Yesterday afternoon, I very nearly didn’t attend my first church wedding ever, but in the end I did. Cos my sister reminded us just before noon that she wanted to go, so I had to accompany her, and mum also came along. Neither of them had ever been to a church wedding before this one as well – my sister’s younger than me but my mum’s more than five decades old.
The wedding was my cousin’s, held at a newly built church in an ulu corner of Punggol. The invitation said to be seated by 2 pm. We reached at around 1.35 pm and took a few photos and then sat down and waited and waited and waited. The ceremony only began at 2.45 pm!!!
The wedding cake, placed on the stage, which smelt strongly of chocolate but turned out to be carrot. (And they duct taped the cake to the board!!! :O )
It was movie-themed, as we deduced from the invitation. So they screened the trailers of The Leap Years and 50 First Dates and their own creative localized version of the Mastercard (dancing guy) ad. Then they screened a Star Wars-themed clip about the groom growing up and the bride growing up and the groom then going to the other side of the universe to seek the bride or something. Then the groom and his 兄弟s made their grand entrance with poser poses.
Then the bride’s 姐妹s came down the aisle, followed by the flower girl and page boy (who lost his way) bearing the rings. Then my cousin came in accompanied by my Uncle N. The groom received the bride and they went up the stage together.
The pastor delivered a long long speech with many references of what happens in movies is not like real life. And he quoted 1 Corinthians, which almost everyone loves to quote as well. You probably know it as well. ‘Love is patient, love is kind……’ But the way he said the newlyweds’ love would grow in God’s love was a bit creepy, like third party like that (Grand Dotter via sms: ‘God is asexual, but linguistically at least manifested male, and clergy traditionally male, sometimes communion with god also called a marriage.’).
After the pastor was done talking, the groom and bride recited vows which they had written themselves, exchanged rings, were declared ‘man and wife’. Finally, then the groom was allowed to kiss the bride. They then walked back down the red carpet…… into a blissful future.
Doesn’t the bride’s gown look like a humongous meringue?
After that, the moment everyone was waiting for – reception time! YAY. The buffet was by Rasel and the food was quite nice. There was stuff like potato salad, shepherd pie with minced lamb, lemongrass fish, ice cream puffs and carrot cake (so even though I couldn’t eat the carrot cake Karen baked for me cos the icing was tasted bitter and was probably spoilt, I still managed to satisfy my carrot cake cravings!). Meanwhile the bride and groom had their cake cutting ceremony amidst the chaos.
No celebration is ever complete without food!!!
After thanking the bride and groom, we taxiied home in double quick time to prepare for Round 2 – wedding dinner at The Paramount (‘a Tung Lok restaurant’) in Paramount Hotel & Shopping Centre. We got there just after 6.30 pm and were the first few guests there. I was supposed to reach the place early cos I was supposed to be one of the receptionists!
The reception table was kinda bare when I got there, but the other receptionist, Jan (spelling?) soon arrived with bags and bags of barang barang. We laid out the stuff and she told me what to do later. She’s a mutual friend of the couple and the second 姐妹 during the church wedding.
Busy bees!
I was actually less busy :P cos I only handled the bride’s relatives whereas Jan handled the groom’s relatives and the couple’s mutual friends and colleagues.
I just realized the reception area was tinged in pale pink.
What I wore:
- Purple New Look toga dress that I bought on Wednesday, ha! (oh there was a deep green version which was equally nice!)
- Mum’s pearl necklace
- Silver Topshop heels I bought in January 2007 and worn for the first time
Meanwhile in the ballroom, the tea ceremony was underway!
We manned the reception booth for about one and a half hours, ticking off guests’ names, giving them directions and collecting angbaos. At around 8.30 pm, we packed up quickly, handed the fiery avalanche of angbaos to my cousin (bride’s younger brother) for safekeeping, and went to our respective tables before the wedding couple made their grand entrance.
During my other cousin’s wedding in December 2009, we were seated with Uncle N and family. My mum told him that she wanted a good table so she could see my cousin on stage properly during her wedding. So Uncle N gave us a lot of face by seating us at table number 1, which turned out to be in the last row, and in the farthest corner ever!!!!!! (We shared the table with two other middle-aged couples who were apparently Uncle N’s former or current neighbours or something.)
As expected, this wedding dinner did not start punctually either. The invitation said it would start at 7.30 pm but the first course was served at 8.40 pm.
Roast chicken should always be served with keropok. Yay!
After the dinner, most of the relatives were milling outside the restaurant and taking photos in front of the seedy KTV lounges next door. There was an endless stream of scantily-clad women coming and going. I have no idea why many of the older folks spoke disparagingly of these women. KTV hostessing is a job, it pays the bills – although the noise generated might potentially disturb those living next door.
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