Planning for your Big Day

Planning for a wedding celebration is one of the most stressful milestones of one’s life especially in Singapore. Such events can take up to a year of planning! Selecting an auspicious date, dinner venue, wedding photos, photography & videographer for actual day, invitation cards, door gifts, lunch/dinner venues, customary proceedings for the different ethnic groups and the list goes on.

Let’s talk about the Chinese ethnic group in Singapore for their customary wedding proceedings. Different dialect groups even have different practices! I’m in my early 30s and speaking from experience, I presume this is the ‘busiest’ time of a Singaporean’s life where you got invited to countless weddings from close friends, associates, colleagues, army mates or even family members such as cousins. Or house warming and baby showers which I’ll come to that on my next article.

A Chinese wedding will usually involves getting a band of good ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ to assist you on your big day. As shared earlier, different dialect groups have different practices but most will start the day early in the dawn when the sun is yet to rise. The brothers will get to the groom family’s house for an early breakfast, getting all the stuff prepared and to pick the bride in their well-polished cars. The sisters might even start the day earlier by sleeping over at the bride’s house! This is the moment for girls talk before the bride ‘marrying off’ and of course, coming up evil plans of ‘torturing’ the brothers when the groom is to pick the bride in the morning.