Two Simple Souls - Darren & Cadence Wedding Day in Ipoh

Met up Darren and Cadence over coffee in Empire Gallery, both of them are actually known each other for a very long time, when I asked about their views in their relationship and what are the things they most look forward to, they replied with a very simple word: Like husband and wife. I found that usually couples that had a long term relationship they most look forward for receiving something from the heart rather than fine art. Just very heard warming pictures, nothing dramatic, just as honest as it can be. And so this day, I travelled all the way to northern part of Ipoh to cover their wedding day. Cadence family were very simple and nice, nothing formal but very quiet and sweet. My heart were equally silent that day, slowly observing each part of it, even though Cadence told me not to capture too many LOL. It was very cozy, just like back to my home town.

Bridezilla is Awesome - Edwin & Amelia Wedding Dinner

Yes, its now Amelia's turn. Well me and Amelia had met up a couple of times but I only met with Edwin during the wedding dinner. Amelia handles most of the stuffs in the wedding, for whoever that had came close with Amelia will put her in the top list for many things hehe. I remember we met up in Starbucks Empire Gallery and she were bombarding with questions and stuff, so I gave her a bunch of my favourite vendor list like a wedding planner, and in return I receive called from them asking me "who is Amelia?", laughed all the way, and sometimes she can be very demanding and post her harsh comments on Facebook. Her name was quite well known in the industry for a while but I was surprised that for many times I heard Amelia bombarding around making complaints but she had never being fussy at me, maybe I served her like a queen LOL. Well, there is no harm for being a bridezilla, in fact I just love them, because they are the ones I like to joke around with, and usually every year we can only get around like 3 bridezilla's the most, so they are really rare. 

Amelia loves her family and friends, every lady has a soft part, and spent the whole night capturing all sorts of stuffs. One of the tough part was the ceiling was covered all over with red cloths so it is harder to apply lightings. I was surprised I bumped with with a potential couple on that night who are good friends of Amelia. So her hubby asked what do I think about the set up. For that moment I paused a while and think how should I reply his question. Well if I answer "amazing!" that is probably a lie because I have seen that much. But in another perspective Amelia might think that it is an amazing one. But if I answer "soso!", then it would be not nice because I am giving the potential couple a form of pressure. Well my final answer is "it is nice, it can be nicer without the red cloth on the ceiling". Hehe.... but right after I replied, I receive another question: "What would be the best wedding setup?", so I replied him "that might be better answer by a wedding planner". ^_^ Yey... everyones happy now.

Thanks Amelia, though I have not heard of you a lot after the wedding, but to be honest, I am quite happy that you were satisfied with the pictures, after you have received everything. That is most important. Cheers. 

The Fortunate One - Kwan Yeow & Ji San Wedding Day

Met up this couple over in Bangsar and found out that Ji San and I had a lot of friends in common back from college times while we were in the States. Kwan Yeow is also a very humble looking guy, a very obvious feature about Kwan Yeow is his sexy lips. Ji San and I had a very long chat history but unfortunately I was unable to cover her ROM and Wedding Day. At first Ji San and Kwan Yeow had booked me for all events, an ROM in beautiful Janda Baik and Wedding Day in KL, which both of them most looked forward but due to some minor date changes I have to let go for both events and covering her wedding dinner in Ipoh. However, this does not stop us chatting a some time lol. I remember one day Ji San and Kwan Yeow had sent me an SMS saying "Thanks for meeting us. We are really sad that you couldn't help us take nice pics during our very special day. What we miss most about you is the fun squirmy side of you that we are so comfortable with. This is somebody we were always looking for to work with but its God's call. Haha. Thanks for everything and please help think of some nice ideas where to take when we are in Ipoh. Nites!" The moment I looked at the message, I really hope that I can really split my body into halve so that I can satisfy everyone, but reality it is impossible. But I am sure that they will hire a good one hehe, maybe not as crazy as me but certain can take nice pictures I guess. 

Aside from pictures, I guess Ji San is one of the very fortunate bride in my list. Having 4-5 wedding dresses designed by specific designers like Carven Ong and Celest Thoi, and Kwan Yeow's family had actually built a private villa besides the family home, he said whoever married first will get that, to me, I made a joke is in fact a mating hub hehe... for many babies to come. So we did a few shots in the private villa.  

Hey, really thanks for having me Ji San and Kwan Yeow, though it is a small event but it seemed that we had known each other for a very long time. All the best to you both. 

The Yellow Encounter - Albert & Sharon Wedding Day at Ritz Carlton

Albert & Sharon had their gate crash carried out in Ritz Carlton Residence, with lots of sunflowers. The theme of the day is yellow, I guess the reason why Sharon wanted sunflower because it signifies happiness. The color yellow does goes well with the colour red. It was a day I finally capture their wedding day after our laughable pre-wedding session in Melbourne. And again, gangnam style gate crash. I couldn't recall how many times I have shot a gate crash with gangnam style already. During the dinner, my second shooter (Ivan) came to me and asked, why this couple used Sunflower as their wedding theme, I replied that mainly because when we were young, many people had an imagination with sunflowers, and most people dreamed to see a sunflower farm. Including me, I really wanted to see one someday. It made me wonder what kind of flowers shall I be using for my own wedding, there are a few that I love like Lily, Iris, Peony and Tulips. I love sunflowers but this flower is really huge for me. Thanks to Albert and Sharon, your family were so sweet and kind hearted. Really enjoyed this wedding day of yours.

The Red Encounter - JC & June Wedding Day

After the pre-wedding session earlier with JC & June, today it's the big day for them. Totally different from their pre-wedding theme, where JC & June had a very traditional Chinese wedding ceremony where most of the stuff inside June's house were all in red. Actually am really honoured to capture this couple because June's family actually is the owner of my favourite BBQ pork outlet New Wing Heong (新永香). Before that I did not know there is a difference between the New Wing Heong and the Wing Heong, after my mom told me about their story. Therefore, whenever I use the word Wing Heong, June will immediately correct me where I should use the word New in front because they are two different families. The history of this old BBQ porl outlet is long and complicated as my mom had described but I understand one thing about this family. As some family culture honour those prosperous moments, they will take this opportunity to make it look as prosperous as possible, and most of the crowd were very noisy, talk out loud, filled with joy and laughters and they expresses many good words on that day, those kind of family will hardly be poor, because of the culture they had expressed and anyone that got influenced by these cultures will inflict a very joyous attitude, which in turn, influences the success of their business. This is so true and that was the deepest impression they gave me and I had learned a lot from this family. The tea ceremony went very well, everyone really gave their blessings to one another. 

As JC is also my friend, I opt not to capture their wedding dinner because I wanted to join my group of friends to witness their joyous moment. To be honest, for wedding photographers like us, we hardly had the chance to sit down and enjoy a wedding dinner, and tonight I got it. Thanks to JC and June.  

Colors of Life - Alex & Pinko Trash The Dress Pre-Wedding Portrait

One day Pinko called me up and said that she need my help to capture her pre-wedding in a hurry because she is pregnant. So we met up very quick and spoke about the shoot, and we discussed about the Trash The Dress idea and they immediately up for it. I asked if it is okay to have paint on her body since she was pregnant and she said it is okay. As both of them related to the colourland paint (family business), they brought over a few bucket of paint together with them. We first finished off the formal session in our studio, and head to the abandoned rail road for some shots. And we had paint all over the area and it ended with lots of fun and laughters. It is a pretty interesting idea and especially Trash The Dress is one of my favourite session. When we spoke about Trash The Dress, it is a style of wedding photography session where the bride will be trashing her dress in order to signify loving the one and only one, expressing love as in all loyal, never married or fall in love with another one ever again. It is a way to express the significant value of a marriage. For the past I have covered a couple of Trash The Dress, and loving it since then. As in the industry we have seen many Trash The Dress session and most are simply a reflection of art but seldom able to reflect the true values of the session. Many thanks to Alex and Pinko, wish to see both of you some day again. :)

Life is like a box of chocolate, a Wedding is like a day of Christmas

You might be surprised to see this post here, for your information, both pictures above were not captured by us, we grab it through the internet in order to give a good comparison. Definately do not want to use our own client's picture because it might offended them haha. 

First of all, why we believe that a wedding is like a day of Christmas, well it comes from long experience. In this industry we meet new people everyday, shoot different couple in every assignment, of couse you can agree with me that we see many positive things but on the other hand, we also see something which we considered a negative trend. And simply a facebook post will not be sufficient to described what we feel. Thats why we write a blog. Hoping that we are able to do a little changes, because we love every couple, and your wedding is a once in a lifetime thingy.

I think you are able to agree with us that, if a couple are truly fall in love and decide to get married, if there is no social or parental influence, everything will go according your way, your wedding will be a celebration of both couple that decided to spend their life together. Every bit of the wedding are filled with genuiness. However, due to social influence, parents decision, and all the facinating wedding that you saw in facebook, your original mind got deviated in between. And in the end, your wedding is simply to satisfy your friends, your family, and to recognize ones status. How can that happened? We can try to provide some examples below.

In reality wedding pictures are meant to enjoyed by both couple but because we have friends, our original intention has been forgotten. Often times couple were stressed because they wanted pictures to satisfy other people's eye, but not for their own eyes. Thats why if I ever want to take wedding pictures for my own, I just want those pictures that me and my love ones can appreciate, because my friends will never going to appreciate 100% of those pictures because only me and my wife will be able to understand them. 

In reality a wedding is a celebration of both couple that decide to spend their life together. If there isn't a meaning of love that both eager to rejoice, why a wedding would take place? Just like how many people celebrate chrstmas in present world; if you bought a christmas tree without knowing the meaning of christmas, you are only celebrating the beauty of christmas day but not christmas itself. As for wedding, we do not want to eleborate more but we sure that you know what we trying to express. :) 

Therefore, to those wonderful couple that planning to celebrate your life together, we hope that you could look back the past, and recall those important memories of both of you, and think about the meaning of the wedding day, what both of you really want. Forget about the trend, facebook influences, your friend might have a very grand wedding but never let it affect your decision, your friend might went to Paris for their wedding shoot but you can still settle your portrait in your backyard, your friends might have gate crash session but you can still go without one, your friend might tell you that red or orange is the most trendy color of the year but you can still go for the color that connects you, your might be influenced a lot from the word "pose" but you can neglect to pose during your portrait session because you wanted to be authentic and real, .

Because it is your wedding, and you both should deserve a perfect decision that does not influenced by social trend (they always teach you bad things), family pressure (well sometimes you have to give in, no choice. But not all~ =P), peer pressure (don't care about them, just be yourself). Okie Dokie? Have a good one~ 

Regards,

Dennis Yap and Team.

Merry Christmas!!!

Two People - Kiat Hau & Shevia Wedding Day

The feeling of two person, side by side, uniting together as one. When Kiat Hau & Shevia met up with me a while ago, those are the elements that came across me. Kiat Hau is not a strange guy as we met each other during Joan's wedding, and for those that have seen Kiat Hau, he is a very polite person and he gave a lot of fun to Shevia. When Kiat Hau entered Shevia's room to receive her, I can see in his eyes that he was truly happy to see her, and Shevia was really happy to see him as well as I can see from her eyes while Kiat Hau trying to remove Shevia's veil. It was a sweet morning. And I was very happy to see Joan (my older couple) came for their wedding, and this time she was pregnant. :)

Cherishing Life - Jay & Nicol Wedding Day

Met up with Jay during a wedding fair and Jay and Nicol confirmed the assignment a while later. Jay and Nicol had many ideas about the wedding and wanted me to cover the wedding. It was only during the wedding day that I met up with Nicol and what I did was just shoot behind the scene for them. There are no poses and such, all of the shots were all candids and real moments. Except I had fun twisting the sign board to make it a little different, hehe. I was laughing when I made that one. Not sure if anyone had ever did that but I kind of like the idea. After reached Jay's home I found this nice little wall and we did a couple of shots there. And they exchanged their rings at the end of the day with all real moments. Its easy to carry out a short beloved session each time after the big ceremony. I know there are shooters carry out many kinds of ending shots but I prefer to make it a natural and authentic one, as real things are always has value for memories.

Daddy's Little Girl - Joshua & Sam Wedding Day

It was an emotional day, after our small little pre-wedding session we had earilier, today Sam finally ready to depart from her home to a place called a new life. It was a unique day, before Sam depart her home, her dad grabbed her arm telling her have to be happy, and began to fall with tears, everyone in the scene began to infected by her dad and tears of joy just dropped, one by one. And I almost cried during that moment. The wedding may not be in a gorgeous looking house, or grand looking dress, but those family values that embedded on Sam was strong, and those elements simply overtaken those outward beauty and made all of us embrace those inward joy within them. Thank you Joshua and Sam, it was nice to be part of your life.