Sharing the planning process and vendor reviews of our styled photoshoot in Bali!
How it Came About
As I wrote in my vendor review, we were quite disappointed with the decor setup for our wedding. Because of that, Janan very reluctantly agreed to letting me do a styled shoot in Bali with some of the money we had saved/been refunded from the wedding. I started planning around end-March for the photoshoot during a long weekend in Aug 2019. It helped me in that everytime I looked back in regret on my wedding decor, I could remember that if not for those mistakes, we would not have our Bali photos.
1) Venue & Decor
We had our shoot in 3 locations in Bali, with the styled part of the shoot being at the hotel. It was surprisingly difficult to find a place. A lot of hotels said that the beaches are public spaces so we would have to pay for things like beach permit and banjar fees. Most simply didn't respond to me, maybe because it's not a full wedding event and thus hard to determine a price. We eventually settled on The Haven Suites Bali Berawa and rented their beach garden space for around $500. It's quite a nice lawn space beside the beach, which you get all to yourself.
The decor was done by Red Gardenia. The photos on their instagram page are really Pinterest worthy and worth swooning over. The arch and table set up was around $950 in total (compared with Singapore, where one arch can start from $1000). Plus, it helped a lot that I could communicate in English with the hotel coordinator and stylist, and both were responsive via Whatsapp.
This is how the set-up looked at night:
2) Photographer & MUA
I considered One Three One Four packages, but decided that I wanted more flexibility to choose my gowns etc. Our photographer was Bali Pixtura. I chose them as their photos had nice lighting, lending a magical look to them. Plus their package was all-inclusive, including MUA, lighting assistant, transport and a photobook. The whole team of 4 are a really hardworking group, willing to go to all lengths to get a good shot and super attentive in caring for us.
A week before our shoot, we were informed that their main photographer was involved in an accident. We went ahead with the associate photographer, and they gave us a refund for the price difference. We had 2 photographers, one of whom was pregnant. Despite that, she stood on the wooden structures at the lake and nearly toppled into the lake when it broke! I was more worried for her than she was for herself. At the waterfalls, the water was freezing cold and gushing around us, but she and the other photographer thought nothing of squatting in the cold waters to take photos of us. In addition to that, the lighting assistant went barefoot and gave me his slippers to wear, while my MUA kept stepping in to ensure my gown and hair were in place. He also helped support me on the lake boats and slippery waterfall rocks.
The only cons are that some of the shots looked over-edited and we were asked to do a lot of posed shots which I felt made the photos look unnatural e.g. the above one of us looking in different directions. It was also quite a long timeline between our photoshoot in August 2019 and receiving our photobook in January 2020. Maybe because I was used to our local photographers giving us the photos super quickly (Kuan Yee cause she had to rush them for our wedding, and our AD one cause he rushed the highlights for our lunch celebration). I wasn't in a rush for this since our wedding was over, but something to take note of if you're doing a pre-wedding shoot with them.
Overall, we had a good experience with all our Bali vendors and would recommend considering them if you're planning a wedding/photoshoot there!
3) Gowns
Funny how I was back to gown shopping a few months after my wedding. I wanted something different from the ballgown I had worn for the wedding, so I was searching for more fitted gowns. I actually placed a deposit with Bqueens, but ended up renting from Wedding Crafters! Final gown at the end of the post.
This is the bohemian style gown I originally selected from Bqueens, along with a blue cheongsam (photos in next post). I like that it's a 2-piece and very different from the usual wedding gowns.
I went back to TGC and found this piece which I loved wearing. The salesgirl said it's her favourite gown and that a lot of her customers ended up choosing this. I think the gown is called Ashley. It can be worn in a variety of ways - strapless, with straps, or off-shoulder like below.
This was my other pick from Wedding Crafters, and which the salesgirl voted for. But it was a bit like my AD gown.
This is the gown I ended up choosing! I love the the dusty pink shade, details of the 3D flowers, and most of all, the scalloped lace train. I didn't like the low v-neck cut, and I edited it in some of my photos. After looking many times at my photos of this gown, I decided that I liked it enough to sacrifice my deposit with Bqueens. Thankfully, Wedding Crafters kindly extended their promotion so I could rent it for a cheaper price and Bqueens allowed me to rent 2 suits for Janan to replace the one gown. In fact, when my friend asked me about my favourite gown for the whole wedding process, this is one of the top 2 (the other being my actual day one from TGC).
Check out the next post for the photos and tips!
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