A Perfect Day

The wedding plan was a simple English rhyme: “Something old, something new, Something borrowed, something blue, And a silver sixpence in her shoe.” However, there was nothing simple about Christine Koo, 34, Former Flight Stewardess and Corin Wilson, 36, British Diplomat’s union (they had met on Facebook), which only proves that from sayings as old as Time, modern fairy tales can still be spun. Their wedding took place on 22 May 2010.

So, how did he propose?

Christine: It was 5th Nov 2009, London. Corin got all dressed up in a suit and surprised me by taking me to my favourite musical “The Phantom of the Opera” at Her Majesty’s Theatre, complete with champagne. At the end of the night, we went to his mother’s lovely cottage, outside of London, and he finally proposed! I was in tears.

Tell us about your wedding planning process.

Christine: Our wedding took about six months of long distance planning! Corin is British and was working in Beijing back then, but we decided to hold our wedding at the Raffles Hotel, firstly for the beautiful architecture, and secondly, for their legendary service.

Thanks to my girlfriend Zen’s suggestion to check out the Raffles Hotel, I found out that right outside the East India Room, there was a delightful outdoor setting with an ornate cast iron fountain, dating back to the late 1890s, which stands as the focal point in the middle of the Palm Garden. It was the perfect setting for our sunny outdoor solemnisation ceremony by the fountain, followed by a jazzy cocktail reception leading to a classic Renaissance luncheon. It was perfect!

There wasn’t really a theme, but we wanted a small yet elegant white Renaissance wedding, with family and close friends. We even had Corin’s sister, Anna, design our very own monogram design to be put on our invitation cards and wedding cake that added a really personal touch.

Was it all smooth-running on the wedding day?

Christine: I had a throat infection and totally lost my voice. And it started to rain right before our ROM solemnisation! So we had to move the ceremony indoors to the East India Room. The children started to cry and refused to walk down the aisle; Corin had to run down the aisle to get the wedding rings from our pageboy, Darius.

The hotel staff had to play “Ave Maria” four times before I finally made it down the aisle. So, I was in pain and was dying to get out of my wedding shoes after lunch. When I finally removed them, I realised that I lost the traditional sixpence that Corin had got for me! So in the end, we didn’t have our little romantic moment of exchanging our vows outdoors in front of the beautiful fountain. Looking back now, we wouldn’t have changed a thing. We had a blast!

Are there any memories from your wedding that will always be special to your heart?

Christine: There are so many! As we had guests flying in from overseas for our wedding, we were so worried that Corin’s friends and family could not make it in time as almost all flights from Europe cancelled due to the ash clouds from the Iceland volcano eruption.

We were holding our breaths watching the weather forecast every day, hoping that the skies would clear up. And just like a miracle, the EU airspace suddenly cleared up and just in time, all our guests made it, much to our relief.

After the wedding, we had arranged for an Oysters & Champagne KTV party at K Suites at The Orchard Parade Hotel in the evening to continue with our wedding celebrations. We had catered a buffet of oysters and strawberries, served with champagne. It was over the top, I admit, but we were just glad that everyone made it safe to our wedding.

We had practiced singing “All I ask of you”, a duet from the Phantom of the Opera, hoping to sing it for our guests, but I had completely lost my voice and sounded like Rod Stewart! There were also special moments when Corin & Sam sang “True” and “Through the Barricades” from Spandau Ballet, and I heard my dad sing “My Way” for the first time ever.