Category: Wedding
Bride’s Dowry, part of the Chinese Wedding customs and rituals from the 3-Letters and 6 Etiquette’s. This part actually consists of the most things or accessories for the bride to prepare or to buy. The Dowry is actually the gifts from the bride’s parents for her to get married and these are the things that she will bring to her new home once she got married and moved in with her husband.
Back in ancient China, no doubts that a lot of Chinese Wedding’s bridal accessories have been missing compare to what we have today. That is the reason why we sometimes called it contemporary Chinese Wedding. It has been simplified. Totally changed but the root is still there.
The most important Bride’s Dowry usually consists of the followings. The Dragon & Phoenix or the Mandarin Ducks Bed Sheet. The color will be in Red cause the color itself represents auspicious for the Chinese. A lot of people still think that this item, the bed-sheet should be bought by the Groom instead. The truth is the other way round. This is the very first item of the Dowries. The parent will look for this first before any other thing else. It is belief that this bed sheet will bring them the luck and good omen of getting a child or a boy as soon as possible.
The second item will be the Potty Set. It consists of a potty, spittoon, round tray, basin and a baby basin. Nowadays, most of the Chinese couples that I found in Malaysia are trying to opt this out. This is actually very wrong. They dont even know what they are missing out. As I totally understand that most of them dont want children as soon as they get married. They are actually afraid the having children will tie them up. This set is actually meant for them to have children. In Chinese we call it
Red Wooden Clog – a pair for each of the couple wear inside their new home after they got married and also meant for the couple to be successful after they got married. It usually will be placed on top of the war drop and the higher it goes, the more successful the couple will be in the future.
Pair of charcoals actually meant for two things. The first one is meant for the bride to bring luck and prosperity to her husband. The second one is for the bride to use. Back in the old days, the charcoal will be lit and placed on the ground right in the middle of the grooms house front door for the bride to enter the door by crossing over it. This is to spell off evil spirit from entering the house.
Red or wedding umbrella- for the bride’s elderly usually the father will have to use it when sending the bride out of the house when the groom comes fetching her on the wedding day. The reason is her father is blessing them to have lots of children.
A pair of paper fans will also be needed on the big day. One will be used during the wedding day before the groom come to fetch her. Once she is inside the car, then she will have to throw the one she is using and change to the other one and continue to hold it until they reach the grooms house. The first one will be thrown out to leave part of the good luck and prosperity back to the brides home instead of bringing all over to the other side.
Chinese Wedding Tea Set is also a must. A new set is needed for the bride to bring it over the new home for her to serve tea grooms elderly during the tea ceremony. This is actually one of the major events in Chinese Wedding.
Lastly it will be the 8-boys cushion for the needles. For the Chinese, this is meant for more boys. This is a very good omen for them.
The above are only partly of whatever that has to be done. Betrothal Gifts is another custom that Chinese are still practicing until today.
If you want your wedding to be one of a kind, absolutely distinctive and unique, take heart. One of the most wonderful things about modern day wedding ceremonies and the receptions that follow is that the bride and groom can customize virtually every aspect of the day to reflect their personality as a couple. As you go through the ceremony and reception in your mind, do not overlook the power that the color of your wedding theme will have. In a very real sense, it will set and enhance whatever mood you are seeking to create. For someone as unique and special as you, why not consider lavender?
The woman who chooses lavender loves nature and is captivated by the delicate and the subtle. Not for her are traditional pink or even glowing pastels. Instead, she wants the multi-hued purples that make up lavender and are reminiscent of Easter and lilacs. These can be reflected in your bridal bouquet, which could be comprised of lavender flowers, white roses and even blooms of other complimentary colors. To accentuate your bouquet, your fiance could sport a lavender boutonniere.
Whether your vows are to be exchanged inside or outdoors, lavender will complement the beauty and solemnity of the occasion. This flower symbolizes caution and devotion, two traits particularly at the forefront on your wedding day. To show off the beauty of the flowers, you might decorate church pews or pillars in purple with sprigs of lavender as accents. Lavender would also be a terrific color for your party decorations, particularly if your post ceremony celebration is to be held outside. Just imagine how lovely each table would be if it displayed a centerpiece made up of lavender flowers and beautiful, fresh green boughs. All that is then required is simple white or ivory tablecloths and chair covers to complete the scene. At the seat of each guest you could place a fragrant lavender sachet, which will serve as an aromatic reminder of your special day for a long time to come.
As you might imagine, there are many options worth considering when it comes to planning a wedding with a lavender theme. Your bridesmaids dresses could be dyed in this hue. Perhaps you could even provide your bridal party with lavender themed gifts such as tanzanite necklaces or earrings. Even your wedding cake could mirror the theme by being covered in lavender colored icing flowers. Make the most of this special time to let your unique taste shine through. Think lavender!
Aperture 3 is an all-in-one work flow software which allows photographers to work without having to go into various programs during their work flow process. I’ve been using Aperture since it was released, I can more or less complete entire work flow all in one program.
From import to output, Aperture delivers a simple work flow solution for photographers, specially for someone like me who wants to work in a single program as much as possible. The quality of the output files is uncompromising.The best feature is the ‘non-destructive’ way the images are processed so the images always ‘as shot’ if I ever need to go back to my originals.
Here is a typical work flow for my wedding or portrait shoot:
Downloading / Importing / Renaming Images
Importing images is quick and easy. Images can be imported from a camera, card reader, DVDs, hard drives or from iPhoto. At the point of importing, you can add copyright, keywords and other meta data all in one go. From a wedding, I may need to import about 600-700 images and as soon as I start import, I press P which gives me the Quick Preview of the imported images and I can immediately start to cull images which are not good. I shoot with 2 camera bodies and the first thing I do is to sort the images by time order. So after the images have been imported, I sort by time order and then rename them.
I’ve created a ‘Custom Name with Counter’ for my images. All I do I select all the images and ‘Batch Change’ all the names which takes a few seconds or so to do. Stacks is a handy tool which automatically group images shot in a sequence, this helps browsing a wedding with lots of images to really speed through the whole shoot. So once all the images have been selected to show case to the couple or client, I then proceed to adjust / enhance the RAW files.
Adjusting / Enhancing Images
Once I’ve sorted and renamed my files, I’ll go through them and apply any adjustments if needed. Simple tasks like fixing white balance, enhance colors, straightening, cropping and improving exposure are all done non-destructively. I’ve made presets which I apply on the fly.
If there is a batch of images shot under the same lighting conditions, then only one image is adjusted and the settings applied to this image ‘lifted’ from it and ‘stamped’ on all the rest of the images in one go. Then I export them as ‘versions’ and saved as high quality JPEGs.
Presenting images to clients
This is where Aperture 3 (and Aperture 2) comes on to its own. When a client books an appointment to either come and see my work or to preview their wedding / portrait images, firstly the images are shown as a slide show with music, all available in Aperture 2 & 3. I have a dual-monitor set up as a 30″ & 23″ Apple Cinema Displays. To fully take advantage of Aperture, you’ve got to work with a dual-monitor set up. This really does speed up the work flow.
The selection process
This process takes around an hour or so for a wedding (400 images) and about 15-20 minutes for a portrait (60 images) session. Multiple images are selected and displayed at a time and the ones which the client love are rated as 1 star. Once we’ve gone through all the images, I do a quick search for all 1 star rated images, this brings up all these images. Now if we need to take some images out of this selection, then I just press ‘2’ and rate the images as 2 star which are definitely selected for the package. This way I can quickly go between the first & second selection if need be.
Event Photography: Need for Speed
Event photography is a big part of our business. When we need to print images on-site at an event, we really did struggle to find a decent program on the Mac. However, all that changed when Aperture 2 arrived. We download, sort, rename, print contact sheets and then print the images from our Mitsubishi dye-sub printer to whatever size we require up to 9×6″. No matter how big or small the event is, whether it is a corporate ball for 100 couples or an equestrian event for 600 riders, Aperture 3 (and 2) effortlessly & painlessly handles our work flow. Even tethered camera support is also available, allowing the images to go straight from camera into Aperture.
Case Study: Corporate Event
Images of guests are shot as they arrive. Using wi-fi, the images are sent to a ‘hot folder’ which Aperture keeps an eye on and import images directly into its library. This is real-time and as soon as the images are shot, the couple are requested to view their images on the monitor. The Mac Book Pro has an additional Apple display attached to it on which only the full screen image is shown to the client without any palettes or the Aperture interface. We can also display multiple images to the client at the same time so they can see which one they like.
There are preset sizes saved under the print window. So if we need to print a contact sheet of 9 images as thumbnails, we just select the images and select the 9-up Contact Sheet or when a customer’s 9×6″ print needs to be printed, only one image is selected and then the 9×6″ Print option is clicked. It is a straight forward way of printing on-site.
Case Study: Cross Country Equestrian Event
A very busy event where we really do need our work flow to be at 100 mph!! 600 riders, 4 photographers shooting 4 different jumps, 6000+ images, all in a day’s work!!!
This is where we make use of the ‘Smart Folders’ in Aperture 2. One Smart folder is created for each photographer, the criteria usually used is the photographer’s name as a keyword. Upon receiving the CF from say Photographer 1, this is entered as a keyword and all images from that CF card are imported. These images will automatically show in the Smart Folder named ‘Photographer 1’. Now to make contact sheets of all the images as small thumb nails so clients can see their images and select the ones they like.
All the images are selected and then to print preset of ‘9-up Contact Sheet’. This will print 9 images on a 9×6″ printer. Once the printing is done, press ‘1’ with all the images selected, this will rate all these selected images as ‘1’ star. Now the next CF card comes from the same photographer, the images are imported with the keyword ‘Photographer 1’ and they all go into the Smart folder of Photographer 1. Only the new images need to be printed as contact sheets, so a quick search of ‘unrated’ images is done, this shows up only those which are not rated ‘1’ and are unrated. All these images are selected, printed and then rated as ‘1’. The same is applied to all the other photographers. A very sophisticated work flow with a simple solution.
In my opinion, I don’t think there is any other professional work flow application which offers such ease for managing, editing, sorting, previewing and outputting in a very user-friendly interface. There are loads and loads of other powerful features which I have not even discussed but are there in Aperture 3 to make our workflow a lot more easier.
Mrspenningtonor Sporting Events
With most indoor sporting arenas (not at international level), the lighting is not ideal and in many cases not sufficient. Tungsten lighting is usually used at these arenas which gives a very ‘orangey’ cast to the images. Once all the images are shot and imported into Aperture 2, we correct one of the image, lift the settings from it and can apply to either dozens or even hundreds of images at the same time with the ‘Lift’ and ‘Stamp’ tool saving invaluable time and no need to correct each and every image individually.
Aperture 3 only works on a Mac, so if your are on a PC, what other alternatives you may have. The first product which comes to mind is Lightroom by Adobe, but you don’t have the video editing feature on it currently. The other obvious comparision is to Photoshop, but Aperture is not meant to complete with something like Photoshop. Aperture can work alongside Photoshop’s PSD files but it will not work with individual layers. Photoshop is more of a creation tool and Aperture is ideal for workflow and is a digital darkroom on a Mac. Most professional photographers will use both Photoshop & Aperture 3.
Wedding photography is also known as traditional photography or classic photography. This type of photography has been used in wedding for several years. Wedding photography needs a person to set up the main equipment I-e camera each time wants to take different pictures. A person or photographer should make several wedding photos looks creative and artistic while covering the various sessions of wedding. A wedding photographer may produce different pictures which are arranged in photo shoots.wedding Photography bases its latest quality on lightning and sharpness. As far as latest and modern cameras are concerned, they capture clearer photos because of the improved and modern screens. As every person knows that wedding is considered to be the most important and major milestone day of every person’s life.
Many photographers shoot in various and different styles and it is very significant and important for photographer to take photos in different angles. In this article we will discuss the main styles of that are famous and available today.
1.traditional wedding photography: The first and most important style of is the traditional wedding photography. This type of photography captures the pictures of wedding way in a traditional way such as exchange of rings, family pictures, cutting the cake and many more. Weddings are considered to be the formal occasions and this type of photography has stood testing the best time.
2.reportage wedding photography: Another most important style of wedding photography is reportage wedding photography. This type of photography is also known as photojournalistic wedding photography. In this type of photography, the photographer blends the background and different photographs. This style of photography is considered to be the hardest to perfect because it takes several years for photographer to get an experience.
3.contemporary wedding photography: The last and most important style of wedding photography is contemporary wedding photography. This style of photography is also known as avant garde wedding photography. Furthermore, this style of photography includes unusual ideas and uses various camera angles. Moreover, it brings the personality of photographers into the picture together with the innovative vision or individual style of the photographer. On the other hand, this style of photography is less popular as compared to other styles of photography. Several wedding photographers use this style of wedding photography in professional photography awards and person will see many features of this style of photography in glossy wedding magazines.
A good advice for making a wedding romantic and truly special is to make the ceremony debt-free and low-key as possible. Couples should save their money and not pay much attention to wedding advices features in magazines. Love is basically between the couple that will be getting married so its best they focus on each other.
A morning wedding followed by a luncheon reception is ideal, as it will give the couple enough time for their honeymoon, starting a new life and have enough energy to perform immediate post-wedding activities. Over 200 guests waiting at an expensive sit-down dinner will not add anything special to the romance.
A morning wedding will also help the couple save money and their eager energy and more than half a day to savor the moment of finally getting hitched.
Etiquette in a morning wedding
A morning wedding can be formal, semi-formal or informal. The bride can be outfitted with a short wedding dress or suit. In a formal morning wedding, the bride’s gown should touch the floor and veil fingertip or slightly below the middle knuckle of the mid finger. A fingertip veil becomes more attractive when it is used with an elbow length blusher. For a semi-formal morning wedding, the gloves and blusher veils are optional.
The groom’s attire is typically composed of a business, sportcoat or morning suit in accordance to the level of formality. In a semi-formal morning wedding, proper etiquette dictates that the groom can sport a dark stroller or suit without black or gray tails. In a formal wedding, a morning suit, which is composed of gray pinstripe trousers, ascot, gray vest and a cutaway coat, is suffice. The groom also has the option to wear a tuxedo if he wants to.
The groom and bride’s attire should complement each other. If the bride is wearing a casual short wedding dress, then the groom should wear a business suit or sportcoat instead of a tuxedo.
Regardless whether the wedding is during the morning or late in the evening, there is a certain etiquette that should be followed in the ceremony.
– Bridesmaids and groomsmen should assist in the ceremonies if the morning wedding is not held strictly in private.
– The bridesmaids should not have dresses that is not too eye-catching but will match the wedding dress. In addition, they should be younger than the bride. The dresses can contain more ornaments and should consist of light, graceful fabric. Flowers should serve as the main decoration.
– The wedding dress should be simple but elegant and can be decorated with few ornaments or jewels that come from the parents or the bridegroom. The dress needs to have an attractive veil and garland.
– The bride needs to be assisted by her bridesmaids in wearing the wedding dress, receiving visitors and locate themselves at her left side. The first bridesmaid for easy access should keep the bouquet and gloves.
– The clergyman should be received by the groomsmen and led to the couple that will be married. They will also serve as assistants for the bridegroom, during the occasion.
– Guests should wear something light and fresh. A breezy dress or a light-colored suit would be appropriate. Those who are fond of hats are in luck in a morning wedding, as wearing one will complement the ease and energy of the ceremonies. Dark suits and dresses should be avoided.
The Wedding Breakfast
If the bride appears during breakfast proper etiquette dictates that she sits beside her husband at the center table, while the father and mother occupy the top to bottom and greets the guests coming in. Once the cake has been cut and every one has eaten, which include offering a toast to the new couple and giving acknowledgements, the bride and groom meet with their friends and eventually exit from the ceremony.
The newly-married couple can start in their wedding journey at around two or three o’clock, while the rest of the guests and family member depart from the reception area shortly after.