Faith and Eternity - Ivan & Wendy Church Wedding in Melaka

Ivan and Wendy are wonderful peranakan, when I spoke with them Wendy said that she admire my works and began to chat with me once in a while. And finally its the wedding day, just love the christmas decorations which is still in the church after the christmas ceremony, made me feel like New York lol. Love capturing this very old church in Melaka, St Peters Church, the oldest church in Melaka. One of the funny incident we had was how the priest pronounces Wendy's name. The priest pronounced Wendy as "windy", so everyone talking about it LOL. Hope to be shooting here again very soon. Thanks for all your support Ivan and Wendy. Had a lovely tea ceremony session in Ivan's house too, the family is so friendly and down to earth.

That marks my last assignment in 2011, finishing a total of 110 assignments. That was quite an amazing achievement for me. 

A Day to Remember - Swee Wah & Wai Jinn Wedding Day

Done Swee Wah & Wai Jinn's pre-wedding a while ago, and its the day to tie the knot. Wai Jinn falls in the same gang with Lai Peng who is my previous couple as well. This wedding day was filled with emotions as well with lots of hugs and blessings. A lot of good essence being sealed here. We went through a few discussions and at first Wai Jinn did not know where to held her garden wedding, she wanted a garden wedding so gave her a few recommendations and they finally decided to go with Bangi Equatorial. Every family is different and the family of Wai Jinn I saw was filled with love and gentleness. Both of her mom and dad was very open minded person, they just able to provide the most emotional support for Wai Jinn, I guess that makes Wai Jinn with the most gentle and emotional character. Together with Swee Wah, who had been dating with together for almost a 10 years, I forgotten the number but its long. I guess the moment that they share their vows, the word in their mind is simply the word "Finally...".

Two World Become One - Daniel & Jessica Wedding Day in Singapore

If I were to described what was the most meaningful wedding that I have ever shot, this is one of them, especially the tea ceremony session which I almost fall to tears. If you ask photographers, the most boring part might be the tea ceremony part but to me, this is one of the most important part of the session, and I got dozens of it, simply observing the flow.

Shot Daniel and Jessica's pre-wedding a while ago and finally its the day to display the unique theme that we had. It was a unique event where many of Jessica's faculty members from his university came over and filled with professors and intellectual groups, the event was held quite different, something like the Nobel Price group dinner LOL. It was quite an emotional day. Where Jessica was actually born in China and raised in Singapore with her parents, her dad was invited over to one of the university in Singapore to teach when Jessica was young. Daniel and Jessica shared a lot of their thinking and dreams over the dinner and made her parents proud. After we head back to the bridal suite in Ritz Carlton, he had was pretty emotional and spoke about his stories and love for Jessica, everyone was just sitting there and listen.

The tea ceremony was one of the most meaningful that I have seen, when Daniel and Jessica handed over the cup of tea to Jessica's parents, her dad did some talking and he took out a red packet from his pocket, and inside is a letter from her uncle. And he started to read the letter emotionally, and after reading the letter, he drank the tea with a fully accepted heart. I'm sure a lot of people would have such blessings but how her dad had expressed it out became meaningful, every words of it. And I still remember the way when he shake Daniel's hand, it was tight and assured, knowing that Daniel would take her of Jessica forever. 

Thank you uncle and aunty for having me, and Daniel and Jessica, I really enjoyed shooting your wedding day. And I hope those pictures are able to help recall those important moments of your lives. In lives, there is indeed an unending learning curve, and I have learned so much from you all.

The Meaning of Tea Ceremony - 敬茶的意义

As a wedding photographer I've seen many tea ceremonies, hundreds of them and often times I can relate each and every one of them. Actually as an open minded person like me I often believed that the tea ceremony session are one of the most precious culture that Chinese has. However, often times I think that the elderly should be the ones who honor this session because they are the ones who needed to educate the young ones, about how precious and meaningful a tea ceremony session is. Before I dictate about the most common mistakes that most people made, let me just run through the process one by one together, so that you can have a wonderful and meaningful tea ceremony session.

1. The elderly should be sitting down, never feel shy to sit down because it is a tea ceremony, and the tea ceremony is just a ceremony that the elder people give blessings to the new generations. Some people claimed that they are modern people so should be standing, and that simply made the ceremony less meaningful. Regardless the person is modern or traditional, sitting down is also to show respect to the younger generations. Just sit down and give the person a smile if you want. When the person is looking up while sitting, the feeling of receiving the person is stronger.

2. When a person receives the tea, they should hold the tea cup with both hands. It may sound funny but if I photograph a person holding the tea cup with one hand, it seemed disrespect to the person that hand over the tea to the elderly with both hands.

3. When the person hand over the tea cup to the elderly, the person that hand over the tea should address the name that how the person relate to the other. This is the time when the person first address the elderly, and so that he or she may address her in such a way in the future. If this was not done, the person will not get the chance to address the elderly for the first time and might be hard to address it in real life. Due to the Asian introvert personality.

4. When the elderly receives the tea, he or she should finish the tea. Regardless how hot or how full it is, if the elderly concern about the hygenic issues, he/she should request that the tea cup to be cleaned properly first. If he/she did not finish off the tea when the person being addressed, it may seemed that the person is not fully being accepted. We should not feel shy to finish off the tea or made it looked like you are rushing for time due to the long que, you must enjoy the session, where someone is addressing you for the first time.

5. When the elderly finished off the tea, he/she should give some blessings. I know it may sound difficult to many people, but if we used our heart to accept the new person in the family, you will know what kind of blessings you should give, just a few nice and wonderful words from the heart will do. A lot of people skipped this step and if I am a person that is new to the family, I might felt that this person is very hard to talk with in the future because I did not hear what the elderly felt about our marriage.

6. After blessings is done, then only it is time to hand over your gift together with your partner (if you have one), not in between the ceremony. If you try to give a gift in between, the elderly might looked like he/she have a bad relationship with the partner.

7. If blessings is not enough and the elderly feel that you want to make a physical connection to address something in the heart, the elderly should be the first one who initiate it, such as hugs, hand shake and etc. 

8. Proceed with the next.

In the end, regardless on how you want to run the tea ceremony is up to the person, and it varies with different cultures. This is just a typical ones that I have seen in Kuala Lumpur. If you are a christian, it is fine to have tea ceremony, this is not religion, it is just part of our culture. Have wonderful session! You can print this out, show it to your parents and relatives before the tea ceremony, once they understand it, then you will have a wonderful and cheerful session. :) 

From the love of our team.

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.