Singaporebrides | Fine Dining
May 2018
Amanda and Eugene’s Vintage Wedding at Masons at Gillman Barracks
On 4 February 2017, Amanda married the love of her life in a beautiful, intimate celebration at Masons at Gillman Barracks.
Newlyweds Amanda Goh, 31, and Eugene Ang, 32, met each other through an online dating application. Despite being introverts, they hit it off right from the start and soon became smitten with each other. After a surprise proposal at East Coast Park, Amanda and Eugene embarked on their wedding planning. They decided to keep things simple and intimate for their once-in-a-lifetime and chose a theme and venue that they and their guests can relate to and enjoy. Read more about Amanda’s surprise proposal and their beautiful wedding at Masons at Gillman Barracks below!
What drew you to each other? What is it about your partner that you love the most?
Amanda: I’m not one who opens up easily when I meet new people, but Eugene was able to make me feel at ease even though we had just met. As I got to know him better, I felt increasingly convinced that he has the characteristics and values that I desire in my life partner. I love how he always puts my needs before his and makes me laugh so much!
Eugene: Her beauty (of course!). I am an introvert too, but her honesty and transparency during our online conversations helped me understand her better. I found it easy to chat and open up to her. Initially, I was afraid that we would run out of conversation topics quickly, but we still have so much to talk about until today! She is patient with me and gives me the space I need to grow as a person.
What was the proposal like?
Eugene: I knew that Amanda would appreciate an intimate proposal, so it was a one man show! I picked her up from the airport when she was returning from a work trip. Prior to this trip, we had been designing the engagement ring together with a jeweler. During the drive home, I told her that I had gotten some pictures from our jeweler of the semi-completed ring. While she was looking at the pictures on my iPad mini, I pulled up into an empty car park along East Coast Park. After putting on some romantic music, I quickly rushed to the boot to put on a jacket and grab the flowers (plus the ring of course)! The last photo on my iPad directed her to an Instagram account (@hopefully.surprised) where she would find a photo collage of me asking her to marry me!
Amanda: It was such a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t even aware that the customised ring was ready!
What was your wedding planning journey like? Did you face any challenges and if so, how did you overcome it?
Amanda: The whole journey was pretty fuss-free as we were not faced with much traditional or family-related expectations, which allowed us freedom in decision-making. We started with identifying our wedding date, followed by visiting restaurants that we had shortlisted as we were aware that many popular venues require much advanced reservations for events. We gave ourselves about a year to plan the wedding. I was determined from the beginning to minimise unnecessary stress close to our big day, so I started on most areas of planning and preparation early. It was fun spending our weekends looking for wedding inspiration or meeting up with vendors.
Eugene: It really helped that Amanda and I share quite similar ideas of what we wanted in our wedding day celebration. These included an intimate wedding celebration with no hotels or “gate-crashing”, and a vintage wedding car. Having a clear vision of what we wanted, we limited our search for each category of vendors to avoid confusing ourselves with too many choices.
We wanted to personalise our wedding as much as possible, so we were very hands-on in the preparations. We enjoyed being able to design Amanda’s evening dress, our invitation card and program leaflet, wedding website and logo, wedding favours, as well as our flower girl’s flower bucket!
Where was your wedding venue and what was your wedding theme?
Our wedding was held at Masons at Gillman Barracks. We both love the old world charm of the place, especially its black and white architecture. The restaurant fit our idea of having an intimate wedding of 120 guests indoors while also having an outdoor venue for our solemnisation. It was a bonus that parking for guests was free and abundant.
We actually did not have a specific theme. Our wedding décor and set-up was based on ideas that we ourselves loved, and also our wish for our guests to really enjoy the whole experience too.
The engagement ring that we designed has a beautiful yellow sapphire at the center, so this inspired the pops of yellow flowers in our décor. When we found the surf blue vintage Mini Cooper for our wedding car, we also decided to incorporate blues into the overall colour theme. Both of us love green, so that was a colour that we used too!
Our liking for the vintage feel was achieved by having “used” items like tea and biscuit tins in our floral arrangements, and using a wooden propeller that we found in a vintage shop overseas as our “guestbook”.
Take us back to your wedding day. What was the day like and how were you feeling?
We had a relaxing morning before the arrival of the make-up artists. As the evening solemnisation ceremony approached, there were dark clouds (it poured!) and bumps along the road (driver got lost), but we thank God that everything fell into place and the skies cleared just in time for our outdoor solemnisation. The usual jitters settled once we arrived at Masons, greeted by our family and close friends, and the beautiful set-up!
Our family and friends loved the set-up and relaxed ambience of the wedding. We received many compliments about our floral arrangement and table setting. The long table seating arrangement was great as it facilitated easy interaction between groups who attended our wedding.
What was the most memorable moment of your wedding?
It was love at first sight when we arrived and saw the décor and set-up done by our helpers and florist. Everything was as we envisioned and more!
Amanda: Leading up to the wedding, I would jokingly pester Eugene to sing during the wedding because he has a great voice. I believed him mostly, as he flatly rejected the idea each time I asked and I know he dislikes being in the limelight. While I was not 100% surprised when he did perform, I was deeply touched by his courage and willingness to step out of his comfort zone to make our day even more memorable.
Eugene: For me, there were two particular moments. First when my mother-in-law handed Amanda’s hand to me and told me to take care of her; second was when I did a story and song session to Amanda in front of the guests. I was afraid I would sing out of tune which would have ruined dinner!
What is one lesson you’ve learned from your wedding planning that you’d like to share with other couples?
There is no need to choose the most popular or expensive vendor/service. We found we got the most satisfactory outcome with our vendors chosen based on the level of comfort and connection we felt with them from initial discussions.
The Size of Wedding: 120 guests
Cost of Wedding: $38,000
The Venue: Masons at Gillman Barracks
The Photographer: Yuili and Wei Zhen from Synchronal Photography
The Wedding Gown: The Gown Warehouse (wedding gown), La Vita Brides (evening dress)
The Wedding Shoes: Staccato
The Groom’s Suit: Sze Sze Tailored Suits
The Groom’s Shoes: Passporte
The Engagement Ring: Poh Kim Jewellery Trading
The Wedding Bands: MXGX (Moxi and Guanxian)
The Flower Girls’ Dresses: Tom and Stephanie
The Hair and Makeup Artist: Jennifer from IHEARTBLOOMS
The Florist: Leli from Twig and Twine
The Wedding Planner: Bride and Groom
The Wedding Invitations and Stationery: Bride & Groom’s design, printed at Tabprint
The Wedding Favours: Lemon and Rosemary (provided by florist)
The Wedding Band: Cartier Love Series
The Wedding Car: Minibug Vintage Wedding Car
The Solemniser: Pastor William Wong
Wedding Resource: SingaporeBrides
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