Wedding Talk: Pre-wedding photoshoot by Chris Ling Photography

I'm back with more wedding talk! 

Approximately 4 more months to the wedding and the preparations are starting to get more intense! My hope is to be able to do a detailed blog post about the wedding preparations and the vendors that we have used after the actual wedding, so that other brides-to-be (btb) who happen to chance upon this humble blog will be able to use the information from this blog to help her with her own wedding research.

The bridal that I went to was z'wedding. They had a collaboration with Chris Ling Photography and hence naturally my pre-wed photoshoot would be done by Chris Ling Photography. 

On hindsight, this was probably the Biggest, Worst (and whatever negative adjectives that you deem appropriate) decision I've made in my whole entire wedding planning. I DID NOT have a pleasant experience with them and that whole experience and interaction with them almost, almost ruined my mood in the entire wedding planning. But I'm so glad I had decided to terminate our working relationship earlier even though that meant we have to source for another bridal and fork out even more money. As our money which we had earlier paid could not be refunded, we had converted our bridal package to solely a pre-wed photography package and the excess money was used to purchase more pictures from the shoot.

But more on the whole unpleasant experience in other later posts....

We went to choose my gowns for the pre-wed photoshoot in mid-June, and that was when my initial reservations about signing up with z'wedding were confirmed and the decision to not use their gowns for actual day became stronger. (Ok, I digressed...) and we took our studio photoshoot in end June.

The first gown. This was the gown I fell in love with many years ago when I first saw it in a wedding magazine, and I was sure that I wanted to wear this for my photoshoot.

It is a timeless off shoulder ballgown with beautiful diamantes and crystals lining the neckline. I love love this piece even though it was a really simple piece.

And this was the hair that my hairstylist gave me on the day of the photoshoot to match this ballgown. 

Now that I look at it, it looked kinda old isn't it?

It looked like a hairstyle that an 'ah ma' in a market would sport, but I was too excited about the whole photoshoot that I didn't pay much attention to the hairstyle I was given (there was no hair trial for me...just a 'discussion', didn't know hairstyles could be just 'discussed'. Ok, I digressed again) 

The thing I was most unhappy about was my fringe. But I don't blame the hairstylist. That was because, my fringe was in a really awkward length, it was neither here nor there and I guessed it made styling a little difficult. I should have requested for the fringe to be pulled up.

Hence, here comes Tip #1 for all BTB: keep your hair long and make sure you give ample time (at least 6 months) for your hair to grow out.

So anyways, this was Look 1 for me, along with my done makeup and hair. Will talk about my fantastic MUA later in the post. 

And this was my second gown. This was also my second favorite, because it was in pink which was my favorite colour, and this gown looked really Princessy! All brides should feel like princesses when they are in their wedding gowns! Even my MUA liked this gown too. But not my SIL and MIL as they felt that the bodice of the gown was in a similar colour as my skin tone and it made me look like I wasn't wearing anything at all! Makes sense, but I still Iike this!

And this was the hair I was given. I liked this hair and it's accompanying hair accessory very much because the entire look made me very demure looking, very sweet and it totally increased the entire princess factor! Haha.

I wasn't wearing a tiara, but a pearl hairband ( picture below ). And how do you like my makeup?

I love it! 

And the overall look my outfit!

My third gown, which was also everyone's favorite.

But I wore it without the sash though.

It was a gown that I did not want to choose, because I felt that the design was too simple, too common, and maybe too old-fashioned. My main concern was that the design was too common. I didn't pay so much for z'wedding just to get a gown I can easily get off any bridal shops. But the husband was rooting fervently for me to get this gown so I relented, just to make him happy. Anyway, I wanted him to think that I looked beautiful in my wedding gown, so I chose this as well. But it was meh to me.

The hair that I was given, a sexy messy touseled side swept hair. 

And I was so thankful that the hair and the makeup complemented the gown so well, that it actually brought out the beauty in this seemingly common dress. 

The entire look was probably my most favorite look of all. 

And my finally gown which was the meh-est of all. Z'wedding had so many restrictions, cannot choose new seasons under our package, certain gowns are for actual wedding amongst other reasons.

It was really hard to choose a decent gown to my liking but at this point, I was feeling too frustrated and helpless that I was like 'heck la, just take any that she gives to me'. And the thing is, it felt like there weren't many gowns to choose from. I was only able to see like 2 racks of gowns (ball gowns and evening gowns) on the second floor (which were the changing rooms as well)  and the consultant would just disappear somewhere and take a gown that SHE thought I might like to show it to me and try. But it wasn't like I was able to look around the whole entire collections that were available and choose for myself what I would like to try. 

This gown was actually meant for outdoor shoot, but since the package that we had converted to didn't include outdoor, I wore this too, for our indoor shoot. 

Now that I look at this gown, it is still meh to me. I probably could have gotten a better looking gown off taobao & dhgate. 

And this was my hair and makeup for this gown.

I didn't like this hair at all, because the shape of my face is not suited for a half-tie. It makes my face look bigger than it already is. 

I probably won't choose photos from this look but I love the studio scenes that I had shot in, in this gown. Major sigh.

Anyway, the woman in the above picture that you see, is actually my talented MUA @dblchin/Clara Song. She was the makeup artist who actually helped me with my makeup for my causal engagement photoshoot a few weeks ago. She had also told me after my makeup session with her previously that she was not planning to take on any new assignments after me, because she wanted to prepare for her delivery (she was by now about 7 months pregnant).

1-2 weeks before my Chris Ling photoshoot, I went down to z'wedding for a trial makeup, and boy was I glad that I had insisted on the trial makeup because it turned out horrendous! I hated the makeup that my original MUA (from z'wedding) had given me. I believed MUA are supposed to cover the flaws and make you beautiful and not emphasize on the flaws, and unfortunately, that was what the MUA gave me. My makeup looked dry, and powdery and thick. Dark circles were not concealed, nose bridge not highlighted and looked too white. Totally not flattering at all. Worst, the MUA had practised poor hygiene and I was so worried that the makeup would cause my sensitive skin to breakout. I am not sure if it was only a trial, that's why the sloppiness and sub-standard. The trial was quickly over in about 15, at most 20 minutes. 

So Tip #2 for BTB: Insist on having a trial makeup because you wouldn't know if you will like the makeup that your MUA will be giving you on that day, or you wouldn't know if the products they used will be suitable for your face. That would give you more time to source out for other MUA if you don't like your bridal's MUA.

I kept explaining to her the look I was going for, but she wasn't able to understand so I gave up. Can you imagine, by then, how helpless I was and I really wanted to break down there and then because I did not want to look ugly in my makeup. I was already going to be donning mediocre gowns, I didn't want bad makeup to make me look worse. 

Inside me, I was screaming for help, crying out of frustration. I then decided that, I was not going to settle for this MUA and needed to look for someone better, someone I could trust to do my makeup for. And Clara popped into my head. I was so pleased with her makeup for the engagment shoot and I thought that no one else could be a better candidate than her. But I also knew, she was not going to take in anymore new assignments.

But I had to try! And I did. 

I contacted her immediately and told her how desperate I was and without second words, Clara checked her schedule and told me that she would take up the assignment and do my makeup for me! 

I was so so so relieved! 

On the day of the shoot, Clara stayed with me throughout from 10am-3pm, constantly touching up for me, changing my looks and ensuring I looked my best. I did not have to worry a single bit about what look she was going to give me and whether the fake eyelashes will overwhelm my eyes etc. I trusted her 100%, every time she took up her makeup tool to change my look. Was really very touched that she was so patient to sit through the whole shoot with me, and everytime I came back from the shoot, she will be there, showing me her widest grin and ever ready to change my looks. Am so so grateful to her. What made her better, was that her rates were pocket friendly and was relatively cheaper as compared to the market rate outside! 

Will definitely recommend Clara to any of my friends if they need a MUA for any events!

** at this point, I'm contemplating if I should talk about the whole photoshoot experience... Hmm....

I guess I'm getting too lengthy and wordy in this post and so I shall stop here! Hopefully I can get some sneak peaks and post some of them here and then talk about my experience in Chris Ling studios. 

But, till then!