The Wedding (Part 1)

So this entry begins not on the wedding day itself but the night before. On the eve of our BIG DAY, I had a li'll gathering of sorts with some close relatives. We had a simple buffet catering and everyone simply ate, chatted bout the wedding, went gaga over my cousin's newborn ... Le Ann, admired the bridal chamber etc ... the usual stuff :) The elders in the family were insisting on certain traditions to be carried out, aunties giving their two cents worth on how to do this, how to decorate that, what to say, when to say it bla bla bla. *Pening* but it was all good la. CJ, my highschool mate also gave me a buzz asking if I was around and 10 minutes later, he popped into my house and asked me to be excused ... said his mom simply had to congratulate me in person. Mrs. Gan is the sweetest person ever and even insisted on giving me an 'ang pow'. I invited the both of them in and showed them my room which is to be the bridal chamber.

When everyone left, I drove over to SY's place. I know ... I know ... I know, ancient tradition decrees that the bride and groom shouldn't meet the night before the wedding but we really had no choice. I needed to collect the bridal bouquet from her and to pass her the ribbons to be tied to the bridal convoy. When I arrived at her place, coincidentally, Ping and Celest were there as well. The gals were having a sleepover of sorts ... well, they were actually there to scheme and 'prepare' the various games for my 'heng tais'.

I bid the bride goodnight and went home. Took a long shower, re-check my checklist once more and went downstairs to sleep on the sofa. Haha ... yea, you heard right, the sofa cause apparently, the groom is not to touch the bridal bed till after the wedding for some reason unknown to me. So just follow tradition lo. I dozed of at around 3:00am.

I meant to wake up at 6:00am the next morning but at 5:00am, I was already wide awake. A mix of emotions enveloped me entirely ... nervousness, agitation, excitement, bliss ... all mushed together. I paced the living room in total darkness running through the day event's plan in my head. I was thinking but not thinking ... haha ... doesn't make any sense I know but it was just how I felt at that time. My heng tais were suppose to arrive at 7:00am, so I quickly went to get prepared. A long hot shower managed to soothe the anxiety and I spent a good deal of time in front of the mirror trying to make sure every stub was cleanly shaven, every strand of hair in its right place etc ... haha, you only get married once k.

I received a call from the videographer and photographer ... telling me they were lost and couldn't find my home. So I gave them simple instructions but 15 minutes later, they called telling me they were still couldn't succeed. I was about to drive out to meet them when Jon arrived. (Jon's one of my heng tai and also the co-emcee at the wedding dinner reception later that night). So I hopped into his car and off we went to 'retrieve' the AV fellas.

We arrived home 10 minutes later and found that a couple of other heng tais had also arrived. I recruited a total of 12 all together and suggested a dress code of black shirt and black suits. Earlier, I purchased silver neck ties for all of 'em and they looked pretty smashing I must say ... like the Yakuza yo.

The AV people started doing their thing immediately, filming and snapping away as the rest of us had a simple breakfast of steamed dumplings and hot coffee. The plan was to leave for the bride's place at 8:00 am sharp (it'll only take us less than 10 minutes to get there) but we soon received a call informing that they were not ready for us just yet. So we drove around the neighbourhood for a good 15 minutes and when we got the go-ahead ... we headed towards SY's place and shattered the morning silence by blarring our horns full blasttt!!! It's time to get me my bride ... :D

To be continued ...

P.S. Oh yea, if you wanna view more photos of our wedding, please proceed to my Facebook. We've uploaded a couple of hundred shapshots there for your viewing pleasure.