Chinese Weddings

Benjamin Lim In Chinese Weddings, International, Outdoor Weddings, Weddings

Morning Star Estate, Melbourne: The Wedding of Sam & Kathy

Sam and Kathy’s wedding has all the elements that make our hearts beat a little faster. Their wedding day started out traditionally with Chinese and Vietnamese influences, and then progressed to a beautiful outdoor, garden wedding at the Morning Star Estate in Melbourne, Australia. Dinner reception was held at The International of Brighton.

Sam and Kathy engaged us for a pre-wedding some months back, which was photographed by Grace. I’ve not personally met them till the day before their event in Melbourne, Australia. Sam seemed like a laid back, chill kind of guy but one who is particular about his coffee. Kathy is bubbly, cheerful & fun girl who’s into video games along with Sam. They are both really wonderful and easy to get along with.

This was my first time covering a semi-traditional Vietnamese wedding and it was pretty interesting to witness it. There were some similarities to the Chinese tradition like exchange of gifts, the games and negotiation prior to ‘picking up the bride’. The wedding day started beautifully though it was a little cold in the morning (both Alex and I were too used to Malaysian weather!). Blue skies and fluffy white clouds (plus vineyards!) were perfect ingredients for a beautiful garden wedding.

We love how Sam and Kathy personalized their wedding invitation with a wax seal and beautifully handwritten calligraphy by Sam (you’ll see a sample of that later!).

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, For Photographers, International, Malay Weddings, Musings, News, Outdoor Weddings, Wedding Films & Videos, Weddings

Destination Weddings on Travel Channel

I am stoked to share that the TV programs I have been working on for the past few months are finally completed and will be screened next week! With Red Communications Sdn Bhd as the production company, my team and I provided the research, scriptwriting & direction for 3 episodes of Destination Weddings, a program that will be aired in 130 countries worldwide via the Travel Channel. Initially, the program was meant to be aired in selected countries only, but everyone did such a great job that it is now a worldwide release!

Deborah Henry is the travel host, and together, we visited various South East Asian countries to experience 2 very different weddings in each country. Here’s the episode synopsis for the programs I directed, including the episode’s air time for Malaysia. You can view it every Thursday, starting 6th December 2012 at 7.30pm on Channel 145 if you have HyppTV. For other countries, check out the air time by clicking here.

View the launch promo video below!

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Testimonials, Weddings

The Wedding of Son & Jil

We would both like to say how very very glad we are to have chosen Stories. It was the second largest expense on our tiny wedding budget (there goes the deposit for our home!) and as mentioned to Grace, we initially had doubts as to whether we could afford to spend that kind of money on just photos! However, I really fell in love with Grace’s work at first sight and watching our quick edit morning CD confirmed that it was worth the extra $$ we had to squeeze out for the photos! Everyone (including us) were so impressed by the professionalism and warmth exhibited by Grace, Ben and Andrew.

A special thanks to the team for the lovely shots (I really wanted the focus to be on the people, which Grace & team delivered beautifully), Ben for great editing (Son has burned too many copies of the DVD, my mum has distributed these to her entire village and Son has tortured our relatives and friends in Malaysia and Adelaide innumerably with it ‘cos he’s really pleased with how “yao-yeng” he looks in it) and we really really appreciate Ben and Andrew’s patience and understanding (in particular, Ben’s sensitivity towards Son’s nervousness at public speaking when he subtly suggested Son use the podium) during the loooong evening dinner.

Once more, we really really want to thank Grace, Ben and Andrew for making our special day all that much more special and we can’t gush on enough about how much we love Stories! :)

– Son & Jil –

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Weddings

An Underwater Experience: The Wedding of Seng Yong and Adeline

Ok, we didn’t really get wet for this wedding. In fact, we were totally dry. But what was cool was the fact that the underwater world was brought to us instead, in the form of flowery seahorses, shells, treasure troves, starfish and more! Seng Yong and Adeline are avid divers and they love the sea. Together, they’ve ventured underwater to many locations within Malaysia, Fiji and Bali. So their underwater themed wedding was their way of sharing their love of the sea to the hundreds of guests that attended their wedding dinner. Natasha Khoo’s team from The Peak Xperience did an amazing job at decorating the hallway.

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Weddings

Purple craze: Wedding of Chris & Li Yen

We laughed till our sides ached. It was a day when creativity met madness, and when friends dared to show their true colours. Chris and Li Yen’s wedding happened some time back, but I can’t help but share these images with the rest of the world. It was Olympics season and some of the heng tai games had an element of sport to it… namely synchronized swimming! Totally unique, completely fun, and we even got a little wet from all that splashing in the pool!

You might have seen Chris and Li Yen’s pre-wedding photos here on the blog before, and probably got a sense of their personality through the images. You can tell that they are a really fun loving couple and don’t mind doing silly things in front of the camera. Li Yen has a spunky personality and tells me that till today, they dispute about who invited who out to dinner first, especially on their first date!

Chris and Li Yen, though it’s been a few months since your wedding, I still laugh when I look at these images. It brings back good memories for us. All the best for the future as you settle in Australia… and keep in touch!