Singaporebrides | Real Weddings

August 2014

The Greatest Adventure of John and Sher

By Tansey Tang

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This incredibly heartwarming and personable couple went on a series of adventures all over the world together, culminating in their wedding celebrations in four different countries that were close to their hearts.

John Lee, Doctor, and Sher Quek, Doctor, celebrated their union on 8 February 2014 in four different countries to be with all of the family and friends they loved. Let the charming couple take you on their greatest adventure in these utterly breathtaking shots. From their gorgeous Phuket wedding venue, to the creative theme and fantastic décor details in their Singapore wedding, John and Sher’s union will inspire your own celebrations.

Tell us about yourselves. How did your adventures begin?

Sher: I am from a little town called Klang whereas John hails from sunny Singapore. We both studied medicine in Johor Bahru and after we graduated, we relocated to Melbourne for work. Like all nerdy medical people, we met in the library. I was literally hiding at the back of the library and John rocked up from nowhere and struck up a conversation.

I had heard of John before from mutual friends but always thought he was an arrogant Singaporean. After speaking to him for the first time, I found myself very attracted to this humble and charismatic Singaporean and little did I know it was mutual. John then returned every day to chat with me and we soon changed our stranger status to lovers!

John: We went everywhere on Jamie, my vintage Vespa. We would ride around Johor Bahru and dated in various places at Singapore. Our first movie date was the cartoon “Up!”. We both loved travelling as well, and we soon found ourselves trekking the globe for both holidays and medical mission work. And that’s how The Adventures of John and Sher began.

How did the leading man bring off his greatest exploit, the proposal?

Sher: Unbeknownst to me, John returned to my little town to ask my parents for my hand in marriage. He secretly bought the engagement ring in Singapore and planned for a three-staged surprise proposal. The proposal took place in a quaint little town called Trafalgar where I was working for a short stint. John had specially picked 23 November 2012 as the proposal date because it would have marked 3 years since we started dating.

I was away for a day course and when I was about to return to Trafalgar, I was shocked to see a whole bunch of balloons hanging on my car with a little card that stated “Come back to Trafalgar for a bigger surprise!” Of course, I then drove back to my cottage only to be surprised further with a diamond ring and the biggest question which would change my life. The best part of the surprise was, John had never been to my little cottage at Trafalgar, so he actually went to my neighbour’s house to propose! My neighbours thought he was on his first date with me because he looked so nervous!

The second part of the surprise was a celebratory dinner and stay at Balgownie Estate where we were greatly defeated by the delicious food! When I had thought my proposal adventure was over, John then surprised me with a sunrise on a hot air balloon over the Yarra Valley.

Aww, that sounds like a scene from a novel. How did you decide to continue the adventures in a destination wedding in Phuket?

Sher: Since I am from Malaysia and John is from Singapore, and we both work in Melbourne, we figured all of our family and friends would have to fly to a country. So we thought, why not have a destination wedding? After all, it would be another adventure for us!

We decided on the beautiful island of Phuket simply because we fell in love with the Miracle Lawn at Paresa Resort. I stumbled across a photo on Google of the gorgeous lawn overlooking the Andaman Sea and never looked back since. I then shot out multiple emails to various planners in Phuket and we decided on the amazing Marry Me Thailand.

That’s not the only wedding you had, was it?

John: We actually had four wedding ceremonies – the ROM in Melbourne, a wedding ceremony in Phuket, a wedding reception in Malaysia and a wedding reception in Singapore.

Your destination wedding was definitely beautiful and romantic. What are some of your favourite moments?

Sher: The wedding reception was so magical! We had an open-air dinner, overlooking the Andaman Sea with fairy lights streaming above us. Our wedding emcees, Rayner Tan and Ong Weide were John’s best mates and they sure made the night lively and fun with their Singaporean style.

We played ‘The Shoe Game’ and the very fun kissing game where we would kiss as long as our guests picked up the challenge in doing a dare such as kissing John’s father, dancing with the Maid of Honor and dirty dancing!

We ended the night with our first dance with the ‘Ellie Badge’ soundtrack, singing ‘You and I’ with John playing the ukulele, followed by the grand finale of fireworks!

You must have some stories to tell about the epic wedding planning that required!

Sher: Shocking to most people, I loved every part of the wedding planning! We have been most blessed to have help from family members, friends and Marry Me Thailand and it had made our wedding planning easier! The beauty of destination weddings at Phuket is that the wedding comes in a package – all you have to do is choose what you like and take out the others that are not suitable. We enjoyed venue hunting, the stress of choosing flowers we have never seen, trusting our planners with their extensive knowledge about the island, booking the flights and accommodation.

The most difficult thing was planning the transportation and logistics of the wedding. I took charge of this and was planning this till the very morning of the wedding! I was then acknowledged as the ‘Queen of Whatsapp Groups’ and have the record of the most number of groups until I was blocked from creating more.

The easiest thing was that I was planning this wedding with John. He was the world’s calmest groom and nothing stressed him out. John kept a very big picture of the wedding whereas I focused on the details. He handled finance and payments, our guests’ flights and accommodation and our itinerary. He constantly reminded me that our love can pull us through everything!

The end result was a beautiful wedding in which we both thoroughly enjoyed and we wouldn’t have had it any other way!

The Greatest Adventure ended in Singapore with your final celebrations, didn’t it? Can you tell us about your last wedding?

John: On one of our first dates in Singapore, we had wanted to go to Food For Thought in Bugis. But to our great dismay, the cafe was closed as it was close to midnight. We returned the next day again on our Vespa and to our surprise, the waiter actually remembered us from the night before and offered us a drink on the house! We fell in love with the place immediately and loved the concept of having great food while supporting a great cause. We couldn’t think of a better place to celebrate our Singapore reception other than Food For Thought and chose the new branch at the National Museum of Singapore.

Sher: The girls from In Merry Motion created a space for us where we could walk down memory lane, from when we first met, dated in Malaysia and Singapore on a Vespa to our engagement and marriage. The whole setup was based on “Adventure is out there” and for our guests to celebrate our old and newfound adventures together. We called it “Our Grand Finale”. I almost cried because I was so sad there wouldn’t be anymore wedding celebrations! As our entrance, we rode in on Jamie, the Vespa we dated on and started the night with a piñata containing little pom poms of the infamous Ellie Badge from the cartoon Up. Up was our first date movie and had a lot of significance in our lives. We had One Eye Click again for our photobooth and Yi Ting from One Eye Click as our photographer that day.

The Gown: Corrina from Anna Campbell
The Suit: Jack London
The Boutonnieres: Esther Wong of Mini Bites Malaysia
The Groomsmen’s Suits: Groomsmen’s pants from Jack London
The Bridesmaids’ Dresses: ASOS
The Rings: Wah Chan, Malaysia (On our rings, we engraved each other names so that when we grow old and demented, we will still remember each other.)
The Venue: Paresa Resort, Phuket; Food for Thought, Singapore
The Makeup Artist: Khun Elle
The Hair Stylist: Khun Jam
The Caterer: Paresa Resort, Phuket
The Wedding Cake: Paresa Resort Phuket
The Cake Toppers: Esther Griggs of Pegit Dolls
The Wedding Planner: Marry Me Thailand in Phuket
The Event Stylist: In Merry Motion in Singapore
The Florist: a local florist sourced through Marry Me Thailand in Phuket
The Photographer: Jonathan Ong // Visual Storytelling in Phuket; Yi Ting of One Eye Click in Singapore
The Videographer: Adrian Yap
The Invitations, paper goods and fan: Hsulynn Pang
The Wedding Favours: Self-designed using little glass bottles, stickers from Hsulynn Pang’s design, and marshmallows.
The Celebrant: Pastor Gideon Lee of Tabernacle of Praise Penang, Malaysia
The DJ: Paul Chappell
The Music: Soundtracks from the cartoon Up, jazz music by Michael Buble, Norah Jones and love music by Sara Bareilles, Zee Avi and Jack Johnson. Walk-in song was Rhythm of Love by Plain White Ts
The Transport: Nong and Mano

Credits: Phuket wedding photography by Jonathan Ong // Visual Storytelling. Singapore wedding photography by Yi Ting for One Eye Click.

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