The Meaning of Tea Ceremony - Ee & Stephanie Wedding Dinner

Flew all the way to Penang to capture Ee & Stephanie's wedding dinner (part 2). It was a simple wedding dinner. In between the wedding dinner I was pulled to capture the tea ceremony session with their relatives. At that moment an incident that triggers me, I noticed that the sincerity can be observed from how we drink the tea LOL. Me and Stephanie were quite straight forward people, once I noticed that why most of the elderly did not finish the cup, I asked Stephanie why and her response was they are like this. Doink... lol. But one old lady, she finished off the tea and gave her blessings, I can see that she has an intimate relationship with her. Hope you can bare with me, I've seen many wedding tea ceremony, once in a while we get some enlightenments. Therefore I would like to address something to all elderly the true meaning of a tea ceremony, and I will do it in my next post. :)

Day after Sunshine - Sheng Ming & Yuan Peng Wedding Dinner

Lots of kids during Cheng Ming & Yuan Peng dinner, most of the bridesmaid in the wedding have already married with kids and such. I just love to capture kids in wedding, they are full with surprises and they are the ones that made me laughed. To capture those moments, the most annoying part will be the parents, once I've been spotted they will ask the kids to look at me and smile, some asked me take their family pictures LOL. So I got to use some sticks in order not being spotted. And finally the day is over and understood that it has been a relief for both of them, hehe. Sheng Ming teaches violin classes, haven't seen how he played. And later Sheng Ming took up photography and joined a few of my workshops, I guess as a mucisian he is able to tell those stories reflected in my pictures.

New Departure - Ee & Stephanie Wedding Day

Ever imagine making your own gown and shoe for your own wedding day? Here's what a gown designer Stephanie Ong had designed herself for her own wedding day, a gown sitting beside the cup of his papa, one of the shot I love the most in this special day. I know Stephanie when she was the gown designer in the shop that I always worked with (Pretty In White). Stephanie was too busy with her work and decided to change her career to quit from designing gowns to help his hubby Ee working in his family business.

When Stephanie spoke to me about my package I was so thrilled that she found me and loving my work. I still remember the said that "yes everyone still need to get married, including me LOL". I think for a lady like Stephanie with a unique personality, she has a specific reason that she loves my work. What I thought wa just do what I normally do and I do concern about her specific taste and need. For many people, they often thought that we photographers or gown desginers must have an awesom taste and very curious about what we want in our wedding. My honest answer is, the more I see wedding, the simpler I want it to be. I believe Stephanie must have a similar thought like me, just want something simple, not following the trend, not overdone, doesn't want to do something without a reason or a funny reason. Stephanie just want to be herself that day, she even against the idea of wearing the veil LOL. Stephanie's package were partially sponsored by Pretty In White as a farewell gift. It is sad to see stephanie departed, still remember the fun we had during June with Jeff and Chew Yen.

Mission of the Day - Sheng Ming & Yuan Peng Wedding Day

Photographer: Dennis Yap, Cliff Choong & Alex Moi

The moment I reach Yuan Peng's house I fall in love with it LOL. It is a wood house located in Banting, like those Kampung houses with many close families. Too bad I do not have lot of time to shoot there, and outside the house was a big area and many bridesmaids rush over to give different missions to the groom, as the bridesmaid looked very fierce, I call them Angry Birds that day. I believe nomatter what kind of condition, there is something nice to be captured, old or new, vintage or modern. Really enjoyed the day.

As I always love to observe around, and the relationship of Sheng Ming and Yuan Peng caughtmy intention hehe, both of them are rather shy, but the whole atmosphere were filled with nice groomsman and bridesmaid, so I used them as a tool to bring them even closer at the end of the day.

Time to Say Goodbye - Sebastian & Sutji Wedding Day

This is one of the busiest day in 2011. Met up with Sebastian and Justi a while ago in The Curve, both person were very fun and cheerful, both of them enjoy eating the most, before Sutji met Sebastian she was quite skinny lol. Actually this couple were introduced by another very unique couple. Sebastian and Sutji both reside in Melbourne and Sutji was originated from Indonesia. During her wedding day, I just enjoy to meet so many aunties from Indonesia, all of the are one of a kind, very cheerful, love taking pictures, like to talk etc. And on this vary moment before they arrival, we had an emotional session with Sutji and her mom. Sutji just can't hold on to her tears, and this became the most wonderful moment of the day. I used a different song for this one, to signifies a time to say goodbye, followed by another song with a new journey. The value of this slideshow is to sigfnifies something great in our life experience, which is the fairness of God, that he made everything fair, we always say goodbye to something to receive a different thing. 

Happy Day - Keng How & Joan Wedding Day

The first time I met Keng How was like 3 years back when I was covering Siew Ping's church wedding, and Keng How rushed out and asked for my named card, it was quite wierd at first. Then later when Keng How decided to tie the knot the person I most contact with was Joan. Joan's name was named Joanne and don't know why it later changed to Joan lol. Both of them are very funny people, always wanted to shoot something different but later no news from them lol. At first we planned to do a couple portrait and they booked the slot a year ago and later they moved the slot to the wedding day. 

The funniest thing I know about them was Keng How and Joan are actually 12 years apart, if I remember right. They both met each other when Keng How was doing facial with Joan LOL. Later I wonder what so powerful about Joan, can attract Keng How in a facial session, so I went to try out her skill myself LOL. So Joan invited a few of her old colleges over to be her bridesmaid. It was quite funny session, they just to see my pictures and laughed. 

Moments of Us - Roshaan & Viloshini Wedding Dinner

Love Indian weddings, every part of it has a unique emotions. Roshaan & Viloshini is one of the lovely Indian couple that I ever met, both are very down to earth, free and easy. Roshaan being the protector and Viloshini is the one who summited to Roshaan's love. When I deliver the pictures to them they asked what I felt about their wedding, and I said it was awesome and I spoke about how different to shoot the chinese ones and the indian ones. What I loved about the Indian weddings is there are plenty of emotions to capture from, lots of real moments and such. And they smiled. 

Brotherhood - Adrian & Grace Wedding Day in Kota Kinabalu

It all started from Lovvy Lai, one of the bride I shot a while ago in Kota Kinabalu and all the while this group of friends has been very nice to me and thats how I got to travel to Kota Kinabalu so many times, this group of friends from Sabah Tshung Tsin Secondary School are all very friendly and crazy kind of people, all united with a very strong friendship and bond, helping each other and they venture their journey together all the way. It is nice to have such a good gang of buddies. I believe Adrian is one of the popular one, he brought over 30 brothers for the gate crashing to beat the 10 bridesmaids. Still I love the weather in Kota Kinabalu, this place has been my all time favorite spot for all kinds of stuffs. Not many people in west Malaysia know about here, which is sad lol. I not sure why, the colors that I managed to get from my shots here are quite awesome. Congratz Adrian and Grace. Love you all.... and I am sure we will meet agian soon.

We Are Twinkle Little Stars - Kok Wai & Michelle

The session with Kok Wai & Michelle was awesome, both of them really cherish the time being together and celebrate this special day of them. Kok Wai booked a room in Pullman hotel in order to shorten the driving distance to JPN. And we did a small session in Pullman Hotel Putrajaya right after the registration and some family portratures. Since the session is not long, the whole session is all Beloved session. Driving them to discover the most important thing in their relationship, and spoke about those words that is deep inside our heart that we seldom had the courage to express. The more I understand Kok Wai, he is indeed a guy that treat a lady well, he provide fashion consultation for her, tidy up her hair for her, just do whatever he could to make her the prettiest princess in the world. And Micheal is a sentimental girl, summited to Kok Wai. At the vary moment Kok Wai spoke about his deepest feelings, Michelle just fall into tears. And after that those emotions just poured one by one. One of the most successful beloved session I ever had.

At the moment I departing home, the grandmom said that I am good photographer, she began to missed me. I felt glad that I played an important role in their life.

Remembrance of a Mom - Howard & Angeline Church Ceremony

Photographer: Benjamin Lim

Howard and Angeline are both cabin crew from Emirates and they both resides in Dubai. Howard from Kuwait and Angeline is Malaysian. This is one of the most heart breaking incident that we ever encounter as a photographer. A week before the wedding day, Angeline made a call to me and she was crying on the phone to tell me that her mom had just passed away and she couldn't bare the sadness. I felt very strongly with her and we postponed the pre-wedding shoot which supposed to happen a day after. And we postponed the wedding day to next year. However, the church ceremony still runs like usual. They got the church ceremony a day after the wedding day so I got to leave the job to my buddy Benjamin Lim to cover the church ceremony himself but we do all the internal editings. When I received the pictures from Benjamin, I can sensed the emotions that flows during the ceremony, everyone was very quiet, sad, a little bit of joy but inside of everyone is silence. The ceremony went very casual, not many guest arrived. Most of the people were heart brokened and unable to bare the news. And I waited for Angeline to heal. At the moment I wish I was there shooting, and over editing, I thought if I can do anything to make her happier. But I guess I leave that to time. Really sorry to hear the news Angeline, but after what we have gone through, we built a different friendship.