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International

Wandering Istanbul

Travel has always been food for my soul. I absolutely love seeing new places, meeting fascinating people, experiencing different cultures, and eating the local cuisine. Every time I travel, I recharge. I get inspired. I am alive.

Turkey, just like its spices, adds a lot of flavour to my life. The people here are friendly and always willing to strike a conversation with you. Even if they are trying to sell you something, I don’t feel harassed, like some other countries I’ve been to. I love the feeling of the old meeting the new. Walking into buildings centuries old brings me back to ancient Bible times and makes me wonder how life was really like then.

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Greetings from Istanbul, Turkey

Hi everyone! Alex and I are currently in Istanbul, Turkey! It’s a beautiful city, and my first time here. We arrived yesterday after a short drama of missing our connecting flight from Doha to Istanbul the day before due to flight delays. Well, that is another adventure altogether…

Today, we’ll be heading to the streets of Istanbul for our shoot with Edwin & Dawn. It’s a cold day, but the good thing is that the sun is out! Here’s a short little video greeting from Istanbul…edited by Alex!

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Beach to Garden Pre-Wedding: Eric & Mun Wai

Photographer: Grace
Location: Singapore and Dusun Garden Fairies, Malaysia

It was in a little restaurant in Suntec city that I met Eric and Mun Wai for the first time. We chatted, had tea, and laughed over various travel stories. I found out that these two are an adventurous couple. They are full of life and love to laugh! In Dec, I came back to Singapore for part 1 of their pre-wedding shoot. We ended up on a somewhat secluded beach near Changi (it wasn’t completely secluded, I just cropped the rest of the people out!). Would like to thank Eulyn too, who came to assist me on the shoot in Singapore.

Yes every now and then we would see a plane flying overhead us.

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Singapore Art Museum Wedding: Ben & Jun

Photographers: Grace & Ian Chong
Wedding Gown, Groom’s Attire & Make Up: Blush Blush Singapore
Decorations: Defloral Gallery, Singapore
Church Ceremony: Singapore Art Museum (SAM)
Dinner Reception: Carlton Hotel Singapore

When Jun first contacted me about her wedding shoot in Singapore, I was ecstatic. I had never shot an actual day wedding in Singapore prior to this wedding. And then when she told me that her wedding was to be held at the Singapore Art Museum, I was squealing like a little girl (of course outwardly, I appeared all calm and professional). Anything with the words “artsy and colonial” definitely gained 200 brownie points in my book.

After a little crisis two days before Ben and Jun’s wedding, I was glad to have landed safely on Singaporean soil. Since Ben and Jun live in Perth, I did not have the chance to meet up with them until the day before the wedding. Instantly, I knew I could connect with them. Hearing their funny stories about each other made me laugh too. It’s so good I have to share it here…

Ben’s Story:

We met in a “safe” environment in church. The first impression that I got was: “this girl is bubbly and she can talk.” What attracted me was her outgoing nature and her ability to talk. This was the second time I met her in the company of 10 people. We went into a discussion about food in Malaysia and other random bits. The amazing thing was throughout the conversation, I was attentive to her, and found myself participating in that conversation in spite of having eight others talking in the background.

Growing up in a family that loves food, I come to realise soon enough is that she is a keen lover of food too and many of your dates were based on food tasting which was pretty cool but those dates certainly did not help my waist line.

One thing that never fails to amaze me is her beautiful voice. I can still remember the first time when I heard her sing in church. Words just don’t do justice to the sweet voice I heard that day. Mesmerise might be a good enough word to use and since, I have never allowed an opportunity to slip by to listen to her singing.

After knowing Jun for almost three years, I am still amazed at how thoughtful and caring she can be. The way she treats her family, her friends, “wow” is the word I use to describe it. Of course that caring nature does flow on into our relationship. Those times when I needed assistance, tender loving care, she has always been there for me. I am truly thankful to have found someone to spend my rest of my life with.

If there was an analogy that I could use to describe Jun, It would be a piece of onion with many layers. She has showed me different aspects from the sweet loving “Everything is fine” to the “This is not going to work”, Gung-ho attitude. All I can conclude is the more I get to know her, the more loveable she becomes.

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Teasers from Dhaka, Bangladesh

It’s been about 1.5 years since I was here in Bangladesh covering Ali & Farhat’s incredible wedding in 2009. This time, I am here again in Bangladesh but in Dhaka city, photographing Nabil and Maisha. Our team consists of myself, Andrew, Mark and Alex… but unfortunately, Alex and I will have to fly back to Malaysia after shooting only 2 out of the 5 events since I have other weddings to shoot in Malaysia. Mark and Andrew will take over the baton then and produce beautiful images, I am sure! I was told there’ll be an elephant and horses at the wedding… wow sounds amazing!

Yesterday was Maisha’s holudh. I experienced firsthand how crazy Dhaka traffic can be. It took us 1.5 hours to travel to her home from where we were staying. When we came home after the event ended, it only took us 20 minutes!

So… here are some teaser images from yesterday’s shoot… Don’t you just love the way the venue was decorated?

And how gorgeous Maisha looks?