The wedding day (part 2 of 2) - the Young couple

Val simply looked gorgeous as she made her way to the front. It’s a shame my pictures of her walk were unclear - also missed out on snapping the couple’s kiss as I accidentally turned off the camera at that point & turned it back on too late.

Anyways, the ceremony went very well. Mum wasn’t as emotional as I expected her to be; Dad was predictably steady & calm.

Just 2 songs were sung by the audience – “Before The Throne of God”, & “I Long for the Day”. But what beautiful songs. And the audience sung it very well. Joey Le & David presented the song “Born Anew”, which I’ve never previously heard of. The Bible reading was 1 John 4:7-12, & Pastor Steve gave his message on this passage at Val & Andrew’s request; in a nutshell, that passage talked about God’s love & God being the source of that love as manifested in His sacrifice of His Only Son. Good choice of passage, I must say. And good choice of songs, too, as family members & relatives I spoke to after the ceremony all noted with approval – the feeling was that the ceremony was very God-centered. The prayers by Hung & Philbert were superb.

Of course, there were the group photos. This took place outside the church. Predictably, the biggest group photos were the ones with YFers past & present & CCCB St Lucia churchgoers. After these, the biggest contingent was the bride’s family (the Tan family!) & relatives (which included the Chin contingent from Perth, Dad’s relatives from Malaysia, Uncle Paul’s family, the Teos & the Lims). There was also one with our very close family friends, the Wangs. I managed to get one shot of the Clayers who came.

After the ceremony, Mum’s Perth relatives & the Wang family joined us at home for afternoon tea, which was simply leftovers from lunch. Despite that, there was still some more food remaining. We simply packed these away before heading for Hilton Hotel, venue for the reception. I brought along the huge batch of flowers for the bridal table.

We arrived at Hilton after the scheduled time for tea ceremony, thinking we were late. It turned out that the wedding couple were also late, as they arrived at the hotel around the same time as us (they seemed to have been held up by their photo shoots). So, we didn’t miss anything at all. As the wedding couple needed more time to be ready for the tea ceremony, I took the opportunity to take some pictures of our relatives. They included a couple of pictures of aunties from Dad’s side wearing the “kebaya”, which is a traditional Malaysian blouse. Apparently, flight attendants for Malaysian Airlines & Singapore Airlines use a version of the “kebaya” as their uniform.

The tea ceremony was a bit rushed as the reception dinner was approaching fast. I took lots of pictures of the tea ceremony. One of Andrew’s sisters tried to speak to Val in Malaysian as Val presented her with the tea cup. At least her attempt was so-so, not bad. Goodness knows how many red packets & gifts were handed over to the couple.

The reception dinner, which included with a hired pianist, was excellent, too. I was seated with Brendan, Ryan, Nicole, cousin Nicholas & the Wang children (who we grew up with before migrating to Australia). It was good chance to catch up with Nick (who’s grown so tall) & the Wangs, although I didn’t talk that much as I drank too much wine between the tea ceremony & the reception. I can say that Table 5, just next to us, was very boisterous & definitely the noisiest of all the tables (noisy, but always respectful towards the newlyweds). That’s not surprising at all, as Table 5 included Aunty Daisy, Aunty Rosie, Aunty Helen, & the 3 Perth relatives, all of whom have loud laughs (now I know where that part of my genes come from). At one point (when I’ve somewhat recovered from my hangover), I can hear some funny things being said in Malaysian, & went over to share in the laughs. It’s really wonderful to see relatives from Mum’s side & Dad’s side all get along very well with each other, catching up & chatting away like long lost friends reunited. For me, that’s one abiding memory of this wedding.

The slideshow put together by Val & Andrew was sweet, even if the old family photos displayed meant that people now know what I look like when I was 8 or 9 ;) I recalled Aunty Carol flashing me a smile when a photo with me as a kid appeared on the projector screen.

There were a number of speeches, of course. The speech delivered by the family friend of the Youngs gave a background of the Young family, but curiously made no mention of the wedding couple (what’s the point if the wedding couple's not mentioned?). Mr Young welcomed Val into the Young family. Mrs Young did likewise, although parts of her speech was in Malaysian, but it was a pretty good try. Dad’s was a bit longer & definitely more humorous – in that sense, it was unexpected in a good way. Of course I’m biased, but I’d say dad gave the best speech of the nite. Welcoming Andrew as son-in-law, he gave “7 reasons why you should not marry my daughter” & referred to himself as a “nazi father”. Towards the end, there was also a blooper – Dad referred to the newlyweds as “Val & Brendan”.

The sight of the couple cutting the wedding cake was the last photo I managed to snap, before my camera “died” (lesson – bring along camera charger the next time I attend a wedding reception). That meant that I had no shots of the couple’s first dance. A bit of a shame, but never mind. Despite camera dying & my mediocre photography technique, I managed to get some good pictures. This was certainly one of the most enjoyable days in my life – I’m very proud that my beloved sister is married & happy to have gained a good brother-in-law. God will surely bless this couple.

NB: Interestingly, all of the overseas relatives & family friends who attended the wedding are born-again Christians! The relatives on Dad’s side & the Wang family are Protestants, while Mum’s Perth relatives are Catholics. It’s a shame that our non-Christian relatives could not come to the wedding, as they would have learnt something about the Christian faith had they attended.