BRIGHTEves

It took two fabulous ceremonies for Ming Bridges to tie the knot. But as the fashion entrepreneur reveals, the couple’s love was immortalised in secret long before the first invite went out.

- CHANDREYEE RAY

Ming Bridges has married her husband three times. Two of these weddings had been planned months in advance and were extensively documented. Bridges’ mixed heritage—she is BritishSingaporean—meant that she wanted to hold a full Chinese ceremony in Singapore, witnessed by over 200 guests. Then came a smaller, but equally elaborate, destination wedding in Cadiz, Spain.

What most guests did not know was that sometime before either public event, Bridges and her husband Liam had already gotten married in secret. Soon after their engagement, the couple held an intimate ceremony in their home, with their immediate families, and of course, their dog in attendance.

Bridges is halfway through an idyllic honeymoon in Italy when she sits down for a chat with me over Zoom. Sunkissed and fresh-faced, it is not difficult to see why the social media personality and fashion entrepreneur (she runs Rentadella, an evening wear and gown rental business in Singapore) was once a model and musician—or picture her as a dazzling bride. Bridges looked the part for her Singapore wedding in a custom scarlet qi pao from Lily Sasongko Couture and Bridal, while Liam’s jacket was handmade by a local tailor. She matched her outfit with family heirloom jewellery gifted by her aunt and grandmother during her guo da li, a Chinese betrothal ceremony that marks the first formal meeting between the families of the bride and groom.

In hindsight, she looks back most fondly on the Chinese tea ceremony and the gatecrash—a series of cheeky games planned by the bridesmaids to test the groom. The most insurmountable of the challenges Bridges’ bridal party had in store? The groomsmen were asked to carry her all the way home—in a sedan chair.