Ming's Bachelorette – Part Three

You made it! Part 3! The dinner!

I considered the bachelorette dinner to be the main event. Maybe because I plan my life around food, but it just made sense in my head that there should be one MEAL (whether it be a brunch, afternoon tea or dinner) that everyone would attend, I could blend Ming’s personality and bachelorette fun into, and that I could plan the rest of the weekend around.

I knew Moonbow was the right spot when Ming sent me a photo of their outdoor space, not knowing that we’d already arranged to host her dinner there (it was a surprise, like the rest of the weekend). She was considering hosting a bridal shower and gushing over how it’d be the perfect spot for it. I was about to prepare a speech advising her against it, but thankfully she ended up deciding herself that it would be too much work, saving me from my terrible lying and her getting suspicious (which would actually never happen because she might be the most sweetly gullible person I know).

I arrived early with a couple of her wonderful bridesmaids to set everything up for dinner. The space is already stunning, which was handy as it meant we didn’t need to do much. The staff had already set up the tables, we were just there to give it the bachy touches.

Ever since I had stumbled across Pepper Loves, I envisioned commissioning customised candles featuring all the guest’s names to use as place settings. I love the idea of place settings being an item you can take home, and it’s especially more interesting than just a piece of white folded card.

The colour theme was bachelorette pink, so all the candles would be pink with white letters, apart from Ming’s – the bride would have a beautiful white candle with pink letters instead. Hannah from Pepper Loves even put some glitter on her letters for a little extra somethin’. I bought the cute flower candle holders from her as well (which everyone could also of course take home with them).

SO CUTE RIGHT! Now let’s talk about the food. In one of my original fantasies for Ming’s bachelorette, the dinner menu would be a multi-course dinner, with each course based on Ming’s favourite foods from specific places throughout her life. For example, Cheese & Bacon Potato Skins from Palm Suite (a now-closed restaurant near where my grandparents used to live in Buckinghamshire, a favourite when we were little tots), and Butter Cake from Mastro’s in LA.

In reality, it’d require hiring chefs to help assist in bringing the recipes to life, and then an empty venue with a kitchen to serve 18 people (where I’d probably have to hire servers and a bartender as well). It was perhaps a more viable option if I didn’t have the whole weekend to plan and spread the budget out on as well.

Although building my own mini restaurant for the night might have sadly been a little out of reach on this occasion, I still wanted to make sure the menu was full of Ming’s favourite foods. Moonbow’s menu is already excellent and featured a lot of her favourites (like Uni and Unagi), so I discussed it with the team and ended up swapping items from their main menu into their standard 5-course menu to essentially customise it for Ming. It was important to me that Ming was overwhelmingly excited by every dish put in front of her.

Here’s the final menu (designed by my friends Lucy and Alex).

Ming and I are very similar in the fact that we both place a lot of emphasis on details. I find JOY in details (I’m really showing my age), and I knew Ming would also appreciate them. For example, I knew we’d all need pens for the bachelorette games, so why go for boring biros when you can get cute bachelorette pens?

I went for pink (on colour theme), with diamonds on top (very bachelorette), and made sure they were cute enough that people would want to take them home and use them again. No waste here, please.

I also had this very specific idea for a while; Ming loves Lamington cakes – we were both born in Sydney and would visit our family there at least once a year, and we’d always eat Lamingtons from the bakery on the local high street. Her love for Lamington cakes was reignited recently when we discovered Tokyo Lamington in Sydney, and all their exciting flavours. Also, Ming’s fiancé is an Aussie, so I knew there could be something fun to play with there.

On everyone’s seats, there was a little box (I actually utilised little boxes I bought in London that were accidentally the wrong size, but turns out the PERFECT size to house a Lamington cake) that contained a pink (ON THEME) Strawberry Lamington Cake from Baker & Cook (I pre-ordered them and popped them into their individual boxes myself).

Sealing each box was a cute (and photo-worthy) sticker I made that said "Do You Also Want Some Aussie In You?” (cheeky and CLEVER in my very humble opinion) and “Ming’s Bachelorette” at the bottom, making a cute take-home treat for hungover girls in the morning.

I hired a professional photographer so I wouldn’t have to worry about taking pictures, and I knew that Ming would want to have lots of photos to keep for the bachelorette memories.

Obviously I took full advantage of this too.

On the invites, I instructed all the girls to arrive half an hour before Ming so we could settle in and socialise, but most importantly, we could all be there for when she walks in. It’d be a bit of an anti-climax for her to arrive and there’s like 4 people there, then have to wait for everyone else to get there.

And of course, enjoy some cocktails.

Honestly, what’s the point of an event without custom cocktails. No question mark because it’s not a question.

Ming’s favourite cocktail is a Mango Daiquiri, but she also loves a lychee cocktail. Therefore I requested two off-menu cocktails from Moonbow, which they kindly arranged:

‘Ming With The Ring’ – Lychee, Watermelon, Gin (finished with a fresh lychee and gold dust)

‘Aussie Heartthrob’ – Frozen Mango Daiquiri

Then the bride arrived! While a couple of the bridesmaids helped me set up, another of her bridesmaids was getting ready with Ming and brought her here, so she really had no idea where she was going until the taxi pulled up. To a dinner worthy of her bachelorette outfits.

She wore the Bride Champagne Earrings and her Bride Hair Clip that I got for her.

The dinner was a lovely mix of her closest friends from different parts of her life, cousins, and even our mum joined.

It looked so nice with everyone dressed in different shades of pink! (As instructed on the dinner invite)

Also our unofficial uniform, the By Innes Stella Heels in nude that a bunch of us unknowingly turned up in (because they’re the world’s comfiest heels, hello PADDED insoles).

One of Ming’s bridesmaids had the excellent idea of getting everyone to line up to take a photo with Ming. It’s one of those things that initially seems a bit weird when you see everyone queuing like they’re in Disneyland lining up to get Mickey Mouse to sign your little autograph book. But in practice, it’s fantastic because then everyone has that special photo with the bride.

I think I lined up about 4 times. No one tells the Maid Of Honour to move along, especially since I’m hosting the games later and no one wants to get on my wrong side. Sorry sweetie, you’re disqualified and I think you know why.

After copious amounts of carefully arranging ourselves so we’d both get our good sides (unfortunately we have the same one, so a lot of our photos looked one arm-around-waist away from prom), it was time for dinner.

And more drinks.

We had a complimentary Amuse Bouche to start – Chocolate Foie Gras Lollipop, and a cute little tomato one for the veggies.

It’s important that someone takes charge during dinner, essentially hosting everyone, and I knew that job would land on myself (being MOH and also having organised everything). Otherwise things would get sloppy and nothing would actually happen as planned. As much as I don’t love public speaking, it’s a good thing I’m a control freak.

After the Amuse Bouche, I turned everyone’s attention to the dinner game, which primarily involved an obviously-labelled piece of card placed on everyone’s individual table setting. There were questions about the bride that you had to fill out, and I told everyone to take their time filling it out throughout dinner, and that we’d go through the answers after mains – and that there was a prize for the winner.

The questions were bachy enough but I kept it quite PG (especially as Mama Bridges was in attendance). Things like “Who is Ming’s celebrity crush?” and “What’s Ming’s funniest nickname for her fiancé?”.

There was also a little bonus question: “If Ming had a line of sex toys, what would they be called?”. Ming could then give an extra point to her top three answers.

Here’s the game card:

While everyone was chatting and filling in their answers, the first course arrived.

Sea Urchins Crema Avocado – Uni, Crema Avocado, Caviar.

Followed by the second course: Smoke Eel Unagi Toast – Grilled & Smoked Unagi, Brioche.

And then the Complimentary Intermezzo: Chef Herman's Raspberry Smack.

In everyone’s invites, I asked them to prepare a little toast for Ming. I loved the idea of everyone standing up to say something, making the dinner super intimate and meaningful for Ming. Let’s make this girl CRY.

It could be short and sweet, like an anecdote about their friendship with Ming, a piece of marital advice or a little poem.

Turns out we all got teary-eyed. People clinked their glasses and stood up throughout the dinner, so it was nice and spread out. There were funny anecdotes and super heartfelt stories.

I highly recommend doing it, especially if you have a private room – otherwise it might be difficult to hear everyone in a crowded restaurant, and you might not want strangers eves-dropping when you’re pouring your heart out to your closest friends.

For the mains, we included 3 options (although I already knew Ming would go for the ‘Salmon Fish & Chips’).

Salmon de Fillet, Mashed Edamame, Potato Ball, Honey Mustard Dips.

There was also meat and vegetarian option as well.

Here’s the Wagyu Striploin Steak – Grilled Wagyu Striploin Steak F1, Foie Gras, Foie Gras Port Wine Jus, Tian of Tomatoes.

After mains, it was time to go through the answers for the game! I’d read out a question, and, one by one, we went around the table to read out our answer for that question. Ming would then announce her correct answer, which was followed by a beautiful mix of cheers, laughter and faux outrage.

I made sure there were only 5 questions + 1 bonus question, otherwise it would have taken a looooong time and it would start to get boring towards the end. You never want to lose your audience, you know?

The bonus “Ming’s sex toy line” question was a great one. I think the crowd favourite was “Rent-a-dildo” (a play on Ming’s fashion rental business, Rentadella).

The prize was handed out for the winner of the game, as were the prizes for the winning team of Ming’s Amazing Race earlier that day. All of the prizes were little Rose Quartz Willies and a Rainbow 7-Chakra Sage Stick, wrapped up in a cute little pink silk bag handmade by Mama Bridges.

Then it was time for DESSERT!

It was Moonbow’s take on an Apple Crumble – Apple Compote with Cinnamon Churro.

Ming has a big sweet tooth, and has a lot of favourite desserts. It felt right that I could try include as many of them in the dinner as possible.

After discussing with the Moonbow team, we came up with the Sweet Temptations Treasure Chest, filled with three of Ming’s absolute favourites: Vanilla Mille Feuille, Strawberry Tarts, Alaska Bombes.

LOOK HOW CUTE.

It was such a special evening. I wanted to give her a sophisticated take on a bachelorette, which is exactly what it felt like. No shots (yet), so everyone had fun but no one had to be taken home (yet).

There were a lot of bits and pieces everyone could take home (their personalised candle and candle holder, Lamington cake, pen, prizes) so I placed little paper bags on everyone’s seat (under their boxes of cake) that they could put it all in when they left. Don’t say I’m not a considerate gal.

After dinner, a group of us stayed on to go out out. Because, you know, it’s still a bachelorette party.

I sent everyone another game, this time just on Whatsapp instead of printing it out. It was a sort of Bachelorette Scavenger Hunt check list, where you had to tick things off to score points. The winner of this would also get one of the prizes (now that everyone knew what the prize was, it was a motivation to actually do it instead of just get silly drunk because everyone wanted their own little rose quartz willy haha).

Please note and appreciate the fantastic 100 points task hahahaha. A little bit of ‘Summertime Love’ in the club never hurt nobody (apart from the DJ’s delicate street cred).

We went to Avenue, because I’d say it’s probably one of the funnest clubs in Singapore – it’s down to the fact that they have fun music, a mini two lane bowling alley and little arcade games, like the ball-throwy one (I’ve just had a Google and learnt that it’s called "skee-ball” - every day’s a school day). I got a table because it was the first weekend back after Covid of clubs re-opening, so I knew it would be packed.

We brought a disposable camera with us, which was a lot of fun, especially when you don’t remember what photos you took, and then you get an aggressive reminder once the photos are developed a few days later.

I have a firm feeling that I won’t be able to get everyones sign-offs to share these after party images haha, so these are all you’ve got.

If you look closely at the picture on the left, you can see our very inappropriate bowling names. If you look closely at the picture on the right, you can just about see our shame at the bottom of that (first) bottle.

It was a very memorable night, I’ll leave it at that. I’ll see you for the next (and final!) bachelorette weekend post! Weeeeeeee!