At the Goa Lawah bat cave,
not one of our pre-wedding photos!
So our pre-wedding shoot arrangement with Aditi Niranjan Photography was discussed entirely over email with Thea, Aditi's marketing manager. The discussion started months earlier and only within the last 2-3 weeks did we finally get down to the nitty gritty details of planning the locations and props to be used. On their Facebook page, Aiditi called us their "most creative and organized couple" haha.. I wouldn't say we were organized, we just knew what we wanted!not one of our pre-wedding photos!
On day 1 in Bali, the Aditi team manager Dedy, assistant photographer Wayan and make-up artist Annie came over to our villa and we had a sit-down discussion with them. They basically went through all our details, venues, made some recommendations, noted our outfit changes for each venue and planned the day's itinerary, including lunch and advising how to take our breakfast! We went through the style of make-up and hair as well, so everything was set. We just had to be ready by the time they picked us up early the next morning.
Day 2 was the day of the shoot. Shermaine and I, along with our entourage of friends, were driven to the Aditi Niranjan studio for make-up before our first venue - the Ubud Pasar (market)! At the studio, we were introduced to the rest of the crew that would follow us that day - Mario the owner and main photographer was a bald man with a charming smile.
So off to the market we went! What a culturally interesting place it was, offering at least 3 different looks for the background of our images! We even got to sit on a local police motorbike!
We headed back to the studio for a touch-up and outfit change before the long drive to Kintamani. The drive there offered excellent views of Mt Batur at the crest of the perimeter before descending to the valley where we had our 'lonely' roadside shoot with the mountain as our backdrop. What a lovely blue sky we had! Not to mention the Vespa that was ridden there for us by the umbrella-man =D Our friends Jackie, Jon, Mark and Justin really helped a lot here, helping bear the heat with us, knowing where our accessories and clothes were, and picking up Sherm's train and sash after every click (in order to avoid the many trucks that would pass by every 3 minutes or so!). We wouldn't know what we would have done if not for their generous help!
We couldn't have Ikan Bakar for lunch as initially planned, so Wayan drove us to the famous Ibu Oka for Babi Guling (roasted suckling pig) lunch.
Next, we proceeded to a black sand beach nearer to Ubud and had our 3rd series of shots with a rented horse which was adorned with a shiny new red bridle. The horse was lovely and perfectly well-behaved, apart from him sticking out his tongue and the occasional foamy cough! Still, Sherm was smiling from ear to ear (she really loves horses) the entire time.
Our final location was Tengal Wangi, a beach location that would replace Tanah Lot since that was a place that Sherm could hardly let her bridal gown down (it being a very wet location). We hadn't realized how much of a treacherous climb down it was to get to the beach itself! Anyway we managed to do it, and took another excellent series there before changing out to casuals so that Sherm could climb back up with less difficulty and without worrying about ripping the intricate lace on her gown.
That night, we sat up for about an hour after being sent back to our villa. With assistance from Wayan, we chose our 80 pictures to be edited. These pictures would also make up the 2 albums that came with our package, and 1 would be our blown-up large size canvas wall-hanging. During this time, we could specify the edits we wanted to make to any particular image, or simply leave it to their good and capable hands.
Two days later, some staff from Aditi came to deliver our 2 albums, CDs, video DVD and the canvas. We spotted a few images which used a green filter which we really didn't like at all. So we told them about our dissatisfaction. Luckily we had 1 extra day to our holiday, so they promptly returned to make the alterations and could deliver our perfect album early the next day, before we set off for the airport!
There were some issues with their service, of which I will state here:
1) The make-up tended to the heavy side... Annie's initial hair arrangements was not to our liking as well, but that was fixed with some advice frm Jackie - thanks!
I would suggest bringing more pictures of what you want done, or examples, which will help greatly.
2) Effective communication in English is not so perfect either. It would be good if either the bride or groom spoke some Bahasa Indonesia, or have a member of your entourage help in the communication, to express ideas, or make specific requests.
However, on the whole, we were VERY IMPRESSED with the service we received from the company throughout, and I would whole-heartedly recommend their services to anyone wanting to do a pre-wedding shoot or even a family shoot in Bali.
Some acknowledgements:
Once more, thanks again to our friends, Mark, Jackie, Jon and Justin without which this shoot would not have turned out as fun, as relaxing or as enjoyable as it did. =D
Jean, Jessica and Kelvin who accompanied us on our holiday to Bali.
Finally, to Mark and Jackie again, who fervently recommended the studio to us after going through a similar experience 2 yrs prior, a heartfelt thank you to you both!
