unforgettable

I have to confess an addiction I have - I read New York Times' Sunday Styles.

Ok, that's not all of the truth.

The whole truth is that my favourite bit of Sunday Styles is always the "vows" section.

The section where there are write-ups about people's weddings, their lives and how they met. Usually only the first feature is worth reading, the rest tend to be more like "xxx, daughter of xxx and xxx was married to xxx, son of xxx and xxx on Saturday. They met at xxxx. She is a (occupation here) and he is a (occupation here). His parents blahblahblah...."

Ah who gives a crap.

Instead I'd rather read of the couple who met and dated and who broke up after the girl gets spooked by the normalcy of the relationship. "We got along so well I figured something must be wrong." He later moves into her apartment building. She makes her dates walk up the 10 flights to her flat so they wouldn't run into him.

Read the rest yourself

i love reading this stuff. It's like real-life fairytales, somewhat. It's about relationships being condensed - how people met, how they didn't like each other at first (or did), how they got together, what he likes about her and vice-versa, why they wanted to get married, what the wedding was like. All in one Internet page.

Do I read it with a tinge of envy, that these people have met and found that one person they're willing to spend the rest of their life with? Yeah I guess I do.

Am I one of those girls who have a whole thought-out plan of what their wedding's gonna be like? Hell no. (does anyone actually? or is that just in the movies?)

But with several weddings coming up in the last two months of the year, I guess I wonder what goes through my friends' minds when their big day draws nearer.

Everyone opts for the big hotel ballroom, table after table of people you're probably seeing for the first time and probably never gonna see again, time ticking away as people wait and wait and wait. That big entrance in the wedding gown, probably down an aisle with dry ice wafting across the floor to give it that "special effect" - is it so special if it's been done millions of times already? The cold dish/sharksfin/prawn/vegetables/chicken/fish/noodles/dessert combi with a freeflow of coke/sprite/fizzyorange/chinesetea/badwine/beer. The cutting of the fake-cake and the pouring of the champers down the pyramid of glasses. The 'yamsengs' at each table and the photo-taking. That little cake or chocolate or perhaps some kind of little crafted memento for guests to take home in remembrance of this special day.

I've only been to one wedding which was a bit different. It was at the Beaufort and dinner was buffet-style on the verandah. Plus it was western food, with plenty of seafood and all kinds of good stuff. Dessert was in the foyer, where along with various cakes and puddings, the wedding cake - an actual cake! - was served. Homemade, with three tiers - fruit cake, carrot cake and chocolate cake. How lovely. Now that's a wedding I'll remember, while the details of the rest just blur into each other, I'm sorry to have to say.

Now playing: John Vanderslice - The Mansion