Madeline’s wedding – part 3a – 21st morning @ Sam’s

A wedding is like a movie. You have the cast
Lead Actor – Vincent Hiew
Lead Actress – Madeline Ham
Supporting cast Janet Low (Maid of honor)
Valerie (chee mui)
Ruby (chee mui)
Ee Ping (chee mui)
Rebecca (chee mui)
Carmen (chee mui)
Daphne (chee mui)
Shin (chee mui)
Yee Ling (chee mui)
Cindy (chee mui)
Ivy (chee mui)
Jennifer (chee mui)
Martina (chee mui)
Wee Tee (chee mui)
Celia (chee mui)
Tracy (chee mui)
Angie (chee mui)
Irene (chee mui)

(not all the chee muis are shown here - or I run out of chee muis to show on the other parts of my blog!!)
A bunch of guys from the bridegroom side (heng dai)
Special guest stars Pak Leung and family
The immediate Hiew family
Cameo roles Madeline’s father
Relatives on both sides (the aunts and uncles and cousins from near and far)
Friends on both sides
Avilleen Yeoh (ED of Warisan TC holdings)

Well, you get the idea. And for the heng dais trying to figure out who is who amongst the chee muis, good luck to you!! Want to know them ah, must open mouth during the yam cha sessions and also during dinner. Otherwise – opportunities have been lost!! Kekeke!!

So the morning started with collection of breakfast for the chee muis at my house. Went to the market with my wife and when we got back, the roast pig was already delivered and the delivery man was happily hacking away at it. Big pig!!

Only RM760. Given today’s price on pork, this can be considered as reasonable.

Almost everybody in the house woke up before 6am to get prepared for the day. Maybe it was the excitement of what was expected, or maybe my beds and mattresses were not comfortable enough, but almost everyone had only a couple hours of shut eyes.

Preparations for the morning includes medicating the stomach (yee toh aka breakfast), going over the ragging list (as in ragging the bridegroom and his entourage) and deciding the order of events.

At almost 9am, the sound of horns blaring in the distance heralded the arrival of the bridegroom and his entourage. The bride was still happily tucking away into mee hoon downstairs and had to be rushed upstairs to get her into her dress and put on the final touches.

The most important thing to be done before the groom arrived was the veiling of the bride. This is traditionally done by the bride's dad, but he was nowhere to be found. So my mum had the honor of veiling Madeline (and rightly deserve to do it as she has been almost like a surrogate mother to Madeline). Even Madeline's boss, Avilleen was in the room to witness the veiling.Let the show begin!!!

Act 1 scene 1 – the first hurdles
First hurdle the bridegroom had to overcome was getting out of the car. He cannot just open the door and walk out. He had to wait for a young family member, normally the bride’s youngest brother, in this case, my son Alex, to open the door for him. And he has to bribe Alex before Alex will open the door. No ang pow (red packet) no door opening!! Well, Alex got his Ang Pow and the groom strutted into the house compound.

All the doors leading into the house was then closed. The front grill was locked, but not the sliding glass door. So negotiations between the groom’s party and the chee muis inside the house could commence. I had a side door into the living room where entrance was controlled for late comers and non affiliated parties (neither the heng dai or chee muis).

In order to allow the groom into the house, he and his heng dais had to perform some tasks. In no particular order
- Read out aloud a pledge of his undying love and sign it. Reading it wrong (like saying, I will give her SOME of my money, instead of ALL of my money) meant he had to start all over again.
- Have one of the heng dai roll a hard boiled egg from one trouser leg, up the leg (from inside) and then down the other leg. Obviously ticklish in certain sensitive parts!! And then the groom had to peel off the shell of the egg and the heng dai had to eat and swallow the egg. 3 eggs were available for this task for 3 heng dai to complete. One heng dai managed to break the egg into 2 before it emerged out the other trouser leg!!
- Eat sandwiches which were spiced with fermented soya bean paste (foo yee). Very salty and sourish!!
- Each heng dai had to open a capsule of dried herbs onto their tongues and then swallow the mess. The herb is good for cooling the body but is really really BITTER!!
- Last but not least, they had to ‘bribe’ the chee muis with ang pows to open the gate.

As time was of the essence, after a little haggling, the gates were opened. You think that’s it?? No! no! The door to the bride’s room was locked from inside! The groom and heng dais really had to jump through hoops in order to get to the bride. Eventually, they got through all the trials and tribulations laid out by the chee muis and peace reigned in the house – sort of!

Next were the yam cha (tea ceremony) sessions. This session is to show respect to the elders of the bride side as well as an opportunity for the young ones to get a red packet. First up was Madeline’s dad, followed by the uncles and aunties of the Tham clan. Then the senior cousins (like yours truly) and the married ones. All of us had to give the newly weds an ang pow or gift (typically gold necklaces, bracelets, etc). Then it was the turn of the unmarried ones and finally the young ones – who received ang pows after wishing the newly weds.

With that, we carried the roast pig (only head and tail with mid section wrapped in red paper) to my other car, tied 2 stalks of sugar cane onto the same car and lead the whole group – chee muis and heng dais, to Vincent’s house for the next act.