One day while browsing through my social media, I came across Paris France Taiwan's video for a crazy shoot. At the time, I already wanted to have an extraordinary experience in relation to our upcoming wedding at least - if I couldn't fly and be off somewhere during the actual day then before that haha. We didn't know them, had a friend initially contact them (coz I wasn't confident with my Mandarin), just paid the downpayment, booked flights and waited for the date. Our trip was well worth it in my opinion, it brought us closer together as a couple and it's something we would gladly do again hehe. Here's what happened. Of course, I can't post all the photos just yet until after the wedding next year but at least you'll get a feel of the logistics and the other places we've been thru my newly found Traveller's Notebook and a little behind-the-scenes. I'm planning 2 more posts after this on the picking of attires, the hotel and food in the Hsinchu area ;)
A week before our flight, I got in touch with our Paris France contact directly via Line to ask about the things to prepare, logistics, pegs and schedule. The thing about getting local photographers is that they are much more knowledgeable about their country so I completely put my trust on them for that part. Have you ever heard of this wedding photo industry of Taiwan? They have this whole road in Taipei 台北 and is really popular with locals and foreigners. What sets the Paris France photo company in my opinion is that they are not based in Taipei and they have flying shots in their own studio with their office in Hsinchu 新竹 (1.5 to 2 hours away from Taoyuan International Airport TPE). What's the same is the all-inclusive gowns and dresses, makeup, stylist and photographer in a package, ours even has an overnight stay and one-way airport transfer. It's fine if you can't speak good English and a bit of Chinese, Paris France gave us the best administrative assistant in their company who is the bubbly Niki :) By the end of the first shooting day, J could already understand what to do without me translating hehehe.
Let me tell you about my mini project these days. I found this Traveller's Notebook brand from Midori Japan in Taipei's Songshan Creative Park and I decided to organize my trip souvenirs (usually a whole bunch of papers, maps, tickets, receipts, etc. I used) in it. It would serve as my itinerary guide like how I do it here in the blog per day.
It's not pretty the way I do it but enough and I'm quite happy with the outcome. In this trip, you can see that I used the free online authorization to enter Taiwan because I have an existing valid US Visa, we arrived at the Taoyuan Airport TPE and stayed at the Howard Hotel 福華飯店.
It was still early so the driver dropped us off at the temple area to get some meatballs for lunch. Hsinchu is famous for this delicious 貢丸. I tried on LOTS of dresses from 2pm to 7pm haha.
On the right below, you'll see our timeline. Two days of shoot and another two making all those decisions kept us busy in Hsinchu. And I felt that it was just right to stay in the same hotel, just rest during the free times and go eat near the area.
Here I put all my reminders if I want to do the photoshoot again with the translations. Coz I really want to do it again. You can send me a message via contact form if you want a clearer picture ;)
This is one of the pictures I loved... It's so hard to narrow down even 200 plus pictures! The photos they took, I tell you, just need a little editing, sometimes no more. They're so good at what they do and the turnaround time is very very fast. 4 days went by so quickly...
We took a train to Taipei, stayed in Ximen (which is such a great location for just going around the sights in the Blue Line) and I loved the Songshan Creative Park most in this trip.
I leave you with another one of my favorite photos from Paris France Taiwan. Many many thanks to Rita, Niki, Dora, 徐 Sir and his assistant for this amazing Taiwan prenup experience. =)
