I’m full of love for this couple! Stephanie contacted me over instagram to chat about doing a cosy solemnisation with Zander at their place. I love it when we keep things short and sweet! Not that I dislike the bigger, fuller wedding banquets, but I just have a certain love for cosy, intimate journeys :)

Coming into this year, I’ve long made it a point that weddings in Singapore are never going to be the same in so many ways. The number of people who would be drastically reduced, and even the unpredicability of whether a wedding can be held, or where it can be held is up in the air until days before the actual date because of the ever-changing regulations based on Covid-19 infection situations. With that in mind, I wasn’t as surprised when we saw a number of changes happen on Zander and Stephanie’s side.

Because of the tightening of regulations, we no longer could host up to 8 guests at their place, excluding vendors. Luckily for us, Zander’s family gladly opened up their place as the majority of their family live at the same address, thus making it possible for us to have everyone in one place!

About a week before the solemnisation, Stephanie had a request to do a reveal. We decided to give it a little twist and had Zander’s two brothers dress up. Everyone was in on it and it made for quite the surprise!

We briefed the whole family and as the guys made their way down, we faced Zander to the wall and held our breaths (and mostly sniggers too). The whole family did a great job of keeping it in!

The result? A very shell-shocked Zander and thoroughly amused family! This definitely goes down into the historical of “he never saw THAT coming”, page 26. But of course, we still needed Stephanie to come down herself, so with the guys still in their dress, Steph made her way down for the REAL reveal.

A heart warming time we had and it was well worth the fun doing it! We proceeded then to the solemnisation and as we gathered around the sheltered patio, everything was perfectly set up. Except the ring. As the Reverend looked around. Raphael’s face drained. I’ve never seen anyone bolt to the second floor any faster to grab the box down! Thankfully we had the solemnisation in the house, just a three minute humorous delay!

As we concluded the solemnisation, i’m once again reminded how amazing it is to have a wedding with the ones closest to you here to celebrate this one moment with you - your family.

What perhaps is the best part of any wedding are the speeches. I find that even though I hardly know each couple deeply as their family would, I get emotional too when I hear their gratefulness reaching out to their friends and family. The look of love and emotions as they react is more than enough!

Saved for best probably, are when couples save the last of their speech for each other. It makes me think back to my own time when I got married. I don’t think i’ll ever forget that myself. Ladies (and gents yes you too) it’s totally okay to cry! Sometimes even I cry too when I hear the speeches. Call me a softie if you like!

Have I said how much I love this cosy solemnisation? I couldn’t wait to work on Zander and Stephanie’s images. One thing I often promise my couples are that they’ll get their pre-wedding or cosy short solemnisation images by the next day, and the longer ones within the week. That’s one guarantee I never do in a slipshot manner. With seven years of picture editing at the Global Picture desk at Reuters, this is a skillset i’ve honed over the years to bring quality and speed to the table, while standing in my client’s shoes to bring them their images of their big day back to them as soon as possible so that they can enjoy the images fresh from the moment. After all, I too have been married and understand what it’s like to wait for my pictures!

So from the moment I got home, I loaded up the pictures and churned them right out for them. By the end of the night, their solemnisation's gallery was back in their hands and in their mobile phones. Tired but fulfilled I called it a night knowing that Zander and Stephanie would wake up the next morning to their wedding images. I love my job! Was this the best wedding so far? It sure was. and i’ll never get bored calling all my weddings the best. I absolutely loved every part of this. Thanks for having me Zander and Stephanie!