garden

Weiming In International, Pre-Wedding & Engagement Portraits

Pre-Wedding in Melbourne, Australia: Jason and Michelle

Jason and I go back a long way. We were at the university together enrolled in the same course. Jason and a bunch of us used to hang out together those days. Slowly we started to notice Jason pulling the disappearing act on us; which led to one thing – a special someone named Michelle. One thing led to another and fast forward a couple of years now, they are engaged and I was flown to Australia to photograph their pre-wedding photos. It was my first time in Australia for an assignment and Oh boy! the weather there was so unpredictable! I was even blamed by them for bringing the rain over when it was supposed to be sunnier. Oh well, at least there were no sweat at all during the shoot and we had great fun! (apart from some shivers, runny nose and flying hair!)

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Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Musings, Outdoor Weddings, Tips + Ideas, Weddings

Garden ROM at The Club, Saujana: Jonathan & Jacinda

I’ve grown to love this beautiful location. It’s a small little green patch of grass overlooking a lake, but given the right time of day when the sun is setting in the distance, you have gorgeous sunlight falling over this area, which makes for amazing back light. Ok, if you didn’t quite understand this photographer’s rambling, the location looks like this:

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And this is the amazing back light (or hair light) I am talking about.

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One of the wonderful things about small weddings is that you have lots of time for portraits. I enjoy creating images of the couple with their families and also close friends in a gorgeous setting. I photographed Jon and Jac a few months back when we did their Mad Men themed pre-wedding shoot. It was easy to connect with this couple, and from that moment on, I knew photographing them would be a breeze. The week after, Jon and Jac had their Chinese wedding ceremony (photos in the slideshow at the end of this post).

For this post, I thought I’d write a few tips on what I think would make a great garden wedding (from a photographer’s perspective):

1. Choose the time of day well

Considering we live in tropical Malaysia, the best time for an outdoor wedding would be before 10am and after 5pm. The sun is lower in the horizon which makes it more flattering for people photos. Have you ever taken a photo outdoors at 12pm, and seen lots of raccoon eyes (dark shadows under the eyes) staring back at you? Yup, that’s the effect of the sun as it is directly above you. So if you’d like more flattering images of yourself outdoors, opt to have your ceremony start at the timing suggested.

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Outdoor Weddings, Weddings

Wedding at Ciao: Kevin & Jasmine

It was the evening before the wedding. Kevin’s parents had flown in from China for the wedding, and everyone was excited about the event. Unfortunately, a huge drama unfolded that evening itself. Sadly, the groom’s parents were robbed right outside their service apartment in KL. It really saddens me that Malaysia is no longer a really safe place to live in. A substantial amount of cash and passports were stolen. Kevin reacted like how anyone would, and gave chase…but they got away. Other than the physical items that were missing, he injured his hands as he fell during the chase.

But that whole incident didn’t stop Kevin and Jasmine from having a good time the next day at their wedding. I truly respect them for not letting bad circumstances affect their mood. Kevin and Jasmine, I am glad the day went really well. And Jasmine, yay, you survived wearing contact lenses for many hours! Hope you had a good honeymoon and are back safely in Australia now. Lots of love from Malaysia!

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Grace Tan In Outdoor Weddings, Weddings

Garden Wedding at The Club, Saujana: Jason & Annette

It was a season where masks were sold out at pharmacies. Everyone stayed indoors as much as possible and no one wanted to do any outdoor activities. But Jason and Annette had set their wedding date months ahead of time, not knowing that the haze would hit them smack in the middle of their wedding festivities. I was concerned too… after all, it was a garden wedding at The Club. I wondered if any of the guests would come prepared with masks.

A few days before the wedding, I sat down with Annette to run through her wedding program. She said she’ll pray really hard for the haze to go away, and so we both did. On their wedding day, God did a miracle and there were blue skies and the sun! Oh, the sun shone so brightly and made everything look perfect.

You couldn’t tell from these photos that just the day before, everything looked bleak and dreary.

I think Weiming and I jumped in joy (not literally!) when we saw the skies. Jason and Annette, it couldn’t have been better. I love intimate weddings and I think yours was truly warm and meaningful. I hope your dad is feeling much better and that Jason is more comfortable in front of the camera by now? :) Jason, thanks for being so accommodating and also for the bottles of wine after the party! Wishing you lots of joy and sunshine for the future.

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20130629_WEDDING_JASON_ANNETTE_0569 Continue Reading

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Outdoor Weddings, Portraits, Pre-Wedding & Engagement Portraits, Weddings

ROM at Carcosa: Nicholas & Lina

Nicholas and Lina’s epic wedding started off with this gorgeous ROM ceremony at Carcosa Seri Negara. After photographing their ROM, I had a tough time choosing which images to share from this wedding. We also have a cool fusion video, and a wedding video highlight to share too… so you’ll be overloaded with images really soon!

It was in 2004 that Nicholas and Lina first got to know each other… they were both in Sri KL and through the help of Friendster (before Facebook existed!), they got acquainted…and they fell in love. Years later, Nicholas proposed in a spectacular way after their anniversary dinner, with the help of a magician. They were in a public place and Lina didn’t suspect a thing. Trick after trick, the magician performed, until it came to a fiery trick… where he produced a ring. Nicholas immediately took the ring, got down on one knee and gave the most romantic speech Lina had ever heard.

And she said yes.

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