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.

Saying "Hello" to Forever (The Morning)

Warning: lengthy post ahead!

We checked into our hotel, Marina Bay Sands (MBS), the night before the wedding. My girlfriend, Shups, stayed the night. I remember, it was suchhh a crazy day on the eve of the wedding- I hadn't even finalized my wedding march-in/out songs! In the months leading up to the wedding, I had lots of people telling me that I was such a relaxed bride and I honestly wanted to be one too anyway. I think I was pretty much one all the way up till the day before the wedding. Procrastination at its best.

We were specially greeted by the MBS staff upon arrival, they let us jump the queue and we were whisked up to our suite. I was having a massive headache that afternoon, the staff attendant noticed me taking some painkillers and she very thoughtfully sent up some small glass bottles of honey and a get-well card. I was very impressed with the service indeed.

The hotel, maybe not so much as it didn't have that exclusive feeling to it. Although MBS is a 5 star hotel, heaps of people (mainly Chinese tourists) were just breezing in and out the whole time and I know it's because the casino and luxury shops are just adjacent to the hotel. Brides-to-be who are considering MBS may want to take note of this.

The view from our suite on the 53rd floor was spectacular! It overlooked the Gardens by the Bay and when night fell, the lights on the Supertrees came on and it was really pretty to behold. The 2 large domes on the left are the conservatories, they are a couple of storeys high and they house special plants. The inside of the conservatories are like scenes out of the movie, Avatar. Very special and I'm proud that Singapore has something like that. The domes from where we were on the 53rd floor looked like the cups of a giant balconette bra though, heh.

The night before the wedding, I was furiously writing my thank you speech. I was in such a state, Shups can attest to that. The Husband (then fiance haha) and I even had a wee squabble as we were both so tired and were still trying to tie up any loose ends. I finally got my speech done and Shups and I headed for bed at about 3am. I simply could not sleep and was keeping her awake for sometime as well, incessantly asking "Shu, are you still awake?". Thinking back, it was really funny but there and then, I was super anxious and worried that something would go wrong the next day.

I think I slept for about 1 hour, all in all. When my alarm went off at 6am, I promptly sat up in bed. My makeup artist (Landy) had also arrived but I was still in my jammies with un-brushed teeth! I hurriedly woke Shups up and in her groggy stupor, she went downstairs to let Landy up. Then the photographer and videographers started arriving too and she had to let them in. I felt really bad about her lack of sleep!

Landy promptly laid out all her tools and started on my face. I reminded her to keep my makeup light but I think there was some language barrier or miscommunication of sorts because she pretty much did exactly the opposite of what I told her to do. The perils of being a Chinese but not being able to speak the language fluently.........

Here're my wedding shoes alongside my bridesmaids' bouquets. I bought the shoes only 2 days before the wedding! I had totally forgotten about them so I just bought like a random silver pair from Parkway Parade. I made sure that the shoes were made out of soft material so that they wouldn't hurt my feet too much. This style actually isn't too much up my alley. I actually bought another pair that was off-white with metal studs and rivets! It looked very biker style and I loved it but unfortunately, Mum didn't feel the same way.

Here's a shot of me and my AUD$70 gown from Taobao! I think many of my friends were in disbelief when they heard where I had gotten my gown from and the price that I had paid for it. For some strange reason, people around me seem to think that I'd only go for very expensive things but they couldn't be more wrong! I'm a real cheapskate at heart- the cheaper the better, and if it's free, I'll be your best friend. I only spend on leather handbags (but not anymore) because they do last a long time so I do keep that in mind too.

My beloved parents putting the veil over my head. This moment was supposed to be a touching, special moment but honestly, all I felt was anxiety because I felt so unprepared for the day. I'm so glad the pictures don't show my true emotions, haha! Mum and Dad were quite distracted as well that day, because my little nephew was running all over the place and my parents, especially Mum, are quite obsessive about him.

The groom and his groomsmen arrived at about 8.30am! I was really afraid that they would be late because I knew the Husband had too slept late the night before.

My bridesmaids greeted them and it is customary for the girls to give the groom and his groomsmen a hard time before the groom can see his bride, it's called "gate crashing" and is traditionally done at the brides' home. We were being modern and held it at the hotel instead because my home was simply too messy (my parents' mess actually haha).

We opted for mild games instead. No wild, degrading ones on my watch! I know several bridal parties who made their guys do embarrassing, almost disgusting stuff, like licking whipped cream off each others' nipples, stripping down and wearing gold bikinis etc. We opted for something clean, healthy and fun. There were 3 components to the gatecrash: (1) reading aloud a marriage contract which Shups had drafted, (2) dance all the post-its off their bodies and (3) hold a funny yoga pose! I was actually unaware of all this as I was kept in a separate room so I was trying to guess what they were doing outside based on what I heard.

 

I was in seated in the bedroom during this time and so after passing all the tests, the Husband was able to come get me! I was pretty anxious at this point because while the hustle and bustle of the gatecrash was going on outside, I was all alone in the room, quietly sitting by myself and suddenly all these people were barging in!

Love his expression in this picture, such a cheeky smile.

 

I really, really love this shot and the next few shots of us and our bridal party together! To be honest, I didn't plan on this color scheme at all but somehow all the colors worked together and created something really elegant. I chose a very neutral palette for all our flowers- cream roses, green ferns and tons of baby breaths. The green ribbons dripping from the bridesmaids' bouquets was my church friend, Cindy's idea. She took the liberty to dress up their baby breaths and my initial thought was, oh dear that mightn't go with everything else but it turned out really pretty! The girls had on bluish grey (claydon blue?) convertible maxi dresses which they could tie in any way they wanted, the boys had on simple white shirts and black dress pants with silver bowties and the Husband was in a dark sand colored suit with a black bowtie.

We took heaps of photos together and after our mini photoshoot in the suite, it was time to head off to the Church to get married! The Husband and his groomsmen left first, and Dad and I waited in the suite for the bridal car. We rented a 1960 Volkswagen Beetle in off-white from Minibug! My Dad was initially not very happy about it because he's quite traditional and thought we have should rented something a little "better" but the Husband and I love vintage cars so there wasn't really any argument there at all. If not for practical reasons, I would've in fact gotten myself a vintage Cadillac here in Australia just to get around in!

The lobby of MBS, as expected, was full of super luxurious racing cars in all sorts of flashy colors so when our vintage Beetle pulled up, it was such a funny sight. I was very worried that I wouldn't be able to get in because it was a two-door car and my gown was quite tight, I was afraid I'd bust the seams while trying to get in but luckily that didn't happen. This is also something brides-to-be should consider- if your gown is super form-fitting, get a four-door car just to be safe! I must admit that this was something I overlooked.

Anyway, back to the point- so contrasting right?! I love it!

Dad and I in the car on the way to the Church! Dad was unusually chirpy that day, which was really nice and it also helped calm my nerves. This was a selfie taken on my phone. There was a red heart-shaped felt cushion in the car which Dad was intrigued with. He gamely posed for a photo with it, haha.

My home church in Singapore, Bethel Presbyterian!

Some of our dear friends who came to our wedding, there's a nice shot of Germie flipping through our engagement shoot album, her fiance and Shups' significant other are in the background. Also in the background was our set-up for the lunch buffet reception. We dressed up our tables with plain white table cloths, textured champagne table runners, decorated mason jars containing fresh baby breaths and strings of crystals. I am really proud of this set-up that I designed, I think it's very pretty yo! #selfpraise

I was so thankful for friends who came the night before to help set up everything! I really couldn't have asked for more.

I handmade our guestbook as well. I didn't want to get the normal cheesy, romantic guestbooks that weddings usually have so I decided to make our own guestbook! I bought the binder from Typo (think it was like AUD$20 or something like that) and filled the pages with polaroid pictures of the Husband and I. You can see individual pictures of us down below all decked out in our PPE in the lab, ha! The front cover of the guestbook was actually more elaborate, with grey lace paper and scrabble tiles. A pity we didn't manage to get a good shot of it that day. I'm too lazy right now to go take a picture too.

Here're a few more shots of all our guests arriving, just before the wedding started.

This is the Husband's mother, or my mother-in-law now. I quite like this shot because a moment and an emotion was captured.

The Husband and Doug, my brother-in-law:

Here's a nice picture of the Husband's family! He is the oldest of 4 boys.

The Church was full! I was quite surprised to see so many people there, even some whom I didn't remember extending an invitation to, not that I minded. Sometimes it's just not possible to hand everyone an invitation, especially when we live overseas. Singaporeans are notoriously late for weddings so I was very pleasantly surprised when all our guests turned up on time! The wedding started at 11am on the dot.

Our little Beetle pulling up.

This was just before the bridal march-in. I was so freaking nervous and was seriously asking Dad if it was too late to turn back and go home! He just calmly replied me, "don't be like that" or something along that line. I think he was very nervous too, his hands were clammy, as the Church was packed (200+ people) and it was also his first time walking a daughter down the aisle with so many eyes on him/us. My sister's wedding 10 years ago was held in the UK with a much smaller crowd (mostly people we didn't know), so I think he probably wasn't as nervous.

My beautiful girls leading the way! The march-in song we chose was Yiruma's "The River Flows in You". It's a slow number which I purposely picked because I wanted it to set the tone for a nice, quiet ceremony.

Dad and I! Dad looks like the President waving to his people here. It is through this picture that I realized how much larger in size I have become as compared to my Dad! Dad's tiny now, and it's because he's like quite hardcore with his Taichi. Did I mention he won 4 gold medals for a competition? Good on you, Dad!

Again, this was supposed to be an emotional moment but I wasn't focusing on that. I was actually just wishing the day would go by sooner so we could go off and do our own things. I've become such a homebody after being with the Husband, it's so strange! It seems like now I just really like doing stuff on our own, or just sitting around at home doing our own things etc.

Yeah, finally made it to the altar with Mr. C! I was happy to have my back to the crowd. I'm so scared of large groups of people and this is not a good thing given the amount of presentations I will have to give as part of my post-doc.

You see the arch there? Cindy did all that for us! I thought it was really pretty! The arrangements on the pews were also amazing! They were done by Christina from Fleur D'sign. She is the most amazing person to work with, a total dream. She was flexible, not pushy, honest and reliable. Most importantly, she "got" what I wanted. She did the pews and the table on the stage. We had white carnations, baby breaths, ferns and dripping ivy leaves on white tulle sashes and champagne satin ribbons. I was completely blown away when I first saw them!

The Husband's Pastor from his AOG Church was our solemnizer. He was really funny, approachable, and gave a really good exhortation! My Dad was full of praises for him, and if you know my Dad, you'd know how lucky you were to hear him say one good thing about somebody else.

Love this picture of Dad! Cole seems to love taking his pictures, haha.

The exchanging of rings! The Husband was so nervous he nearly put my ring on the wrong hand and he nearly dropped the ring too. The Pastor had to correct him under his breath, haha.

The "you can kiss the bride" moment! Oh my god it was so embarrassing! I'm not exactly a PDA kinda person, so I pulled away from the Husband when he planted a kiss on my lips, making it all but a quick peck that barely lasted 2 secs. And because of that, the Pastor made us kiss 3 times! I was dying of embarrassment, hence the picture below.

Signing our lives away!

Pronounced Husband and Wife in the name of the Lord.

I thank Him for taking care of us and for seeing us through all these years. There were so many moments where we thought we just wouldn't make it but we did. I read an article recently online and I agree with the authors' point of view- it is indeed very different being with somebody who already has it all, and building a life with somebody who had nothing to begin with but got somewhere with time. To build something out of nothing together with another person, to learn and to gain different experiences in life together, will always be that something special you share with each other. The quality of that bond there is quite different. A younger me might not have understood this well, but now I do and I appreciate it.

After all that was done and dusted, we took group photos with our guests and they adjourned to the reception area.

Here's one with all my church friends, most of whom have seen me grow since I was a wee child.

I was forced to throw my bouquet. I don't actually quite like the idea of this but I just went with whatever Cole asked me to do. It's not his fault, I was just too tired to protest haha!

My cute Shups picking up the bouquet from a NG (no good) throw by me and signaling "one more time, please!".
 

The bouquet was eventually caught by Germie, who is incidentally getting married in November this year!

Another flower-tossing shot of my girls and I! This was quite funny, we had to take several shots to get this perfected. We had heaps of fun doing this!

Guests enjoying the food that we didn't get to touch. Sob! Our caterer was "Mum's Kitchen", they offer very competitive prices and apparently the food was quite good! They were also flexible, prompt with replies and easy to work with. Their set-up and decor were also quite nice! There were a few caterers whom I inquired with before deciding on Mum's Kitchen, and they had horrific customer service so I'm really glad my friend recommended Mum's Kitchen to me!

Just us girls- the 2 other leading ladies in my life: Mum (my superhero!) and Sis!

Just before we left the Church, we took a few shots with our Beetle. Cuteness overload! It was quite a warm day and truth be told, I had sweaty armpits the whole time. Eww.

The company also gave us a little keepsake which I thought was quite sweet of them.

And..... we were off! We started the morning as singles and came out married!

It was back to the hotel, to prepare for the evening banquet!

So that pretty much sums up the morning/afternoon part of our day! What did I love about it? The fact that so many of our friends turned up and shared in our joy, that we were surrounded by all our close friends and family, and of course, that everything went so very smoothly! I must say, we were quite surprised with that because there were parts of the ceremony that we didn't manage to coordinate properly beforehand. What do I regret about it? Not having time at all to mingle with my guests or to thank them personally for coming! Also, I regret not sampling the food we chose for the reception, haha!

Argh! This has been such a lengthy post! I need to recover now before putting up the highlights of our wedding banquet in my next entry! Watch this space.