When I first met Ganendra & Malini for the very first time in my home, they told me that they wanted to hire a photographer who was different – someone who would be able to capture moments and come up with creative shots. They said that they didn’t want a ‘traditional’ photographer for their wedding day. Of course, the difficult part was convincing their slightly more ‘traditional’ families that they are making the right decision. Fast forward to their wedding day and after the slideshow montage had been shown to the family and guests… I was so pleased when Malini’s mum came up to me to say, “Grace, thank you for the wonderful photographs! You managed to capture emotions, not just the event.”

I beamed. :)

Who wouldn’t?

After the event is over, the cake has been eaten, the decorations taken down, all you have are memories and photographs. I am so glad that our photos were able to record the emotions felt by Ganendra & Malini, family and friends on that special day in August.

Introducing… Malini.

Malini’s mother, admiring her beautiful daughter, before they left for the temple.

This is the first Sri Lankan style wedding ceremony that I have shot. The flow of the ceremony is rather similar to other Indian wedding ceremonies. While the bride is getting ready in her home, the groom gets ready too, but not before he has gone through a ‘bathing’ ceremony where he is doused with milk.

Ganendra, ready to head to the temple.

Once at the temple, the groom goes through his set of rituals first. Before he enters the hall, two women conduct a blessing ritual, called ararthi.

The kaapu kattu ceremony for the groom starts with the breaking of coconut. The priest would then tie a holy string on the finger of the groom.

The bride then arrives and is escorted into the ceremony hall.

The bride sits next to her groom and the thetham ceremony starts. This is where the bride is given away to the groom’s family. The names of 3 paternal ancestors will be read by the priest during this ceremony.

After the ceremony, the bride changes from her engagement saree to her wedding saree, also known as kurai. The highlight of the wedding ceremony is when the groom ties the thali around the bride’s neck. And they are finally married!

The bride’s grandmother, who was overjoyed at the wedding.

The dinner ceremony was a really fun event as well, with lots of dancing! And not to mention speeches!

It’s hard to select so few photos to showcase on this blog, so it’s best that you view the slideshow below. I love the soundtrack selected by Malini’s brother, Dinesh. He worked hard to edit the music so that the music would be lengthened. This was the slideshow that we showed during dinner. Enjoy!

Thanks for sharing this, Niki Cheong.

Laughton says, “Wendy loves to talk. She sometimes talks too much!” After the laughter has subsided, he adds, “But she is a strong willed person, that’s what I like about her.” Wendy jokingly says, “And I can bully him!”

By the way Laughton looks at Wendy, you can tell that he is absolutely in love with her.

And these images are proof of that.

Laughton & Wendy live in London, and they didn’t really have the time to do their pre-wedding portraits in Malaysia, except the day before the wedding! Laughton was a little concerned about Wendy wanting to wear her wedding gown out onto Malaysian streets (yup, it’s not the cleanest of roads!) and so they opted for something a little more casual outdoors, but with the gown indoors. And considering that the places we went to were… a little abandoned and ‘dirty’, I think Laughton was really wise.

We had heaps of fun in KL despite the initial rain. This place had heaps of mozzies, so we made sure that we sprayed enough mosquito repellant to kill an entire army!

Laughton & Wendy first got to know each other in Bermuda. It was the first day of work for the both of them, and since they were new, it was natural that they started talking to one another! Two people, both in a foreign land, with new experiences… love blossomed.

After spending 2 hours in KL, we headed back to the Seapark Brickhouse in PJ, where after a quick change, we continued our shoot. I love this little hidden location in Petaling Jaya. It’s a lovely designed home that is available for rental, and that’s what Laughton & Wendy did – rent the house. Both sides of the family stayed at this abode the day before the wedding.

It was already getting dark when we started our shoot, and so we didn’t have much time at the house. But enough time to capture some of these shots!

I don’t usually post a lot of slideshows on the Stories blog, but I can’t help but share this one. I love the way the music fits with the imagery, and of course, there’s heaps of other cool shots that I’d like to share! Enjoy!

Here’s Lucas on the left trying to look cool.

It took us some time (and a lot of balancing skills!) to get Timmy on this bike.

What a gorgeous family. Looking forward to seeing all of you again on your next trip to Malaysia!

He was diagnosed 5 years ago, the year before I got married. That year, we started noticing things like him asking the same question over and over again, sometimes within the interval of 10 minutes. We realized that something was not right, and it was then that we discovered about his Alzheimer’s disease. I remember when I was young, my dad used to say, “Alzheimer’s is one of the worst things that could happen to a person. What a terrible disease” He was always a worrier… and unfortunately, right now, his worst fears became a reality.

I don’t really know what goes through his mind right now. Is he aware that his quality of life is degrading? That he has this illness? He tells me that his memory is fading because he is old, but how does he feel? Is he insecure?

This year, I made an effort to take some family photos, especially when my brother came back from the States during Chinese New Year. Here’s a photo of my family. (Some other portraits were blogged earlier here).

I dug up some old photos and asked my parents to go through them. I am glad that we have this collection of images because they are my only documentation of my parent’s lives. My dad cannot really remember the present, but he does remember the past… or snippets of it.

Alzheimer’s is a strange disease. It attacks different parts of your brain and some days are better, some are worse. The image below is my dad’s wedding photo that is hung in his room. He is proud of it. But on some days, he cannot remember who the person in the photo is. He says, “Look at the wedding photo of my uncle”.

I am sad that my dad’s not the same person he used to be. He was a teacher, then started his law career in his 50s, and used to compete in chess competitions in his younger days. He loved playing golf, and Tiger Woods was one of his favourite golfers.

Life is indeed fragile and temporary. I am reminded to cherish my loved ones daily.

The event started off with a bang at the WPPM Canon Opening Night. Here’s Peter, one of the key persons behind WPPM. The other 2 key people are Alvin Leong and Patrick Low.

That Special Occasion’s gowns were the highlight during a fashion show on the opening night. Spot Kris Wong in the photo below.

My role was quite small in this conference…Alex and I were invited to speak on August 14th during the Platform sessions. Our topic was on Marketing and Branding for Photographers… “You, Unleashed”. If you haven’t seen the silly video we created to market our talk, you should watch it here! I thought it was kinda cool that we could use our iPad for our presentation. I wonder if that distracted people from our talk, though! Haha…

Don’t you think Alex looks like a bodyguard here? Or bouncer?

Here are the judges for the print competition (left to right) – Jerry Ghionis, Lito Sy, Charlie Lim and Kris Wong. I really benefited from their critiques of the images that were submitted for competition. It was kind of nerve-wrecking to hear others critique your images!

But what really surprised me was at the end of WPPM, I was awarded the winner for the Non-Wedding Journalism category! This is my winning image! Thanks, WPPM!

At WPPM, photographers have the option to attend Master classes at an extra cost. There were 2 Master classes this year – taught by Lito Sy and Jerry Ghionis. Here’s Lito at work, describing how he takes veil shots. He is an amazing photographer from the Philippines and really famous for his veil shots!

And Jerry Ghionis, who doesn’t need any further introduction, at work…

On a side note, just the week before WPPM, I was at Jerry Ghionis’ workshop as a model (yup, you read right!) for 2 days! It felt really weird being in front of the camera instead of behind it, especially being told what to do by the other photographers. It was an interesting experience but after 2 days, I realized that it is a lot easier being a photographer than a model! It takes a lot of patience to be in front of the camera. It reminds me to constantly think from my client’s perspective whenever I do a shoot. Lesson learnt: Don’t take forever to pose a client, because they may not be able to stay in that position for long, and also, models get tired! Really tired! Especially after walking around for 4 hours in heels! Yikes.

Here are a few photos taken by Jerry during the workshop. I believe that these images are straight out of camera. I love the crop in the image below.

My face in the shot below was lit by a florescent signage.

Ok back to WPPM. Sorry for the digression. After 2 days of solid networking and learning from the pros, we partied at the Leica closing night! Frankly, I didn’t really take too many photos during WPPM and also during the Leica night. Here are some shots taken really late that night… after everyone had a little too much to drink! Ahem…

Don’t ask me what Alvin was doing in the photo on the left. :) The one on the right… well.. I guess that’s self-explanatory!

Jon Low being ‘drowned’ with beer…Check out Fiona’s kungfu stance!

Fiona and Steve from the Fifoto team on the left. Jon Low and Asther on the right.

And finally, us!

I feel really glad to be part of this network. The energy is just amazing. Meeting and talking to people who are passionate about what they do just fuels my passion. Thanks WPPM for organizing such a wonderful event! Looking forward to next year’s WPPM!

Hi, it’s Johan here…this is my first blog post on the Stories blog. I prefer to just post photos than write, but Grace made me! Anyhow, we were introduced to Raezal and Asyura by Nori Abdullah. During the discussion, we noticed things like instead of having a flower hand-bouquet, the bride was going to make the grand entrance holding a Japanese fan. From the word go, we knew that this was not going to be a typical Malay Wedding reception.

And boy, we were to be not disappointed.

From the cute origami cranes to the unique “merenjis” ceremony on the “pelamin” to the Japanese style wishing tree, it was such a colorful affair.

Raezal’s mother (Auntie Nonni) is Nori Abdullah’s auntie. Auntie Nonni’s mother is Datin Mariam Abdullah, a true blood Japanese. This explains the Japanese theme and settings. Raezal’s henna “tattoo” on his arms translate to “Just Married” in Japanese and his hands are “bar coded” with Raezal and Asyura.

Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi or more well known as Pak Lah and Tun Jeanne graced the event.

The live band featured Raezal’s father on the drums.

Raezal’s brother, Reymee, belted out some numbers for the newlyweds.

Anuar Zain was there to perform as well.

What a unique wedding reception!

As a follow up from Part 1 of Calvin & Audrey’s wedding… here are the portraits that we took after the wedding ceremony ended. I always encourage couples to set aside at least 45 minutes to an hour for these sort of portraits. After all that excitement, it’s always nice to get away from the crowd for a little while and spend some time together… with the photographer, of course! :)

And then with the bridal party…

The dinner reception was full of laughter and fun moments! These guys are hilarious! They surely know how to dance…

Calvin and Audrey were caught off guard when they were dragged to stage by these guys for a dance! I love the impromtu-ness of everything! *I want nobody, nobody but you!* clap clap!

Remember the story I related in the earlier blog post about how Jessica the bridesmaid spilled the beans on Audrey ‘borrowing’ her mom’s car to drive to 1U? This was how her mom reacted to the story!! But lucky for Audrey it was her wedding night, and her mom just started laughing after that.

Congratulations, Calvin & Audrey! Thanks for your friendship and for taking care of my team well, even when you are so busy on your wedding day! Mark and I had a wonderful time. Wishing the both of you many exciting years ahead!

What matters now is the marriage itself.

I woke up this morning feeling excited about the day. I glanced over at Alex, and said a silent prayer of gratefulness to God for our lives together. I truly believe that I am more in love with Alex today than 4 years ago. I am excited thinking about life, and what the future holds for us. I know that life will never be perfect, that there will be times when heartaches will fill our hearts and make us feel as if life is cruel. But despite all that, today, I choose to give thanks for what I have.

Marriage has taught me to be less selfish. Since I am the youngest child in my family (with my 2 other siblings 12 and 16 years older than I am)…I’ve been a little ‘pampered’. (Not complaining! I COMPLETELY enjoy being pampered. Hehe). I tend to sit back and expect things to happen or someone to do the hard work for me. But Alex made sure that I became more independent and responsible for my actions. It definitely takes a conscious effort to think of others first before yourself, but I think I’ve improved. :)

I’ve also learnt that it’s so important to have someone who shares the same passion as you do. Before I got married, this question always stood out in my mind… “How do you know if he is THE one?”. Now, I think I have the answer. He needs to share the same values and passion as you do. I don’t think that there is one perfect person in this world for you (now think about it, if you married someone ‘wrongly’, you would have robbed someone else of their perfect partner, and therefore the entire world is doomed cause SOMEONE made a mistake).

So the person is only perfect because you made an effort to make it perfect. And boy, it’s a lot of hard work. I am so thankful that Alex and I are excited about the same things and that we can journey along this path of life together.

Dug up some old photos from our wedding day… This was taken by Joseph Siew.

And these photos by Andy Lim. Thanks guys, for capturing memories for us!

Alex and I wrote our own wedding vows to each other and I thought I’d post them here.

Alex’s vow to Grace

From this day forth, I, Alex Lam take you, Grace Tan,
To be my wife.
As long as I shall live, before God and all my family and friends,
I pledge my life to be your friend, your lover, and your fellow dreamer.
Let me be the shoulder you lean on, and the rock on which you rest.
I promise to be honest with you, and to love you always.

This life of ours is a voyage,
Which I will sail with you,
Through the calm of the sea,
And the raging storms,
Though we cannot see past the uncertain future,
God will be with us, and my ship will always remain by yours.

Today marks the first day of an eternity as two hearts on one journey.
And as inscribed on your ring, I vow to “Grow old with you”.

Grace’s vow to Alex

Alex, today, and as long as I, Grace Tan, shall live,
I take you to be my husband and give you my heart.
Intertwined, two hearts, one journey.
With God as the glue that binds us together,
I promise to always love you, submit to you, and be honest in
all that I do.

Today, I pledge to stand with you, come what may.
When the sun is shining brightly, I will laugh with you.
When the sky is dark and grey, I will hold your hand.
When a storm rages outside, I will hug you and never leave you.

Sharing dreams, hopes, tears and joy.
I am proud to say that today, I am marrying my best friend.

Audrey and Calvin sure know how to have fun. There’s never a dull moment when they are around. One of the stories that was told during dinner by the maid of honour, Jessica, was about how she and Audrey sneaked out of the house when they were 16 – with Audrey ‘borrowing’ her mother’s car and driving them to 1 Utama! I love the spontaneity and creativity that is so much part of who they are. Their wedding had all these elements combined together – lots of fun, laughter, spontaneous ‘madness’, and lots of creative moments!

I totally enjoyed myself at this wedding. The first part of the day was Chinese themed, and then garden style, and finally, ending up in a classy ballroom!

Introducing… gorgeous Audrey.

The kind of torture the guys had to go through… in order for Calvin to get his bride… Lots of fun moments here…

And also during the tea ceremony! Did I mention that their families are really fun people too?

After the games and tea ceremony, we headed over to Royale Chulan’s indoor garden area for the ceremony. This is the first time I am shooting at Royale Chulan, and I fell in love with this indoor garden immediately! How perfect for those couples who want an ‘outdoor’ green setting, but with the security of covering in case of rain!

Yummy details…

Veiling of the bride…and then the ceremony starts!

I love these moments and expressions here…

Good preaching…

And finally, married!

View part 2 of the wedding here.