A Wedding Tale - the day I got married (part II)

(continued from previous post)

2.45pm We stuffed all we could into my dad's Myvi, including 5 cartons of wine and our evening clothes. On the way to the hotel, we picked Henry from the bus station.

4.00pm The ballroom preparation begins! Set up projector, laptop and slideshow, cd player and songs, reception table, wedding scrapbook aka guestbook, wedding favours, MC script, evening programme, song practice, instructions to captain ... whew... so much to complete in half an afternoon. Fortunately, we had Justin, Steve, Ray, Lee Hwee, Louisa, Khye and Yin helping out.

6.00pm A quick bath before I had to go down to receive guest. Vicky was busy with the evening make-up. I have not prepared my speech. Tried scribbling a few sentences but could not get it together. Well had to go down soon, so will hopefully think of something before 'showtime'.

6.55pm My parents were already down at the reception. Guests were slowly trickling in. Planted myself at the main entrance and braced myself to receive the 400 plus guests. Got Louisa, Khye, Shireen and Sigrid to man the reception table.

7.45pm The ballroom was almost full by now. It was almost time to start. Vicky and I took the back way to get to the start of the red carpet. Almost time now. Had to to find the two kids who were marching in before us.

8.00pm March in to "After All", a love duet by Peter Cetera and Cher.

8.30pm Finished our 2nd dish, the sea cucumber soup, this was our cue to get changed up before the 4th dish (the fish) starts rolling out. While Vicky changed to her wedding gown, I had another go at the speech.

8.50pm Back at our table. Soon the 4th dish came out and that was the cue for our slidehow. Had a couple of hiccups. First time playing on the Mac. Stopped abruptly in the middle and the fonts were all wrong at the back. The show had to go on ...

9.00pm It was time for the 'champagne' (the hotel only provided sparkling juice) popping and toasting. the whole ballroom raised their glass as my friends led the 'Yam Seng'.
I was up next -speech time. Took out my few sheets of scribbled notes and gave my version of the 'Oscars thank-you' speech. I was just relieved when it was over. Now it was time for my friends to perform.

9.10pm Steve kicked off the performance, followed by a duet with Raymond. Next the guys decided to give an impromptu performance - our Secondary 2 talentime winning performance - 'Kiss the Girl'. I was invited to join in to sing a song that I barely remembered the lyrics. For the song finale, was made to kiss my bride. How apt.

9.30pm It was the final leg of the night. The photo-taking session. My photographers and brothers helped to ensure a smooth passage through all 42 tables. Had the chance to exchange a few words to old teacher, friends and relatives. Completed it just in time to see off the guests. Even had time for a school rally session with the St.Andrew Old boys.

11.00pm More photo sessions with the Muarians. Also had time to sit around with my relatives.The evening was over but there was more work to be done upstairs (eg. counting money). So we bid farewell to all who came before retiring to our room.

The End

A Wedding Tale - the day I got married (part I)

5.45am The beeping started and my hands instinctively shot out to shut the alarm.

6.15am Dad sent my photographer, Teoh, to Vicky's place. Decided that I could afford another 20 mins of shut eye

6.45am Woke up. Washed and dressed up. Brothers started arriving soon after 7.15am. Got the corsages pinned on and ribbons tied to car doors. Had breakfast while waiting to leave.

8.20am Finally got the all clear from Vicky's stable. Got into the Volks, with Steven as the designated driver. Got there in barely 5 minutes, waking the neighbourhood with our shameless honking.

The games began. The sisters demanded push ups, Steve and Ray obliged, with both hands pushing up their male boobs. Guess that was not what the sisters meant.

Next, they wanted a song. Steve grabbed his guitar and we belted out 'Oh Vicky' to the tune of the evergreen 'Oh Carol'. They wanted another, in Chinese. We sang Teresa's 'Moon represent my heart'.

Then came the sticky part - the angpow negotiations. I managed to escape with my first two angpows. The biggest one still safe in Steve's pocket. The gate opened and we marched upstairs to find the bride.

Found Vicky in resplendant white on her bed. We were made to eat half-boiled eggs before going downstairs for the tea ceremony. Since we could not reach my place by 9am, we had to leave after 9.

9.15am Reached my place. Took the customary route to the bridal room. Another photo session ensued.

9.30am Time to take off again. Now for the Church Wedding Ceremony. Left with my brothers so that we could prepare the church and squeeze in some song practice time. The church started filling up and was more than half full by 10.30am.

10.30am The church bell rung and the march in began, followed by the church ceremony. I shan't bore you with the details.

11.15am We're married! Time for more posing. Family, relatives and friends took turns to have their photos with us. After maintaining my smile for half an hour, it was time for lunch. A minor 'water-shortage'problem was adverted by some helpful intervention.

1.30pm Tea ceremony again. Now for my side of the family.

Atfer everything was completed, it was time to pack for the night.

(to be continued)

Wedding Photos - Evening Shots

Wedding Photos - Morning Shots

A Wedding Tale - a day before the day

Friday, 23rd May 2008. Eve of the Wedding.

Woke up after 8am. Had breakfast with the family. Cup of coffee and nasi lemak.

Went to the park with Yin and Josh. Josh was happy sitting on the swing while watching the local kindergarden kids dancing to action songs. Then he had a whale of a time at the playground, climbing up steps, sliding down winding tubes, et cetera.

Back around 10am. Updated the guest list and table arrangement. Changes coming in even on the eve. Managed to get them printed on the home printer.

After lunch, went out to get guest list, song sheets, actual day programme photocopied. Wedding car arrived. A 60s era Volkswagon. Vicky's brother highlighted the many shortcomings of the car before leaving. Uncle George and Auntie Mary soon arrived.

Went out to fetch Vicky to decorate the car, but made u-turn after her mum advised that the bride should not be entering the groom's house on the eve. We have broken or ignored so many customs, a rule observed won't help salvaged the situation.

Tried to attach 'wedding bears' to front deco. Then Louie and Khye arrived. Soon Steve, Shireen, Ray, Willie and Sigrid arrived. Willie brought prawn noodles, otah for tea. Went through the songs for the church ceremony.

Headed to Church at 5.15pm. Started up organ and began practice. Only four songs, but not everybody knew all the songs. Vicky, her dad, and cousins arrived for 'march-in' rehersal. Flower girl had some problem walking in with the right speed and throwing flower petals at the same time. Florist started work with the pew flowers - pink and white gerbera bouquets.

Headed back after 7pm. Walked over to Yan Style restaurant for dinner. Three tables. Guest who joined us were Uncle George and Aunt Mary, Uncle and Auntie Gan, Mrs Peh, Uncle and Auntie Er, Aunt Mary Seah, 'Lau Kim', Steve, Shireen, Pauline and my own family. Went out to fetch my photographer friends just before dinner.

Started fixing up the car deco after dinner. Thanks to friends, the car actually looked quite smart and elegant. Steven and Jeff took the car on a test drive around the neighbourhood. Soon Ray, Carol, Marina, Ryan, Will, Sigrid, Justin, Hsu-ann and Adel came over. Went through the church songs one last time. Fortunately Adel was around to correct my version of 'Lead me Lord'. Before calling it a night, did a run through of the next day's programme with the team. Everyone left about 12.30am.

Bathed and called it a night around 1.45am. Sleep was hard to come by. Probably slept about 2 hours before the alarm went off ....

(to be continued)

We're Married

Yes, we're officially married ... in the eyes of the law - tick, in the customary tradition - tick, and in the eyes of God - tick.

And for once, I don't have my own pictures to show of a wedding. Will have to wait for the official ones from my phtographer. Meeting him on Thursday after work to collect the CD. So expect some pics coming up by the weekend after I resize them down to manageable size. By the way, there are already a few photos up on Facebook, courtesy of friends who were there.

Meanwhile I'll be writing my account of the events that trasnpired on the eve and actual day of the wedding, so do look out for it.

Invites

By now, all our guest should be holding on to one of our invitation cards. Well, it took quite a bit of sweat and labour to produce our own cards.

We, being believers that 'Made in Malaysia' is the best way to keep our wedding budget in check, took another step further by deciding to make our cards in Muar. What could be so hard with Vicky's cousin being in the printing business back home. We got to find that out real soon when we got the card design to her. Her shop did mainly digital prints, choice of paper and evelopes were also limited in Muar, and the preference was always for customers to choose a ready made card and add on a customized inter-lay. We already had a design in mind with the help of Vicky's sis, a recent multimedia design graduate, and really wanted our own simple design to come into print.

What followed was a long process of finding a printer who could print the way we envisioned, choosing the right coloured card, finding square envelopes (the only available ones came in red), and deciding to make our own stamp. Much communication over the phone and trips back home finally resulted in our cards coming into print. It must have taken an anxious 2 months to get it out. Special thanks to Sis-in-law who assisted us patiently throughout the process!

In the Director's Box

Who would have thought that stitching together a string of photos into a 10 min slideshow could be so difficult. Did I say 10 mins?! Darn, that means back to the trimming board.

Well, I started with a ready bunch of scanned and digital photos, so I figured that I just needed to play around with the animation, timing and music, and in no time I will be done. Wrong! Thoughts like 'these photos need some adjusting', to 'I need to hold that frame longer and add fade away to those' , to 'how do I get the songs to fade at the right time?' keep popping up, even after the nth time I'm replaying the slides.

After two weeks, the project is still in development stage. Haven't mastered the music transition and still working on the ending. Anyway I have a two weeks deadline till the premier, so got to do whatever it takes.

Back to lights, camera, action ....

Countdown begins

30 DAYS to Go!

Time sure flies. There's only 30 days to go till May 24th. I just put up a 'To Do' list on the board. It reads :
1) Church Booklet (just have to add on a small part but I got to rearrange the whole booklet to do that!)
2) Scan photos (ok, that was the easy part, now to do the slides ...)
3) Find church organist (almost there, please please play for me ...)
4) Buy Guest Book and Money Box (should be the easiest task on the list)
5) Order flowers for church pews (what goes with gerberas?)
6) Find a MP3 player (next will be a projector ...)

this is not the end. the list continues to grow. it's a growing living organism that multiplies when you think too deeply into things.

The fruit of our labour

We have received the drafts for our wedding album designs! There are ten pages made up of 30 photos. I'm pleased so far. It just needs some minor design tweaks! Enjoy the slides ...

Sweet Carriage

Every girl used to dream that her charming prince will come on a white horse and sweep her away to live happily ever after. Nowadays horses are not in fashion, but in their stead are the modern steel carriage with horse powered engines, adorned in dazzling trimmings and ribbons.

Be it vintage classics or luxurious convertibles, or your dad's old Beetle, every wedding must have a wedding car that porclaims to othe road users - 'Give way, we're getting married today!' or simply 'Let us through, we're late to Church!'.

We're still in the process of getting (read: borrowing) one. Yes, my dad's little Myvi didn't quite fit the bill. Vintage cars are quite hard to find in Muar, though that would be our preference. We will be happy with the classic Beetle which is still common on Muar roads.

Anyway, here are pics of wedding cars from weddings I previously attended.

Mel and Jeff's wedding car

The vintage Austin from Wee Loon and Lei Kun's

The grand looking Mercedes from Saye Chuan and Julia's

Steven and Shireen's

Ray and Carol's red M3

Su and Trevor's classic in Sydney

Wee Loong and Choy May's white M3

Willie and Sigrid's SLK