Love is in the air in the lead up to Valentine’s Day, so get your tissues ready as these well-known personalities share their journey to the wedding aisle.
It wasn’t love at first sight for mum-of-two Kate Pang when she laid eyes on husband, Andie Chen. In fact, in hearing her describe their relationship, many people would assume they weren’t meant to be at all. But as with many great romances, Kate and Andie’s love didn’t spread like wildfire. Instead, it grew steadily over time, like a slow burn:
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“Andie was one of the first people I got to know when I came to Singapore, but we weren’t close. We only really became friends when we filmed Joys Of Life together a couple of years later. We weren’t attracted to each other initially because he tended to date sexy girls, and I’m not like that at all. He wasn’t my type either; I used to date boys with very fair and smooth skin. But somehow, after working together, we realised that our thoughts and ideals were in complete harmony with each other.”
Suede dress by Longchamp; Ring & Bracelet by Swarovski; and heels by Kate Spade New York.
“He didn’t ask! We had a civilised discussion about it. We both decided that we needed to take the next step in our relationship together, because I got pregnant. So he just unromantically said to me that we should get married. He did try to plan something later on involving a song and a guitar, but it didn’t work out. I’m still hoping that one day he’ll propose to me properly!”
“I have a complicated family background, so I was intimidated by marriage. In Singapore, we simply went to the Registry of Marriages dressed in plain clothes. In Taiwan, we had a small dinner with a total of four tables. I didn’t put much thought into our wedding: I just wanted it to be over quickly because it brought back bad memories of when my sister had to have three huge wedding banquets to appease my divorced parents and her husband’s family. Marriage really wasn’t a big deal to me, but I was surprised at how touched I was by Andie’s speech at our dinner, where he likened me to a gift from heaven. He changed my mind about what it means to be bonded to another person for life.”
Pink dress by Kate Spade New York; Cuff by Swarovski.
“We don’t usually go out for Valentine’s because it’s crowded everywhere. Now that I think about it, we’ve never even celebrated Valentine’s Day! We do make it a point to have a date night at least once a week though. We’ve been married since 2013, so I’ve sometimes feel like our feelings of love for each other have faded. So this year, I hope we can reignite their fire we had for each other during our dating days, and go from strength to strength every year.”
(A version of this feature first appeared in the February 2018 issue of The Singapore Women’s Weekly; Art Direction: Christina Lim / Photos: Tan Wei Te & Vee Chin / Styling: Debby Kwong / Hair: Dexter Ng and Kenneth Ong / Makeup: Clarence Lee, Rie Miura & Audrey Wee)