Saying "Hello" to Forever (The Evening)

So this is a very delayed entry, Part II of our wedding. Read all about Part I here. A list of my vendors will be provided at the end of this post.

Our church wedding ended at about 1pm and we left at about 1.30pm but our bridal car driver (from minibug.sg) didn't get us back to the hotel till about 2.30pm almost 3pm! Our bridal party made it back in under 20 min. I remember feeling super nauseous in the car because it was so warm inside, and also because the driver was making about a gazillion turns! I was quite pissed off because he was wasting our time, and we didn't have much of it to waste as we still had heaps to prepare for the evening. We were also hoping to take a cat nap back at the hotel before it got busy but we didn't manage to catch a break.

Landy came about 1 hour before the banquet to touch-up my hair and makeup. The Husband left the suite first to have a run-through of the program with our co-ordinators and wait staff.

We hire this giant "double happiness" prop from IM.Perfection. The person-in-charge, James, was very polite and efficient at responding to my queries. I was being quite wishy-washy about the prop because it was quite expensive to hire, about $300 (negotiated down from $500) for the duration of the dinner. I decided to hire this because I knew our reception set-up would be quite bare (I had totally forgotten about this aspect of the banquet!). The giant prop was quite cute! I liked it a lot and was sad when they took it away. The picture below also features Jones, my high school buddy and also our emcee for the night. I was really touched when he agreed to emcee our banquet, and when I heard about his efforts in setting up the reception area and also the throwing of flower petals when we did our initial march-in. He went beyond the call of duty to improve things for us so we were really appreciative of it! To be honest, everyone involved went beyond the call of duty, we'll be forever grateful to them!

Our cute little clay figurine in the foreground, our mini-me's doing the victory sign! It's super cute! I paid like AUD$150 for it I think, got it off Etsy from a guy named Max in Hong Kong. I think it's very unique and also very representative of us- kooky individuals who like doing silly things together. The figurine is now sitting atop my piano at home. 

In the background is our "love contract" drawn up by Shups! I know it's a cheesy notion but I really, really like it! I requested for a rustic theme and I think she did a great job at it. I will also remember the Husband shouting out those promises on the list to me through the walls and me yelling back, "SURE OR NOT?!". One of the promises was to bring me on a yearly holiday and a month or two ago when I asked him if he meant it, he said, with a poker face, "yes, we go back to Singapore once a year". Zzz...!! 

This is why lawyers go to school and undergo intensive training to learn to draw up contracts that have minimal loopholes.

Our minimalistic set-up lovingly arranged by our co-ordinators. I had only brought along a small number of props so they had to work around them. I think they did a great job with the limited number of things that I had given them! I love it! The background overlooks the Singapore River. It's really pretty and is even more so in the night! Guests can also go out onto the wooden boardwalk outside. This was one of the factors that made me decide on holding our banquet at MBS. By the way, this balcony is only accessible for guests who attend weddings on the 4th floor.

Our photographer, Cole, took the photo below of our rings. He brought along a whole strand of fairy lights and used them for the bokeh effect. Quite creative, I must say.

Our lovely ladies at reception- Germie and Angie, and Mindy and Robynne!

This was our banquet set-up. Our florist, Sing See Soon did a pretty good job with the exception that all our guest tables had the wrong floral arrangements! I only got a brief apology from them which I wasn't sure was sincere at all. She got a little defensive, only to realize that it really was her mistake.

Love the fairy lights in the background which we had to pay an extra SGD$300 for. I am such a sucker for pretty, dainty lights. There were 15 strands and the initial quote was SGD$600! I didn't negotiate with them and was actually prepared to pay the price but somehow, their final quotation was SGD$300 so we were quite pleased with that and so didn't check further.

Our wedding favours for our guests were crystal pens (like the ones from Swarovski). We were so busy we forgot to take some home for ourselves as keepsakes! I was quite sad. The staff at MBS said they couldn't spare us any either!

Image from http://www.flybeshopping.com

The pens came in a nice gold, textured box.

We had the traditional tea ceremony about 45 min before the banquet started. I was wearing a "kua", a traditional outfit worn for tea ceremonies. This kua belonged to the Husband's mother (second woman from the right), who wore it at her wedding. The kua was ordered by the Husband's paternal grandmother (woman on the extreme right). It is made of 100% silk and is hand embroidered. They said it cost over SGD$200, which is a lot of money 30+ years ago. I didn't plan on wearing this initially as a I wanted something more modern but I couldn't find anything suitable so I chose to wear this in the end. It turned out to be a pretty good choice! Seen below are the Husband's mother, grandmother and two aunts, helping me put on my gold jewellery that I had received from his mother as dowry. I received a pretty set of gold jewellery that consisted of a necklace, a bangle, a ring and a pair of earrings. It's a simple but elegant set, each piece has very intricate detailing (especially the bangle which is detailed even on the inside), which makes them quite special indeed.

Serving tea to my new in-laws! I addressed my new father-in-law as "uncle" (which was what I have always called him during the time the Husband and I were dating), by accident and he laughed at me. The Husband did the same thing with my Dad.

My beloved parents! Mad love this photo of them. I rarely see them smiling this wide, they're not very smiley people at all, so it makes this photo super precious.

The Husband's paternal grandmother. She too gave me a piece of gold jewellery which I particularly love because it used to be her own. I'm sentimental like that.

My sister and brother-in-law, Doug. I could tell that he was quite nervous, his face was all red! It's because this was his first time going through such a ceremony, with everyone staring and all.

A rare picture with my little nephew! He is soooo cute, especially in his wee Scottish Kilt!

My beloved friends! From left to right, Joel, Jones and Shups (all three are my high school buddies) and YF, Shups' significant other. Everyone was looking fab!

Our guests starting to flow in....

A very beautiful picture of my BBFF (new word I learnt from her today- it means "best best friend forever" apparently):

Our lovely emcees, Jones and Jolene (the Husband's childhood friend)! A few of our guests commented that these two were great emcees and were very eloquent and entertaining.

Our march-in! This was pretty cool, albeit nerve wrecking. It wasn't as scary as the march-in for the church though! I'm not sure why but I think it was because I was so knackered by the evening, and also because I was completely blinded by the spot lights in the banquet hall so I couldn't see all 270 of our guests, haha.

There was supposed to be some standard dry ice effect for the march-in but I specifically told them NO DRY ICE. So so so cheesy.

The Husband's dad saying grace on stage before the partaking of our meal.

The first course (and my most favorite course) was the whole roasted suckling pig! I think it's quite different from the norm which would be a standard mixed cold dish platter of sorts. This was also another factor that MBS won me over with. Yum! I remember wolfing down like 3 or 4 pieces of this haha! I couldn't eat too much because my next gown was the most form-fitting of all my outfits.

This was just before the 2nd march-in. Our morning highlights were being screens and we had a little peak from the outside! I was soooo afraid that the video wouldn't be good but it turned out really, really, really fab and I'm not saying it just because we are the main stars in it. I am the biggest critic of myself, in fact.#selfloathing

I thought the video was really well put together! It was touching and it showed all the right parts. There was even a surprise message from my parents at the end! I loved it so much. Our videographers from The Forever Films did a really good job! Everyone was so impressed with their work and the speed at which they worked at to produce that video in such a short time.

All that for SGD$1,650? Totally worth it. Many other videographers quoted me $2500 and above.

MAD LOVE MY GOWN! Blue velvet with such intricate beading! And only AUD$70! I got in online from taobao.com! It is however, a very unforgiving gown because it shows every fat bulge on your body no matter how small.

I love the lighting in this photo below but the Husband and I were mid-way in changing expressions so we look kinda weird! What a waste of a good photo!

Us pouring the champagne over the wine glasses. I can't remember what it is supposed  to signify. Love overflowing and everlasting I think? I don't know. It's some cheesy shit that we have to do at Chinese weddings.

The "yum seng" toast! Again, some cheesy shit we were made to do.

I was seriously blinded by the lights, so my eyes were closed! I have very sensitive eyes and they hurt very badly, like stabbing pains, when I am faced with bright lights.

That's the Husband's littlest brother, he looks like he was having a good time, hehe!

And endearing shot of us. I'm sure I was just telling him about the light in my eye because it was really bothering me hahaha!

We gave a really short and sweet thank you speech. Dad said we could've done better haha but seriously,  I was so knackered by then that I just wanted to lie down. The effects of having little to no sleep after an entire week of running about.

We then had to go round to each table to take photos! We went round to all 27 tables in slightly under an hour I think. I do regret flitting between tables so quickly though, I would've loved to have more time to interact with all my friends. Everything was just happening so fast and we were told to move on. So anyway, below are just 2 out the 27 tables. These were our VIP tables for the very reason that they are our immediate family + 2 grandmothers.

Very coincidentally, both grandmothers (mine and the Husband's), were donned in the same top purchased from OG! Haha! I didn't even notice it until after the wedding, when Mum pointed it out to me. Then, I still had no recollection until I saw the photo below:

Another nice pic of Shups and I, this was when the banquet was over and everyone was leaving. Of course my BBFF and other good friends stayed behind to disturb me after haha.

The "after party" started when everyone else had left! A group of about 8-10 of us came up to our suite and we sat around chatting. It was really great fun and I enjoyed this part of the entire day the most!

Yes I was so shagged by that hour that I was just slouching on the couch doing something weird to my face. I was having a really good time but my body was beginning to shut down.

My friends decided to 闹洞房 (disturb the wedding night) before they left. And yes it involved some less-than-clean-but-still-PG "games"!

After everyone left, the Husband and I took a quick shower, I spent half that time washing the thick gunk (makeup) off my face and the hairspray out of my hair. I reckon I lost at least 1/5 of my hair whilst trying to smooth out the crazy tangles caused by all that back-combing Landy did in order to create my bouffant.

Overall, our wedding went very smoothly. I was expecting some time delay in between each activity, at the very least, but there was none whatsoever! I was so amazed! We were completely on schedule for everything. We did feel that our banquet ended a tad too early (10.30pm) though, and a friend of mine commented on that as well. Also, I'd forgotten to invite a few of my friends to the wedding! I was so mad busy with everything else, it just slipped my mind. We also made the mistake of leaving the preparation of our thank you speeches to the very last minute. There were some other minor hiccups too like how we forgot to bring our wedding portrait down to the banquet hall for display, leaving the easel very bare etc. But all in all, we were quite happy with how everything went! My bridesmaids were really awesome and supported me very well throughout the day. I was quite high strung from all my nerves and also from my severe lack of sleep. We had an excellent team of workers, everyone was so effective and efficient! I prefer to work on my own and I have severe trust issues, so this whole project opened my eyes to how much better life can be when you have an effective team working with you!

On a side note, we managed to "break even" for the entire wedding, AKA, the wedding paid for itself. We were a little worried about going over budget (parents' wanted a big wedding, not us), but I guess all that worry was for naught. Thank God for giving us such generous guests!

Okay I've reached the end of recounting our entire wedding experience! I will next blog, in detail, about our experiences with our various vendors hired for our big day.