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Grace Tan
In Life, Musings, Running a Business

That “Corner”

It’s been my dream to own a little Stories studio and decorate it beautifully. Over the past one year, I’ve been meeting couples in 2 places – my office / studio in Centrepoint Bandar Utama and also my home. Because I share the office space in Centrepoint with my other Integricity colleagues (different companies under the same umbrella), I don’t have a specific room where I can meet couples, showcase my work and decorate it to my heart’s content. All I have is a little corner that is ‘somewhat’ decorated, but up till today, I am still dissatisfied with that space.

Over the past few months, my home has undergone a major renovation, and I’ve allocated a space that will be dedicated as a consultation studio. That’s when my excitement level increased. I am no Interior Designer, but I can look at inspiring images and plan. Pretty much like brides who start planning about how the decorations will look like on their wedding day, I am thinking about how my little consultation room will look like once it’s done. An excellent website that showcases lots of inspiring details is Style Me Pretty, where you can get lots of ideas for your wedding.

This was my thought process as I planned on how to decorate the room:

1. Colour theme – Brown, blue and white (Brown and blue because that’s the Stories’ colour!)

2. Words to describe what I want to portray – Chic, Stylish, Romance, Warmth, a hint of Vintage

3. List of items that I can display – photos on canvas, metal prints, albums, postcards, Save the Date cards, cool phrases, my dad’s old camera, my lomo cameras, my mum’s handmade blue seashell jewelry case, cookies, birdcages…

Since I have so many ideas in my head, I have to sometimes stop and ask myself if that really goes together… or does that idea clash? I don’t want to end up with a room that looks completely disjointed in terms of ideas! :)

Here’s a photo of my half completed home taken with Alex’s iPhone camera. The image on the right (the room behind the brick wall) is my consultation studio.

And here’s some images that I borrowed from various sources to illustrate the idea of what I want to create. What do you think? Any ideas?

Grace Tan
In Life, Musings, Relationships

Chinese New Year Musings

I am always really happy whenever my family gets together and is complete. Chinese New Year is one of those times… when my brother comes back from the States and we can all sit together, enjoy a Starbucks coffee or o-chien and laugh over silly things. This year, he’s only in Malaysia for a week. The problem about time is that it just flies by so quickly. Soon, it’s time to say goodbye. Unwillingly.

Speaking about goodbyes, my entire family, including my brother’s friend Ariel who’s visiting from the US, helped to clear up our Malacca house over Chinese New Year. Some say that it’s pantang or bad luck to do that during CNY, but to us, it’s about being practical. I wrote about my home in Malacca some time back. This Chinese New Year, we cleared a lot of things, and said goodbye to many items that held memories. Some things will be kept purely because it’s sentimental, but lots of stuff will just need to be put aside, just like these plants that were left to fend for themselves.

My mom’s collection of recipes. Sadly I did not inherit her cooking skills.

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Grace Tan
In Life, Musings

Resolutions and Goals

On 31st December 2010, I was at a private condo in KL with friends, ready to usher in the new year with gusto. I don’t usually fancy going to huge street parties on nights like these because I am not really the party-going type of gal. Plus, I am a weeee bit older… ahem, past my 20s. We thought we had a great view of KLCC from the poolside deck. And when the clock struck 12, we heard the fireworks… but didn’t see anything. It was then that it struck us… we’re on the wrong side of town! There were buildings blocking our view of the fireworks!

Close, but missing the mark.

I guess it reminds me of life, and how we often wait for a spectacular moment to happen… only to realize that we were close, but just missed the mark. What is it in my life that I am seeking? In the pursuit of success, am I missing the mark on things that should be important to me, like relationships? I vaguely remember this quote (or was it a comic strip) saying something along the lines of… “If you don’t have a mark to aim for, you’ll definitely hit your target”.

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Grace Tan
In Life, Musings, Running a Business

Stories is turning ONE!

God is really good. Just one year ago, I was fretting away about what to call my new wedding & portrait photography brand that was due to launch in January 2010. Just one year ago, I wondered if I could really make it out there just focusing on wedding and portrait photography and choosing not to shoot any actual day wedding videos and less corporate videos. Just one year ago, I wondered who would come and fill my empty looking calendar?

But as I review the year that is almost coming to an end, I am pleasantly surprised. And completely grateful.

Three years ago, if you met me and talked to me about what I was doing with my life, I would say… “I am running a photography and videography business” – I was dabbling in all sorts of work, but deep down, I was conflicted. I knew that my love for weddings had grown over the years. Slowly but surely, the conviction that this industry is right for me grew stronger by the day. But I didn’t have the skills, nor the confidence to venture into it wholeheartedly. That was why I was conflicted.

Fast forward 3 years. Now, the bulk of my work comes from wedding and portraiture shoots, and about 20% from corporate videos and photography. And now, I am so happy doing the things I do.

In 2008, I had 10 clients who wanted wedding photography. In 2009, the number of clients who wanted me to shoot their weddings & also pre-weddings doubled to 20. These numbers do not include all the wedding videography jobs that I was also doing, and other shoots like family portraits.

This year, I counted that I have 39 different wedding clients that I have photographed – whether it is their wedding, pre-wedding or both. The family, maternity, and other types of photography work has increased too! I really thank God for the wonderful team I have, some of whom have come and gone in the past to other ventures. I must definitely give credit to Mark and Johan, our key photographers who have made a huge impact to the Stories brand by the amazing images they create. And of course, to Weiming, our Digital Artist who works hard to make sure all the clients get their images touched up quickly and delivered as soon as possible.

This blog post is not meant for me to brag, but to really show how awesome God is. I know that to some photographers, 39 weddings is the norm, but for me, it’s an achievement. I am sure these blessings could not have happened without Him having a hand in it. I truly believe if you love your work passionately and work hard at it, it will really pay off so that work becomes a pleasure, not a pain! I absolutely believe life is meant to be fun, and we should be doing things in life that we are passionate about. Why slave away for hours on end on a job you absolutely hate? (Considering how many hours we work compared to our leisure time). Sure, I have had my share of disappointments and heartaches but life is meant to be lived forwards, not backwards.

Well, having said all that, life IS unpredictable, and tomorrow, I may not be here. So, for what it is worth, cherish TODAY.

I have been meaning to showcase 2010’s pre-wedding & wedding highlights but haven’t had the time to create a slideshow yet due to my crazy schedule. Until I find the time to do it, here are some teasers from recent shoots from the past 2 weeks that have yet to be blogged about.


Eric & Mun Wai’s pre-wedding in Singapore & KL

Ben & Jun’s Singapore Art Museum wedding


Kwan Seng & Jasmine’s pre-wedding in Malacca

Have a wonderful countdown to 2011!

Grace Tan
In Life, Musings

Who’s a Risk-taker?

I had a panic attack. Seriously. I felt as if I couldn’t really breathe and started to think of the worst case scenario. It happened yesterday evening when Alex called me to tell me that the Bangladesh high commission was closed for their Victory day and he could not collect my passport. This would be all fine and dandy if it weren’t for my scheduled flight to Singapore today.

Since I’ll be traveling to Bangladesh in January 2011, I needed to apply for a visa. There were many issues that we faced the past 2 weeks… from our travel agent saying that we did not have enough documents, to the travel agent calling us again and saying that we had to go PERSONALLY to apply for the visa, then us traveling there, me running to KL again to pick up my passport to be told that you could only get it between 4-5pm and not any other time.

Which eventually led to the incident yesterday. As I am writing this blog post, I am sitting at the airport now waiting for my flight (which is delayed by the way, thanks Tiger!). Alex, being the calm and collected person that he is, told me not to worry.

Not to worry!????!

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