Finally, we had our prenup!

When we attended the Before I Do Pre-wedding Workshop last year, the organizers (led by John Mateos Ong) gave a free prenuptial photo shoot to all the attendees. Yehey!!!  What a blessing!  This is truly a double delight, because not only did we learn so many things from the workshop which we can apply even before marriage, but we also got a fun, prenuptial shoot by very creative photographers from Sir Jong's studio, Imagine Nation.

Since early 2011, I've said I wanted a Japanese-themed wedding.  Japan is close to our hearts, and we're very much into almost all things Japanese, and so we were hoping we could incorporate such lovely elements to our big day.  Unfortunately, my mom felt it was too gimmicky, so we had to drop the idea.  But when it was time for our prenup, I didn't even think twice about having a Japanese-inspired photo shoot, since I can't have it on our wedding.  Oh, I went crazy and overboard putting together some things I'd like to see in the photos.  I didn't get a stylist since that will be so expensive, so I just browsed for pegs and came up with Kanji and calligraphy brushes, toys, origami, kendama, letters of our first names and numbers for the dates of our wedding, and some manga and other Japanese books.  I brought out my yukatas, and borrowed some more, in case we'll be wearing different ones.

For make-up, I initially told Rae I wanted a light gray eyeshadow.  But since it didn't suit my complexion, I trusted Rae with a natural, blushing bride look with emphasis to the eyes.  The Japanese women like to make their eyes look bigger, and since it's a Japanese-themed shoot, Rae made my eyes bigger too, in keeping with the theme ;-)  Nhot gave me cute big curls for my shoot that day.  For the wedding preview, he made it into a soft and semi-loose updo since I have a huge face hehehe ;-)

We shot from around 2PM and packed up at around past 8PM.  First stop was Enderun, then Little Tokyo, then back to Enderun.  By the time we were headed for Enderun again for the last few shots, Anj's camera registered around 700++ pictures already, and so did Liz's.  Whew!  I really thank God that I have very patient, very creative and very fun to be with suppliers, especially the photographers.  It's not easy having us as subjects, because we'd rather be the ones shooting the pics.  We're really shy and some of the photos would reflect how stiff we were hehehe ;-)  But since Liz and Anj were so easy to deal with, and since they have very nice ideas, we eventually warmed up to them ;-)  Looking at these pics makes me want to have another prenup!  ;-)

I give all my suppliers a grade of 5++++ (to the nth power) out of 5 for their patience, creativity and of course, for their excellent output!  We had a lot of time to talk during the shoot, and I really felt that they went beyond their duty and responsibility to make us feel at home and at ease.  Rae was even giving me tips how to pose, and Nhot was even giving me advice on what kind of gown to wear since I've put on a lot of pounds already.  Liz and Anj would tirelessly shoot from literally all angles just to get the perfect shots.  And how can I forget Noel Salazar, our main wedding photographer?  He dropped by to meet us, and also helped us feel at ease.  I can imagine how I'll end up with tummy ache because of laughing from wedding preps all the way to the ceremony.  It was truly a blessing to have all of them for this prenup shoot.  

So this is how it feels to be in front of the cameras ;-)  It was exciting and definitely fun, but we were also nervous if we were doing things right.  I'm so excited to get my photos by Monday next week.  And oh, it's Noel who will do the "checking" for my prenup photos.  Enjoy the preview!

Locations |  Enderun (Taguig City) and Little Tokyo (Makati City)
Make-up |  Rae Venturanza
Hair |  Nhot Bituin
Photography |  Liz Ranola and Anj Ong of Imagine Nation Photography

a shot inside the restaurant

looking up

outside one of the buildings at Enderun

I didn't get to use many of the props that I brought.  But that's okay, because when we started shooting at Little Tokyo, the place looked so Japanese.  There was no need for more props.  All we had to do was just pose ;-)

by the bridge at Little Tokyo

:-)

check out the Kanji in the lanterns!

Salmon sushi is love!  

This resto, Riozen, serves authentic Japanese food.  Super yummy!!!!!!

tabetai!!!!

Good thing there was another group doing a shoot there.  We borrowed their umbrella.  Hahaha!!!!!

flare lovin'

last shot at Little Tokyo