Hi all
My husband and I had our wedding in Dec 2014 and purchased a full package of French Wedding in 2013 consisting of the following:
1. Gowns rental
2. Pre wedding photos
3. Actual day photo and video, and photobooth from PictureMe which is under the same group as French
Through this post we hope to give an objective account of our experiences so that BTBs can decide if you want to sign up with them and things to note for people who have already signed up with them. Note that I will not reply to PM because information is to be shared with everyone.
Before signing the package, the sales rep (mine was Wendy or Sharon) will promise you no hidden costs etc and say yes to all your requests. Please note down and ensure that everything is written down in black and white in your contract- a measly piece of paper. Cos that is what they will follow throughout your entire experience with them. Do bargain hard on the package. They have leeway. I will not divulge any prices of the package here just to keep it fair for the bridal shop too.
Golden rule- Make sure you call them repeatedly and micro manage everything. Taking initiative is not their strong suit. Call them before you go to the shop too to ensure that everything is ready. And each time you call, different people will handle the call so sometimes they know no background of your package. I recommend quoting your package number each time instead of your name. Or you can try looking for a specific person each time.
The gowns selection was limited for my size, an L, for both the white and evening gowns. For those who have purchased a package with them, when trying out gowns, do take a look around their shelves and request for them to let you try more till you are satisfied with the look. They may sound unwilling but at the end of the day they will still do it. One good thing is no matter what you say, they will still talk to you without raising their voice or continue smiling at you and say "ya" or "ah- har" though they may not agree with you. I will NOT recommend browsing the gowns very much prior to your actual day or photoshoot. I have seen 2 separate couples do this at the shop on separate occasions and they both leave dissatisfied with the gowns and the service. Truth to be told, since you have already signed up for the package, even if you hate the gowns now you still have to take whatever they have to offer a few months to your actual day. Even if you manage to choose one very much early on, it may not be available later. Moreover, there is no incentive for the shop to entertain your request since they'll have to do it again for you nearer to your date. It's more work and zero incentive. So I suggest save yourself the angst, continue on a cordial relationship first especially since the real deal (ie pre wedding shoot and actual day) is the main battle you want to fight. Do cater at least 4-5 hours to try on the gowns. For those who are still negotiating for your packages, don't bother to negotiate for the JM flowers that the girls can tie on their hands. Quality of the flowers are CMI, choices are limited, the petals are all dropping out and they even charge $50 if you misplace any. If I had known this, I would have purchased or made my own. Don't bother getting any suits for your father from them either. The suits provided are plain and old fashioned, so bad that even my dad said no and he is S sized. I can't imagine the choices available for bigger sized dads. The main bridal car decor was do- able, limited choices but it still looked ok on the day despite the monsoon rain season in Dec. When doing final fitting please cater 2-3 hours because the gown may not be your size since others may have worn the gown and as mentioned above, taking initiative is not their strong suit. Do not expect them to alter it to your size beforehand. So cater sufficient time for them to make the alterations.
Pre-wedding phootshoot you have 2 choices for photographer. Those who have read previous posts here, Charlie is no longer with them so now it's between Christopher or Baofu. I highly recommend Christopher. Do request for his mobile number prior to the shoot to let him know your location choices. He will let you know if it's do-able given limited time and traffic. You can also show him sample photos that you like so that he can re-create the same feel. My friends and myself love the photos he took. He made the entire shoot very comfortable and will guide you on the poses. Please note that you should enlist the help of a friend as a helper with you for the shoot cos it's just Christopher and you on the shoot. The helper can help carry your stuff and shoes, if necessary. Note also that if you do not pay additional for the MUA to follow you, you and your helper will need to change into your evening gown on your own. The other alternative is to do your night shoot at Tanjong Pagar area so that you can return to the shop to change and still take night shots without having to pay extra. I have not worked with Baofu before so I cannot comment on the quality of his work. He used to work for Seletar Broadway (I think) so you could search for samples of his work online. Overall, the pre-wedding actual photoshoot was a pleasant experience despite some unhappiness previously where the shop screwed up the photoshoot dates and the photographer happened to be on leave on that same day. In the end I was sure that I wanted Christopher as my photographer so I changed the dates of my shoot so as to suit his schedule. As for MUA, I recommend Chris. She is good with make up and hairstyles. You can use her for actual day as well. The only thing to note is she tends to be 15 to 20 mins late for appointments. But beyond that she is good. She also has a good collection of accessories for you to go with your gown, much better than those provided by the shop that you could rent for actual day. The photoshop and layout experience was a long and arduous process. When choosing photos, they will let you know that for every style (I.e. Background) you need at least 4-6 photos to make one full page of layout. This is because you can't possible have 2 photos of entirely different background in one page of the album. So you should know the implication here- if you only like 1-2 photos you still need to purchase additional photos to make it to a full page. 50 photos is not sufficient to make a full album so negotiate for more photos at around 60+. Please cater 4 to 5 hours for the choosing of photos. As usual they will convince you to buy more photos, which is entirely up to you. Make sure you are a logical buyer here. Despite a long sheet of photoshop requests taken when we first chose our photos, not all requests were fulfilled. So make sure you look through every photo and layout and make specific requests on what you want them to do. Our layout took more than one month and they did not respond till we chased for a response. So the golden rule still applies- chase and micro manage. Printing usually won't start till like 3 weeks before your actual day and they are very chill about this. So chill too, don't waste effort feeling angst about this. Oh yes and they have a habit of sending emails with no content, just attachments. So I suppose you'll just have to get used to that and call them repeatedly.
For actual day and video, I haven't seen the photos so I can't comment. The videographer Jimmy is not bad. He may seem super chill and relax taking just a DSLR with no additional props but the effect of the video is not bad. We saw his morning highlights and were satisfied with it. Photographers wise Andy is ok but as mentioned we haven't seen the photos so we don't know quality of photos. I had a clear idea of the photos I liked or disliked and had some background in photography so I also made sure some shots which I wanted were taken the way I liked it. Afterall I'm queen that day so who can say no right? Photo booth wise, they were late though they said they would arrive 30 mins earlier. We tried calling their mobile repeatedly but no one answered. Thankfully in the end everything still started albeit a bit late. If you have yet to sign a package with them and want something more dynamic and fun, I suggest looking elsewhere though they do offer 1 hour of free photobooth services when you sign up for bridal package with French bridal. Note that this freebie does not include props and it actually costs more to extend it by an additional hour. We made many changes on our own like bringing in our own backdrop since we felt that theirs looked quite dated. They usually print 4R photos for photobooth which we thought were inconvenient to keep. So we requested for wallet sized ones too. You can also request for then to not place their logo on the photos and can request for a change in template with your name and date at the bottom.
Overall, I wouldn't say that my entire experience with them was always a pleasant one but they do still have their strengths. One thing for sure, they are quite value for money. I have compared my package with that of my friends and I think despite all the angst and trouble I went through it was still friendly to the pocket. If you were to ask me if knowing all these would I still sign up with them- my response is that I'll look at more alternatives and prices before signing. Even though each negotiation with every bridal shop is long and tiring.
These were my experiences at the shop and some of you may have more positive ones which is great to know. So do share them on this forum too. I just hope to share my opinion and experiences. Thanks!