China - Day 40, Sunday

We had a very busy day! Mass at 10:30 until 11:40. Went home  and had some lunch, then went to soccer. After soccer Randy wanted Dairy Queen Ice Cream so we stopped for that. Ran into a new grocery store - I was so excited - I found Bon Ami!!! Who would have known that I would get so excited over cleaning products! Then we came home and got ready for the wedding.

I was worried about what to wear for the wedding, because all my dresses are in the shipment, which hasn't arrived yet. I am not able to buy clothes in my size here. I finally decided that I would wear a pair of dress pants and a nice top that I have. Randy wore a suit jacket and tie. When we arrived at the wedding, all the people from the office were in tee shirts and jeans. Very weird! There were a few people who were dressed up, but most were not.

The wedding invitation said the wedding time was 5:18 (unusual time!) It was held at the Ramada Hotel. At Chinese weddings, the first thing you do is meet the Bride and Groom and take a picture with them. When we got to the fifth floor, they were standing in gathering area near the reception hall so each guest could have there picture taken with them.

This is the area where the bride (Julie) and groom (Fox) greet the guests
 and have pictures taken. If anyone remembers the wedding invitation that I posted 
in a previous blog, you will notice that this is not the same wedding dress.
(By the way, Fox's tie is actually purple like the curtains in the background.)

After everyone from the office has their picture taken with Julie and Fox, we head into the reception hall. This was a very large wedding - at least 250 people. We sat with all the people from the office. While we are waiting for everything to begin, I ask where we are supposed to put the envelope. Annalisa tells me that I must give it to the bride's mother or father. So she takes me to the father so I can hand him the envelope. Here it is customary to give, as a friend, between 1500 and 2000 RMB ($230 - $320), Family (brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc) gives from 5000RMB ($800+) and up!

From left to right - Annalisa (sales engineer), Jean Claude (the man Randy is replacing.
He is from Belgium), Thanapong (He is an expat from Thailand, he's an engineer)

Francis (engineer), John (sales engineer), his daughter (don't know her name), and Qing - pronounced Ching (Sales manager for Cement)

Iris (CSR), Carrie (CSR), and Victor (sales engineer). These are the people that took Daniel
to play badminton yesterday.

Isabelle (Sales Manager for Utilities), Ruby (CSR), and Henry (sales engineer)

The food started coming before the bride and groom entered the room. The food was traditional Chinese food. I took a few pictures, but forgot to continue taking them as each course arrived.

Traditional Chinese food is served on a lazy susan in the middle of the table.
Each table started with Pepsi, 7-Up, Wine and Beer. They bring the cold dishes out first.
Here you can see some of the items. From the far left (in back) is sliced beef,
chicken (they cut right through the bone and serve it that way),
marinated and cooked cucumbers (this is one of my favorites), jelly fish (not my favorite!),
shrimp. There was also octopus and a seafood soup that included fish stomach.
The soup was good. I did not ask what was the stomach - didn't really want to know!

This is the shrimp, served whole - eyes and all.
Not bad if you can figure out how to get it out of the shell with chopsticks!
 Most of the Chinese just put the whole thing into their mouth and then take the shell out.
I chose to try to get it out of the shell before eating it!

This is a lobster dish. They serve it with head (left - largest head I have ever seen)
and tail (right) on the plate over noodles with some kind of sauce.  They also just cut it up.
I picked up a piece that I thought was the meat  and it was all shell! It was very good anyway.

The food continues to come out for a couple of hours. Each course has a theme. The hot course had beef, whole fish (wish I had taken pictures), lamb, Beijing Duck, pea pods, squid, etc. They then bring out the soups. One was sweet and said to be good for women - it is supposed to be for reproduction - that is why it is served at weddings. I said I probably shouldn't try it, but I did anyway, it was good. There was so much food that the waiters didn't know where to put the plates. Chinese meals always end with fruit, watermelon and cantaloupe are the main fruit sliced up and eaten with chop sticks as is everything but the soup.

The ceremony itself was very interesting. I wish someone could have translated for us. It was more like a show than a wedding ceremony. The MC narrated the entire thing. There is no minister, justice of the peace or anything like that, just an MC. The couple actually goes to the government office a few days before the ceremony to get married. The ceremony is really just a show.

At the start of the "ceremony", the lights were shut off and just the runway and the stage were lit. They shine spotlights around the room. The bride enters with her parents. They ceremonially put her blusher (veil) over her head

Bride with her mom and dad. Notice the huge spotlight behind them - had a hard time
getting pictures - between that and the photographer (left)!

The bride walks alone to the base of the runway. She turns around and waves to her parents and they wave back.

Julie waiting at the end of the runway for Fox.
Notice that the runway is all lit up. Also notice this is a different wedding dress from the one
that the pictures were taken with! That's three different wedding dresses.
 I sure hope they don't buy them all!

Fox comes down the runway to get Julie. He bows to her and she bows to him.

Bowing to each other

They turn to her parents and bow to them.

Sorry lousy picture of them turning to bow to her parents.

He presents her with her bouquet of flowers (the ones in the first photo). Then he hugs her and the helper (I think the wedding planner!) hands him a bouquet of red roses while they are hugging and he presents them to her. Remember in Chinese culture red means good luck.

Fox presenting her with the red roses

They then proceed up to the stage. They wait on the stage for the two brides maids to join them. They do not have ushers. They exchange wedding rings. Unsure of everything that happened at this point as I could not understand the language!

After the rings he kisses her hand. Can you see the bubbles? The girl in the yellow dress
is one of the bridesmaids.

First Kiss!

This man came up and gave some kind of speech. Have no idea what it was about.

They cut the cake. I was told that they took a lot of their ideas from
Western (USA) movies!

They pour the entire bottle of champagne into the glasses so they overflow
into each other. I never saw them do anything with it. They did not drink it, etc.

The couple walks down the runway and bows to the hall, both
directions. Then they leave.

While the couple is gone. The parents of the bride must go to every table to greet their guests. The groom's parents do not do this. At each table they must have a drink with everyone at the table. So everyone toasts the parents and the parents thank everyone for coming. In China it is customary to say Gombay, which means bottoms up. (This is done very often, here at the wedding, but also when business men and women are entertaining customers.) Jean Claude and Randy were beside themselves because they were doing Gombay with red wine! I guess it is a little easier on the head than whiskey! It is also customary at gatherings that you do not drink alone. So every time you want to take a drink you must ask someone at the table to drink with you. As the night progressed, there was more and more Gambays. So you can imagine how everyone was feeling by the end of the night! I, fortunately, do not like red wine so I toasted with 7-up!

Later the Bride and Groom returned. Julie had changed into a purple dress. It was time for more ceremony.

Julie and Fox with their parents. Each father gave a speech. (photographer in the way as usual)

This is  a picture of the lamp (background - I will talk about this in a minute) 
and the centerpiece

The couple present the parents with gifts. Notice that they are wrapped in red and gold.

The couple then light a ceremonial candle. This is a lousy picture of the lamp.

They called Jean-Claude up to thank him for being her boss and hiring her 5 years ago.
Iris was there to translate into Chinese for him

The couple then leave again and return with the bride in yet another dress! Anyone keeping track this is the fifth dress for the bride today! This time the couple goes around to each table to drink with them similar to the way the parents did.

Julie and Fox with Randy and Qing.

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Greeting Thanapong and Iris



They also have a custom to give cigarettes to the men. The bride lights it for them.
The fire has some kind of meaning. This is one custom I don't like!
They are very expensive cigarettes that they gave out. Around $30 a box!



Thanapong, Ruby and Iris

Carrie and Victor

Iris and me!

This is the group of people that work with Randy. Fox does not. Jean-Claude is missing because after his speech, he had to leave to catch a plane to Belgium. His daughter is getting married in a couple weeks and he was going home for that.

 At the reception they do not have dancing. It is mostly eating, drinking and socializing. It was a very interesting night. I got to meet all the people Randy works with. They are very nice people. Randy and I had a lot of fun!