Somewhere Over the Rainbow: My Goddess' Twin Wedding

My Goddess' twin, her best friend since JC days, recently got married last Sunday. It was the very first time that my Goddess and the Horny Devil were invited to and attended a Malay wedding, and was certainly an eye-opener for them. My Goddess was also happy to be around the whole process, as she could truly experience and appreciate the Malay culture and traditions.

My Goddess went as early as 8.30am to her Twin's brother house as the mosque and the CC where she held her wedding was just a stone's throw away. My Goddess' mission then was to double check on the MUA to make sure she does a good and not overly dramatic job. Thankfully the MUA didn't let her Twin down. Imagine previously her Twin was so worried about this bridal shop - that they had majority tacky wedding gowns, they can't use her selected material for the MTM gown, and that they had really thick makeup for other brides.

Here's a summary of the event:

First, the bride and groom meets at the mosque for their solemnisation and prayers. The whole process took about an hour.

The ladies need to be all covered up when in the mosque - hence the head ~~scarf~~ shawl

All covered and ready to enter the mosque!

The men and women were seated at different parts of the room, as 男女授受不亲 (men and women cannot mix and have complicated relationships). Even between the men, the groom and bride guests were seated opposite each other.

Horny Devil at the men's side

Trying to blend in

And he did so pretty well!The kids went up to shake his hands the Malay-style as a form of respectful greeting at one point in time!

And the ladies on the other side.

Think my Goddess blended in pretty well too

Something aside: there were comments from the Twin's relatives that my Goddess and her Twin look alike. That's why they are called twins! And also, one of the comment was "you look like the bride", and my Goddess would gladly take that as a compliment as the bride is supposed to be the prettiest that day, lol.

Long lost twins

And so the official ceremony begun.

And the bride waits on eagerly

Congratulations, the deal is sealed. The bride is yours.

And so the groom proclaims his love for the bride

And the bride agrees with the exchanges of the rings

And a 'kiss' of the hand on her forehead - a very shy way of PDA

And they are officially married!

While the bride and groom exchanges loads of gifts during the solemnisation, only the groom gives the bride gifts this time round during the actual day wedding.

Look at the number of salivating gifts that Twin's hubby got for her!

And most importantly, this!

After the ceremony, the bride and groom proceeded to their dining venue - Serangoon CC for some phototaking opportunities with the guests.

The place was very well-decorated, much to my Goddess surprise. This is because when Twin mentioned sports hall, the first thought that comes to my Goddess mind was big, brown and old - like the sports hall in NTU. But the Serangoon CC hall was totally the opposite - small, compact and colourful. So the whole set-up was very sweet and cosy. The servers were also very attentive as they cleared the plates as soon as people are done with their food. I wonder how much it cost to do the whole set-up, as it certainly doesn't look cheap with the hundreds of tiffany chairs and responsible servers.

The yummy buffet spread

And the sweet (literally) customised door gift as it is M&M's! Packed into bottles and stickers pasted on by Twin and her relatives. All in all, they packed over 1,000 bottles!!

After which, the bride and groom went for an outdoor shoot (wondering if this is common for Malay weddings, or is it because the photographer usually does Chinese weddings and this is very typical of Chinese weddings, and so suggested by the photographer).

Following the photoshoot, it was the change into their second outfit. Twin didn't want any big earrings since she had flowers and decorative pins on her head already, but yet she doesn't have any simple ear studs with her. My Goddess proudly came to her rescue by lending her bling diamond studs to her. Otherwise, it will look incomplete for a bride to not have any earrings on her while being dressed up.

This time round, the march-in came with a big ra-ra 'kompang' group, which is the group of people hitting the drums and xylophone-like instrument to create music.

The whole entourage

And they sat in the middle, like king and queen

While the kompang performed

My Goddess like Twin's second outfit the best as it seems very elegant and grand with the blings and gold colour - very apt for a Malay wedding, in my Goddess' opinion. However, she can't say the same for her hair though.

The MUA used a wig as the bun of the hair. I've no issues with wigs, just that 1) the colour of the wig and Twin's hair is totally different colour so it looks obviously fake. Thought the MUA should at least use a hair colour spray to blend the natural hair and wig together. 2) The designs of the wig is totally old-school with 3 spiral waves. I just thought that Twin's hair is long enough to do a nice and elegant, yet simple bun and such over-the-top and traditional-looking buns doesn't go well with her overall look and theme of the event.

Luckily, the hair looks very sweet and demure from the front - and the front is what that matters since she will be seated on the 'royal seat' most of the time and so people won't really notice the back of the hair, unlike in Chinese weddings where the bride has to move around and mingle with guests.

The third outfit is almost like a western wedding dress that is popular in the 80's cos it is a modernised, white gown which is also traditional at the same time with its mini-bolero.

Twin beaming with happiness

Cake cutting time

The side-swept curls were really sweet - but thought that the MUA again was again very traditional in her styling. Didn't think she did a good job too to ensure that hair was evenly curled and that she hadn't sprayed on enough spray to make sure Twin's hair stayed wavy until the end of the day. In fact, my Goddess didn't even recall her using the typical hair spray, it was just a liquid kind of spray that doesn't look like it's going to make the hair stay in place for long, especially when one's hair is thick and straight like Twin's. But thankfully, Twin is very pretty and sweet already without much makeup and dress-up needed, and so these small mistakes by the MUA didn't look big on her. And most importantly, as long as Twin is happy!

Overall the wedding was very well carried out. Think Twin's brother did a good job coordinating the whole event given that he's only 22 years old. Cannot imagine my Goddess or the Horny Devil's brothers doing the same thing.

My Goddess, the Horny Devil and her Lover and friends had a good time.

The Horny Devil and my Goddess in matching outfit to fit the event

Lovers in Kebaya

The JC girls

Having fun with the gigantic bird cage, which apparently the bird inside has flown away

And most importantly, a picture of the three girls who have a complicated relationship of Twins, Lovers and Sisters.

After having been through a Malay wedding - I feel that a Chinese wedding is more tiring and has more traditional steps to follow than a Malay one, though some processes are pretty similar, like the offering of prayers (at the temple vs the mosque) and giving of the bridal money (to the parents vs the bride).

But for a full Chinese wedding, more things need to be done - the groom needs to fetch the bride, then there's the tea ceremony at both sides of the family. Then there's the toast to the bride and groom with 'Yum Seng'. And the most tiring part - the Chinese bride and groom needs to go to every table to take photo with their guests, while the Malay bride and groom sits at the stage like king and queen and every guests queue up to take pictures with them!

Here's ending off the post with a last look at the beautiful bride. Don't you love Twin's bouquet? It's rather different from normal bridal bouquets, put together with different types of flowers and leaves to create a sweet look to it, much better than her original plan of having lilies only, in my opinion!