Mediacorp Actress Kayly Loh To Marry Director She Met On Carousell; Says She Didn’t Have A Good Impression Of Him As He Was A “Carouheller”

But yes, back to the interesting and rather unconventional beginnings of their relationship.

Kayly tells us that she got to know J, a 35-year-old commercial director, after buying an in-car head unit from him on Carousell, but she didn’t have a very good first impression of him as he was “quite a Carouheller”.

“He didn’t want to budge on the price and he made me wait according to his schedule for weeks!” she recalled. “And on the day we were finally supposed to meet, he wanted to change his plans again. I was actually quite annoyed. (Laughs)”

Still, that didn’t stop them from engaging in small talk after their transaction was completed. Kayly had noticed from the photos in his listing that J also drives a Land Rover Defender like her, so they struck up a conversation and realised that they have a lot of mutual friends who are either in the industry or own the same vehicle.

After they parted ways, J started texting Kayly to follow up on the product, or as she laughingly described it, “after-sales service”.

He then found out that she runs her own floral business and asked her for a private flower arrangement class as he wanted to make something for his late grandmother.

He also kept inviting Kayly to join him on pre-COVID road trips to Malaysia with their Land Rover club, but she turned him down as she thought he was being “overly friendly”.

We know what you’re probably thinking: J was obviously already interested in Kayly and was trying to find all kinds of excuses to spend time with her, but while she had the same suspicions, she said he denies it.

In any case, a few months passed and they eventually got together after developing feelings for one another and realising that they have “too many similarities”.

Then, in November last year, J popped the question to Kayly, one day after their first dating anniversary.

8 DAYS: Congratulations! Tell us more about the proposal.

KAYLY LOH: It was quite a simple affair at a restaurant. He told me we were going to meet friends for dinner at 7pm, but I turned up a bit earlier and saw his car there. I texted him, “Eh, you’re here?” but he said, “No, I think that’s our friend’s car”, and then I got suspicious. (Laughs)

Anyway, he asked me to go inside the restaurant first, and when I walked in and told the receptionist that I had a booking under J’s name, she said, “Oh, they’re over there preparing for the proposal”, so I already knew it was going to happen. (Laughs)

What is it about J that convinced you that he is The One?

His sense of responsibility, how he treats his family, and how we have very similar values. All in all, our personalities are very similar as we are sort of in the same industry and have the same hobbies. He’s practically my other half.

How’s the wedding planning process? Did you have any Bridezilla moments?

No... honestly, I think the both of us are a little too chill. (Laughs) I only started panicking a bit last week when I realised how much I hadn’t gotten done, which was mostly small things like printing “thank you” cards and table numbers.

I thought I’d be okay since I’m also a wedding florist so I’m quite familiar with how things go, but it hit me that there’s a lot that I totally forgot. I think we’re almost there but we’re also quite chill, so if it goes south, then it goes south lor. (Guffaws)

We suppose all the floral arrangements will be handled by your company Bucket Full of Roses. What kind of decor can we expect?

There’s no theme per se but since we’re getting married in a colonial hotel, we wanted something that’s timeless, tropical, and classic, so there’ll be a lot of orchids.

How much do you estimate you’ll be spending on the flowers?

I… actually have not gotten that part sorted out yet. (Laughs) But it’ll definitely be cheaper than what other brides would pay me. On average, one wedding usually has about S$8,000 to S$10,000 worth of flowers, so I will probably spend less than that.

What about the whole wedding in total?

A five-figure amount.

Do you have anything special planned for the big day?

Since we met ‘cos of my car, there’s going to be a convoy of over 10 Land Rover Defenders picking me up in the morning. I’ll be wearing a white pantsuit ‘cos it’d be hard to get into a Defender in a gown, but my dinner dress is also very minimalist since I’m not a very girly girl.

Did you consider having a destination wedding like Desmond Tan?

Not really ‘cos J comes from a big family and we wanted to celebrate with all of them. The sad thing is his sister is based in China so she can’t join us.

Any honeymoon plans?

We’re putting that on hold for now ‘cos of the pandemic. We were actually thinking of taking a trip after I’ve finished filming my current drama, but we didn’t dare to book any tickets given how unstable things are right now. We wanted to do a road trip in Iceland since we both love four-wheel drives, but it’s not part of the VTL so we’ll have to see how.

Any plans to start a family soon?

We do want to have kids but we’ve been so busy so we’re just going to let nature take its course.

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