Hi everybody. I survived! 
I want to share my experience, joy and fun with everyone.
The wedding was a huge success. We had a very unusual one, starting at my apartment and culminating with a dinner at the Sentosa Spa and Resort Hotel.
I had and still have mixed emotions. I am happy that they are happy, yet sad that I won’t have her with me as often as before. It’s difficult adjusting to not seeing her in the apartment, which seems so empty and quiet, especially now as my second girl has flown to Melbourne for a week. So I am all alone. Sigh.
On Saturday, I got up at 6.30 am as I couldn’t sleep. 
We had breakfast at 730 and got ourselves ready when the beautician came at 9am to make up the two young ladies. The guests started arriving at 1045 am and by 1100, the apartment was humming with activity as everyone wanted to take a look at and photograph the bride who was in the ‘bridal chamber’ .
The groom then arrived with his 3 escorts, who were dressed in Mandarin outfits! Hahaha. One was his good friend, a Sri Lankan, the other was his best friend, an American and the third was his brother. We were all out on the balcony and staircase landing watching them emerge from the car. We expected something sedate and solemn, but all of a sudden, they broke into a New Zealand haka dance! 
Their yells brought all the neighbours to their windows. It was such a hilarious sight, 4 guys, 2 Irish, an American and a Sri Lankan, dressed in Mandarin hats and outfits, doing the haka.
The dance looked so authentic, it drew applauses from the onlookers.
Then they proceeded to climb all 4 floors up to my apartment, shunning the lift, singing all the way. They even had a huge Chinese fan and some tinfoil percussion instruments. The song had a phrase, something like, "I’ll get down on my knees for you…" and the groom arrived at the top of the stairs and actually got down on his knees when he sang that, so romantic!
The bridesmaids then got into the teasing of the groom before allowing him to enter to claim his bride, who was still ‘hiding’ in her chamber, giggling with mirth. The bridesmaids, my second daughter, and several other young ladies barred the way and refused to allow him in, asking him to serenade the bride as loudly as he could, until the bride finally agreed that he had sung loudly enough. So he got past the first barrier, easy peasy.
Then, he had to perform a Chinese dance, wearing a pair of Chinese clogs! His best men were so ingenious. They picked up their clogs and clapped them together like castanets while the groom did a hilarious ‘flamenco’ dance, with lots of stamping. It was such a cosmopolitan mix and so entertaining for the guests, who were all howling with laughter and applauding with appreciation.
The final demand was a ‘big’ ‘ang pow’, which my daughter demanded gleefully. Guess what? The groom whipped out a really BIG ‘ang pow’ the size of an A2 size paper, with a big double happiness character on it! He had his own back on my second daughter, who was taken aback at the size of the ‘big’ ang pow. Of course, the cash was ‘checked’ to see if it was ‘big’ enough too. It was so much fun.
He was then allowed in. Then the bridal march was played and the bride came slowly out. It was so touching, I think I saw quite a few wet eyes. She was a vision of loveliness and the groom looked at her so adoringly. We did a bit of praying, the Buddist way. Then we had the ‘tea ceremony’, when the bride and groom were showered with more ‘ang pows’ and gifts of jewellery for the bride.
Everyone had lunch before leaving to go home to change and get ready for the evening, for the Chinese banquet held at the Sentosa Spa and Resort Hotel. We had a 10 course Chinese fusion cuisine dinner for the relatives and guests. 
The groom and his buddies had something else up their sleeves, halfway through the dinner. They came up with a skit of Sherry and Micheal (pronounced Mi-hall the Irish way) . Micheal portrayed Sherry and one of his best men portrayed him. Micheal had on a black, long haired ‘wig’ and tied a table cloth around his waist for a makeshift skirt and acted the part of a very coy and flirty Sherry. His best man wore a longhaired, orange wig, made from some wooly material and acted as Micheal when he first met Sherry.
The other best man told the story of their courtship while the two drew a lot of laughs and hoots with their caricature of the bride and groom’s courtship.
Then there was a toast and speech made by the groom’s father, who actually sang a beautiful Irish song. Some of the guests had a great Chinese ‘yam seng ‘for the couple too. After the dinner, most of the Chinese guests left. Such a pity. They should have stayed. The other guests were reluctant to leave and many spilled out into the beautiful garden after the dinner and carried on chatting and drinking late into the night. It was a totally beautiful evening. The groom’s parents, 2 sisters and brother entertained us with their lovely renditions of Irish songs too. The whole family had such beautiful vocal chords.
Some of us stayed the night at the hotel and didn’t leave until Sunday evening.
Well, that’s part one of the celebrations. Part two will be in September, in Ireland, where the guest list will be even longer. That will be after my 21 day tour of Europe with my second daughter. I will be staying in Ireland for a week after that.
I’m so looking forward to that.
I feel a little sad as I miss my daughter already, but I console myself that she is staying very nearby, a 5 min walk away. I’m hoping that she’ll come and visit me often. I think the best way is to entice them with home cooked meals don’t you think? Hehe.
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