It was a solemnisation cum wedding lunch. When my uni classmate cum excolleague first approached me to be the emcee for her wedding, I was honoured yet reluctant.
I was flattered that she has thought so highly of me. I was reluctant because this was not like any other presentation where a fumble only means a lost chance of promotion or a bad scolding from boss. Any fumble robs the new couple of a perfect wedding and life-time regret remains. I was even more apprehensive when she wanted me to do it in Chinese. Speaking in proper Chinese (ie with no rojaks of other dialects or languages) has proven more and more difficult. The last time I have made any serious attempt to pronounce the Chinese words distinctly was 10 years ago during my Chinese oral exams. However, after some persuasion, I relented. Since there was another emcee to help out, the assignment might not be as daunting. At least, I will not be the only one standing there facing the whole floor of expectant faces.
We have initially planned for a pre-event rehearsal but we could not agree on the time to meet. Finally, we decided to meet earlier on the actual day itself. Given my blurness, I have better had more prior preparation. Hence, I spent about 2 hours last Sunday at home reading through the script aloud to get all the pronounciation right, especially the "with H" and "no H" and "with G" and "no G" sounds.
We gathered at 9am yesterday at the venue. The groom called a meeting after all the helpers have arrived. He briefed us the program and everyone's task. Then we were off to the stage for rehearsal with the program coordinator.
It was the first time I have met my counterpart. He was the primary, secondary cum JC classmate of the groom. He and the groom were also from the same university but different faculties. He was literally the joker of the group. It was indeed a wise choice of the groom to select him as the leading emcee.
During the rehearsal, he was busy adding in sidelines, jokes and practically his own script (which involved jokes about the groom, Star Awards, etc). The jokes relaxed the tense and nervous ambience. Unfortunately, we were more occupied laughing and playing a fool than doing real work, including the groom. There was a scene where we were supposed to announce the arrival of the groom and bride. The groom held the hands of the bride and skipped down the aisle. Despite the other emcee's playfulness, he turned to serious practising of the script when the groom and bride retired to the room to change and do their make-up. We were both doing last minute running through the script to minimise tumbling over the words which happened often during our initial rehearsals.
Finally, it was the start of the real show. There were some events which did not happen as expected which caused us to do last minute improvisation of our prepared script. For instance, the registrar went up to the stage before we invited him. Then, we were also abit lost about when the registrar would finish his speech and that we should announce the end of the ceremony. Mid-way through, it also appeared that the position we were standing blocked the views of some guests and we had to keep moving around between our speeches and the photo montage. Notwithstanding these surprises, we have managed to deliver our speeches with no hiccups and the new couple and their family were impressed and happy.
This was the first time I am the emcee of a wedding. This is also the first time I feel that I have really participated in the wedding. This is also the first time I have witnessed the support of friends and between the new couple to make the wedding really successful, not just in terms of showmanship but in terms of meaning.
It is fun and I am glad I can be of help to my friend. I am touched that she has seen me as a friend to have invited me to be part of the most important event of her life.
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