A Labour Of Love
This is most definitely one of the lengthiest posts I've ever written on here, and that probably applies to the amount of frames you're about to scroll on to, too. This is a longer post, and all I ask and could ever hope for is that you try to keep yourself from letting your freshly programmed sped-up-by-the-internet brain wavelengths from clicking away before you get to the end of it. What I'm about to say sets the tone for what's about to unfold in these images and I promise it'll be worth your while. Anyway, here's the Story.
The Venue. This beautiful piece of land known as Tanah Larwina today was nothing but a lush piece of jungle grounds 9 years ago. From the day he bought this land, Uncle Faisol (our Bride's father) already knew that he’d love to have his daughters marry here at Tanah Larwina someday. Little did he know that this day would be fast-tracked by 2 years. Here’s what Iman’s mama, Aunty Faridah, has to say about it.
“Ever since Iman decided to hold the wedding here, Faisol has put in his heart and soul spending every evening planning each minute detail work that needed to be done here, and spent every weekend and some weekdays here preparing this place for the wedding. This became his biggest and most important engineering project. He had a detail project timeline and milestones, visualizing and preparing the areas to hold the akad, reception and parking areas; upgrading the infrastructure - the roads, power and water supply, and so much more that I just cannot keep track of. Not just within Tanah Larwina, but also upgrading the kampong road outside to make it more accessible for our guests to drive and park. And so what you see today, is ten months of accelerated work and labour of love.” On a personal account, I’ve seen him put in all the work for this day weeks before the wedding when I first came for a site recce, and I cannot imagine all the other days he’s poured every ounce of the love he has into making this happen for his baby girl. I'm not crying. You are, and we're not even done here.
The Solemnization. You're going to notice as you scroll through these frames that Iman sat on this particular swing throughout the solemnization - The very swing her father built years ago. I was going to write about what I felt when I found out how this swing came to be, but our Bride wrote a little something herself. An honest perspective of a Daughter, I wouldn’t change a thing about it. “The white swing sitting on the Pelamin was built by my dad about 15 years ago. As a civil engineer, it was his fun side project. I still remember him sketching the design of the swing in his sketchbook to him spending hours at the car porch after coming home from work sawing timber and putting the pieces together bit by bit to create this swing. It took him half a year to finish building it and it became a beautiful garden piece. Last weekend it was the swing I sat on anxiously as I witnessed the 'Ijab & Qabul' between my dad and Fattah.”
& now, The People. So much love and hard work went into everything, but you know what? Nothing comes close to being as beautiful as what we all experienced over the weekend. As a vendor, it really felt like I was a part of a working family. A unit, rather than just the photographer, and the notion of this was very present in every facet of the day. It’s something I’ve never really seen or felt before, but it really pulled on all my heartstrings knowing that everyone was truly, sincerely, honestly there for each other and in this together. Good vibes, everyone.
A pure labour of love. I'll let the day unfold through these frames for you. Off you go then.
Oh and yes, this is only part 1. Frames from their wedding reception will have to wait and will be up in another post.
Wedding planning & styling by Tie The Knot | Videography by Dream Peeks | Floral Artistry & Decor by Zuriee Ahmad Concepts | Marquee, Canopies & Equipments by YSA Events | Audio Visual by Laskar Sonas | Assisted by Peggy & Andrew
