Definitely multicultural. A Hindu wedding in a Chinese temple. Chinese tea ceremony with hands covered in henna. Sarees amongst Chinese lanterns. I love it. I love the fact that we live in a world that is so colourful. Alfred and Geeta are definitely a fun couple. Geeta is an old school friend of mine whom I hadn’t seen in years till last year. After shooting their engagement in 2008, they had to go through a change in plans after Alfred was diagnosed with cancer. The wedding was postponed to this year and I am soooo pleased to photograph this event. It really goes to show how love can really be the glue that holds 2 people together. Through thick and thin. Alfred & Geeta even had to go through the challenges of long distance relationship, with him being in Africa for a period of time, then KL, and she in Malacca. Here’s their story from Geeta’s perspective.
“We met through a mutual friend, Sharon in 2005. We started chatting on YM and met after Wesson’s wedding. We didn’t click right away. Then, he calls me from Africa and we talk almost everyday. I was attracted to his simple and honest nature – and he is a good listener. He surprised me by turning up unexpectedly at a conference at which I was presenting my paper. That’s when our love blossomed – and the rest is history.
We have gone through ups and downs throughout our relationship, that which only strengthened our love for each other. I was already a wife to him and he was already a husband to me when we stood there for each other during the hardship we faced when he was going through chemotherapy. Going through that difficult part was like on an auto-pilot mode – just going through one day at a time together – supporting each other with loving words and hope that tomorrow will be a better day. Now looking back, we are thankful for having each other and we thank God for the second chance He has given to us.
This is just the beginning of a happy journey where every passing day is happier than the preceding day. Our toast to each other, ‘Grow old along with me, The best is yet to be.”
Alfred and Geeta, I wish you years of bliss together. Thank you for your friendship! Photos were taken by Grace, Mark and Ian.
Thean Hou Temple in Taman Seputeh.
The ceremony had a few parts to it – firstly the groom’s ritual where he is offered a ring made of tharpai grass to wear on his right ring finger. A Pillayar poojai is then conducted by tying a saffron thread to the right wrist of the groom. During this time the groom will hold a coconut, uncooked yellow rice, and some other items in both palms. Then a few women will come and perform the nallungu to signify the fertility of the union.
Before we left Bangladesh for Malaysia, Ian and I worked hard to prepare a photo slideshow for Ali and Farhat to see. After the walima, we showed them this video at 3am on Ali’s macbook pro. It contains photos from the first 4 events. After 10 days in Bangladesh, 5 events, and 6000 photos later, we’re packed up to go back to Malaysia. What a whirlwind of an experience! We love it!
Quality of slideshow is compromised because of compression.
The last celebration of Ali and Farhat’s wedding in Bangladesh is called the walima, also known as the reception. Everyone comes in lovely sarees as usual, but this time, the guys wear suits! The food today was exceptionally good, I loved the briyani and the huge prawns that were served to us! Yummy! The walima was held at Ali’s home again. Since it was the final night of our shoot in Bangladesh, we went a little mad towards the end, doing silly things like spinning around with our video cameras (we have really funny footage of Ali doing that too! haha). We took quite a number of ring shots, I don’t know which one is my fav. Here are two of them!
Ali and Farhat getting ready for the event.
It’s amazing how the decorators transformed their outdoor garden area into this lovely ‘hall’.
Photographing kids is just so fun! Isn’t she adorable?
After a night of traditional singing, the DJs put on some dance music!
Our shoot ended at 3am again that night and by the time we had transferred all our photos into our hard drives (2 hard drives, as a measure of back up! This is really important!)… we only had about 1 hour of sleep before we had to wake up to go to the airport. Our flight out of Chittagong to Dhaka went by in a blur! That day, I spent the longest time in ‘transit’. We waited from 9am to 5pm at the airport for our next flight out to Kuala Lumpur. It has been an amazing adventure the past one week. I felt that I’ve made really great friends in Bangladesh. Ali and Farhat rocks as a couple! Hey, you guys are always welcome to stay with us when you come over to Malaysia or Singapore! We look forward to catching up with you soon!
After we ended up at Ali’s place, we spent some time taking portraits of just Ali and Farhat. It was the latest portraiture session I’ve ever done! We started at 2.30am and ended about 3.30am. We had to take lots of lovely detail shots of Farhat.
Finally, our group shot together. Look at the timing! It’s proof to show that we were working till the wee hours of the morning. Ali and Farhat have this cute wink that is their trademark look! So here’s all of us doing the same little thing. :)
The expected guest list: 4000-6000 people. We could not imagine such a magnitude of people coming together in one place for a wedding. The Chittagong Club was the venue of the wedding, and as expected, it was decorated so beautifully on the wedding day. We arrived there at 8pm and the guests had started streaming in. The culture in Bangladesh is slightly different, where the guests arrive and have their dinner even before the bride or groom makes their entrance. One of the things that surprised us when we arrived was that there were 2 stages prepared! They are side by side, but blocked by a vertical cloth. Later we found out that the tradition was that the bride and groom were not supposed to see each other until the wedding day itself (hence the reason for 2 stages). The first time they lay eyes on each other is through a reflection in a mirror on the wedding day.
There is a part where the groom’s men bargain with the bride’s side, and they hand over money in this lovely looking chest. It’s pretty similar to the Chinese chip san leong ceremony. Only difference is that I don’t understand the language!
Halfway through the ceremony, Farhat started crying. It was an emotional time as it symbolized that she is now leaving her family and joining her new found husband’s family.
Farhat was soon whisked to Ali’s place where she was welcomed to her new home.
Part 2 of the Wedding Night to be blogged about soon…