The Wedding Notebook: Lifting the Veil

How did you come to start The Wedding Notebook? Did any of you have previous magazine experience?

Andros Xavier Chan: I’ve always wanted to start a wedding website since my university days. After leaving the banking & finance industry in 2011, I decided to take a leap of faith and pursue my dreams. We had a few ideas, and we decided on a wedding magazine.

Chaiyen Wong: I have been working with renowned magazines and publishing houses in Malaysia and Singapore for over 10 years now. I’ve always dreamed of starting my own magazine, I just never thought it would be realized in digital format. We started The Wedding Notebook because we felt that local wedding magazines lacked inspiration. The wedding scene in Asia is booming creatively, but it’s also a very competitive industry. We wanted to provide a platform for celebrating these amazing talents.

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Considering that your audience is primarily based in Asia, what are the distinctive elements of an Asian wedding? More specifically, what do you think your audience is looking for in The Wedding Notebook?

Andros: Typically, Asian weddings are huge. Some last for days. A friend of mine had his wedding in Jakarta, Indonesia, and had 5,000 guests. The most distinctive element of an Asian wedding would be the integration of cultural and religious aspects. For example – having a Chinese tea ceremony alongside a religious solemnization. 

I think our readers are looking for creative ways to intertwine these ceremonies without losing their cultural heritage.

Chaiyen: Asian weddings are huge and have more religious aspects, which is probably what discourages brides to explore outside the conventional. We inspire our readers with real Asian weddings that embrace these ceremonies with a fun and creative twist. At the end of the day, we just wanted to remind our readers of how fortunate they are to have such a rich cultural environment and to be surrounded by such beautiful venues – beaches, highlands, and other natural elements.

How has distributing the magazine online helped your overall mission?

Andros: Our initial intention was to be a platform for sharing ideas within the Asia Pacific region. But through Issuu, we have gained a lot of international followers. It’s become bigger than we ever thought it would be. This has allowed us to showcase Asia’s talents to the world, and it’s also proven useful to brides who are planning their destination weddings in Asia.

Wedding planning is typically seen as a feminine pastime. Do you think it’s important that men pay closer attention to their big day?

Andros: A friend of mine once said that his role in the wedding planning process was relatively simple – firstly, make sure he turns up on the big day, and secondly, write the cheques! But contrary to popular belief, I think men are starting to take a more active role in planning their wedding day, especially because in the last few years we’ve seen men starting to dress better and have better grooming etiquettes. Men should pay closer attention to their big day. They should share the experience of planning their next phase in life with their special someone.

In the last decade or so, weddings have become informal and relaxed. There’s an importance on fun, rather than rigid adherence to tradition. What’s changed?

Andros: Weddings have become a very expensive affair in recent years, and I think people are learning to invite only those who really matter. Weddings used to be a formal ceremony that couples went through to please their family, but these days it’s more of a celebration of love. At the end of the day people just want to take home something meaningful and memorable, and that makes sense because they’re paying a lot of money for it.

Take us through how you plan an issue. What’s the editorial process like?

Andros: Our editorial team picks a concept of theme to anchor every issue, and based on that we’ll gather stories from photographers and from the wedding submissions we receive. Sometimes we look beyond just weddings for ideas because we believe that there is a lot out there that can inspire our readers. Our editorial team then works on the text while our creative team works to bring out those concepts through images and typography.

What would your dream weddings look like?

Andros: It will most probably be a small and intimate destination wedding in Cote d’Azur or Lake Como.

Chaiyen: I guess I’ll only start dreaming when someone asks for my hand in marriage. 

Check out The Wedding Notebook on Issuu

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