Wedding Banquet

July 4th, 2010

(Ivan in blue, Kar Ling in purple)

Here we are, again. Our wedding still ain't over.

By this time, my facial muscles are tired and temporo-mandibular joint is aching. Too much smiling

and too many photoshoot. Its just a discovery that a person who doesnt smile much like me can experience those kind of symptoms on a big day like this.

A wedding banquet with 30 tables

Immediately after the tea ceremony which ended close to 4pm, with no time to rest,

i went straight to sorting out the table arrangement for the few last minute guests and edited the guest list.

Just some minor changes to ensure that everything was in tip top condition.

We wanted to make everyone feel comfortable no matter where they sat..although in

Malaysia food can easily be what unite all people.

We figured that the key to our guests' heart was through their stomach so our expectation

were high that the food should deliver.

5.30pm. After freshening up I arrived at the restaurant and was impressed with the interior

that was finely decorated and ready for the occasion.

I went through all the details of the dinner with the manager to avoid any hiccups and unwanted surprises,

and so that later i could myself sit down, relax and enjoy my food too :-0

1st group of guests arrived at 7pm while i was actually expecting every1 to be caught in a massive

 jam in Melaka town since today is a public holiday which i just can't remember what.

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Wondered how was my wife doing at that moment?

Lucky Famous Restaurant. They even made a poster for us.

Being back in the hotel room, i thought to myself  "Yay, can finally rest and take a nap without all these makeup and hairdo". But by the time i took my shower, it was already close to 5pm. Man...already have to go to the bridal shop to get ready for the wedding dinner.

There was another bride having her makeup done. She was dressed in chilli red and i wondered if i would look good in my own dress. I sat down waiting patiently for my turn (there was only 1 makeup artist) and in the process of doing so, i actually doze off. I did not realize that i was that tired.

It was slightly after 6pm by the time it was my turn. The makeup artist did her magic on me and voila! The plain ordinary me transformed into Belle from Disney's cartoon 'Beauty and the beast'. Seriously, im not bragging, you will see in the pictures later on.

It was already 7.15pm when i received a call from a worried Ivan. "Are you ready, Ney?

All the guests are here already. Everyone is waiting for you." I thought to myself..'Great..I'm late

for my own wedding dinner'.

Welcoming the VIPs. In truth, every1 who attended my wedding was a VIP.

After 7pm, as the guests started pouring in, so did my pockets get heavier.

Some brought gifts but ultimately, their mere presence and support already meant so much to me.

Mum, dad, Voon, Phoy and our wedding coordinators (from Gateway Church, Melaka) were busy welcoming and ushering the guests to their seats.

I myself was busy busy busy..

Relatives and friends from all over conjured up a lively and energetic atmosphere.

I guess they were all working out an appetite for the banquet.

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Mean time, where is my wife??

Dont i look like Belle from Beauty and the beast?

Only in my case there was no beast, only a prince charming..;-p

It was nearly 8pm when i reached the restaurant. Majority of the guests were already

seated and only a few were passing the entrance. I felt lost and was a bit

embarassed because i was suppose to welcome them..

Many of my friends came; friends whom i have not met since after finishing secondary school, busy busy doctors from all over the country, one flew in from Sarawak and another 

from Sabah. All of them came just to attend our wedding.

Thank you so much to all of you guys and gals.. Really meant a lot to me and will treasure it always..=)

My prince charming and I making our grand entrance

As the MC announced our arrival, Ivan and i made our way into the restaurant filled with the sound of clapping hands. Once we sat down, the dishes streamed in rapidly. Everyone started digging into their food and boy, it was good!! Or maybe it was just me because i was starving..;-p (only managed to have 3 mouthful during lunch before photography session started).

"Where is our food???.we are famished.."

Ah Phang and Lengkai about to pengsan.Thank God the food arrive eventually.

We felt bad to our guests for the long wait, and hope the food was worth it.

The main table where the VVIPs dined, consisting of the wedding couple, both our grandmas,

 both our parents, and my godparents who flew all the way from England.

1st dish was the cold dish platter. Pity we didnt think of taking picture of the dishes ourselves.

So let me reminisce..then we ate grilled piglet, steamed white chicken, steamed fish, just to name a few.

  We also had Martell and red wine to add to the guests' dining experience.

The whole restaurant was as lively as it could be even though people had started eating. Ivan and i purposely changed our soup menu as we did not want to have the typical shark's fin soup which people normally serve in weddings. It proved to be the right decision as the soup was delicious and our parents love it.=)

Forcibly thrown into the spotlight. At least Karling has her

wedding gown to cover her trembling legs.

After about 3 dishes, Daulim and Laykhoon our MCs for the night called us up

the stage. It was time for cake cutting, champange pouring and speech.

The champagne pouring was fun. I was worried as Ivan popped the cork as it might hit the light bulbs or worst still, hit our guests.;-p Don't want to have any wedding casualty at our dinner now do we..hehe. Subsequently, we poured the champagne down the glass pyramid carefully not to spill it. It was really pretty-looking as the gold champagne trickling down the glasses from top to bottom one after another.

The toast to celebrate the coming together of the Yong and Chin family.

The 1st of many toasts to come.

After pouring the champagne it was time for our parents to join us in the toast to our marriage.

All together there were 3 toasts. I roughly remembered the 1st toast was to celebrate me and Karling's happy union. 2nd toast was for our friends and relatives who have been supportive of our relationship all the way and who came to make the wedding banquet possible. 

3rd toast was for blessing, fruitfulness and productivity, which is ultimately the point of getting married right?

The guest reciprocated in unison.

Every1 stood up and toast to the sound of "yam~~~seng~!!!" at the top of their voices, i felt my tympanic membranes (ear drums) trembling. And i thought the whole building would collapse. The power of all our voices combined was like a football stadium with each toast louder than the previous.

Ivan and i delivering our appreciation speech to the multitudes.

Tried not to let our stage fright get the better of us. A bit of Martell helped to calm the nerves. 

It was just Ivan and i left on the stage after that. Ivan gave his thank you speech first then i gave mine. I was nearly close to tears but thank goodness i did not cry (I'm a very emo person
 you see, hence the extreme reaction)

When the microphone was passed to us, i realized that suddenly there were so many people.
As they quiet down and turned away from their food, i went through the points in my head..who to thank who to thank and stuff. We hardly had anytime to prepare our speech in black and white
so casual and spontaneity was the way.

 Praise God He guided us and to our own surprise we said pretty good things and turned it into a lively session. We managed to make the audience laugh and reciprocate, mostly importantly felt appreciated for coming and all the while being there for us; that each of them had played such important roles in our lives nothing could erase them from our memories, neither can anything take
away our heartfelt gratitutes towards them.
We praise God for making them a blessing in our lives.
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After the speech, we went back to our table to grab a few bites of our "cold dish" before setting out on our next quest - Table by table yam seng time. Each table will shout yam seng as loudly as they can to outdo the previous table. Unfortunately for the bride and bridegroom, it was full strength all the way.

Our 1st table: Karling's 2nd uncle and family and few other colleagues to start the ball rolling.

With Andrew and Jason around, never a dull momemt :-)

Mean while, my Melaka relatives (mum side) couldn't wait any longer and started their own ball rolling.:-) I think uncle Jimmy kicked the ball 1st then the rest all sambung..

Then we arrived at 1 of our Melaka Gateway Church table. Mimi, Pohu and Laykhoon (the mandarin MC) has been with us since our Manipal time.

Others: Benjie Tan & family, Eddie Tay & family. Benjie is leading a choir,

while LK looks "high" not on alcohol but on water.

Once upon a time, it was Kuala Krai, Kelantan. Then we hesistantly spread our wings and fly to our new nest. These are my  Kelantan relatives, who have seen me take my 1st few steps

 and utter my 1st few words. We are here together again like old times to celebrate

another new milestone in the family.

Karling toasting with her secondary school gang from Subang. In this pic: Aaron, my dad, Joy.

Wonder if my wife was crying or in labour?

Ivan's father and godpa accompanied us on our quest. We visited the tables in an order to make sure we didn't miss out any. Again and again yam seng was repeated. By the 10th table, i could feel my throat sore already and there were still 20 to go. By the 20th table, my voice started to crack and sound different.

By the time we finished visiting all the tables, i could barely hear my own voice when talking.

Another of my Melaka relatives table. In this picture: Casey, Leonard, bee yi tiu, bee ku, bee yi, Chi Voon, Dandy and Wendy. Leonard cannot tahan the sound, ear going to pecah di.

Here are my other childhood Kelantan relatives. In this pic: (from left) aiku, yeeku, sam pak leong, my 2nd bro Chi Phoy, jie jie Nica, Beng Lee & Soo Sim.

 Me and bro used to take turn staying in aiku or yee ku's house; causing lots of nuisance to our way elder cousin brothers. Funny thing is aiku and yee ku always "merajuk" when we chose to stay in

either 1 of their houses and not the other.

 This table too consist of our Gateway Church members: Siew, Christine, Dau Lim (our Baba MC), Robert Chong who helped coordinate our wedding, & Aunty Rosalyn

(uncle Robert's wife) who bakes the most delicious moist chocolate cake just to name a few.

Christine looked like she could break the glass while Dau Lim look like he's about to

pengsan next to his daughter..:-p

..and Robert Chong looked like he's going to swallow a fly, or maybe he was still munching away food from the table..ahaha. Ney why we so bad laugh at our own church members 1?

Childhood Kelantan friends : (from left) Wei Jiun, Lion King, Ah Phang, Yit Min, Kiat Hwee, Chuan Li, Pineapple Phai Yin, Huey Theng, Jenny's hand, & dancer Wit Chin's macho hand. How's the taste of Melaka food everyone? :-)

 Some of my Melaka relatives again. Did you guys know my dad hail from a family of 9 siblings; my mum:10 siblings; Karling's dad:10 while her mum another 10 siblings. So basically half of our guests consist of our relatives, and thats something very unique to us.

These are my evergreen uncles and aunties, they are as young as how i remembered them when i was a boy. 

I guess the key to youth is family unity and happiness:-) In this pic: Uncle Frankie, ji yi,

si khim, uncle Louis, uncle Jimmy (aik? he's here again :_l  . .haha), uncle Charlie,

jie jie Ah Yeong and her husband-to-be. :-)

My Seremban Hospital colleagues: Tan KL and fiance Thong Pui Ling, Looi, Chik Ian, Teh (some of them my badminton kakis who have currently become Ivan's badminton gang because i'm not much of a challenge anymore), Kang, Yeo, Lee Shien and her hubby Isaac. 

Notice the content of the glasses they're holding. All water or tea.

Hmmm, good role model doctors who never drink and drive and add to the A&E (acute & emergency) casualties. All sober except for LeeShien, whom i think is pretending to be drunk..maybe because she switched on her party mood, eh? Ney what do you think? 

Our Melaka Manipal Medical College juniors. Wilkins and Andrew shouting their lungs out.

In this pic: Wilkins, Nicholas, Eu Ann, Andrew and Leow. Andrew seriously was as red as a lobster. Did he have a bad day or something? Anyway Eu Ann found it too hilarious to join in the toast. I guess that was the 1st night she and Chi Voon met..and the rest is history. We all toast for a fairy tale in

the making, red wine anyone? :-)

After finishing with all the tables, we came back to the main table to toast again.

This time with my family. Both Ivan and i were nearly voiceless by then.

The Chins welcomed me into their family with open arms. For that i'm grateful.

And now i'm married to not only my wife but also to the Chins. Thank you for giving me your wonderful daughter to love and to cherish for the rest of my life.

My secondary schoolmates (they came all the way from Subang). Some were my

ex-badminton 'kakis'. Haih..miss those badminton days.

One by one of the guests started leaving. Some of them working or on-call tomorrow, thats why

 i really appreciate them for coming. I took this opportunity to take pictures with all my friends who came. After all, it is rare that i get to meet them what more when i am looking my best..;-p

Mum and dad thanking the guests as they all departed with a full stomach.

Forgot to mention dad looked stunning in his western suit while mum rolled back the years in her glittering black dress and shaw with pearl necklace. Thank you mum and dad for all these years, and may our good times continue to roll.

These are my friends from Kota Bharu secondary school days. Wasn't the most glorious years of my life but thank God for friends like them, who never fail to cook up some fun, mischief and livelihood at the boring corner of 5Sc2 where we were sitting near to each other.

In this pic: LipHau is a smart robotic engineer. YeePinn is a fan of F1's Schumacher and Arsenal.
 Yong Siew Sian and her twin sister are double dragons in karate, they won countless
competitions and now work in Singapore.

God bless ya my friends and thanks for cheering me up. :-)

Our collegemates aka busy busy doctors who made time to attend our wedding.

In this pic: Chutek, Terry, Eugene, Lawren & Kairu from JB hosp; Pohu and Shuxian from KL; Xiaomei from Muar hosp and Stella from Sarawak hosp.

Thank you so much guys.

Still manage to put on a smile despite how tired we actually were.

After all the guests have left, Ivan and i took the opportunity to model for our photographer before they finally call it a day. It has indeed been an eventful day and night. Ivan and i just held each other close and gaze into each other's eyes glad that it was all over; feeling happy and excited about our new life together.

I can't be any more relieved that all the burdens on my shoulder has been taken off. It was a tiring tiring marathon wedding day when all my strength and wisdom came from God's amazing grace.

My only regret was that i was too busy just couldnt say goodbye to every1. If only i had taken a family pic of my father's side relatives..

The joy in my heart was just indescribable beyond words. How could this had happened? How was it all possible? We were simply in awe of God's greatness and that He was all the while faithful to us even if we were never close to deserving it. Thanks, Jesus.

The beginning of our life together as one~sealed with a kiss

My body is weak, my mind is jaded. My eyes are as heavy as a myastenia gravis' bilateral ptosis.

We have departed on an exciting journey full of joy and happiness which nonetheless won't be short of trials and testings. Putting our faith in God that He has a plan for

 us, we can look towards the future with courage and optimism.

Having said that, I still have 1 final quest for the night to be carried out in our "Chamber of Secrets".

At least this 1 won't give me a stage fright. Still haven't decided where to go for honeymoon but that's ok,

we like spontaneity, mean time we need rest more than anythingelse.

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We hope you enjoyed our wedding blog.

For those still waiting for the right person or right time to come by, we feel:

just give God a chance, for He will provide.

Until next time, good night. :-)