You were married in the PRC? We were married over here - the wedding ceremonies, etc., were completely Western but the reception later on was 50% Western 50% Chinese - things like the burning of the incense at the photos of the wife's various ancestors; games like hiding red beans inside cooked dumplings - each red bean you found got you a few $. - So dinner became a gorge-a-thon. Spike, congradulations - let the in-laws do the sweating, alright? Its others jobs to be clever that day. Don't be surprised to find your bride was discretely hitting the hip-flask during the festivities - I'd wondered how my wife, who was usually uptight even under normal conditions could remain so calm and collected - I found out later how she managed it Just drink enough to get the slightest bit relaxed and then leave it be afterthat - you'll both enjoy your honeymoon much more if you don't get Arseholed - Drunk beforehand. The biggest drag about the entire day - as you will find, trust me - is all the poses you have to take afterwards. They never seemed to end. I didn't want to even see a camera for a month afterwards. Enjoy yourself, belltoller
Chinese weddings are so cheesy. I got lucky though and were not messed around with too much with the pranks/games etc. I had a 2nd wedding reception this time in my wife's village in China and mate...the price difference was crazy. £5 a head on a 17 dish meal, including snacks, 2 bottles of wine per 10 guests and a carton of cigarettes per table. I felt like a rich man that day... What we didnt do was the Cheesy posing wedding albums. Where you put on costumes and pose in serene locations..big smiles and the such.
Yep, yep. I remember how cheap food was. I don't think it quite the bargain now it was 10 or 12 years ago when I was there, but there's no comparison still. Its a food-centred world, no doubt about it. Did you order your dishes 'live'? - that is you went out back and looked at the ingrediants and picked out the either still living or freshly dead animals you wanted. Menus being for the culinarily uninspired. I recall my father-in-law and the wife's brother especially had tastes that ran to the, well - exotic is to bland a term to use in their case - outlandish items such as venomous snakes, live drunken shrimp ( ya, live shrimp swimming the backstroke in a liquer brim ), fermented bugs of some sort - huge black things that looked like mutant water-bugs from an abandoned Chernobyl reactor, odd things...
I went to a Chinese wedding in Rural Sichuan province and had the time of my life. It was 3 days of non stop baijiu and cigarettes. We actually smoked so much that I developed a physical intolerance smoking. One of the guys with us was on the smaller side and was not a drinker. On the first night he accidently smashed a shot glass and then leaned towards a mother to look at her baby, while she was breast feeding. The ceremony itself was a lot of fun. The elders had to wrap red sashes around the groom. Then the bride and groom had to bow in syncronization and then towards each other as close as possible without touching. Needless to say that the groom was drunk off of his **** and hilarity ensued. Earlier in the day we got to see both a lamb and a pig get slaughtered for the feast that night. They even asked if we wanted to help them, we declined. Not to mention the day before I had somehow ended up in a funeral that was happening in the same village. It was interesting because instead of mourning their loss they seemed to be celebrating the person's life. It was a weird experience to be a 6ft 1inch laowai jam packed in a random person's funeral in another country and no one was crying. After the wedding ceremony was over the spit roast began, followed by traditional dancing. I was the first to join in, and it was a blast. There was also a camp fire (used for the spit roast) and some game where the bride and groom had to eat and drink whatever you put in front of them. I also got to have a smoke with one of the elders out of his tobacco pipe. My friends who saw the picture thought I was at an opium den. I should also mention that there was another guy there called uncle. He could drink anyone under the table and dressed like a 1940's detective. Good times were had by all. EDIT: I almost forgot. The food was AMAZING. The cabins we stayed in all had meat hanging from their ceilings that were being smoked for up to a year. Meat that has been smoked for that long is insanely delicious.
weddings are a lot of fun. Went to 3 of them. two were my cousins and third was my two best friends who got married to each other. It was soooo much fun! Enjoy, Spike and spike's fiancee
The day went amazingly well. I still haven't organised the events yet though; probably take a few days for that to happen. My bride looked absolutely beautiful and i didn't have any problems with confidence or coherence during the ceremony. What a brilliant day.:banana::banana::banana:
Thanks, glad to be here No honeymoon as such due to finances but we are taking a two week narrow boat cruise with my in-laws in a few weeks; not exactly a perfect arrangement but we all love the waterways so it is worth it. :hat:
That will be a blast! Save up for a first anniversary holiday instead of a honeymoon is my advice Wishing you many years of happiness!
We delayed ours for a very long time and it was the best thing we could've done. We waited until things were just right and were able to spend several weeks in Maui and vicinity and then nearly a month in Mainland China and HongKong ===> having in-laws living there helps, of course. Honeymoons for some reason, your lucky if you get a fortnight. Best wishes...remember to always keep each other guessing.
We didn't go on a 'real' honeymoon as the missus is from China and we were in the middle of loads of red tape from the UKBA/Home Office/Blah, Blah, Blah, so we spent a few days in London on a mini-honeymoon with plans of having a big honeymoon abroad. We had almost settled on South Korea when the North started shelling the south and the Foreign Office advised people to be careful, so we crossed that off the list just to be on the safe side and bought a holiday to Japan instead. Then the earthquake and tsuanmi hit a couple days before we were due to fly. I spent those two days arguing with Expedia (horrendously bad company) trying to get my money back, they insisted it was still good to go despite thousands of bodies being washed up in an area we were to visit and another area we planned on going to being on fire... Sooooo, we're going somewhere next year instead - I did plan on this year and our first wedding anniversary, but, buying a house put paid to any loose change I had... Anyway, glad everything went well. Enjoy married life.
