The Preparation
Timing
When we first got engaged, we imagined waiting. Two years felt reasonable: enough time to plan, save, and not feel rushed. A wedding felt like something that required distance.
But Popo had just finished helping with our cousin’s wedding in Dominica, and for the first time, she claimed feeling tired in a way she hadn’t before. She told us she didn’t know how much energy she had left for something like this and wanted to do it while she still could with a bang (maybe, a classic grandma line)
It was a quick leap but it was less scary knowing we'd have Popo's expertise and support.
Looking back, I’m grateful we didn’t wait.
Location
I knew I didn’t want to get married in a strange place.
I'm kind of weird about these things. I wanted to feel comfortable and in my own element for something as huge as getting married.
I had already pre-imagined my wedding at Peter's Rock, given permission.
So naturally when Popo first suggested it, I said yes immediately. Later, logistics had us looking at a place in Jack’s Hill closer to town, the caterers would have their whole kitchen, and decor people could move more easily, more convenient overall. I didn’t love it, but I agreed anyway because it felt like what Popo needed in order to do her magic.
In the end, the cost of renting that space was too high, and we came back to the mountain. I remember feeling deeply relieved— like we had returned to the truth of what I wanted all along. Soooo happy we had it there, despite the complaints from inexperienced drivers among the guests (lol).
Dress
Kai and I went to buy our clothes together.
If you didn't know, every province in China is famous for a different kind of manufacturing. We didn't know it, but the city we were in for Kai's work, Suzhou, happened to be the Wedding Capital!
They have the most selection for gowns, suits, hair pieces, veils, gloves, party things etc. So it was only natural we went in person to do the shopping.
The complex where we got the clothes had 5 buildings, each their own super mall with 8 floors and hundreds of stores. It was insane.
I'm not one to fuss over this kind of thing, so I chose from the first four dresses I tried on. Same for Kai.
We got all our dress for under $500.
Cake
Cake is my Grandma's thing. At Christmas time, everyone is asking for her cake. I've been a fan since birth. She even makes gluten free one's for the Chuck Aunties in Florida.
So it's only natural that the expert baker come forth with the wedding cake. And Grandma takes her job seriously.
I happened to have a larger oven during the wedding prep season so Grandma decided to come over and bake there. When she baked it the first time at my house, the oven temperature wasn’t consistent, and the cake didn’t come out the way she wanted.
Even though most people wouldn’t have noticed, she cared that it wasn't perfect. So she went back home and baked it again in a smaller oven, with fire, making sure it was perfect before handing it over to the cake designer.
I'm so grateful for that kind of love :)
For the cake design, I hand drew something that brought a bit of an Asian element to the traditional Jamaican wedding cake hoping Selena Wong, our cake designer, could bring the message to life. As we all now know, she did and it was a fantastic testament to the melding of our cultures and my cultures :)
Decor
Nobody decorates like Popo.
I am always in awe of her ability to dress a space. We all are :)
But perhaps the even more impressive part of her art isn't how she applies the decor, but how she gets it. Popo is always so resourceful. She has community. A discount here, a borrows there— the items appear affordably and accordingly to prove Popo's good karma out there in the business world.
Popo, Daddy and Aunty Donna did so many things to make the event spectacular. Things I would have never even thought to do. They cut the grass every few days so it would grow greener. They planted flowers that would bloom in December. They nursed a tree back to health after it had been damaged by a hurricane the season before.
When they realised the cost of renting porta-potties was going to be outrageous, Popo decided to build bathrooms from SCRATCH instead. They took a tool shed and turned it into fully tiled male and female bathrooms with a powder room in between— something that didn’t exist before, created entirely for one day.
Like what??? Hello?? THANK YOU <3
Performances
Performance has always been part of how I mark important moments. Lots of my family have been here to witness that from prep school days, to my Sweet 16 concert.
Couldn't let my wedding be any different.
Kodi's mom, Aunty Aldith joked every time she saw me leading up, "Hey just know I'm expecting Broadway level performance".
Friends sang. Carey wrote a song just for me and performed it that night. Kai spent almost an entire year learning 'She's Royal' so he could sing it himself. We started practicing early in the year, and by the time he performed it, he did so confidently.
We only had a few days to rehearse the final dance because everyone lived in different countries. It was rushed, imperfect, and completely worth it.
I'm actually SO SO SO glad that I went through with this. Those that perform together, take care of each other <3
Family
This was the biggest challenge for us.
Getting Kai’s family to Jamaica was complicated for obvious reasons: distance, cost, work schedules, school exams, family dynamics, fear of long travel.
His mom had never traveled that far before, and there were worries about language and unfamiliarity.
Countless back and forths, cancelled dates. And the unthinkable.
Kai's grandfather, his mother's father, passed away just days before the wedding. Traditionally, it would have been impossible for them to attend, even in Taiwan.
Still, by moving the tickets some days to accommodate the baseline grieving period, we somehow managed to get Albby and Māma to Jamaica.
