Saturday, October 26, 2013

A Singaporean Wedding


Last weekend we were invited to a friend's wedding at the Raffles Marina, which is just a step away from Malaysia. There is a huge bridge next to the country club where the wedding was held that leads to Malaysia! Singapore is such a small country after all...

The happy couple had already got officially married a couple of weeks before in Thailand where the bride is from. However, it's common to arrange a wedding with a full ceremony in both parties' home countries. So I wonder when is our second wedding going to be then....... ;)

The wedding was quite "small" - about 100 guests - which isn't small in the Finnish scale but it is in the Singaporean one! I've been to a thousand-guest wedding and I must say that I prefer a smaller one much more. It's more intimate and somehow more meaningful. The couple has time to talk to people and enjoy their wedding dinner instead of rushing from table to table to say hi to all colleagues' cousins ;)

What I love about the Singaporean weddings is how genuinely cute they are in celebrating the couples' happiness. Traditions are mixed with the couple's own photos and ideas. The ceremony itself is very much like the Western one with "I do's" and rings but there are a couple of funny traditions that I always find intriguing. I will explain them below with lots of pictures!

At first,we were waiting for the newly weds at the harbour.


The couple arrived on a boat. This was a very unique and surprising idea! The land behind is Malaysia.


Next we moved on to the ceremony room where the vows and the exchange of rings took place. I loved the seat names!! ;)


As a wedding gift, all guests give money. It's always wrapped in a red envelope and called 'ang bao', meaning a red packet. It is supposed to bring good luck and blessings to the couple, as red is a luckly color and the sum inside always ends with 8 - a lucky number. 

After the simple but beautiful ceremony we moved on to the main hall for dinner. The couple had decorated all of the spaces with love themed photos hanging from balloons. Cute! :)



Chinese weddings always have a similar type of menu - it's an eight course meal (8 again!) where each course represents good luck, fortune, longetivity and happiness together in different symbolic ways. Dishes are presented in the same order as in the menu:


So you can imagine that it takes quite a while for the waiters to bring the food to each table, clear them, bring the next dish... Even in a "small" 100-guest wedding!

As you probably noticed, the dessert is not a wedding cake. In fact, Singaporean weddings do have a cake - just not for eating! It's only a show piece. After the dinner the guests raise a glass for the couple, the closest family in front with the couple. And everyone screams their hearts out for three times; first for a happy marriage, second for many children and third for everyone's good health!


In Singaporean weddings, the bride always changes her outfit in the middle of the dinner. First is the walk in with the (usually white) wedding gown, and then it's time for something more comfortable and bright in color.


A beautiful wedding and clearly a very happy couple! Congratulations again Kelvin&Faa!


Dress: Asos   Bag: GG5   Shoes: Country Road   Earrings: Chanel


X Ang Moh Chick


2 comments:

  1. The wedding looks like fun. (Y)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I LOVE weddings :) What can make you happier other than seeing so many happy people? <3

    ReplyDelete

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