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Grace Tan In Church Weddings, International, Weddings

Hyatt Regency Sanctuary Cove, Gold Coast Wedding: Jamie & Ann

Photographers: Grace & Alex
Wedding Gown: Brides Desire
Groom’s Attire: Le Grand Wedding, Singapore
Make Up: Rebecca Calvert
Ceremony Location: Hyatt Regency Sanctuary Cove Chapel, Gold Coast, Australia
Ceremony Decorations: Watabe Wedding
Flowers: Always Fabulous Flowers
Videography: Net Productions
Cake: Deliciously Decadent Cakes
Dinner Reception: Palazzo Versace, Vanitas Restaurant
Stationery: Designed by Ann, the bride

“You’re an Asian Barbie!” gasped one of the guests who saw Ann on her wedding day. She was stunning and completely graceful. All those months of meticulous planning had finally paid off. The amazing venue, gorgeous decorations, everything down to the stationery was carefully thought through and planned (even the pre-wedding shoot). Ann even designed all the wedding stationery herself. In my books, she’s super-bride. I am still amazed at how beautiful this wedding was.

I can see how much Jamie loves Ann. They complement each other so well. Jamie & Ann, Alex and I enjoyed ourselves completely at your wedding. It is to date, the longest wedding day I’ve ever photographed (13.5 hours!). Thank you for being so hospitable and caring towards us. You treated us like long lost friends, and I truly appreciate that.

Enjoy the looong post of images. :)

Grace Tan In Church Weddings, International, Weddings

Singapore Art Museum Wedding: Ben & Jun

Photographers: Grace & Ian Chong
Wedding Gown, Groom’s Attire & Make Up: Blush Blush Singapore
Decorations: Defloral Gallery, Singapore
Church Ceremony: Singapore Art Museum (SAM)
Dinner Reception: Carlton Hotel Singapore

When Jun first contacted me about her wedding shoot in Singapore, I was ecstatic. I had never shot an actual day wedding in Singapore prior to this wedding. And then when she told me that her wedding was to be held at the Singapore Art Museum, I was squealing like a little girl (of course outwardly, I appeared all calm and professional). Anything with the words “artsy and colonial” definitely gained 200 brownie points in my book.

After a little crisis two days before Ben and Jun’s wedding, I was glad to have landed safely on Singaporean soil. Since Ben and Jun live in Perth, I did not have the chance to meet up with them until the day before the wedding. Instantly, I knew I could connect with them. Hearing their funny stories about each other made me laugh too. It’s so good I have to share it here…

Ben’s Story:

We met in a “safe” environment in church. The first impression that I got was: “this girl is bubbly and she can talk.” What attracted me was her outgoing nature and her ability to talk. This was the second time I met her in the company of 10 people. We went into a discussion about food in Malaysia and other random bits. The amazing thing was throughout the conversation, I was attentive to her, and found myself participating in that conversation in spite of having eight others talking in the background.

Growing up in a family that loves food, I come to realise soon enough is that she is a keen lover of food too and many of your dates were based on food tasting which was pretty cool but those dates certainly did not help my waist line.

One thing that never fails to amaze me is her beautiful voice. I can still remember the first time when I heard her sing in church. Words just don’t do justice to the sweet voice I heard that day. Mesmerise might be a good enough word to use and since, I have never allowed an opportunity to slip by to listen to her singing.

After knowing Jun for almost three years, I am still amazed at how thoughtful and caring she can be. The way she treats her family, her friends, “wow” is the word I use to describe it. Of course that caring nature does flow on into our relationship. Those times when I needed assistance, tender loving care, she has always been there for me. I am truly thankful to have found someone to spend my rest of my life with.

If there was an analogy that I could use to describe Jun, It would be a piece of onion with many layers. She has showed me different aspects from the sweet loving “Everything is fine” to the “This is not going to work”, Gung-ho attitude. All I can conclude is the more I get to know her, the more loveable she becomes.

Grace Tan In Church Weddings, Weddings

Church wedding: Kevin & Michelle

Photographers: Grace, Johan, Ian Chew, & Weiming
Make Up: Steven Sunny
Wedding Decorations: MNG Bouquets
Church Ceremony: Zion Lutheran Church, KL
Lunch Reception: Ishq Restaurant, Crowne Plaza Hotel
Dinner Reception: Doubletree by Hilton

Kevin is a funny, witty and articulate person in love with Michelle… and cars. During the lunch reception, Kevin’s mom gave the guests an insight into his passion for cars. Ever since Kevin was a child, he could tell you the technical specifics of each car model. It’s no surprise then that on their wedding day, a gorgeous Bentley rolled up to send Michelle from home to church.

Michelle is a soft spoken, gentle and elegant lady. I first met her when I was featured on Faces magazine as one of the Top 10 female wedding photographers. As the editor for Faces, Michelle has an eye for detail and beauty. All the lovely details on their wedding day were planned by her – from the turquoise theme colour to their customized logo design.

I have so many images I’d love to share (as usual) but I can’t do all of that here. So, I’ve included a same day slideshow at the end of this post. Enjoy!

Now those are mighty high platform shoes!

Kevin proposed to Michelle with this watch. Yes, a watch, and not a ring! Another personal touch… Michelle wore her grandmother’s necklace on her wedding day. That was really sweet!

Grace Tan In Church Weddings, Weddings

Laughton & Wendy’s Wedding

Photographers: Grace & Andrew C
Bride’s Make Up & Hair: Michelle Touche
Make Up & Hair (Mothers of the bride & groom): Angie Ng
Church Ceremony: Assumption Church, PJ
Dinner Reception: Oriental Banquet, PJ
Wedding Cake: Buns in the Oven

Months ago, Wendy emailed me from London to ask if I was available to shoot her wedding in Malaysia. After a looong conversation over email, Wendy decided to make a booking, which eventually lead to another booking for her pre-wedding shoot. I really enjoy getting to know my clients before their wedding day, and even before I met Wendy in person, I felt as if I already knew her.

She is a really chatty and easy going person. On Laughton & Wendy’s pre-wedding shoot day, I discovered that Wendy’s a Peranakan, just like me! From Malacca! That describes the talkativeness and the fun nature! My brother jokingly reminds me all the time that Peranakan women are noisy, fun, love to dance and are full of drama!

And consistent with the nature of most Peranakan families, there was a little drama on Wendy’s wedding day.

Wendy’s lovely bouquet (featured below) was accidentally left behind at the Seapark Brickhouse prior to the church ceremony.

It was quite an upsetting moment, especially when Wendy had to walk down the aisle with ‘replacement’ flowers. But after all that drama, everything turned out well… the church ceremony went ahead beautifully, the friends were excited for Laughton & Wendy over their marriage, the dinner was scrumptious, and the families were happy.

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Church Weddings, Weddings

Eric + Debbie’s Union

Photographers: Grace & Mark
Make Up & Hair: Angie Ng
Wedding Gown: That Special Occasion
Church Ceremony: Assumption Church, PJ
Dinner Reception: Concorde Hotel, KL

If you have seen enough of my images, you would know that I love colour. But at times, the absence of colour accentuates shape and texture even more. When I arrived at Debbie’s home that morning to capture shots of her getting ready, I was so taken in by the wallpaper in her room. Her dad put it up for her when she was young. A wallpaper filled with trains. Seems a little unusual for a little girl. :)

And now daddy’s little girl has grown up to be a beautiful bride.

While Debbie was getting ready, Belle her trusty dog kept her company. He even had a thing or two to say about ang pows. (you’ll see why later)

While I was at Debbie’s place, Mark was shooting at Eric’s home with his barely one month old Canon 5D Mark 2. :)

Back to Debbie’s gorgeous wall. :)

And of course, gorgeous Debbie herself.

I love this shot below taken by Mark.

Debbie’s home was decorated so wonderfully, in anticipation of Eric’s arrival!

When the guys came, they had to go through a few rounds of challenges (literally). The girls made them dance around a tree to music!

And then out came some Tanzanian currency. Debbie’s good friend Tariq volunteered 10,000 Tanzanian shilling, which I found out later is worth about RM23, or about 7 USD. I guess the girls were smarter and knew better than to take the money.

I love this yoga challenge. Proves how flexible the guys are in emulating these poses. How do you think they rate?

This is where Belle had her say about whether to let Eric in the room or not.

I guess Eric must already have favour in Belle’s eyes, cause he was approved! One of the cute things that Eric did was stop at Starbucks to buy Debbie coffee before he reached her home. He knew she needed her caffeine fix! How sweet is that!

At Assumption church, everything went on really smoothly and on time…

…and then there was a little drama when the flower girl decided to run down the aisle to her father instead of walk.

Debbie sharing a moment with her dad.

Wonderful emotions exchanged.

Dinner was held at Concorde Hotel in KL.

The entertainment that night was amazing! Peter Ong was the MC and singer! Beautiful duet that night.

Definitely a night filled with laughter. There were lots of great speeches and on top of that, Eric & Debbie were really surprised when their friends played a video made specially for them that night. It was completely unexpected!

Congratulations you two. Who would have thought, Debbie, that our first encounter at KOMAS years ago would have led to this friendship that we now have. And then bumping into you years later at Dave’s. I feel like I’ve journeyed together with the both of you this year and that you have made me feel so welcomed at all times. Wishing the both of you many many happy years of married bliss.