THE Bali Wedding: Part 2

Right after the very successful hen night in yesterday's Part 1 (especially since we didn't have to pay for any professional strippers. heh), the next morning everyone stumbled out to breakfast.


Oh, did I say EVERYBODY? ...I meant Sam and I.

T, the groom, was extremely hung-over and GRUMPY.


Another thing I love about Bali is the food. You just can't beat authentic Indonesian food. Everything down to the last detail is carefully prepared. These were Ash's breakfast eggs. Even the tomatoes were part of the "plating up" presentation.


And everyday I had my major hit of Kopi Bali. Or Balinese coffee. This is like a coffee shot from hell. It's as thick as Turkish coffee - as in you need to let all the sediments settle to the bottom of the cup before taking a sip or all you're consuming would be gritty coffee powder. It's thick!


And then we were informed (last-minute, Oi-style) that we'd have a wedding rehearsal at 11am at the wedding villa. OK, so off we trooped.

This is the Morabito Villa before the mayhem and chaos. It's an absolutely stunning space for a wedding!






Since it's a villa owned by an artist, there were LOADS of nic-nacs lying around.

(I like the torso-less Santa with outstretched arms)

The wedding planner wasn't there, the sound system wasn't there, the chairs and all weren't set up yet... so we were really like the blind leading the blind. But the way these things go, you kinda figured it would all work out later anyways (but of course it also kinda added to the "wedding stress").

The girls ended up back at our villa and we all got matching pedicures - with hooker red toenails. We figured since the colour theme incorporated highlights of red, we might as well go the whole hog.


Oi & I are both "godmothers" to Misha, Sam's daughter. She is the CUTEST thing.


And she's also learning fast about the ways of ladies of leisure. She's checking out mum's pedicure.


A welcome drinks session had been organized for everyone at our villa, so it was cool to meet up and catch up with old friends, meet new ones, put faces to the names of Oi's friends that you'd only heard about through emails (she went to school in Singapore, college in the US, lived in Hong Kong and now in London... so there are lots of people from the different phases of her life).

This is our villa by day.









(This is the grass patch in front of the beach where I'd practice yoga in the mornings!)



Then of course we had to have another German tradition... on the way into the party, each guest had to break a plate. All the plates were dumped on the ground, and bride & groom have to sweep up the broken dishes together, symbolizing their partnership and willingness to help each other out. As it turns out, Oi was holding the dust-pan while T did most of the sweeping (at the hen night, we had asked the question of "who's more likely to do the housework" ...EVERYONE answered "THORSTEN!" hehe).



Then we all went and watched the sunset on the beach.







The next day, was THE DAY. There was a bit of a buzz in the air as everyone was a little excited and nervous at the same time. It's almost like you're putting on a performance at the theatre and everyone has to be in their right places. Levi, the best man, kept asking every 10 minutes "Where's Thorsten, have you seen the rings?" (THE BEST MAN DIDN'T HAVE THE RINGS?!?)

...turns out the bride & groom ran off to another villa where the Chinese Tea Ceremony was taking place - only family members were present for this and the rest of us stayed behind to get ready. In the kerfuffle that is THE WEDDING DAY, people hadn't been briefed about things they were supposed to be doing, last-minute changes were taking place... and, oh yeah, Oi just told the 3 bridesmaids THIS MORNING that she wanted us to give a speech at the dinner that night too.

ARGHHH! It's so typically last-minute Oi. Resistance is futile. You just have to roll with the punches on this one.

The wedding planner finally shows up and we were told we needed to have another rehearsal at 12 noon. Guests were meant to show up at 3pm, with the ceremony starting at 4pm. GULP. Last minute to the max!

So we rolled with the punches and stood out in the hot midday sun in the tropical climate. I was being seared raw. At least most things were already in place - the chairs, the microphones, the sound system, all tents... etc.







At 1.30pm, that was our cut-off time to bring Oi over to get her hair & make-up done. Instead, the bride decided she would take a quick dip in the pool. You can see the sound guys and tent guys setting up their stations behind and it was absolute chaos. But somehow, it seemed poetic that she decided to have a solo swim. All was serene about her, even though the surroundings were in a kerfuffle.


Mother of the bride walks her to get changed.


And then as the rest of us got showered and changed and started settling down to get ready... all that morning's pandemonium just seemed to melt away in the airconditioned bridal villa. I suppose there's also something very therapeutic about getting your hair done and face made up by someone else. :)







CAM-WHORE ALERT!


(You likey my earrings?) ;p
In case you forgot already, these were the ones I made. Along with the other bridesmaids' jewelry too!








Over in the bridal chamber...





It was pissing down outside and the rain had started to let up. So here comes the wedding planner, kicking us up the bum to be ready in FIVE MINUTES!!!





We had visitors too. The Master of Ceremonies for that evening's dinner is also a best mate of Oi's. More cam-whoring with our dreamboat Hero, Dr. Mandeep...


Here comes the bride!












Father of the Bride:



And then before you knew it, we were all walking down the aisle.

First it was me, then Caroline, then Sam. What was so great about our Ann Taylor dresses is that they had POCKETS!! On both sides! ...so I was able to sneak my camera in my pocket with me, down the aisle. Heh. I *ALMOST* whipped it out as I was walking down coz it was so amazing seeing all these people in your face, jamming their cameras at you. I wanted to snap one back at them. But I was very well-behaved (sorry for you!)

After I took my place, I managed to snap one of Sam as she came walking down (by this time, all eyes were already on Oi, so I figured I was safe).



Here comes the bride!



And guys, may I present you with... THE MOST EMO GROOM IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD.
Like seriously, he was already in tears as we (the bridesmaids) were walking down the aisle! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I remember thinking "Is that sweat or is he REALLY crying?!"



Do I hear a collective... AWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!

Rose petals confetti.




And then came the chilling before the photo-taking enmasse.





Little Misha was so taken with the rose petals, that even after the ceremony, she was running around, picking them up and throwing them in the sky. Grown men were so charmed by her that they were all on bended knee, helping to pick up rose petals to throw at her. Oh, the fawning over her!



Primping before the photos.





The Bollywood Shot. Everyone's gotta have one.






The bridesmaids' hooker-toenails and blinged out shoes.


Sam's necklace (My handiwork!)



Caroline's necklace & earrings (again, did I mention... it's MY handiwork?) :)


And then came the onslaught of family photos (from both sides), the friends from SCGS (secondary school), friends from VJC (junior college), friends from Princeton (she's a brainy chick!), friends from London, work people from London, etc. etc. etc.






...and then OF COURSE there were the photos by the beach!!








As you can imagine, it was quite the international wedding, with people from all corners of the world. The seating plan was themed around this.



And what's a Chinese wedding without... a COSTUME CHANGE! (yet another gorgeous dress!)




Right before dinner, MC and Muh Hero and Doctor Mandeep announced for everyone to get up close to the projection screen coz Oi & T had a surprise for us. As it turns out, they had flown to Las Vegas in the middle of the year to get married by Elvis in one of those little chapels. HAHAHAHA! Sam & I only knew about it AFTER it had happened, when she emailed to let us know. I don't think many other friends knew about it, and certainly NOBODY had seen photos or videos from this occasion since they had planned to screen it here in Bali.

It was spectacularly AWESOME!! In every cheezy way. Thorsten wore a mint-green polyester suit. Er... he actually OWNS this suit. He had bought it from a thrift store once upon a time thinking he would wear it one day, but never imagined it would've been for his wedding! Elvis came complete with his right-hand man... I mean er... Hula-Girl.



Then came the first dance. Which they repeated TWICE coz halfway through it someone fluffed and it all went pear-shaped and being the perfectionist Asian lady she is, Oi said "NO! NO! NO! Again! Coz we practiced really hard for this!!" ...So the DJ cued the music up again from the top again. HAHAHA.


Dinner was held under the big white fluffly tents, and it was really fairytale magical. As the whole wedding had been themed around "Oi & T's Big Adventure", each table had photos of both of them on the different adventures they had been on... music festivals, film festivals... all their different travels with each other. Our table had a photo of them at a festival in Copenhagen. Everyone's names were written on a leaf where they ought to be seated at the table.







My vegan menu (how thoughtful!):


There were lots of really cute touches, like how everyone was given a fake moustache - real fun for picture-taking! Us 3 bridesmaids kept our moustaches on throughout our bridesmaid speeches... so er... those would make really interesting photos!



The kids and tweens all had their own separate table at the side, and I found one passed out there (in full moustache glory).


Remember those brown little Domocom cartoon characters from the wedding invite? Well, they were all over the place (check out the brown paper bag in the above photo with that character). The guest book had a picture of that cartoon, and even the wedding cake had the Domocom.



(The green was supposed to represent the Bali rice padi fields, allegedly. But inside, the cake was all... CHOCOLATE!!! ...I broke my veganism for a slice of wedding cake. I figured the Balinese chickens weren't factory-farmed so these eggs would've been OK. I promptly had FOUR slices of wedding cake the following day. EEK!)

Then came the other drama... (Wow, I'm surprised you've made it till here. This is an epic post EVAR!) (But this will be worth it).

Sam got bitten by a wild dog.

Yeah, seriously. She was on her way to the Bridal villa to grab her bag to go home when she walked past a black dog. They crossed paths, but nothing happened... no eye contact, no growling from the dog. She remembers thinking "What a healthy dog. It's not mangy like all the other stray dogs." And the next thing she knew, the dog had chomped on her calf and IT WOULDN'T LET GO!!

She shook her leg like crazy but the crazed dog wouldn't let go. In the end some local Balinese dudes ran over and shouted at the dog and it finally let go and ran away. She got nailed pretty badly and was bleeding like crazy.

Enter everyone's favourite Hero Doctor Mandeep (an Opthalmologist by profession. Yes, that's quite different from an Optician, mind you.) He heard one of the bridesmaids was in trouble, sprinted across to where help was needed, and after assessing the gravity of the situation, proceeds to strip off his favourite WHITE shirt to use as a bandage. Let me remind you of the shirt he was wearing. It looked like this:


But by the time I ran up to check out what was going on, there he was topless, bent over Sam's leg and his shirt was a BLOOD-RED, BLEEDING MESS. (Hello? It was being used as a bandage!) For once, I didn't think to snap a photo. It was just too traumatic.

We ended up rushing Sam to the Emergency Room. As Ash and the other guys were hoisting her to the car, people pulled me aside and said "Make sure she doesn't get a blood transfusion!" ..."Make sure she gets a rabies jab!" ..."Make sure she gets a tetanus jab!" ..."Make sure all the needles are sterilized and fresh from a pack!" ..."Make sure you go to a PRIVATE hospital, not one of those dodgey public hospitals! You're in a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY!!" ...AAARRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Everyone just shut up and calm down already and just... ZIP IT!!!!

I finally started snapping away again at the hospital. Ash was taking care of his woman, there wasn't enough space inside the treatment room for all of us anyway, so I just peeked in from a crack in the door and was annoying the local doctor by asking all the same questions that everyone had been asking me to. AND! I was texting Hero-Doctor-Mandeep updates along the way. He approved everything they were doing. (Yes, us Singaporeans are obsessed with cleanliness and hygiene).




(Dunno about you, but it makes me nervous when a hospital feels it needs to put up a framed certificate proving their hygiene standards)




It was an eventful day and night all throughout!

The rest of the trip passed pretty idyllicly. Sam was out of action since she was hobbling around, and since she had to sit in front of the TV all day, I accompanied her and caught up up all the E! True Hollywood Story episodes I've been missing out on (we don't have cable TV at home). Hehe.

Everyone's Hero Doctor Mandeep made a housecall to check on Sam's wound and change her dressing.


And Misha kept me entertained. Here's her dancing:


Aunty Jaime changes diapers and becomes an "official" godmother. Although I didn't really change her out of a DIRTY diaper. I just put on a clean diaper on her naked ass since I was getting anxious that this untoilet-trained child was running around butt naked. An accident would've been too nasty.


Final shot of the people in our bridal villa:


Yeah, it was a pretty good trip. And hats off to you if you're still reading up until this point. I have truly out-done myself with this epic post today.

*YAWN*