Singaporebrides | Fine Dining
April 2021
Evangeline and Joel’s Ethereal Impressionist Monti Wedding
Evangeline and Joel wed in a beautiful Monti wedding that looked just like a modern Impressionist painting with ethereal florals framing the sparkling marina.
Joel Lim, 33, Cadet Pilot, knew Evangeline Teo, 32, Finance, was special when she became the first girl to out-drink him. The couple looked like they stepped straight out of an Impressionist painting at their stunningly ethereal wedding at Monti at 1-Pavilion on 18 December 2020, where everyone danced in their seats and toasted their love with a Jäger Train.
How did you meet each other?
We met back when we were both cabin crew in Singapore Airlines eight years ago. We were scheduled on the same flight to Dubai and being the two most junior ones on board, we clicked instantly. It was both our first time to Dubai and when no other seniors wanted to head out, we went ahead anyway. Though it was only a short trip, we had fun and enjoyed talking to each other. When we came back to Singapore, we exchanged our numbers!
What made you fall in love with your partner?
Joel: Evangeline was and currently still is the only girl in the world who can out-drink me. On our very first date in Singapore, we went to Wala Wala to listen to my absolute favorite local band, 53A, and between the two of us, we drank two towers of beer and a bunch of ciders. When Wala Wala started to close, Evangeline asked me “Hey, do you want to go to Zouk?” and by the time it was 5am in the morning, Evangeline became the first girl to ever send ME back home. I knew then that this girl was special.
I fell in love with her over the years because I realised that she loved me in ways I did not know possible. She taught me how to love my family, my friends, and myself, and I became a much better person as a result of just being around her. Evangeline brings out the best in me and I cannot imagine the person I would be without her.
Evangeline: Joel and I have been together for eight years and he has always been my cheerleader and pillar of strength. When I feel down, he always knows the right words to say and he will crack the silliest joke to make me laugh. He is patient and loving, and gives really good leg massages when I’ve had a tiring day out at work. I am really lucky to have Joel in my life and I’m thankful every day to have him by my side.
What was the proposal like?
Joel: I booked a suite at W Singapore – Sentosa Cove to surprise Evangeline. I got my family and friends to set up the place with pictures and balloons while I took Evangeline out for dinner under the guise of it being our anniversary celebration. Once the set up was ready and with Kina Grannis’ cover for “Can’t Help Falling in Love” playing in the background, I brought Evangeline back to the room while everyone stayed hidden in the bedroom. Fortunately, this happened before Circuit Breaker when a gathering of 30 people was still possible. The moment Evangeline said yes, everyone came pouring out of the bedroom to celebrate the occasion with us.
Did you have to change your original wedding plans due to COVID-19?
We had to bring our wedding forward due to some family medical matters which gave us approximately two months to plan our wedding. It was challenging as we needed to source a new location and with the COVID-19 restrictions, it was a challenge just to create the guest list and table arrangement. We spent days agonising over whom to remove from our original 300 guests, until eventually we settled on the 100 people we knew had to be there for the wedding. We decided to hire Cepheus from KACTUS to do up a live stream for those that we could not invite. We are glad that many close friends helped us with suggestions so that the planning period was less stressful.
What was your wedding theme and how did you create it?
As we had to squeeze all the planning into the two months, we didn’t have much time to think of the theme and we engaged Lalu from Wulala! to style up the venue. We had only a few screenshots of designs we liked from SingaporeBrides and social media. Lalu asked us to send her those shots, and she immediately identified the style we liked and subsequently came up with a theme (Modern-Ethereal Impressionist Soiree) and mood board for us.
We left her to do the design in absolute blind faith and had totally no idea how it would turn out. Thankfully, we were really blown away on the day itself as the venue was very beautifully set up and it was a lot nicer than how we had imagined. She did an amazing job and even till now, we are still receiving many compliments on the set up and flowers from our guests.
What was your Monti wedding day like?
Evangeline: Our wedding day itself was really fun, but insanely tiring! We had a simple gate crash in the morning due to the COVID-19 restrictions. Joel had to go through some “obstacles” to get to my room. My brother also specially prepared the Suan Tian Ku La, which looked great but tasted deadly.
We then had some photos at Fullerton Bay Hotel. It was pretty fun because we wore our old uniforms from SQ, and it kind of reminded me of our times together in the past.
For the wedding at Monti itself, it was challenging to coordinate everything and participate in it at the same time. In hindsight, we probably should have hired someone to be our coordinator! We are grateful that we have our friends and vendors who worked hard to ensure that the wedding went on smoothly.
We had an evening solemnisation and the lighting was great. Lalu basically turned the upper deck into a garden, with an amazing and beautiful backdrop of the Singapore River and Marina Bay Sands. We got a little worried when it drizzled a bit, but thankfully the rain held off long enough for us to get married.
At the reception, we ended our speech with a Jäger Train. Both us don’t like champagne and hence decided to have the traditional toast replaced with something “easier to drink”.
The food was prepared by Chef Felix and the Monti wedding team. It was apparently amazing according to all our guests (we ourselves did not have time to eat anything that day) and the room was buzzing and full of excitement. I think it was partly James and partly the time constraint that alcohol cannot be served after 10.30 p.m. that helped everybody get their drinks on.
By 10.30 p.m., most of our friends and family were drunk. We remember laughing a lot at the fact that many tables were filled with people who wanted to dance and interact with others, but as regulations did not allow them to, they ended up dancing in their seats. I learnt that day that the “YMCA” choreography was equally as entertaining when performed sitting down.
The night ended with us back in our room at the Fullerton Bay Hotel, tired and drunk, and we remember feeling this overwhelming excitement about what was going to happen next in our lives. We felt this really great sense of fulfilment, joy, peace, and calm all at the same time. If this were a Yelp review, I would rate it, “10/10 – would do again (of course with each other), but be sure to hire a coordinator!”
What was the most memorable moment of your wedding?
Evangeline: It was our march-in. We danced into the dinner with “Dakota” by Stereophonics playing in the background and we videoed ourselves doing a turn-around thingy with our Go-Pro. It’s something we normally do on our vacations, and I felt like this was us coming full circle from our first vacation together as a couple.
The Size of the Wedding: 100
The Cost of the Wedding: $60k
The Venue: Monti at 1-Pavilion
The Wedding Day Photographer: Trouvé Photography
The Wedding Day Videographer: Sense Gallery
The Gown: Truly Enamoured
The Suit: Assemble Singapore
The Engagement Ring: Customised
The Wedding Bands: Love & Co
The Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Taobao
The Groomsmen’s Suits: Taobao
The Hairstylist and Makeup Artist: Raine Yeo Makeup
The Wedding Stylist: Wulala!
The Florals: CC Lee Designs
The Livestream: Kactus Singapore
The Emcee: Emcee James
Credits: Images by Trouvé Photography
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