Couple who won $19k wedding banquet share what they plan to do with extra money

Wedding banquets can be expensive, so it's unsurprising that many were envious when Titus Lim and his partner Esther Tang won the Hilton Winning Marriage Proposal contest. 

The couple, who are in their late twenties, will enjoy the grand prize consisting of a complimentary 15-table wedding lunch banquet worth over $19,320.

With the money saved from the wedding banquet, one would assume that the couple would consider using it to fund a luxurious honeymoon. But according to Titus, that isn't their top priority for now.

"We would love to, but given the current situation, a lot of things aren't predictable so we don't have anything planned yet," he told AsiaOne.

Instead, they will be using the extra money in a more practical way.  

"We have a lot of bills to pay, like for our BTO flat (Build-To-Order flat) and future renovation fees," he shared. 

"A wedding is another cost and thankfully, because of that, now, at the very least, we can enjoy a wedding at quite a famous hotel, so we are very grateful." 

Titus also admitted that if they had not won the prize, they probably would not have been able to host their wedding banquet at such a luxurious hotel. 

Planning the proposal 

When it came to their elaborate proposal, Titus revealed that it took a few months of planning. 

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"She always wanted something a bit more different," he explained.

While he originally wanted to propose on an overseas trip, the pandemic struck and he had to think out of the box.

And since Titus has around five years of dance experience, he thought that it would be fitting to incorporate that into the proposal. 

When it came to song choice, we were expecting Titus to say that he had chosen to choreograph the dance to South Korean boyband BTS's hit song Dynamite for deeper reasons, but the explanation is more simple than that. 

"We like the song, and that's really the only reason why," he shared. 

Titus also added that he's "actually quite fortunate" that had plenty of friends who were willing to help out with the proposal, including some of the people he met in the dance community a few years back. 

However, despite all the help, it was still a struggle for Titus to organise the whole thing during a pandemic. 

"The preparation process was a bit tough because it was during the Covid-19 period, there were a lot of restrictions going on," he said. 

"We could only have a certain number of people to set up the place. When dancing, we had to wear masks and stand one metre apart."

Apart from the BTS dance, Titus also carefully put together a video of well-wishes from Esther's family and friends, a trishaw ride to the proposal venue and even a chicken nugget bouquet. 

"She doesn't like flowers, but she likes chicken nuggets. So I thought why not get something more special and just do a combination of both," he explained.

But the cherry on top of the cake was Titus' heartfelt proposal speech. This was partly in Hokkien, which Titus admits isn't his strongest dialect. 

So, if that's the case, why did he still insist on going ahead with it? 

"She's always wanted me to learn Hokkien because her parents speak Hokkien," he explained. 

And despite him stumbling through the Hokkien portion of the speech, all's well that ends well. 

"Instead of getting emotional, she thought it was funny instead", he laughed. 

melissateo@asiaone.com