The Lovettes (Aisling) – Sizing up Singapore

Now that we’re getting settled in Singapore, I’ve started to think about little things we can do to incorporate our time here into our wedding day. I really hope we can manage this, because the whole experience has been one big adventure, really pushing us both out of our comfort zones in different ways. The challenge has been thinking about how best to do it.

I think before we moved out I thought that there would be one specific thing, or maybe a style, that would be quintessentially Singaporean. Actually, apart from drinking a Singapore Sling (which I’ve only seen in the bar at Raffles – the hotel that created it) and eating chilli crab (the first thing we get asked if we’ve done!) what’s unique about Singapore is the way it’s such an incredible mixing pot of different cultures.

Chilli Crab and Singapore Slings

People here are proud to be Singaporean, but they a strong and separate ethnic identity, and the country has four official languages in recognition of this. Most people (about 75%) are Chinese, and there are also large Malaysian and Indian populations. Other Asians and Europeans like us make up about 3% of the total population. On the surface at least, everyone seems really well integrated and we get public holidays for Christian, Buddhist, Islamic and Hindi feast days, as well as Chinese New Year. There is also the most incredible range of cuisines to sample – on our street alone we can have at least three types of Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Indian along with a Dominoes, just for good measure!

We’ve been lucky enough to get to experience some of this new culture first-hand. We arrived towards the end of Chinese New Year and got invited to a traditional ‘open house’ party hosted by one of Rupert’s bosses. We’d been advised the appropriate gift was for each to bring two mandarin oranges, because they’re considered a sign of prosperity – and sure enough we were seeing specially decorated mandarin orange trees all over Singapore for weeks afterwards!

Chinese New Year street decorations (via Pinterest)

Bringing it back to the wedding though, it’s a bit tricky to pick what we can do to incorporate some of this into our day. I’ve some ideas for the stationery but we’re only starting to think about that now. Other than that, it’s difficult to pick something that comes across as Singaporean rather than, for example, Chinese – but I suspect I’m over-thinking it! The other thing we have to bear in mind is fitting in with the style of our venue.

A Singaporean wedding c. 1930, from an exhibition at the Peranakan Museum, Singapore.

Laura wrote a brilliant Lovettes post a few weeks ago (which you can read here) where she talked feeling beautiful on your wedding day and the pressures we put ourselves under when we’re getting married. One of her takeaway pieces of advice was to find a venue that can offer you everything (at least, when it comes to catering).

I thought that was really interesting because we looked at two wonderful wedding venues. They were quite similar in some ways, both were country houses but one was still lived in by the owners, while the other operated as a boutique hotel. The first was a total blank canvas, but the hotel could provide everything for us, however it required us to take a much more structured package, had a few more things on the ‘cannot’ list and charged corkage. The banqueting hall was also already decorated, in a style that we liked, but which would influence what we could do ourselves.

Our wedding venue, Castle Durrow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw them both on the same weekend, and spent a few days thinking about the pros and cons. We were each championing different venues, but in the end the decision was made by sheer logistics: we’re going to be in Singapore until next March, and even once we move back we’ll be living in London and not Dublin. Add a new job for me into the mix, where weekends are not always guaranteed, and the decision was practically made for us: we are very excited to be getting married in the second of our venues, Castle Durrow.

The banqueting hall at Castle Durrow, I think the green wall panels look a bit Chinese-inspired?

 

Castle Durrow

One thing I would say, is that when we worked out the numbers the price difference between the two wasn’t nearly as significant as we’d expected, given the type of day we wanted. I would definitely recommend pricing all your options as completely as you can, as I’d assumed the first venue would definitely be the cheaper of the two, and it looked that way at first!

It’s true we’ve been a bit constrained by the decision, but it was definitely the right one for us, and we’ve no regrets (touch wood!). The 1920s influence we’d originally contemplated is now likely to be limited exclusively to my wedding ring, which I picked up recently from Ivy Nixon Jewellery  at the Etsy Wedding fair – more on that in a later post though!

Aisling xxx

 

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Aisling O’Dwyer is due to marry Rupert Walter on 27 August 2016
You can find Aisling on Pinterest and Instagram
Amy French of Rubistyle Photography will be taking their wedding photography