The Wedding Invitation

The wedding menu had 10 dishes:

o Roasted whole suckling pig
o Sliced abalone
o Braised sharks fin with shredded chicken
o Peeled shrimps in bird’s nest
o Asparagus with crab egg sauce
o Whole fried chicken
o Whole steamed fish
o Double happiness noodle
o Lotus seeds sweet soup (dessert)
o Pastries/cookies

Jasmine was born in 1959 in the year of Boar. She was not quite 28 at the time of the wedding. Chow Yun Fat was born on the 18th of May 1955 which was the year of the Ram. He was 32, 4 years older than Jasmine.

CYF planned to use a Jaguar as wedding car but Jasmine's father opposed to it. He said his daughter was a lady from a big family. She deserved the best for her wedding. CYF listened to his father-in-law and used a Rolls Royce instead.

The front and back cover of their wedding invitation was red. Inside was a rice-yellow color with words in gold. The strangest thing on the invitation was the use of the name "Wai" instead of CYF’s real name. According to Mr. Chan, Jasmine’s father, "Wai" is the name of CYF’s character in the popular TV series, "Man in the Net". Fat Chai thinks the series was representative of him and decided to use that name instead of his own.

Fat Chai's personality was playful and not serious about anything. Even at his wedding, he still behaved like he was making a movie. His life is a movie.

Fat Chai wore a white jacket with a black bow just like Hui Man Keung in "The Bund". The bride’s bouquet was made up of white lilies and other white flowers.

It’s a custom that bridesmaids should block the groom from picking up the bride at her home. The groom has to pay off the girls with a satisfactory amount of lucky money before he can access the bride. Instead of negotiating an amount with the bridesmaids, Fat Chai started playing games. He told the media behind him that the girls were too old fashioned to ask for "open door money". He said he has no money except for 2 red packets of lucky money. He even crossed his legs and sat outside of Jasmine’s room asking the girls, "Isn't it too hot hiding inside the room? Open up!"

Finally, Fat Chai gave 3 red packets of lucky money for the girls to open the door. He quickly took advantage of the girl who opened the door with a kiss on her cheek and claimed that she is his second wife. The amount given by Fat Chai to the bridesmaids were not released (it was reported that they each received five hundred Singapore dollars.)

The new couple has originally arranged to perform tea serving ceremony for Jasmine's parents at the Chan's big house. However, there were too many people in the house and made things hard to control. They had to change the ceremony to the Shangri-La Hotel where the wedding took place.

When the new couple arrived at the hotel, reporters requested Fat Chai to kiss the bride. The groom was in great mood for that and kissed the bride more than 10 times on her cheeks at lightning speed. Jasmine blushed with embarassment. A few reporters even requested kissing lips to lips. Fat Chai refused and said that the reporters could not play beyond the line.

When a woman reporter went to Fat Chai for an interview, he naughtily held her hand for a long time and not letting her go. He even had a very affectionate look on his face. Jasmine laughed saying that he was trying to take all the advantage he could before their wedding. But Fat Chai explained that the reporter looked like Jasmine and he now had 2 Jasmines as his wife.

When asked how to keep such a naughty husband under control, Jasmine said she won’t know how to deal with such a bad husband. Someone joked to Jasmine that she get a stick and beat up Fat Chai whenever he misbehaved.

Reporters asked Fat Chai what he liked about Jasmine. He said, "I like her because she is stupid but that also means she is simple and pure." Then what did Jasmine like about him? Fat Chai said, "I think she likes me because I am also a stupid person. I am smart only with acting." When asked will he love Jasmine more from now on, again he acted mischievously and said that he would beat her up instead, to make her more stupid.

Fat Chai was asked whether Jasmine looked most beautiful on their wedding. He said she looked beautiful everyday but ugly on this day.

That was a bright sunny day in Singapore. Fat Chai got very hot and sweaty with all the activities. Finally after some pictures at the hotel’s balcony, he begged and joked with the media. "My friends, I think you took enough pictures, I am now so hot that even my underwear is soaking in sweat. I need to go upstairs to change and rest." Everyone laughed.

It was said that the wedding cost Fat Chai a million dollars and his gift to Jasmine is a seven million dollars house. He clarified, "A million dollar wedding? You better kill me. And, how will I have that kind of money for the house?"

The wedding banquet was held at the Island ballroom of the Shangri-La Hotel. Guests started to arrive around 6:00 p.m. Many CYF fans also came just to see him.

The new couple arrived in the Rolls Royce at 8:30 p.m. Hundreds of CYF fans waited outside and yelling Fat Chai’s name loudly. Smokes rose from the red carpet to welcome the couple as they walked in the room.

A reporter tried to get better angles for pictures of the new couple but accidentally knocked off the stacks of champagne glasses on stage. Fat Chai looked very upset. Jasmine almost cried and her father about to explode. Fat Ma, CYF's mom, quickly eased the atmosphere with a Chinese saying. She said that the crackling of glasses on the floor was like flowers blossoming on it and that would bring wealth and prosperity.

At one point the wedding room was out of control. Fat Chai had to go on stage and warn people that the wedding was a private event. Anyone causing disorder would be asked to leave.

At the banquet, the hotel played themesongs from Fat Chai’s TV series like "Man in the Net" and "The Bund". They also had someone appear as the character Hui Man Keung who earned a round of applause from the guests.

The banquet room was made up of 3 rooms. A stage was placed in the middle with the hosts' tables set in front of it. The stage design was simple. There was a banner with the names "Aman and Jasmine" together with pictures of kissing doves.

Fat Chai was playing around the whole time even he was the groom. He even made fun of his new father-in-law. Mr. Chan was asked to say something on stage but he was not good with making speeches. He said, "I can't do it." Fat Chai right away made fun of the words and asked, "If you can't, then where did Jasmine come from?" And even turned to his mother-in-law and asked, "Dad really can't?" Everyone cracked up.

When a reporter tried to get the new couple for a picture, he called Jasmine "Idy Chan" by mistake. That caused some embarassment and luckily the reporter was quick enough to realize and apologized immediately. (Idy Chan was CYF’s ex-girl friend. Both Jasmine and Idy’s name in Chinese is identical except for the middle character. Jasmine's name is Chan Wei Lin. Idy's is Chan Yuk Lin.)

Reporters asked Jasmine if she mind all those prior romance of Fat Chai. She said, "I don't care. From now on I am his only woman."

Jasmine is the daughter of Mr. Chan’s first wife. He had published an invitation on local newspapers inviting his first wife to join the wedding but she never showed up.

Fat Ma was so happy that night and she almost got drunk.

It was said that there were HK stars like Do Do, Patrick Tse and Ti Lung were invited to attend the wedding. None of them appeared. Only Miu Kiu Wai went to congratulate the couple in the afternoon.

Mr. Chan was very excited at the wedding but he didn’t have any special gifts for the new couple. He gave them his love. He said love is the most valuable thing in life and it can conquer a mountain.

Mr. Chan said he felt comfortable seeing his daughter married finally. Fat Chai and Jasmine starting a new life together hand in hand and he got an additional son. Mr. Chan admitted that he had doubts about Fat Chai's love for Jasmine, so he insisted that they marry in Singapore. He wanted the whole world to know about their marriage.

Mr. Chan further commented that even in real life, the way Fat Chai spoke and behaved still made people think he was acting.

When Mrs. Chan was interviewed, she said her gift to Jasmine was a pair of dragon and phoenix bangle decorated with diamonds. She would love to see them have babies fast but it’s the choice of the young people. If they don't want babies, there’s nothing the older generation could do.

Fat Ma praised her new daughter in law non-stop. She compared the 4 girlfriends of her son, including Cora Miao, Idy Chan, Candice Yu and Jasmine, she loves Jasmine most. She said Jasmine is polite and educated. The way she kept smiling all the time made people like her very much.

The wedding was arranged within short period of time and Fat Chai still had a lot of work lined up, so their honeymoon probably won't take place in 18 months. Fat Chai was planning a $50,000 honeymoon to visit Greece and cruise the Aegean Sea, France and southern Europe.

Fat Chai spent around HK$100,000 for the wedding. The 5 layer wedding cake was a gift from Shangri- La Hotel.

Jasmine hopes to have children within 2 or 3 years. In the beginning, she was afraid children might affect Fat Chai's career and mentioned about not wanting children. When Fat Ma heard that, she almost exploded. Since Jasmine’s parents also wanted grandchildren fast, therefore Jasmine hopes to have a son first and get it over with.

The 3 ex-girlfriends of Fat Chai were interviewed in HK about their feelings of his wedding. Candice Yu said, "No special feeling. It is just another person’s wedding." Cora Miao smiled and mentioned that she herself also got married and she doesn't care about other people's things. Idy Chan was also married at that time. She just laughed, "Should I congratulate him? He didn’t invite me to his wedding. Ha! Ha! Ha!"