My first friends' wedding

The time finally arrived when I attended my first friend's wedding. Over the past number of years, I was a guest at weddings of cousins and family friends.

To be fair, Lulu's wedding wasn't my very first friends' wedding. I've gone to two colleagues' weddings before, the first one was my senior's wedding. The second was my high school friend, who was the first time in four years that I've seen her in person, she got married early, in my opinion, so I didn't really feel like an adult as I did at this time wedding.  

The night before the wedding, I didn't really sleep. I tossed and turned, picturing everything and imagining how it would be - to meet and catch up with friends and finally dropped off at 3 a.m. Well, we did video-call once in a while to catch up with each other, but meeting up in person feels different. It will be the first time in a year that I've seen them in person. What if we can't engage with each other as much as we did before? What if we feel awkward? And without warning, the "what if's" and "should" worries came to dominate my thought.

Fast forward to the wedding day, I was surprised but delighted to see our Chinese friends show up at Lulu's ceremony. Awkward at first, but it wasn't all bad as I thought it would be. We reminisced about our university days and what everyone was up to ever since. I was so ecstatic to see them and didn't realize I talked so much until all was said and done. Lulu, the bride, surprised us when she suddenly asked us to be part of the "toll" collector. If you didn't know, it is actually a fun Johor's wedding custom that when the groom arrives at the bride's house, he is blocked at several stages by the bride's relatives and friends, and you have to actually pay a "toll." Only when they are satisfied with the amount would they allow the groom to be at the bride's side. It's all very playful. As Ke Qin and CJ, our Chinese members were not very familiar with Malay customs and obviously not good at it. We encouraged them to just accept the money, and they don't have to feel bad about it. After the photo session, we did not stay any longer, and we left after this as she was also busy being the "queen." After all, it's a great experience, and I'm ecstatic for her!

Lulu is the most transparent person I've ever met. As the percentage of Malay girls in our class was less than 20%, it wasn't that hard to know her love story. From the moment she had a crush on him, falling in love, getting to know him, heartbroken, and falling in love again, we were there watching her. But I know for sure that her happiness was beyond words from the moment she met him. She's starting a whole new stage of her life. Despite the pandemic, 2020 is a blissful year for Lulu, and she deserves it. And I couldn't help but be delighted for her.  

P/s: I'm looking forward to another wedding for everyone to gather again.