Grace Tan

Grace Tan In Portraits, Pre-Wedding & Engagement Portraits

A book-themed Pre-wedding: Alvin & Lynette

20150818_PRE-WEDDING_ALVIN_LYNETTE_0173 It’s a bookish kind of love. Sort of. Well, how do we put it… she loves books, and he doesn’t (other than comic books). Lynette is one book-reading machine – she can devour 3 books in a day! Lynette’s always nagging Alvin to read more books other than comics, so it was quite fun to illustrate this dynamic relationship through images. I love how Lynette also made her entire bouquet out of comic books (poor Alvin – I hope it didn’t come from his beloved collection!).

20150818_PRE-WEDDING_ALVIN_LYNETTE_0184 Other than this book connection, Alvin and Lynette have another geeky connection – their shared love of Star Wars. We love their customised t-shirts and their entire make shift ‘campsite’ – representative of the idea that they’ll go camping together one day. Alvin loves the night sky and twinkly little lights, but somehow has never gone camping before. Lynette, on the other hand, has had countless camping experiences, especially when she was studying in Australia. So I guess an indoor camping trip to our studio would have to do for now! (sorry, we didn’t manage to paste the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling that day).

There’s so much about this couple that we love… but we’ll leave their story for their wedding blog post, which will happen next year, as they are getting married this January!

20150818_PRE-WEDDING_ALVIN_LYNETTE_0020 Continue Reading

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Life, Musings, Portraits, Relationships

My heart overflows

When they laugh, I laugh with them. When they are sick, my heart goes out to them. How can one human love another so much? I guess God had to show the extent of His love for us through little children… I never fully understood it until I became a mother. Just the past one week, my kids have been really ill. It breaks my heart to see them suffer, yet I am so humoured when I experience little scenarios like these…

At 3am, when my daughter has high fever, she can still consume her orange Paracetamol, give a thumbs up and say…”NICE!”

When my son cries his heart out because he doesn’t want to take his medicine, his sister cheers him on by saying “You can DO IT, you can DO IT!”

They are so funny. While my children mean the world to me, it is my aim to be balanced in all my relationships.

I choose not to neglect my husband since it is so easy to do so after the children come. I remind myself that he needs to be shown love too, so I need to make an intentional effort to fill his emotional tank.

I choose to maintain my friendships with other people… friends who were very close in the past (before we had kids). If I end up living in my own island (where the world revolves around my family) and lose all other friendships, then I only have myself to blame.

I choose to care for my extended family and be grateful for all the things they have done for my family.

My heart is full.

20150925_FAMILY_PORTRAITS_ALEX_GRACE_013 Thank you Jamie for these wonderful photos. Love how you have immortalised so many moments for our family.

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Grace Tan In Indian + Punjabi Weddings, Wedding Films & Videos, Weddings

A Ceylonese & Malayalee Wedding: Vijay & Anuja

20150829_WEDDING_VIJAY_ANUJA_0864 It was Vijay’s tall frame with his broad shoulders that caught Anuja’s attention. They were studying their A-levels at the Methodist College Kuala Lumpur, and it was somehow fate that connected Vijay and Anuja together. Fate that came through the hands of Thanuja, Anuja’s twin sister. She was the best of friends with Vijay, and through her, Anuja got to know Vijay. According to Vijay, “Somehow, Anuja caught my attention as she was the lesser evil, quiet and quite shy!” (insert cheeky emoticon!)

Ten years later, they tied the knot.

Anuja said, “We wanted a traditional Southern Indian wedding (I a Malayalee and him being Ceylonese) that was celebrated in private with close family and friends. For the temple decorations, I wanted jasmine and marigold with a peach and gold cream colour so we worked around that theme with my wedding planner. For the reception, it was dark red roses with white hues.

Ensure you do your research before hand. We did ours at least one year prior to our wedding and knew what we wanted and where we would and would NOT compromise in terms of cost. For eg ,we booked our wedding venues a year before the wedding as to avoid the GST that was to be implemented April 2015. We had friends and relatives all over the world that came for our wedding- London, Australia, Bali, USA, Spain, Mauritius, New Zealand – so ensure you spend quality time with your family and loved ones and enjoy every moment! It is, after all, once in a lifetime!

Practicing the Viennese waltz (first dance as husband -wife) from scratch one week before our wedding reception was the highlight of the wedding for me. We did a crash course but it was really fun and allowed the both of us some personal time and a breather from the crazy wedding preparations.”

20150829_WEDDING_VIJAY_ANUJA_0002 What a fun wedding it was. Have a look at their wedding video highlights and you’ll see what we mean!

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Portraits, Studio

The Happiest Baby Ever: Joash

He definitely wins the happiest baby of the year award. Since I started my photography career 9 years ago, I don’t think I have ever met a baby quite like Joash. He is such an amazing, happy smiley baby, who just completely worked it out for the camera! Look at that face, you could be having the worst day at work, but you would feel happy just seeing his image! I am sure he brings lots of joy to his parents Daniel and Spring. Have a great weekend, everyone!

20150828_FAMILY_PORTRAITS_DANIEL_SPRING_JOASH_006 Continue Reading

Grace Tan In For Photographers, International, Life, Musings, Wedding Films & Videos, Weddings

Two Middle-Eastern Weddings

libyan-wedding01 Traditional Libyan wedding outfit

A few months ago, I was approached to photograph two very interesting weddings. Both were Middle Eastern weddings and required an all-female photography and videography team here in Kuala Lumpur. Since I love a challenge (despite not speaking Arabic) and have always been fascinated with Middle Eastern culture (I’ve read lots of biographies especially of women living in this region), I decided it would be wonderful if I could photograph these weddings! Somehow, I gained favour in the eyes of the couples, and my team was engaged to cover their events.

The first couple was from Yemen. They were originally meant to be wed in their home country, but because of the civil war that is still ongoing, they had to move their wedding to Malaysia. Up to one week before the wedding, they weren’t sure if their family could come for the wedding as the Yemen airport was closed due to unrest. Thankfully, the couple had already left Yemen by then, and were sure that at least they would be there to attend their own wedding! This couple have known each other for a few months before getting married.

yemeni-wedding03 The second couple was from Libya. I really had a tough time communicating in English for this wedding but thankfully, even though I couldn’t understand their verbal language, I understood universal body language! I found out that this couple have only known each other for 2 months and that the groom worked with the bride’s father.

One common theme during the two weddings were the separation of gender during the parties. I knew that it would happen, but I never understood how it would unfold on the wedding day. Interestingly, both cultures had different standings on how strict they were on allowing men to view them unveiled. I am not sure if it was specific to these families, or it was a cultural thing. The Yemeni family I photographed was particularly strict about this, so there were two grand entrances (one with the bride only to a roomful of unveiled women), and then the bride and groom to the same room of women who covered themselves again before the groom entered the room. There was a lot of cheering, clapping and singing as the couple made their entrance. Many of the women who were at the Yemeni party specifically told us not to photograph or film them, so it felt a little strange for me to mainly focus on the couple during the wedding. Naturally, I had to respect their wishes but it was not possible to completely ignore all guests! (one lady specifically made me delete her photo from my camera when she saw that I had photographed her). I found it challenging knowing who I could photograph and who I couldn’t.

However, at the Libyan wedding, the guests kept on asking for photos (repeatedly and in many different poses)! It was quite entertaining, really! Continue Reading