In Rebecca Lim’s new talk show, With Love, Becks (幸福玲距离), we follow the bride-to-be as she prepares for the new phase of her life by speaking to various married guests.
For the second episode, her guest happens to be the Minister of State for Social and Family Development Sun Xueling.
At the start, it was revealed that the 43-year-old MP for Punggol West was from St Nicolas Girls’ School like Rebecca Lim, and the two women sat down in a classroom to reminisce about the old days.
Their secondary school days are distant but fond memories to them; Sun graduated in 1995, while Rebecca graduated in 2002.
They talk about a myriad of things in the episode, from the woes of keeping their school skirts at knee length, troubles in home economics, to fangirling over popular boy bands.
The Thrifty Marriage of Sun Xueling
When the pair eventually drifted to the topic of marriage from their school days, Rebecca was quite interested to know more about Sun’s wedding.
Apparently, the actress had read about the wedding banquet online.
Sun, who is married to a Beijing-born tech entrepreneur and a mother of two daughters, told Rebecca that her own wedding couldn’t be considered a “feast”.
If anything, it could only count as a small-scale celebration, said Sun.
“There were only 30 guests, and it was buffet-style [right]?” Rebecca asked.
Sun admitted to the small guest list, adding that they had chosen to get married on Vesak Day because she assumed that people would be able to attend on a public holiday.
Moreover, since it was a Buddhist holiday which commemorates the birth, enlightenment and death of Gautama Buddha, Sun and her husband thought it wouldn’t be appropriate to have a traditional wedding menu which would have four meat dishes at least.
Instead, the couple opted for a vegetarian lunch for their 30 or so guests.
Sun also revealed that her wedding dress was quite simple and that she “didn’t do much research”, so she only spent around $3,000 on her wedding.
It is unclear when Sun got married, but even if it was 10 or 15 years ago, $3,000 for a wedding is incredibly cheap. Practically unheard of, even.
Rebecca had been very surprised to hear this.
“That’s very good!” The bride-to-be exclaimed.
For Rebecca, who is literally making a whole production out of the lead-up to her own marriage, $3,000 is probably a small fraction of what she is spending on her own wedding.
The simplicity of Sun’s wedding was also touched upon during the b-roll interview.
Sun said, “The wedding is just a ceremonial thing, the most important thing is that both parties feel happy and their families are happy too.”
Rather than having an extravagant wedding, Sun emphasised that it is more important for the couple to get along well, and for their families to live happily.
Well, words never spoken truer by the Minister of State for Social and Family Development.
It explains a lot about why her wedding was the way it was, honestly.
If you are interested in learning more details, you can watch the full episode on MeWatch.
Featured Image: unscrambled.sg
