best friend wedding

Yesterday was a great day for me as I became the first ever best man for my best friend's wedding. It was church-going style and the experiences was really great. Bride Groom: Mr. Yap Wei Hong (Roromot) Bride : Ms. Rachel Pang Wei Kwan

The early struggle:

As excited as we were, the two of us, Wilson Puon (the water buffalo) and I were given priority task of being the chauffeur and best man respectively.

Make no mistake that it was all happy go lucky - we had to scramble from bed in the wee hour of 3:00 Am, put ourselves into proper attire and pretended that it was okay to leave home with leather shoe at 4:00Am in the morning. What the heck ?  - we then rushed to pick up another girl and subsequently gathered at Roromot's house at Puchong.

Not surprising to us, Roromot was already in full fledged stamina as well as in full suit. Sooner or later, we were joined by a legion of bachelors heading towards Melaka to take the bride away from her beloved parents.

So hit the highway and it was like 1 hour and half and I was like half awaken and half dreaming. Then we finally reached a humble place somewhere in Melaka, and the whole bunch of us got out. Then waited and waited, the bride was not ready yet... sigh, we were supposed to leave Melaka for K.L to attend the church reception.

Negotiation:

The whole legion swamped the house and moved upstairs where the bride was protected by few less-muscular young ladies : the sisterhood of Tarcian. The chief negotiator at the bride side was a familiar face to us, she is always a sleek, silver-tongue talker and she has the guts. Since our job was to penetrate that door with diplomatic behaviour, we had to comply with anything.

The first question to Roromot: "What was the sweetest memory you had with the bride according to her opinion ?"

--> Roromot said he cheated her that he had a flat tire and then walked from K.L to Melaka ? wow, did he said that?, well I don't remember but it is something to do with flat tire.. The chief negotiator said "Wrong answer", and we were punished with two glasses of sweet soya bean. I being the lucky one, was supposed to drink it on behalf of Roromot. Then the episode followed by another 4 questions which I don't remembered the questions and answers, but we were supposed to consume the following delicacies to remind Roromot of the kind of romantic experiences:

• 3 fresh lemon - sour time
• 3 bitter melon - bitter time
• Many Cili Padi sandwich- hot time
• milk-shake - Tongkat Ali buatan Melaka (for the bride groom only).

I told you I was lucky right?

ok, the Roromot and chief negotiator talked about money and settled, they wanted USD 9999.99 and we gave them 100111000 Japenese Yen (Japanese Yen is stronger than USD now). The door opened and it was a moment of muah-muah and sob sob... (u know) I wasn't overwhelmed yet. The couple did french kisses and we won (the guys won!), we got the girl,hooray!

Then went downstairs for tea ceremony and photo sessions and we were ready to rock K.L

Everyone got into a vehicle and trailed behind the main car, it was a Toyota Harrier and we hit the highway again. We were driving at comfortable speed, the decoration to the car attracted by-passers and some even "Gong xi, Gong xi" us.

Moment of Truth:

We reached the FGA church at Kuchai Lama, Old Klang Road,1 and half hours later, accompanied by even bigger legion of people. It was also my big time as I had a lot of tasks to be carried out.

Everyone unloaded and went upstairs to the main hall, the church guys were already hard on their preparations. As times went on, invited guess soon filled the hall and then the bride appeared and that was it, we have to start.

The MC, Mr. Joshua Lim got everyone to stand up for the march in. Me and Roromot moved to the front side waiting for the bride to be escorted from the back. Two young girls followed by a page-boy and then the bride's maid took the lead. My first task was to receive the rings from the page-boy.

Then everybody seated automatically (they shouldn't actually), the bride and groom remained standing until MC announced worshiping via means of songs. Then walked up the stage was Uncle Sam (hui) and his team. Together they rock the house with five holy yet hippie songs. One of them goes like this "For rest ...." and the last song was "Magnificent" where I was supposed to move chairs to accommodate the couple for the next session;message from the Pastor.

The pastor talked about God as our strength, we must think of no one but God at times of trouble because he is our true father. It is the intention of God for us to get marry and etc. He ended by saying "Children is God's richest heritage", that is why you must married lar (u know what i mean ?).

Then came the solemnization and registration part. I was to go up the stage with the bride and groom along with bride's maid. This is the time where they exchanged vows and I was supposed to hand over the rings to bride and groom respectively. Then the registration part followed by highlight of the day.. The slide show.

The Slide Show:

The show brought us down memory lane looking at Roromot's and Rachel's childhood to adulthood and then on how they met each other. It had series of nice photos and music. The parents of the bride and groom were the greatest. I could see the expression from their faces when baby photos of each being displayed, it was full of happiness. and I got to tell you, I was overwhelmed as well - i just did, and not sure why.

Perhaps I reckon that it is a great thing for two separate people from different town to meet up and be married. What most admired me is that they took up the courage to bring us such a day, I know the effort was enormous as I haven't even started dating. The crowd laughed flat out when the photo of Rachel's mimicking tomb raider being displayed.

After the slide show, they lighted the candles and then came the final worship and then they became husband and wife, when two become one. Then march-out and photo session.

ok, my job was almost done. We all went one stair below for refreshment. The food was ok and some people thought that I was the bride groom (because I was also wearing black suit.) Anyway, who cares, still have to eat right!

Dinner:

The dinner was held at Mines Resort city (from Sungai Besi toll, take left turning and reach a round-about, then take 2 o'clock and into the highway. Then pass on toll and turn left. At traffic light turn left again and then you should be there..)

A great place it was, with an artificial beach and nice architecture. Wilson and I were given a room and the moment we hit the bed, we flat-out until 6PM. We got ourselves ready and moved to the restaurant. As we got in, Uncle Sam(hui) was already there.. doing a finger or two on the organ for rehearsing, waiters were his audience then.

I kept myself busy as facilitator, trying to get things organized. As the crowds built up, things got more fun. Then at 8:20, the dinner officially began and everybody was up and standing to cheer the march in again. I got myself seated at table 8 with Wilson, Ah Tong (Tarcian), Eric How (CHS), Sue Eng(CHS), Jing Yi, Mei Yoke, and 4 girls from Melaka(Yong Yong, Janet, Teo and Swee) and also Yong's boyfriend; Lenny.

Then uncle sam started doing:

"十个女子，九个认小，明明是老，她说不是。。。。。" (in Cantonese please)

The following are the dishes:
1. Four season hot plate.
2. Shark Fin.
3. Lemon Chicken. (not lemon again...)
4. Fish
5. Mushroom and brocoli.
6. Friend rice.
7. Desert.

Don't ask me anything because I was treated with special meal for each - Vegetarian.

We had a series of entertainment and some games and then the toss; and  then it was finally completed.

We had chance to talk to the Melaka girls and found that they have nothing in common with Parameswara. Nevertheless, my opinion is that country girls are more "less-stress" and happier. City girls are stressed and ehm.... stressed. Both also pretty. (that is right.. that is right) But country girls don't smoke, that is good thing.

Nobody was really that drunk .. you know. So there was no drunken master display at the end of it. Orderly, people started to leave and came the nite.

It was a great day for everyone.

下文：The one thing I like about attending wedding is that everyone gets to be equal. The people around you sitting at the same table might be your business competitor or enemy, yet because of the wedding, you would get a chance to square off for a moment and just to enjoy the wine.

For relatives, it is a great time for gathering and resolve differences. For friends, it is a good opportunity to see how each other had progressed in life.

Most importantly, everybody was treated equally and with lots of love.