My sister's married!
Months of agonising and planning culminated in a rather successful wedding I'd say! Now lemme start at the beginning, which is a generally popular place to start.
Woke up at around 5am but I had to drag myself out of bed cos I'd been at Larissa's xmas party and watching Liverpool thrash Portsmouth the night before. The makeup artist and hairstylists arrived shortly after I'd freshened up so I waddled to the door like a zombie (assuming zombies do waddle. You may dispute this saying that zombies actually stagger but since zombies don't actually exist I have every right to imagine that they waddle) in my sleepwear to let them in. They proceeded to make-up Wenhui (my sister) and may I add, they did a pretty splentastic job. In the meantime, I tidied myself up.
By the time I was done, the sisters (Wenhui's friends and colleagues) and my maternal relatives had arrived. Me and my dad went downstairs to get breakfast and he went off to pick up my relatives (dad's side). By seven plus Wenhui was all made up and in her gown, the relatives, the sisters, photographers and videographers were all at our house. Now as Cantonese tradition has it the groom is supposed to come to the bride's house to whisk her away to his house. But it wasn't going to be easy for him.
At 8.15, car horns could be heard blaring away downstairs. That was my cue to go down and open the car door for Fenglei. (the groom/my brother-in-law) So I grabbed a couple of oranges and went down to see his brothers there. The bridal car was a BMW, with Fenglei inside waiting for me to open the door. I waited till the camera and video crew were in position and then opened the door. Now he and I were in a bit of a pickle cos he had a hand bouquet in one hand and a red packet (for me) in the other and I was supposed to hand him the oranges and he was supposed to hand me the red packet. Tough innit? Well we managed. Took a couple of photos before rushing back upstairs to warn the sisters of their arrival.
I needn't have worried. They'd already locked the door (thus locking me out) so all we had to do was wait. Here were the rules of the game: if Fenglei and his brothers wanted to enter theyd have to give a $1223 angbao; otherwise they'd have to do certain things to reduce the amount. Of course they chose to negotiate, so I provided the first hurdle. My demand: 99 commando push ups to be spread out among the seven of them. At first it didnt look too good cos a lot of them were struggling! About halfway through I began to feel ever so slightly guilty. I contemplated offering to help but they looked determined to take the punishment for Fenglei. In the end, the brothers completed 98 pushups, leaving the last one for Fenglei. I was so touched la..
With that out of the way, the fee was lowered to $999. Next he had to take on a quiz about his bride and - he's surprisingly good! I suppose those eight years together weren't for nothing. So he managed to make his way into the house - but that was just round one. To get through the balcony he had to undergo a series of sensory tests involving identifying my sister's perfume and lipstick print. (one of which was mine)
And finally, our favourite hurdle which involved tasting something sour, sweet, bitter and spicy. Sour was (pure) lemon juice, sweet was rock sugar pieces coated in honey, bitter was (ooh my favourite) bittergourd juice and spicy was long beans in tabasco sauce. Long beans because Fenglei couldn't stand the grating sound produced between tooth and, uh, bean. Take a gander at our sadistic selection of sensory sappers:
formidable, aren't they? we prepared enough for him and his brothers. All pretty healthful foods actually. And that was round two. He'd finally made his way into the house! But Wenhui was in the bridal room, waiting. And before he could go in there and lift her veil, he'd have to...serenade her with Truly Madly Deeply from Savage Garden! Now I was particularly concerned at this point because I'd only had the opportunity to teach him the chords two days ago. Which was why I was surprised when he insisted he'd take it on his own. In any case, yeah he had trouble changing the chords in the end but..what courage!
..so with the song out of the way, he was all on his own now! he seeks permission to enter the bridal room..
..and kisses the bride!
And so after that the two leave for the groom's house for tea ceremony there first, before they return for tea ceremony at our place. I catch a quick nap in between, then we all leave for the Arts House, venue of the ceremony. I had the privilege of getting a ride in the bridal car.
This is where I got kinda busy, directing guests to the reception counter (and the toilet), giving out chocolates and pins. After that we all adjourned into the Chamber for the ceremony. I was really tickled to hear Buckethead playing in the chamber, thanks to Wenhui's choice of music. (and my influence) Bet that was a first. Things kicked off with a video presentation (during which I started to get all teary-eyed), including footage of all the happenings that occurred earlier in the day. Boy are they efficient!
Then came my sis and my dad marching proudly down the aisle, and the stuff that follows after that (I'm too lazy to describe this but I got it all on video. it was damn long and my hands were giving way)
After that we all went to have food, make small talk with the guests etc. and that was pretty much it. I thought the whole thing was rather successful. In fact, it was more or less as I'd pictured it in my mind. I'd totally want my wedding to go like this! Speaking of my wedding, we all know how weddings tend to make people anxious about their own. As it is, at least three relatives asked me when mine was going to be and a few assumed I had a girlfriend. ("is your girlfriend tall?") haha who knows!
right then, a few more pictures and we're done:
happy married couple + me
family photo with paternal relatives
"who the heck is this?!"
