Taiwan pre-wedding photoshoot experience

Every girl wants to look their best in their pre-wedding photoshoot, because hopefully that would be THE one for us. The pre-wedding shoots have been haunting me since last year as we plan and fret about where, when and which bridal studio to go to. We've scanned through websites upon websites of bridal studio, packages, and pics to determine which bridal studio would suit us and our love story. I've mailed photographers for availability dates, bridal studio for packages and friends for suggestions countless times. There are soo many choices out there, I believe my eyes have gone crossed during the search. But after a while, the pics look quite repetitive and I knew we had to make a decision soon. 

 Some of the criteria that we looked for was credibility, style, cost and mannerism of the establishment. Credibility in terms of delivery of service, if they say they can deliver by one month then by all means they should deliver by 1 month, give or take a week. And if we have specified that we would not like our pictures to be used for their advertisement purposes, they better respect our decisions because we paid for the shoots. (This is so important! A lot of studio let us sign a paper on whether they can use our pics for their personal and public use and we specified no, and they still do. We just had to be more thick skin and request them to take it down immediately. But that taints their credibility.) Second of all, style. Every self-proclaimed artists have their preferred style because that is how they perceive the world. And it will be so much more easier if both of you connect at certain wavelength, I don't think you will regret. Third of all, mannerism. Marriage should be one of the most happiest and important day of a bride and groom's life. And it is important that the photographer and/or makeup artist do not pull you down. So what if you have extra pimples, freckles, fat or you wanted a different style of shoots, they should be professional to recognize these needs and address you with respect and a smile. I have heard horror stories of a friend who had a beautiful album but was so frustrated with the delivery time and that establishment's attitude. And last but not least, cost la~! It would be pointless to talk about anything without knowing the price tag, k? lol... 

And that was one of the main reason why we chose to do our pre-wedding shoot in Taiwan, not our hometown and not Perth. Perth has its beautiful sceneries nonetheless but the price is really over the top. We experimented with a indoor shoot last year and it was so expensive for such average work, I really do not wish to reveal the price. The worst thing was that it is like ordering a'la carte... so ... expensive... and does not include make up and dress hire. So I'd imagine it is pretty lucrative business here. Whereas Miri ar? Let's be honest, the polluted beach doesn't really appeal to me. Then haters go comment about forgetting my roots and rubbish things like that, I would think, 'elo... photo album nia ma, I can take whatever pics I want, ok? no need to make it like I sell my soul or my country. wth?' Haters would always be haters. #haters So Taiwan was like a pretty match up between the two, beautiful sceneries at affordable price plus we can travel and play at the same time! 

Had my manicure done before the flight

I was so excited and nervous before the trip. I had my manicure done just because~! :P It was actually a lame way of trying to make myself more presentable after I neglected good exercise and my diet for the better of 2 months. Luckily I lost my appetite one week before the photoshoot. 

After 10 hours of flight and 2 hours of transit in Singapore, we finally touched down with aching buttocks~!

We had the arranged photoshoot in the beautiful natural scene of Sun Moon Lake, so they arranged accommodation for us in the beautiful town of Puli which is a 2 hours drive from the main Taipei airport. By then, I have mastered the shameless method of sleeping with my mouth open. Shameless, indeed. 

I can't start to describe the kind of feeling you get when you drive through fields of vegetation. You know... apart from sleepy that is. It is so peaceful and beautiful, it really reminded me of the song Jay chow once sang. 

One thing Taiwan is renown for should be their home-stay (民宿). I call them bed and breakfast. The place is very homey and full of character, like the one that we had the chance to stay. The owners practically designed and constructed most of the furniture and the building itself. So amazing~! You probably won't find swimming pools, spa, Jacuzzi or an open bar but you will be surrounded by the calming effects of the crickets, priceless view of the greenery and large spacious room space at affordable price~! 

Our room looks out to the restaurant and a priceless view of the hills (at night)

The hand made furniture in the room

Our room for the next few days... not sure why there are 2 beds?

 

The frontal view from our room (in the morning)

When I walked out of my room, I get the feeling of home. I was instantly surrounded by the owner's cat and dog. No different than mine at home. 

The view of their villa 

This is happy me before I regret the short attire, the mozzie bites appear to haunt me like chicken pox all over my body...

Okie, one reminder to those who are going to those places though, don't ever ever forget your insect repellant, long sleeve and long pants!! Having lived so happily in Oz, I regret to say I forgot the pain of mozzie bites. So I suffered tremendously from the mozzie bites. Well, in my defense, it is supposed to be summer in Taiwan~! Summer --> heat --> hot --> short... 

 

Pretty wildlife

But I forgot to double check the weather forecast like days before the travel, which is like what a SMART traveler would do!! The horror when I was in the airport and I heard over the news that Taiwan is hit by torrential rain resulting in floods, erosion, schools being shut down and all the horrors... T.T And that is one of the danger of doing overseas photoshoot, you can't predict natural disasters. And it pretty much rained the whole first day we were there while I tried on wedding gowns. Btw, because we need the wedding gowns the very next day, they didn't have time to tailor the dresses to my size so they had to use an ugly safety pin to hold it up from the back. (Hey, I don't need to lose weight after all~!) Definitely need to photoshop those out~! But the next day, it miraculously stopped raining just enough till 3pm for us to go out and have our outdoor photoshoot!!

Xi~!

Prepping and dressing up... 

I was so shy during dressing up, I was so grateful that the makeup artist and the stylist were so considerate and nice to me. I practically cringed when they told me to change into the other dresses in the van while other cars zoom passed. Okie la, they didn't see a thing, ok? Got technique de! lol... And they made me wear a tiara~! So adorable~! 

Catching some shut eye as we progress through the day... 

And the taiwanese we bumped into along the way was so friendly~! A man actually offered his cute poodle for the photoshoot, and we got a nice bicycle from a passerby for the photoshoot... that was like so random!! We even got a chance to take pics on a yatch~! The boss was like convinced that marrying couple would bring luck to him so he was so enthusiastic to have us on board. 

Then we were able to collect the pictures in softcopy format from them the very next day. It was a great experience overall. Most couples who choose to do their wedding photoshoot in Taiwan choose to do it Taipei, which has beautiful manicured parks and handsome architectures. But we decided on more natural scenery like sun moon lake because more #hipster ma~! lol... : P Actually the more hipster method is not to do it since everyone is doing it, so I dare you to... lol...