Was invited to attend Shirley’s wedding last night. This is the second wedding of my close buddies after Arthur’s wedding with Gayle. Shirley was getting married with Joseline, and they decided to hold their reception at Hilton Hotel, Kuching. When you are invited to a wedding reception at a 5 start hotel, you know what you’d expect. Lavishness….
Anyway, a dear friend of mine (Ramzul) also was invited, but he had something urgent to attend to at the lat minute *SIGH*.
I arrived early at the reception. Hilton Hotel wasn’t unfamiliar to me because I was invited to cover the Minex Jewellery Launch a few months back, so parking and finding the ballroom wasn’t difficult. Was seated at Table 8, along with a few old schoolmates. It’s amazing to observe how they have not changed much after more than 10 years being separated. Aning retained her ‘eager self’, Irene was as lady like as years ago, and Jasmine was kind of ‘shy-shy’, exactly like I remember her.
This is my first time attending a wedding at a major hotel, and I can say that Hilton did a fantastic job decorating the ballroom. Although everything looked simple, but it was elegant enough. I couldn’t imagine anything better.
At about 715pm, the whole event started with the newly weds entering the ballroom. I don’t know why, but I somehow had this warm fuzzy feeling (overjoyed maybe?) when Shirley and husband walked in. Maybe it’s because she is one of my many close friends, and now she has already tied the knot. I don’t know… but the feeling was very pleasing.
Both the bride and groom looked elegantly sweet together, and as they entered a beautiful romantic song played. It was like one of those wedding you see on TV. Shirley looked nothing like the Shirley I knew as she looked fantastic and beautiful beside her husband. At one point (while watching the slide show prepared for the wedding), I could swear I didn’t even recognized my dear friend because of the make up witch made her look totally different.
Then there was the food presentation by Hilton. Not the best presentation I’ve seen, but I was already too starving to even bother. Other events soon followed with the Bidayuh traditional dance, and a speech from the attending peoples’ representative(YB) and speeches from both sides of the bride and groom. The bride and groom also did a short dance.
Soon after, the bride and groom was called to the stage to cut the cake, and later feed each other a piece of the cake. Then the MC said “May the bride and groom remain on stage because we would like you to do something for us. I am sure we were all not satisfied with the kiss Mr Joseline gave Shirley this morning, so we would like you to kiss your wife ‘the modern style’… “. At least that was kind of something he said =P
And so… after some short deliberation between the bride and groom (about a second or two)…they kissed.. and WOOWWW!!!! and “Now, that is a kiss!!!”. It wasn’t the kisses you’d see in porn movies (those lusty kiss), but it was sort of like the kiss you’d see in romantic movies. Kisses which make you think “That’s just darn romantic”.
Then came the champagne pouring, and the usual newly weds toast. While dinner was on-going, Irene (or was it Aning) came out with an idea… she wanted us to perform a song for the couple. I was like “Are you guys sure???”, thinking on how bad I sound on the mic, and how bad I am at singing. Plus, I’ve never actually sang on stage before. To my horror, they both said they were really sure they would do it…
So, I said “Mana-mana.. Aku ‘ON’ ajak“… and they went to choose a song from the listing. The time was nearing 11:15pm, and soon before I knew it, I was on stage, singing to “Love Me For A Reason” by Boyzone. I know, it wasn’t appropriate for a wedding, but with nervousness clinging inside my heart… it was the only song I could remember,and the only song all of us knew.
I bet we must sound horrible because by the time we finished the song, the ballroom was almost empty. But yeah, I could say that ‘that’ was the craziest thing I’ve done at a wedding, but for a friend, why not?
To Ir. Joseline & Dr. Shirley, Congratulations.
