Love in Animation

First impressions aren’t always accurate – just ask Bernice Yap, 27, Engineer. When she first met her husband, Wong Keng Woon, 39, Engineer, her impression of him was less than perfect. His proposal to her one Christmas, however, was – even if she was freezing while he proposed. Based in the United Kingdom then, Bernice and Keng Woon had to tackle the challenge of planning a long-distance wedding in Singapore. While it wasn’t an easy journey, this couple got through it together hand-in-hand. Be inspired by Bernice and Keng Woon’s story and learn what made their big day truly special on 8 December 2012.

How did the two of you meet?

Bernice: I first met Keng Woon during a meet-up with our university course mates at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf café at Boat Quay. We barely exchanged words as he was busying playing with his PDA and that didn’t leave me with a good impression of him, even though I did think he was good looking!

What was the proposal like?

Bernice: Keng Woon proposed to me during our Christmas holiday in Paris. I wanted to hide from the freezing cold in a café with a hot cup of drink but he brought me to the area in front of the Eiffel Tower and started taking photographs of me and the tower behind. When I saw his hands reaching into his pockets, I knew straightaway he was trying to propose!

Walk us through the planning for your wedding.

Bernice: Our wedding preparation began 2 years before the actual day. As we were both stationed in the United Kingdom back then, our wedding preparation was a challenging process of long distance phone calls, e-mails and even bank transfers to confirm our banquet and wedding vendors. When Keng Woon was transferred to Hong Kong a year before our wedding, I had to complete most of the planning myself. It was hectic yet fun at the same time and I felt a sense of satisfaction at the end of the day.

Keng Woon: We decided not to have a theme for our wedding and placed the focus on our guests’ enjoyment of the evening’s entertainment and food.

Tell us more about the wedding animation shown during your wedding.

Keng Woon: We first came across a wedding animation during one of our friend’s wedding and thought it was a great idea as it allowed the family members and wedding guests to know more about the couple. We chose to work with BlackcurrantWorkz for the animation as we were impressed with their works. We had a difficult time deciding on the content of the animation because we didn’t want the usual “How we got together” story. In the end, we decided to share with our family and friends some of the funny incidents that happened during our stay in the United Kingdom.

How about the actual day? How did that turn out?

Bernice: It wasn’t as nerve wrecking as we thought it’d be. Our group of friends was very hands-on and that allowed us to get through the entire day quite smoothly. Of course, no wedding is complete without a hiccup or two. Half an hour after our guests arrived and were seated, I paid the reception a visit only to realise that the guest list on the table wasn’t the latest version! One of my sisters quickly retrieved the latest copy of the guest list from the hotel room and informed each and every guest of the change immediately. To this day, I am still very grateful for her help that day.

Keng Woon: We also had the best team of banquet manager, photographer, videographer and coordinator, which made the entire wedding a very successful one. We even had the energy to go through our wedding ang pows that very same night!

We’re sure your family and friends had only good things to say about your wedding.

Keng Woon: The wedding animation was the highlight of the evening. Everyone had a good laugh and insisted we upload the film on Facebook so that they could rewatch it again! Our guests also had a good time at the instant photo booth, which we also engaged BlackcurrantWorkz for. Everyone also raved about the food served by Peach Garden!

On a special day as such, we’re sure there’re plenty of special and memorable moments for you both. Tell us one such moment.

Bernice: The yum-seng session was a very special moment for both of us. All our family members and close friends joined us on stage and we could see a huge smile on all the faces in the banquet room – that’s when we knew all the hard work we’d put in for the past year was well worth it!