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Destination Weddings on Travel Channel

I am stoked to share that the TV programs I have been working on for the past few months are finally completed and will be screened next week! With Red Communications Sdn Bhd as the production company, my team and I provided the research, scriptwriting & direction for 3 episodes of Destination Weddings, a program that will be aired in 130 countries worldwide via the Travel Channel. Initially, the program was meant to be aired in selected countries only, but everyone did such a great job that it is now a worldwide release!

Deborah Henry is the travel host, and together, we visited various South East Asian countries to experience 2 very different weddings in each country. Here’s the episode synopsis for the programs I directed, including the episode’s air time for Malaysia. You can view it every Thursday, starting 6th December 2012 at 7.30pm on Channel 145 if you have HyppTV. For other countries, check out the air time by clicking here.

View the launch promo video below!

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Testimonials, Weddings

The Wedding of Son & Jil

We would both like to say how very very glad we are to have chosen Stories. It was the second largest expense on our tiny wedding budget (there goes the deposit for our home!) and as mentioned to Grace, we initially had doubts as to whether we could afford to spend that kind of money on just photos! However, I really fell in love with Grace’s work at first sight and watching our quick edit morning CD confirmed that it was worth the extra $$ we had to squeeze out for the photos! Everyone (including us) were so impressed by the professionalism and warmth exhibited by Grace, Ben and Andrew.

A special thanks to the team for the lovely shots (I really wanted the focus to be on the people, which Grace & team delivered beautifully), Ben for great editing (Son has burned too many copies of the DVD, my mum has distributed these to her entire village and Son has tortured our relatives and friends in Malaysia and Adelaide innumerably with it ‘cos he’s really pleased with how “yao-yeng” he looks in it) and we really really appreciate Ben and Andrew’s patience and understanding (in particular, Ben’s sensitivity towards Son’s nervousness at public speaking when he subtly suggested Son use the podium) during the loooong evening dinner.

Once more, we really really want to thank Grace, Ben and Andrew for making our special day all that much more special and we can’t gush on enough about how much we love Stories! :)

– Son & Jil –

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Weddings

Mandarin Oriental Wedding: Colin & Kirsteen

She’s Malaysian and he’s Singaporean, but they met at school in Perth, Australia. Friendship blossomed and hours of conversation later, best friends became lovers. I truly believe that a relationship has a stronger foundation when it is built on friendship first. There’s just so much depth to it, especially since it started out with a love for mutual things. On the day of the wedding, everything felt really relaxed because this was their second event after their actual wedding ceremony in Perth about a week or so before.

Kirsteen gushed about her beautiful red evening gown that had her Iban heritage written all over it. In fact, it took her a long time to source for the right person in East Malaysia to weave the fabric and when it was completed, to find the right tailor for the job. Eventually, there wasn’t enough fabric to make the gown, so back to the weaving lady they went… and after much work, this gorgeous gown was made.

What struck me too was this really unique engagement ring that was heart shaped. I had never seen anything like that before. (I am sorely tempted to ask Alex to make one for me and propose all over again!). It was just gorgeous. It was then that I discovered that Colin’s mum is in the jewelry business and all the exquisite gems came from her.

There were so many rings, I had to ask Colin and Kirsteen which one was the wedding band!

We spent a few hours before the dinner reception just wandering around Mandarin Oriental for some portraits.

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Testimonials, Weddings

The Wedding of Tim & Doreen

I have good intentions to blog a wedding immediately after the shoot, but my good intentions never seem to become a reality. Currently, my blog posts are about 2 months behind schedule… we have so much to share but I have a hard time trying to catch up! So today, I am going to break the trend and skip a few other weddings at the moment to blog Tim and Doreen’s wedding photos.

Honestly, our first conversation over Skype and subsequent meet up felt a little tense. They were disagreeing about a few things regarding the wedding, and I wasn’t quite sure how to respond. But on the wedding day, everything changed, and Tim and Doreen were just grinning from ear to ear. They were just so relaxed with each other in front of our cameras. Ben and Weiming did a great job photographing alongside with me, and supporting me whenever I felt exhausted. All the night shots were taken by them since I was already home resting by then! :)

Tim and Doreen wrote a really wonderful testimonial for us which I’d like to share here:

“We would like to thank you and your team for our special day. From when you met us the day before to go through all the proceedings and putting up with us at a time when we were both stressed out beyond belief, you made everything seem easy and it was one less thing for us to worry about knowing we were in good hands. Your enthusiasm and energy carried us through the wedding and all our guests said how great you were plus the fact you were carrying a ‘mini me’ in your tummy.

The impromptu photo shoot after the tea ceremony for me was unexpected but we are so grateful you did this for us and it has made our day even more memorable.

The slide show for dinner which was made in such a short time still has my mum in tears and you captured Doreen’s amazing beauty which made me so proud to be her husband (you also made me look good in a couple of pictures which must make you a miracle worker).

Again a big THANK YOU from us, you and your team were brilliant. ”

Cheers,
Tim and Doreen

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Outdoor Weddings, Weddings

Passion Road Wedding: Roger & Cheryl

It was truly a touching and memorable wedding for the team. It’s weddings like these that remind me why we are doing what we do. That behind all these images are two people who are absolutely in love with each other. It’s a celebration of love, hope and gratefulness. I think my grin matched Roger’s that day. Everyone was happy. It was perfect.

Roger and Cheryl first met in college during the induction session. They were course mates but initially, they didn’t interact as much. She was very much reserved and quiet – always very focused in discussions and lectures; she didn’t have much to say… or perhaps, not to Roger anyway. He was the geek in the bunch, mostly spending time in the library summarizing lecture notes and studying.

It was only after a year that Roger started taking an interest in Cheryl. Though she didn’t say much but it was the quietness that caught his attention. Life then became more interesting for him; he was able to know her better day to day. Somehow it gave him a reason to be closer to her.

Time soon flew by and it was their final year in university. Eventually, after much deliberation, Roger finally mustered the courage to ask her out – but it was only enough to do so through MSN! It certainly didn’t make a good impression of him, but she agreed to the first date. Not long after, they officially got together on 24^th June 2004, right after the first semester exams.

And that, was the start of an extraordinary journey for the both of them.