Wedding dinner at Copper Mansion, PJ

For the first time ever in my life, I attended a WEEKNIGHT wedding dinner. At least it was in PJ, but having to rush home, clean up, change, put on MORE MAKEUP and get there in rush hour traffic was... interesting. 

Here's the sitch:

Groom: Bro's BFF (for all intents and purposes) from at least since secondary school, I've no idea if they were in same primary school together. 

Bride: Family friend's niece (from his wife's side of the family), who's known my father for at least 20 years now. 

(We all only found out because the BFF recognised my dad at "his girlfriend's family thing" [paraphrasing here] a few years ago, when one of uncle's kids got married and my dad was in attendance for the ceremonial bit.)

I only went because I'm already accounted for in the seating chart (as my bro's sister), AND I've never been to Copper Mansion before. Not having to fork out money for angpau is also a bonus. 

Only got there after 7 p.m. because rush hour traffic, only to see my primary school classmate standing outside the ballroom half of the place with her new infant daughter. Turns out, she's a first cousin to the groom (through their mums). Talk about small world lor. She did ask why I was there and the most succint answer I could muster was that my bro is one of the heng dai (groomsmen).  She also wasn't expecting to see me either, so fair's fair. Okaylah, we did chat some more inside, in between courses. 

Dinner was in one of the ballrooms, with fewer than 20 tables. Me and the 'rents were at the same table with uncle (who also organised the dinner, that I know of), his wife, one of their kids, groom's neighbours... 

Because the groom's parents are no longer with us, my classmate's parents stepped in as his elders. 

Place setting. We still have no idea if it was a really thin scarf or something else.
We have them in different colours haha.

First course... which had some bits of erm, baby lobster

According to the menu, it was Iberico ribs.
And yes, gloves were provided if you want to caveman it up. 

Fresh prawns course. 

There's a portable stove underneath, which the servers switched on when during the yam seng.
We were worried about it exploding when the cover expanded so much.

It was fresh prawns, some pork in pepper soup.

Dessert course. There was also a mango sago cold soup to go with this. 

Personally, I wasn't paying too much attention to what was happening around me. But I knew that the morning's pictures were taken on the playground near my grandma's place (apparently, my bro managed to wave at her when they were taking pictures, etc) because the bride's family had rented the corner house in the area (which I heard is a designated event space, homestay/ whatever) that's on the same road as my grandma's place.

Most of our table's leftovers went to uncle's kid, who apparently is living on his own and wouldn't have to cook for a couple of meals. 

Only got home after 11 p.m., which I would say is not bad for a school night. 

PS.

• I admit, I don't know all the details; I know I'm not a reliable narrator. 
• This was my bro's last heng dai gig. Not the first, but definitely the last. He also took his first day off from work in ages to do this, so I hope the effort was appreciated.