As some of you may know (from my facebook fans page),  I took the wedding photos of noel last month.  It ’s my pleasure to be the photographer of  noel and bernard ’s wedding.

Noel is definitely one of the person that I really admired for in the wedding industry of hong kong . Not only because of her success in her wedding gown design business, but also her pleasant and nice character as well. the more I talk to her,  the more I understand why she is so successful.

OK, back to the photos, as Noel already had her wedding ceremony on another day, so the day was very flexible before the banquet at night. Hers  idea was  to take some good portraits of bernard and her in the afternoon, somewhere in Central (close to her studio) and inside peninsula hotel.  As I took numerous wedding photos in Central and peninsula before, it sounds easy, right? However, when I discussed with Noel about the idea, I had a very very strong feeling that I should do something more special, more unique and more personal for Noel, not just another set of central or peninsula wedding photos. During the meeting, I suddenly had the idea of taking the photo at her studio, and asked her if she had any photos taken before there. Surprisingly, she never had any good photo taken there, and we all love the ideas !!!!

let’s talk about the challenges I have. Before the wedding day, I already start think about the approach / direction, as a wedding gown designer, I shouldn’t miss any details of noel ’s wedding dress, the photos should be able to show the characteristics of all the dress. And as the studio is so meaningful, including  as many elements/features of the studio as possible in the photos is a key to me.

hope you all enjoy this set of wedding photos !!

here is one of my fav shot of Noel !!!!!

the wedding gown of a wedding gown designer

with “God is in nature NBC2″ on the wedding gown, a phase that is very important and meaningful to both bernard and noel, and changed their lives  

love this “getting ready” shot

let’s start !!

we had wonderful available light on the day !!!!!

inside the changing room 

this is absolutely one of my fav bridal shot of day !!!!!

I just don’t know how to use words to describe how beautiful of this dress ….. … 

a very interesting decoration concept from noel ’s friend vincent. It is just amazing !!!!! He just kept moving the bits and pieces around throughout the whole night, and created different look and feel. amazing !!!

father ’s speech

video: ken of simon.the.photo
makeup artist: polly of faceshk

ceremony: Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
lunch cocktails: Azure of Hotel LKF
reception: AMC

my fav shot of the day

a special ring shot

a few of my fav “getting ready” shot … …. very nice decoration at home 

mother and daughter

omg !!!!!

waiting inside during the game session

this is “when the groom meets the father-in-law”

heading to church

we didn’t have flower girl, but we had a flower dog !!!!!

Wow !!! what a beautiful shot !!!!

hillman, you may kiss the bride !!

love this very special moment !!!!

did I say we have a team of happy bridesmaids on the day? 

lunch cocktail at the Azure of Hotel LKF

a very nice location, isn’t it ?

awesome !!!! All handmade by one of the bridesmaid !!!!!!

touching moments !!!!

what a happy day for all of us !!!!! we really enjoyed it !!!!

heading to hillman ’s family for the tea ceremony

yeah !!!!

the decoration at AMC

head table set up

father daughter dance – so touching, kaleen prepared a childhood slideshow herselft and played it as the background, so touching !!!

it really took some time for kaleen to calm down after the dance !!!!

My answer is always, “for my photo shooting style, location is not important at all. shooting wide in pre-wedding session is not my favorite, instead, I am always looking for light, abstract details and emotions before looking at the background”

when I posted on my facebook that HKU is under renovation last month, I got lots  of emails and messages from clients that expressing their worries that it ’s not good to take photo there. My answer to them, ” don’t worry, it ’s going to be OK”

trust me, the background of a location is the least factor for me to consider. With a happy couple (this is more important for me), good lighting  and imagination, everywhere is possible for  good photos.

again, there is no limit, the limit is only your imagination.

location: HKU, Central SoHo, Shek O, Central (night shoot)
makeup: polly of faces hk

big challenge. Can you believe that it was taken at a building renovation site at HKU????

one more

the behind the scene shot (more bebind the scene shots at my facebook page)

1st stop: HKU

funny couple !!!

I did a few special ring shots on the day

2nd stop: soho central, gettting changed at my studio

3rd stop: shek O

another special ring shot

beautiful sunset light !!!!

the yoga master !!!!

last stop: central

nice dress !!!

ceremony and reception: Intercontinental Hotel Hong Kong
makeup artist: Man Chan of Miracle (tel:27391988)
music and band: unison production
video: ken of simon.the.photo

my fav bridal portrait of the day, taken at spoon of intercontinental

getting ready shots

the happy wedding party !!!

wow!!!

love all the games of the day, everyone was so involved

the poor groomsman

beautiful words from charles

and the happy tears from rachel

don’t miss to watch the summary video below prepared by ken

split second moment, just have to make sure 100% focus to take this shot !!!

rachel ’s father @ tea ceremony

charles ’s family @ tea ceremony

LOVE this shot – four layers in composition.

the happy charles  family

get ready before the ceremony

after learning that they got to know each other at a wine tasting gathering, then I thoughtwe should take some photos at the wine shelf at the spoon

the ceremony

nice decoration

“my love for you ….. …… ”

we love seeing surprises prepared by the wedding couple.

but we never expect to see so many big diamonds on a wedding day … …

After changing into a evening gown, venice walked into the ballroom from the changing room. To her surprise, “I have prepared a special desert for you” , said kenny. When the dish was uncovered, we saw shining light – it is a  set of diamond jewelry. Under the spot light, kenny helped her to put them on in front of all the guest.

Hi, all the other groom, if you are still thinking of what surprises you ‘d like to give to your bride on the wedding day, you may consider kenny ’s idea !!!!

reception: four seasons hotel hong kong
ceremony: no wedding ceremony on the day
video: ken of simon.the.photo
wedding planner: the plan

love.surprise.diamond

diamond of love

whole day summary prepared by ken of simon.the.photo

get ready shots in the morning

kenny in the morning

the game. kenny was asked to do the proposal again

happy tea ceremony

a beautiful moment at home

changed into wedding gown. As they already had the wedding ceremony before, the rundown of the day ‘re very relaxing, we got an one-hour portrait session inside hotel in the afternoon.

a very very nice veil shot

another surprise prepared by venice. she asked her friends to perform a dance for kenny. Cool !!!

lot of nice nice details of the dress

ceremony: kau yan church
reception: island shangri la
makeup artist: polly of facehk
video: ken of simon.the.photo

havn’t been uploading video here for a long time. I ‘d like to upload more video, but it really takes time for video conversion and uploading. Let me upload more videos from Ken in next two weeks.

did you notice that I posted less and less portrait photos on wedding day posts? I found that most of my clients love my photojournalist style on wedding day. Yes, we still do some portraits, but it usually doesn’t take more than  10-15 min. The followings are some of my fav portraits of Jo – which we did under 5 min (just before we left the church and still able to catch the last few min. of sunset light from windows)
as time is very short.  we only used available light and NO flash or video light was used. But the result was still stunning !!!

desmond in the morning

the bridesmaids

the beautiful bride – jo

the game

meeting the bride

meeting desmond ’s family

big family

the wedding gown

wow !!!!!!

arrived at  kau yan church

praying before ceremony

a big chaos for managing 4 pairs of flower boy and girls

ceremony at  kau yan church

something interesting at the back

congratulations !!!!

jo and desmond sang a song after the ceremony

reception at island shangri la. You can not imagine how much works involved in the photo, will be shared in later blog post

friends of jo. preparing hand made cake for the reception !!!!

gift for guests

reception about to start

desmond prepared a song for jo

see how much jo enjoyed this moment !!!!

same day video edit by ken of simon.the.photo

thank you jo for your big thumb up !!!!!!

The Catholic Cathedral is not very popular for me, only have 4-5 weddings there every year.  Personally, I don’t like all these big catholic church, specifically, their arrangement on wedding day. All of them just look like a wedding factory (sorry about this term), 4-5 weddings a day, one after the other, crowed with all different groups of people,  time is always very tight and makes people nervous.

Have said that, all these catholic Churches are very beautiful, both outside and inside.  I shot the wedding of Valerie and Andrew at the Catholic Cathedral in last wedding season. Love this couple – always had smile on their face, especially Andrea, you could hear the big laughters from him (something like haha haha) throughout the whole day.

ceremony: Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
reception: peninsula hotel
video: ken of simon.the.photo
wedding planner: Noel Chu

Love the following pic a lot. My fav shot of valerie of the day. When we arrived, there ‘re so many people at the church (from previous wedding). And Valerie had to wait inside the limo as there is no bridal room there … … Look at the way Valerie looking at the church, you can see how much she looked forward to her own wedding. Always love this kind of window reflection shot, the results are always unexpected !!!

nice rings. taken by the Ricoh GRD III.

a very nice invitation card. Both Ken and I wondered how we could  capture this special metallic feel, finally we decided to put some water drops on it. Not bad ar !!!

wedding gown by Noel Chu. Lots of details !!!

ready !!!

the crying father behind.
Lots of emotion on a wedding day. As a wedding photojournalist, we have to keep focus on what ’s going to happen.
love the layering of this pic

another limo shot during the wait – lucky we had a ceiling light inside – just strong enough to make this shot

the ceremony

“I do”

the crying valerie

don’t cry baby

we are the final wedding of the day, so we could do a few portraits inside after the ceremony.

very special decoration at peninsula

I had seen groom singing to the bride on wedding day … …

I had seen groom dancing in front of the bride … …

I had seen groom giving very touching speech … …

In the wedding of elsa and harold, I had seen harole prepared a letter to elsa, wrote down all the feelings he had since he met her.

So romantic.

ceremony: marriage registry at cotton tree drive
reception: mandarin oriental Hong Kong

harold and his letter

who won’t cry at this moment?

harold ‘s waiting … … he looked nervous, didn’t he?

the rings

elsa in the morning

happy parents

elsa and her best friends

going to harold ‘s home

“I do”

a moment during the ceremony

who ‘s going to catch the bouquet

the long long toasting time

harold ‘s funny speech