Week 8: A wedding

Every year, I keep thinking that the wedding invitations will slow down, but it never happens.  I've been here since April and have missed 3 already (congrats to Jimmy & Lisa, Ashley & Damien, and Rick & Stephanie).  I also like to believe I probably wouldn't make all of them even if I was living a standard life in the States anyway as they tend to be all over the place location wise.  Regardless, I try to make because I love weddings and the celebrations.  So when one of the ultimate guys asked me to (casually) be his date for a wedding reception here, I of course, said yes.  (Plus, shouldn't you always attend anything you're invited to that you haven't done before?- such as a wedding in Taiwan?)  The groom is French and the bride is Taiwanese and they actually met in England and got married earlier this year in France.

A lot was very very similar to any wedding reception- other than the fact it was on a Sunday afternoon at noon.  It was held at a banquet room in a hotel, the bride is in white, the groom in a suit, there was dinner and a slide show and we all were given bubbles to blow when they first walked through the doors (as opposed to leaving the Church I suppose!)  The differences?  There were speeches being given in a variety of languages- Chinese, French, English.  The bride changed dresses and the groom changed his tie half-way through.  The dinner was a 12 course dinner.  Everything was brought out on a platter to each table and then served onto smaller plates at the table.  I was full after round 6 or so and our table was getting behind at one point as we couldn't eat fast enough (we were also distracted by the slide show at one point).  The food is always the interesting part- there were the standards and then some- lamb, beef, pork, jellyfish, abalone, chicken soup, shark's fin (or dolphin fin..either way not so great environmentally) soup, rice, red bean soup, red bean / coconut jelly (jellO) type things, fish (the entire head and body came to the table), vegetables of the cabbage & leek variety (very popular), fresh fruit.  There was more, but it all just blended together into a long meal.   We also managed to polish red wine off quite well at our table- and then steal from other tables as people left half full bottles open on the table (when would that EVER happen back home?).
It was however, just a luncheon, no dancing or anything else. The bride & groom go table to table and talk with their guests or in small groups, people get up and go toast them at their main table.
I'll attempt to get some pictures up at some point or another.  There were frisbees in the group pictures.  A requisite for ultimate weddings no matter where you are!