Month: October 2008

When I reached outside of the ceremony room, there was a small group of people there but I just wasn’t seeing them at all. It’s very hard to explain it, it was like I was in a bubble and my heart was pounding so hard. Finally, my inebriated sister and brother-in-law ambled over and we stood outside the room, waiting for the cue to enter.

“Okay, go in,” said Peter, our saviour emcee and then he disappeared into the room. I don’t know why but somehow, that remark didn’t register in our brains and we stood there stupidly, waiting for the sign that had already came. According to poor Mr Thick, he stood at the end of the aisle as the piano refrain from Five for Fighting’s 100 Years played for four times, wondering where the hell his wife was.

“Eh, go in!” It was Peter, who had appeared again. I took a huge breath, linked arms with the Sista and A, and walked in.

The crowd was huge and my breath almost stopped. Okay, given that I was 30 minutes late, it wasn’t that unbelievable, but still, that moment was mine to savour.

Except to my right, my sister was almost dashing forward to my very handsome husband-to-be, and to my left, my brother-in-law suddenly let rip a loud and hysterical guffaw and I thought, What the hell is going on? It certainly wasn’t your typical stately and elegant walk down the aisle as the Sista half-dragged me while I looked on to the still-guffawing A in bewilderment.

At least, we got to the my husband-to-be. He looked mightily relieved and to be honest, so was I. We held hands and moved behind the table to take our seats. One thing that I am grateful for was that my uncle, as our justice of peace, had shifted the seats around, such that the two of us were facing the room while his back faced the audience. While most seating arrangements saw the audience staring at the backs of the couple, this new arrangement allowed everyone to look at us clearly as the ceremony was taking place.

As Mr Thick said his “I will” and “I do”, my eyes misted over and I almost cried. Surprisingly, I managed to curb the waterworks by taking a deep breath and telling myself that I cannot cry now. My mascara would run and I would terrible! That worked, almost instantly. Ah, vanity.

We reached the point where we had to exchange our rings and he said his vows without a hitch. As I slipped his ring over his finger, I started saying my vows. Except, it wasn’t complete. It sounded like this,
…To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish ’till death do us part…

Gah! I continued saying my vows as calmly as possible, hoping against hope that nobody noticed. Not a chance. As we sat there as our parents signed the certificate. Mr Thick whispered, “Did you miss out the for richer part?” I giggled and nodded, and we sat there shaking with mirth.

But the hilarity wasn’t over. We signed the certificate and it was time for the husband to unveil me and give me the first kiss of our married lives. But we were thwarted by…my mother! Even before I had put down the pen, my mother was ushering us and going, “Take family picture now! Quick, family picture! And remember to give the red packet to your uncle!” We dutifully took that picture, with me still wearing that veil, and then wondered how we were going to get to that kiss afterall.

His eldest brother, Steven, saved us from the blushes. “Kiss the bride!” he shouted and we duly obliged. Mr Thick flipped up my veil very coolly this time, having had his practice this morning, and we stared at each other for a second.

“We didn’t practise our kiss!” I murmured. No matter. We leaned in for a sweet, demure kiss and then…ah hah! The real deal! It wasn’t practised and it was damn satisfying. Heh.

We walked down the aisle as confetti was tossed at us and then we reached the end. Now what?

Part I: The morning
Part II: Coffee, tea or me?
Part III: Sunny skies
Part IV: The “passing” rain

All photos by Eadwine Lay of Plush Photography.
More photos here and here.

!(imgcenter)http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3219/2941048549_d58bbaa046.jpg!:http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmyliew/2941048549/
!(imgcenter)http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3177/2941060513_d0441f538a.jpg!:http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmyliew/2941060513/

Back in the suite, my make up artist Lawrence was busy trying to transform me into a princess. It was a tough job because the lack of sleep had given me ridiculously dark eye rings and I wanted to have smoky eyes. Panda alert! But he did a fantastic job and I cannot recommend him enough.

When Mr Thick came back to the suite, the prognosis wasn’t good. Dark clouds were billowing in the horizon but we crossed our fingers and hoped that the wind would blow them away. Unfortunately, it started drizzling lightly, and he received several frantic calls from the banquet manager, who wanted to know if we wanted to move indoors.

Frankly, that had to be one of the toughest moments in my life. I had to sit there quietly as my face was being painted but my mind was whirling with pessimism and prayer. Our perfect, beautiful wedding that we had been planning for the past year was about to be washed down the drain, literally. Poor Mr Thick had to quickly – he didn’t even style his hair! – move downstairs to survey the situation. Throughout the night, he kept all the stressful decision-making to himself and protected me from the excruciating details. I never thought it was possible but I think I, to paraphrase Ingrid Michaelson’s song, love him more than I promised that night.

In the meantime, my anxiety further heightened when my god-sister began complaining about the hotel staff’s poor service and when my uncle, who was also my JP, got lost with my mother in his car. I received several high-strung calls from the matriarch, which stressed me out. Forget about being polite, I wanted to be by myself, and got my cousin to shoo everyone else out.

Best decision, really, because once I had the space to think, I decided that there was no point in getting depressed. Sure, I was extremely disappointed that our dream could not be realised but there wasn’t anything that we could do and if this was what the big guy up there intended to happen, then so be it. I focused my attention (not enough, as we found out later) on writing our vows and keeping calm.

But. We were running late! 15 minutes before the start of the ceremony, Lawrence was still fussing about with my hair. At 6.30pm, the husband-to-be rang me to ask if I was ready. Nay! The hair was still being curled! At 6.40pm, Trev came into the room to ask if I was ready. Nay! The flower was still being pinned into the curled hair! And it was still bloody raining!

Finally, Lawrence was done and I hurriedly got dressed. We darted to the door and, of all people, Trev and Al – two non-straight men – helped me into my heels. It was a hilarious moment when I dropped my skirts, thinking they were done hooking up the straps of my shoes.

“Not yet, not yet!” screeched Al, whose bald head was engulfed by the skirts. Oops. I giggled and quickly lifted them up again and in a wink of an eye, he was done. By then, it was almost seven and I was a whopping 30 minutes late. Urghs. I walked as quickly as I could in my heels and made a dash for the lift.

Screw the rain, it was time to get married!

Part I: The morning
Part II: Coffee, tea or me?
Part III: Sunny skies

All photos by Eadwine Lay of Plush Photography.
More photos here and here.

!(imgcentre)http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3142/2864893569_311693b433.jpg(Ribbons flying)!:http://www.flickr.com/photos/33587399@N00/2864893569/

After tucking into a nice catered lunch, we went on our merry way to the hotel. The sun was blazing hot and so the top of the car stayed up. It was a perfect moment – we were young and in love, the weather was bright and sunny.

The plan was to catch a bit of shut-eye in the afternoon because I was absolutely knackered. But I didn’t manage to get any sleep because our room was not ready when we arrived at the hotel. And when we finally did get the room, our friends were already decorating the venue and it did feel a bit diva-ish to nap while they worked.

So it was off with the thick make-up and cheongsam, and on with the slippers, tee and shorts. I packed myself downstairs to see what I can help with, while the husband was already marshalling people around.

Standing there while everyone pottered around, I was left speechless. Ribbons were being tied everywhere, candles placed in strategic places, strings of crystal being hung on The Tree, lanterns strung up on strings. It was wildly beyond my imagination. All I had wanted was a line of paper lanterns around the circumference of the dinner area and a huge ribbon on The Tree. Not this elaborate set-up. It was hard not to be impressed and immensely moved, because it was as if someone had stepped up to me, gently taken my dream wedding off of my hapless hands and transformed it into something so much more amazing and breathtaking.

I’m now writing this with a smile on my face now because looking back, I was so gullible and distracted. I had brought down my high heels to the ceremony grounds to see if I could walk properly without tripping during the solemnization. At that point in time, Sandy, Peter and the husband were discussing the details with the banquet manager and I joined them for a bit. I didn’t notice the worried looks exchanged (the husband assured me that there were plenty) and before I knew it, he was pulling me up from my seat and guiding me to the stairs, telling me that I needed to practise walking in my heels. He even stayed with me throughout the entire time I was practising, which I had thought was weird at that time but chalked it up to the mood of the wedding. And when five o’clock came, he promptly booted me upstairs to get my make-up done. Something fishy going on? We’ll find out.

The one thing that I really regret is not having seen the venue in all its glory. When I went back to the room, the guys were stringing up the lanterns and some of the linen had not been set up yet. What’s imprinted on my mind is thus the “almost-there” version. I wish we had taken more photos but I guess I can only make do with my own imagination.

Part I: The morning
Part II: Coffee, tea or me?