The Dinner Reception

A family portrait was desired so I was summoned from the bridal chamber a little earlier than expected. Woofing down half a Mars bar that I shared with CS, we quickly touched up and got ready.

The groom came to collect me from the room and quickly whisked me past all my guests into the ballroom. All I had time for was a quick wave like some celebrity passing the media as she arrived at a function.

We took a couple of immediate family shots on the stage before the extended family was invited in. Needless to say, there were a lot of us and the stage was not properly set up for such a large group. In order to capture the people at the back, the photographers were standing on chairs to get the top down angles.

After the family photos, I managed to do some mingle with the guests before it was time for our grand entrance.

The wedding day is truly the bride's day for it is a day where she is the center of attention - even more, I dare say, than the groom, himself.

Immediately after the walk in was the cake cutting ceremony. We decided to cut the mock up by the hotel for two reasons: 1. It had a better visual effect being five layers tall, 2. That meant we could keep HL's cake for ourselves!

Then it was back to the main table for the first of eight courses. All Chinese wedding banquets are the same. The most important part of the evening is the food. Always make sure you have plenty of it because it is a crime to starve your guests. While quantity is important, quality should never be neglected because that's the only thing everyone talks about when they leave the dinner.

Of course this was where our East meets West cultural differences clashed. Having grown up in a Western culture, I had developed an appreciation for ambience and visual appeal. While my hubby and his family were happy so long as the food was abundant and of excellent taste quality, I needed my wall to wall plush carpets, crystal chandeliers, floral decorations, and music.

By the time I finished my first course, I received word that my maternal grandfather was waiting to see me, so I went to visit him at his table. There was some confusion with the details that were shared with my grandfather so he was a rather disappointed to hear he had missed the tea ceremony earlier.

We managed to rectify that by calling the waiters to prepare another tea set while I scooted out to change to my evening gown.

I think I must have put on some weight because I could hardly breathe by the time CS zipped me up. JL touched up my make-up and reset my hairpiece and I was back out to the ballroom.

The waiters had brought the tea set, so Charlie and I served my paternal grandfather, and my uncle and aunt who were also on the table but not present at the tea ceremony earlier.

Shortly after, it was time for the speeches.

My father-in-law went first. Initially, he had not wanted to do the speech, but he got cornered into it by the wedding planner. Wanting to make sure it was done properly, he had someone write a speech for him in traditional Hokkien and had been practicing the accent for the last few days leading up to the wedding day. I guess you could liken it to archaic English because even many of the Hokkien speaking guests could not understand what he was saying even though they could recognise the speech as the Hokkien dialect.

My dad was next. Like the eloquent public speaker that he was, he gave a very well composed speech, except for the part where he told the entire audience what an enormous baby I was. His speech was quite typically western in style for he ended with a word of advice to the groom in the form of a prose quoted from Robert Burns:

"To make a happy fireside clime,
With little ones and wife,
That is the true pathos, and sublime,
of human life."

Thereafter, he proposed a toast which was unfortunately lost by most of the audience who were unfamiliar with this particular western tradition. Even so, I was never more proud of my father.

The next speech was from the best man and MC, who provided the details about how we first met, fell in love and decided to get married. The story, as interpreted by him, was more or less correct with some missing portions and additions that I did not recall. It was a little strange to hear about the private moments of my life through the voice of a third party, but it was a lovely speech - thanks, M!

C and I were called onto the stage for the champagne (or in this case - sparkling juice) pouring and the three traditional "yum sengs" that toasted us for good health, fortunes and plenty of children. As we toast, we are supposed to sing out "yum seng" in one very long breath. The longer you can hold it, the better, although this is another one of those traditions where the reasons have lost but the tradition still carries on.

C followed with his speech and thanked everyone except for my motley crew who supported me through out the day. I feel a need to rectify this injustice at this point:

1. My chee muis (head conspirator Kit, lawyer Pauline, Lelek Le Grunt, Simian Boy, Paparazzi Stan, negotiator Howie, Fearless Leader, Thin Man and Szen) - for scheming and planning up devious tasks for the groom and his heng tais.
2. Mindy Thooi from FAB - who worked tirelessly to train her dancers for the evening's performance
3. Jason Choo - my personal photographer from Singapore
4. Christina Sng - my devoted friend and matron of honour (what would I have done without you?)

My speech was short and sweet. Spoken in Mandarin, it was the first time I was going to give a speech in Mandarin so I figured the shorter the better. I still am unable to speak Mandarin so I had to memorise the pronunciation. I had most of it under the belt except for the last line which came out a little off tone due to nervousness and insufficient practice.

After the speeches, the rest of the evening cruised. MT's dancers came on stage, HH sang her solo, and we did the rounds (or as much of it as possible) before we were called to the main door to see the guests out. I felt really bad that I didn't manage to get around to all the tables I had wanted to. Because there were so many tables, we had to do a four pronged attack - the groom and his parents to their guests; my parents and I to our guests. Even then I still didn't have enough time to reach all the tables.

The farewell was quite a painful experience because most of the guests squeezed my hand so tight that my ring kept digging into my skin. It was also a real test of my memory to remember the faces. I had enough trouble with my own relatives, let alone the new set I had just gained. Throw in the faces I had seen once or twice before and it was struggle to put the names to the right faces.

When all the guests had gone, it was time for the groom to "return" the drinking favours with his close friends. Downing four glasses of scotch in rapid succession was problem the beginning of the end of the night for him. Despite all the enticing I did about making babies that night, I couldn't disengage my hubby from his friends who were hell-bent on getting him drunk.

The evening ended with a late night supper. HL, M, A, K, the hubby and I piled into the Forrester at about 2am to scavange for food. Near Istana, there was a road-side, noodle store providing some of the good stuff. After the noodles and some Vitamilk, my eyes could barely stay open. We got back to the hotel and hit the sack by about 3am. The last thing I heard was the hubby puking his guts into the toilet bowl.