Finally, May arrived! For me and my hubby that just meant our prenup shoot's just around the corner. It's just so exciting to finally do the first big pre-wedding bonding activity.
We wanted to try something different and deviate from the usual hassle of looking for an ideal P/V team, HMUA. stylist or buy/rent outfits, and additional expenses on the whole team's accommodation, transportation and meals if we wanted to shoot outside Manila, or even the country.
Since we're adventurous with our prenup, we've been eyeing on the increasing hype of China's photography teams on how they do the prenup shoots. You must have seen the trending videos in Youtube and Tiktok of the behind-the-scenes and the before-and-afters of how they do the shoots. Below is an example for those unfamiliar:
I haven't mentioned it before, but like most couples, I was in charge of 90% of the planning while my hubby provided support, second opinions, Chinese translations and other suggestions. So, I initially had a hard time looking for names of the studios as there were no information in Youtube nor results from Google. I don't really know how to search in Chinese, or in WeChat. Out of desperate attempt, I screenshotted a clip from the Tiktok video and tried to have my hubby "decode" the name of the studio from the t-shirt of the photographer.
Funny, but it worked! The studio in that photo is “玫瑰星座” or in English, "Rose Studio". So, I had my hubby verify this studio, look at their packages if it fitted our budget and if there are any hidden additional fees (which was quite notorious for a lot of studios), research on client reviews and thankfully, they turned out to be pros! They even have impersonators using their company name. So, we had to be sure we were communicating with the real one.
The only big con for doing this, (not just transacting with Chinese studios, but companies based in China in general) was you have to be able to talk, write and read fluent Chinese, and you must have a WeChat & WeChat Pay account, which is the "Facebook" of China. I'm not sure if they accept any credit cards, but it would be a bit difficult to transact online. And yep, they don't speak English. So, that goes to show Chinese studios' target clients were simply the locals. Although, they can actually do pretty well even with that limitation, with billions of Chinese couples getting married at a time, who needs to go international?
Rose Studio have several branches, but their most famous one's in Sanya, Hainan, China, which is known as China's Boracay or China's Hawaii. There packages were VERY competitive, and just what we're exactly looking for! ALL-IN. All we had to do was bring ourselves. We availed the package with the ff. inclusions:
Services:
The team with their Main/A-list photographer, videographer, production assistant and HMUA.
An overnight stay in Wyndham Sanya Bay Hotel
All applicable entrance fees, tickets or permits to the chosen location/s of shoot
Five themed photoshoot with total of 250 shots, 50 shots per theme (we added one more theme, reason later)
A choice of either an evening shoot, use of transparent boat in a pool, and other special props (we chose the evening shoot)
Five outfits, accessories and looks change for the bride and groom, 1 per theme
Transportation and meals of the couple and the team
Roundtrip transpo to and from airport to hotel upon arrival and departure
We pre-availed of an add-on: real flowers (bouquets, etc.) as props
Deliverables:
All raw photos softcopy
150 post-processed and edit photos
1 prenup video
1 standee tarpaulin
2 photobooks with about 80 photos each (we added 1 more photobook, reason later)
For hanging: 1x 48" large frame, 1x medium square frame w/ 9 photos, 3x rectangular portrait frames
For desktop: 3x 12” framed photos, 1x 10” framed photo, 1x 8” framed photo
Those were my rough descriptions as all of them were in Chinese and my hubby just translated them for me. See? It's all ready complete. Nothing to worry about but ourselves. I forgot to mention the good news. It's a good price-to-package deal. All these for just less than 20k RMB (without our additional add-ons), or equivalent to less than 130k PHP. That's already including everything except our flight tickets and my visa. Which led me to wonder why there were still so few to almost none that are offering these complete all-in prenup packages? Hmmm...
We paid 50%, and then we're good to go! We actually even found the chance to extend our stay. We decided to stay for 5 days to maximize our visit as none of us haven't been to Sanya yet.
For the first day upon our arrival, after we checked in and left our luggage at the hotel, we found out the studio was just a stone's throw away. They were just by the beach, and they have their own pool used for shooting as well. We were briefed on what would happen the next days, explained what we need to prepare, and then the most tiring but exciting part, choosing our clothes! I failed to take photos, but there were THOUSANDS of clothes there for any applicable theme for both the bride and groom. Fairy themed, beach, glam, and even bridal, name it, they have it. It's like Kleinfield in Say Yes to the Dress, except not all were white & bridal. We spent almost the whole day at the studio choosing and fitting what would look best for us, with a stylist beside us to make sure we both matched. She was very patient since there's no rules or limitations as to how many you can try and fit. I guess this was just another regular day for them! After choosing the outfits, they would set it aside for our use the next day. Of course, they explained that all used outfits were always washed and dried clean prior to hanging them back on their display, and they always update their wardrobe for what's new and throw away old and worn out ones too.
The next day was our first day of shoot (we needed to have 2 days for our number of themes). 6AM was our call time to the studio to have ourselves made up, wear our first outfit, then off we go to the location of shoot. The team was actually curious about us, as we were their first foreign client. They were extremely professional and friendly. Especially me! Since I can't speak much, my hubby's the one translating for me. And yeah, about how the photographer would direct me? Actions and sign language! Haha, but he's really patient with me and still managed to make me pose like a pro. It ran like this for a whole day. Shoot 50 shots, change outfit, change look, shoot another 50, change outfit and look, etc until around 8-9PM. YES, the WHOLE DAY. The funny thing we discovered was that, there were SOOOO many couples who were shooting in our location (it's actually a tourist island). Take note, it's also a weekday. Just a few meters from us there's another team. You look the other way and you'll see another. The whole location was filled with couples with their own team. If you were a tourist, I didn't think you'll enjoy the supposed tourist location. It's good that people were disciplined, the location was still large enough to not be too suffocating and there were still many areas available for shoot. This was a nice discovery and unique experience for us. I wasn't able to took photos because we did nothing but work that day, and we were encouraged to bring nothing to minimize risk of lost items. Our phones were with the HMUA the entire time, but I managed to take a few quick selfies before shoots:
A quick selfie of some of my look. They used real flowers for my hair
Suffice to say, we were tired as hell. What's more was that we did not even ate our lunch. All of us. We were trying to make most of the day and we were too focused on the shoot that we actually did not even thought about eating. But, our team did not even complain nor mention anything about it. "Just another shoot for us!', they said. Really, what pros?! And what stamina?! Normally for us, its the clients that are too demanding and the team would complain. This time around, we're the ones dead tired but they were the ones encouraging us to continue. We just drank water all day as it was so hot and humid too. I even saw other teams provide their couples with energy drinks aside from water.
At the end of the day, we managed to complete what we needed to finish, 4 themes. We also ended up being like a bunch of friends on a trip. There were many stories to tell. They narrated about their experiences, clients and routines while we tell them about our lives, and also the events industry in PH. It was informative and interesting. We returned to our hotel around nearly 10pm after eating, and immediately slept like a pig. Thankfully, the call time next day can be a little later around 9AM, since there's only 2 themes left.
Here are the themes we've taken the first day:
1. Fairy-tale Forest
2. Bride and Groom
3. Fun at the Beach
4. Glam Formal
For the second day, we had 1 costume/theme left. Same cycle: makeup, change clothes, shoot, but so much more relaxed this time.
Beach / Water Fairy?
We were supposed to be done, but we can't seem to let go of our desire for one more theme when we saw a different couple dressing up for one, the Traditional Chinese. Better make the most of it! What can be more authentic then actually doing it in China with a Chinese team? So we availed of additional shots and outfit.
Traditional Chinese
Our whole prenup adventure was so tiring, yet so much fun! It was definitely a unique and memorable experience for us. For the third day, we returned to the studio to select the photos to be edited and placed in the photobooks and frames. Because there were too many good shots, we took our time and decided to avail of additional post-processed shots that already came with an additional photobook. Sweet! After this, we were able to relax and enjoy the rest of our time in Sanya touring around. We even watched an acrobat show one night.
Some photos of our hotel (Wyndham Sanya Bay) and the acrobat show we watched
Delivery would be about after 2-4 months. They sent us a link to their cloud storage to check if all photos were correct, if there's anything else needed to edit and so on. It was generally a smooth transaction. Afterwards, we just waited to receive the finished items. I just grabbed these photos from my hubby's phone when it was freshly delivered.
All their products were of excellent quality, even the pages of all the photobooks by default were the highest quality, as hard as a board. These will really last a lifetime!
We also used them for display in the cocktail area during the cocktail hour of our wedding for the guests to see and browse, though I didn't have a photo of it. in addition, we also again used them in our post-wedding reception! More details about our post wedding in the coming chapters.
One of our post-wedding reception display
There was one downside though, the video... sucks! Our Filipino videographers are much better skilled. Though, we did not expect much in the first place. We thought it was just a side freebie since we were mainly after just the photos anyway. It was too embarrassing, even for me to post it now here. Haha. So instead, we had our coordinator look for an affordable studio that can create us a photo slideshow using the photos, and she recommended Rule of Thirds. They delivered excellently, following and grasping our preferred style! We used this instead to show our prenup photos to guests during our wedding reception.
There you have it! What an adventure that was. We soooo did not regret trying out something different, especially if we only get to do this once. That's one big check in our wedding planning to-do list.
***All my posts are in no way sponsored or paid. I narrate our wedding planning adventure like a diary, with only actual facts and experiences.***
Chapter 6: Chinese Prenup is on Another Level
Days to go: 9 months
Wedding Planning Progress: 30%
Wedding Planning Team:
1. Bride & Groom
2. Wedding Coordinator: Monina E Events & Marketing
3. Venue: Sunlight Eco Tourism Island Resort
4. Event Stylist: Monet Event Styling (packaged with coordinator, Monina)
5. Photo / Video: Mayad Studios
Prenup Shoot:
1. P/V, HMUA, Stylist, Outfit Rental, Coordination: 玫瑰星座 Rose Studio
2. Accommodation: Wyndham Sanya Bay c/o Rose Studio
3. Photo Slideshow: Rule of Thirds
4. Location: Sanya, Hainan, China
Tinghun:
Days to go: 5 months
Tinghun Planning Progress: 25%
Tinghun Planning Team:
1. Bride & Groom
2. Venue, Catering, Styling, Musician, Cake, Ceremony Snacks & Drinks: New World Makati Hotel
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