Last night, the last of my paternal cousins got hitched. At 36, Rhubesh finally tied the knot, something the family thought would never happen since he had declared he wouldn't marry till he was 45 or 50. But he claims the right girl came along so he thought to himself, 'Why wait?'.
And wait he didn't because it was a whirlwind long-distance courtship that lasted a few months with a Filipina named Jhoana he met here. In December he announced he was getting married and yesterday he put pen to paper. The elusive bride was finally introduced to the rest of us yesterday, we had only seen her pictures, unless one made the trip down to his parents house where he had tucked her away!
She seemed really sweet, her English is limited but am sure they'll work it out somehow. He's definitely smitten!
The wedding was a simple and informal affair, they had rented one of the Changi Ferry Point chalets, a big unit just by the sea. The plan was to exchange vows at sunset - something which we missed because parking was a killer. There was no system to speak of and no actual lots and no wardens so it was a free for all situation. By the time Nick had found a space, the ceremony had ended and all I heard was the applause.
Still, the setting was quite nice though a tad muddy from the earlier rain, managed to catch a glimpse of the setting sun. The dress code was 'insouciant resort wear', trust his sister Kavi to come up with something like that. I wore a newly arrived Forever 21 scarf print top with a turqoise flower and coincidentally I had a turquoise print resort-ish tunic for Nat from Baby Gap...so we matched!
From an organisational standpoint, some things could have been done better (just my events background speaking) but we still had fun, at the expense of some poor souls who volunteered to sing. Music plays a large part at family weddings and yesterday was no different. Since there were about 7-8 singing acts, the whole thing was turned into 'RJ Idol i.e. Rhubesh/Jhoana Idol', and there were fake judges to boot e.g. Divya Abdul, Dave Dawg and Ajen Cowell.
The first two acts were painful to watch, like the bad auditions you see on American Idol. They just happened to be Rhubesh's students, he gives tuition full time. Gotta give them credit for having the guts to warble like dying cats in front of 200 people though! The performances got progressively better but I didn't stick around to find out who 'won' because Nat was hungry and cranky.
I was largely distracted the whole evening, didn't really get a chance to mingle. Was keeping a lookout for Nat since Arlyn had stayed at home, so me and Nick were on guard duty. It was hard to keep track of Nat because so many people wanted to carry her, plus it was dark outdoors. You hear horror stories of kids being kidnapped or drowning when parents take their eyes off them for a couple of minutes.
Just a couple of days ago, the youngest son of the family Arlyn's sister is working for passed away. He had drowned while swimming a couple of weeks ago and had been in a coma. He was only 3 and had been at the pool with his mum. I don't know what happened exactly but the mum must be wishing she could turn back time. Sigh, so tragic.
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