The Best Wedding Ever!

I’ve just had the most wonderful weekend ever!

It is so wonderful that I’ve been feeling a huge cloud of warmth, happiness, love and laughter blanketing me the whole day yesterday. I can’t say this enough!

I can go on and on talking just about yesterday…like as though I was the one getting married!

Okay, this is going to be long. This post is written at 11:59pm on a Sunday night (19 Oct 2008) and I ought to be sleeping because I need to work tomorrow but I MUST write this. Must savour the very last detail before my memory fails me tomorrow. 🙂

This is the hand corsage that I get to wear with the other jimui-s. My first hand corsage of my life so I was feeling very excited just putting it on. It somehow signifies that we are one level special than the rest.

Reached the bride’s house at 8am than the scheduled 7:30am because we had a late night the night before and we had to wait for our turn while registering as visitor to the condo as there was a lady that was arguing with the security guard. But we were still early as the groom and his hengdai-s only came at 8:45am.

There are 11 jimui-s altogether, which includes a guy. He’s the thorn among the roses and also the youngest of us all. All jimui-s are secondary school mates of the bride and we are all from Sandakan. All of us are working in KL, except for one who purposely flew all the way from Sandakan just to attend this wedding. Very touching!

The colour theme for the jimui-s is white so we were all dressed in white or in something that has got the white element. Very nice.

Let me list out to you the things that we set out to “torture” the 12 hengdai-s.

1. 3 metal plates and 3 metal spoons for the groom and his 2 hengdai-s to knock to greet the neighbours. The groom has to shout out the name of the bride he wishes to marry and then expresses his love. They have to walk along the corridor of the condominium. This is indeed a good wake-up call for the neighbours.

2. Next, was pumping. And we managed to punished the groom’s brother because he wasn’t pumping properly. Punishment = applying masking tape on one of his for leg waxing.

3. More exercise on the way! All hengdai-s were each given a balloon and they had to blow it not larger than the one that we’ve blown as a sample. After that, 3 volunteers had to stand out and they had to wear bras that we’ve prepared by filling it with the balloon that they have blown into the bra. hehe. They then had to piggy ride each other and each pair had to keep another balloon sticking towards the head of the two hengdai-s being piggy ride.

4. We filled up a bucket with water, ICE, an apple, greenbeans and a few blackpepper. One volunteer has to offer himself to bite the apple from the bucket of icy water just using his mouth. No hands allowed and when he managed to bite the apple out of the water, the other hengdai-s would help to eat the apple. It was funny because it looked like they were doing french-kissing. 😛

5. After the apple is out of the bucket, the hengdai-s have to search for one black pepper among the greenbeans in icy cold water. They passed this with flying colours.

6. Next up was to have 2 volunteers to do pumping and drink a can of Tiger beer at the same. They can only suck 10 times and finish up the can of beer. The groom’s other brother was one of the volunteers and he managed an impressive less than 10 times of sucking and finished up the beer. The other was struggling. He couldn’t drink and you know what happened? We sort of let him go because he was really looking like he’s going to collapse anytime soon. Immediately after that, he was already feeling faint and he didn’t turn up for the wedding dinner later that night. What an impression to make but it sure was funny!

7. Seaweed session. Hengdai-s were ordered to form a line and they have to pass a strip of seaweed from the beginning of the line towards the end. Also looked like they were doing french-kissing!

8. The last was the singing session. We were trying to think of a song on bachelorette party the night before and when I came home the song just came to me and that was it. We set it to be the song to be sung on the day. It’s “I Will Follow You” by Ricky Nelson. It’s the DiGi song if you don’t know it. It’s catchy and I like the part where it goes…

I love you, I love you, I love you
And where you go I’ll follow, I’ll follow, I’ll follow
You’ll always be my true love, my true love, my true love
From now until forever, forever, forever

I will follow you

(In fact, it is playing in the background repeatedly while I’m composing this entry. Aku suka sangat!)

After the negotation of price for the angpow for the jimui-s, the groom was given the key and he opened the grill door to fetch his bride. 🙂

There was the usual tea ceremony for the bride’s side and then all of us were driven to the groom’s house for the tea ceremony for the groom’s side and we had buffet lunch.

That’s what we did during the day…let’s continue with the night story.

Wedding dinner was held in Klang and by the moment we register ourselves and get to our respective table, we were greeted with very lovely door gifts. A pair of chopsticks or a small photo frame. I settled with a pair of red chopsticks.

You know how there’s this usual song playing and then the bride and groom marches into the hall or restaurant? This one was very special. It was so nice. I clasped my hand as soon as the door opened and I saw my friend holding a mic, walks into the hall, singing…

“Tonight I celebrate my love for you
It seems the natural thing to do”

Then the groom continues with the duet, walking into the hall, trying to catch up with the bride

“Tonight no one’s gonna find us
We’ll leave the world behind us”

And then together they sang, “when I make love to you…tonight”

😡 😡 😡

And then they continued singing.

I almost died. It was so nice. SO NICE SO NICE SO NICE SO NICE SO NICE.

Aku memang suka benda macam ni. And I can’t say this enough!!!

(And I’m playing the song “Tonight I Celebrate My Love” by Peabo Bryson & Roberta Flack from this paragraph onwards.)

Dinner started, followed by the compulsory yam seng. We shouted like mad. 😀

Do you know why I enjoyed this wedding the most? Being involved as a jimui is one thing, being involved as a team of jimui of the same secondary school and hometown is also one thing. Having the games successfully executed with the hengdai-s being so sporting and co-operative. The fun and laughter during fetch-the-bride session. The detailed and attentiveness of the bride and groom’s wedding planning and arrangement. They sure did planned well. The mind-blowing entrance by singing the duet. The lovely door gifts. The lovely photo slides.

The one thing that touched and affected the most is when I know that my friend is marrying a guy that I really do think will take care of her and make her the luckiest woman. And this guy comes from a family that is very close-knitted and loving. The moment I saw the groom’s parents talking to the couple during the tea ceremony, you will feel so moved and warm. I don’t know how to explain this but you can just feel the vibe without even needing to know the family beforehand. I’m feeling very very happy for my friend. I really do!

I’m still lingering in the mood of the wedding after-effect. Because it is so beautiful, I think I need some time to recover from being dreamy and all. Makes you want to get married, really.

Timestamp: 1:15am. Took me an hour plus to write. Now I really have to go to bed.

I hope this post cures your Monday blues. 🙂