Matthew & Evelyn are teachers.  They are awesome teachers. They are such awesome teachers that their students wanted to become part of their bridal party!  Getting to know them,  it’s no surprise why, actually.  They are the kind of people you just enjoy being with, the kind that make you feel good, from the inside out.

Photographing their wedding was a breeze.  The chemistry between the both of them was so strong, and they love that they had for each other was evident through all the little gestures and looks that they gave each other.

We were joking with Matthew & Evelyn that perhaps we should get some Ministry of Education accreditation, something like “MOE Certified Wedding Photographers” or something like that.  Is there such a thing???

When Ah Ma came, she was all smiles

Evelyn looked ravishing even before the entire makeup process was completed

Eugene, Evelyn’s brother, getting a sneak shot

Matthew was just all smiles and ready to get his bride

Not so fast…

Yes, they were REALLY this cheerful the whole day

Here they are at it again!

Evelyn preparing for the solemnisation and dinner in the evening

We had time for some beautiful portraits before solemnisation started

Love the simple and elegant setting they had for their solemnisation

Sealed!

Matthew & Evelyn’s “wishing tree”

There’s that look of love again!

Matthew taking a glance at his lovely bride

Taking a peek at their express highlights done by us

More images on our Facebook page.

Matthew & Evelyn, we had a splendid time at your wedding. Thank you for entrusting us with your beautiful day.

~ With Love, Gene

Early in the morning, Windy panicked when it started to rain cats and dogs just before her shoot. I reassured her and decided to start with the indoor session first. By the time we were done, the rain miraculously stopped and we had splendid light so we were able to shoot outdoors! After our shoot, the rain returned and it continued to drizzle for the rest of the day.

Alvin & Windy, this is proof that God loves you both a whole lot!  Can’t wait to meet you little bundle of joy soon!

~ With Love, Gene

(More images on our Facebook page)

Now we celebrate his union with Stacey and thank them for the opportunity to be part of their beautiful ceremony. From the exchange of their self-written vows, witnessed by a close group of family & friends and surrounded by God’s beautiful creations, it was nothing short of perfect.

Goli wishes you all the best! Enjoy the adventure you will be embarking on together!

~Oli

Adelin runs a blogshop making jewellery at http://mytreasurestoyou.blogspot.com/ and http://niko-ad.blogspot.com/ and Daniel is in the Navy!  What a cool couple!

Their wedding was full of fun and laughter.  As I was shooting their wedding, I couldn’t help smiling all the way at the bubbly and fun-loving couple and their equally jolly friends.  Time just flew by so easily when we had so much fun!

Daniel & Adelin, thank you for allowing us to be part of your wedding and a heartfelt congratulations from Goli!  Cheers!

~Gene

Goli will be away in Phuket for a wedding followed by a holiday in Hong Kong the coming week!

Should you have any enquiries or if you just which to drop us a note, just do so. We’ll attempt to reply any emails as and when we can. Do pardon us for any delays.

We’ll be back with photos for sure!

With Love,
Goli =)

So now I’ll continue on our ‘mini-series’ of revealing the heart of PhotosByMarbles.

The very first thing we’d like to say is that Goli has just celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary! Yay!!! That’s why we’ve been quite quiet on our Facebook page and this blog. We’ve been trying to spend quality time together. I say trying because we’ve still been meeting up with couples, our printer, searching for new ideas for our prints and all while fulfilling our roles in our church ministries and day jobs. Yep, we do have a pretty full plate on our hands but we are really thankful to be in the position that we are in now.

That’s because as Gene has said, covering all these weddings has blessed us in so many ways. We’re so thankful & happy to be part of such happy, love-soaked unions, each wedding reminding us of our own vows that we’ve promised to each other. Also, seeing each unique couple have their individualities shine through yet blend so well with each other and what more, being able to capture that for them to savour in years to come. It’s really such a privilege.

Having our day jobs is also, for now, a great advantage. It’s helps us provide album choices of a beautiful quality and other cool choices in our packages for our couples to enjoy without pushing up costs for our couples. But I do have to say this, that we really appreciate all our friends who are in this full time and hope all who read this also do because we know the costs involved (financially, emotionally & physically) and how many couples still want ‘value for money’, some times forgetting or pushing aside the fact that for their photographers and videographers, it’s their livelihood.

Having our day jobs is also sometimes a bane because to have a balance, we’ve been taking in only a limited number of weddings and bridals even though some times we really want to be there for those couples that have really shown appreciation for our work.

Well, this brings me to Q&A time!

We’ve recently had quite a few questions from our couples and I thought that it’d be nice to add some here as part of revealing ourselves to you.

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How long have we been doing this?

As Gene said, it’s been 3 years. The 1st wedding he shot was actually in 2006. We decided to put PhotosByMarbles’ start date as October 2006, after that wedding cos that when Goli officially got together. So this year will actually be our 4th year!!! Time flies!

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Why are your prices like that?

This one’s difficult to answer. Many in the industry have said we’re too cheap (you know who you are!) and many referred from couples whom we’ve shot from 2-3 years ago say we’re so expensive now. So I guess it depends which group you belong to.

It’s obvious that we don’t charge $800 a day anymore. We also definately don’t think we’re up to par to charge $5k a day. What we can say is that throughout all these years, we have been continually trying to improve ourselves and our packages. What may seem like the same package from 4 years ago is actually very different. Same number of hours? Yes. But have you seen our progression of albums? Recently, we upgraded our basic album provided in our package to a much better quality one, and we err… didn’t raise the price. In fact, we started out doing 4R prints and made the change to our current albums to better tell the story of what happened (as Gene like to tell our couples).

Gene’s skills have also grown a lot and I’m sure many of our friends who have been following us from years ago can attest to this (take it from me, he’d say I’m his greatest critic). Thus (like I some how always end up saying to Gene) ‘Bang for your buck!’. LOL (don’t ask, I also have no idea why I’d say that.)

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What special offers do you have?

Now, I was puzzled by this for some time. We thought by keeping our prices affordable, that that would be a special offer already. (Also because for our own wedding, we just agreed with the price our PG gave that was within our budget and didn’t try to bargain. Or at least I don’t remember bargaining) BUT! We’ve recently been educated about this! We think it’s the ‘what do you give us free’ and ‘can you give me best price/discount’ that’s being asked of us.

Errr… We don’t really have much to give free. Free pen? Err, 1 free 4R print? But that’s so not us in the sense that we feel it really doesn’t add value to your wedding experience. We can give you a free extra DVD cover but we know that that wouldn’t give you a warm lovey dovey feeling inside. So all we have to give is in our packages and sometimes some extras that our couples find out about when they give us the honour of working with them. Ha ha! Secret! No lah, you just really have to meet us to find out!

Which now brings me to the end of this really long episode of this series. (Gene says he’s not a writer so he leaves all this long writing to me and that’s why his post is still at Part 1. Bah…)

Gene and I are really not the cheesy kind, so do forgive us if we don’t say stuff like ‘we’ll slash our prices in half just for you’ etc etc. (Sorry, too much aussie commercials in me). But we do believe in providing the very best for all our couples. You’ve chosen to entrust your Big Day into our hands and CF cards. So, being the OCD person I am and with Gene’s earnestness, we always stretch ourselves to make sure we’ve done our best for you.

That’s all for now! Till our next entry!

Oli

I had the pleasure of working with Sam from SimpleMotion for this wedding and it was a blast.

Here are some of my favourite images…

Yingmei and Andy were all smiles on their wedding day and during our portrait session. Despite the rather warm weather, they were pretty much game for anything. Needless to say, their wedding day was full of fun.

Yingmei told me she’s a very strict teacher.  It was kinda hard to believe when you see the chirpy side of her the whole of her wedding day.

To Andy & Yingmei… Congratulations to you both and have a blessed marriage!

More photos on our Facebook page. =)

Well, with the recent end of the end-2009 wedding season, I’ve been reflecting on how far we’ve come.

It’s been 3 years since I shot my first wedding, and the more weddings I shoot, the more sure I am that weddings is what I love to shoot. There’s so much emotion involved in a wedding.  It’s always a thrill to capture the love of a couple on their very special day, knowing that it’s a beginning of their wonderful life together.  The little glances at each other during the course of the day, the look of affirmation in each others’ eyes amidst the hustle and bustle of the wedding day.  There’s also the joy and the pride of the couples’ parents seeing their child take that big step starting a new family unit with someone dear.

At a wedding, there’s never a dull moment.  It’s always full of energy.  It’s a time when emotions run high.  These emotions are real, real to the very core as friends and family express their happiness for the couple from the innermost parts of their being.

Every couple is different.  The way they show their love for each other is unique.  The way they laugh is unique.  The way they touch each other is unique.  There are shy couples, loud couples, fun-loving couples.  Because every couple is unique, so are their images and their albums.  A couple’s album not only captures the essence of their wedding day, it also tells of their character.  At PhotosByMarbles, every bit of care is put into creating our couples’ albums, ensuring that their albums are beautiful, yet tell the story of their wedding day.   Being able to capture these precious moments for our couples makes every effort worthwhile.

My favourite part of the entire process is when we deliver the final product to our couples.  Letting them reminisce their big day all over again through our images simply thrills me and gives me a sense of great achievement and satisfaction.  I feel warm and fuzzy when I see our couples smile at their completed album, occasionally giving each other a smile of acknowledgement.

Stay tuned for my next post, which I attempt to share with you, our dear readers, more about myself as an individual. *Fingers crossed*

~Gene