Photo and Video - Check!

Aleq and I are accomplishing a lot this September! We sure are making up for our dismal August. So yep, we've booked our photo and video service!

This took a while for us to decide on because there are so many photo and video services out there. We made sure we did our research with this one, because it's one of our main priorities, and one that we always knew we would spend on. The photos and the videos will serve as records of the memories from our happy day after all. 

The fiance and I started making inquiries in July. We just wanted to look around while we were finalizing our church and venue. We scoured wedding websites like BridalBook and Bride and Breakfast for photos and videos that we liked. We mainly looked for those who had beautiful, natural-looking photos. We didn't want extremely dramatic or pose-y pictures. We also don't want photos that are too artistic, the memories become distorted. We basically wanted photographers and videographers who are keen on capturing the moment rather than forcing moments to happen. We made a shortlist, went through hundreds of photos, and watched prenup and on-site-edit videos to no end.

Reviewed our notes over dinner at Pancake House after meeting with our photographers. 

We finally decided on MyPhotato (Facebook page here). I was already e-mailing them back in July, but the fiance and I wanted to finalize our church, venue, and caterer first so it took a while for me to get back to them. Aleq and I were blessed with good timing - when we contacted them again, they told us about their Last Call Promo, which we would be crazy not to take advantage of. 

What immediately struck me about them was that they were so easy to talk to in e-mail. They responded quickly, and just came off like very nice, accommodating people. We finally set a meeting with them and hoped that they would be just as easy to talk to in person. We knew we would book them, barring any personality clashes. 

Thankfully, our first meeting went well. Actually, it was great! The boy and I were feeling tired and low on energy since we both came from work, but we enjoyed the meeting. MyPhotato, as it turned out, is a group of photographers and videographers. Two of them met up with us last night at Starbucks Glorietta - Mar and Ace. It was funny - Aleq was in a gray shirt with rolled-up long sleeves plus jeans, and Mar and Ace were both wearing the same thing, just in different shades! It was meant to be, right from the start, haha. They told us that the business is called MyPhotato and that they call themselves Photatoes because most of them have shaved heads. So that's the reason! Haha. 

We did a bit of business talk at first, where they introduced themselves and answered our queries. They asked us why we chose them, and we told them the reasons I stated above. They said they didn't advertise their Last Call Promo much because they wanted couples who really liked their style, and not just their price. That gave us the impression that they value their art and they take pride in what they do. I also told them that I noticed they didn't do obvious Photoshopping like some of the other services I saw, and they confirmed it by saying they do try to shoot as if they're using film, and even showed us pictures of their raw footage.

The meeting actually turned out to be a getting-to-know-you session. We thought we were just meeting to make a down payment, but they said they didn't want to handle money and asked us to deposit it in their bank account. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that they just wanted to know what we were all about. They really took the time to get to know us and our love story. They asked us to narrate how we met, and even how the proposal came to be. 

Then they launched into wedding day tips. They said they wanted us to really treat them as part of our wedding team, and that they were willing to help out in whatever way they could. They gave us quite a bit of useful advice, which prompted Aleq and I to pull out our wedding notebook and start taking notes. 

Afterwards, they showed us samples from their previous projects that we haven't seen before - photos and videos and album layouts - and we liked what we saw. They took notes also, jotting down the song we liked, our theme, and our stories. Yes - they were just as easy to talk to in person. They nice, cool, young people with a lot of talent and love for their craft. 

Aleq and I felt like we made the right decision at the end of the meeting. It seemed like such a good fit. We deposited our down payment today, and we're really excited to work with them now. Thanks Photatoes!

Picture of a satisfied couple after the meetup