Outdoor Weddings

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Musings, Outdoor Weddings, Tips + Ideas, Weddings

Garden ROM at The Club, Saujana: Jonathan & Jacinda

I’ve grown to love this beautiful location. It’s a small little green patch of grass overlooking a lake, but given the right time of day when the sun is setting in the distance, you have gorgeous sunlight falling over this area, which makes for amazing back light. Ok, if you didn’t quite understand this photographer’s rambling, the location looks like this:

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And this is the amazing back light (or hair light) I am talking about.

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One of the wonderful things about small weddings is that you have lots of time for portraits. I enjoy creating images of the couple with their families and also close friends in a gorgeous setting. I photographed Jon and Jac a few months back when we did their Mad Men themed pre-wedding shoot. It was easy to connect with this couple, and from that moment on, I knew photographing them would be a breeze. The week after, Jon and Jac had their Chinese wedding ceremony (photos in the slideshow at the end of this post).

For this post, I thought I’d write a few tips on what I think would make a great garden wedding (from a photographer’s perspective):

1. Choose the time of day well

Considering we live in tropical Malaysia, the best time for an outdoor wedding would be before 10am and after 5pm. The sun is lower in the horizon which makes it more flattering for people photos. Have you ever taken a photo outdoors at 12pm, and seen lots of raccoon eyes (dark shadows under the eyes) staring back at you? Yup, that’s the effect of the sun as it is directly above you. So if you’d like more flattering images of yourself outdoors, opt to have your ceremony start at the timing suggested.

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Wedding at Ciao: Kevin & Jasmine

It was the evening before the wedding. Kevin’s parents had flown in from China for the wedding, and everyone was excited about the event. Unfortunately, a huge drama unfolded that evening itself. Sadly, the groom’s parents were robbed right outside their service apartment in KL. It really saddens me that Malaysia is no longer a really safe place to live in. A substantial amount of cash and passports were stolen. Kevin reacted like how anyone would, and gave chase…but they got away. Other than the physical items that were missing, he injured his hands as he fell during the chase.

But that whole incident didn’t stop Kevin and Jasmine from having a good time the next day at their wedding. I truly respect them for not letting bad circumstances affect their mood. Kevin and Jasmine, I am glad the day went really well. And Jasmine, yay, you survived wearing contact lenses for many hours! Hope you had a good honeymoon and are back safely in Australia now. Lots of love from Malaysia!

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Beach wedding, Four Seasons, Langkawi: Philip & Claudia

White, sandy beaches.

Puffy clouds, blue skies and a slight breeze that wisps through your hair.

A relaxed, intimate destination wedding at the Four Seasons Resort, Langkawi.

It all began six years ago, when Philip and Claudia met each other at an Asian party in Claudia’s hometown Malmö, Sweden. They started to chat with each other via sms and from there it went on to chats over coffee. Claudia had just returned to Malmö after her MBA at the University of Mälardalen and Philip had also moved Malmö for work. He was initially living in a smaller town about an hour away from Malmö.

They started dating that July, on his birthday. Three years later, Philip proposed to Claudia in front of the Fountain of Trevi in Rome! One of their biggest passions (aside from each other) is traveling and trying all kinds of new, exotic food. In Claudia’s words, that’s one of the biggest reasons they chose to have a beach wedding abroad instead of a traditional “big-fat-Chinese-wedding.” :)

What a great choice.

Enjoy these beautiful images taken by Ben & Weiming.

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Garden Wedding at The Club, Saujana: Jason & Annette

It was a season where masks were sold out at pharmacies. Everyone stayed indoors as much as possible and no one wanted to do any outdoor activities. But Jason and Annette had set their wedding date months ahead of time, not knowing that the haze would hit them smack in the middle of their wedding festivities. I was concerned too… after all, it was a garden wedding at The Club. I wondered if any of the guests would come prepared with masks.

A few days before the wedding, I sat down with Annette to run through her wedding program. She said she’ll pray really hard for the haze to go away, and so we both did. On their wedding day, God did a miracle and there were blue skies and the sun! Oh, the sun shone so brightly and made everything look perfect.

You couldn’t tell from these photos that just the day before, everything looked bleak and dreary.

I think Weiming and I jumped in joy (not literally!) when we saw the skies. Jason and Annette, it couldn’t have been better. I love intimate weddings and I think yours was truly warm and meaningful. I hope your dad is feeling much better and that Jason is more comfortable in front of the camera by now? :) Jason, thanks for being so accommodating and also for the bottles of wine after the party! Wishing you lots of joy and sunshine for the future.

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A blend of cultures: Roy & Pek Yee

It was an epic wedding – full of wonderful moments that will be etched in my mind forever. Roy’s humour brightens the day and keeps us entertained while Pek Yee’s infectious (loud) laughter reminds me of my childhood friends who are equally boisterous. The wedding was split to 2 days… the first half was the Chinese wedding ceremony in KL, followed by a beach wedding at the colonial-looking Danna, Langkawi. Seriously, I consider this a 6-star wedding…not just because of the gorgeous location and beautiful decorations that adorned the venue, but because it had all the elements that made it special – a superb couple that was so easy to click with, really fun guests who made the party happening, and family members who treated us like… family. Most of the decorations were done by Roy and Pek’s friends and family members… amazing flower decorations by Pek’s aunt June and stationery by her friend Hooi Yee.

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Through out my stay at The Danna, my team were treated so well by the staff there. I appreciate it that they didn’t see us as merely vendors, and saw to our every need, making sure we had water to drink all the time, made sure we had a decent place to have our meals, brought us cutlery and even offered us home made butter when it wasn’t necessary! Needless to say, the team ate well and slept really really well the night before and after the wedding, which made us really happy campers!

I love it how Roy and Pek Yee blend so easily into each other’s culture. Swiss and Malaysian cultures are worlds apart, yet, they seem so at home with each other, and even speaking a little of each other’s language. Roy’s Mandarin is definitely better than mine, since I am a pure ‘banana’ as how Malaysians would put it (yellow on the outside, white on the inside – someone whose first language is English).

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So, they met in Shanghai, China about 3 years ago… and here’s how the story goes…