Justin & Hsin can be one of our finest couple in our lifetime, after shot their pre-wedding, ROM and now their wedding day, all I have to say in this happy day, is that every couple that look for us should have an amount of expectations, and as a photographer, we understand that couple is seeking for beautiful pictures, and our existence is defined by our creation to produce valuable pictures, which is pictures that are not only beautiful but also genuine and real in nature.
We always believe that real moment is the essential element for our existence, after all a photographer is to capture things that have happened, but not things that not supposed to happened with only beautiful element. This is a believe many people did not realised, and it is hard for me to describe its essence. What we believe is, even in a very simple occasion, a photographer can do amazing things by being part of the wedding, means we not not strangers but someone who have eyes to observe and able to understand the emotions of each member in the wedding, such as family values, background, the couple's story and what is the most important thing they perceive in this special day. Thats why we always allow natural moments to happened, but whenever we see anything that strike our mind that can enhance the essential element of the individual, we create, we participate by being part of the wedding, like a real friend that know them well. This remains as our motto from day one. A wedding can be shot by different photographer and can produce different results, these all depend on the mind of the creator, what we suppose to produce, and what we should not erased. Valuable things should not be erased and a heavy emotions shall not be treated lightly.
Cross actually followed my works since he was in high school and now its finally his turn to tie the knot and its a chance for me to create something nice for him. Initially they were thinking to join my Kyoto trip but finally they decided to use St. Regis Langkawi for the shoot, though not many people had found this place as their pre-wedding location and this is why I love to be a few to start something in St. Regis Langkawi. The hotel was filled with many vibrant decorations, of course with my style of shoot it will be something different from the rest. We all had a really good time during the shoot, Cross was such a cheerful guy and grace is such a beautiful one, lucky him haha... we were all laughing around during the shoot and I guess Grace had a great experience with the awesome St. Regis services provided. Nice sunset I have to say! Nice blue sky also, would love to visit this place again!
Couple Story:
We met during college time, and Cross is always the mischievous one while Grace is the studious kind of girl. Cross first notice her was when he was paying his school fees at the Taylor's Business school lobby. While he was paying she was wondering at the front gate of the lobby. She caught his attention when he saw a lady in Pink Polo T-Shirt and Jeans with Long Champ Bag and from then on he decided to know her. He told his friends and they told him she already have another half. But he told his friend to let him have a try and just pass me her number. His friend then pass her number and then on he started msging the number for one whole night thinking he had a chance, and who knows the next day they all went laughing at him because that number was fake and was his friend's number. Finally his friends passed him Grace's number and that's we started.
How she became my girlfriend... we talked to each other for about 6 months , and we really click with each other. He finally pop the question when we were on summer break and he was back in JB. We haven stop msging each other since the day we knew each other(Cross has a really sweet mouth hahah) Then one day he got shocked when she told me she kinda miss me in KL. Then she would like to hangout more with me in KL when the summer break is over.Without hesitating he drove all the way from JB and set up fireworks just right outside her house park and then he asked her to come out of the house and lit the fireworks and recite a poem to her and thats how we got together.
So thats how it all started... then we dated for many many years. Although we had our own fair share of arguments and break up threats we always managed to resolve it in the end. In 2011, Grace went to UK to study and thats when our relationship got wobbly. However, Cross being the sweet one (as always) he decided to go all the way to UK to save our relationship. We had cold wars initially but we finally resolved them and when he left to come back to Malaysia, we missed each other so much that our relationship strengthen even more.
Fast forward, we both graduated and started working. Grace worked in Big 4 Accounting firm and constantly works late and even take part time Chartered Accountant's classes on weekend. During this time, Cross never fails to listen to her complaints and grumbles and always there to ferry me to and fro. Even when I worked late, he would come all the way to my office to pick me to my carpark which is about 15 mins walk away. Thats how sweet Cross is.
After 2 years working in KL, Cross went back to JB. So we started our LDR. Being a grown up and have earn our own money, we started travelling the world together. We loved exploring the world together. We went to Bali, Bandung, Bangkok,Vietnam, Korea and NZ together. We always look forward to choosing one destination that we want to visit together per year. So far, we havent break that tradition since we started working 5 years ago.
This year, Grace was going to NZ for working holiday and Cross was going to bring her over to settle down, being a sweetheart, he stayed for 3 weeks just because Grace will be missing CNY and will be spending it alone. Before we went on this long awaited journey, he finally popped the question with a diamond ring. It was our 7th anniversary and we went down to Grace's condo's swimming to take pictures to commemorate this special day. During the photoshoot, he popped the question and Grace said YES :)
Grace finally came back from NZ and now we are starting on this amazing journey planning our wedding :)
It goes a loooooong way back. We both come from Brunei and were raised in a small town which is predominantly occupied by the oil-and-gas industry. In such a small community, it could be said that everyone knows or is somehow associated to someone or the other. We went to the same kindergarten but did not know each other yet. We then went on to the same primary school and finally were placed in the same class in Primary four. At the time, Steven liked Ching's best friend so Ching always hears about him from her best friend's never ending love stories and had a share of helping to write love notes. That was short-lived, though. When we got to secondary school, we were in different classes again until we reached Secondary four because we both selected to be in Science stream. During English Week, our class was supposed to perform in a play. Steven was not very cooperative due to him being shy on stage. Ching, who was the assistant director for the play at the time got into a small argument with him but all was good after that. That was when they first took notice of each other. The following year, in one particular Maths class, Steven shifted his seat and sat behind Ching. They started chatting casually and Steven felt that they clicked and started sending her texts and old school emoticons, the ones with cute bears and cartoons made of symbols and punctuations in the old school Nokia phones. Ching fell into the trap and they got together!
At first it was like forbidden love, as Ching's parents were very strict. She eventually went to Brisbane, Australia for university and they had to be in a grueling long distance relationship for three and a half years when finally Stevencould not bear being apart from the love of his life any longer =P and went to Australia to join her. Steven finished the second half of his degree in Australia while Ching carries on to work there. As Steven was partially funded by the government, he had to return to Brunei immediately after the two and a half years of studies in Australia. They were thrown in a long distance relationship once more as Ching does not want to leave her job yet. After one year, Chingfinally decides to head back home to help in her family business so they were once again re-united!
After the long-winded story, Steven finally decides to propose on their tenth year together as he was on the deck of an oil rig in Saudi Arabia because he realised how much he could not live without her =D lol. Okay, not really, because he finally realised that it was time and he wanted to settle down and start a family. With the help of her closest friends, he managed to plan a proposal for the day he arrived from Saudi Arabia. After a big bouquet of champagne roses, a sweet video, a long speech (which she barely remembers omg), and a ring made of grass (which she said she wanted in her childhood, what a silly girl) she said yes!
Presently, they share the dream of owning a soft ice cream shop and are in the process of making that dream come true while working on their own careers at the same time.
Their future dream is to be able to (in no particular order) retire early with passive income; move to Australia; basically live a life that is as carefree as possible.
Of course, there had been ups and downs and everything is not always as smooth-sailing as it seems on the surface, but they do, and always will, have each other's backs.
