Two Weeks Before The Wedding

Well, I've already been married for over two months and still there remains a ton of things to be blogged about. I guess now is as good a time as any other; better late than never right?

I'll start with this post about the days leading up to the actual wedding on May 24th.

(By the way even though this post was written Aug 1st, it is still backdated to May 10th to make searching for it easier for me in the future)

At around 8am on Saturday, May 10th, Jerry and his sister came over to bring my mom the dowry items. I think my mom was a little surprised to hear that his sister would be coming with him instead of his parents, but it all went pretty smoothly as the emotion of the day swept us all into a ball of happiness.

The 四点金 (si dian jin) which includes four key pieces of jewelry for the bride from the bridegroom's family is a tradition for many Chinese families here. My mother-in-law had the jewelry picked out with me even though this is a rather untraditional thing to do. She didn't want me to not like what they had bought. After which, she went all over Singapore to hunt for a nice box (from Poh Heng) as the jewelry store she bought the pieces from did not have a nice box.

o.O

A pair of earrings, necklace, bracelet and a ring completes the set.

Some jewelry sets have five pieces instead of four. The pieces could also look way more heavy and extravagant than this simple design. For example, I saw one set that had large round piglets hanging from the necklace like some Chinese gangster gold chain. It was pretty frightening!

Even though the tea set is meant to be provided by the girl's side of the family, Jerry and I had to go buy our own tea set in a little Chinese wedding shop in Taman Jurong. That's because my mom had left her own wedding tea set in the States. Besides, I think I like mine better :)

A family portrait taken by Alex (after many failed attempts).

In that red basket includes a bunch of oranges (I forgot how many there were) with the Chinese character for double happiness that you see on the jewelry box stickered onto each orange. There are also two bottles of gassy orange juice decorated with a red ribbon each and a red packet with the dowry money inside.

I won't state how much Jerry thought I was worth (HAHA), but I will tell you that I was pretty moved by the amount he decided on.

Later in the afternoon, I went with my mom to visit my maternal grandfather's sister. It is also a tradition to buy cakes for the female side of the family and personally deliver them to family members who are not invited to the wedding. It is a way to notify them of the celebration that we did not invite them to because we wanted to keep the wedding small and simple.

That evening, my immediate family members gathered at my aunt's place for a casual wine tasting/selection. My uncle made very delicious soft tacos which we had with fried chicken wings and green mango salad.

After trying each bottle of wine, we would have a general vote to see how each scored. And that's how we chose the wines for the wedding!

Sunday, May 18th was the bridal shower which was held at the Glass House where I lived.

My bridesmaids were all so CRAZILY.... I don't know how to describe it..... Serious? They were really serious about it. Especially Amanda who dragged her mom down to make these paper flowers for decor!

They prepared some food and dessert.

I bought Dunkin Donuts haha.

It was kind of crazy. I mean, I thought it would just be a fun little gathering, but I really felt like they put a lot of effort into putting this together. 

View of the Glass House from the outside.

People started arriving.

It was really fun! All the games were really meaningful and I was overall just touched by how much time and effort each person was willing to pour into organising this shower. I hope I can be as dedicated as them when their turn comes!

The bridesmaids and I minus my sister who was home because of school the next day :P

Thursday, May 22nd was two days before our wedding- the day we were supposed to go to the Registry of Marriage (ROM) to collect our marriage certificate.

The place was quite empty. We took a queue number and watched other happy couples wait for their turn to be solemnised.

Even though we were going to be solemnised outside of ROM, we had to verify our information and swear by some statement before collecting our certificate. The whole thing took about 10 minutes and we were done before we knew it.