Wedding Preps- Part VII: Pre-Wedding Shoot in Australia

Australia's a really pretty place to take rustic-styled photos so through a random google search, we found ourselves an awesome photographer, Anthony Hoang. Click here for his website.

What can I say, Anthony was an absolute dream to work with. Mr. C and I were really stiff throughout the shoot and he had to direct pretty much each and every pose, but he was still so patient and chatty right to the end. The shoot was done in 2 hours, at the Golden Hour between 3.45pm-5.45pm. Mr. C and I had heaps of fun and it was really a great experience overall. Anthony really "got me" as to what I wanted for the photos a.k.a no dreamy, over-processed photos, just photos with lots of natural sunlight. I gave him a rough idea of what I wanted and he translated that into my dream pictures! He even sourced out a hay farm about 1.5 hours south-west of Brisbane when I mentioned that I would like photos with hay bales! He and his wife are such a dedicated team and I could really feel that just by corresponding with them prior to the shoot via Facebook. I would definitely recommend them to everyone! 

My hair and make-up was done by Amy Chan from Particulart, a studio in St. Lucia. Amy was lovely, and she did a fabulous job with my make-up and hair. She was fun to chat to and she had heaps of her own opinions, which is a really good thing to me because I got to hear different views about different looks etc. Again, she is definitely somebody I would recommend!

We had a really crap experience with our shoot in Singapore a couple of months ago. Our photographer (he who shall not be named) at our bridal studio started out really great but halfway he was quite moodless and I think it could have been due to the heavy rain and also the fact that somebody stole his good umbrella while we were shooting and he had to spend extra to get a new one. He was also not "automatic" at all and had a very blasé attitude. His mood affected us and needless to say, the weather disappointed us big time too. It didn't help the fact that it immediately stopped raining the moment the shoot came to an end. So we ended up not being able to shoot at our desired locations and yeah, all in all, it just wasn't our day. And with regards to the bridal studio itself, I felt that although the gowns were vast and varied, some were not very well maintained. The studio was also small and really cramped inside. There were like 4 or 5 other couples inside as well on the day of our shoot and there was absolutely no space to walk at all. They also had only 2 make-up stations, and although the make-up artists were young, nice and friendly, they spoke almost no English (ridiculous, given the the official language of Singapore is English) at all. I had such a hard time communicating with them! My mandarin isn't the best I know but I just assumed that they could perhaps understand what I was saying even if they couldn't speak the language well. So anyway, language barrier aside, the type of make-up style that they use is also something I could not agree with. Certain people can only take certain kinds of make-up styles and for me, it's the nude and bronze style with heavy eyeliner. I look absolutely hideous and unnatural with the Korean, cutesy style. I just thought that being professionals with proper certification, they would tailor the look to the individual person. They were trying to slap on various shades of red and pink on me, and with ridiculous false eyelashes. I actually jerked backwards and nearly fell off my seat when she came at me with a brush dipped full of pink powdered blush! I asked for bronzer instead but she looked at me funny and said that they don't have that, so I asked for the most neutral shade of pink instead and told her to go easy with it. She next tried to attack me with bright pink lipstick. I politely declined and asked for a nude color instead. Thank God she found one that I was okay with, although the tube of lip color was right at the bottom of her make-up toolbox and looked old and grubby.

After that shoot, we went down the next day to select our pictures. I appreciated the fact that they rushed the photos for us because we were flying off the next day. There were about 100+ photos but we could only choose 30. We had the option to purchase additional photos at some crazy price per piece. Luckily or unluckily, the photos were not very nice (or rather, not really what we were after) so we spent only 15 min culling them till there were only 30 left. I think the woman attending to us was quite surprised as most couples would opt to upgrade their bridal packages so as to get more pictures. Many still love to get their photos taken in the studio and having their faces airbrushed the lives out of them, but that's just not me I guess. The 4 couples that were scheduled to shoot at the studio the same day we were there were very into it (I sneaked a peek). The Asian style of wedding photography is the very airbrushed, dreamy look which is not my cup of tea.

The only reason we shot with them was because photography was only S$400 extra on top of our package so we just thought it was worth it. Turns out, we regret making that move because S$400 can get you loads of better stuff. Anyway, having said all that, the staff at that bridal studio were still nice, patient and polite at all times. So that is my consolation. Since I already signed a bridal package with them earlier this year, I will be renting my gown and having my make-up done by them on the actual day as well. I will be bringing my own arsenal of make-up then. Well-prepared now!

ANYWAAAAAY. Sorry for the verbal diarrhoea. 

Now on to the good stuff! Our shoot with Anthony Hoang:

My cream crochet-overlay dress was purchased from www.lookbookstore.com for about AUD$20 and the silk flower pin in my hair was from eBay and I got it for AUD$1. My taupe crochet wooden sandals were from S.E.S and they were AUD$10, I got it during a Christmas sale a few years back.  Mr. C was wearing his light olive denims from Jay Jays that I picked out for AUD$20 (they were on sale at Harbour Town, Gold Coast last year). His white shirt is also one that I picked out from Tommy Hilfiger and he bought it specially for this shoot during the 25% off sale at Myers. We also had a AUD$40 gift card so he ended up paying only about AUD$58 for the shirt.

I am absolutely madly in love with all the photos! They seriously could not have turned out better. They were everything I hoped for and more! I used to sigh enviously while looking through similar-styled photos of other couples and wondered if I would ever have the privilege to be in such pictures. After the crappy experience in Singapore, I just thought perhaps we wouldn't have such luck but now we have our own pictures that are too perfect. We are happy customers! Thank you again, Anthony!