soratian’s blog

We get all dressed up for the wedding, and as usual everyone is late for the tea ceremony, which is supposed to start at 6.30pm. Just as well, since when we got there, the solemnisation was still ongoing and we had to wait outside in the reception. The typical set up of the wedding reception table is the Wedding Photo Album (for people to gawk at), a big Ang Pao box (for people to deposit money), and a guest book (for people to write their well wishes). People like to have their weddings in hotels because they offer large ballrooms, and often, include a night's stay at a fancy hotel suite you don't often see the likes of.

The siblings and I started pulling funny faces because we were getting bored. Then voila, it was time for the tea ceremony. As you can see, the wedding couple's supposed to serve tea to basically whoever is a senior relative (uncle and above). In more traditional families, you would actually have to kneel. I kinda like the idea but my mom pooh-poohs it. She is a lady after your own heart.
After the tea ceremony, we got seated in the ballroom. In the first photo, you see the posh table arrangement for the VIP table, which is usually where the bride and groom and their families sit. The much-talked about wedding banquet menu which can stretch to 10 items or more. Before the wedding starts, we look at a slideshow of the wedding photos. During the wedding, we also watched a powerpoint slideshow of the bridal couple's baby pictures and teenage shots.
The bridal couple makes their grand entrance. This is called the first march-in (as the name suggests, there are two march-ins).  If you let the hotel choose, it will always play horrible music like Kenny G or Canon in D Minor, so I suggest using your own music.
Us bumming around during the dinner. As you can see, everyone else is doing the same thing. In the fourth photo, I am holding a wedding favour. It's the first time I've ever received honey! (Usually it's teddy bears, key chains, cookies or fruit cake) I think it's nice! It reminds me that one of descriptors for love in Chinese is "sweet like honey".
The bride and groom make a second entrance in evening wear :) Then a big bunch of people gather on stage to do the traditional noisy chinese toast, "Yum Seng" (which really just means "bottoms up" or something). They try and drag it out as long as possible for prosperity. Then the bride and groom make a thank you speech. Then before long, dinner's over, and the wedding couple needs to stand outside to shake hands with all the departing guests.

And I do think their wedding portrait is lovely, don't you?

Thought I'll put up a post with pictures of all the presents from my recent birthday because they're all so damned beautiful :)

First on the left,there's the present from Rich :) It's the box set of Firefly, three volumes of manga comprising the latest volumes of LoveCom, Nodame and Skipbeat (my three favourite series!) and a surprise pendant! :) I will wear it everyday, darling.

2nd on my left is the gifts from my family, which are two t-shirts, a watch, a photo frame, nail stickers, a pen, 2 face masks and a volume of Shinigami no Ballad!

And coolest of all were the cards, this year. Check out my sister's coolest pop-up birthday card. If you look into the house, you can see some cute bears baking a cake!

And my brother's card shall go unremarked, as befitting a card like that.

From Tangle, I got the fabulous Alexander McQueen eau de toilette, Kingdom! It comes in  fascinatingly blood red bottle (vial?) which looks like an elongated, hardened glass heart.

From Cheron (see top right), I got my power-suit prop, a power bag. Check out its sharp edges and patent sheen. It spells no-nonsense, ok? I will carry it to work for my power occasions (and when there's a lot of paperwork).

From Rowboating, I got a Robin's egg ring in the mail, which was a lovely surprise!

From LaVanya I got a bracelet, with a sodalite stone on it (Sodalite is very calming, which is something i need a lot of at work). It shall now hereby match my toes (see below).

A colleague gave me a voucher for an express pedicure and I got this lovely dark purple lacquer like nail job. The purple-brown is so dark, it looks black. Spectacular. My brother doesn't like it but I say he knows not what he says.