Singaporebrides | Real Weddings
March 2017
Abigail and Delwin’s Beauty and The Beast Inspired Wedding at JW Marriott Singapore South Beach
Abigail and Delwin’s Beauty and the Beast inspired wedding is every Disney fan’s dream come true!
A love story like Abigail Genevieve Tan, 27, and Delwin Singh’s, 28, is a tale as old as time. The pair of lawyers met when they were in law school at National University of Singapore back in 2009 and found a companion and soulmate in each other. On their 6th year and 9th month anniversary, 11 February 2017, the lovebirds tied the knot in a Beauty and the Beast inspired wedding at JW Marriott Singapore South Beach‘s Grand Ballroom, taking their guests on a magical ride.
What do you love most about each other?
Abigail: Quite apart from the fact that Delwin is an amazing guy – intelligent, charming, diligent and really good at housework, Delwin truly loves me. Love is not just about butterflies in your stomach or about big romantic gestures. Love is a choice. We didn’t fall in love with each other. We walked into love together, with our eyes wide open choosing to take each other’s hands every step along the way. As Shakespeare once wrote “Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds or bends with the remover to remove”. Over the past six years and nine months together, Delwin has been everything to me – my partner, my confidante, my best friend and my soul mate.
Delwin: I am often amazed at Abigail’s capacity to care. In the years we have been together, I have been the main beneficiary of this trait; I have lost count of the number of times I have been nagged by Abigail for failing to take care of myself. The little things she does to show she cares mean the world to me – in fact I still have the basket that contained the care package she sent me in NYU when she heard I was ill!
She has also always been my one-woman cheerleading squad who is always on hand to hear me out and to point out the silver lining in any circumstance. It is easy to be there during the best of times but she has remarkably always been there for me during the worst of times.
Tell us about your proposal.
Abigail: It was a very romantic proposal. Delwin proposed to me on our 5th year anniversary in Bali. He booked the entire restaurant in Uluwatu and hired a photographer to take our engagement photos on the pretense that it was just part of our 5th year anniversary celebrations – it was not out of character so I did not suspect that something was up. He even arranged for fireworks to go off when I said “yes”.
What was your wedding planning journey like?
It was a very exciting yet at times tedious journey over the close-to-two years we spent planning the wedding. The entire process was a lot easier because of Emmalyne and her team from The Wedding Entourage. Emmalyne is a godsend. We wouldn’t have even known where to start or what to look for if not for her. Any challenge that we faced, Emmalyne helped us to overcome by giving alternative suggestions or by trying to work with and explain to the vendors what we wanted.
You had a Beauty and the Beast themed wedding! What made you decide on that particular Disney theme?
Abigail: I’ve always loved Disney. My family used to take trips to Disneyland and Disneyworld since I was a child. I’ve been to Disneyworld in Florida twice, Disneyland in California also twice and Disneyland in Hong Kong countless times. I’ve watched every single Disney princess movie and out of all the Disney princesses, my favourite is Belle. Whilst she may not be as independent or as brave as the newer Disney princesses, like Merida from Brave, out of all the Disney princesses that were around in the ’90s while I was growing up, Belle stood out. Unlike the other princesses, Belle had a mind of her own – she was articulate, stubborn, intelligent and tenacious. She didn’t fall in love with the usual Prince Charming, falling for appearances that never last whilst barely knowing the love interest. Instead, she fell in love with inner beauty and this mirrors how I see love.
Delwin: Abigail wanted it and I wisely agreed. Happy wife, happy life! On a more serious note, I fell in love with all things Disney after Abigail and I planned a trip to Disneyworld in Florida where we stayed in the park for 10 days and I was very happy to incorporate Disney elements in the wedding.
How did you go about creating it?
Emmalyne, our fairy godmother, granted our wishes and created it. We knew exactly what we wanted – the staircase, the yellow dress, the candelabras and the flowers. But we didn’t know how to put them together. Emmalyne and Chelsea made us do up a love story questionnaire and thereafter created a mood board and ran through various themes / ideas with us until we found the perfect fit. We just had to tell them what we wanted and, ta-da, Emmalyne and Chelsea magically made it happen.
We really loved the South Beach LED screen which allowed us to put up images that we liked to create a 3D effect in the ballroom. However, we didn’t know where to go about finding the images or what specifically could be done with the LED screen. Coincidentally, the Beauty and Beast movie poster came out just around the time of our wedding and we could use the rose image from the poster as the backdrop when the guests first walked in. We spent many hours pouring over images from Shutterstock before we found the ideal photos to create the mood we wanted. We then worked closely with The Wedding Entourage team to match the amazing lighting in the South Beach ballroom with each of the photos.
The process to create the wedding dresses was a long one – it took us about nine months to design the dresses from scratch. Both the white gown and the yellow evening dress were custom made by Miah from Amanda Lee Weddings. Emmalyne, Chelsea and the bridesmaids provided us with many images for inspiration and we created a mood board of samples. Thereafter, we sat down with Miah to discuss what could be done and what he thought would suit Abigail. The white dress was easily done because Abigail always wanted a long ball gown with off-shoulder sleeves and a sweetheart neckline. The yellow dress took a bit of work. When Abigail first tried on another yellow dress from Amanda Lee, we were both rather apprehensive as not everyone can pull off a yellow gown. Miah did a great job by pairing a silver glittery lace bodice with the yellow skirt and having the lace trickling down to the yellow skirt such that it flows organically.
Emmalyne worked very well with Boenga to create the perfect ballroom scene. We just had to tell her what we wanted and she waved her wand and magic happened. Emmalyne and Boenga did a wonderful job with the flowers and the décor.
What was your wedding day like?
It was perfect. Emmalyne and her team as well as our bridal party did a wonderful job on the day itself. Everything flew by super-fast and some parts are still a blur. We had a church wedding at the Church of the Sacred Heart and thereafter, we had the tea ceremony at the reception area in the church. We left for South Beach shortly after. We had about an hour’s rest to eat and freshen up before the makeup artist, Joey Chan, arrived to do Abigail’s evening makeup and hairdo. Thereafter, we went to mingle with our guests during the cocktail reception before the dinner began.
Our family and friends loved it. They loved the food and they felt that the entire wedding was beautiful – they felt as if they had been transported into a Disney fairytale. Many of our guests were amazed at how seamlessly the décor and the entertainment gelled together to create the theme we were looking for.
Share with us a memorable moment from your wedding.
Saying our vows in church before God, family and friends, the exchanging of our rings and walking down the aisle in church and walking in as husband and wife in JW Marriott Singapore South Beach were some of the memorable moments from our wedding day that we hold dear.
If you could share three tips with couples planning their wedding, what would it be?
First, it is a partnership – it should not land on either party to be entirely responsible for planning the wedding. Both parties should do it together. Whenever either one of us was busy at work, the other person would take over. We worked as one; there was no “this is your job, not mine” mentality in the entire wedding process.
Secondly, spend within your means – we did not borrow money or spend with the hopes of recovering our expenditure from the red packets from our guests. We spent what we had and we did not run our bank accounts dry either. Be familiar with each other’s likes and dislikes. We did not run into many serious difficulties because we had already been together for close to seven years and knew what each other liked and disliked. This resulted in there being fewer instances of conflicting opinions/ideas.
Lastly, hire a wedding planner! It was the best investment ever; money well spent – get an Emmalyne – she’s amazing (what would we do without her?). Also, engage a good photographer – it is only when you are looking through the photos that you really appreciate what is going on and photos are a good way to capture life’s important moments – Melvin and his team are really skilled and we were very impressed with the end product.
The Venue: Church of the Sacred Heart / JW Marriott Hotel Singapore South Beach
The Size of Wedding: Approximately 200 Guests (Church Solemnisation) / Approximately 300 Guests (Dinner)
The Cost of Wedding: $140,000
The Photographer: Melvin from Multifolds Productions
The Videographer: Rainer and Glenn from Multifolds Productions
The Wedding Gown: Amanda Lee Weddings
The Wedding Shoes: Zalora
The Groom’s Suit: Amanda Lee Weddings
The Groom’s Shoes: Aldo
The Wedding Bands: JannPaul
The Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Thread Theory
The Groomsmen’s Suits: Groomsmen’s own and Shirts from BHG
The Flower Girls’ Dresses: BloomB
The Page Boys’ Suits: Page Boys’ Own and Shirts from BHG & H&M
Hair and Makeup: Joey Chan
The Wedding Florist: Boenga
The Wedding Planner: Emmalyne from The Wedding Entourage
The Roving Instant Photographer: Al Tan from LiveMoments
The Wedding Invitation and Stationery: Emmalyne from The Wedding Entourage
The Wedding Favours: Dreamweavers
The Wedding Band: High Notes (Summertimes Sevens) with Mathilda De Silva and Jack & Rai
The Solemniser: Monsignor Ambrose Vaz
The Wedding Car: Jaguar XLJ
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