The SG Wedding at Min Jiang

Being a bride isn't much fun, because there are about a thousand things that require your decision.

After the morning festivities and a brief photo-taking shoot around the condominium compound with our brilliant  groom and bridal parties, Peter and I took a well-deserved rest before heading to Min Jiang to set up the venue. We arrived at about 3, but I was shortly whisked away to have my hair and make-up done. 

Meanwhile, Peter and the girls went about getting the decos in place - magnet pieces for wedding favors, and props to motivate the guests' use of the Wedding Pics app.

Now, the Wedding Pics app is pretty awesome. It allows you to crowdsource pictures from your guests, and you get to see pictures from their perspectives. In my iPad version, I could even put on a Slideshow to display pictures freshly taken. What's more, it's free! Pretty cool.

Anyway, it was a bit of a mayhem - with the restaurant being slow to set up the tables and chairs, my parents getting lost, having to deal with questions on logistics and decorations, etc. I was frankly, extremely stressed out

My make-up artist, Irene, did a perfect job with the hair. Never mind that my head was pretty sore with all the poking of hair pins and tugging.

Peter was the perfect groom, and ran around ensuring things went smoothly. My bridal party, especially Jish, was awesome too. 

Aside from dealing with the venue and logistical issues, we were also worried about our solemniser. We had randomly found him from the web, and realized he was almost 90 years old when we met him face to face. We could sense his enthusiasm in solemnising the wedding, but yet could not help worrying that he was not able to turn up due to ill health. After all, he did tell us about he recent health scares and operations. It did not reassure us much when he displayed signs of memory lapses while speaking with us. We decided to stick with him because we did not want to hurt a nice old man's feelings, and we were glad when he turned up earlier than expected.

We had an adorable pair of ring-bearer and flower girl - Ian and Ashley. They were a hit with the guests, as well as the photographers.

Peter had earlier given instructions to Ian on the path he should take to the solemnisation table. However, my Dad who was probably nervous, kept holding Ian's shoulder to steer him. Meanwhile, all that was in my head was - "please don't let me step on my dress and trip!"

As we were making our way to the table, the sound man accidentally switched the "Canon in D" symphony to Vanessa Mae's "Toccato and Fugue in D Minor", a piece that is typically used in horror movies. It was pretty funny, but I could see the horror in Jish's face as the music changed. There was a little confusion, but Jish straightened it out and threw the sound man a dirty look.

I prepared bottles of bubbles for children to keep themselves entertained. But it turned out the adults were having fun with them too. 

Finally, I made it to the table, while deftly avoiding bubbles in my face. Peter and I were both slightly nervous, and I wondered if our solemniser was nervous too. Instead of speaking, he seemed to channel all his energy to shouting the words in his script. I gently nudged the microphone towards him, but he was adamant about yelling out each word. "We! Are! Here! Today! To! Celebrate! ...." 

As he was boisterously guiding us in our vows, he sternly warned Peter not to look at him because that would mean "he was marrying him (the solemniser)". Peter got alarmed and stared determinedly at me. Without looking at the solemniser, it could be somewhat difficult to decipher what he was saying. When he declared us man and wife after what seemed like an eternity, there were loud cheers - not sure if it was a reaction to our union, or out of relief that the ceremony was over. We were certainly relieved. The solemniser looked relieved too.

"Um.. What is he saying?"

"Yay! Married!"

The traditional tea ceremony ensued, and there were a long line of relatives to be 

served tea. Peter's relatives were especially excited, since it was a first time for them to be involved in a tea ceremony.

There was a slightly emotional moment when grandma got teary, causing my eyes to start watering as well. Peter was quick to ensure that my eye make-up wasn't ruined. 

After the tea ceremony, the guests mingled at the cocktail reception. There was plenty of photo-taking.

Dinner commenced at 7.30pm promptly. The general feedback was that the food was good - not that I had much. The specialty was Min Jiang's wood-fired Peking Duck. As I was perpetually being escorted upstairs to get my hair done, Jish was a sweetheart and brought me some duck to feast on.

My evening outfit, a red laced cheongsam, had elicited plenty of compliments. 

I had it tailored at a shop in Lucky Chinatown called Iris and Edel. It was a last minute decision to do so, and boy was I glad they were able to whip up the dresses in about three weeks. The ladies at Iris and Edel were also extremely friendly. They would show you samples of different types of laces and advise on the suitable ones for the types of dresses you are looking for. They aren't very pricey too - my red cheongsam was about $760, with a train of lace behind. I would highly recommend them to anyone who needs nice dresses tailored. 

They also helped tailor a second dress for the wedding in the USA. More on that later. 

The evening's merry-making went on. We gave our speech which we prepared just the night before. The objective of the speech was really to thank our friends and families for being in our lives.

Peter's part of the speech included a line in Teo Chew "Ah ma! Gam sia le qi yi hao an nee swee"，targeted at Grandma. However, grandma didn't seem to understand the line, though the rest of the audience was tickled.

When the night finally ended at around 11, both of us were thoroughly knackered, but glad that the SG wedding was done! 

Now to worry about the USA wedding instead...

The Singapore Wedding: Morning Festivities

I dutifully woke up at dawn, at the strict instructions of my mum, to shower and get dressed, and to participate in some of the traditions my Mum had in mind. Mummy placed two hard-boiled  eggs near the shower, with instructions to "not bite the egg when putting it in the mouth". I was incredulous at the odd tradition, and warned my mum that she would be responsible if I were to choke to death in doing so. Thankfully, nothing untoward occurred, though my mum gave me flak for consuming both eggs.

Mummy: You were only supposed to consume one!

Me: Then why on earth did you give me two?

Mummy: ...

Frankly, I am not sure if my mum understood or believed in any of the traditions herself. 

I laid out the gifts and personalised messages for the bridal party, and basked in the lull before the activities.

At 7 in the morning, the make-up artist, Irene arrived. The photographer and videographer soon arrived too, and there was a flurry of questions. As my hair was being unmercifully tugged and pulled by Irene, I had to field questions from people and was getting increasingly stressed out.

Meanwhile, my bridal party was out in full force to lay out the tasks for the groom. 

First task: Pick Red Beans to Make Art.

Since the majority of the groom party was American, Jish thought it would be challenging for them to use chopsticks to pick out red beans and create art on canvas using glitter glue. I was not part of the fun, though my brother attempted to show me some of the ongoing activities via FaceTime.

After picking at the beans for a while, Peter decided to bribe the girls with a red packet so that they could use a spoon instead of chopsticks.

Behold - the final piece of art.

The second task, again devised by Jish, was for the groom and his party to develop a cheer - American style. By now, my mum was panicking because the first task took up a significant bit of time. The girls hence instituted a shorter deadline for the completion of task #2, but Peter took out a red packet once more to negotiate for more time.

The boys shaking their bon-bons.

The third task involved the consumption of sweet, sour, bitter and spicy flavours. The girls came up with the lethal combination of Oreo cookies, wasabi, lemon and bitter gourd slices.

Nasty.

Peter paid a red packet to get a cup of water to dilute the nastiness of the task, since there were twelve of such cookies to devour - one for each month of the year apparently.

The final task - melting the ice to get the bedroom key. Samantha came by few days earlier to freeze and encase the key to my bedroom key in a heart-shaped ice.

Jish warned Peter against breaking the heart, and said that he should instead melt it. Peter employed the final red packet to negotiate for a cup of warm water, and melted the ice to the key.

With the key, he accomplished his tasks and victoriously retrieved the bride.