After an unexpected 12-hour journey to a freshwater lake at a volcanic crater in Guatemala, Hashy Yusof said “Yes” to the man of her dreams.
When Hashy Yusof first met her hubby Jaime Cruz through her friends, she thought to herself: “He’s cute and sweet but why was he still single at 35? What’s his problem?”
But, there was definitely mutual attraction and they clicked pretty quickly so the pair started talking more on Instagram. Hashy, however, didn’t see a relationship developing at the beginning. “He’s a great person so I tried to match him with one of my girlfriends,” she laughed.
Like they say, “when you know, you just know”, and after a beautiful whirlwind romance of about two years, the cute couple tied the knot in December 2022. The homegrown singer-songwriter and her hubby Jamie Cruz held two celebrations within two months, hosting 50 guests at each venue. Their first venue was the traditional Malay wedding at The Villa at Singapore Botanic Gardens.
“We started with one wedding which turned into two; a Western wedding and a traditional Malay wedding,” says Hashy. “It was hectic but so fun because in the end, I have wedding planners for both; Ridwan from Vynella Bridals and Wedding from Copper Planners.”
Having two wedding ceremonies might sound like a lot to handle but it was all worth it and pretty stress-free as Hashy trusted the planning (and even the designs of her dresses) to the experts.
“Jaime and I had a moment during our wedding where we just stood and watched everyone in the room. We were so immersed with gratitude and love. We felt so blessed we were able to celebrate our love today and forever. It was just perfect.”
Ahead, Hashy tells us how her proposal happened, the inspirations behind her big day and more.
“Jaime proposed to me by a lake in Atitlan, Guatemala which was so beautiful. Before that, we had the worst day ever as our four-hour drive from the city to the lake became a 12-hour trip. The car tyre got punctured due to a pothole!
We were literally stuck in the middle of nowhere. However, in the evening, he proposed and he said something along the lines of: “I would have loved to propose to you on a perfect and beautiful day but after the horrible one today, I know for sure that you’re the person I want to be with. Will you marry me?”
I was very surprised but of course I said… YES!”
“For the traditional Malay wedding, I told [my planner] Ridwan to surprise me! They did this huge organza flowers in peachy colours and they were so beautiful. It has a “Flower by Kenzo” vibe.
The Villa at Botanic Gardens was perfect because we thought it’ll be nice for Jaime’s family who flew all the way down from the other side of the world to see Botanic Gardens too. The venue is beautiful! I love the separated spaces.”
“For the western wedding, the theme was the film Encanto. Jaime is Colombian and I love Encanto for its flowers and colours. So I told Wedding from Copper Planners who also owns Copper Gardens to give me many colourful flowers and Pink bougainvillaea!
It was held at Lucali BYGB because Jaime and I love pizzas! And my girlfriends and I also enjoy going to Lucali for every other celebration so it was the perfect spot!”
“Honestly I left it to Yumi from With Love Yumi to design it for me. She designed the outfits to match my personality and what she thinks I am and I think it’s pretty spot-on. I wanted something simple yet elegant. The colour was so beautiful too; that rose pink to match the wedding deco!
As for my western bridal dress from Grace Weddings Atelier, Jess was the loveliest. I told her what I liked and we came up with a beautiful dress, resembling a slip dress from my fashion brand, Solola House.
“For the Malay wedding, I had Yumi to do the make up and hair. I loved how my makeup shades kinda matched my outfit and it just looks beautiful and natural. Jane did my makeup for our Western wedding and my brief to her was just to make me look “snatched”! [laughs]