Experience (+tips) for our overseas PWS 🇳🇱👰🏻‍♀️♥️🤵🏻

Guyssss I did it!! I managed to pull off an overseas pre-wedding shoot to Europe 🙌 and nope, I didn’t sign any bridal studio pws package at all so everything was very flexible and DIY ~ So if you guys are in the midst of planning for an overseas pws too, here’s my experience and things I learnt along the way during my planning journey ☺️

💍 Location

For us, we chose Amsterdam because it holds significance to us since it was the place where we both met during our student exchange 🥹 Definitely do your research before traveling because I heard that some countries/locations require permits to do photo shoot at, especially if you are planning to hire a non-local photographer.

💍 Flying out our photographer

We decided to fly out our photographer over to Amsterdam with us instead of getting a local photographer! Sounds like a baller move but we thought it was not worth the risk to save on that few hundreds to hire a foreigner in a foreign land 🫣 Many things could go wrong, be it language barrier or we could get scammed (worst case scenario) + we don’t have good photographer contacts in Amsterdam anyway so it was hard to source for one 🤷‍♀️ Either way, if you have your heart set on a SG photographer, I feel it’s worth it to just fly them out rather than settling for someone you’re unsure of.

💍 Makeup & Hair (DIY)

I guess this portion would be more applicable to brides ~ I did my own hair and makeup because that was what i was comfortable with and also due to budget constraints 💸 I wanted that minimalist look so I didn’t need to do much with my hair and for makeup, I did a few practice rounds before the shoot day ☺️ I feel if you’re not comfortable with your makeup/hair skills, hiring a local there is sufficient if you are on a tight budget! To make things easier on myself, I did my brows, facial, hair, lashes and nails before my trip and that saved me so much time and effort to look flawless 💅

💍 Itinerary

Our shoot lasted for 2 days with 4 locations in total. I didn’t wear an actual wedding dress which made it easier to move locations (something to think about!) We had 2 morning shoots and 2 night shoots with ample time to rest in between 😌 It’s important to discuss roughly which locations you wish to visit — I recommend using 小红书 to search for aesthetic places — and MORE importantly, arrive at least a day before your shoot day and recce those places with your photographer!

For morning shoots, do arrive as early as 7am to avoid crowds especially in touristy areas. For evening shoots, do check the sunset timings as well so that you can catch the golden hours ☀️

💍 Outfits

Because we had multiple shoot sessions, we decided to go with 3 outfits (will share what we wore soon!) I suggest showing your photographer your outfit coordination plan so they can advise you on if it suits the vision and mood board y’all are looking for 🫶🏻 If you have multiple outfits that you wish to wear for the shoot, best is to split your shoot up into multiple sessions so you don’t have to carry another set of outfit everywhere. Oh ya, and if you’re planning a themed shoot, remember to bring along your props like picnic mat, umbrella etc.🫶🏻

Having an overseas PWS is really an experience that I’ll never forget ☺️ There were so many things that we planned for but in the end we just let Jesus take wheel hahaha 😅 I must admit I was pretty worried about the things that could go wrong but we told ourselves to just let loose and have fun 🤗 and we sure did!

Hope this can help you guys in your pws planning journey! Feel free to ask me anything in the comment section below ♥️♥️

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