The First Three "Official" Photos of AstroBanana's Wedding AD...

... are not of the bride. Nor are they of the groom. Granted, it was merely a "sneak" preview from Gilbert's blog... Nevertheless, AstroBanana cannot help but be a tad disappointed. Maybe they are not good enough to be featured in his blog :| Oh well, hopefully the rest of the photos turned out okay. Featured in the following photos is Eric Banana's niece, the super-cute Yuxuan:







Considering how active Yuxuan is, and how camera shy she can get sometimes, these photos turned out to be really good, especially the last one. AstroBanana are keeping their fingers crossed for the rest :)

Operation GDL

With regard to AstroBanana's 过大礼 (guo da li) process, Eric Banana will try to blog as much as he can since he doesn't know or understand all the rituals and procedures. AstroBanana's parents and relatives helped a lot in this aspect.

For the wedding cakes, Astro Girl's parents requested for traditional ones, so Eric Banana ordered them from 锦泰饼家 (Gin Thye Cake Maker), an established name in making cakes since 1964. Different dialect groups have different practices. As Astro Girl is Teochew, the wedding cakes to get were 伍色糖 (wu se tang). According to Gin Thye's website, 伍色糖 are traditional wedding gifts from a Teochew bride to her relatives. 伍色糖 consist of 豆沙饼 (dou sha bing), 明糖 (ming tang), 豆闰 (dou run), 豆槓 (dou gong) and 老妈糕 (lao ma gao). Eric Banana wonders what they are made of though. Even one box was very heavy, as if the cakes were cast from stone. It must have been, what, at least 2 kg each?

Letting the photos speak for themselves, here are what the groom's family presented:























And here are what the bride's family presented to the groom's family in return:

Post-Wedding Blog Gadget Update!

Now that the wedding is over, it's time to update the gadgets on the left side of this blog! So the outdated information will be archived in this blog entry:

INTRODUCING THE CAST
Solemniser: Mr Phang Tai Heng, JP, BBM(L), PBM
Best Man: Vincent Goh
Xiong Dis: Danon Gabriel The, Voon Ee Huei, Francis B.
Jie Meis: Fanny Chang, Katherine Chong, Celine Tan
AD Coordinator: Danon Gabriel The
Banquet Emcees: Joel Teng, Celine Tan
Banquet Reception: Sabrina Foo, Celine Tan, Katherine Chong
Why haven't YOU signed up yet?!

NOT FORGETTING THE CREW
Bridal Studio: My Bridal Room
Bridal Studio Coordinators: Abbie, Linghui
Make-Up Artist: Dily Ng
Pre-Wedding Photographer: Danon Gabriel The
Bridal Photographer: Weijie
AD Photographer: Gilbert Chua / 9 Frames

SET LOCATIONS
Outdoor Photoshoot Locations: Hyderabad Road, Changi Boardwalk
Banquet Venue: Antica Ballroom, Orchard Parade Hotel (Club Chinois)

PROPS
Engagement Rings: Tiffany & Co.
Wedding Bands: Tiffany & Co.
Si Dian Jin: Soo Kee, Lee Hwa

Operation AC

AstroBanana had their 安床 (an chuang) and 过大礼 (guo da li) on 27 September 2009. According to Long Shifu, the auspicious timings for AstroBanana were 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., so Eric Banana woke up at 6 plus for the 安床 ritual. He placed the new mattress on the bedframe and covered it with a new red bedsheet. Basically, the ritual is to bless the nuptial bed and entails placing four different types of fruits (one each) on the four corners of the bed, with a pineapple, a huat kueh (read: 发糕) and an ang pow (read: red packet) containing $12, $120 or $1,200 in the centre of the bed.

Actually, there is strictly no single standard operating procedure for the 安床 ritual. If you ask 10 different people, you are likely to get 10 different answers. That is, assuming their answers are not "I don't know". In some wedding forums, the discussion gets really weird though, as Eric Banana observed. Like getting a boy to roll on the nuptial bed. One extreme version suggests getting the boy to pee on the nuptial bed *hmmm* - and the bride-to-be was exclaiming she doesn't want to sleep on an urine-stained bed. Erm, okay.. Nobody does :p Another bride-to-be related about hearing from some folks that the ritual involves putting a rooster and a hen under the nuptial bed and seeing which one comes out first - this will determine the sex of the couple's first-born child. The bewildered gal had a problem - her bed was a storage bed so the chicken ain't walking out anytime soon.

Eric Banana speculates that some skewed versions of this ritual boil down to some couples (and their parents) wanting to give birth to a boy for their first-born child. Some are a result of deeply-rooted customs and beliefs. Some are a figment of the imagination of people who have either nothing or nothing better to do.

Thankfully, Astro Girl was very clear-headed. She told Eric Banana, "You already paid good money to consult a professional. Just follow what he says and get it over and done with. Why you want to bother with what people write in the forums?" To that, Eric Banana can only meekly agree - that's why she's The Wife yah? Who in the right mind would want to go against the mistress of the Banana household??

Playing Catch-Up!

In the weeks prior to AstroBanana's wedding, the couple was basically swarmed. Too many things to do, too little time. As he was also very busy at work, Eric Banana did not manage to finish blogging about certain issues / events such as the 安床 and the 过大礼. Some of these entries have already been composed but stayed in his Blackberry for the longest time. Eric Banana will try to finish blogging as much of these as possible. The honeymoon photos will have to wait though - 345 photos to go through! So if you see outdated entries, don't be too surprised - it's just catch-up time for AstroBanana :P

Will The Real Wedding Surprise Please Stand Up?

You may have read about how Astro Girl supposedly stumbled on her wedding surprise some time ago in this blog. Well, it turned out to be a clever decoy engineered by Eric Banana. He pretended to let her find out about the canvas print so that she will let her guard down and not expect anything on the AD but the master of suspense saved the best for last. (Sounds familiar?) During his speech at the wedding dinner, he presented Astro Girl with her real wedding surprise...



... a photomosaic comprising 5,000 tiles and measuring 23" x 33.5". The original picture was taken by DGT. Eric Banana converted all the photos used in his wedding montage into black and white before using them to assemble the photomosaic with AndreaMosaic. And quite truly, he meant what he said to her - "Whenever I see you, I see not only you... I see myself, I see us."

Astro Girl's reaction? Let's just say she was really touched and surprised - Eric Banana has never seen so much tears of joy before :)

P.S. Eric Banana would like to thank DGT for helping him to print and frame the photomosaic.

AstroBanana Wedding Actual Day Photos: The DGT Series Part I

The full set of official photos from AstroBanana's wedding actual day (AD) will be available sometime in the foreseeable future. In the meantime, these are some unofficial photos which DGT took on that day.

Two brothers and three sisters posing with their angpows:



Vincent the best man with his shades:



AstroBanana walking the walk and talking the talk:





AstroBanana gamely posing for the photographer in their bridal car:



AstroBanana returning to the bride's house:





The sisters posing for a photo together:



Eric Banana talking to double-agent Celine a.k.a. Trojan Sheepo:



Katherine helping with the video camera:



Some random shots of AstroBanana before, during and after the tea ceremony:















AstroBanana in a group photo with their brothers and sisters:

Thank-You Note

Before AstroBanana set off to Bali for their honeymoon tomorrow, they would like to pen a quick thank-you note to the following people (in no particular order). Eric Banana was supposed to deliver the thank-you speech during the wedding dinner but he fumbled due to lack of time for preparation.

• Their family members and relatives - for all their tremendous help and useful advice in the wedding preparations, especially on the traditional customs and rites.

• Fanny Chang - for waking up very early on the AD to help the couple with the day programme; for helping to transport the bridesmaids by driving (She had to navigate through a very bad traffic jam along Lornie Road); and for helping out to man the reception counter during the wedding dinner.

• Katherine Chong - for waking up very early on the AD to help the couple with the day programme (She put in a lot of effort for the gatecrashing materials); and for helping to man the reception counter during the wedding dinner.

• Vincent Goh - for driving Eric Banana all the way to Sembawang to collect 20 heavy boxes of traditional Teochew wedding cakes (they must have weighed, what, 2 kg each?) and two traditional wedding baskets; for waking up very early on the AD to help the couple with the day programme (in his zealousness, he even got into a car accident - thankfully, he was not the party at fault *phew*); and for helping out during the wedding dinner and giving the best man's speech (Eric Banana is grateful - although he did offend Astro Girl inadvertently by saying a couple of wrong things).

• Sabrina Foo - for helping to man the reception counter during the wedding dinner (she wore a yukata - a summer Japanese kimono - and got a lot of attention).

• Celine Tan - for waking up very early on the AD to help the couple with the day programme (she thought of some funky ideas for the gatecrashing session - Eric Banana is still regretting his Trojan Horse, or rather Trojan Sheepo tactic); for helping to man the reception counter during the wedding dinner; and for being one of the emcees for the wedding dinner.

• Joel Teng - for being one of the emcees for the wedding dinner (he did a fantastic job, although Eric Banana wonders how it will be if he was designated to address the guests in Mandarin).

• Danon Gabriel The - for waking up very early on the AD to help the couple with the day programme; for helping to take photos for some segments; for helping Eric Banana with the "ultimate surprise", and  helping out during the wedding dinner and giving a very nice touching speech.

• Voon Ee Huei - for waking up very early on the AD to help the couple with the day programme (he helped Eric Banana a lot during the dance segment of the gatecrashing session); and helping out during the wedding dinner (he was in-charge of accompanying the wedding solemniser prior to the wedding solemnisation ceremony).

• JP Phang Tai Heng - for taking precious time from his hectic schedule to officiate the wedding solemnisation ceremony for AstroBanana.

• Abbie, Ling Hui, Weijie, Uncle Quek and the nice folks at My Bridal Room - for all the great help they rendered the couple over the past few months during their wedding preparations (at one point of time, AstroBanana spent so much time at MBR that it was almost like their second home).

• Dily Ng - for transforming Astro Girl to a stunning beauty with her excellent make-up and hairstyling skills.

• Gilbert Chua and Simon from 9frames - for all their effort in capturing AstroBanana's most important moments on the AD (hopefully, the end product will turn out to be good).

• Eric Tan, Alec Tan, Wee Hao and the excellent service crew at Club Chinois - for all their advice, attentiveness, initiative and flexibility; hence making the wedding dinner a great success.

• Raymond the bridal car driver - for accommodating the couple's requests and last-minute changes.

• All the guests who attended AstroBanana's wedding banquet - for showing up to share AstroBanana's joy and displaying overwhelming generosity in the ang pows for the couple.

Hopefully, AstroBanana did not miss out anyone's name. If so, please do not begrudge the couple. They are really appreciative for all the assistance they received :)

The AstroBanana Bridal Photoshoot Part II: Outdoor Shots

The outdoor shots were taken at Hyderabad Road and Changi Boardwalk.

The AstroBanana Bridal Photoshoot Part I: Studio Shots

For those who didn't get to look at AstroBanana's wedding album on their wedding day or were unable to make it for the wedding dinner, here are the pictures. Thanks to Dily for her excellent make-up skills and Weijie for his outstanding photography. All outfits and gowns are off-the-rack from My Bridal Room.