Chinese Wedding

We experienced our first Chinese wedding yesterday. It was definitely an experience but a whole lot of fun! Judy, the bride, works with Jeffrey and there was a whole crowd of AGCO employees from all over the world. She had told me when I met her a few weeks ago that this was going to be a small affair and that they weren't doing anything fancy. Needless to say, if that is considered a "small affair" I would love to see what a big wedding is like here. It was a huge hotel ball room that was filled to the brim with decorations!!! Much bigger than our wedding.

We walked in and the room was decorating entirely in red and gold. On the tables were large clear lazy susans with lots of different kinds of "drinks" on them. Thank goodness they had juice!!! J There were also 6 red packs of cigarettes on each table which we knew meant the room was going to get smoky and fast! YIKES! That is something that I always took for granted in Georgia but am so thankful for…no smoking!!!!!

Once the ceremony got started (if it was a ceremony…have no idea what was being said!) the MC started talking very fast and with lots of emotion as spotlights starting going all over the place. They played a mixture of Chinese and American music all the way through the entire day. There was even one "praise" song in English that I wonder if they really understood what the song meant. Finally the bride, Judy, walked in with who I'm assuming was her Father. They stood under a trellis at the back of the room and the groom walked up in front of them and bowed. Judy moved to stand with him and then they turned around and walked together up to the stage. There I guess they said their vows and then moved over to what looked like an ice sculpture that said "LOVE" in English and they each had a bottle of something that they poured into the letters together. The liquid mixed together and turned blue and it filled up the entire wording. Once everything was completed in the "ceremony" part, the couple left the room.

When they came back in a short time later, Judy had changed into a red Chinese style dress (I really want one of those…so beautiful!!!) and had her head covered with a large red scarf like thing. Her hands were bound with ribbon and her husband had the other end of the ribbon rope and was leading her blind up to the stage. Now I have NO IDEA what this was for, but it was extremely interesting to watch. Once they were on stage the MC had the groom dancing and he kept making him do it bigger and better so he could "uncover" Judy's head. There was lots of this going on.

During the entire ceremony and events the waitresses kept bringing more and more food for our round table. I thought I was stuffed at one point and that we were finished, but they brought at least 2 more rounds. If you just try a bite or two of everything it fills you up. I was sitting next to one of Jeffrey's German co-workers who has been in China for a good while and seemed to know quite a bit of what was going on. He asked if I wanted to know what I was eating before or after I tried it. I definitely said after…made it at least a touch easier to try! There was a lot that he still didn't know but I know I ate Jellyfish…and it was GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very chewy and just icky! LOL!!! There was also fish soup, steamed buns, some sort of green veggie that actually wasn't bad (if you know me well you know I HATE veggies!!!!!!) so I found that very surprising. The list of food went on and on, but the pork was fabulous and so was the rice. They brought out a whole fish and though it was hard to get to the meat it was pretty good. My favorite out of the new food I tried was Peeking Duck. The sauce that you dip it in was Incredible!!!!!!

The bride and groom went table by table toasting with the guests and thanking them for coming. I don't know how they could stand up at the end of the evening!!!!!! Craziness!!!

As always, Aiden was a hit! As soon as he woke up and we took him out of his car seat people swarmed him. He did very well, but Mama's heart still skips a beat when they walk off with him. They really do love kids here and love to give them gifts. One teenager who was sitting at the table next to us gave Aiden a little stuffed bear keychain…it was too cute. They all wanted to take pictures of him and with him. Our little movie star! J

All in all it was quite an interesting event!

We are still waiting on our sea shipment to arrive and the hotel tired has moved to hotel exhausted! It can't arrive fast enough in our minds. But it will be here soon…at least that is what I keep telling myself. We are just taking it one day at a time. Hopefully by the next post we will have good news that we are finally there! J