Jo’s thoughts: Beyond The Sea
Rachel decided on Beyond The Sea for her March-In song, and no wonder — her groom Jason was an avid sailor, traversing the oceans until unexpectedly, he found somewhere to drop anchor at last…where his beautiful bride Rachel was.
It’s a very beautiful story of romance between two continents that brought tears to the eyes of the band as well as the guests, perhaps best summed up in the loosely recalled words of Jason’s father, also a sailor:
‘My son Jason fell in love with the sea from when when he was just a kid. We’d go sailing together. He grew up and traveled to many different countries.’
‘Then one day he found happiness, and her name was Rachel.’
Or to quote the very apt lyrics of Beyond the Sea,
we’ll kiss just as before
Happy we’ll be beyond the sea
and never again I’ll go sailin'”
In contrast to the newly and happily rooted groom, Jason’s family journeyed down from their homeland of Australia to wave their handkerchiefs at the couple as they departed on the good ship Matrimony, and threw themselves into the Chinese wedding with gusto, joining in happily in the impromptu yam seng, and bouncing up to dance, grandmothers and grandchildren alike, to the tune of Let There Be Love.
The Chinese singaporean guests were warm participants as well: Table 3 sent up a request for the bride and groom to have their first dance, which they tried their best to indulge, and Rachel’s brother gamely and very bravely tried to translate Jason’s sweet speech from English to Mandarin for the non English-speaking guests, and while some of the bilingual guests laughed very hard at some of his translations, this supposedly bilingual emcee thought his efforts were eloquent and more than adequate.
It was a charming and simple, moving wedding with lovely participants…two of whom, including the groom who must have been tired, came up personally to the band btoh during and after our performance to congratulate us and tell us how well we did, which is really heartfood for us. And after the whole banquet was over, some of the pretty young relatives came up requesting dance music, which the Raffles Hotel soundguy/DJ gamely found and put on, causing a whole table to bounce up to a trance/techno track.
It was a beautiful night, and we wish the Seaman and his Sweetheart a lovely landfall.
Band: Jo, Iwee, Boon Chye
Repertoire:
Beyond The Sea, Book Of Love, The Look Of Love, (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons, It Had To Be You, The Way You Look Tonight, Come Fly With Me, Sway, Let There Be Love, Our Love Is Here To Stay, Fly Me To The Moon, L-O-V-E, So Nice
Compliments:
Hi Hsin Yeow,
Sorry about the late reply. Jason and I flew to China after the wedding and we just got back.
It’s so sweet of Jo and please thank her and the band for the incredible music at the wedding. Jason’s grandma was singing along at our table and everyone enjoyed themselves immensely.
I’ll try to get photos from everyone and will send one at the soonest. Thank you and say hi to everyone for us!
Cheers,
Rachel & Jason
