Hello ladies!
My traditional wedding was over just 3 months ago and will be happy to share my experience
MUA - always book early. This was a nightmare to me cause I didn't book early. Sharmila logan did my trad wedding makeup eventually and the makeup was good but if you are looking into booking her, I would not recommend it.
While the end result was good, her service was terrible. I fully understand how busy mua are and I am reasonable and do not expect them to respond on time. However I had a hard time chasing her to confirm if she can do makeup for the rest of my family members. Till the day before my wedding, I had to call her because she was not replying to my texts to confirm the timing. THE EVE OF MY WEDDING. And she sounded very rude when I called her as well. She does not do saree tying and asked someone else to do it and on the day,the lady claimed that sharmila did not tell her that I will need a 2nd saree chnage and she was planning to go elsewhere. Fortunately for me, the lady was still able to do my 2nd saree chnage for my wedding.
Also, I will recommend all of you to do a trial makeup before booking the artist. I did mine with sharmila and was shocked by the results. I mean I saw her fb pics were nice but during the trial I told her to do what she thinks would look nice for me and that was a mistake. My recommendation is to tell them clearly what you want or show them pics based on their portfolio. Then confirm them. For my wedding day, I showed her a pic of what she did for another bride from her fb and asked her to replicate it hence she was able to do it. That's what they are capable of since its what they have done..
Sharmila also does not provide a lot of accessories. I had to buy my own plait, waistband and arm band. All these are extra on top of her extrobinate charges. I had to buy all these just to use for 1 day but I know other makeup artists do provide it as part of their service. I also used her bridal jewellery and on the actual day, she actually FORGOT to bring my wrist accessories as part of the set. Imagine how I felt! And I didn't know until I was at the wedding hall cause it was for my 2nd saree. Obviously she did not even bother to check her set before giving it to me even when she should know how important this is to a bride. It could have been something more important that would have been missing due to her slipshod work. Her service was really horrible. Another pet peeve was that she kept speaking badly about her "popular" friends and other mua during both the trial and actual day which I felt was very unprofessional. Hence my bad experience with her...given a choice, don't choose her as a 1st option. Most especially because she does not provide a lot of the accessories you need and you will need to run around to get it on top of all your other wedding stuff!
Mahes did my wedding henna and it was super nice! Everyone was praising it and her pricing was so reasonable! My aunts wanted to do theirs at the last min and she accomadated it too and did it well despite being late at night. However my henna stains were super dark on the next 2 days but started to fade off on the 3rd day which was the wedding day. You may want to get another better brand of henna and ask her to do it.
Makeup mantra did my engagement makeup and she was lovely and did a fantastic job. She works really fast!!!! And does exactly what you request her to do. Thumbs up!
Food was from ammani for engagement and everyone was praising it! Even my meat loving relatives and non indian friends. Highly recommended! Traditional wedding food was from kinara and it was fantastic! Presentation was so professional and dishes were so unique. I am so glad to say that everyone who came had good things to say about the food
Wedding deco was sondtracks and it was fantastic. Will recommend them! Guests also had nice things to say!
Photography was done by amore. William could no longer travel to singapore due to a ban and he did not proactively tell me about it. I only found out when my friends were telling me and I had to ask him about it. So disappointed in his lack of transparency. In the end, someone else did it locally but I still has to pay for accommodation for another guy from Malaysia. When my photos arrived, he didn't give me my album! But his service was really good. Alwsys checking via texts and very empathetic.
Btw, jothi shop did my garlands and it was so nice! Very unique as I showed them a pic from another wedding and they did it even better. I was so impressed. Even when I look at the pics now, I think it looks super nice! I didn't want the very traditional set up or look for m wedding and I managed to get it.
Happy to help with any other queries you may have! And like everyone says, enjoy the day because it really ends so much faster than you expect it! You will definitely miss it!!! And remeber to smile nonstop for the zillion pics you would be taking!