We finally made it! Scrolling through these photos and thinking about how this day played out makes me so happy. Happy, not because we had to change our plans (only about 129830 times), but happy because we managed to gather our families despite everything that was happening in the world with COVID.
I'm beginning this log on a very real and serious note. This was not easy to plan — given the weekly changes in measures for safety regulations. Our original plan of having to solemnise in our hotel venue had to be scrapped. Afterwhich, the plan evolved 4 times, each time with the change in venue. This trickled down to all the other decisions because, as everyone knows, styling details/gowns/suits/catering/programme rundowns are all based on the big ticket item - venue.
2 weeks before the wedding was when we finally decided to have our wedding at home so we could all be comfortable and save on venue cost. "Big-ticket item" - checked.
The day-of was a breeze. Things were pretty flexible since everything was happening in one venue. I even got to wake up for hair and makeup with a 7am call time (not complaining because I've heard of brides who had to wake up at 3am...)!
Hair and makeup took place in the only space that had natural light that early in the morning - the attic. PS - Gorgeous Berta gown from The Ivory thanks to Jinyuan and Christine!
Mum (and dad) made their way up there to meet me.
And so, we did our veiling - for obligatory reasons.
(Notice we didn't do an unveiling after. This was mainly because it would mess the loose bun up. haha priorities + tips from Candy, my hair and makeup artist.)
Dad and I casually waiting for our cue to walk down.
Cue stage right - note, shades were Dad's idea.
^ Taking communion
Got our mums to emcee
^ Before the waterworks. Sister and dad getting ready to pass flowers to the grandmas.
Special shout out to Sarah, my new sis-in-law, who was behind the scenes the whole day. She and Novi (Wedding concepteur) were our AV girls and they totally NAILED the switching of cameras for zoom.
Made our grandmas cry (achievement unlocked). Gave them some flowers.
With the help of my awesome maid of honour, Tia, she managed to pre-order our wedding cake 2 weeks before the actual day hahah she can do anything.
As it relates to having to style a wedding during a pandemic, it was difficult for us to nail down how we wanted the place to look like because we didn't want to spend dollars just to make things pretty with no intention. Instead of having a typical photo table, we decided to write cards to our family members which served as door gifts/memorabilia. (Special shout out to Phil and Van for this idea!)
I've always wanted an intimate wedding (bali maybe idk) and having a home wedding brought me back to my perspectives. To be absolutely candid, there came a point where we were questioning our intention of even continuing on with a ceremony. Every aspect of the wedding was a moving part.
A non-exhaustive list of moving parts
- We only nailed our food catering 2 weeks before.
- Dan didn't manage to get a suit tailored in time because businesses weren't open
- My gown was decided the weekend before
- We changed our solemniser to Dan's dad a couple days before because he had just received news he got his license (yay!)
- It was our first time doing this whole DIY Zoom production. Set up could only take place the night before.
Most of our peers had decided to push their weddings back to 2021 and though it seemed to many like the most logical decision, Dan and I came to the conclusion of continuing with the wedding based on 2 things:
1. Pushing aside pandemic bullsh*it, will we regret the decision in 5-10 years time?
2. & Subsequently with Question (1)'s answer — We promised that we wouldn't regret because it was the best one we could have made at that point in time, given all circumstances.
We decided to go on with the ceremony and push the banquet back because, truth be told, nobody on god's green earth knows when the new normal will revert back, or if it would ever do so. I like to believe it was a well thought through decision (and I wish doubters out there who didn't believe in us - you know who you are *side eyes* would be open to new perspectives like these too).
We are however so thankful for the people who joined us virtually though. We can't wait to see you in the flesh at the banquet.
Food was a challenging feat - We ended up ordering Tacos and Dimsum because we didn't have enough seating. It was handy finger food you can pop on your plate. Props to Adelia + my mum for nailing the ordering and plating, and Medkarlek for styling everything! Phil managed to do this set up just with props around my house hahah amazing
We handmade our wedding bands and had a verse inscribed into them :)
(Top) Special thanks to ikicompany for the photos
(Bottom) Shout out to Novi from Wedding conceptuer who was so great at advising us every step of the way!
Officially Mr and Mrs.
Now that that's done and dusted, it's time for round two — the banquet... whenever that may be ✌🏻We're pretty chill.
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Special thanks to
Branding Adelia
Hair & make up by Candy from a2imakeup
Gown from The Ivory
Video and Photos by iki company
Suit from Brooks Brothers
Wedding Co-ordinator - Wedding Concepteur
Wedding Stylist - Medkarlek Inc
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