Choosing wedding photos rant

I have to RANT so *warning* long post ahead.

Yesterday I left school a bit earlier to choose our wedding photos from the bunch they took from our indoor and outdoor shoots. Before I left my married-with-kids colleague told me to stay firm and not get too easily swayed by their hard-sell tactics and fork out too much extra cash for additional wedding photos and then later regret it. I have heard stories about couples running into debt doing this whole wedding thing and needing to borrow money just so that they can pay. I can only say that those people are NUTS. If you can afford it go ahead. If not, don't make other ppl dig out money to pay for your wedding unless it's a gift from them. It's just irresponsible.

When we got there this was what happened.

1. A woman (not our usual very sweet and nice coordinator Lily) sat us down and proceeded to spend at least 30 minutes telling us about our package and what it's 'lacking' (Funny.. when you guys sold us the package last year your colleague told us how wonderful it was)

2. She showed us before and after photos of other brides and how they can magically change them using photoshop, and how skilled their IT person was.

3. She 'warned' me that the photos I was about to see are NOT yet photoshopped and I may be disappointed with some of them, but she assured me that I will still look good after photoshopping (She couldn't have made it ruder just to get the point across that I don't look perfect hor!)

4. The stack of photos of us that she was holding was so precious that she was reluctant to let us hold them or lay them out on the table the way we prefered. She insisted on showing us the photos 3 at a time, and reminding us how good we looked in each and every picture.

5. Whenever we chucked a photo aside, she'd say she didn't understand why we did not want it. (I don't think it's any of her business). She even said Don't mind me being kaypoh ah (I mind actually) Are you insecure about yourself here? We will photoshop it! Don't reject it la! (I was telling myself to remain calm and enjoy the process with Eugene than to be bothered by her)

6. When we realised we have chosen 2 times as many photos as we should have, she quickly took the pictures away to hide, then proceeded to tell us why we needed to purchase a 2nd photo album for so many photos.

7. When I told her we are NOT getting a 2nd album and I want that pile back to discard more photos, she told her manager and immediately he came over and told us how important a 2nd album will be to us (Yah to level that table with 1 short leg?) and said we have to pay like $2800 more.

YAH RIGHT. OVER MY DEAD BODY.

8. I told him firmly that we didn't have any money to pay. (yep it's a lie. If we don't have 2.8K we're really pathetic. But no way are we handing it over to such rude people). He told me to use my credit card. I told him I have better use for the money. Now hand over the stack.

9. The woman reappeared reluctantly with the stack of photos and Eugene and I proceeded to discard more photos, no doubt causing more and more pain to the woman judging from her face.

10. A 2nd man appeared (big boss) and he said loudly WHY SAVE MONEY ON YOUR WEDDING! ONCE IN A LIFETIME YOU KNOW! 2K MORE ONLY WHAT. OTHER PEOPLE PAY MORE THAN YOU. AND YOU CHOOSE SO LITTLE PHOTOS, YOUR ALBUM WOULD LOOK UGLY LA! I HAVE TO PAY MY ELECTRICAL BILLS YOU KNOW. YOU CHOOSE SO LITTLE PHOTOS, HOW CAN I PAY FOR THE AIRCON AND THE LIGHTS?!

(Siao ah! That's your own problem! Wat's it gotta do with us!? And if our album will be ugly, why the hell does your package include so little photos in the first place?? Just so that your customers can make ugly albums?!?!?)

11. At this point I was this close to getting up and killing somebody but I put on the brightest smile and batted my eyelids and told him I'm sorry but we really do not want so many additional photos (WAIT! WHAT THE HELL AM I SORRY FOR!?)

12. He gave up and walked away. The woman proceeded to tell Eugene that this kind of money cannot save. The bride would love the photos and he has to spend. Then Eugene told her if his bride wants the photos he will pay. BUT SHE DOESN'T! (bravo Eugene!)

13. Woman sighs (how dare she sigh at us!!!!) and let us relook our photos without saying much. Probably thinking about how much less commission she's going to get.

14. We finally decided on the photos that we want and still exceeded the number a little and have to top up $65 dollars for each additional piece. We paid $585 more but were happy with our choices. The woman by now sighed every 1 minute or so, as if trying to tell us what a huge mistake we were making. We have wasted a total 5 hours with these people and SHE'S THE ONE SIGHING?!?!?!

To be honest, I thought we'd be bought over and end up paying thousands more. Maybe they were trying too hard and rubbing us the wrong way, and maybe we would have gladly handed over the money if the person serving us was kind and gentle Lily.

At the end of the day, these are just pictures. We are happy with having those we like and spending within budget and are contented. The experience of taking these photos with Eugene was more important and real than fake photoshopped pictures on paper.

And the money that we've saved from this? We can buy more thoughtful wedding favours...flowers for the bridesmaids...angpows for helpers.. the list goes on....

To the Boss of my Bridal Studio : I hope your aircon breaks down HEEHEE

The Contemporary Asian Art Fair

Eugene and I went to the Contemporary Asian Art Fair held in Suntec last week. I have never gone to any contemporary art exhibition before, other than those my grandfather used to take part in (he does traditional chinese water colour and oil paintings). As you can tell some of his wonderful genes passed on to me, from the amazing stickmen I can draw.

Anyway, YS's wife MJ gave us 2 complimentry tickets!!!! (That saved us 20 bucks!!)

These are some of the art pieces which caught our attention.

Buddha dreaming of a Starry starry night? Done by a Thai artist.

The Kung Fu babies were really cute.

A woman covered entirely with black hair, like individual strands of hair pasted on the body. And she's wearing a gas mask. Wow. I have no freakin idea what Murari was trying to tell us!

Eugene insisted on taking this. Isn't she breathtaking?

Overlapping Images by a Korean artist.

You know the cow which is flying? If you take a closer look he is actually hum chio-ing! And he reminds me of Moo ice-cream.

No these are not real books.

See I told ya!

Imagine the amount of time it took to twist wires into this.

Who is fatter/blacker? Tough choice.

This is my favorite!!!!

Even the shadows were cut out of thin metal. And look at the vibrant colour in the mirror!

Will you ever look at your used condom the same way again?

I don't know if the apple can actually go through the twig when catapulted. But I like the hairy detail and shading on the arms.

Would you buy this picture for RMB 1,000,000? Do you know what the heck it is???

An egg attacked by lots and lots of sperm!!!! If you're trying to conceive rip off your wedding photo and hang this on the wall above your pillows. Guaranteed your sperm will be very inspired to swim damn fast!

I felt so much when I saw this picture. When my two pet clown loaches (Black and Jack) died, I cried.

Yes though they are fish, they are still '3 lives', as named by the chinese artist. People often overlook that.

After walking a bit I saw this , and took a closer look.

5 lives gasping for oxygen from no more than 4cm depth of shallow chair water. How ironic. Is the artist trying to show us how difficult it is to survive in China? Poor fish.

Mama Mia! It's ABBA!

An art exhibition is not complete without some nudity. This costs RMB 5,000,000!!!!!

And this old man was telling somebody that he's got 2 paintings of nude women at home and none of them cost so much....

Ji Ko Pek....

I thought this was serene with such sweet colours. Imagine this in our new apartment with white walls and white furniture.

I just don't get this one. A photograph of sunflowers photoshopped (??) so that the background is all white! And I remember it costing quite a bit too.

According to Eugene this looks very much like one of our friends.

I wonder how he knows how she looks like without pants on.

Turnip body parts . Anyone turned on already?

Somehow this charcoal drawing reminded me of my
grandfather, though I have never seen him cycle or own a bicycle like this.

Same eyes, same nose, same lips.

Imagine the elephant flapping his butterfly winged ears to try and fly away.

A painting that looked like a blurry photograph.

A black salamander with fancy flowers on its tail. It costs SGD 24,000 and was already sold when we asked about it.

A baby one which Eugene and Choey loved! Costs SGD 5000 and comes with the little tatami!

And of course there were many other pieces which were also really nice/thought-provoking/vulgar. And most of them were really expensive!

We were so tired after 3 hours of walking and trying to appreciate each and every display. So noob! They were giving out free Coke Light and Herald Times (??) as well. Weird freebies at an art exhibition. If only they were giving away the baby salamander for free :D

The Best Way to Die

A couple of days back Hobs and I were discussing the best way for him to die. If he is to jump from his flat, someone will still have to scrape him off the ground. And he'll look really ugly with his face split open and brains spilling out. I recall a friend who died after she jumped - the last we saw of her was just before she was pushed into the flames - she had stitches all over her face (Bride of Frankenstein style) to keep whatever's left (not much) inside.

Another friend who hung himself had a deep red mark around his neck when we saw him to say bye for the last time...

(Hey I'm no jinx k. For the record they were not really my close friends.)

It really takes big balls to jump or hang oneself. So Hobs can forget about these 2 options.

I said if he wants to die, go gas himself with carbon monoxide in a car. Sweet way to die - painless, peaceful and he'll still be in one piece. But he mei chu xi... no car...

Then I told him go take a bath and cut his wrists and let the blood flow... but he said no bath tub at home -_-

Wah lau! This guy want to die still so troublesome!!!!

You know what Hobs? Like what YS said at the train station:
"The best, most considerate way to die is to open up the coffin, jump in and close the lid."

No la, forget the coffin (it's expensive). Just dig a hole and jump in. We will be waiting up here with shovels to fill it up for you!

XD

The Hollywood Feeling

I had some people asking me what happened to my blog. It's so flattering cos I had no idea it had so many 'readers', judging from the average number of comments I get after every entry (0) I thought only Eugene reads my blog. And that's just cos he needs to check if I upload any sia suay photos of him.

And you know what else is flattering?

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TAKING OUTDOOR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHS ON A PUBLIC HOLIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were getting all panicky when people started telling us how bad our phototaking day was. It was scheduled on 1 Oct 08 aka "Hari Raya/Children's/always-rain/ren hen duo" day.


For 2 days in a row before the session it poured like mad and we thought SHOOTS we'd be posing under an umbrella with very flat hair.




Well guess what! It was a magical day with no rain (the few drops that came and went at 7.30pm don't count)- just lots of love in the air and (Indian) tourists on the streets.

We had to go to town in our getup to shoot the city skyline. And everyone was amazed to see us posing, pouting, kissing and running with the dress held up to my knees. 2 aunties were so kaypo that they hung around our photographer just to steal a peak from his camera. Groups of Indian men took out their mobile phones to take pics/videos of us. One asked if he can 'participate with' us (???) and Eugene told No it's OUR wedding photos. He shrugged sheepishly before walking away.

Everywhere we went people stared and smiled. This must be what TV stars/MPs/cute puppies feel like when they walk on the streets - extremely important and loved by the whole world.

This illegal pic was taken by Eugene using his phone.

Choey passing me my flowers (so cute)

No illegal pics of Eugene unfortunately... Though he looked really good in his tuxedo!! *beams*

Ok la one pic showing the groom.. if not later he angry.