aldora: Movie Review: The Wedding Diary (2012)

Wedding is for a DAY, but Marriage? For a Lifetime.

The Wedding Diary 2012

Why would I want to watch a movie that was aired two years ago?

I watched it on youtube because I felt that it might enlighten me a little especially when I am getting married soon next April.

Everything seemed so surreal. Getting to know a guy on Valentine's Day and he ended up being my soulmate and now fiancé. Everything is progressing rather swiftly.

Just to give you a little background on this movie in case you guys are clueless on what is it about. This movie has a comedic plot about the matrimony between a rich bride and a poor groom and the conflicts between the bride's and groom's family during the wedding preparation.

As typical Chinese, we regard the wedding ceremonies as a showy event to display our wealth to the entire world. We all want 'face' and have tend to have a lot of pride. Hence we often behave like the typical Chinese saying - 打肿脸皮充胖子 (simply means to beat one's face up so that it will swell and makes you look fat as in the past, only rich people are fat). This is portrayed (in an exaggerated manner in order to have that comedic effect) in the groom of the movie as he promised the bride's family to hold a lavish wedding banquet so as to prove that he is financially stable enough to look after his wife-to-be.

Although it might be really funny, but please hold your laughter as this might be you and I when we prepare for our weddings as well (just that we might fail to recognise that). We do have to make many tough decisions in life which results in the concept of "Opportunity Cost" (i.e. we need to give up something in order to have more of the other thing) as it is impossible for us to have everything unless we are freaking rich. Even if we are rich, we cannot even possess the entire universe. LOL.

Hence let me relate my experiences with this movie below...

The Wedding Diary (2012)
Main Cast:
Ah-Niu as Daniel Chua Wei Keat
Elanne Kwong as Tina Chong Sze Xin
Kara Hui as Allison Chan
Houren Zhu as Collin Chong
Marcus Chin as Chua Ah Sai
Shaun Chen as Jeremy
Rating: ☻☻☻☻☺

Ideals (100%) VS Reality (less than 20%)

Prince Charming

When I was young, I used to dream a lot. I dreamt that my Prince Charming would be very suave like those celebrities from TCS (the former Mediacorp).

I idolised the lead of the 1993 drama - 金牌师爷 (The Witty Advisor) which was acted by the confident Rafael Chew Chor Meng at the time. I was so addicted to the drama that I would use my VCR to record the drama religiously whenever it was aired on Channel 8.

To relish my fond memories, below is the intro theme song that would be played before the drama starts:

Well, although my Prince Charming did not end up to be like the Witty Advisor, at least the cheeky look of Sweetie Muffin resembles him for 20% at least. Also, he can predict what I am thinking at times (perhaps 10-20% of the time).

Le' Muffin Advisor?

Housing

Next, let's talk about housing... Both of us dreamt of living in landed property that is huge and spacious... However as typical Singaporeans, we ended up staying in a resale HDB. Moreover, it wasn't even easy to even obtain a HDB Loan to purchase our dream flat in the first place. You may read about our Resale HDB Flat journey HERE.

We are considered very fortunate to be able to get a flat in the central area and not be forced to get a BTO which is located away from town. Of course, BTOs have their pros as well - they are brand new and pocket-friendly at the very least.

Some couples cannot even afford BTOs and have to squeeze together with their parents in a small apartment. Hence we ought to thank God that we managed to buy a resale flat without the need to beg and steal at this juncture.

Renovation

Despite me raving about my renovation ideas in my previous blog posts, they are only my imagination of how my dream home should be. After all, we live to dream (or rather we dream to live?).

The resale flat has already burnt a big hole in our pockets, not to mention the upcoming expenditures on the wedding banquet etc. Renovation seems to be of the very least significance now. At least we agreed that we should do up our toilets (if not I might just die of constipation).

It's OK, we should just have more cash-flow for other unexpected stuff instead. Forget about renovating your house to look like a condo because a HDB will always be a HDB no matter how good it looks.

Wedding

Who doesn't like to dream about their wedding gowns, wedding photography and videography? Call me materialistic or a girl who is severely inflicted with the Princess disease.

I have always pictured myself like the princesses in the Walt Disney's animations. My wedding would be grand and lavish with all eyes on me. After all, I get to shine like a diva for once in my lifetime.

However as reality sets in, I think I am wandering further away from my fairytale wedding.

Just take the bare minimum wedding packages. Who cares if I shine for just that one day and end up in huge debts for the rest of my life? Wake up!

So I have finally convinced myself that I have no need of a fairytale wedding. Since I won't have my ideal fairytale wedding, then we should just go for the simplest wedding and get over and done with it. Wedding is just one event that burns a hole in our bank accounts in a brutal manner.

My wedding would be the simplest but most memorable one because I will enjoy it with my friends and family. It is the greatest blessing that I can marry somebody of the same faith as many others are not blessed like us.

Hence, I have decided to do away with all that fanciful and rowdy gate-crashing (to Sweetie Muffin's relief) because I only have 2 good friends and I do not wish to involve too many people in the 'performance'. I do not want my wedding to be an event which makes all of us look like clowns. What matters is that we are happy and will cherish each other after marriage more.

Conclusion

After all the rantings and grumbling that my idea of marriage differs so much from reality, I would like to conclude that wedding is only a day but an ideal marriage should last for a lifetime.

Would you want to jeopardise the lifelong marriage on that one day's lavishness? That is indeed food for thought for all of us.

To be honest, I was rather resentful that I did not get to renovate my house like a condo (I can't even hack the kitchen down although I find it an eyesore due to our limited budget) - perhaps that day will come if I believe in miracles.

After watching The Wedding Diary, I realised that spending too much to feed our pride will do us no good in the long run especially we are not affluent to begin with.

As the Chinese saying goes: 没那么大的头，就别戴那么大的帽 (which simply means do not bite more that you can chew) - we should just be contented with whatever we have and learn to count our blessings.

I will be departing away from my fate of becoming an Old Maid (no, I won't draw any more of the Old Maid cards in the childish card games) and that fact alone is a worthy cause for celebration.

Only when we learn how to appreciate the little things in life, then we can learn to let go and be happy. Happiness can be derived from the love and care we experience from our loved ones, it does not have to be material at all :)