Kuala Lumpur

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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Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Church Weddings, Wedding Films & Videos, Weddings

Wedding Video Highlight: Jeffrey & May

We love it when our clients share their life stories so candidly and freely with us. It just makes us feel as if we’ve known them for years! So much detail went into the planning for Jeffrey and May’s wedding… everything was executed beautifully by the vendors that came together for this wedding. Through the emotions shared on their wedding day, you can tell that they are very very much in love. :)

Jeffrey and May’s Story (and all the personalization that went into their wedding!):

Jeffrey and I have known each other for a long, long time. We met through a mutual family friend, who introduced us on the pretext of introducing me to someone who did his postgraduate studies in Oxford and was in a position to advise me on the same, as I was also going to pursue my postgraduate studies then. Little did I know then that it was a match-making event! While we hit it off almost immediately, I was totally oblivious to all these until much later!

Johan Sopiee In Chinese Weddings, Church Weddings, Weddings

Music Themed Wedding: Kuan Kiat & Mabel

He was the talented musician at church and at the Overseas Christian Fellowship (OCF) in Australia. She was the young, international student who had just arrived at the Australian National University. It was Mabel’s friend, Shu Yi that somehow brought them together. Shu Yi had told Mabel that she had a friend in ANU who would be able to look out for her.

So Shu Yi said to Kuan Kiat, also known as KK… “My friend Mabel is coming to ANU, you must look after her!”. So during the 2004 international orientation, KK set up the Overseas Christian Fellowship booth, and met Mabel there. They didn’t quite hit the ground running romantically.

It was a very innocent meet up. Mabel signed up for OCF and got KK’s details to keep her abreast of upcoming events. She initially got his name wrong and called him Kiat Kuan in her first email to him. KK very kindly replied, “Its Kuan Kiat, not Kiat Kuan.” So began a good friendship and weekly encounters at the Overseas Christian Fellowship.

Despite his friendly nature, Mabel felt that he always had a façade. Like, there was something about him that she couldn’t quite figure out. They got closer as friends and shared a lot about their lives at home and their love of music and Malaysian food. Initially, she also struggled a bit at university and KK, the ever conscientious, overly meticulous student strategically gave her a lesson in planning and it was then that she realized, “I think I like this guy.”

So the intrigue began. Bit by bit, she began to peel the proverbial onion that was KK and discovered that the more she thought she had him figured out, the more she realised she didn’t. They are poles apart personality wise, (Mabel’s verbose, opinionated and very noisy. KK is the strong silent type with hidden talents no one would’ve known he was capable of and has a knack for surprising you when you least expect it.) but they have very similar upbringings and backgrounds – which was odd.

Then came the (Australian!) summer holiday of 2005, and they were home for Christmas and met each other’s families for the first time. Of course her dad was watching KK’s every move when he came to JB to visit, but her mom absolutely LOVED KK. About a month before they were due to return to Canberra to commence another year of university, KK messaged her on the phone and told her he misses her.

And which girl’s heart wouldn’t melt upon hearing those words. Naturally her heart hit the roof and thus began a relationship that has spanned almost 7 years.

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Testimonials, Wedding Films & Videos, Weddings

Wedding of Chee Onn & Debbie

Chee Onn and Debbie’s images have graced our Stories blog before, when we did a pre-wedding photo shoot with them a few months ago. This time, we feature their wedding day, with a special Buddhist ceremony and exchange of rings after the tea ceremony. These set of images were taken by the talented Johan and Benjamin, and the video was done by our team too! Congratulations, Chee Onn and Debbie! Lots of love over to you…and thanks for your testimonial too!

“Both Debbie and I are extremely happy with the service that Stories have provided. In fact, we can’t stop watching the same day highlights. We love the shots as well as the music. It fit the occasion really well.

The feedback that I would like to provide is that your team were awesome! Initially both Debbie and I were nervous about the fact that Grace was not able to shoot our wedding but all these worries were unfounded. Johan was so accommodative to the unexpected changes to the plan, polite and jovial (as mentioned by Debbie’s mum many times :)) and we instantly felt at ease with him as well. I have received a number of compliments from guests after they saw the same day edit. Keep up the good work!

I would like to thank the team again for making it so easy for us to enjoy our big day. There were many people involved in the organization of the day and everyone played a role in making it happen.

Both Debbie and I felt instantly at ease the very day we decided to go with Stories for all our wedding photography. You have a great team and keep up the good work!

We will always spread the good word about Stories’ work wherever we go.”

– Chee Onn & Debbie –

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, For Photographers, International, Malay Weddings, Musings, News, Outdoor Weddings, Wedding Films & Videos, Weddings

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!