the one driving. The photographer and make up artist will only follow along.

The crew and us

Read the related post:
Gown selection @ Precious Bridal Studio
Photo Selection @ Precious Bridal

Wedding Dress Selection @ Precious Bridal Studio

Hey, we're back again to share our experiences up until now with our bridal studio. 
So it's finally revealed that the bridal studio that I signed up for is Precious Bridal Studio because I'm happy with their service.

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The day before the appointment, the staff from Precious Bridal Studio called up to confirm the appointment. I like this kind of reminder. Even if you remembered, it's still a nice gesture to call up to remind again. 

On that day, I brought 2 of my girlfriends along for the gown selection. It's really nice to get a 2nd or 3rd eye for opinion. Of course, my hubby too were there. We waited awhile before we ransacked the bridal house to choose the gowns because the wardrobe coordinator was busy.

We were all like monsters. The girls had me tried many designs and colors that I knew myself wouldn't have picked. It turns out pretty nice! 

Girls, if you're expecting reaction like in TV dramas, where the audience would look astonished at the first impression of you with your wedding gown, no. Frankly speaking, that didn't happened. I don't look astonished with myself too. Unless you've already had it all prepared with hairdo and make up behind that curtain, then probably a Yes. Otherwise, you still look like you before you enter the changing room. (Sorry, I sounded disappointing here. Too much dramas! HAHA)

Anyway, here's some of what I've tried on:

 

The top 3 was what I had for photo shoot session. Please don't mind the ignorant face I had. I was having awkward moment to pose.

These four above was meant for actual day! I like the first and last one, but we chose neither because the girls said I had too many of this choices. It got bored. Haha.

These 2 were what I'm getting for actual day! And another dress which we didn't took photo of because it was a last minute pick. Don't get me wrong, it was nice too.

And in all my experience with Precious Bridal Studio were good so far. Helen were really quick in getting the dress on and off! (I hope I don't sound wrong here).

I've tried over 20 dresses in less than an hour. Gosh, I don't even know how many dresses I've tried on. Everyone just went on rampage to find the right dress for me. I really appreciate that! It actually saved my time to search for them if it was just me and hubby.

The red one was a lace based dress, so there were additional charges for the cleaning fee of RM250 before GST. I really wanted to wear a Oriental dress for my wedding so we paid for that. Thanks hubby! 

Alright, next post will be an update to this, the photo shoot!

Jo

Read the related post:

Pre Wedding Photo Shoot