Couple: Charmaine Yap & Theodore Tan
Date: 10 May 2025
Venue: Restaurant JAG, Singapore
Guest Count: 9 (including the couple)
Budget: Under SGD $5,000
A Table for 9 at Restaurant JAG
Seven chairs around a sunlit table. The green of Restaurant JAG’s interior — all that foliage pressing against glass — makes the small dining room feel less like a restaurant and more like someone’s especially beautiful living room. On the table, a sculptural arrangement of vegetables and flowers sits inside repurposed egg cartons, which sounds unlikely until you see it: artichokes and greens from the restaurant’s own kitchen alongside a careful few stems, the whole thing more like a still life than a centrepiece.
Charmaine Yap and Theodore Tan are getting married today, and their entire guest list, both sets of parents plus a sibling, could almost fit in a single taxi. There is no processional, no bridal march, no first look. The morning has involved coffee and a trip to the gym. Now, just before lunchtime, the couple arrives at the restaurant where they will exchange vows, sign their marriage certificate, share a tea ceremony and a prayer led by Theodore’s mother, and then sit down for a vegetable-forward lunch together. The day also happens to be Mother’s Day, which is not a coincidence.
A Match, Two Proposals, and a Punchline
Charmaine and Theodore met on Tinder. His profile was, by all accounts, thoughtfully detailed. Hers had one photo and a single line: “I like long walks and coffee.” Which, as they tell it, turned out to be pretty representative of each of them.
Their first impressions were comically off. Charmaine assumed Theodore was sporty. The kind of person she wouldn’t have been friends with at school. Theodore thought Charmaine asked a lot of questions. But on their third date, he started telling a bad joke, and she guessed the punchline before he could finish it. That was the moment.
Asked to describe their relationship, they each reach for something different. Charmaine calls it “gently unruly harmony”. Theodore says “pleasant surprises galore”. Together, they compare their love story to a long, meandering evening walk, lowkey and mellow, with a chance of surprises around the corner. They communicate in GIFs, a habit Theodore finds amusing, given he once swore he’d never date someone who believed in sending them.
When the time came to propose, they both wanted to do it, and they both did! In ways that were deeply, almost absurdly, them. Charmaine created seven puzzles for Theodore, drawing on museums they’d visited, poems they’d shared, and films they’d watched together. She even looped in his friends and brother to deliver clues. The solution led him to Begonia Villa at Gardenasia, where she proposed on 29 March 2025. Theodore, for his part, recreated their second date at East Coast Park, complete with a picnic and coffee, and walked with Charmaine all the way to Marina Barrage. Because he’d been part of a mime troupe in university, he filmed a short video of a mime preparing for a proposal. And because Charmaine is a lawyer who has been working on food donation legislation, he presented his proposal in the form of a Bill.
Two whole people, proposing to each other on their own terms. Not two halves waiting to be completed, but two individuals choosing each other fully.
Planning an Intimate Wedding in 2 Months
The proposals happened in March and April. The wedding was in May. That kind of timeline might sound stressful, but for Charmaine and Theodore, it made sense because they already knew exactly what they wanted, and more importantly, what they didn’t.
They didn’t want a grand setup. They didn’t want a gown or suit from a bridal boutique, and they both wore Uniqlo. They didn’t want a makeup artist, a wedding cake, stationery, or a live band. What they wanted was a private space with natural light, somewhere accessible for their parents, where they could share a genuinely good meal with the seven people who mattered most.
They visited four venues one Saturday in early March. Restaurant JAG was the last stop, and once they’d seen it, the decision was made. The restaurant’s philosophy of seasonal, vegetable-forward cooking resonated with Charmaine, who is pescatarian for environmental reasons. “It meant a lot to find a restaurant with a gently thoughtful menu,” she says. The staff, led by Maryjoy, and Chef Jeremy’s warm presence confirmed it was the right fit.
Their first vendor booking was photographer Melvin Wong, Yet Another Boring Day, chosen for his storytelling approach and ability to capture everyday moments. “We wanted a photographer who can capture the wedding as it actually is and not an imagined ideal wedding,” Charmaine explains. Melvin had been there since the proposal as Charmaine first approached him when she proposed to Theodore. He recommended videographer Maxx Chew of For The Misfits, and the friendship between the two added to the day’s warmth and intimacy. For florals, the couple chose Amanda from Studio Wilt, whose willingness to work with unconventional materials sealed the decision.
The total spend stayed comfortably under $5,000. “We decided on the things that were meaningful to us and only spent on those things,” Theodore says, “so the spending was pretty minimal.”
Celebration Highlights
A Mother’s Day wedding, on purpose. The date wasn’t chosen at random. Midway through lunch, Charmaine and Theodore paused to present their mothers with bouquets that Amanda from Studio Wilt had crafted specifically to reflect each mother’s personality. In a wedding of seven guests, this wasn’t a side moment, it was a centrepiece of the celebration, a way of saying that the family sitting around this table is the reason any of it matters.
The car mirror charm. During his speech, Charmaine’s father brought out a small car mirror charm that she had made for him when she was three years old. He had displayed it in every car he’d owned since. There is no way to plan for a moment like that, it simply arrives, carrying decades of quiet love with it.
Vows that landed (and almost didn’t). They wrote their own. Charmaine’s included lines about choosing Theodore in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds. Theodore’s were simpler and no less powerful: “The world is a scary place but thank you for teaching me that it doesn’t have to be so scary as we face it together.” Charmaine admits she had intrusive thoughts during Theodore’s vows and was trying desperately not to laugh. Asked if she’d try harder not to laugh if she could relive the moment, she says: “Or maybe not.”
A second celebration the next day. The flowers from the wedding were brought to a casual picnic the couple hosted the following day at Marina Barrage. Nothing went to waste, and the celebration extended beyond the restaurant walls.
Egg Cartons, Vegetables, and a Grandmother’s Ring
The table arrangements deserve their own moment. Charmaine wanted to minimise waste from flowers that would only be used once, so she asked Amanda to create pieces using vegetables from Restaurant JAG’s own kitchen. Two cartons’ worth that could be cooked after the wedding. The design was deliberately sculptural, keeping the number of cut flowers to a minimum.
Woven into the arrangement were egg cartons. Not for aesthetics alone, Charmaine’s father delivers eggs to her regularly, a small, persistent act of love and care. Incorporating them into the tablescape was a way of making her father’s quiet devotion part of the room itself.
The family also observed a Chinese tea ceremony, and Theodore’s mother prayed for the couple. She gave Charmaine a ring that had belonged to Theodore’s grandmother, a piece of family history passed forward without ceremony, simply offered and received.
Their jewellery was from their parents. Their playlist included “Dreams” by The Cranberries and its Cantonese counterpart 夢中人 by Faye Wong, a nod to Chungking Express that Charmaine has loved for years, alongside “Collide” by Howie Day, a song Theodore grew up with.
“You Don’t Have to Spend a Lot for It to Be Meaningful”
That’s Charmaine and Theodore’s advice to couples planning their wedding, and they’d know because they pulled theirs off for under $5,000 without a single regret.
“We were very grateful that the wedding was everything that we wanted,” they say. And what the day taught them isn’t a grand revelation; it’s a confirmation. “It affirmed for us that above all else, what brings each of us the most joy is to be thoughtful for the other party in the small (and big) things we do daily.”
After the wedding, Charmaine and Theodore moved to New York, where Charmaine is pursuing her Master’s degree. They’re looking forward to supporting each other in whatever comes next. And maybe getting a cat.
The walk continues. Lowkey and mellow, with surprises around the corner.
Vendor Credits
Photography: Melvin Wong, Yet Another Boring Day (@yetanotherboringday)
Videography: Maxx Chew, For The Misfits (@forthemisfits.sg)
Florals & Décor: Amanda, Studio Wilt (@studio.wilt)
Wedding Attire: Uniqlo (bride and groom)
Jewellery: Family heirlooms from both families