Although close to 3 years have passed I still remember my wedding day clearly. It was the most unforgettable life experience I’ve had and it is the happiest day of my life. But before I share with you, let me introduce myself first. My name is Jason and I’m just a typical guy born and raised in a conservative Asian family.

Being the only child, I always have the burden and responsibility to please both my parents including my wife’s family as well. Wedding ceremony in an Asian community is rather strict or I would say still very much follow to the traditional rules. First, the wedding must be as grand as possible and relatives are to be well informed and treated to a lavish dinner.
You could imagine the pressure and the kind of excitement although initially both myself and my wife prefer to opt for a simple wedding ceremony. Well, so much for trying to please the parents.

I could still remember clearly on that particular day. It was Oct 8th 2005, which was on Saturday, and I woke up as early as 6am in the morning with a clear mind knowing that the day shall be the day I’m to start a married life. I brushed my teeth and put on my coat. My wife was at her parent’s house, which was about 100kms away on the outskirts of town, where I’m supposed to meet and pick her up. Soon at around 10.30am my friends started to arrive, the wedding car which was a BMW compressor was already done decorated waiting for me to sit in it and off I go like a prince charming riding a cart to pick up my bride. We started our journey 15 minutes later and just after we turned out to the main highway, we could see a long jam stretching bumper to bumper. Oh, my god. I told my friend what a day to choose for a wedding. After stuck in the jam for more than half and hour, we decided to try another route since we don’t want to end up late arriving to receive the bride. The only thing lingers in my head at the moment was the angry expression I would expect to see on my father in-law’s face. We took another exit route and after driving for another half an hour, we realized that we were lost. So much for trusting my friend’s instinct. We rolled down the window to ask an old lady for directions and the only thing we could hear was her mumbling voice which we could never understand. Finally we were lucky to find a guy who was setting up a fruit stall nearby and he managed to point to us the correct way. I arrived at around 1pm which was about an hour late and my goodness, I was relieved when my father in-law appear and greeted us with a warm smile.

We proceed with the tea ceremony as practiced in a typical Asian community and then at night, we were having our dinner at a nearby restaurant with all my relatives and friends. Everything else after that went on smoothly and moved perfectly according to plan. I managed to dish my favorite rendition of “Nothing’s gonna change my love for you” by Glenn Medeiros, which I had always promised for my wife and the night was so lively and full of laughter. Well except for the 2 hours journey which almost had us lost to nowhere, the whole wedding day is really unforgettable.

Jason 26, leading a happy married life now blessed with 2 wonderful kids.

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