I have known Zhiyuan for more than 20 years. Not that we are both very old, but because I have been best friends with his sister since our Primary School days. I have seen him grow up from a kid to a fine man that he is now. He is almost like a brother to me, and I was really humbled that he and his wife, Huilin, chose us as their wedding photographer for their wedding day.
When we first found out that Zhiyuan and Huilin had chosen Alice in Wonderland to be the theme for their wedding, we were delighted! We were looking forward to the extravagant props and decor. For the gatecrashing portion in the morning, Zhiyuan’s brothers took on the role of Card Soldiers, bearing the cards Ace to 6 of Hearts, and escorting the Groom to go through the challenges set out by the sisters before receiving his bride! To match the brothers, the sisters wore a dress with heart-shaped motifs on it. The gatecrashing challenges were rather unique and interesting, and nothing like we have seen so far. Credit goes to Alex, who is the husband of one of the sisters. He has been through countless orientation camps during school days and one can always count on him to come up with interesting challenges like these. To our amazement, we found out later that Alex is actually a very good friend of my brother. What a small world!
Kudos to the brothers who were game enough to wear the card props even when we went to Changi Airport (www.changiairport.com) for a short wedding photoshoot with the bridal couple and bridal party. It looks awesome in the photos!
During our ongoing discussions leading up to the wedding, Huilin told us about the numerous DIY stuffs that she would be preparing for the dinner banquet which got me all excited as I love shooting pretty pretty decor! Just to name a few, there was a large candy bar with various candies, Alice in Wonderland themed props at a photo booth, cute tea pots with Eat Me and Drink Me. My favourite of the lot was definitely the cool table numbers. What they did was to replace all the table numbers in the ballroom with large poker cards bearing the different numbers and shapes. Guests who registered at the reception table would be given a small card, say Ace of Spades, and that would be the table he/she would be sitting. What a simple yet brilliant idea! 🙂
The dinner banquet at Marina Mandarin went really well from our point of view, especially the table photography sessions. Zhiyuan’s brothers, especially Lynal and Zhipeng, were awesome as they ensured that the couple and us progressed smoothly from table to table. They were so professional, it appeared like they have been doing this all their life. Whenever we were done with one table, the next table was all ready, all in position, to welcome the couple.
14 hours flew by, and from both a professional and personal point of view, it was really an awesome day. A pity I didn’t have much time to catch up with my bestie Guanting as she and her husband, Ivan, flew back from Hong Kong specially for the wedding. I miss her as I’m writing this! This was a wedding that felt really really close to my heart and it’s days like these that make me cherish my job and the privilege given to me and Alvin to capture awesome memories for our wedding couples!
