From Purvis to Waterloo… we’ve moved again!

When we first moved to our Purvis Street office, we were absolutely delighted. The 600 plus square feet of floor area was SO MUCH SPACE. You see, we had just moved out of a tiny HDB bedroom (where TWP was born) and it blew our tiny little minds to have so much space that you could take a step in any direction and NOT BUMP INTO THINGS.

The Wedding Paparazzi had three full-timers when we moved into the Purvis office. Big Red Button (our sister company that does corporate and broadcast jobs) had two. That’s five people max. Now, one year on, we’ve grown to the extent that we’re starting to feel like sardines again. Now, between the two companies, we share 10 people. TEN. It boggles my mind.

Really, it’s our sister Big Red Button that’s done the growing. On the wedding front, we got an intern to join us recently. She was a great girl, but she had to go back toschool. (Come back to us one day, Dorothy!)

Still it was time to expand. Also, because of the property boom in Singapore, our rent was going to go up 100% after our lease expires at the end of the year.

So the search began.

Around the same time, our friends at AV8 (they supply our video editing hardware and software and tell us cool stuff and sometimes have meals and watch movies with us), were looking for a new place too. They found a nice place at Waterloo Street that was loads cheaper and not too far from where they originally were (which is near where Purvis too). Excited, we asked if there were any vacancies we could check out. Shah (of AV8) told us to check out the HDB website where all the vacancies for lease were listed, but to our immense disappointment, there were none.

We figured we’d continue looking.

A few weeks of fruitless looking passed, and one day in absolute boredom, Wally decided to check out the website again. Lo and behold! HDB had listed a new unit for rent. We had no idea where in the building it was located, hadn’t seen it, and had no idea what it looked like. But Wally went ahead and put in a bid for it.

And a little counter on the website started ticking. In 10 minutes, we had won the bid to lease the unit. 0_0

The very next day, Wally and I took a trip down to the place and looked at it. We didn’t have the keys, but we saw it from outside.  From our calculations, it was HUGE. We started hyperventilating. And we looked across and saw that AV8’s unit was right across. We freaked out.

A few weeks later, we had the keys and saw the unit from the inside for the first time. It was even bigger than we had imagined, because it didn’t end where we thought and instead wrapped around an HDB stairwell. In total, it was 1,650 square feet. Almost 3 times the size of our Purvis office.

Well, to cut the story short, we’ve since moved out of the Purvis Street office and moved in to Waterloo. The renovations are all done, and the furniture almost all in. Wally and our interior designer Juliet did a great job with making it look great.

A funny little side story: Juliet was the same person who helped us design and renovate our Purvis office. Almost immediately after that project ended, she told us she was pregnant with her first child.

Renovations for the Waterloo office just ended last week. And she told us she’s expecting her second child! : )
She says it’s lucky our lease for this office ends only in 3 years, because she’ doesn’t think she’s quite ready for another kid too soon!

Anyway, the new office is great. It’s big - there’s enough space for everyone, with extra for new employees in the near future. There’s good food nearby, and
while we’re now a tad further from Bugis and City Hall MRT stations than Purvis Street was, we’re still within walking distance (10 mins max).

Pretty amazing we got the place, if you ask me! We really have to give thanks to God for helping us find the place!

We’ll be having an office warming and dedication soon, as soon as we have our nifty sign put up!