Dear friends,
It’s just about thirty odd days to wedding day on the first of January, and you can say that right now, it’s what we call “crunch time”! Details are all falling into place and everything has got to be settled within these couple of weeks while we get ready physically and mentally for the big day.
Preparing for the wedding has been both exciting, and stressful at the same time! Probably because I’m not much for planning and I actually find it a chore to have to sit down and get the work done. So I think I’m pretty lucky in the sense that YZ is quite the responsible groom (have heard many stories about how grooms usually don’t lift a finger to help!) and he has been taking charge of a lot of the work for the wedding!
This post is a throw-back to happier days.. Lol! When we flew to Phuket for a short pre-honeymoon/photoshoot!
Headaches about wedding prep and coordination aside, one of my favourite parts about the process of getting married has got to be the opportunity to take beautiful photos with my man, it just feels so magical and surreal! And of course, our wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime event, and the documentation is something very meaningful to both of us.
We departed for a short trip to Phuket with Veillage, a wedding solutions company that provides a comprehensive range of wedding packages and services for the hassled couples like us who need help for our big day! I only wish I found out about Veillage earlier, because their packages are really incredible. You can choose to have EVERYTHING (and I do mean everything) sorted out from photoshoot to actual day solemnisation banquet to honeymoon all arranged for and planned by them, the full works, for only a package fee of as low as $49,888!
As a somewhat experienced BTB (lol bride-to-be! I remember seeing this term on all those wedding forums which I don’t dare to look at because they will stress me out even more with the number of Bridezillas on them), I’ve come to realise how crazy expensive and how much work a wedding can be. This article sums it up best, in sunny Singapore, a wedding could possibly be the most expensive investment ever in your life, apart from a house or a car!
If I could pay this amount and have everything arranged for YZ and I, I think I would be extremely extremely eager. Haha! Convenience and value at the same time!
Okay, time to talk about my experience during this Phuket trip with Veillage! And of course, most importantly, I’ve also posted many of the “official” photos below so do read on to the end!
THE FLIGHT
Both YZ and I have never been to Phuket, and we thought this would be a nice get-away while we took photos at the same time. Phuket’s a pretty popular destination for wedding shoots cos it’s so beautiful there!
Thanks to Veillage, we got to fly on Business Class exclusively, which was such a luxurious experience!
Checking in at the airport.. Whoop!!
It was a super comfortable and enjoyable flight, and now I know why flyers have to pay so much more to enjoy business class. Haha! Just the seats alone make such a huge difference!
Beautiful aerial shots I took from the plane! The clouds were exceptionally stunning that morning.
More business class perks: Getting to board in advance and having a chilled drink served to you (in a proper glass!) while waiting for takeoff.
And of course.. The food was just incredible D: We had a little menu to choose from and both of us picked the steak which was superbly cooked! Definitely not your usual airplane fare. And yes, we requested our friendly air stewardess (who will refer to you as Mr Peh and Miss Goh, kudos to personalized service!) to take a shot for us! Hehe.
The flight was such a breeze and before we knew it, we’d already touched down and set foot in Phuket. Yay!
Thanks to the short flight time, it wasn’t tiring at all and we headed straight to the dress shop for gown selection and picking right after we arrived in Phuket. Met our friendly coordinators as well, Ruby and Joanne, who would be with us during the trip and ensuring that we were well taken care of 😀
GOWN SELECTION AND FITTING
Gown choosing was pretty straight forward, you get to pick two gowns, and they can be either both white wedding gowns, or even one colored gown or traditional Thai costume, should you wish to have that! I went for two white gowns hehe. Oh and we also brought along one set of casual outfits too for shoot! It’s always nice to do some fun non-weddingish shots, I feel.
A few snippets taken during gown selection!
One of the gowns that I look back in retrospect and sort of regretted not taking. So princessy and nice!
This was a gown I picked in the end, heh! I really like the embellishments and interesting “distressed” details on the skirting!
We also picked a couple of suits for YZ and some jewellery for myself!
If there’s any alterations to be done, it will be made in one day, right in time for the shoot on the next day! We also got to pick our flowers for the floral bouquet provided during the shoot.
Got the gowns and suits settled, and since we were in “town”, we headed for a massage to relax and unwind!
A glimpse of what the streets look like
Super love Thai massage, affordable and good! We had foot massage plus thai massage done for less than thirty dollars or something! It felt so good to get all the knots and tensions kneaded out of my system.
That being said, I was super eager to get to our accommodation cos we would be staying at Anantara Layan, a classy and luxurious resort/villa by the beach! It was late when we finally got to our own private villa, shoo-ed in by the friendly and polite staff, and we entered our private villa to this welcome sight..
AT ANANTARA LAYAN
Hehehe look!!! A special customized welcome message laid out so prettily on the bed I also didn’t want to spoil it!
I then walked into the bath area to discover this really gorgeous bath tub, and there’s even two separate wash-up areas and sinks so that you don’t have to fight for space! Superb.
The bed was SUPER comfortable. The kind that you sink in and just don’t wish to get up from! Made me want to stay a few more nights just to sleep in that bed.
A platter of welcome fruit for us
The towelettes were folded into little bunnies which amused me. Haha! Amenities-wise, everything was provided for and it was perfect!
Of course, the first thing we did was to order room service for dinner, we were so famished after the long day.
So much for eating less though we were seriously contemplating if we should have shown some restraint in preparation of the shoot on the following day. But we were just too hungry! And everything looked so so good when it arrived! Looking at all the food is making me hungry again. Now.
A sweet end to dinner with this delicious coconut Creme brûlée dessert! And with our tummies happily filled, we fell into bed and crashed for the night. I’m sure I fell asleep almost immediately after crawling between the covers because it was just too comfortable. Had a fantastic night’s sleep, and when we were waken up early the following day for photoshoot prep, we were both well-rested (though reluctant to get out of bed)!
PHOTOSHOOT DAY!
A makeup artist was arranged by Veillage to come straight down to our villa to prepare us for the shoot!
Sleepy morning face haha.
If you have specific ideas on makeup and hair, I recommend you let the make-up artist take a look so that they better know what to do! Save some pictures from Pinterest or something to show to your MUA so they have an idea of what styles you want to go for.
I didn’t do any research for hair and makeup haha so I just left it to the MUA to doll me up!
The MUA was super meticulous, I must say! He brought a huge trolley of products (all well-known cosmetics brands) and knew exactly what he was doing.
Moving on to hair!
After I was done with my prep, YZ took his turn, so a buggy brought me down to the resort dining area for breakfast!
YUM!! Ordered an eggs benny from the eggs station.
I can’t live without eggs for sure! They had really yummy croissants and freshly squeezed juice and all sorts of other delicious offerings for breakfast as well!
Check out the beautiful view overlooking the sea! Thank goodness, it was fine weather with pretty blue skies and beautiful clouds. Phew.
A shot of Anantara Layan‘s feature wall since we missed this in the dark the night before!
After I was done with breakfast, I headed back to the villa to get dressed and ready for shoot!
Last few adjustments to hair and gown..
YZ looking all dapper and ready in his first suit!
Couple shot!! ^.^
Did I mention that my villa has its very own private swimming pool? It was too dark the night before to take any pictures, hahaha. But yes, private swimming pool!! Which is also where we started shooting!
Tips for the couple, just remember to stay relaxed and happy! Let the photographer do his job and capture you at your most natural moments. Have faith that they know what they’re doing!
Our photographer was a local Thai guy, arranged by Veillage. He didn’t speak much English, but it was generally enough to communicate with!
Spot our sweet MUA who also accompanied us the entire day to help with behind-the-scenes, from touching up of my hair and makeup to adjusting my gown and even holding an umbrella to keep me in the shade!
We spent the morning shooting around Anantara Layan, down by the seaside and also in some other beautiful parts of the resort, like a special wooden chapel and even inside the villa!
Some of the people behind the scenes, including Ruby and Joanne from Veillage, and a very helpful staff of Anantara Layan!
The resort even prepared a special lovers’ villa for us to shoot in! Just look at the effort made into preparing the villa!
Swans made from towels!!
Here’s a close-up shot of my bouquet of roses and lilies. I love the shades of pink and cream!
And look at this insanely lovely bath tub, full of rose petals!
Getting my hair done while taking a selfie haha!
After we were done with the locations within the villa, it was time to move out!! We had a quick lunch stop along the way, before we headed to Phuket’s famous Old Town for part two! We also changed into our second set of outfits as well.
YZ looks so dashing in a white suit! :))
The Old Town reminds me a little of Singapore’s Chinatown, except more quaint and also older and more vintage-looking.
The streets are full of colourful walls and beautiful old doors and windows!
Oh yes.. We borrowed a vintage bicycle from a random shop (I really mean we just happily took it to shoot with haha! But the shop owner was really nice! I suppose it’s because we’re taking wedding photos :D)
I’m not good with the awkward corny poses heh but some of them turned out really nice!
Coconut break!! I miss the coconuts in Thailand, so so much 🙁 And a friendly kitty came over to play!
A random graffiti wall so we had some fun with silly shots 😀
The last stop for the day was a beautiful beach that had incredible waves crashing in against the shore! We shot all the way til the sun set, before we called it a day.
My parting shot with YZ hehe!
We had dinner at a random chinese seafood place with our friendly Veillage coordinators Ruby and Joanne, before we retired, exhausted for the day. And that concluded the end of activities for the day!
Special thanks to these two ladies from Veillage, Ruby and Joanne, for taking care of us and assisting with behind-the-scene shots! 😀
It felt so good to be snuggling back in that comfortable bed, but we decided to wake up early for breakfast because the good folks at Veillage kindly arranged for a spa session for us at Anantara Layan’s five-star spa!
Refreshed after a good night’s sleep, but we were quite sad to be leaving so soon! If only we had an extra day or two at this marvellous villa.
Breakfast spread with a view! 😀
Headed over for a super awesome spa and massage time at another part of Anantara Layan (cos the place is so huge, you need a buggy to get you around from place to place!)
And we enjoyed a really relaxing and luxurious spa/massage at Anantara Layan, right before we had to pack up and go ;( A specially chauffeured limousine brought us to the airport, where a friendly Anantara Layan staff took care of us and checked us in!
Thank you!!!
And of course, we had an excellent flight back to Singapore as well! That marked the end of our short get-away, sigh. But not the end of this blog post, cos I have got some really gorgeous photos to share!!
I just got back these photos from Veillage, and they are gorgeous! Here are my favourite few, just to share with you readers!
Thank you so much, Veillage, for this wonderful experience and beautiful captures! If you guys would like to view more of my pre-wedding photos, pop over to Veillage’s Gallery page on their homepage to find them! 🙂
If you’re looking for a company to provide solutions for all your wedding needs, Veillage may be just what you need! Convenient and hassle-free ready solutions are available for every couple to suit your needs. There are even FULL service wedding packages, that cover everything from overseas photoshoot, local solemnisation, gown rental, wedding vehicles, wedding banquet, emcee, photographer, wedding day management and even your post-celebratory honeymoon, to exotic destinations like Maldives and Dubai!
And only available as an exclusive Christmas Promotion for couples that book the Full Service Wedding Package from 1st – 31st December 2014, you get a special price of only $49,888 nett, all in!
You might also be interested to know that Veillage has tie-ins directly with the following partners:
– Singapore Airlines
– Anantara Hotels, Resorts, Spas
-Wedding-N (Korea wedding consultancy – package launching in 2015)
Of course, there are different packages too depending on your own individual needs and what you require! Take a look at Veillage’s wedding packages page for more information on www.veillage.com, or call 67598797 to have Veillage’s wedding personnel to assist you.
Do also check out their social media accounts for more news and updates 😀
Facebook: www.facebook.com/veillage
Twitter: www.twitter.com/veillage
Instagram: @veillage.sg
Thank you for reading, and I hope this post will give some Brides-To-Be a perspective on what it’s like to experience an overseas photoshoot! It’s truly an unforgettable experience like no other.
xoxo
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