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Photography

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.

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

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Like dancing like a chicken!

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Or putting on lipstick for each other…

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

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

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

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

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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.

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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!

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But it was worth it!

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

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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.

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.

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?

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Maternity Portraits

In our Asian culture where you’d tend to hide everything behind cloth, it is actually refreshing to be able to photograph something that is completely different. A lot of pregnant women tell me that they feel very ‘fat’ and don’t want to be photographed during this stage of their life. But this is such a beautiful occasion, that it completely deserves a photo shoot! It’s that moment in your life when you discover the joy of motherhood. How amazing life is. The magic of creation. A breath. A heartbeat. And then 2 tiny little hands. A cry. A giggle.

Celebrate life! How precious it is.

Engagement: Alfred & Geeta

Geeta is an old school mate of mine which I haven’t seen since I left high school yonkers ago (I feel old!). But with the wonders of the internet, we managed to get in touch again after all those years. I met Alfred for the first time about 1-2 weeks before their engagement on the 31st of August. What a lovely date to get engaged! Malaysia’s independence day, and now, Alfred and Geeta’s engagement day!

I am truly honoured that they chose me to shoot their engagement ceremony, and in Dec, their wedding. This is my first Hindu ceremony, and what a joy to shoot the event! Everything was just so colourful – which suits my personality just fine!

Thank you Alfred and Geeta for such opening your lives to me, and for being such a wonderful couple, but most of all, friend. There are so many wonderful photos from the ceremony, and it’s hard to choose my favourites, but here are a few (or rather, a lot!) of photos from that day. The rest will be uploaded onto the Wedding Story website soon!

Doesn’t Geeta look absolutely stunning!?

I love the flowers and how it’s all done up, I wonder if it’s heavy?

Aaaw, such a wonderful couple shot. Thanks to Alex who held the off camera flash for me.

The entire ‘stage’ where the ceremony was held. I didn’t know how grand it would look till I arrived at the temple!

The priest first performed some rites with both sides of the parents before Alfred and Geeta stepped up into the lime light.

She was absolutely joyful that day. And so was Alfred. I could just see the love radiating from them!

Blessings…

Looking forward to your wedding in December!

– Grace –