Singaporebrides | Real Weddings
November 2022
Kathy and Sanee’s Epic Costume Wedding in PARKROYAL on Beach Road
With the groom in the family business of costumes, couple Kathy and Sanee held a “Happily Ever After” costume wedding where guests dressed up and the couple made an entrance as Cinderella and Prince Charming, literally out of a giant story book!
Tam Chi Shan, Kathy, 31, Costume Specialist at Customade Costume & Merchandise Pte Ltd, and Sanee Neo, 33, General Manager of Mascot Enterprise, met when Kathy came to work at Sanee’s family business in costumes. After a fairytale proposal, the couple celebrated their happily ever after in an epic costume wedding on 8 October 2022, where they marched down the aisle as Cinderella and Prince Charming, and again in a fusion mahjong-themed gown and God of Gamblers costume. For their unique wedding, the couple wanted to share the fun of dressing up with everyone, and their guests turned up as the Evil Queen in Snow White, participants and handlers from Squid Game, and astronauts, to the theme of “Happily Ever After”.
How did you first meet each other?
Sanee: Kathy was looking for a part-time job after graduating from NTU in 2014. Her hostel roommate (my sister) then recommended that Kathy help out at the Costume House, especially during the Halloween period. That’s when Kathy realised that costumes sync perfectly with her quirky style and made her happy.
It was really amazing to have her in the company and that is when we offered her a full-time role as a marketing executive in the Costume House since she held a bachelor in business, marketing from Nanyang Business School.
After a year of working with each other and knowing each other’s personalities, we were mutually attracted to each other, our concern for each other grew, and our respect for each other at work grew too. We were in love.
What do you love most about your partner?
Sanee: I love her for all of her, especially the quirky side of her. Yet, it is her ability to care for me, and take care of things, that I didn’t even know I needed. I’m in awe of her.
Kathy: I just know he is the one. He became the one. I tend to be very indecisive and he’s like my anchor. He challenges me to build better relationships with my loved ones around me and do even bigger things at work.
What was the proposal like?
Sanee: In all honesty, the company was facing a challenging time pivoting the main revenue stream in those early years when I joined the company. I didn’t have much time or resources to court Kathy as romantically as I would have liked. Hence, I decided to take the time to plan a proposal to wow her—she deserved it.
I took inspiration from “白马王子,” literally. First, I had to find a white horse and then spend the next few months learning how to ride a horse. My mom (the founder of the business) helped me to customise a brand new Prince Charming suit. Yet, in a funny way, it was a difficult task even though I have my own factory, because Kathy has access to all the production schedules as well as procurement details (fabric purchases for their respective projects), and I wished to surprise her!
The proposal ring was the trickiest. Kathy has a unique style, so I had to reach out to a mutual jeweller friend to customise a Cinderella ring for her. Especially because it was customised, I struggled to balance my style and Kathy’s style, and that caused a long delay. Eventually, with the help of my mom and sister I decided on the ring design and we created it.
Again, because we worked so closely, i was impossible to get Kathy to dress up and attend a luncheon with our loved ones (to witness the proposal) without her being suspicious. I had to borrow my sister’s birthday as an excuse to gather everyone for the proposal.
When planning something so elaborate, something had to go wrong. That afternoon, it rained and I rode out the moment the rain turned into a drizzle. Timings were off, yet everything felt right. I went down on one knee and she screamed a loud, resounding, “Yes!” Kathy style.
Tell us all about your wedding!
We love costumes. And we wanted our loved ones, friends, and family to experience costumes too. We simply wanted it to be a fun and memorable time for our guests—not just another wedding. Then we thought, why not make it an epic wedding—the wedding of the century!
With that, deciding on a theme became really challenging. Eventually we settled on “Happily Ever After,” since it was a goal we wished to work towards, knowing that there will definitely be ups and downs in any marriage. Furthermore, this is an open-ended theme, be it fairytale character costumes or simply wearing anything that makes one happy, except their everyday clothes.
Sanee: Both Kathy and I love a good laugh. At the same time we had to balance out the expectations of some of our elders, hence we factored in some “grandness” instead of having everything be hilarious. During our first march-in, we stepped out from a humongous fairytale book. We had a comical centaur (my younger brother) flip open the page as we stepped out to greet our guests as Prince Charming and Cinderella. Our costumes made us feel like real royalty. In addition, our brothers and sisters donned fairytale soldiers’ uniforms complete with beefeater hats to salute us as we walked down the aisle. That was a magical moment we both will remember for life.
We are big believers that laughter creates the best memories. Therefore, we handpicked Fei Fei to be our wedding emcee as she’s known for her humour. We’re so glad that our guests had a good time laughing their hearts out and we didn’t have to worry as we stepped aside to change into our second march-in outfits.
In addition to a costume wedding, it was also an inter-racial wedding. For our second outfit, the design was a blend of Chinese and Indian influence. Kathy wore a full-on mahjong-inspired gown with details that reference a traditional Indian outfit. While I was dressed as the God of Gamblers, referencing the popular Chinese TV series, along with an inner golden Sherwani.
What did some of your guests turn up as?
We thought every one of our guests could win best dressed. Therefore, we broke it down into five categories to highlight some of our favourites:
- Most AA (Attract Attention): A blonde crossdressed Sailor Moon
- Most Effort: A stormtrooper in a jester outfit
- Most Happily Ever After: A pixie
- Most LOL (Loud Out Loud): A pregnant mum dressed as Santa Claus
- Most Couple-ly: A sexy Egyptian duo
What was the most memorable moment of your wedding?
Looking back, our favourite moment was captured beautifully by our photographer The Curious Light when everyone stood up with us in their colourful costumes as we all raised our glasses for the traditional Yum Seng and screamed our lungs out.
The Size of the Wedding: 280 pax
The Cost of the Wedding: $113,281
The Venue: PARKROYAL on Beach Road, Grand Ballroom ($52,000)
The Wedding Day Photographer: The Curious Light ($3,400 inclusive of 5-hour pre-wedding shoot)
The Gown: Customade Costume & Merchandise Pte Ltd (two customised outfits for $5,000)
The Suit: Customade Costume & Merchandise Pte Ltd (two customised outfits for $5,000)
The Groom’s Shoes: Pedro
The Engagement Ring: Anidea J
The Wedding Bands: Meyson
The Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Customade Costume & Merchandise Pte Ltd
The Groomsmen’s Suits: Customade Costume & Merchandise Pte Ltd
The Nail Artist: The Nail Lab
The Caterer: PARKROYAL on Beach Road
The Wedding Cake: PARKROYAL on Beach Road
The Florist: PARKROYAL on Beach Road
The Wedding Planner:The Beautiful Gatherings
The Pre-Wedding Photographer: The Curious Light
The Videographer: TNC Weddings ($3,550)
The Photobooth: YOMO ($888)
The Wedding Invitations and Stationery: Withjoy
The Wedding Favours: PARKROYAL on Beach Road
The Wedding Car Rental: Customade Costume & Merchandise Costume Truck ($5,500 inclusive of thematic stickering and 6 groomsmen costumes)
The Props: Customised ($10,000)
The LED Lights and Picture Wall Stand: ($3,895)
The Guests’ Costumes: Customade Costume & Merchandise Pte Ltd ($16,000)
The Emcee: Happy Fei Fei ($1,700 inclusive of special sound system)
The Makeup Artist: Jennis Wong Makeup ($1,360)
The Balloons: The Balloon People (Sponsored)
The Other Fresh Florals: ($1,000)
The Marquee Lights: Letters and Lights
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