I’M FINALLY BACK FROM LE HONEYMOON
Aaaaaand it’s time to document bits and pieces of the past few hectic months on this online diary of mine – Starting with our Pre-Wedding Photoshoot (PWS) that was done overseas in Sanya, China. (I’ll do up another post on why I (we) decided to do our PWS overseas with the price comparison and all so this post will fully be on the experience we had during our PWS)
Fun fact, it was actually an impromptu decision to fly down to Sanya for our PWS cause I was so obsessed with the triangle glass chapel I REALLY wanted to do take our photos there. It took me so long (few days) to find out where exactly was it located in China and how to engage a studio there (also had to research on the various studios available as there were very mixed reviews on xhs). But I’m glad that J has been a very spontaneous and supportive partner to indulge in my obsession (lol) and went ahead with the tight schedule to fly to Sanya for our PWS.
SO. WE BOOKED EVERYTHING LESS THAN A MONTH BEFORE WE FLEW.
CRAZY? I KNOW.
ANY RAGRETS? NO, NOT EVEN A LETTER.
What made it crazier was that, a few days before we flew, there was news of an incoming typhoon (Trami) and we were so worried we wouldn’t be able to make the shoot.
DAY 1 – Arrival Day
When we landed (there was pick up from airport to our hotel provided by the studio), it rained, and flooded. It took us around 4 hours instead of 30 minutes to get to our hotel and at this point, we were just stressed that the shoot wouldn’t be able to take place the day after. We ended up at another hotel arranged by the studio as the car wasn’t able to reach our originally appointed hotel due to the flood.
The room was generally good – spacious and clean. The location was pretty convenient too, considering how cheap it was to get around via taxi. But it did have some cigarettes smell so we told the studio that we would like to switch back to our originally assigned hotel the next day if the flooding stopped.
After washing up and taking a nap, we headed out for dinner at a nearby mall.
We decided to try this out cause we didn’t have this back in our country. They sold dishes made with Crab Roe – something I don’t particularly fancy when eating on its own but I was taken aback at how nice the Crab Roe soup with chicken (my dish) tasted! 10/10 would eat this again. They even provided us with complimentary ginger tea (as Crab Roe is considered as a “cooling”) to balance out.
Also, this is my first time using my GRII for a trip so I’m still tryna grasp the lighting/coloring/focus/controls.
Also walked around the mall after and checked out Popmart – it’s shocking to see how empty Popmart actually is in China.
DAY 2 – Gowns & Suits Selection Day
We checked out earlier and took a taxi to the studio to select our gowns & suits!
When we arrived, we were A LITTLE WORRIED as the building was run-down, or rather, it was relatively new but empty like a ghost town with many units unoccupied. But when we found the studio and walked in, all our worries vanished. It was POSH.
The first thing we did was to sit down with a “Planner” to discuss the venues we would like to do our shoot at. It was a little complicated at the start as they have a range of locations and we had to consider the distance between each location distance as we only had A DAY to conduct the whole shoot. But the planner was very patient and had sample photos of couples for each location and when we told her which we liked, she would tell us if it is doable and if not, would recommend us an alternative that is close to what we want.
After we settled for our shoot locations, it was time to pick out our gowns & suits!
They had quite a fair bit of selections for gowns but many were a little outdated/not to my liking. I only managed to find less than 5 gowns to try on (picked by me) and honestly, it was really hard to visualize looking good in it without proper make up and hair done. But I settled for 4 gowns that look nice/decent on me and ISTG I was counting on the make up artist and photographer to make me look good on photos.
The gown selection felt a little rushed as the “Gown Technician” (maybe it was a her problem) would strongly suggest a few for you to try on instead of letting you browse through all the hundreds of gowns slowly and gave off a little of an impatient vibe thought she was not rude at all during the whole process. I guess I’d recommend for brides-to-be to just stand firm and take your time to try and look at the gowns and believe in your judgement as to what you look good/not good in. I eventually decided on 4 with the help of J and it was his turn now.
And guess what?
No, he didn’t have much choices as his suits were all chosen to match the bride’s outfit (LOL).
He was given 4 different colored suit to match my gowns and to be slightly fair, they did have 2-3 variations of designs for each color. But I just can’t help laughing over the fact that he did not get a chance to actually choose his suits lol – though I think he would be able to if he were to be persistent about wanting to.
Went for Haidilao which was just above the studio for lunch cause IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY (I insisted I wanted to eat it) and also conveniently got my nails done for free there too! The portion there were twice as much and the price was half of what SG’s HDL would charge, it’s insane. I haven’t been to SG’s HDL ever since cause it felt like a waste of money now comparatively.
Headed over to our 2nd hotel after lunch and…….
The 2nd hotel was less posh but SO MUCH BIGGER and it felt cosy – it practically felt like a 1BR apartment. It was relatively clean too and did not have any cigarette smell. Although it is definitely out of the way and inconvenient compared to our previous hotel (it’s like a country club that is a little outskirt), they have a proper drop off point and it was less stressful to board/alight the taxi since we were taking taxis to get around, even from the previous hotel.
(idk why my husband weird like this but I love it lol)
Also, J’s aunt got flowers for me and delivered it to the hotel as a surprise (say whaaaat?!!).
SO. MUCH. LOVE. I LOVE IT.
Settled in to the new place and took a taxi out for massage!
Can I just say, I LOVE THIS PLACE SO MUCH?
- Massage was on point
- Service was good
- They had free flow FOOD & DRINKS
- FOOD tasted GOOD
And when I say food, it ain’t just finger food. They had a range of dumplings all the way to rice and noodles! We literally had a 4 course meal there, with fruits to end it off lol.
(I took a video of it but NO PHOTOS, still learning how to manage vlog+blog footage)
I love how it was a private room for 2 with FREE MOVIES?? And after the massage, they did not rush us to leave or make payment. We could finish our movie and food before heading off with no stress at all! 10/10 would recommend and go back again!! (Also, we got a deal off an app so it was really affordable)
DAY 3 – Photoshoot Day
We had to arrive at the studio at 6AM. SIX, FREAKING, AYE, AM.
ISTG I LOVE CHINA’S MAKE UP ARTIST SKILLS – Unbeatable.
They took into account so many details like – combing/tinting your baby hair, making your hair more layered so it has more volume, styling of stray hairs instead of just spraying/gel them down to the hair AND SO MANY MORE I CAN’T EVEN LIST THEM ALL OUT. And best of all, it took less time than average make up artists I’ve worked with.
Next, the MUA helped me into my dress after she’s done with J’s make up as well.
We were assigned for the day:
- 1 Photographer
- 1 Make Up Artist
- 1 Assistant
- 1 Driver
So, we were done with make up and changing around 8ish and with the assistant packing the rest of the gowns and suits and shoes up (the assistant was HORRIBLE, i told him the shoes were too tight but he packed it anyway since I was able to squeeze into it and that costed me a whole day of pain!), we were off to our first location for the shoot!
So ALL THESE were from ONE location – we had to pay to enter the venue where it feels like a movie setting with all these buildings and props!
Next up, 2nd location & 2nd gown!
There’s this changing room in this venue that is literally like a camp site with mirrors and chairs. It was so humid due to the rain and there were like at least 10 couples camping in here while waiting for the rain to stop. We also had lunch here (provided) but it wasn’t to my liking so I munched on the snacks we bought the day before. ALSO, after changing & touching up, the gown was too tight for any appetite to happen lol.
This was also the location that had the triangle glass church (first photo of this post)!!
Jumping forward to our next outfit & location –
I actually loved this location best cause it was fun with the sparkles and all – also, I never thought I’d ever do a photoshoot on the beach. It’s good to do it with a studio cause they’ll be in charge of washing the gown and all and you don’t have to worry about dirtying it or anything else!
We were supposed to have a night shoot (another gown & suit) at the beach, with a glamping setup BUT it started raining so we had to change plans to do the last one indoors – which I would not recommend cause the studio was pretty broken down and the shots coming out from it was kinda limited and bad even though the make up was good (photographer probably not trained for indoor shoots). Was a little disappointed cause I loved the last gown/dress, but I guess I was more grateful than anything that it didn’t rain as much during the day and we managed to capture the rest.
And that concludes our photoshoot day!
We ended at night around 10PM and I can’t imagine how these staffs were supposed to pack up and come back at the same timing the next day (especially the make up artist that has to be there at 6AM!)
I was pretty amazed and grateful at how they assigned a make up artist to us for the whole day because it was SO HELPFUL. She not only helped me into my outfits, helped fix our hair during the shoot when needed, she practically carried the whole team and even did some jobs of what was supposed to be the assistant’s. She also helped us take behind the scene shots & videos that helped so much in our wedding montage video!! We tried tipping her after but she rejected it, saying it is company’s policy to not accept tips separately but I swear she was the MVP for this successful photos, photographer aside.
We had Haidilao, again, cause it was convenient and didn’t want to think about what to eat.
DAY 4 – Photos Selection Day
We went down to the studio early in the morning (as we have a night flight back) and selected the photos, copied the RAW photos to my thumbdrive, and paid the remaining fee for the photoshoot. I think this was one of the most stressful day because we were supposed to select 48 photos from SO MANY GOOD ONES. And luckily for me, I’ve told the studio that I want RAW files before I signed the package and was able to thereafter engage photo editors online to edit the other photos that we liked – we ended up with twice the number of photos for our photobook lol.
We then went to a mall for our last meal before we flew back and this was THE BEST MEAL I’ve had!!
This “Sour-Veg Beef” bowl looks so normal but IT IS SO DELISH and I haven’t found one place back home that can replicate this flavor! (Closest I could find rn is from a noodle shop at Parklane) 10/10 would head back to China for this!!
Did some final shopping and after walking in & out of this plush shop for the longest of time, I decided to get this (or forced J to get this) for my birthday gift!
AND THAT CONCLUDES OUR PWS TRIP!
I’m so glad we decided to do this cause it was filled with memories and I’d definitely recommend couples to do their PWS overseas! Will do a pros and cons post soon – where we weighed and compared back then before deciding to do overseas.
