A Traditional Chinese Wedding

About two days after we got back from the Silk Road Trip, we went to a wedding.

We left the hotel very early, at about 6:30 AM. The groom's friends drove us in two different cars, heading for two different destinations. Malcolm, Chris, and Patrick went to where the groom was. Crystal, Sean, and I went to the bride's home. We just hung out there for a couple hours. The bride's family gave us vegetable baozi (steamed buns) and milk for breakfast. We took a lot of photos with the bride and her whole family. In fact, it's a little strange that Crystal and I, two foreign strangers in qipaos, are in so many family wedding photos. But, oh well, it was fun...

The qipao's were a little hard to walk around / do anything in, but I managed. Crystal's was way tighter than mine, I don't know how she could even move. The bride (Jiao) was very beautiful her traditional dress.

As we stood stiffly and posed for photos, Sean played around with an unbelievably excitable kid who thought he was a power ranger.


At around 9:00 AM, news came that the groom had arrived (to the apartment building). The bride was rushed off to the bedroom (to hide), and we waited for the groom to arrive. And waited. And waited...

Unknown to us (at least, "us" in terms of Crystal, Sean, and I), the elevator had broken. The groom's party had tried to fit too many people on them. They sat stuck on the stifling hot elevator for a while before someone opened up the doors and they each crawled through - the elevator was somewhere between floors. This was all later related to me by Christopher, and immediately reminded me of the opening scene to Resident Evil...which kind of freaked me out. Also, seeing as we were at least twenty floors up, they took a while climbing up.

However, they made it, eventually, at around 9:40. The others (Patrick, Chris, and Malcolm) followed the groom in, although not without some resistance at the front door (everyone is supposed to try and prevent the groom from getting to the bride). First, the guys presented gifts to the bride's family.


Then, the groom went to the bride's bedroom (again, more resistance at the door), where she was sitting on her bed with various friends and family members all around. The groom (and his friends) had to try and find her shoes before he could take her away. Afterwords, he had to carry her out of the building. Presumably using the elevator, which was hopefully working at that point.

We arrived at the banquet hall a little earlier than the rest of the guests, so that Crystal and I could greet them as they entered. Our placement for the greeting was rather comical: we would greet guests as they arrived ("ni hao! huan ying!"), they would be distracted by us, and then almost invariable trip over the small step into the banquet hall. Of course, some just walked by, completely oblivious to us. Others gaped and stared openly ("what are these strange laowai in qipaos doing here?"), and some were friendly and smiled. Little kids (or their parents) and the occasional adult would want photos. I found it rather funny that, other than the bride and groom, Crystal and I were the only ones in traditional Chinese clothing. All the Chinese guests were in Western clothing.

After a long (long!) time of greeting, Crystal and I were pretty famished. We joined the others at a table, only to find that no one was touching the food yet (more waiting...) but that Sean had nearly downed half a bottle of bai jiu (rice liquor). Okay, maybe just a fourth. Or less. He was very nervous about their upcoming performance. Thankfully, Crystal and I had managed to get out of the performance. We did the greetings, after all. And it was for everyone's good anyway.

The ceremony happened at the very back of the banquet hall, on the stage. I wasn't able to see much. It was over very quickly (definitely less than thirty minutes, I'd say). Eventually, we got to eat. And it was good.


The newlyweds went around the room, drinking a shot of bai jiu with each table. The groom had changed from his traditional Chinese outfit into a suit, but Jiao kept wearing her red dress.


And the guys did their performances. Christopher and Sean played their ukuleles and sang "Dream Lover". Then Malcolm and Sean did "Wonderwall". The mikes weren't very well and barely anyone beyond the first few tables could hear the instruments...but no one was paying much attention, so it did not really matter. Whatever. We were there as a novelty, anyways.



Patrick did a martial arts performance and that definitely grabbed the most attention. The guests seemed to be big fans of seeing foreigners doing Chinese things...that even Chinese people don't normal do! Like the martial arts, and the qipaos...us being there was a funny sort of show, really. I had a lot of fun, I get to keep the qipao (which I can hopefully adjust to fit better), and definitely had one of the those once in a lifetime sort of experiences...probably. There's no knowing really, with the kinds of things I end up getting into.