Singaporebrides | Real Weddings

June 2022

Rachel and Hui’s Tropical Eclectic Wedding at Corner House

Bright and beautiful, Rachel and Hui’s eclectically tropical wedding at Corner House was a celebration of their love

Rachel Seet, 36, Marketing, and Hui Heng, 32, Doctor, bonded over their shared love for dogs. Though they couldn’t hold the destination wedding they had originally wanted, the couple were showered with love and warm congratulations from friends and family from all over the world over Zoom, as they celebrated their intimate wedding on 20 November 2021 in Corner House, eclectically styled with vibrant tropical fruit and flora.

Rheza Paleva

How did you first meet?

Rachel: We met at a yoga studio, Yoga Inc, where I was teaching part-time, seven years ago. Hui attended my classes regularly and we eventually found out we had a mutual (crazy) love for dogs. We started chatting more because Hui, being a Sabahan, had been away from home for school and work for a long time and missed his dogs at home a great deal. I invited Hui over to visit my dogs at home and things progressed into a first date and more, from then on!

What do you love most about your partner?

Rachel: Hui’s big, kind heart for dogs was the first thing that won me over. In our first year together, we adopted a dog, Yoyo, and I’ve seen Hui take care of Yoyo selflessly all of this time. In the past year, Yoyo started having problems with his hind legs and Hui would make time to take Yoyo to East Coast Park for a swim, every week without fail. More importantly, I love that Hui is always positive. He’s become this pillar of strength and support that I’ve become so reliant on. He sees things from a much more logical perspective. He’s one person who never complains—not about work, not about life—and is just content. I’ve never met a person like that before Hui.

Hui: Rachel’s very driven and determined. When she sets her mind on something, she makes sure it happens, and in the best way. She never settles for anything less—her friends describe her as “best or nothing” and I love that about her.

Rheza Paleva

What was the proposal like?

Rachel: It was at East Coast Park in January 2021. The same place where we first got together, and where we spent a lot of time—running, cycling, swimming, and so much more! Before the proposal, Hui surprised me with an unexpected booking at White Grass and told me it was our 6th anniversary dinner. Hui being the most forgetful person ever, it certainly caught me by surprise but I went along unassumingly.

After dinner, I fell asleep in the car after a long day at work. I woke up at East Coast Park, annoyed and insisting on going home. Hui eventually persuaded me to take a walk to “let our food digest.” He proposed during that short walk with a ring that he had purchased from a friend in Thailand a year back, where he initially wanted to propose but couldn’t due to travel restrictions.

Yipmage Moments

Did COVID-19 affect your wedding plans?

Hui: Yes, it was tough. We love to travel and had always wanted a destination wedding overseas or at least back in Sabah where I’m from. Unfortunately, after two years of waiting and with no clue when the pandemic was going to end, we decided to just proceed with one in Singapore.

We love big drinking parties with our family and friends, but had to limit the number to 50 because of the restrictions. Regrettably, many of our friends from overseas, including my parents in Sabah, couldn’t attend our wedding in Singapore due to the travel restrictions in place.

Yipmage Moments

What was wedding planning like?

Rachel: We looked up vendors on SingaporeBrides, read many real wedding articles (to estimate how much to put aside for the wedding), pinned wedding themes and even downloaded speech templates! We decided on an intimate Tropical Eclectic themed party. Situated in the lovely Singapore Botanic amidst lush tropical greenery, the charming Corner House was the perfect place for us—old world colonial charm meets modern French-Asian fusion cuisine. We also picked it because we spent our first anniversary there in 2016!

That said, having worked in the luxury hospitality industry, I was particularly concerned about the amount of wastage at wedding events. Yet at the same time, I love tropical flowers and fruits, their bright and luscious colours and shapes!

We worked with Jovial from Meteor Flowers who came up with the concept, “Feast” for the dining table. She used odd-shaped vases, tropical flowers like orchids, birds of paradise, and pincushions, as well as tropical fruits like banana flowers, gingers, papayas, eggplants, and chikus to create a simple and precise, yet fun, daring, and experimental table scape. I was absolutely blown away with the execution as well as the cheerful palette of pink, purple, yellow, orange, and green. We also arranged for a floral bar within the restaurant, with an on-site florist, who made takeaway floral bouquets for our guests to bring home. Guests were also invited to bring home the tropical fruits that were part of the table display. To personalise the tables, my bridesmaids printed photos from our pre-wedding shoot for display and saved wine bottles to use as table number stands.

For our outdoor solemnisation, we rented the courtyard next to Corner House. The courtyard came with arch fixtures, so all we had to do was bring our own Persian aisle rug, some gold Tiffany chairs as well as party poppers. Our florists did the aisle posies, bride and groom chairs, and solemnisation table floral setup, in line with the theme.

Kudos to our DJ Ervin and emcees Mike and JK for entertaining our guests—they helped very much with the PA system and music. We played a mix of The Beatles, The BeeGees, Death Cab for Cutie, Toploader, and even the XX – all the tunes our friends and families grew up with.

Yipmage Moments

What was your wedding day like?

Rachel: It was truly our day—full of surprises and laughter! It started at 5.30 a.m. for makeup and hair with Vicky from Arly.co, before we headed over to Corner House. Our bridal entourage arrived early to help with the moving and vendor setup. But it started drizzling about 7 a.m. and everyone was so worried about our outdoor solemnisation. We had a backup plan but that would mean less photo ops and less aisle for marching in. Before the ceremony, our photographer and bridal entourage also braved the drizzle to get outdoor shots with us.

Thankfully at 10.30 a.m., the drizzle stopped completely and everything went as planned. The march-in, the solemnisation, and the march-out were just perfect.

We served guests with lychee champagne prior to a seven-course lunch, a menu curated by Chef David Thien! Our emcees, and good friends, Mike and JK, planned a whole game section for us. There was no dull moment for sure. Our guests (and us too!) were entertained throughout, by the food, drinks, and the programming!

Yipmage Moments

What was the most memorable moment of your wedding?

Rachel: We were so, so lucky to win a pre-wedding photo shoot giveaway with the amazingly talented Rheza Paleva, over Instagram. We had wanted to just use photos from our travels and save the money for wedding drinks. But Rheza organised everything for us to the tee, from the shoot venue at Gallops Extension, to the pre-wedding makeup with Adinda Sardjono, to the rustic bouquet by Nicole from In the Name of Flowers. The photos we got from the pre-wedding shoot really made a difference in the end. We used them for our registration, dining tables, Zoom invites, and now to decorate our home! Such great memories.

Hui: For me, it was the open mic session during the wedding, which we initially thought nobody would participate in. We even planted a few people to give speeches. But we were extremely surprised and touched that we had more than ten friends (both on-site and over Zoom) give impromptu congratulatory speeches over several time zones (Australia, Jakarta, Sabah, Sri Lanka, Ireland, London)! I think that was what truly made our day memorable—having all our friends everywhere in the world, yet so close to our hearts.

Rachel: Another memorable moment, ironically, was that we forgot to press record on Zoom (yup, six hours of footage gone!) and found out only two days later (after the hangover).

Yipmage Moments

The Size of the Wedding: 50 guests
The Cost of the Wedding: $25,000
The Venue: Corner House
The Wedding Day Photographer: Yipmage Moments
The Gown: Rime Arodaky
The Bride’s and Groom’s Chinese Outfits: Mamaandmisse
The Bride’s Shoes: Christian Louboutin
The Suit: Gucci
The Groom’s Shoes: Christian Louboutin
The Engagement Ring: Custom-made in Thailand
The Wedding Bands: Chanel for groom and Chaumet for bride
The Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Own
The Groomsmen’s Suits: Own
The Flower Girls’ Dresses: Love Bonito
The Page Boys’ Suits: H&M Kids
The Hairstylist and Makeup Artist: Vicky Ang Makeup
The Nail Artist: The Nail Artistry
The Caterer: Corner House SG
The Wedding Cake: Zee & Elle Cakes
The Florist: Meteor Flowers
The Pre-Wedding Photographer: Rheza Paleva
The Pre-Wedding Flowers: In the Name of Flowers
The Pre-Wedding Makeup & Hair: Adinda Sardjono
The Photobooth: Bridesmaids’ Polaroid camera
The Wedding Invitations and Stationery: summer.calligraphys
The Wedding Favours: Flowers and fruits that were used for display
The Emcees: JK & Mike Tan
The DJ: Ervin
The Solemniser: Dr. Shirley Low
The Wedding Car Rental: Friend’s
The Wine Vendor: Wine Mansion/Sidhu

Credits: Pre-wedding images by Rheza Paleva. Wedding day images by Yipmages Moments.

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Published on: 8 June 2022

Category: Real Weddings

Tagged in: Chaumet, Corner House, Dr Shirley Low, Love Bonito, Mama & Misse, Meteor Flowers, Rheza Paleva, Rime Arodaky, The Nail Artistry, Vicky Ang Makeup, Yipmage Moments, Zee & Elle

Rachel and Hui’s Tropical Eclectic Wedding at Corner House

Singaporebrides | Real Weddings

Rachel and Hui’s Tropical Eclectic Wedding at Corner House

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