Alright so I finally have the chance to sit down and blog about our wedding weekend. I’m going to start with our registration of marriage ceremony that we had on the 27th of July in Penang. Now my only regret with our wedding weekend is that because we were so busy taking pictures with everyone else and doing everything, we didn’t really have a chance to take pictures of our own or more pictures of what really happened. The pictures I have here are the best pictures I have from the ones my friends posted on Facebook.
It’s not traditional to have a registration of marriage ceremony in Malaysia I think… but Shorty always wanted a “walk down the aisle” moment so we decided that we would have a ceremony for that.
It was meant to be simple. Just a few of our closest family and friends would come. Shorty’s intention was that while the tea ceremony and the wedding dinner was going to be for everyone else, the ROM was going to be for us. That didn’t quite work out though. Once we included all our relatives, some Nuffies and friends we ended up with something like 150 people.
We still loved it though. In the video that Crazy Monkey Studios did, everything looked perfect but the truth is, just like any other wedding I guess lots of things went wrong.
Like on that day itself I suddenly had an outbreak of pimples on my face or an example of a more serious problem: Some 20 minutes before the ROM was about to start for example, we realized that the music we had in mind to play when Shorty walked down the aisle (Canon in D) wasn’t working. Shorty was freaking out but I just pat her and said “Don’t worry Shorty, everything will be fixed and it will be great. It’s our day… the only thing that can go wrong is if either one of us doesn’t show up.. and I’m right here”.
I just brushed all the troubles off because I kinda expected an imperfect wedding. An imperfect wedding for an imperfect couple… but no matter what happened, I knew it would be a perfect wedding just for us.
True enough the music problem was fixed just minutes before the ROM started thanks to my sister who took charge of the situation and found a solution. Shorty got to walk down the aisle with Canon in D. If you forgot what Canon in D sounds like, it sounds just like this.
The version we played was a piano version too.
Right after Shorty walked down the aisle to me, Angela the maid of honour and our emcee for the day started the ceremony with a poem. Then came the vows.
Now just a few weeks before Shorty asked me if we were going to do vows at our ROM. I said it was up to her so she decided that yes we should have vows. So I went back to the office one day and in 30 minutes or so managed to come up with mine. When I told Shorty I had done by vows she started to worry… not knowing how to write hers but I told her since I did it already she wasn’t getting out of it.
Doing vows was a little bit awkward for me. I asked some of the Nuffies how they normally sound like and they told me about this beautiful scene in the movie called “The Vow” where they made this really romantic vow. This is the scene.
I watched it and immediately I thought “Wow… I’m never going to be able to pull that off”.
Shorty and I after all aren’t the most romantic couple. I knew my vows just had to be simple. Not flowery or anything.. but simple.. and perhaps a little silly. Like us.
So I wrote my vows. It was called 8 Promises. This is it.
8 Promises
(Yatsu Yakusoku)
I promise…. that I will only be moderately angry, when you put a Hello Kitty sticker on my car.
(Anata wa watashi no kuruma ni Hello Kitty suti-ka wo hattara, chotto dake okoru youni yakusoku shimasu)
I promise…. that I will never let you stand under the sun… without an umbrella.
(Anata wa zettai kasa nashi de taiyou no shita ni tatasenai youni yakusoku shimasu)
I promise… that I will take you to Japan as often as I can.
(Anata wo yoku nihon ni tsureteiku youni yakusoku shimasu)
I promise… that I will remember how watching you wake up every morning is my favourite moment of each day.
(Anata wa asa okiru toki wo miru no wa ichinichi de ichiban tanoshii koto wo oboeru youni yakusoku shimasu)
I promise… that I will forever remember how you’re the only one who made me feel marriage is not something I should be afraid of, but something I am lucky to have.
(kekkon wa, kowai mono jyanakute, shiawase mono dayo tte, anata wa watashi ni oshieta koto wo zettai wasurenai youni yakusoku shimasu)
I promise…. that I will laugh with you in the good times, and cry with you in the bad.
(Anata to ureshii toki wa isshoni waratte, setsunai toki wa isshoni naku youni yakusoku shimasu)
I promise…. that while I’m not perfect…. I will always strive to be perfect for you as you are perfect for me.
(Watashi ha pa-fecto dewa nai kedo, pa-fecto naru youni yakusoku shimasu. Watashi ni totte anata wa pa-fecto dakara)
I promise…. that I will always be there for you and I will always love you.
(Watashi wa, itsudemo anatano soba ni itte, itsudemo anata wo ai suru youni yakusoku shimasu)
To make it even more silly I got the idea to do it in Japanese. Since Shorty loves everything Japanese. I knew Shorty might understand it since she speaks Japanese… but nobody else would. So for that I got Michelle and Linda to help me come up with some place cards that my best men will hold up whenever I said the vows. After I said each vow my best men would all say a “HAI” and bow. Haha that was their idea! Not mine!
After our vows were done, we did our registration.
While I was about to sign my marriage with Shorty my best men teased “Tim are you sure? There’s no turning back after this”. I just smiled and put pen to paper. Didn’t even hesitate. And then we exchanged our rings.
That is one thing till today I haven’t gotten used to wearing. I find the ring really uncomfortable to wear so I take it off every night before I sleep. Then what happens is when I rush for work the next morning I sometimes forget to put it on. Today Shorty saw it on my nightstand when she woke up so she hid it from me as to teach me a lesson.
Finally we were pronounced husband and wife… and we sealed it with a little kiss.
Just a short kiss… no french tongue thingy or anything like that. We like it simple 🙂
Right after that Shorty did her bouquet toss. I’m proud to say I took this picture myself with my phone. She looked so adorable.
The ROM ended with an early dinner and an opportunity to take loads of pictures with the guests there. Here are some of the pictures that I found on FB.
Here’s Shorty and me with Yuta and Shintaro, our Japanese friends.
Through Shorty I somehow got to know a number of Japanese friends and quite a number of them flew in from Japan just to attend our wedding. Here’s another of Shorty’s friends from Japan. Ayumi.
I apologized to them for my really bad Japanese when doing the vows but Japanese being polite as always said that my Japanese was good (even though it was obviously really bad).
Here’s Shorty and Angela, her maid of honour.
And here’s a picture with Shorty and me with the bridesmaids and best men. The bridesmaids wore matching outfits with different colours but I just told my best men to wear whatever made them feel comfortable for our ROM.
When the bridesmaids first heard about it… they were like “WHAT?!?!”… but they let us off easy. Here’s another picture of the bridesmaids and their dresses from Mary Julian of  Jipaban.com.
Shorty and I both had awesome bridesmaids and best men. I kinda learned that day how important it is for a bride to have good bridesmaids.
Good bridesmaids understand how a bride’s wedding is the most important day of her life and how nothing else should matter to the bride that day but her. I learned that Ringo was sick the whole weekend but she never once troubled Shorty with it…. and the things Wendy did for Shorty was amazing. Wendy, Ringo, Suet, Bobo, Hui Wen and Angela… you girls have no idea how you all made Shorty so happy that weekend! Now she wants nothing else but to return the favour.
My best men were all awesome too of course! RAWR!!!
When I stood under the sun they stood with me. When I was really hot during the tea ceremony they went as far as to fan me with paper plates. I felt really taken care of that day and I had so much fun with them around. So I guess when you pick your best men or bridesmaids… don’t just pick people you like. Pick your true friends… the ones that you know will understand how important that day is to you and your other half and will know how to make it all about you… for that one day in your life. Because it is those friends that will make your wedding a wonderful one.
And voila everyone… Â that was our wonderful ROM and the start to our wedding weekend. When our wedding photographer comes out with more pictures I’ll make it a point to share the official pictures with you guys. Will also find the time to share a post on our wedding dinner and tea ceremony that happened the next day too. Until then… have a good weekend!
If you didn’t catch the video of our ROM yet. You can see it here.
Thanks to my cousin Michelle Tiah for some of the beautiful pictures she took.
PS: Just before I ended this entry I told Shorty who’s sitting right behind me blogging herself. I said “Our wedding was just beautiful”. She agreed. I wish I could go back to it now.
You can read Shorty’s version here.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space