The Sam Willows’ Jon Chua and Amanda Chaang’s Wedding Was Super Fun, Beautiful — And Not Sponsored

Of course, the 29-year-old bride looked dazzling in her Carolina Herrera gown along with her husband, Jon, also 29, who was fully decked in a Hugo Boss tuxedo for their church ceremony and dinner reception.

And the best thing? None of it was sponsored. Amanda let on that she had paid for all her outfits (four in total), as well as for the dinner at the five-star hotel. While she declined to reveal the amount of her dresses, Jon revealed that “the average price of a table of 10 is $2,888”. And if you go by standard Singapore wedding guest conventions, yes, guests would have to fork out about $288 in angpow per person.

Not that the wedding couple will mind if you didn’t. Please, the couple have their priorities straight, okay? According to the both of them, they would “rather have a fun party and make a loss” than to “have a boring party and get tons of ang pows”.

Needless to say, when one of The Sam Willows gets hitched, a bevy of homegrown musicians, influencers and personalities will be involved as well. Among them were Nathan Hartono, Singapore Idol Season 3 champ Sezairi, Dee Kosh, TheLioncityBoy and of course, Jon’s bandmates, Benjamin Kheng, Narelle Kheng and Sandra Riley Tang.

The couple may have brought the awww with their speeches, but it was Amanda’s father’s speech that took the (wedding) cake. “It was only the first day of kindergarten when Amanda got into a fight with another girl. Imagine what we had to grow up with. Thanks, Amanda,” Keith Chaang declared, which sparked raucous laughter in the hall.

From these pictures, you wouldn’t have guessed that the couple had been up since 6am that day. The gatecrashing ceremony began bright and early, with the groomsmen up for any challenge that the bridal party hurled their way. Including enduring the pain of getting their leg hair brutally waxed off. Just ask Benjamin Kheng and his shiny smooth legs.

That was followed by a church ceremony just outside their hotel, a traditional tea ceremony at Fullerton Hotel’s presidential suite, the spectacular wedding dinner at Fullerton Bay Hotel, and finally, when the clock struck 12, the shenanigans continued at the after-party till 5am at Straits Clan.

One of the perks of holding a wedding dinner at the same time as National Day Parade rehearsals? Free fireworks in the background! When the wedding couple realised that the fireworks display from the nearby NDP rehearsals were on, halfway during the dinner, they quickly rushed out for an impromptu photo shoot. Not before they waited for Jon's dad to finish his speech first. Got manners one, okay?

Amanda changes into a gold Monique Lhuillier cape and gown, while Jon is in a Hugo Boss tux.

Sandra and Narelle hosted a game segment during the dinner, and asked the couple about their baby making plans. Would they want a girl or a boy? As it turns out, Amanda wants a girl, and Jon wants a boy. He explained: "Prior to this, we spoke about it and very frankly, it doesn't matter what gender our baby is because we know we'll love them no matter what. However, the reason why I prefer a boy is because I can do boyish things with him like sports, whereas Amanda likes to do female-centric things."

So are there any baby plans in the pipeline?

"Not as this moment, not anytime soon," Jon admitted. "We want to focus on work first and we want to do things as a couple before starting a family. Anyway, we already have a family, because our dog is our child!"

A clear highlight of the night was the post-dinner dance party at Fullerton Bay Hotel, when happy inebriated folks got up and started moving towards the dance floor. The groom got up the stage to perform, and when you have guests like Nathan Hartono and the rest of The Sam Willows, of course there's going to be live entertainment. At one point, Sandra screamed: “Shots! Shots! Shots!” And of course you can’t say no if a Sam Willow pours you a shot, right?

And that was just the start of the crazy night.

And that's why Sandra and Narelle performed a Britney number on stage.

Bet you've never seen wedding paraphernalia like this. Who needs some (faux) cash?

There were faux notes on the floor, but Jon and Ben hit all the right notes with their rendition of Backstreet Boys' 'I Want It That Way'. “You guys have to dance, I paid money for this dance floor!” Jon declared to guests.

Jon had proposed to Amanda in New York in December 2017, the couple ROM-ed in June 2018, but waited a year to have their wedding ceremony because they "wanted to plan everything carefully and meticulously", according to Jon.

"It was a lot of effort. It kept us awake every night. Sometimes, we would wake up early in the morning to settle the wedding before going to work. It was a day we were working towards for an entire year," Jon said.

"It was very surreal and crazy. We managed to achieve everything we wanted. We wanted it to be memorable, we wanted people to enjoy it and we wanted them to have fun," Jon beamed.

"It was way beyond our expectations in terms of the mood at the party. The love we felt was very overwhelming in the best way possible!" Amanda chimed in.