Love is in the air in the lead up to Valentine’s Day, so get your tissues ready as these well-known personalities share their journey to the wedding aisle.
When it comes to cultivating power, sometimes it takes two. Winnie Chan and her husband James Quan are so perfectly matched in attitude, influence and wit that Bynd Artisan – their custom bookbinding and leather craft atelier – could not have reached the heights it has without the duo at its helm. Theirs is an example that true love can truly lead to magical things, including a new collaboration with Art Outreach:
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“We were match-made by one of my girlfriends who was seated next to him at a wedding. Everyone came with a plus one except James, so she asked him why he was alone. He mentioned that he was single and my girlfriend immediately got to work setting us up. The rest, they say, is history! Imagine this; we were introduced in January 1996, he proposed a month later, we registered for marriage in June and then had our wedding ceremony by the end of the year.”
White dress and overlay by COS; Ring & Bracelet by Swarovski; and Winnie’s own earrings & watch.
“In his car, with a ring. I saw it coming, to be honest, because a few days earlier he was playing around with my rings trying to figure out my size. He did this by putting them on his pinkie and seeing which part of his finger the ring would fit. Even though we had only known each other a month at that point, I knew he was the one. His charisma was infectious, and I’m sure he would’ve charmed the next girl if I didn’t say yes and chope him first.”
“We held our tea ceremony and wedding dinner 21 years ago at the ‘tallest hotel in the world’ then – the Westin Stamford. For our honeymoon, we went to Spain and visited Madrid, Seville and Barcelona. Just one year later, we welcomed our daughter and three years after that, our son, so we’ve been busy ever since. In a way, we didn’t know each other that well when we first got together. Even today, there are still things about him that I’m finding out for the first time, but that just adds to the mysteriousness and fun of marriage.”
“We’re celebrating Valentine’s Day a little early, in January. We’ll be heading to Tokyo, Japan to ring in James’s 50th birthday too. It’ll be our first time in the city without the kids, so I’m really looking forward to it. For me, as long as we’re together, every day is Valentine’s Day. I feel blessed that we can continue to create memories, discover new things about each other and be there for one another even after more than two decades.”
Red blazer and pants by Iris & Ink; and Winnie’s own ring & watch.
(A version of this feature first appeared in the February 2018 issue of The Singapore Women’s Weekly; Art Direction: Christina Lim / Photos: Tan Wei Te & Vee Chin / Styling: Debby Kwong / Hair: Dexter Ng and Kenneth Ong / Makeup: Clarence Lee, Rie Miura & Audrey Wee)