Wedding part 2!

Like I said, there were three parts to our wedding.  This is the second installment, the chip san leong wtf and tea ceremony.  Ok I have no idea to spell it.  It’s Cantonese for ‘picking up the bride.’

Even though we were legally married the day before, in the eyes of our family (and heaven wtf) we’re not married until Fatty comes over to officially collect his bride and we do the tea ceremony.

This picture was taken at 6.30 am, hence my half asleep face.  I was literally half asleep leh!

Ok let me tell you the story of my wedding insomnia.

I think the stress and kancheongness of the wedding took its toll on me because by then I had managed about six hours of sleep in total over the past two days.  The night before the ROM, I was terribly sleepy and would have fallen asleep…if Angela didn’t keep talking  She super jetlagged should be sleepier than me but end up talk so much!!!  I wanted to kick her off the bed wtf.  Then when she was finally ready to sleep, I was wide awake. 

Then after some time, I managed to doze off.  Only to be woken up because Fat Her was watching Youtube outside in the living room, and he turned the sound up high and the video was some action scene and got explosion which woke me up.  I was damn angry at Fat Her he always like that hahaha T________T the night before my graduation, my parents bunked in with me and my dad snored the entire night so I never got even a second of sleep also T___________T

Then I lay in bed a while before Mummy Ooi came in to wake me up for the hair combing ritual.

And even after that I couldn’t fall back asleep.

Then the second night I couldn’t sleep either!  Probably because I kept thinking about the next day and what we had to do, plus I was paranoid that I wouldn’t be able to sleep again.  So the more I thought, the more I couldn’t sleep.  I even started wondering if my body had forgotten how to fall asleep wtf.

I think I finally fell asleep around 4am and only woke up at 6.30am when Hikky and the photographers arrived to set up and start their work.  When the photographer came into the house, I greeted them with a toothbrush and foam in my mouth wtf.

So while I was busy getting beautiful, this is what the boys were doing.

All the best men gathered at Fatty’s place around the same time the girls were gathering at my place.  Check out their bow ties!  All matching with the girls.

They all had time to eat char koay teow and linger around and chat.  At the same time, the bridesmaids were running helter skelter up to my aunt’s apartment and rushing to put the finishing touches to the challenges they had prepared for the groom and best men.

Some more Wendy made a very nice puzzle for them to solve but she left it in her hotel room fhl so she had to last minute make another one on the spot hahaha.

As is custom, Fatty’s parents have to help him on with his jacket.

After the guys are all ready, they’ll all get into the wedding cars (cars specially designated for the bridal entourage) and go to the bride’s house to get her.

My bouquet! Again, last minute the night after the ROM I realized Fatty needed to present me flowers when he came to get me -_______- Again I called up the florist last minute but he said he didn’t have any flowers left T______T

I think Fatty found the ROM bouquet (took it from the clutches of his niece wtf).  It’s a bit tattered looking already from falling on the floor but still good.

But when he went to pick me up………. he forgot to bring it WTF.

Curse of the Forgotten Bouquet wtf.

Car deco! Usually people decorate their cars with sashes and ribbons or stuffed bears (wtf) and once upon a time, people even fixed Barbie dolls onto the fronts of their cars (wtf x2).  I’m glad my florist did it this way!  I don’t know how Up themed this is but I love that the flowers turned out so pretty and simple yet elegant!

The car handles.

Fatty getting into his car to pick me up 😀

Meanwhile…

Finally got dressed and ready!

Got some minor disasters where the pink ribbon fell off my dress wtf I don’t know what Mumsy Ooi did to fix it back on.

I gave Hikky the veil the morning itself and she realized it was just a big piece of cloth with nothing to attach it on.  She is damn hero ok!  She whipped out a needle and thread, and sewed on a clip so it would attach to my hair D:

With bridesmaids!  I wish we had official photos cos I’m sure the colors of their dresses would turn out even prettier T_T These are all still cribbed from everywhere, official photographer hasn’t passed his to us yet.  Wayne where are you!!!! lol.

With Hikky!

As usual she did an awesome job on my hair and makeup, but I don’t really like how I looked that morning T______T  I think I look very tired and my smile looks forced at times.  My eyebags not visible in photos thankfully but I think they look freaking obvious in the video please.  Two nights of no sleep will do that to you T___________T

Hikky also looks exhausted hahahah T_T

Pictures with bridesmaids!  We took tons but I only have whatever was tagged on Facebook 🙁

With Hui Wen!

And Bobo!

And Suet!  Someone asked me on Formspring why Suet wasn’t at my wedding WTF FHL does she look very different now or something haha.

With Mummy and Fat Her Ooi.  I think this was right before Fat Her had his crying fit hahahaha.

Ok crying fit coming up hahahahaha.

Like the tradition of the groom’s parents helping him put on his jacket, likewise my parents had to veil me before Fatty arrived.

*cue Fat Her’s crying jag hahahahaha

He hugged me and said “my little girl” and started tearing T_______T  My smile super forced here cos I also wanted to cry but tried very hard not to to avoid ruining Hikky’s hard work wtf.

Angela came up to me later and said “your dad cried so much” hahahaha.

Apparently Fat Her left my bedroom and walked outside weeping hahahaha.  Angela asked “uncle, are you okay?”, he shook his head and cried on her shoulder HAHAHAHAHA.  Then when Mummy Ooi appeared, he hugged her too and cried on HER shoulder HAHAHAHAHAHA.  Then he blew his nose loudly. Hahahahhaahha.

We met up with our videographer from Crazy Monkey Studio yesterday and he told me he heard someone say while in my house “don’t cry ah!” and he thought that person was talking to my mom but now he knows it was actually to my dad hahahahahaha.

Then the groom’s entourage arrive amidst a lot of loud honking!

Only to meet with the bridesmaids who set up chairs right inside the door and formed a barricade to prevent the guys from going in. Hahahahaha.

For the non-Chinese, it’s the bridesmaids’ job to make sure the groom faces a ‘final challenge’ before he gets the bride.  He and his best men have to tackle tasks as set by the bridesmaids, and only after they go through it are they eligible to pick up the bride.  They also usually have to ‘bribe’ their way in by paying the bridesmaids with ang pau hahaha.

Sadly, nobody took pictures of the guys doing the challenges but the bits in black and white in the video show them doing the challenges.

Wendy prepared five challenges in total.  Her logic was that in order to win me, Fatty had to have five qualities of an ideal husband  – romance, intellect, bravery, chemistry and wealth.

For every challenge completed successfully, Fatty would receive a badge.  Handmade by Wendy please!!! She super creative and detailed.

Super adorable because Russell in Up collected boy scout badges too so it was very apt!

For romance, Fatty and his friends had to sing a love song.  The bridesmaids even prepared a guitar and tambourines for them to play for accompaniment hahahaha.

At this point I was waiting in the room, away from everything but I heard them sing A Whole New World with gusto hahaha.  Then Tze ran into my room asking me if that was good enough to pass.  I said yes it was and she said why you so eager to get married hahahahaha.

For bravery, they all had to down shots made of a bunch of gross ingredients – chilli was one of them but forgot the rest.  It was so thick that they had to chew it though hahahaha.  Pierre nearly threw up I heard so he offered to pay his way through the challenge hahaha.

For chemistry, Fatty had to answer correctly a bunch of questions about me.

For intellect, they had to solve a Sudoku puzzle wtf.

Wendy’s hard work!!!

They failed at this though I think they paid their way out of this hahaha.

Then for wealth, they had to give ang paus again of course.  Whoever said money can’t buy happiness doesn’t know about this custom wtf.

Then Fatty was free to see me!

But not before drinking tong sui served by Ooib.

WHen Fatty walked into the room, the first thing he said was “the bridesmaids took so long!!!” but my bridesmaids told me that when he stood at the door of my room, he said “wow.”

T_____________T

Best pick up line ever.  HAHAHAH geddit geddit.

Bride is picked up!

Part of the tradition also involves my mom holding a red umbrella over me as I leave the house.  I am supposed to be the most beautiful girl in the world on my wedding day (HAHAHAHA) so the umbrella is supposed to shield me from jealousy of the gods WTF *serious face

Getting into the car.

Fatty takes me home!

A full photo of my dress from behind 😀

Then off to change to the kuah  and put my hair up for the tea ceremony.  Hair was so pretty!  Hikky did this in like two minutes.

My outfit!

Got funny story hahahaha.  I couldn’t wear a bra with the white wedding dress so when we got to Fatty’s and I had to change, I realized I didn’t have a bra to wear WTF.

Angela looked at me in terror and said in a trembly voice, “don’t tell me I have to give you my bra…” hahahahahaha.  As it turned out I borrowed Wendy’s wtf cos she had an extra one for dinner hahahahahah.  But the kuah  was so thick that I don’t need to wear also can la wtf.

During the tea ceremony, Fatty and I are supposed to serve tea to all family members older than us because this is supposed to be the formal introduction of the bride into the groom’s family.  In return, we get lots of advice and congratulations, and red packets full of money, jewelry and gold.

And then the younger family members will serve US tea and we distribute red packets in turn.

Who wants to know more about the tea ceremony read this wtf.  Lazy to explain.

Then we have to go back to my family’s house to repeat the tea ceremony with my family members.

With Wendy and Suet!

In the car on the way back to my house.  Ringo said she wanted to sit in the main car for once hahaha.  It’s supposed to be the couple with the maid of honor and best best man ma.

My grandma and grand aunt flipping through our wedding photo book wtf.

Then tea ceremony for my parents!  Tradition to kneel while serving tea.

My turn to cry T_____T

Tea for my Ah Ma.

And after going through all the relatives, we were done!  I was exhausted by this time.  So tired I felt like I was drunk!! Couldn’t balance properly while walking, everything I heard seemed to come from far away wtf.

Luckily we were done already.  Packed all my things and Angela, Suet, Wendy and Ringo went with me to check in to the bridal suite so we could all take showers and nap before the wedding dinner.

The bridal suite had rose petals scattered all over.

So bitches made me pose like this on the bed, took a picture and sent it to Fatty with the caption ‘this is waiting for you~~~~’ WTF.

Hahahahahahha.

This was when it really hit me though.  I was in the bathroom looking at the rose petals around the bathtub when I thought, this is first time ever I’m staying in a suite filled with rose petals.  And it’s only because I’m married that’s why!!!!!!

Next post, wedding reception!

Be prepared for a visual heavy post!  And I have so many things to say so this might just be the longest post I’ll ever write haha.

This is the story of our ROM from preparation to end!

We actually had three ceremonies going on for the wedding – a more intimate garden wedding where we’d legally get married, a traditional morning tea ceremony where we’d be married in the eyes of god and our relatives, and a dinner reception for all our friends (and parents’ friends).

I have to split it into three at least, so this is just an account of the ROM.

People in Malaysia don’t generally throw a party for the ROM itself; most people just register at the office I think.  But maybe lately more and more couples have been doing it.  We wanted a small romantic ROM because that would be the only part of the wedding which was for US.  The reception and the tea ceremony would mostly be for family and relatives and the whole world wtf so I thought of the ROM as ours.

The ROM was on Friday afternoon so on Thursday we already had friends and family flying in to Penang for the wedding 🙂

Fatty and I picked Angela up from the airport.  She flew in from Vancouver on Thursday and left on Sunday T___T She tahan 46 hours both ways for me *clutches Angie

This picture was taken before bedtime so we’re not looking our best wtf.

As part of the traditional wedding rites, the night before the wedding, Mummy Ooi made me bathe in flowers.

I didn’t ask what this was for but I’m guessing blessings and good luck haha.

Then the hair combing ceremony.

My parents consulted a fortune teller who told us the best time for me to do it was at 2 am -_____- Hence my grumpy face.

The hair combing ritual signifies you becoming an adult.  So when I die and go to the underworld they would recognize me as a married woman.  I told Mummy Ooi I wanted to be forever young but she was having none of it.

My husband is supposed to do it too, but Fatty’s family is a lot less traditional so he didn’t.  So great, when I die and go to hell, not only will I be a divorcee, Fatty will still be a little boy and I’ll be Pedobear.

Mummy Ooi also prepared three bowls of tong yuen, of which I was supposed to SWALLOW WHOLE two balls from each bowl.  Didn’t bother asking the significance of this either.

Here I am negotiating with her to chew instead of swallow -_- I can’t swallow pills!!! I have to mash them up and dissolve them in water (ya damn gross right) so what makes you think I can swallow tong yuen!

The tong yuen.  End up I just chewed them up -_-

Then I wrote my vows.  We were undecided as to whether we wanted to write and recite our own vows, but then this Fatty wrote his IMMEDIATELY in two hours! Show off wtf.

I wrote mine the night before our wedding.  He should be the wife I should be the husband lol.

Mine turned out awesome though I think!  Though nothing compared to overachiever Fatty of course.

My first bridal look ^^

Hahhaah Hikky made me do a mask while she blowdried my hair.  She flew down all the way from KL to Penang to do my hair and makeup for the whole weekend, and her work is just fabulous T___T

EVERYONE said my hair and makeup was amazing! A lot of brides look like they fell into a barrel of flour but I looked like my normal self except ten times hotter. Lololol.  It was very important to me to look like myself and she did made me look like myself!  But ya just ten times cuter and with better makeup.  Hahahahha.

So thank you Hikky for devoting your time and attention the entire weekend T____T I was exhausted so you were probably dying on your feet. 大変だったけど、可愛くしてくれた、ありがとうございました！

All dressed up and ready!  My ROM dress was actually a two-piece – a corset from Queen Chloset, and a matching skirt which they made for me by hand.  Her work is amazing!  It looked like a dress because they matched the fabric and shades so well.

Oh here I was actually panicking because my parents were late -_____- to their daughter’s wedding -_______- I was afraid they’d be late and the commissioner wouldn’t wait around and we couldn’t get married hahaha. But they came in the nick of time and it was saved!

Some of the wedding deco!

I told the decorator I wanted pastel colors and a lot of pink for the ROM.  She delivered with this.  Very worth it too, best money spent because it was actually very affordable but put together, it all looked gorgeous.

I told the decorator I wanted balls of flowers and she asked me if I wanted them in paper or real flowers.  I chose paper thinking it’d be cuter and cheaper but turned out it was the same price, and the decorator suffered for days hand making the paper balls hahahaha fhl.

Think she gave up after that and put in some real flower balls.

Another photo of the deco.

A quiet moment with my Fat Her first before he walked me down the aisle.

Fat Her cried so much hahahah even though we didn’t even play Butterfly Kisses T_______T  As is obvious in the video wtf.

I walked down the aisle to Pachelbel Canon in D btw.  That was always supposed to be my wedding song!

Fat Her deposited me in front of Fatty and I read my vows.  Actually I halfway reading it also want to cry already T______T Touched my own heart WTF.

 

Then it was Fatty’s turn.  Being Fatty, he had to have something special for me – he read his vows in Japanese!  Cheesie helped him translate the vows into Japanese and he read those.

Then he got his best men (standing beside him as pictured below) to hold up placards with the translation written on them!  At the end of every vow, all of them would say “Hai!” and bow hahahaahha so adorable!!!!

Wait how moderately angry is moderate? Hahahah this came because I asked him if I could put a Hello Kitty roadtax sticker on the windshield.

He’s acutely aware of my fear of the sun wtf.

And that’s why he’s always taking pictures of my weird sleeping poses.

Say one ah!!!!!!!!!!!

T_____________T

Fatty’s best men were literally the best men ever.  They went out of their way to help Fatty deliver his vows with style, and stuck around for him the entire time even while they were hot and tired.  And they listened to whatever I or the bridesmaids said and dutifully did what they had to do.

And my bridesmaids too of course!  Bridesmaids always have more work to do than the guys, so thank you girls for being there for me the entire weekend and staying throughout everything even though you were exhausted/jetlagged.  Each of you did so much for me and I really appreciate it! Special thanks to Angela who hosted, Ringo for supporting me even though she was so sick, Wendy for making all the games and in such pretty detail, and for refusing to let me lift a finger at all during the wedding, Huiwen for helping me with the outfits, Bobo for handling the flower girls and their petals, Jam with the wedding montage, Tze for the hen’s night and the door gifts, and Suet for fanning the best men hahahaha.

The commissioner leading us through the proper legal vows.

Exchange of rings…

And we’re man and wife!!!!

MAN AND WIFE OMG.  Sounds so sureal hahaha.

Right when he pronounced us married, my bridesmaids all released their balloons into the sky 😀

Then time for bouquet toss!  Shit me, I last minute only remembered I forgot about a bouquet so I hastily called my florist up the day before and asked him to make me a simple one.  He did…. then when I walked down the aisle I forgot to bring it with me WTF.

Then when time for the toss, I realized I don’t have it so I had to frantically signal for someone to find my bouquet and end up looking like I’m campaigning for election wtf.

Every important event of my life, I must do something stupid.

Wedding, forget bouquet and look like Najib campaigning.

Graduation, walk wrong way and had to step over flower pots in graduation gown.

Birth, shat in my mother’s womb WTF.

Then bouquet toss!

Again, not something we usually do here, but Angela wrote it into the program so we did it.  Nobody wanted to catch the bouquet though hahahaha maybe dowan to seem desperate to get married wtf.  In the end Fatty’s five year old niece rushed forward and grabbed it WTF.

Then fun photo taking time!

First picture as Mr and Mrs Tiah!!!!

With some of the bridesmaids!  Cheesie, Angela, Hui Wen and Wendy.

I’m so glad I went with a rainbow theme for the bridesmaids’ dresses!  The colors turned out gorgeous in photos!

The dresses were partially sponsored by Maryjulian of Jipaban in Singapore.  I was gonna do the whole dress in one color, but Maryjulian’s owner Jade came up with this design – colored bodices and white tutu skirts and I’m so glad I went with it!  Now that I think about it, whole dress in bright color might have been a bit overboard.

The best men wore their own clothes but the next morning, they’d have own white shirts and matching bow ties to the girls’ dresses 😀  We got the bowties made in Bangkok cos it’s impossible to find all eight colors ready made.

With Team Japan! L-R: Ayumi, Masato, Hikky and Yuta.

I was so surprised that every single Japanese friend I invited made it T_____T Like no questions asked.  You won’t get that with Malaysians lo.  On the day itself I was still getting calls canceling RSVPs -_-.  I asked Hikky is it that if you invite a Japanese person to your wedding, they’ll come no matter what and she said most of the time T_______T  Maybe they secretly hate me like “fuck you Audrey make me fly to Penang for your wedding” wtf but no choice have to come lolol.

No la I was honestly very touched at their sincerity and effort T__________T

My hair!  By Hikky.  I love my new pinkish orangey color!

When Hikky was doing my hair, I asked her “did you bring the flowers?” (because we decided on flowers in my hair during the ROM) and she looked at me and said “I thought you were bringing the flowers” WTF FOL.

But our florist saved the day T___T I called him up and asked if he had any leftover fresh flowers and he came through hahaha.  The blue and white went so well together!

Team Ooi wtf.  With cousins, uncles, aunts and my Ah Ma.  And Ooib’s girlfriend wtf. Ok la nearly family already hahaha.

Romantic comedy photo.

With Kehrole!!!  Between her and Fatty’s cousin Michelle, they took most of these photos you see here.

 

My maid of honor <3

With #addiction and Wendy!!! The two of whom hopefully I’ll be in Tokyo with in two months :3

With Mumsy!

With my beautiful bridesmaids.  Damn busy la ok they kept asking us to change pose.

Super glad I told everyone to wear nude shoes too!  I’ve seen weddings where the bridesmaids all wore nice matching outfits but different colored shoes and it came out quite horrendous :X

And super glad everyone is so pretty take photos all come out nice hahahaha.

Kiss the bride!

Best men and bridesmaids.

And that’s how we got legally married.  Lolol.

 

Due to certain things, I was quite panicky before it started, but Fatty (who is usually the panicky one) said to me “whatever happens, we will be married by the end of the day.  How could this not be the best day ever?”

How can I not love him you tell me!

Read Fatty’s account here.

 

 

IT’S BEEN THREE DAYS BUT I CAN’T BELIEVE WE’RE MARRIED!!!

So much to blog about but no time yet!  We just got back from Penang and there are still a lot of things to be cleared and settled.

Like for example, today Fatty and I set up our first joint account. $____$ wtf.

Just posting up Crazy Monkey Studio’s video summary of our registration of marriage and “picking up the bride”.  Ya I know there are people nitpicking on social media already about how the video can be nicer or what but haiyo let it go already wtf.

CMS had like four hours to put the video together and I think they did a fantastic job :))) I really love it leh!!  Some more so many people at our reception who watched it came up to me and told me this is the first time they cried at a wedding video hahahaha. Technical criticisms aside, I think they captured the memorable moments perfectly and that’s enough for us 🙂

Blog more later!!

P/S: sorry wanted to say it one more time.  WE ARE MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!