Parents' Old Wedding Tea Set being used for the Tea Ceremony The official reason for this trip to Singapore being my only and youngest brother's wedding dinner, I thought I'd better blog about it.
I didn't have a Chinese Wedding myself as I married an Ang Moh who didn't want one and I've missed out on almost everybody else's in the past decade so I've dim memories of what such weddings entail.
Family Photo after Tea Ceremony (wah, so fertile, said the photographer)
It was therefore with much enthusiasm that I returned home for the occasion especially since I'd get to sit at the VIP/Red table and get to be served tea (missed out on my younger sis' a few years ago) by my Bro and SIL. If I had known that serving tea to all those uncles and aunties could be financially profitable (especially at current gold prices) I would have coaxed the Hub into doing it during our time. But without the sabotage that usually comes with fetching the bride, "sisters" nowadays ask for a lot leh.
Our Tua Pek Kong
Eldest Son was given the job of lying on the bridal bed and peeing in the chamberpot in the hope of giving many sons to the bridal couple. He also got to open the wedding car's door.
It was fortunate that the dinner took place 3 days after our arrival as I was already starting to expand horizontally (huge tim sum meal at Victor's Kitchen followed by wonderful brunch at Club Chinois etc) and could barely squeeze into the dresses that I've brought over. Younger sis and I were in charge of taking the relatives' attendance at the reception desk and witnessed a funny episode :
One relative arrived and checked in with us. Then she looked around and saw this girl. "What are you doing here?" she asked the girl. So it happened that the girl's her eldest daughter and was attending the dinner as the bride's colleague. Small world, n'est-ce pas?
Hub was quite impressed with the wedding. Wah, so grand and co-ordinated, so many dishes. I had the satisfaction of informing him that he was being a mountain tortoise as most expensive weddings in Singapore are like that. Haha.
SIL's a teacher so 2 of her kids MCeed during the dinner. So we learnt that the couple met at my sister's wedding (SIL and sis are friends) and that my usually stoic brother could be quite romantic when he sets his mind to it (at least when it came to the way he proposed).
The Cold Dish 1st Dish
The VIP table's no fun at all. You get served tiny individual portions which meant that I had to walk around the other tables (the emptier ones, of course) to help them finish up their leftovers. At the same time I got to keep track on who is who and what they have been up to. Got most of the relatives mixed up, and got the shock of my life to see babies as I remembered them all taller than me now. Ouch.
I saw my Malay Nanny. "My Baby!" she said when she saw me, which brought tears to my eyes immediately. 7 years I've lived with her, she is like my mother. Now she is so old, thin and frail. When you think that she used to stuff my mouth with onion, garlic and chilli when I was very naughty.
Towards the end of the dinner, I turned around and took a look at the table behind mine said to contain the brother's bosses and colleagues. This girl and I stared at each other and then I cried out "Mavis!" and she cried out my name too. Goodness, can you believe that my former University mate is now my brother's boss?
Anyway I'm glad that I didn't have a Chinese Wedding. No chance to eat during your own wedding, where's the fun? And some idiot who gave an empty red packet. Welcome to the 40-table dinner, man. Maybe they should send stickers with names together with the wedding invitations so that guests could stick them on their red packets or presents :-).
Dear Serene! Great to have you back! =) I'm using my horrible 7-yr computer and it kept hanging when I tried to upload your blog! Finally got to read it after 3-4 times of trying. =) Missed havin you online! Take time to adjust back to Italy. Luv pris
RépondreSupprimerSo funny the mum and daughter meeting at reception. Hahaha. Oh ya man, I don't think you'd get to eat as the wedding couple. Lots of walking around and greeting people. Wah, still can fit in cheong sam. ;)
RépondreSupprimerHi Serene,
RépondreSupprimerWelcome back. Missed you and your blog! Your stories remind me of ours when we went back to my own bro's wedding (prior to ours). Certianly it was C's first chinese wedding. He got to me in the 'uncle's group and quickly became the 'head uncle' as he was great at negotiating. C too was totally impressed by the chinese dinner (my bro at about 70 tables though), esp with the first course where all the waiters came in corrindated with music, carrying the plate high in the air. But the biggest shocker was after the dinner were he had to be in the 'departing' line, shaking hands with all the guests. After shaking like about 700 hands, he turned to me and said - I feel like I'm running for President!
Welcome back.
Pris, Happy Belated Birthday, glad you took things in hand and threw yourself a wonderful party from the look of things. I've missed you too and hope to see you again someday soon. And so happy that you're now starting to get the hang of cooking and churning out so many yummy stuff!
RépondreSupprimerD, I'm a busybody so that's why I walked around so much, like it was my wedding or something :-).
Karena, your family VIP so that's why got 70 tables, ours we had difficulty filling up the compulsory 40! Yeah, the coordinated first dish serving is good ah (our music was the Little Mermaid one) and never fails to impress the suaku ang mohs :-). We escaped the handshaking though, thank God.
Hi Serene, First time at your blog. Interesting read about Chinese weddings....so so similar to Indian weddings :) All Asian cultures are so sublimely similar,isn't that amazing?
RépondreSupprimerHi Pragyan! Thanks for dropping by. We all love Indian food at home so it would be interesting checking out your Indian blogs soon enough...
RépondreSupprimerI've attended an Indian wedding in Singapore once, the bride had a few changes of robes too, we all ate in rows of long tables, it was great fun. Though nothing as spectacular as Elizabeth Hurley's Indian wedding, I saw pics of it in a glossy magazine, boy was that sumptuous!