Research for Freelance Make Up Artist

I just checked with my MUA (Elson) from Volans Couture. As I needed to be at the HTB house before 8am. So the gatecrash has to start at 6.30am and my makeup will need to begin at 4am! OH GOSH. So after calculating the additional surcharge (100 per hour) and second march in (150), plus the additional chargeable eyelash and ampoule; I had to pay quite a bit of extra money.
So I came up with an idea, would it be possible to find a more affordable MUA in the morning and negotiate the second march in to be free?
It was actually possible. And thus begin my search for a MUA.

**UPDATE: after speaking to Elson over the phone, I have decided to continue with him. But I will still keep the list here for other BTBs 🙂
I instead switch to looking for MUA for my mother and mother-in-law and I am glad to say I will be getting Jasmine to help out with their makeup!

**SECOND UPDATE: Jasmine informed me that she has an appointment later that day, I had a lengthy discussion with her and she was very apologetic and helped made all the arrangements for us. She contacted a fellow MUA, Joey. Joey will be helping with my mother-in-law makeup and Jasmine will help with my mother. The best thing is, both will be done in the comfort of our homes 🙂 I’m very happy with the arrangement as it means the mothers get a longer rest before travelling to the restaurant.

**FINAL UPDATE: Joey told me suddenly just 16 days before my wedding that she cannot make it and asked Shirley to replace her. However, due to some time constraints we made some changes to the schedule. The mothers will get their makeup done AFTER solemnization. I found Yan Ping, who will help doll both of them up at the banquet location. She is very affordable and super nice!

I emailed many MUAs and also posted an ad. Here are some of the consolidated price list.
It’s actually pretty hard to find one with many recommendations; there’s simply too many of them! So I had to judge using their portfolio.
The following list I am giving are the ones who I felt had nice portfolios and/or had some reviews online.

I asked for a AD bridal makeup (morning session), with one look.
Inclusion of ampoules, eyelash.
My makeup has to be done before 6am.
I also asked if the trial makeup, hair accessories and extensions are complimentary.

Candy Tiong $380 (forgot to check if it includes complimentary trial) + 80 (early morning surcharge) – well recommended, very experienced
Vivien Low $280 (complimentary trial) + 50 (early morning surcharge) – recommended by my friend as she was her ROM MUA
Kate $280 + $100 (trial) + 80 (early morning surcharge)
Fionna $350 + $150 (trial) + 50 (early morning surcharge) + accessories are chargeable – well recommended for natural makeup
Yan Ping $300 (complimentary trial) + 50 (early morning surcharge)
Eil3en $300 (complimentary trial) + 50 (early morning surcharge)
Xara Lee $488 (complimentary trial) + 50 (early morning surcharge) – well recommended, very experience
Shirley Tan $380 (complimentary trial) + 50 (early morning surcharge) – good reviews online
Liren Neo $500 (all in, no hidden cost) – good reviews online
Janice Lai $300 (complimentary trial) + 80 (early morning surcharge)
Jasmine $280 (complimentary trial) + 50 (early morning surcharge)

I also asked Little Brush Makeup, Cleo Chang, Ivy Chen, Icey Lee, Sasa Demaq, but they were not available so I didn’t manage to get any quotations from them.
I must say I am very impressed with Sasa, although she was not free on my wedding day she actually introduced me to another one of her friend, Sharon Lee.
I suggest BTBs who are on a budget to seriously consider looking for one from Malaysia, they are always super friendly, their skills are comparable or sometimes better, and their rates are much better.

Volans Couture Part 2

I finished my photoshoot on 20th May but didn’t really have time to post. Here is a quick update of the shoot 🙂

I have nothing but praises for the photographers and make up artist  😀

MUA: Elson
Photographer: Ah Guang and Ah Sheng (assistant)

1. We started earlier at 8am (no charge).
2. MUA helped me achieve the hairstyle I wanted, really really love him!!
3. There’s a main photographer and one assistant – so you have someone to help you change and the MUA will also pass some accessories to the assistant for the night shoot.
4. We were able to rush back to regroup, change outfit, hairstyle and touch-up makeup before the evening/night shoot – so i was not stuck with one hairstyle for outdoor shoot, that also meant the MUA stayed around till 4pm to help me
5. We were able to go to 4 locations for our outdoor shoot, we replaced alexandra road with haji lane as suggested by the team and it turned out for the best
6. They had an array of their own props which they brought along, they also incorporated all the props we brought along.
7. They have a lot of different scenes for indoor shoots, and they all looked super nice!
8. The team really worked hard for us to get the ‘feel’ we wanted – the photos prove it!
9. They have this make shift tent that makes it so much easier to change, no need to find toilet!

We just came back from choosing photos. They were not pushy at all. They just left us on our own to choose and came back to advise us if we needed to add in one or two photos so that a better design can be added. We didn’t feel pressured to add more photos nor did their attitude change when we didn’t want to.

Some things to take note (I am not sure if the following can be negotiated):

1. If it rains after you finish indoor shoot, you will need to pay 200 to reschedule the outdoor shoot
2. If you use their vehicle for the outdoor photoshoot, you will have to cover carpark fees and ERP and petrol which is approximately $50 as stated by them (we are not sure of the exact cost since my HTB drove)
3. Some gowns cannot be taken outdoor, so this might be a little restrictive
4. You will need to pay for eyelash and ampoules
5. All in all, after seeing the photos, I am a very very very happy bride. We are really glad we chose Volans (even with the initial crisis)

Volans Couture Part 1

Hello all,

I am a current Volans Couture bride. Would like to share my experience with them so far.
I signed up with them in Nov/Dec 2012, can’t really remember already. Went into the shop when I was scouting the different places in Liang Seah Street and this bridal studio made me feel comfortable. Just happen that they have a roadshow at Tampines, so me and HTB who lived nearby went there, talked about it, paid the first deposit and signed the package.

We paid the deposit and from then onwards, not much sound from them. Nobody contacted me to confirm my first fitting, pre-wedding shoot and everything. I pretty much had to call them to tell them the dates. I’m not sure if it like that for all BS though. So I can’t say if this is a negative or positive.

First Fitting
I went on Friday and in the afternoon so the place was super empty. No couples, no other customers, only me and my sister. So it was actually very relaxing. The assistant pass me and iPad to choose the gowns. There is good and bad, but I think they never update the iPad photos, so there are some gowns that are not featured inside. And some of the shots don’t really show case the gowns well. I also didn’t like the fact that I can’t walk around to ‘look through’ the gowns and pick the one I want.
Some things to note, their short gowns are very limited (maybe only 15?) and most of them look similar to each other.
They don’t have a lot of different shapes of gowns i.e. mermaid, most are ball gowns kind of dresses. This is based on what I have seen in the iPad and what the assistant let me try on.
I wouldn’t confirm that they have very little gowns as I manage to find ones that I like and a few that I love, but you don’t get to estimate how much they have because it is just all over the place, and not in plain sight so it is very difficult to judge.
The man’s suit are all arranged in plain sight and on a rack so it is easy to pick and choose for the HTB.
They also have many nice props and scenes for their indoor shoot.
We manage to speak to the photographers assistant to talk about the photoshoot location after requesting for it. It seems like we still don’t know who is our photographer yet.
In terms of hair and makeup, my assistant just told me to show pictures on the photoshoot day itself. I guess the MUA will try his best to copy?

First Crisis
Now comes the drama. I am not a skinny bride. Nor am I SUPER fat. But like all BS, they cater to the skinny girls and when it comes to alteration for the dresses, the problems will surface. AFTER I chose all my gowns and paid for the second deposit I left for dinner. Suddenly, the assistant calls and says that one of the short gowns can’t be altered to fit me. So the fact that they have very little selection of short gowns made it worse. So I gave my second choice and she said she needed to check whether it is available. But after that she called again and said that it is not available. So I told her frankly that I really don’t like the other designs; and somehow she manage to make my second choice gown available.
Great! First crisis over.

Second Crisis
Now, today I suddenly got a call from her again. She tells me that the first white gown I chose cannot be altered to fit me. Great, what a confidence booster.
So now she is saying I have to choose some OTHER gowns again. I tried on many many dresses in the shops but only this one really caught my eye. So I was pretty annoyed at this problem again. Plus I don’t understand why this information cannot be made know to me earlier. I would have rather BS just state that they only cater to M size and below brides so we don’t bother going into their shops. I express my unhappiness and she said she will speak to the seamstress again and see what they can do.
I was having dinner with HTB nearby so we called and told her that we are going to drop by to talk about this.
When I arrived the place was packed! But don’t know why one of the staff just kept glaring at me.
The designer spoke to us, she said that she has a few designs that she can rush out and she can design one that I like but I have to push back my wedding shoot till July (supposed to be May). We can’t do that! We already applied our leave and we need to settle other things in July. The designer also said that she threw away a lot of the old gowns when they renovated the place last year. I was like HUH?? That is just ridiculous.
And at the same time I was looking at another bride trying on gowns and one caught my eye, so I just told her that I didn’t see that dress in the iPad (that’s when I know that some gowns are not featured). So if your assistant doesn’t actively bring you nice gowns you won’t be able to get them. She brought that gown over for me, I liked it but not as much as the first one.
After a long discussion the designer said she will edit my chosen dress to a corsett style so it should be able to fit me.

After this two crisis I have kind of lost faith in them. I am a little scared of what is to come on my fitting next Wednesday. They do try their best to rectify their mistakes and all of them (except the one who kept glaring at me) were nice and polite and patient. I was a happy Volans bride until today. And I really hope that after my fitting on Wednesday I will become a happy bride.

**Update: they didn’t have to edit the gown, for some reason, Jia Xuan did not take my measurements properly. After re-measuring me again, they found out that there was ‘enough cloth’ to alter the gown. PHEW.

Vintage Vehicles

I really really wanted to have a vintage volkswagen for our wedding. But it is REALLY expensive to get one. We looked at the following companies who offer these services.

Volks Wedding
Second most affordable ones. But we are not able to do any viewing as the vehicles don’t have a fix location somehow. Pre-wedding services are super expensive. They have about 1-3 vans.

Kombi Rocks
Most expensive. Includes a 1 hr photoshoot in their restaurant but it can’t be removed for a cheaper price. They have the largest selection of vans.

Diary of a Singapore Vanagon (Sunshine)
The most affordable one is Sunshine. Here are some of her photos!

I love her interior and bright colours. If you engage them for pre-wedding shooting, they even have props provided! Her owner, Sharon and her husband own Sunshine. It is a private business so they were very flexible and accommodating. We even got to sit in Sunshine and enjoyed her newly installed air-conditioned. Do take note that sunshine is the youngest amongst the other vans that are offered by the other companies. I really loved her but we decided that it was still over our budget and we were afraid that we won’t be able to take enough photos with her due to time constraints. So we are going to go with a simpler more common BMW.

I manage to find a cheaper alternative to include a vintage item, which will be featured in our pre-wedding photoshoot!

Check out the vintage bicycle outside Neli’s ice cream 🙂 Rented to us by Style Bicycle Asia. They have a wide selection of bicycles for rental and all of them are super nice!

Vintage bicycle rental is rarely available in Singapore, and Style Bicycle Asia offered us a really affordable price package. It would also be cheaper if you have your own van for transport which we had.

Preparation for Wedding Photoshoot Part 2

The man had no casual or proper formal shoes for the photoshoot. So we went to Takashimaya for some shoe shopping!
A pair from Clarks (who are so comfortable, he says it’s like walking on grass) and a pair from Pumas.
I got a simple pair for myself 🙂

We also got this pair of nerd spectacles from Qoo10.

We also cut out two types of ‘Bride and Groom’ spectacles to be chosen during the photoshoot.

We also made a ‘comic book’ out of this pictures. We’re gonna use it in the super heroes theme shoot with our superman shirt and my avenger toys!

And finally I did my first ever manicure with Colours Couture!

Preparation for Wedding Photoshoot Part 1

Our wedding photoshoot is over! But I was so spent after it that the man had to force me to update. Haha. So here are some pictures of one of the props we were making. We were going for the Periodic Table look, since we are both Chemistry students. This will be displayed in our new home too!

We went to ART FRIEND to get the boards and the foam papers.
The man puts his ex-rag skills to use. First the painting:

Then the cutting:

We bought the wrongly coloured alphabet thickers so we had to paint it too.

And the last part, putting everything together! We experimented with different types of glue, but soon discovered that good ol’ UHU was the best!

Thickers first.

Then the numbers we cut from the foam paper.

And then after some help with decision making, the final frame is complete!

Bridesmaid attire!

Wedding Favours and 兄弟 Attire

After a long long long search on taobao, and one shipping attempt for QC, we have finally decided on our wedding favours. We have finally more or less confirmed our wedding favours! It won’t be from China. It is from FRANCE!

I had to make sure it was something we could keep and use in the worst case scenario; maybe all the guests hated it and refused to take it home. So finally I have found it. We will be purchasing mini jars of jam from Bonne Maman. It’s small, cute, delicious and best of all, within our budget. So we are very happy people.

And after super long searches on taobao also, we have finally finally found the perfect attire for the brothers. This shop is able to customize lego pictures of the Avengers on t shirts (with some slight differences). Yippee! We can choose the colour of the shirts and there it will all look similar to each other! We will be getting the hulk one for Zi Qi for QC. I really really hope it is nice. *fingers crossed*

They’re Here!

Hunt for Wedding Bands!

We decided that we should buy our wedding bands before 2013, since there is a good chance that the price will increase next year. We wanted the bands to cost below $1000.

Our first serious hunt took place on 15th December in Tampines Mall.

Tampines Mall has a cluster of jewellery shops on level 1, so we visited the usual: Soo Kee, Lee Hwa, SK and Goldheart. Of the three places, only the first two places made me stay and look further.

The lady who served us in Soo Kee was very nice and patient and she had a good knowledge of the rings. But the bands we like range between $1200-1400.

The guy who served us gave us a good first impression. We actually really liked a pair of rings in Lee Hwa and it was just a little over our budget. We actually almost wanted to buy our bands from Lee Hwa, the man’s ring was really nice. But the female ring on display was a size 8; so tiny that it couldn’t even fit into my pinky (yeah, I have really fat fingers and thick knuckles, courtesy of all the knuckle cracking I did in primary school). So I felt that if the ring was bigger, it would look totally different. We expressed our worries to the guy and he said he could actually bring in the bands with sizes that were closer to ours so we can have a better idea. We told him we would return next Saturday to take a look again. He even offered to call me to let me know when they arrive. I did find him a little pushy because he kept wanting us to put a deposit down for the man’s ring.

The service at SK was really lousy. When we went in, there was nobody available to serve us. There was this China couple hogging the wedding bands display area and bargaining. WTH? This is not a night market leh. The lady who finally appeared to serve us had very little knowledge on the rings and seem to just want to get rid of us. So we left pretty quickly.

Goldheart just didn’t have anything that I like. The rings were really thick and bulky. So we didn’t stay long too.

So that was our first hunt. It didn’t occur to me that I should have taken some pictures, I kept forgetting how the bands actually look like (haha). So to refresh my memory I decided to go for a solo hunt on 21st December (DOOMSDAY!).

NEX has a good collection of jewellery shops too. I told myself that I would go into every shop, even the ones that I don’t have a good impression of.

Walked past Taka Jewellery at looked at their display, felt that their rings look like they were made from aluminium foil (too shiny and fake). So I moved on.

Walked past CitiGem and almost wanted to skip it but I just forced myself to go in. No designs I like and the rings were also too bulky. NEXT!

Walked into SK. Now, the service here was a thousand times better than the one at Tampines. Look for this guy name Jeric, he has a good knowledge of the rings and he was very very friendly. He also has really thin fingers. I shortlisted four rings here.

Moved on to Lee Hwa. Service here was ok and the band selection was limited so I didn’t find any that I liked. The lady gave me a brochure, the ones I like in the brochure were not available there.

Went to Soo Kee and had high expectations. But service here was also below average. The lady sounded so unenthusiastic and bored. It was such a turn off. Plus the band selection was also very limited. I did see a pair that I liked which was slightly over our budget.

Went to Goldheart and saw one pair that I kinda liked. But the price was in the 1400 range. And the white gold was PLATED ONLY.

Went into Tianpo, band selection was again limited and bulky. But the lady was nice and she also gave me a brochure. I do like some designs in the book.

Last stop was Meyson. I didn’t expect anything from this place. But I was so wrong. I actually fell in love with one particular pair. And it was way below our budget. Major plus point. Lianti and another lady served me. They were both very nice. They offered to bring the bigger size rings on Sunday so I could take a look. They provided free polishing and engraving services. I had weird request on the matt finishing of the guy’s ring, and they were able to do so. So I was really happy.

So my solo hunt ended on a good note 🙂 Sent all the pictures to the man to let him decide on his ring.

Our third and final hunt took place on 22nd December. We returned to Tampines Mall so that the man could have a good look at the rings I saw previously.

We also found out that his sister bought all jewellery from Meyson too. They are linked to a shop known as Ming Seng.

TAKA Jewellery was having a sale but the rings still look like they are made from alumnium foil.

SK service was still SUPER LOUSY. We went in, nobody bothered greeting us. Sat down and nobody attended to us. The person who attended to us had poor knowledge and also seemed like she wanted to get rid of us. Luckily I had a good idea of the rings I wanted already. So I just got her to retrieve them for us to see.

We went into Lee Hwa again. In the end, the guy didn’t call me and when he saw us, it seemed like he had totally forgotten that he was supposed to help us retrieve the rings and give us a call. He even had a hard time finding the ring we wanted and I actually thought it was already sold. His attitude dipped by a 100%, perhaps he felt that we didn’t want the ring as much anymore? I was actually still keen on getting the guy’s ring for the man since it was really nice. It was a tad expensive though. But his service was a turn off.

I wanted to take a look at Poh Heng cos’ many people say that they can be trusted. But the band selection wasn’t good.

So finally I called Lianti and asked her if the rings will be available for viewing on Sunday and she said that they have already arrived. Thumbs up for expedited service! So we went to NEX at night to take a look and decided that Meyson it is! It will take them one week to get the bands ready (so fast!) and I can’t wait to see it!

For all couples shopping for wedding bands, I think it essential that you try as many designs as possible to find a ring you like. It might look good in the picture but crappy on your fingers. When I first started searching I thought I would want a ring with a twist and I preferred white gold. But when I looked around, some rose/white gold combinations were pretty nice and I realized I didn’t want my rings to have a too exaggerated twist. Some rings look good on display but not so on my finger. So don’t limit your choices; have a rough idea and try on as many rings as you can. Usually the first impression seals the deal. The ring that you keep reaching for again and admiring how it looks on your finger will be your ring!