Using bridal galleries VS doing it yourself

I did my pre-wedding photo shoot. At first I was going to rent the gown for her but after considering the cost, it was cheaper to buy it. I bought a shirt from Raoul. It was a shirt I've seen in Bangar Village but it didn't have my size. I walked into the Raoul in One Utama and they had one that fits me perfectly.

We got her gown at Melinda Looi and I used Anna-Rina to shoot our photos. The makeup was done by Laila from my office. I think the total cost was almost the same as going to a bridal gallery. The benefits if you do on your own from the way I see it is:

1. You get to choose your own photographer which is very important if you don't want the same generic wedding shots everyone else has. In Bridal galleries, they always use the same location and the same poses. Corny isn't it? I prefer working with the photographer who would talk to you and you can figure out what themes you want. Anna-Rina was recommended to me by another photographer we originally wanted to use but he already left the country. Anna was fun to shoot with. Its important to find a photographer who has a full set of lenses. Its the lenses that makes the difference. Anyone can buy a DSLR camera and copy posses from bridal magazines; finding a photographer who is original and has a full set of equipment is hard to find.

2. We get to keep the gowns! I actually bought two gowns for her. The other places we when too wanted at least 1K to rent one gown. We walked into Melinda Looi and we saw two that she really liked and we got it of the rack at RM850 each. Buying of the rack helps. I liked her evening gown, she looks really good in it. If you want one that is specially designed, it would go for at least RM1500. The veil was a bit pricy at RM280 but I guess its quite simbolic. It goes quite well with her white gown. We also got new shoes. I bought a new pair of shoes from Hush Puppies on sale at One Utama. Its really comfortable, I think I just might start wearing it to work.

3. I got my own makeup artist from my office. Laila has been doing makeup for many years and she does the wedding makeup for quite a lot of the staff too. She did an excellent job for our photo shoot. I won't reveal the price because mine was a special price but all I can say is that its much cheaper and better than using an outside one. Laila also followed us around during the shoot to touch up the makeup. In outdoor shoots its important to have the makeup artist follow as the makeup starts to wear of. In one shot, I was asked to kiss her and I got lipstick smudged on her lips (the lipstick was from her lips when she kissed me). Luckily Laila was around to fix it.

4. You get to pick different locations no one has been too before. From what we've seen at the bridal galleries, Putrajaya is quite popular now. Using some lalang field seems quite popular too. I used the hotel where my wedding reception was going to be held. They let me shoot for free in it and I got to use one of their suites to shoot in too. We shot on a Friday so there wasn't many people around. We even managed to take some outdoor shots in the park. We got stuck in traffic so by the time we got to Taman Rimba in Taman Tun Dr. Ismail it was almost dark already. We only started shooting at 3:30PM so all in all, the total shoot was actually 3 hours minus the one hour we got stuck in traffic.

Oh yeah, if you have money, try shooting at Carcosa Seri Negara. For a half day shoot there, they wanted RM1500. Its RM2000 for a full day shoot there. I thought it was way too much. I used to shoots there for work for free. It has a wonderful colonial architecture. I wonder of Bukit Tinggi charges money for Bridal shoots too. I think that would be a nice place to shoot at too.

I don't have the pictures from Anna yet. Still waiting for her to photoshop the shots. We're going to do our own photo book. She recommended a website, www.photobook.com.my. It's a website that lets you set pictures into a template you can download and the email it to them. They would mail you your photo book in a week. Quite cool. Gives me a chance to play around with photoshop too!

Overall, if you like planning every detail do it yourself. If you're not into the details, do it at a bridal house. My whole career has been about shooting and asking people to pose for me. I just couldn't stand how the Bridal houses did it. I wanted someone who I knew would be good and I can work with.



Thanks to Sim and See Ming for tagging along also!