The Cinematic Concepts team missed a week of strong rains in Manila as they spent those days to cover the union of Mike and Tessa in Sabah, Malaysia. Sabah is known as "Sabah, negeri di bawah bayu", which means "Sabah, the land below the wind", because of its location just south of the typhoon-prone region around the Philippines (wikipedia).
Monday, the night before the wedding and a week before the Ramadan, the Cinematic Team arrived in Kota Kinabalu. Two of Tessa's long time friends graciously met up with the team and brought them to their hotel. The team rested with high expectations.
Tessa's preparations started early in the morning the following day.
The CC-Team arrived at Tessa's house and found her in the hands of her hair and make up artist, Boy.
All eyes were on the bride as if everyone were making sure that she looked perfect that day.
Tessa prepared at her family's house at Penampang where she spent 4 hours just to have her nails done. The final product was a work of art.
There is a cultural difference in shooting Mike and Tessa's Catholic wedding at Kota Kinabalu. There were some likeness to Filipino weddings even though Malaysian tradition was completely new to the team. The Sino-Kadazan Wedding lasted for more than a day. The second day of the wedding tradition came a few days after the church wedding where the newly weds' and their family wore traditional Kadazan costumes.
Apparently, it is a common practice for to-be wed couples to not see each other before the ceremony.
The team met with Mike, the groom, at St. Michael's Penampang. Mike is the youngest, the 12th of his siblings who is also the last to get married.
In the outset of the ceremony, the entourage did not walk down the isle. Instead, huge bell's outside the church were rung by the couple's brothers and friends signaling the start of the ceremony where everyone instinctively took their places inside the church.
The flower girls and ring bearers marched first, followed by the maid of honor, the bride's sister. Tessa walked down the aisle with her parents.
The flexibility to shoot the couple at any point of the ceremony was not possible due to strict rules inside the church.
The team attempted to impart some fun Filipino wedding practices for the after ceremony photo shoot. All the guests were asked to show their funniest poses in front of the camera. It appeared unusual to the guests specially the older folks who were perplexed with the wacky pose.
The reception immediately followed in the afternoon at Tanjung Aru's First Beach. Hot Coffee, Cold Tiger Beer and Heineken's were served while everyone was expecting a great sunset.
An unforeseen rain poured heavily briefly while Mike and Tessa were having a photo shoot by the beach. This made the shots likable even when the team and the couple tried to run for cover when it started raining.
When the dark clouds finally passed, the couple encouraged everyone to go back to the shore. Mike and Tessa tried to light their first wish lantern.
Everyone followed momentarily lighting up the sky with heart shaped flying lanterns.
Nicely written :). Love the part about the wacky pose. Tehee!
Awesome shots :)
Posted by: S Syazmin | August 18, 2010 at 03:35 PM
Thanks Sands! There will be a continuation...
Posted by: Rommel | August 20, 2010 at 12:27 AM
cool! can't wait for that! :)
Posted by: S Syazmin | August 24, 2010 at 03:50 PM