Update (2)

It's been another long interlude since my last post. I thought, what with our anniversary around the corner, it would be a good idea to write down my memories of the Singapore wedding before I begin to forget some of the smaller details.

The day began with us both spending a lot of time getting ready. I was instructed to shave properly, moisturise, etc., so that I looked my best for the day (and for the pictures). It was due to be a long hot day (a typical Singapore day, then), so we did not immediately change into our wedding outfits. In fact, Yolande, her mum, Sue, and I took the car and made a stop off at Jurong Point, where we picked up a fresh bouquet of flowers, which Yolande would later hold as we walked up the aisle (and some for decoration). I think we went to a couple of different places for the flowers. And we didn't dare tell them it was for a wedding in case they hiked up the prices. After that we headed straight for the Irish pub to prepare. For some reason I remember the song playing in the car on the way, "I'm a big, big girl, in a big, big world...and I do, do will miss you much...". Strange lyrics.

We had a lot to prepare, since the wedding was very do-it-yourself. We had done some research on the Internet into the sort of decorations that couples buy for their weddings, and realised that a lot of them are very overpriced for what they are. Therefore, with a few trips to Arab street (cloth), IKEA (candles), Bugis (balloons, bingo), Popular (card, pencils) etc., we gathered together all the necessary materials for a do-it-yourself wedding. The theme was a mixture of gold, white/silver, and red. And Yolande's aunt had helped out by doing some sewing to make our wavy table cloth thing (forgive me if I don't know the terminology) for the signing table. Gemma designed our invitations for us, and we went off to find a good deal for the printing. We also made a timetable of the events and posted it on or by the door for our guests to see. Shan made our wedding cupcakes, which were absolutely delicious, even though I only had one chocolate cupcake before they were all gone. It was a real family effort, which made it all the more special for me.

On the day, we also needed to arrange the candles and flowers, and inflate and hang the balloons (I was the tallest, so I did the hanging). I also needed to make sure the wedding video we had prepared would work on the overhead projector. The video was a year by year selection of photos of us, with a song from that year playing in the background. Obviously, the first year (1984) only had pictures of Yolande, and it wasn't until 2005 that we started to appear together in photos. We'd spent a long time gathering photos for this video, selecting songs and editing it all together. It wasn't ultra professional or anything, but it was very personal to us, and a fun way to have music at the wedding and something for the guests to see if they were bored.

All in all, we did a lot of preparation, and although it had its stressful moments, we gradually got through the list and it gave us something to work towards together, which is always fun.

After the initial preparations, we left the Irish pub for a while to have lunch at a nearby place that served local food. We were having food later at the pub, so it was nice to have something very different beforehand for lunch. Eating out in Singapore is a lot of fun and something I miss about living there.

Yolande and my soon-to-be mother-in-law then had their wedding makeovers. Yolande's took a long time, since she had to put something like a million pins in her hair (I think it took her an hour to take them all out when we got home). I had a little groom touch up applied to my face so it wouldn't be all shiny in the photos, but I remember the biggest problem was my collar, which didn't want to cooperate, so George had to help me pin it in place.

It was fun having guests turn up bit by bit and greeting them. It's not very often that I feel like the star of the show, although I suppose that honour probably went to the bride. I remember playing with baby Andrew, who cried when he saw me, as usual.

When it was time to walk down the aisle with Yolande it was an amazing feeling. We stood outside and waited for the music, which we'd chosen especially, to begin. We both walked in together (not like in a typical British wedding) and made our way to the signing table. I was smiling and trying not to blink too much with all the camera flashes, but Yolande was loving every second of it, posing for people to take pictures. This theme continued as we said our vows. I was relatively shy and did not speak very loudly, but when it was Yolande's turn she all but shouted into the microphone "I do!", which elicited quite a reaction from the audience! (This was all caught on video, but unfortunately we lost the camera before we'd had a chance to back it up. Never mind, there were probably equally as many embarrassing moments that it's better people don't get to rewatch!) We had no rings to exchange, since we planned to leave this until our English ceremony in 2011, but we signed the wedding certificate and drank a wedding toast of champagne. We also had to do some traditional thing where people chanted some kind of well wishes in dialect whilst we kissed. That went on for longer than was comfortable in front of so many people!

It was a surreal feeling knowing that I was now a married man, but I was extremely happy knowing that I would spend the rest of my life together with the woman I love. Our first dance was very special for us, since we danced to the song "Bless the Broken Road". It felt quite fitting, as we had gone through a lot to get to that point, although we knew there were more obstacles to overcome. We'd been practising our dancing for a few weeks beforehand. Nothing flashy. No routine or anything, but at least we knew 4 basic steps that we could repeat, which meant we didn't have to feel like two clumsy elephants (like we did when we first started learning to dance from the youtube video!). It's a big shame we will never again see the footage of us dancing to the music, but it will always remain in my memory as one of the happiest moments in my life.

The tea ceremony was brilliant. It was a traditional Chinese affair, but we used English tea. Quite a nice compromise, I thought. It was an honour to be able to take part in this and present tea to the older generation, although there were some hilarious moments, in particularly my attempts to speak Chinese, combined with my ignorance of the ceremony and fear of getting it wrong and offending people!

At one point we gave some speeches. Obviously, Yolande did most of the talking a) because it was first and foremost her family and friends and b) because Singaporeans find my accent difficult to understand, not least in a crowded, noisy pub, through a microphone. It actually got pretty emotional as we thanked all the people who had been there for us throughout our lives, and the people who had taken me in and looked after me in Singapore. It was especially poignant for Yolande, since these were people she would not get to see as much in the future as we made our planned move to the UK.

There was, however, one unplanned disruption. Yolande's friends organised a few activities to so-called 'sabotage' the wedding (which basically means embarrass us in front of our friends and family). This involved coming up with reasons why we love each other, passing a challenge involving an egg, a blindfold and my trouser legs, and me having to sing a song in Japanese to Yolande. I honestly didn't know the song I was supposed to sing though, so I sang "Can't help falling in love with you" instead. I didn't really mind, since I had thought about having karaoke at the wedding and this was a nice compromise! It was a hilarious way to showcase my questionable talent in front of a captivated (hostage?) audience.

The rest of the wedding was one big party. Good simple, honest food from the Irish pub, lots of mingling, a small amount of drinking, and a few rounds of bingo to get everyone involved (I think the kids had all the luck with the numbers called). Our wedding MCs, Vic and KK did an amazing job. They hadn't met most (if not all) of Yolande's family before, but they were confident, professional, made a lot of jokes and really contributed to the day. Our friend, Kodomo, was our official photographer and he took some amazing shots with all his professional gear, so I'm really grateful to him as well. Everybody was really generous with their red packets, which really helped offset the cost of the wedding, and we got some really thoughtful wedding presents, some of which will come in handy once we have a place of our own. I also spent a lot of time in the evening chatting with my younger cousins and nieces, etc., which was a lot of fun.

One song I remember being played later in the night, not long before everybody went home, went something like "It's a good, good night". It was quite a chilled out song, and I remember thinking that it had been an amazing night filled with enjoyment. A night that I will never forget.

Luckily, we get to do it all over again in the UK this summer! I can't wait, although this time we've probably got more to prepare! As usual, one of us is working and one of us is studying - that's just how we do things. :D

That's pretty much all I can remember for now, but if I remember anything else (which I probably will) I'll update this post.