Singaporebrides | Photography

April 2015

A Kewei and Alfred Love Duet

By Audrie Soh

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It was a love duet meant to happen when talented songstress, Kewei, and Project Superstar winner, Alfred, met while guest-singing at Peter Huang’s, MICappella‘s present leader and vocal percussionist, EP launch at the Old Parliament House in 2005. Sparks flew during a group dinner and karaoke session, and a quiet romance developed soon after. A decade later, Alfred sweeps her off her feet with an endearing surprise proposal and weds her in a grand and lovely affair at Shangri-La, Singapore. Read about her tear-jerking 3-part proposal and check out their beautiful wedding here!

How did you keep your decade-long relationship under wraps for so long?

Kewei: Our relationship was pre-Facebook, so it never became our habit to update our relationship status or to share our love life online. But, we never hid our status in real life. All our friends knew – it was like an open secret that we didn’t share online.

Alfred: Besides, we weren’t that famous then, anyway! But now that I’ve won Project Superstar, things are a little different.

Share with us what happened at 22 Dempsey some time in May last year. Was it everything you had envisioned it to be?

Kewei: Yes! Alfred planned and executed the perfect proposal – semi-public and surrounded by our family and friends. It was everything a typical Leo girl who has matured over the years could have wanted – public, outrageous, yet meaningful and intimate at the same time.

Here’s how it all went down: Chere Weddings, whom we had engaged for our wedding planning earlier last year, engaged my best friend, EinEin and I to sing at a solemnisation ceremony. Little did I know, they were also our proposal planner, whom Alfred had engaged secretly, and that the solemnisation ceremony we were to sing at was nothing but a guise!

EinEin and I left to chill at a nearby cafe until it was time for us to return. And when we did, a video of Alfred singing and a photo montage of us were playing on a TV screen. When it ended, a black curtain dropped to reveal my family and friends, and Alfred was singing and strumming to my song, So in Love! I was pretty much in shock and crying, while confetti was flying about and poppers were being released. I was then led to a floating stage on the water feature where he went down on one knee while our musician friends continued playing my song!

That was only the first installment of the surprise you had planned for her, wasn’t it? What were the other two parts of the surprise you had planned for her?

Alfred: When we got home after the mini celebration at 22 Dempsey, I revealed to Kewei that we were going to Tokyo that night, as the second part of her surprise. She was more than thrilled and after a quick packing of our luggage, we were on our way to the land of the rising sun. Upon touching down in Narita Airport, she was greeted by her third surprise – an welcome entourage consisting of 3 of our friends who were filming and taking photographs of the whole process!

Her final surprise was a pre-wedding photoshoot around Tokyo city and a 2 day, 1 night road trip to the outskirts of Tokyo to the mountains for an amazing hot-spring and snow experience, recommended by my good friend and mentor, Professor Kobayashi. And to end off our trip, we made a visit to the Disney Sea theme park. It was a great experience, even for me!

That was really sweet of you! How did you plan for it?

Alfred: Thanks! It took me quite a long time to plan this and I had a number of ideas of how to go about orchestrating the public proposal she had always wanted. Together with the help of her sister, best friend and Chere Weddings, we came up with this brilliant idea of faking a wedding request for Kewei to sing at a solemnisation. We worked with 22 Dempsey to prep the venue for the proposal, with sound and lighting sponsored by Bcube, and had Ideally Yours document the whole process. I got some of my musician friends, who were wearing T-shirts that read “Will you marry him?”, to play for the occasion as well.

In preparation for the actual proposal day, I practiced her song with Matthew, who taught me how to play it on guitar. I also engaged Sandra, from Fairy’s Inc., for a customised engagement ring for her. Thanks to Sandra’s hard work of going through Kewei’s Instagram and Facebook photographs to identify her style and what kind of ring she would like, she designed a ring with a main diamond flanked by 8 smaller ones, 1 pink and 1 light blue diamond that matches Kewei’s love for Little Twin Stars.

With such an exciting proposal, I’m sure your actual wedding was even more spectacular! Tell us more about that special day and how you planned for it.

Kewei: Working with Chere Weddings was the best decision we made for our wedding planning! We met them through work several times and were impressed by the well-rounded and attentive service they offer their couples. They were part of our meetings with our wedding vendors shared their input on detailed matters like our colour palette and floral arrangement. They were also involved in the designing of my bridesmaids’ dresses and were in charge of any tailoring amendments required. They were also extremely helpful in recommending vendors such as Diamond Walker, The Shoemaker’s Elf and Amanda Lee Weddings, who customised a beautiful blush mermaid satin gown with geometric lines, for our wedding and worked out sponsorship deals for us, as well as helping with the post-wedding media coverage.

Walk us down memory lane and reminisce your special day with us.

Alfred: Since we were both singers and in the entertainment industry, we thought it’d be fun to have a Gala Awards themed wedding! Together with Ideally Yours, we conceptualised specially produced videos that reflected our wedding theme. One of it was our proposal video with footage of our Tokyo trip last May, and the other was our march-in video, done in black and white, and slow motion, showing us arriving at the ballroom with the paparazzi waiting for our arrival. Our singer and musician friends from Project Superstar, Sparkle Live Music and The Freshman very kindly entertained our guests with their lively performances. Kewei’s sister, Kexin, sang us a song she wrote, accompanied by her father’s Er-hu and flute playing as a surprise performance for us.

Kewei: And what Awards show is complete without the giving out of awards? That day, we awarded our parents with the Lifetime Achievement Award and presented them with personalised trophies and a photo montage of their dating days, weddings and the families they built. Then, we were given the Best Newcomer and Best Video Awards for our proposal video!

That sure sounds fun! Your guests must have enjoyed the day!

Kewei: They did! Many of them remarked that it was the best wedding they had ever attended, which we were elated to hear. They loved the special videos Ideally Yours did for us and enjoyed the performances our friends put up for the day! We just wished we had more time to mingle and speak to each and every of our guests!

Alfred: We were just happy that the joyous celebration was as fun and entertaining for our guests as it was for us! It was just too happening to contain within that few hours, as we didn’t even have the time to go round the tables to take photographs with our guests.

Tay Kewei, 31, Singer-songwriter, & Alfred Sim, 33, Track-and-field coach/Singer
4 January 2015

The Gown: The Prelude Bridal, Amanda Lee Weddings, Caramel & Co.
The Suit: Y2quared
Bride’s Shoes: The Shoemaker’s Elf, Bride and You
Groom’s Shoes: Diamond Walker
Wedding Rings: Michael Trio
Jewellery: Genesis Global
Accessories: Ananda Weddings
Candy Bar Styling: Stitch X Marker
Photobooth: Hello Forever
Wedding Cake: The Sweet Escake
The Venue: Shangri-La, Singapore
The Florist: CC Lee
The Hair and Makeup Artist: Jyue Huey from The Makeup Room
The Photographer: Tinydot Photography
The Videographer: Ideally Yours
Wedding Planner: Chere Weddings & Parties

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