Weddings

A Majestic Affair: Vincent & Jen’s wedding

Photographers: Mark & Johan
Location: The Majestic, Malacca

How it all began…

Jen: We met through the AIESEC traineeship programme back in 2003 when I left Malaysia for Belgium. Vincent was the person in charge of my traineeship integration in Belgium. He was the one who helped me throughout the beginning with all the required paperwork. Over time, we got closer to each other and started dating 3 months later.

Vincent is an intelligent, calm and composed person. I sometimes get impatient more easily than him, as my behaviour is quite the opposite! I believe that I learnt to be calmer over time because of him. I never felt that we are from different parts of the world. It feels like we belong together and managed to complement each other in every way. And the most important thing of all… he always makes me laugh and feel secure.

Vincent: My first impression about Jen was that she is a serious girl, but also very beautiful. I never saw any difference between her Malaysian and my Belgian’s stomach. We have always been able to eat each other’s food and complement each other. It’s a thing we do on every aspect of our lives… I made the right move!

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Grace Tan In Bangladeshi Weddings, International, Weddings

A Bangladeshi Wedding: Nabil’s Holudh

Photographers: Grace, Andrew & Alex

I am blessed to have such a great team with me during this shoot. A day before Nabil’s holudh, I came down with food poisoning. It was really difficult to look cheerful during the shoot and the next minute, run to the toilet while trying to make sure I don’t drop my camera with all my stomach spasms. Thank God I made it through… goes to show that photographers never ‘really’ get a break during shoots, even if you are ill! So I thank God for Alex and Andrew who was there for me.

Nabil’s holudh was held at a completely different location this time round – it was at the Army Golf Club in Dhaka. As always, I am awed at the way a simple hall was made into a beautiful location with these gorgeous lights.

Just a few of the many gifts Nabil received.

Grace Tan In Malay Weddings, Weddings

Adam & Dalilah’s Engagement

Photographer: Grace
Make Up: Khir Khalid
Dalilah’s Gown: Syaiful Baharim
Decorations & Flowers: Flora Etc

They have known each other since they were 12. From Form 1 till Form 3, Adam and Dalilah were in the same class at Methodist College Kuala Lumpur. They were never really close friends but they always had a thing for each other throughout secondary school. Their relationship became official at the end of Form 5. And with all teenage romances, there were some difficult moments. A few months into their relationship, Dalilah had to leave Malaysia for boarding school in England to pursue her A Levels.

But love perseveres. They survived the long distance relationship, and a few years later, Adam followed Dalilah to England to complete their undergraduate degrees in University of Nottingham.

Now, they are engaged.

The ‘secret’ room where Dalilah would wait for her future mother-in-law to sarung cincin (place the engagement ring) on her.

The beautifully decorated hantaran (gifts). You can’t tell by looking at these photos, but the cake in the middle is REALLY heavy! And it’s not just the silver tray that is heavy! Dalilah’s friends who were the dulang bearers tried lifting it…and so did I… it was at least 5-6kg I think! Oh, and don’t you love the colourful macaroons on the right?

Congratulations, Adam and Dalilah! Looking forward to your wedding in a few month’s time!

Grace Tan In Bangladeshi Weddings, International, Weddings

A Bangladeshi Wedding: Maisha’s Holudh

Photographers: Grace, Andrew & Alex

Finally, these set of images are making its way to the blog. The wedding of Nabil & Maisha in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is a massive week long event, planned a year in advance, and executed so well. Maisha loves planning, and she aspires to be a wedding planner one day. Our team flew to Bangladesh to cover only 5 out of the 9 events for Nabil & Maisha’s wedding. When we arrived at the Dhaka airport, I was surprised to be greeted by Nabil and an army escort as we exited the plane ramp. Maisha’s dad is the Major General in the Bangladesh army – that explains the army escort!

The first event was the Bride’s Holudh, held at Maisha’s residence. Don’t you just love the way the house was decorated? It’s an awesome idea and looks so amazing!

My jaw dropped when I saw these table ‘tents’ too!

Maisha just looks so gorgeous, waiting on the palki before making her grand entrance. Earlier that day, Nabil’s family were busy packing and organizing the gifts for Maisha’s holudh. These are just a few of the many different gifts that were there that day!

Grace Tan In Outdoor Weddings, Weddings

An Intimate Beach Wedding: David & Risa

Photographers: Grace & Mark
Wedding Gown: The Wedding Shoppe, Inc.
Location: The Andaman, Langkawi

18 guests flew all the way from Japan and Australia to Langkawi to attend the wedding of David & Risa. It was a small, intimate wedding filled with lots of emotions. Tears flowed freely, and love was expressed in its purest form. I couldn’t hold back my emotions, as I saw the strong bond between family members, friends and David & Risa. This is definitely one of my favourite weddings. I compiled a slideshow to showcase the many different photos as I cannot include so many in this blog post. I do hope you’ll enjoy this set of images as much as I did creating them.

Here’s David’s and Risa’s story…

We met in Japan in 2004. Actually, although we don’t like to admit it, we met in an English conversation school. I was teaching there and I met Risa, who was a student there at the time, a couple of weeks before I was due to finish my contract. We started dating and I moved in with her a couple of months after that.

Then, I had to leave Japan and return to my own country. We had only been together a few months and I wasn’t prepared for how difficult it was to say goodbye. I think I decided then that we needed to do our best to stay together, somehow. I had actually assumed that we would break up when I left, but I found that very difficult to come to terms with.

Anyway, Risa came to visit me in Australia about three months after I had returned. She then came to live there for a year (after a difficult 11 month long term relationship period), and after that we came back to Japan, where we’ve been since mid 2007. It was around November or December last year when I began to seriously think about proposing. Although we had talked about it many times, I had not really given much thought to actually doing it. We had been together for almost 6 years and had toughed out some pretty difficult times, with the long distance period, the bi-cultural relationship and all the complications that come with that, and it dawned on me that there was no reason not to. I certainly couldn’t imagine spending my life with anyone else, so we took a trip to Malaysia and ended up at the Andaman on Langkawi island, where I proposed. Now, a year later, we’re returning to finish the job!