Singaporebrides | Photography
May 2016
Belinda and Roland’s Elegant Wedding at InterContinental Singapore
Belinda and Roland celebrated their 10th anniversary by tying the knot at the beautiful InterContinental Singapore.
Junior College sweethearts Belinda Foo, 29, Senior Financial Analyst, and Roland Tan’s, 29, Banking Associate, love story is the stuff romantic dramas are made of. The pair first met at Victoria Junior College and as if Fate was determined to keep them together, they became classmates, got assigned to the same Project Work group and went on an Overseas Community Involvement Trip together, took the same bus home and were one of the few who took the SMU Management Accounting course. Now, a decade after the pair became a couple, they celebrated their 10th anniversary with a beautiful wedding at the stately InterContinental Singapore on 15 November 2015 with plenty of handmade elements, beautifully captured by Alwin Lim from Trouvé.
What was the proposal like?
After our dinner at Privé Cafe, he suggested a stroll along the bay area and as we were just talking randomly, he suddenly knelt down and proposed. I was totally shocked and tears just started flowing (I don’t even know why!). The funny thing was, he couldn’t really kneel down properly because we had gone wakeboarding that morning and he had accidentally injured his knee. So, as soon as he asked “Will you marry me?”, he said “Eh say yes leh, my knee is very painful!”.
It was a simple and quiet affair between the two of us along Keppel Bay. I was unsuspecting when he came to pick me up and there was a bouquet of flowers on the front seat. It was very unusual of him to do any kind of surprises because he’s the practical type of guy who doesn’t do romance, unless absolutely necessary or when I nag at him to. So, he came up with some lame excuse that it was our 3500th day together, and I naively believed him (as I was too lazy to validate).
Tell us about your wedding planning.
Wedding planning took us about a year, from the time we booked the hotel venue. I was very insistent on Intercontinental Hotel as my venue because of the vintage colonial feel of the hotel and of course, their lovely ballroom. It was an easy decision as we weren’t that particular about dates, so we just selected the date that worked best based on our work schedules and it turned out pretty neat – 15 11 15. After a little research, we also quickly nailed down our wedding photographer, videographer and make-up artist. So, really the bulk of our time was spent on the nitty-gritty.
I am a huge fan of DIY and I was adamant about infusing as many DIY elements into our wedding as possible, because I want to make it personalised and meaningful, not just for ourselves, but also for our guests. At the same time, I didn’t want to spend too much money unnecessarily so I tried to make most of it myself. For instance, I made wrist corsages for my bridesmaids and we did our own “Save The Date” photoshoot in his room. I also made the props used in our photoshoots and actual day photo booth, and sourced for the photo booth’s backdrop no Carousell because I wanted a black and white striped background. We also DIY-ed the reception décor, including the program booklet, wedding guest book and ang bao box among other things. Out of all the things we DIY-ed for the wedding, the most time consuming and possibly the craziest project was the 250 tile coasters we handmade as wedding favours for our guests. Each tile coaster depicts a photo of us at a place which we have visited together in the past decade.
How was it like? Did you meet with any challenges along the way?
There were stressful moments during our wedding planning too, like when our original solemniser rejected us one month before our wedding (despite confirming with her 10 months prior), but luckily, we managed to find another one. Roland and I often got into arguments over the wedding, fully exemplifying our differences in personalities and styles – I’m always over-ambitious and trying to do too many things at the same time, while he’s cool and easy, and prefers simplicity. Over time, we learned the skill to talk things through and come to a compromise calmly and amicably.
As in most weddings, the bride usually calls the shots and it was no different for ours. But I’m thankful for a supportive husband who often gives in to my whims and fancies, but at the same time, keeps me grounded with logic and practicality whenever I go off-track. I guess that’s how we complement each other.
Was there a wedding theme? If so, tell us more about your theme.
As 2015 was our 10th year anniversary, we centered everything upon a “celebration” theme, specifically using the hashtag “#RBcelebrates10”. The theme manifested itself in many aspects, for instance, the opening video showcased our 10-year journey from the time we met in school, to our days in SMU, working in Hong Kong and finally getting married. We DIY-ed a program booklet that featured a crossword puzzle with 10 questions about him, myself and us. The tile coasters had 10 different designs, each depicting a place that we’ve visited together in the past decade. We wanted our guests to be part of this celebration and so after the cake cutting ceremony, we shared the red velvet cupcakes with all our guests and they all loved it!
How was the actual day like? Did things run smoothly? How were you feeling?
The wedding preparation up until the day before the wedding had been fun, hectic and somewhat stressful. I didn’t get to bed until midnight and had to wake up at 4am for my make-up. Surprisingly, I was calm and relaxed on the actual day and left it to the bridal party to run the show. I was genuinely enjoying myself, relishing every joyous moment. There were some things that didn’t go as planned (like the groom’s party was delayed because the bridal car came late), but we adjusted our plans accordingly and made up for lost time here and there.
The wedding ran smoothly, and we didn’t have to worry about a single thing. Admittedly, we had planned meticulously and divided responsibilities among the groomsmen and bridesmaids well enough, such that everyone had something but not too much to do. We didn’t give ourselves unnecessary stress because we knew things would not go exactly the way we wanted and we’re okay with slight hiccups. But kudos to our bridal party, it turned out perfect!
The only nerve-wrecking part was when I sang a song to my husband on stage. I forgot the lyrics 30 seconds into the song, and had to restart all over again. Thankfully, the crowd was forgiving and cheered me on and I managed to finish the performance, albeit a little too fast that my guitar accompaniment had a hard time keeping up!
What did your family and friends have to say about your wedding?
It was heartening to know that everyone had fun, and many guests told us it was a heartwarming, personalised and entertaining wedding, which was really what we had hoped for. A wedding that is memorable not just for ourselves, but for our closest family and friends whom we want to share this special day with.
Were there any particular moments during your wedding that were especially memorable or special to you?
Even though we did a lot of planning for the wedding, we value spontaneity especially when it came to the actual day. So, we had no idea what our emcees, Best Man or Maid of Honour had in store for us. Our emcees surprised us with a game, where Roland was blindfolded and they got folks from the audience and myself up on stage. Roland’s task was to identify me among these people, by only touching and feeling our hands while being blindfolded. I was very skeptical and was like ‘OMG’ when my sister was also called on stage. The emcees also invited our friend’s daughter who’s just a toddler to play the game. Ultimately, Roland got it right, but the process was hilarious. There was so much fun and laughter, though at the expense of my husband who felt very embarrassed!
Our speeches took much longer than expected, because we really wanted to give our heartfelt thanks to everyone who made time to attend our wedding. We were very touched that our friends and ex-colleagues from Hong Kong flew down specially for our wedding. The other memorable thing was that our wedding date was coincidentally my friend’s birthday, and I had promised to sing her a birthday song at my wedding, and so I did, with her picture on the slideshow!
I’m so thankful that the wedding panned out so well, far better than we had ever expected. We focused on the things that really mattered to us, spent within our budget and we had a blast! I guess we didn’t have an ideal wedding in mind before, but now we have, and we will treasure these memories for the rest of our lives.
Size of Wedding: 230 pax
Cost of Wedding: Approximately $50,000
The Venue: InterContinental Singapore
The Wedding Gown: Digio Bridal
The Wedding Shoes: Forever New
The Groom’s Suit: Digio Bridal
The Groom’s Shoes: Rockport
The Wedding Bands: eClarity
The Hair and Makeup: Cleo Chang
The Wedding Cake: Annie Goh from Les Cupcakes
The Wedding Favours: Handmade by the bride
The Pre-Wedding Photographer: My Dream Wedding Hong Kong (Hong Kong), Lay Khim (SMU) and Alwin Lim from Trouvé (VJC)
The Wedding Photographer: Alwin Lim from Trouvé
The Wedding Videographer: Meow and Why Keen from Ichiro Films
Wedding Planning: SingaporeBrides
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