Andrew and Desiree are one of those couples who instantly make the ‘friend’ list the moment you meet them. They’re friendly, warm, and thoughtful. After our pre-wedding shoot, they even gave us a box of chocolates and a hand-written card, which really made our day! We photographed their wedding at Pulai Springs Resort, JB recently but before we share those images, here are some of the photos from their pre-wedding shoot.
A dreamer meets a realist.
It was a match that was meant to be. Mary, in her fun, loud and expressive manner, added lots of colour to Ka-Meng’s palette. The fact that she also spoke non-stop added lots of flavour to this unique partnership. On the other hand, Ka-Meng, in his secure manner, made Mary stay put in one country and gave a lot of security to the relationship. The 8 year age gap they share is hardly an issue but of course there were times when their age gap became apparent. Especially when Ka-Meng recalled going to work in a pink mini bus and doing audits using a blue/yellow marker pen instead of the laptop!
They could have met in university but they didn’t. He was studying his Masters of Business Systems and she was doing a degree back then. In fact, he was tutoring some of the subjects she studied, but their paths never crossed.
Ten years later…
They got to meet each other at work, even though Mary was in the Singapore office and Ka-Meng was in Melbourne. In her words…
“It was purely work matter back then (wink wink), although I thought Ka-Meng was quite a cute guy…and I was the prettiest lady he ever met! We got really close when I moved to Melbourne. He helped me with my house move, chose my first bed, gave me iMac 101 lessons and made sure I was not left out in the office social events. That… created a lot of rumours in the office.”
Well it all worked out well professionally and in the romance department too, because here they are, married at last!
The wedding was held in a gorgeous chapel at the Ayana Resort & Spa, Bali. Their friends and family members traveled to experience a ‘wedliday’ as they coined it… a combination of a wedding and holiday! The mood was really relaxed and despite the rain over the past few days in Bali. Planning an outdoor wedding overseas is pretty stressful, and because of the weather forecast, Ka-Meng and Mary decided to hold their dinner indoors. Thank God it didn’t rain during the ceremony! Ka-Meng and Mary were really hands-on with their wedding and Mary even created the wedding invite and photobooth props themselves!
The bride Michele says…
We like to joke and tell people we met on the internet, as that often gets a reaction. The truth is we met in London while working for a bank. The All Blacks from NZ drew us together. We wanted a truly traditional Chinese wedding, and since Dave reckons he is half Chinese, so only a quarter of him needs to juggle between Western and Eastern traditions. Considering that he is top notch in mahjong, can handle sambal petai, all of our Chinese delicacies, and my crazy Chinese cooking, he’s doing pretty well. We have yet to train him on the lovely durian, but I believe with time, he will be fully assimilated. Resistance is futile, my dear…
It was great to relive the moments as the photos made us realise how much of the day we did not see. It made us grateful for our friends and family.
The photographer Weiming says…
The first thought I had was… we have the same surname, how cool! The wedding was held in Seremban and Nilai, with guests from all over the world. It was full of emotions… with lots of laughter, hugs and kisses. David and Michele are extremely accommodating. I mean, David was even willing to take some portraits under the hot sun with his suit on. (By the way, it was photographed at 1pm under Malaysian sun) Family and friends were really involved in the wedding, and Michele’s gown was even designed by her cousin. What a personal touch!
The cinematic film below shows what an amazing day it was and how much fun we all had on that day. We love the personalised vows as well!
Jason and I go back a long way. We were at the university together enrolled in the same course. Jason and a bunch of us used to hang out together those days. Slowly we started to notice Jason pulling the disappearing act on us; which led to one thing – a special someone named Michelle. One thing led to another and fast forward a couple of years now, they are engaged and I was flown to Australia to photograph their pre-wedding photos. It was my first time in Australia for an assignment and Oh boy! the weather there was so unpredictable! I was even blamed by them for bringing the rain over when it was supposed to be sunnier. Oh well, at least there were no sweat at all during the shoot and we had great fun! (apart from some shivers, runny nose and flying hair!)
Weddings in Bangladesh, as we’ve discovered, are usually very elaborate affairs with beautiful details, decorations and emotions. After the bride & groom holudh and the mehndi, comes the main highlight – the actual wedding day itself. It was a spectacular event with hundreds of guests. We enjoyed photographing every single element in this wedding.
