Church Weddings

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Church Weddings, Wedding Films & Videos, Weddings

Draw, Pray, Love: The Art-filled Wedding of Ian & Vinn

Ian and Vinn’s wedding was one brimming with creativity. After all, Vinn is a fine art artist, with a degree in film and animation, and Ian himself appreciates art and photography. Vinn DIY-ed almost everything in her wedding. She even painted the huge backdrop at her wedding… 2 large painted canvases combined together to make a beautiful backdrop. Her paint was displayed next to the backdrop, and guests were invited to sign on her pre-painted big canvas guestbook.

The doorgifts were soaps with lemon grass oil that she handmade, and all the photo booth props, invitation cards were also designed by her! (including hand made wedding seals!). Wow, I was so amazed.

Their theme, Draw, Pray, Love with a hint of rustic, vintage feel and french blue, gold, beige and cream colour tones felt so apt for this creative couple. During the dinner, the cast of the SIBKL musical, Everworld did an amazing performance and entertained all the guests. Unfortunately, we could not feature every performance in this highlight as there were way too many of them.

Ian & Vinn, I hope you like this video that Felicia edited… we spent many days in the edit room, deciding what to include and what not to! There were just so much to show from your wedding. But I am sure you’ll have fun reliving the day when you receive the rest of the edited compiled footage from us. Congratulations from the Stories team!

Ian & Vinn’s Story

I met Ian at the age of 19, at a lobby of a building. He was 26. I was by myself, drawing on the couch, when he approached me and started talking to me. I thought, he has a strange British accent, but looks Asian! Anyhow, we had a great chat and before I left, Ian handed me his name card.

Yup I didn’t leave him my contact (I was a little cool towards him!) but I was the one who texted him first, and that’s how our love story began!

We got together speedily on the second date after two months. 8 years of courtship, and now we are married!

Ian is the greatest gift from God and the greatest gift from Ian is bringing me to know God. He is smart, lovely, gentle, kind and romantic (although he denies this) but at least in my heart he is. He always surprises me- from beautiful candlelight dinners (he made me the most delicious tiramisu!) to surprise vacations as a birthday present (I later found out after I boarded the plane! And I thought it was a working trip!).

The proposal happened last year. It was Valentine’s Day, but my father was admitted to hospital so we stayed up late which messed up his plans, so he didn’t get to cook me dinner but we still managed to buy some food and had a candlelight dinner at his house. I couldn’t hold back my tears after i got my ‘Valentine’ gift which was a ring…there’s no one there except the two of us, but I got too excited and I popped the question before he even opened his mouth. HAHA!

We’ve been through so much together… poor or rich, sick or healthy…we had the best times together. Ian definitely knows me better than I know myself. He is not just my mentor and my support, he is my best friend.

Credits:

Videographers: Stories team (Nick, Yih Wen & Felicia)
Location: Holiday Villa
Make Up & Decorations: Bride’s own
Dinner Entertainment: Everworld, the musical cast & thoughtful friends

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Church Weddings, Weddings

From tears to laughter: Philip & Su Lin

The best weddings are those that cause you to either burst into tears or hysterical laughter. Just the energy of the day is enough to turn any sleep-deprived bride into one that is running purely on adrenaline. I love weddings like these. Weddings that exude so much joy and feeling, it makes me smile like a silly girl behind her camera. I loved Philip and Su Lin’s wedding because it just made me feel so alive (despite that silly flu I was suffering from!).

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From the word go, everything went beautifully. Philip and Su Lin, you are so loved by your friends and family. I can just see it. The word fun just exudes from the relationships you share with the people around you. Thank you for being so caring and thoughtful, especially when I couldn’t shoot the dinner event because I was too ill to continue.

May you enjoy years of cherished moments together as a couple and with the people that mean the most to you in life.

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Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Church Weddings, Weddings

Church Wedding: Rayson & Yee See

I do wish we could feature every single wedding or portrait that we have ever photographed or filmed on this blog, but I know that it’s just feasibly not possible! In between shoots, managing enquiries, meeting potential clients and replying emails, there’s just so little time left. Throw into that equation, work-life balance – trying to bring my little 6 month old for swimming classes, shopping for groceries, going to church, and actually having a life… I suddenly realize that half a year has passed! Recently, the Integricity family (FYI to those who are not aware, Stories is part of a larger group of companies) went on a company holiday to Phuket! More on that later!

So phew, back to Rayson and Yee See. I first met Rayson years ago when we were working on a corporate project together that required our animation services. That was the vague image that I have in my mind. I could have met him through another friend, but that’s how most friendships are… after a while, it takes a bit of memory-jogging to try and recall the finer details.

So Rayson and Yee See were married this February. Their wedding was photographed by Johan and Weiming (I was on maternity leave then!). Though it’s been a few months since their wedding, I’d like to share these images from their church wedding and their story with you.

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Excerpt from their wedding blog:

He says…

It was only 4 years ago that I met Yee See. It was not love at first sight as most tend to believe. We met at my ex-college mate’ bridal party meeting. I remembered the first time I saw her… it wasn’t a very flattering picture, oily skin, messy hair, runny nose and not to mention the weird dressing.

Totally not my type.

We were paired up pretty quickly for the wedding dance practices. I remembered the awkward moments when we held hands. I thought,

“This girl… dunno how to hold hands… never had a boy friend before issit? -_-”

It wasn’t until a couple of more dance practices that she opened up a bit. I could see that she was starting to feel a lot more comfortable, but still, we didn’t talk much. I thought the epic age gap was to be blamed as there wasn’t anything much that we could talk about. If you’re looking for any chemistry at this point in time, there’s zero. Besides, I wasn’t interested in her romantically. Well, not yet at least.

I thought to myself, there’s no way am I going to go out with this girl even if there was any slight interest. It’s just impossible and of course, not practical. We’re talking about a 7 years age gap here. Pretty scandalous to date a college kid, won’t you say?

Who knew that God had an awesome plan for the both of us.

After the wedding, we kept in touch through Skype, Facebook and Twitter. It wasn’t until she followed me on Twitter that I got interested. I mean, back there not many people heard of Twitter.

That piqued my interest a little.

I also got to know how close she is with her dad and the amazing relationship they have.

That piqued my interest a little more.

Off and on we’ll be in contact over the phone, SMS, Skype … but most of the time she would be the one initiating them. Well, I was only interested in being friends, nothing more.

There was this one occasion that I was driving out for a meeting and I got an SMS from her saying that she had prayed for me. That action was all it took for me to decide that this girl was worth pursuing.

God really opened by eyes. I began to see her differently. I think she prayed very hard hahahahaha … Seriously, everything about her suddenly became attractive. Things that I’ve never noticed, I’ve began to notice. Everything that I had secretly prayed for in a life partner was in front of me all along.

We’ve had our ups and downs, but every experience was worth it. Looking back, I could had missed this girl, glad I didn’t.

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Grace Tan In Church Weddings, International, Life, Musings, Weddings

Myanmar Wedding: Bobo and Catherine

Catherine and Bobo are in their twenties and in love. They are youthful, enjoy life, love the Lord, and dream of a future together. Pretty much with the same dreams as any average young adult Malaysian. The only difference is that they are living in Malaysia as refugees. When Catherine traveled thousands of kilometres by land from her Myanmar home to Malaysia years ago, she had to face many uncertainties, fears and hardships as she made the journey here.

She moved to Malaysia because she wanted to help her parents who are pastors in Myanmar to support their younger siblings through school. Even though she didn’t know anyone in Malaysia then, she left the comforts of her home to a foreign land, alone. Somehow, God connected her to some other Myanmar nationals who were also seeking refuge in Malaysia. And it was there that she found a church to belong to – a church that spoke her language and were filled with her own countryfolk.

Interestingly, Catherine got to know Bobo at church, but only got to know him better at another Myanmar refugee wedding we photographed 2 years ago. When I asked Catherine what attracted her to Bobo… she answered without hesitating… “I love how he loves the Lord.”

Since most of their friends (including them) work at restaurants or boutiques in shopping malls that close after 10pm, it’s natural that the only time they can conduct a wedding is at midnight.

How our paths crossed
One day, I got a FB message from a girl named Sheryl asking if I could recommend a place where Catherine could get a wedding gown for under RM400. This girl Catherine also had in mind to send the gown back to Myanmar to her father’s church after her wedding so that it could help other girls who couldn’t really afford a gown. After a few messages, I told her that I had my old wedding gown which I could give to her if she was keen on having it (since we were both petite at XS size). I met her in church one day, and gave her 2 of my wedding gowns to choose from. It fit her to a T! It was really special to see that my gown went to someone who appreciated it so muchI also want to thank the team of people who came together to make this wedding memorable for Catherine and Bobo. They include:

Make up & hair for bride: Michelle Touche
Make up & hair for bridesmaids: Shinny Ong
Photographers & Videographers: Stories.my (Ben, Diane, Grace, Wee Liem and Johan)
Wedding Cake & Catering: Makanlah Now
Church: DUMC

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Church Weddings, Wedding Films & Videos, Weddings

Wedding Video Highlight: Jeffrey & May

We love it when our clients share their life stories so candidly and freely with us. It just makes us feel as if we’ve known them for years! So much detail went into the planning for Jeffrey and May’s wedding… everything was executed beautifully by the vendors that came together for this wedding. Through the emotions shared on their wedding day, you can tell that they are very very much in love. :)

Jeffrey and May’s Story (and all the personalization that went into their wedding!):

Jeffrey and I have known each other for a long, long time. We met through a mutual family friend, who introduced us on the pretext of introducing me to someone who did his postgraduate studies in Oxford and was in a position to advise me on the same, as I was also going to pursue my postgraduate studies then. Little did I know then that it was a match-making event! While we hit it off almost immediately, I was totally oblivious to all these until much later!