Love knows no boundaries for Jay and Ah Reem. He's a Singapore boy and she's born in Korea, but it was in New York where the two serendipitously fell in love. "We actually met on a dating site and found out we had at least 100 mutual friends!" says Jay.
Three and a half years on, the adorable pair finally took the plunge and threw a big wedding celebration in Singapore with a cultural exchange of tradition and customs, not forgetting delicious eats. "Ah Reem really wanted to eat chicken rice and my mum's mee siam; that was the real reason we got married," he laughs.
On the first day, Jay picked up his cheongsam-clad bride in the morning, after a gatecrashing in her hotel room, and together they rode in a 1950s Rolls Royce Phantom to his parents place for the tea ceremony and Korean pae baek ritual. With the traditional han bok costumes in play and cameras in the background, Jay jokes that his guests thought for a second that they were on a Korean drama TV set!
The following day, Jay and Ah Reem held a romantic beachside solemnisation on the tranquil shores of Siloso Beach at Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa. To match the rustic decorations, Ah Reem was dressed in an understated gown from The White Gown in New York, holding a beautiful hand bouquet of wild flowers from Sing See Soon, while her groom looked sharp in a Paul Smith outfit. As she walked down the sandy aisle, guests were serenaded by classical music performed by the Vetta Quartet.
The spacious Horizon Pavilion ballroom, where they hosted a banquet dinner for 200 guests, was turned into a rustic wonderland filled with pastel flowers, wood, burlap and romantic candles. "All the vintage elements put together remind us of our home in Brooklyn, where we live," says Jay. Also from New York were all of Ah Reem's bridal entourage, who flew in to be her bridesmaids. And there was a surprise screening of videos sent in from friends back home who couldn't make it to Singapore.
