Happy new year “兔011” to all of you! Let me unleash the long winded fury to kick start the first blog post of the new year!! Beware, ultra long post ahead! Hehehe!

Raymond Phang Photography spent the last day of Year 2010 working during the day, and busy drinking in the evening about 7ish! It all started when I spotted the pet bottle of Bailey’s Irish cream with a hint of peppermint and chocolate. It was a gift Raymond’s mum received few years back on her 60th birthday. Susu loves Bailey’s, especially with peppermint! I asked her to finish the bottle otherwise keep so long already later become “curd-y” like the previous bottle. So I poured two full cups of the Bailey’s for Susu and Raymond. They drank, and then after awhile Susu the fridge raider said she was hungry, and asked who wants cheese sausage. So I told her cheese sausage have to go with the Jacob’s Creek sparkling rosé. Not the giant bottle, but the pet bottle version. I kind of make all the weird rules in the studio, and at that point of time I just wanted Susu to drink something. 😛

Who knows Susu rejected my offer! She didn’t want anything sparkling/gassy, but she said red wine was fine. Fine, so I took out a bottle of red wine, and said cheese sausage can only be eaten if she drinks the red wine. She tried to finish her cup of Bailey’s which she did, and she microwaved/grilled the cheese sausage. Minutes later, cheese sausage was done, I gathered the two monkeys to the dining table, and Raymond opened the first bottle of red wine. Nothing fancy, nothing spectacular, just a cheap bottle of red wine. We got three plastic cups out, and I had this idea to play the number game that we always play with our friends call “chut hoh beh!”. Each of us have to display any numbers from 1 to 5 with our fingers/hand, and we tabulate the total amount. Before we start the game, we have to decide the direction of the flow (clockwise/anti clockwise), start counting from which person, and any special rules like the person who kena the last count can choose who to accept the punishment etc.

I poured the red wine, one cup super full, one cup mid full, and one cup with the least amount of red wine. It was war between the two monkeys as they were the ones who always kena the mid or full cup wine. Hahahaha!! Very soon we finished the first bottle of red wine, and then we opened the second bottle of dry rose from Nederburg. Nothing fancy, and really not our cup of tea. We were pretty much in agony trying to finish the bottle of wine. Susu got high a little, and I set a rule saying that whoever spills a drop of alcohol on the table will have to finish the remaining alcohol in the bottle. She spilled, she laughed, almost spilled again, so she finished the entire bottle of less than half a plastic cup.
So she got suuuuuper high, started laughing like hyena, “cursing and swearing” while Raymond and I were happily taking video – at least some memories for  her to look back when she’s older. And I secretly think it might make the most awesome wedding gift for her in the form of a video montage. Muwahahahahaha!

I got a terrible headache afterwards, and Susu started hiccuping non stop. With every hiccup she had, it will be followed by an “aiyo” sound from her. Then she started sprawling all over the floor, volunteering her tshirt and jeans as a mop cum broom. She crawled all the way from the meeting area to the toilet, complaining that the light switch was so high and beyond her reach, she broke the lock to the toilet door, hugged the toilet bowl, wet her tshirt when she tried to wash her face, wasted a few glasses of water when she almost fell asleep without closing the tap, hugged the toilet bowl again, and puked gloriously like the Merlion.

WHAT A WAY TO START THE NEW YEAR! Hahahahahaha!! Raymond had to leave at about 10ish for a shoot till about 2am, so Susu and I watched the pathetic fireworks together. I think she caught like 5-10 second glimpse of it and then concuss again. We had to send her home when Raymond returned from his shoot.
For Susu, it was a Happy new year “吐011”! Muwahahahahahaha! How was yours? 😛
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That aside here’s one of my favourite series of wedding images shot in Year 2010! Keng Been and Elayna’s actual day wedding~ The couple had the morning whipping session for the groom and brothers, tea ceremony, some quick outdoor shots, and dinner banquet. You should see the dinner reception where the table was laid with all the super nice goodies, very pretty and it makes you feel like lingering around as long as you can and finish gobbling them all. 🙂


I was feeling hungry and this image of the buns appealed to me with the smooth texture, pastel color and cute little umbrellas. So I had to post it. 😛

One of my favourite getting ready shot.

For Cinematography, the couple engaged Ami from The Wedding Paparazzi.

The sisters were all clad in school uniform, seemingly innocent, but wait till you see their power at the gate crashing…


I like the “kungfu manual” they were holding, it was part of the gate crashing props. I saw it at Mini Toons or More than words one day, expecting cartoons or drawings to be inside, but it is actually a plain notebook! And they come in different titles for the cover page, and if I remember correctly, it’s about $2.90 or $3.90 each. Nice! 🙂

Elayna putting on her chunky earring, and I thought it matched pretty well with her gown together with the other pieces like the bangle and ring. Her ring is very unique, and I’ll share a close up picture of it at a later part.

When mummy put on the veil for her, she got a little emotional and started tearing. A very touching moment, and often at this point of time Raymond will usually be affected too.

Now let’s go welcome the groom shall we?? I love Elayna’s doggie, especially the pointy tail that looks like an antenna! Hahahaha!

Here’s dog dog with the tail down, secretly warning Keng Been of the coming storm.

But Keng Been was not daunted by any of the sisters’ evil plot or tricks. I like the image with dog dog included inside, with everyone facing away from the camera except for dog dog. Yes, the brothers wore the same school uniform too!

The games started even before they arrived at Elayna’s unit!

Sweet school girls with geeky glasses. Don’t you just love them? And because a lot of relatives / friends will surely be taking pictures with their cameras as well, they tend to upload the pictures to facebook within the week. At least there’s something for excited couples to browse through after the wedding ceremony is over. But on our side we take a much longer time looking through every images individually and edit them because we shoot in Raw format. So we will usually take at least 1 month to 3 months depending on the wedding season to complete the editing. In this case, we really appreciate all our couples who didn’t haunt after us for their wedding images, like Keng Been and Elayna! 🙂

Now back to the gatecrashing part. The brothers were actually welcomed to Hawaii once they arrived at the lift lobby of Elayna’s place. Posters of pretty Hawaiian girls pasted on the wall with a table full of props for the brothers. So exciting!

See how happy the sisters were!

“Fine, I will sacrifice my chastity and strip down to nothing if it makes you happy!”

“Nooooooooo, darling, let me do it!”

Meanwhile, Gary decided to heck care and flaunt it. Feeeeee-U-weeeeeet!!

And let the games begin!

Raymond spotted one particular brother who likes to “piak” people’s underwear. Muwahahahahaha!

Hmmmmmmmm…………. I can’t help but to notice that the sisters nowadays are getting more and more into “nipples”… wait till I share with you on Andrew and Claris’ actual day wedding. Poor poor brothers…

While one was being tortured, the other stood by and laughed at his poor misery…

Look what happened next…. Muwahahahahaha!

Next, the sisters presented a dish of something. Looks like fermented curd or weird looking poisonous Cheese…

But once again, Gary the brave warrior beats all the brothers hands down!

And decided to sabo Keng Been this time round when Keng been was innocently eating the pink fluffy bun… =_=”

Poor Keng Been was forced to have a taste of the yucky curdy thing.

Moving on, the brothers were then asked to doll up and look pretty.

Oh my goodness… Keng Been had indeed went through a lot of suffering for his princess!

Next, the sisters present more kungfu manuals!

Keng Been buay tahan already…

Decided to make his first offer of bribery

End up it was a trick!!!! And it got the sisters reeeeeally unhappy~

Sensing the wrath of the sisters boiling like hot lava, Keng Been quickly took another ang pow and put in some money to appease them.

Angry sisters rushing Keng Been to quickly hang over the ang pow, or else. Keng Been pretended to look as if he has placed a lot of money inside this time round, with a happy and excited face.

Who knows, it’s a cutesy note of $50!!! Sister is reaaaaaally unhappy this time round, and if she unleash her power from the kungfu she has mastered from the “Heavenly Wordless Manual”, nobody is able to determine Keng Been and his brothers’ fate within the next 2 seconds.

Brothers trying to stall time and appease the sisters by looking as smiley as possible while Keng Been decided to make a phone call for help! I guess he has already utilised his 50-50, Ask the audience, and now he’s left with the final Phone-A-Friend.

Who would have thought that the sisters really loved the cutsey note, and in fact they wanted more~

So when Keng Been presented the legal tender note to them, the sisters got even furious to the point of breaking down!

The gatecrashing went on and on and on, and I shall spare you the details of it by skipping to this image with the KEY!

Finally Keng Been stepped foot in the house after being tormented and tossed around like salad by both the brothers who kept sabo-ing him, and the evil sisters.

He gets to meet his beloved princess!! Look at the kids’ expression… I’m sure the curious kids must be wondering what on earth are the two of them doing, why are they doing it, and how does it feel. Will it hurt or give them wings? Will they exchange the satay and burger they had last night with each other during the “transfusion”?

Awww… so sweet!

So the couple had some time for a quick outdoor shoot at the rooftop of the car park.

Class photo of the 14 “pai kia” students and 2 teachers.


They love their teachers! Awwwww~~ (:

Now let’s get ready for the morning assembly and say our pledge with pride!

As you can see, when the teachers were not noticing, the students were all up to no good! Just like how you secretly munch on snacks when the teacher turned his back towards you, or how you quickly unfold the notes with answers you have in your pencil case because you didn’t want to study for your spelling test. Kekekeke.

Bullying incidents on the left, sharing censored material stored in their mobile phone at the back, girl tugging another girl’s collar with the other pulling the pony tail, and two other female students plotting to elope together. Wah, not easy to be the teacher of this class!

After the shoot when everyone let down their guard, who knows the brothers decided to sabo Keng Been again!

They carried him and tossed him in the air like roti prata! Only difference is they managed to catch him when he fall and not turn and walk away or smack him down against the floor. Muwahahahaha!


It’s the weird tang yuan (sometimes red date soup, sometimes egg with mee sua, sometimes half cooked fish etc) feeding time.

And a hearty tea ceremony session!

Oooh la~la~~

Keng Been happily removing the veil for Elayna for her next change of Cheongsam.

Loving the window light and how it soften the whole image.

Raymond Phang’s signature motion car shot on actual day wedding.

And here’s dog dog with a change of outfit too!! A red ribbon! 🙂

Here’s the second part of the wedding with Elayna getting ready for the evening banquet.

This is the first time I’ve seen a super blinged up handphone cover! With crystals, ribbons, pearl, flower and everything else. Too bad I cannot survive with this because I often abuse my phone with too much work, need to keep in pocket, squat down and throw all over the place.

And now, the many many boxes of wedding favours and goodies!!

Little buckets of raspberries, boxes of popcorns, and sticks of macaroon!

This must be bars of chocolate and customised M&Ms! A lot of thought has been put into setting up a corner like this!

Pretty “cakes” and lollipops, in the theme of red and black.

TADAH!!


Whirly cream sticks~

Pretty roses, and I believe Elayna must be a big fan of roses!

Luckily I wasn’t at the wedding, otherwise I would have shifted the entire table back to the studio. Muwahahahahaha!

The couple had their wedding at Marriott hotel, and Michelle the wedding coordinator was a great help!

More of the wedding favours… SO CUTE! Elayna is a partner of WeddingFavours.com.sg, and the many varieties of wedding favour given out in our goodie bag at the Style Weddings roadshow last year was kindly sponsored by them!

Here are some of the wedding favours by their company, and the images taken are from their website :: http://www.weddingfavours.com.sg/index.php

This is actually a handphone charm. So sweet!

Wedding favour box with robot bride and robot groom. Hehehe.

Wine stopper with heart shape crystal drop.

Little bearer of blessing handphone bears, and it comes with the chocolate!

You swept me off my feet favour box.

This is a pink blossom flower pouch which doubles up as a corsage!
They have a variety of wedding favours ranging from as low as $0.50, with new stocks and designs coming in frequently and clearance sale items as well.  Super cute bridal cookies, handphone charms, ring pillow, feather pen, favour box and  lots more! It is highly encouraged that you join their mailing list for the latest updates, and if you would like to customise your own wedding favours, you can drop them an email enquiry at [email protected].  🙂

Now, back to the wedding! Yes, this blog post took me a lot of time to write! Hahahaha! But I’m enjoying it! 🙂

The flower girls, scattering petals even before the march in. 🙂

Little girl complaining to Keng Been, and the facial expression is a matter of few seconds.

Bangyao the bilingual emcee for the night whom Raymond mentioned has done a wonderful job.


Here’s an image of the couple’s wedding ring. Yes, their wedding ring!! The most unique ring we have shot so far, and the couple designed it themselves. I haven’t had the chance to speak to the couple (will be meeting them really soon to show them the wedding images!!) about the ring, but personally I think this is a 2-in-1 ring, which serves as an engagement ring and a wedding ring altogether. That’s why got the diamond on top of the rose. Hehehe~
Maybe you might have to be a bit more careful when you’re wearing or handling clothes with frilly or lacy designs, but I thought this ring has an even greater meaning since it is a design by the couple themselves. You cannot buy this off the rack in a jewellery shop, and you won’t see a second couple wearing this for their wedding. I’m not so sure why the design for the Keng Been’s ring, but this is exactly the point! Only the couple knows the siginificance of it. And whenever they see the ring, it will remind them of the times they spend together. 🙂

Hor hor, never do homework, last minute then think of Thank You speech! 😛

Demonstrating how should a bride kiss the groom? Muwahahaha!

I like this image a lot, and Keng Been’s expression tops it all.

The March-in.

Champagne popping

Champagne pouring

And toasting!

“Gud lat” brothers doing the yum seng.

I love the irony of this image!! Boy Boy finds it noisy so he’s trying to block off the yum seng shouting from his ears, yet at the same time he’s contributing to the noise by joining in with the yum seng!

More Yum Sengs from the sisters.

And Bangyao gave a speech.

Which touched Keng Been’s heart, as well as Elayna’s.

Now the couple’s turn to give a speech.

A kiss for his lovely wife.


Darn! I should have been there to listen what Keng Been was saying! Heartfelt thanks to couples who have invited me to their wedding, but unfortunately most of the time I couldn’t make it to the ceremony as I had to stay in the studio to do backups, clear email enquiries, work on album layout.  We do three level of back up, one in the main computer, one to the NAS network storage system and final level of back up by burning them into DVDs making sure all datas have been successfully verified. After which I need to label them properly, and usually I will take a quick browse of the images as well. 🙂

Keng Been plays a tune on the Saxophone specially for Elayna.

It moved Elayna to tears.

Play a tune on saxophone not enough, must constantly maintain eye contact with the person whom you are playing the tune to. Like that then can shun bian send some electric vibes across to the person. More effective, success rate of sending the message across is higher!

Not an easy feat, and mission accomplished!

It made Elayna happy, and I am very sure she will remember this special performance for life. 🙂

As you can see, Keng Been was rewarded with hugs instead of rotton eggs, so it means his performance was good!!

Raymond had a breeze photographing their wedding simply because the couple enjoyed themselves and let go, they laugh when they are happy, they are not overly worried on whether they will look good infront of the camera. As long as you throw these restrictions away, you will naturally look good. Bottom line is –  your mood affects Raymond’s and also the outcome of your wedding images. 🙂

Here comes Alcohol, the life of the party.

1 glass where got enough, must drink 3 / 4 glasses ah!

Love this image too!



Oh no, everyone is high! But zoom in on the person sitting down beside Keng Been.

Ooops~

And Keng Been gulped a glass of weird concoction. Look at the glass…. all goey and blurred and stained…

More drinking, gung ho uncles game for more yum seng!


And then, Keng Been received a miniature chest as a gift.

He opened it up, and found some silver coins in a pile of sand.

I’m not so sure if these are the wedding unity coins / arras, but it seems like there are  12/13 coins altogether. The gift represents the bride’s dowry and good wishes for prosperity, symbolising the groom’s trust and confidence with the responsibility of a provider. With this, he pledges his ability to support and care for the bride. The number 13 actually symbolises Jesus Christ and his twelve apostles.

On a side note, besides symbolising the groom’s committment to take care of his bride, it also make his wealth hers!!! I believe it should be a latin american tradition for weddings, and it’s a goooooood one! No wonder Keng Been is laughing so hard. But I think he must be crying even harder inside. Muwahahahahaha!!

And time to say goodbye. 🙂

Hope you guys enjoy this series as much as I do! Till the next, you guys take care! 🙂
Lots of ♥,
– Angeline