Wedding Photographer

I'm currently so busy with my work but I know I have to get this on the blog before I totally forget AGAIN...

A few weeks ago, one of my online buddy had her wedding in Bankers Club and she hired a very professional photographer (PG) to capture her memories. Mind you, this is not the normal freelancer who takes up photography as passion and turn it into money making business. This particular PG has secured his name with WPJA (Wedding PhotoJournalism Association) which is suppose to be a big WOHOO!! The $$ she paid was way more than my whole package with Bridal Shop, my shoes, my Actual Day services (PG, VideoGrapher) and probably a lil more to have my invitation printed. A whopping RM7k. I actually thought with this amount of $$, her pictures will turn out to be wedding of the year. Her made-to-measure (MTM) wedding gowns, shoes, hand bouquet, hand made favors, ballroom decoration, invitation cards and other tiny detail were so unique and lovely and ......(fill in all the nice words) and this will absolutely definitely not miss out the eye of PG. The deco itself brings up to a few $Ks. Oopps, I actually left out this....she had 3 PGs for her wedding (they come in a package).

Sadly, the eager waiting Mrs. faced with a hugantic disappointment when he gave her full set of the picture online for proofing. First of all, 3 PGs just had a total of less than 500 pictures captured. Secondly, the pictures that matters to her most were not capture; i.e. the WHOLE wedding gown, the FRONT of her shoes, bouquet toss, bridesmaids pictures and many more personal shoots. She was furious and sad when she found out all those. No doubt the fine art (selected photos with touched up) he upload in his blog were amazing and jaw dropping. I was a bit (OK, a lot) envious when I saw her fine are in the blog. I wish mine will be at least 50% as nice as hers (although I'm paying only 20% of her price). Hey, who would not want that right? Anyway, it turn out that only a handful of pictures will be the fine arts pictures. Other than that, they are pretty basic.

I had the privilege to peep into her proofing pictures and BOY! I was in for a shock. The pictures indeed are so normal it looks more like what my PG is offering. I was so thankful I didn't pay so much to get the basic pictures. Hey, that's not the end of story.....at least not yet. It seems that the fine arts will not be returned to customer. If they wish to have them, they can purchase the file separately. Then what is the use of touching up but the customer have to pay for them??? And do you know when she confronted her on the missing pictures that were suppose to be captured in any wedding, then only this pro PG manage to find 150 pictures somewhere in his database. After much ranting and lectures to the PG, he will compensate with an extra storybook album. HELLO!! What if the customer didn't make any noise and kept all the frustrated feeling to themselves? Then they are the one who lose out a lot of thing.

Excerpt from my favorite wedding website.

"Anyone who’s been to a wedding knows there’s nothing simple about the pictures. A wedding photojournalist, whose goal is not to just photograph the bride, the groom, and the family and friends present, but to capture the energy and the variety of emotion that surround the event and the important details for the couple thru the wedding prep for the wedding AD itself.
Deep photos, like any good wedding cake, are made up of multiple layers of people, objects and emotions that make for compelling photographs and, for those involved, memories that will last. A photograph with depth is complex--it shows and it tells the story. And as with many great images, it takes a little bit of luck and a lot of skill.

here r some points in getting ready session:

1. Wedding gown, Bouquet, Jewerly, Wedding shoes,veil are very important components for bride. (every gal has her own dream of the white dress, white shoes on her important day)--this can tell CL's prep story for keep in her memory forever when she see these in the future or showing her grandchildren.

2. Another thing miss out is CL's make up artist and bridesmaids assist with the final touches on her hair and makeup, mom checking how her pretty daughter look like(first time the parents see the bride in the wedding dress & that has the potential of being a real moment )and the bride steps into her wedding gown with chimuis helping and shoes wearing..(i think he can do something more on this scene).

3. On the parents putting veil on bride...i think can do some more memorable potrait there. and how chi muis react at the time when looking the brides with parents. (he can aware of all the elements in a scene and working the angles to present the most complete story with 2 assistants)

Some importance for getting ready session:
Getting ready can be a monumental task for the bride and her entourage, and an event in itself. It’s a time not only during which the women share their excitement and happiness, but also one in which they can smooth out any bumps in the road that may arise, from mending an ill-fitting wedding gown to soothing an overwhelmed bride. The application of cosmetic agents, hair, skin, nail, and other treatments, final tuning of clothing and accessories; this seemingly endless array of beauty products and treatments makes for a very hectic and intense prep session."

Although with a compensation, I still sincerely feel bad for her. With this guide, I'm so sure my photo will turn out nice. "Hey Universal, I'll have nice wedding photos during my wedding,ok? " this is how The Secret (I had blogged about this post) taught me.

3 Layer Star Book

I found this website from Papermusings website. It has a whole lot of DIY craft (which I LOVE so much!!!). Look, I found this step-by-step on how to make a 3 Layer Sta Book absolutely amazing. I didn't realise a simple book as this will turn out so nice and unique. This will make a perfect birthday or anniversary or any occasion gift to your love ones. If time permits, hubs will have the privilege to receive my first hand made Star Book as his birthday gift...which is NEXT MONTH!! OMG!! Will I be able to make it?

Anyway, here' something Natalie (the web owner) has done....Below it, the step to step was copied entirely (without any change of letter or word) from this website.

Three-Layer Star Book Crafters Coast to Coast : Episode HCC2C-136

Project by Deb Dormody of Pawtucket, R.I.

Deb took a bookbinding class and ended up taking apart all her books at home to figure out how they were assembled. In this segment, Deb makes a three-layer star-shaped book.

Materials:

inside page papers (card stock):
back layer: 51-1/2" x 6"
middle layer: 42-1/2" x 6"
front layer: 38-1/2" x 6"
bone folder
ruler
pencil
paint and brushes
hobby knife
scissors
needle
waxed linen thread
two 25" pieces of ribbon
PVA glue
hake brush
two pieces of book board or chipboard at least 1/8" thick
about 4-1/2" x 6-1/2"
6" x 8" lokta paper for covers

Steps:

1. Cut your three panels to size and fold them accordion style. Each panel is graduated so that the back layer is biggest with a large deep fold, the central layer is slightly smaller, and then the front layer is smallest with shallow folds. For this project, I used the following measurements: back layer 51-1/2" x 6", middle layer 42-1/2" x 6", front layer 38-1/2" x 6".

2. For both the back and central layers, first measure out and mark off 1 inch on both ends, which will attach to the cover boards. For the front layer, measure out extra width to also serve as your endpapers; in this case, 2-3/4 inches on both ends.

3. Fold these first flaps in towards the center. Then with faint pencil marks and a ruler, mark off each page size for the remaining length of each layer. As this is a six-sided star, I've made the following page sizes for this project: back 4-1/8 inches, middle 3-3/8 inches, front 2-3/4 inches.

4. Fold the accordion pleats along your demarcations.

5. Design and create your panels cutting out areas on the valleys of the folds so that you can see through each layer. Paint, collage, print or draw your wonderful imagery.

6. Nest all three layers so that you can sew them together. Using a needle and thread, sew on the

7. For edge at each mountain fold. Pierce three holes at about 1 inch from the top and bottom and then in the center. It's useful to make a paper template to pierce each set of holes.

8. Starting at the center, place your needle through the back or inside of the book and in towards the front. Bring the thread up to the top or head hole, going from front to back. Bring your needle all the way down to the bottom or tail hole and go through back to front. Pierce back into the center hole from front to back and tie off in a knot. Repeat for the remaining five mountain folds.

9. Cut two boards slightly larger than the dimensions of the pages when they are all folded up closed. In this exampled, there was a faux embossed cover where was adhered another slimmer piece of chipboard that had images carved out to the front cover board. Glue two pieces of cover paper (which measure 1-1/2 inch larger than the cover boards), centering the boards on each piece. Trim the flap corners and glue the flaps down, first the head and tail and then the two sides. Let dry under a heavy press for about 45 minutes.

10. Cut two pieces of ribbon to about triple or quadruple the width of your book covers (better to overestimate in this case). Position your book covers perfectly parallel to each other, leaving a space in between them equal to the thickness of your folded up layers. Glue the two threads horizontally across the two covers with the center of the ribbons positioned at the space in the center between the two boards. Glue one about 1 inch or so from the top and the other at the same distance from the bottom.

11. On your layered pages, glue the remaining flaps to each other and then to your cover boards over the ribbons. Press out any air bubbles and wipe away any excess glue. Insert two blotters or lining papers between the covers and pages and press under light weight for 10 minutes.

12. Remove blotters and tie the ribbons to each other, bringing the covers 360 degrees backwards to each other. When closed you can also tie your covers together to keep it safe.

Website: www.ifnbooks.com

Time snatched up

I have so many things to blog but just couldn't find the time and mood. Since I've been in the new project (my 9-5 office job and PT job), I have lesser time to even chat. It's almost the end of the month and yet...there's no blog for this month. A list of things I'm suppose to blog about but haven't got around to do it.
1. Matta Fair - Min Honeymoon Package
2. Pre-wedding Shooting (PS)
3. DIY invitation cards for best man and bridemaids
4. Virtual Option Trading
5. Grandpa's condition
6.
7.
8.

Mostly I have forgotten what to blog. I'll update later.....provided I have time and I still remember.

Breakfast with Hubs

I have been craving for the roti bakar in Bayan Lepas area. I couldn't make it on weekdays due to working and massive traffic jam. But weekend was not a good idea either cause hubs too lazy to come all the way here to eat breakfast. I've been dwelling with the idea for so long I don't know when it will come true. But thank god my prayer was answered this morning. This morning was the second time hubs and I had our breakfast together on a weekday morning. I've told him the idea last night and he's ok with it. So he came a lil earlier than usual to fetch me to work. You must be wondering why he has to come earlier, what more to fetch me. No, we are not married yet and No we are not leaving together.

Which coffee shop do I refer to? None other than the old famous coffee shop selling roti bakar in the morning and fish head noodle in the evening. It's situated along the highway opposite Phase1. The coffee shop will not be obvious as its land is slightly lower than the roads. Furthermore, with so many cars park in along the road and some in front of the shops, you'll have to be on the look out.

Here's a picture I crop from their website


"Joo Leong Cafe, is well known by Penangites for its servings of delicious breakfast at reasonable prices for over 50 years. Its famous toasted bread, wipped with butter and served together with half-boiled eggs are the favourites among its patrons."

And so the menu for my breakfast today is as follow:
1 Milo ice
2 half-boiled eggs
2 slices of toasted bread, wipped with butter
1 pack of nasi lemak

A very hearty breakfast with hubs. While he has the same menu, the only different was he opted for a hot Milo. Here's the breakfast we had and tapao-ed for friends, a total of RM19.60.

1 hot Milo
1 Milo ice
4 half-boiled eggs
12 roti bakar
5 pack of fried noodles
1 pack of nasi lemak

At the evening, patrons can enjoy their famous seafood porridge / noodles at Joo Leong Cafe. A wide variety of fresh seafood can be hand picked by patrons to cook their desired bowls of seafood porridge / noodles.

You have a choice of fish, prawns, "water frog", meatball, fishball, pig intestines, fish maw, jelly fish, squid, and many other seafood with I couldn't recall anymore. We had personally tried the seafood noodles quite a number of time. Each time we went home with a satisfied stomach. I think the price is reasonable, around RM10+ per bowl . I believe it can go up to RM20+ per bowl, depending on the 'ingredient' you choose but I'm not so sure bout the exact price. I have yet to pay for the meals we had there, thanks to hubs.

The Secret

Hubs have been talking bout financial freedom and abundance and many more terms that were aliens to me last time. Slowly but consistently, he drill all those motivation into my head. From there I've learn a lot....and still continue learning. As time goes by, I read his books, articles and attended seminars. I'm so thankful he has a mind of his own, which so many people don't have. Truthfully, he's been striving real hard since his school life to support his family. The life he went thru has make him the man he is today....a strong, independent, charismatic and gorgeous guy. Things he lacked of, he'll compensate in something else and do it superbly.

I used to be a small girl before I met him. It's been planted in my thinking that husband should bear the whole responsibility of household, that study hard to get good result, then get a good pay job, money is hard-earned, save for the rainy days......all these are bullshit! These are the thinking of the poor. Don't you ever wonder why the rich gets richers and the poor remains poor if not gets poorer? Do you have the feel that it's unfair we work so hard but still living in "enough for the day" style? Pardon them if they teaches us the wrong thing, cause they themselve don't know the correct method. If they had knew, they would belong in the 5% that's earning 96% of the universe income (do I get this right?). Anyway, hubs's friend introduced this book to him, The Secret from Rhonda Byrne. There is also a DVD on the show available in market or you can view the 1st 20 minutes on YouTube. You can even get the info from this website.

I'm training my mind to work the way I want lately. I'll create a vision board with hubs later. We already bought a metal board (those white board alike metal). Initially I planned to put some of our bit and pieces from our wedding, our to do list and message to each other and hang it in our future bedroom. But after learning The Secret, we are going to create something more like a vision board. All our goals and targets will be paste on this board. And it's not going to wait till we have our future room renovated. This will start within this few days. Previously, we envision ourself to own a vacation home in Maldives. It's not a normal home but one that has sea below it. I've even prepared in virtually in print artist.

The teachers of The Secret wrote that your minds attract like and if you imagine real hard, want them real hard, your wish will be answered by universe. I'm not going to doubt this as we really want our dream to come true.

"THOUGHTS become FACTS"

I send it over to hubs just a few minutes ago (he's working in another company) and he loves it very much. He even saved it as his wallpaper. So together we are going to have our dream comes true.

Have you seen other motivational resources that has inspired you and would like to share?

My wish

My wish to have this wedding video clip at my wedding.......

Tell me who would not want to capture her wedding day in videos or photos and I'll have to show this video clip to her/him. Not all but the one posted on June 8th 2007. So far this has been my #1 favorite video in my list and nothing goes from #2 - #5. This is the video I've dream all this while and the moment I saw this from Weddingbee's website, I was totally mesmerized. The whole scene was like a fairytale, movie style......no one can beat this kinda video recording. I admit this is due to several professional videographers capturing from different angle to be able to produce this perfect piece. Nevertheless, extra hours on tremendous editing really deserve the credits. They wanted to enter this video clip into an international competition for wedding videographers.

I was really moved to tears. She's so beautiful and he's so gorgeous. I don't even know them but I felt it deep in my heart. We used to think that there's no necessity in getting a videographer but after seeing this video clip, I just cried out loud I want one....not anyone but one that could do this magic! Sadly, we'll have to do without it. The reasons, 1. we don't have that budget to accommodate this kind of pro videographer, 2. there's none locally that can produce even 80% of what I saw. I was impatient in showing them to hubs. He agreed that this is a magnificent piece. I sighed and uttered, "I'm getting more unachievable dreams". Little did I know, he was hurt a lil. He thought he already did all his best to bring my wedding dreams come true, getting involved in every single things and be there with me all the time but I still complaint that I have unachievable dreams. After a lil pestering only did it come to my mind that he took it the wrong way. Sorry, hubs. I didn't mean that.....

Now, I'm wishing if someone would approach me to do this type of video clip on my wedding with a price of less than RM1k. I'll be praying everyday for my dream to come true.....pls pray with me,k! Thanks!

Comments

I realize of all the blogs, only two I complaint a lil or rather give my opinion. And those are the one that have comments. I don't know whether it was coincidence or someone is directly pin pointing on me. Hello! This is MY blog and I can freely express my view and thought. But I'm still OK with the comments. However I really loathe those that didn't even care to leave their name after commenting (or should I say don't dare?).

On the other hand, I should feel happy that someone is actually reading my blog. Previously I still thought my blog is not interesting and will not catch attention. Someone prove me wrong. I'll welcome any comments, provided you care to leave you name or email...Thank You!