Deciding on a Wedding Venue?

This is another ppost on a series of topics I am sharing on organising a wedding. Its just part of some stuff that I experienced so its really my personal opinion.
Have you ever received what you felt was a unwanted invitation? I’m most of us do. An old time friend which you have lost contact for donkey years calls you up and sends an invitation! Doesnt feel good right? Well, when your wedding comes you will understand why.

Ballroom / Venue Capacity
This is really the culprit all the time. You like a nice ballroom, oh what? the minimal requirement is 300 guests??? All venues have MOQs.. hotels have ballrooms that can be combined or spilt. What are you looking for in a venue? Ambience, location, economy of cost? Loads of factors to consider. Many a times, people over commit. By the time of the invitations and RSVP, they start to panic about the gaps in the tables. That is the time when the “Red Bomb” get planted. Frantic searching of people to fill the seats. Its sad but it keeps happening all the time.

My take? Size out the estimated guests before searching. Ask yourself if the invited is someone that would be happy for you because they care about you. Will the invited feel like they are receving an unwanted invitation?

Parents are almost the only pit hole here. See example:
12mths to AD: “Ah Boy ah, no need so many tables la.. 3 enough for all liao..”
2 wks to AD: “Ah Boy ah, must invite grand uncles, daughter’s son or they will not be happy” >> RED ALERT !! Table requirements up to 6!!
How should we handle this? I guess we know our parents well enough to decide whether to cater 30% extras. The hotels usually standby one to two tables at no charges. Its standby perisibles so it reasonable to charge for more standby tables.

Good luck and STOP sending out the RED BOMBS!

Personalised Wedding Vows

We love shooting solemnizations, especially personalised ones where the bride and groom would recite individually. It just makes the entire ceremony a lot of intimate rather than reading after the JP. It is perfectly alright to read if you cant remember! Just hold the card lower so that we do not get that in the frame. For those of you who are not as creative, below are some suggestions I have for you (credits to the website below)

Version 1:
I, (Bride/Groom), take you (Groom/Bride), to be my (wife/husband), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part.

Version 2:
I, (name), take you, (name), to be my [opt: lawfully wedded] (husband/wife), my constant friend, my faithful partner and my love from this day forward. In the presence of our family and friends, I offer you my solemn vow to be your faithful partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow. I promise to love you unconditionally, to support you in your goals, to honor and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to cherish you for as long as we both shall live.

Version 3:
I (name), take you (name) to be my (husband/wife), my partner in life and my one true love. I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before. I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together. I give you my hand, my heart, and my love, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live.

Version 4:
I, (name), take you, (name), to be my friend, my lover, the (mother/father) of my children and my (husband/wife). I will be yours in times of plenty and in times of want, in times of sickness and in times of health, in times of joy and in times of sorrow, in times of failure and in times of triumph. I promise to cherish and respect you, to care and protect you, to comfort and encourage you, and stay with you, for all eternity.

Version 5:
I, (name), take you, (name), to be my partner, loving what I know of you, and trusting what I do not yet know. I eagerly anticipate the chance to grow together, getting to know the (man/woman) you will become, and falling in love a little more every day. I promise to love and cherish you through whatever life may bring us.

Credits to http://weddings.about.com/cs/bridesandgrooms/a/vowwording.htm

Ian + Chunhua SDE

Location: Suburbia Sentosa
PG: Leslie (Former AMPM)

Ooh it was a rainy then sunny day.. not my favourite day for running around but it was foruntate we had sun at the critical moments. It was my first time having doctor sisters and the concoctions are really interesting ha ha. Oh yes, it was almost my first time meeting Chunhua which was overseas most of the time. Great job Ian!

Chris + Joyce Highlights

Loc: One Rochester
PG: YuHsin (Tinydot)

One lucky evening to have the dark clouds go away suddenly! The couple chose an intimate affair of close relatives and friends. The highlights of the evening turned out to be Chris’s guitar performance which was nothing short of professional. We were really impressed and even more so when Joyce was requested to sing along. Really matching couple. The final plus was to work with YuHsin again =)

Richard + Audrey SDE

Location: Rasa Sentosa Hotel
PG: William Chua

A lovely morning with sporty brothers. The games were fun, sisters pretty kind and all went well. Richard and Audrey were really happy and fun to shoot. All was well except for the rain in the evening, that had ZC and me running in the rain with our gear to cover the solemnization in time. The carpark IS SO DAMN #$@^$%. Anyway, I’m really glad we made it in time for the SDE including the solemnization. Absolutely challenging but I love it… thanks again to William for the awesome photos as usual. Photo above courtesy of William.

Using Forums to shortlist your VG/PG?

Just to share my personal experience when we were hunting for wedding VG ourselves. Well, I was travelling a lot and didnt know that many people back then. I left the hunting to my wife and she came up with a list which was gathered from the forums. I had a look, some of them I knew, some of them I never heard of BUT the reviews were really HOT. We took the effort to drop by with an appointment and… we were real disappointed by some of the stuff we saw. How did someone who charge that much, with great forum accolades produce a video that.. eh, didn’t really impress me.

I then went to the forums and had a look. I realised, the cyberworld is full of trickery. What you read, may not be the truth. Sometimes facts can be manipulated to shape a certain perspective. Not everyone in there can be trusted! Sometime later I realized that some forums collect fees in order to have a thread, hence the aggressiveness to solicit for sales I guess. Although we didn’t lose much in the selection process, we wasted precious time and encountered some disappointment. Thaz why there are serious forums where you are required to register in real identity to force people to take responsibility for their actions.

What’s my two cents? Check out the works personally. If they have an online presence, watch their videos, you can’t go wrong. And if you are looking for Cinematic Videos, I honestly think there are less than 10 in Singapore that are capable of producing truly cinematic wedding stuff. Dun get me wrong, I’m not saying the rest are not good. There are also a lot others that do great work, just that the approach is different and I only pay attention to the cinematic styled. Its just scary to start seeing the term floating up everywhere. Crappy home video styled Videographers calling themselves cinematographers…??

At the end of the day, fix a budget, shortlist 3 candidates and interact with the Cinematographers. Make sure you not only like their style, you got to hit it off with the personality. Its your big day, dun make decisions that you will regret for years.

Good luck!

Birth of the HWM Vimeo Channel

http://vimeo.com/channels/hwm

I decided to start the HWM Video Review Channel for the education stuff. Feel free to check it out here on the blog or directly at Vimeo.

Itmam + Joycelyne SDE

Location: Our Lady Queen of Peace Church
PG: Stephen Loh (Lyrical Moments)

It was a welcomed sunny day after several days of groomy weather. Joycelyne was really excited and real joy to work with. She was so giggly that she couldn’t complete the vows without giggling =) The two of them was a real blast to work with for they were so spontaneous. It was also our fast time working together with Lyrical Moments for FUSION. Stephen is really innovative and daring. I was really surprised with some of the shots.  Another great PG buddy for Firewerkz. Time to sleep!

Cathay Photo VSLR Revolution

Had a tie up with the nice folks at Cathay to support a sharing session targeted at Photographers. Crowd size was pretty nice and matured. Shared some DSLR video making stuff. It was a mad rush after the session as I had to prepare for Sat’s early shoot. The most shocking thing was a part of the session was found on Youtube today! Now I know what the paparrazzi make people feel like…. yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyiiiiiiiiiikkkkkksssss

Chek Keng + Sylvia SDE

Location: Halia @ Botanic Gardens
PG: Max (Chris Ling)

A lovely wedding that took place in Botanical Gardens. Weather was bad during the gatecrash but it turned out ok during the ceremony fortunately. CK was a little shy but Sylvia’s brilliant smile was a pleasure to capture. We tried something different this time again for the entire event was pretty touching. And yes, I was glad to meet up with Sook Yee from last year’s job. Its great to meet old friends again =)