Wedding Banquet on 19 April 2015

The last and final post to my wedding series end with my long-awaited wedding banquet hosted at Marina Bay Sands (MBS). I will be sharing with you some of our photos taken during our entire stay at Marina Bay Sands and perhaps this post will help other couples who are intending to host their wedding celebration at MBS as well.

Waking up for the Wedding Banquet

We woke up at 6.30am and set off to MBS from our new house on the 19 April 2015.

Then we packed our photo albums and macbook for wedding banquet set up.

We had Jeffery and Edwin to chauffeur us to the hotel as Sweetie Muffin did not want to spoil his morning mood with the bad traffic.

Preparation @ Marina Bay Sands

We started to get prepped in the spacious function room next to Melati Ballroom at approximately 9am.

The spacious changing room located next to Melati Ballroom

Arrival of Wedding Helpers

By 10am, our wedding helpers have arrived to set up the receptionist booth, check the AV system and practice with the emcee script.

Sweetie Muffin had to run through the entire event flow with the helpers to ensure that everything was in good order. He looked super stressed up that morning! 😖

The dutiful brothers arrived early to assist with the banquet

Jeff rehearsing with the emcee script. Don’t he look suave?

In the meantime, the staff at MBS had the ballroom decorated beautifully for the wedding banquet and we did our rehearsal whilst waiting for our guests to arrive.

No Support for our Macbook

When Jeffrey was testing out the AV system and trying to connect the Macbook to the projector, we realised that the hotel was not Mac-friendly as they do not have the cable for us to connect our Macbook to the projector. Hence there was a moment of panic but fortunately MBS has a shopping area which sells Apple products. Our montage was displayed on the screens without any glitches thanks to the new cables *PHEW*😤

Our Digital Banner 🙂

Oh by the way, I love the concept of digital banners because it saves us the cost and hassle to print out our wedding photo and carry it all the way to the hotel. All we need to do is just provide MBS with our wedding photo in high resolution and they will display it on the digital screen for us like that 😻

Tea Ceremony

We had some time in the morning to have tea ceremony with Muffin’s extended family at another function room before the cocktail reception commenced.

Tea Ceremony at the function room with Muffin’s extended family

Cocktail Reception @ 12pm

We had a cocktail reception hosted outside the ballroom before the commencement of the wedding banquet where soft drinks and beer were served🍸

We had our helpers to usher our guests to be seated in the ballroom by 1pm for the wedding banquet.

Wedding Banquet Commences!

Sweetie Muffin was very concerned about the height of the stage because our Mandarin speaking emcee – Doris is of a petite frame. It seemed that his concerns were uncalled for as she could still get up the stage at ease with the stairs at the side 😜

Our Emcees – Jeff and Doris

Whilst waiting for us to march-in, our first video was played.

Unlike most conventional videos where couples shared about their childhood photos etc, we chose to showcase to our guests how we first met and ended up together 😁

The videos and montage broadcasted during our wedding banquet were edited and prepared by me *hehehe*😹

Oh by the way, the background music used in my video was entitled “The First Time I Loved Forever” from Beauty and the Beast💞

First March-In and My Solo

I wanted to create an impact with our first march-in✨

Hence I chose to enter the ballroom by singing my favourite wedding song by Lea Salonga – “Two Words” for my first march-in.

Our first march-in

At the same time, the screens were flashing the song lyrics with our pre-wedding photos in the background whilst I sang.

Oh yeah, I even did Chinese translation for my lyrics because the older guests might not be English-educated to understand the meaning behind the lyrics.

“Facing YOU who brings me new tomorrows, I thank God for yesterday…”

Singing and walking at the same time is definitely not my forté

Can I tell you guys a secret?

The song I sang during my wedding banquet was pre-recorded at Sonic Recording Studio and I was actually lip-syncing all the way… You’d never know what will happen to your voice on the actual event day itself, so it’ll be good to prepare for rainy weather 🙂

And… the we did not really take note of the time taken for us to travel from the main door to the stage as apparently the song was still playing when we reached the stage after singing the first half section of the song and it was pretty awkward as our helper had to stop the video for our cake cutting ceremony *LOL*😹

Cutting of Wedding Cake

Well, I’m sure events like weddings do have hiccups here and there and I was thankful that mine ain’t too bad!

Serving of First Dish

We were being ushered to the VIP table to get seated whilst the first dish was served.

Here comes our first dish! Grand entrance with Vivaldi’s Spring played in the background 😀

I chose Vivaldi’s Spring to be played when the first dish was served for a pompous punch to the banquet ambience – Sweetie Muffin protested against my idea initially but we still went ahead with it anyways 😜

Glad it went well and my decision was brilliant indeed *MUAHAHAHA*💯

After the first dish was served, we adjourned to the changing room to get changed and prepped for the second march-in.

Second March-In

We showcased our Church Wedding Video to our guests whilst we prepped for the second march-in.

My in-laws watching our videos intensely…

Background music played for this video was “This is the Day” and “Beautiful in White“. I felt that they are most appropriate for church weddings 😇

Second March-In in my qipao

The song we chose for our second march-in was “I Do Love You” as we think the lyrics were meaningful 😻

Popping the champagne

Our Nuptial Toast – the champagne tasted real smooth and nice 😀

A Toast to our Guests

Toasting to our guests

Time to say “Yum Seng!”

Our happy guests 🙂

Thank You Speech

We had our thank you speech on stage after the champagne toast.

I can’t remember what Sweetie Muffin said but I still had mine saved in my iPhone’s Notes.

Thank You Speech

My Thank You Speech

“Initially my husband wanted to say this speech on my behalf but I felt that it would be better if I express my gratitude personally.

First and foremost, I would like to thank everybody for making time to attend our wedding celebration. Our banquet would not be the same without your presence.

Next, I would like to thank my friends, relatives and ex-colleagues for coming. My existing colleagues too, for covering my work during my long absence.

Lastly, I would like to thank my parents for always being there whenever I needed them – be it financially or emotionally. My wedding would never be so smooth sailing without them. Now, it is time for me to learn independence and not always rely on them whenever I’m faced with problems.

Once again, a very BIG thank you to everyone for being here to share our joy!”

OK, I admit I forgot to thank the Sweetie Muffin in my script for drafting out the wedding itineraries for both the church wedding and banquet.. Soz.. a BIG THANK YOU to you SWEETIE MUFFIN! (sorry, it came ONE year late – but better late than never right?)

Table Photography

Next up, we had to walk from table to table to have our photos taken with our distinguished guests.

We went around to mingle with our guests and they all feedback that the food and wine served were on point. Some even told us they love how smooth and nice our red wine tasted 😻

Happy guests make happy hosts!

Time to Say Goodbye

Big hugs to Cynthia! Thanks for giving me such beautiful face and hair for my wedding!!

As part of the wedding banquet custom, our families were stationed at the main door when the last dish – dessert was served to bid our guests farewell 😢

After seeing our guests off, we headed off to our Bridal Suite to rest.

Staycation at Marina Bay Sands

Part of our wedding package consists of a 2 nights’ stay at MBS’ bridal suite.

2 nights’ staycation @ MBS – reason to DANCE!

Muffin removing the pins in my hair so that I can wash them..

Romantic Dinner in Bridal Suite

Our wedding banquet package came with a complimentary dinner in the bridal suite too! And the sweet part is that we get to order anything from the menu 🙂

Dinner in our Bridal Suite

So we spent our evening in our Bridal Suite for dinner and a relaxing bubble bath.

We also spent the night counting our Ang Pows (and wedding favours) as we need to settle the final balance with MBS for our wedding package. Was so thankful that the Ang Pows collected were enough to cover for our banquet expenses

Splendid night view from our Bridal Suite

International Buffet Breakfast @ The Club

Breakfast was one of the best experiences we ever had in MBS.

The staff greeted and congratulated us when we arrived at the counter of The Club at Marina Bay Sands 🙂

Breakfast with a VIEW

Swimming @ the Infinity Pool

Visiting the Infinity Pool is a MUST when you are staying at Marina Bay Sands because it is iconic and the view is simply too spectacular!

Trying to be FUNNY

Namaste

Skypark

We visited the skypark next after our swim and the view was awesome despite the hot weather 🙂

We went back to our bridal suite to relax shortly after before going for our complimentary canapés.

We were pleasantly surprised by the lovely cake provided by the hotel when we returned to our Bridal Suite.

Wedding Cake from MBS just for us! Tasted super delicious too!

Drinks and Canapés

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close-up

And all the food we had tasted too good 😋

Beauty and the Beast Musical

Another highlight of our staycation over at Marina Bay Sands was being in time to catch a musical!

I am a huge fan of musicals and hence I am so happy that I get to catch one in MBS itself!

Credits

Special thanks to the below vendors and individuals for making our wedding banquet a memorable one!

Venue: Marina Bay Sands

Wedding Invites: American Wedding Treasures

Florals: Sing See Soon Floral and Landscape Pte Ltd

Recording of March-In Song: Sonic Recording Studio

Gowns / Makeup for Mom: Digio Bridal

Photography: Eng Photography

Bridal Hair and Makeup: Cynderella Makeup and Hair Services

Nails: Cher Petite Nails

Juice Cleansing: Juice Up

Eyebrow Embroidery: Highbrow

Wedding Coordinators: Tan Aih Kim (MBS) and Jia Jing

Emcees: Jeff and Doris

Chauffeur: Edwin, Jeffery and Jia Jing

Receptionists: Samantha, Tracy, Adrian, Jalea and Kriston

AVA: Edwin

Montage, Videos and Songs: Me, Myself and I

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Ang Pows: All guests who have attended our wedding banquet.

x♥x♥