December 4, 2011

It's a nice day for a... Chinese wedding

Yesterday an American friend got married to his Chinese fiancée. They had a modern Chinese wedding, which takes random elements from traditional Chinese weddings, Western weddings, and whatever else they felt like to create something... interesting. It was held in a large restaurant near his university campus which specializes in weddings and has one each night in their large dining room.

The best man gives a speech in English- and then gives it again in Chinese. The grooms brother would later try to do the same thing by writing out his speech phonetically, much to the puzzlement of Chinese guests:



The bride and groom escort each others parents to their tables in the front, before hopping up onto the stage:



Next the bride and groom exchange vows and each give a short speech. Unintentional hilarity ensues when the groom, trying to give his speech in Chinese, accidentally says tongxing instead of tongxin- therefore describing his relationship with her as gay, instead of "with one heart." Chinese guests gasp and then laugh, foreigners hide their chuckles. Also a bubble machine is blowing bubbles over them the entire time, because....????



The spread- ranging from ordinary dishes like fried beef and peppers to delicious ones like roast duck to odd ones like red-braised turtle. As soon as any given dish was close to finished it was whisked away and replaced by a brand new one, until everyone at the table conceded defeat.



My old roommate and his girlfriend, enjoying the feast. The woman on the right is the owner of an Italian restaurant in town known for delicious paninis and pizza- I still have no idea where she learned to cook them or why her English is so good:



Us with the groom: