Of Bridesmaids & Flower Girls

The day I've been looking forward to has finally come.. my BFF's wedding!

To make sure that we were not late for her big day (we had to arrive at her place at 4am!), some of us stayed over at her house the day before.

The next morning all of us actually managed to wake up, despite having only slept for 3.5 hours.

The bride & her bridesmaids, all looking pretty at 6am in the morning! =)

The mother of the bride was a great host to us, preparing sumptuous breakfast to start us off for the busy day ahead. Breakfast is served!

Lovingly prepared by the mother of the bride and her helper

The bride specifically asked for a classy gate-crash, which meant no weird concoctions that could give the groom and his entourage a stomachache and definitely no obscenity. We agreed as we wanted to put as little effort into the preparation as possible. So we ended up with some song and dance number since the groom is tone deaf & has two left feet. Should be challenging enough for him right? ;P

Preparation of the shakers for the song and dance

For those of you who are not familiar with Chinese matrimonial customs, it is customary that before the groom picks the bride from her home, he is to go through a series of "tests" set by the bridesmaids to test his determination and sincerity in marrying the bride. At each stage, he will also be pestered to give many ang pao (red packets) to show his sincerity.

We felt that only having song and dance was probably letting the man off too easily so we concluded the 35min "games" with a final segment where he had to answer a few questions. If he got the answer wrong, they had to do a forfeit. If he got it right, they will receive 2 cubes, 1 of which might contain the key to her room.

Frozen coffee/ coke, one of which contained the key to the bride's room

We didn't give them the correct cup of course so that meant they had to finish all the "drinks" *laughs*. We were supposed to torture them with more but couldn't as we didn't have time since the groom had to meet the bride at a very specific auspicious hour (7.05am!).

After some phototaking with the gorgeous bride, it was time for the couple to head off for their traditional tea ceremony at the groom's place.

The pretty bride on her way to the groom's

In the meantime, the rest of us were on our way to the church to decorate the hall and the reception area.

I was the decor i/c as usual and the colour theme was orange and electric blue. The bride also wanted organic elements which were both pocket and environmentally friendly. We finally settled on oranges and rice dyed blue for the decor of the reception area and welcome table.

Left: Orange and blue rice centerpiece for individual tables
Right: Banner made by printing on and stringing up A4 paper =)

The welcome table

Arrangement of oranges done by the bride's mum to wish the couple happiness and prosperity

It's not what you will typically expect of wedding decor but it was fun, different and completely reflected the personality of the bride. The oranges were even brought home to be made into orange juice at the end of the day so that none of them were wasted! =)

Side table with the wedding photos

There were massive jams on the expressways as a result of the constant rain the whole morning hence the hubby arrived at the church later than expected. Nevertheless, baby girl was all excited to get started!

Our family photo inside the church

As the other flower girl had also arrived, the 2 of them rehearsed their walk one last time before the big march down the aisle. My instructions to my girl were clear: walk and throw!

The lovely bride and her flower girls

When it finally came time to walk down the aisle, my girl was surprisingly unafraid of the cheering crowd and ambled confidently while throwing a few petals as she went. Looks like all our practice really paid off! *laughs*

And after the exchange of vows and signing of the marriage certificates, they were finally officially husband and wife! Congratulations! =)

Introducing Mr & Mrs X

After the matrimony, we headed home to rest for a bit before heading out to Raffles Town Club for the dinner banquet. We recycled most of the decor in the day for the night to get more use out of it =)

Bridesmaids in charge of the welcome table

Centerpiece created from the flowers used to decorate the aisle of the church in the morning

Guestbook decorated by me! =)

After the couple and my girl had one last rehearsal in the restaurant, the bride bent down to speak to my girl at her level and she immediately followed suit. It was a really funny sight!

Flower girl see, flower girl do

And then it was time for the march in! This was only her 2nd time but she did it as if she has done it many times before (she's only 2.5 years old by the way)!

Other than being a little taken aback by the dry ice, she paved the way like a pro! Definitely one of my proudest moment as a mother yet! *exuberant beam*

We had a fun time at the dinner, eating, talking and even poking fun at the bride and groom. One of the bridesmaids and I even hosted a special segment where we asked the couple extremely personal questions and if they did not get the same answer, they were supposed to do a forfeit. Even though it was supposed to be very embarrassing, I could tell they had lots of fun =)

The starter dish

The bridesmaids, all colour coordinated for the evening =)

This was one wedding I'm sure all of us will remember for a while, especially me, who has not stopped replaying the video again and again and showing it off to everyone who would listen! *grin*

So... flower girl for your wedding anyone? =P