mr and mrs wong

A day after my birthday this year is what is arguably the most anticipated event in our family (our meaning the Wongs) in the last decade and a bit.

Choon gets married, four months after the proposal! The prodigal son finally has a lo por zai! (Cantonese for wife) My parents will have grandchildren bearing their surname!

As he and Phoebe go through the solemnization of the marriage, scenes run through my mind: Por Por purchasing a jade pagoda from a fortune teller in China and faithfully placing it beside her bed next to the telephone because the (scammer) told her it would ensure her son’s marital bliss, Por Por reciting chants from a notebook which she carried with her even while on holiday in the belief that the daily ritual would snag Choon a wife, the visit to another fortune teller who told Choon that he had to maintain a longer fringe covering his forehead to boost his marriage chances, the occasional discussion (amongst us in Singapore while Choon was in Darwin) whether he was actually interested in men instead and we were all barking up the wrong tree.

Gosh. Which goes to show that when things are meant to happen it will.

* Thrilled to the  max: Por Por (eyes closed I know but I didn't take another shot), Gong Gong, Jai and Teng (who is not so thrilled now that the spotlight has turned to him)

* The Loh's are thrilled too

The ceremony took place at Sentosa’s Tanjong Beach Club. As it turns out, Phoebe’s dream was to get married at the beach and while the gray skies and initial drizzle drowned out hopes for a ceremony against a golden sunset, the beach was really quite beautiful.

Highlights:

A COUPLE WHO BOTHERS

I was a couldn’t-care-less bride with a husband who cared even less. Choon and Phoebe, however, really put in the effort, procuring all sorts of knicks and knacks from taobao to make their solemnization special.

* Jo in the Bride's chair

And they looked amazing, from Choon’s suspenders (Jo hated them because she thought they looked weird but I thought it was quirky) to Phoebe’s fairytale gown and flower headdress.

The only spoiler was the club’s sound system. The mike refused to work for the couple (and only the couple because it worked fine for me and the solemnizer, I think it could have been where they were standing) and their self-penned wedding vows were unheard by the guests.

* The solemnizer, the cameraman, Gong Gong (first witness) and the second unpictured witness, Phoebe's dad

MY FLOWER GIRL DAUGHTERS

I’ve never said this but I’ve really wanted the girls to be flower girls, since they were young. Why? I have no idea. Maybe because I thought they were cute.

* Jai - who IS a member of our family and who is so proud that Choon has gotten married - taking photos in the background

I wish I were a little more ambitious in my dreams for the girls, like wanting them to be doctors or lawyers or do well in school. But no. All I want is for them to walk in front of a wedding looking pretty and throwing flowers out of a basket. The girls were very unwilling at first, they felt they were too old. But when Mum is stubborn about something, no one can say no.

Phoebe got them baskets and head-dresses, and bought the red rose petals, while I managed to buy $20 dresses for them from Uniqlo, thank God for Uniqlo. Shoes, they didn’t have anything suitable, so they went barefoot. I thought it was very apt for the beach.

They even put on make-up, of their own accord. They grabbed what they call “pinker” from my makeup bag (it’s a cheek tint) and applied a light lip balm I bought for them from before.

MOTHER-DAUGHTER PERFORMANCE

That’s me on violin and Por Por on piano, playing the Kanon in D for the first march-in, where Phoebe comes in with her dad.

What’s funny were the two little kids who were completely adorable in not-knowing-what’s-going-on, and when Lu ran out of rose petals. She started off liberally spraying them out, then dwindling to one petal per throw, and realizing at somewhere around the 1:25 mark that she had very little left. Then she did some air throwing before giving up altogether.

* Por Por with maracas which she borrowed from her school

* Por Por with keyboard which she borrowed from her friend. Yay for Por Por and her kang tao!

* Performing in ghetto conditions: Trying to make sure the pedal doesn't get sandy, and a speaker brought from home

ME AND OFFSPRING PERFORMANCE

How nice to be able to play in a band where every member has been in my belly. Hahahaha! I’ve wanted to type that sentence since they were born!

Phoebe requests for Bruno Mar’s Marry You, at the last part of the ceremony, and we put it together. Basically I instruct and assign, it’s terribly easy because there’s just four chords and I’m the only one who has to do all the work. But then why do the girls look so stressed and miserable?

FOOD

The food was excellent. But I was too busy eating to take photographs.