Saturday morning James and I rolled out of bed, threw together presentable clothes and made for Taipei to see his co-worker get hitched.
Yes it was raining. Yes I knew there very possibly would be much standing and walking involved. And yes, I chose to wear my very favorite four-inch yellow vinyl high heels.
"But what if we want to go somewhere afterward?" James asked. That's James-speak for, "Bitch, are you crazy?!"
I tossed flats in my purse.
No superstitions about wearing the dress ahead of time, so people take photos in advance. Seems like a good way to save time on the big day to me.
The wedding was held at Chin-Chin Garden Restaurant, which wasn't a restaurant at all but a compound on the outskirts of Taipei devoted to weddings. There were five weddings going on there Saturday. Or at least that's how many I counted on my walk from our reception hall to the bathroom.
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| Different wedding, not the one we attended |
The ceremony was short and sweet and had none of the solemnity I'm used to seeing at weddings in the States: Guests whispered through the ceremony, and a substantial fraction of the audience crowded the podium to play cameraman during the "I do"s. Of course, white weddings are not a Chinese tradition. The ceremony itself seemed more like of a photo opportunity.
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| Driving down the aisle to the tune of "Life is a Highway" by Rascal Flatts. So cute!! |
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| Flower Kids |
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| Their doggy got to walk down the aisle too |
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| He's a big boy. |
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| Beautiful Bride |
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| Dress No. 1 |
The emotional part - at least for the bride and groom - came right after the ceremony when they thanked their parents. The bride was so overwrought she could hardly read what she'd written, and the groom looked emotional too. Reverence for one's elders is paramount to Confucianist tradition.
There was a bouquet toss. Much as the idea of bodychecking wispy Asian ladies for a bunch of flowers appealed to me, I didn't think unleashing 68 inches of all-American cornfed fury on a Taiwanese wedding party sounded very sporting. So I hung back.
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| Cake |
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| place settings |
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| Bubbles! |
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| Beatrix Potter-themed chocolate pretzels |
The lunch took a couple hours, which allowed the bride three costume changes. That's four dresses, folks - two whites, a gold and a pink. And you all thought
Star Jones was being extravagant with two. But then, this is also part of how they do it Taiwan-style: Another of James' co-workers was recently married, she too had four dresses.
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| No. 2 |
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| No. 3 |
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| No. 4 |
The food was passable Asian-fusion fare. Lots of mollusks. One of the courses was orange soup with some sort of translucent, fishy meat substance. Awhile after I'd finished it, another one of James' co-workers informed me I had just eaten shark fin soup, and that Taiwanese fishermen harvest shark fin by catching sharks, cutting off their fins, and then tossing the live shark back in so that the blood attracts more sharks that can be cruelly de-finned.
The catering staff packed up the food our table didn't eat and sent it home with us, and the wedding favor was a traditional two-layered box of cookies. Not too shabby!
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1 comment:
Last year David and I saw a great doc on this, it's really sad to see, they filmed the sharks just sinking to the bottom of the ocean, still alive, but they can't move...sharks are my favorite animal and it freaked me out. We just saw The Cove with Sam about 2 weeks ago, if you can see it you should, it's about dolphin fishing and it's also really sad. sorry for the bummer comment. your shoes are awesome, on the plus side
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