Sia's brilliant works

We finally had our photo shoot taken by Sia in our casual wears. It was nothing short of a thrilling, traumatic and dramatic experience that will forever form part of our permanent memory. I'm not referring to Sia's photography skills per se, but rather the drama mama incident that happened at the railway track at Hillview.

Initial plan was to head to the railway track at Sunset Way which Sia thought was the one I described from the drama serials. When he picked us at my house, we deviated and make our way to the one at Hillview.

It was a scorching day, much less at a railway track where the metals are emitting heat. All of us were sweating buckets, especially when Henry was wearing his ROM suit. We climbed the slope covered with tall grasses up to the track and started the ball rolling. It was a little awkward at first as it was both ours as well as Sia's first time doing a couple shoot.

Things began to ease up and we threw in a few impromptu suggestions on some poses. It was about 20minutes into shoot before we began to inch forward to the area where the railway bridge was just right above the roads, with no side railings, just ruffia ropes tying from pole to pole.

I was doing some solo poses by the side, with Sia at the middle of the railway track and Henry of close proximity to him, when we heard a LOUD honk coming at us. Our heads turned to that direction and saw a KTM train coming right direct into our faces at probably 90km/h!

Boy, were we taken aback and of course, our instinct told us to run for our dear lives! Imagine running in high wedges on the railway paved with rocks.....

We jumped out from the middle of the track and ran beside it towards the slope where we came up from. My first instinct was to get to the bush area (where I won't fall onto the roads from dodging the train) and lean forward as much as I could to avoid getting hit by the train. I pulled my body in as much as I could, in time to see the train going past behind me, sending my dress flying up!

When I turned to my right, I saw Sia doing the same thing with Henry right beside him. It was after the life and death moment that Henry said it was Sia who pulled him to the side in time and prevent him from getting hit from the back. He was trying to run and jump to the area away from the track but he was too slow for the train, of course. Sia was his life saviour.

While we were attempting to recover fro the shock as the train came past behind us, Sia suddenly screamed. His $3,000 len was left near the track, in grave danger of being smashed to pieces!! Three of us stared intensively at the len and prayed hard that somehow it can grow legs to pull itself out of danger. Thank goodness, the len was just inches to getting hit! After the train passed, I ran to save it and checked if it was still intact. Luckily, it was. :)

After those traumatic moments, three of us were still in a state of shock but we resumed the photography to calm ourselves down. Undoubtedly, those photos did not turn out very well as predicted.

We gradually recovered from the shock and managed to take a few more shots before moving on to Seletar Airbase for the next location. This location was chosen when I saw a couple's photo album at di Gio. It was a vast green patch with just a big standalone tree against the blue sky. We changed into our casual couple's tees with bermudas for him and demnin shorts for myself, coupled with our quirky, round specs in white.

The shots here were supposed to portray youth and playfulness. Very beautiful shots, I would say.

Third location was to Arab Street, which I feel was the least exciting amongst the four as we were awkward with posing in front of the public. Nevertheless, things got better when Sia brought us to Kampong Glam. ;)

Last location was to Marina Barrage. It seemed like a popular place for wedding shoot as we saw 2 more couples in their wedding gowns and suits under the sunny weather. Kudos to them! We were still in our couple's tees attire cos we wanted some shots at the water fountain area.

After which, we proceeded to change into the last attire - smart casual! It was then I realised the sun has taken its toll on my skin and 3/4 of my arms were sun burnt (1/4 was covered up by the sleeve of the t-shirt). Plus, it was quite a torture having to change into a fresh set of attire with your sticky, perspiring skin! I can't imagine how am I going to do that during the bridal photo shoot where I will need to change into my wedding gown!

It wasn't long before fatigue creeped in and we had simply ran out of poses but fortunately the photos turned out fine. We did a few more shots on the green grass patch on the top of the barrage and went into the exhibit area for more cooling indoor shots. I must say Sia was really creative to make use of the mirrors to take a reflection shot which turned out brilliant and it was one of my favourites!

We could tell that Sia was worn out too and we suggested to call it a day after the sky turned dark. Actually, there was supposed to be a last location for a night shootwe wer at Helix Bridge but since Sia forgot to bring his tripod and we were drop dead tired, we ended the day with a sumputous dinner at Ka Sou!

Photos for your viewing pleasure:

The MATRIX! Amazing effects...

I love the following 3 pictures to bits!

Makes my leg look so long and slim! Hahaha!

I like this - so old school!




Acting cute along Arab Street.









Mommy thought this looks cute!






One of my favourites... An impromptus suggestion by Sia.

I like this too!

A pity that I didn't really take much of side profile!

Luckily we managed to take the sunset shot at Marina Barrage! Beautiful...

Another favourite..

The following 3 pictures were all before the thrilling yet traumatic escape from Thomas the train.

Halter-neck gown

I called up di Gio last week to add the halter-neck gown to my KIV list, just for the beloved hubby...

I talked to the dresser, May for a good ten minutes to jolt her memory of me, being the fussy customer and to describe to her in extreme details of the gown, before we managed to come to the same wavelength.

Sale of Balance Flat result

Result for Sale of Balance Flats under the HDB scheme is out - Queue No. 77 out of 33 available units.

Soon, we will make our way to Mr Mah's office.

Family dinner at Pu Tien

Both families sat down for a dinner at Pu Tien, Jurong Point for a discussion on customary formalities. No one knows what we should start on but eventually the ladies - Mommy and MIL - did most of the talking and decided to make everything simplified.

Mommy does not want any wedding cakes for the relatives, instead, she would like to replace them with the canned pig trotters. There were a lot more formalities to which both Henry and I just sat and listened to both Mommys' exchange of their respective experiences.

MIL asked if I would like to have the 4-piece jewellery or a pair of gold bangles. I'm going to pick the former since there is a higher chance of appearing in those even after the wedding.

Both families had a basic understanding of each other's expectation and we will get to more specific details nearing the date.

First gown fitting

Just when I was excited to see and try on my MTM evening gown as well as to select my white wedding gown at di Gio, everything came as a disappointment...

Firstly, the evening gown was not ready as promised. I questioned the designer in a jokingly way and she said the gown made at the tailor was not to her satisfaction at certain areas, that was why it had been sent back for some re-touches. I don't know how true it is.

Secondly, despite the wide array of white wedding dresses they have in the shop and shophouse upstairs, I could hardly find any to my real liking.

When I was there the first time in August to discuss with the designer on my evening gown, I could see in a glance that those in the boutique were not what I'm looking for! The dresser kept "forcing" me in a way to take a look at those but I insisted on going upstairs to see other collections.

Out of the 4 racks of approximately over 200 gowns, I tried very hard before trying on 6 sets quite reluctantly. Photos were not allowed before the confirmation of your gown, therefore we didn't manage to take any.

I tried on a halter-neck A line dress with low back covered up by some translucent, beaded netting just above the bum, a white and red victorian-inspired tube dress, a mermaid-cut with lots of gathers on top, a white and maroon tube dress with cutesy bows at the back and a few others which I could not really recall.

It did help when Joo was around to give some comments when I tried on the gowns. :)

The dresser told me that a new batch of collection will be coming in Dec, hence I deposited my hopes on that and kind of lost interest in continuing to try the rest. Nevertheless, I KIV-ed 3 of them - the white and and red, the mermaid cut and the white and maroon - just in case there was nothing I could find in the next collection. I could only say they are the best among the worst. This is the situation I fear most - could not find a gown to my liking among the vast collections and in the end I may have to settle for one which is not to my satisfaction.

It didn't help when the designer, who was supposed to be around on that day, was busy with other customers even though we made an appointment with her 2 months ago! She just appeared towards the end to let us choose the photographers for our pre wedding shoot.

I did emphasize to her that I need her to help me in choosing my wedding gown when we next meet on 11 Dec so that she can advise on the designs that suit me best and she also promised that I would be the first to see the new collection.

Speaking of photographers, we were showed 4 albums of different photography styles. After looking through them, we agreed the first one is the best. Jayven and Joo felt that the photographer made use of unique angles and played with reflections to bring out the photos of the couple. So, we have choosen Ben, as our photographer!

Throughout the gown fitting session, Henry only gave generic comments like, "This looks ok", "It's very victorian-inspired", "It's nice", etc. so I thought he was not that excited to see his wife trying on gowns, just like any other guys. But I was wrong. He left the most touching comment to the next day when we were both lying on the bed, thinking of our wedding preparations.

In fact, he liked the halter-neck gown best because it's in pure white! He said when he first saw me coming out of the dressing area in that gown, he thought I looked beautiful in it. I knew he really meant it and I was touched but at the same time, feel guilty for assuming he was not interested in the gown fitting at all... The most guilty thing was - that gown was not in my KIV list!!

Absolut Resolution

Met up with Joe at Raffles City to discuss our AD photography package.

Good thing was he could still recognise Henry as the cute guy who was tagging along with all the jie meis during Jayven & Joo's AD.

Both of us felt that he makes an excellent salesman at selling his services. However, he stood firm on the prices quoted and gave good justifications to them. In the end, he could only give in a little by not charging us an additional hour extra on the actual day if the dinner ends late and throwing in 50 more digitally enhanced photos in the DVD for us.

He showed us albums of the other 2 packages which are more costly. I can only say, you get what you paid for. The basic package of $2,800 only has 4R photos slotted into a 6-pocket per page photo album, whereas the $3,500 and $3,800 come in a 40-page 12" x 12" soft page coffee table album in a box. The only difference between these 2 is the premium textured material used for the pages.

I must say the coffee table albums are really nice to have. After the discussion, Henry told me he is quite tempted to take up the most expensive package - $3,800, which surprised me.

Nevertheless, we will review the packages again and hopefully come to a decision soon.

Photography

We will be doing our photography by Sia, my ex-colleague from Borneo Motors, this month - 28th! Pretty excited.. but we have not gone into details on the shooting locations and our casual attire.

Initially, we wanted to do it near year end, probably in late Nov/ early Dec but I have work commitments so it's unlikely that I could take leave for it. We could not do it on weekends either as Sia would need some family moments with wifey. Since he is doing it FOC (we are only reimbursing him the petrol and parking expenditure of his car), we thought it's only right that we accomodate to his schedule.

He will be meeting up with me to discuss on the details real soon.

I'm thinking if I should have my hair and makeup done by Edward again... or should I DIY?

Families Dinner

The time has come for both families to sit down and discuss about the customaries aspect of this matrimonal union over a good dinner.

Date: 23 Oct, Sat
Venue: TBC
Time: 6.30pm

I have no idea how this is all going to take place and I believe it's a first time for both families to be in such discussion. But I'm sure my MIL and Mommy have done some homework on their part to understand more on each family's tradition.

Actual Day Photography

We contacted Joe from Absolut Resolution for a quotation.


This is the package that we are likely to take up:

Package A - $2,800 includes

- Up to 10 hours of photography
- 2 distinguished photographers covering the event
- 300 digitally enhanced photos in DVD (printable up to 8R size)
- Table to table, tea ceremony and group photos all returned (original) in DVD
- Photo montage during dinner
- Customised slot in album with 300 photos provided

I'm also comparing their services to the one of Live Studio Photography, of which I'm a sucker for their unlimited standard photocards! Alas, their package is not inclusive of the necessary, like montage and morning photo shoot.

We will be meeting Joe from AR on 14 Oct to discuss in further details on the package offered. Hopefully, he will be able to accomodate to some of our requests.