wedding photography/ videography

the key vendors that we explored were for our pre and actual day wedding photography and videography.

for photography, while han yang wasn't too fussed, i was. i didn't want amateur photography, but i knew we weren't ready to put in too much money for something too premium. to be honest, i was a bit annoyed at how people make use of this once in a lifetime wedding to intentionally charge more. referring to those who put a ridiculous premium when they do wedding-related services. 

we asked around friends who had recently gotten engaged/ married, and they recommended a few photographers/videographers. many quoted anywhere from 1k+ to 2k+ for a full day, or offered packages of pre-wedding and actual day photography/videography (high 2k to 4k plus). but it just didn't feel right to me somehow, because pre-wedding, actual day photography and videography required totally different skill sets and it would have been near impossible to find someone who fitted everything. these were my requirements:

1) pre-wedding photography: good at casual, non-posed, natural shots. creative in framing/ editing 

2) pre-wedding videography: doesn't need to be overly artistic with the setup or concept, just gotta look professional and string together a story well enough to engage audience. had to capture the essence of how God's grace and love brought us together and sustained our relationship

3) actual day photography: good at framing the big picture, doesn't need to be artistic in editing; technical flair more important

4) actual day videography: capturing important moments

we found our pre-wedding photographer, Andri, by chance, as one of my friends engaged him for their actual day. i checked his work out, and really liked the rawness of locations he shot in, the realness of the expressions that he was able to capture, and his artistic direction. not only that, he offered half-day (3 hr) shoots at a fraction of the cost, and it was extremely reasonable! not only that, when we met up with him, he said we were able to split our 3 hr session into two 1.5 hr sessions so that we could capture sunrise and late afternoon, where lighting was amazing and softer respectively. he was also real helpful in getting us into different poses that turned out really nice!

these are some edited shots:

we took the shots at portsdown road! they have soft sunlight streaming in at around 7am, so we had to be up really early to catch the light before it got too sunny.

prior to this shoot i don't think we had hugged, caressed each others' faces or touched each others' noses so much in a day. it was quite fun :3

in the afternoon, we went to jalan besar (practically where i live, since my workplace and church is there, i'm there 6 days of the week). love this neighbourhood where things are so untouched. we chanced upon a cafe AEIOU which made the perfect spot for our cheongsam vintagey shots. the owners were really sweet about us crashing the cafe too.

andri also provided us with 300+ unedited shots from the sessions. we loved them, even in their unedited form:

the colours were amazing even without editing

i love this photo for secret reasons.

 don't remember what was exchanged, but i remember how i felt :D

i thought 3 hours was just about right for a simple 2 location shoot. we had more than enough photos from 3 hours, and we even had time to rest up a little between late morning and early afternoon, and to freshen up for the 2nd session. think it would have been pretty hectic and tiring if it was a 6 hr shoot.

we also got andri to print our photos on a premium leather photobook because he had showed us a sample during our initial meeting and i got to feel the quality of the book and paper. the price was also not too far off from the DIY/cheaper options offered online and i didn't want to go through the hassle of fretting about the design myself, so i went ahead and got it printed:

it was a good decision. he also included in a stack of small square prints in a wooden box, together with a thumb drive of the photos. our pre-wedding photography turned out satisfactory, and much more fun than i imagined.

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for actual day wedding photography, it was a little harder to find, especially as we were sourcing in the last 3 months, and a few of those that caught our eye were already booked up. we wanted to go with someone who did wedding photography in our church (merv kwok), but he wasn't free. explored asking a friend who did it as a hobby as we were not fussed in needing a full time professional, and plus he took beautiful photos. he was not up for it but offered to be the secondary photographer.

eventually, i chanced upon ashley's photos, also through asking friends. if i'm not mistaken, he is currently studying film/media in poly. he does photography in our church, but has never done wedding photography. i was quite keen for him to take our photos because i support budding talents, haha.
after multiple efforts of bugging him, he finally relented. he was apprehensive at first since it was his first time. but yay, we were very pleased at how his photos turned out, though i should have also told him to focus on some of the peripherals, like the wedding setup and favours, which were so beautifully done up by my sis and friends, but i felt there could have been more coverage. but i think that on my part, i should have communicated this across to him. overall, i'm still super satisfied! here're just a few:

and here're some from my 2nd photographer, benson. they were equally lovely, and i really liked the soft look of the editing:

more to come :)

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for videography, we got Jeshua to do our pre and actual day. jeshua is also another (super young) talent who does videography well, but also many other things as well (he shared some interesting ideas in the works, of interesting business models - eg. camera equipment rental at extremely low cost, shaking other players in market, low cost video production for startups, etc).

for pre-wedding videography, we wanted it entirely frills-free - no multiple location flash backs and dressing up/ looking good/ changes of outfits - we just wanted to tell our story, as authentic and straight forward as possible. i felt that this was an important part of the actual day programme, as it was the key point for the audience to get to know who we were as a couple, especially since many only knew just one of us, or not at all. to be technical, our programme for the day had to flow seamlessly, and each part of it couldn't be too lengthy/ bore the audience, but it had to present facades of who we were/ contribute towards the main gist of our message - which was thankfulness to God and our loved ones. the video was pivotal in engaging the audience for the rest of the ceremony/ dinner.

well, i must say he did a good job. it told our story and made many laugh. not only that, pricing was also reasonable since it was a 2-3 hour shoot over 1 night:

i watched it so many times cos i just found it so hilarious! i liked it that it ended with our jamming audio, but the voice/piano was rather cringe-worthy cos Jeshua told us he was gonna just take filler shots and not the audio. so we anyhow-ed and he played the song in an extremely awkward key for me. we tried to salvage people's impressions of a deluded couple who had retirement dreams of jamming by singing/playing properly during the dinner. haha.

for actual wedding video, his portfolio was rather comprehensive, and i liked the angles/ shots that he captured, so we went ahead with him too! video still in production as we didn't do same day edit, will share when we get a cut of it! 

Pre-wedding photography: Andri Tei
Actual wedding photgraphy: Ashley Teo, Benson Ang
Pre and actual wedding videography: Jeshua Soh Productions