01.01.11 Red Chinese Wedding

Congrats to Wei Ee and Ya Wei who tied the knot on the 1st of January 2011. I am delighted to feature their wedding, which is steep in tradition and culture. The bright and majestic combination of red, pink and gold is indeed a sight to behold.

From the Planner: I have a soft spot for cultural weddings. Perhaps it’s simply because most couples are modernising their weddings these days, leaving out most of the cultural and tedious details that are required by the older folks. So ironically, organising a full-on traditional wedding is a breath of fresh air. For every wedding that we have planned, we always take home something new, be it a new experience, a lesson learnt, new friends we’ve made and more often that not, the shared joy when the couple exchanged their vows. This wedding, however, served as a gentle reminder on the importance of filial piety and Godliness, and of courtesy and respect to the elders. I think the entire planning process can be summed up to two simple rules: (1) That a banquet must be a prosperous banquet, that means it must be gratuitous, bounteous and generous in excellent food and drinks. (2) That no unnecessary expense should be incurred unless they are justifiable.

The Ballroom foyer of Shangri-La Hotel was decked out with antique furniture from Ming Qu Antique House. We were admittedly, quite clueless about the appreciative values of these furniture, but it was a real ‘treat’ for guests who are ardent collectors. One of the Blackwood daybed was used as a photo corner whereas tea set were used to display photo albums.

For the morning session, the bridesmaids dressed down to light, sun dresses whereas the ‘more man-ly’ bridesmaids dressed up to the theme and went all out to entice the groomsmen! It was the most sporting bridal party I’ve come across to-date! The tea ceremony took up almost 1.5 hours in total. The bride comes from a large family and I think we had over 120 guests just for the morning ceremony alone! The bride wore a beautiful custom designed halter neck gown by Eric Choong in the morning, before changing into a Qua for the second part of the tea ceremony. Wishing Tree, as always, created beatiful floral pieces to complement the house interior and my favourite were the flowers for the prayer altar.

Wedding Location: Malaysia
Size of Function: 900 guests

Wedding Reception: Shangril-La Hotel, Kuala Lumpur
Wedding Planner: Natasha Khoo, The Peak Xperience
Wedding Photography: Photowerkz in collaboration with Grant Corban
Master of Ceremony: Radio deejay Eric Ma
Furniture/Props: Ming Qu Antique House
Bridal Gowns: Eric Choong
Jewellery: Hong Kong Gem & Jewelry
Bridal Flowers & House Decor: Wishing Tree
Hair & Make Up: Faevien Yee (A Cut Above)

Contemporary Chinese Tea Ceremony & Putrajaya Cruise (Part 3)

“Dear Joveyn, my one and only lover. You’re my hottest colour. I want to be your Mini Cooper. To be your all-time favourite. I’ll always be your shade, for all the rainy days. To be your private jet, for all your holidays. I wanna be your best date, no facebook whatsapp sms. We will enjoy our dinner plate, no iPhone sticking to my face. I’ll be your vending machine, loaded with surprises, gifts and love. A KIOSK that always pleases my queen, like the stars and sun above. Between you and my Beemer, I never will think twice. No matter sea or river, you’ll always be my first choice. Today I make you my wife. The choice will be for life. Even when we’re ninety-five, you will still be the love of my life.”    -Henry-

You’ve seen their sweet, beautiful garden wedding in Sabah, the Land Below the Wind. Probably swooned over their uber-cool, elegant  tiffany blue ballroom wedding held in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. Today, we embrace the rich cultural aspect of our tradition as we bring you some interesting photos of their Marriage Registration and Chinese Tea Ceremony. Prior to their dinner reception, Henry and Joveyn had their official registration onboard a cruise boat at Putrajaya and a contemporary Chinese tea ceremony which were witnessed by just a handful of closest friends and family.

From the photographers: Joveyn and Henry, such a loving and fun couple. At one glance you would instantly know that these two people were a match made in heaven. The ROM they had was a really interesting one because it was held on a Cruise Boat in Putrajaya. It was an intimate and very private event with family members and bridal party with lots of love and laughter. Luckily enough, we were blessed with good weather as it did start to drizzle as we boarded the boat. At this point, Joveyn seemed a little worried and disappointed that the weather was acting up. As always, I as the trained FIFOTO wedding photographer assured her it will clear up and it won’t be raining when we want to head up to deck for shots. Guess what, it stopped the moment we headed up (FIFOTO weather strikes again)!! Had quite a lot of fun shooting as the Heng Tai’s and Chi Mui’s were a crazy fun bunch. Henry & Joveyn went all out for the traditional bridal games in the morning. And finally, after weeks of hearing about the infamous Mini since the ROM shoot, I finally got to see the cute white car tied with a huge ribbon! This was a gift from Henry to Joveyn as a wedding present! Talk about setting the bar high!

This couple really had everything they wanted, cleverly segmented into various occasions of their celebration. The wedding entourage and bridal games are by far the most colour coordinated ones we’ve seen to-date. Everything was in the shade of pink or red, right down to the shade of ‘ink’ used for the games. What’s even more interesting is the fact that the groomsmen were so well prepared that they started off in full throttle after a round of Tongkat Ali. In fact, they were one step ahead as they brought a suitcase of ‘cash’ to entice the ladies and came prepared with a wedding vow for the final round of ‘challenge’ before entering the bridal room. After the bridesmaids made the men wear silly ribbons on their head and danced to the song by the Wonder Girls, the groomsmen, being a real sport, wore it as a bow tie to the dinner reception. All in the name of FUN!

For more photos, check out Fifoto‘s site.