Singaporebrides | Real Weddings
August 2024
Raine and Joe’s Intimate and Joyous Wedding at Summer Pavilion at The Ritz Carlton, Millenia Singapore
Veterans in the wedding industry, Raine and Joe planned a simple yet joyous celebration with their families in under two months!
Raine Yeo, 37, Makeup Artist at Raine Yeo Makeup, and Joe Teng, 47, Photographer at Acapella Photography, met while on the job during an overseas pre-wedding shoot. Drawn to each other’s commitment and dedication to their crafts, it wasn’t long before sparks flew and love blossomed between the two. Being veterans in the wedding industry helped their wedding planning since they already knew who they wanted to work with for their cosy and intimate solemnisation. With just two months to spare, they planned a beautiful and intimate solemnisation with their families at Summer Pavilion at The Ritz Carlton, Millenia Singapore.
What was it about Joe that made you fall in love with him?
Raine: Joe is kind and humorous – sometimes a little bit too humorous. He never gives up on me even when I have the worst mood swings. He is always so encouraging towards all my dreams and what I want to do and achieve, and lets me know he’ll always have my back.
Tell us about the moment you realised he was the one.
It was when he surprised me with a birthday “cake” by stacking up four plain donuts decorated with strawberries during an overseas trip in Iceland while we were on a job, as he wasn’t able to get a birthday cake. He always manages to make me happy with the simplest thing.
What was the proposal like, Raine? Were you aware that it was about to happen?
I was completely surprised! We were actually still in the middle of a “cold war” and I never would have thought that he would have the courage to propose while I was still angry and haven’t spoken to him for three days!
Tell us about your wedding planning journey. Did your experiences as a seasoned wedding photographer and makeup artist make your journey easier?
We engaged a Feng Shui master to calculate auspicious dates for our solemnisation early March 2023, but we were so busy with our wedding bookings that it wasn’t until later in July that we had the time to look through the dates, and realised that 20 September 2023 was the last available date out of the lot. Since we did not want to pay for another calculation of auspicious dates, we decided to go ahead with this date for a small and cosy solemnisation with our families, and plan for another wedding party with friends at a later date.
We proceeded to book our dinner venue and confirmed our JP before we were back to being busy with back-to-back wedding assignments. Then, we met with another roadblock: we realised that it was only 20 days before our wedding, and there was a 21-day rule for registering your marriage with the Registry of Marriages before the solemnisation date. Shocked, we quickly contacted ROM for help, and managed to successfully appeal for the express service.
Being in the wedding industry did indeed help with our planning! We were very lucky and thankful that we have quite a few trusted wedding vendors, and we already knew what we wanted, so there was minimum time spent on research. But, having attended to so many weddings also made us complacent. We returned to Singapore only three days before our wedding to choose my gown at The Ivory Bridal. Thankfully, Jinyuan and her wonderful staff made it happen for me. I chose my gown and did the fitting on Monday and collected it the next day, with the wedding happening on Wednesday!
Also, like any other couple, we started to add in last minute things to the wedding, like texting my wedding baker two days before to ask if we can have a wedding cake with a Golden Retriever figurine at the side, as my dog was not able to attend our big day, and texting the boutique I was getting my Qun Kua from to ask if we could PayNow them and have the Kua LaLamove-d over the next day. What was supposed to be a simple and cosy solemnisation became quite a detailed one with a wedding cake, Qun Kua and a hotel room for our tea ceremony, a bouquet of flowers and a good pair of heels. And we settled all of these just three days before our wedding day!
What was your wedding day like? Where did you host your celebration?
We chose Summer Pavilion at The Ritz Carlton, Millenia Singapore as our wedding venue because it has a private room for a cosy party of 30 guests, and Chinese food never goes wrong there.
The day itself was exciting and lovely! We kept our solemnisation from our friends and caught them by surprise when we posted an InstaStory of us in a bridal gown and suit in the morning. We started the day in a happy and relaxed mood as we knew the most important thing was to be happy. We felt very comfortable with our wedding photographer because he was a friend. At the end of the day, our hearts were so full of love and satisfaction as everything went better than we thought it would, with the added adrenaline of making it happen within just three days!
What did your family have to say about your wedding day?
They enjoyed it as much as we did, as it was more like a cosy family dinner and we got to spend more time chatting with them throughout the dinner.
Share with us the most memorable moment of your wedding?
During our solemnisation ceremony, our JP suddenly told us to say something to each other to remember why we were there that day. Without any preparation, we spoke from our hearts and it was definitely the most touching moment of the day for us.
What is one lesson you’ve learned from your wedding planning/experience in the wedding industry that you’d like to share with other couples?
As a wedding makeup artist of more than 10 years, I always tell my brides not to be too stressed out and worried, as every bride is blessed on her wedding day and eventually everything will turn out well and good, even if there were some hiccups on the day. Looking back, these imperfections will be something to laugh about after the wedding! The most important thing is to enjoy your wedding day, smile more and worry less! Even for my own wedding, everything was decided and settled at the very last minute, but we made it happened. Oh, getting experienced and trustworthy wedding vendors definitely helps too!
The Venue: Summer Pavilion at The Ritz Carlton, Millenia Singapore
Cost of Wedding: Around $15,000 – $18,000
The Gown: The Ivory Bridal, Rita Vinieris
The Bride’s Shoes: Charles and Keith
The Suit: Dior
The Wedding Bands: Chung Hwa Jade & Jewellery Co.
The Wedding Jewellery: Eclat by Oui, Chung Hwa Jade & Jewellery Co.
The Wedding Photographer: Aura Studio
The Hairstylist and Makeup Artist: Raine Yeo Makeup
The Wedding Cake: Yume Patisserie
The Florist: Khoocoon
The Wedding Favours: Godiva
The Solemniser: Dr. Shirley Low
The Wedding Resource: SingaporeBrides
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