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!

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Weddings

Chen Hoe & Shirley’s Wedding

Photographers: Grace, Benjamin & Mark
Wedding Gown: Keith Kee
Make Up: Kres Kuang
Cake: Cake Art
Ceremony & first dinner location: Sime Darby Convention Centre
Second dinner location: Federal Hotel, Kuala Lumpur

Her first impression of him was that he was boring and too quiet. His first thought of her was that she talked waaay too much. But after spending some time getting to know each other, they realize that they enjoy each other’s company. The talkative girl became the supportive girlfriend who would always encourage him and make him happy. The quiet guy would soon learn how to make her laugh and bring her down to earth with his rational thoughts.

And soon, the companionship and friendship turned to love.

I had the privilege to get to know Chen Hoe and Shirley last year, when Shirley started attending my church. My thoughts of the both of them? Certainly opposites in terms of character! On the contrary, I don’t think Chen Hoe is really quiet. He can be pretty chatty after he gets to know you. :) He is the calm, collected person who can probably rationalize everything in the universe. She is the fiery person who is passionate about the things she believes in.

Chen Hoe & Shirley’s wedding celebration was spread over 2 events. The first was their ROM ceremony and dinner which was held at the Sime Darby Convention Centre. Photos taken by Grace & Ben.

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Church Weddings, Weddings

#NicHil wedding

If you have your very own Twitter hashtag for your wedding, you are automatically in the ‘cool but geeky’ crowd. And if you have no idea what a hashtag is, then you’d better find out, so that you can be cool. But Nic immediately upped the cool factor by chartering a bus to transport his friends and family from Singapore to Malacca for his wedding.

Cheng Leng (also known as Hillary) and Nicholas are friends of mine. Cheng Leng and I have known each other for years, since we were both in school. Then in college, we saw each other almost every other day… had meals together, went to pasar malam together, hung out with the same friends… we had a great time. After we graduated, Cheng Leng worked in KL for a while, but then she moved to Singapore a few years ago. I felt sad to see her go, but thank God for social media networks like Facebook. We kept in touch through the years.

It was great that I could witness the wedding ceremony of Nicholas and Cheng Leng. I wasn’t meant to be there for the wedding, but due to some turn of events, I could be there as a guest! I managed to sneak a few shots during the wedding (all the time a little worried if I was being an ‘Uncle Bob’ to the official photographer).

Presenting, the gorgeous bride…

The one thing that immediately stands out about Cheng Leng – Her smile. She is such a warm and sincere person. I miss her hugs a lot. :)

So I had to give her a BIG hug.