Chen Li Ping, Rayson Tan take first ‘wedding photos’ 17 years after tying the knot

They have been married for 17 years, but they did not have any wedding photos until now.

Celebrity couple Chen Li Ping and Rayson Tan finally got together to shoot a series of wedding photos on Wednesday (Jul 22), though it was entirely for work. They play a pair of lovers in the upcoming 120-episode Channel 8 drama Life’s Blessings, about a family who runs an inn.

Tan said he never really understood why Chen preferred not to have a bridal photo shoot when they got hitched in 1998, but his wife finally unraveled the mystery during the photo shoot for Life’s Blessings.

“I have a fear of wedding gowns! Just now, when I was putting on the wedding gown, I had a headache and my stomach hurt!” Chen told Channel NewsAsia, lamenting that she “never wore a wedding gown with so little fabric before” as she adjusted her low-cut white gown.

“In those days we had to 'get married' in a lot of television shows so I started to hate it because I associated it with work. Once I put on a wedding gown, I feel like I am playing a role, like I am acting. It is only when I am out of my wedding gown that everything feels real. You know?”

“Of course, I also wanted to keep things quiet at the time, so we didn’t have any bridal shoot. We didn’t tell anyone but our nearest and dearest about us. So I was a little shocked when television host Guo Liang surprised us at the Registry of Marriages and started interviewing me. I really wanted to keep things low-key. If I didn’t, I would have just gotten sponsors for my wedding and actually turn a profit on it!”

For Tan, getting all dressed up as a groom brought back many memories of the time they started dating.

photo:bridesmaid dresses online

“I really felt something when we were shooting the photos. Although it is just for the show, it felt like we were making up for what we missed back then,” said Tan.

“The last time we had wedding photos taken was actually also for a show way back in 1990. It was called Golden Shenton Way. We needed some photos for costume-fitting purposes. So there I was, all dressed up and waiting for her to turn up. I waited for the longest time until someone told me she couldn’t come as she had been taken ill. I remember thinking ‘Wah, she is so hao lian (proud), making me wait so long!’,” joked Tan.

“Strangely enough, as I got to know her better over the course of shooting that drama, we became friends, then fell in love and got married. It is really fate. I always wondered why Li Ping chose me. I knew she had many suitors back then, and I was a newcomer while she was a top actress.”

“Some of my colleagues actually asked me why I pursued the relationship. They said it made me look like I was trying to use her as a stepping stone to become famous. But I told them time will prove my sincerity. Sure enough, we stayed married and even have a child (13-year-old son Xavier). I guess it is important to ignore what people say, or it will warp your experience of love.”

“In the end, we just used the wedding photos taken for that show as our own wedding photos! I mean, they were already taken, so why not?” said Chen.

Tan and Chen will spend the next six months working together on Life’s Blessings. Tan, who plays Zhuang Dao Qiang, a vice principal of a school, said he is actually looking forward to dating his wife again, but Chen, who plays Lin Jia Jia, the manager of an inn in a show, said she is a little worried about how things would turn out.

“I think it is going to be a huge challenge to play that character. We are just too familiar with each other and the audience is so familiar with us,” she said. “What’s more, we play a married couple in this show, so it will be even tougher to get them to see our characters, and not feel like they are watching Rayson Tan and Chen Li Ping.”

Life’s Blessings also stars Chen Shu Cheng, Felicia Chin and Aloysius Pang. It will air every weeknight from Oct 19, 7.30pm on Channel 8.