Bevlyn’s thoughts: 祝他们幸福快乐 (I Wish Them Happiness)
Having performed at numerous weddings over the past few years, I have to admit Yang and Dean’s wedding is one of the really ‘happening’ ones. See if you can beat these:
1) Along with their ‘Chikas’ (the sisters) and ‘Dudes’ (brothers), the whole lot of them re-enacted and videoed down how Yang and Dean met. The story goes, that 9 years ago during a baseball game, Dean flung the ball right onto Yang’s forehead (by accident of course). And ever since Dean ‘HIT’ on Yang that day, this life-changing act made their lives ‘become a bed of roses’. The video was hilarious beyond words; I was so tickled by the acting of the Chikas and Dudes in the video that I had to turn to ask Ryoko (a friend of the couple, and one of the two Japanese brides we have sung for so far) “Where do you guys come from? Mars?!”
2) The couple have chosen excellent songs for the whole evening (see Songs To Recommend below). As the guests come from very diverse background, we managed to please most of them, all thanks to the songlist of mixed genres passed to us. What we must mention is the march-in songs “Sunshine” by Gabrielle and ” Dancing In The Moonlight” by Toploader. These songs certainly gave refreshing kicks to the important parts of the wedding event.
3) Valerie, niece of Dean, went up the stage to greet the guests with “Now I can’t call sister Yang ‘Sister Yang’ anymore. I have to call her “小婶” (Little Aunt), and I wish them happiness, “祝他们幸福快乐”. How cute is that?
4) Dean conspired with the band to spring a surprise on Yang by singing a Hokkien song “好不好?” (Is It Good?) by Mayday for her, but wait – he doesn’t know any Hokkien at all! So, armed with a piece of Hokkien lyrics all decoded to pinyin, he gamely declared his love and commitment to Yang all sung out in Hokkien, much to the amusement and cheers of the guests.
5) And while Dean thought that he was the only one springing a surprise that evening, an even riskier surprise was broiling underground. It was regrettable that Dean’s brother could not fly back from the USA to attend the wedding due to work. So to alleviate the regrets a little, a good friend tried all means to Skype the brother, and make communications possible between the brother and Dean (and the whole ballroom of guests). Even though it took a few re-dialing to connect successfully to the brother, to be able to hear the brother congratulating the couple on their big day was definitely well-worth all the efforts (and stress).
To the couple, thank you for inviting to the wedding, we had such a smashing time! Here’s wishing you all the fun and joy in the new life you’re creating together, and hope we’ll see both of you very soon!
L-R: Bevlyn, Ein Ein, Yang, Dean, Clarence, Zheng Quan, and Dean’s 2 nieces (Valerie on the left).
Band: Bevlyn, Zheng Quan, Ein Ein, Clarence
Repertoire:
Sunshine (1st march), Happy Together (1st dish), Rainbow Connection, Chasing Cars, Close To You, 天天想你 (Thinking Of You Every Day), We Could Be Together, For Your Love, 甜蜜蜜 (Honey Sweet), 相信 (Trust), If I Ain’t Got You, Grow Old With You
Dancing In The Moonlight (2nd march), 好不好 (Is It Good?), La Vie En Rose, When You Say Nothing At All, 黑白配 (Black And White), Open Arms, 采红菱 (Harvesting Red Caltrops), 阿美阿妹 (Ah Mei Ah Mei), Lost In Paradise, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Head Over Feet, Can’t Take My Eyes Off You
Songs To Recommend
Sunshine by Gabrielle – An excellent song if you want a cruising feel kind of song!
Dancing In The Moonlight by Toploaders – Always a fun song to perform to or listen!
采红菱 (Harvesting Red Caltrops) by Teresa Teng – Some may frown at how old this song is, but this song received the loudest applause after it was performed!
阿美阿美 (Ah Mei Ah Mei) – Same goes for this mandarin classic. Bound to bring smiles to the guests when it is performed.
I Wanna Hold Your Hand by The Beatles – a fun and groovy song which many would love to dance to!
Head Over Feet by Alanis Morisette – I have to give kudos to Yang and Dean for choosing this song. It’s a grungy song but when it is performed in weddings, it becomes a fresh breath of air among the other numbers.
For Your Love by Stevie Wonder
– A very soulful one which should be requested more often at weddings!
