Testimonials

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Testimonials, Weddings

The Wedding of Saw Wen & De Way

Happy Chinese New Year to all my friends and clients who have become like family! I am truly sorry for the lack of blog updates the past few weeks. Every time I think of starting a blog post, 5 million other things call out my name. Not to mention I am now a few months late in terms of blogging some weddings. I am rather tempted to just start afresh and share from the last wedding I shot… which I might do in the next few weeks. So don’t be surprised if the weddings are not in sequence.

I hope you are having a great time with your family members this Chinese New Year, and for those who are not celebrating, hope you are having a good holiday. I want to kick off the dragon year by sharing the wedding of Saw Wen & De Way.

Now, Saw Wen & De Way had come to enquire about our services more than a year before their wedding. At that time, my business was just starting to bloom, and I was stoked that someone wanted to book us that far ahead.

Saw Wen & De Way’s story started 11 years ago while they were still in school, meeting at the sweet ripe age of 16.

That girl in the Calvin & Hobbes t-shirt

De Way: I remember, 3 girls. That was in a tuition class for Bahasa Melayu when I was in Form 4. 3 fine looking girls from SMK Seafield, 1 tall, 1 pretty and 1 nerdy. Fast forward to SPM year, I noticed her. She was generally louder than other students during class, gave opinions when not asked for, irritatingly completed the teacher’s sentences every now and then etc. Oh yes, she wore a Calvin & Hobbes t-shirt to class, just like me.

Saw Wen: De Way was a perpetual sleepy head and seemed like the quiet type. At the beginning, we hardly spoke to each other until form 5. We got to know each other better during our after BM tuition yum cha sessions, went cycling and hung out in a nearby park together with a bunch of friends. As the months went by, I found De Way to be charming and had such “beautiful eyes”. He made me laugh (he still does) and I found myself to be falling for this guy.

De Way: She used to tell her stories when we met at a mamak for drinks after tuition. This went on for a while and it felt normal spending time with a girl, no special feelings I dare say. Then, one fateful rainy evening, I had to send her home with my bicycle, with her holding the umbrella. That was when something felt odd…good but odd. Since that day, I made it a point to accompany her home after our mamak session.

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Testimonial: Allen & Stephy

I am truly excited whenever I receive an email, card or call from a client telling us how much they appreciate our work. I’d like to share with you an email that we received from our client Allen and Stephy after their wedding day. It makes me especially proud because they are complimenting our entire team, and not just one individual. Their wedding was photographed by Mark, Johan and assisted by Diane.

Thanks to Stories!

Everything was great on our big day!

Mark, Johan and Diane are really heart-warming. We thought we got to know 3 more friends during our big day!

From the initial arrangement of meeting, Diane has done a really good job in liaising between us and Mark/Johan, rounds and rounds of emails, without complaining. She has done a really really great job too, on the actual day. Especially during the toasting from table to table, She took the initiative and helped us to coordinate.

Johan, he was funny, but serious. The first time we met up with him, it was the discussion on actual day run down. Though it was just a 15-minute discussion, I had strong impression on him, as he took out a pen with angry bird design. Too funny! It doesn’t match with his serious look (He did look serious when we ran through the rundown with both him and Mark).

During the dinner, he told me “Stephy, I am sitting at table … (I couldn’t remember), if you need me, you just hand up and I’ll be right here for you”.. He was simply too thoughtful!! and I wanted to make fun with him by handing up again and again, but i thought i shouldn’t.. LOL

Needless to say. Mark is way too professional! He gave us a lot of suggestion, I wanted to have the original version of “just the way you are” for morning SDE, he recommended me acoustic version which many of my friends told me they fall in love with the it. Mark offerred to take some portraits in the Hilton. But too bad that we did not make it as our schedule was just too tight. But He followed us, to make sure he got the chance to take even just one portrait, be it in the bridal suite, or any single corner.

With all these, they move us.

We were very worried and nervous for the actual day. Allen told me, somehow, he felt a lot more relax after the discussion with Stories, that i had the same feeling too. We are blessed to have Stories with us on our big day.

So, Thank you for your dedication, passion to our day!

Best Regards,

Stephy

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Behind the Scenes: Alvin & Melissa

I always have good intentions to do more behind the scenes videos of our shoots, but as with all good intentions, it sometimes remain as intentions when not followed through with action. On a day to day basis, we have so much work to do in terms of photo touch ups and album design that editing videos like these take a back seat. In fact, I have a number of videos that we’ve shot but not had time to edit. :(

So I am glad that we managed to complete this edit, thanks to the ever hardworking Weiming. He shot and edited this video entirely on his own. Amazing work! Thanks Weiming for making me look good in video (though I cringe when I hear my own laughter).

To view the photos from Alvin & Melissa’s shoot at Carcosa, click on this link!

Do let me know what you think of our little video!

[flv:http://www.stories.my/wp-content/uploads/2011/slideshows/alvin-melissa-bts.mp4 http://www.stories.my/wp-content/uploads/2011/slideshows/alvin-melissa-bts.jpg 704 400]

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Testimonial: David + Risa, Wedding at Andaman Langkawi

Some time back, I photographed David and Risa’s beautiful wedding at the Andaman resort in Langkawi. David and Risa were kind enough to write a testimonial for Stories…Thank you, David & Risa for being such wonderful clients too!

Grace and Mark shot our wedding on Langkawi Island in Jan 2011. We found Grace and on the Internet and after seeing some of her work, we knew that we wanted her to shoot our wedding.

Grace was professional from the beginning and even though we were only able to correspond by email, communication was always very clear and we were always on the same page. No hidden costs or unpleasant surprises.

It was Grace’s pro-active approach that really convinced us that we’d made the right decision. I (the groom) had no idea what I was going to ask Grace to shoot when she got here. I had no real ‘vision’ or anything and the bride was flat out in preparation, as brides often are on their wedding day. Grace, however, knew exactly what was doing and basically took off and started shooting, assessing the situation and deciding the best way to do things on the fly. This was really great and I can’t say how relieved I was.

Grace is very dedicated and is not too shy to take control when she needs to in order to get the best shots. This was very much appreciated as we are extremely happy with the results. She and her assistant, Mark, shot non-stop from start to finish. They maintained a high level of energy throughout and clearly enjoy what they do. This is important as it rubs off on everyone present and adds to the occasion.

In short, I have no hesitations in recommending Grace and her company. They are dedicated professionals and really very, very reasonably priced. We live in Japan, and seriously, what you get for 3 or 4 times the price here is very much inferior to what Grace did for us. Very happy.

David and Risa Lee.

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Behind the Scenes: Joe & Nicole

Videographer & Editor: Weiming
Photographer: Grace
Assistant: Cheryl

You have seen some of the images, now you can see what happened behind the camera! It always feels weird looking at yourself on camera, but I hope that by doing this video, you can catch a glimpse on how we work. At the end of the day, it’s about having fun!

Alright, here’s the behind the scenes video as promised! Do leave us a comment or two about what you think because we LOVE to hear from you!

[flv:http://www.stories.my/wp-content/uploads/2011/slideshows/joe_nicole.m4v http://www.stories.my/wp-content/uploads/2011/slideshows/joe_nicole.jpg 704 400]