The uncertainty of the Hong Kong visit in December made us realize it's probably better off to do our pre-wedding photography in Vancouver. I heard from friends and family that the three most well known pre-wedding photographers in the Chinese community are HN Wedding, Bello Wedding World and Charlie's Photo.
HN Wedding
I was attracted by HN Wedding at first by its window display. The wedding dress on display was very unique; the design is so different than the western designer gowns. The sales consultant told us that most of the dresses were designed in Taiwan. For years I have heard countless people praising Taiwan for its beautiful wedding dresses and pre-wedding photography. Many couples fly all the way there to buy the dress and take their photos. Finally I get to see what the hype is all about! We were taken to the showroom on the second floor with a huge victorian style couch placed in the middle. Dresses hung against two walls, most wrapped individually in a mesh clothing bag. The sales presented three wedding gowns to us, as soon as she took them out of the bags…without saying out loud, the first thing came to my mind was SUNGLASSES. Why?!?! Coz the number of bling bling placed on each dress was uncountable! On top of that, the trains on these dresses looked a mile long. I couldn't resist and asked to try one out. Wow, the feeling was like I'm getting married to royalty. Due to the grandeur nature of the dress, I was already on 4-inch heels with a train reaching as far as half the room size. Aside from feeling like a princess, I felt like a spokesperson for Swarovski, as if the entire store of crystals covered me completely. Forgive my little jest. The dresses are outstanding and impressive in appearance, but TOO MUCH for my taste. It just doesn't seem appropriate for an outdoor ceremony and unfit for the venue.
Sorry to have wasted your time reading about wedding dress again, but I thought the encounter was worth mentioning. Now back to HN Wedding's photography. From the sample photos, we could see that the photographer is highly skilled and absolutely fantastic at capturing the beauty of the environment. The color correction technique is amazing as well. But we saw his strengths as his weaknesses at the same time when it comes to pre-wedding photography. In many occasions, the background steals the thunder from the main subjects. The post shoot editing makes the photos look somewhat unnatural.
Charlie's Photos
Without physically visiting Charlie's Photos, we already filtered it out. Due to limited time in Vancouver, we looked at the website and knew at once this is not the style we want. The sample photos mostly look like the ones you take from the Japanese sticker/card machines. Many images are overly composited. The overall look of the photos appear cliché.
Bello Wedding World
We stopped by Bello Wedding World initially to look at wedding dresses only. Then later found out that the shop also sells pre-wedding and wedding day photography, videography, hair and make-up services. Don't even bother to visit Bello's website for sample photos, there are very few posted and they aren't that nice. The samples we saw at the shop look more natural compare to the above two, in terms of color correction, composition, bridal hair and make-up styling.
There are three pre-wedding photography packages from Bello: Emerald, Ruby and Diamond, ranging from CAD$2388-3388 (before tax). If you pay another $600 on top of any package, that will cover the wedding dress, tux, evening dress, veil and accessory rentals, as well as the hair and make-up styling on the wedding day.
We chose the Emerald package, which includes shooting up to 10 hours in the studio and two outdoor locations. We can choose 35 images at the end of the shoot.
Emerald includes the following:
1 - 11" x 16" graphic design album
1 - 16" x 20" wall size frame
1 - CD with 35 poses
1 - 30" guest registry
2 - wedding gowns
2 - evening gowns
2 - tuxedos
1 - make-up
4 - hairstyling
1 - 6" x 9" parent's album
100 - thank you cards
Since we placed an order with Bello to purchase my wedding dress and evening dresses, the shop has agreed to upgrade our wall size frame to 20" x 24", along with an additional parent's album. The sales consultant also included some small items free of rental charge on our wedding day. We also pay extra to have my hair and make-up done at Bello the day of our wedding.
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