TO pay homage to his deceased father, Taiwanese singer-songwriter David Tao released his wedding photos and started handing out wedding cakes Friday, which was Father’s Day on the island.

    The engaged couple wore Vera Wang gowns and suits in the photos shot in the Philippines, where Tao took his and his fiancée’s families on a tour that cost him about NT$2 million (US$66,520), Xinhuanet reported yesterday.

    During their stay in the island country, Tao, 45, proposed to his girlfriend Penny Jiang, who is 16 years his junior, at a white-themed party Aug. 2, which was this year’s Double Seventh Festival. Also known as Chinese Valentine’s Day, it falls on the 7th day of the 7th month of the Chinese lunar calendar.

    The couple will be married according to traditional customs before holding a fusion European-Chinese wedding banquet at the five-star Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Taipei on Aug. 31.

    Tao has reportedly asked several of his friends to perform at the event, including Taiwanese singer Jam Hsiao.

    Allegedly, the wedding will cost the singer millions of dollars since the Mandarin Oriental’s normal six-course dinner per table ranges from NT$38,800 to NT$58,800.

    With a tight working schedule, including a live September concert in Beijing, Tao will have no time for a honeymoon immediately after the wedding, but he said he hopes to make it up to his bride later.

    A Taiwanese Golden Melody Award-winning singer-songwriter, Tao is well-known for creating a crossover genre of R&B and hard rock that is his signature style and for having popularized R&B in the Mandopop industry.(Debra Li)