It was in January 2011 that Tjin met Dawn for the first time through his close friend, Lynsey. Lynsey and Dawn were close, childhood friends in Singapore. Interestingly, Tjin and Dawn’s first point of contact was an unintentional ‘romantic’ Singapore river cruise overlooking Singapore’s city lights. So, Facebook did it again… it connected Tjin and Dawn after that first encounter in Singapore. Their Facebook messages soon turned to Whatsapp messages which then transformed to Skype calls.
This is where it gets interesting. Since 5th January 2011, Tjin and Dawn communicated EVERY SINGLE day, whether it was early in the morning or late at night. But it was a grey kind of relationship for the first 6 months. Were they friends, or were they friends? It would seem obvious though that Tjin’s purchases of flowers for Valentine’s day and whenever Dawn was sick would indicate more than just a friendship. But still, it was not really clear.
Over the first 6 months, they grew to like each other’s personalities and qualities…but one thing was missing… meeting that ‘head’ image with a more concrete ‘face-to-face’ encounter. So June 2011, Tjin decided to make a trip to Singapore, and together with friends, they embarked on this Singapore – KL – Lombok – Hong Kong – Singapore adventure. It was during that trip that Tjin decided to end the uncertainty, and asked Dawn to be his girlfriend in Hong Kong.
Tjin made a promise to Dawn that he would visit as often as he can. This resulted in a long list of flights every 2-3 months over three years – becoming Jetstar’s unofficial number one customer. Some trips were long trips to Hanoi, Bali, Seoul or KL. Some trips to Singapore were only 3 nights over the weekend. Many exciting hellos, and equally as many heartbreaking goodbyes. Dawn would also visit Melbourne at least once a year. Story of their lives for 3 years.
So finally, in March 2013, Dawn visited Melbourne and was put on a surprise flight to Launceston, Tasmania. It was there that Tjin asked Dawn to marry him over a romantic dinner. He made a photo scrapbook of their travels and adventure together, but the last 2 pages were blank. It was meant to be continued!
Congratulations, Tjin and Dawn! I am really happy for the both of you! Sorry I couldn’t be there to witness the wedding, but seeing the images taken by Johan and Weiming, and also the video by Nick, Delvin & Felicia made me feel as if I was there.
Watch the Fusion slideshow of their wedding here.
I remember my first encounter with Rani. It was at the Westin wedding fair, and she came with a group of friends who were funny, witty and easy to chat with. That instant, we clicked. Rani signed up for our photography package, and months later, off to Penang I went with Diane to photograph their Malaysian reception. Arun and Rani were wed in India (darn, I still am hoping to photograph a wedding there one day!) but they had a 2nd celebration in Penang’s colonial looking E&O Hotel. We spent a good part of the day taking portraits, and then photographing their dinner reception in the evening.
How They Met