60 is the new black

I love looking at wedding photos but oddly enough, the feeling of joy is short-lived and I'm quickly overwhelmed by immense fatigue. I remember after shaking the hand of guest #628, I was completely exhausted and in the most un-bridely manner, plonked myself down at the soon-to-be-disrobed reception table and ate up everything in front of me, including two bowls of orh nee.

Yet recently, I discovered something more psychologically challenging than wedding planning - planning my mother-in-law's 60th birthday. Granted we only had a fraction of the guests that evening, it would have been a greater disaster if anything went awry.

But first, some primpin' before the partyin'. The day before, I treated my mother-in-law to a mani/ pedi session and got my nails done (love 'em!) at Amber. FYI, I might be the younger, poorer sister  related to the owner but I still pay full price, yo'.

Didn't occur to me before but good thing I packed the door gifts for our guests before the manicure.

My mother-in-law is still very much young at heart so we decided to save the 寿桃s and 10-course Chinese dinner banquet for her 80th birthday. After emailing a few restaurants and doing lunch at one of them, we eventually held the event at Vineyard @ Hort Park

The place looked beautiful, everything went butter smoothly (i.e. guests arrived punctually, no tech hiccups etc) and people liked the food (huge relief!). 

Many thanks to Xinpei and Kesh, and their team for making my mother-in-law's 60th birthday such a memorable occasion. 

Work needs to be done but there is always time to cam-whore with your sisters.  

And of course, with the birthday girl =)

Food-wise,  while the presentation wasn't as cute as our previous experience (the restaurant did inform us beforehand), people enjoyed the food - at least I didn't hear any complaints from my side of the room. 

Egg cocotte - can't go very wrong with truffle and I wished there was more of it. 

We included an additional choice of appetizers as some of our guests do not take foie gras. These pan-seared scallops were a sleeper hit - plump with 80% opacity (time to cool it with Adobe Illustrator). I must have been quite anxious as I was on my second scallop before I realized I wasn't tasting anything. 

The snapper was a dream with its crisp skin and I made sure I finished every grain of cous cous. 

A hunky lamb shank that delighted those who ordered it and this time round, the accompanying potato side was a lot smoother.

The sticky date pudding was unexpected hit too. I knew it would be scrumptious but my not-a-dessert-person dad said this was the first time he has ever finished a slice of cake and my FIL went "mmm" as soon as he tucked into it. 

After doing some research, we decided on Pine Garden for my mother-in-law's birthday cake. It wasn't a difficult choice as many bakeries and patisseries use fondant (gag) and we (or maybe just me) fell hard for this pretty cake with pearls. 

The two-tier cake was made up of Citrus Drop and Lychee Martini. I could barely taste the martini but I loved the summery burst of those tangy, tropical flavors. I was initially a little worried about there being too much sweets with the sticky date pudding and all but this cake (even with the buttercream) was incredibly light and I had no problems downing two slices. 

I don't know about you but turning 60 these days sure sounds young-ish.

Our job was more or less done when the candles were blown and we resumed cam-whoring business. Good times =)