Photography

Mark & Mun Tzin’s Engagement

It’s really so exciting whenever I hear proposal plans, and even more so when you are involved in it! Tonight, Alex and I had the privilege of witnessing Mark’s proposal to Mun Tzin at House & Co in Bangsar Shopping Centre. Mark is one of Wedding Story’s key photographers and an extremely good friend of ours. For weeks, we discussed proposal ideas and thought of what to do to make the proposal exciting.

Mark even thought of proposing during the recent ShootFest! But in the end, he decided to do it in the company of his closest friends. The idea was that Mark, Mun Tzin, Alex and I were supposed to be filming and photographing another couple’s proposal. The couple (Boon Keat & Melody) are close friends of Mark’s, and he had convinced Mun Tzin that Wedding Story was hired to cover the event. So we went to BSC today… Munz did not suspect a thing! In fact, Mark had bought a bouquet of flowers for Munz but told her that it was from Boon Keat for Melody. She even carried her own bouquet to the proposal location unsuspectingly!

As she was focusing her camera on the guy proposing, he opened this sheet of paper with the words, “Look at Mark now”… Munz was stunned! She turned to Mark, and there he was, on his knees! We got the entire proposal on video, so we’ll upload it sometime soon!

Well needless to say, she said yes!! Here are just a few photos from this momentous event tonight. This is Boon Keat, pretending to propose to Melody!

They are a really really happy couple. So happy for the both of you!

The couple Boon Keat and Melody

Just one of Munz and Mark’s funny faces.

Grace Tan In Outdoor Weddings, Weddings

The Wedding of Cui & Yi Chian Part2

The Tumasek beach at Avillion looked absolutely beautiful. I can understand why people are so drawn to beach weddings. There is this charm and beauty about it. That day, the afternoon sun was really hot, but that didn’t stop Cui and Yi Chian from smiling all the way! I was really amused that Yi Chian took off his shoes for the ceremony on the beach. It was THAT casual! The sand kept getting into my shoes as well and I took off my shoes too after a while. The ceremony was simple and sweet.

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Sealed with a kiss!

After the evening beach ceremony, we adjourned to the ballroom for an intimate dinner with friends and relatives. It’s nice to have a smaller number of tables for a change! I think there were about 16 tables or so. I love the cupcakes!

The night was filled with lots of yum sengs, and dancing!

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

The Wedding of Cui & Yi Chian Part1

This is proof that a long distance relationship is viable and can stand the test of time! Cui and Yi Chian met in the US when they were both university students but had to part ways after they graduated. Yi Chian moved back to Singapore, and Cui lived and worked in New York. Years later, after enduring many long 24 hour flights, Yi Chian popped the question while they were on a hiking holiday to the base camp of Mt Everest in Nepal!

The beach wedding was held in Avillion Resort, Port Dickson. Five of us from the Wedding Story team went down to Port Dickson the night before and met up with Cui & Yi Chian at their family BBQ. Even after 10 minutes of talking, we knew that we could instantly click. They are definitely an adventurous couple!

The next morning, we had an early morning start at 4.30am! When the sun rose, Avillion looked so beautiful…. and so did Cui.

When the guys came over, the girls made them do some really crazy stuff…

Like dancing like a chicken!

Or putting on lipstick for each other…

Some were better than others… guys you need make up lessons!

When Yi Chian finally got to Cui, she could not help but laugh at his fake ‘mole’.

After a short time of tea ceremony with Cui’s parents, we left for a nearby bungalow, where Yi Chian’s family were waiting.

Then there were the serious family portraits…. and also the fun ones!

It was already about 12pm when we drove to a well hidden light house for some portraits. It was my first time there and I absolutely loved it! The only thing was the terrible noon time sun that beat down on us mercilessly. But Cui and Yi Chian didn’t bat an eyelid. They were super gung-ho to do everything I asked them to do.

One of the scary things…. like climbing this really steep ladder up to another floor. Cui did it in her high heels ok! And came down the same way! Even with my flat shoes, my knees were a little wobbly!

But it was worth it!

Finally, we went back to Avillion to shoot some more portraits around the pool side and garden.

We only had a 2.5 hour break before we had to get back to Avillion for the solemnization ceremony. Through out the ceremony, Sharon Chong was working on the slideshow to be shown during dinner. It was a pretty mad rush but we managed to complete it! Here’s the slideshow that we played that night. Part 2 of the wedding to come soon!

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Press play and then pause to let the video load fully, or else you might see it skip back to the first frame.

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.

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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.

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Maternity, Portraits

Family Portraits: Kay Yeow, Rachael, Katelyn, Kristen and Milo!

In 2006, I had the honour of filming Kay Yeow and Rachael’s wedding. It was the very first wedding video I had ever done! Even though the edited video was only about 10 minutes long, they loved it. Rachael was also the wedding coordinator for my wedding and Kay Yeow led the worship and was the emcee at our wedding dinner. What a long way we have all traveled since then! Well, now they are a tight little family of 5! (Rachael recently gave birth, so I caught these photos at the tail end of her pregnancy!). Thank you for your friendship and though we don’t get the chance to hang out very much, Alex and I do think of the both of you. Will come visit soon!

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Isn’t Katelyn cute?