Thursday, December 4, 2008

My first experience as the bridesmaid

Early this month, I was asked by an old friend (old because we've known each other for a long time, not because he's old :P) to be his wife's bridesmaid. It caught me by surprise because to be frank, I wasn't all that close with the wife. Of course, since he asked, I was glad to be part of the team. In fact, I smiled with glee when I found out that I could organize the games to 'torture' the groom and his entourage on the wedding day. *LOL*

During the fateful morning, 4 of us girls gathered at the bride's place to wait for the groom and his group of brothers. There were Yeng, SK, Nico and me, all waiting with anticipation. :)

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Yeng and witch

We had prepared several games in advance, with the following list:
  1. Passing rubber bands using toothpicks and mouth (similar to using straws, just that we use a shorter toothpick so that they need to be very close to pass the rubber bands) - Need to pass 10 bands from one brother to another (all lined up in 1 row) with the last one being the groom. His toothpick will need to collect 10 rubber bands at the end. Impose time limit if preferred. Whenever rubber band is dropped, have to start again from the first brother.
  2. Wax leg hair from the brothers using cellophane tape – bridegroom smaller patch, brothers larger patch
  3. Say “I love you” in 10 different languages (to show love) . Punishment - Do push ups with someone sitting on the back
  4. Using a tissue paper, each of us make many different lipstick prints on the tissue, ask groom to guess which is Mavis’. (of course, none of them is hers) Then since he’s wrong, we punish everyone by wearing granny underwear outside.
  5. Sweet, sour, bitter, spicy food
  6. Sing song of love – Unchained melody (bridegroom only)
  7. Test of love: Q&A session. Each wrong question, we punish the brother to put on lipstick.

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The girls

After much waiting, the entourage finally arrived with loud car horns. According to Chinese tradition, the car door of the groom must be opened by the bride's brother or in this case, her cousin since she had no brother of her own.

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The groom's car

The 'brothers' posing for a picture before beginning their journey of torture. *LOL*

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The guys

I wonder if they're planning something of their own?

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Planning something?

I didn't manage to capture pictures for game #1, because I was the one holding the toothpicks and making sure they played it properly. But I assure you, it was definitely funny and ridiculous! As soon as the guys got close enough to pass the rubber bands, one of them would just laugh and spit out the toothpick before he could do anything else. In the end, no one really managed to pass the rubber band successfully, and we had to modify the game such that only the groom should have at least ONE rubber band passed to him, otherwise, it would take forever to complete the game.

Next up, we asked all the guys to put their hairy legs forward and we pasted cellophane tape on them. Of course, if you ask me, I'd very much prefer wax strips instead, but since we're being kind, we only used cellophane tape, which didn't really hurt much! Bad mistake.

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Ouch!

Game #3 was also interesting as we got various funny response from the guys, ranging from Korean language right up to Sikh. In fact, to get the 10th language, one of the guys called up his Sikh friend on the phone to ask him the Sikh way of saying 'I Love You'. However, the sentence was so long and complicated that the groom couldn't repeat it correctly. In the end, one of the guys had to do 10 times of push ups.

For game #4, we did our preparation by kissing on tissue paper. Look at the lipstick imprints we had! Pretty colourful eh? I don't even remember which one was mine.

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Whose lips are these?

Well, as you would have guessed, there was no way the guys could escape the punishment, so we forced them to wear the granny underwear (brand new ones, mind you) outside. Unfortunately, they were so stubborn and adamant about NOT wearing them. Also, they had the crowd support mainly because we were using too much time. In the end, we had to make do with them just posing with the underwears instead of wearing them.

Game #5 was actually the easiest of all, because it involved only eating. We used lime juice for sour, bittergourd juice for bitter, chilli boh for spicy and chocolates for sweet. Look at the guys' reaction when they drink/ate the food! To die for *LOL*

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Sour juice

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Spicy chilli

This is Kok Leong, and he was the one in charge of eating the chilli, but it was no challenge for him, for he LOVES spicy food!

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Yummy...

Game #6 and 7 were mostly on the groom's side, with him singing Unchained Melody out of tune grabbing the most attention. After that, it was the time of offerring a red packet to the girls. Typically, the girls would not be satisfied with whatever amount that was given at first, until after much noisy negotiation had taken place.

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Let us in!!

Finally, after much coercion, we let them in. Look at how pretty the bride was!

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Finally!

After the tiring tea ceremony at both families' houses, it was time for the bride to throw her bouquet. According to the Chinese belief, whoever that catches the bouquet would be the next-in-line to marry!

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Pretty bouquet

I swear I wasn't waiting for the bouquet to be thrown to me, it just happened... and it was at my direction, so...

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I got it!

Does that mean I'm the next? Nobody knows. *LOL* But they were really pretty lilies.

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witch and flowers!

After the whole ceremony ended, we took another pictures showing our tired faces.

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The girls again

Oh, the bride and groom got this matching pair of Tissot watches during their tea ceremony. I couldn't resist to take a picture of them because they looked lovely!

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Matching watches for the bride and groom

The following weekend was their wedding dinner, held at Evergreen Laurel Hotel in Penang. As the bridesmaid, I was given the task of manning the receptionist desk to mark attendance.

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Evergreen Hotel receptionist desk

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The red carpet

I loved the way Evergreen decorated each table, with balloons!

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Table settings with balloons!

Not to forget a picture with the bride.

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witch with bride Mavis

Did I mention, I also got to be the confetti popper! It was my first time and it was fun! *LOL*

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witch with Confetti tubes

Dinner started as scheduled, and the food at Evergreen was not too bad. The most delicious one would be the King prawns with mayonaisse and sesame seeds. The prawns were fresh and succulent, and best of all, without shells! Perfect for lazy people like me. :P

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Time for food!

Some pictures taken with my friends on the same table:

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Lydia and witch

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dory and witch

There was a champagne pouring session on stage by the new couple, followed by a speech given by the groom. Everything went smoothly as planned and the couple never looked happier! Congratulations to both of them!

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Speech time

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

you look horrible in your pink dress^-^ it does not suit your make up lorr...

iamthewitch said...

Anonymous, why are you hiding yourself? :P I know I know, you're not the first person who condemned my poor pink dress. I guess I really should put it away in the closet for good huh? *LOL*