tea ceremony

Grace Tan In Indian + Punjabi Weddings, Wedding Films & Videos, Weddings

Hindu wedding at Shree Lakshmi Temple: Sunil & Belinda

20140906_WEDDING_SUNIL_BELINDA_MSIA_0282 You’ve seen their Singaporean Chinese wedding ceremony and pre-wedding photos, now, presenting part 2 of their wedding celebration held in KL. The wedding celebration carried on in KL with a sangeet, a prayer & oil ceremony called the santh, and culminated with a colourful Hindu wedding ceremony at Shree Lakshmi temple in KL. This wedding video highlight is one of my favourites this year – I enjoy hearing their stories and seeing two different cultures combine through marriage. With the world becoming more connected globally, inter-racial marriages are the norm.

This wedding is unique for me, because in one day, I get to witness:

A Hindu wedding ceremony that resembles a Punjabi wedding
A Chinese tea ceremony where most of the people being served tea are not Chinese
Families speaking Mandarin in typical Indian wear
A dragon dance during the wedding dinner

Oh, and for the record, it was my last wedding shoot before I took a break to deliver my 2nd child!

Photographers: Grace, Nigel & Diane (wedding day), Weiming & Nigel (sangeet and santh)
Videographers: Nick, Chi Yin & Felicia

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Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, International, Outdoor Weddings, Weddings

Wedding at North Border, Singapore: Sunil & Belinda

20140830_WEDDING_SUNIL_BELINDA_SINGAPORE_475 It was a rainy evening, and Belinda had just dropped off her brother at the airport in Singapore. As part of her habit, she headed over to her favourite bar of 10 years… Wala Wala, with her best friend Samantha. The bar was crowded as usual, but by chance, Sunil and his friends had 2 seats at their table, and so, out of courtesy (and maybe because these girls were cute!), they offered those seats to them. Striking a conversation was natural, and by the end of the night, Sunil and Belinda had hit it off and even arranged a first date for the next day.

Love at first sight does exist. For Sunil, anyway. During that date, they discovered they both love the same kind of music and band. Belinda bought Sunil 2 double shot Macallan 15 after losing some bets, which totally impressed him! Needless to say, Sunil gave Belinda a lot of attention that evening.

For their second date the very next day, Sunil brought Belinda to Prive (a romantic restaurant by the water), and they had a great time chatting for a good 3 hours. The relationship grew, and soon, they had already dated for 7 months as a couple.

20140830_WEDDING_SUNIL_BELINDA_SINGAPORE_525 Sunil ALWAYS makes Belinda laugh, he always smells good and he can cook. They say, food is a way to a man’s stomach, but it also works for women! Sunil is always feeding Belinda, which she doesn’t complain about! What she loves most about him is that he is extremely filial, calls home everyday and truly cares for his family and friends. He’s always optimistic, genuine and independent. According to Belinda… “I know he will willingly go hungry just so I can be filled! (a metaphor of course)”. Ultimately, he always wants to make her happy.

Sunil proposed to Belinda in Spain early Feb this year, in the oldest restaurant in the world – Botin, after many jugs of Sangria. He took out the ring from his pocket and asked “yes or no?”

Belinda told us… “Would have said no since there’s no kneeling down or flowers or proper question. But I saw the size of the diamond. =) (just kidding)!”

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Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Weddings

Wedding of Zach & Linda

Zach and Linda first made an appearance on our blog a few months ago when we took their pre-wedding photos in KL. Well, this time round, they are back from Australia again… for their Chinese wedding banquet. Ben and Weiming were there to capture all the key moments of the day. So much fun and laughter at this wedding, even though I wasn’t there to witness it, I could see that everyone had heaps of fun, including the grandmothers!

Congratulations Zach and Linda! Wishing you many years of joyful wedded bliss!

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Zach and Linda’s Story

I first saw Zach’s name on a sheet of paper on my boss’ desk, I suspected that he was the new guy who’d just been hired. Having been a star performer at work, I worried that this new colleague would be a rival. My first impression of him after he started work was that he felt like a little kid…..

We were eventually tasked to work together and our feelings for each other developed quickly in a short period of time. We discovered that we had attended the same kindergarden together, and that our secondary schools were situated opposite each other’s’ and that we’d attended the same college and eventually the same university in Canberra as well. I also recalled that I’d once been introduced to Zach while at University, but that I’d dismissed him because he had long hair! Finally, fate decided that it was time for us to meet at work, and we’ve been together ever since.

Zach is a very sweet boyfriend, he always buys me big bouquets of roses, writes me poems and he takes very good care of me. I feel very blessed to have him as my life partner.

Together, we love travelling and enjoy the occasional fine dining in Sydney with our friends. Although many find Canberra a boring city, we appreciate the clean fresh air in this well planned city as well as the freedom of driving on traffic jam-free roads. :)

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Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Testimonials, Weddings

The Wedding of Tim & Doreen

I have good intentions to blog a wedding immediately after the shoot, but my good intentions never seem to become a reality. Currently, my blog posts are about 2 months behind schedule… we have so much to share but I have a hard time trying to catch up! So today, I am going to break the trend and skip a few other weddings at the moment to blog Tim and Doreen’s wedding photos.

Honestly, our first conversation over Skype and subsequent meet up felt a little tense. They were disagreeing about a few things regarding the wedding, and I wasn’t quite sure how to respond. But on the wedding day, everything changed, and Tim and Doreen were just grinning from ear to ear. They were just so relaxed with each other in front of our cameras. Ben and Weiming did a great job photographing alongside with me, and supporting me whenever I felt exhausted. All the night shots were taken by them since I was already home resting by then! :)

Tim and Doreen wrote a really wonderful testimonial for us which I’d like to share here:

“We would like to thank you and your team for our special day. From when you met us the day before to go through all the proceedings and putting up with us at a time when we were both stressed out beyond belief, you made everything seem easy and it was one less thing for us to worry about knowing we were in good hands. Your enthusiasm and energy carried us through the wedding and all our guests said how great you were plus the fact you were carrying a ‘mini me’ in your tummy.

The impromptu photo shoot after the tea ceremony for me was unexpected but we are so grateful you did this for us and it has made our day even more memorable.

The slide show for dinner which was made in such a short time still has my mum in tears and you captured Doreen’s amazing beauty which made me so proud to be her husband (you also made me look good in a couple of pictures which must make you a miracle worker).

Again a big THANK YOU from us, you and your team were brilliant. ”

Cheers,
Tim and Doreen

Grace Tan In Musings, Tips + Ideas

Tips: Photographing the Chinese Tea Ceremony

Since we’re all still in Chinese New Year mood, I thought I’d share some tips (from a photographer’s perspective) regarding the tea ceremony that happens at every Chinese wedding. Hope it helps you plan for your tea ceremony!

1. Please prepare a list so you are well organized during the ceremony. You don’t want to accidentally miss that aunt who travelled all the way from Ipoh to attend your wedding. It also enables the ceremony to run smoothly as the next person can prepare their gifts and ang pow before it is their turn.

2. In the past, we’ve photographed a tea ceremony with a large group of about 100 people. And that was only one side of the family! Instead of taking 2 hours for the session, you could speed things up by preparing additional seats – while one couple is being served tea, the next couple is already seated on the 2nd set of chairs, waiting for their turn! One couple we photographed actually created a semi-circle of about 10 seats. Everyone was seated, and the couple made their rounds in an orderly manner.