Kuala Lumpur

Double Happiness Wedding: Christian & Sindee

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Christian and Sindee first met in Vienna years ago when she was a student there. After being together for 15 years (which is amazing on it’s own), they flew back to Malaysia in 2016 for their wedding. For both the tea ceremony and the evening reception they wanted to have simple, elegant and fresh décor. They had an oriental touch with Chinese elements, such as lanterns, the double happiness stand, and local flowers which matched very well with the 1930s chinese jazz music the band was playing. The best part of the evening was their grand entrance with a lion dance performance!

Personally, I love seeing a blend of different cultures coming together like this. It tickles me to see all these ‘mat salleh‘ in our local terms (or rather, foreigners) playing fun games and eating chicken feet to get to the bride. You can’t tell from these photos, but Chris was suffering from bad food poisoning the morning of the wedding. He was such a trooper, and didn’t allow the tummy aches from robbing his joy! It was a lovely day filled with wonderful moments and we are so glad to be part of this celebration.

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Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Church Weddings, Weddings

Wedding at St Peter’s Church, KL: Matthew & Wai San

20161022-WEDDING_MATTHEW_WAISAN_0581 It was April 2012 in Melbourne, Australia. The Overseas Christian Fellowship Easter Camp was starting soon, but Matthew was hesitant about going. But at the last minute, he changed his mind, and it was there that he met beautiful Wai San. Eventually, after the camp ended, they became friends and he plucked up enough courage to ask her out on an ice-cream date. It was a ‘hot’ date as they sat and chatted for more than 3 hours over ice-cream!

She thought, “He seems quite smart (something I like!). Maybe a little too skinny but overall, ok lah!”

Well, Matt couldn’t get pretty and cute Wai San out of his mind since that first date. Four months later, he decided to take things further and asked her to be his girlfriend before he took her to a musical and presented a nice necklace to her.

For 3 years and 11 months, they shared a lot of things in common, like their love for board games, traveling and food. In that first 12 months of dating, Matt changed from a skinny guy to a more chubby man as he put on 12kg that year! I guess love makes you ‘fuller’!

So in 2016, Matthew and Wai San are married! Their wedding was held at St Peter’s Parish, Bangsar and their dinner at Sheraton Imperial, KL. She had always dreamed of a fairytale wedding (as a princess to a dashing groom) surrounded with lots and lots of pretty flowers and bunny rabbits! (you’ll see what I mean later).

Unfortunately, due to an unexpected turn of events, Wai San’s father passed away before their wedding. I had the good fortune of getting to know him months earlier at Wai San’s sister’s wedding, which I also photographed. I felt really emotional at Wai San’s wedding, knowing that she would very much have loved to have him there, but honoured at the same time to have created beautiful images of their family at Wai Wai’s wedding earlier.

Wai San, seeing how your family held together through that difficult time with the support of your loved ones was truly inspirational for me. At your wedding, you were truly the princess your dad would have been proud to see. Matthew was indeed the most supportive and dashing prince who knew how to lift you off your feet, and into his arms. Have a beautiful marriage, you two.

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Grace Tan In Portraits, Pre-Wedding & Engagement Portraits

The Tall and the Beautiful: Samuel & Cheryl’s Prewedding

At 6 feet 4 inches in height, Samuel towers over Cheryl’s petite frame. But he is not overbearing, instead, he’s like the big, friendly ‘giant’; often described by friends as somehow resembling Olaf from Frozen or Goofy from the Disney cartoons in the past. Cheryl… she is gorgeous, serene and beautiful, both on the inside and outside… according to Samuel, of course! He fell in love with her bubbly and caring nature, her poised yet also geeky looks, piercing eyes and sunshine smile.

They met on a blind date. One day, their friend, Becky, said to Cheryl, “You need to meet “Good Guy Samuel”. I have had many drinks with the guy and he has not misbehaved!”

So the first time they met was for a drink while Cheryl was in Singapore for work. Drinks carried on to dinner, and then Date No. 2 and No. 3 and so on… They have a lot in common, including that they take their relationship with God seriously, and so they discovered that they share many values and life goals as they went along.

This weekend, they will be tying the knot… so a huge congratulations to the both of you, Samuel and Cheryl! I really had so much fun on our shoot together! To summarise, it was like a random walk in the city… walking along smelly back lanes around Jalan Bukit Bintang, stopping at strangers’ homes and discovering locations we never knew existed!

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Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Portraits, Studio

Two cute girls belonging to Brian & Catheryn

Ten years of marriage is definitely a milestone worth celebrating! Since marriage is so much hard work, it’s always good to reflect on life and pat yourself on the back for making it thus far. Brian and Catheryn chose to celebrate their 10 years together with their very first family photo session at our studio with their 2 adorable girls, Isabelle and Gabrielle.

Both girls warmed up to me really quickly and I felt as if I had known them for years, when in fact, it was only 5 minutes! Being thoroughly adorable, it made me want to run home and cuddle my own 3 year old! 20160924_FAMILYPORTRAITS_BRIAN_CATHERYN-005 Continue Reading

Grace Tan In Church Weddings, Indian + Punjabi Weddings, Weddings

Zion Lutheran Church Wedding: Anthony & Karen

It’s really an honour when I am asked to photograph the wedding of a sibling I had also been a part of. Six years ago, I photographed Karen’s brother’s wedding at the very same church. It was so lovely to meet everyone again. The same warm family that makes you feel as if you are part of them! Karen and Anthony’s wedding had a gorgeous orange theme. I loved how they infused Indian motives into Anthony’s cravat and also created a modern version of the saree as the wedding gown! Aside from the wedding itself, I love the story of how Anthony and Karen met. It can be made into the plot of a romance movie!

20160730-WEDDING_ANTHONY_KAREN-34 Their Story as told by Karen
I am a surgeon in Ireland and we met when i was a really junior trainee surgeon. I had done a weekend (3 nights) of call in a row and unfortunately had my wallet stolen from the doctors room earlier that Monday (16th June 2008) just when I was finishing my shift. I got in to the car to drive home with no money and a dead phone. I fell asleep while driving on the highway and had a bad crash with 2 cars. I walked to the closest place to make a call, and called the insurance company who in turn called rescue services.

Anthony arrived in uniform to check me out and assess the damages. We got to talking and I told him about my unfortunate day. He offered to loan me money to get me home and I in turn promised to return the money. I texted him about a week later and we met but we were talking so much I never returned the cash. We then had many meetings as friends where we took his chocolate labrador Archie for walks in the national park. We eventually started officially dating in July and the rest is history. I never actually returned the money.

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