Jase and Alicia live in South Australia. Over Skype, I got to know them before the wedding, and found out that they met each other when they were just 18. Nine years later, Jase proposed on Mystery Island, Vanuatu during a cruise to the South Pacific. Since Jase is a jeweller, he designed Alicia’s wedding and engagement ring. The bonbonerie candles were made by the groom’s sister and place settings made by Jase and Alicia themselves. I love Alicia’s custom made gown and her vintage hairpiece. The Westin, Langkawi became the gorgeous backdrop for their wedding. It was truly a beautiful beach wedding set against the Andaman sea. I never get tired of beach weddings!
This is the 9th year of my marriage. What incredible 9 years filled with joy, hurt, reconciliation, love and compromise. Deep down, I know that marriage comes with its own set of challenges. There’s no going into it feeling naive. There will come a time when you will argue, say hurtful things to one another and regret it. As a Christian, I’ve always based my marriage on the principles I read in the Bible. It really helps me to know that my husband values marriage and wants to work at it as hard as I do.
I recently read this verse that made me stop and think a little more about relationships.
They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it.
1 Peter 3:11
What really struck me were the words seek peace and pursue it.
It takes effort to keep the peace. It must be something that is worth pursuing and going all out for. We must be proactive in any relationship to maintain the peace, and not expect it to just ‘happen’. In any relationship, we have to believe that pursuing peace is worth the fight.
Which brings me to the other question… “What does peace mean, really?” (According to Alex, he says it’s when the wife doesn’t nag).
After giving it some thought, I think a peaceful relationship means that I can trust someone. That we are both working towards the end goal of each other’s happiness. It doesn’t mean we keep quiet or sweep under the carpet issues that need to be discussed just to ‘keep the peace’. It means talking things through and being mature enough to compromise sometimes.
I am not an expert at marriage, but I work at it. Hard.
It’s been months since I took these photos of Paul, Yin Huei and their cute little family as a celebration for their 10th wedding anniversary. The children have grown but I thought it’d still be nice to share the images from our session together at Lake Gardens. Yin Huei, being creative, brought along a mirror for me to come up with different types of shots! She was also very comfortable in climbing trees like the one below, including reading old love letters from Paul! I thought it was really sweet of her.
Here’s what Yin Huei had to say about the shoot:
I wanted this photo shoot to mark this important milestone in our lives. We have come so far in this journey together, grown stronger together and been blessed by the most amazing children. I want us to be able to reflect on this moment many many years ahead and be warmed by this beautiful memory.
And I want to dedicate this to my husband and my children: “I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride So I love you because I know no other way.”
Hurray! The ibu Tots fair is back this year and we’re glad to be participating once again. Do come by and visit our booth this Saturday, sign up for any of our lifestyle portrait photography packages and enjoy some discounts off the rates! See you there!
So we’ve put together a little video with tips and tricks on how to photograph families. You can see from this video too that temper tantrums in kids are completely normal! I hope you’ll benefit from this behind the scenes video. Do leave a comment if you have any other tips to share!
