Our Friend's Wedding

We woke up bright and early this morning to attend our good friend's wedding. Chinese weddings generally take place before lunch time. This explains why we get woken up so often at 5 a.m. by loud fireworks, which is Chinese tradition for warding off evil spirits that might haunt the new couple. This tradition had no place in our friend's wedding, which made it different than most Chinese weddings, but it still had it's own very Chinese feel. Luckily the festivities for this wedding didn't start until 8:30 a.m!

One of the first differences we noticed between a Chinese wedding and traditional American wedding:

I gotta admit. If I got covered in silly string when I was coming down the aisle, someone would be feeling my wrath. But, as this must be a usual custom, our friends handled it impeccably well! She got most of it pulled off of her nose by the time the ceremony got too far under way, but the yellow stuff stayed in his hair throughout the entire thing. It made for some really cool pictures!

It really was a very special ceremony with some neat traditions. Brandon was asked to give a short speech. He might could have done it all in Chinese but as the entire wedding was translated, he didn't really feel the need!

There were a lot of differences: like singing the wedding march (we didn't even know there were words!), singing Aud Lang Syne, & an interpretive dance. But we're so glad we got to experience it and even noted a few things that we should incorporate into wedding ceremonies back in the US. The bride and groom sang their favorite hymn for the guests and that part was really neat.

Brandon got a new Chinese traditional dress shirt made for the occasion but he ended up being only one of two people clad in one...and the other was our whitie friend! None the less he still looked very handsome. The bride wore a white dress for the ceremony but during the lunch time meal she changed into a traditional chinese red dress and looked absolutely beautiful. (This is one part I think we should take back to America!)

The wedding festivities ended after a large lunch for the "honored guests." It was great food! And then the new couple left for their honeymoon destination where they'll be for 15 days!! Another great idea! :)