The Tumasek beach at Avillion looked absolutely beautiful. I can understand why people are so drawn to beach weddings. There is this charm and beauty about it. That day, the afternoon sun was really hot, but that didn’t stop Cui and Yi Chian from smiling all the way! I was really amused that Yi Chian took off his shoes for the ceremony on the beach. It was THAT casual! The sand kept getting into my shoes as well and I took off my shoes too after a while. The ceremony was simple and sweet.
Sealed with a kiss!
After the evening beach ceremony, we adjourned to the ballroom for an intimate dinner with friends and relatives. It’s nice to have a smaller number of tables for a change! I think there were about 16 tables or so. I love the cupcakes!
The night was filled with lots of yum sengs, and dancing!
This is proof that a long distance relationship is viable and can stand the test of time! Cui and Yi Chian met in the US when they were both university students but had to part ways after they graduated. Yi Chian moved back to Singapore, and Cui lived and worked in New York. Years later, after enduring many long 24 hour flights, Yi Chian popped the question while they were on a hiking holiday to the base camp of Mt Everest in Nepal!
The beach wedding was held in Avillion Resort, Port Dickson. Five of us from the Wedding Story team went down to Port Dickson the night before and met up with Cui & Yi Chian at their family BBQ. Even after 10 minutes of talking, we knew that we could instantly click. They are definitely an adventurous couple!
The next morning, we had an early morning start at 4.30am! When the sun rose, Avillion looked so beautiful…. and so did Cui.
When the guys came over, the girls made them do some really crazy stuff…
Like dancing like a chicken!
Or putting on lipstick for each other…
Some were better than others… guys you need make up lessons!
When Yi Chian finally got to Cui, she could not help but laugh at his fake ‘mole’.
After a short time of tea ceremony with Cui’s parents, we left for a nearby bungalow, where Yi Chian’s family were waiting.
Then there were the serious family portraits…. and also the fun ones!
It was already about 12pm when we drove to a well hidden light house for some portraits. It was my first time there and I absolutely loved it! The only thing was the terrible noon time sun that beat down on us mercilessly. But Cui and Yi Chian didn’t bat an eyelid. They were super gung-ho to do everything I asked them to do.
One of the scary things…. like climbing this really steep ladder up to another floor. Cui did it in her high heels ok! And came down the same way! Even with my flat shoes, my knees were a little wobbly!
But it was worth it!
Finally, we went back to Avillion to shoot some more portraits around the pool side and garden.
We only had a 2.5 hour break before we had to get back to Avillion for the solemnization ceremony. Through out the ceremony, Sharon Chong was working on the slideshow to be shown during dinner. It was a pretty mad rush but we managed to complete it! Here’s the slideshow that we played that night. Part 2 of the wedding to come soon!
[flv:cuiyichian1.flv cuiyichian1.jpg 600 480]
Press play and then pause to let the video load fully, or else you might see it skip back to the first frame.
Wow it’s so rare that I get physical cards nowadays! Most communication is done electronically through email and dots on the computer, that I’ve sort of forgotten the joys of touching a real card. So I’m really happy when Tammy passed me a Thank You card recently. It brings so much joy to my heart to read what she has written in it. This will definitely be a pick-me-up read when I go through tough times and need encouraging! Thank you Jordan and Tammy for your friendship. I really appreciate the both of you very much and pray for lots of wonderful years for the both of you!
Ali recognized us immediately the moment we stepped out of Zia Airport in Dhaka. It wasn’t very hard really. There aren’t many Chinese around. In fact, the number of foreigners on the flight could be counted with 2 hands. Our first meet up with Ali was a good one. He came with his friend Rubab (I am not sure if I got the spelling right!). Our first stop was the money changer, and then Ali treated us to Movenpick ice cream! I can’t believe we forgot to take a group photo with Ali when we arrived. We must have just been really engrossed with just talking to him.
A photo of Ali and Farhat that was sent to us before we left for Bangladesh.
Taken when we went to Movenpick. Ali has not been sleeping very much. He’s been busy mixing his music album which will be out soon! He is a singer and has his own band!
At Movenpick, we had a chat with Ali, and he said this to us… “OK I want to see your expressions… on the first day, I’ll be expecting 2000 people to turn up for the wedding.” Kee Sitt’s eye balls went really big, like ping pong balls. 500 people for the 2nd and 3rd event, AND… 6000 people for the actual wedding day! Wow!! That’s amazing! He said that the culture over in Bangladesh is to really invite every single person to the wedding, even if it’s the guy who works at the grocery shop that you just met 2 days ago.
It’s really exciting but I am getting nervous now! Ali reassured us that we should just hang out near the stage where the action is, and take random shots of the guests that arrive. Well, our first event is tomorrow night, so we’ll find out how it’ll be soon enough!
So today, we didn’t really do much except wait for our flight from Dhaka to Chittagong. We wandered the streets of Dhaka for a short while and captured some street photos. One of the things we found out was that the Bengali New Year Festival falls on the 14th of April, the day after we leave Bangladesh! We didn’t know about this festival before we booked the flight. So we’re going to miss it. :(
Dhaka is pretty chaotic with people and vehicles. There are beggars everywhere, and it is really hard to turn away when they come knocking on your car window persistently. Oh, my heart!
We found this place where lots of flowers were being sold. Later, we were told by Rubab that this is the central location where all flowers get distributed from in Dhaka.
The buses in Dhaka are really banged up. I must say the drivers in Dhaka are really skillful. It’s super challenging to navigate past trishaws, people, crazy buses, three wheeled tut-tut lookalike vehicles… etc!
We were stared at everywhere we went. Hehe, I think it’s really funny that even as we take a photo, the people behind us were ‘posing’ for the shot too!
We did some videos on the street, and will try to upload them when we can! Internet connection is quite slow where we are.
We had a following after a while.
Finally, we left Dhaka on a 45 minute flight to Chittagong. The view of Dhaka from our little propeller plane. More updates to come!
Today, I had the privilege of giving some members of the Wedding Story a send off at the airport. They’re headed out to a foreign new land – Bangladesh, and none of them have been there before. Ali and Farhat, a wonderful couple from there found us via the Internet and were suitably impressed with the quality of work offered.
Several emails later, Grace was busy processing flights and visas for the team. Here’s a short amateur video clip by me of them at the airport before leaving.
