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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!

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Grace Tan
In Casual Portraits, Life, Portraits

Some Family Portraits (of the other kind)

It’s very normal that certain members of the family get neglected when it comes to taking photos. It’s not easy when your family members don’t want to cooperate even when you offer a treat to them. I’d like to introduce a few extended members of my family but unfortunately, I don’t have many nice photos of them.

This is Tanya (or Tania). She greets me everyday when I go to work, or when I get back from work. She’s young, excitable and sometimes likes to jump on me and land her paws on my outfit, especially when it’s white. When I scream her name, “Tanya, stop it!” she does it again, looking rather proud at her scuff marks on my dress. Other times, she chews my slippers or shoes, and then gets a prompt beating from Alex. He lost the straps to his Crocs that way. Tanya belongs to my in-law’s and is supposed to be a guard dog, but so far, she has failed at her duties. Guests who come by are promptly greeted with a grin and a tail wag.

This is Chino. The photo was taken by my friend Eugene some time back. Chino used to live with me, but now he’s freeloading at my sister’s house (while my home is being renovated). Chino likes to run and attack if he thinks you’re fun to play with. Hands and feet are for biting, he says. Oh, and my claws are hurting you? Sorry but I can’t help myself.

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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.

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Grace Tan
In Life, Musings, Relationships

The 14th of February

Valentine’s Day. It brings back memories of childhood infatuations and dreams, wishing that that guy would somehow notice you and give you a rose. Even if it was only one rose. Or a little note. Or maybe even a phone call.

But of course those things never happened. And when you’re 15 in an all-girl’s school, seeing those other kids receiving roses from the boys in the school-next-door, you kind of feel… neglected. I tried to convince myself then that Valentine’s Day is nothing special. Roses are expensive anyway, and who cares whether you got one or not? But one day, I received roses. A dozen of them. And surprisingly, I was embarrassed. COMPLETELY.

I wanted the attention, and yet I didn’t. You see, I didn’t expect it from this guy!

Well, years later… I still can’t recall a good Valentine’s Day memory. The importance of Valentine’s Day faded and I didn’t really care whether my boyfriend and I celebrated it. Now that it’s my fifth year of marriage, I think about it even less. But little did I know that I was in for a surprise this year…

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Grace Tan
In Life, Musings, Running a Business

That “Corner”

It’s been my dream to own a little Stories studio and decorate it beautifully. Over the past one year, I’ve been meeting couples in 2 places – my office / studio in Centrepoint Bandar Utama and also my home. Because I share the office space in Centrepoint with my other Integricity colleagues (different companies under the same umbrella), I don’t have a specific room where I can meet couples, showcase my work and decorate it to my heart’s content. All I have is a little corner that is ‘somewhat’ decorated, but up till today, I am still dissatisfied with that space.

Over the past few months, my home has undergone a major renovation, and I’ve allocated a space that will be dedicated as a consultation studio. That’s when my excitement level increased. I am no Interior Designer, but I can look at inspiring images and plan. Pretty much like brides who start planning about how the decorations will look like on their wedding day, I am thinking about how my little consultation room will look like once it’s done. An excellent website that showcases lots of inspiring details is Style Me Pretty, where you can get lots of ideas for your wedding.

This was my thought process as I planned on how to decorate the room:

1. Colour theme – Brown, blue and white (Brown and blue because that’s the Stories’ colour!)

2. Words to describe what I want to portray – Chic, Stylish, Romance, Warmth, a hint of Vintage

3. List of items that I can display – photos on canvas, metal prints, albums, postcards, Save the Date cards, cool phrases, my dad’s old camera, my lomo cameras, my mum’s handmade blue seashell jewelry case, cookies, birdcages…

Since I have so many ideas in my head, I have to sometimes stop and ask myself if that really goes together… or does that idea clash? I don’t want to end up with a room that looks completely disjointed in terms of ideas! :)

Here’s a photo of my half completed home taken with Alex’s iPhone camera. The image on the right (the room behind the brick wall) is my consultation studio.

And here’s some images that I borrowed from various sources to illustrate the idea of what I want to create. What do you think? Any ideas?