Wedding dinner

Last night's wedding dinner was the kind where you don't know anyone else except the bride and groom. We're not exactly social butterflies, so we kept pretty much to ourselves. When it comes to social events like this, I turn into a wall flower and wish that I could get home asap.

CH may be the quieter one but he enjoys social functions much better than I do. I secretly think he enjoys dressing up too. He has more accessories than me! I simply pull on a dress and I'm ready to go.

Wedding dinner in Singapore is almost like an institution. You're expected to arrive a little earlier and hang around outside the dining hall to flip through the humongous wedding photo album, hand over the wedding angpao (a gift of money), sign in the guestbook and check which table you'll be seated at. Then you munch on mixed nuts and try to make small talk and hope you'll not be seated with so and so.

The seating arrangement either makes or breaks your night. If you're sitting amongst a bunch of fun and happy people, your night is set. You get the gist?

We were lucky to be on the same table with the bride's colleagues. It was like their company outing. The group spent the night teasing each other which was fun and entertaining to watch.

As usual, there was the dimming of lights, bridal march, (dummy) cake cutting ceremony, champagne pouring, changing of gowns, speeches and food (of course). I'm always quite amused by the routineness of it all. Why do all wedding couples go through the ritual dictated by the hotel just because?

When I told CH that those white wedding cakes on the stage were dummies and made of styrofoam, he was shocked. Yah, it's a strange 3-second cake-cutting motion that I cannot comprehend until today. There is no cake and nobody gets to eat any cake. I don't get it.

Do I sound cynical already? I'm not against weddings but I wish wedding dinners are more fun and unconventional. The dinners here are almost a pain to attend. You sit amongst people you've never met before in your life and watch everyone shifting uncomfortably in their seat and trying to eat daintily for 3 hours or so, and then leave as soon as dessert is on the way down their esophagus.

I was the first to get up and leave because it was way past my bedtime and I had to get up at the crack of dawn the next day. The bride and groom were already positioned outside the door, thanking guests for sharing their joyous moment.

We learned that they'll be off on a honeymoon this weekend. They'll be going on a round-the-world trip including a Trans-Atlantic cruise followed by another one around the Carribbean islands. Now, that, I like.