Singaporebrides | Real Weddings
December 2020
Janice and Gerald’s Magical Harry Potter Wedding in Orchidville
Janice and Gerald transfigured Orchidville into a magical world for their Harry Potter wedding, where fantastical beasts frolicked, the Marauder’s Map served as escort cards, and The Daily Prophet had the exclusive on their love story.
The Daily Prophet had the exclusive on Janice and Gerald’s magical Harry Potter wedding, but the rest of us Muggles can catch up here! Janice Lin, 31, Creative Group Head, and Gerald Song, 31, Account Manager grew up dreaming about the wizarding world, and when they got married on 2 November 2019, they turned witch and wizard for a wonderful day in an amazing Harry Potter wedding! The creative couple transfigured their wedding venue Orchidville into Hogwarts, where fantastical beasts frolicked, the Marauder’s Map served as escort cards, and the bride and groom wore bowtruckles and carried mandrakes down an aisle lit up with Auror wands.
How did your magical story begin?
Gerald: We were classmates in polytechnic and we fell in love because of reading. Janice lent me a book, Tuesdays with Morrie, which I didn’t want to return to her. She kept bugging me to return it and that was how our story started.
What do you love most about your partner?
Janice: I love his good temperament and how he never fails to make me laugh. He makes me feel comfortable being my weird self and I enjoy all of our stupid banter.
Gerald: Janice and I have always been on the different ends of the personality spectrum. Even though I’m the more outgoing one, she’s way more adventurous. Every day since we met, it’s been a non-stop discovery of her personality (she made me hike for two days in Myanmar).
What was the proposal like?
Gerald: We went to a faraway island in Indonesia, Pulo Cinta, which literally means the island of love. It took us 10 hours to get there from Singapore. We stayed in a villa built on stilts over the crystal clear ocean with a panoramic view of the horizon. We sat on the sun deck one night, dangling our feet over the ocean and gazing up at the moon and stars while sipping wine. I proposed to Janice, and she puked her heart out because of an overdose of romance and wine.
Tell us how you created your magical Harry Potter wedding!
Both of us grew up dreaming about being part of the wizarding world as we read and watched Harry Potter. But what made us set our minds on the theme was when we decided to re-watch Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them one day. Newt Scamander’s world was everything we had dreamed of, our love for magic and animals combined.
We had initially wanted to hold our wedding at the Singapore Zoo, but due to space constraints, we had to look elsewhere. That was when we found Orchidville. It had everything we wanted, a spacious forest-like ballroom with whimsical lighting, located away from the hustle and bustle of city life, and set in a vegetable farm where our guests were served farm-to-table dishes and even got to bring home fresh organic vegetables as our wedding favours to them.
Our wedding invite was designed by Janice to look like a page taken out from Newt Scamander’s journal, complete with a hand-drawn map that transformed Orchidville into Hogwarts surrounded by a vegetable farm.
Our wedding photos were taken by Janice’s sister, Zoe, when we went on a trip together to Sri Lanka. Janice took some of these photos and manipulated them, bringing Newt Scamander’s world into ours. Because of our love for all things Harry Potter, we already had a big Harry Potter collection which we used for the decorations at our reception and photos display tables.
Instead of bouquets, Janice handmade mandrakes for herself and her bridesmaids to carry down the aisle; instead of boutonnieres, she handmade bowtruckles for Gerald, her dad, and Gerald’s groomsmen—all moulded from polymer clay and hand-painted, with artificial leaves added.
Did your guests enjoy travelling into the wizarding world?
Knowing how boring wedding banquets can get, we tried to keep our guests entertained with our own version of The Daily Prophet which featured our story on one side and on the other side, “advertisements” of our friends and families. On top of that, we also created activity cards where guests had to answer a few questions and draw their idea of a magical world surrounding us, which we got to keep at the end of the night. All these were also designed by Janice herself. The table menus’ cover was a spoof of the Marauder’s Map where we added a footnote on the front that says, “I solemnly swear that I’m about to get food” and a note behind it that says “Mischief managed”. We also scattered disposal analogue cameras across the room so we could see our wedding through the eyes of our family and friends.
Our march-in was a spoof of a military wedding, where instead of a saber arch, we had a wand arch where we got our bridesmaids and groomsmen to dress like Aurors from the Ministry of Magic. With Hegwig’s Theme playing in the background, the Aurors marched in before us, wands in hand; once they were in their positions, they lifted their wands to form an arch. Our emcee then whispered, “Lumos” into the microphone, the lights on their wands came on, and that’s when the both of us entered. Their wands were lowered as we passed through.
What was your wedding day like?
There was actually a lot of planning involved because we timed everything for the march-in. We had to have a video of Dumbledore saying, “Let the feast begin,” followed by the servers serving the food and the light changing to give the magical effect. Luckily for us, most of the burden was thrown to the bridesmaids and the groomsmen for the on-day coordination. It may seem a little over the top but we wanted to create a magical journey, not only for us but for all our guests.
We knew we had no time to interact with all our guests, so we had a life-sized standee made for our guests who wanted to take a photo with “us”. Because the location was a little out of the way, we had to plan for transport for all our guests.
What was the most memorable moment of your Harry Potter wedding?
Gerald: For me, it was the after party, where everyone let loose and started singing their hearts out.
Janice: For me, the most memorable moment was our march-in when everyone was so busy taking videos with their phones that Gerald had to start clapping for us as we walked. Everyone laughed and started clapping too.
The Size of the Wedding: 300 guests
The Cost of the Wedding: $54k
The Venue: Orchidville
The Wedding Day Photographer: Click! Photography
The Gown: Taobao for solemnisation gown // Etsy for evening gown // Carousell for tea ceremony kua
The Bride’s Shoes: Vans in the morning // Red Wings in the evening
The Suit: Jesse & Sons
The Groom’s Shoes: Vans in the morning // Red Wings in the evening
The Engagement Ring: Custom jeweller
The Wedding Bands: Stale & Co.
The Bridesmaids’ Dresses: From everywhere
The Groomsmen’s Suits: Customade Costume
The Hairstylist and Makeup Artist: Arly Co.
The Wedding Cake: Pure Pandan, decorated by couple’s friend Aisyah Chong
The Florist: Bouquet by bride’s mom and Orchidville floral décor arranged by friends and staff, with flowers bought from Far East Flora
The Pre-Wedding Photographer: Zoe Lin, bride’s sister
The Videographer: Abide
The Photobooth: Selfiprint
The Wedding Invitations and Stationery: Designed by bride, printed by a supplier in China
The Wedding Favours: Organic vegetables from Orchidville
The Solemniser: Mr. Lee Ka But
The Party Bus for Afterparty: A&S Transportation
Credits: Images by Click! Photography
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