My Wedding Series: Pre-wedding album

Hello my dear readers,

This is the first post of my wedding series where I will share with you what I have gone through in my marriage process. My first step was signing a pre-wedding photoshoot package. I have no idea whether they have this kind of "ritual" in western countries but we Asians love to take pre-wedding photos before our wedding.

But first of all I would like to share some of hubby's little brother's shots in 2010. We went to alot of places such as Esplanade, temple, mosque, church, random street around Georgetown, Batu Ferringhi beach and Tropical Spice Garden.

Besides the albums, a typical package usually includes a slideshow, hand bouquet, car deco, wedding day make up, hairdo and outfit, banner and whatever needed for your wedding so you might save on hiring a wedding planner. Anyhow, I had a simple wedding where I eliminated all sort unnecessary tradition but I will elaborate on this in my wedding day post. You will end up gaining instead of losing on your big day if you get what I mean. Trust me, after that day you will go on with your old life again so no point on spending so much.

 This was the setting they had at the lobby when we were doing photo shoot but now it has changed.

On May, 1st 2010 which was Labour day, my then boyfriend and I spontaneously went to a bridal fair at Penang International Sports Arena (PISA). I was immediately drawn to a booth that my good friend recommended me, Crystal Brides. For a lot of freebies and upgrades, the package costs only RM2999 at that time so hubby swiped his credit card and paid RM900 as deposit.

Two years later around June 2012 after we had our paper marriage in 2011, we went to Crystal Brides located in Macalister Road to book our photo shoot day. We set a date to choose our outfits and shooting day was on September, 22nd 2012. We were so excited!

Here are some stuff we got from the bridal house: albums, briefcase, thank you cards, heavy giant diary, banner and the rest such as crystal frame, giant canvas, invitation card, VIP card etc. are not in the photos.

 So after a very tiring day, these are the extra bills. 

Initial Package                                  2999

Ampoules (Wedding day)                    30

Extra makeup (Shoot day)                 299

Upgraded gown                                  350

                                      Swarovski album +

all softcopy (72dpi)                             800

Grand Total                                 RM4478

Here's a list of what we got from RM4478:
1. 18R album 26 poses full page
2. 11R album 21 poses full page
3. A huge thick "Love Never End" diary
4. 18" enlarged photo + frame
5. 50" enlarged canvas photo
6. 120 shooting poses
7. London wedding gown + suit (rental)
8. Upgraded London swarovski evening gown + suit (rental)
9. Movie scenario wedding gown + suit (rental)
10. Movie scenario evening gown + suit (rental)

11. Two outdoor wedding gowns + suits (rental)
12. Two ancient costumes + suits (rental)
13. Bride and bridegroom makeup & hairdo for 8 different looks
14. Two wedding day evening gowns + suits (rental)
15. Wedding day jeweleries (rental)
16. Wedding day evening makeup and hairdo for both
17. Bouquet x 1, corsage x 3
18. One A4 photo without frame
19. 48 pieces of thank you cards
20. Two vehicle decoration
21. DVD movie slideshow
22. 24" x 60" dinner poster
23. 42 poses of softcopy (300dpi)
24. All poses of softcopy (72dpi)
25. 6 empty invitation cards (kinda useless)
26. A long signature book
27. Classic crystal frame + photo.
28. Upgraded swarovski albums + briefcase.
29. Ampoules x 2 (shooting day)
30. Ampoules x 1 (wedding day)
31. A bottle of body foundation
32. A set of fake lashes
33. Two makeup sponge
34. Hair colour spray
35. A pair of wedding bears (we put on our wedding car)
36. One gold VVIP card + 4 VIP silver cards

Things we did not redeem:
1. A wedding day morning gown + suit (replaced with extra gown for outdoor shooting)
2. Bridal room side touch up (Don't know what is this)
3. Family shooting (only valid on our shooting day)
4. Golden Image Story (This is wedding dinner deco. Only given RM1000 voucher which definitely will make us spend more than this amount)
5. RM988 Shanghai travel voucher. (Expired by the end of 2010 and I don't really like visiting China. No offense but your republic need to work on their attitude)

So here are sample photos for each scene on the 1st indoor session:

Next we went outdoors to two locations:

We are back for 2nd indoor session. Hubby insisted my gown should be upgraded and he chose a maroon swarovski dress. RM350 for just a few minutes of shooting wtf! But I like how this dress accentuates my waistline.

We were also provided with 2 choices of traditional wear.

For more softcopy pictures, refer to my Facebook ❤ PRE-WEDDING ❤ album but only viewable by friends. Click here for my the movie slideshow provided by Crystal Brides. It's public btw. Click here for my homemade slideshow where I compiled most of the softcopies. I uploaded in Vimeo due to song copyright.

So basically that's all. One advise to you when you are taking pre-wedding photos is to decline whatever you feel unnecessary when recommended by your sales assistant or make up artist. Don't be easily influenced by them. You will be told that you look good in all the dresses so just trust your instincts. I never trust my husband on the dresses either because he is conservative. I find it amusing that he insisted on the maroon swarovski gown upgrade.

Overall I am satisfied with the outcome at such a cheap price. The swarovski album is actually available for the over RM10k package but we were offered to pay extra RM800 with all softcopies. Btw we did not hire any photographer or videographer from Crystal Brides because we have so much photographer friends.