PRE-WEDDING COCKTAIL RECEPTION FOR MAYA LIN AND ALEX PEI

Desert Blossom

“It wasn’t love at first sight, but it surely felt like a fairy tale.” That’s the quote that adorned, along with illustrations of camels, the backdrop at the Hong Kong cocktail reception preceding Maya Lin and Alex Pei’s wedding in Thailand. Camels? Because it was during a two-hour camel ride while the couple were on holiday in Morocco that Alex popped the question—eight years after they had met and started dating while studying for MBAS at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

During the cocktail reception, held in the Habourview Ballroom of the Four Seasons Hotel, Maya’s mother, Jacqueline PC Leung, and Alex’s parents made heartfelt speeches about their children. But it was the city’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, KC Chan, who claimed to have been the matchmaker, having been dean of business and management when the couple enrolled at the university. KC told the gathering a number of men applied to his MBA programme hoping to meet someone special, and he confessed to being surprised by how many attractive women enrolled in it.

Maya looked every inch the modern-day princess in an exquisite Oscar de la Renta gown complemented, naturally, by Cartier jewellery, given her role as head of high jewellery for Cartier Far East. Floral teddy bears courtesy of Yvonne Kung’s Rococo Flowers gave the ballroom a warm and festive air. With more than 500 guests, the cocktail reception was in stark contrast to the couple’s intimate destination wedding, for which 80 family members and close friends travelled to Koh Samui the following week. Maya and Alex are set to embark for the Maldives on their honeymoon next month.