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Grace Tan

Grace Tan
In Family + Children Portraits, Portraits

Family Portraits in Singapore: Alvin & Cheryl

My friendship with Cheryl started years ago when we were still in university in Australia – young, energetic and passionate about God. More than a decade later, I still hope we have the same amount of energy in us (just not as young!), even though she now has to run after 3 little girls. A few years ago, I photographed her family during their holiday in KL. At that time, it was just the 3 of them plus one on the way. Now that they have moved beyond the ‘normal’ quota of children most Singaporeans have, I am glad that I had the opportunity to photograph them once more.

I love Singapore for the many beautiful parks and outdoor spaces we can head to for pictures. I really don’t feel claustrophobic in this city with nice green spots like these near the Henderson Wave. The gorgeous evening light made everything so surreal. It was backlight heaven! Hope to head down to Singapore more often for more family portraits! *hint hint!*

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Grace Tan
In Portraits,

Pre-Wedding at The Banjaran Hot Springs, Ipoh: Shao Xuan & Li Li

After our tummies were filled with yummy Ipoh chicken rice, the Stories team headed to the exclusive The Banjaran Hotsprings & Retreat, where we were to meet Shao Xuan and Li Li for their pre-wedding shoot. When we arrived, we were greeted warmly by the staff and the pitter-patter sounds of rain. The skies looked gloomy and we were worried. Unfortunately, the drizzles turned into large droplets of rain, and soon, we felt the full force of a tropical rain forest storm.

But Shao Xuan and Li Li remained calm, and were so open to following our lead. We headed indoors into some really cool caves (some were really really dark!) and did some photos there. After a while, the rain stopped a little, enough for us to take some photos outdoors. I kind of like the wet look on the trees, it makes the venue look so lush. Thank you Shao Xuan and Li Li for giving us the privilege of photographing the both of you and for remaining calm despite the torrential rain!

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Grace Tan
In Family + Children Portraits, Portraits, Studio

Newborn portraits with Nico & Muriel

Just barely a month after her birth, Yasmine had her first official shoot at our studio. It was really lovely to get to know this gorgeous little girl and her equally beautiful parents, Nico and Muriel. She looks so alert and attentive to the camera, quite different from a lot of newborn babies I know who are usually sleeping. I love photographing real connections like these, more so than the posed photos of newborn babies in baskets (though I have also done a few of those). I also love seeing the connection of the baby with her parents… skin to skin… the most beautiful texture on earth.

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Grace Tan
In Chinese Weddings, Church Weddings, International, Weddings

Catholic Wedding in Brunei: Ben & Michelle

“Ben is probably the most kind and caring person that I have met. He is such a softie that he often feeds strays on the roads or on our travels with our food packed in our bags and will go to great lengths to make sure they are doing ok before we leave.” – Michelle about Ben –

“Michelle is a great storyteller and always recounts her experiences in great detail to anyone who would listen! She is quite acute to people’s emotions and feelings often anticipating what they need and acting on it . She’s content with spending evenings in with a good movie or a good book and  often cries too easily during soppy parts  and hates horror movies (no zombies for her!).” – Ben about Michelle –

20150125_WEDDING_BEN_MICHELLE_01 20150125_WEDDING_BEN_MICHELLE_02Two high school sweethearts

They were quintessentially your typical high school sweethearts. Having grown up in rival schools (Michelle from Catholic school and Ben from the Chinese school next door), they grew closer through participation in church youth activities and ever since Secondary 3, Michelle has had a crush on Ben! Perhaps it was a guy thing, but Ben was totally oblivious to her feelings! :) She  always thought Ben was a pretty cool guy, with an amazing smile and very funny personality.

So for 13 long years, they went through a couple of rough patches as they dated. For 3 years, they went through a long distance relationship (UK & Australia) during their university days. The reality is that, when you date for so long, break ups are bound to happen. They went through 2 heartbreaking years of an ‘on and off’ relationship, but in 2011, felt a real renewed commitment and resurgence in their relationship with both of them working through their individual issues and ultimately coming back together to bring out the best in each other.

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Grace Tan
In Chinese Weddings, Church Weddings, Indian + Punjabi Weddings, Life, Malay Weddings, Musings, Outdoor Weddings, Tips + Ideas, Wedding Films & Videos, Weddings

6 Types Of Wedding Guests You Shouldn’t Have Bothered Inviting

In collaboration with The Wedding Notebook, the hidden actors in us made an appearance in a fun video, featuring guests are a little lacking in wedding etiquette. It’s just a little tongue in cheek video. We hope you like the video. We are planning on coming up with a series of videos with all sorts of topics related to weddings, so if you would like to follow us, head on to our Youtube page and subscribe. (It would make a difference because we need a minimum of 500 subscribers to get our personalised channel name, The Wedding Stories).

Oh, and do see if you can identify our Stories team in the video by looking at our family page!