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Orange tones at Emma & Laurence’s Beach Wedding

Emma and Laurence are a British couple that have lived in Malaysia for the past 18 months. Their journey together started at Cambridge university where they met and did activities like row together. That was 10 years ago. Since then, the adventure has never stopped. From eating insects in Cambodia, to enjoying sunrises over the temples of Bagan and searching for sharks while scuba diving, their life is full of excitement. Since they love to travel and with 50 over guests coming all over to the world to Langkawi for their wedding, they decided to go for a travel theme with an orange tone. The beautiful location that the Andaman is in, with the mix of rainforest and beach was the perfect setting for their wedding.

When they first contacted us, they told us that after talking to friends who have already celebrated their wedding day, everyone commented how they wish they had thought more about the photographs. Keen not to have the same regret, and impressed by the photos on our website, they decided to hire us as their wedding photographers! Hurray! And from their comment about our work after the wedding, I think we lived up to their expectations!

Emma says: Jamie and Nigel were amazing. Not only did they put us at ease (there were some worries about ‘photo face’) but they were such good fun to spend the day with. We couldn’t have asked for anyone better. It is hard to pick which part of the day was our most memorable – Between the Mandi Bunga (which was a first for almost everybody there) and our dance at the reception, but I think it has to be the ceremony itself, especially as it didn’t rain and we could have it on the beach.

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Grace Tan In Outdoor Weddings, Weddings

Beach Wedding at Andaman, Langkawi: Simon & Lisa

“Grace and Nigel were fantastic, both very professional, creative and great to be around on the day whilst not getting in people’s faces – as someone who hates having his picture taken, they were a pleasure to be around.” – Simon

I have traveled to Langkawi many times over the past few years, but every time we head there, it is a different experience. I loved Simon and Lisa’s wedding for a few different reasons… they were a great laid-back couple to work with (despite the fact that Simon hates posing for the camera!), there were lots of cute kids at this wedding which totally made my day, and the guests were just so friendly to Nigel and I. Langkawi is really popular wedding destination location especially for couples from Australia. The only drawback is the humidity, so hugging people at the end of the night can be a very sticky affair!

Simon works in the construction line, so he said being all ‘soft’ and romantic during the wedding was something completely different to what he’s used to! But looking at the way he shed his tears as Lisa walked down the aisle made me think otherwise. I think you have a really soft side to you, Simon!

I hope these images will remind you of your love for each other years down the road when the going gets tough. Come back again to Malaysia for another holiday sometime soon, or perhaps one day, we will meet again, when you celebrate your anniversary, maybe?

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Grace Tan In Outdoor Weddings, Weddings

Beach wedding, Four Seasons, Langkawi: Philip & Claudia

White, sandy beaches.

Puffy clouds, blue skies and a slight breeze that wisps through your hair.

A relaxed, intimate destination wedding at the Four Seasons Resort, Langkawi.

It all began six years ago, when Philip and Claudia met each other at an Asian party in Claudia’s hometown Malmö, Sweden. They started to chat with each other via sms and from there it went on to chats over coffee. Claudia had just returned to Malmö after her MBA at the University of Mälardalen and Philip had also moved Malmö for work. He was initially living in a smaller town about an hour away from Malmö.

They started dating that July, on his birthday. Three years later, Philip proposed to Claudia in front of the Fountain of Trevi in Rome! One of their biggest passions (aside from each other) is traveling and trying all kinds of new, exotic food. In Claudia’s words, that’s one of the biggest reasons they chose to have a beach wedding abroad instead of a traditional “big-fat-Chinese-wedding.” :)

What a great choice.

Enjoy these beautiful images taken by Ben & Weiming.

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

A blend of cultures: Roy & Pek Yee

It was an epic wedding – full of wonderful moments that will be etched in my mind forever. Roy’s humour brightens the day and keeps us entertained while Pek Yee’s infectious (loud) laughter reminds me of my childhood friends who are equally boisterous. The wedding was split to 2 days… the first half was the Chinese wedding ceremony in KL, followed by a beach wedding at the colonial-looking Danna, Langkawi. Seriously, I consider this a 6-star wedding…not just because of the gorgeous location and beautiful decorations that adorned the venue, but because it had all the elements that made it special – a superb couple that was so easy to click with, really fun guests who made the party happening, and family members who treated us like… family. Most of the decorations were done by Roy and Pek’s friends and family members… amazing flower decorations by Pek’s aunt June and stationery by her friend Hooi Yee.

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Through out my stay at The Danna, my team were treated so well by the staff there. I appreciate it that they didn’t see us as merely vendors, and saw to our every need, making sure we had water to drink all the time, made sure we had a decent place to have our meals, brought us cutlery and even offered us home made butter when it wasn’t necessary! Needless to say, the team ate well and slept really really well the night before and after the wedding, which made us really happy campers!

I love it how Roy and Pek Yee blend so easily into each other’s culture. Swiss and Malaysian cultures are worlds apart, yet, they seem so at home with each other, and even speaking a little of each other’s language. Roy’s Mandarin is definitely better than mine, since I am a pure ‘banana’ as how Malaysians would put it (yellow on the outside, white on the inside – someone whose first language is English).

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So, they met in Shanghai, China about 3 years ago… and here’s how the story goes…

Grace Tan In For Photographers, International, Life, Musings

Fraser Island, Australia with the Panasonic GX7

Early this month, I was invited to Fraser Island, Australia to test out the new Panasonic Lumix GX7. The first time I laid eyes on it, I fell in love! It has a beautiful vintage look that will look good with any outfit I wear, plus, it fit my small hands perfectly. Over 2 days, I had the privilege of going around Fraser Island with this micro four thirds camera and a huge range of lenses. Thank God the camera and lenses were light, so lugging around 7 lenses in my sling bag was easy-peasy! I would definitely consider this camera as a travel buddy.

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The landscape at Fraser Island is just so raw and untouched. It is the largest sand island in the world, with the beach stretching over 123km in length. What was interesting to me was the fact that the beach is actually a designated highway so there are signs saying 80km/hr is the max you can go!

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Now can you imagine this landscape with a couple in the photo? Darn, I wish we had models to photograph!

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All the photos in this post were taken with the Lumix GX7 – minimally edited. I was really amazed at the quality and colour of the images. The curse of being a photographer is that sometimes, your photos never get to see the light of day because you’re always wanting to ‘edit’ your images before posting them online. I mean, I have been guilty of colour grading every single travel photo before posting it to Facebook! Since the images that come out of this camera look superb already, hopefully, it’ll cure me of this ‘editing’ disease that every photographer faces.

The 90-degree tiltable Live View Finder also made shooting interesting since I could see things from a different perspective. (Plus, it made me look cool – do refer to the first image in this post). One thing I had to get used to was learning to focus on the touch screen, but with the focus peaking feature, it gave me the confidence knowing that the highlighted edges in an image are the parts in focus.

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