All in pink.

Last Saturday; a hot and humid summer evening, I attended yet another wedding. It is the last of many weddings which have dominated my social calender since the latter half of last year, so I was relieved that after this wedding I will not have to attend another in a very long time. But at the same time I was looking forward to soaking up some wedding cheer and start the year on a good note.

What sets this wedding apart from the others I've been was the medium by which the couple met; the internet or the maze that is online dating. Even though I myself have set foot into this maze (2015 – Just Do It!), I still question whether love can be found via clicks of a mouse button. Yet somehow, the newlyweds managed to beat the odds, proving to all that were present that love can indeed be found when one has patiently trolled through enough online dating profiles and been on many less that average first dates.

They are certainly one of the lucky few. ♥

6° of Separation
It is common to bump into familiar faces at a wedding, especially if you are from a Chinese background, well then that tightens the social circle even more. But never in my wildest dreams (apologies for the lack of a better cliché) did I think I would be sitting at the same table, right next to the very first guy who contacted me online!

This sounds almost good enough to be a rom-com moment. You meet your online dating match at a friend's wedding (a gorgeous Leehom Wang), at the end of the night you guys dance together to the serenade of all serenades "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" and fall head over heels in love. But...in reality, there is nothing quite so awkward *cough cough* as meeting your online dating match at a friend's wedding. 

The awkwardness isn't so much in the what to say, but the fact that we were both harbouring the same little secret that cannot be disclosed to other guests at the table. I couldn't greet him like I knew him and say to the others "Meet my online dating match, what a small world", nor could I completely ignore his presence and put a sack over my head.  
Well, in the end, being myself was the best policy.

It is the theory that everyone and everything is six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world, so that a chain of 'a friend of a friend' statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps. – Wikipedia

Bridesmaid dress.

Getting all done up.

The wedding dress.

Double happiness.

It's Spring and nothing signifies spring quite like blossoms mixed with hayfever, and of course the beginning of the wedding season. This year there must be something in the pollen as almost everyone I've ever met decides to say their "I Dos"(For Richer or Poorer). As a result, I have made my official debut onto the wedding scene as an invitee.

It was a picture perfect Sunday afternoon - the sun, the harbour and the beaming couple. All the preparation in the months prior has culminated in this single day of celebration and it was hard to ignore the joy present in all that attended. Especially touching were the speeches given by the bride and groom to their families and to one another, and the photobooth offered guests some light hearted entertainment.

But as I watched the beautiful bride walk down the aisle without a single hair out of place, I couldn't help thinking that as much as a wedding is about celebration, it is also an extremely conformist occasion. It demands all its participants - guests as well as the marrying couple to enact a role that has been prescribed by traditional social conventions. 

Once upon a time weddings use to be simple family affairs that somehow evolved into a modern quest for happiness, and as the wedding industry would have us all believe that by doing a wedding according to its guide book, the bride is guaranteed the happily ever after, in her big white dress with her prince charming. Lets not forget, it is after all a business.

As Rebecca Mead rightfully argues in her book 'One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding', "The way we marry, for better or worse, is who we are; and if we were to re-examine our commitment to the American wedding as it currently exists, we might be surprised to find that our ultimate happiness does not depend upon it".

So weddings are something that none of us can ignore, even as guests. What one can do however, is simply to think of it as another party, and I was so busy taking snaps and dancing that I even forgot about the cake. But there is always the next one...