Rivervale barn wedding
The first time I visited Rivervale. It was for Michelle and Teck’s wedding, and I can only describe it as utterly stunning. I was accompanied by the organizer for a walk around the venue and was told that the venue was purposely built for weddings with its wide aisles between the tables, the spacious ceremony room and the amazing, beautiful landscaped garden completed with a pond and a red Japanese bridge.
Great venue aside, it is the wedding couple that makes an amazing wedding. For me, this was a very special one; it was my first time witnessing a wedding mix of the Chinese wedding tradition and the western ceremony to seal the marriage in formality. You would be right to imagine it was a jam packed wedding with back to back activities. Besides, , I always welcome an opportunity to photograph something a bit different.
The wedding started with Michelle getting ready with bridesmaids doing their hair and make-up like most of the weddings, and then the similarity ends. After photographing Teck getting ready, we moved on to the traditional Chinese wedding ritual where the groom has to impress the ladies by any means, including singing, dancing, telling jokes and bribing them with a red envelope (with cash inside), so he can see the bride. The day progressed with a mixture of activities from different wedding traditions. It was almost like I was photographing two different weddings from the same couple.
I’ve always said that no two weddings are the same, they all have their personality and the uniqueness of a wedding is always the people in it. It was a great experience and I definitely very proud and humbled for Michelle and Teck to let me be part of their very special day.