A Catholic Marriage Journey: Preparing for Photoshoot in Taiwan

Image by John&Fish via Flickr

Several months back, we had already purchased our photoshoot package from a Novena roadshow. If there was a downside, it's that the package was not full - no AD gowns and peripherals and that we had to make travel arrangements ourselves.

The cost of the package seems quite reasonable in comparison with Singapore boutiques and the agency did not hard-sell to us. Quality-wise, forums mentioned that service was great. Well, only the trip will tell.

The AD preparations are on the way - will survey them tomorrow at Sattine, keeping in mind Zann&Denn. Addy wants me to see the gowns for myself first before deciding whether to custom-make.

Well, this post is supposed to be about the travel plans anyway.

The reason why getting the tickets so late was because I wanted to ballot and see whether we could have gotten a cheaper deal if I had balloted for my ticket. At this point of time, as we are not formally registered, Addy had to pay for a single ticket. This worked out to be about SGD1100 all inclusive. Moreover, I had to pay for my own free ticket surcharges which amounted to nearly SGD300.

This did not seem very worth the while, given that there's SIA sweet deal 2-to-go at SGD688/pax. However when I tried to book online, the offer did not have our available date. You see, as Addy had very small window for our trip, there are only selected days we could fly.

So we went to NATAS Travel fair on the 26th Feb 2010 weekend. Sometimes this is better than DIY because of the bulk discounts travel agency commands. And like fairs in NATAS, you get free stuff like luggage and lucky draw coupons. After a long survey at the fair and due to the quick uptake of air-tickets, we decided on New Shan, paying SGD748/pax all inclusive. Luckily I mentioned that I was an airline staff to get further discounts.

If you do not have the luxury of having a travel fair at the time you would like to fly, try WEGO. There's a banner on the right of this post. Love it cos it pulls out the best deals from other websites like Zuji. Amazing stuff!

For accommodation, it was a hassle initially because New Shan said our choice hotels were overbooked. After a long arduous search and asking, I managed to book 5 stars Sheraton Taipei for 5 nights at a special staff rate. I expect it will cost less that SGD900 for the accommodation. Since it's a holiday of special significance, why not splurge a little. (My close friends will lamblast me for saying that this trip can help me go Phuket 5 times).

We estimate a total budget for a wedding photoshoot overseas in Taiwan to be around SGD5,000, approx, all in.

A summary of what I learnt doing all these:

There are always hiccups and there is a large chance you might blow your budget.

How hard it is depends on you whether you are picky

Doing things together esp when it is hard often makes it fun but it can make you argue too. There's where we learn about each other's expectations and character.

Total time spent( approx 6 weeks, 2 hours a day, 2 days a week)