20

8 DAYS

scene & Heard

Pho the^

love of it

Tanglin actress ROSALIND

PHO may have said

yes to marrying her

Japanese boyfriend

after dating for

15 years. But she

had wanted to be

the one to do the

proposing.

“I was surprised but a little

disappointed,” says Rosalind Pho

of her 36-year-old boyfriend Yohei Ueno’s

proposal in Italy when they were holidaying

in Europe in July. “Only because I had

wanted to propose to him three days later

in Greece! I had it all planned out but

he beat me to it (chuckles).” Rosalind’s

fiancé, who’s Japanese but grew up in

Singapore, is the director of a logistics company which

specialises in refrigerated ISO tanks.

Four months after the engagement, the 35-year-old

actress is finally getting down to planning her upcoming

wedding, which she says will be “in the second half of

next year”.

Rosalind, who’s a self-confessed “rainbow lover”,

is looking for a wedding gown that features all seven

hues. “I hope we can find one that doesn’t look too

gaudy. If you do a rainbow dress wrongly, it can look

quite terrible,” she laughs.

The couple, who’ve been dating since they met at a

BBQ pool party 15 years ago, will have two weddings

— one in Singapore for relatives and friends who don’t

wish to travel, and one overseas with no kids allowed.

“We wanted to hold a wedding in Bali but there’s the

volcanic eruption now so we are re-thinking that. I still

want to hold it there though,” she says. “I want a wedding

similar to that of a Japanese summer festival, where it’s

more casual. I want to remember mingling with my guests

instead of one where I just go: ‘Hello, thanks for coming’.”

8 DAYS: So how did Yohei beat you to the

proposing?

ROSALIND PHO: We were on a holiday with our mums

PHOTOS: INSTAGRAM/ROZPHO

in Europe. I’ve told him before that

Italy is my favourite place in the world, so I guess

he thought it would be a good place to propose. He

probably didn’t want our mums to be present, so he

put them at a bar, and we walked to another location

to watch the sunset. While we were sitting there, he

said: “Isn’t this the most beautiful sunset you’ve ever

seen?” I said: “It’s okay” before burping loudly ’cos

we were drinking beer (guffaws). Long story short, after

I burped, he got down on one knee when the sun was

setting and proposed.

Why did you want to be the one to propose?

(Laughs) Since the beginning of our relationship, he

had told me that he didn’t want to get married, so we

never talked about it in the past 15 years. I didn’t know

if he was ever going to propose, and I didn’t want him

to say: “Let’s get married” for the sake of it. We’ve

been together long enough, and we love each other, so

I wanted to propose to him as a formality and make it

official. I was going to capture it on video and I knew he

would say yes. So when he proposed to me, I was like:

“What? I was going to propose to you!”

Tell us about the engagement ring.

I love rainbows. When I look at them, I just feel very