International

Grace Tan In International, Life, Musings

USA, here we come!! And of course, WPPI 2010!

I absolutely love traveling. It is the first genre of photography that captured my heart. I am always excited to see new places, faces and experiencing different cultures. This 24th February, I’ll be leaving Malaysia to travel to the US for a few weeks with my husband Alex.

The main highlight of the trip is the WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International) conference in Las Vegas from the 4th till the 11th of March. I can’t wait for this conference. It is such a huge event, with thousands of photographers traveling from all over the world to listen to world-renown photographers on topics such as portraiture, lighting, posing, business, commercial work etc.

I believe in investing money for education, and year after year, the Stories team attends various workshops. In order to improve, I believe I must always have this ‘learning’ attitude, even in years to come. At the end of the day, our clients are the ones who benefit, and if they are happy, we are happy too!

If you are living in the States, I’d love to meet up and get to know you – whether it is for a drink or chat, or if you’d like to have some portraits taken.

Do send me an email through the contact us page and I’ll be in touch with you! I’ll be blogging regularly from the States, so do keep watch over this space!

Grace Tan In Church Weddings, International, Weddings

Christina + Chee Su, The Hague, Netherlands

I’ve known Chee Su’s sister Choon Ean for years. Not only have we worked together on various projects but we’ve also traveled to numerous countries together (eg. Nepal, Myanmar etc) sharing the same room for weeks! Choon Ean is a really amazing person and an excellent videographer, shooting with the Wedding Story team for various weddings. So I felt totally comfortable being around her and Chee Su’s family. Then when I met Christina and her family, they made me feel like family too! The entire Ouwerkerk family is just hilarious and they crack me up with their jokes and cute little antics.

The wedding was full of drama, emotions, smiles, tears and laughter. I have so much to give thanks for. Firstly, I was completely relieved that I had recovered from my flu by the time the wedding rolled around. Secondly, I am grateful to God for giving me this opportunity to shoot in the Netherlands, 13 hours by flight away from Malaysia. And thirdly, for the beautiful people who were there that day – they made my photos shine with their warm smiles.

The day started with beautiful sunshine. Christina woke up, went to the hairdressers, and then came home to do her own wedding make up! Apparently it’s very normal for people in Holland to do their own make up, since make up artists are few and also very expensive. The wedding ring shot was taken in Christina’s back yard. Can you believe they have a grape vine in their backyard?

Christina loves butterflies. I found some in her garden. :) And also this bouquet was done by Christina! How amazing is that! Even the decorations at the church was done by her and the entire family.

They were all smiles when they met that morning.

Grace Tan In International, Portraits, Pre-Wedding & Engagement Portraits

Wedding Portraits – Christina and Chee Su, The Netherlands

He would walk to the American Protestant Church at The Hague every week and she would drive by, noticing him. Soon, after many outings to Clingendael Park with friends, playing frisbee during summer days, they fell in love. Really in love. And I am so honoured to have this opportunity to photograph Chee Su and Christina in Holland. The first few photos were taken around Zwijndrecht and Kinderdijk.

Alex Lam In International

Leaving, on a jet plane…

Today, I had the privilege of giving some members of the Wedding Story a send off at the airport. They’re headed out to a foreign new land – Bangladesh, and none of them have been there before. Ali and Farhat, a wonderful couple from there found us via the Internet and were suitably impressed with the quality of work offered.

Several emails later, Grace was busy processing flights and visas for the team. Here’s a short amateur video clip by me of them at the airport before leaving.

Grace Tan In International

Destination and International Weddings

I am amazed at how blessed we are this year despite the economic recession. The past few years, Kee Sitt has worked really hard into building the Wedding Story brand to be a well known and recognized brand. What started out as a small business by one person in a home on the small island of Penang has now expanded to a team with offices in Penang and KL! This year, God’s really blessed us with enquiries for shoots overseas.

ws-map

I am so excited to share that 4 of us from the Wedding Story team (Kee Sitt, Sharon, Ian and myself) will be flying over to Bangladesh from the 4-14th of April to shoot a wedding there. Ali and Farhat found us online, and he emailed us to say that he loved our style, energy and the ability to capture details. Ali is a hobbyist photographer, but he owns two 5D mark2 bodies!! Amazing! This will be the first wedding that we will be shooting in full HD format. Will try to blog as we travel in Bangladesh so that we can keep everyone updated.

And then in August, from the 3rd till the 10th, I will be in Holland, photographing a wedding in a town that I can’t even pronounce the name! Chee Su is Choon Ean’s brother (Choon Ean is part of our team, and she’s an amazing videographer and storyteller). He will be getting married to Christina, who’s Dutch. I am really excited about traveling to Holland for this shoot. I’ve never been there before and to think that I will be going to a town about 1-2 hours away from Amsterdam sounds lovely. Anyone in Holland who wants to do a portrait shoot while I’m there?

Other than that, we have had multiple enquiries for wedding shoots in Australia and Thailand. I am so proud of our team, that we have moved on to this exciting stage of our business. Truly, these are all God’s blessings on us. It’s all because of His grace that we are able to do this. I sometimes wonder what would happen if I lost my sight or my ability to walk one day… what would happen? All these skills that I have are given to me by God. I cannot help but feel appreciative of all that I have been blessed with.