Wedding Feast

We attended a wedding dinner on Sat night at the Four Seasons' Hotel. The ballroom was beautifully decorated in classic white, silver and gold colors, with lots of candles and off-white roses as centrepieces on each of the 30 tables. It was a formal affair with the men dressed in suits and ties, and the ladies in their evening best.

At the pre-dinner reception, instead of serving the usual mix-trail nuts, there were lots of strawberries served on shaved ice plateau and fountains of melted chocolate and brown sugar on the side for your fondue indulgence. The ballroom event began with the bride and groom marching down the aisle onto the stage where they cut the 3-tier wedding cake. A Priest was then invited to say Grace before we partake our dinner.

We were expecting a typical Chinese wedding feast, only to be individually served a 6-course fusion of western and chinese meal. The servings were in small portion much like a fine dining affair in a western setting. On the menu were Peking duck (skin), sharks fins, abalone, cod fish, duck meat and mee sua. There were a good beverage selection of beer (from Brewerks), red wine, white wine, and calamansi, apart from the usual chinese tea and soft drinks. We were all served champagne for the toast. For dessert we had the hazelnut chocolate wedding cake. It was delicious!

Like a western-style wedding, the groom (Sam's colleague) gave a speech followed by the best man and the maid-of-honor. The father of the groom, and some friends also shared on their joy of the union, and the speeches were followed by rounds of toasts. Throughout the evening, the friendly wedding couple went around socialising with their guests and thanking them for gracing the occasion. There were no structured photo sessions, or games to embarrass the young couple other than the rounds of toast to get them in 'high-spirit'. It was an interesting union of a Josephian and a Convent girl.

The highlight of the evening for me was the performance by this talented male jazz pianist cum singer. He sang all my favorite jazz pieces like 'Dream a little dream', 'Someone to watch over you', 'La Vie En Rose', 'The way you look tonite', 'Quanto, quanto' ... just to name a few. He also turned ballads like 'Moon River' and 'Somewhere over the rainbow' into lovely jazz pieces and sang to perfect pitch. You get the idea... it was a wonderful way to end the evening.