Wedding

Grace Tan In Church Weddings, Life, Musings, Weddings

A Myanmar Refugee Wedding: Zwe & Stellar

Photographers: Grace & Weiming
Videographers: Alex & Monica
Wedding Gown: DUMC wedding ministry
Groom’s Suit: Alex’s suit
Make up & hair: Grace Wang (bride) & Katy K’ng (bridesmaids)

On the 19th of July, Alex and I received a phone call from Pastor Margaret of our church. It was a call for help. Two Myanmar refugees, Zwe and Stellar were about to start their new lives as husband and wife, and they needed some help with the wedding.

If you did not read the background story as to how Alex and I got involved with this wedding, you’ll need to do that in order to fully comprehend this post.

So at 10.30pm on the 20th of July, Alex and I drove to church for the wedding ceremony. I was elated to see the bride looking so radiant in a white bridal gown, provided by DUMC’s wedding ministry. Amazingly, some months ago, someone had donated a handful of second hand wedding gowns to DUMC. Considering Stellar is a really petite girl (about my size, 5 feet!), it was miraculous that she managed to find a gown that fit her perfectly (ok maybe it is a tad bit long). Now if only my wedding gown was not in a box somewhere, I could have loaned Stellar my gown and the length would have been perfect.

If Zwe had chosen to wear Alex’s wedding suit, that would have been pretty weird, to see someone else in my gown and in Alex’s wedding suit! (not that I would have minded).

But Zwe chose one of Alex’s beige suits instead, and I think he looked smashing in it!

Did you know that in Myanmar, 55 million people speak a variety of 111 languages, but majority of them speak the Myanmar language.(source: myanmar.net). The Myanmar script draws its source from the Brahmi script.

Translated into English, the bible passage featured below talks about love:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. (1 Corinthians 13:4)

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Outdoor Weddings, Weddings

Phong & Laura’s Garden Wedding, Kuching

Photographers: Grace & Mark
Wedding Gown: Vera Wang
Make Up: Shu Uemura
Groom’s Attire: Hugo Boss
Flowers & Decorations: Murloch (house) & Four Points Sheraton Hotel (for reception)
Stationery: Banana Greetings
Cake: Amy
Reception: Four Points by Sheraton Hotel, Kuching, Sarawak

Phong & Laura’s story felt as if it came directly from a romantic screenplay. The setting: San Francisco.

Laura had traveled to San Francisco to be with her sister, Lisa who worked there. It was during this two month visit that she met Phong, who was Lisa’s colleague. Laura thought he was rather fun to hang out with and so they exchanged contact details and communicated via MSN. Fast forward a few months later, Phong had the opportunity to fly to Indonesia for work.

Perfect timing, as Laura needed another break from work too… and so she flew to Indonesia to visit him. From there, love blossomed and it was the most interesting weekend for her. As fate would have it, one week after he returned to San Francisco, he found out that the company he was working for was relocating to Singapore!

From then on, everything was history – and according to Laura, Phong loves to tell their friends that he flew halfway across the world to be with her.

During the wedding, Phong’s family flew in from Australia & Vietnam – and he was even reunited with family he hadn’t seen in years! I was really excited when Laura told me about this story… and also when she mentioned that her wedding would be held in her family home garden! It’s so meaningful when you say your vows in such a personal environment. There were so many elements that made this wedding a memorable one for me. From the Vietnamese car decorations, to the personalized popcorn box, to the massive trees in the awesomely pink ballroom… everything was just detailed so beautifully.

The other thing that made my heart skip a beat too was Laura’s Vera Wang gown. I instantly thought of the line from the movie Bride Wars… “You don’t alter a Vera Wang to fit you, you alter yourself to fit into a Vera Wang” (something to that effect).

I don’t know how much alteration Laura had to do, but she looked absolutely amazing in that gown that day.

Grace Tan In Musings, Tips + Ideas

Wedding Ideas: A fun-loving invite

I’d like to share this card design idea that was created for Matt and Chin Yi’s wedding. I was invited as a guest to this wedding, and I absolutely love the creative concept that is behind their wedding invite. It was designed and photographed by their friends. Hope this little post will inspire you while you go about your wedding planning!

By the way, the little round date on the top right corner is like a pop up button. Kinda cool.

Alex Lam In Life, Musings

A phone call and a wedding 32 hours later

Grace came home from work, then flopped onto the bed as she would normally do, exhausted from the events of the day. We’d normally have a chat before getting ready for dinner or discuss renovation plans for our new home that’s still being built, some 10 months later. Today was different.

“Darling, I got a phone call today from Pastor Margaret. She asks if I can help shoot a wedding.”

“Sure, why not? Strange that she would call, though. When and who is it for?”

“Tomorrow night. 1.30am. For a Myanmar refugee couple.”

I shut my notebook and looked at Grace with eyes as large as golf balls. I echoed, ONE-THIRTY-AYY-EMM?

To understand this Burma / Myanmar story better, you’ll need to be armed with some basic information.

DEFINITION OF REFUGEE (oxford)
noun. a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.

MYANMAR REFUGEE STATS IN MALAYSIA (UNHCR Malaysia)
As of end May 2011, there are some 94,400 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with UNHCR in Malaysia. 86,500 are from Myanmar.

GNI PER CAPITA IN MYANMAR (average of how much a person earns in a year) (UN Data)
US$578.30 (as of 2008 stats) – which is MYR1,740.39 (PER YEAR!)

“What’s the rush? And why 1.30am?” To me, it sounded like a secret ceremony that had to be done in a hurried manner, away from the prying eyes of the world.

Grace Tan In Musings, Tips + Ideas

Wedding Do’s & Don’ts (as told by Grace Tan)

Some time back, Abirami Durai, a writer for Faces magazine contacted me. She asked me if I was keen on contributing some tips for couples who are about to get married and if they could feature my wedding in the magazine. The first thought that came to me was… “My wedding? That was 5 years ago!”

I said yes.

I don’t claim to be a wedding expert. I can only share from my experiences – whether it was from planning my own wedding or from going through many weddings as a photographer. (by the way, the article said I’ve photographed hundreds of weddings… just to let you know that the numbers are more modest than that, maybe a hundred plus?).

If you are interested in getting a copy of this magazine, you can buy it from any normal bookstore. It’s the July / August 2011 issue.

Do let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment here and maybe you can share some tips of yours as well.

There isn’t any photographer credit mentioned for my wedding images featured below. I’d like to thank to Andy Lim, Joseph Siew and Yean Tai for these photos here!