Dec. 13 2006 - The "Eat-and-Run" Wedding

Joe & Tina's wedding was beautiful and VERY different from weddings back home. Rather than writing a huge paragraph, here are a few bullet points:

- The bride and groom see each other in their wedding atire before the wedding. They don't believe in the same bad luck superstition as we do. As the three of us walked up to the church, Joe and Tina were outside talking with people - I thought we had missed the ceremony.

- The wedding ceremony (this one was in a church) has few guests. And people don't really dress up - just us foreigners. Their wedding had a choir and during one of the songs, one of the ladies in the choir was on her cell phone!! I guess she was singing at two weddings? (hahaha)

- People answer their (loudly) ringing cell phones during the ceremony.

- The reception was at a big hotel. There wasn't a seating plan, so all 7 foreigners sat at one table. We already stand out enough, but the fact that we were all dressed up didn't help. The reception is a bigger social event - I'm sure there was over 200 people there.

- Dinner is a mix of dishes served for everyone to share. I don't think there is a bar per se, but we were continually asking the wait staff for cold beer - we got warm beers and a bucket of ice.

- During dinner, the couple walk around to each table and have a toast with the guests. The guests will usually have alcohol, while the bride & groom toast with water. However, if the table insists that the couple have a real drink, they must do so. I'm sure you can figure out what happened when Joe & Tina stopped at our table.

- After dinner, everyone leaves. All of a sudden, the room was empty but for the foreigner table and maybe two tables of close family. There weren't any speeches, no dances - just eating and toasting and then leaving.

- Because there are so many weddings in China, people get married everyday of the week. This wedding was on a Tuesday night.

Check out the photo album for Joe & Tina's wedding for all the exciting pics!